I liked the return to the Sonic 1/CD format, primarily showcasing Sonic. I never liked having Tails follow Sonic arround. Never added anything to the game. Usually other characters just feel like gimpy versions of Sonic, and gliding/flying rarely adds anything to the formula. I mean sure there are characters they have thrown in there I actually like, but they have rarely been handled well after whenever their first appearance is. It's really hard to screw up just Sonic, and I think SEGA had it right focusing on the basics. They just forgot the whole physics thing.
Anyone see the Tails Abuse in court videos by whoisthisgit? They are stupid, sure... but I would love it if Chaotix replaced Phoenix Wright, and SEGA made you solve Tails abuse cases... that would make me shell out a few bucks... if nothing else. It's good for a few stupid laughs.
No, I mean why you do not have any friends to play video games with? You wrote you were sad that Sonic games were being directed at people with friends. Why do you want others to be alone - both players and Sonic himself? You mentioned something about physics, although we all know that has nothing to do with the characters - design or amount.
Both of us know I was talking about Sonic's friends. Stop acting retarded. As for having a character for 2 Player Versus, I actually do enjoy that. Hell SA2 battle is one of my favorite games in the series as it has Metal Sonic in it's 2 Player versus mode. That said it's not like they have put a lot of focus on 2 Player in the series for a long time, and the Sonic & Tails 1&1/2 player mode was never really anything worthwhile, except when you just felt like trying to kill Sonic with Tails in 3/K. If they did actually start trying to make an experience that was enhanced when playing with friends, maybe I would change my tune about the amount of characters, but because they have been having trouble just making a decent single player experience I would prefer they just stick to Sonic.
My opinion on each of Sonic's friends: Tails: Reasonable sidekick, always will be a series staple. Not always needed though. In terms of abilities, is alright, although his flying does kind of make things a little easier than it should. Knuckles: Not as necessary as Tails though, though I feel he is a little underused. Problem is that if you are going to have him playable, Tails/Shadow/ect must also be playable (a Sonic game featuring the good old classic trio would be nice). Amy: Never cared much for her. She really didn't add a whole lot to Sonic CD at all, and her first "true" playable appearance in SA1 was awful. SAdv1 kind of made things interesting by maker her a "Hard Mode", although she really wasn't that fun to play as. Everywhere else, she is pretty much just "there"; and does not add much to the plot outside of SA2. Old characters (Might/Ray/Fang/Bean/Bark): First off, both Mighty and Ray are nothing more than Sonic clones (more so than Shadow), right down to wearing the same shoes. Not nesscessary. Bean was nothing more than a Dynamite Dux reference, and Bark, while being original in design, just couldn't fit in (Knuckles and even Vector already take up the "strong character" role). Fang however, I personally think could have made things more interesting as a "secondary" villain. Would act as the true anti hero of the series, while also providing a comical aspect. I don't think he should be playable, but he would make things more interesting. Team Chaotix: While Espio and Vector are of interesting design, Charmy is horrible, and to be honest, there isn't really much room for the Chaotix in main Sonics, playable at least. I thought they were handled well in SG. Big: Terrible character and gameplay, but at least they actually got rid of him, and in Heroes, he played like everyone else. Not much else to say here. E-102 Gamma/ect: Was a good one shot character in SA1. Appearer in other games as enemies, which was no big deal. Shadow: Good in SA2, and only in SA2 (and maybe Sonic Battle). Other games, he was "just there". He also kind of ruined the fanbase, although ST didn't really have control of that. Funny thing about Shadow and Rouge; both Metal Sonic and Fang could have had similar roles (the latter even has a similar color scheme). With that in mind, those two, and even SA2 itself(which at the time was the farthest away the Sonic world got from itself) is a little questionable (SA2 was still fun for it's time, but I feel that it could have gone in a different direction). Rouge: Having a female character who actually has abilities is fine. However, I don;t think Rouge herself is really that interesting. She is either a Knuckles clone or a Tails clone. Overall, not really necessary, though she could have a decent role in a Knuckles game (like we'll ever get that). Cream: Possibly the most pointless character addition. A Tails clone with half the flight time but a cheap Chao attack was just lame, and Adv2 could easily do without her. She seems to only exist to appeal to the "little kid" audience who don't know how to play a video game. In fact, the whole 2003 era is when SEGA started advertizing Sonic in a "kiddy" fashion. Granted, it was always mainly aimed at kids, but you look at a lot of 2003 Japanese ads (Heroes, Pinball party), as well as Sonic X, you will get what I mean. Overall, pointless addition. E-123 Omega: His only purpose was to fill the Power slot in Team Dark, and to cater to the "Bring E-102 back!" people in a similar fashion to bring Shadow back. Overall, a filler character who even missed out on Sonic Generations. Blaze: She was decent in the Rush series, and made Silver's story in '06 slightly less shitty. Howecer, she is yet another Sonic clone, and thus isn't really necessary. Silver: He is of no use to the Sonic franchise. In fact, he only exists probably because of that Fifth Phantom saga game getting canceled. At least he hasn't done much outside of '06 and the Rivals series. His boss fight in SG is his only redeeming value. ...And I'm done.
