2014 is The Year Of Sonic "& Sports tape" *see post 1*

[_______]

What exactly is Boom doing "wrong"? Like, I seriously don't see how it can be doing things wrong when we've barely seen any of it.

 

It seems to have overstepped the boundaries of what many people including myself consider to be a spin-off.

 

A spin-off generally keeps the identity of the franchise intact while giving an experience unique to itself.

[Red Cap]

What exactly is Boom doing "wrong"? Like, I seriously don't see how it can be doing things wrong when we've barely seen any of it.

 

Yeah, I don't see it either. I mean, you could argue that it doesn't have certain staples of the series like loops, springs, and dashpads, but most of those are just shitty throwaway obstacles anyways. I think it's refreshing that the first trailer for the game wasn't filled with BROING BROING BROING SKEEEEEE BROING BROING like usual.

[Phos]

Acting like these guys were the first to "screw up" with a questionable design choice seems a bit unfair. Looks to me like ST also didn't seem to know what they were doing.

Assuming a lot there, you're talking to someone who finds pretty much anything Sonic related past 1999 to basically be an unmitigated train wreck.  

[Xenos]

It seems to have overstepped the boundaries of what many people including myself consider to be a spin-off.

 

A spin-off generally keeps the identity of the franchise intact while giving an experience unique to itself.

 

What boundaries? Where? All I see is "It doesn't resemble what I'm used to, therefore it isn't good"

 

This is what I've been feeling this whole time. Sure, Boom looks nothing like a Sonic game, and being a spinoff doesn't mean it shouldn't be totally unfamiliar, maybe. But why not? I love the main series and what it has to offer, but the problem is Sonic Team is really bad at showing off what it could be offering. But I'll hold off until I see the 2015 game.

 

It's very clear to a lot of us what defines a "Sonic" game, but who's to say we can't broaden that definition? Why can't Sonic reach to unfamiliar territory without people immediately discrediting and dismissing it? Isn't this how we got to the point where Sonic was the only playable character, we got very bare stories that were practically pointless? Yeah, it's really different to what we're used to, but I'm definitely giving it a chance before saying how wrong or not right it is.

[Diogenes]

What exactly is Boom doing "wrong"? Like, I seriously don't see how it can be doing things wrong when we've barely seen any of it.

Can we not do this? Can we, for once, not have this stupid arrangement where you can't say anything bad when it's only a trailer but you're free to sing its praises all you want while not knowing a damn thing more?

[Xenos]

Can we not do this? Can we, for once, not have this stupid arrangement where you can't say anything bad when it's only a trailer but you're free to sing its praises all you want while not knowing a damn thing more?

 

Maybe you should stop jumping the gun so much then?

 

I didn't say a single thing to praise the game in that sentence, at all. I'm seriously trying to wonder what it's doing wrong from a few second trailer.

[Diogenes]

The problem is that no one ever gets on anyone's case about being excited over a 45 second trailer.

 

It's only ever a problem if you don't like it.

[Red Cap]

Can we not do this? Can we, for once, not have this stupid arrangement where you can't say anything bad when it's only a trailer but you're free to sing its praises all you want while not knowing a damn thing more?

 

So far, it's a lot easier to point out what it does right than what it does wrong so far. I mean, it obviously has 4-player co-op, multiple characters with their own unique abilities, open level design, etc. There's actually a lot to praise from what we've seen. Just sayin'.

[Diogenes]

I don't have any trouble pointing out what I don't like.

[Xenos]

The problem is that no one ever gets on anyone's case about being excited over a 45 second trailer.

 

It's only ever a problem if you don't like it.

 

You don't find anything odd about getting on someone's case for being positive about something? I mean, unless it's literally being positive about something bad, but we don't know if Boom is bad yet.

 

The difference is being negative is still negative. Getting angry if someone wants to ruin your negative opinion about something because positive opinions don't get the same scrutiny sounds backwards to me.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

It seems to have overstepped the boundaries of what many people including myself consider to be a spin-off.

 

Why? Because it's actually giving us what we want?

 

 

 

A spin-off generally keeps the identity of the franchise intact while giving an experience unique to itself.

Well then, since people are commenting on how differently this looks like it'll play, mission might be accomplished on keeping it unique compared to Japanese canon.

[Diogenes]

You don't find anything odd about getting on someone's case for being positive about something? I mean, unless it's literally being positive about something bad, but we don't know if Boom is bad yet.
 
