Evolution of the alternate play style

You omitted the horrid pile of shit which was Sonic 3D +/- Blast... which introduced the homing attack (more or less), the removal of crouching/physical emphasis including the single button spindash, and uh... let's see... um... Oh yeah, the use of a ring as an end of stage marker. Ok, so the last one isn't a big deal.

 

The Sonic franchise is the only place I've ever heard people use the term "Shitty Friend." It just sounds so oxymoronic.


For that matter, this is the only franchise where I have ever heard people go "OH GOD THEY'RE INTRODUCING A CHARACTER TO THE STORY THIS IS SO HORRIBLE." Chip is the biggest example of this. The most you ever get out of him is plot, and people immediately jump on the OMGHATE bandwagon. Oh, what's that? He's SO annoying?

Watch those cutscenes again, buddy. We are talking about, as NTom64 would put it, A FUCKING CARTOON CHARACTER. AND HE IS ACTING AS FUCKING SUCH.

So, in the Sonic franchise, if you try to be serious, you are being melodramatic. But if you try being zany and cartoony, you are an obnoxious little shit.

Characterization just can't win.

You know what I want in the next Sonic game? I want every "Shitty Freind" in the Sonic franchise to be an NPC in the hubs in an Unleashed-style game. I want their characters to be explored, I want to see how they interact with other characters. Hell, I want to do sidequests revolving around them. I want fully animated cutscenes to accompany these sidequests. I want this, but only if the characters show a level of characterization that matches the works of Taranea, or Dragonbreath.

Then a reviewer can stumble onto these optional sidequests and go WTF TEH GAME IS FORSIN SHITYY FRENS DON MAH THROT

 

I'd expect a cartoon character to be funny. Chip just acts like that hyper kid who thinks you're friends with him.

 

Chip does have some quite comical moments, and the interaction between sonic and chip in most of the cutscenes is fucking brilliant.
But yeah, why complain about chip? He's not exactly a playable character

 

I will admit that this is true: It does seem that other characters are being forced into the spotlight.

Here is what needs to happen: Let them be playable, but MAKE IT 100% OPTIONAL/UNLOCKABLE.

This is reminiscent of the original Sonic games, where you could choose who you want to be, and not be forced to be any one character if so desired.

Even making them unlockable is a bonus, if they aren't playable right up front. Want to fly as Tails? Beat the game. Want to climb walls with Knuckles? Beat it again.

You see? REPLAYABILITY. Something newer Sonic games seem to lack.

Want to be Super in Levels? GET THEM CHAOS EMERALDS. Then go nuts.

REPLAYABILITY. This is key, fellas.

This could also work as DLC if Sega wants to make more $$$, but thats another story.

 

Except the issue here is radical playing styles for every character. These play styles won't work with one another well if they're completely awkward to the way a stage was design for one character. Big the Cat's playstyle was fishing. Put him in a level with loops with this style and get frustration.

On the opposite side though, Big was in Sonic Heroes. However, Big offered absolutely nothing different from the other power characters, making it a chore to play as him through the levels rather than fun.

You can't just toss in new characters and expect instant replayability. Sure, you'll get maybe one playthrough, but that's it. The basic core mechanics themselves has to be fun and rewarding. If you have a frustrating game with 10 characters to choose from, most likely you'll just go through it with a couple and never pick it up again. If the game at the basic level turns out to be entertaining, then the other characters might be worth checking out to see what they offer.

It's more than just tossing random character with random ability.

 

Well if the levels were designed well enough like back in the day they could easily allow for some different play types. Like you could beat the main level as Sonic, but then you go back in the level as like Knuckles and you can smash a wall and go a different way for added replayability.

There are some characters though that just won't work when reused though. As you mentioned, Big would not work in almost anything for he's too slow. Omega and E-102 wouldn't work either because of their non-Sonic gameplay.

Also whenever I want characters to be optionally playable I'm just talking about having Tails and Knuckles in, as they are the best examples of characters that play like Sonic but at the same time are just different enough to possibly make a difference in how you play the level. I thought Knuckles would have been a perfect character in Unleashed as he could have play through both Sonic's and WereSonic's stages (Although a couple of tweaks would be needed). He could go about as fast as Sonic does without boosting and at the same time he can punch shit.

 

This statement just owned me.

At this point in the franchise, there are fans who prefer the more serious tones of SA2 and Sonic 2006, and those who prefer the lighter side of games like Heroes and Unleashed, and think games that deviate too far to the other end of the spectrum are no good. In reality, Sonic now has fans from all ends of the universe who simply have different tastes from others in terms of storylines either being serious or silly.

