2 New Sonic Games - Good News For All?
New game announcements!
It's always exciting news when Sonic's the star! So far, there's Sonic Mania an entirely classic game that's creating all sorts of interesting talk*. Then there's the more controversial one that doesn't have a name yet and doesn't show any game play. (It's more controversial because there's no gameplay in its single trailer so far) SonicGear isn't a games blog, so why bring these up?
(Speculation is at the bottom)
Merchandise. (Of course!)
You can INSTANTLY understand the prolific amount of classic style stuff that's all around us right now when you observe Sonic Mania. All that stuff, and the new license company Vandor on the scene in USA making buckets of items all of that goes to support Mania. (How about that DropDead Clothing in the UK too) It also handily explains classic Super Sonic-Dress-up Hello Kitty toy SDCC exclusive. With actual NEOCLASSIC art seeing more of a spotlight...the new items can feel fresh too, which is great. (If you like Sonic enough to own 1 thing, you might like to own more than 1. It's important that items look different enough to feel collectible) The other reason for the abundance of classic stuff isn't great though...
Boom strips away modern Sonic
Yes it IS time to re-run-speak once more on the topic. When Boom was announced & Boomstyle became 'a thing', Sega Marketing was quick to re-assure the fans that "no version of Sonic will disappear" and then instantly made modern Sonic disappear. They stripped the modern license from every company selling Sonic in the USA to ensure only Boomstyle would get the spotlight. You can hunt on Gear for proof, look at when the last date of genuinely new merch with modern Sonic stops appearing. After a certain point no new modern thing appears, it's only classic & Boom.
Un-Named-Game:
This is being falsely called "Generations 2", but it's already been stated (by game people, not the liars in marketing) that 'its not a sequel'....there for it will have to be called something other than "2" and can't use the word "generations".
The important thing is, that it has Modern Sonic in it and isn't made out of Boomstyle (so perhaps Knuckles fans can be happy again? Not a Knuckles fan? You can recognize that they are upset though) Since this game isn't just a portable, it's a big-console-deal, no doubt modern Sonic will be allowed to return to merchandise.
Bottom Line: No matter which Sonic style you like best you ought to be able to be happy with available merchandise!
*What talk?
A true console return to 2D gaming? If they get "The feel" of S&K or S3 or Sonic CD right this will be a smash. Every developer seems terrified of anything not 3D because "2D is old and inherently bad/inferior/nostalgia grabbing/low-tech/lame" so Sonic doing this is a big step. Mario fans are talking about a real console (not just portable) 2D Mario game again, and so are others (Donkey Kong, etc) to see what fun could be had there also. Will Sonic lead the way into more fun gaming as he once did? We can hope! (In gaming if it's fun to play ALL dimensions should be welcomed)
3rd Game:
Clearly....Fire & Ice Boom on DS so Boom merch will naturally continue to appear.
Why is the Gear update late?
Because the new uploading program (a 'new feature'....yes more like anti-feature) isn't as reliable as one might hope and decides when and when-not it will work. It is arbitrary & there's nothing to be done for it as it does not produce errors it merely refuses to do things. Waiting seems to placate it and that's what happened this week. It decided to work and so the site was updated.
Next week:
More prototype Boom stuff. They're hot for renders of things that don't exist yet. It's making people curious whether any of it will actually get made. (Considering one of the items is...a BIKE?)
Speculation!
The un-named game is post-apocalyptic. Eggman with his giant egg robos or whatever those are in the trailer has clearly "won" that town/city/area & Sonic is mad and goes to fight him. The word "Resistance" also plays into the fact that Eggman won.
How'd he win? Time travel.
Why is it not a sequel to Gens? In Gens he just messed with time and wrecked stuff, here he went thru it and did 1 specific thing.
Classic Sonic too: Confirms the time angle
Appropriate? Yes, Sonic CD did the time thing first & did it well. It's not outlandish like the Werehog & if they play their cards right they can leverage CD's greatness and past/future/good future/bad future level design to access complexity and depth.
Potential to be great? Absolutely.
