Facepalm @ Sega.

[Eric]

http://kotaku.com/5163225/you-havent-se ... he-werehog

Sega: "Let's make Sonic turn into a WEREHOG, YEAH that'll get people to buy our game."

Fans/Critics: "The weakest part about this game was the werehog, the action and speed stages or great, but sadly the game forces you to play as the werehog far too often."

Sega: "We're so totally gonna bring back the werehog for the sequel."

[Tessian]

It's sad... if they would just release a next-gen version of Sonic 3 they'd be rolling in dough. On the bright side... it sounds like they'd like to take a 2nd stab at the "werehog" and fix many of the things wrong with it. I guess?

[Blotus]

The 'were' in werewolf means 'man'. Manwolf.

The 'were' in werehog also means 'man'. Manhog. Sonic turns into a manhog.

Why are there Sonic fans left? How can anybody trust Sonic Team to do anything good? At this point I'm of the belief that the entire Sonic franchise is supported by Furries and Eric. Furries and Eric... hmm...

[Eric]

As much as I like furries, I do not actually buy Sonic games.

[Julius Seeker]

Game developers listen to IGN, Gamespot, and sales. When the game sells higher than any non-Wii/DS Sonic title in years, the sales are going to get the most weight of those three sources.

On a side note, Sonic hasn't been all bad. The Wii Sonic series is fun (Just Sonic levels, none of the other stuff was put into those games), the last game was fun and showed a lot of potential that looks like it may be realized in the upcoming title. The DS titles are also very good if you like the classic 2D style gameplay.

I haven't really played much beyond Sonic 1 and 2 lately though.

[Eric]

Game developers listen to IGN, Gamespot, and sales.

I agree with 1/3 of this, as IGN and Gamespot said the same thing I did in the first post.

IGN

Sonic Unleashed Wii:

"Fantastic, yes, but unfortunately Sonic Unleashed has a darker side, literally, and I'm referring specifically to the well-publicized night-set levels in which the speedy hero transforms into a slow, stretchy werehog. Yeah -- a werehog. If the concept sounds a little forced, it is, but not nearly as forced and altogether boring as the repetitive selection of nighttime stages. The question is, how much are you willing to put up with to play the undeniably great daytime levels?"

Sonic Unleashed X-Box 360/PS3:
"The nighttime sections are poorly designed, boring and frustrating. But worst of all, they have nothing to do with Sonic whatsoever. Nothing. If you saw a demo of the Werehog without knowing the name of the game, I doubt you'd guess it was actually Sonic the Hedgehog trapped in this misery. I can understand that it's just not feasible to create a 6-8 hour on-rails Sonic experience with him moving at the speed of sound, but that doesn't excuse this dreck being slapped on. The werehog is one of the worst times I've had with any game this year. Wasn't it around the time Old Yeller turned into a werehog that someone had to finally put him out of his misery?"

Gamespot:

Sonic Unleashed Wii:
"The hedgehog's speed is captured quite well here, letting you fly through levels with ease. The werehog sections are a bit too plodding, but the platforming sections are still quite enjoyable. It's just a shame that you'll spend more of your time controlling the lumbering werehog than the speedy hedgehog. Even if you have to endure a few too many boring werehog fights, it's still worth playing through this adventure just to see Sonic sprint again."

Sonic Unleashed X-Box 360/PS3:
"Even though there are an equal number of hedgehog and werehog stages, most of your time in Sonic Unleashed will be spent at night, since the arduous combat levels take far longer to complete than the sprint-to-the-finish-line hedgehog races. The werehog levels are extremely tedious. The levels are evenly divided between platforming and fighting, but both elements offer more frustration than excitement. Even though you can unlock more combos as you progress through the journey, your combat strategy never evolves beyond mindlessly tapping two attack buttons with an occasional jump thrown in for good measure."

[Julius Seeker]

I actually didn't even know there was a Sonic Unleashed on Wii =p
I was talking about the Secret of the Rings and The Dark Knight.

[SineSwiper]

Why are there Sonic fans left? How can anybody trust Sonic Team to do anything good? At this point I'm of the belief that the entire Sonic franchise is supported by Furries and Eric. Furries and Eric... hmm...

I was about to say the same thing. The switch to 3D has done nothing but fuck up the whole series. They never recovered since Sonic 3.

Besides, how can you trust a development team that codes THIS BADLY?

[Tessian]

Besides, how can you trust a development team that codes THIS BADLY?

LoL I only watched the first few minutes but good god... I've never seen such long loading screens let alone SO MANY SO OFTEN! Seriously... 5 seconds of loading to show a man clapping, then another 5 seconds to move on. You'd have to go out of your way to make loading that bad

[Zeus]

Sonic died when Naka left, period. And even before then it wasn't particularly good.

