No, it’s been said before, a few times. The problem is they insist on calling it “Earth, just not our Earth.” They should have adopted the “Mobius” name from the cartoons or something to better differentiate the two.
They have also almost-but-not-quite confirmed that the anthropomorphic animals all live on islands while humans live on the bigger contents (normal animals are all over).
I don’t know why SEGA refuse to confirm these kinds of things, but honestly it drives me mad.
As for X-treme, yeah I don’t think it would have been great either. It’s interesting as a curiosity but that’s all IMO. The team that were making it had no idea what they were doing, they were refused help from the Japanese side of the business and the extreme pressure the devs were under literally almost killed two of them.
Even if it did come out I think it would have been relegated to “side game” status once Sonic Adventure arrived as Yuji Naka was pretty protective over his work and didn’t like others (eg: non-Japanese) devs messing with it. There’s no way he would have let a non-Japanese game remain the “main” Sonic title for long.
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Honestly, just make a movie of Sonic SatAM.
Or Sonic Underground, if we’re feeling spicy. THEY MADE A VOW, THEIR MOTHER WILL BE FOUND.
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Sonic Underground’s theme song slaps so hard.
I played the Wii version of Sonic Unleashed, and as much as I could handle of the main version of Sonic Lost World, so here are my thoughts on those:
Sonic Unleashed (Wii) – I think most people have forgotten about this one, since the other game of the same name is much more popular. But in some ways I like this version more… But then again, in some ways I don’t. I will call this version Unwiished as I compare the two.
- Daytime stages – These levels are truly a marvelous spectacle in Unleashed. Ridiculously fast, gorgeous stages, and well-designed for the most part for the new boost mechanic. And if you play on modern hardware, you can even get it to run smoothly now. In Unwiished, these stages are… simpler. The level of speed is not nearly as mind-blowing, and the graphics are just fine, for the Wii. You can’t boost continually, so you only get a brief burst of speed, and have to do platforming a bit more. A much greater emphasis on drift turns, I noticed. So you get to enjoy hearing Sonic grunt “HRRRAAAAHHH!” a lot.
- Nighttime stages – The werehog beat-em-up shenanigans were the biggest slog of all time in Unleashed. Repetitive as hell, and levels would last 30-60 minutes, and you’d hear that same loud jazz song a hundred times every level. I am a werehog hater, and thus will never agree with everyone calling Unleashed an amazing Sonic game. In Unwiished, these stages are… simpler. And shorter! Well, you usually end up spending about 30 minutes per level, but they’re at least broken up into three acts. And no stupid balancing boards to deal with (I hated those). And no stupid QTEs when fighting enemies (I hated those). So overall, still awful, but definitely more manageable to get through.
- Progression of game – Unleashed had lame tiny hub worlds to deal with. In Unwiished, you just select people to talk to in menus, and it’s visual novel style. It’s completely stupid, but at least I can rush through it quicker. Unleashed also gated levels with sun and moon tokens. You had to collect these hidden in stages, which was the dumbest idea in the world for the daytime stages (where the point is to go a million MPH—not to explore). In Unwiished, you get tokens at the end of each stage based on how well you did. That makes WAY more sense.
- Story and characters – It’s the same in both versions. I hate Chip, and I’m not a fan of this particular take on Sonic and Eggman. We’re getting into “Sonic is just a really nice and happy guy!” territory, and we’ve fully dived into “Eggman is a complete dumbass that everyone, including his own robots, constantly makes fun of” territory. I’m also mixed on the design of Sonic as a werehog (should be “hedgewolf” btw). It just looks off to me. Maybe I would’ve preferred a four-legged design?
Sonic Lost World – I got through most of the game before I hung my hat this time, and I think I can now officially say… Yeah, least favorite mainline console Sonic game. I think the controls are bad, the physics is bad, the level design is bad, the dumb gimmicks are bad, the use of wisps is awful, the general art direction of the game is awful, the story is a complete dumpster fire, and the new characters (the “deadly” six) are 100% lame in every way possible. I never want to see Zavok and his loser friends ever again in a Sonic game. I’ll never get why Sonic Team wanted to make Lost World after they found their footing with Colors and then gained some real momentum with Generations. They’ve made all sorts of baffling decisions over the years, but this one might just take the cake for me.
Aside: Which is worse, the main version of Lost World or the 3DS version? The answer is: the 3DS one. Because the levels are like 10-12 minutes long on the 3DS! What agonizing tedium.
