If Sega only cared about pandering to YOU, what kind of Sonic game would they make?

A 2D game without reused zones, just completely new levels all the way through.

 

A new Sonic Riders game based on the first one's trick and air system but make the air more generous. Also have more than 12 stages with 6 being dark versions of the other 6. Maybe more like 20.

 

A game that isn’t rushed. That’s all I want.

 

Sounds like they're trying that with Frontiers at least

 

Didn’t they delay Forces too, though? I might be wrong about that, but if that’s true, it doesn’t seem like delaying the games is helping. It sounds less like they’re delaying games and more like the game is going through dev hell.

 

Forces went through Dev hell, Mania was pushed back for quality control. IIRC most of Forces development was the Hedgehog Engine 2 and dicking around with concepts

 

- A Shadow the Hedgehog game developed by Platinum Games. Plays like DMC/Bayonetta and fixes the story of the original. Could implement the team mechanic from Heroes as some sort of weapons switching system.

- An RPG Sonic Storybook game. I think the storybook games has a lotta world-building potential and such.

 

I'm always big about having games with the most characters possible because of the replay value of playing the game over and over with different characters. Games like Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, X-Men Legends, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, The King of Fighters series, the Suikoden series, Pokemon main games. My favorite games are ones like these that try to include most characters from past games, if not all and then some. Mugen was like a dream come true when I first found it until I didn't like how unbalanced it was when you started mixing too many different people's characters together. Some were way too overpowered.

For Sonic I particularly like fangames that tried to do that. Sonic World and Sonic Nebulous had the idea right, but Sonic World is far superior in action to the ugly Nebulous. Sonic World is the first and only time I've seen Sonic X-Treme's Tiara as a playable character.

I originally preferred Sonic Time Twisted over Sonic Mania for having all-original zones. I finally appreciated Sonic Mania Plus more than the original Sonic Mania because of Mighty and Ray being added. For me that put them on a more level playing field. Sonic Time Twisted special stages are superior.

I also like remakes with add-ons.

Sonic 3 A.I.R. with Gamebanana character mods could eventually be a good answer to what I'm looking for. They have what I would call the first proper Fang/Nack hack for one of the Genesis games, replacing Knuckles.

More mods for the PC versions of the mobile versions of the other Genesis games could also be made.

Really most people's individual character hacks here deliver what I want but just imagining a version without limitations and as many characters as you want seems even better. Now that I have a decent PC I'm getting more interested in seeing the most someone can do over sticking with console hardware limitations. Although the console limitations do help the games stick to nostalgic attributes such as Genesis chip music. There's definitely room for and a desire for both. Thankfully this community does well at both.

RPG-wise Sonic Chronicles was something I hoped would be good but I didn't like how they ruined the game by requiring the touch screen to move around the map. If there was ever a sequel, please make it more 3D and use the control stick to move around. Not a touch screen! What it did have was a pretty good sized character roster when compared to other official Sonic games. I just couldn't stick to it for long.

I like sidescrolling Sonic more than complete 3D, but I found Sonic Adventure to be quite enjoyable as well. I even like 3D Blast a lot. I'm into variety as long as they control well.

 

I'd probably just want another Adventure-style game with added polish and perhaps a little more expansion with what we know now about 3D Sonic; though in general I wouldn't mind seeing the parkour system from Lost World come back, since I feel like it wasn't utilized or elaborated upon very well in Lost World to begin with.

If we were talking about 2D Sonic, just something that has more original and less revisiting, though that's not exactly an original statement.

If nothing else, the time put into Hedgehog Engine 2 at least seems to have made a pretty big upgrade from the first one from what I hear (though you can call me out if you see fit). Maybe Frontiers will better show off what it can do, provided they're using it again for this.

 

Personally, I'd want a new Mania, as I'm old, and hate everything past S3K

...Well, that's not strictly true, the Advance games were fine but blighted by progressively worse level design (so no nostalgia boner there), and the Rush games are... serviceable.

I used to like the Rush games quite a lot. I used to think they were the best Sonic had been in 2D in quite a while. Until I saw what the engine was like without boost - I.E. Sonic 4... Then I started to think I might've been tricked or something. Totally understand why Sonic Team used the boost mechanic going forward... The faster you run, the less you care.

I feel physically sick saying that.

