30 Years On, Sonic The Hedgehog Should Abandon 3D Gameplay

Sonic the Hedgehog is turning 30 years old, and at this late stage in the character's life, it might be time to give up on that precious 3rd dimension.

[phoenixwing]

All they need to do is keep making sonic adventure games

[Duke19]

I got way more fun out of Sonic Adventure 1 + 2 than I ever got from a side-scroller

[phoenixwing]

I agree. Both games were fun on the dreamcast

[Fntastic]

Yeah i liked SA, SA2 was really good. Heroes was kinda meh..

They need to go back to the SA2 formula and enhance that playstyle. Sonic has had plenty of great 2D games but i think SA2 proved they can make a really good 3D game, you would have thought by now they would've nailed it.

[-Hermit-]

Or maybe people should let Sonic evolve past 2D sprites. Stop holding the series back because you're nostalgic for the 90s.

[-Foxtrot]

People want Sonic to evolve, it's just they aren't doing a good job at evolving it

Sonic Adventure was good
Sonic Adventure 2 was great
Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 was bad
Sonic and the Secret Rings was nothing special
Sonic Unleash...again not great
Sonic and the Black Knight, bland and gimmick like (I mean a sword, really)
Sonic Colours was better but not by much
Sonic Generations was pretty decent
Sonic Lost World, nothing eye catching
Sonic Forces, pretty terrible

So out of all them, only a couple were decent

Sonic Adventure just likes to be ignored by SEGA, no remakes, remasters or sequels while Sonic Generation got a sequel with Sonic Forces and they basically took everything we loved about Generations and tossed it out the window.

They are all over the place.

[Teflon02]

Naw Sonic Unleashed had some amazing day time stages, Sonic Generations modern sonic was fantastic. Forces problem was lazy stages that took 2 seconds to beat and barely any skill past holding square. As long as they do it right modern sonic is fantastic.
2D sonic is great and mania is too. But sonic 4 ep1 was mehh, EP 2 was good though. But I'd play day time unleashed over it every time

[darthv72]

I like both 2D and 3D sonic games. The original series, Generations, Mania (for 2D) and then of course Adventures, colors and Lost World (for 3D).

[-Hermit-]

People overexaggerate when it comes to Sonic's 3D games. There is nothing particularly wrong with most 3D Sonic games, it's just the mere fact that they are 3D that people can't accept. Then you have sites like IGN that never liked Sonic. A lot of this goes back to their childhood of Sonic vs Mario and Sega vs Nintendo, they can't let it go, even as adults.

I was also a big fan of Lost World too. Not so much the story, but I thought the gameplay was excellent. I remember IGN and Gamespot's video reviews getting massively downvoted at the time. They were just making shit up and were just bad at the game.

This is the main problem. People don't want to like 3D Sonic, so they don't even bother trying. Personally, I find the 3D games to mostly be between good and excellent, with the odd bad or mediocre game here and there. Sonic Unleashed's day time stages are still some of most well made stages I have ever seen in a platform game.

[isarai]

Or just literally steal what fans have been making, seriously there's like 4 fan made sonic games out there that play better than anything team sonic has made in years

[Eamon]

Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 were very good 3D sonic games.

The problem is that there is no talent at Sonic Team. They came up with the super speed linear levels in Sonic Unleashed and it hasn't been good. Most of the time you're just pressing forward while holding the dash button, with the occasional jump/home attacks.

Sonic doesnt have to be that super fast. Funny enough the closest we got to the balance between speed and platforming was probably the incomplete garbage that was Sonic 2006. Since then, Sonic games have just prioritized speed, speed and more speed.

Some might say that speed is the entire point of Sonic. That is true, but it takes only 5 minutes before the Sonic Unleashed formula becomes repetitive. Platforming allows for skill, variety and challenge. I noticed that the pre-Unleashed levels in Sonic Generations had more platforming than post-Unleashed. They were also Sonic Generations' best levels.

My advice to SEGA: Get rid of the dash button. It worked for Sonic Rush as it's a 2D game. It doesn't work for 3D. Sonic 2006' mach speed segments in levels are the way to - essentially super-fast set pieces. But the core formula needs to be platforming.

