"Multiple" new Sonic games planned for 2021

Got to say, unless it is as 'nearly' faithful to the original game as the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro remakes recently have been, my interest in a remake is nearly zero.
I like the old games; just make them look good and run on a more stable engine. That's all that's needed. Add extras if you like but do not change the core experience.
Or, if they want to make something new, then do that - this isn't a Resident Evil scenario where the old games have tank controls and the new engine is universally applauded with them coming down of the success of a massive return to form. The new engine for their recent games has just as many critics as the old one and they must know it.

Or alternatively leave SA in the past and give us something genuinely new.
But with every day I'm dreading news along this line.

 

I'm in the "just completely redo it" camp. While I would prefer the physics and handling to be closer to the originals, I think SA needs the most work on production value (cutscenes...), making its adventure elements less half-assed, and making the plot not...terrible. I don't mean an """epic""" plot (though the original tried that and it just ended up falling short) necessarily, but Big's plot is virtually worthless, Amy spends her time running around and not doing much of consequence, etc, and I'd like to see them try to tie all the threads together.

They probably wouldn't succeed, but I feel that a straight remake would be a total waste.

 

Not sure what you mean by this. All six stories' threads were very much tied together.

I think trying to make each story big and consequential would miss the point of what they were going for. Big is a simple civilian who got caught up in the fight between Sonic and Eggman, completely unaware of the significance of it all.

Amy, a minor damsel in distress character until that point, was a character on the periphery of Sonic's life and adventures. Her story is about performing a small heroic deed (reuniting a lost bird with his brothers) and learning that she can take care of things without needing Sonic to save the day.

All the characters could benefit from having more levels, and the story could benefit from better dialogue, direction and voice acting, but the plot itself is solid.

 

I know this was sorta satire (you had me in the first half, ngl), but I wouldn't want to see Big or even Amy in a remake of SA1. To me, remaking SA1 couldn't just be a simple upscale with control, camera and collision improvements, the game would have to be truly reimagined for it to be worth a remake. I would want them to do a better job telling the story (put the flashbacks in chronological order, or have the characters talk about the flashbacks so they have more bearing on the plot, for example), replicate the momentum of the Genesis games in 3d and change the stage designs to match (since that was what I felt like SA1 was going for, with Sonic, Tails and Knuckles at least), and make the tasks in the hubworld less cryptic (maybe this is just me, but I had difficulty with finding the random keys needed to access some levels). I know that would be somewhat controversial in the fanbase, but I don't see the point of just taking SA1 and making it prettier. The game itself is not perfect, but it had a lot of potential. If a remake that didn't have the weight of showing off every feature of the Dreamcast and could instead focus on making a good 3d Sonic game was made, then I'd be very interested.

 

I know Sonic Adventure is flawed, but I don't think it's bad enough to remake. Sonic 2006 on the other hand? Yeah, go ahead and fix that and call it something different, and I'll be interested! Or, if you wanted to do a Sonic Adventure remake, how about doing it in 2-D Sonic Mania style?

 

As far as I've seen, Sonic 06 have issues beyond the broken state of the game.

 

You're right that it'd be hella controversial.

I honestly can't tell if I'd just want upscale with prettier graphics...or a full on retelling. The former is the "safest" way of remaking the game and preserves what made it special to people, but it also would potentially fail to address the problems the original had. On the other hand, the latter is a way of cleaning up and trimming the fat of the original as well as make sense of certain things for a newer audience...but you risk alienating the purist crowd and ruining what made the original unique.

 

Unfortunately these companies tend to the opposite. Well-loved games get remakes, bringing in the potential that they screw it up and piss off fans of the original, and hated games get swept under the rug, never to be seen again.

Don't you know? They already did that:
https://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_Advance
Teasing, but Advance 1 really felt like it wanted to be less "bring back the classics" and more "Sonic Adventure 2 through a classic Sonic filter". But that's just, like, my opinion, man.

