Okay, randomly had another one of my stupid thoughts while I was on the clock today, and I had to wait all shift to get off and come here to yak about it lmao. I know I don't have the best track record on here, but I figured I'd share it anyway and see what you all think. I'm sure you read the title (I really hope so lol)- I was thinking about the concept of tiny budget Sonic games, and no, I don't mean Sonic 4 (though I'll mention it later for sure)- I'm thinking of games like Blue Sphere, Sonic Labyrinth, and Sonic Pinball Party. :D Allow me to elaborate... In the event Sega's newest Sonic products rejuvenate things a bit, I'm hopeful we could start seeing Sonic games at a slightly more frequent rate. Certainly not the old "3 huge titles per year" thing we had before, since that was a huge detriment to things, but at least 1 or 2 games period each year. I was thinking about how they could do this, and suddenly I started thinking of games like they used to do back in the day, like Blue Sphere or Tails Skypatrol- these one off, almost minigame-esque games that would release alongside the bigger ones to keep the schedule padded out with new stuff. So basically I was just imagining a world where once or twice a year, we'd get a little budget Sonic title that's significantly more... short and sweet than the major releases, but is nonetheless a good time and is very affordable- like anywhere from $5-10 for each one, kinda like the 3DS and Switch releases of Sonic 1 and 2. This would also be a good way for Sega to try new ideas without infringing on the core Sonic experience in the big titles, and maybe even allow old ideas to be revisited. Imagine a Sonic Labyrinth 2 where you can actually run and it's good lmao, and there's like, 100 mini stages to solve with all sorts of fun Sonic series gimmicks, a la Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. Oh, and throw in a procedurally generated "endless mode" like blue sphere did for good measure. I'd buy that lmao. But yeah, that was basically it. What do you guys think? Am I foaming at the mouth again lol? I'm not 100% serious about this btw, it was just a fun idea I came up with a work to keep me occupied. But who knows? Maybe in this imaginary universe we finally get that dedicated chao garden game we've always wanted. P.S. No mobile exclusivity. Forgot to mention that. These aren't meant to be mobile games, I imagine they'd release on all platforms. So, what can you guys come up with? What bite size sonic game would you like to see but solemnly understand will never exist?
Very interested in this idea. I think this “bite-size” approach could lend to a great deal of creative freedom for Sonic Team—something which, as we all know, is desperately lacking—since they wouldn’t have the pressure of this game being the next big thing. They might even have one of those—gasp!—good ideas! Edit: Would love to see built from the ground up PC ports of Knuckles’ Chaotix, Tails Sky Patrol, & Tails Adventure. The hacking scene would lose it—or, at least, I would.
My thought then was that they'd pull a reverse captain toad, and instead of have a gimmick in a big game be spun off into its own thing, they take the successful bite size game and integrate some mechanics into the next mainline title
I miss the cute little spinoffs. Labyrinth gets a lot of hate (probably by its concept alone) but I don't think it's that bad. I have a soft spot for it and it's a game I can't really get mad at when it's fairly short and fairly easy for someone as patient as I am.
I know you said "not mobile exclusive", but Blue Sphere for phones is absolutely an untapped (har har) market.
These would 100% be have to be done by third parties. Sonic Team has shown they can't handle the rate we were getting titles in the 00s.
Well these can all go on mobile devices too. I think a better way to say it would be if games like Sonic Dash were also available on consoles as well
Hell yeah, sign me up for The Continuing Adventures of Tails Putting The Battle Chickens In Their Place.
I'd settle for Knuckles Treasure Hunt. A game which is a spin-of, based on SA and SA2 treasure hunting. Simple but sweet plot what and why are you searching for, and 10 - 20 levels, can be new, some inspired by older titles. Don't know if that counts as byte sized, but SA2 is like 20 years old, so creating a new game based on preexisting idea shouldn't be too hard to make.