[Inverno]

I don't get why it's hard to make a good 3D Sonic game, Sonic Utopia is literally what they'd hafto do. A game that takes the level design of the 2D games (multi layered levels), make them into mini sand box 3D levels, make Sonic easy to control (don't make him a tank while he's walking), and focus the gameplay on momentum where you're encouraged to be at full speed for just about everything. All the 3D Sonic games I've ever seen seem to be on rail once you get him to run, and that never looked fun to me

[Rimeskeem]

I think Sega needs to get their studios more talent or just give them more than a year or 2 to make a 3D game. Mario made the transition to 3D perfectly. There is no reason why Sonic can't. Hell, it's probably the best game movie yet.

[Chocoburger]

Its literally the lack of dev time as you said. The problem is that Nintendo is willing to fund and nurture Mario games, which is how we end up with Sunshine / Galaxy / Odyssey / etc.

SEGA wants to rush out Sonic games, and this has always been the biggest issue. Even if a particular game has potential, the games turn out poorly because of game design flaws that weren't fully figured out, bugs, control issues, constant loading screens, etc.

Sonic 2006 and Sonic Boom Wii U were both rushed out in nearly Alpha state quality. What a pathetic joke. If the devs were given more time to fully complete and polish the games, they may not have become masterpieces, but at least they wouldn't have been embarrassing and shameful releases.

[Rebel_Scum]

Completely agree. They’ve never worked.

[Knightofelemia]

Just don't repeat Sonic 06

[Bigman4k]

Nah its not that its the sonic team that makes alot of these bad sonic games they the ones who need to go and get people in there who will make good sonic games

[Tanoriss]

I don't understand why SEGA can't see that Sonic Adventure 1/2 were 3D games made RIGHT.

The Chaos, the handling, the spin dash, shoot even the multiplayer, everything was good.

After end game I spent hours with the chao garden, that alone was a whole nother game.

It's like they want to ignore the only successful 3D games they ever had.

Personally unless there's a true successor or current gen remake another sonic game won't get me excited, to each their own, theres always the dope fan projects out there that are pretty much SA3.

[lellkay]

Part of me agrees just because the quality is just so all over the place and everyone likes and dislikes different games for various reasons. 2D is so loved, I could live off of Mania esque games forever.

I think wihen it comes to 3D They really need a strong fresh focus on the gameplay and to go all out with a big budget. Maybe get some of the fans on board like they did mania. The fans might be the fresh view they need!

[MocBistro]

I have never liked Sonic games, even as a kid, I don't know why, it just seems very weird to me.

[giovonni]

It wouldn’t hurt, it can be a side scroller with 3D environments and beautiful textures. Rayman, is a great example of this

[Chocoburger]

I was just playing Sonic Adventure 1 on Dreamcast last week, and had a good time. There's no reason to abandon 3D Sonic games.

The issue has always been SEGA wanting to rush out incomplete or unpolished games. The executives running SEGA are so ignorant that they don't realize if you spend more time (and thus more money) fully completing and polishing a 3D Sonic game, not only will it sell better (more return on investment), but you'll also grow the fanbase.

Instead, they just keep shoving rushed games out letting people down and making Sonic Team look bad, when a lot of the time, its not their fault. If only a 3D Sonic game had a full 5 years dev cycle, we'd see a truly polished and well designed game. But until that happens, we're stuck with games that can hit some highs, and reach some really awful lows.

This is just another shit hot take by a fake journalist whose run out of ideas of garbage to whine about, looking for clicks.

[Eamon]

We need the kids or their parents to stop buying Sonic games to send a message.

I wonder how long a development cycle is on a Sonic game and how large the team is versus the return. The former must be pretty damn small because I rarely ever hear of amazing sales for the Sonic franchise these days.

[gold_drake]

i think they just dont quite know what to do with sonic. they made him that super sonic speed type kinda thing but i think they just find it really difficult to translate that into a game.
the advance games were amazing and the sonic 1-3 were amazing aswell, but ... anything else? heroes was ok. but i dunno