 

If Sega wants to further ruin the reputation of the early 3D Sonic games, upscaling them with prettier graphics and re-releasing them in their original form is the way to do it. I love some of those games (I'm not always sure if I like them), but they've portended a fresh round of derision every time they've been ported to contemporary hardware. Maybe they'd get away with it if they put it in some kind of ultimate collection with most of the mainline titles or something, but even then. Some of the most widely-acclaimed early 3D titles in history don't always hold up to modern scrutiny (Mario 64, Banjo, even OoT), and Sonic's efforts seemed to age a lot faster than any of those did.

Nah, if they're going to do it, I think they've GOT to go all out. Anything less than a crazy-ambitious, completely-overhauled modernization of the formula just isn't going to do it for anyone who's not already super-familiar with Sonic Adventure. (Having said that, it WOULD be cool to have the original version as an unlockable within the remake! And while I'm dreaming, I also want some Dreamcast shout-outs, maybe a VMU app and holiday-themed DLC?)

 

I feel like that would be admitting defeat. The goal should be to improve and expand upon what's there. Their games just need to be more fun and substantial.

In chronological order? How? Sonic Adventure tells its story from 6 POVs that overlap. Once characters are unlocked, the player is able to play their stories in any order. The player can even get part way through one character's story, then choose to switch to another's. Each character's individual story is linear, but Sonic Adventure's story as a whole is inherently non-linear. There's absolutely no way to present the Tikal flashbacks chronologically, without forcing the player to play each character in a strict order (complete Sonic's story to unlock Tails, complete Tails' story to unlock Knuckles etc.), or constantly forcing the player to switch between characters like in SA2 (play a Sonic level, now play a Knuckles treasure hunting level, now play a Gamma shooting level etc.). It wouldn't improve the gameplay experience or the story. It's not difficult to piece the Tikal segments together.

I agree. Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 are in a similar position to Metroid and Metroid II - well received at the time and still fondly remembered, but creaky relics by today's standards. Metroid and Metroid II's remakes were full overhauls, and both Sonic Adventures would need a similar treatment. For one thing, Sonic (and Shadow, in SA2) would need more levels, and they'd have to be more substantial. 10 levels that range from 2 to 5 minutes each is not enough. At the very least, each Action Stage should have two distinct Acts, doubling the gameplay without doubling the art assets. Plus Red Star Rings and SA2 scoring system/missions/2P Versus mode for SA1. And that's without getting into the fundamental stuff, like controls, physics, level design, camera - it would all need drastically altering. It would need to be less "Sonic Adventure with modern graphics" and more "What if Sonic Adventure was being made today?".

 

I really don’t think Big can be fun to play as, he was fundamentally a bad idea from the get-go.
The best role he could have in a potential Adventure remake is level cameos like in Adventure 2. That’s the only way I’d want to see him back.

 

It was satire, but I wouldn’t put it beyond SEGA to shoehorn Classic Sonic into every game from now on, since they seem to have this belief that “Classic Sonic = more sales”.

In regards to gameplay, I’ve expressed this before and have been (surprisingly) met with backlash: I’d like any SA remake or a hypothetical SA3 to take the same approach that the classic 2D games do with the characters: Everyone has mostly the same physics but with different moves, and everyone’s gameplay just has the goal of getting to the end of the level rather than gimmicks like Emerald hunting, racing Sonic, evading a robot, etc. This would mean that Big the Cat and Gamma would become cutscene characters, which might anger some people.

Idk why some people, especially on Sonic Retro of all places, would be so opposed to recreating the classic Sonic experience in 3D (since I was met with such backlash last time I suggested it).

I’ve been told “but that wouldn’t be SA(3)” but in my mind “Sonic Adventure” just means 3D plarforming with Sonic characters but with no boost.

 

If you're going to remake SA1 and reshape it to fit the mold of the classic games, then why bother? The very point of remaking it at all would be catering to Adventure era fans, not classic fans. Otherwise you're better off releasing another classic-style game like Mania, that way it will be clear whom it's aimed at. You don't want it to be seen as another bait-and-switch like Sonic 4 and make Adventure fans will feel betrayed.

