The Supreme Topic of 'Other' Knowledge.

You don't have to explain to me why NFTs are bad. What I reject is the reaction to this as "a new low" or the histrionics of making it about how Sonic's an environmentalist message or whatever such nonsense. Sega's been a global megacorp for decades, they're a videogame company, they've been responsible for the destruction of the environment for ages and ages. Just like Nintendo, Sony, etc.

EDIT: More accurately, the treatment of this as a specific remarkable instance over-focuses on it and disguises the fact that no, Sega was never environmentally friendly, even despite the trees planted in Europe.

 

It is a new low though. As I explained, at least the damage done by plastic manufacturing for game cartridges actually produces something at the end. NFTs don’t and cause far more damage per “item”.

 

There's looking at silver linings and there's denial outright. Going "well they polluted immensely but at least I got to have fun with a game" is just utterly bizarre to me, especially when other methods could've existed (reusable cartridges for instance) to minimise damage but that wouldn't have been as profitable.

This is nothing new, it's not a new low because being a megacorp, Sega's always been low.

 

That’s...not what I’m arguing. My point is to highlight that NFTs are a new low. Yes, cartridge production is dreadful, it’s one of many factors contributing to ecological destruction, but its born out of a necessity to protect game chips with a material that is light, relatively durable and easy/inexpensive to produce. Of course there are better paths to take now and publishers should be cutting out as much plastic as is physically possible, but at that time there was a logistical necessity for them to exist, from the perspective of devs/publishers. By no means worthy of all the damage they’ve contributed, but a genuine reason for them to have existed nevertheless.

Crypto doesn’t have a reason. It’s abstract. It’s worth is rigged to keep increasing by enticing more people to hop on the bandwagon in a manner that’s baked into the very concept. The only impetus for all this energy to be used is not to provide the consumer with a logistically convenient product - its for the rich at the top of the pyramid (scheme) to get richer, all at the cost of the environment.

 

You make a good point but I think you're also forgetting that up until very recently, Sonic WAS Batman

 

Not news per say - but I've been collating all of the magazine reviews on the Sega Retro site, and all of the individual Metacritic reviews of almost all of the Sonic the Hedgehog games and compiling them together to produce the following 'scoresheet' for the franchise, and I thought some people here might find interesting the data.

Important note - these are only reviews on or within 6 months of a games release I could hunt down - I have not included any retrospective reviews revisiting a title over a year later - it's a contemporary 'what the critics thought' of the games when they came out. So - with over 2500 individual reviews represented by white dots - the full 'how the critics feel about Sonic games at the time' list is below - and there's a few surprisingly strong ones that I forget were better recieved at the time than history has judged (Sonic Chroicles being the most surprising for me personally). I like the idea of seeing the range of reviews rather than just falling for one number - as metacritic tries to do - even Sonic 06 got some reviews over 80%, even if the majority were below 50% (the red lines show the standard deviation i.e. where the majority of reviews fall for each title - so the average would be in the middle of the red line). Also - these are 'critic' reviews only - not fan reviews, so this is a view of the industry insiders not the Sonic fanbase which I know would be widely different





I've been looking at the data and my full thoughts are here if you want a full breakdown:


Given the dearth of contemporary reviews on release this may be biased but it shows THE most reviled game in the core franchise is none other than Sonic Blast. Sonic 06 and Sonic Boom and ALL other titles had reviewers defending it but this game was either completely ignored or slated on release:




But - what I do note is that as far as games go 2014 is Sonic's annus horribilus as far as console and handheld games are confirmed (although I have left out Sonic Dash - that may have redeemed it slightly). The Sonic Boom debacle is entirely to blame. This is - only if you consider a bad game worse than no game at all:


Also - on average - as long as we have more than 5 reviews from each, the magazines and metacritic are not 'far' apart from each other. I was wondering if the magazines would be more 'forgiving' of games than the online websites but - in most cases - they are pretty consistent with each other.

 

I've also been puzzled by Sonic Blast - I can't tell if the lack of coverage is due to it being a 1996 Game Gear game, because we've not spent much time with magazines from that period, or if it was released in such small numbers that nobody noticed its existence.

Probably a combination of all three, but you'd think a Sonic game would make some headlines even if it was crap.

 

I wrote the Wikipedia page for Blast some time ago, and there wasn't much coverage of it. The Game Gear was on its last legs at the time, EGM had stopped covering handhelds a year before the game came out, and it was overshadowed by the similarly-titled 3D Blast (most gaming mags at the time used the name "Sonic Blast" to refer to 3D Blast). I remember the only thing I found being a blurb in GamePro #88 mentioning the game came out in November 1996.

