If your favorite character were to get a solo game, what playstyle would they use?

[ChaosCTRL]

     Sonic has a wide cast of lovable characters. While many of them are likely doomed to never receive their own game outside of the blue blur’s shadow, we can always imagine what those character’s solo games would be like. This topic is exactly for that: pick a character that you think would have a fun solo game. What sort of playstyle would it have? Would it resemble an existing Sonic game, or be something completely new?

     One of the characters most likely to recurve a solo game given his recent spike in popularity is our boy, the radical red, Knuckles. My ideal Knuckles solo game would be an open zone exploration based game set on Angel island. The gameplay would be similar to Knuckles’s gameplay in Final Horizons, with some minor tweaks (no cyber themed moves, more versatile climbing, etc). The goal would be to explore a new take on the zones of Angel Island, collecting the broken pieces of the Master Emerald (because of course) and maybe some additional artifacts pointing to the history of the Echidnas. The villain could be Eggman, or a robot under his command, like the Eggman Robo from Sonic and Knuckles. Maybe tack on Rouge as a rival character and unlockable reskin, and your golden.

 Can’t wait to hear your ideas!

Edited March 3 by ChaosCTRL

[captobvious42]

Maybe a Knuckles game could be like Metroid Prime? Get equipment and abilities that open up new areas and such. Maybe tell more of the story of the Ancients... or at least more of Knuckles' and the Echidna's backstory (bet Penders would LOVE that )

[Blazermaze00]

For a game only character hmmmm, espio could have a stealth based platformer or maybe something like metal gear...Sneaky sneaky either way. He could be the only chaotix (chaotic?) left to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the other two perhaps!

If comic characters are allowed, I would LOVE a vertical style 2D game or 3D Crash style game with Tangle, either one would fit her so perfectly!

[Xandur]

Infinite. My ideal game surrounding him would be a beat-em-up with a bunch of comboing - like the Werehog levels, but much more in-depth and much less repetitive. Think Devil May Cry.

Some of Infinite's original concept art shows him using his tail as an additional appendage of sorts. With that and the fact that he used to be a skilled swordsman in mind, there's a ton of room for some epic flashy combat with him.

Plot-wise, it'd take place before Forces. It'd be about Infinite and the rest of the Jackal Squad going around doing mercenary things, I suppose. Then it'd all lead up to them working under Eggman and, of course, getting wrecked by Shadow. It would be a good opportunity for Sonic Team to fix Infinite's writing and give him a more heart-tugging backstory. Maybe then people would actually start caring about him.

Perhaps it could work similarly to that Guardians of the Galaxy game. You play as Infinite and are able to pull off some combos on your own, but you can also issue commands to your team mid-fight to make them do certain attacks, giving you an opening to perform even more powerful and flashy combos. But that might be asking for too much.

Would this ever work in practice? Probably not. People play Sonic games to go fast, not to beat people up. But man it would be cool.

Edited March 3 by Xandur

[ChaosCTRL]

6 hours ago, Xandur said:

Infinite. My ideal game surrounding him would be a beat-em-up with a bunch of comboing - like the Werehog levels, but much more in-depth and much less repetitive. Think Devil May Cry.

That sounds like it could be really fun! Maybe even some sort of “assasin’s creed” type stealth missions would be good for a pre-ruby Infinite.

[Hedgehugs]

Boost gameplay, if this past decade is anything to go by...

But for real, if we're not counting Sonic, then I imagine Tails' solo game would be a platformer mixed with puzzles, or maybe a shooter-like play style with the Tornado? You could really do a lot with Tails.

[Lorekitten]

You said "favorite character" and of course I thought Antoine... and now I have the image in my head of him starring in a Luigi's Mansion sort of shtick but he has his sword instead of a vacuum cleaner.

[castell-neath]

They did it already....it was called Knuckles' Chaotix and the gameplay on it, while a bit odd was miles better than the crap they served up in Sa1 and 2 with radar activated emerald shard hunting.