The difference is being negative is still negative. Getting angry if someone wants to ruin your negative opinion about something because positive opinions don't get the same scrutiny sounds backwards to me.

The point is that dislikes and criticisms aren't taken seriously when likes and praise are. The people who are excited by the trailer don't know a damn thing more than the people who are disappointed by it. But any kind of criticism is always an uphill battle and there's always someone who just brushes it all off with "it's just a trailer you don't really know". If someone rushed in and replied to every positive post with "well you don't really know!" they'd be an obnoxious dickbag, but it's basically par for the course when anyone's negative.

[Blacklightning]

Why? Because it's actually giving us what we want?

Who do you think you're speaking for? I don't rememeber anyone asking for a generic action platformer with Sonic characters in it.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

I'm just annoyed and frustrated by the vagueness and lack of explanation on why this isn't a "REAL" Sonic game. Bad or good, I don't take kindly to such elitism.

Who do you think you're speaking for? I don't rememeber anyone asking for a generic action platformer with Sonic characters in it.

So nobody asked for characters other than Sonic playable, more exploration, Adventure-esque gameplay and movement, multiple pathways, a better narrative, etc.? That's what I'm talking about. They're actually implementing features fans have been requesting for years.

[Xenos]

The point is that dislikes and criticisms aren't taken seriously when likes and praise are. The people who are excited by the trailer don't know a damn thing more than the people who are disappointed by it. But any kind of criticism is always an uphill battle and there's always someone who just brushes it all off with "it's just a trailer you don't really know". If someone rushed in and replied to every positive post with "well you don't really know!" they'd be an obnoxious dickbag, but it's basically par for the course when anyone's negative.

 

People get defensive and/or dismissive over things they like, that's pretty much what happens. And when you see a little bit of something new you like that feeling can get stronger. I was pretty much this way back when Generations was still being revealed.

 

If people are being that way then it's not worth discussing about it to that person then? I mean if they just dismiss any type of criticism because they don't know everything about the game then that's on them, they're just about as in the dark about it as you are and others. People just have to be more open-minded about how other people view the same thing they are.

[Blacklightning]

I'm just annoyed and frustrated by the vagueness and lack of explanation on why this isn't a "REAL" Sonic game. Bad or good, I don't take kindly to such elitism.

So nobody asked for characters other than Sonic playable, more exploration, Adventure-esque gameplay and movement, multiple pathways, a better narrative, etc.? That's what I'm talking about. They're actually implementing features fans have been requesting for years.

I find even these things pretty hard to be excited for when it comes with tossing out just about everything else that previously defined the franchise.

[Badnik Mechanic]

So nobody asked for characters other than Sonic playable, more exploration, Adventure-esque gameplay and movement, multiple pathways, a better narrative, etc.? That's what I'm talking about. They're actually implementing features fans have been requesting for years.

 

Wait I'm confused, is this the year that we do or don't want more playable characters? Only I'm quite sure when Generations and colours came out we were quite pleased it was only Sonic?

 

And how can you apply those desires into a single fan? That a cluster of different wants from different people and not the mass consensus at all.

[Burnt Ash]

I'm just annoyed and frustrated by the vagueness and lack of explanation on why this isn't a "REAL" Sonic game. Bad or good, I don't take kindly to such elitism.

So nobody asked for characters other than Sonic playable, more exploration, Adventure-esque gameplay and movement, multiple pathways, a better narrative, etc.? That's what I'm talking about. They're actually implementing features fans have been requesting for years.

 

That "we" was really general; because the thing is, not everyone /did/ ask for those things (although a lot did), but more importantly, not everyone liked what they saw in the trailer, regardless of what they may or may not want to see from the series.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

I find even these things pretty hard to be excited for when it comes with tossing out just about everything else that previously defined the franchise.

Does the Sonic Team Sonic game series even have that much of a definition today!? Hoping from gameplay to different gameplay, writer(s) to writer(s), changing character designs, etc. Outside the aesthetics of the characters I'm not seeing the legitimacy of that notion.

Okay by "we", I mean I and folks with similar sentiments. Granted I too might have fallen into the trap of being a bit vague with that.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Does the Sonic Team Sonic game series even have that much of a definition today!? Hoping from gameplay to different gameplay, writer(s) to writer(s), changing character designs, etc. Outside the aesthetics of the characters I'm not seeing the legitimacy of that notion.

