Friday, April 8, 2011

Crisis on Infinite Zones?

Below, the trailer for - amazingly - ANOTHER next-gen "Sonic the Hedgehog" game. No title, no indication of gameplay, but it's got quite a hook: "2000s Sonic" is joined midway through his run by... "Original 90s Sonic." O... kay?



Two things are immediately apparent: That Sonic Team continues to know more about "pitching" Sonic games than MAKING them, and that you have to be really into Sonic to immediately discern the actual difference between the two Sonics.

It's probably a coincidence, but part of me REALLY wants to think that the side-by-side run, along with the whole (implied) premise, is an intentional shout-out to "Flash Of Two Worlds."

Also, Sonic Team? Free note: If you actually are going to pull some kind of "Sonic Multiverse" stuff, you might as well have the SatAm cast show up. The fans will lose their shit.

10 comments:

Popcorn Dave said...

Yeah, they'll NEVER put the SatAM cast in there but it would be pretty badass if they did.

This is also a perfect chance for the English-language version to switch back to "Dr. Robotnik". I hope that's what happens, not that the game is going to be any good anyway..

Michael Westgarth said...

As usual, I've gotten my hopes up already. I just have a real soft spot for Sonic.

This one might not be too bad considering Sonic Colours turning out quite alright. Again, my hopes are up.

nullhypothesis said...

Gee, I can't possibly think why Sonic Team would want to ignore the fans, after they gave us exactly what we'd been whining for since about 1999 (in the form of the Sonic Rush series, Sonic Colors and Sonic 4) and NOBODY PLAYED THEM.

Smashmatt202 said...

I guess Sega finally listened to the fans that bitched and moaned about how Sonic in Sonic the Hedgehog 4 shouldn't have green eyes and should be shorter and chubbier.

Personally, I don't care as long as Robotnik looked like he used to. Yeah, that's right, the original Robotnik design was AWESOME! WAY better than the newer ones!

David said...

And thus, the Sonic cycle begins anew.

It's gonna happen, and you KNOW it.

Tegan Dumpleton said...

Hmm. No non-sonicesk story, no humans or unpopular sidekicks, shout outs to the original games including the landscape... could this actually be... good?

KaiKasparek said...

That's really the one thing that will shut the Sonic haters up. They want a SatAM video game. When they complain about characters, they are really saying "Princess Sally isn't in it, therefore it sucks."

KaiserWarrior said...

@Nick: Gee, I can't possibly think why Sonic Team would want to ignore the fans, after they gave us exactly what we'd been whining for since about 1999 (in the form of the Sonic Rush series, Sonic Colors and Sonic 4) and NOBODY PLAYED THEM.

Nobody played them because after a decade of being fed steaming plates of dogshit, they weren't thrilled to try the latest batch and see if it tasted any less repugnant. Not very fair to the games, but you can't blame people for not putting their hands on the stove again.

@A Tribe Called Helloween: That's really the one thing that will shut the Sonic haters up. They want a SatAM video game. When they complain about characters, they are really saying "Princess Sally isn't in it, therefore it sucks."

Nothing could be further from the truth. In the first place, there really aren't any "Sonic haters". There are people who grew up on the original trilogy, which was and still is a trio (I count S&K as "S3: Part 2") of amazing games. And then came the 3D sonics, which were all -- objectively -- mediocre games at best (Sonic Adventure 1&2), trash games at worst (Shadow, Sonic 2006). They controlled poorly, had generally mediocre graphics, questionable voice acting, bland artistic design -- the list goes on. Wanting a series to get back to what made it great is not hating it. It's loving it enough to try to help it learn from its mistakes.

And the people complaining about the enormous cast of throwaway characters aren't pining for SatAM. They just didn't like how later games in the series tried to hide their numerous flaws (outlined above) by throwing more characters into the mix in a cynical attempt to try and grab something, anything that could be construed as "cool".

nullhypothesis said...

@John:

If you're not going to play the games even when they make good games, why do you keep whining when they make bad ones? Money talks, fan bitching doesn't.

This is also why I want to slap every douche who whines about, "Why did Nintendo not release Mother 3 over here? Why did we have to get a fan translation? WHY?!" I'll tell you why: Because Earthbound fans are all talk.

Smashmatt202 said...

Umm... You DO realize that Starmen.net gathered up over 400,000 signatures, as well as an entire book of fanart and a few CDs of fan remixes to Nintendo of America, Nintendo of Japan, AND Shigesato Itoi to convince them not to give up on Mother 3 when it was canceled, right?

Worst example ever.