Gameplay and Shit

A while back, I was asked if I play games or just experience them. And while I replied, in my utter bafflement, I think I can safely say I have an answer, and the answer is, yes.

You can’t really have one without the other, as to experience the game without playing it would just be watching someone else play it, and I think most people would rather be more hands on, if the game is appealing to them of course. Nevertheless, as I pondered this question for really, the question itself, to me, comes from a place of living by the code that gameplay is the most important aspect of a video game, a code that was only created to pretend Nintendo is worth a shit on that aspect alone because compared to any other game, they’re severely lacking in the appeal department. Tell me how great Mario is all you want, his games will never have more appeal then most other well known titles, from Megaman to Gunstar Heroes, or Grand Theft Auto to Call of Duty. Hell, if other Nintenod IP’s like Metroid, F-Zero, and Starfox. Maybe more then Kirby but only because Kirby is just a pink ball with eyes and feet. This is the entire reason why this argument even exist, let’s stop pretending this code is anything more then that.
And I forgot to mention Sonic, but you know how touchy that subject is.

Despite gameplay the most important thing, it’s ironic to depend so this code so much because most other games, actually have more gameplay going for them then Mario, many of them are games I prefer to.

Mario is mostly about jumping at the right time when you break it down to the basics. There’s more to it down the line but most of it is still pretty basic. I’ll be generous and use this game as an example of Mario gameplay, haven’t played it myself or seen anything on it besides trailers but I’m sure there’s more gameplay present then most other Mario games.

Now some other games, and I’m going with older ones.

Think about how much you getting out of the gameplay of these games compared to a Mario game, there’s a big difference.It’s what makes the gameplay argument such a bad one because the argument comes from defending a company, not from how good their games are, and it’s even worse because the main people using this argument have gone against it man times. Gameplay is the most important part of the game, but a good chunk of these people complain about shit in other games that have nothing to do with gameplay, and in Sonic’s case, blaming everything, even the series own appeal, on it’s problems with gameplay, and not even the gameplay, as it was mostly glitches, the main case being 06. So yeah, when aimed at other games, the argument is about the gameplay quality, but when it’s Nintendo, it’s about defending them so they can feel justified and choosing them and their IP’s over everything else.

The main issue is this, a lot of people need to stop being pseudo intellectuals when it comes to games, and others need to stop parroting them. Now, if a Nintendo fan, or fanboy, wants to make the gameplay argument, I wanna know how Mario is better then these games I brought up, cause like it or not, we got alternatives for most of Nintendo’s IP’s, if not all. Digimon – Pokemon, Skyrim – Legend of Zelda, several sci fi racers – F-Zero, Starlink – Starfox, Spark the Electric Jester – Kirby(lol), Phantasy Star Online – Xenoblade.

06 Arguments

https://www.tumblr.com/crusherthedoctor/642042872366006272/the-people-who-defend-06-against-forces-not-just

It’s comments like these that tell you certain people have no real interest in having a discussion, just make up some points regardless of how credible they are just to get people to agree, which they only will because of being like minded.

Nobody is pretending 06 doesn’t have any flaws, it’s the fact that many people who turn out to like the game aren’t being effected by said flaws as others are, especially those who never played the game and just repeating what everyone else says, that’s why we think of them as minor. Also, the flaws of this game has been shoved down everyone throats for years, we’re well aware of the issues, it’s that people kept acting like the game was unplayable. It seems more like people bash the game simply for having flaws, not them actually being a problem. Yeah, I got stuck on a wall before, didn’t kill the entire game for me, and I wasn’t even stuck that long.

Then there’s the comment about how a game isn’t good just because it came out 10 years ago. That doesn’t even address the issue at hand no and practically claiming we think a game is good just because it’s older then 2010, an argument constantly made by white knights of modern cartoons when fans of older cartoons said things they didn’t like. Maybe it could be called false logic. It’s a logical argument, but it falsely puts words in the other parties mouth, words they didn’t even say. It’s worse when you take into account that us older fans had everything we loved about Sonic taken away from us, only to get these low-budget games that are not lacking we what loved, but we’re told to deal with it, while the same people are still bashing older shit just because it wasn’t “child friendly” or they convince themselves is a good argument to make.

There’s probably more to say, but overall, this is just the same tired drama we went through years ago, where no one who liked the original 3D games were allowed to have an opinion, only the new games are good, and they never have issues, at least none that triggers them. The worst they’ll probably say is something isn’t perfect, but las time I checked there’s no perfect game.

Compared to the modern game, while they claim it’s just what time period they were made in, the older games actually felt like sonic game, and not cheap Mario knockoffs like every other platformer, that goes for 06 as well regardless of it’s faults. The same can’t be said for the modern games, which in all this time, never had the same success as the older games, just some people on the internet pretending they have authority over others for liking them. If you don’t agree with the “statu quo”, you’re the enemy, simple as that.

This long ass comment about Balan Wonderworld and platforming

Shit, I ain’t been on in years, so I doubt anyone gives a shit, but since I logged in, might as well post this.

The topic was already commented on by Heru Sankofa, so you can just go here for the post: https://conflictingviews.wordpress.com/2021/02/15/hypocrites-balan-wonderworld/

I also made this long ass reply there to so there ya go. While I’m here, I guess I’ll add some other points, that point being that we all need to realize the best 3D platformer was Conkers Bad Fur Day and what made it the best of the genre literally had nothing to do with platforming. It was crud humor, good writing, and shooting evil teddy bears. The multiplayer mode was also a nice touch, played that shit for a few hours a few weeks ago.

“It’s my way, or yous a dead motherf#&$@ way.”