 

[Cuz]

Friday Night Funk'n with Vector the Crocodile.

[Maple Syrup]

I think for Cream, it will be a bit like Pokémon. Finding Chao and using them to battle enemies!

8 hours ago, Xandur said:

Infinite. My ideal game surrounding him would be a beat-em-up with a bunch of comboing - like the Werehog levels, but much more in-depth and much less repetitive. Think Devil May Cry.

Some of Infinite's original concept art shows him using his tail as an additional appendage of sorts. With that and the fact that he used to be a skilled swordsman in mind, there's a ton of room for some epic flashy combat with him.

Plot-wise, it'd take place before Forces. It'd be about Infinite and the rest of the Jackal Squad going around doing mercenary things, I suppose. Then it'd all lead up to them working under Eggman and, of course, getting wrecked by Shadow. It would be a good opportunity for Sonic Team to fix Infinite's writing and give him a more heart-tugging backstory. Maybe then people would actually start caring about him.

Perhaps it could work similarly to that Guardians of the Galaxy game. You play as Infinite and are able to pull off some combos on your own, but you can also issue commands to your team mid-fight to make them do certain attacks, giving you an opening to perform even more powerful and flashy combos. But that might be asking for too much.

Would this ever work in practice? Probably not. People play Sonic games to go fast, not to beat people up. But man it would be cool.

Infinite?! HELL YEAH! I would certainly buy that game! He would be a really good character to play as! 

[Minu Yang]

If it was Amy Rose, it would be a bubble popping game kinda like bust-a-move.  And in the case of Rouge the Bat, a match 3 game using..... GEMS!!!!  

[captobvious42]

Would discussing what fighting styles characters would have if they did a "serious" fighting game fit this discussion or would that be another topic entirely? Or has this been discussed already?

[Iko]

A few years ago I did that gameplay concept for a 2D styled Sonic game for Cream and Amy... I was planning to do other characters (I did already start to sketch something for Tails) and even improve the old ones, though after my hard disk broke I lost the motivation in doing anything and just abandoned the idea (for now at least).

From that concept, I really liked the idea I had for Cream, and for a while I imagined a game entirely built around it.

Basically, it was normal 2D gameplay, but Cheese could copy traits from the animals you release from the "badniks": Cheese would get some temporary "animal powers" based on the species of the animals he finds (skills that would slightly change Cream's gameplay, mostly passive but not all of them).

I was thinking about an advanvce-styled 2D platformer with Cream and Cheese as protagonists, and some slightly slower, more puzzly and exploration-based level design (fully backtrackable levels). The game would be story-driven and the gameplay loop would feature alternating phases of regular levels and chao garden gameplay (you play regular levels to gather resources for the chao garden, like in Sonic Adventure 2's Chao World).

(the majority of the ideas I put into the story are recycled from older ideas of mine, though they're tweaked anyway).

Spoiler

The story would be told through Cream's diary: the main story is about Gemerl, who has been turned off for an unprecised long time (so much that Cream forgot about him) due to him requiring chaos energy to recharge, and chaos energy being too dangerous to handle for the rabbit family. One day, Cream finds Gemerl in the basement of her house, and suddenly, some of his systems automatically turn on; it seems like Gemerl found some damaged old data that need to be decrypted, and he needs Cream's help to return functional and discover the truth about his past. Cream brings Gemerl to Tails' lab and Tails manages to build a backup battery for him with chaos drives (Gemerl is now operative, though he's not able to fight). Gemerl needs to find the chaos emeralds, so Cream goes to Angel Island to meet Knuckles, who then decided to test Cream in order to see if she's worth of having access to the chaos emeralds for Gemerl (Chao Garden challenges). It turns out that some lost memories of Gemerl are written in the chaos emeralds themselves, and those memories include the happy moments they had with Sonic and everyone else (as Emerl, before being rebuilt by Eggman). Among the forgotten data, there are also some very ancient memories of him as a Gizoid, involved in some war or something, making him aware of his original true purpose (war machine built to destory) and giving him an identity crisis. Cream then has to help him understand that he should leave his past behind and live a happy life as what he is now. As Gemerl reaches Angel Island and gains his powers and memories back, some "Chaos Guardians" awake (they are similar to Chaos, less powerful offcourse, of different colors and with different powers; they are bosses and enemies in the game, they replace badniks, but still use animals as source), and they try to stop Gemerl from collecting the required energy. Awoken Gemerl is the final boss of the game, the Chaos Guardians turn out to be good guys and they just wanted to stop Gemerl from becoming the evil robot he was in ancient days.

