Sonic Editoral for East of Nowhere (Currently on hiatus)

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

... How the hell did I not notice this topic before? Maybe because I don't check this sub-forum very often...

Is there still room for people to join in? I'd like to pick Gamplay as my primary and Story as my secondary.

[Candescence]

Some people haven't made their claims in topics, so it's very much open.

Be mindful that we're going very slower that we initially thought.

Eh, that's fine. I want in, in any case.

[Sami]

Time to show off my brilliant cynicism~

“Hey Sonic! Enjoy your future! It's gonna be great!”

It shouldn't come off as a surprise that Sonic’s little farewell to his past self in Sonic Generations has become the butt of many jokes both in and out of the fandom. For over half of these twenty long years, Sonic was on top of the world; his games were system sellers and revolutionized the platforming genre with their clever use of speed and momentum-based platforming, he had a total of three different cartoons in that decade alone (with the first two being very popular with kids), and his image was thrown on everything from breakfast cereal to canned soup. SEGA had taken a risk and were rewarded with overwhelming success. So… what happened?

Unfortunately, the answer to that question isn’t a simple one, but it does have an answer. Before we can begin exploring it though, a little bit of SEGA history needs to be taken into account: By the mid-nineties, SEGA had already started to lose their stride started in the late 80’s. The SEGA CD was a flop and the 32X failed miserably; driving them to begin work on their next big console, the SEGA Saturn. For whatever reason, Sonic Team never attempted to make a new Sonic game on the system. SEGA of America failed to get Sonic X-Treme out the door and Traveler’s Tales was recruited to work on spin-off titles Sonic R and Sonic 3D Blast (or 3D Flickies’ Island in Europe). It wasn’t until 1995 (5 years after Sonic & Knuckles) that the next main series Sonic game was announced. After missing out on some of the most revolutionary years in gaming history, Sonic Team needed to impress. With six playable characters, more realistic environments, an RPG esque-plot (at least compared to other games at the time), and a fully voice-acted script, Sonic Team made a move that had the potential to seal the series’ fate right then and there: they jumped the shark. Riding on its massive amount of hype, revolutionary graphics, and insanely fast gameplay, Sonic Adventure ran straight into the hearts of gamers everywhere. And this, ladies and gentleman, was where it all started.

[sSMB responses over the influence of Sonic Adventure]

After the massive success of Sonic Adventure, Sonic Team began work on their next big game; a sequel simply titled Sonic Adventure 2. Taking everything that people seemed to love in Sonic Adventure and pumping it up to 120%, they seemed to be proudly striding the road to success. I mean, if it worked with the first one, what could go wrong? Well, in terms of objective game mechanics… nothing, really. There’s nothing particularly wrong about a more serious story, nor is it an inherently terrible idea to put Tails in a mech for the sake of variety. The problem stems from the fact that Sonic Adventure 2 was a celebration of Sonic’s 10th anniversary. Over the course of those 10 years, the series had established an identity of its own in almost all aspects of game design. The gameplay of Sonic 1-3&K were instantly recognizable as “Sonic” thanks to their unique take on momentum-based platforming, interesting way of telling a story without a single line of dialogue, and expansive, multi-tiered level design. With the Adventure series, this identity was practically thrown out the window completely in favor of a newer, more “hip and cool” one. This, my friends, was what caused the series to suffer one of the biggest drops in quality the industry has ever seen. After Sonic Adventure 2, the series just didn’t know what it wanted to be anymore.

[sSMB responses over the influence of Sonic Adventure 2]

Of course, there’s more to it than that alone; the actual gameplay itself also took a massive hit in quality. However, I believe this may have to do with the mass amount of experimentation Sonic Team was doing with the series around the time rather than completely incompetent game design alone. Think of it this way; if Sonic Team hadn’t been so bent on emphasizing the teamwork aspect of Sonic Heroes, the level design may not have been as linear and segregated as it was. If Shadow’s newfound love of firearms and vehicles wasn’t such a major part of the game’s focus, we might have actually gotten a competent story and some interestingly designed levels. If Sonic 06 wasn’t so ambitious with its over-the-top story and myriad of useless features, we might have actually gotten a complete product for Sonic’s 15th Anniversary.

[sSMB responses over the cause of Heroes-06's fantastic shittiness]

Since 2010, it’s become clear we’re in a sort of “Sonic Renaissance” period; the games have finally gotten their identity back (lighthearted, happy-go-lucky games that place all attention on the gameplay; just like the classics), and Sonic Team finally seems to know what they want to do with the series. Unleashed showed us in 2008 that Sonic Team might finally have learned what we wanted; but was ultimately held back by its insistence on sticking to the traditions of the Adventure games. Despite that, it smoothly led us to Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations; two games loved by both fans and critics.

Has Sonic gone back to the level of greatness he had in his glory days? No. But is it a feasible possibility at this point? I can proudly say that I believe so. Gone are the days that Sonic was good for nothing but being the butt of has-been jokes, now replaced with one of the biggest revivals in quality I’ve ever seen.

Welcome back, Sonic. We missed you.

[Ezeek]

i'm new to the site but a HUGE sonic fan... i may not like all of the characters, but i do like many of them... so i would love to contribute too... i have alot of things to say to sonic haters out there. In a non agressive and articulate way of course lol

Edited August 13, 2012 by Ezeek

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Yeah, no sense in dragging this out any longer.

So things are gonna be on hold until I can reorganize things. Marco's been quite absent, and while I still have every intention of making this a reality, it's getting a bit difficult to plan. I blame that on my inexperience.

We're also might be considering looking for another place to host the article. Bad news is that the East of Nowhere has stopped in it's writing, and so that just make the situation harder. I've been looking for other potential places, but I would find it much harder considering how the franchise and the fandom still has a bit of a bad image, so looking for one that would actually be less hostile would be a challenge in itself.

You guys are more than welcome to help out on the ideas if you're able to, but I figured I'd get this news out and stop beating around the bush with it.