Being a Mario clone is doing no favors for any platforming game, if it did, they would all get the same treatment, hence why Klonoa never really got anywhere, and why Sonic hasn’t gotten anywhere in 10 years, and Forces wasn’t that bad, people just mad that the stages were shorter and just trying to make Mania look like the second coming. Not saying the game doesn’t have any faults, but Colors and Generations were givin the same hype with hardly anything going for them other then not being Sonic games. Yeah I said it. Could yall imagine with fighting games were given the same treatment? “Street Fighter is the greatest game ever!” would be comment repeated all day every day, but then no other fighters get the same level of fame or at least be relevant, then fall into obscurity. No King of Fighters, Guilty Gear, Killer Instinct, BlazBlue, Tekken, Soulcaliber, etc. DBZ would probably be the only contender due to it being a series people give a shit about outside of any games.

Giving this an equal, if not, bigger impact as a result.

That was one thing Sonic had going for him, people gave a shit about him outside of the games, despite the games being the main series, but I digress. When you look at other platformers though, only Mario is put on this pedestal despite the quality of other platformers. It’s a weird case with Kirby because there ain’t shit Mario has on that series yet Kirby has never been relevant outside of Smash Bros, though the aesthetics of that series don’t really help it, but it’s something to think about. There’s Crash 4 but Crash, like Sonic, actually did get over on Mario at least in popularity, and after it’s hiatus, the hype of it getting a new game helped out. I got the game but I hardly find it any better then the original games, and hardly something I’d put over Watch Dogs Legion or Final Fantasy 7 remake. Don’t give me any attitude about the genre, I dropped Kinda Hearts 3 for Streets of Rage 4.

“I got yo EXP right here!”

Yo matter of fact, imagine if we got a 2D platforming game, but it was like Watch Dogs Legion? It’d be a metrovania first off, except only key places would be closed off to you instead of most of the game, and you could freely go anywhere you want and shit. Far as gameplay goes, driving aside, unless you wanna have a 2D racing game situation going on when you decide to drive, just retain everything you can do in this game, but just in 2D.

There’s more I want to say, but I didn’t even plan on writing as much as I did just now. I may try to make posts in the future tho, maybe continue this topic at a later time.

The Edge of Infinite’s theme

Wanted to get back into this blog but I usually lose the motivation, so I figure I’d just make small posts. Now this I’m not making this just to post this theme song but to comment on something I’ve noticed about the comments towards this theme.

This is what Edgy means to normal people: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/edgy

edg·y

(ĕj′ē)

adj.edg·i·er, edg·i·est

1. Nervous or irritable: The performers were edgy as they waited for the show to begin.

2. Having a sharp or biting edge: an edgy wit.

3. Daring, provocative, or trend-setting: an exhibition of edgy photographs; an edgy menu.

 

This is what the internet thinks it means, or the self absorbed tards in it anyway: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=edgy

Top definition

edgy

Adjective. Taking coolness to its extreme and generally beyond the realm of actual possibility, while at the same time seemingly unaware of how ridiculous it is.

Examples of Edgy characters/things:
* Guts from Berserk: short black hair, insanely large sword, missing hand (which he replaced with a gun), scars (which make him look cool).
* Dante from the more recent DMC:Devil May Cry.
* Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII.
* Pretty much any protagonist of a “dark and gritty” anime.
* All of the characters from the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series.
* Nearly every character in a World of Darkness campaign, especially when LARPing.
* Clive Owen, Jason Statham Bruce Willis, and Liam Neeson in a lot of their more recent films.

#mary-sue#marty-stu#try-hard#campy#cool

Listen to this song and think about which meaning people are referring to when they make their comments about the song being edgy and if it even applies to the real meaning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKjOJuPjiu4&t

Biased Claims

Been a long time since I updated this blog, but I ran into a few things since I’ve been gone and when I feel like it, maybe I can make more post on them.

One thing I want to get out of the way is, of course, Sonic related. There’s this video I came across, one of those “Did you know gaming” videos. The video is not the important thing, it’s one of the comments I found. What I’m about do is respond to that and point out why it’s stupid. Here’s the link.

“Veon11 year ago (edited)
Sega was all style and no substance. The entire mindset of Sega of America was focused on surface image. While Nintendo was nurturing in-house some of the best videogame development talent in the industry, Sega was blowing through cash on marketing. No wonder they couldn’t survive long. They had a short-term bang and quickly petered out. Dumb catchphrases don’t build brand loyalty, quality products do.”

The very first sentience gets off at a very bad start. All style and no substance? Without even getting into the fact that Sega most made arcade games, what the hell does he mean by substance? All his talk about Nintendo nurturing in-house development means jack squat when you know most of their most praised games are carbon copies of older titles, amounting to updated Amiga, arcade, or Atari games. Donkey Kong was made after a Popeye game and Super Mario Bros was influenced by Pac-Land. There was a whole video on this in which the uploader not only talked about this, but also gives us a glimpse of this “brand loyalty” is acting high and mighty about.

The other thing I need to talk is how he blatantly tried to tie his problems with Sega with why they didn’t last long. They’re advertising had shit to do with that, in fact their advertising contributed to their fame, I say contributed, not the reason for it, I never even saw their advertising back then, but I played both SEGA and Nintendo games. Fact is I can like Nintendo and other companies, but I’m not going to be a fanboy and act like everyone else suck when most of them are really just as good, especially nowadays, they’ve gotten much worse is I’m not even talking about their game specifically, though their not selling. At this point, I only keep an icon of Falco because he’s my favorite Starfox character and the picture itself was well drawn, however I must digress because I wasn’t even planning on saying any of this. To put it shortly, Sega didn’t last long because of Sega of Japan, anyone with any mild knowledge of SOJ’s actions after the success of the Genesis knows what went down back then.

“I kinda skipped the 16bit generation, only playing the Mega Drive at friends’ places, but going back and comparing the libraries of the Mega Drive vs the SNES, it’s not even close, the Nintendo destroyed Sega.”

