Weirdly I do get what you mean there, but there's still something about Sonic 2 I prefer. Maybe it's that whole briskness that draws me into it, it's a fast paced game so the playthrough is fast paced. I do think Sonic 2 at least had a better more fleshed out direction for multiplayer at least, even if they didn't get to fully realise it as much as they intended. Speedrunning levels of the main campaign together is more satisfying than the small minigame tracks S3K had (though in fairness it would have been even harder to put S2's format into S3K).
I got one. No, Sonic fans cannot "do better" than Sega at handling Sonic. Sonic fans only know how to pander to other Sonic fans, hence most fan games are created not with a general audience in mind, but who the creators are specifically catering to; whether its classic or modern fans. As many problems as I have with the series nowadays, it would probably be absolutely worse if fans were running it, because Sonic fans can barely articulate what they actually want from this series being vague nostalgic memories.
I really like seeing Sonic in more realistic environments. As long as they're vibrantly coloured and have some element of fantasy to them, Sonic goes brilliantly with realism. Unleashed managed to look natural even in some of the most realistic areas (such as the Spagonia hub) because of how saturated the colours were. Also quite important to the whole aesthetic was a distinct lack of grit and dirt in the finer details, which meant that everything ended up just being bright and soft-looking. And whilst I might think that the Pixar-esque humans weren't the best approach, I don't dislike them either. I like seeing human characters in Sonic games in general. Characters like Maria, the President and the mysteries purple-haired woman from Tails Tube look great. '06 generally has more fine details in its textures than Unleashed, but even it matched the Sonic aesthetic most of the time. The Sonic characters were all slightly redesigned in 06, with more details on their textures and different proportions. Against the backdrops of locations like Kingdom Valley, Soleanna's Cities, Flame Core and several other environments, the aesthetic of 06 generally gets a thumbs-up from me. Ideal? Well, no, it's not perfect. SA1, Unleashed, Generations and Colours better fit that bill. But 06 still works. Kingdom Valley is a gorgeous Sonic level and nothing about it feels 'wrong' to me. It's just a realistic castle ruin, nicely adorned by some fantasy elements like glowing orbs, wind paths, rope swings and the final waterfall section. Environmentally, 06 only really dropped the ball in the Soleanna Forest and arguably Crisis City. Maybe the outside portions of Dusty Desert? That's pushing it though. It also has very bland sci-fi robots and dreadful humans that looked like they came from a realism mod of The Sims. Frontiers, unfortunately, falls squarely into the Soleanna Forest category based on everything that we've (officially) seen so far. The colours are muted, there's tons of fine details whilst the the environment is lacking big details, Sonic doesn't match the background... It could look absolutely fine, but it doesn't. Even Black Knight's Titanic Plain is more visually creative than Frontiers appears to be at the moment. Basically, realism and Sonic can and does work. Some of the most aesthetically pressing Sonic games have used realism in various ways. It just needs to be done correctly. Going from Green Hill to Rooftop Run in Generations is seamless. Then you've also got total fantasy levels like Seaside Hill that really push the boundaries with regards to realistic detailing and the end result is nothing short of beautiful.
1. Sonic 2 is the worst of the main Mega Drive games. The levels are very much by-numbers with little going on in them, Sky Chase is a boring unskippable cutscene, and halfpipe special stages have never been interesting. 2. The only game that has done a Sky Chase-style level well is Sonic 4: Episode II. 3. Sonic Adventure 2 is a fantastic Chao raising game marred by having a Sonic game attached to it. 4. Sonic Unleashed's Jungle Joyride Act 1-2 Day is the greatest Sonic level ever made, and Sonic Unleashed in general has the best level design of any of the 3D Sonic games because they didn't try to force wonky platforming into it but let it be its own thing. 5. The quadrology of Sonic CD, Chaotix, Sonic Heroes, and Sonic Colours are the only four games that have really nailed an aesthetic that feels distinctly and uniquely Sonic in every way, showing the various states of nature and technology both coexisting and destroying each other. Thanks to the (albeit poorly done) additions to Sonic Colours: Ultimate, this theme is accented across all four games by Sonic and Metal Sonic being at odds throughout. 6. There are exactly seven characters that fulfil a recurring role in Sonic games, and every other new character takes one of their roles: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Eggman, Metal Sonic, and Big. 7. Big the Cat is a genuinely good character, great for comic relief as well as providing an "innocent bystander" perspective that isn't explored in games he's not in.
Endless Possibilities is my least favorite main vocal theme Sonic ever. Back when Unleashed was launched, people were raving over it and its orchestral version for the final boss, and I just never felt it. Which was a shame because I loved some overlooked vocal themes like Ungravitify.
I agree with this in a way, but my feelings also apply to the current Sonic games that incorporate so many allusions to previous games. I really do not appreciate when art relies so heavily on intertextuality. Too many fan-made games boil down to surface-level fan service that only appeals to fans. I think that is why despite the advances Mania makes over 3 in terms of gameplay, I cannot bring myself to say it's a better product. Now I can't blame the creators for this entirely, as Iizuka did ask for the old levels, but it does lessen the product in a way.
Knuckles' Chaotix is an impressive game, especially when it comes to aesthetics and music. I would have loved to see a new Sonic game for the 32X!
