Wave, Storm, Blaze, wtf?

Yes, yes. Its horrible, we know. But it sells games to the era that was born when Sonic Adventure 2 was released, which unfortunatley is the majority. Bithcing about it won't do shit, and its been bitched about plenty, believe you me.

...although Blaze IS an alright new character. Still, too much of a copy of Knuckles for my taste.

Anyway, I'd rant about why I hate all the new characters, but it'd be redundant by now.

Long story short: We need a new character about once every three or so games (like th Mario seires does). No more. They are going overboard, and ruining the series with not only flawed gamplay, but useless new characters. They just aren't interesting anymore.

 

And here I was thinking you were about to comment on some elemental theme in the character names (Blaze=fire, Wave=water, Storm=electric, etc.). As to the question of "Do we need new characters?", I say yes and no. Sometimes, like in Sonic Rush and Sonic Battle (which no one cares about anyway :cry: ), the additions play out nicely and add to the plot. On the other hand, the new characters for Riders may turn out to add unncessarily into the overall flow of the game, instead playing a role that could have been easily carried out by the Chaotix or some other previously nonexistant alliance of existing characters.

 

Eh, sometimes new characters are nice, somcetimes they're not.

Shadow=Great
Amy=Okay (But she was there since Sonic CD anyway, just changed a bit.)
Rouge=Big No No
Cream=Coulda done without her
Big=I personally like him, but he didn't do too much as a supporting character.
Blaze=Really don't know since I haven't played Sonic Rush for lack of a DS
Tikal=Nice
Chaos=Great
Emerl=Not Bad
Gemerl=Eh, okay
Black Doom=Very cool villain
Gamma=Eh, he's okay, and did play a halfway decent role in SA:DX.
Omega=Decent, but sort of Gamma's Faker? I dunno...

Then again, maybe Rouge was more of a supportive character than I think. I just can't stand her myself. >.< Never have liked Rouge.

 

Like I said, SonicTeam needs to focus more on their game development rather than worrying about the next "big character". IMO, they should cut the list down to what it was in 1991.

 

Hopefully, Sonic the Hedgehog will, for the most part, be doing that. But those horrid mech enemies have GOT to go. Forget those dumbass mechs and Egg Pawns, we want our badniks back! Variety plz kthx.

Sonic Adventure 2 dunked the series' face in the shitter, and Shadow was the subsequent swirly. The new characters are the crap swirling around its face.

 

Well in terms of the new characters
Shadow: He's not too bad. He's an intresting addition but a complete game for him wasn't needed.
Big: Lets say one word: NO
Cream: Is she just to promote the chao?
Gamma: Can't comment never played SA.
Tikal: Same as Gamma
Chaos: from what I've seen he seems like an unique character
Rouge: Good Character but she just replaced Fang really.
Emerl: Pretty Decent Character
Gemel: Just a pathetic copy of emerl.
Omega:Is he obsessed with the word fire?
Blaze: I like here character but we probably won' see her again.
Black Doom: A good villian but reminds me o Doctor claw from inspector Gadget.
that's 11 new characters and that's not even all of them. that's just the main ones.
And I agree about Eggman's Robots. They kept them in the advance games and the Green Hill zone extra in SA2 shows they can work.

 

Let's just all assume that if something relating to Sonic games is irritating to us, it's irritating to everyone else too and there's no need to rehash the same old complaint.

 

The idea of "New Character every game" is to bring us new innovative ways to play..
Tails = 2 player, Tails could fly and Knuckles could climb, E-102 could shoot, then it all went tits up when Big went fishing..

Just like..

The idea of "Special Stage" is to show off the neatest, most interesting effects they could create on the technology.
Rotating mazes (1), 3D Pipes (2), 3D Ball-Maze(3/K), 3D textured Bridge (3d), Pipes, pipes, pipes, pipes,pipes,pipes,pipes,pipes,pipes,pipes....

and.. erm..

Sonic should have a new ability with each game, to make the gameplay slightly different..
Spindash, Shield types, Lock-on/jumpy-guide thing, Light/Ring Dash, Grind, Grind and look cool, Do fancy stunts whilst jumping, Oooh Surfboard... No, even better, Hoverboard!! Wowie Yowie!!

(etc,etc)

 

Tails and Knuckles were new characters. They were part of what made the new games great. They just needed to get a hint and stop making new characters around Sonic Adventure.

