Sega recently announced what many gamers have been hoping for years: a return to the 2D roots of the series. After years of failures in the 3D realm, Sega has made the move back to the fast paced 2D side scrollers that put them on the map as a console maker. Before you go getting too excited and all nostalgic, let me remind you that even this switch back to 1991 is going to suck. When is the last time that you dusted off your Genesis or hell even bought one the old titles on the current generation of consoles download services?
Let’s take a short history lesson here. Sonic The Hedgehog (That’s right, capital ‘T’ in ‘The’. First, Middle, Last name as trademarked by Sega) in its 2D form exist as Sonic The Hedgehog 1, 2, and 3 and also Sonic and Knuckles. The original Sonic The Hedgehog was produced and packaged with the Genesis console and was intended to be the Mario killer to get the Genesis to compete with the SNES. It was a decent game but also the first game in the series and it didn’t quite have all the kinks worked out. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 nailed it and stands out as the gem of the franchise even though it introduced us to one of the worst game characters of all time with Tails. Sonic 3 was a step backwards and Sonic and Knuckles took the legs out of the franchise literally. It slowed the game way down by adding more platforming elements and jumping puzzles.
Now back to the present day and keeping in mind that the 2D games are not nearly as good as you remember them to be, the new release is already setup for failure. The game is going to be sold exclusively as a download on WiiWare, Playstation Network, and Xbox Live Arcade. What this should tell you is that they don’t have a good enough game with enough content to put it on a disc and sell it in stores. With the recent success of a game like New Super Mario Bros Wii, you would think that Sega would be chasing those dollars down just as they have been doing with the Mario Factory for years. Sega has released game after game that is nearly a direct descendant of a recent Mario game from 3D platformers to arcade racing sims to DS RPGs. They have even been collaborating with Nintendo on the Mario and Sonic at the Olympics games but this attempt to duplicate the success of NSMB Wii will fall short.
So what’s the final verdict here? While it’s a relief to see that Sonic won’t be suffering through a new 3D piece of crap, don’t get your hopes up for this one. Sega needs to let Sonic go the way of the Dreamcast and live on fondly in the memories of our childhood. Or perhaps he can die a slow death at the hands of Mario in the new release of the Smash Bros series just as he has been doing on store shelves for years.
As amusing as it is to see early predictions on whether a game will be good or not before its released- I’d say this statement is a bit hasty right now…
We haven’t seen much info on the game yet- so its quality could still go either way.
Sure- Sonic Team’s recent track record makes it understandably hard to be optimistic at all for Sonic 4- but it can’t hurt to stay optimistic sometimes… Right?
Maybe Sonic can still do well in 2D- just maybe…
So I think we should wait at the very least until more info is shown on Sonic 4… THEN- we will actually have some grounds upon which to assume the worst… 
(Or best! Sonic Team could surprise us… 
)
Wow I really can’t believe how biased and asinine some of your views are. To start, don’t assume you understand or can even being to predict with any accuracy, the tastes of the gaming populous. Many people still play old games, I recently “dusted off your Genesis or hell even bought one the old titles on the current generation of consoles download services” and had quite a bit of fun. Don’t generalize and assume that the quality of a game is based on its age. There are still quite a bit of games that did it right back in the 90’s and stand strong as great gaming experiences regardless of their age. Good game design elements can pass the test of time.
It sounds like your knowledge of the franchise is somewhat suspect, make sure you research your material well before making such pointed arguments.
*Edited for niceness.
I am going to have to disagree with you on pretty much your whole article.
First, I am very excited about Sonic 4. First, it is being developed by Dimps. They have a good track record of making the 2D Sonic Advance games on the GBA a lot of fun. Dimps also co-developed Street Fighter IV if that gives them any street cred.
I also disagree that they would want a new Sonic game to be anything like New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The reason they are making Sonic 4 is the same reason Capcom made Mega Man 9 and are working on 10. They are obviously catering to a “hardcore” audience and hope it works out. NSMBW is more of a fun time party game, this is not what Sonic 4 is going to be.
Don’t get me wrong, Sonic 4 might come out and be a terrible game. But I think the fact that they are even making it is a great sign that they are finally listening to what people have been screaming at them to do for the past 5-10 years.
You know, I have Sonic 2 on XBLA, I think I might have to go re-download that and give it a “spin”.
Ah- I just remembered… Another reason we can’t assume on Sonic 4’s quality yet:
Sonic’s been doing just fine on handhelds- he’s had a number of well-recieved 2D games on the DS… So keep that in mind.
Sorry but I also have to completely disagree here. They haven’t shown nearly enough of the game to make these type of statements and I also think that discrediting Sonic 4 because its a download title sounds ridiculous, especially since its an episodic game.
Speaking of old school Sonic, Anyone who would like a quick nostalgia fix go to playsega.com right now & sign up for a free 4 day trial. It’s actually pretty sweet, while its free.