I can get all the behaviours, traditions, etc. people here acquired through their fandom except one: How can you play any of these games as many times as you do? Even "I play this game once every year" seems too much for stuff long released; when I play a game a lot I do that upon getting it, and I may revisit stuff sometimes like when distinct re-releases happen and I get them (not many times, in fact), but that's it for the most part. I usually only watch movies or read books once, maybe twice, so I've never gotten why people like to go through the same storytelling 20 or 30 times either, but I'm genuinely surprised that happens so often; isn't something new to try out there?
I enjoy Sonic Adventure. There isn't another game I've played that makes me feel the same way when I'm playing it. Once or twice a year I get the urge to feel the way it makes me feel again, so I'll play it. There's new stuff to try, and I try new stuff.
I have about 50 games on my shelf that I’ve bought over the past year or so that are in my backlog. I played Sonic 2 yesterday lol. I think it’s the fact that you have a set amount of time you can play games, so you want to play something that is guaranteed to be enjoyable, even if the novelty has worn off. Also half the games I’m putting off playing are RPGs which take a considerable time investment, so when I sit to play something, there’s like a mental barrier saying, “Maybe save that for when you have more time to put into it.” Sonic games are something I can enjoy while listening to a podcast or in short bursts in between other things. Most are short enough to beat in one sitting and they usually have pretty high skill ceilings so you can always improve. This too. Sonic Adventure has some kind of hold on me. Now there are games I will play ASAP. SMT5 last year was something I just had to run through as soon as I got it. However, the majority of games are just things I pick up and stick on the shelf until I’ve cleared out my backlog.
It's a few things working in tandem. - Video games are inherently different from movies and books in that they're interactive (and therefore can result in different experiences if you go out of your way to do so) instead of passively happening at you. - You can typically boot into a complete save file/time attack menu, and easily have a good time without doing the whole-ass story front-to-back. - Sonic games are inherently replayable, due to a number of factors baked into the game design itself encouraging it. The fun of mastery of a game doesn't happen in a single playthrough. Sure, there's new games coming out all the time, and exponentially more new-to-me old stuff to dig up and discover. But I'm always glad when I find a game I want to come back to and mess around in a bunch. I wouldn't take the time to make a triple wheel spinner for Mania if I didn't love it to pieces, after all~
I think the stories and plots in the modern games are completely unnecessary and don’t add anything to the game. The plot really doesn’t have to be any more complicated than… kill badnicks, kill robotnic, get the chaos emeralds and get to the end of the game. I feel as though over time, as the games have got less fun to play, more and more like plot has crept in to fill the gap. The characters were better when they didn’t speak. The long dialog is banal and pointless, and the voices just don’t match the characters The rock soundtracks are don’t match the game. The should have kept with the new jack swing and synthy aesthetic. It matches the surreal art style much better Sega should release fewer games and do those games right: look at Mario - no new mainline game since 2017, but when they do drop, they are ready and not broken. Sega have never created a modern sonic game which has been as fun to play, as the 2d games. The are too complicated and have too many gimmicks. Somehow, what made the original games fun - the simplicity - was been lost
These aren't unpopular opinions at all. Good thing it's 2003 and Sonic Heroes is coming out soon so Sonic will finally get back to his roots.
Mine would be Most of the MD games are a little overrated and found Revenge of Shinobi and Quackshot to be better SEGA platform games , for me Revenge of Shinobi was the closest SEGA Japan got to the level design perfect of Mario IV. I will say mind Sonic is just one of the best showcase games ever made. At the time the SNES was getting so much hype in the UK and it felt like SEGA wouldn't;t be able to complete with 256 colours and Mode 7 and then along comes Sonic and makes even Snes games look a little ordinary and the sound was amazing too And for totally unpopular... I'l still say that Sonic Adv is the best Sonic game and the most fun I ever had in a 3D platform game, even more so than Galaxy or Mario 64 Ect.
Unpopular opinion: Jun Senoue is an awful composer. Yeah, he's had a few decent tracks (which would be expected given he's composed literally 100s of them over the decades) but he's about 6 rungs in the ladder below other Sonic composers like Masato Nakamura, Michael Jackson/Brad Buxer, the mystery S3/S&K Japanese composers, Tee Lopes, the two dudes that composed the JP Sonic CD soundtrack, etc.
I think this is definitely true, it's just marred by Chaotix having extremely empty level design and janky mechanics. I love Chaotix purely for its locales and stage themes, its aesthetic, its music, its enemy design, its cast of characters. It also made several notable additions to the classic series, like stages having multiple time-of-day variants, expanding upon the idea of unique playable characters, taking on stages in different orders, bosses having their own unique themes, Metal Sonic taking on a new form, etc. And it's interesting to me how CD and Chaotix took a lot of that unique Sonic aesthetic and just went all-out with it, and now those 2 games shape the way a lot of people view the classic franchise, myself included. Sonic Rush feels kind of similar, it captured a very specific yet very uniquely Sonic aesthetic in a super pure and concentrated form, we just never really saw that again, even in the sequel. I would absolutely love to see a game that takes that aesthetic design of Chaotix, as well as the idea of going through stages during multiple times of day, and infuses it with all the things we love about 3K and Mania.