I definitely prefer if Sonic Team makes 1 or 2 well-realized games per year instead of 3 rushed and broken games per year. If they could keep the momentum throughout the year with these shorter releases that would be sweet, but there's this to consider: Would these games be co-developed with another company such as Dimps, or completely handed over to another company such as BioWare? On a sidenote, GameFreak could really benefit from this approach as well. By having more time and resources to apply in major releases, they could potentially avoid another Sword & Shield type fiasco.
Honestly, this fits in line with an idea I had that I may or may not have mentioned on the forums before. I figured the Chao Garden on its own wouldn't make for a compelling enough game cycle since it was designed to work alongside a bigger game. Searching for Chao parts lends itself better to the treasure hunting stages than anything else so I figure it'd be an ideal pairing. Basically, I'd set it in that far away forest that monsters players send their unwanted chao. The forest would be inhabited by Chaos who looks after the chao and who you'd play as for the game. Could also dive into some of the lore surrounding the echidnas and the chaos emeralds a bit more as you explore the stages searching for chao parts and/or items integral to the plot.
What I'd do for a potential mobile chao-garden is have it tie into the main-lines. You can earn rings/chao stuff in any new games moving forward and can connect up to the mobile app to transfer said stuff. At least, that's what I'd do. You can even keep it consistent between multiple games, or let different games provide different types of eggs etc.
A Chaos Companion app, is what comes to mind after reading both your posts. Something like the one in Assassin's Creed IV. Make it compatible with 2-3 mainline games, add some micro-transactions (we all know this is inevitable) and boom. Print money. It's basically a continuation of Chao Adventure/ Tiny Chao Garden. Why Sega can't realise that? It's not like people don't know what Chao are, Chao in Space anyone?
I can guarantee that the short has been shown at two fairly large film festivals in the past year (one by my doing, not to brag or anything ) and it's had a lot of views online, but I guess they're concerned about widespread recognizability and appeal which is a fair question to ask. If they had a boost akin to an appearance in the next film, maybe they'd consider it. At any rate, I'd also argue that a chao garden works much better in 3D than 2D. I'd hate to rag on Chao Island Adventure since it's a pretty polished attempt at a fangame trying to fill the gap, but it had 2 major flaws: Many people day that while they did enjoy what was there, they didn't find the gameplay cycle all that fun with the racing minigames. All that left was the chao raising that can't sustain itself on its own if you're directly copying how it was in SA2. This is something more personal, but you need more than a top down view of a square garden. The update that added furniture offsets this a little, but raising chao was more interesting if you were doing it in a 3D space where chao could wander all over the place. I'd say it makes a garden feel more lived in that way, if it makes sense. Overcoming these two problems is Paramount if Sega's going to make a good Chao Garden game or app. If all we wind up with is something akin to the tiny chao garden or Chao Island Resort, it's not going to make them much money. Additionally, creating 3D spaces and retooling gardens so that they either connect with another game mode (be it what I suggested or tying it into nee games like you're suggesting) could be quite an undertaking in itself which Sega might not feel confident in pulling off or worth it financially.
I guess a dedicated app with some of the game connection possibilities would be more financially viable. Like Pokémon GO could connect to Pokémon Lets Go, but it's still it's own thing
They could make it kind of like Pokemon Go where you have to walk a certain amount to hatch eggs or find animals/chaos drives etc.
D Different places on the map could mark different Gardens, and different animals to find. I think we might need another topic for the hypothetical Chao app.
I mostly agree with this but the other reason 3D works better for that kind of thing is that Chao dynamically morph between evolutions instead of just changing in one fell swoop. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the real reason they were created was to flex the Dreamcast's ability to dynamically morph models (which explains why they suddenly disappeared in the post-dreamcast games--once that was no longer a selling point, Sonic Team felt they were redundant; after all, the people who REALLY like Chao like me came in with SA2B after the Dreamcast was already dead, and we were just kids, so ST didn't hear us until years after they had already dropped them).
