It's been years since the Mario vs. Sonic days. Back then Mario and Sonic were huge rivals, always trying to edge each other out. But somewhere along the way, Sonic was starting to lose what made him so great in the first place, while Mario continued to dominate. Then the latest Sonic game was released that kept the original title, as if this was finally going to be the game to put Sonic back on the map. But it quickly turned out that it wasn't. What the hell did Sega do wrong and how can they fix this mess? For this week's Gaming Trends, we take a look at what happened to Sonic's adventure series (I'm going to ignore all collections and spin-offs for this column).The Early Days: On top of the world
Many consider this title to be the best Sonic game ever.
A couple years after Sega released the Mega Drive/Genesis, Nintendo responded with their own 16-bit console the SNES. With Nintendo having Mario as the key to their success, Sega needed a new mascot that would rival him and appeal to the masses (their previous mascot was some monkey boy named Alex Kidd). Thus Sonic the Hedgehog was born and debuted his first game in 1991. What was to make Sonic seem cooler then Mario? Speed. Sonic went a lot faster then Mario, and his games only needed to jump button. Even though it makes the games seem very simplistic, lots of people loved this style and Sonic was Mario's equal.
It was also during this time where Sonic reached his peak with Sonic CD, regarded as the best Sonic game in the series. What made this title unique was players could travel to the past in a stage to help make the future easier. Sonic was also given a couple of new moves like the Super Peel-Out, a standing version of his Spindash. Unfortunately, for a game that was so great, it was released for the ill-fated Sega CD, and the new moves and time concept were never used again. Even though he reached his peak, the later 2D games were still as good as ever. All seemed right in the Sonic universe, until he suddenly entered the third dimension.
The 2.5 and 3rd Dimension: Still going strong
Does this look 3D to you? Either way, Traveler's Tales sucks.
Sonic entered the 3D realm with Sonic 3D Blast. Except for a game that had "3D" in the title, the game was anything BUT. It was basically a glorified "2.5D" game with butt-ugly graphics. The game wasn't that bad, but it was very disappointing to think that this was possibly the best Sega can do. They were working on a true 3D Sonic game that could've kicked all kinds of major ass, titled "Sonic Xtreme", but after three years of development, the game was eventually canceled. It's a shame, because a killer Sonic game could've kept the Saturn afloat.
When Sega came out with the Dreamcast, Sonic was part of the launch with a new 3D game called Sonic Adventure. Not only was it really 3D this time, it was also a good game. What made this game completely different then previous Sonic titles was this time, you really had to play as more then Sonic in order to get through the entire game. The other characters all had different play styles. Tails was a race to the finish, Knuckles was a search and dig, Amy was basically the same as Sonic, Gamma was a shooter with a time limit, and Big...was fishing. Yes, for a game that was once gloating about how cooler it was then Mario because of speed, they put it some SLOW...ASS...FISHING portion into the game. Not to mention that Big himself is a very pointless character. Despite that horrible idea, the rest of the game was fun.
With the success of Sonic Adventure, a sequel was made for the 10th Anniversary. The second game introduced two new characters, Shadow and Rouge, and for the first time, Dr.Robotnik...er, Dr.Eggman was now playable. Unlike the first game that was split six ways, this one was split two ways for Heroes and Villains. However, because the characters from both sides played the same way, it was basically going through the same kind of stages and telling the story from two different points of view. This game is often criticized for not focusing on Sonic enough, since instead of going through the whole game with him, he had to play certain stages as players were basically forced into playing as Tails and Knuckles. Even though Shadow played the same as Sonic and had a unique back story, people still wanted to play as JUST Sonic.
When Sonic went multi-console, we were treated to Sonic Heroes. Players got their chance to play as just Sonic...forced to tag along with Tails and Knuckles. Well that's not so bad, as the stages are all basically the same. But then they had another team to play as: Shadow (who should have been dead), Rouge, and the latest E-100 robot, Omega. Well at least Shadow was somewhat popular. But then there was the team of Amy, Cream, and Big, who all basically suck. But then there was the team of Espio, Vector, and Charmy, characters from "Knuckles Chaotix" long forgotten by just about everybody except hardcore Sonic fans. So overall, they had 12 characters in a game that, a long time ago, only need one at best. In the end, Sonic Heroes didn't turn out much better then Sonic Adventure 2. But hey, at least Metal Sonic made a well deserved comeback.
While many will say his 3D games aren't as good as his 2D classics, they were still good to play. But as you've already noticed, a problem was starting to present itself. Back in the day, it was all about Sonic. Yeah you could play as Tails and Knuckles sometimes, but the main focus was always on Sonic. By Sonic Adventure, you had to play as five other characters to get through the entire game, and a couple of those characters weren't exactly popular choices. By Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic was reduced to about four stages because the main mode had you switching characters all the time. In Sonic Heroes, Sonic shared the spotlight with ELEVEN other characters, some which had no right to really be in the game. Suddenly, the Sonic series was becoming less and less about Sonic. It was only going to get worse from here.
