While Sonic Generations is just over a week old, fans from all corners of the interwebs have started to discuss what’s next for the hedgehog. I would say it’s a bit too soon to start speculation on the next game, but even series producer Iizuka has started hinting towards the future. So with Generations considered completed and released, let’s look towards 2012 and beyond, and just what we might expect from the next Sonic game!
Believe it or not, the day before Sonic Generations releases there’s a little holiday going on called Halloween. Everybody has their own Halloween traditions, mine focus on pumpkin carving and scary movies. This year I thought I’d mix things up by throwing video games into the mix, specifically five games with a Halloween slant, each played on a different SEGA console. What follows are the five games I’ll be playing over the Halloweekend, and I hope if you have any of them you’ll revisit them as well.
The second Sonic Generations demo is out, and with it comes the first public demo of modern Sonic! Of course, we’ve had hours of footage and pages and pages of modern Sonic impressions. But none of that compares to actually playing the game. Having finally played the demo, I can happily say that modern Sonic is the best the 3D ‘hog has played in the HD era. Perhaps only being rivaled by the 3D Sonic of the Adventure titles. To celebrate Sonic’s return to form, let’s look at five reasons I’m lovin’ modern Sonic!
There’s a certain feeling I get when I’m playing a video game and, suddenly, I find myself absorbed into its world. It’s a feeling even greater than being pulled into a movie I’m watching, or even a book I’m reading, in the sense that this is a world in which I have control over my character. In a video game, you’re not simply along for the ride, but rather, you play a major role in the main character’s journey; you’re the force that guides your character through these worlds. SEGA has created some stunning worlds over the years, and the five I’m going to list here only scratch the surface. But these are a few of the worlds that SEGA has created which, ever since I first got to explore them, I’ve been wishing for a way to transport my real life self into them. Hit the break to read on.
While Sonic Generations release is still a month away, thanks to the many screens and video clips released by SEGA, fans have been able to pick apart every pixel. Some screens feature road signs with in-jokes, while others feature references to classic Sonic stages from the Genesis/Mega Drive days. Yes, even though the game only features a handful of classic era zones, that hasn’t kept Sonic team from including callbacks to zones not featured in the game. In this week’s Weekly Five we’ll run through five of these way past cool references.
When the Dreamcast breathed its last back in 2001, many thought it was for the best. “They’ll be more successful as a 3rd party publisher!” “They’ll be able to make more money since they’ll be on more systems!” But sadly, that wouldn’t be the case for a long, long time. In fact, only in the last two years has there been a big enough turnaround in quality. When Dreamcast died, much of the creativity and spark of the developers seemed to die with it, 2006 being the best example of Sega’s worst time in the industry.
But not all of it was bad. In fact, their initial outings on GameCube and X-Box were quite strong. Even during Sega’s worst times in 2003-2008, there were some diamonds in the rough. Continue on to see my top 5 favorite “post-Dreamcast” Sega titles from 2001-present.
I’d think any true blue SEGA fan has a special place in their heart for The House of the Dead franchise. Being an arcade lightgun classic, and spanning three console generations, The House of the Dead has produced a number of sequels, spin-offs and even ventured outside of the video game world by way of two horrible films. When Rise of Nightmares, SEGA’s latest Kinect title, was revealed at last year’s Tokyo Game Show, little was known of the game aside from “save your wife from an evil scientist”. Was it internally developed? Was it a House of the Dead title? We just couldn’t tell based on the short and creepy trailer. But now that time has passed, and the game is in stores, we have all the answers. In this week’s Weekly Five we’ll take a look at five reasons why I think Rise of Nightmares sits well alongside the beloved House of the Dead series, despite not carrying the series title, and why HotD fans should check the game out!
It’s Labor Day weekend here in America, and only a week until the Dreamcast’s 12th birthday! So I thought it would be fitting to present to you a weekly five that is light on the labor for me, and Dreamcast related for you. Thus, we’re talking a look at five great Dreamcast adverts that ran on American television. So let’s get started, less reading more watching!
Obviously, I love me my SEGA. Why else would I be writing for this place? But just because I love them, doesn’t mean I can’t be a little bit peeved with them when it comes to a few things. In this week’s Weekly Five, I’ll be going down my list of areas in which SEGA is slacking.
