Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (Wii, PS3, 360, iPhone)

[Waifu]

Might have something to do with the fact that Sonic Team has basically been locked in Sega's basement being forced to work on cranking out at least one Sonic game every couple of years since the Adventure days.They're incapable of making a good [tornado fang]ing Sonic game because they're burned out, soulless husks of game developers that Sega is keeping on life support simply to milk them for cash.

Ever since Naka and a few key members left Sonic Team, the games don't seem all that cool anymore. Naka loves to move forward and I respect him for that but Sega should a t least treat Sonic with the utmost respect he has earned but instead they keep derailing his character and the games he appears in. I had seen fan games better than what Sega is churning out recently and they are very creative but that is not to say that recent didn't have good ideas although they weren't implemented well. I just hope that this game or an abomination of an game that this will turn out to be hopefully lives up to its Sonic the hedgehog 4 name, otherwise I am going to cry foul and I will be a very sad boy.    [/fan myopia]

[Rin]

Ever since Naka and a few key members left Sonic Team, the games don't seem all that cool anymore.

Are you kidding me? Naka was a cancer upon Sonic. Or so I remember.
Also, he was the main reason for cancellation of Sonic Xtreme because:
"LOL NO U CAN'T HAVE TEH NiGHTS ENGINE! HA HA HA!"

Therefore, I hate his face.

[HyperSonicEXE]

On the other hand, Sonic Xtreme was going to bring back Sonic CD Metal Sonic, introduce a Ringforger, and some crazy-ass Mary Sue for Sonic.

Broke even, really.

[Gaia]

Are you kidding me? Naka was a cancer upon Sonic. Or so I remember.
Also, he was the main reason for cancellation of Sonic Xtreme because:
"LOL NO U CAN'T HAVE TEH NiGHTS ENGINE! HA HA HA!"

Therefore, I hate his face.

Only except.. The graphics are already made, and the rom's perfectly emuable and ready to sell. I can't see why he decided to cancell it in the last minute in favor for a cheesy port of Sonic 3D Blast. It's why I never got a SEGA console inbetween the Genesis and the Dreamcast.  

Now Dimps is handling the game, and people are going nuts about it like the possible next sonic RPG is gonna be handled by Bioware again (this increases the chance for a Sonic: The Card Battle game you know).

Yeah, but if the next godly FPS or JRPG comes out.. yeah. Sega should have started a new series during 2006 to keep them in line.

[Satoryu]

After the likes of Sonic Advance 3, Sonic Rush Advance and Sonic Unleashed WiiS2?

Hey, I don't like those games either. But the other half of their portfolio is good.

And I say I want a good game because I haven't called a console Sonic game between SA2 and PS360 Unleashed "good". And that's not counting the Wii only games, one of which I thought was a bit better than good (Secret Rings). Hell, me calling Unleashed good is a bit of a stretch because I never cared to finish it. Everything else has been less than good to me.
Yes Flame, that includes Sonic 06. It's a shitty game. You like a shitty game.

[VixyNyan]

I love Sonic Advance 2.
with Vanilla

[Police Girl]

Only except.. The graphics are already made, and the rom's perfectly emuable and ready to sell. I can't see why he decided to cancell it in the last minute in favor for a cheesy port of Sonic 3D Blast. It's why I never got a SEGA console inbetween the Genesis and the Dreamcast.

The Sonic 3D Blast Port is much better than that Shitty Genesis version. The Music and graphics are excellent (I love me some S3D Saturn Music), and the Special stage kicks ass. The PC version is the cheesy port, its a whole lot of fail.

I love Sonic Advance 2.
with Vanilla

I liked the main stages, but the ludicrous way of getting to the Special stage (Combined with the awfulness of the Special Stage itself.) And the fact that you have to UNLOCK the Sound Test makes it mediocre in my Book. Never should you have to go through the same 7 shitty Special stages in a row with 4 characters just to unlock everything (and a 5th time for completists.). At least SAdv3 fixed that, and made the special stages a decent challenge.

and besides... who decided that mile high pits was really necessary? can't they just be a little bit of a fall instead of falling for 5-6 seconds?

