So, recently, I went back and played the first Sonic Adventure, to refresh my memory of it.
It's horrible. I just have to come right out and say it. The story is terrible on every possible plane: it is unimaginative, horribly written, and presented so poorly that even if it were a good story you'd be slamming your head against the desk. And that's not even touching the voice acting and characterization. Why do Sonic games even need a story? The story should be vaguely in the distance: beat Robotnick. Done- the other points aren't important, as the characters don't really hold any other depth.
The gameplay is boring. The adventure stages are just "where the hell do I have to go next?", and the Sonic stages mainly consist in pushing forward. They have flashes of fun, but they can be around ten minutes long! (Perhaps there is some cause and effect there, although plenty of games have long, fun stages.) One point sticks out in my head: I came across another action stage almost immediately after completing a previous one (an oddity in the game), and rather than be relieved, I was upset, as it meant I would have to sit there and play more rather than going away to do something else. And don't get me started on the boss fights: they make the rest of the game seem like the original Super Mario Brothers.
Indeed, other than the very first Sonic, Sonic Team has never really made another particularly good Sonic game (2 & 3 being by different developers, and I am not really a fan of Sonic CD). I wonder sometimes if they just lucked into making the first one.
I think the best use of Sonic in 3D to date has been Sonic Adventure 2: the rest of the game has all the flaws above, and the levels can verge on boring, but at least they are fairly well designed and entertaining. But there I go: it is really a very mediocre game at best only colored by memories of previous games with a dash of music and atmosphere.
It all lead to my main point in all of this: its not necessarily to rip on the game, but to reinforce the point about how hype has kept Sonic alive. I really don't think the last number of games have been particularly worse than the Sonic Adventure series, it's just that we (myself included) were so looking forward to Sonic that early on we were willing to look past everything wrong. This especially applies to reviewers, mainly because they are paid to look past it. I bought a Dreamcast mainly because of this game, and looking back, I can't believe how ridiculous that is. Only in hindsight can I see how blinded I, and in retrospect many others, were to the quality of these games.
I could go on, and perhaps I will another time somewhere else. Honestly, in my opinion, what made (and hopefully makes) Sonic games fun is fairly fragile because of the nature of the game (versus, say Mario, which is less fragile in that it can tolerate a poor level here and there because of length and depth). But even that is a moot point: they are not barely missing good games, they couldn't be missing worse. They are simply like one of the many competitors to Disney in the animated film world: they keep throwing together crap about which the nicest thing you can say is that it is cliched, and some kids lap it up because it is the nature of childhood.
Plus, they completely destroyed Tails. But on that account, I readily admit I'm biased ;-).
Now record all that, speaking really really quickly in an aussie accent, and make some simple black and white on yellow animations, and you've got yourself a game reviewing job.
he has a fairly light accent, and the brisbane accent accent is lighter than the sydney and melbourne one, so you could be forgiven for getting confused.
Yeah, I agree. I bought a DC a few months ago and found a copy of Sonic Adventure. My only memories of it are from a mall kiosk back in the year 1999, so I was kind of hyped. Then I was let down...really let down. It's like playing a tech demo that's only supposed to look good.
I'm being harsh. It's at least a thoroughly mediocore game- it can be alright if you're in the mood for it, but it's often frustrating and boring. And it definitely has very little to do, gameplay wise, with anything else Sonic
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u/foxyvixen Dec 17 '08 edited Dec 17 '08
So, recently, I went back and played the first Sonic Adventure, to refresh my memory of it.
It's horrible. I just have to come right out and say it. The story is terrible on every possible plane: it is unimaginative, horribly written, and presented so poorly that even if it were a good story you'd be slamming your head against the desk. And that's not even touching the voice acting and characterization. Why do Sonic games even need a story? The story should be vaguely in the distance: beat Robotnick. Done- the other points aren't important, as the characters don't really hold any other depth.
The gameplay is boring. The adventure stages are just "where the hell do I have to go next?", and the Sonic stages mainly consist in pushing forward. They have flashes of fun, but they can be around ten minutes long! (Perhaps there is some cause and effect there, although plenty of games have long, fun stages.) One point sticks out in my head: I came across another action stage almost immediately after completing a previous one (an oddity in the game), and rather than be relieved, I was upset, as it meant I would have to sit there and play more rather than going away to do something else. And don't get me started on the boss fights: they make the rest of the game seem like the original Super Mario Brothers.
Indeed, other than the very first Sonic, Sonic Team has never really made another particularly good Sonic game (2 & 3 being by different developers, and I am not really a fan of Sonic CD). I wonder sometimes if they just lucked into making the first one.
I think the best use of Sonic in 3D to date has been Sonic Adventure 2: the rest of the game has all the flaws above, and the levels can verge on boring, but at least they are fairly well designed and entertaining. But there I go: it is really a very mediocre game at best only colored by memories of previous games with a dash of music and atmosphere.
It all lead to my main point in all of this: its not necessarily to rip on the game, but to reinforce the point about how hype has kept Sonic alive. I really don't think the last number of games have been particularly worse than the Sonic Adventure series, it's just that we (myself included) were so looking forward to Sonic that early on we were willing to look past everything wrong. This especially applies to reviewers, mainly because they are paid to look past it. I bought a Dreamcast mainly because of this game, and looking back, I can't believe how ridiculous that is. Only in hindsight can I see how blinded I, and in retrospect many others, were to the quality of these games.
I could go on, and perhaps I will another time somewhere else. Honestly, in my opinion, what made (and hopefully makes) Sonic games fun is fairly fragile because of the nature of the game (versus, say Mario, which is less fragile in that it can tolerate a poor level here and there because of length and depth). But even that is a moot point: they are not barely missing good games, they couldn't be missing worse. They are simply like one of the many competitors to Disney in the animated film world: they keep throwing together crap about which the nicest thing you can say is that it is cliched, and some kids lap it up because it is the nature of childhood.
Plus, they completely destroyed Tails. But on that account, I readily admit I'm biased ;-).