Your idea of the Sonic "canon"

Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 are great games. Sure they break continuity allot, but story is not what I look for in a Sonic game. I look for fast, good game play, story comes second, and the hole Shadow hate thing is a strange happening, It's like people are saying "1998 is the cutoff, no new stuff after that." In short SA/SA2 IS "canon" in my book.
P.S. Sonic X sucks...

 

I wouldn't say so. They were well presented and enjoyable in their own respects, even though they may not really be comparable to the classic games.

I mean, compare them to shit like Sonic R and there's no real comparison. Yeah, Sonic R has the classic look, but the engine is pretty shit.

 

Thinking about how quickly Sonic Team releases their games, relative to most other major development teams (TF2 took how long to develop?), pretty quickly, based on how many games they've actually made. So if they would have just been slowing it down a *bit* more or outsourced some of the development, these games would still be good.


Compare this to, say, Nintendo from the N64 onward. EGM started to get critical of the N64 later in its life (around 98-99) of how most of Nintendo's franshises were being delayed later and later; titles that would have almost been expected right at the launch STILL hadn't been released. DK64 came out when, again? (Hint: After the DC's US release!)
We've practically seen more Mario Kart games alone than we have actual Mario platformers (SM64 for DS doesn't count in my book since it's just a port of an existing title). I'm making the crazy assumption that the Mario Kart games aren't made by the same team as the Mario platformers.



Incidentally, anybody else play Galaxy and think, "Geez, they ripped all of this from Heroes"? I did fairly frequently -- though they definitely executed it much better in Galaxy. It was like Nintendo lately has been trying to get Sonic Team and Sega to go in a different direction than they do now, very subtly.

 

I always thought it was set after Shadow the Hedgehog, seeing how Shadow apparently has regained his memories. Also he's weakened at the start of the game, which could be from his Super Shadow battle against Black... *Devil Doom.

Also my list somewhere above actually ignores the story and focuses solely on the overall feel, gameplay and design (including graphics style and music) of the games.
Which is why Sonic 2 and S3K were not on the list - in my opinion they failed to truly get what Sonic defines. Sure, Sonic 2 had mostly good level design and some aesthetically charming/unique levels (ARZ, CNZ, OOZ) but at least just as much uninspired and generic designs. Also the inclusion of a second playable character, the cutting of the third Act and the instantly chargeable spindash are things I highly disapprove of.
The last 3 points also counting for S3K, that one at least was audio-visually highly appealing and the Zone-transition cutscenes were an innovative idea (even though they take away a bit from the charming simplicity. Maybe. *shrugs*). I just can't get over those LONG AS FUCK levels, that additionally rarely give you much freedom and usually set your pace by themselves, shooting you through high speed parts or forcing you slow through platforming bits, instead of giving you different routes so you can choose your playing style yourself.

Shit? I disagree. You seem to be forgetting the perfectly designed courses, excellent soundtrack and... low number of stages. Oh well, quality seems more important to me than quantity.

 

You misunderstand—I like Sonic R as well, but it's absolute shit in comparison to Sonic Adventure.

 

Yeah, it's nice to be able to use the controller to move the character in the direction that you want.

 

Sonic Battle was made at the same time as Sonic Heroes (and in fact got released before Sonic Heroes, causing a lot of confusion). I don't think Sega ever had any idea that anything like Shadow the hedgehog would be made back then.

 

I always thought it went like this:

Tails Adventures (according to the Japanese storyline, this happened before he met Sonic)
Sonic 1
Sonic CD
Sonic 2
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Sonic 3D Blast
Knuckles Chaotix
Sonic R
Sonic Pocket Adventure
Sonic Adventure
Sonic Adventure 2
Sonic Advance
Sonic Advance 2
Sonic Heroes
Sonic Battle
Sonic Advance 3
Sonic and the Secret Rings

Shadow was so bad a game I don't even count it canon, plus all the crap in the "pick your own story completely screwing up everything. Next-gen is a seperate timeline. All others happened, I just don't know where.

 

Err, didn't Sonic 3's opening start just where the good ending of Sonic 2 left off? And Sonic didn't really fly away as Super Sonic accompanied by Tails in the Tornado at the end of Sonic CD, so I'd place it somewhere after S&K.