It would be nice to also have a very simple equipment system too, something like headgear/dress/shoes/Cheese's bowtie, each one with different  buffs, but I have no idea what they should do, it would just be cute to have customizable outfits for Cream (and Cheese) in gameplay (including stuff such as the Riders outfit, the winter outfit from the Sonic Channel artworks, etc). (I also would like Cream to meet Tikal at some point in the game).

Edited March 4 by Iko

[MetalSkulkBane]

7 hours ago, Maple Syrup said:

I think for Cream, it will be a bit like Pokémon. Finding Chao and using them to battle enemies!

Why does this sounds both very wrong an very right at once?

 

 

Anyway I say Knuckles in Zelda BotW and Shadow in DMC playstyle.

[sonic_the_cuber]

@Maple Syrup in the Infinite Game, infinite would basically telling people hes not weak... lol

[Wittymations]

Mine is Eggman, so it's guaranteed to never happen.

if it did, it likely wouldn't be a platformer. Maybe an RTS or business sim, probably both mixed together. Give him his own antagonist, either GUN or another rival mad scientist he needs to subjugate.

[FlameStream]

I don't necessarily see characters as clones of Sonic, so I'd tailor the games around them specifically, which naturally won't be a speedy platformer.

I would definitively go with a more combat-oriented genre with story focus that lets you explore the world and its dwellers.

And yes, more Infinite pls!

[SadVlad]

Seeing as how Metal is my favorite character I would assume he could have an origin story type game that was an action RPG in which he would level up and learn his abilities as you progressed, with a skill tree of sorts.

[Ghelatlishol]

For some reason, I'm very partial to Vector. 

I imagine some sort of detective based game would be the most fun with him as the main character, and Team Chaotix on the side. It would definitely have to be more of a text-based game or along the lines of those Nancy Drew PC games (or the Titanic: Adventure Out of Time. That game was awesome but terrifying in its own way.)

You could explore movement the way they did in Sonic Heroes, but a detective like game is much better (in my opinion) based on dialogue, text choices, and exploration.

Which reminds me of the 5th grade Jumpstart PC game. You play as Jo Hammett, a young kid who goes about town trying to solve the mystery of Dr. X and why he's trying to blow up various buildings in town. It's a cool concept  Jazz plays in the background and you get to talk to a lot of people; people who are as shady as a 5th grade game can allow...

[StreetSonic2022]

On 3/3/2024 at 6:30 PM, captobvious42 said:

Would discussing what fighting styles characters would have if they did a "serious" fighting game fit this discussion or would that be another topic entirely? Or has this been discussed already?

I love to have a discussion about that too. Sonic needs a third fighting game with all of the characters appearing (and plus canon immigrants). Time to use them, Sonic Team, or should I say, SEGA!

Knuckles looks like he needs another game: an open-world concept that is a bit similar to Frontiers and mixing the Adventure series' treasure hunting gameplay to expand his abilities and moveset. If SEGA/Sonic Team ever decides to expand Knuckles's background again (and ignoring a certain you-know-who), this will be it. Expand Angel Island (using zones from 3&K, Adventure and Advance series and throw in Battle), give us the history about the Knuckles clan, Tikal, Pachacamac and even the last remaining echidna that eventually somehow disappeared and how Knuckles even become a Guardian in the first place. 

