Planning on it, hence trying to work out how to relay it. I'm alright with video editing, but bad with the everything else involved. Twitter is more restrictive... Anyway, soft reboots. The series could do with one, but it has to be done right. Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) was a soft reboot, but... Would the Iizuka era's Two Worlds Canon count as a soft reboot or altered canon? I'd say the latter, since it has absolutely no reference until he took the helm and it was otherwise indicated to be One Earth Canon.
I don’t see the point of any kind of reboot when every game can just be considered one of Sonic and friend’s ongoing adventures. There’s no major contradiction in the overall gameline. I know some details suggest Classic and Modern are separate (not getting into that) but it’s mostly fan concluded. All you need to do is improve whatever it is that needs improving. Was his “cool dude with attitude” image ever that big a focus? He’s always had the self confidence and snark towards those opposing him but looking back I think his hero image was always the main trait. I don’t think that makes him cookie-cutter or too much of a mascot. He’s only flossed in the movie but I don’t see what’s wrong with him acting “hip” or cute. He’s still cool when it matters imo. I get somethings are made more lighthearted or goofy but I don’t see it as self-parody. Just having fun. I actually think Sonic would find the memes funny and use them sarcastically. Haha.
Something that I have had to come to terms with is that the older games, as much as I may love them personally, were not doing Sonic's reputation any favors. By Sonic 06, regardless of how anybody felt about it, they could not in good faith, continue with that direction and expect results. The series NEEDED to change, for better or worse. We can argue all day about the quality of the modern titles until we're blue in the face, but the series hasn't really had its reputation sank the same way it did as back in 06. I don't think even Boom was that bad. So it begs the question if a soft reboot is even needed; as much as fans have been complaining about the direction about the series lately, what was one of the biggest complaints about Sonic from the 2000s? That it lacked consistency. Well, for better or worse, Sonic has had the same general tone aesthetic and tone since 2008. In other words, they got consistent. They turned the series into something easily palatable that anybody can enjoy and doesn't require knowing more than just the basics about the world and characters to jump into it. Its up to them if they wanna "fix" anything.
That's like saying "Well, the political party of relevance is doing a crap job, buuuut they've been consistent about it." Consistency does not mean good. The series has seen a major downturn in a lot of aspects, and it's not really doing itself favours as it drives forward into it. A Soft Reboot can be used to distance itself from all the prior games and work towards a better direction.
But that's just it. We had two good games with Colors and Generations, but aside from that, the series has been swimming in the same pool of mediocrity as it was before. We had already a soft reboot that "distanced itself from prior games" with Unleashed and Colors, so what's the point of doing it again? How much do we need to distance ourselves? Because if that's the idea you're running with, then they may as well just pull a Crash 4 and disregard everything after Sonic 3, but I know for a fact that you don't want that. We can't be selective with something like this and just cherry pick the stuff we personally like without considering what's actually good.
Of course I don't want that. I just want a good Sonic the Hedgehog game again. Not this hallways gameplay we have now. The problem with current Sonic the Hedgehog games are that they're too speed focused. And I know that's ironic for Sonic, but that was never the actual focus of his series. The actual focus was Momentum. It's actually why Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is my least favourite of the original trilogy. The point of doing it again is to get away from the current mediocrity and to direct the series onto a proper course once more. Also to get back to One Earth, but that's more ulterior motives.
But what's the "proper" course dude? Because in case you haven't noticed, we all got different ideas on what makes a Sonic the Hedgehog game. There are plenty of people who absolutely love these "hallway simulators" just fine, just like how there were plenty people loved the Adventure era of games just fine. I understand that we want what we personally enjoy and like at the end of the day, but we also need to consider what would actually help Sonic with the mainstream. Just because I love Sonic Adventure a ton, doesn't mean the kids of today would. I do agree something needs to be done, I just don't know what exactly that is.
