Sega needs to give a Sonic game to Nintendo

Ever since Sonic the Hedgehog 4 was announced, I have been wondering what it will mean for the Sonic franchise’s future. As I pondered, Mega64 released a new video discussing Sonic, and gave me my answer. With Sonic 4, Sonic will continue to be the same old shit, constantly trying to recreate the original 2D games. What will happen when Sonic finally DOES recapture that magic? It’ll still be the same “run around and grab rings” thrillride crap that we’ve been playing for the entire lifecycle of the franchise; and because Sega isn’t the kind of company that strives for innovation in their games, there is only one hope left for Sonic.

Sega needs to give Sonic to Nintendo.

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When I say that, I do nor mean a collaborative effort. I mean Sega should give Nintendo completely free reign over the franchise and let them do whatever they want with it. Despite their more recent screw ups, Nintendo is a company that knows how platforming is done. They regulate the usage of their big-name franchises and each time a new game comes out it introduces something radically new that makes the game feel new and entertaining.

Of course, Sega has tried this with Sonic, too. The Sonic Adventure games introduced things like fishing, treasure-hunting, and mech shooting, but none of those things were actually fun. Well, maybe the mech shooting was rather fun, but none of them did anything that felt fresh or intuitive.

Then there was Sonic Heroes which switched back to just running through levels, but now with three characters that must be put in different positions in order to progress. While the game wasn’t that great, the concept was pretty damn clever.

And then there was Shadow the Hedgehog. Yes, I think it should count. They decided to give a Sonic “clone” guns and vehicles. Once again, it was a huge mess that came off as a desperate attempt at another demographic rather than a creative idea.

Next, we have Sonic and the Secret Rings and Sonic and the Black Knight. Secret Rings was just an average run-of-the-mill affair that simply put Sonic on rails in an attempt contain problems. Then Black Knight came out and gave the player a little more control over Sonic, but still kept it in the same vein as the previous game while adding a useless sword attachment to take the place of Sonic’s homing attack.

Finally there’s Sonic Unleashed. They decided to make Sonic part-“zomg speed”/part-platforming beat-em-up, which once again fell flat, but could have been better if more effort was put into design. There’s no point in discussing Sonic ’06 since, as we all know, that game doesn’t exist. If it did hypothetically exist, it would have just been a really shitty Sonic Adventure 3.

All these games did was try to bring the same old 2D stuff into the 3D realm whilst adding the illusion of something new. In reality, it’s the same game every single time with poorly-constructed levels. Nintendo was really the first when it came to translating a 2D game into the 3D realm and doing it right, so surely they could do what Sega never could.

I’m not saying Sonic games all suck, or Sega isn’t competent enought to create an enjoyable Sonic game. I thoroughly enjoyed the Adventure series and at least 1/3 of Unleashed was really fun. However, Sega lacks any creative drive in their games. Every single game sounds like they sat around at a board meeting, threw their hands in the air and said something like “Okay, how about he turns into a Werehog now?” or “How about Shadow uses guns and vehicles even though he doesn’t need them?”

Of course, Nintendo could be accused of the same things. “Every Mario game is just running around grabbing coins and collecting specific items.” or  “Super Mario Sunshine is just Mario 64 with a water jetpack.” But those things worked. It’s not just a matter of coming up with creative ideas, it’s also a matter of creating interesting and fun levels that excite and entertain the player. Sure, Sonic games can excite and entertain players too, but nothing beyond the “Wheeeee!” sensation of a rollercoaster ride. This is the reason why just about everybody gets excited when a new Nintendo game gets announced and only furries and hardcore Sonic fans get remotely excited for a new Sonic game announcement. Most gamers want more than a quick thrill.

This is where I think the problem lies with Sonic games. There’s too much focus on speed. Yes, it’s Sonic’s defining characteristic, but I think the speed is what prevents Sega from being creative with Sonic. Look at Sonic Unleashed. Their best idea for incorporating clever level design was to slow Sonic down by turning him into a hulking beast.

The old Sonic games were about using momentum as a bonus for a clever or veteran player’s platforming skills, so why not focus on that again and create level designs around that? Sure, Sonic 4 might end up fitting the bill there, but that’s because it’s only going back to the original Sonic games, basically copying those and not doing something new.

Thanks to Sega and Nintendo’s budding bromance, the possibility of this all happening is actually a lot more likely than one would think. Sure, Nintendo might not own the series (for now, at least), but I guarantee that if Sega were to give Nintendo the chance to make their own Sonic game, it would be the best Sonic game to be released in a long, long time.

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