What would you do if you were in charge of the Sonic franchise?

I'd love to do this.

A quirk with Sonic dating back to Adventure is the weird emphasis on following the trends. Adventure saw more realistic games crop up as a result of 3D and decided to put Sonic in the real world (although the stages were still wacky like the Classic games)
Adventure 2 & Shadow saw the rise of edgier games with darker themes, thus Shadow was introduced and the locales got even more realistic and less surreal. Green Hill in SA2 is a perfect example of this, that stage is a complete standout compared to everything else.

Unleashed saw the popularity of character action games like God of War, so they tacked on a mediocre beatemup gameplay on top of the winning formula Boost they had.

Lost World copied Galaxy, Mania basically copied Sonic itself, Forces copied the fans, and now Frontiers is copying Breath of the Wild.

This isn't always bad. Adventure 1 and 2 are good and fun games, and Unleashed for the faults with the werehog stages is a 9/10 in virtually every other category. Sometimes they do well with it. However I feel like one of the biggest reasons Sonic got dogged on so much then and now is because it's just lacking in true originality.

I think the first thing I would do would be to remove all existing mandates. Get some of the most creative people in Sonic Team, and just tell them to go wild making the type of Sonic game they want to make. Let them decide the aesthetic for the future, and give them whatever amount of money they need to make it happen. Taking influence from other games is fine as long as it doesn't just feel like a clone of something that already exists. We need to stop that. Give Sonic an identity again!

The movies can stay, bring in more animated shows, even a theme park centered around running on a sonic themed rollercoaster through life sized replicas of the stages would be amazing. I just want the games to be more original.

and yeah, remove the Classic and Modern distinctions. Infact, the whole series need to be rebooted. Sticking to the same traditions and ideas of Modern and Classic Sonic and Rings and Wisps and boost is just not what Sonic should be. Colors and Generations were celebrated by all but now their influence on the franchise for the past 15 years arguably overshadows their worth as good games

 

Aesthetics:
Back to blue skies, sunny vibes, and flashy funky fusion music filled with synth sweeps, chunky samples and bright guitar. Get back to a Marioesque focus on inspiring joy and excitement in your audience, but with that Sonic edge of everything feeling "cool" and awe-inspiring. Focus on the absurd; Eggman's contraptions becoming more and more improbable, the stakes and scenarios becoming impossibly high, the characters' animations being loud and in your face. Characters look like their modern selves worked backwards to have more classic-isms (bigger eyes, noodle limbs, more expressive faces, etc).

Characters:
Sonic and Tails return to their OVA/SA1 selves. A well-meaning but ill tempered adventurer that hates any form of establishment tying him down, paired with a young impressionable boy sidekick that has a growing love for mechanics. Eggman's evilness is dialed back in, he appears as a near constantly jovial monster out to commit robotic atrocities in the name of brainwashing the world to love him. Scratch and Grounder are his henchmen and it's exactly the same as you think. Knuckles is a cross between his movie and OVA self; a treasure-hunter that protects one jewel (the Master Emerald). Amy is her SA1/2 self, but we hone in more on how she's the "normal" character who is more personable and interacts with the larger population of the world vs the other three. Blaze is a symbol of the establishment, the future heir of the Soleanna monarchy, and stands caught in two worlds between her family's hard rules and Sonic's lack of regard for it. The series isn't afraid of meeting new characters beyond these five, and no characters from any continuity are completely off-the-table (tho not all without some retooling). These five (plus Eggman/Scratch/Grounder) are the main "cast", however.

Story/Worldbuilding:
Stories that are a lighter hearted shonen series dipping it's toes into grandiose Indiana Jones escapades with powerful macguffins and ancient history, slamming head first into 90s anime sci-fi with dim lights and machinery flickering like a mecha made of chrome Mega Drives. A world slightly worn and with a rich tapestry left unanswered; the things you see in the OVA that give you an idea that there is more to be discovered, but whether that happens or not is up to what can conveniently line up with fun game ideas. The rings and emeralds are more thoroughly understood, however. The planet was made with the Chaos Emeralds, and the Rings are excess Chaos Energy seeping out of the planet (the same reason it grows loops and spirals, and surreal patterns). That's your key to write the rest of the world around. Also humans and animals coexist on it.... but I'll still call it Mobius. Yeah. Why not.

Gameplay:
For the 2D games, how S1-3K/CD/Mania play. For 3D, Sonic Adventure 1/2's Sonic gameplay with more route options. Maybe tell the audience more explicitly that rolling is a mechanic that exists. That's all. I'm a simple man.

