The Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Megathread

I certainly wouldn't miss him if he was given the boot, but it's also wrong to wish unemployment on someone. Without a job a person can't eat or live. Regardless, he sounds like a real stubborn jack ass that brings nothing but counter productivity to the development process. After his past fuck ups and stance on Sonic 4, I really hope he's disbanded from Sonic Team and all Sonic projects. He really should not be working on Sonic games, they're just keeping him around because he's a member of the old Sonic Team or some other bullshit reason.

As much as I hate Iizuka, Colors will probably be the most positive contribution he's given to the series.

On that note about developers, we also need a new "Yasuhara." Someone who understands Sonic level design and can make it work without the feeling of having the levels play themselves out for you without using a overly generous amount of speed boosters and other trivial things.

 

Just saying... the physics there were terrible. A different kind of terrible to S4 and Rush, but yeah. The games are very good, especially free play in the second one. Iizuka just seems to have a hard time understanding the fanbase, especially when it comes to what we think makes a good game. let's not forget that he wasn't heavily involved in the Werehog in Unleashed. IIRC, some others on the team didn't want it in the game but the director (Hashimoto) insisted.

 

Not to go too far off topic here, but what was so terrible about it? I mean, sure, you couldn't charge your spindash like normal, but for the most part I felt pretty much at home, it was like Sonic 3 2 player mode 3D.

 

If you consider Shadow the Hedgehog to be "everything since Sonic Heroes", you'd be right.

However, Sonic '06 was headed by Shun Nakamura, and Sonic Unleashed by Yoshihisa Hashimoto. Iizuka, if I remember correctly, had been quietly sidelined when ShTH and that awful Nights sequel tanked. But when Hashimoto was hired away by SquareEnix, they had to get someone to handle Sonic, and now Iizuka's back in the picture.

Let's not blame Iizuka for things he didn't do.

 

Just try walking slowly on walls, the paths where you're actually walking along walls, not up them. My point is that Iizuka is not the one to blame for everything bad. Just S4 and a few others. S4 seems to have had simply awful directing on his part.

 

I tend to forget about ShadowTH for obvious reasons, but thank you for reminding me about another glorious fuck up by him.

Someone's been doing their research. My mistake then, I feel silly now. I will not however take back my statement on his counter productive nature.

 

If you look through interviews with Iizuka you will find that he will bullshit if asked about his questionable design choices.
Take this <a href="http://info.sonicretro.org/Takashi_Iizuka_interview_by_EGM_(February_3,_2004)" target="_blank">Interview</a>. Alternative routes in Heroes? The last bit is just not funny.

 

Alright fair enough, I'm blaming Iizuka for things he didn't do. However, he still is emblematic of what's wrong with SOJ. He still is responsible for castrating Sonic Lightning (a promising 2.5D Sonic game developed by a third party) and messing up Sonic 4 (a promising 2.5D Sonic game developed by a third party). See a pattern here>

 

A vague pattern intentionally obtuse to draw comparisons where there aren't very many, yes.

 

why are you walking in Sonic Rivals?

I think every stage in Sonic Heroes has at least 1 alternate route somewhere in the level, but not more than 3 alt. routes. It's rather huge and rather linear, but I still had fun. It's "linearness" didn't bother me.

 

Because it's relevant when we're talking about what Iizuka has had a negative impact on. Sonic 4 is suffering from bad directing, much like the Rivals games. The series has had some pretty bad directing otherwise though, 06 (general gameplay, not the products quality) and Unleashed being prime example.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q57yE8rIuWU

Who thinks that sonic 4 is better than this?

@Read Ruby's old post about how they need to serve both audiences or else their stuck in a loop:

Why not give the majority of people what they want? If there's a majority of retro people, give them a retro game. A majority of modern people, give them a shitty modern game. In fact, make a poll.

 

I dunno, that hack got the physics spot on. :p

I'm still not understanding why you are walking in Sonic Rivals. It's like driving the speed limit in a racing game.

 

OH GOD MY POOR EYES

That's just ugly... I'm glad Sonic 4 is not this.

 

I think Naka quit to show the fans who were mad at him just how much worse it could get. He succeeded masterfully in trolling everyone. That and SEGA stopped letting him be a code monkey.

As for 'who would you have replace him', I would offer Yasuhara 1/4th more than his annual salary at Namco now to lead the franchise again.

 

Hideki Kamiya.

He seems to want to do everything.

And here's a plus he works for Platinum Games, which SEGA publishes their titles.

 

A poll wouldn't prove your point because we are heavily retro oriented.

But really Ruby, can you tell me with a straight face that you don't think that a game with the same controls and physics as the Genesis titles would have mass appeal? That's the whole reason that Sonic is a house hold name in the first place!

Here's a couple of anecdotal examples that I remember from recent events in my life.

My best friend isn't a Sonic fan per se, but Sonic Spinball was one of his favorite games as a kid. He knows that I come here and so on, and one day a couple weeks ago he asked me what was going on in the world of Sonic games these days. I showed him Unleashed on my 360 and he kind shrugged, thought for a minute, and said "man why can't they just make a simple game where you zip around a roll into a ball and all that like back in the day? You know, Sonic. He placed the emphasis on the word "sonic" as if what I was currently showing him was something else entirely.

Another example is when I was riding the bus this morning. I've heard a lot of people say that my generation is the Genesis generation and we're jaded, and yet I overheard some young teens on the bus talking about their favorite games. Paraphrased: "Man you know what's really great is old school Genesis" "Yeah man, I love playing with my brother's Genesis, Sonic was the shit!" and so on.

The reason I bring all this up is, I feel like those of us who want that old gameplay to be present in Sonic 4 are being talked about like we're some kind of fundamentalist religious sect. We don't want this because we're irrational, we want it because it's FUN, and millions of people agree, which is why they keep buying your endless Sonic 1 ports! Yes the DIMPS brand of Sonic may be fun, but if you're going to call this damn game "Sonic 4" why make it name alone? What is the point of all this?

 

Right, let's listen to what they said:

This is a pretty stupid point, because you ALSO need to control it to get across in sonic 2 and later games, you can't just touch nothing to get past the twisted walkways.

So he hates the homing attack because he doesn't know how to use it and kept getting hurt.

And I don't see why when ONE negative preview comes along, it's the only thing we focus on. Well, I see why, I just think it's stupid. So there was one website who said it doesn't feel right, why should this impact our (already mostly negative) opinions? The game will do well with the press, as has every 2D sonic game that's ever come out.