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We all remember the infamous Sonic's Friends Scapegoat, blaming the extended cast of the series for the inherent problems Sega has been having in developing fun games. Sega obviously does, seeing as how every major release (besides Boom, but that's a can of worms in it of itself.) has delegated the supporting cast to NPCs at best. They obviously took the complaints to heart, but was that really the best course to take?
In contrast, Mario went through an almost inverse scenario. While Sonic's playable cast swelled and grew, Mario games dropped off Luigi and the others into the spinoffs and supporting roles, leaving him as the sole platforming hero for years. Sonic fans complained that there were too many characters, Mario fans bemoaned that there weren't enough. So, slowly, Nintendo started adding other people you could use. Starting with letting Luigi take center stage again, they gradually added Toad and then the Princesses to the roster, with their own, unique abilities as well, to the joy of fans.
What can we take from this? Well, first, Nintendo made sure they had a formula that worked before they started shaking it up with the alternate characters. Second, they made sure that the alternate characters weren't too radical of a departure from the main gameplay, being mere skins over Mario before giving them subtle traits to make them stand out. Then, they experimented with more unique characters, like Captain Toad, in mini-stages that weren't a requirement to complete the game. (Would people hate Big so much if his fishing wasn't absolutely required to finish the main story of Sonic Adventure? If he was optional along the lines of the Chao Garden?)
Sonic's heyday did much the same thing, introducing Tails as a skin for Sonic to test the water in 2, before giving him unique abilities and throwing in Knuckles for good measure in 3&K. The Advance Trilogy kept up the trend, adding Amy and her radical departure from the boys' gameplay, being slower and more combat based, but still built off the same engine. The best received games with alternate characters have been the ones where they're all built off the same template, adding in their unique abilities for differentiation.
As has been discussed elsewhere, Sonic's current problem is that Sega can't stick with a single gameplay style and refine it long enough to make something worthwhile, re-inventing the wheel every game. If you had a say in adding more characters to future Sonic games, How would you approach it, and how would you implement the characters? Which characters would you implement?
In contrast, Mario went through an almost inverse scenario. While Sonic's playable cast swelled and grew, Mario games dropped off Luigi and the others into the spinoffs and supporting roles, leaving him as the sole platforming hero for years. Sonic fans complained that there were too many characters, Mario fans bemoaned that there weren't enough. So, slowly, Nintendo started adding other people you could use. Starting with letting Luigi take center stage again, they gradually added Toad and then the Princesses to the roster, with their own, unique abilities as well, to the joy of fans.
What can we take from this? Well, first, Nintendo made sure they had a formula that worked before they started shaking it up with the alternate characters. Second, they made sure that the alternate characters weren't too radical of a departure from the main gameplay, being mere skins over Mario before giving them subtle traits to make them stand out. Then, they experimented with more unique characters, like Captain Toad, in mini-stages that weren't a requirement to complete the game. (Would people hate Big so much if his fishing wasn't absolutely required to finish the main story of Sonic Adventure? If he was optional along the lines of the Chao Garden?)
Sonic's heyday did much the same thing, introducing Tails as a skin for Sonic to test the water in 2, before giving him unique abilities and throwing in Knuckles for good measure in 3&K. The Advance Trilogy kept up the trend, adding Amy and her radical departure from the boys' gameplay, being slower and more combat based, but still built off the same engine. The best received games with alternate characters have been the ones where they're all built off the same template, adding in their unique abilities for differentiation.
As has been discussed elsewhere, Sonic's current problem is that Sega can't stick with a single gameplay style and refine it long enough to make something worthwhile, re-inventing the wheel every game. If you had a say in adding more characters to future Sonic games, How would you approach it, and how would you implement the characters? Which characters would you implement?
