Ken
2 months ago
[Sonic] So, over the last month some streamers I watch have been goin' through various games they missed out on. Unfortunately, by sheer happenstance, this ended up with the realization that over time they'd skipped on the WORST games. And it has reconfirmed a hot take of mine:

Sonic 06 is not as bad as the internet would have you believe.
latest #83
Ken
2 months ago
Note, this does not mean it is GOOD.
Ken
2 months ago
It's incomplete.
Ken
2 months ago
Buggy.
立即下載
Ken
2 months ago
The load times are among the worst of their generation.
Ken
2 months ago
But there is a kernel of a good game there, had Naka not fucked over the team working on it.
Ken
2 months ago
It's generally actually like. Okay. It's not the great and mighty disaster that needs to be flogged endlessly in every Sonic analysis ever made over the last 18 years, and it's not worth Sega having bent over backwards to flee away from it.
Ken
2 months ago
No, no, no.
Don't 4get DL-6
2 months ago
I do think the Gigaboys came away hating Unleashed far more than it deserves but also, man.
Ken
2 months ago
Shadow? SECRET RINGS? RISE OF FUCKING LYRIC.
Don't 4get DL-6
2 months ago
from like 2005 to 2009 sure was the darkest of dark times.
Ken
2 months ago
no i get why they came away hating on Unleashed. I actually felt it when I tried to replay it myself a couple years ago.
Ken
2 months ago
Unleashed begins with a decent first impression.
Ken
2 months ago
Werehog is kinda fun, if a lamer version of God of War, speed stages START fun.
Ken
2 months ago
But once you realize all those medals you sped by need to go back and be collected.
Ken
2 months ago
The BONKERS amount of medals you need to PROCEED in the game.
Don't 4get DL-6
2 months ago
I stand by the opinion that the game would go up a whole letter grade without the medal hunting. But also 1) I don't think Bob and Dan ever figured out how to drift in the daytime stages, which uh. IS IMPORTANT. And 2) I don't think they EVER understood how the mission hubs worked.
Ken
2 months ago
The esoteric specific ways you have to gather them with the really fucking fiddly controls that don't want you to slow down in the speed stages.
Ken
2 months ago
Like. I get it. I stopped playing it and sold my Xbox because it was of no use to me anymore, lmao.
Ken
2 months ago
And yeah that's fair.
Don't 4get DL-6
2 months ago
That said like.
Ken
2 months ago
But, that said?
Ken
2 months ago
Shadow and Secret Rings?
Don't 4get DL-6
2 months ago
It's imo the best of the Worst Generation Of Sonic Games.
Ken
2 months ago
Goddamn, man.
Don't 4get DL-6
2 months ago
Shadow and Secret Rings are just goddamn AWFUL, top to bottom
Don't 4get DL-6
2 months ago
how did EITHER of those ship.
Ken
2 months ago
It was still refreshing to see someone approach Sonic 06 and walk away going. "It's fine, it's not the game you should be flogging in that generation, its problems aren't even fully the devs faults."
Ken
2 months ago
I finally did not feel fucking insane.
Ken
2 months ago
Because I have had this take forever.
Ken
2 months ago
But that brings me to my next point:
Ken
2 months ago
Sega should remaster/finish 06.
Don't 4get DL-6
2 months ago
At the end of the day we should all be glad Yuji Naka, third-greatest gaming criminal, is finally in jail-
Ken
2 months ago
in 25 days they are putting out what is BASICALLY a sequel to Shadow the Hedgehog.
Ken
2 months ago
If they can do that
Ken
2 months ago
They can fix that fucking game.
Ken
2 months ago
THIRD greatest?
Ken
2 months ago
Like, I know Inafune is #1.
Ken
2 months ago
Who's #2?
Don't 4get DL-6
2 months ago
Moleyneux.
Ken
2 months ago
Oh, yeah.
Ken
2 months ago
Yeah.
Ken
2 months ago
Actaully he may be #1.
Don't 4get DL-6
2 months ago
Yeah I usually think about it as Moleyneux 1, Inafune 2, Yuji Naka 3.
Ken
2 months ago
Yeah that's fair.
Ken
2 months ago
And the thing about the Unleashed hubs is that they're not like. Very intuitive.

When I tried my replay a couple years ago, I vividly remember in the process of trying to unlock something in not-China, I lost all my lives in the hub and went into a stage with 0 lives.

So like.