[Mental]

Sonic peaked with the Sega CD one where he could travel back and forth between the clean and polluted worlds and in time or whatever it was. I didn't own it, but played it at my friend's house a bit, and THAT was a cool Sonic game.

Since then, the most fun I've had playing a Sonic game is Sonic Spinball, which I think actually came out earlier, but was fairly fun when I rented it for the Genesis one day. Sonic Spinball is not a GREAT game, but I had more fun playing that than anything since, because the level of fun involved was not zero.

The 3D titles mostly bear little resemblance to what made everyone love the first one, in my opinion. They feel like work.

I really believe it has to do with making the levels way too big in 3D. In 2D, they HAD to be big because Sonic was so fast - but the developers seem to fail to realize that when you make things really big in 3D, you CUBE the applicable gameplay area. I always feel like they're these big, beautiful, and almost ridiculously boring things that reduce the Sonic experience to the level of a bad Spyro or something.

I think most of all I miss the bonus stages from the first game. Dear Lord, those were beautiful experiences.

[Mental]

Odd that I brought up Sonic Spinball, but that's actually really what I feel like is missing from the newer titles.

Sonic's strength was that it was half platformer, half pinball or pachinko experience. Sonic is more or less a pinball that can walk around and jump when it gets stuck, right? The bonus stages in the first game were such a perfect example of that, it was like pinball on rotating acid, and so much fun.

The great character design was the third leg of the tripod. Obviously that's done well too - Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Robotnik are all memorable characters, and have well-developed personalities. I will forcibly omit the rest of the cast in that respect on purpose.

But the development team allowed the inevitable merchandising and Saturday-morning-cartoon-level legendarium around that leg of the tripod to get 90% of the attention, and the pinball aspect turned into this sort of legacy let's-make-something-that-kind-of-feels-like-the-first-one, very much on-rails experience, instead of the development team taking that gameplay mechanic further and really advancing the GAME as an art form, instead of the stupid cuddly character merchandising that makes me want to kill Sega.

Maybe they'll get it someday, but I still have yet to see a 3D Sonic that really *compels* me to play it, as opposed to just being vaguely interesting in the hope that it will somehow resemble the old days when it never does.

[Eric]

I actually didn't even know there was a Sonic Unleashed on Wii =p
I was talking about the Secret of the Rings and The Dark Knight.

Omg, now you want Sonic to dress up as BATMAN, WTF SEEKER! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Jokes aside, IGN just reviewed Sonic & The Black Knight, and of course it's fail as well. Let's find out why shall we!

http://wii.ign.com/articles/958/958855p1.html

Yet, the blue blur's last romp on current-generation consoles, Sonic Unleashed, came close to recapturing the intensity of the the mascot's 16-bit roots due wholly to the title's short, but sweet selection of super speedy daylight missions. And then, unfortunately, there were the Werehog levels -- slow, weird and uncalled for. I frankly dreaded the coming of nightfall and Sonic's transformation in Unleashed, but compared to the clunky, misguided mess that is Sonic & the Black Knight, howling at the moon suddenly doesn't seem so bad anymore.


Mmm, one more shot at that fucking werehog, but it's ok, SEGA WILL BRING IT BACK! YAY!

But unfortunately for SEGA there is the second, integral component to consider: gameplay. And it's here where Black Knight is defeated, slashed through its corrupted heart time and time again. Imagine the trademark intense speed, loop-de-loops, corkscrews, jumps and pinball mechanics that have helped define the Sonic name over the years. Good. Now throw all of that tried-and-true stuff out the window, slow down the action to a relative crawl, give the blue hedgehog a big sword, and throw enemy after enemy in his path. This is the backbone of the offensively awful design template that is a succubus, perpetually draining fun away from the experience. The intense speed, loop-de- loops, and pinball jumps that Sonic is known for have been altogether removed for insultingly bad swordplay tied to retarded Wii waggle that will leave your arm sore and your heart broken. There isn't a level in Black Knight that is even one tenth as compelling as a single daylight mission in Sonic Unleashed.

I swear to god, it's like IGN is trying to tell Sega something...I just can't...oh I know, MORE WEREHOG, LAWL.

[Julius Seeker]

Wow, that is unfortunate. Well that's one crossed off the March list. Funny how Sega's mascot series is their lowest rated now. Maybe they should be more like Nintendo and do Sonic the justice Mario receives; instead of pumping them out like it's an EA Sports franchise.

[Julius Seeker]

Wow, that is unfortunate. Well that's one crossed off the March list. Funny how Sega's mascot series is their lowest rated now. Maybe they should be more like Nintendo and do Sonic the justice Mario receives; instead of pumping them out like it's an EA Sports franchise.

[Blotus]

Maybe Sega itself has been infiltrated by furries and they can't hear the cries of their fanbase because they're busy fucking each other in their werehog ears.