Sonic Heroes Remake in UE5 Rumored, So Who Knows If It'll Happen

I think "Sonic 06 Remake" Would sell on the basis of being a Sonic game, with any drama about the fact that it even exists being relatively minor in the scheme of things. I still don't think it's a good idea but not because it wouldn't sell. There'd be some pissing and moaning attached but to most young players it would just be a new game.

I just think Sonic 06 is overscoped, and committing to a remake puts you in that same tight spot of committing to 3 large scale campaigns, a hub world and 9 playable characters. Making all of that shit actually good this time around necessitates adding content and redoing most everything from scratch. All to run into the same problem of overscoping and some things coming out half baked. It's the same problem I have with remaking Sonic Adventure magnified by several leagues

I think they should continue to keep Sonic games on the slimmer more focused side content wise since they usually turn out better that way. If they want to get any bigger they need to be building off of what Frontiers already established imo.

 

I think what people really mean, is that it had a lot of cool ideas on paper that, individually, would be really fuckin cool in a sonic game if it fully worked. I’ve always wanted the Gemstones to come back, as an example, and the closest we’ve gotten are the superstars emerald powers. The level themes are also pretty cool and salvageable, as kingdom valley has demonstrated in shadow gens. Granted I can’t speak for everyone, but that’s how I interpret it.

 

I really enjoyed Crisis City and Kingdom Valley in both Generations games. If they just Generations'd every level from 06, Boost-ified Silver the way they've done for the core cast, and called it a "remake", that'd be cool. It would be my preferred approach to Heroes, Shadow, and the like as well.

 

There's just not a bit of 06 that feels like it's worth keeping. Even everyone's favorite remake (P-06) still plays pretty poorly, has clumsy insta-death level design and a really rough art style. The only thing it's missing is the hubworlds and story, which very few people liked enough to contest ChaosX from excluding in the final release.

But let's say we changed the gameplay, visuals and level design to be a different, better game but kept the story. People would still find this game highly questionable at best, cry foul at worst. The kids would eat it up, sure, but kids ate up 06 the first time just like they would any other Sonic game. So let's say we redo the story too. Which if so then fine, but we should start to ask why we even want this made in the first place. I get the feeling Nakamura thinks the story in that game was executed perfectly fine, and if not I can't say why he'd keep holding on, right?

I understand thinking a FF7R or Resident Evil reimagining could put all of it's ideas in a new light, but those games are clearly beloved. When the game in question is as disliked as Sonic 06, it feels like the money/time would be better spent making new games that utilize a handful of it's concepts better. I mean, that's what ShGens did, and I'd say we're much better for having that instead of a ShTH remake.

 

...I mean Sonic Unleashed pretty much already did Sonic's part of that game way better.

So despite that being the reason I'd want it remade, it's not enough of a reason to do it again I guess.

 

We already have the 2 best levels of the game remade (Crisis City and Kingdom Valley).

 

Honestly, let them do it. They've expanded Sonic Team recently for the express purpose of being able to create multiple projects at the same time. There's absolutely going to be a new game that follows up on Frontiers, but and a remake is a smaller scope project than a new game anyways. It can exist for the people who want it and it can be a release for a slow period that's absolutely going to follow SxS Gens until the new game comes out otherwise. We've gotten enough ports of older titles already, I wanna see what they can do by breathing new ideas/life into old ideas on a full scope remake title.

 

I suspect what Shun Nakaumura is really thinking, is that he would want to redo the entire thing. Not just the game but the whole dev cycle. When you look back at decisions you made with the hindsight you have, you wish you could've done things differently now that you know better. I believe that's what he's feeling here when asked about it.

 

Yeah we simply don't know to what degree Sonic Team regrets the story. Even if they did revised brand mandates and Ian Flynn being attached to the hip would water down some of the more potent aspects a lot I think. At that point you're still looking at the 'seinen-lite' tone Nakamura and co usually go for..but I think the next new game is going to be like that too, since the last two were. It all becomes kind of moot to me at that point. "Sonic 06 brought more in line with Sonic Frontiers" isn't really what I'm looking for but it doesn't offend me either.

