MEMBER BLOG

Everyone needs to shut the hell up about 2D sonic
Posted on Wednesday, September 9 2009 @ 18:56:32 Eastern

With announcement of a new 2D Sonic, I am reminded of some of the statements that gamers make over and over again that downright pisses me off:
There hasn't been a good Sonic since the Dreamcast
Sonic needs to go back to 2D
Sega needs to make a Sonic 4
What problem do I have with these statements you ask? Isn't it true that Sonic has sucked since moving to 3D and modern Sonic games are awful at best? This is partially true. I will not argue that 3D Sonic is not nearly as good as 2D sonic. Sega just never got it right. Even at it's best (Sonic Adventure 1 & 2) it as severly flawed and a constant battle with loose controls, bad gameplay choices, and horrible camera. After the death of the Dreamcast, the games just got worse. Sonic Heroes was the first Sonic game I found unplayable, Shadow was a joke, and Sonic 2006 is among the worst games ever made. Unleashed was better, but still worse than the DC ones by a wide margin and the Wii ones just sucked.
So if I hate dislike 3D sonic so much, why do I want people to stop ranting about 2D Sonic? Because 2D Sonic has been here for a while and you all seem to love to ignore those games. In 2002, Sega made a brand new 2D sprite based Sonic game for the GBA simply called Sonic Advance. It was still the Sonic we all knew and loved. It featured huge levels, fast action and pretty much everything you could ask for. The graphics here bright and didn't slow down and the music was to the Sonic standard. You could play as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles or Amy. The characters actually weren't annoying because the game had almost no real plt to speak of. It was the 2D Sonic everyone wanted and no one seems to remember it. Sega made 2 more traditional sprite based Sonic games for the GBA and they too were both excellent. They had more plot (unfortunately) but it could be easily ignored. Still, no one seems to talk about them.
Then in 2005 they made 2.5D game for the DS called Sonic Rush. Yes it was in 2D but the gameplay was still tight as hell. It introduced on new character who was actually kinda badass. Sure the plot still sucked, but it could be easily ignored. The level design was still great and other than the characters being made of polygons, it was still a classic Sonic game. In 2007 they made a sequel. Now there were some missteps in the sequel. To get around the map you had to play these annoying boat minigames and that got tedious quick. But putting that aside the levels were fantastic. The ice level in Sonic Rush Adventure is one of the best Sonic levels I've ever played. The bosses were also flat out great. They took advantage of the 2.5D and did some truly creative things.
This is why this talk about bringing Sonic back to 2D annoys me. If you've never played these games, and ***** about Sonic being stuck in 2D, you need to shut the hell up. If you don't buy the 2D sonic games, why woudl Sega think that's what their fans want? If Sonic 2006 sells better than a 2D sonic game, of course sega are gonna stick to the terrible 3D ones.
If you have played the GBA/DS Sonics and don't like them, why do you think that 2D will save Sonic? If you don't like the 2D Sonic games being offered, then you need to stop acting like that's the solution. Adding a 4 to a Sonic game's title won't make it good. Making the characters out of sprites won't make it good. Getting rid of all the characters but Sonic won't make it good. Good programming and level design will.
So please, everyone shut up about 2D sonic. It never went away.