Well, I wanted to make something focusing on it, but eh, may as well go into more detail now. Sonic the Hedgehog, as a franchise, has had three pillars to it. Momentum. Exploration. Platforming. The good Sonic the Hedgehog games all have a healthy balance of all three aspects. Look at Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles: you go off the path to explore, you get rewards. The entire trilogy is about gathering momentum to build up speed. And, of course, there's plenty of platforming in them. Sonic Adventure is the only game I feel they got this decently right in 3D. Sonic can generally explore different paths and locations in his levels, the physics let you build up momentum, and there's plenty of platforming. You may notice I said momentum, not speed, two different subjects and why I'm not overly fond of the current Boost gameplay: it focuses too much on Speed, making Sonic go super fast immediately and blast through everything. As a result, this also affects Exploration and a lot of levels feel more like you're running down hallways and corridors. Ironically, I think this began with Sonic Adventure 2. Where many would say it's streamlined, I'd say it's like running down corridors half the time. But it's not as egregious as it is now, since there's still some exploration to be found: nowadays it feels like I'm playing those old Tiger Electronics cheap games were you press a button to move out the way of something, only instead of just left and right, you can now also do up and down. Sonic Heroes was a step in the right direction, since the three characters aspect would let you wander off and explore different parts of the level with different characters. Shadow the Hedgehog was a step back in the wrong direction as it further restricted you to objectives along a specific path, to the point you could use the checkpoints to go back in the level to find something you missed along it. Sonic Unleashed, despite introducing the whole Boost Gameplay to the current games, had portions where Sonic was stopped from speeding along to platform, and would have pathways that would break off into new areas to explore. Sonic Colours, bit less so but it was still there. Sonic Forces just felt like "press boost to go, go, go, press the triggers to cha-oh no, you hit the goal!" The Avatar was just "run along, do quick time events and blow up all the enemies" and Classic Sonic was... yeah. It's not just the lore side of things I'm annoyed by in the series, the series is just making itself so basic to make itself 'accessible.' I'm not saying making it accessible is a bad thing, but look at games like Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Both are fairly accessible, they slowly lead you into their gameplay at the start very nicely, but they also allow players to do some cool as hell stunts when they put effort into learning the mechanics. Remember Badnik Bouncing? You learned the level well enough, you could bounce all the way to the end of the level via Badniks. That was so cool and rewarding to pull off. This is why I think we need a soft reboot. To remove the current Boost Formula and work towards a better one, because Boost is swiftly becoming the Hallways Formula.
I really hope this thread doesn't become another "this is what I think the perfect Sonic game should be" thread. A soft reboot offers an opportunity to set expectations for the future. If Sega makes a great game that's appreciably different from the games in recent memory, that will be sufficient. If they make a great boost game, that's fine too! But they won't have that chance to say "this is what Sonic will be going forward. Look forward to it!" in the same way. Does Sega need that opportunity? I would say so. A great boost game would be nice, but their track record with the formula is critically spotty. There would still be doubts that the next game will be any good.
Reboots, remaster, remakes, these are all cursed words in my books. Remakes can be great when done right, but the minute we start talking about remasters, I'm out. HD versions with added Wiimote controls, Definitive/Legendary/Windows Editions, how can I tell which version is the best? Esports Editions, Arcade Editions ... The list goes on and on. My personal favourite is "DX: Director's Cut", for nostalgic reasons of course. Rebooting the Sonic series wouldn't change a thing. Things don't magically become good just because they change a logo, cancel a character or articles on the internet call it a "reboot". Sonic the Hedgehog has always been a smart series. When Sega gives the OK, that's when we'll get a new smash hit. Hopefully.
I'm trying very hard for that to not happen. That said I do agree a soft reboot is a good chance for them to redefine the series going forward, but I'm also aware that constantly reinventing itself is kind of part of the problem too. We're kind of at a point where they either gotta stick with their guns or get with the times. Forces wasn't a massive failure, but another boost game, even if it was a good as Generations, probably wouldn't earn itself many favors at all. But I do think they kind of need to reestablish just what the hell Sonic the Hedgehog is at this point.