Thanks for the comments everyone. I understand where you guys are coming from but I must back up my opinion here. I see what you are getting at with Capcom and the new Megaman games but those are complete games. There is no to be continued with those two games. What they are doing with the episodic content here would be the equivalent of paying $5 for the first 4 bosses and then asking you to pay another $5 at another time for the last 4 bosses in Megaman. You finish the first episode then you are prompted to insert $10 to continue. My point here is that if the sum of all of the content they are eventually going to create is going to be that good, why not put it all together in one package on store shelves?
I also still play old games. My SNES is currently hooked up to a 42″ Sony LCD, a far cry from the 19″ tube TV it was hooked up to when I was a kid. However I literally had to dust off my Sonic Mega Collecion for the Gamecube when I heard this game was coming out. I was excited as you all appear to be to hear about a new 2D Sonic game but I was disappointed to find that my childhood memories did not live up to what I was playing now as an adult. Good game design does stand the test of time but these games did not age well in my opinion. I should have included this all in the original article but in the interest of keeping it to the point, I did not.
I would love to see these games do well and if they do I will be the first to admit that I was wrong. However, I am keeping my expectations in check.
I find myself in agreement with the writer. Remember, this article stands from the point of nostalgia, and plainly put, the new spins on Sonic do little to evince those feelings of gaming glory from the days of yore. Mario games have remained faithful to their traditions and despite change from platform to platform.
Mario saves the Princess. No complications and easy to reproduce without overworking the concept.
Sonic saves his cybernetically entrapped friends. Hmmm. This is a bit more difficult to keep simple.
What we see is that Nintendo was wise in keeping its premise incredibly basic, but the world of Sonic has this strange expectation to explain more of its world as technology and expectations of games exponentially increases.
Sadly, the more we find out about Sonic’s world, the more dated and outright lame the premise seems.
Even look at the cartoons. Mario cartoons were always simplistic, but the Sonic cartoon (the original) tried to create a more dramatic world with a sinister villain. Sadly, it came off as weirdo-furry central to public at large. They attempted to make it more lighthearted (a la Mario), but even that failed and fell by the wayside.
While it’s nice that Sega is attempting to return to their roots, I would argue it’s a bit too late for many big Sonic fans. Sonic, plainly put, just doesn’t have the timeless quality of Mario and each new game that comes out seems to be a ripoff of Nintendo’s iconic mascot. Sonic isn’t even an icon of a console, but a simply a defeated company.
I think putting Sonic to rest and having Sega focus on collaborations more intensively would serve to make better quality games that don’t dishonor the nostalgia of aging gamers.
I think I’m in a different boat, here. I’m kind of for this game, but I’m also against the game. If you look at games like Mega Man 9 and 10 you can definitely see why this might seem like the right move for the Sonic franchise. They haven’t been able to succeed in making the leap to next gen, so maybe we go back to the way we used to do it and make a Sonic game that will appeal to gamers the way the series used to. 2D, and fast paced. I’m for the idea, because I think that some games were better when they were simpler.
But, I think the real argument here is why haven’t they been able to make the proper step to next gen with this character? Mario has done it every possible way and some have been successful and some have been piss poor. Sonic doesn’t have nearly the track record with EVERY SINGLE NEXT GEN TITLE he’s been the star of being ripped a part by critics and fans alike. Sure, it may have taken a while, but Mario eventually got to the Wii and made gamers and critics rejoice with Super Mario Galaxy with some critics saying it to be the best Mario game since Super Mario Bros 3. Is Sonic just that second tier of a character that his game play style and characterization just can’t translate to Next Gen? Or is this simply a case of every Sonic game being a cash grab and no developers have really been given the time, or resources to make Sonic the Next Gen hero he can be? I’m inclined to think the latter. I think that if Sonic had been given the effort, and time that Super Mario Galaxy had been given, he could have made the transition to Next Gen. I think that taking a step back to 2D is definitely probably going to produce a decent game, but I think you can also look at it as the Sonic franchise throwing in the towel and giving up on making a game that will really blow people away. Oh, and fuck Sega.
I am all for this game, but also would like to see Sega get the 3d sonic right. A majority of Sonic Teams inability to do sonic right has been because of their desire to expand the Sonic franchise beyond its scope. Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 proved 3d sonic could be done, but there is a specific formula that needs to be followed and any steering away from that formula results in half-assed games. Sonic Unleashed is a great example of this. Sonic Team focuses on 3d rails based movement with branching level design, throws in some classic enemy/movement patterns/ attack techniques and you have 1/2 of a fantastic game. But then they add in some BS “night time” beat em’ up levels and then you have a problem. What your left with is 1 half of the game being bad ass daytime levels which, by all accounts are awesome as hell even after being rushed and shoehorned into a bad game, and 1 half of a game that is just BS filler. 50% of a game being good is still failing, despite how fun the daytime levels were.