I feel like Silver should have ceased to exist after Sonic '06 retconned itself. We don't know if Elise blowing out the Solaris flame eventually led to his birth or not. Then again, how was anybody alive in that future to begin with? Hadn't Ibliss pretty much destroyed everything? Kinda makes me think the only reason Silver's fighting at all is so he and Blaze can start repopulating the planet when the danger's passed.
I like the idea of Cream being the female counterpart of Tails. Just as how Amy is sometimes the female counterpart of Sonic. That doesn't mean the gameplay for them has to be 100% identical. Their personalities are already completely different to Sonic and Tails. They have plenty of potential to make them fun and interesting, but SEGA screws up all the time with Sonic's friends outside of Tails and Knuckles.
Just for your information, 2006 blew out the events leading to the bad future, so the bad future never happened. However, the good future is shown from Sonic Rivals and Rush, so Blaze and Silver are alive, don't know each other, have a good future and also Eggman has a relative, Eggman Nega. Anything about Blaze and Nega being dimensional counterparts is bullshit. Even some official stuff still refers to them as such even though 2006 and the Rivals games disproved this.
Actually, why not. Tails: Is, was, and always will be lame. The only value he ever brought to the series was giving Sonic someone to race, and was later replaced by better characters in that regard. Maybe I might like him more if they somehow figured out a way to make his flying mechanic somehow contribute to the game instead of just slowing him down and making him vulnerable. Amy: Was introduced as "the girlfriend." Was kind of a cute idea. Better idea than having him make out with a human. Damn you, Sonic 06. Her redesign from Sonic Adventure blows, but then again, so does everyone else's redesign from Sonic Adventure. Should have just been a female Sonic in terms of gameplay. Something Sonic Adventure 2 got right. Metal Sonic: The only character from the series I am a fanboy of. Was Sonic's first and best rival, and was basically an awesome looking robot Sonic. Was a perfect fit because he is always fighting robots all the time, and thematically made an evil version of himself to conquer. In his case I like to pretend that Heroes never happened. He is supposed to be the anti-Sonic. Not T-1000. Knuckles: I thought he was cool when I was younger, but nowadays I mostly see him as a dopey character who is a gimpy version of Sonic. Gliding is lame and adds basically nothing to gameplay. Knack/Fang: Long forgotten, but has potential. Cool character design. If Shadow were a good game, he would have been in it. Mighty: I like this character. Has potential but has been more or less forgotten. Ray: Even more forgotten than Mighty, but also liked. Then again, I am guessing the reason I like him and Mighty are mostly because they came before SEGA threw lame attempts at characterization at us. SatAM/Archie characters: There is a reason these characters have helped fuel the longest running video game comic series, other than creepy-ass furries. Quite a few of them are decent character designs. It would be nice if SEGA acknowledged their existance in a game one of these days. It would also be nice if they could write a better plot than Ken Penders, who sucks at writing plots. Please note I am mostly referring to the core ones that exist directly because of SatAM. A lot of the Penders cannon fodder contributed to the character fatigue fans suffered. Just not Sally. Sally should be dead. Chaotix: Cool character designs from two very lame games. Bean & Bark: I'd like to see them again if SEGA ever gets their shit together. Sonic R Robots/Eggrobo: Decent characters for the same reason Metal is. Also bonus points to Traveler's Tales for the creepy ass tails doll. Eggrobo is prettymuch what should have been in place of E-102 in the adventure games, and was fun to play in Sonic R even if he wasn't that good. Big: I liked this character, but only because he reminded me of the mentally retarded guy from "There's Something About Mary." Have you seen my baseball froggy? E102/123/whatever: A novelty character that let you play as the "bad guy." It was a short-lived novelty though, because spinning around and homing missles is not how to make a shooting game. Included 123 because he wasn't noteworthy at all. NiGHTS: Appeared in SA1, so why not add him? Actually made a decent Cameo, so why not more cameos? Chao: A-Life was an awesome addition. Shame the whole VMU thing failed hard. Chaos: Eh, pretty cool blob of goo thingy. Not a furry and was playable in SA2 Battle, so that is a few plus points. Too blank to really contirbute as a protagonist though. Maybe a return appearance as a miniboss or something would be