Former SEGA USA composer Spencer Nielsen has sat down with OSV for a lengthy interview about his work on Ecco the Dolphin, Sonic 3D, and some of his film and solo work. They discuss what he's currently doing as president and creative director at Ex'pression College, and what he has planned for the future.
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.
I got way more fun out of Sonic Adventure 1 + 2 than I ever got from a side-scroller
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.
Or maybe people should let Sonic evolve past 2D sprites. Stop holding the series back because you're nostalgic for the 90s.
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.
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
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).
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.
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
"Ecco the Dolphin is a classic exploration game where we meet a pod of dolphins who are innocently swimming around. Suddenly, great winds pick up and sweep everyone away. With their whereabouts unknown, Ecco embarks on a journey to find them." - Alex Legard from Video Chums
There’s a good article somewhere on the net showing some of the dev designer documents for this game. The level of detail they put into creating fish, coral, rocks etc was pretty amazing for its time.
Its a classic game that never gets old for. But seriously to hell with Welcome to the machine. That level and the one before it suck.
Phil at SPC takes a look back at one of Sonic's slower-paced adventures with his retro review of Sonic 3D Blast.
This game is so nostalgic for me, especially some of the music. Diamond Dust Zone!
