Sonic Dash (iOS/Android)

[Tani Coyote]

Even if you die, as long as its not as the result of something that would cause you to lose your rings, all of your rings still get added to your balance, making it much easier to grind and build up rings by yourself. Of course, I suppose they realised this, and that if Red Star Rings weren't the only currency of any real value in this game, very few people would bother to spend any money on microtransactions. 

 

Yeah, so they had to make the Red Rings scarce so as to get the profit margins rolling...

 

I mean I can understand microtransactions as a profit mechanism but is this all really necessary?

 

I'm guessing the "Store" option I suggested just wouldn't attract enough people, so they're instead basically forcing the fans to go through a toll booth so as to keep profits high.

 

Though for all we know this is just an unfortunate consequence of folks playing it like a hardcore gamer; as the missions increase in quantity the issue will alleviate itself. I don't think they planned for most people to beat all there is to beat on day one.

[Blue Blood]

So I'm thinking... I would gladly pay much more money for full-fledged iOS game in vein of Dash without all the nickel and diming. The ground work is right here. Throw in some more locations with a 2 or 3 act system, and bob's your uncle. And then on the side you can have an arcade mode, ala exactly what we have now.

[Tani Coyote]

So I'm thinking... I would gladly pay much more money for full-fledged iOS game in vein of Dash without all the nickel and diming. The ground work is right here. Throw in some more locations with a 2 or 3 act system, and bob's your uncle. And then on the side you can have an arcade mode, ala exactly what we have now.

 

I think many folks would; the goal here I think is to try and minimise barriers to entry. Then once the player likes it they'll pay a little more here or there for extra content.

 

Granted it would have been best to make this free, and I get the oddest feeling they will soon; they probably just knew half the fanbase would buy it early on and wanted to cash in. As I recall Jump did best when it made itself free and people bought in mass.

 

Letting people try before they buy is always a good policy. A free game with purchasable content is a better model than pay a little now and pay lots down the road.

 

As should be known, since the reason Sonic was so successful to begin with was his first game was effectively free; it's no wonder Sonic 2 was so well sold since there was hype left over from the freely-distributed 1.

Edited March 10, 2013 by Ogilvie Maurice

[JaidynReiman]

I'll wait for this to go free. Looks like a fun alternative to Temple Run, except that its missions suck. As does the Red Ring thing, too. Really, just put out the final 1-2 updates for Sonic Jump already.

[Tani Coyote]

I'll wait for this to go free. Looks like a fun alternative to Temple Run, except that its missions suck. As does the Red Ring thing, too.

 

Yeah they'll have a day sooner or later, probably on June 23rd or something.

 

I think right now there's just heavy demand for things as not enough supply (missions) to meet it. Thus incentivising the purchase of Red Rings. Give it a few months, the shortage will probably be alleviated and things will proceed smoothly.

 

The microtransactions thing is pretty clever at getting hardcore folks to hand over some cash though...

 

Really, just put out the final 1-2 updates for Sonic Jump already.

 

All too common a company promises sequels and then just unceremoniously drops the project entirely...

Edited March 10, 2013 by Ogilvie Maurice

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

I doubt this will be free ever. The reason why Sonic Jump was once free was because it was part of iTunes 12 Days of Christmas and I'm sure Apple paid Sega Hardlight to be featured.

[MamboCat]

Granted it would have been best to make this free, and I get the oddest feeling they will soon; they probably just knew half the fanbase would buy it early on and wanted to cash in. As I recall Jump did best when it made itself free and people bought in mass.

 

Ahhh, SEGA! They know their fan base pretty well all things considered... if it were on a simultaneous Android release I would have been one of the suckers buying it at midnight! XD

 

I still think Jump will get it's last level eventually, though... I have a feeling that perhaps they put it to one side to finish Dash. As for the extra characters *shrug*. I suppose there are a lot of folks out there who want to play as Shadow, huh?

[Spooky Mulder]

Personally, I think the game is fun and people are being too harsh on the game itself for SEGA trying to profit from it. If we ever get new courses via an update, I'd love to see something based on Starlight Carnival.

[Burnt Ash]

Personally, I think the game is fun and people are being too harsh on the game itself for SEGA trying to profit from it. If we ever get new courses via an update, I'd love to see something based on Starlight Carnival.

 

It's not so much that SEGA's trying to profit from it, it's moreso that the game seems to be all up in your face about having to buy things rather than earn them in game. 

[Blue Blood]

Personally, I think the game is fun and people are being too harsh on the game itself for SEGA trying to profit from it. If we ever get new courses via an update, I'd love to see something based on Starlight Carnival.

You're missing the point. It's like Burnt Ash has said above, really. The player who doesn't spend extra money on temporary items in game (that cost more than the game itself), will be disadvantaged to the point of not even having access all the content available.