welcome. Shadow: I admittedly liked his story in SA:2, but as a character basically took the already filled spot of the anti-Sonic role. I just don't like him as much in that role. Not as iconic of Sonic's struggle against a machinst, even if the story hints he is like a cyborg or something. Robotnik: Kinda fun to play as, but better as a bad main guy, and even better without the lame adventure characterization. Rouge: Meh. Blaze: Kinda cool I guess. Would have been cooler if made at a time when Sonic wasn't already suffering an abundance of pointless characters. Ermerl: Same as Blaze. A cooler badnick than E-102, but came out at a time when there were too many pointless characters. Cream: What do you get when you mix Amy and Tails? This freaky lolita fettish thing. The epitome of pointless characters, but hey, she has a chao and chao are cool! Right? Silver: Upon further research, I apparently don't know shit about this character, but it's a dumb looking grey hedgehog. They don't need more hedgehogs. Pointless. Anyone I didn't mention: Likely not important because this is a lot of them. All in all though, most of the above characters should just disappear for a while until SEGA decides they want to make a AAA title again.
Though not playable characters, the Freedom Fighters of SatAM fame make a cameo in Sonic Spinball. (And Yes, I know they were probably put in because Spinball was developed by STI in the US.)
I don't really count that as acknowledgement by SEGA since SEGA doesn't really acknowledge Spinball. Not to say I was even thinking of Spinball as I was writing that. Thanks for reminding me.
Because you say so? There's a difference between believing a certain development is official, and not agreeing with it. I know SEGA sort of retconned Blaze/Silver/Nega as being from the future, but I still think it's stupid.
Frankly, no. It's because the "extra" information outside of the actual games never make sense, not even in Sonic 4's case. The games themselves are self explanatory and show this.
This is late, but self-defense ahoy. That was me, and it was because the sprite was copy pasted, and not because I thought Tails shouldn't be there. It looks weird if you appreciate CD's art style because the imported Tails is based off of Sonic 2's Sonic sprite, which is a different look from Sonic CD's Sonic. Because of this, the art style is noticably different. That and it makes more sense to show love to the characters that already made that game great (Metal Sonic and Amy) instead of a character that isn't supposed to be in there. That said, most people aren't going to notice and will be like "Yay Tails."
Knuckles in Sonic 2 was copy-pasted far more noticeably and made even less sense, but even as an artist who hates when people mix styles in their hacks/fangames, I really didn't see a big issue. Either way, that's not an argument I want to get into again. I see nothing wrong with including the option to play as other characters. If people never want to play as anyone but Sonic, good. Don't include character-specific achievements and send everyone through the same levels. I can't say I agree with "They should perfect the Sonic gameplay before letting other characters in" either, because I could just as easily say "If they aren't going to get Sonic perfect, at least let me play as someone else and have fun with their abilities".
It's not that Knuckles in Sonic 2 was copy/pasted, it's that they used his sprite loaded from the Sonic and Knuckles cart.
I don't think anyone cared because it was part of the novelty of the "Lock-On Technology." Even then it looked awkward. It was just kinda fun because you had a new way of exploring Sonic 2 by using S&K. It was just neat you were even able to do that. All these years later, transposing an old sprite from one old game into another just seems.... well, let's not go there again. ^_^
Eh, while I like the characters appearing in a game on paper, the problem is getting them handled just right, especially since Archie (and to an extent SatAm itself) doesn't do that great a job handling them either, Penders or otherwise. Even Sally is a fun character on the rare times she is handled just right. In the games' more whimsical form I see them being used as this random city that Eggman turns into his amusement park (sorta a quirkier Robotropolis).
As a kid, I actually expected it to look weird. After playing it for a while though, I couldn't actually notice it that badly. Sure, now I see it and it just looks weird but still, for the art style to be so consistent that it's not even that huge a deal is pretty cool. Also, I loved how that game actually added several reasons for being Knuckles, too. Like climbing up that huge wall in Chemical Plant Zone Act 1 and finding the 1-up at the top. (Let's try and forget fighting the final boss as Knuckles)
