Sonic Unleashed

[Original_Name]

I wish I was running Sega so bad right now.

Cut the werehog crap and make Sonic & Knuckles 2. It's so simple. It just makes sense. Sonic to be super-fast and awesome; Knuckles to be moderately fast and beat the shit out of everything. You want the fast Sonic segments, then brawler-type segments to even it out? Why not Sonic & Knuckles 2? You have two characters who were at one point absolutely vital icons in the gaming universe: Sonic, who hasn't starred in a good game in a decade; and Knuckles, who is now reduced to scavenger hunting. The Hedgehog Engine is absolutely brilliant and'll do wonders for the franchise if utilized properly. However: there are two vital IP's to protect here; Sega doesn't seem to get that. Sonic is VITALLY important to the company's image, and the fact that they've invented this stupid werehog sub-plot, and added yet another useless character with Chip is just preposterous.

How could you invent such a stupid concept without second-consideration? Even worse, how does an entire company come together and agree on such a thing? You wanna innovate? You wanna shake things up? GO AHEAD! But you need to go about it in a responsible way; this should be viewed as a make or break for the company, just as Sonic 2006 was, and Sega just failed everyone with that. I personally think that Sega needs to put the half-baked gimmicks and the notion of yearly titles aside and just work on a game for a good, long while. Most importantly, get their fans' opinions on things. Poll: "Should Shadow the Hedgehog carry guns, swear, and embark on motorcycle chases?": "97% say No" "3% say Yes to anything, and will defend Sega to the death for it". Poll: "Should Sonic the Hedgehog and the human female protagonist in the upcoming Sonic 2006 be involved in scenes of trans-species romance?" "99.6% say No" ".4% are Furries". These two things alone would've saved the company SO much grief.

Anyway, I'm not even sure if the company we're discussing now really IS Sega. How many of Sega's key employees left after the Sammy acquisition? I've always feared that the reason why Sega's had so many short-comings is because of personnel changes more vast than the gaming public realizes.

[Pulsar_t]

Anyway, I'm not even sure if the company we're discussing now really IS Sega. How many of Sega's key employees left after the Sammy acquisition? I've always feared that the reason why Sega's had so many short-comings is because of personnel changes more vast than the gaming public realizes.

This. Sega's key R&D teams have either been dispersed or disbanded altogether. But Sega still has the potential to develop much better titles, what with almost 3,500 employees across the board and an incredible asset of franchises. On the other hand why should we demand so much from them when the majority of gamers turned their backs on the company 8-9 years ago? I'm content with the status quo, and I hope Sega learns from the mistakes of Atari and Midway.

[Original_Name]

How is it demanding too much from them to ask them to code less nonsense into their Sonic games? Chip and the Werehog never, EVER should have gotten past the drawing board. What sense does this make?:

Sega: Alright, guys: the reviews for the Sonic games have been really low lately; the only thing keeping the franchise afloat is brand-loyalty from our most die-hard fans and purchases from kids who don't know any better. What can we do to win back the masses of videogame fans who have moved on from the series?
Some Guy: Well, the series has had a difficult time transitioning from 2D to 3D; so how about we keep the beautiful, detailed graphics of the more recent entries, but keep Sonic running on a 2D plane?
Some Other Guy: I like that, but how about we throw in fast 3D segments like those seen in Sonic and the Secret Rings?
Sega: Great ideas, guys! Keep em' coming!
Another Guy: How about we split the gameplay into day and night segments; the day for the speedy Sonic levels, and night for SONIC THE FUCKING WEREHOG!! Yeah! He'll move really slow, but he'll have HUGE COMBOS! BOOM! BAM! ZIP! ZAP! ZOOP! KER-PLAOWEE!!! And then, we'll include a flying red dog thing named Chip, and he'll have a really high-pitched voice, and be afraid of everything, and give advice whether he's asked to or not!

What alternate universe could we possibly live in, in which that person is not thrown out the 78th story window of the Sega offices? How can a company compose such a great idea, only to ruin it by throwing in stupid elements which accomplish nothing other than defining precisely what's been wrong with the company for nearly a decade. Honestly! How could one company be so stupid!?