[Linkabel]

I'm putting together an interview with Hardlight, anybody have any questions they want answered?

 

Well the question that I want them to answer, and might be a pointless and stupid one, is what is their working relationship with Sonic Team?

 

I remember that when Sega All-Star racing and Transformed it was said that Sonic Team did some assets for the games (wasn't it the design of some of the renders and vehicles?) because they didn't want other developers to do it, or at least I think that's what happened.

 

So I was wondering if you could ask them if Sonic Team provided assets for both Sonic Jump and for this game too. Like for example did someone from Sonic draw those 2d cutscenes in Jump? Do they provide the models or is Hardlight supposed to do them? Etc etc.

[DaN]

the content avaiable is just reskin...is that really worth the debate?

I'm personally having fun with this game, a game that's funny, fluid, HARD AS HELL, but worth the price.

 

more content is surely coming, with hopefully some changes that would make the game just a little easier.

 

this is the point of these kind of games, casual gaming, playing when you're waiting at the doctor's or in the subway. You like it? You play it.

you want more? you play it A LOT. You are impatient of upgrading and unlocking everything? You pay. Simple, plain.

 

This game is surely over the top about the microtransactions stuff, but it's still your choice, and you can still play it and having fun with it without paying extra cash

Edited March 11, 2013 by BlueHedgehog92

[Frogging101]

the content avaiable is just reskin...is that really worth the debate?

I'm personally having fun with this game, a game that's funny, fluid, HARD AS HELL, but worth the price.

 

more content is surely coming, with hopefully some changes that would make the game just a little easier.

 

this is the point of these kind of games, casual gaming, playing when you're waiting at the doctor's or in the subway. You like it? You play it.

you want more? you play it A LOT. You are impatient of upgrading and unlocking everything? You pay. Simple, plain.

 

This game is surely over the top about the microtransactions stuff, but it's still your choice, and you can still play it and having fun with it without paying extra cash

That's the thing though. If I understand correctly (I haven't played it; I'm not going to support this atrocious business model by buying it), in this game it's actually impossible to unlock certain characters without buying the Red Rings. Sonic Jump does what you describe; if you're impatient then you have the option to buy rings to unlock the characters instantly. In Dash, you can't unlock certain characters no matter how patient you are or how much you play; you can only get a finite amount of Red Rings just by playing. It's not "Pay to unlock characters sooner", it's simply "Pay to unlock characters." I talked about this in my post a few pages back; red rings are essentially a premium currency and you can't earn them properly just by playing the game.

[Burnt Ash]

That's the thing though. If I understand correctly (I haven't played it; I'm not going to support this atrocious business model by buying it), in this game it's actually impossible to unlock certain characters without buying the Red Rings. Sonic Jump does what you describe; if you're impatient then you have the option to buy rings to unlock the characters instantly. In Dash, you can't unlock certain characters no matter how patient you are or how much you play; you can only get a finite amount of Red Rings just by playing. It's not "Pay to unlock characters sooner", it's simply "Pay to unlock characters." I talked about this in my post a few pages back; red rings are essentially a premium currency and you can't earn them properly just by playing the game.

 

The way I see it, if you spend too many Red Rings on things like recovery items, then yes, the characters are essentially impossible to unlock until they add future missions. 

[Blue Blood]

Even so, when they do add more missions the Red Ring count will still be finite. I wouldn't say new characters are totally off the cards either. This game has a horrible structure for something you pay for in the first place.

[Exblend]

"Amy, Tails and Knuckles suck in this game, they're just re-skins!" ---> "WHY IS IT SO HARD TO UNLOCK AMY, TAILS AND KNUCKLES?" "Looks like Sonic Temple Run, should be a nice little game." ---> "THIS OBSTACLE BASED GAME HAS TOO MANY UNFAIR OBSTACLES, WHY IS IT SO CASUAL WHERE'S THE CONTENT FOR ALL THE MONEY I SPENT? (from my pants pocket)". Seriously the game is a quick bit of fun and is pretty easy after playing your first 1-2 hours. You learn the set pieces very quickly. The hardest obstacles are sliding, jumping and stomping rolled into one. WHOOOOA! Also 2 rows of mines? Holy shit! Jump, stomp, jump is so difficult! The game is ruined! XD

                   

[KHCast]

"Amy, Tails and Knuckles suck in this game, they're just re-skins!" ---> "WHY IS IT SO HARD TO UNLOCK AMY, TAILS AND KNUCKLES?" "Looks like Sonic Temple Run, should be a nice little game." ---> "THIS OBSTACLE BASED GAME HAS TOO MANY UNFAIR OBSTACLES, WHY IS IT SO CASUAL WHERE'S THE CONTENT FOR ALL THE MONEY I SPENT? (from my pants pocket)". Seriously the game is a quick bit of fun and is pretty easy after playing your first 1-2 hours. You learn the set pieces very quickly. The hardest obstacles are sliding, jumping and stomping rolled into one. WHOOOOA! Also 2 rows of mines? Holy shit! Jump, stomp, jump is so difficult! The game is ruined! XD

i can't tell if your making fun of people that don't like the game or are legitamatley mad. Edited March 11, 2013 by X.A.N.A

[Exblend]

i can't tell if your making fin of people that don't like the game or are legitamatley mad.

