Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board: TheKazeblade - Viewing Profile - Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board

Before Colors came out, I heard a lot of trash talking about Takashi "Boost" Iizuka, that he was missing the point of the series, too focused on speed, not platforming, etc.

Since Colors and Generations, though, I haven't heard this nearly as much and was curious as to what people's opinions on the man are in general, and whether or not his presence at the helm of the series is a positive or a negative one. I'm not really sure what he does in the position of producer, but since he has been in that title, the games (Colors, Generations) have been pretty dang phenomenal all things considered. Which of course begs the question, is it because of him being a producer that they are good, or is it because he is no longer in a position of direct influence on the game?

I'd like to think that a lot of the credit belongs to Morio Kishimoto and Hiroshi Miyamoto for their direction in Colors and Generations, but it has been only since Iizuka entered the production role that we have seen the removal of unnecessary and cumbersome gimmicks such as the Werehog and more of a focus on pure Sonic gameplay elements, or at least elements that enhance the essentials, rather than hinder them.

Sound off!

Is there anything in the franchise that is just a pet-peeve to you? Not major things like gameplay, design, or things like that, but just specific instances within the games that stand out as wrong. Just nitpicks that don't ruin the game for you, but you can't help but notice.

For me, it's always driven me crazy that Sonic Team seems to have forgotten Metal Sonic has a jet-engine built into his chest. They seem to have him utilize it as a regular old jetpack without the turbine on his front rotoating, which is always what I thought it was. I loved how you saw it, at least from the back, starting up and spinning in the OVA, as opposed to the games in which it is static. I think actually depicting it as a jet engine would make him feel much more dangerous of a character.

Also, in Sonic Generations when Sonic doesn't recognize the locations he visited as Classic Sonic. It's always "that place seemed awful familiar!" and "Deja vu, it's like I've been here before, but I can't put my finger on it." It bugged me, because it felt like Sonic Team were kind of holding it in fans faces saying "see? the Classics weren't that special, Sonic barely remembers them!" When Sonic Generations was just announced, one of the things I was looking forward to the most was seeing Sonic geek out over seeing all these places again, but instead he brushed them off like it was no big deal.
In a way, that reaction kinda broke my heart. It's like when you remember a really good time with your friend, and it's your defining memory of your friendship, but when you bring it up, they act non-chalant about it and are all like "Oh yea, I guess that happened."

Essentially, what game in the series has the best musical score compositionally?

When I was thinking about this question, I realized that I came up with a surprising answer for my choice: Sonic '06. Not only is it instrumentally varied, but unlike many games in the series for me, I love every one of the main level themes. There's some that are straight up epic sounding 21st century stuff with classical and avante garde touches...

Like This

And This

And also this

And others that would have been right at home with the classics, like White Acropolis (I'd love to see a 16-bit version made of this one).

Such as this.

In your opinions, what Sonic game has the best musical score?

I lumped the main games together by era in the poll to save space/get a feel for what era most people prefer out of curiosity.

Was looking at Kotaku and they pointed to some pretty cool, high class art put together by the French Magazine Amusement. It's pretty dang awesome.

http://www.amusement...th-anniversary/

I'm really drawn to "1991" and "Loop."

Is there any difference in how you play Sonic games now then how you used to when you were younger? Yesterday I whipped out Sonic Heroes for the first time in who knows how long and played through Team Sonic (now on Hang Castle). When I was younger, I was almost always perpetually the speed character unless another was absolutely necessary to switch. Now, I find myself switching at least to strength-based more often to pick up the three lines of rings that show up, etc. In general, I find that I try harder to find shortcuts and secrets in levels even more so than I did as a kid, while collecting all of the items that I possibly can, where as when I was younger I just wanted to get through, and I tended to avoid stockpiling items.

How have you guys' gameplay styles changed over the years?