Is Sonic the Hedgehog still relevant?
In the next week, a new Sonic game, called Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood will hit store shelves for the Nintendo DS. Some are anxiously waiting for the title to be released, while many don't care all that much. Why is that? Probably because Silent Hill: Homecoming will be released during the same week and, well, Sonic has lost his stride over the past decade.
Practically any poll you search for on the Web about the most popular video game characters will say that Mario is tops. In fact, a recent survey in Japan [Google translation warning] returned similar results showing Mario as the popular game character in the country, followed closely by other big names like Cloud from the Final Fantasy series and Yoshi.
Other surveys feature Sonic in the Top 10 -- usually around the middle area -- and the vast majority of people I surveyed on my Twitter page agreed with the public: Sonic isn't the best video game character of all-time, but he's certainly up there.
So what happened to Sonic? A decade ago, the blue hedgehog was at the top of his game and battling it out with Mario for the top-spot as the world's most popular video game character. Since then, even though he has been featured in a number of titles, his popularity has dropped significantly and his money-making potential has fallen with it.
All the while, stalwarts like Mario and Link have clung to the top spots with nary a drop in popularity.
During the heyday of the Sega Genesis, I can still remember the fights that would break out over whether Sonic or Mario was better. The Sega fanboys would support their mascot until the end and the Nintendo fanboys would do the same for their plumber. Little did we know that that really was the beginning of the end.
As soon as the Nintendo 64 hit store shelves and Mario become the centerpiece of the 3D platforming world, Sonic's decline started. Sega couldn't muster a real competitor and its own desire for speed trumped its necessity for fun and exciting platforming gameplay.
In the meantime, Sega itself was declining at a rapid rate and its blunders is ostracizing developers and retailers turned the company into pariah. And as Nintendo continued its charge as the de facto leader in innovative gameplay, Sega and Sonic were left out in the cold.
Finally, with the release of the Sega Dreamcast, Sega made an effort in the platforming space and released Sonic Adventure, which, to this day, is still one of my favorite games to play when I'm bored. But alas, it was too late and the once-proud Sonic was forced to endure as his creators bailed out of the hardware business in favor of software.
Sure, it wasn't long ago that Sega dropped out of the hardware business, but it really has been a long time since Sonic was on-par with Mario. In fact, I'd say that Sonic hasn't been considered an equal to Mario for at least a decade. During that time, all the kids that stayed true to Sonic have moved on, grown up, and found gaming love in titles like Halo and Gears of War. And all the younger kids who don't remember the days of Nintendo-Sega fighting only know and love one major player in the space: Mario. Sonic games are relegated to the bargain bin for these children.
And perhaps that's why few people are getting excited about the latest and greatest Sonic game. The people that once cared are too old to get excited about Sonic anymore and the younger people who should be getting excited barely care he exists. They would be much happier playing the latest Mario title or checking out any of the other major franchises in the industry.
I still look back at the old days when Sonic was at the top as some of the greatest days in gaming. It was a time when derivative gameplay was the exception, not the rule. And it was a time when gaming didn't have to be about sexy women or killing prostitutes to be fun. It was a time when gaming was real and it was unique.
And unfortunately, it's becoming clearer by the day that Sonic, a stalwart of that time, is dying of old age with each sub-par title from Sega trying to revive the old hedgehog.
Thanks for the good times, Sonic. We loved every minute of them.
Check out Don's Digital Home podcast, Twitter feed, and FriendFeed.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
1 - A tremendous amount of bugs and glitches
2 - Poor level design and game mechanics
3 - Too many characters and uninteresting stories.
I think Dark Chronicles has potential to be a good game, but Sonic Unleashed is almost sure to fail. Despite initially appearing to go in a better direction, the idea of sonic the hedgehog as a werewolf is a ridiculous idea. Sega can't pull of what Naughty Dog did with the creation of Dark Jak to make Sonic more interesting.
Sega needs to start fresh and create a Sonic game that doesn't rely upon the basic 3d mechanics they created in Sonic Adventure, but rather a game that focuses on what made sonic games fun in the first place, level design. The fun in old Sonic games came from exploration rather than combat.
To start Sega could release a 2.5d Sonic game.
Meh.
-Don
But it's true that Sonic still has the potential for a big comeback. Sega just needs to rethink Sonic from the beggining, forget about all the many characters that have populated the series in the last few years and stick to the Sonic/Tails/Knuckles trio. If they want to use characters like Shadow, Amy, E-102, Cream, Silver, Blaze, Big the Cat and all... so be it. But at least don't make them playable characters that only hinder the experience of what people is looking for, which is Sonic. You see, people buy Sonic games to play as Sonic mainly, but Sega insists in having people play as Amy or Big, which offer nothing of the Sonic gaming style.
The Sonic Rush games were incredible. Rush Adventure was an awesome package full of everything. The dialogue was sometimes a bit dull and way too kiddy, but you could skip it if you wanted to, or enjoy it if you really wanted to get into the story. But yeah, it was the level designs that made Rush a fun adventure, altough it also lacked the ussage of several paths around which you could explore a little bit for new ways of reaching the goal. Sonic 3 was a perfect example of how many paths you could take to reach the same point.
If only Sega found a way to bring those level designs to 3D it would be an amazing game. That is, if they manage to fix the several camera issues and get a decent movement speed...
I'll always wonder what Sonic 3 & Knuckles would look like in 3D...
But it's true that Sonic still has the potential for a big comeback. Sega just needs to rethink Sonic from the beggining, forget about all the many characters that have populated the series in the last few years and stick to the Sonic/Tails/Knuckles trio. If they want to use characters like Shadow, Amy, E-102, Cream, Silver, Blaze, Big the Cat and all... so be it. But at least don't make them playable characters that only hinder the experience of what people is looking for, which is Sonic. You see, people buy Sonic games to play as Sonic mainly, but Sega insists in having people play as Amy or Big, which offer nothing of the Sonic gaming style.
The Sonic Rush games were incredible. Rush Adventure was an awesome package full of everything. The dialogue was sometimes a bit dull and way too kiddy, but you could skip it if you wanted to, or enjoy it if you really wanted to get into the story. But yeah, it was the level designs that made Rush a fun adventure, altough it also lacked the ussage of several paths around which you could explore a little bit for new ways of reaching the goal. Sonic 3 was a perfect example of how many paths you could take to reach the same point.
If only Sega found a way to bring those level designs to 3D it would be an amazing game. That is, if they manage to fix the several camera issues and get a decent movement speed...
I'll always wonder what Sonic 3 & Knuckles would look like in 3D...
- by iHumanoid October 3, 2008 7:46 PM PDT
- 'Sonic's losing his stride?' That isn't necessarily true. In my opinion, Sonic games are a great deal of fun. However, a reason that Sonic is losing popularity is because some of his recent games put just a little too much emphasis on reality (i.e. Sonic '06), and there are noticeable bugs like camerawork. But these shouldn't get in the way of the gameplay, which has maintained its fast and furious trademark since the Genesis days (again, my opinion only). Anyhow, this article may be put into question with the arrival of Sonic Unleashed. It seems to address most of the concerns which gamers have been voicing over the years. Most of the main gaming magazines seem pretty hyped up about it...
- Reply to this comment
-
(13 Comments)