Ya know what Sonic might need?

I believe this game was called "Billy Hatcher".

 

Or Ristar or Nights into Dreams

 

I love Sonic too much to see something replace him, but if you're suggesting a new character to go alongside Sonic then I'm ok with that. (It'd just feel... wrong for a different character to copy Sonic though).

 

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I think VB.NET meant a new franchise. If not, fair point!

 

It may not be the grandiose "Sonic the Hedgehog 4 as you truly imagined it!" fanboy's fantasy, but this is as close as it's ever going to get. Sonic's gameplay style is just too unique and different for any other character. Think about it - what do Mario and Metroid have that's specific to them? Flying and shooting guns? Not really that hard to play off of these days.

I don't think Sonic needs a rip-off of any sort at the moment. Especially not one that involves Shadow, considering how that blew over last time. I think the fact that nobody can replicate Sonic's unique style is what part of what makes him so great, just like The Ren & Stimpy Show or the Kirby games.

EDIT: Lol, I KNEW I was going to get flamed for this. Posted accidentally while I was trying to preview so I decided to just leave it.

 

Well if elements of Vectorman were incorporated into the Pinball physics-style platforming....

 

Jazz Jackrabbit 1 & 2 anyone?

 

If you boosted the speed of Klonoa about 50% I recon you'd be about there lol

 

Sonic is so iconic, in gameplay and character that if you tried making a sonic clone that was also a gameplay engine clone, you'd get a thousand people calling foul because you put a loop in your 2d platformer with momentum and pinball physics.

 

Everytime I hear stupid shit like this it's like one giant slap to the face.

 

Tough shit, considering it's the truth.

What sort of "successor" are we talking here, anyway? Some kind of Mega Man X-style spin-off? (Ugh. Mega Man X worked fine, don't get me wrong, but I don't see the same thing working with Sonic; his world is just too inherently colorful.) An entirely different franchise? (No arguments there, but it has been tried before with, say, Billy Hatcher. I'm more than game for another attempt, however.) A reboot? (That's kind of what Sonic 4 is attempting, regardless of its success at it.)

 

How about Jazz Jackrabbit? He was Epic's Sonic, but with a gun, and an artist that I became an instant fan of for his second game. (Dean Dodrill)

 

How 'bout an extremely obscure blatant rip-off way back from 1993?



Hm. Not sure what happened to the music, but it already looks like an Advance game given the propensity of booster mechanics in conjunction with basic loops. Also super-bright stages. Seriously, though, check out some of the music from other videos. It sounds great. Classic Genesis sounds indeed.

Sonic's not very innovative. Not in good ways anyways. The only times during the Genesis era where Sonic really grew at all were the Genesis sequels, Sonic CD, Sonic 3D Blast, and Knuckles Chaotix. Most of the handheld games were the same deal with hit-or-miss variations on gameplay, and most of them kinda sucked. Unfortunately Tails Adventure and Tails Sky Patrol were neither particularly popular or fun to play, and few people had ever even played Knuckles Chaotix because it was on the 32X. Prolly' wasn't that good, but it sure as hell was different and interesting. Sonic CD's only criticisms involve music and some contention over level design, which I considered a welcome expansion of Sonic 1's base level design, and the fact that the SEGA CD bombed. Then 3D came and introduced hub worlds and the homing attack, neither of which avoided overall contention from fans and gamers alike, and one of which has pretty much been spread too thinly across the entire spectrum of Sonic games. Then there's Shuffle, which wasn't quite that good, and Sonic the Fighters, which was okay. The games that would've been made by STI, like Sonic Satam, Sonic 16, and Sonic XTreme, never saw the light of day sadly.

It seems like SEGA hardly knew what to do with Sonic back then once he became a gaming titan, so they tried doing everything and failing. Today, they only barely seem to be figuring it out. The only thing that hasn't changed is that SEGA's about making money, whether it's by re-releasing old games or making decent to mediocre games carried largely by brand recognition.

 

Tails Adventures was awesome, actually. I wouldn't mind seeing more games based around Tails; guy lends himself to a more traditional platformer pretty well, actually. Sure, you'll have to account for his ability to fly somehow, but it's doable.

 

I agree, Tails' Adventures was spectacular.

Also, Spiritual Successor you say? Behold: Runman: Race Around the World. It's not a blatant copy, and it has its own original style mostly, and tries some new things.

 

Ristar could be good. There was only one game in the series (2 if you count the game gear version) and they can always change the gameplay style, there were'nt enough games to decide the official gameplay style. Like in megaman 1 there were only 6 bosses and the clear points sucked ass. Megaman 2 was the actual thing where everything started from. But, Ristar was good enough to be the classic game.

They should make a sequel already.

 

You people have to realize that "as close as it's ever going to get" doesn't mean it's good! You gotta stop settling for crap just because "it's the best SEGA can do"!

 

Well in the most literal sense he's not really settling. There will only be one Sonic 4, and even if this game doesn't look like it deserves the title at the end of the day it does have the title.

Unless of course they scrap the title the day before the release it and change it to like Sonic Classic (I know that's the name of Hez's fan game but still) or something