I plan to revisit some handheld games next, as I’m curious to see in particular how the two Rush entries hold up (I recall liking Rush well enough, and really loving Rush Adventure). I’ve been in a DS mood lately anyways, working on a couple other games there.
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While I completely agree with you, and this example may not be the best to illustrate my point, I’ve always kind of admired Sonic Team and SEGA for their willingness to experiment.
It would have been very easy to just keep pumping out Adventure clones (and maybe they would have been the smarter move) but they tried to evolve and change. I think they deserve at least some - however small - kudos for that.
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I’m all for experimentation in gaming generally speaking, but for an established franchise with massive expectations it makes more sense to iterate—i.e. stick with what works, drop what doesn’t, improve upon what works, add new elements to shake things up a bit but still mesh well with what works, etc. Save the massive shake-ups to the formula for spinoffs*, yeah? Doing a complete overhaul of 3D Sonic immediately after things finally started to look up for the series was a boneheaded move, no two ways about it. After flubbing Forces afterward, it feels like Sonic Team has successfully found its footing again (Sonic Frontiers) and gained some real momentum again (Shadow Generations). We’ll see if that lasts!
*What’s ironic is the spinoff series that made the most sense to go all-in on experimentation was the Sonic Boom lineup of games, but they all ended up quite similar to each other (albeit one in 3D, the other two in 2D). Oh well!
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Check out this really sweet scene that was deleted from the S3 movie.
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Anyone else pumped for this? Issue #1 can be pre-ordered from comic stores now, and is due for release in April (just in time for my birthday 
)
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Only if knuckles beats the crap out of superman. And shadow cosplays as batman.
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A modern version of Sonic Battle could be cool.
I really need to give that game another shot.
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That second cover, i assume its a Japanese or Asia release version is wayyyyy better than the american imo lol.
Wasnt there another one? Sonic Fighters or something?
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That second cover, i assume its a Japanese or Asia release version is wayyyyy better than the american imo lol.
Isn’t that always the way?
Wasnt there another one? Sonic Fighters or something?
Yeah. It’s…okay. it was available on the Xbox store for a while, but I think it might have been pulled in the last delisting.
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Sonic Fighters is fun IMO. It’s just the Virtua Fighter team randomly making a silly spinoff, back in the day when such diversions were feasible for game devs.
I’ve tried a couple times to get into Sonic Battle, but I always struggle with it. I feel like it’s a case of biting off more than they could chew; the GBA can only handle so much.
I’d be down for a second attempt at either though, of course!
In other news, the Sonic Cross Worlds racing game had a trailer, and the rumors of it having Racing Transformed variety of vehicles turned out to be true. It also looks like I was correct in my guess of jumping from world to world as you go along, though it’ll be specifically along the lines of Out Run (choosing between two options each lap).
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I remember trying to level up in Battle could be difficult, but it’s been so long. I think I might try it after I finish Citizen Sleeper for a complete different style of game.
I’m go glad they are going a more Transformed route for this. I loved that game! I’ve still not bought Sonic Racers but I’ve heard it’s not wonderful. I don’t know why they went the direction they did. Looks like they’ve learned their lesson though.
It’s rumoured there might even be non-Sonic characters in this which would be cool. There’s gonna be a Digital Deluxe version, but no word on physical yet. As the last several games have been physical I’d be surprised if this isn’t.
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This looks pretty cool, but $50?
This is the bigger one he mentions. Again, looks cool but $100?
I can’t imagine there’s a market for these things. 
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LOL, we’re back to avoiding Sonic 3 & Knuckles again. =P
If we’re doing mini-arcade cabinets for Sonic though, the only ones that’d pique my interest are ones for actual arcade games. Segasonic with the trackball would be the coolest. Don’t need a millionth way to play 16-bit roms.
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I posted my thought on the price in that video’s comments, and the video maker responded by simply posting a link to the below. I think he simplifies the issue a bit, but here it is if you’re interested.
Yes, I noticed this too. I wonder why it’s not included? Maybe because you’d need two ROMs on the one machine os it’s too much for the smaller price point (I doubt it) or still an issue with the music? It’s weird either way
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It’s been a little quiet here of late, but there’s a new card-based racing game coming to mobile.
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I assume it’ll be full of ads, microtransactions, and other gacha “fun.” Still curious what a Sonic card game could entail though. It’d be funny if this releases for everyone before the Sonic Fall Guys game that’s been advertised a lot but delayed multiple times.
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