Sonic Unleashed Falls Short, Developer Offers Explanation
Sonic UnleashedRemember the good ol' days when Sonic was a bad-ass blue streak who offered some of the most entertaining interactive experiences around? Well, things started to go downhill rapidly after a few excellent installments on the Dreamcast (so it wasn't the transition to 3D that killed it), and the old-school fans want to know only one thing: why?
The latest release, Sonic Unleashed, is actually quite decent and certainly better than the atrocious Sonic the Hedgehog a few years back, but most reviews will tell you that the game suffers due to incessant brawling levels that seriously interrupt the flow of the game. Well, IGN's David Clayman caught up with one of the Unleashed developers and wanted to know why Sonic Team just couldn't cut the mustard anymore. The answer was in IGN's Three Red Lights podcast:
"I asked one of the developers at TGS, you know I was like, come on everybody just wants Sonic running, like whats up with the werehog? And he was like, well, heres the deal... he runs at this miles per hour, kilometers per hour, and he laid out all of the statistics on how fast this hedgehog goes, and he was like In order to make a game where Sonic is running and everybody enjoys the whole thing we'd have to design this many miles of level, and it was some ungodly number. And he's like and that would be like maybe a three hour game and I was like wow, well that kinda stinks and he's like yeah, so we gotta do this other stuff."
So essentially, due to Sonic's crazy speed, the designers simply couldn't create a world that could hold this fleet-footed hero. Hence, they had to come up with a new element to the gameplay; either that, or have a "three hour game." So the question is, do you buy this explanation, and if you do, would you want a shorter - yet higher quality - Sonic entry...?
Related Game(s): Sonic Unleashed
11/30/2008 Ben Dutka
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Comments (27 posts)
MirrorSoul
Sunday, November 30, 2008 @ 10:27:57 PM
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MirrorSoul
Sunday, November 30, 2008 @ 10:29:35 PM
Last edited by MirrorSoul on 11/30/2008 10:29:44 PM
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Scarecrow
Sunday, November 30, 2008 @ 10:33:27 PM
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I feel sad for Sonic though, he seems like a great character.
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LightShow
Sunday, November 30, 2008 @ 10:47:56 PM
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well at least the developer knows it's limits.
and while i'm sure everyone would rather them take more time and make these huge levels, the facts are that 1) it is likely that it would take a BD to contain enough sonic for a pleasurable experience, cutting out the 360 (which nobody like to do unless they have to) and 2) the fact that sonic games just dont sell anymore, the money's just not there for a massive game.
so yes, methinks it all goes back to money. Sucks, eh?
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John Shoemaker
Sunday, November 30, 2008 @ 10:59:12 PM
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Sonic was fast on the Genesis and they had levels on there that were long. And many of them.
Do they really think we will believe this bull****?
Just have a 3D Sonic on a 2D platform and it would work out. Just remake Sonic 2 and we will be fine. With that formula though.
God this is ****ing stupid. Even for them to say it.
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LightShow
Sunday, November 30, 2008 @ 11:09:27 PM
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recks1jtp
Sunday, November 30, 2008 @ 11:46:15 PM
They (or someone) were able to do this years ago on the Sega systems, and everyone loved it. Just a simple(?) run though speed and bash game, but somewhere along the lines, they tried to over-complicate it. Simplify it, and people will line up for sure.
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Aftab
Monday, December 01, 2008 @ 1:49:35 AM
Last edited by Aftab on 12/1/2008 1:51:11 AM
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The_Benny
Sunday, November 30, 2008 @ 11:26:55 PM
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The levels were large, multi-levelled (and generally with multiple routes), they had distinct styles, and were well designed. There's an editorial about it at the following link that pretty much ties with my opinion:
http://www.kombo.com/article.php?artid=11909
All in all it's very annoying to see the games disappoint time and again, not just because Sonic Team aren't doing it well, but because it isn't even what they should be focusing on in the first place...
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BigT_1980
Sunday, November 30, 2008 @ 11:34:59 PM
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WorldEndsWithMe
Sunday, November 30, 2008 @ 11:46:45 PM
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That said I have Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 on my Dreamcast and they were pretty tight, but Genesis Sonic 2 is definitely FTW.
Agree with the others, you need Blu-ray for that kind of space, or just take it down to 2.5D and please everyone. The guy quoted above might as well have said "Yeah we can't make the levels that big cuz all the cross platform crap so we threw in a bunch of garbage."
If I need a Sonic fix I'll be utilizing my Time Machines (old consoles).
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FLYING_APE
Monday, December 01, 2008 @ 12:17:47 AM
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ShiningPhantasy
Monday, December 01, 2008 @ 3:15:34 AM
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Ultimadesires
Monday, December 01, 2008 @ 3:36:53 AM
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I wouldnt really care if it was 4 hours, so were the old megadrive games, but if it was an entertaininggame like the classic ones the replay value is unlimited. Another big problem with Sonic games nowadays (and all platform games) is the storylines are way to complicated, when theres no need, i mean come on its a blue hedgehog, you cant really take drama seriously with that. I wish they were just as simple as the classic sonic games go through level ,litttle intro for the boss,boss fight x 20, Then mediu cutscene before final boss fights, final battle, ending.
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WorldEndsWithMe
Monday, December 01, 2008 @ 3:59:57 AM
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Tim
Monday, December 01, 2008 @ 7:08:57 AM
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Duff
Monday, December 01, 2008 @ 8:42:21 AM
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shreevin
Monday, December 01, 2008 @ 9:23:15 AM
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Kiengo
Monday, December 01, 2008 @ 10:38:30 AM
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shadowpal2
Monday, December 01, 2008 @ 10:39:01 AM
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Hmm...it's difficult - but to be honest difficult situations like these could possibly mean that if you find a solution that restores the Sonic franchise - it would be one hell of a game. Hopefully it will be revived. At least Sonic is still kicking ass in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
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ActionJackson
Monday, December 01, 2008 @ 1:58:56 PM
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LightShow
Monday, December 01, 2008 @ 4:26:51 PM
if they made a sonic adventure game for PS3, with a companion game on PSP, i'd be all over both of them, provided they dont screw it up...
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shaydey77
Monday, December 01, 2008 @ 2:50:05 PM
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This we cant do it coz there isnt enuff space crap because of his speed...yeah...he hasnt gone fast enuff on my TV to outrun the sidescrolling screen!!
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meatee
Monday, December 01, 2008 @ 2:53:44 PM
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Xanavi23
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 5:00:10 PM
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tlpn99
Monday, December 01, 2008 @ 7:23:29 PM
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Last edited by tlpn99 on 12/1/2008 7:24:14 PM
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Scarecrow
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Sunday, November 30, 2008 @ 10:22:59 PM
They prefer to make a sub-par game than to spend years creating huge levels...
One thing they can always do is repeat some level designs(parts of the level and/or other levels)
But seriously this is weird....