[Protoman Blues]

Because Advance/Rush's music was not memorable, save for maybe Metal Scratchin'.

....Oh when Jelly sees the lack of Wrapped in Black....

[Kieran]

I thought the music in the Rush games was horrid, personally, not just "unmemorable."

But then, I really friggin' miss Sonic 3's music.

[Alice in Entropy]

Sonic Rush had tasty music, I don't care what anyone says.

[VixyNyan]

Sonic Rush had tasty music, I don't care what anyone says.

[HyperSonicEXE]

I love Sonic Advance 2.
with Vanilla

When you're not going for the Special Stages, SAdva2 is fine.
Busty rabbits are always a plus.

....Oh when Jelly sees the lack of Wrapped in Black....

This is unusual for Sonic music, but somehow, it got old. So did Bomber Barbara and Vela Nova.

Too busy, too many instruments, methinks.

[Gaia]

Busty rabbits are always a plus.

Then again, so are busty bats and loli rabbits.

However, there's that need to add another unecessary character for almost every game... it's why Vela Nova's track isin't as memorable as the Knuckles fight in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Blaze was developed a little too late when Xtreme was put into production.

Since the Rush music may have been a little too busy, but it was most likely the right choice for Sonic vs Blaze, with Eggman/Eggman Nega hanging in the background. I was never fond of any of the special stages. period (Well, Sonic 3's but eh).

Am I the only one that liked Sonic Spinball?

[HyperSonicEXE]

Then again, so are busty bats and loli rabbits.

However, there's that need to add another unecessary character for almost every game... it's why Vela Nova's track isin't as memorable as the Knuckles fight in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Blaze was developed a little too late when Xtreme was put into production.

Since the Rush music may have been a little too busy, but it was most likely the right choice for Sonic vs Blaze, with Eggman/Eggman Nega hanging in the background. I was never fond of any of the special stages. period (Well, Sonic 3's but eh).

Am I the only one that liked Sonic Spinball?

LOLI?! Sir, you need some pink hedgehog bewbs, stat!

I don't know why they keep adding characters. I think they got the message after Sonic Rush Adventure (for Dimps) and Sonic Unleashed (for Sonic Team).

Rush's music might have had solid melodies, MAYBE, but they got skewed by voiceplay, instrument hits, and just general wankery. Whatever happened to tracks like Chemical Plant; simple, but effective?

Who doesn't like Sonic Spinball? Even if it can be cruel sometimes.

[Flame]

Only except.. The graphics are already made, and the rom's perfectly emuable and ready to sell. I can't see why he decided to cancell it in the last minute in favor for a cheesy port of Sonic 3D Blast.

Because they were Behind schedule, WAY behind, still were trying to figure out a boss engine,  and Naka got showed the wrong demo. ( an older one) He then told them to remake the whole game with the working boss engine, and by then, well yeah.

[Gaia]

LOLI?! Sir, you need some pink hedgehog bewbs, stat!

Yes, But I do love pinball.. it's why I see spinball as a classic, no doubt. I don't know why, I think I may want another arcade-themed Sonic game after this title.. aside racing.

But I think there's this urge to keep up with the ever-increasing Mario cast.. except unlike megaman's new guys, they might have a 50/50 chance of being shoehorned in.

[Alice in Entropy]

I heard somewhere - and I don't know if this is true or not, just bear with me - that Sonic Xtreme was way behind development schedule for whatever reasons it was, and Naka wanted the game to be released in time for the holidays, or something to that extent; thus leaving the team absolutely little to no time to iron out the myriad bugs, glitches and problems that plagued it, as well as giving them virtually no time to sort out the boss engine. The chap who wrote this article concluded by saying that, had they done this and released it to the gaming public rather than scrapping the damned thing, it would have been akin to Sonic 06, circa ten years prior.

