Good or bad, there just isn't much of an impression, though. You can't really get anything out of a game teaser that has 0 game in it, especially if it just looks like more of the same.
But then why mention the game at all? With Mania coming sooner, and nothing to show us yet of 2017, I don't see why they bothered revealing it.
Guess just to show that Sonic Team's working on a thing, and to avoid any confusion that they're working on Mania. It's not unheard of to get teased about a game a year before it releases.
Imagine the opposite scenario where we got no teaser: "So Sonic Team is working on Mania, right?" "No, it's these other developers. Sonic Team is working on something else for next year." "Why didn't you show us that?" "We're focusing on Mania right now, and it's not quite ready to show yet." "Not ready yet?! Sonic Team is rushing out another sequel!" "Wait no crap that's not what I said!"
Yeah, after all of that buildup and the expectation for a new 3D Sonic to be announced, they had to at least say SOMETHING, or people not placated by Sonic Mania alone would've thrown a fit. :v:
Of course they had to say something. But the trailer isn't magically made good marketing the virtue of not being nothing. No one could argue that a small snippet of gameplay or even an actual TITLE wouldn't have benefitted the presentation. Instead they released something that was entirely geared to fuel speculation of a game in a series notoriously hit and miss as well as presenting it with a tone that conjures images of a less than stellar time in the franchise's history. What part of that wasn't going to cause panic in the fanbase? I'll just leave it at this: the fearmongering amongst fans and the dismissal by everyone else could have been avoided by better execution of the reveal. Fans shouldn't be going crazy, but at the same time, Sonic Team failed to present the game in a way that will do any good in the pre-release marketing period.
If I've been unclear, I agree with pretty much all of the points you've been making. I was only saying that I don't think an absence of information would have fared any better. Personally, I was rather disappointed that all we got after that entire debacle was an uninformative CG trailer with the sole revelation being an unnecessary and misguided second lap of Classic Sonic. I wanna feel more optimistic, but I was hoping to move away from split gameplay styles and get something more 3D-focused, and what little we've heard doesn't give me much hope on that front. ...so yeah. Something a bit clearer from SEGA would be nice, just so we could adjust our expectations accordingly.
Let's have a recap of teasers, shall we? -- Shadow the Hedgehog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyf6qGUj7Wc It's a two-minute CG movie with only a soundtrack of Crush 40, no sound effects or anything. Surprisingly, this showed zero gameplay. Sonic Wildfire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDpeCPuqxRE Less than a minute of a DJ talking about a new world and Sonic playing catch with a Wii mote. No gameplay, and it's early on enough for a working title. Sonic Unleashed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSw4lCjJBe8 Pretty much the same as Wildfire, except this name stuck. Sonic and the Black Knight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X15hxbAoaFc This is the standout of the examples, because it actually shows a minute of game AND movie. Easily the most representative so far. Project Needlemouse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHY1PkEfd-Q Very similar to the next teaser for Sonic 4 that showed about 2 seconds of game, but for now, zero. Just 15+ years' worth of hopes and dreams. Sonic Generations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZOGJo-rup0 Exactly the same as what we're seeing now with Project Sonic 2017, but much more colorful and hopeful! Sonic Lost World: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzpTizqflEI Now this one showed off plenty of game, unlike most of the *teaser* trailers we've seen for far. A lot more like what we saw with Sonic Mania. -- Well I hope you had fun with that, because I sure did. Whew. Brings back memories. So did we learn anything from these? It's hard to tell without a definitive date of when these trailers came out relative to their respective games' release, but maybe some of you remember how long the wait was between watching the trailer and playing the game, which might help to kill some time predict when we'll see more footage.
Because as has already been mentioned, it was merely to stop a section of the base whining that Mania was all that was coming and there was no new 3D game and WHY ARE YOU DOING SO MUCH 2D SEGA WHERE IS MY PRECIOUS 3D TITLE UUUGH tl;dr it's less hassle to put out a very short teaser of a CGI cutscene for a game not coming out for over a year than it is to constantly field questions about "WHY AREN'T YOU MAKING A NEW 3D SONIC GAME SEGA" over and over for the next 6 months.
Except this was the very first video we got of the game and it had gameplay : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT5kyCEy33k
Hey, you're right. I remember that trailer. I guess we have to take into account "announcement trailers" as well as teasers or reveal/debut trailers.
The first trailer for Unleashed had gameplay as well. After that we got some leaked screens of an early version of the opening cinematic, a leaked promo image of Sonic standing next to a silhouette of the Werehog, and then we got the teaser where he whistled the World Adventure theme. And then we got a series of shaky cam vids of the Werehog swinging around a city.
I remembered the older trailers using the ringloss sound whenever Sonic collected a ring instead of the right one up until later trailers. How that slipped through remains a mystery. :v The World Adventure theme teaser was the first one, and some people including me thought it was the Angel Island theme, leading people to believe it a teaser for a Sonic 3 2.5D remake
To be fair, fans only wanted to see something because Sega started teasing the game as early as October 2015. (And at the start of 2016, they went all out with the teasing on social media). If Sega hadn't done so much teasing, then I don't think it would have been such a big deal if they just said "Sorry guys, we're delaying the anniversary game until 2017 to ensure it is good".
Gotta love how that trailer called back to the rockin' Sonic Adventure intro. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7al41LVYog Spoiler I-It really was Sonic Adventure 3 ;_;
Yeah, every time I think of that a part of me wishes 06 was a better game. Sonic Team could remake it, or just outright make an Adventure 3 in name.
I feel like this tangent deserves another topic, but Sonic Adventure 3 would really need to shake things up in terms of how it's built. Like, I wouldn't really be thrilled with playing as (Robo-)Tails, Rouge, Shadow + - he really should've stayed dead , Knuckles, or Amy unless they were gracefully folded into a solid Sonic-only campaign, and mostly played like Sonic anyways.
If we were to get another game with Adventure mechanics, I'd like for the Sonic Heroes formula given another shot. It could implement elements from Lost World 3DS (for both Sonic and Knuckles) and Tails' stages from Adventure 1. The other characters can be alternate skins with slight alterations to their counterparts' attributes, like with Sonic and Blaze or Tails and Cream. I'd never want to return to wildly differing play styles and, truth be told, I find the Sonic and Shadow sections of the Adventure games to be incredibly lacking these days.