It's always exciting news when Sonic's the star! So far, there's Sonic Mania an entirely classic game that's creating all sorts of interesting talk*. Then there's the more controversial one that doesn't have a name yet and doesn't show any game play. (It's more controversial because there's no gameplay in its single trailer so far) SonicGear isn't a games blog, so why bring these up?
(Speculation is at the bottom)
Merchandise. (Of course!)
You can INSTANTLY understand the prolific amount of classic style stuff that's all around us right now when you observe Sonic Mania. All that stuff, and the new license company Vandor on the scene in USA making buckets of items all of that goes to support Mania. (How about that DropDead Clothing in the UK too) It also handily explains classic Super Sonic-Dress-up Hello Kitty toy SDCC exclusive. With actual NEOCLASSIC art seeing more of a spotlight...the new items can feel fresh too, which is great. (If you like Sonic enough to own 1 thing, you might like to own more than 1. It's important that items look different enough to feel collectible) The other reason for the abundance of classic stuff isn't great though...
Boom strips away modern Sonic
Yes it IS time to re-run-speak once more on the topic. When Boom was announced & Boomstyle became 'a thing', Sega Marketing was quick to re-assure the fans that "no version of Sonic will disappear" and then instantly made modern Sonic disappear. They stripped the modern license from every company selling Sonic in the USA to ensure only Boomstyle would get the spotlight. You can hunt on Gear for proof, look at when the last date of genuinely new merch with modern Sonic stops appearing. After a certain point no new modern thing appears, it's only classic & Boom.
Un-Named-Game:
This is being falsely called "Generations 2", but it's already been stated (by game people, not the liars in marketing) that 'its not a sequel'....there for it will have to be called something other than "2" and can't use the word "generations".
The important thing is, that it has Modern Sonic in it and isn't made out of Boomstyle (so perhaps Knuckles fans can be happy again? Not a Knuckles fan? You can recognize that they are upset though) Since this game isn't just a portable, it's a big-console-deal, no doubt modern Sonic will be allowed to return to merchandise.
Bottom Line: No matter which Sonic style you like best you ought to be able to be happy with available merchandise!
*What talk?
A true console return to 2D gaming? If they get "The feel" of S&K or S3 or Sonic CD right this will be a smash. Every developer seems terrified of anything not 3D because "2D is old and inherently bad/inferior/nostalgia grabbing/low-tech/lame" so Sonic doing this is a big step. Mario fans are talking about a real console (not just portable) 2D Mario game again, and so are others (Donkey Kong, etc) to see what fun could be had there also. Will Sonic lead the way into more fun gaming as he once did? We can hope! (In gaming if it's fun to play ALL dimensions should be welcomed)
3rd Game:
Clearly....Fire & Ice Boom on DS so Boom merch will naturally continue to appear.
Why is the Gear update late?
Because the new uploading program (a 'new feature'....yes more like anti-feature) isn't as reliable as one might hope and decides when and when-not it will work. It is arbitrary & there's nothing to be done for it as it does not produce errors it merely refuses to do things. Waiting seems to placate it and that's what happened this week. It decided to work and so the site was updated.
Next week:
More prototype Boom stuff. They're hot for renders of things that don't exist yet. It's making people curious whether any of it will actually get made. (Considering one of the items is...a BIKE?)
Speculation!
The un-named game is post-apocalyptic. Eggman with his giant egg robos or whatever those are in the trailer has clearly "won" that town/city/area & Sonic is mad and goes to fight him. The word "Resistance" also plays into the fact that Eggman won.
How'd he win? Time travel.
Why is it not a sequel to Gens? In Gens he just messed with time and wrecked stuff, here he went thru it and did 1 specific thing.
Classic Sonic too: Confirms the time angle
Appropriate? Yes, Sonic CD did the time thing first & did it well. It's not outlandish like the Werehog & if they play their cards right they can leverage CD's greatness and past/future/good future/bad future level design to access complexity and depth.
Potential to be great? Absolutely.
posted by AzureBlaze at 1:37 PM
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