Ohhh, not wrong. The only mystery he didnt solve is why anyone still lives in that place lol
I am totally missing the reference here.
Detective Conan (aka Case Closed) is a long-running anime with over a thousand episodes, about a kid who solves murder mysteries in Tokyo (more specifically, a single district within Tokyo called Beika Town). Part of the premise is that the protagonist, Shinichi Kudo, is a high schooler who was turned into an elementary schooler, so adults don’t take him seriously. He is secretly good at detective work though, and goes by the name Conan because of the author of Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle). The show has been running since 1996, but episodes always take place in the present day, and the protagonist has not aged all these years (much like the characters in The Simpsons, for another infamous example of this). It’s something you’re not supposed to think about, because it’s very funny to imagine a single part of one city having so many bizarre murders in such a short amount of time, all requiring the deductive skills of one random kid to solve.
You can bring up this issue with pretty much any long-running episodic story. In the case of Sonic games, it’s funny to imagine so many devastating scenarios all happening within, say, a year.
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Ah ok. So pretty much like every fictional character then. 
The Phantom has been going since 1936 but the character is still supposed to be in his early 30s.
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Sonic boss suggests it won’t make a standalone Chao Garden game
I calll bullshit on this. The only way that Chao Garden is integrated into the main Adventure campaigns is by picking up the animals and drives in the adventure stages, something that could easily be replaced in an independent game.
This is one of those stupid SEGA decisions that doesn’t make sense to anyone else. Fans have been begging for another Chao Garden for literally decades. With the mobile dev teams SEGA has it would be very easy to take the basis of Garden and build it out a little into a mobile game. That way, it would even grab the attention of people who enjoy pet sim games but may not want one buried inside a traditional Sonic platformer.
History repeats itself here with SEGA just ignoring what is a clearly a very good, potentially very profitable, idea. 
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I agree a standalone chao garden is entirely doable, but IMO its integration with the Adventure games was legitimately a big part of what made the whole thing special. I can understand why he feels the two go hand in hand together.
That said, there’s no reason they couldn’t have added a chao garden to Sonic x Shadow Generations (besides, obviously, the effort required to do so). A few tweaks to the formula would make it work just fine. For example, I would have Sonic (or Shadow) immediately acquire an animal upon destroying a robot, in order to maintain the flow of boost formula gameplay. If desired, a chao key could be placed on an alternate route in each level, no different from a red ring. (I would not hide it like the annoying tokens were in Unleashed.) Upon getting your chao to win all its races, perhaps you could unlock a new skin for the base game (e.g. Amy and Metal Sonic, as a nod to Sonic and Shadow’s alternate multiplayer characters in Adventure 2).
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Three mini-episodes of an animated prologue for Shadow Generations have been released, titled Dark Beginnings.
They look fantastic, and feels like the proper handling of Shadow’s character that we should’ve always had. The glimpses into Shadow’s past and bits from the Shadow the Hedgehog game in particular stand out, for a real “what could have been” had any of the writers ever actually worked out what they wanted to do with the character.
At any rate, hope it’s a good sign for the Shadow Generations game itself. We’ll see in a couple weeks.
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So much edge.
feels like the proper handling of Shadow’s character that we should’ve always had. The glimpses into Shadow’s past and bits from the Shadow the Hedgehog game in particular stand out, for a real “what could have been” had any of the writers ever actually worked out what they wanted to do with the character.
This feels like it’s part of SEGA retconning the lore so it all fits a decent continuity. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more such things in the future. As an aside, the episodes were written by Ian Flynn, the IDW Sonic writer. His stuff is amazing!
Played more Sonic games, so here’s my thoughts on them.
Sonic Forces — I had actually replayed it along with the other 3D entries I brought up last time, but forgot to share my two cents on it. Which I guess is fitting, as it’s overall a pretty forgettable game. A short and easy one too. My opinion has gone down a bit on this most recent visit though, as the 3D Sonic gameplay is a step down from Generations and the 2D Sonic gameplay is an even bigger step down. I still think the “make your own character” gimmick is fun, and am a bit bummed that it’ll probably never be expanded upon after the game’s extremely poor reception. I’ll agree it’s not a good game, but it’s also not the worst thing ever. I wish the “Eggman takes over the world” story could’ve been used for a knockout entry of the series, but oh well.
Sonic Advance — Played this again on a random whim. It is the most “3 out of 5” Sonic game I can think of, in that it doesn’t really do anything bad, but doesn’t stand out in any big way either. The levels are fine, albeit uninspired. For the GBA it all looks quite nice though, with very detailed and well-animated sprites. I guess one thing that is worth mentioning is the inclusion of Amy as a playable character (first time for 2D gameplay, I believe), and she’s something of a hard mode for this as she doesn’t roll in a ball when she jumps (requiring you to hit enemies with her hammer instead). I think this is the only time she plays with that sort of handicap in 2D, going off her play style from Adventure.
I considered revisiting the other two Advance games afterward, but decided to save them for later. My opinion last time was that 2 is a step down, while 3 is a step up. Opinions on this trilogy apparently vary quite a bit from what I’ve noticed online.
