Sonic Boom announced (Wii U/3DS)

[ProfessorZolo]

I'll complain about what I want thank you very much. Or alternatively, stop shoving your PSX on ym Sonics if you've still got the original Jak and Daxters to play.

Boom kinda isn't 'your' Sonic though, is it? Sega are making a big deal outta how Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Boom are two different series, so...

You'll still get 'your' Sonic from the Japanese Sonic Team, and a whole new audience will have 'their' Sonic. What have you got to lose?

[Lady Soniko]

Part of why I'm being down on this game is I don't think this sort of game has aged well.  Spyro in particular, but all that comes to me when I think of Spyro is... Turtles.  I'm starting to think Spyro 2 might have singlehandedly turned me off this genre.  

 

Well that may apply for Spyro (although I disagree, I fondly remember the turtle soup mission in Gateway to Glimmar/Ripto's Rage) But this doesn't apply to Jak or Ratchet in the slightest since I just beat Jak II last night and I'm currently on with Jak III now and the game was a solid experience from beginning to end, no fuck ups due to bad controls, nothing it was fun from beginning to end, and the game was kept from becoming stale by introducing different gameplay styles to break up all the platforming and combat. All I'm honestly saying is you're coming down hard on this game because of your past experiences of sequels in triple A titles at the time of their release, but still your complaint is a minor one because, Jak and Daxter became a BETTER series after it's first game.

[Soniman]

Yeah I agree with Soniko, I loved how Jak II and Jak III constantly kept throwing curveballs at you and unlocking more and more things to play around with even near the end., not to mention the huge amount of optional extra content and secrets, it's all very fun and rewarding.

[ProfessorZolo]

...I agree that the Jak series has solid controls throughout, but I hate Jak 2 with a passion. Maybe I just suck at shooty-action games, but the difficulty in that one was ridiculous, and the vehicles were atrocious, with their awful handling and paper-thin defenses against literally everything.

Jak 3 felt like it struck a better balance between Jak 1's platforming/ exploring and Jak 2's gunplay. Still prefer the first one though.

...Hm? Oh, right, Sonic thread. Er, so basically Sonic plus Jak equals my ideal game.

[Mauro Fonseca]

Boom kinda isn't 'your' Sonic though, is it? Sega are amoung a big deal outta how Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Boom are two different series, so...

You'll still get 'your' Sonic from the Japanese Sonic Team, and a whole new audience will have 'their' Sonic. What have you got to lose?

 

Brand dilution and contamination, for one :V That said I should reiterate I'll get the game as it looks like a fun PSX platformer. I'll play it while complaining all the time I'd also very much like for it to actually be a Sonic game

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

" Brand contamination"? OH now that's just plain fandumb ridiculous. Nothing's forcing you to abandon the main canon and pay the Boom games.

[ProfessorZolo]

If anything, we could do with Boom 'contaminating' the main series a little, since Sonic Team seem to be afraid of adding other playable characters to their games.

And I realise the following comparison isn't a fair one since Sega are not this adept, but look at how Rare was run, back in the day. The Banjo team and the Conker team, learning from each other's successes and failures to make their own games better than the other's.

Sega NEEDS that pressure. We, as fans, NEED Sega to have that pressure.

[Kat]

But until now the games were exclusive to main canon Sonic. Now we have a game that is meant to be a spin-off but is advertised as the next big thing, TV-series included. That has never happened before.

[Lady Soniko]

...I agree that the Jak series has solid controls throughout, but I hate Jak 2 with a passion. Maybe I just suck at shooty-action games, but the difficulty in that one was ridiculous, and the vehicles were atrocious, with their awful handling and paper-thin defenses against literally everything.

