I don''t know if this is well known or not, but it definitely wasn't a last minute addition. Johnny was interviewed during a panel at the annual Midwest Gaming Classic convention in April and he teased that he was working on a project with Jun but couldn't say anything more than that. I guess I should have expected this, but I don't follow his stuff closely enough to know that it wasn't a new album.
It looks fun, art design is definitely what I'm drawn to the most (Rooftop Run or whatever its meant to be is looking reeeally nice), and it's Sumo so it's going to be solid. About all I can expect from a spin-off game. Crush 40 I feel like is a bit of a relic we don't need anymore, but at the very least the theme sounds good instrumentally. But there's definitely an air of catering to the Adventure/Heroes crowd that was mentioned earlier, which to be honest, I don't hate.
I wish they would really cater to the Adventure fans and make a game in that style again. Crush 40 fit right in with the style of those games, especially Adventure 2.
Whatever they're doing, it's working on me, and I don't really want to play a racing game. Nostalgia pandering now affects adventure era as well, and that's the last era I enjoyed except for mania and generations, so I have no problem in having Cheese 40 or the character roster back from the old times. I still hate the wisps, though, even if this time they at least make more sense. I might buy this game, after all, and even get driven to buy the previous two (pun not intended): I never gave those an opportunity because, as I said, I don't feel like playing racing games, but they were still alluring, and you're constantly saying those were good, so who knows.
Just saying, this is right up my alley. The game might be mediocre, but put that soundtrack inside me right now. Crush 40 is my shit. Also as a total side note, with how barren Sonic Team and Wave Master's music roster has been lately for Sonic, I would infinitely prefer Jun Senoue/Crush 40 doing stuff than Tomoya Ohtani composing an entire mediocre soundtrack by himself, minus orchestral cutscenes.
To be fair to the guy, Ohtani didn't compose every track, and Forces's classic tracks were mostly mediocre too.
Me, personally? ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY. To me - next to Uekawa, Crush 40 and Jun Senoue is a big part of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2's identity. Plus I love shit like Metal Gear Rising's vocal boss themes, so naturally more games that have music like that is never a bad thing for me.
I think the general consensus around this community, SSMB etc is that Lost Word's soundtrack was a bit sub-par. It's got its good tracks, but on the whole is sounds noticeably more generic and bland than Sonic soundtracks usually do. The Mario influence, particularly as sort of New Super Mario Bros vibe, is present in most parts of the game. Ohtani is a great composer himself, and is responsible for a bunch of my favourite tracks in the series. But between Forces and Lost World, he's been spread too thin. He contributed way too much to those entire soundtracks, resulting in some poorer tunes and a lack of variety. The best Sonic soundtracks usually come about when there's a large group of composers. I initially wasn't very interested in the fact that Senoue was the sound director for TSR because his contributions to the series in the past ten years have been unimaginative (Generations) or flat-out bad (Sonic 4), but the fact that Crush 40 has come back to do the theme song has really given me high hopes. Call it nostalgia goggles or whatever, but Crush 40's cheesy rock just sounds like Modern Sonic to me. Green Light Ride sounds like a particularly worth addition to their Sonic repertoire. I look forward to hearing a more rock-heavy rendition of Rooftop Run as well. The course selection so far I'm mixed about. I'm disappointed to see that 2/2 courses so far were both featured in Generations. On the other hand, Sumo are clearly bringing their signature flare and imagination to both in a way that Sonic Team themselves sorely lack. These look like they're a going to be really good takes on the existing environments. And again, Rooftop Run has been one of my favourite Sonic stages of all time ever since it debuted in Unleashed. I just hope that we get plenty of other under-represented levels too. And there's got to be Studiopolis, Mirage Saloon or Press Garden to represent Mania. It'll be a huge loss if none of those show up. Lord help me if there are Green Hill or Chemical Plant Circuits though...
You should prepare for disappointment. :v: We'll see some subset of Green Hill, Casino Night, Chemical Plant, Mushroom Hill, Sky Sanctuary, Death Egg, Stardust Speedway, Emerald Coast, Speed Highway, City Escape, Radical Highway, Seaside Hill, Casino Park, Final Fortress, Crisis City, Rooftop Run, Water Palace, Tropical Resort, Starlight Carnival, Planet Wisp. All of these have easy asset reuse (they're either in Generations or in one of the two previous ASR games), so you can guarantee the bulk of the levels will be in this list (and they'll probably throw a few levels from Sonic Forces in too). Personally I'd love to see Star Light, Aquatic Ruin, Hidden Palace, Flying Battery, Quartz Quadrant, Ice Cap, Metal Harbour, Green Forest, Pyramid Cave, Grand Metropolis, Jungle Joyride, and Asteroid Coaster. I doubt we'll see any of these though. I also doubt any games not in the main series will make an appearance (no Bridge Zone etc.) But who knows? Could be some surprises in store.
I bet there will be a lot of reuse but there might be some new stuff in there. Like the Colors levels would be harder to use as their assets are all low res, but they recreated Starlight Carnival for ASRT last time around. Green Hill and Chemical Plant will probably be there. Big difference though is that this time it's expected. If it's a kart racer around areas from the Sonic universe of course they're going to go back to classics, but at least this time it makes sense. But Sumo has taken some tracks out of no where before so I'm sure we'll see some surprises. Come onnnnn Carnival Night.
Crush 40 buttrock making a return after being absent for a while is far from the worst thing they could have done. Lord knows the music was easily one of the best parts of the entire Adventure era as opposed to the mess that was the gameplay and story.
This game is looking so damn good! It's mainly exciting simply because of the Sonic R similarity/reference which always had a special place in my heart. On the other hand, since I only come on here to check out upcoming game news, I'll probably need to go back to keeping my distance from here again (for a while). Because some of your opinions really do suck to read! lol Makes me cringe!
Blue Blood pretty much echoed my sentiments perfectly. Ohtani isn't a bad composer by any means and Lost World had its good tracks (Love Sea Bottom Segue), it's just that he's been at it by himself for a bit too long. It really feels like Wavemaster's composer selection is null and void for Sonic games these days: Tokoi and Kobayashi are either gone or working on other things, Kumatani hasn't been with Wavemaster for over 10 years, Hataya pops up here and there on random tracks, and Senoue is either too high up the ladder to make ground level decisions or is off doing other things.
Following his dreadful performances in Lost World and Forces, Tails continues to be the worst character.
Seriously what have the writers done to Tails? He's just awful. That line is so bad that it's almost funny. Maybe that's what they're going for?
Yikes. Tails is beyond parody now. I'm not sure why the writers have chosen to use him of all characters as a vessel for all the mega wince-worthy quips, but it sure makes me feel sad to see him turn into that over the last 8 years.