 

Before Sonic 2 sounds more logical, as Sonic supposedly went on some "journey" with Tails after Sonic 3K. And in Sonic CD, he's nowhere to be seen. (minus the easter egg)

 

He can also be seen flying around Little Planet in the Tornado in the sound test (D.A. Garden), if that counts.
Also I forgot, was the Tornado originally Sonic's plan and Tails took it or was it already the fox's plane in the first place? If it's the former, him flying around in it would imply that he and Sonic have already met at that point.

Also my interpretation of the Sonic timeline (not that the series would need one but whatever)

Tails's Adventure (long before he meets Sonic)
Sonic 1 (First encounter with Robotnik)
Sonic 2 8-bit (Sonic rescues Tails, meets him for the first time)
Sonic 2 (Sonic and Tails team up)
Sonic 3 & Knuckles - Sonic & Tails (starts where Sonic 2 left off)
Sonic 3 & Knuckles - Knuckles (after Sonic's and Tails' story, Knuckles fights Eggrobo)
Sonic CD (Sonic goes on an adventure alone because he's sick of Tails, runs into Robotnik and Amy, fights Metal Sonic who appears to be an improved version/completely new model of S&K's Mecha Sonic thing)
Chaotix
[No clue where Segasonic, Sonic Chaos, and Triple Trouble fit, especially since in the latter the manual states Knuckles is a stranger and has not yet met Sonic before. Neither do I have a clue about the rest (Skypatrol, Blast, 3D: Flickies' Island, R, Spinball).]
*WEIRD TIME PARADOX WHERE EVERYONE MAGICALLY GETS OLDER OR YOUNGER*
Sonic Adventure
Sonic Advance (as Sonic runs off at the end of SA1, and neither him nor Amy, Knuckles or Tails really have anything to do. And Robotnik is seen flying away (plotting evil).)
Sonic Adventure 2
Sonic Advance 2 (Sonic and pals meet Cream for the first time?)
Sonic Heroes (Amy knows Cream already, so this is set after SAdv2?)
Shadow the Hedgehog
Sonic Battle (Shadow appears to have regained his memory and his loss of strength could be from the super form battle against Devil Doom at the end of Shadow, also he's mastered his Chaos... abilities.)
Sonic Advance 3 (Gemerl is a rebuilt/repaired/whatever version of Emerl from Battle)
*a few years*
(Sonic The Hedgehog (a GUN soldier who offers a quest to Shadow mentions that Shadow joined GUN "a few years ago". if the game was set directly after Shadow, "a few years ago" Shadow would still be dormant on prison Island and hardly able to join GUN) (Erases itself from happening so irrelevant, EXCEPT since Blaze seals herself into a different dimension at the end of Silver's story, she may have been unaffected by the destruction of the timeline and could be the same Blaze from Rush and SRA (but I haven't played those so I dunno)))

[No clue where Advance 1, Pocket Adventure, Pinball Party, Riders, Riders ZG, Secret Rings, Rush and Rivals and their sequels could fit (the latter 4/6 I haven't even played yet).]

I feel incredibly lame for investing that many thoughts into a timeline of a series that doesn't even need a story at all.

 

I wasn't reffering exactly to you, it's a generic "you".

 

This man wins. Give him a fucking prize. Also:

LOL

 

long levels=automatically bad? what kind of logic is that? sometimes it is nice to have long levels, so the game lasts more than a couple hours

 

Yes, he managed to find a way to fit in one of my favorite games, Sonic 1 GG, and Triple Trouble, of all things. With the exception of Knuckles not knowing Sonic, this could have MAYBE happened between Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles, as a transition, but I doubt TT takes place on the Floating Island.

 

Why thanks for elaborately stating what exactly you disagree with and properly backing up your view.

Yeah, go have fun with Sonic Heroes and Shadow.
But honestly, I think Sonic levels should be completable fast (less than 30 seconds). While they don't have to be as short as for example Sonic Chaos' stages, I think Sonic CD did it totally right - the levels were complex and with a lot of routes and took a while to complete the first time around, yet once you begin to learn the layouts and master the physics in Time Attack mode, you can rush through them in a breeze. While still being able to explore a lot of shit off-route if you feel like it. S3K on the other hand just placed you into long-ass stages without much freedom of choosing a route (with a few exceptions) or any ability to cut down on the level length (unless you heavily abused glitches). May be personal taste though...

 

Well, there are allot of long levels that you can get through fast. Just look at Windy Vally from SA1 or (bad example) the Domesday from S3&K. In short I disagree with your point of view and think long levels are actually better than short ones. I hate when I start a super cool looking level just to have it end in 30 seconds.