Classic Sonic Thread

[Ikagura]

Generations was... all right. I liked it, but also felt it was a massive waste of potential. I expected more and more zones to be lovingly recreated via DLC, both in classic and modern form, but shame on my inner child for daring to believe Sega cares.

True: they had gold in their hand regarding this game and the engine was good. At least we got plenty of mods.

(and even regarding Mania I have serious reservations).

It's a good anniversary game.

Pretty sure Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 aren't Classic Sonic games.

Pretty much but then again Classic and Modern weren't proper concepts before Generations.

 

[DarcyT]

I was obsessed with the PC version at one point, and I even read the manual. What a nerd XD

Yeah, the PC version was where I started as well (didn't get a copy of the Gems Collection until years later) without any music, so got real familiar with all the isolated sound effects.

See, you say that it's nerdy to read manuals, but I can't keep count of how many older games I've been going through lately that are almost unplayable without knowing what you're doing thanks to all the game info being contained in the manual.

 

[Waffles]

Yeah, the PC version was where I started as well (didn't get a copy of the Gems Collection until years later) without any music, so got real familiar with all the isolated sound effects.

See, you say that it's nerdy to read manuals, but I can't keep count of how many older games I've been going through lately that are almost unplayable without knowing what you're doing thanks to all the game info being contained in the manual.

Right? It was almost trippy without music.

Oh, I was calling myself a nerd. But yeah, I can't even take off on SU-27 Flanker or unjam my machinegun on Knights Of The Sky without the manual... let alone boot Daggerfall.

 

[Ikagura]

I hate how many PC ports of Sonic games (physically) like Riders are no longer playable thanks to the DRM (unless you buy the rare Sonic PC Collection which also contains cracked versions of Heroes).

According to a wiki:

The PC version of Sonic Heroes included in the collection uses a cracked version of the game executable, originally released online by warez group Reloaded on 8 December 2004. This is likely due to the executable of the original 2004 release utilizing SafeDisc copy protection, which had been discontinued in early 2009.

And the even rarer

 

[DarcyT]

Right? It was almost trippy without music.

Oh, I was calling myself a nerd. But yeah, I can't even take off on SU-27 Flanker or unjam my machinegun on Knights Of The Sky without the manual... let alone boot Daggerfall.

If you're serious about Daggerfall, then I'd recommend checking out the GOG version, it's a lot less of a headache to run, plus you can also get the Unity fan-remade version on there as well.

 

[Waffles]

If you're serious about Daggerfall, then I'd recommend checking out the GOG version, it's a lot less of a headache to run, plus you can also get the Unity fan-remade version on there as well.

Thanks. I'll check it out!

 

[Leon]

Do NOT let this distract you from the fact Sega canonized SONIC BOOM of all fucking things. I can’t even-View attachment 2675

Honestly the last sonic game i cared to play was sonic generations (the original), the story is too dumb past generations (plus all the censorship that started after this point).

As for classic sonic, i will go on record that while i'm not fond of any of the special stages in sonic, sonic 3 & knuckles is my favorite pure platformer of all time.
Couldn't get into mania, maybe i grew out of it, not sure, but i just can't for some reason.

 

[Yousef]

As for classic sonic, i will go on record that while i'm not fond of any of the special stages in sonic, sonic 3 & knuckles is my favorite pure platformer of all time.
Couldn't get into mania, maybe i grew out of it, not sure, but i just can't for some reason.

Honestly valid. 3 is my favorite sonic. Mania wasn’t my thing either.

 

[MemeAlert]

I hate how many PC ports of Sonic games (physically) like Riders are no longer playable thanks to the DRM (unless you buy the rare Sonic PC Collection which also contains cracked versions of Heroes).

According to a wiki:


View attachment 4351
And the even rarer
View attachment 4352

Every Sonic Fan's Wet Dream.

 

[Leon]

I hate how many PC ports of Sonic games (physically) like Riders are no longer playable thanks to the DRM (unless you buy the rare Sonic PC Collection which also contains cracked versions of Heroes).

According to a wiki:


View attachment 4351
And the even rarer
View attachment 4352

To me, DRM justifies piracy, piracy is no where near as dangerous as DRM, i'm someone who refuses to ever buy a game that has uncrackable DRM because at that point your the product, not the game.

Extreme drm like denuvo and starforce should be illegal, just a legal way to install a rootkit.

 

[Ikagura]

To me, DRM justifies piracy, piracy is no where near as dangerous as DRM, i'm someone who refuses to ever buy a game that has uncrackable DRM because at that point your the product, not the game.

