Rant: Downfall of Sonic

Yay, I graduated from TJ about ten days ago. Now I'm no longer a high schooler,  but a bum doing his gap year. I'll be talking about that more on my future posts. But for now, I'm gonna talk about Sonic, one of the most iconic video game characters of our time.

Seriously, who doesn't know who Sonic is? At one point, he stood shoulder to shoulder with other famous video game characters like Pikachu, Mario, and DK. But Sonic, SEGA, and Team Sonic has been going down for a long long time now. Sure, they still produce Sonic games, but they tend to suck. They mostly get horrible ratings by video game reviewers and many gamer alike.  At best, Sonic games will do ok, like Sonic generations, and at worst, Team Sonic will cook up some bullshit like Sonc the Hedgehog 2006, which involved Venice and rescuing a Human Princess named Elise for some reason. Seriously, WHAT HAPPENED? WHY VENICE? WHEN DID SONIC TURN INTO BLOODY MARIO?

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Let's look at Sonic back in his glory days shall we? Back when he was in 2D and the plot didn't involve Venice. Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991 was one of the most successful games of the 1990's. It was a fairly simple 2D platformer that simply worked. Despite the 16-bit limitations, the graphics of the game wer amazing for its time, and the Sonic team back then put a lot of effort into this one. It was also a game with great 16-bit music and the blue hedgehog captured the children's hearts. Sonic 1991 remains the best selling Sonic game to this day. The story in this game was pretty much non-existent, but it's still a fine game in my book. With good enough game play, most shortfalls in a game can be overcome. And no story at all is better than a crappy story by my book. (Barring the exception where a game's story is so bad it's good)  Some later Sonic games have story so bad is breaks the 'so bad it's good' barrier by a mile and enters the 'so bad its bad' zone.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS?? WHY IS HE HOLDING A SWORD?

WHAT DOES SONIC HAVE IN COMMON WITH KING ARTHUR???? WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS??? YOU CAN'T JUST PLACE SONIC EVERYWHERE YOU WANT!! HE'S NOT A KETCHUP!

I actually couldn't find a good picture of Tetsu Kanato, but I assume this is what he looks like. 

The success of 1991 Sonic caused SEGA and the Sonic Team to develop a sequel, creatively named Sonic 2 in 1992. This was another 16-bit game and followed much the same formula as Sonic 1991, but many people still loved the ol' formula and Sonic 2 remains the 2nd best selling Sonic game by SEGA. This game also had some kick ass tunes like the 'Mystic Cave Zone' theme and had creative level designs. Sure, the 2nd player option introduced in this game were much hated by everyone, and this game still lacked a good story, but IT WAS STILL A GOOD GAME.  The release of Sonic 2 was one of the main reasons that Sega caught up to Nintendo in the "console wars". It brought their market share up to 50% within six months of its release. This is the game that made SEGA shoulder to shoulder with the other big cheeses.

HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO SHADOW?? WHYYYYY??

Success of Sonic 2 caused the Sonic Team to make a new game, Sonic 3, in 1994. Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles, the expasion to Sonic 3, were my personal favorites. It introduced Knuckles the Echidna, and it was the first sonic in which i thought I saw a plot. It still followed much the same formula in terms of gameplay and graphics. But it still had the great level designs and musics as well. The classic fomula in Sonic 1,2 and 3 simply worked. These first 3 games brought Sonic and SEGA to great heights in terms of fame and glory. And Sonic became a hero for many a children. IGN praised the Virtual Console release, giving it a 9 out of 10, and claimed it was the best of the original trilogy of Sonic games for the Sega Genesis, stating "Sonic 1 we called impressive. Sonic 2 we labeled great. Sonic 3, though, is the best of them all – and deservingly earns the highest score of the trilogy." And as much as I hate IGN for whoring themselves out these days, I pretty much agree with what they had to say here.