I don't mind playing as other characters in the games, so long as their controls are nice and tight and the objectives are sensical enough. However, this is still the SONIC franchise, so I'd really like to spend most of the game time playing as him, since the entire Sonic world has been built around him. I really don't want a game like Sonic 2006 where over two-thirds of the game is spent playing as other (crappy) characters.

 

It'd help if they actually were capable of pulling off a serious storyline without degrading into a pile of narm.

 

I consider S3&K, SA2 and Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity examples of such, but you're prolly just gonna laugh at me, anyhow... meh.

I like playing as other characters BESIDES Sonic, simply 'cuz it adds variety. I want more out of a game then just running from point A to B, which is basically what Sonic's gameplay is, with some jumping and "platforming" (that term didn't exist back when I was young D: ) whilst it's different with the others, obviously. That's one of many reasons I dislike SatSR, by the way. xD;
Dun like the idea of alternate characters besides Sonic being optional, though, just sounds wrong to me in the modern era.

Meh, I guess I am rather alone here with that opinion.

 

Treasure hunting wasn't a bad gimmick by any means, but it was stupid of them in SA2 to make levels that had only treasure hunting, unlike Sonic Adventure where levels with a distinct point A and point B had large open sections in them designed for this, which helped keep the treasure hunting from occurring over stages that were large and labyrinthine and allowed Sonic to go to levels that were more open and less like narrow race courses.

Is it any wonder that in SA my favorite stages, at least as Sonic, are the last part of Speed Highway (first two parts can fuck themselves as far as I'm concerned), Sky Deck, Red Mountain, and Lost World? What do all those levels have in common? Hmmm...

 

While S3&K and probably Sonic Riders have minimalist stories that aren't really all that serious except in brief moments (I haven't actually played any of the Sonic Riders games, so I'm just glossing over it), you are right. I'm just going to laugh at you (pleasantly, not mockingly) for thinking they pulled it off in SA2 without degrading into a pile of narm.

I mean, it didn't help that the English VO was awful on some fronts.... so I'm just going to recall a quote that just got someone suspended in another, less topically sensible thread...

"I don't know, but what I do know is... WE ALL DID IT TOGETHER!"
It's just one example of hardcore narm popping out of a situation that is supposed to be serious but misses the mark.

The game was replete with nonsensical bullshit that just made crashed any possible suspension of disbelief. It's like how people would talk about how Shadow's death was somehow good story and undoing it was bad story... all I could think of when hearing that was how retarded and inexplicable his death was in the first place. Hi, I'm falling to Earth now, BAAAAAI!

Fact is, if you really want to sell a serious story, you have to be serious about writing it. SEGA didn't want to pay for some quality writers and so they got a story riddled with brain-shattering plot holes and dialog that could make a twelve year old cringe.

 

In my honest opinion if they want to make other characters playable just have them all play similarly with minor differences in traits like Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. I really wouldn't mind it if they all played like something I wanted in a Sonic game. The main reason people hate the new characters is because SEGA always has to slide some kind of gimmicky bullshit to either lengthen the game or something nobody really wants to play.

Sonic Adventure had it down pretty good, but everyone with the same game play wouldn't be a bad thing at all. Simplicity is always a better route to take if you want to gather the attention of a wider and more profitable audience. Plus, I think most of us would rather have fun then bore ourselves with something we didn't think we were dishing out our cash for.

 

Sonic 06 did no favours for Blaze but she is a cool character, Shadow started off really good but then milked so dry the cow died.

I actually like the babalon crew, Jet is another character with "attitude" and fits well alongside sonic, his voice is quite unique too. His buddy's are ok but so far they have only been in minimal things. I wish Jet was in the final build of Mario & Sonic though.

 

Sonic Adventure nailed besides the two odd additions.

Sonic was Sonic in 3D with platforming.

Tails was basically Sonic, but now with racing.

Knuckles was Sonic, but now you have the full ability to explore those massive levels in a much larger scope. (Red Canyon is a brilliant example of this. What seemed like a linear level becomes a fucking playground. Or hell, Speed Highway. The last section is quick for Sonic, an entire level for Knuckles.)

Amy was a slower but more precise platformer Sonic.

Big and E-102 took it to another place.

But the other characters remained pretty much the same and stick to the basic for of the game.

Really, before you even consider making a game with multiple characters, you have to consider if the main game is even worth playing at all.