And he has nothing to back that up. You could say Zelda is better then Golden Axe but it would just come down to a matter of preference, but after that, I mean, there’s not much that needs to be said to this, especially when you add the many original games Sega made back then (Streets of Rage, Phantasy Star, Vectorman) along with their arcade ports(Golden Axe, Space Harrier, Alien Storm), exactly how are they being destroyed? It’s constantly seeing shit like this that’s driving me away form the fanbase, taking subjective shit like this and trying to make it objective with no means of explination.

“Edit: to clarify, my post is not about saying the MD sucks, I quite enjoy it despite thinking the SNES is superior, it’s about criticising the fact that SoA essentially invented the “console wars” in their marketing department to gain a short-term boost to their marketshare.”
Meaning he basically said all that shit because he’s butthurt about Sega’s advertising. The Sega hate in the Nintendo fanbase is strong, but many of them hate on almost anything not Nintendo if their common behavior and what was said in that video is anything to go by.

There’s more I can go on but I’m gonna end this after this last quote because I’m already tired of writing about this guy.
“+SotNist Mostly agree, maybe I’m being a bit hyperbolic, though I think some Mega Drive games are a bit overrated. Especially the Sonic games, which I enjoyed back then but looking back I can see the design flaws (and the reason they have struggled to move the formula forward).

And great point about the Mega Drive being initially a competitor to the NES, something that is often forgotten in console wars discussions.”
Goes out of his way to mention how overrate Sega games are is pretty much him admitting he dislikes the fact people like them, something very common within the Nintendo fandom. Aside from the fact that again, he has nothing to back up what he’s saying, one issue is his goes into Sonic being flawed by design and nothing being able to move on form the issue. Since he makes no effort to back this up as well, I’ll point something out myself. I don’t know if he’s talking about gameplay, but let’s assume he is for the moment, and also remeber a good number of people pull this too. Most of time until, Sonic gameplay is hardly flawed, in fact it’s not flawed at all. His gameplay is nothing more then jumping and rolling with responsive controls that work perfectly. I’ve played a decent amount of platformers before and I can say Sonic is one of the top when it comes to it, even if he’s basically a faster Mario. The only flaw in design anyone can attribute to with Sonic is stage design, which can very with each game on mindset at the time. When Sonic was first designed, he was meant to be a faster Mario as we all well know, though this became a problem in Sonic 1 due to most stages after Green Hill being more Mario like in design rather then Sonic like. Of course, this was Sonic’s first game so it’s understandable, but I hate how Sega decided to design their stages like this in more recent game, mainly more Marble zone like where you’re just platforming and balancing the two like they should, of course this goes into their “Roots” mentality the Nintendo fanboys go on about, seeing how this has been happening since Unleashed where you’re taken out of 3D for 2D, but progressively got worse with Colors and on. This mentality that being 2D, the platforming has to be slow paced like your average 2D Mario game. Going back to the classics though, Sonic 2 and 3 did away with that mind set and most stages became more open and spacious enough for you to get you speed on, where platforming was reduced from jumping block to block to jumping single gaps, at least most of the time anyway. The problem is this is lost on people because they generalize platforming to the Mario like formula, so more often then not, you mostly get slow paced shit nowadays because it’s the mentality everyone has. I can tell because I see this in fan games to. I also believe something was said about this on Deviantart.

To put it simply, this has nothing to do with Sonic’s design being flawed if we assume it’s about gameplay, but flawed because of a mentality that platforming needs to follow the Mario formula. This was fixed in later games and moved forward with though, and to say the flaw that was fixed is why couldn’t go further with it is just more hyperbole, which I know the guy admits to being hyperbolic, but not only does he continues to do it to make biased claims, his comment got 100+ likes, essentially saying 2 things” 100+ people co-sign his asinine statements as well as dropping into a Sega video to be biased against them. As I said before, this is that shit I get tired of, for all that talk about letting people enjoy what they like, they have a hard time doing so themselves. It’s become a defense mechanism at this point.

What should we praise then?

I’ve recently went to that video that one dude made, ProJared I think? Anyway, it was that review he made of SA2, the one all the fanboys were praising because he bashed it. I didn’t watch the video because I already knew it was made to troll and every video about bashing SA2 never tries to hide this fact. The biggest thing about this though, is that over a decade since this game has came out, people are still mad about the fact that people praise SA2, as if people who like a game is suppose to praise to much, despite the fact that everyone does it, it’s only SA2 fans that have to be trolled on. This hardly happens to any other fanbase, even the sectors in the Sonic fanbase, unless you’re a Satam fan because people seem to hate them for some reason, but given the bile I’ve seen people spit about that show, and that the fans of the show are not expected to defend themselves, it’s easy to see why people don’t like them. Just like how I can see people getting pissed off at Adventure fans, they actually defend their shit and praise it, even though they have every right to. It comes down to the fallacy of a double standard.

Now, there’s already been detailed reasons stated by other people why SA2 was good, 2 I can think of offhand being Conflicting views and the Sonic Adventure 3 facebook page. I’m going another route with this, explaining why SA2 is so great, by pointing out the general flaws in every console game from SA2 and after. SA1 doesn’t need to be included because SA2 is it’s sequel, and most of what’s mainly praised in SA2 already came from SA1, with a few differences. It will mostly come to gameplay and content, because those are the two biggest subjects of the games.

SA2:
Most people will agree that the content of this game is great, and probably the biggest reason this game gets praised by people who aren’t trying to separate how much of the game is great by percentages because they hate Treasure Hunting and Mech shooting. The story is engaging and soundtrack is one of the best in the series. The speed gameplay is almost universally loved.

