The Reason Sonic The Hedgehog Lost His Way

[Starlight]

Ever Since Sonic Adventure 2 on the Sega Dreamcast, the hedgehog has suffered some pretty piss poor releases. Sonic fans have been hurting for a long time now with titles like "Sonic Riders" and more recently "Sonic The Hedgehog".

What little good will gamers had left for the blue blur is quickly evaporating thanks to Sonic Unleashed, an otherwise decent Sonic game ruined by brawling levels that turn Sonic into a werehog combatant.

So why exactly do the development team keep screwing things up exactly? Turns out it's an entirely conscious decision.

In the latest IGN Three Red Lights http://feeds.ign.com/~r/ignfeeds/podcasts/games/~5/466609192/Three%20Red%20Lights,%20Ep%2049.mp3 at the 19:40 mark David Clayman recalls a time when he talked to a member of the Sonic Unleashed team about this very issue...

"I asked one of the developers at TGS, you know I was like, come on everybody just wants Sonic running, like whats up with the werehog? And he was like, well, heres the deal... he runs at this miles per hour, kilometers per hour, and he laid out all of the statistics on how fast this hedgehog goes, and he was like:

In order to make a game where Sonic is running and everybody enjoys the whole thing we'd have to design this many miles of level, and it was some ungodly number. And he's like and that would be like maybe a three hour game and I was like wow, well that kinda stinks and he's like yeah, so we gotta do this other stuff."

So there you go! Sonic's speed means the level designers would have to craft and design miles and miles of scenery in order to make a game of decent length.

Would you rather have a short, great Sonic game or the current lengthy and flawed Sonic games of recent years? I know which school of thought I subscribe to. More PlayStation 3 News...

[xandura]

wow! i feel exactly the same way. the stages with sonic are freaking fast and fun, excepct for that rpg part where u can go about the city and what not, but please, the werehog sux, too slow, not powerful enough and tries to be like god of war and prince of persia at the same time, and it fails miserably

if only we could play the sonic levels, and leave the werehog untouched, even with this ooold engine, im pretty sure id be way more fun

come on, how many level artist/designers are desperate for a chance like this?

[Kraken]

Yet they were able to create all those miles of levels 17 years ago? I don't buy that for a second. They are saying it takes less time to create and design the entire gameplay model for the werehog complete with all of his animations, moves and miles of levels rather than a few more sonic stages?

Sonic unleashed has about 3 minutes of Sonic gameplay for every hour. No other sonic game is that bad, and Sonic Adventure is over 8 years old now. They should be able to make at least that level of game now.

[sorceror]

Two words: procedural content.

[Vision]

Thank you Kraken!! As I recall the old Sonic's were nothing but running at light speed through loops, pipes and all sorts of stuff. Grand Theft Auto is 'many miles,' oblivion is 'many miles.' The Sonic people can't do many miles? And it's only in one direction!! I say they are just phoning it in with weak excuses because they don't have the drive to accomplish what they did in previous years.

[CyanCaze]

Yeah, I have always told my friend's Sonic can work in 2D. But 3D is pushing it.

[xxLindenxx]

Why dont they make it in 2d with 3d graphics? id like that.. i'd like that very much

[warrior420]

becuase it would end up in the 10 doller bin just as fast as Sonic The Hedgehog for the PS3. I got mine for less then 7 bucks... lol and afterwards ill admit i was disappointed. but ill say money well spent.