Before I get into this, I'll let you know that I'm a Sonic fan of old, and will play any Sonic game no matter it's "fun" value because I just love the characters.
You really wanna know what's wrong with these games? There are so many things to pin-point, but I'll get to what really just hasn't been mentioned yet...
Sonic and friends have always been simplistic characters in a complex world. That's something that always made the series great; you had to use whatever simple skills you had to get through a more complex level, but at the same time there was a great thrill to it. Sonic would always move so fast on these roller-coaster like worlds. That's what made the game feel so cool, you had this awesome ability to get through almost anything. The jumping was great as well; why do you think the series was ever deemed a "platformer?" Sonic Adventure and SA2 were great because they kept the feel of speed, while giving only a few extra abilities, and throwing you in this world where there was more than one path you could take to get to the end. Too bad by SA2, most boss battles were annoying or easy (King Boo was very well done, however). Using different character was always cool because you could get to different parts of a world/level that other chars. couldn't.
It almost feels like there's nothing to earn anymore, either. Sure, collect rings, and buy Sonic a new, pointless ability that doesn't even really do anything for the game. Someone wanna tell me what making Sonic giant-sized is going to do for a game like this? I'll tell you what, NOTHING! It completely defeats the purpose! And why is Sonic the only one who can get a "ring-attracting" bubble? Everyone used to be able to have that. No special stages? No manual Super mode that eats away at your rings? Where's my quick spin-dash? Where's the speed?! The only thing that made Sonic and the Secret Rings any fun was that it had the old speed feel, but guess what? You don't have any control over it! Bah! I don't know why we can't collect the Chaos Emeralds anymore... Heck, even Sonic R let you do that.
The challenge nowadays is tolerating the two seconds of speed that you don't get to control with this sluggish, slow feel to the game, not how hard the game in and of itself actually is. How hard is this game, really? Have you ever stepped on an ant? Sweet, because you just beat Sonic the Hedgehog.
The stories of SA and SA2 were lame enough that they were their own style of cool that fit the characters and game well enough, so you could enjoy the plot for what it was worth. Tell me now why Sonic has to "die" and then get a smooch by a HUMAN in order to come back to life? I agree with another viewer here, we need more "Sonic-like" animal type characters for this story; Sonic needs to have his own planet in which he came from. The only cool character in this is Shadow; his voice fits, his character has a fitting attitude, and he doesn't have moronic looking expressions. Also, his story line is the only one that makes any sense for his character, even though they cheesed him out and made him a GUN agent.
*sigh* I still play the game though. The graphic are very pretty, and the sounds aren't so terrible. Sega needs to pull through though. I love this series, I love the characters (if you end at Sonic Heroes without Team Chaotix), and there are so many different stories they can try. Shadow was an amazing villain idea, but now he's on the hero side (well, OK, he's on his own side, but he just tends to help out for the good). Sonic needs a good rival like himself, but Robotnik needs to still exist and continue to have large-scale, hard enemies for him to fight. Chaos was a great enemy as well, but Sega since then has had a cliché of using "old legends reawakened" as a big final boss.
At it's core, it's missing the simplistic, cool character who can tackle anything. It's also missing the speed and a cool hero. This is all fixable, but I do hope it is seen. The game has beauty in looks, and that's fine, but the game itself lacks replay value... making it hard to go back and look at all the nice visuals. (By the way, the load time in this game was more than just irksome for what you get after it's done). Sonic has always had great replay value; for the way it is supposed to be done, it NEEDS it! The multi-player idea was quite amazing, however, I feel it needed an ending, and a start-over point. When in large groups, it's fun to watch, since one player can completely screw over the other player, and everyone gets to laugh for a bit.
All in all, the game is hard to get along with, but fun if you're a Sonic fan. I give it a six... and sadly... I'm being generous. :(
You really wanna know what's wrong with these games? There are so many things to pin-point, but I'll get to what really just hasn't been mentioned yet...
Sonic and friends have always been simplistic characters in a complex world. That's something that always made the series great; you had to use whatever simple skills you had to get through a more complex level, but at the same time there was a great thrill to it. Sonic would always move so fast on these roller-coaster like worlds. That's what made the game feel so cool, you had this awesome ability to get through almost anything. The jumping was great as well; why do you think the series was ever deemed a "platformer?" Sonic Adventure and SA2 were great because they kept the feel of speed, while giving only a few extra abilities, and throwing you in this world where there was more than one path you could take to get to the end. Too bad by SA2, most boss battles were annoying or easy (King Boo was very well done, however). Using different character was always cool because you could get to different parts of a world/level that other chars. couldn't.
It almost feels like there's nothing to earn anymore, either. Sure, collect rings, and buy Sonic a new, pointless ability that doesn't even really do anything for the game. Someone wanna tell me what making Sonic giant-sized is going to do for a game like this? I'll tell you what, NOTHING! It completely defeats the purpose! And why is Sonic the only one who can get a "ring-attracting" bubble? Everyone used to be able to have that. No special stages? No manual Super mode that eats away at your rings? Where's my quick spin-dash? Where's the speed?! The only thing that made Sonic and the Secret Rings any fun was that it had the old speed feel, but guess what? You don't have any control over it! Bah! I don't know why we can't collect the Chaos Emeralds anymore... Heck, even Sonic R let you do that.
The challenge nowadays is tolerating the two seconds of speed that you don't get to control with this sluggish, slow feel to the game, not how hard the game in and of itself actually is. How hard is this game, really? Have you ever stepped on an ant? Sweet, because you just beat Sonic the Hedgehog.
The stories of SA and SA2 were lame enough that they were their own style of cool that fit the characters and game well enough, so you could enjoy the plot for what it was worth. Tell me now why Sonic has to "die" and then get a smooch by a HUMAN in order to come back to life? I agree with another viewer here, we need more "Sonic-like" animal type characters for this story; Sonic needs to have his own planet in which he came from. The only cool character in this is Shadow; his voice fits, his character has a fitting attitude, and he doesn't have moronic looking expressions. Also, his story line is the only one that makes any sense for his character, even though they cheesed him out and made him a GUN agent.
*sigh* I still play the game though. The graphic are very pretty, and the sounds aren't so terrible. Sega needs to pull through though. I love this series, I love the characters (if you end at Sonic Heroes without Team Chaotix), and there are so many different stories they can try. Shadow was an amazing villain idea, but now he's on the hero side (well, OK, he's on his own side, but he just tends to help out for the good). Sonic needs a good rival like himself, but Robotnik needs to still exist and continue to have large-scale, hard enemies for him to fight. Chaos was a great enemy as well, but Sega since then has had a cliché of using "old legends reawakened" as a big final boss.
At it's core, it's missing the simplistic, cool character who can tackle anything. It's also missing the speed and a cool hero. This is all fixable, but I do hope it is seen. The game has beauty in looks, and that's fine, but the game itself lacks replay value... making it hard to go back and look at all the nice visuals. (By the way, the load time in this game was more than just irksome for what you get after it's done). Sonic has always had great replay value; for the way it is supposed to be done, it NEEDS it! The multi-player idea was quite amazing, however, I feel it needed an ending, and a start-over point. When in large groups, it's fun to watch, since one player can completely screw over the other player, and everyone gets to laugh for a bit.
All in all, the game is hard to get along with, but fun if you're a Sonic fan. I give it a six... and sadly... I'm being generous. :(