 

I'm not seeing your complaint here if I'm honest, well I kinda am but I'm thinking "what are you expecting?" The vehicles in the games are standard pedestrian transports, they aren't heavily armoured, they're just an optional (and faster) way of getting around Haven City's massive map, part of the strategy is make use of the 2 fly zones to dodge traffic and avoid guards, the vehicles also handled fine because they fly/float they aren't going to have smooth controls like cars with traction on the ground will have, it's simple. Bikes handle the best but have the least durability, seriously one crash is enough send them into a flaming mess, the big/heavy cars have poor handling but ramp up in durability and make for good battering rams on difficult missions where you need to approach heavily armoured enemies/cannons, the medium cars are a blend between the 2, handles nicely, decently durable. But I do agree that the game is holy shit hard in some missions, unfairly so.

 

My only gripe with Jak II besides hard missions, was the lack of a checkpoint marker, I found myself re-doing a lot of some areas due to how poorly they were implemented.

[Mauro Fonseca]

I'm not sure if we do need that since I don't uphold "MUST HAVE PLOT AND OTHER CHARACTERS" as the sole most ever important aspect in a Sonic game. Not at the cost of a crashification, if you will

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Sonic Boom, show, games, toys, etcetera and all;, is its realm of canon plain and simple.

[Mauro Fonseca]

For how long, though? I was asked what I had to lose. I replied honestly. I feel what I have to lose is what I like in Sonic, to be contaminated with Sonic Boom's traits should it be successful. The loss of the pop art style, of the speed, of the fun cartoon designs, and the great mechanical designs (seriously the robots in the game so far look so naff I'm astounded). They say it's separate now, but we all know they say a lot of things.

[SlickEvan]

So you have no faith in your old champ normal Sonic eh?

EDIT: But seriously it's now coming off that you don't have enough faith in ST, SEGA, and Sonic to believe that he can run alongside his Boom self.

[Mauro Fonseca]

Considering my main frame of work for the fanbase has been SSMB and how fast everyone turned coat over the promise of more plot and characters, yeah. I mean, if the fanbase all goes to Sonic Boom, SEGA will eventually have to follow.

[SlickEvan]

Its not like its split between two sides of a room, can't I be in the middle? Seeing as we have no info on 2015 Sonic game we're just looking towards the next thing Boom. And we like some things it's doing is all. It's not like we can't still like both, right?

[Willsy]

And so if you happen to like Sonic games and don't want something that feels totally alien... Well, fuck you?

 

(In hindsight, best to clarify that I know this isn't what you're saying. It's what it feels like SEGA is saying to other fans, especially those sceptical about Boom's overall influence).

I mean that with Sonic's image being generally mixed nowadays, some new blood in the franchise is good in my opinion. I can see why people are worried though.

[ProfessorZolo]

I'm not seeing your complaint here if I'm honest, well I kinda am but I'm thinking "what are you expecting?" The vehicles in the games are standard pedestrian transports, they aren't heavily armoured, they're just an optional (and faster) way of getting around Haven City's massive map, part of the strategy is make use of the 2 fly zones to dodge traffic and avoid guards, the vehicles also handled fine because they fly/float they aren't going to have smooth controls like cars with traction on the ground will have, it's simple. Bikes handle the best but have the least durability, seriously one crash is enough send them into a flaming mess, the big/heavy cars have poor handling but ramp up in durability and make for good battering rams on difficult missions where you need to approach heavily armoured enemies/cannons, the medium cars are a blend between the 2, handles nicely, decently durable. But I do agree that the game is holy shit hard in some missions, unfairly so.

My only gripe with Jak II besides hard missions, was the lack of a checkpoint marker, I found myself re-doing a lot of some areas due to how poorly they were implemented.

I guess my argument for this would be... When I play a game, I expect all of it to be fun. Difficult or not, I expect to enjoy myself with it. Having to slog around a confusing, narrow city on foot is a pain, and hopping in a vehicle was terrible too. Again, because of how narrow and confusing the place was.

Maybe I just miss the simple joy of open exploration I had in Jak & Daxter...

I do enjoy difficult games too, by the way. Classic Megaman, or Metal Gear Rising for example. But with Jak 2, there were far too many things that just drained the fun out of the experience. The only reason I kept playing was because it was part of the HD collection... Never again.

