We’re not talking about teaching kids worthwhile life skills like good worth ethic or something, even as the process may be tedious. We’re talking about a videogame. I really appreciate stuff like Wraith’s post which always is there to bring me back to reality. Like yeah I obviously am not going to yell at a kid that they need to enjoy Sonic Adventure less because it’s garbage (which it is) But even for myself, a thing doesn’t always need to be the best version of that thing the world has ever seen to be enjoyable. And it’s okay to just like something for what it is. Also I just tried to play a bit of Mania. Got up to stardust speedway and just stopped. Coming off playing through Trip’s campaign a bit relatively recently, legitimately think I find Superstars more fun than Mania. Moving just feels better in Superstars to me. People like to complain about the badnik bounce but that is honestly something I don’t care that much about. I think the level design probably emphasizes using speed to slope jump more in superstars whereas in Mania they have more just letting the level take you. Mania has level gimmicks I just don’t find to be fun. Some of it due to being non gameplay (Like the tubes or bouncy gel of Chemical Plant/Studiopolis, the antenna teleport stuff of Studiopolis, the run on a camera wheel of the same level, the do nothing but watch as you turn into an ice block and smash stuff in press garden, and stuff like that. How about the grab mechanics and the very slowly going up and down the rotating poles stuff in flying battery, or the wait for plant to grow stuff in stardust speedway. The bosses are shorter, especially with supersonic, but they make up for it by being more boring. (Sometimes. Superstars can really push it). Like if you held me at Gun point and said I had to do the auto scroller from Golden Capital against Fang in trip’s story or the boss from Studiopolis Act 1, I am taking the former without hesitation. It’s longer. And it’s more dragged out. But at least there is some engagement there at all. Also the chemical plant act 2 boss exist. Using the powers to cheese bosses is more fun than cheesing bosses the traditional Sonic way such as damage boosting or just repeatedly bouncing on an enemy. I really don’t find Mania to be all that fun, to be honest. At least not when played the way I am. Might need to just stick with time attack mode or something, which I haven’t even touched recently in Superstars because I find the game plenty fun enough as is on a lower level of play. Though if you added Trip to Mania, maybe it could take it up a few notches. I think Trip might be my favorite character to play as in Classic Sonic rn
Video games are toys. Kids deserve toys that won't hurt them, but that doesn't mean every toy needs to be perfect. Sonic games are works of art, and that doesn't make them great, but it makes them valuable somehow. I think that almost every single game in this series has a vision behind it, a story about what it wanted to be, and that makes it worth more than something disposable cranked out by a whatever studio, even if Flappy Bird Color Sort Kingdom Fight Mobile Advertisement Zombies 7 is technically more functional than Sonic 06 on a baseline level.
It all depends. I was brought up by my mum and my gran, both of whom had no interest in gaming whatsoever and both of whom would rather read books, than watch films and when they did watch films it wasn't Sc-Fi or Horror while I was getting into the likes of The Thing, Blade Runner, The Burning, Space Hunter, Dead of the Dead, Snake in Eagle's Shadow and into gaming via the ZX Spectrum What I liked about Sonic was how it showed what the Mega Drive could do when at the time I was worried the Snes would steamroll the Mega Drive with its fancy mode 7 and all those colours and yet Sonic looked and moved as good as anything on the Snes, but also liked how simple it was to pick up and play with the basic one button control meant people and gamers are any age or skill could have a fun time on Sonic Like anything Sonic and his looks are a product of the time, like so many other classic designs of the 80 and 90's I would imagine that had Tomb Raider been made in today's world, the look of Lara would be vastly different same goes for Spiderman or Superman and many iconic designs of children's characters Also, like we saw for Sonic the movie, when you try and make big changes to iconic characters and designs, you'll get a big backlash and I would expect the same if NCL looked to dump Mario 80's moustache and outdated dungarees or Capcom looked to update Megaman's look, fan's can be very hostile to any major changes or updates to their fav IP's
I think the vision for each given Sonic game, no matter how misbegotten or badly executed, is why people keep coming back. Sonic Adventure is objectively not a great game, but it has a clear intended vibe that it hits most of the time that makes it absolutely endearing and great art. Frontiers has problems but I totally vibed with its "Sonic CD Intro Simulator" overworld gameplay and killer boss fights that were clearly just people going "what if we made Super Sonic do really cool anime bullshit" and it's infectious in its unguarded enthusiasm when it just goes for it. Sonic probably has the most transparent envisioning for every given game and that kind of thing is intoxicating (positive) to most people - there's less distance between the player and what the team clearly wanted even if they don't quite achieve it. I think even in an age of AI slop fakery and cynical by-committee works, people appreciate genuine intent, even if they don't realize it.
As the self-declared Sonic Chronicles Superfan of the world, I gotta say yeah it would be kinda weird to look back on those memories and say "damn all that time wasted on a shitty excuse of an RPG when I coulda been playing Pokemon", when I was never aware enough of the Pokemon games to even *want* to play it at the time, I barely knew what an RPG was, just that it was neat and notable Sonic was now one, taking that modern cynicism and scrutiny to that game for anything it did "wrong" is misguided when I know it didn't matter because I found what there was to enjoy about it, which was just brute forcing everything until I won and then going back through the worlds and making up my own stories. I do think there's a limit to how far you can take this. I think Sonic Speed Simulator is probably more guilty of being bad for kids than any other Sonic project, Chronicles in particular, despite parts of Speed Simulator being well-intentioned, since it's designed to funnel Robux microstransactions through intentionally difficult tasks and gambling and all that.
For context, I'm patiently awaiting how Sonic Team utilize the full graphical potential of UE for their next major project after Crossworlds (the currently released demos are old(ish) and wont count towards my assessment). In the 3D era, Not considering the varied appeal of level design in terms of aesthetics, the most stunning vistas imo have come as a product of the Hedgehog Engine. Even the worst titles really make things pop and feel ever so expansive. ... But the characters looked wayyyyyyy past better in the Renderware titles
Tangentially, I actually really like how characters look in SADX and Heroes/Shadow - SADX has a really nice cel shading thing going on that I think is super impressive in the context of the hardware, and while Heroes/Shadow look a bit shiny, I think the base shapes and the way the eyes are textured on character models is really effective.