Treasure Hunting gets a lot of flak for being bad, even though it offers the exploration some naysayers say was what made SA1 great. Many of them get mad at the stages for being big and empty, but most people who know how to play this game can finish these levels in a short amount of time, most people making these complaints because it they claim how many times it takes them 10 minutes or so to find the emeralds. There’s also tripping over the radar, which even though it would make levels faster, again, many people can still find the emeralds in a short amount of time, even without the hints. The only way to not find these emeralds is to somehow miss the area it’s in when you’re constantly running through the stage they’re in, and a decade after the game is out, people should know where everything is since everyone seems to have a vivid memory of how “bad” this was.

Mech Shooting catches flak, mainly for being slower then Gamma, but never saying thing about Amy in SA1 being slow. Aside from that, it’s mostly the fact that Tails is in a mech, when it doesn’t even hurt the game in any way.

Both Treasure Hunting and Mech Shooting catch flak for not being like the speed stages, because as we all know, that makes them bad by defualt and no good in the slightest.

Now to Sonic Heroes:
The story is pretty straight forward without anything to make it that engaging or even memorable. There’s also the weird part where every team had to be in a boss fight with two other teams for almost no reason, or a stupid one, especially the two fight Team Rose were involved in.

Has a mechanic where you can switch between a group of 3 characters. Speed characters are ok but the controls seem a bit stiff compared to SA2 speed gameplay.
Flying characters exclusively play in a formation where they carry the other two teammates and using them as projectiles, unless you somehow lose them in boss fight against a team, or special robot that captures characters. It’s ok, but given the new life span added to enemies and mostly useful for activating certain switches, they’re a lot less fun then the mech and Gamma shooting mechanics, and you usually wont want to use them for long. How high you can fly is also limited, to where you literally can’t move up anymore as if you hit an invisible wall. I guess Sega figured it would be cheap, but flying isn’t even that fast to be so, and you can’t switch in midair if you needed to, kinda defeating the purpose of doing that.

Power characters are more playable they flying characters, but given that their midair action is exclusively for fans to make you float up, something flying characters should’ve been able to do on their own, and slow speed, will make you want to switch to other characters once their job is done, either beating up robots, which any team member can do, or breaking certain objects.

Shadow the Hedgehog:
Shadow has an interesting and engaging story, but it’s mostly based on what missions you choose to do, only the last story that has the most impact and meaning, but the cut scenes before aren’t bad and pretty simple.

This game is almost exclusively hated for Guns, vehicles, and the word “damn”. Guns are far more useful then any action Shadow has, mainly because the homing attack and spin dash are nerfed, and punching is very short ranged, even though it’s cool to do that and follow up with a kick flip. People feel vehicles shouldn’t even be there because Shadow is already fast and the cars are slow and don’t control well. Despite that though, the controls really aren’t that bad for the vehicles, and it’s mainly cars and bigger that don’t control well, but motorcycles and other stuff you can pilot have pretty decent controls. The vehicles do have one use not too many people address, and that’s the armor they provide from damage, as you wont take any damage when driving them, and can simply run enemies over for a kill, not even needing to shoot them, the smaller ones anyway. There’s also the part about all enemies shooting at you even when you choose to assist them, but one would have to wonder why would you stand there long enough for you to take that damage in the first place, and most attacks are pretty slow and easy to get away from just by jumping.

06:
The story is hated by most folks for taking it’s self too seriously.

Sonic Unleashed:
The only thing people seemed to like about this game as the speed stages. The speed stages weren’t even that good due to the cheap level design that’s gonna fuck you up in some way before long, unless you’re one of those speedrunners who memorizes those levels.

Secret Rings and Black Knight:
Both hated for bad gameplay.

Sonic Colors:
Bad Content and story all around, and the speed gameplay people wanted from Unleashed was here. The game is said to be much easier, but the level design seem to get boring this time. Many have said that the game is more 2D then 3D and the 2D sections have been described as blocky, as if your playing a Mario game and not a Sonic game.

Sonic Generations:
The level design is somewhat fixed here but the content is shallow, and really seems like one big missed opportunity. The game doesn’t even feel like it was celebrating Sonic like it was advertised, but celebrating the twisted ideals of what people make Sonic out to be. In the end, it’s just a collection of levels you play in 2D 75% of the time and 3D 25% of the time, with no sense of adventure, just classic and modern Sonic and no one else. The story itself is like the rest of the content, shallow, and the premise starting with celebrating Sonic’s birthday in a random meadow just to have the tie eater fuck it up, rather then something concrete and something that could set off a real story. If anything, it was just a big pander to nostalgia since the internet has done nothing but brain wash people into thinking Sonic isn’t worth anything beyond speed and platforming, not the adventures he had in general, and how the could be interpreted now, since we CLEARLY didn’t have technology to tell a story back then.

Did I mention clearly?

Sonic Lost World:
Not even going to go into this, lord knows nobody else did given how badly it bombed, only to be outdone by…

Sonic Boom:
The game that totally gave into the internet brain washing and took everything you loved about this series and spit it in our faces. Anyone claiming anything from this bullshit is good or damage controlling for it in anyway, stay clear of them, for the sake of your brain cells. I honestly wanted to give this game a chance, and while I admit I had some mild interest in trying Sonic Boom Rise of lyric, I just don’t think it’s worth it. The cartoon, comics, and Shattered Crystal? Hell no.
I know I’m suppose to be going into the flaws, but it’s existence is a flaw. Say what you will about me saying this Boom fans, but if you’re one of the people who kept telling everyone how bad everything else about Sonic is, you have no room to talk.