What really sucks is that Sega can do this, they just need to settle down and get it done. That being said, the Sonic franchise also needs to exist in 2D because its roots are there and the formula works incredibly well in that format. It is a great format for handheld market and online/XBL/PSN/WII ware markets. There is nothing wrong with Sega giving the 2D stuff to Dimps indefinitely and having Sonic Team redouble efforts and make Sonic a staple in 3d adventure/old school style twitch gaming. Seriously, Sega’s got 1/2 the recipe right…
Fuck Sega? Really? Youth….
Youth? Well, I’m 26 and have been playing videogames as long as I can remember. And, what I remember is not having a Genesis because I had everything I needed from an NES/SNES. Call me close minded, but there was not one single title on any Genesis platform that was worth owning ONLY that system for, in my opinion. Also, they earn a zero in the respect column for never being able to successfully market a system. The Dreamcast was the most underrated system in history, and now Sega is a struggling software company while Nintendo (try as they might to ruin videogames) have made the gaming console mainstream again. Sega put themselves in the ground and only survived as long as they did because they appealed to that kid who wanted to be “different.” Sure, they had some gems and maybe even some “classics,” but they also had Moonwalker.
I have chortles! Certainly one may assess that for being 26 you indeed come off as somewhat “close minded”. Assuming that any self respecting person would buy a system for 1 game is pretty silly, and lucky for you there many games that were quite fun on the Genesis. That being said, I could launch into a good ‘ol internet list of reasons “Geeeoff should have played more games” for you, but I am sure that it would fall on deaf ears, as you are thoroughly convinced that the NES/SNES was indeed all one needed to have “fun”.
Onto the “Zero Respect” silliness, surly you jest… The Genesis was marketed just fine, it sold incredibly well in every major country and was doing great in Japan and had a very strong showing in the US. Oddly enough, the MegaDrive kicked ass in GB/Mexico/agentina/Brazil/Japan/Etc. Simply because many gamers in those countries grew up playing games in the arcade which Sega had such a huge stake in, and was able to make its system friendlier for developers to port games to it.
Which leads me to… How can you not respect a company that has done so damn much for the medium of entertainment you like so much? You don’t dislike a band that doesn’t make it big but makes good music and drives a musical genre forward, or a director who directs great films but is not a household name. Yet you have “Zero Respect” for the company that pushed out new games and supported arcade culture well beyond its fall in the US (Sega is still supporting the dying arcade as we speak.). Which is the same company that brought online gaming to consoles, supported a failing color portable, backwards compatibility (Master System support on the Genesis, genesis on the nomad), non intrusive memory expansion for individual game support (xmen v street/alpha 3 mem expansion) and arguably the heaviest most dedicated support to dying systems. Sega had staying power when most other companies would have called it quits. They’ve given a lot to the industry and having “zero respect” just shows either A: how little you know of their contribution to the industry as a whole, or B: You know way more than I do and are able to push past all this great stuff they did for games and come to the conclusion that Sega sucks…Because of Moonwalker..And whatever other games you were to busy to play because you had a SNES…
So the youth i talk about, in this instance, is your Game age. Like, how much you actually played and were exposed to, which, apparently, was cut in half because you missed out on what looks like over half of the 16-bit era, which is frankly quite sad. But hey, who the hell needs to know anything about games/games history/gaming culture to write about it huh?
*jazz hands*
you people sicken me, your judging a game that hasn’t came out yet. AND FYI, Mario sucks, period. I’d rather see sonic turned into a werewolf and stuff like they have been doing than going back and playing Mario games. I have found that all the Mario games are repetitive and tedious to play. when I found out that some of the games were repeats and one was stolen from an old Japanese game called Doki Doki Panic( Mario Bros. 2) I burned all the Mario stuff I had. I was frustrated, then I found sonic. it was new and different every time you got a new game. and FYI again, tails is not the worst because he was an instant star due to his cuteness and ability to fly. so, back off my childhood favorite. I mean who wants to play as an Italian guy, trying to save a princess from a dragon thingy for 20 years? you would have to be brain dead and/ or special ed to play it. if you ask me, I think sonic 4 will be the best game this decade has ever seen.
Well, I’m definitely one who is open to new ideas. But, to assess that I know nothing about video games because I didn’t own a Sega system is pretty fair to someone who does not know me at all. I was a kid growing up who didn’t have a Sega system because I was poor. Both of the NES systems I had growing up were gifts from friends of our family who bought them for us. My parents couldn’t justify buying another video game system for me when I already had one and because, quite frankly, they had zero money to do so.