The game mostly just flew under the radar, which is probably for the best considering it wasn't that good.

 

As as kid, I happened to get Sonic Blast, as well as Sonic 3D Blast, on release. The quirky unique style of 3D Blast still appeals to me, whereas Sonic Blast is remembered solely for its bizzare graphics that were so far removed from every other Game Gear game I own. I revisit it pretty infrequently yet always come to the same conclusion: the game is a dreadful slog.

Aside from the GamePro mention, I'm pretty sure EGM had a blurb about it around the same time. I seem to recall that one of the magazines spoke positively about the graphics... but not much else.

Edit: Welp... the Nov '96 issue of EGM does not have anything on Blast, but it does have a review and feature on 3D Blast, as well as Sonic Championship. Xtreme had a little blurb in the Oct issue too fwiw.

 

The biggest thing Sonic Blast has going for it is that it was being sold as if it were the GG port of 3D Blast. Obviously, it isn't, and I will say without hesitation that the only way in which it might be better than Sonic 2006 is that it ends much sooner.

 

Not only I never bought Sonic Blast back in the day, I never attempted to beat it with emulation nowadays. Maybe I should give it a try, but that art is so ugly.

 

Even worse than Sonic Blast on the Game Gear, is Sonic Blast on the Master System, released by Tec Toy a while later... Unlike the previous 8-bit titles, this one really wasn't coded with the Master System resolution in mind, meaning that there are many places where you can see glitches that would otherwise be hidden on the Game Gear, such as palette or pattern changes. Also, the reduced palette of the Master System made the graphics even worse. I didn't care about any of this back in the day, though... I was very excited to play as Knuckles in an 8-bit game for the first time, and had lots of fun with it.

 

Translations of the zone descriptions in Sonic CD’s manual I’ve been working on for a few days. I wanted to make it a mission of sorts to translate all zone descriptions in all classic-era JP manuals, I've already done Sonic's 1 and 2.

PALMTREE PANIC
“A subtropical round suited to the samba rhythm. Run through green grasslands, palm trees and clear blue skies! A loop you’ve never seen before awaits Sonic!”

COLLISION CHAOS
“A bunch of pinballs floating atop the water. A giant revolving drum rotates overhead. Utilize the Bobbins and flippers to your advantage, something happens to Amy who had been pursuing Sonic...”

TIDAL TEMPEST
“A wondrous underwater ambience. If you advance without catching your breath from bubbles, you’ll be gasping. Go and watch out for the flow of unseen water currents.”

QUARTZ QUADRANT
“The interior of a crystal mining site. Run through by making full use of the conveyer belt to change the direction of travel. Watch out for falling boulders, push on through the fast spiral tube!”

WACKY WORKBENCH
“The flashing floor will cause Sonic to jump high into the air. Proceed with caution so as to not be hit by electric shocks, jump to the platforms in the air.”

STARDUST SPEEDWAY
“A jetcoaster ride against a starry sky backdrop. An unprecedented battle with Metal Sonic is about to take place, the strongest rival of all”

METALLIC MADNESS
“Eggman has concentrated all of his intellect into one big mechanism that awaits Sonic. Will Sonic really be able to cut his way through...?”

 

Looks like we’re gonna have to wait for a little while for game news apparently

 

Oof... Hopefully, the wait, this time, may be worth it.
Despite part of me screaming to not raise expectations.

 

I hope they at least give us a teaser this year at the very least.

Anyway, Sonic 3 JP manual zone descriptions. Had these on my Tumblr blog for a while.

ANGEL ISLAND ZONE

“A zone of abundant greenery, like a tropical paradise.”

HYDROCITY ZONE

“A zone of underground waterways with intricate routes.”

MARBLE GARDEN ZONE

“A zone with the remains of a civilization of legend”

CARNIVAL NIGHT ZONE

“An amusement park-like zone that shines under the night sky”

ICECAP ZONE

“A zone of ice that runs through caves and ice fields.”

LAUNCH BASE ZONE

“A huge base zone created for the reconstruction of the Death Egg.”

 

I'm fine with that, honestly. But yeah, a teaser would be cool too.

 

As this point, I would literally take "Yes, a Sonic game is correctly in production" on Twitter.

 

Seriously the fuck is this. Some 30th celebration