Ok, so that’s it. Now, looking into all this, I have to ask, if not praise the Sonic Adventure games, then what are we suppose to praise? We all liked the classic games, but they’re not the only games worth praising, and many people who identify as classic fans don’t even really praise the classics, they just talk about gameplay, color, and being simple. The modern games post 06 and pre Colors? Many adventure haters hate that shit to. Games post Black Knight? The story, adventure, and character of the classic and Adventure games are totally missing, and are often too kiddy, even for kids, and/or shallow content wise. Gameplay is the only real thing being praised, because these people claimed for years that stories didn’t matter, but I guess they started to with Colors because of how moronic the writing was.

I can only finish with with this: People, if you don’t like the adventure games nor people praising them, mind your own damn bidness, but I know you wont do it because you have to keep promoting your false ideals about a franchise you never liked in the first place. Either way, it’s not you place to tell use what to praise who take it as an insult for us liking it. It’s pretty ironic that many of these people in an argument, can’t wait to tell someone who they are attacking them for their opinions, when they, and their peers of other special snowflakes, have been guilty of this since Unleashed came out when they blamed children for how bad the franchise is now, the franchise said kids don’t want anything to do with now, nor anyone else for that matter. This all comes down to pushing a double standard for their own benefit, which explains the complete lack of reasoning.

Sonic needs cues from TMNT content

Damn I’ve been gone for a while, but I was given something new to talk about and I suddenly remembered that I had this damn blog. Now, there’s very little going on with Sonic, but it hasn’t stopped the flamewars, in fact, I see some people spending more time defending figures behind Sonic, like that twitter account that’s only useful when trolls want to feel good about the bad example they’ve set for Sonic fans, but I digress. Lately, Platinum games has been busy. It hasn’t been too long since Transformers Devastation, and now they’re already have a preview out for their next game, and at this point, us Sonic fans have to be jealous of Ninja Turtle fans because they have it so good:

Ninja Turtles fans got this kickass game coming out, something us Sonic fans wish we could be excited for, but instead, only get strung along with bread crumbs and promises where only some of us less optimistic folks could hope we’re wrong about it being another hot mess no one wants.

One would only have to look at how a fanbase like the one for Ninja Turtles to see why the Sonic fanbase is still screwed up in this day an age, aside from all the flaming from people who aren’t even fans to begin with. For one, Ninja Turtles actually has good shit. Games that aren’t pissing people off and actually look good, a decent TV Show, and the comic books look promising, especially given that it’s the same writer for the archie comics, Ian flynn. Of course, they also have a movie coming out, and since it’s Micheal Bay’s name is on it, people are going to hate on it for whatever happens and ignores the decent entertainment I’m pretty sure it will have, hell, the first one was better then anything Sonic related in the past few years, bar the comics.

When it gets down to it though, it’s shit like what was in that Ninja Trutles game that Sonic needs to be taking cues from, I mean, they actually took Bebob and Rocksteady and made them look like a threat, especially Bobop revving a damn chainsaw in this shit! Of course I mean in terms of content, I wouldn’t mind if Sonic fighting game took after this, sadly, I doubt Boom would be shit in comparison to this when it comes out, nor was it before then, lol. Point is, Sega is so busy pleasing the people who never liked Sonic in the first place, that they’re doing jack shit for people who actually want them to do right. If this game is doing anything that’s considered a crime for a Sonic game in terms of content, then pass your fake Sonic fan card and stick to Sonic Boom and trying to convince people that it’s ok to make bad media because it’s for kids, and by kids, they mean adults with no standards in what they watch, cause they’re the ones praising this shit.

That’s all I feel like writing right now, but I do want to get back into using this blog more, and hopefully I do. Given the subject, I’d like to direct what few people who read this to go to an older article where I talked about people’s notion of Sonic being kiddy due to being colorful and other games that were colorful but still had good shit: https://heatseekerzone.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/sonic-being-colorful-or-cartoony-doesnt-mean-hes-exactly-kiddy/

Rash in Killer Instinct 3/Make “Legacy Sonic” this cool

So I was on youtube the other day looking up videos on Killer Instinct 3 when I found this:

Now I’m not the biggest Battletoads fan, because I didn’t know about them back when they were out, but I gotta say that I like them, and it’s really cool seeing one of them have a guest spot like this, especially in one of the best fighting games ever made. One thing I really like about this is Rash’s own character. I mean, the toads haven’t had a game in about 2 decades, and they were able to get his character right.

Of course, I got to get on Sega and Sonic about this, given that Sonic has been having game after game, and has gotten worse, of course, appealing to a small demographic who have no idea how anything works outside their own small minded views, unless it supports their agenda. Whatever the case maybe, we have Rash come out of 20 years od MIA status, and comes out great. All I have to ask is what the F*#% is wrong with Sega? This is something Sonic should be doing on a daily basis, and him and Sega are getting beat out like this.

Should’ve just stuck to American canon, not try to overshadow it with that Boom trash and calling the original Sonic “Legacy Sonic”

I’m just at a loss at this point though, and I already know all the answers from this guy, so I don’t know why I’m asking. I also already know people would get mad at the idea of Sonic being cool, but those people are flat out wrong. You can’t even say anything about KI3 anyway because blood is the only mature related s#%& in this game anyway, and it’s not even dark, it’s balance, but relies purely on action and style, like it always did if you compared this series to Mortal Kombat. Again, something Sonic should be doing on a daily basis. I’m sure this is redundant to the people who already agree with this notion, but the haters, you guys need to get your minds right, cause this BS we’ve been gettin’ ain’t cuttin’ it. I dare any of you to try and shoot down how what the developers of KI3 with Rash is bad for Sonic without looking like a fanboy. Attacking me for saying so won’t do you any good, but shows just how wrong you guys are.

While I’m at it, I saw this drama on deviatnart with Psycho the Frog, and how people deliberately started defending light hearted content and ignore what he was saying Sonic should be taking after this PC game called Hover:

Couldn’t have said any of that better myself

Now, the drama that popped off there and the content of opposing opinions is what proves the whole thing about supporting agenda’s, as I said before, all the ones complaining were arguing over what he said about light hearted s*&% and not on the game he said Sonic should be like. Plus, I saw the video, the game does look pretty good, and has a good overall rating on Steam.