 

That would really suck IMO. Why do you want Sonic Next Gen to have ONLY TWO CHARACTERS? There are a lot of great characters (Tails, Knuckles, Fang) and good characters (the Chaotix) AND YOU GUYS WANT THE ENTIRE GAME TO HAVE ONLY TWO FREAKING CHARACTERS? I'm against that. If you're in the mood to read it, I will explain my opinion. If not, skip this post.
I would prefer Sonic Next Gen to use Sonic, Tails and Knuckels as playable characters (but I want to be able to complete the game and access the ending with no need of use all of them), and keep some of the cool characters that would fit the plot but that weren't playables. Peoples really have have forget that the reason that levels of S3&K were so cool is that they have speed and tons of exploration. It has a lot of paths, and with Tails and Knuckles' unique abilities we could find even more paths, therefore they improved the gameplay. I would love Sonic Next Gen if the levels have a lot of paths and are more exploration-based as S3&K and if they have secret paths accesibles only with a certain character. Also, if Sonic Next Gen have only Sonic and Robotnik, the story would really lack of characters. It was ok use only two of three characters in Sonic 1 and 2 since they weren't story-based as the Adventure series, but I for one want Sonic Next-Gen to have a great story and to use the cool characters that already are there. I hardly can imagine a game with good story based in only two characters, and there is not way that the game could have great lines (all the dialogue of the game would be Sonic and Robotnik talking or Sonic talking to himself, so it would be impossible for the game would feature a great script or deep lines).

Don't get me wrong, I don't like neither how the current games are introducing a zillion of characters (many of them being crappy characters), and I wouldn't like characters like Big, Cream of Rouge to return. But I think that the idea of use only TWO characters in the next real Sonic game would really suck. If SEGA finally has decided to create a game based in the old school Sonic style, I would prefer to be as if it were a Sonic 4 in 3d, rather than a 3d Sonic 1.5.

? The new badniks are a completly new gen of robots. They are completly different form the Egg Pawns. You must have problems in the eyes if you find a ressemblance between them and the Egg Pawns.

 

Hey guys, wanna know something? There's been new characters ever since Sonic 1. Let's review:

Sonic 1: Sonic & Robotnik
Sonic 2: Tails, Super Sonic, & Silver Sonic
Sonic 3&K: Knuckles & Mecha Sonic
Sonic CD: Amy Rose & Metal Sonic
Sonic Spinball: AoSTH & SatAM characters in pinball (if you count it)
Knuckles Chaotix: Mighty, Espio, Charmy, Vector, Heavy, & Bomb
Sonic Xtreme: Tiara Boobowski & Prof. Gazeebo
Sonic the Fighters: Bark, Bean, & Fang
Sonic Arcade: Ray
Sonic Adventure: E-102 Gamma, Chaos, Big, & other humans
Sonic Adventure 2: Maria, Prof. Gerald, Shadow, & Rouge
Sonic Heroes: E-125 Omega
Sonic Advance: Mecha Knuckles
Sonic Advance 2: Cream
Sonic Advance 3: Gemel
Sonic Battle: Emerl
Sonic Rush: Blaze

Holy shit folks, the only games left out are most, if not all, the Game Gear games. Does that make them our saint-like games for not having any new characters? Give it up. Whether you guys like the new characters or not is up to you, but quit bitching about it. It's pretty much a Sonic game tradition to add new characters to pretty much every game they make. Live with it.

 

Sonic Triple Trouble: Fang

For some reason missing from the list; he wasn't introduced in Sonic the Fighters. =P

 

Adding characters in the first few games is natural, though even that could be considered bloat. As for people rating the characters, this problem is above whetehr the characters are good or not, the fact is they're unnessasary.

What does this have to do with too many characters? =/ S3&K had three. Using your example, imagine S3&K with 10 characters, and you could only play the first minute of the level with one, then you have to choose another, and the same thing happens again etc. It's just stupid. And there's only so many extra paths you can find, if you add more characters that doesn't suddenly make the gameplay better once you get past a certain number.

It depends, Sonic 2 rocked and that only had 2 characters. As for unplayable chars, it just depends on what kind of storyline you want.

 

SegaSonic was before Chaotix, and Omega is E-123.

 

I personally don't have a problem with most of the SA-Battle characters.

Shadow: The only problem I see is that he should've stay dead. I like him, but his survival cheapened SA2's ending.
Tikal: She served her purpose and remained dead like she should've.
Chaos: He's served his purpose, and has since only made cameos. One of most enjoyable one-game 'villians'.
Gamma: The only problem I have is that he was resurrected(Chaos Gamma, Omega)
Emerl: I loved his story, but we did they have to revive him?
Big: A long we don't have any more fishing, he'd make good comic relief.