 

i'd develop Sonic Lost World 2 and I'm not joking.

 

The series is in such a fascinating situation where it is both painfully stagnant, but also still not really consistently sticking to anything, so I think for the foreseeable future I would just refine what is already there with fresh aesthetics.

At this point either even just not seeing any old stages again for the 10th time or not having "generic forest/desert/fire" stage would be a point of celebration.

From a business perspective, Frontiers and Shadow Generations both seem to have done decently financially and are the best critically recieved games in a while, so take the most positively recieved elements of those games, further refine them and make something fully new out of them.

A Sonic Colours situation, really.

 

Outside of Frontiers and Lost World I don't think Sonic games have ever looked like a "generic forest/desert/fire" kind of platformer. Both were very experimental games as it happens so maybe that's why the artstyle felt like an afterthought in both. I imagine Frontiers 2 - The Final Frontiering will look more unique and less Unreal.

Also second on the Lost World 2 explanation.

 

Give Saturn the game it never got lol

 

That's my specific point — I think the style is kind of sanded out in the most recent games and I feel like that's not an element the series has struggled with before now.

I'd still argue Forces also goes under this type of "polished" visual identity, as well. It's just aesthetically super uninteresting/generic to me.

I felt it somewhat in Colours and Sonic Gens, but the run from Lost World -> Forces -> Frontiers -> Superstars kind of really stands out to me in regards of this, even if it is for budgetary/"good"/"understandable" reasons.

But in the end gameplay is king, so I'm just using visuals as one example, which is also pretty strongly subjective. I don't even strongly hate how they look, just don't find them particularly visually interesting.

Next to worse Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic level design in Forces, the Cyberspace stages in Frontiers and visuals permeating this entire era, you've got stuff like the Parkour system in Lost World, an attempt to innovate Super Sonic gameplay and open up boost level design in Frontiers and even the Avatar in Forces and Emerald Powers in Superstars.

The latter two are still basically different interpretations of older stuff, however.

It's a strange inconsistent mix of trying new things here and there, but still also somehow being painfully beholden to the old.

i'm pretty sure when looking at Shadow Gens, the next game will at least look more interesting, though.

So the way out I see is taking the most positively recieved aspects in the most recent games, refining them and giving it all a new, more unique coat of paint.

 

I honestly don’t even think Sonic can be saved, realistically. Shadow Gens enjoyed a measure of success, (by Sonic game standards) but I honestly mostly attribute that to nostalgia for the Adventure games and the movie more than anything. I don’t expect something else like that happening any time soon outside the very specific circumstances there.

I also don’t know anything about running a business. So here’s just want I want.

I wish Sonic would rip off stuff from Mario that would actually be cool for Sonic to do. A Super Mario Maker clone, perhaps called Sonic Studio (hehe) would be nice.

Sonic Frontiers 2. That is, the open zone thing again. But I want that to be revisited when we actually have….

GOOD gameplay to make into an open world game.

Like Frontiers approach to open world is to just take the level design pieces of a traditional Sonic game that allow for traditional Sonic gameplay and just shred it up and throw it onto a map.

I’m sure that’d be fine, or at least fun…

…if the level design they shredded up and scattered was fun to go through originally.

So let’s make something that is more fun originally.

Let’s let the player actually play the game and let it be less about automatically flying through dash pads, grind rails, and springs everywhere. Instead let’s make a REAL videogame that you have to play more than 25% of the time.

Let’s also make Sonic a real platformer. Let’s get rid of the subway surfers gameplay with quicksteps and slides and all that and focus more on gameplay that calls for precisely maneuvering your character through space.

Let’s get rid of the “deal with enemies by mashing x” or “traverse through this challenge by mashing x” gameplay of the homing attack. Instead, why not give Sonic ACTUAL platforming and movement mechanics that require real gameplay.

Let’s finally make a mainline 3D Sonic game where Sonic both feels good to control but also isn’t stupidly overpowered physics and mechanics wise.

I think as far as general control stuff, Dream Team is a good thing to look to. Look at its jump height, how long the jump allows you to stay in the air, the speed at which you rise and fall. Look at the amount of speed lost when you jump.

Also look at how it has real slope jumping physics in a 3D game, where you can jump off ANY angles of terrain, where that works instead of eating your jump, and where the precise point on the curves, the precise angle you jump off of, matters.

