Aki- You didn't ask for it, but it seemed like SU did. I may be mistaken by reading too fast. If I did I'm sorry.
If you play the Sonic stages you'll notice that the platforming is far and few in between. Furthermore the platforming with the werehog is mostly boring and tedious as well as down right frustrating and cheap most of the time
Sonic Heroes wasn't a terrible platformer. It got a bad rap at the time because it wasn't up to snuff with Adventure 1 or 2..
It was a terrible platformer, it didn't get even worse rap because it came after those two games, if it came after Shadow the Hedgehog, Silver or Sonic Unleashed, it would have scored even lower, back than Sonic had good will to his name.
Sonic Heroes has terrible level designs as soon as you go past stage 2, horrible glitches, some of the worst boss battles in Sonic games at the time and the team gameplay was shoddy at the best of times.
I really have to wonder how much you've actually played of that game to defend it's level design.
It posted average to respectable scores (7s), and was the best selling Sonic game till, what, Olympic Games?.
See my previous point. I have always disliked Sonic Heroes since it was released and I am sure if you check this forum, many too would dislike it. Compared to other platformers from Nintendo, Sony and Naughty Dog, the end product was lacking.
And Shadow's problems had more to do with guns, voice acting (and the prerequisite script) and glitches.
Shadow's major problems may not have been level design, but it still was a problem, again I have to ask how much you've seen or played of the game?
The difference between a platformer and whatever you consider NiGHTS to be isn't that significant. Its not the leap from say Sonic to Shadow.
Please enlighten me how many times you are forced to jump in the original NiGHTS outside of playing as the two children, who then didn't even do much jumping.
The whole reason the genre is called platforming is because the character is meant to jump from one platform to another, there lies the platforming. To say there is not a significant difference tells me you did not play NiGHTS or many platforming games before. The main point in a platformer is jumping, this is not and never was the point of NiGHTS. It's a much bigger leap than Sonic to Shadow, infact it's leaping chasms.
It isn't that hard at all to imagine having to rescue NiGHTS or something as one of the characters in a well thought out platforming segment of the game. Especially if its a windy level, ala whatever the hell the name of the second act in Sonic Adventure was, where you spend a good bit of time dicking with vents. I'm not saying it should be a significant portion of the game, but its completely feasible, in my opinion. It could very well compliment the...er...not platforming NiGHTS sections.
How do you compliment free flow flying with platforming? You just cannot. I do not understand why you think platforming would be a good idea in a game that is not and was never know about platforming. It would be like adding fighting in Sonic and you know that was not received too well, even with the fact that it happens to be okay for the most part.
Likewise, the masks could have been a very fun and interesting element to the gameplay, had they been more varied and put to more interesting use. You'll notice a similar gimmick with Sonic Colours, and thus far it doesn't seem to be a very despised feature of the game.
They could have, but even how they were used was good for the most part, however people do not want to random be
forced into changing into these forms, which NiGHTS unfortunately did and something Sonic Colours fortunately is not doing.
But I think if you asked people would they prefer Sonic without the wisp powers? Most would answer yes they would.
I'm not saying that games should mimic one another - Shenmue shouldn't become Grand Theft Auto. I am saying that I wouldn't expect Shenmue 3 to be the exact same gameplay as Shenmue 1 or 2 with better graphics.
But the changes I made about Shenmue is less drastic than adding platforming to NiGHTS? Shenmue is already an open city for players to explore and interact, surely the next logical step would be allowing them to interact with weapons and cars? Whilst NiGHTS is about free flowing flght in a 2D plane, how you could move onto platforming from there I just do not understand.
Using new resources and capabilities on a gaming platform doesn't mean masquerading behind more successful franchises. It means expanding a making something unique.
Or you just do not make the sequel and instead opt for a new IP. By expanding a title, you force certain segments, mainly what NiGHTS is known for, with less and less gameplay of this. This is not what the fanbase wanted but was forced by the platforming.
And 3D platforming was possible on the SEGA Saturn, see Croc.
If the masks and platforming had been well thought out and more seamless, I tend to doubt people would complain much. Its like saying that Sonic Adventure was shit because it was too adventury and there wasn't enough platforming and it wasn't a sidescroller. Sonic Adventure is a pretty good game, as I'm sure you'll attest, but you'll notice it adds to the formula. The problems start when the additions become half baked.
The problems
started from Sonic Adventure, not when they became half baked. People were complaining about Knuckles treasure hunting, Gamma's shooting etc because this was just not the point of Sonic, those complaints carried onto Sonic Adventure 2 but after that, the quality of those ideas started to drop too.
It did not however change the fact some were displeased with the extra additions to the gameplay. If you want to add stuff like Gamma and Knuckles' treasure hunting, it is all well and good, however this is better for new IPs or spinoffs, just expanding the series into something that would slowly make the main draw lesser and lesser is not the way to go.