 

The gameplay has barely changed since Sonic Adventure. Lost World was the most dramatic departure but otherwise it's been pretty much the same, at least when it comes to Sonic.

 

And changing character designs? The last dramatic shift was Sonic 06, and that lasted for a single game, since then it's been that subtle only fans would really notice a difference.

[Blacklightning]

Does the Sonic Team Sonic game series even have that much of a definition today!? Hoping from gameplay to different gameplay, writer(s) to writer(s), changing character designs, etc. Outside the aesthetics of the characters I'm not seeing the legitimacy of that notion.

They were consistent enough that combat was an afterthought that didn't break flow, rings were a lifeline you depended on for living, stages weren't just broad, near-flat expanses of land with scarcely any visible platforming, and characters with upwards of two decades of history didn't spontaneously change into completely different builds.

 

So yes, they had "definition". And if you're trying to tell me that it's been vauge lately, then the fact that Boom can sink below even that just makes it all the more depressing.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

The gameplay has barely changed since Sonic Adventure. 

Seriously? I'd say it's changed quite a bit from Adventure to Heroes to the boost era to Lost World's build.

They were consistent enough that combat was an afterthought that didn't break flow,

Sonic Heroes, Sonic 06, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Rush, Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic and the Black Knight, & Sonic Lost World beg to differ, since they featured such at times.

stages weren't just broad, near-flat expanses of land with scarcely any visible platforming

Good thing it doesn't look like such is the case with Boom then.

rings were a lifeline you depended on for living, 

Not quite so in Sonic Unleashed and Sonic & the Black Knight.

 

As for Boom:

 

Huzzah! Rings.

[Blacklightning]

Sonic Heroes, Sonic 06, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Rush, Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic and the Black Knight, & Sonic Lost World beg to differ, since they featured such at times.

You say that almost as if anyone gave it a free pass back then either, but you're missing the point. Trapping you in a room full of enemies isn't the same as turning the game into full-blown beat-em-up - the goal of a good Sonic game is getting to the level first and foremost, and enemies were at best an obstacle, at worst a stepping stone. At the best of times there was never any need to entertain them with anything more than a hop or a Homing Attack (depending on which game you're playing specifically), and if you did everything right you wouldn't even have to stop for them.

 

Games like Unleashed and BK are exceptions rather than the rules, and were universally panned for trying anyway, so... yeah.

 

 

Good thing it doesn't look like such is the case with Boom then.

How in the hell does this not scream "flat" to you?

 

 

Huzzah! Rings.

For what good they will do when you're consigned to a health bar.

 

 

Probably because those games weren't part of a sub-franchise. =P

 

 

Come again?

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

 characters with upwards of two decades of history didn't spontaneously change into completely different builds.

Probably because those games weren't part of a sub-franchise. =P

 

 

For what good they will do when you're consigned to a health bar.

I await the hypothetical situation wherein it'll be confirmed that's a health bar and not actually a power bar of sorts or something else. "Till then, I see more to suggest that rings will still constitute for health.

 

 

How in the hell does this not scream "flat" to you?

 

 

Because the trailer I viewed as well as this pic 

 

 

has varied terrains, things to climb, chemical plants to acrobat through, slopes and accessible pathways, etc shown. "Flat", my rear end.

 

 

 

 

Come again?

Spin-offs =/= a whole new Western Sub-Franchise.

[Blacklightning]

Because the trailer I viewed as well as this pic 

*pic* 

 

has varied terrains, things to climb, chemical plants to acrobat through, slopes and accessible pathways, etc shown. "Flat", my rear end.

Everything I see here is either a knee-high hop, or a series of cliffs which serves literally no purpose other than to be a barrier to prevent the player from leaving the game area. And honestly it will surprise me enough if they don't put invisible walls around that to prevent people from climbing it. Everything else so far is either slopes that are pretty much meaningless (ala the 3rd pic) and a bunch of character gimmicks that are so over-specialized they might as well be reduced to keys and doors.

 

Spin-offs =/= a whole new Western Sub-Franchise.

So what you're trying to tell me is that this literally is not a Sonic game.

 

Phew, glad we cleared that up. Guess that means I have no reason to give a shit about it now as opposed to very little.

 

Going off of the devs' reputations with quick combat, I'm confident they'll handle combat much more better than Sonic Team did.

You can't berate people for not know what we're getting yet and simultaneously make statements like this on the assumption they will be true.