Christoff Yurievich
Member
Interesting article. BusinessWeek Online
Sonic the Hedgehog: The Awkward Teen Years
Sega's mascot turns 15 this year. A shame there seems little to celebrate
This week, NYC is hosting Digital Life, a mini CES/E3 that showcases upcoming products. It's mostly tech, cameras and what not, but there is a smattering of colorful events, the most notable being Sonic the Hedgehog's 15th birthday celebration, hosted by Party of Five and Mean Girls alum Lacey Chabert. There will be cake, the birthday song, and most likely some guy (or gal) dressed in a life size Sonic costume. It's just unfortunate that it's one of the most unexciting sounding birthdays that I have ever been invited to. If only Sega gave me a reason to celebrate.
Have you ever wondered what's been going on with the Sonic franchise? Back in the day, and I'm talking the early to mid nineties, a new Sonic game was always associated with quality. Press clamored for the latest releases, and most of these gems (Sonic, Sonic 2, and Sonic CD especially) met with rave reviews. Meanwhile, Sega was on a tear. It had used the blue hedgehog to apply a monster nerve hold on Nintendo, thus causing it to relinquish its stranglehold on the videogame industry. And Sonic creator Yuji Naka was likened to Mario's proud papa Shigeru Miyamoto. With these weapons, Sega was poised to capture the hearts of millions for years to come.
Then the company lost its market share and everything went to hell.
Seriously, what's happened to Sonic? After the Genesis was laid to rest (and after having to suffer through the awful Sonic 3D Blast), the blue blur didn't receive a full-fledged adventure on the horrid 32X or the Sega Saturn. He popped up in such mediocre games as Sonic The Fighters and Sonic R (both completely disposable, by the way), but aside from those blips on the radar (and some shady Game Gear titles) he vanished. Sega's biggest mascot, the character that was largely responsible for the company's success against its hated rival, was reduced to bit roles while Nintendo readied Super Mario 64, which is arguably considered to be the greatest 3D platform game ever made.
Thankfully, Sega rebounded in 1999 with the glitch-ridden, but somewhat enjoyable Dreamcast launch title, Sonic Adventure. It's not especially polished and the camera's a mess, but I gave Sega and Sonic Team a pass since it was the first Sonic game for new hardware. Besides, the much-improved sequel, Sonic Adventure 2, proved that the developers were building something special. But that was 2001, and since that time, Sega has done an excellent job shoving its beloved character into the dirt. There was the awful Sonic Shuffle, then Sonic Heroes, and then (oh my God) Sonic Riders. The company did manage to strike a chord with the Sonic Advance series on GBA, and the DS title Sonic Rush is pretty good, all things considered, but when it comes to console outings, Sonic's flopped big time. Let's also not forget the recent spin-off Shadow the Hedgehog, which brings new meaning to the word yuck.
Despite these pockmarks, I was excited to learn that Sega was busy developing a new Sonic title for the PS3 and the Xbox 360. That is, until I played it at this year's E3. The demo was just awful. With the camera a spastic mess, I was unable to get a good read on Sonic. The result? Tons of deaths, sometimes mere seconds apart. For whatever reason, the developers elected to construct a series of narrow ledges, so I was falling off them, and Sonic's attack (where he bounces off enemies) was difficult to control, so instead of landing safely on the ground, I was plummeting to my doom.
E3's never been the place to go for polished videogames, so I gave Sega the benefit of the doubt. The game was, and still is, slated for a Fall 2006 release, so that gave the company several months of dev time. And so I waited, and much to my surprise, discovered that a demo was to be released on Xbox Live. I downloaded it (with much enthusiasm), I played it... it's bad.
Life is all about lessons learned. For example, if you eat too much food and throw up, you should've learned that overeating is bad and you shouldn't do it again. For videogames, developers see what doesn't work, then take the necessary step(s) to correct those problems. But in Sega's case, it's been making the same mistake for the past seven years. It's been designing the same exact Sonic Adventure game, long after people have complained about the level design and the camera. The recently released demo is a perfect example. The camera is terrible, and the level design hasn't changed since E3. Sonic is still falling off ledges, but there's a bigger problem than that. As a whole, this level just doesn't feel like a Sonic game. He still moves fast, but Sega hasn't built the game around that concept. Instead of just creating a series of loops for him to spin around and ramps for him to launch from, there's a mess of garbage that must be navigated; those horrible ledges and gushes of air that he must ride to reach the next platform. But none of it fits. It's a total fish out of water scenario.
I haven't played the entire game, nor do I know how far along this demo truly is. I'll get a chance to play a more updated version at this week's Digital Life. But I'm not excited at all. If anything, I'm disgusted. I know some of these Sonic games have sold well. Hey, that's cool. But Sega has a huge quality control issue when it comes to Sonic, and I have to wonder what Sega of Japan and most notably Yuji Naka have been up to. Surely, they're better than this, better than a horrible Xbox Live demo.
To be fair, I can't imagine Sonic being an easy character to program a 3D game around. The little guy runs at what seems like hundreds of miles per hour. With that being said, it's probably a real pain trying to craft a camera that can keep up with him while at the same time giving the player a good idea where they're going. And to top it off, the mass market just loves the 3D graphics, so there's probably some pressure to keep wowing them with updated and swanky visuals. However, Nintendo proved (with New Super Mario Bros.) that it's possible to develop a fantastic 2D platform adventure that can sell millions of copies. That game is on a portable system, but I have confidence that the company's future 2D endeavor, Super Paper Mario could be a huge success, so why not just go back to basics and make a 2D Sonic? Go back to what worked. Furthermore, give it a proper "next-gen" facelift. No one on this planet can convince me that a 2D Sonic (on the PS3 and Xbox 360) wouldn't sell. Retro being what it is these days, I think longtime fans would flock to it, especially if it had 2.5D visuals, levels that are 2D in nature, but sport some 3D elements. Price it accordingly (no $59.99 shenanigans) and I'm there.
Unfortunately, such an idea is only a pipedream. Sega will release the new Sonic the Hedgehog on November 14th, and it'll be what it'll be. For now, I will muster up the love that I still have for Sonic and enjoy his birthday party. It's just a shame that I won't be able to have my cake and eat it too.
