Honestly, I don't really see it as a negative that the 3D games have focused less on keeping items and abilities between levels. I see it more as a change in design focus and as such, I can understand why certain things act differently in one set of games rather than the other. It'd be cool though if there came a game built with deeper 2D Mario routes that would allow for this, but for what the current 3d games are, I enjoy em lots.
I get that if the game is not designed with power-ups that you hold in the first place. Sunshine most definitely does not fall into that category; all nozzles and Yoshi are held indefinitely. You just lose them for entering/exiting a stage.
As for Galaxy, as I said, the fact that most are either timed or stage-specific lessens the impact. Bee Mario is about the only one that would honestly have been useful, and even so, the point on the spin maneuver is well made. And timed Mario power-ups are nothing new, and not in and of themselves bad. The Ice Flower is essentially a P-Switch with player-dependent platform placement. It's just odd to see the Fire Flower shoved into that category. Especially since its abilities actually can be reconciled with the spin maneuver rather easily. I don't see how it'd break the game considering the fact that you can point-and-shoot to stun the baddies anyway.
As I said, nobody cared in Mario 64. And by "nobody", I'm including myself. If the game is not designed for holding on to some power-up, that's fine. Sunshine was. They just chose to smack you in the face every time you change scenes.
Not to say the game was terrible, but it's definitely one of those things that time has gotten the better of.
There are games out there that age worse than the Adventures despite initial impressions. Besides the aforementioned Sunshine, there's also X5.
"One" misstep?
You missed the context completely. I am referring to SA1 specifically, *NOT* to any other games. "Future attempts" meant other regions, re-releases, and such. I am referring to your opinion of SA1, not to your opinion of 3D Sonic in general.
I mean, tell me why they focused on gimmicky things like adding more characters, a Tamagotchi-like diversion, weapons and playstyles, but a lot of the fundamental flaws that have plagued the Sonic 3D gameplay formula since at least Adventure-US, have still remained in even Unleashed, a game released just this last year? That just shows a disturbing thing of how Sega doesn't "get it". It goes even beyond how "returning to roots" is a meaningless tagline.
I'm not all that fond of Chao either, but they are easily ignored. They are a diversion, nothing more, nothing less, and in no way forced. The other play styles (mainly referring to the additional characters here) in SA1 are acceptable because the main focus of SA1 is still on Sonic, and that's what Sega's lost since then. Heck, many of the alternate SA1 characters didn't play that differently from Sonic, which is really as it should be. Tails and Amy work fine (even if I wish Tails's stages were longer), they're still running to the goal in a platformer, just with different spins on it. Knuckles is perhaps a victim of the 3D switch as gliding/climbing breaks any "open" stages, so rather than designed closed ones they overhauled his goal. Big and Gamma are the only real oddities, and their respective stories are short. Again, it's a matter of focus. Gamma was awesome when he first hit the scene, but that doesn't mean his play style should be overtaking the traditional. That's the main mistake that SA2 made, however I find it a vast improvement over SA1 in nearly all other regards.
As far as "meta game" thing went, it still was pretty thin. I guess I can only critique it so much since it was among the first of its kind, but again, I can't stress enough how they would need to give it some serious thought before ever implementing such a feature again.
The keyboard cannot possibly stress enough how much I disagree with you. It's a matter of personal opinion and I'll leave it at that, but I do not see why it is required for an additional segment of the game (beyond the final boss shpiel we already have going) need be designed around an entirely optional ability. Take any given Sonic element that worked, expand it, distance it, and segregate it from the established play style, and you fall into the same trap we were already criticizing with new character/gimmick use. You begin addition a distraction rather than an expansion.
While valid complaints, there's one big thing to note here: they're all aesthetic, in scope. None of these quirks, of which some I agree with, in the end, do anything to actually hamper the actual way the game plays. None of these things do anything to showcase truly BAD coding and play-testing at work. It'd be the same thing as me attacking a modern day Sonic game for its terrible storylines. It may be valid, but it has no bearing on the gameplay itself.
I have to disagree, that counter-point applies soley to point #3. Loss of otherwise permanent abilities (points 1 and 2) due to a map switch is not aesthetic. And you encounter that at least twice per Shine Sprite. Which is a
LOT. One Shine Sprite does not merit a lot of play time, making it a constant annoyance.
Point 4 is arguable. Being forced to replay the same stage isn't just an aesthetic problem, it's also a matter of when sheer redundancy makes the game feel like a chore. Heroes and Shadow made the same mistake, albeit to greater lengths.
95% of the Sonic games made in the last few years.
You keep bringing the entire line of modern Sonic up when in fact I am defending only two titles, the most recent of which is well over eight years old. You have issues with recent Sonic games? So do I. So I don't know who that debate is directed at.
...Yeah, nothing more to talk about in this particular argument.
Emphasis on "occasional". I will note that in Sonic Adventure 2 I cannot remember the last time my extra life count was below 70. So yeah, for all those allegedly unfair deaths that every bitching fan suffers, I must be kicking a lot of ass.
When it came time for me to adjust the camera in a 3D Sonic, it always felt very clunky and uncooperative.
It's funny you should say that. Because if anything I've found camera adjustment in Mario 64, and even Galaxy (both of which I love, mind you), to be far more troublesome than either Sonic Adventure (although to be fair you don't really
need to be looking around in Sonic nearly as often). It feels like every other time I try to adjust the camera I get the buzzer telling me I'm not allowed to. It gets very, very annoying at times.
That being said I don't consider it a deal-breaker. Even in isolated incidents where I consider camera issues to be a genuine gameplay flaw, they're usually brief enough that I don't care. The only game that I ever felt suffered a constant camera problem was Metroid Prime 3, due to the inability to disable the game's auto-level (when you have a pointer to tell the game where you want to look, the game has no business trying to correct you). And even then, I managed to work with it. To reiterate:
It usually stays fixed behind me, where it belongs.