Extreme drm like denuvo and starforce should be illegal, just a legal way to install a rootkit.

I remember reading about StarForce and it makes me shudder.

Many games depending on GFWL or GameSpy also suffers from that. Thankfully we got cracked .exe among other mods to remove these requirements.

 

[Zero_Kirby77]

Bit of a controversial take here, but I feel like Sonic's characterization has gotten more stale and generic. Back in the day, atleast outside of Japan I believe, wasn't he advertised as an edgier, spicier, Mario? I guess he still can be considered that, but that's comparable to being slightly spicier than water (which isn't saying much at all). I guess it's mostly a mixed bag throughout the series' continuity, but atleast in the earlier days he seemed to be more spunky and have much more of an attitude (his impatience for example being one of his most prominent traits). His most modern appearances have toned a lot of that spunk down, and have pushed more toward a mature, serious angle. And while that is fine in itself, removing those quirks and traits that made him unique and flavorful only downgrades any sort of 'mature' development he has. Fans love to go on about how character development is important, and it can be, (personally, while it can be important I do not think it is vital but that is a discussion for another time) however removing traits that intrinsically defined a character or made them interesting is not the way to go about it. A character's flaws are what brings life to them and does not resign their status to nothing beyond some sort of emblatic figure-head. True character development, is not absolving one of all their unlikeable flaws, but having them progress in spite of their flaws (and I'm only talking about 'positive' character development in this scenario).

And if I were to go even further, the 'hated' writing of the 2010's Sonic games, while not completely favorable, weren't as bad as people make them to be. It stayed true and honest to the light-hearted, comedic nature of Sonic. Again, Sonic isn't supposed to be some generic heroic persona, he's fundamentally a light-hearted person who has some personality traits that tend to get on other's nerves from time to time. He's prone to making jokes at other's expense, being too easygoing at times, again somewhat impatient, and also somewhat inconsiderate at times as well. When it comes to showing these 'problematic' traits of his, I think the 2010's games did well despite their criticisms. Sonic (the series) isn't supposed to be super serious all the time. Even a darker game like Sonic Adventure 2 had its lighthearted, funny, moments. (I would say Sonic X too but I'll try to keep it to game only discussion).

Sorry, I know this is somewhat off topic, but I was just thinking about the contrast of character between older and newer games. And while I have a bit of problem with Sonic in more recent titles, they hadn't desercrated him as much compared to other characters (Looking at you Amy). I don't know, people make jokes about how media literacy is really becoming less and less of a thing, but I honestly do feel that way. Characters' flaws aren't actually flaws (as in, beyond some silly gag moment they don't actually suffer in some way because of that flaw), a lot of characters' personalities are recessed so that people can project onto them, and if characters do have a controversial flaw that is considered quite 'problematic', many people with their black and white sense of morality see them as totally irredeemable. Many people forget that a 'good character' isn't always someone you necessarily agree with (or always agree with), or someone you look up to, or even someone you would personally like. Life is so much more nuanced than that.

 

[Xdqwerty]

Why do people like the classic Sonic games? I find them somewhat unfair and/or slow paced compared to the 3d ones

 

[Leon]

Why do people like the classic Sonic games? I find them somewhat unfair and/or slow paced compared to the 3d ones

They are more traditional platformers and honestly pretty easy in comparison to mario games of their era.

That said sonic's classic special stages sucked, i'll never disagree on that.

 

[Xdqwerty]

They are more traditional platformers and honestly pretty easy in comparison to mario games of their era.

That said sonic's classic special stages sucked, i'll never disagree on that.

Specially the Sonic 2 ones when playing with tails as your partner

 

[Leon]

Specially the Sonic 2 ones when playing with tails as your partner

Using tails as your partner was optional but yes the half pipe is notorious.

That said i will admit i have a bit of a fondness of sonic cd's special stages, but those are by far the easiest in the series imo.

 

[Ikagura]

Why do people like the classic Sonic games? I find them somewhat unfair and/or slow paced compared to the 3d ones.

Unfair? They were as fair as old school 2D platformers were. You need to learn the level design.

Slow paced? That's because Sonic is about gaining momentum rather than having full speed right on the go. Sure Sonic 1 has some unfair levels (Labyrinth) but this was the beginning and Sonic 2 vastly improved upon that.

That said Sonic's classic special stages sucked, I'll never disagree on that.

Blue Spheres were quite easier to handle than Sonic 1's rotative levels and Sonic 2's half pipes.

That said i will admit i have a bit of a fondness of sonic cd's special stages, but those are by far the easiest in the series imo.