 

I don't see what's so wrong about liking something that's just style over substance

 

Well there’s nothing wrong with preferring it, but I have played through Sonic 1-3 & Mania countless times and have fully played Sonic Advance 1-3 and Sonic Rush maybe two or three times. To me, the difference in quality between the classic series and the successive 2D games is undeniable, even if I do really like some of the art in Advance.

 

Sonic Advance and Rush are also much less readily avaliable without the use of emulators. While the Classics and Mania have been ported in every generation.

In any case, the later Advance titles and especially the Rush games weren't really trying to be like the Classics and for better or worse, they have their own identity because of it.

 

I get that, but I do own copies and use my DS pretty regularly and have a modded Wii U to play GBA games on the TV (which is actually how I 100%’d Sonic Advance 3 for the first time this summer - I never liked it when I was young but it somehow really grabbed me when going for the Chao).

Anyway, if we’re going to talk about what we’d like to see from Sega in a Sonic game, my pick wouldn’t necessarily be a “Sonic game” but an Alex Kidd one.

I’d love Sega to make a collectathon type game starring Alex Kidd where he could travel to different Sega game settings and gain movement/combat abilities relevant to each world’s setting - similar to how he operates in Alex Kidd in Shinobi World. The hub could be a fictionalised version of Joypolis (but bigger and with a Sega Harmony art inspired design) where you enter different arcade machines or installations showcasing home console games. You could call it Alex Kidd in Joypolis or something like that.

I guess the story could be like a reverse version of Epic Mickey where Alex Kidd is jealous of Sonic pushing him to the sidelines, and he attempts to defeat him by teaming up with Eggman - maybe Eggman finds a way to invade other games similar to Wreck It Ralph. Or other game protagonists could be feeling dejected since they’ve lost popularity and you need to help their games gain people’s attention again idk. I’d also like to see it be a quasi-spiritual successor to Segagaga in terms of tone and Sega fan service.

Anyway, the only thing I’d really like to see is a defeated Sonic sitting outside a bar smoking a cigarette in a recreation of this Sonic CD art
with the Bunny character prototype as the bartender, and the Sonic 1 ending band with Madonna performing Sweet Sweet Sweet on a stage. Sort of a “development hell” area that he’d get sent into by Alex Kidd. I never played Epic Mickey but I did read about it recently and I guess there’s similar to this too lol.

Anyway, I’d also enjoy a world that changes in the way Christmas NiGHTS does.

That’s the only game I’ve ever bothered to fantasize of lol. Even if it comes off as an Epic Mickey/Wreck it Ralph rip-off, I think there’s a way to do it well. I think Alex Kidd lends himself better to a more standard 3D platformer, and visiting 3D interpretations of Streets of Rage, Wonder Boy/Monster World, Space Harrier, Shinobi, etc., would have a lot of potential. And I think Sonic’s cocky/arrogant personality would make him hated by someone who’s a down-on-his-luck-loser like Alex.

 

I have a question, if your fantasy game has a special stage, what do those special stages look like? Are they 2d, 3d, do they integrate in the main game, are they just actual 3d versions of the Sonic Advance stages providing better depth perception? I'm curious.

 

While the Metroid-like idea of mine wouldn't use Special Stages, I do have an idea for a more traditional Sonic game that would.

But first a quick aside. While the core gameplay of the Genesis games didn't necessarily capture the feeling of being "Sonic, a guy who can run really fast", I feel like the Special Stages were in part an attempt to do just that, beginning with Sonic 2. The Halfpipe, followed by the UFO chasing in CD, Blue Sphere in 3K, and finally the new UFO chasing game in Mania, all feature "behind the back autorunning" gameplay. Mechanically very much 'racing/driving' games (with some platforming and/or puzzle elements weaved in). To me, the Boost gameplay of Unleashed and Generations is more-or-less that concept, but with modern production values. Put another way, the core gameplay of the Genesis titles seems to have been built with gameplay in mind first; the Special Stages and the Boost stages seem to have been built with the character in mind first.

So if I had to make a more traditional Sonic game with core gameplay like 3K, Mania, etc., for Special Stages I'd just have Boost stages (without any of the sidescrolling sections). Funnily, that's effectively the same selection of gameplay styles that Generations had to offer, only structured and related to one another differently. If leaks are to be believed, then Frontiers might be taking that very approach, with "cyberspace" levels being Boost stages that reward Chaos Emeralds.

 

Anything other than a 3D-esqe half-pipe.

 

I never knew I wanted a Platinum Shadow game until now and now I want it. But it doesn't need to be the same story.