/vr/ - Retro Games

>>10695628
SA1 and SA2 were Iizuka's passion projects. Iizuka was the one who conceived of it as a "Sonic RPG". And the inspiration from games like Final Fantasy 7

>3&K level designer
>Nights into Dreams lead game designer
>3D Blast Saturn special stages designer
>SA1 & SA2 director

Heroes nearly killed Iizuka and he was inspired by Jak II to make Shadow. That's two games he worked on which were critical flops and were victims of the Sonic cycle.

Heroes was so rushed Iizuka slept at the office and nearly died making it and the team at STI was burned out and barely cared making Shadow. Development moved back to Japan for 06 and SR and Iizuka became less involved.

In a way, Xbox is a continuation of the Dreamcast. Sega had to switch from a SA1/SA2 proprietary engine to Renderware to get Heroes running on a PS2 because Sony effectively forced them at gunpoint. Shadow, on the other hand, was made by an indifferent team with no passion left. Iizuka was phoning in here

>Heroes : first multiplatform entry. Tries to appeal to newcomers, Adventure fans and Classic fans, resulting in a very broad game
>Shadow : first character spin off in a while. Iizuka played too much Jak 2 and Ratchet 2, wanted to use the scrapped branching path system from SA2, plus appeal exclusively to western players

Iizuka just didn't have it in him anymore. He had been working on nothing but Sonic games since Christmas Nights in late 1996 and almost died making Heroes. Heroes got crunched so badly Iizuka (who was the level designer for Heroes) stopped eating for weeks until he got his part of the project done. Shadow the hedgehog exists because he played Jak III while recovering and learning how to eat again. Naka didn't care anymore either, having been reduced to an executive producing or chief producing many games per year, his days as programmer behind him

>>10695628
Sonic Adventure was a soulless abomination. Sonic 2 was peak soul and Sonic Mania was a legitimate successor.

>>10695635
Thank you anon, very interesting

>>10695628
Only betasoys still jerk off to Sonic. His last truly good game was Sonic CD and that shit came out during Bill Clinton's first year as US president. Absolute mental illness to expect any more good or even decent Sonic games after the 4th generation. You guys have chained yourselves to this hedgehog's corpse for over 30 years.

>>10695637
Sonic Mania had soul because Sega didn't even trust themselves with it and just commissioned the best modders from the community to make it for them

>>10695635
>the team at STI
Sonic Team USA*
STI closed in 96

>>10695628
sega should drop sonic team and outsource sonic games
apparently anyone can make a better one than them

>>10695628
They've been releasing a bad Sonic game once every few years for the last two decades.
What are you on about?

>>10695648
I mean it's probably my favorite 2D Sonic, but definitely not the last good one

>>10695628
SEGA during the hardware era was a very different company. The Chao Garden was actually the direct result of Sonic Team wanting to do something cool with the console's VMU feature. If you like SA1, you might like Heroes. It's less open, but has the same fun colorful vibe, plus it's one of the last games to feature Big the Cat. The Advance series and Sonic Pocket Adventure also carry this tone.

If you like SA2, I recommend playing Shadow's game. It's basically a tribute to SA2 with remixed music and stages. The guns aren't really that different from the ones in E-102's stages or the mech stages in SA2. Plus, there is no emerald hunting.

>>10695635
This post starts out good but almost everything after the first greentext is false. STI wasn't even a thing after the Saturn and Shadow's game literally exists because of how popular he was in SA2.

>>10695637
Sonic Adventure is giga-soul.
I was 7 years old in 1999, Sonic Adventure was like ethereal crack for a kid. I wanted to jump into the screen and live in that world.
Fuck you slightly older oldfaggot.

Sonic Frontiers has the same low-budget garbage feel

>>10695637
>>10695665
Sonic Mania is tryhard tumblr shit. Even the Sonic art they made of him looks awkward (especially *that* pose).

>>10696121
Seconding this. I was 11 but same experience. Being able to carry around the VMU Chao Adventure game was nice too. Virtual pets were big back then, so Sonic Adventure coming with one was sweet.

>>10695628
2 big reasons being "the sonic cycle" of rushed, buggy garbage, and that every new game just HAS to have some "exciting" new gimmick, even though they tend to undermine the entire concept.
but also >>10695635 this stuff.

>>10695637
mania is over 50% copy/pasted old shit, and the new shit isnt even particularly good. they also chose to keep some of the retarded old shit, like ufo chase. you sort of sonic autists are so desperate for something that isnt shit, that you think something reusing some of the better parts of old sonic is some massive achievement in game design, and an epic triumph for sonic. you bar is THAT low, and its pathetic.

>>10695628

It's like ghostbusters 2, you can never be better than the original. SA was also a launch game, thus a lot of effort was poured into it. It was also pretty much the first game of it's kind. I'll never forget the christmas theme and the online rankings for snowboarding.

>>10698305
NTA but I don't know I thought the original stages were pretty good. I would have preferred full original stages.

But yeah fuck you studiopolis is cool.

>>10698827
it ok AT BEST. and again, thats a really low bar, so everyone praising it like some monumental breakthrough is a testament to how shitty the franchise has been, and how retarded most of the fanbase is. by all means, have fun with your game, but dont put it on a pedestal it doesnt deserve. thats all im saying.

>>10695628
why has Square been unable to recreate the absolute soul of Final Fantasy VII?
it was the time. that SEGA is long gone.

>>10698827
the fact that there was only 2 actually original stages (and one of them blew ass) was just appalling. but i think that's more sega's fault than whitehead's

Imagine if they remade Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 like the Crash and Spyro remakes
I'm not a fan of remakes of great games in general but SA games were very flawed despite being brilliant in many ways so a mere port wouldn't cut it, a remake with modern tools could finally lead it to greatness. It could even lead the way to Sonic Adventure 3 if done right.
Unfortunately they might not even be able to do it right at this point.

>>10695628
Big budget, rushed development, very talented developers. They still do the first two with modern games.

Sonic Mania's "old" stages are fresh takes, the only thing they share in common with the original versions are visuals and some of the level mechanics used. The level design is completely different and they introduce several new mechanics into the stages, so even the assets aren't all mere flips.

Level-wise, Mania is probably the best Sonic's ever been. Now, in terms of boss fights, that's where the game fell completely flat. They're so fucking bad and completely missed what made classic Sonic bosses work. Hell, there are like two or three bosses that are entirely intended as gags so they get a laugh out of you the first time but make replaying the game just annoying.