I get it.
Don't 4get DL-6
2 months ago
But yeah no it's like, genuinely impressive how many Sonic games came out in like, that small stretch and also how many of them were just. COMICALLY dogshit.
Ken
2 months ago
It does make me look back at Forces and go.

"Okay you weren't good. But. But. You were really just undercooked, there was far worse."
Ken
2 months ago
and they've clearly re-assessed themselves, they've gotten to show the execs the results of letting the development process actually finish.
Ken
2 months ago
So I'm like. Fairly confident Shadow Gens is gonna be pretty decent.
Ken
2 months ago
(I also came out with the reminder of a LOT of questions about the 4Kids localization process on Shadow............................)
Cold XC
2 months ago
looks at having gotten 06 running on rpcs3
Cold XC
2 months ago
looks at this
Don't 4get DL-6
2 months ago
Heroes: 2003.
Advance 3: 2004.
Rush: 2005.
Shadow: 2005
'06: 2006.
Secret Rings: 2007.
Rush Adventure: 2007.
Chronicles: 2008.
Unleashed: 2008.
Black Knight: 2009.
Don't 4get DL-6
2 months ago
Like, jesus christ.
Cold XC
2 months ago
yeah no surprise a LOT of Sonic is really just undercooked
Ken
2 months ago
The beginning and end of that list I like! But. Yeah.
Don't 4get DL-6
2 months ago
Some franchises have a tailspin but when you look at what the entirety of the aughts were for Sonic after Adventure 2. Holy SHIT.
Don't 4get DL-6
2 months ago
Yeah I think Heroes gets too much flak and Black Knight is actually like, decent to good.
Ken
2 months ago
Black Knight should not work as well as it does and Heroes is good, I'll still fight people on that.
Don't 4get DL-6
2 months ago
But they're good book-ends for that reason.
Ken
2 months ago
yeah
Ken
2 months ago
Putting out like. 2 games a year is too much for ANY franchise, even if you have different studios.
Ken
2 months ago
Which 06 and Secret Rings didn't :-(
Ken
2 months ago
its what burnt out Mega Man
Ken
2 months ago
IN THE SAME ERA
Ken
2 months ago
EVEN WITH BETTER GAMES
Don't 4get DL-6
2 months ago
yeaaaaah.
Ken
2 months ago
Anyway. Remaster 06. We have literal proof positive its stages can be good and fun as a SINGLE DUDE remade them from SCRATCH.
Ken
2 months ago
(Hell, they recently made a redesign of Elise that's more in line with the more anime-like design Maria is sporting now.)
Ken
2 months ago
https://images.plurk.com/60i88lvb4lrH3t823kL2BH.png WHY DID YOU MAKE THIS SEGA
Ken
2 months ago
That said rolling ALL the way back, you're right that Unleashed would absolutely go up, I think, multiple points without the medal hunting.

Unfortunately, it gates itself so severely by them that you can run up against that very early and then that's Just The Game for a good while afterwards.
Ken
2 months ago
If they ever remaster it, giving medals as rewards for stage scoring and lowering the amount by... a lot is something they need to do.
Ken
2 months ago
The way they're designed you should never have to be searching for those in the speed stages, to do otherwise was just a monumentally psychotic decision.
DehydratedWater
2 months ago
kinda hard agree on sonic 06 not really being that bad other than the part where it's broken. Like, the game frustrated me enough that I had to stop playing multiple times when I played it back when because I was about to scream at the TV. But that's not really design problems as just... game buggy and broken
Ken
2 months ago
Yeah. It's not finished! They didn't let them finish it.
Ken
2 months ago
And compared to Shadow and Secret Rings on EITHER SIDE of it.
Snowman's Dance
2 months ago
Mephiles is one of the best villains in the franchise
Snowman's Dance
2 months ago
full stop
Snowman's Dance
2 months ago
also re: no. 3 gaming criminal Naka, remember he forced Iizuka to work on Heroes levels SOLO while the man was sick and nearly half dead
Snowman's Dance
2 months ago
Iizuka-san is Sonic's strongest soldier
Ken
2 months ago
Something were now seeing that I no doubt expect Flynn is party to, is that there’s good ideas to be mined out of that era, they just need games they’re allowed to complete
Ken
2 months ago
Shadow Gens will be the first time he’s been allowed to write Mephiles. How wild is that?
Snowman's Dance
2 months ago
Indeed
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