Besides, if they made all characters play similarly yet kept kept all stories mandatory, people would complain about padding, like they did with Heroes. It was the different play styles that set the six different stories apart from each other in SA1.

I would be all for a 3d Sonic game that handles the player characters like the MD games, but not as a SA1 remake.

 

Honestly are there any Adventure-era fans that actually liked the Emerald hunting and Mech-shooting?

I’m an Adventure-era fan. I remember in 4th grade my friend and I would talk about Sonic and even he said, “I wish you could just play through a level as Knuckles instead of hunting Emeralds.” And this was a conversation between two 10-year-olds in 2004-2005. Not exactly “classic-era fans”.

Now, I won’t speak for all Adventure fans, but I will say, damn I sure would love to just play a level as Knuckles in 3D without hunting Emeralds.

 

I think this misses the point of why some people want a remake of Adventure. It's because it's not that bad that we'd like it to be remade. Sonic '06 has huge fundamental problems even beyond glitches. Sonic Adventure has flaws that are almost entirely technical problems, and these problems hold it back under an objective light. Fixing the buggy collision, improving the physics, making level design adjustments, possibly reworking Amy's and Big's respective gameplay styles, animating better cutscenes, etc., are all things that could give new life to the game.

This is a ridiculously stupid proposition. "Remaking" Sonic Adventure in 2D is just making an entirely new 2D game that has nothing to do with Sonic Adventure. That's like an interesting fangame experiment, but calling an official game a Sonic Adventure remake and then releasing basically Sonic Advance 4 doesn't make any sense.

Yes, there are Adventure-era fans who like the hunting and/or mech stages. Regardless, I think that might defeat the purpose of a remake anyway. I'm all for a prospective SA3 going the classic-playstyle route, but SA1's alternate gameplay shouldn't be removed, just improved if possible. And even then, I'd totally be down for an "arcade mode" where you can just play Sonic's story with any character.

 

I DO feel like Amy, Big, and Gamma's campaigns should just be made optional and not required to see the true ending. As they stand, they're good but ultimately self-contained storylines that really don't impact the main plot all that much, which is why I think it'd be a move that wouldn't be all that controversial. The stories aren't being removed, but they aren't forced on people who just wanna get the nitty gritty stuff.

I know some people will claim the six stories is what "completes" Adventure, but the fact of the matter is that Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles` stories are the only parts where shit happens. I don't think it's wrong for people who want to skip parts that they may not be interested in, and don't impact the overall game. The best thing you can do for players is to give them a choice if they want to play those stories or not, rather than rob them of the choice and for them to go through it.

I'm very sure if Big's story wasn't a mandatory requirement, people would have just saw it as a fun distraction from the main game but ultimately something you can ignore without consequence. But because it's REQUIRED, it becomes a chore that you HAVE to do to get the true ending.


And by doing that, you can focus on fixing up the small issues in Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles` levels. Maybe give Tails more levels where he's working independent from Sonic so his campaign feels less like a retread. Have the three of them discuss the flashbacks that they've all been experiencing. Maybe give Knuckles a logical reason for wanting to oppose Sonic that isn't just a lame repeat of a plot point from just a few years prior.

There's plenty to improve upon from Adventure, but it means some compromises are going to have be made and fans are going to have to come to terms with them.

 

I just want Unleashed 2.

 

You'll get a reinvention and hope a sequel to that is actually fuffilling.

 

Re: gameplay styles, with regards to SA1 I've only seen critic and fan derision pointed at the hunting and fishing levels, with SA2's mecha levels being the ones that people disliked (and I don't blame them - Gamma's levels are much more fast paced and he controls better, and his story was novel at the time).

 

I don't feel people hated SA1' hunting stages, but how they were changed in SA2; namely the radar and the fact the hint system is even more cryptic with even larger levels.