Like with Rash on Killer Instinct 3, I really want to see what people have to say about making Sonic like this game, especially when it brings speed and color, much like what so many people require from Sonic if packaged as a kids product.

Story and content vs. Gameplay

It’s been a long time since I really did anything again, but I decided to check up on the SA3 page recently and saw their latest post and comments that came along with it, and noticed many people going against what was posted:

They’ve posted a chart from this article about what influences decisions on buying video games, and it’s amazing to see that storytelling is the highest on there, with the closest factor being the price. What I noticed though, long before this post but this was happening in the comments towards this post, were a few people still claiming gameplay is more important, at least in Sonic’s case, and some even trying to disprove the point. In response to this, I’m gonna break this down into 3 subjects I want bring up.

1. Content(Which story is apart of), is more important to gameplay.

First off, the fact that people bash or praise Sonic games based on content alone pretty much proves how little gameplay matter no matter how much they scream it isn’t. Look at the fact that many people who hate on the stories for most of the adventure era and saying the story doesn’t matter, somehow always take a liking to the stories we’ve been getting since Sonic colors, or will defend it while keeping quite over the Adventure debates, despite the fact that the stories since Colors did get a lot worse for obvious reasons. Whether you think story is important in Sonic games or not, a good amount of people sure seem to have a case to make about them, whether positive or negative.

But aside from Sonic, look at the rest of gaming. Sure, Mario(at certain times) and Minecraft do well, but most of the top selling and popular console games are action and story oriented, while most games light on plot and content are hardly recognized or sell well, despite their gameplay quality. Again, you got Mario and Minecraft, but how many other less story and action driven games with light hearted content, like them, get their recognition? Does anyone reading this even know how good these games are?

I’m pretty sure someone could tell me…. if it weren’t for the fact that you guys just aren’t playing them, or seeking out other games like them aside from Mario and Minecraft(And I’m not even sure if MC is being played by a good amount of Nintendo fans anyway, since it’s mostly them making this claim, but mainly for Nintendo titles). I know the people who more action and story out of their games may not be playing them due to them either being pretty kiddie or not like the AAA titles, but at the same time, why aren’t the people who openly express that gameplay matters the most and not story playing them, or at least ignoring them and not showing any interest in them at all? I’m pretty sure if Mario was slapped onto any of these games(CN Punch time is basically a smash bros clone so it wouldn’t be any different), there would be a hell of a lot more interest shown. It’s that fact that leaves me to believe that you need more then gameplay to get you interested in these games, especially when we still have people talking about Sonic 06 when it’s gameplay is bad but still shown more interest in then the games shown above. There are these other games I would include on the list but they are based on more well known franchises, so I don’t know how interested people are in them, but if someone can, feel free to let me know. I do know Skylanders catch hell, though it’s only because it basically replaced the Spyro series, but I have one of these games myself and it’s not bad.

2. Having good stories does not sacrifice gameplay quality.

Not much I need to add to this, because the main thing is that people seem to hang on to this notion that gameplay needs to be sacrificed in order to have some focus on the story, except there are many games(even before this and last generation) that still play well with focus on story.

And you better believe there are more games I can call out. Though, another thing to is that people assume when one cares about story, especially Sonic’s case when talking to a gameplay gamer(totally made that up), they usually use very extreme examples, like Last of Us, or simply wanting to watch a movie rather then play a game. However, in Sonic’s case to, this isn’t what someone who wants more, or better, story out of their games, it just means they want to see more of what the plot is about, or maybe even a reason to be interested in a game outside of it’s gameplay, given that, as proven by the pie chart show in the link, that most gamers look for in a game. The games I posted here are clear examples of what someone who wants more story in their games are talking about, especially with Sonic.

3. The motive of those who push their opinion for gameplay.

Just a bit of detective work here. Now, notice this topic started with a post from the Sonic Adventure page here. As you know, they want better story and content in Sonic games, hence the topics and arguments on the page itself. Then you have the people against better story and content, and want to focus on gameplay, or think Sonic is only about gameplay. The thing we have here is that the Adventure fans actually stand to lose something if the games don’t have what they asked for, so of course, they have to keep making this case and ask for it in hopes of getting it. Here’s the thing, what do the gameplay gamers stand to lose? They want more focus on gameplay and think Sonic is just about gameplay. Ok, it’s another argument, but here’s the thing: No matter what happens, they will get gameplay. Even if Sega were to make some new Sonic adventure game, the gameplay is still going to be there, and on top of that, there will most likely be a handheld or mobile game they can play that will still give them the gameplay they crave. No matter what the situation is, they will get what they want regardless, the gameplay quality itself will only be effected by the developers doing, as you can see, Colors, Lost World, and Boom have more story in their games then Sonic Heroes, but still has just as much gameplay as well.

Look at the classic games, I want to refer back to this pic here: http://fav.me/d6l0uo1

Sonic 2 itself has about 8 zone with 2 acts each, that’s 16 stages altogether, plus the last 3, Sky Chase, Flying Fortress, and Death Egg, though it’s only 2 boss battles, but still gameplay, so 19 stages in all. Sonic 3 has 13 zones, 2 acts each, with Doomsday, so that’s 27 levels in all, unless you count the multiplayer levels. Sonic Heroes, had 7 zone and 2 acts each, following the final boss(though you have to beat the game 4 times to get to it), so it’s at 14 levels. Then Sonic Adventure, if my memory on everyone’s number of levels is right, there is, I think just over 30 levels, I can’t remember who between Amy and Big had 3 or 4 levels. Adventure 2, 30 level total, I remember because it was split even with 5 levels per character, only with Sonic having 6 and Shadow having 4. Shadow’s own game, 22 levels. I don’t care enough about the modern titles to count their levels but I’m guessing it’s not too far from the numbers I have here.

