Top 10 ways to make a good Sonic game

Oh, another site with a top 10 feature? Say it isn’t so? This is actually our first top 10 list. I hope you guys enjoy the read.

I want to state, even though the list is set to ‘improve’ on Sonic Team of today, it is mostly a list of what I think makes a great Sonic game. I know this differs from person to person, so I’m always open to hear your input on the matter and what makes a Sonic game good to you.

10. Stop listening to fans.

I know there are a lot of fans out there that know what they are talking about and genuinely  have really good ideas for games. But sadly, the majority of Sonic fans do not know what makes Sonic game a Sonic game. Did you know how many Sonic fans got pissed off about Sonic 4 not having Silver the Hedgehog as a playable character? You’d be shocked.

The Sonic franchise was created, with zero fan input. I see no reason why they couldn’t pick up the ground work set up by Sonic Team of old and continue to deliver quality content. I even made it number 10, that way Sonic Team and SEGA don’t have to read the rest of the list. 🙂

9. Stop adding new characters

I don’t mind when a franchise introduces a new face in a game. I think its a refreshing way to keep the series going, the only issue here is that SEGA does the same sort of plot for most of the characters. Shadow and Silver basically took the Knuckles plot and reused it. Changing little things here and there. They were bad guys, turned into good guys. Silver is probably the most like Knuckles, since he was being used and is out to get revenge on Sonic  (based on a lie).

Sonic Team should sit back and find a good way to introduce a new character, if it is not original and fun; then just don’t introduce them to the Sonic Universe. It does not need it. There are already too many characters anyway.

8. Stop trying to be dark

We get it, Sonic Team; after Sonic Adventure 2 the series became very dark to cater to 14 year olds that think they are goth because they listen to Marilyn Manson.  We all loved his “Sweet Dreams” cover, doesn’t mean we want our childhood franchise to be covered in dark cheesy dialog about love and lost.

Sonic The Hedgehog was trying to be edgy when it came out, with his cool attitude. I don’t mind that, I do mind when they start adding love plots and this whole dark attitude into the series. Save it for another franchise or even a spin-off game, not the main series. Actually know, just stop it.

7. Stop the stupid, complicated and badly written story lines

Nothing pisses me off in a Sonic game more than when I turn the game on, then I find out they put in more work into the story than the damn game. Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 is a great example of this. They bring like three big stories together; stories about princess’, flames of chaos and a future hedgehog. Too bad the whole game is broken.

Sonic the Hedgehog 1991 had Sonic, simple gameplay and a simple plot. Guess what? It won rewards, launched a 30+ million copy selling franchise and became one of the most well known video game characters of all time. Learn from the first Sonic game!

6. Character Cameos

This is something that SEGA thinks is really fun to do for fans of the franchise, too bad its implemented poorly. I hate playing a game and out of nowhere a character like Knuckles will just pop out of nowhere, say a few lines of dialog and break a mountain (Sonic Rush) then  never show up again. Really?

If the character has nothing to do with the plot, don’t bother to include him/her in the story. I rather just SEGA make a skin of the character that you can unlock later. Rather have that then them flinging a character into the story that has nothing to do with the story.

5. Less gameplay gimmicks

I never understood Sonic Team’s planning. Like before a game goes into production, you are suppose to have developement time planned out. We all know that Sonic has had issues with its camera since the Dreamcast days, but the genius developers always decide that adding more gameplay elements  will just make people forget about the broken elements from the last game they forgot to fix.

SEGA needs to find out that we don’t play Sonic games to move stuff with Psychokinesis, Eggman in a slow robot suit or even a poor beat ’em up.

4. Platforming > Speed

[This is what I’m talking about!]

We always understood, even when I was a kid, that Sonic was fast. I get it, but the games were platformers. Seems that sometimes SEGA and Sonic Team really miss the point of the games and always advertise it for its speed. The reason it was hyped for speed back in the day was because it was a SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive selling feature. SEGA does not need to seel Genesis/Mega Drives!

Though the old games had a good sense of balance between speed and platforming, the best was Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Now it seems that SEGA is too focused on trying to make Sonic faster and faster, that it sacrifices its platforming roots. Look at Sonic Rush. Slow a bit down please and add more platforming!

3. Rushed Products

Sonic the Hedgehog is SEGA’s most popular franchise, one of the top 5 franchises in video game history and it seems that SEGA still rushes development time on the titles. This one of the biggest reasons why the Sonic franchise and name is where it is today.  Seems that everything released with the Sonic name is rushed. Sonic Unleashed could have used some polishing, Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 was barely playable and most of the ports (Sonic Collection on DS and Sonic the Hedgehog on Gameboy Advance) aren’t even good ports.

Even though some of Sonic Team’s ideas are retarded, at least let them release a playable product to the consumer. It is very offensive to ask your fans to pay $60 dollars for a game that was rushed.

2. Fun and simple gameplay

When the Sonic franchise was launched, it got popular due to its fun and simple gameplay mechanics. The game used the directional pad and one button. You did a jump to go over objects and spin dash to burst in speed. That is it. Now we have a ton of things in Sonic games that are all fluff and nothing in the end works right. You have camera buttons, homing attacks, slides and all this nonsense. This is not even taking into accounts all the new character gameplay.

This is why I’m glad SEGA is going to try 2-D console title again, less hassle with the camera and more focus (I hope) on the simple and fun aspect of Sonic.

1. Good level design

[from Sonic Retro. Sonic 4 does not know good design.]

Sonic Team, in my opinion, really need to get their level designs down. It is really hit and miss, mostly miss when Dimps is involved. They now focus more on making you move forward through a level instead of giving you obstacles through the game.

SEGA has been introducing new mechanics on the game that are used to not slow you down. The level design for the most part in games have been the same thing, a way to get you from one end of the map to the other. That is not what Sonic is, we need some jumps in there.

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