It also gets easier once you learn that pressing down slows you and that the 2011 and Origin build made them easier and smoother.

 

[MemeAlert]

How many people think its funny it took about 13 years for Sonic Generations to get DLC?

 

[Ikagura]

How many people think its funny it took about 13 years for Sonic Generations to get DLC?

I'm glad I bought the remaster for half the price.

 

[BomingWaffle]

I hate how many PC ports of Sonic games (physically) like Riders are no longer playable thanks to the DRM (unless you buy the rare Sonic PC Collection which also contains cracked versions of Heroes).

According to a wiki:


View attachment 4351
And the even rarer
View attachment 4352

I wonder how well selling pc stuff worked, can it even run on newer pcs? I know they did that with Billy Hatcher but only for Europe.
I guess Sega was always a little to ahead of their time.

 

[Ikagura]

I wonder how well selling pc stuff worked, can it even run on newer pcs? I know they did that with Billy Hatcher but only for Europe.
I guess Sega was always a little to ahead of their time.

Billy Hatcher had a PC port? I often forgot about it.

I also know that Sega made several PS2 ports of their classics (like Nights into Dreams and Panzer Dragoon) but only in Japan. Shame they never thought of porting these games on PC in the west as well.

But let's focus on Sonic and I think that around 2006 their PC ports suddenly stopped (even Unleashed didn't get a PC version, even the Wii one could've been there). I'm still glad we got Generations but the skip between Sonic Heroes (or Riders if you count it) to Gens is such a huge gap that I got confused by the last level set in the game (because my latest Sonic game before I played this one was Rush on the DS).

I want to point out how strange they used MIDIs for Sonic 3&K on PC yet used the Saturn version with the CD music for the PC port of Sonic 3D Blast that came one year prior, Sega made weird choices.

 

[Leon]

I wonder how well selling pc stuff worked, can it even run on newer pcs? I know they did that with Billy Hatcher but only for Europe.
I guess Sega was always a little to ahead of their time.

DRM is the biggest drawback of pc gaming, pretty much requiring cracking the game to run it on modern hardware.

I know it can run but not sure how.
That said one of the benefits of pc is you can make anything work if you try hard enough.

 

[Ikagura]

DRM is the biggest drawback of pc gaming, pretty much requiring cracking the game to run it on modern hardware.

I know it can run but not sure how.
That said one of the benefits of pc is you can make anything work if you try hard enough.

CD keys were fine (unless you lost your booklet or CD case) but online requiring DRMs are the death of preservation.

I don't like the idea of tinkering my game with a .exe file found online (which is a big no-no for security) to make my game works but sadly this is the way to go for some...


Back to Sonic: I feel that romhacks have slowed down quite a bit since fangames using custom engines which allows more are much more convenient than the limitations of the ROM (Sonic 1 can only have 6 Zones of 3 Acts regardless of how much you're adding to your game).


Sonic Galactic got a new demo build but while it looks neat I feel that every fangames nowaday are trying to be like Sonic Mania and CD with a 32-bits style instead of Genesis-like.

 

[Somnia]

Dropping some love for Sonic R. All four of its fans know what's up.

I'm so glad that the narrative around that game has shifted over the years. People have /finally/ embraced how fun and exciting the OST is and appreciate its unique quirks on level design and general control. There may not be a lot of meat on that game's bones but man oh man what is there is super duper fun!

I'm a devout Sonic 3D Blast apologist, it being my first Sonic game might have something to do with that though.
Has anyone here tried the "Director's Cut" hack that was made by its former developer?

Dope game! I just wish the Director's Cut existed for the Saturn version because that's always been how I prefer to play the game. Someday I'll give it a shot though!

 

[Ikagura]

I'm so glad that the narrative around that game has shifted over the years. People have /finally/ embraced how fun and exciting the OST is and appreciate its unique quirks on level design and general control. There may not be a lot of meat on that game's bones but man oh man what is there is super duper fun!

Sonic R's biggest issue was to be sold like a Mario Kart inspired racing game when it's more like a platform/racer.

I'd also argue that people found the game hard to control because they used up on the pad to advance instead of a face button and refused to use the L and R to manage angles.

On the other hand there aren't enough tracks and unlockable characters which is a big issue imo but getting all medals and Chaos Emeralds in the race is actually more enticing to me.

Dope game! I just wish the Director's Cut existed for the Saturn version because that's always been how I prefer to play the game. Someday I'll give it a shot though!

The Saturn version is an interesting interpretation of the same game. I wish the PC version had a bigger modding scene.