The point I make is this, when does focusing on the story become a problem for gameplay? Would the classic games have less gameplay if you were to just add cutscenes, and would 3D games have more gamplay if they take out them out? Cause it seems both still deliver a good amount of gameplay, with or without the scenes. Not only with Sonic either, much like the last few games I mentioned when it came to good games that focused on story, again, are they going to be better somehow if they take out the cut scenes? Either way it goes, you’re going to get gameplay no matter what, and if you want less story in your games, simply go on Steam, find you some 2D games, and have it, or stick to fighting games. Either way, there’s no point in having the argument when what you want is heavily present in more games then they tend to lead on. Matter of fact, here’s a list of 2D Steam games: http://store.steampowered.com/search/?tags=3871&page=1#sort_by=_ASC&tags=3871&category1=998&page=1
Boom, all kinds of 2D games for you, 414 in total. This also goes for the people who actually complain about video game graphics to. I also wanna bring up to, we’ve had games in the glory days of games, that were a lot worse then your average game today. It wasn’t all Sonic, Mario, Megaman, Pac-Man, etc, and the majority of them had less focus on story to, as people make about Sonic and Mario, so there’s that to.

4. Sonic is not just about gameplay.

The mistake people make, or making it out that gameplay is the most important thing for games, despite that it’s not even what gets people interested in games enough to by them, it’s the fact that their interactive, have certain content that people want. Gameplay quality is only a problem when it actually is a problem, even then, Mortal Kombat was still popular and it’s gameplay was hardly as good as most other fighting games, but it’s content, mainly the graphics and fatalities, is what got people interested, whether that interest was positive or negative. Sonic himself though, was and is not just about gameplay, that’s a Nintendo way of looking at him. Sonic was about being cool and appealing to a wide range of demographics, not just kids, which actually repels them, especially if they’re already used to playing mature games, which we did have in the past, even if it were something like Contra or Castlevania or the majority of beat’em ups like Streets of Rage Final Fight. Even if Sonic was colorful, that doesn’t mean he was kiddy or fully light hearted, especially when in Sonic 1, most of the stages were not as light as Green Hill, maybe in color, but the tone was still darker, Marble zone is the first clue right there, while Springyard was balanced, which is what Sonic was good at, balance, but the content could still get dark, but never get light hearted to the point of Sonic Colors. Because of this, people should want Sonic to be taken more seriously, or be badass, he was suppose to be in the first place. If people are going to get worked up over taking sonic seriously, then why do they still defend when he’s not taken seriously? There’s still a story being told there. Too afraid of the games ending up like 06 and Shadow? Hell, they appeal to a lot more gamers, and kids for that matter, then Colors and Lost World. Even at that point, that’s not what most people are asking for in the first place. Plus, going into the comedy aspect, I’ve seen people say that the classics were about comedy to, which is straight up false, and just a means to try and push the light hearted comedy opinion for the modern games, or even trying ti justify it.

In the end, the biggest problem here is the amount of people confuse their own logic as truth, who go out and fight wars that don’t even need to be fought, especially when story is still being told through gameplay and other contents anyway, unless you want to remove all the graphics from your average Mario game, and replace everything with grey blocks, which I’m sure many people wont want because the content will no longer appeal to them. Proven by how popular the Mario Galaxy story is with people, who bash storytelling in Sonic games, or serious storytelling specifically. This is showing all too well how much Nintendo influence is in the Sonic fanbase, and making them worse for everyone who actually are fans of who and what Sonic truly is. If True fans don’t exist, there certainly are fake or stealth fans.

The Reason for all the Sonic Fanbase Negativity 2

Part 2 of the Sonic fanbase negativity. I would also like to recommend reading this article to: Yojiro Ogawa and Tetsuo Katano know Sonic the Hedgehog

-Character Bashing and mishandling-

Since probably Shadow and 06, fanboys got it in their head somehow that the other characters are to blame for the 3D games going bad(despite one easily looking at the handheld games and spin-offs to see that alone isn’t the reason). In this article by Heru Sankofa, he brings up the irrational hatred towards the other characters, and the real reasons why people were frustrated with them, so I’ll focus on some other aspects to this. Now, he brings up heroes in the end, and the funny thing is that it’s fixed in a fan game called Sonic World.

And this…

There’s also Sonic Advance 3 but you get the gist by now.