But to go back to Sonic briefly, I hope (and it seems to be the case) that Boom will be more like the first Jak- open and free. Glorious!

[Lady Soniko]

The city wasn't confusing since the icons you were supposed to go to tell you exactly where to go, but eh, different strokes different folks, I really enjoyed my time with Jak II, much better than the original, that could barely hold my attention.

[ProfessorZolo]

The city wasn't confusing since the icons you were supposed to go to tell you exactly where to go, but eh, different strokes different folks, I really enjoyed my time with Jak II, much better than the original, that could barely hold my attention.

The city itself was like a maze! Sure, you could stumble blindly towards the next destination using the markers, but the city itself was just a mess. No fun to navigate at all! It would have been made so much better had they just added a third vehicle height- one that let you go over the walls.

And don't get me started on the removal of the Eco powerups...!

[TheLaw34]

Hoping we get some new info today, so we can get back on topic instead of talking about jak.

 

Right now I can understand worrying that the franchise will change to something you wont like.

cause lets be honest sega is a company and if sonic boom starts selling way more than japasonic,  boom is going to be the new main.

 

But that's just how things work you are free to be sad about it but majority rules.

[Lady Soniko]

Except it is on topic? The devs working on Sonic Boom are the same ones that worked on Jak, so sorry for enlightening you all on what the game could possibly play like.

[Dizcrybe]

About all this "Boom is gonna contaminate Sega!Sonic" business, I'd just like to add that I'm pretty sure when SEGA/BRB said this was a separate canon for Sonic, they meant separate. Seriously, you don't see Paper Mario or the Mario and Luigi games taking over the main series titles, nor was classic Megaman invaded by X, ZX, Battle Network, etc.. If any of that is false, feel free to correct me, but all this talk about Boom engulfing the main canon seems to me like little more than baseless paranoia.

[Gabz Girl]

If Sonic Boom plays similarly to the Jak n' Daxter games then hell yeah I want some of that! 8D

I can understand why some people are worried that if this game does well Sonic Team will follow suit, but I don't think this will happen. You have your games with simple stories and Sonic only gameplay and your games with more platform oriented gameplay, hub worlds, four playable characters besides Sonic and possibly a more plot driven story. I think the only inspiration Sonic Team can take from Boom is more playable characters, which I'd personally be very pleased with!

To be fair though, we won't know what happens until Sonic Boom comes out later this year. Yet I'm still very intrigued because most of the stuff I've heard and seen from this game are making me cautiously optimistic. It's got all the things I've wanted from a SEGA Sonic game since Sonic Colours and it's by developers who, unlike Sonic Team, have worked on consistently good games for many years. However, can they pull it off?

I need you E3, if only you were sooner!

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

 

This is exactly the kind of interview I'm really getting sick of hearing. 

 

OK WE GET IT! You understand the characters! Good! Though it's not exactly that hard since you're dealing with Sonic, and theres only so many times I can hear the words 'we've created a world' before I start to question what exactly the game contains and how it's going to play.

 

It feels almost like I'm playing out of context bingo.

 

 

Now, now, let's not forget that these interviews were pretty much all executed on the same date, at the same location. It stands to reason they'd pretty much be on a parallel level of information. For one thing, it certainly shows a better sense of valid consistency.

 

No need to blow a gasket over it.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

About all this "Boom is gonna contaminate Sega!Sonic" business, I'd just like to add that I'm pretty sure when SEGA/BRB said this was a separate canon for Sonic, they meant separate. Seriously, you don't see Paper Mario or the Mario and Luigi games taking over the main series titles, nor was classic Megaman invaded by X, ZX, Battle Network, etc.. If any of that is false, feel free to correct me, but all this talk about Boom engulfing the main canon seems to me like little more than baseless paranoia.

Damn straight! I'm not gonna be daunted from enjoying a game by some hypothetical situation! I'll get concerned when said event actually is announced.