The Fall: Sonic reaches an all time low
Them kids with the hip-hop and the shiny bling-bling are sure to love Shadow now.
Shadow the Hedgehog. This would be the first major game within the Sonic universe where it revolved around someone besides Sonic and possibly the only character to have enough back story for a game in the first place. But what Sega did with Shadow was quite possibly the biggest mistake they have ever done with a Sonic game ever. Back in the old 2D days all it took for Sonic to be considered cool and edgy was to go fast. Times must've changed terribly, as Shadow, instead of using his natural chaos powers, was now using guns. GUNS! In a SONIC game! I can understand if Eggman's robots are using guns of sorts, but it's the HERO (or anti-hero or whatever the fuck he's supposed to be) that is using them! Probably even worse then Shadow using guns instead of his chaos powers was that he also said the word "damn". I don't really care about swearing and characters who swear, but why did Sega suddenly felt that one of the Sonic characters suddenly needed to swear in order to appeal to today's kids? So besides almost destroying Shadow's credibility, the game was also a piece of crap. For someone using guns, Shadow doesn't even have a freaking lock on system. The camera was a mess, the graphics were outdated, and the whole "change sides on the fly" gameplay was broken.
So after the mediocre Shadow the Hedgehog, Sega tried to reinvent the next Sonic game. It was going to back to it's roots! Yuji Naka wanted to create what would happen if Sonic was real! Sonic was going to have super fast stages, and you'd also be able to play as Shadow and the new guy Silver who had awesome telekinetic powers. So once this game was released...people hated it. But what made people hate the latest Sonic game? Apparently it was because for a game that tried to reinvent itself, the same old problems kept appearing again. The camera still sucked. The graphics sucked. Adding to those problems were very pointless NPC characters with nothing to say and suddenly switching what characters you were playing as in the middle of the stage. There's also the ending that you can find on YouTube where *SPOILER*the one thing people did NOT want happening between Sonic and the princess happens.*SPOILER*. The character who was once Mario's major rival was now in games that could no way compare to Mario.
Now What?
Take a look at the ratings found on Game Rankings based on his console adventure games (early games based on 1 media outlet):
Sonic 1: 90%
Sonic 2: 92%
Sonic CD: 100%
Sonic 3: 95%
Sonic & Knuckles: 91%
Sonic 3D Blast: 67%
Sonic Adventure: 87%
Sonic Adventure 2: 84%
Sonic Heroes: 74%
Shadow the Hedgehog: 52%
Sonic the Hedgehog: 47%
So not only was the latest Sonic game bad, but based on these averages, it was the WORST Sonic game to have ever been created. Where exactly did Sega go wrong? Did Sega lose a lot of morale all around when they were no longer a first party and their boss sadly passed away? Did it have something to do with Sammy buying a majority of their stock and somewhat merging with the company? Or maybe it was because during the project, Yuji Naka and ten other members of Sonic Team left to form their own development studio for independent games? It seems impossible to figure out how exactly Sega could screw up (or maybe I'm just stupid), so instead of figuring out, I'm going to offer a couple suggestions as to what Sega can do to save the Sonic franchise.
- Sonic ONLY – Sega seems to be adding new characters into the Sonic games thinking it will somehow save the franchise. While playing as another character is somewhat cool, most (if not all) Sonic fans play Sonic games to play as only one character all the way through: Sonic himself. Look at the GBA games and Sonic Rush. You can play as just Sonic all the way through the game, then later you can try out the other characters. It was the same thing with Sonic Adventure. People buy Mario games to play as Mario. People should be able to buy Sonic games to play as Sonic and not so many other characters at the same time.
- Fix the damn camera! - Seriously, for every review of a Sonic game, the camera problems are always brought up. Even though fixing the camera alone probably won't help that much, it'd be nice to have a working one without any problems don't you think?
- Quit making them mature – When did a simplistic game any kid could enjoy suddenly get packed full of guns, swearing, and stories full of angsty goodness? Can't the story just simply be "Eggman is stealing the emeralds for an evil cause?" Mario's story never had to change that much to appeal to it's audience.
And here now is the biggest and possibly most controversial suggestion to Sega: Stop making Sonic games. Yuji Naka, the man who created Sonic, is no longer a part of Sonic Team (and several other members left as well). I think this pretty much gives the sign that he doesn't care much for Sonic these days. So my suggestion is for Sega to hire another developer to make the Sonic games for them from now on. Dimps would be a good choice as they create the great handheld games and are well known for other good console titles. Or how about a major third party like Namco or Konami? Or perhaps Sega needs to be bought out by one of the big three (most likely Microsoft) and overlooked carefully. Either way, Sega needs help and, like Sonic, needs it fast.
[credit: Wikipedia, IGN, GameSpy]