Despite being over ten years old, VMU games can still be fun! Sure they pale in comparison to modern day handheld devices, but even back when VMUs were new they couldn’t compete with the handhelds of the early 00’s. The main purpose of a VMU was to save your game data, the fact that they could play mini-games was the cherry on top. While the VMU didn’t change the world, at least SEGA didn’t advertise it as the standout feature of the console (subtle dig at the Wii U). While I don’t carry a VMU about with me like I did back in ’99, I still make it a point to occasionally pick up some CR2032 batteries to bring my VMU back to life. What follows are my personal favorite VMU games.
Want to play these yourself, but don’t have all the Dreamcast titles that offer these extra features? Check out Blue Swirl’s VMU Tool. An awesome application for the Dreamcast which allows you to make a number of (safe) modifications to existing VMUs as well as download game saves and VMU games from the entire Dreamcast library. It even has a VMU emulator, for those too lazy to play an actual VMU.
I make it no secret that I am a big time Dreamcast fan. It is the SEGA console I own the most games for (around 120 last time I counted) and every September 9th I take the day off from work to host a nine hour Dreamcast marathon. There are many reasons why I love the console, but the number one would have to be the exclusives. Jet Set Radio, Shenmue and Crazy Taxi 2 are fantastic games and have yet to appear on any other console, and I’m totally cool with that. It’s a perfect reason for my Dreamcast to remain hooked up next to my current generation consoles.
But as time goes on, SEGA has been porting more and more Dreamcast classics to other consoles. Great for the gaming community, bad for the Dreamcast. Less exclusives mean less of a reason for gamers to pick up a used console. I know it sounds like I’m being overly dramatic, however this past May I did witness a kid turning down the purchase of a Dreamcast due to SEGA’s recently released Dreamcast Collection. As such, I thought I’d share five lesser known Dreamcast games that remain exclusive to the console and show no sign of receiving a rerelease. If you want these, you need a Dreamcast.
SEGA has a massive stable of iconic characters. From the normal (Ryo Hazuki) to the bizarre (ToeJam and Earl) and everything in-between. But what about the characters you never see? They’re just as iconic, yet they have never had a face to put to the voice. In this week’s five, we will be shining the spotlight on the best unseen SEGA characters. The characters who can define a game without the need for a visit to SEGA’s character design department.
SEGA has had some highly rated games released on the PSP, sadly mostly everyone outside of Japan has decided to ignore the platform. Sony recently announced the ‘PSP Remasters’ series. Games from PSP ported over and enhanced on the Playstation 3.
One of the first games to get this treatment has been Monster Hunter Freedom 3, which looks great. I decided to put together 5 games that deserve the PSP Remasters treatment.
Next to the games, perhaps my most favorite Sonic thing of the 1990’s was the cartoon series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (AoStH). While Saturday morning’s Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic SatAM) had stronger plots and more polished animation, AoStH was just too damn fun to be deemed the lesser cartoon. To me, AoStH was a much better adaptation of the games, and when I say games I mean the only two that were released by that time: Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Every episode featured Sonic and Tails playing cat and mouse with Robotnik and his gang of badniks, just like in the Genesis games. Even better, the show kicked off with an awesome mix of the original Sonic theme song, “Flight of the Bumblebee” and “In the Hall of the Mountain King”.
While I was satisfied with this amount of video game fan service, every so often an episode would air that would give the video game fans a little bonus. Something that would make us sit up and pay a bit more attention. Sonic might traverse through a zone from Sonic 1 (gasp!) or Robotnik might make reference to a Chaos Emerald (Hey, I know those!). In celebration of Sonic’s 20th, and my favorite 90’s cartoon series, I present five game inspired episodes of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog!
In his 20 years of existence, Sonic has not only appeared in dozens of games, but he has also introduced a ton of irregularities. The irregularities I’m referring to are the things that exist within his video games that support the gameplay and the player playing the game, yet don’t make a whole lot of sense within the context of the world within the game. For example, it’s a ton of fun to run through a twirling highway in Sonic Adventure, but why in the world would such a highway even exist? Or what about all those springs and item boxes? Surely Eggman didn’t put them there, because they assist Sonic. So just how and why do elements like that exist in Sonic’s world? In this week’s weekly five, I’m going to attempt to explain five oddities of Sonic’s world. Most of my explanations will probably be complete bullshit, but that’s the fun of over-thinking!