I also want Amy to star in her own game for once, since we now have her being like some sort of "magical witch" with her tarot cards, plus her hammer as her weapons to be in some sort of action-adventure/beat-up genre. (Don't know why all of the sudden I'm thinking the magic carpet from StF or even her race car from Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing will be her means of transportation to different places around the world). Also bring back Cream and Cheese as her teammates. Maybe throw in Sticks.

[cosmichaos]

A Team Dark centered game that takes place after Frontiers that has G.U.N. (yes I'm one of the hard-asses that refuses to accept that G.U.N. disbanded or that Team Dark doesn't work for them anymore; I'm not ignoring continuity because SEGA can't make up their minds) send them on a dangerous mission to deal with a new threat. 

The game features different hub world settings (mainly set in G.U.N. headquarters), including Team Dark's office, where you can log onto Rouge's computer to view the profiles of different characters, select music for the hub world, look at concept art, and read data logs that are collected as you play through the game. Other hub words include the main villain's laboratory, Sonic and Tails' house, and Angel Island. 

Gameplay interchanges between the three members of Team Dark. Rouge has her regular climb ability, but here she's allowed to actually fly a little bit instead of just gliding. She can't go for very long, though, and eventually it will turn into a glide. (Think Tails gameplay from Sonic 2) Other than that she has her bombs from Sonic Battle, her Tornado Kick from Sonic X, and maybe, like, I don't know, an ability where she uses echolocation to locate certain findable items? I just like including little quirks from the species the characters are based off, lol. 

Shadow has the traditional Homing Attack, but his Chaos Powers are heavily emphasized. He can use Chaos Blast, Spear, and Control, but he has a meter. The meter is recharged at the end of every stage, so you have to reserve energy (Like, for example, Chaos Blast takes up more of the meter than Chaos Spear, which takes very little. Chaos Control slowly drains the meter over time.) Once you gain the Chaos Emeralds later in the game Shadow gains the ability to regain some of the meter once every stage.

Just let Omega have functional guns. He has an array of weaponry to choose from, but like Shadow, he has a limit to how much ammo he can expend in a stage, unless it's a stage that takes place in a G.U.N. area, in which there'll be reload stations. If you run out he can just start punching. He has bombs, which take up the most on the meter, a machine gun, which drains the meter quickly, homing shots, which take up very little, and a flamethrower, which gradually decreases the meter (kind of like Chaos Control).

Sonic is the only non-Team Dark character that is continuously prominent during the story. Since it takes place after Frontiers, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy have all gone on to do their own things, and with Eggman in hiding for the time being, Sonic decides to intervene in whatever dangerous scenario looks like the most fun, putting him smack dab in the middle of a top-secret mission with Team Dark that they initially aren't too happy with letting him join in on.

Sonic's playstyle has his Homing Attack/Spindash, with added abilities being that thing he did in those old Sonic Cartoons/Sonic Rush(?) where he made a tornado by running in circles (OG cycloop???), Sonic Boom from Frontiers, and Spin Slash from Frontiers. He can also use the Chaos Emeralds, just not to the same degree as Shadow (He CAN use the Emeralds, we saw that in SA2, SEGA was just too afraid to let us have more ig???). He can use Chaos Control, but instead of stopping time like Shadow he just briefly slows it, and use Chaos Control to teleport. I kind of wanted to give Sonic his own unique Chaos power, so his special skill is that he can summon a sword made out of Chaos energy (kind of like a parody of Chaos Spear), as kind of like a homage to S&tBK. His Chaos meter drains significantly faster than Shadow's. 

i came up with this on the spot and am now realizing i rambled senselessly, so sorry!

[TAILSGONETOOFAST]

id like to see a fan remake of Tails Skypatrol and tails adventure combined

[Technically Inept]

If my favorite Sonic character was to get his own game, it would be a lot like Neo Sonic’s gameplay in Sonic Robo Blast 2.

Because my favorite Sonic character is Sonic.