Anybody like to hazard a guess as to what that would have done to Sega at that relatively early stage, before the rot really began to set in?

[Jericho]

Rush's music was not memorable

*Rages into SSJ3*

Rush's soundtrack was not only the best Sonic soundtrack in ages, it brought back a lot of what had previously gone lost in the series musical progression - actual sampling and homages. Hell, imo I think it's soundtrack and composition should have been the next true evolution in Sonic music.

[VixyNyan]

*Insert Jet Set Radio music here~*

[Jericho]

Hell yes.

[Mirby]

Personally Wrapped in Black from Rush and Big Swell (which itself is a mix of WiB) from Rush Adventure are two of my all time fav game tracks. Deep Core is sweet too. Also, at least the Rush games had EGGMAN AS THE FINAL BOSS, not Perfect Chaos/Finalhazard/Metal Overlord/etc... (granted it's Eggman and Eggman Nega, but still...)

[Jericho]

Another thing some people forget to give Rush credit for -- it really was an interesting take on strictly speed based Sonic. Dimps set up a good foundation for feel, mechanics, and tone in Rush, and then they went back and fixed the level design and even upped the ante on bosses in Rush Adventure. If only Sonic Team themselves didn't meddle around with RA and gave it a poor hub, forced story elements before levels, and Marine. (Oh GOD, MARINE. )

[Flame]

Didnt the advance games also hae Final boss Eggman?

I liked myself Advances music. Especially 2.

[Mirby]

Exactly. Not to mention the Mission mode. That was my favorite part of Rush Adventure. Especially Muzy's time trial missions to unlock tracks in the sound test. Those were tricky. You needed to find the perfect path through the level, and not get hit either or else you'd screw up. Also, Hidden Islands were cool too! Especially Hidden Island 9 (think that's it) where you can get the maximum score of 110,000, and Hidden Island 16, which was the first level from the original Rush. Also, say Aye if you've ever wanted to kill that retarded raccoon!

AYE! OH GOD YES AYE! (Jelly knows where it's at!)


And yes, they did, but still.

[HokutoNoBen]

I heard somewhere - and I don't know if this is true or not, just bear with me - that Sonic Xtreme was way behind development schedule for whatever reasons it was, and Naka wanted the game to be released in time for the holidays, or something to that extent; thus leaving the team absolutely little to no time to iron out the myriad bugs, glitches and problems that plagued it, as well as giving them virtually no time to sort out the boss engine. The chap who wrote this article concluded by saying that, had they done this and released it to the gaming public rather than scrapping the damned thing, it would have been akin to Sonic 06, circa ten years prior.

Anybody like to hazard a guess as to what that would have done to Sega at that relatively early stage, before the rot really began to set in?

Assuming this is true? It's difficult to say. The Sega Saturn was already doing a lot to undermine Sega's image, lack of "mainstream" Sonic game or not.

a. The "best" we can assume is that it would not change much. There was nothing the Saturn could do to help Sega really win back Japan, and Western support was slipping away quickly too, thanks to the encroaching Dreamcast. If marketed correctly (...questionable, given the Sega we know from the last decade), it could have been a thing that Sega pushes the game and all those associated under the bus, a la Nintendo with the Virtual Boy, and keep things moving with the Dreamcast. Perhaps Naka would have pushed his version of Sonic in a different way, if he knew that some things would just not be acceptable.

b. On the other hand, finally getting a mainstream Sonic game, only for it to suck, might have done a lot to possibly kill Sonic off for good. In fact, a lot of what I've been reading on this era showcases that there was a good chance that Sonic could have been phased out entirely (or at least, given the extended vacation that the likes of Shinobi got until well into the PS2 era). If things had worked out differently like say, Bug! and the sequel doing better on the marketplace, it's very likely that Bug! could have been the new Sega hero.