Knuckles Chaotix — First time playing this oddball, the black sheep of the series. To me Chaotix is an interesting game to experience, but not actually a fun one to play. It is playable, I can at least say that… and the soundtrack is great (definitely check out a playlist of it). But yeah, it’s a game that has you playing with a second character tethered to you the whole time, which is unique from a game physics standpoint, but IMO doesn’t really add to Sonic-style gameplay in any meaningful way (and requires the stage designs to be extremely boring to compensate for such wonky and finicky movement). If anything, I think the bungee would’ve worked best for a puzzle platformer sort of game that requires you to figure out how to reach levers and switches or what have you via Angry Birds-esque flinging of the characters.
I guess this is the point where I’ll mention personally not caring about the Chaotix characters at all, who have always felt like the annoying bunch that people think of first whenever complaints arise of Sonic having too many friends. My personal thinking is that any role they could play in a Sonic story can be handled by another character, making them superfluous.
Sonic 3D Blast — This is another oddball for the series, but one I’ve long had a bit of a soft spot for. The most common complaint is that it doesn’t play like a Sonic game, which, yeah, it’s definitely a spinoff. Instead of going fast through a level, you need to carefully explore isometric stages to defeat enemies and safely deliver birds to their destination. Which means this is less a Sonic game, and more a sequel to the classic Sega arcade game Flicky. I think people would get more out of this if they go into it with that mindset! I also think that nowadays it’s worth playing the “Director’s Edition” hack that tweaks the game in a bunch of helpful little ways. And for a final recommendation, I suggest using an analog joystick instead of a D-pad if possible. Just feels better IMO.
I played the Genesis version this time, but do recommend checking out the Saturn version for those who like the game at all. The music is good in the Genesis version, but excellent in the Saturn one. The special stages are also different there, showcasing an early attempt at 3D polygonal graphics for Sonic.
Sonic Pocket Adventure — In the past I saw this as just a bad version of Sonic 2, but after this revisit I’ve decided that’s too harsh of a take. The game plays perfectly fine, and for the Neo Geo Pocket it was surely a marvel at the time. The stage themes are from Sonic 2, but the actual layouts are different, so it’s not truly a port (much like the Master System or Game Gear version of Sonic 2 being its own thing). Also, for some reason, the music in Pocket Adventure is made up of 8-bit renditions of tunes from Sonic 3 and Knuckles. I don’t know why they did that, but it creates an odd dissonance while playing, lol. There are also time trial challenges and collectible goodies to find in each stage, for some nifty replayability. It’s not a super amazing hidden gem, but it is solid for what it is. I wish it could’ve been included in one of the Neo Geo Pocket collections released for the Nintendo Switch over the past few years.
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Happy to say Sonic x Shadow Generations is a winner. The new Shadow Generations levels are solid, and the hub world is fun to mess around in. Lots of extra challenges and collectibles to work toward after beating the game too, much like Sonic Generations. So I have plenty more playtime ahead of me when I feel like doing more.
Actually think Shadow Generations might be the better game overall? There are fewer levels, but they’re all meaty ones. I don’t think the story is anything to write home about (it’s kinda just an abridged retelling of the first Shadow game), but it’s not bad, which I’ll consider a win at this point. With this and Sonic Frontiers, it’s also just nice to be getting some focus on 3D gameplay again. Hope they can continue to polish and iterate, rather than starting from scratch on whatever game they make next.
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My copy hasn’t arrived yet. VERY pissed. What’s the point of pre-ordering if you can’t even play on release day? (Well, the point not here was to get the journal, but the point stands…)
Knuckles Generations when?
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Oh, Hells yeah!
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Have you seen the Genesis promo cartridge for the movie they made?
Also i hear McDonald’s might be getting sonic 3 toys
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Yeah I did see the cart. Very cool idea.
I’m sure the Maccas toys will be pretty naff
They usually are…but some people collect everything
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I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched the trailer for Sonic 3. I love the epic version of the Green Hill theme in there.
I honestly don’t understand why they didn’t use more of the games’ music - even renditions of and riffs from it - in the other films. How they didn’t use the “drowning theme” in Sonic 2 when Sonic is underwater after fighting Knuckles is beyond me.
Jeff Fowler has said this is the most reference heavy of the films and Live and Learn is confirmed to be in there (although not performed by Crush 40. The only song they’ve released thus far is some exceedingly average, radio safe pop-rock crap, so I don’t hold out too much hope of what the cover will be like) so hopefully this time we’ll hear some more.
Actually, this site has some images of them and the toys don’t look too bad. Might have to suffer through some crappy food to get them.
These Reebok sneakers are also pretty cool.
I’mma rank the Sonic games I’ve played for no reason.
Sonic Mania
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Generations (3DS)
Frontiers
Superstars
Sonic 1 (Genesis)
Sonic CD
Sonic 2 (Genesis)
Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
Sonic Triple Trouble
Sonic 2 (Master System)
Sonic 1 (Master System)
Rush
Colours (DS)
Sonic Advance 3
3D Blast
Generations (console)
Heroes
Colours (console)
Lost World
Adventure 2
Adventure
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I’m posting this in a few places because I know some people might have Sega games on their PC wish lists. And the Sonic group is probably the best place to post it:
A heads up to PC players who are currently shopping the Steam Autumn Sale for Sega titles. Fanatical is having a Sega sale with prices that currently beat Steam prices across the board. Even recent games like Metaphor: ReFantazio and Sonic X Generations are discounted by 35% compared to 25% over in the Steam sale. Just wanted to let people know in case Sega games are on your wish list and you are looking for a better price.
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