SCREW YOU, THIS ISN'T A VIDEO! HAHA! But seriously, they really whored themselves here. Was Mass Effect 3  a horrible game, no. But it wasn't a bloody masterpiece either. 

Unfortunately, Sonic 3 was pretty much the peak for Sonic Team in my opinion. Sure, they have had both ups and downs since Sonic 3, but never again would they consistently do well. After Sonic 3, SEGA released titles such as Triple Trouble, Chaotix, and Sonic Blast. These had pretty much the same graphics as the first 3 sonics, but just didn't have much of their magic. They all got mixed reviews and didn't sell very well. SEGA thought that the solution to making a new Sonic blockbuster lay in 3D. And for sometime, they did do well. Sonic Adventures in the SEGA dreamcast were well received by the community. But the steam in the Sonic Team only continued to run out. And ultimately, SEGA tried to solved this problem in the worst way possible, by being hip.

Is this FF7?

It was a game with guns and motorcycles and Shadow, the cool character in Sonic. you gotta understand, people don't play Sonic cause its cool. By taking the 'hip' route, this game dissapointed lot of the old fans.  Sonic is supposed to be a lighthearted game, not grimdark and motorcycle! Copying from wikipedia here,  Critics of 'Shadow the Hedgehog" derided the game's unwelcome sense of maturity for a Sonic series game, especially the addition of guns and other weapons. Game Informer staff writer Matt Helgeson said, "not only is this new 'adult' interpretation of Sonic painfully dumb, it’s also ill-advised and almost feels like a betrayal to longtime fans." Eurogamer staff writer Tom Bramwell felt that "the game's other selling point – its darker edge – [is] not really meant for us." Sonic Team heeded the critics and I don't think they ever tried to make something like Shadow the Hedgehog ever again.

This reminds me of a certain scene in "Dark Knight' for some reason.

However, Team Sonic still sucks. Now, they only stick to 3D platformers, which are supposedly 'hip'. They take the Venice route and... and...GIVE SONIC BLOODY EXCALIBUR INSTEAD OF GUNSSSSS. ARRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH. SEGA makes Sonic olympics and cheap cash-ins to sustain their dying company. Sonic hasn't reached the height it did back in the good old dreamcast era for awhile now, and it is unlikely to ever reach the height it did with the first 3 sonics games ever again.

This is the state that Sonic is pretty much at.

But Sonic isn't dead yet in my opinion, it is something that is still salvageable. The fanbase, while dying, is still alive. Many people like me have mourned the sad fate of Sonic, but long for its revival.  They refuse to make a classic Sonic game. All the Sonic games now have to be hip-cool, and dramatic. It's annoying, because it would be so easy to make a traditional Sonic game, and it wouldn't need a blockbuster budget. However, I think Sonic Generations, released in 2011 could signal a new era for Sonic. One without Venice and Excalibur.

Sonic Generations was a game that celebrated the 20th year anniversary of the release of Sonic 1. It was a game without much story line. It involved the ol' formula of collecting the chaos emeralds and defeating Dr. Eggman. It gave up on being hip with 3d and concentrated on 2d, which i think was the first step in the right direction the Team Sonic has taken in a while. This game combined the old levels that fans loved from the original Sonic trilogy and placed the 'classic' sonic next to the 'new' sonic. This game got great reviews by both fans and critics. Copying from wikipedia again here: PlayStation Official Magazine gave it an 8/10, calling it "a masterpiece of platform game design." GameTrailers gave the game a score of 8.1, calling it "the best Sonic game in over a decade." GamesRadar gave the console version 8/10, calling it "the best Sonic game since Sonic 2" So, if Team Sega can keep the new attention they gained from this game, and continue to please the fans by sticking to what they are good at and try to avoid being 'hip', I think Sonic and SEGA may still rise to the heights they did in the past, and a new generations of kids will love Sonic.

So, here's to a revival of Sonic and SEGA.

Music in Sonic remains the one thing that's consistently great :)

Stay cool during summer

-JC