Was that actually any good??? I was extremely dubious when I saw it and thought "Sonic Riders" wannabe clone... Y'know how in that game they had the three colours, blue yellow and red...

Or is it way different?

The only decent Sonic game coming is Sonic Remix. I'm surprised that hasn't been shut down already, SORR was shocking but now I'm expecting Sega to be more protective of their bread-n-butter franchise.

Sonic series were by far the most disappointing ones from the last ten years.

Oh boy, I hope I get a Sonichu DLC costume

It is nothing like Sonic Riders... it is like the speed stages from Sonic Unleashed (y'know... the part of the game everybody liked) with wisps that grant him cool new powers (like the ability to dig through the grown at high speeds & whatnot). It is actually really good & I would recommend it to basically anybody who likes Sonic games (& that is not something I say lightly).

I hate Sonic. Not just the new ones, either.

Then why in the fuck are you viewing a thread about Sonic? Just to troll the people who do like it? 712 Rep.... what a way to act for such a "respected" member of this site. Keep leading by example buddy... keep leading by example.

Okay, I should elaborate. The reason I'm chiming in is because the one comment I constantly hear is "The old ones were the best, but the new ones suck!" I kind of like Sonic 2, but other than that, when people point to "Sonic Adventure" as the pinnacle of the series, I don't think they know what they're really saying. It's like they haven't played it in forever, and it was the first game for the much beloved martyr console, the Dreamcast.

I actually appreciate that Sonic Team tried to fix the formula. Even when Sonic 4 released, people weren't happy about it, and that was supposed to be the throwback one. So I think much of Sonic love only comes from nostalgia.

you HATE Sonic?

What on earth has he done to you? Killed your family?

The voice actors killed my ears. Does that count?

Anyway, the main thing I dislike is the quick-timey nature of the platforming. There's plenty of places where you could just hit a speed ramp and put the controller down for a bit. Also, if you don't perfectly line yourself up for said speed ramps, you were guaranteed to die, because you didn't fit yourself perfectly into the developer's linear vision.

What was it, exactly, that people didn't like about Sonic 4? Was it because it was episodic? Was it because it didn't have the classic 16 and 8-bit sprites and backgrounds? To these complaints I say A) The "episodic" nature began when Sonic Team had to split up Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, and B) Classic sprites and backgrounds aren't really a big selling point, except for a "leading minority" of players. Look at Mega Man 9 and 10, and tell me that they sold solely on the basis of 8-bit graphics and chiptunes.

I'm also not sure I agree with the description of the Dreamcast as a "martyr" console. Mostly because I can't see a machine dying for it's beliefs or faith, as is the definition of "martyr", but also because part of the reason of it's failure lay with Sega's poor marketing of the thing. It's true for all of their consoles. To this day, I have no idea what "blast processing" is, and I can't remember one really outstanding Saturn advert. Many good machines have fallen prey to bad advertising and even worse management (look up Mehdi Ali and Irving Gould), though the community "fanbase" of those machines would just as quickly, and often erroneously, attribute the fall of said machines to conspiracy from larger competitors (Microsoft killed the Amiga, etc..).

That was long-winded and largely off-topic, but I just wanted to put a couple things in perspective for both the proponents and opponents of the Dreamcast.

Have all episodes been released yet? I'd like to get them on disc when available. (Yes, I liked the demo.)

Yeah, maybe martyr wasn't the best word to use. I meant to say that people glorify the console, and tend to ignore its glaring faults.

Also, I have a hard time understanding why fans of the early Sonic games didn't like Sonic 4. Having played 2 and 4, there wasn't much of a difference for me. That's why I concluded that people were somewhat off the mark when they lambasted the 3D Sonic games. They're not great games, but it seems like a gross exaggeration when people go on and on about the amazing quality of the original games, especially since the classics are praised for the same reasons the newer Sonic 4 was dismissed.

My theory is somewhat based on Jeff Gerstmann of Giant Bomb fame. Watching him play Sonic Adventure and Sonic 4 is like watching someone's inner childhood die on camera. In a subsequent episode of the site's podcast, he wonders if his fondness for the early Sonic franchise was based on his age at the time. Looking back on my days at my cousin's house, playing Sonic 2 on the Genesis, makes me feel like I had a similar case of nostalgic blindness.

Those players who criticize Sonic 4 for not being exactly like Sonic 2 are probably the same kind of people who are happy eating vanilla ice cream and a plain hamburger every time they go out for fast food. There's a very simple economics mechanic called "The Law of Diminishing Returns", and it says that having a second helping of the same exact thing is almost certainly going to be less satisfying than the first. I remember playing Sonic CD for the first time after playing Sonic and Sonic 2 (I think the actual game chronology places CD in between 1 and 2), and seeing the camera angle "shift" along a simulated Z-axis so as to show Sonic running up that first ramp "from behind", as opposed to showing him running through a loop "from the side", traditionally. I remember thinking that was the coolest thing in the world I'd ever seen. In all honesty, I think these critics loved Sonic 4, but they loudly complain in the name of nostalgia because if they all profess their love for the game then they're just like everyone else. If they complain against the game, then there's a chance that all, or at least quite a few, eyes will be on them. Even people like me, who try to take an objective stance on these issues, are probably only doing it for attention.

Dreamcast was a great machine and SEGA made awesome games for it. Sadly it was a company that lost most of their credit with two bad products, Mega Cd and 32x and a mediocre one (Saturn).