[aaron]

How is it demanding too much from them to ask them to code less nonsense into their Sonic games? Chip and the Werehog never, EVER should have gotten past the drawing board. What sense does this make?:

Sega: Alright, guys: the reviews for the Sonic games have been really low lately; the only thing keeping the franchise afloat is brand-loyalty from our most die-hard fans and purchases from kids who don't know any better. What can we do to win back the masses of videogame fans who have moved on from the series?
Some Guy: Well, the series has had a difficult time transitioning from 2D to 3D; so how about we keep the beautiful, detailed graphics of the more recent entries, but keep Sonic running on a 2D plane?
Some Other Guy: I like that, but how about we throw in fast 3D segments like those seen in Sonic and the Secret Rings?
Sega: Great ideas, guys! Keep em' coming!
Another Guy: How about we split the gameplay into day and night segments; the day for the speedy Sonic levels, and night for SONIC THE FUCKING WEREHOG!! Yeah! He'll move really slow, but he'll have HUGE COMBOS! BOOM! BAM! ZIP! ZAP! ZOOP! KER-PLAOWEE!!! And then, we'll include a flying red dog thing named Chip, and he'll have a really high-pitched voice, and be afraid of everything, and give advice whether he's asked to or not!

What alternate universe could we possibly live in, in which that person is not thrown out the 78th story window of the Sega offices? How can a company compose such a great idea, only to ruin it by throwing in stupid elements which accomplish nothing other than defining precisely what's been wrong with the company for nearly a decade. Honestly! How could one company be so stupid!?

nice avatar.

[Original_Name]

Haha, thanks!

I love how you quoted the chapter that I wrote for those two words.

Yeah, Minor Threat is awesome. You're not the first to comment about it, actually. Congratulations on having rad taste in music! Epic win at life, Aaron!

[SpaceBooger]

Wario Land Shake It proved that the Wii can do 2d very well... so why doesn't SEGA go back to it's roots and produce a 2d Sonic?

[AwesomeMonstar]

Wario Land Shake It proved that the Wii can do 2d very well... so why doesn't SEGA go back to it's roots and produce a 2d Sonic?

it won't sell. Honestly though, sega probably needs the money now so I'm all for games that go alittle bit against my dreams and sell.

the saddest part to me about all of this is that now they're going to come to the terrible conclusion that 2d isn't meant for sonic and ditch what could have made this game awesome in the titles to come. It sounds so stupid but i just fucking know they'll do it. Fuck, if they need a new, good selling 3-d game jut make a new burning rangers, I'd buy that for a dollar.

[t0yrobo]

Having not played it yet I might be just blowing hot air here. But from all the non-"professional" type reviews I've looked at Unleashed is looking like a pretty alright game. It's averaging about an 8 on metacritic, and looks pretty similar on gamefaqs (although I didn't calculate it). Anyways, everyone who's opinions I might care about (people that don't write for websites etc) seems to think it's not a bad game at all. So I've got to ask, why exactly is everyone getting their panties in a bunch?

[Original_Name]

Having not played it yet I might be just blowing hot air here. But from all the non-"professional" type reviews I've looked at Unleashed is looking like a pretty alright game. It's averaging about an 8 on metacritic, and looks pretty similar on gamefaqs (although I didn't calculate it). Anyways, everyone who's opinions I might care about (people that don't write for websites etc) seems to think it's not a bad game at all. So I've got to ask, why exactly is everyone getting their panties in a bunch?

Sonic the Werehog. Say it outloud. Tell your friends how awesome Sonic the Werehog is. Now you know.

[GagaMan]

Waiting for the PS3 version to show up to see for myself what this is like but out of all the Sonic games in recent years this one is getting some of the most mixed opinions I have yet seen. A lot of people are enjoying, while others are hating it, I suppose a lot like Secret Rings (which personally drove me nuts). The rveiews for the game sound pretty backwards to me, though, as many are rating the Wii version above the 360 one (despite having more werehog stages, worse controls, less interesting level designs and a lazy hub world), and many 360 reviews are saying it's as bad or WORSE than Sonic 2006. IGN's review gave it a 6.5 in graphics. Whaaaat? O_o

How can a game that is clearly more polished than any we've had in a long time (as in not completely broken) be as bad as the worst Sonic game of all time? I finally (sadly) tried out Sonic 2006 for £9 recently and it was torture, I almost broke down it was so awful. I gave up on it around the point you had to talk to solders to find out which one was the captain so he can open a door. The game did NOTHING right.

How can this new game, which gets rid of most of the problems that game be the same or worse? Personally I just think most of the reviewers cannot be arsed to even play it, and just want to look cool by bashing it with no explanation other than "LOL LOOK AT THAT WEREHOG WE STILL HAVEN'T GOT OVER IT the sonic stages are great DID I SAY GREAT I MEANT OK I GUESS NO WAIT I MEAN SHIT BECAUSE LOOK AT THAT WEREHOG." The IGN video review in particular is the worst case of lazy reviewing I've seen in a long time, it's like listening to one of those 12 year old twats on X-box live shouting down your ear, and many clips shown are of the player gping out of his way to make the game look bad, like slowly lining himself up and jumping directly into a pit.

I've gotten over the werehog concept myself. Why is it ok for Link to turn into a wolf but not sonic? Oh yeah, that's right, Nintendo can do no wroooong. *rolls eyes*