dark10x said:
Believe it or not, some of us are actually able to play the game well and avoid such things.
These games are flawed in the sense that unskilled play is punished in a very harsh manner (often leading the player to believe the game is completely at fault). When you come to understand the mechanics and are able to make use of them, however, the levels presented can be extremely enjoyable.
No, the games are flawed in that they take place 400 miles up in the air for absolutely no reason, have a piss-poor homing attack that can't truly be relied on, and slidey control. They're flawed in that levels are poorly designed, the engines glitch and fail to work properly, and that the tone and art design is usually horrible. "Unskilled play" should not be excessively "punished" in a superfast platformer - it should be allowed for. Previous Sonic games allowed for high-level play without that kind of utter bullshit - and yes Christopher-San I know it isn't 1991 anymore (before you pull out your usual amazing rapier wit) but so solly! It isn't 1996 or 1998 anymore and we deserve games that possess more finesse than first-gen PSOne platformers.
"Coming to understand the mechanics" usually means becoming aware of and denatured to the excessive flaws in the engine and the game design. Yes, I came to understand what not to do, but why should a fast platformer require that kind of vigilance to play at a
basic level.
Sonic needs Yasuhara and Oshima to get the design and asthetic strength it once had but they've moved on to better things (Jak and Blue Dragon, respectively). Undiscriminating buyers like you and Christopher will give this franchise the weight it needs to sink to lower depths, barring any kind of miracle of public taste. Gaming needs less apologists.