Also look at how Sonic can just run up walls when the terrain curves into it. Without scripting. And it’s sort of physics based.

Also look at how we have responsive turning controls AND a jump that carries momentum at the same time, to where you actually have to manage your momentum midair to not overshoot platforms. Who would have ever thought it was possible for those things to coexist?

Wouldn’t hurt to also bring back classic staples like the badnik bounce.

Get rid of the boost, or at least nerf it to where there is a proper acceleration time like a racing game and to where it doesn’t give you TOP speed, with that only being accessible from properly rolling down terrain.

Make levels…

With themes and stage gimmicks of their own…

Like the 2D games…

Or any other real platformers…

Rather than copying and pasting the same challenges over and over again in different arrangements. I…

Shouldn’t have to say that. But I do.

Let’s stop taking away camera control so the player can look at what they want to look at freely or come up with their own ways to traverse. That’d be nice.

Let’s make Sonic fast again. I liked when Sonic was fast in the mainline games. It was fun.

i don’t need this to be Unleashed or Advance 2 levels of insane. But I have a feeling if Knuckles from Mania raced Shadow from Shadow Gens, taking advantage of slope jumps and rolling physics and all that, one of those people is getting completely destroyed…

…and it’s not Knuckles.

Let’s hide things in the levels again that he player can keep an eye out for and explore for.

That are valuable.

And are actually hidden.

Let’s make things matter. Things like holding onto rings or completing levels quickly or getting good scores, let’s make these things not pointless. Let’s reward stuff like this, Rather than arbitrarily motivating them with a ranking system.

Let’s teach people how to play the games as well while we’re at it.

 

Oh, disagree with a bunch of that because I really like the boost stuff, especially Shadow Gens (and not just for nostalgia reasons, doesn't feel slow to me at all).

I'm not exactly knowledgeable about the business part, either, just thinking about what would seem logical to do.

The trend with Sonic Team actually says we're due for another random experiment since that's what always seems to happen when they have an obvious success to capitalise on.

Mania is still the most well-recieved modern game that is loved by fans and critics alike? Well, instead of giving Mania 2 a go, there'll be nothing.

Generations is fairly liked by critics and fans alike? Well, we'll do Lost World and then later a much worse version of Gens via Forces.

Shadow Gens is super positively recieved, so are they going to capitalise on it and how?

(I can't help but think they might take it as putting Shadow everywhere, all of the time. Pull a Classic Sonic and create increasingly worse versions of his gameplay until everyone hates him and says he's horrible. Which I think is a really funny possibility.)

I know they talked about a 10-year plan, so I think we are at least getting a Frontiers 2, which I'm actually waiting for because nothing I've heard or seen about Frontiers has made me want to actually play it, but I like some of the foundational ideas, like the open world, the idea for the Super Sonic fights and some of the combat elements, which I think could be cool when refined.

So I'm waiting to see whether they do or don't. It really feels like it struggles with realising its ambition like a bunch of other Sonic games, in some pretty obvious ways beyond even gameplay.

(Pop-in, Unreal Engine environment design, gratuitous asset reuse, clunky, segmented animation in even high points like the Super fights.)

 

Sonic has always been bigger as a character than as a game series. Even in the 1990s. The games sold really well during the genesis era but not in the same league as the top Nintendo titles.

I think Sonic is in a really good state now but the question is where he goes from here. The movies won't be around forever and while they will preserve a lot of cultural capital SEGA might get funny with funding and we could be back in the 2010s if there's no clear long term vision.

 

It seems like Shuji Utsumi is really committed into making Sonic and other IPs into powerhouse IPs again. I don't know if anyone actually reads their quarterly report presentations (the one with the interviews) but they seem to really want to turn things around with Sonic this time. A lot of it stemmed from the positive response Mania got and the success of the films and other media ventures. They seem to be coming around that people actually like Sonic, and maybe they should actually give a damn.

 

That sounds wonderful! I can see it in Shadow Gens, personally, but I really hope this materialises in the long run.

 

Speaking of, if anyone wants to keep up with the sessions, you can watch the reports I believe Chimpo is referring to here:

https://www.youtube.com/@segasammygroup1063/videos

New information is provided quarterly by SEGASAMMY, but the translated videos come out two months after the originals, so temper your expectations for a swift official release. Alternatively, I'd just listen in on Sonic-centric newsgroups since they probably have the resources (and fervour!) to translate materials efficiently in a short timeframe. :3

 

I would make sonic and shadow kiss