Now it's the post-battle characters I start having problems with:

Gemerl: Dead characters should stay dead. Emerl ripoff.
Omega: They revived Gamma without his soul. Please stop with the necromancy Sonic team.
Black Doom: If they hadn't necromanced Shadow, this guy would have never shown up.
Blaze: I haven't played Rush, but given the story she's hopefully another purposeful one-shot.
Team Babylon: With 16 Characters(the Playables from Heroes, Gemerl, Eggman, Blaze, Metal) from recent games to work with, you'd think they'd realize they have an excellent cast for a racing game already.

I'd also like to say that: I appauld Sonic Team for reviving the Chaotix instead of creating 3 new characters to fill their place.

 

You know, I actually like most of the new characters. Now, I think Big, Omega and Cream are a complete waste of time, but the rest gave a new spin to the games.

Sonic and Knuckles: Without Knuckles, it wouldn't have been as good. Even the title would have changed...
Sonic Battle: I enjoy this game, but without the Emerl storyline, it would have sucked.
Sonic Adventure: The team spirit of the game made it quite unique, and the different modes of play were quite cool, minus Big.
Sonic Adventure 2: I admit, they should have just used Fang instead of Rouge, but I think Shadow was a great addition to the cast.
Sonic Heroes: Omega sucks. They could have revived another old character.
Team babylon: Meh, I think they look cool. They probably won't appear again (See Sonic R) and their characters sound quite good.

 

Go back to Sonic 2, the definitive and "most complete" Sonic game. I had a conversation about this with my colleagues, and we all agreed that Tails was the last good character added to the Sonic games. Knuckles was alright, Amy was hinderence. Metal Sonic was interesting, but a rather empty character IMO.
Sonic 2 was speed and puzzle, and a equal mix of new and old features. It was new and was at the time considered to be the best platformer, scoring 90+% in many magazines.
The characters featured reached a total of three (or four counting Silver Sonic) - and the small number of characters removed the complex gameplay aspects. No switching characters, not too many characters.
In Sonic Adventure, the playable character toll is around 7 characters, each with their own story, controls, specific gameplay elements. It was too much for a Sonic game, and the other characters were badly programmed too.
This is the same dig I have with similar offerings of characters in other videogames. One version of KoF featured 50 characters to choose from, Mr.Driller introducing another character was bad enough.
Getting back to the point, adding characters that are playable means mostly adding new gameplay, and that just doesn't work.
Sonic agmes work best with few characters. Sonic Rush takes off directly after S3K in awesomeness. It's fast and exciting, 2 playable characters, both with little unique touches.
Not one racing to the finish and another grabbing emeralds.

 

Interesting Jeff did not include Cosmo, as his avatar explains a bit. but he may just be coming from the games. Here is my Opinion on the characters.

I'm going to start with E-102 Gamma.

Gamma: Served his purpose, but made a fun evil boss in Battle. That was his only appearance there after.
Big: He should die. I purposefully died 4 times just because his line came up in heroes.
Cream: She was a characters for beginers in Sonic Games. LET HER DIE NOW.
Shadow: He's allright. I used to hate all about him, but he is finally taking on a new style other than 'Dark Sonic' That he was created to be.
Rouge: She is okay. Keep her, I don't care either way. But it'll make the perverts mad!
Metal Sonic 'Transformed': I really liked him with the whole cape thing. Metal Madness was the worst boss ever in my opinion.
Bubble Tails and Knuckles: Sure its just those two in little bubbles fighting Metal Madness, but what happened to Super Tails and Hyper Knuckles?
Blaze: I'm not sure on her. Sure I picked up Robjoe's Sonic rush and went straight into the last boss with little other checks of the game, and beat it, She seemed like a drama queen to me.
Emerl: He's Dead. I'm glad. It was impossible in the beggining of the game, and to easy in the end. It's funner with the characters and not making a character so powerful you can do anything with them.
Chaos: He was a cool one game villian, I admit. that's it.
Tikal: Purpose served. She's done with.
Cosmo: Sonic X only. She whiny, but is like Sonic in determination. Good thing they made her too fragile for any idots to put in the games.

 

I personally reckon Tails was one of the most empty characters to begin with. He had two tails, and he liked planes. That was it.