If Sonic The Hedgehog 2006 counts as a soft reboot because there was an artstyle, tonal, shift many other entries would count as well. I don't like that the term "reboot" is thrown around so loosely when all Sonic games are in the same continuity and most of them share the same basic gameplay mechanics. Every new entry is a new "jumping on point" for the series because the status quo resets back to zero at the end of every title with very few significant ongoing story arcs. It's designed to be approachable in that way. There's not much more they can do to make it more approachable than they already are.
I don't think its accurate to say they share the same basic structure and continuity, otherwise there wouldn't be such contention about what exactly Sonic is to begin with. We all very clearly have different ideas on what exactly is Sonic the Hedgehog, and some of us focus more on some aspects more than others.
Indeed. We're just establishing why we feel the series needs a soft reboot. In my case, it's so they can better work the franchise towards a proper direction, and make the lore make sense again if possible.
There is very little ambiguity as to what actually happened in Sonic's timeline. There are a lot of arguments because people wish certain things didn't happen, but a personal preference isn't the same thing as an actual discrepancy on continuity.
I would say this was true until recently with this two worlds nonsense, because now there is a bit of an internal divide on the setting. Namely is it "Earth" or "Sonic's World" and what have you. I suppose the main thing to consider here is that if you were a fan who grew up with the somewhat continuity driven games of the early 2000's, and how they somewhat connected with the games prior, it's somewhat jarring to transition to the modern titles where continuity is very loose now, yet you're still meant to accept that everything still happened regardless of how different things are now. Shadow's entire personality shift being a good illustration of this. So I guess it comes down to how much you're willing to accept things as they are or call foul at them ignoring key character moments and motivations simply because its not convenient; which to be fair, I understand because Sonic is a series that's going to continue no matter what, and having a consistent continuity like that just isn't realistic. But it doesn't change the fact you're meant to see this world and characters as the same regardless of how drastically they've been changing over the years. It's why you get shit like fans trying to seriously claim that Dreamcast Sonic is an entirely different character from Modern Sonic; and there's precedence because Sega went and officialized Classic and Modern Sonic as different entities. So all of these weird ass decisions from Sega aren't really helping the contention.
Indeed. Even then, I grew up with the Mega Drive games, the cartoons, and Sonic the Comic especially. Everything saying Mobius is a different world to Earth, so you'd expect me to be on board with it. Nope. Honestly, I don't need continuity heavy. I just want a consistent background to look at, and decent momentum-based gameplay. Not Tiger Electronics gameplay. They'll need to distance themselves from the current state of things with a soft reboot to try and shake off the boost stigma.
You're kind of proving his point about how this is less about an actual problem with the games, and more about your own personal preferences and what YOU want specifically, and not necessarily what would actually benefit the series as a whole.
And the difference is? Not being snarky, genuinely, what's the difference? Everything is catered towards personal preferences, it just depends on the personal preferences of the masses. Not to mention, I'm almost certain the series would immensely benefit for returning toward momentum-based gameplay simply because it's how Sonic made his mark on the world. I mean, Sonic Utopia is a prime example: just running is fun in that game, angling yourself around the corners, etc. and launching yourself up a height to reach new locations. The series needs a soft reboot to step back, gauge what it's doing wrong and moving forward from there. You can say it's my personal preference, but considering how Sonic Forces did compared to the much better momentum-based, explorative platformer that is Sonic Mania, I feel my viewpoint is valid. The soft reboot will afford it space to let it grow away from the mediocrity of Sonic Forces and the bizarre direction the series has taken with its background. It's just a matter of if it'll be successful, or pull another Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
New Sonic games still throw past titles a bone quite frequently. Continuity is about as "tight" as it's always been(that is to say not very, but returning players will get a bone or two thrown their way). There's always going to be complaining when something changes. I'm not exactly sure what a reboot would do besides create more complaints exactly like this. Sonic Boom's characterization changes are constantly under scrutiny and that's an entirely new continuity that didn't have any obligation to honor past titles. Same with Archie and the film. What would happen when the supposed reboot takes liberties with established characters or the world again? Bad writing/characterization is fixed by doing better next time. The same thing is true with the mechanics. I think the only reason this reboot stuff comes up so often is because it's a flashy, abstract solution to problems where the real solutions are actually boring and technical.