Of course, the main problem people complained about was having to switch to other characters, with other gameplay styles, or genre roulette as the trope goes. What confuses me is how this was such a problem when the gameplay quality, which these people focus on so much, weren’t really that bad, flawed, but most games are flawed in so way anyway, so it’s really about which flaws get overblown. The problem I find here is that most of the biggest complainers were Nintendo fans, and are constantly talking about how Mario is better(for no good reason aside from gameplay, which isn’t nothing special it itself), yet I don’t hear anybody talk bad about the Mario Party series or the Olympics games, both series that are nothing BUT genre roulette(Mario Party having those tired board games to go with it). Of course, this is why no one would say anything about them, but I find it hard to believe people can enjoy these games when many of the games you play in both of those series aren’t that great on their own. If anything, most mini games I can remember in the first 3 Mario Party games weren’t even that fun. Then we get to Sonic Adventure 2, which basically gave you mech gameplay(also playing as Eggman being a big perk), and treasure hunting. The mech gameplay gets flamed for being slow and people having a problem with Tails doing it(when all he did in SA1 was race Sonic). Even though Gamma was faster in SA1, being slower isn’t that much of a flaw(Especially controlling mechs that we should know can’t move on a dime anyway, based on the designs), especially when the stages are designed for slower movement anyway, it’s not like you were running then entire stretches of space and going against time. Then the Tails argument, that in itself is a nitpick given that Eggman had the same gameplay but as you can see, isn’t a problem on it’s own, so the same should go for Tails. The you have the hunting stages. Granted, SA2 had the broken radar, this still wasn’t that big of a deal unless you got stuck in certain stages. The thing about this is that this is EXACTLY the same thing you do in Mario 64, and many games they emulated it, in fact, IT WAS BETTER! In Mario 64, you didn’t even have a radar or anything if you got lost and had no idea what you had to do to complete the mission. Even if you did, you have to find a certain number of McGuffins or certain items. Remember the mission in the first Snow World where you had to some baby penguin and take it back to it’s mom? You literally had to pick it up and take it all the way down that big mountain(or up, I don’t remember), wheras SA1 and 2, you just had to find 3 crystals, and in the first stages, you could get it done in less then a minute. There’s also the gameplay, where you have Mario being just Mario, and Knuckles and Rouge could run fast, glide, climb walls, and dig for other items. Plus, they had better backgrounds and music to go with it. But I guess because that and the mech stages were part of a 3-way genre roulette, they have to be criticized beyond the actual problems, or overblown.

Then you get to Shadow, which people were just mad that the game was dark(no darker then SA2 mind you), people were just mad about the guns and vehicles, which had no negative impact on the game whatsoever. Then 06, which had more characters to use, but actually did away with genre roulette, and each character just had different abilities, and you only played as them in certain stages, while you still mainly used Sonic, Silver, and Shadow. The game even had a co-op mode for 2 players to only use one of the 3 hedgehogs they picked, doing away with character switching, and the Team Attack Amigo(I think that was the name) DLC that lets you play as Tails(who got fixed), Blaze, and Omega for 3 stages each, and you played all those stages in a row with no switching until they were done. I should also mention this game was original going to have online multiplayer, which would’ve worked even in this game’s state seeing how neither me or my friends had any problems with glitches during local co-op(Then again, we hardly had any of those during the main story). This makes the hatred of Shadow and 06 even more ironic because for the most part, they did away with a good number of problems complained about in SA1 and 2, and people still focused on what other problems they could blow up.

Before I move on from this subject, I did bring up Mario Party before, and there’s no reason to bring up shuffle since it’s mainly a clone, there was another party games that managed to outdo both games.

Why do I say this game outdoes Mario Party and Sonic Shuffle? For one, Crash Bash completely did away with the maps and lets you get straight to the games, and they’re battle based and actually fun to play. Plus, instead some of them being hard to play or don’t need a learning curve, these are easier and the AI only gets hard as you progress through the game, though it’s a problem if you play alone when all the AI are gunning for you, all the time. In any case, not only is genre roulette out of the picture, but you get to use any character you want, and at that, there’s a much better plot to.

Getting back to Sonic, regardless of the problems, the people who complain don’t make up the entire fanbase. There are people who were ok and even liked the other characters, they have fans of their own pretty much, giving more value to them then other give them credit for. Many of them were either cool yet we have to ditch them because SOME fans didn’t like them, like how Silver has his Telekinetic powers, but while he should’ve had a basic attack rather then needing to upgrade for his shock move, people got on him just because he was slow, which his abilities made up for in the first place. What I find jarring is that Amy is hardly called out on this when she was also nerfed compared to everyone else, I mean I had a better time playing as Big then Amy, I spent most of my time with him out in the fields rather then fishing. I even heard a friend of mine tell me that someone praised Amy in one of the advance games because she was hard to play with then the other characters, which made no sense whatsoever. I’m chalking that up to someone having hardcore gamer tendencies.

With us having all those complaints, we had lose many of those characters, at least in the main games, Black Knight being the best game they were in at the time, but now along with the series, they’re loosing some of their coolnes now and being mishandled, Sonic and Knuckles taking more damage in this department. One could easily look at the majority of the Sonic material up till 06 and then everything afterword to see the full direction of character mishandling the characters of this series has gone through. Don’t get me wrong, I know some of it started around the Adventure era, just not in the adventure games themselves(though Knuckles being tricked my Eggman again may have started this his huge decline in handling). Point is, Sonic and co were a lot cooler back in this time, but it’s like since Unleashed, there was this change going on where things were getting a lot less cool and epic, and even though the story book titles brought some of that Sonic coolness back, Colors just went …. not even downhill, it fell of a cliff at how when it came to it’s coolness, I.E., lacking it completely.

We went from characters with a mission:

To self aware jokers:

Sonic is now telling jokes that goes on a lot longer then they need to(especially when they aren’t funny from the start), Tails just sits on the side lines doing jack, Knuckles was turned into the laughing stock of the series, and Eggman turned into a complete buffoon. They literally took the modern kids cartoon way of handling Sonic, which is a huge mistake. Thankfully, the archie comics and still going, but I’m concerned over that reboot because of how much it started resembling the games. While it’s only in narrative and the characters are still themselves, what’s stopping them from turning the comics into the games even more, to the point we loose the good writing to? Hell, Ian Flynn could get fire, seriously injured or worse, and a new writer would have to be brought in, who just may be another fan of the kiddy direction, or doesn’t know Sonic and thinks that direction is the more logical approach to Sonic?  See as though I brought the comics up, I should put this here for an example of how the writing goes when the story is focused on action and purpose rather then bad comic relief.

For all the beef these comics got with many Sonic fans, they do a much better job at character portrayal, rather then making them self aware jokers, which is another basis of negativity in this fanbase, watching our favorite characters being forced into bad writing for cheap attempts at writing, and that’s not what people want in their games. If there are any games with comedy that manage to pull it off, it’s because they still put effort into the story and characters. For example…