I'm making fun haha.

[KHCast]

I hope you know that the difficulty an actually be cheap at times. It's not all that and a bag of chips. Unfair placement seriously ruined the experience.especially when it's basically there on purise so you'll spend money on continues!:/

[Burnt Ash]

"Amy, Tails and Knuckles suck in this game, they're just re-skins!" ---> "WHY IS IT SO HARD TO UNLOCK AMY, TAILS AND KNUCKLES?" "Looks like Sonic Temple Run, should be a nice little game." ---> "THIS OBSTACLE BASED GAME HAS TOO MANY UNFAIR OBSTACLES, WHY IS IT SO CASUAL WHERE'S THE CONTENT FOR ALL THE MONEY I SPENT? (from my pants pocket)". Seriously the game is a quick bit of fun and is pretty easy after playing your first 1-2 hours. You learn the set pieces very quickly. The hardest obstacles are sliding, jumping and stomping rolled into one. WHOOOOA! Also 2 rows of mines? Holy shit! Jump, stomp, jump is so difficult! The game is ruined! XD

                   

I know you said you were making fun, but in all honesty, a lot of the complaints made so far are completely valid. Dash, like Temple Run at times, has the occasional cheap death. However, if I'm hearing correctly, there are a lot of really tedious missions, which unlike Temple Run (where it could be pretty good fun), it seems more of an annoyance/hinderence than anything. The micro transaction system is practically shoved down your throat, and not to mention, apparently the game has trouble running on 4th Gen devices.

Personally, I these complaints are pretty valid. Yeah, the game at its core is a pretty decent endless runner (it did get an editor's choice on the App Store after all), but at the same time, a bunch of the other things kinda disappoint, especially considering that there are other free endless runner games out there like Temple Run that to me seem to handle the basic game mechanics and extra content much better than Sonic Dash does.

[goku262002]

 

"Amy, Tails and Knuckles suck in this game, they're just re-skins!" ---> "WHY IS IT SO HARD TO UNLOCK AMY, TAILS AND KNUCKLES?" "Looks like Sonic Temple Run, should be a nice little game." ---> "THIS OBSTACLE BASED GAME HAS TOO MANY UNFAIR OBSTACLES, WHY IS IT SO CASUAL WHERE'S THE CONTENT FOR ALL THE MONEY I SPENT? (from my pants pocket)". Seriously the game is a quick bit of fun and is pretty easy after playing your first 1-2 hours. You learn the set pieces very quickly. The hardest obstacles are sliding, jumping and stomping rolled into one. WHOOOOA! Also 2 rows of mines? Holy shit! Jump, stomp, jump is so difficult! The game is ruined! XD

 

I'm making fun haha.

 

Yeah, new guy, we don't know you from Adam yet. I'd wait until your a more established member before giving us your brand of joking or otherwise your going rubbing off in the wrong way to us.

Edited March 11, 2013 by goku262002

[Autosaver]

Just noticed that some achievements involve using some characters like Knuckles for a long period of time.

 

Guess I won't be getting all the Achievements.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

The way I see it, if you spend too many Red Rings on things like recovery items, then yes, the characters are essentially impossible to unlock until they add future missions. 

 

No, no, no. If you collect every single red ring by doing missions or doing bonuses (completing tutorial, reopening Dash for the 2nd time...) without spending money, it still wouldn't be enough to unlock Tails and/or Knuckles. You either have to wait until they add another set of missions (and it may not be enough if you already spent your current red rings!) or spend more money.

Edited March 11, 2013 by Ming Ming Shana

[Blue Blood]

No, no, no. If you collect every single red ring by doing missions or doing bonuses (completing tutorial, reopening Dash for the 2nd time...) without spending money, it still wouldn't be enough to unlock Tails and/or Knuckles. You either have to wait until they add another set of missions (and it may not be enough if you already spent your current red rings!) or spend more money.

This is what I don't get people not getting.

I don't care if the extra content is just skins or not. So long as I've already paid for the content that's available in the game, I don't want the game constantly encouraging me to do something that will prevent me from accessing said content without spending more. That applies even to such a time when there are enough Red Rings to get Knuckles and Tails, but I might still be unable to because I chose to use some revives. It's on disc DLC, except arguably worse.

[DaN]

^

this this is still not bothering me so much at the moment...