I'd be more interested to see what they'd do about the gameplay.

Some remakes are smaller scale in production, but most these days are functionally new games, with the same amount of resources allocated to them. It would be a huge undertaking that would probably necessitate putting a completely new game on hold.

 

A new game called "Sonic the Hedgehog" that takes settings and ideas from 06 sounds fine enough to me, but I don't think it's a better idea than just making a new game. I think the only games that really warrant ground-up high budget remakes akin to RE2-4 and FF7R are the Adventure games and even those I'd personally rather they not do until they prove they can actually make it better than the originals.

 

I think it's more that the last two that were recommended (Heroes and 06) have problems so fundamental to their innate design that your only options are a modern PC port of games that suck or to spend a lot of time fixing them to the point of being nearly unrecognizeable, which would piss off the fans of the original games.

 

See, those are the two 3D games I absolutely cannot trust them to do better than the originals. Anything but those would be fine in my book.

 

I seem to remember Takashi Iizuka mentioning that he regrets the infamous "kiss" scene.

And that's indeed one thing I don't want to see remade, ever.

 

I agree, which is why I don't think they should be producing any remakes. Like, I can see someone who hates Sonic Heroes approaching a remake with an open mind in hopes they do it better on the second try, but why is that preferable to a new game? If they want to do a new game with multiple playable characters, Metal Sonic, and cool level themes they can just do that without the extra baggage of it being called "Sonic Heroes But This Time the Characters Shut the Fuck Up and the Controls Aren't Terrible and the Theme Song isn't Awful and it's not a Chore to Finish and Basically it's Actually a Good Game This Time".

I've never seen anyone get excited by a remake of a game they didn't even like in the first place, so why bother?

 

I can get behind that, but I still think it'd be better to take those ideas and expand on them in a new way.

It probably won't happen but I would be fine with them working with the people behind P-06 and giving them the budget to polish it up for an official release and marketing it as a remaster. I don't know much about the person behind P-06 or if they're even interested in working with SEGA, I don't know if SEGA are even aware the project exists or if they even really care. I feel like the optics alone would generate a positive reception from the general public though; "SEGA hires dedicated fan to fix up their worst game" would create a lot of buzz.

This is true. I feel like in the case of a full ground up remake of 06 you'll only end up with diminishing returns. Yeah sure there are people who like that game and are very vocal about it, but they're still a very niche crowd.

 

It's true that remakes of already popular media are more popular than remakes of unpopular ones, Disney is evidence of that. But For me personally, I have no interest in a remake of Lion King, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast etc. I'd much rather see a dramatic remake of Black Cauldron, or Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Atlantis etc that made them great. It's probably not in their best interests monetarily, but there's no need to remake a beloved game.

An example I think is pertinent is the Lego Star Wars Holiday Special. It's a complete re-imagining in the modern Star wars sensibilities. Since the Holiday Special is infamous for being terrible it was a perfect candidate for a quirky irreverent remake. Much better than say remaking Episode 4 which would be akin to remaking SA2.

 

I want it remade in 4K and extended. Also it should be a QTE sequence.

 

I don't care, as long it is GOOD, I want both remakes AND new games. As long it's GOOD, I want it.

 

Wraith touched on a good point earlier in the thread though that addresses this comparison - video games are in a very different place than movies are as an art form. What does a Lion King remake actually objectively bring to the table besides having a different art style with the CGI? SA1 and SA2, beloved as they are, were both rushed to market and built when 3D action games were still in relative infancy. Game design has evolved a lot in the past 25 years and it's not hard to imagine how you can objectively improve those games while keeping hold of what made them great to begin with.

 

For SA1, you really need the movement to be right, and even Shadow Generations as good as it is doesn’t recreate the continuous accelerated movement and rolling SA1 has. You can’t turn in-place in mid-air.

I can imagine them inserting new levels in-between the old ones to make for something more interesting.

SA2 especially. So many levels in that one are art asset swaps of each other.

A Sonic Heroes or ‘06 Reimagining (not just remake) would make sense *because* the originals didn’t really have good movement at all.

Also, they definitely have enough assets at this point to create maybe 10 Seaside Hills.