But, luckily for me, a good majority of my friends had Genesis and even some had the original Master System and in the little time I had played games on any of those systems (whether they were exclusive titles, or ones that were on the NES/SNES) I never found myself enjoying them as much. Now, does that mean that I’ve played every game on a Sega system under the sun? Absolutely not. It means that I was financially, never able to be exposed to the amount of games you were. But, I didn’t blame my parents because I felt like what my systems offered me was more than enough for my entertainment. Until I got to a point in my life where I could buy my own systems, and now I have both a PS3 and an XBOX 360 to expand my horizons.
The point I’m trying to make is that I didn’t have a Sega because in the few times I played, it wasn’t as much or more fun to me. So, maybe I should blame my friends for not having better games than Vectorman? No! I know, I should have made my parents buy me a Sega Genesis because I knew one day some dude on a video game website would trash me for not having played as many games as him!
Nobody brought up what Sega “had done” for their field until you mentioned it. It would be hard to overstate what Sega has done for video gaming. Their systems, their leaps in technology, their innovation for a long time, appealed to a huge audience of gamers. They did a lot of things that are still done today, as well as created iconic characters, one of which is featured in this article. But ultimately their marketing and timing was flawed as a company otherwise they’d still be making consoles. Denying that would just make you a fan boy. Which, I’m okay with being a fan boy, because I am one. And, for the record, I’ve not owned a Nintendo home console past SNES, so I’m not a Nintendo homer.
And, please, don’t take this response as being some kind of “bawww for me, because I didn’t have money to own a Sega system” kind of thing. But, don’t tell me that I know nothing about games or game history, or game culture. Because, you may know a lot about your beloved Sega, but you don’t know anything about me. But, seriously, Jorge, I hate that we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot. I feel like there is a huge misunderstanding and you’re criticizing and judging me for my opinion on Sega which has nothing to do with you. I thought that’s what this site was about. What I said about Sega was largely meant to be trolling, and it’s obvious that I don’t know nearly as much about them as you do. So, to that I apologize. Just the facts, here guys, from now on.
Lol, sorry to say but about half the post DOES in fact sound like excuses for making silly comments, but that is beside the point. Whether or not you could or could not play genesis games or TG16 games or Neo games is not the point. Making comments for the sake of trolling and being offended when someone comments on it is silly. The point I am making is that, yes, you don’t seem to know much about the Genesis. Yes it is a problem when you write about games. Yes this can be remedied. All you need to do is stop thinking “I didn’t own a genesis because I couldn’t afford it and it didn’t have enough good games on it, and start thinking, “I didn’t own a genesis and I may have missed out on a lot of good games. This is stuff I should know about because I love games.” Maybe not as many as you had on your SNES, but I am not here to argue which system is better, I am just stating that making an uneducated comment on the value of a game company for the sake of being a cool internets troll is lame town. There are good games on pretty much every system and as someone who is willing to defend what he knows about games/games history/gaming culture, you should be willing to play or at the very least research stuff about games, even if it was on a system you didn’t own, because you didn’t have money, or you just don’t like the system. Ultimately this isn’t even about the Genesis anyway, it’s about Sega and you saying fuck them. I asked for reasons and frankly they were really weak reasons. Keep in mind all I said was the word “Youth” and you got all up in arms about your awesome 26 years of playing games as long as you can remember. Then YOU brought up the Genesis and its apparent worthlessness, and Sega’s inability to market the Dreamcast.
So in fact YOU brought up what Sega has done in the field.
Point is saying “fuck Sega” after all they have done for the industry is flat out silly. It is in fact, just Geoff trolling. I bit, just to see you defend your comment with a well thought out counter argument. I gave you all the reasons why I say Sega is good…Don’t Fuck Sega.
You say, you played some stuff at your friends houses, it wasn’t all that good. Jorge is just trashing me because he played more Genesis games then me. Then go on about how I started all of this… Tsk tsk.. It’s all fanboyism….
You’re somewhat right. It is. I am a fan of games, so when you say any system is not worth your time, say this or that good company sucks, I will provide you with a counter argument. Because I played and still own all that respective systems/developers shit, and have the experience playing and researching their games to make educated comments about them. This is not in an attempt to belittle or mistreat you, but quite the contrary, if you, with your 26 years of experience came to the conclusion that Sega sucks, and I with my many years spent playing and researching games have come up with a radically different opinion, maybe there is an interesting conversation there. Maybe not in the sense that you will convince me to hate the genesis, but maybe I should play my snes some more, because apparently you know so much about it and it is all so good that playing the genesis seemed like a silly endevor in your opinion.
SO yes, we’re off on the wrong foot. I’m almost always right.
Just kidding, but not really. Okay, yes I love to talk about games/game history/gaming culture and love to hear other peoples opinions on it, even if they don’t have much to say. I think that I just come off like I am trying to be insulting when I am just being really sarcastic, I am in fact trying to gather game knowledge really aggressively and have fun while doing it.
So no I was not being insulting and I apologize if I came off like that.