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Does a good 3d sonic game exist?

01011001

Banned
OIP.PWLvBN6a2tB4ymffkV9aJgHaFj


the only 3D Sonic game that doesn't require you to learn each level in order to have fun because the camera is actually good here :)
 
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Saber

Gold Member
Sonic Adventure 2 is on par with Mario 64 if we’re being completely honest.

If you take away the running corridors, crap level design, dumbass plataforming, autistic mecha stages, brain damaging emerald hunting, coldsteel hedgehog story, terrible controls, 2 separate stories with crtl+c gameplays, 3 last stages, stupid voice acting, stupid rival battles, "time limit" stages and rankings, it would probably almost be on par with 64.
 
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Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
I bought the japanese version of Sonic Adventure, and I had a great time with it. The game was slightly buggy, but fun.

The graphics had my jaw on the floor, initially. This was back when the PS2 wasn't even announced yet. It was pre- Emotion Engine demos, even.

Maybe that had something to do with it.

I still consider it the best 3D Sonic. Sonic Adventure 1.
 
If you take away the running corridors, crap level design, dumbass plataforming, autistic mecha stages, brain damaging emerald hunting, coldsteel hedgehog story, terrible controls, 2 separate stories with crtl+c gameplays, 3 last stages, stupid voice acting, stupid rival battles, "time limit" stages and rankings, it would probably almost be on par with 64.
SM64 tries a lot of new things just like SA2 and it’s to varied success. The experimentation alone was worth the retail cost. Two factions, three forms of gameplay in the main story, alternate moves, a sick ass rivalry. The mech gameplay and treasure hunting were a nice break from the most breakneck pace of the hedgehog missions. I loved learning different angles of the story through the supporting cast. I loved raising chaos in the chao garden. It was all so much fun.
 

ShirAhava

Plays with kids toys, in the adult gaming world
Sonic Unleashed day levels are the best by far

Sonic Adventure just sucks I thought it was bad even for the time
 

Shifty

Member
If you bounced off Generations, I don't think there's much hope.

It only gets worse.

OIP.PWLvBN6a2tB4ymffkV9aJgHaFj


the only 3D Sonic game that doesn't require you to learn each level in order to have fun because the camera is actually good here :)
I'll give it to you - that first stage is some really top level stuff. A breath of fresh air for the franchise that looks nice, is fun to play, does a good job of demonstrating the new mechanics, and sets the player up with some great expectations for the rest of the game.

Then it immediately falls off a cliff, lands in a dumpster full of stage gimmicks and surplus Nickelodeon characters, and becomes poster boy for that "Green Hill is the best level in every Sonic game" meme.

I was hyped after playing through the demo a bunch of times, but when the full game arrived I played through the whole thing hoping it would improve, then refunded in disgust after the credits rolled.
Could have been bloody brilliant if they'd gone with no story and more mechanics-focused level design :messenger_confused:
 
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Daniel Thomas MacInnes

GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
Not to be “that person,” but the best 3D Sonic game was Nights Into Dreams. I also remember everybody enjoying Sonic Colors. I have no idea if it fell out of favor, like so many Sonic games over the years. It’s just fashionable to hate all the 3D entries in the franchise.
 

Griffon

Member
The Sonic Adventure series is pretty good.
Too bad Sega chased gimmicks instead of properly iterating on it.
 

BlackTron

Member
Not an official title, but I finally got around to test Sonic Robo Blast 2 yesterday. Heard about it ages ago and Digital Foundry made a decent video showing off the title. It's an open source fan project based on a modified Doom engine. Sprites are 2D, but you can select 3D models if you want.



[/URL]


I tried this game right after seeing it in action in this video. The controls could use some tweaks but I was still really impressed especially with the level design and graphics. You really get the feel you're in the same universe as 2D Sonic. The thought put into the levels also feels much more like playing 2D than any official 3D game. The game isn't finished and there's some stuff like wrong button prompts but I played the first 3 zones last night as the freshest Sonic experience since...forever.

I half expected the first zone to be the best/most finished, but then zone 2 was a complete technical challenge I would have expected at the end of a Sonic game, like Scrap Brain or Metropolis Zone, and demands full dexterity with the controls/camera immediately...then Zone 3 was like Labyrinth crossed with Aquatic Ruin, but being in 3D for first time invoked the OOT Water Temple. The palette swap alone made me want to keep playing.
 

Holammer

Member
I tried this game right after seeing it in action in this video. The controls could use some tweaks but I was still really impressed especially with the level design and graphics. You really get the feel you're in the same universe as 2D Sonic. The thought put into the levels also feels much more like playing 2D than any official 3D game. The game isn't finished and there's some stuff like wrong button prompts but I played the first 3 zones last night as the freshest Sonic experience since...forever.

I half expected the first zone to be the best/most finished, but then zone 2 was a complete technical challenge I would have expected at the end of a Sonic game, like Scrap Brain or Metropolis Zone, and demands full dexterity with the controls/camera immediately...then Zone 3 was like Labyrinth crossed with Aquatic Ruin, but being in 3D for first time invoked the OOT Water Temple. The palette swap alone made me want to keep playing.
Yes, the experience is certified fresh. Not running on-rails and a more open world'ish setting makes it very different.
My only mild irritants is that the game imitates the soapy acceleration of the 2D and other sonic games when moving at walking speed. I would take a page from Mario games and make it more precise and give the player character a slightly larger bounding box to pick up rings.
 
No, there is none. Some people look back at sonic adventure 1 and 2 and remember them as being good. They are wrong. 3D Sonic always sucks. But I'm sure Sonic Frontiers will break the spell.

Thus guy knows what's up. They're all shitty. Sonic Adventure wasn't even that good back in the day tbh. We could go even further and say most 2d sonic games are flawed and overall not all that much fun to play but let's save that for snother thread shall we.
 

BlackTron

Member
Yes, the experience is certified fresh. Not running on-rails and a more open world'ish setting makes it very different.
My only mild irritants is that the game imitates the soapy acceleration of the 2D and other sonic games when moving at walking speed. I would take a page from Mario games and make it more precise and give the player character a slightly larger bounding box to pick up rings.

I agree. They need to either tighten up the platforming control or add the homing attack. Both would be preferable (Sonic Adventure 1). It's throwing me off that it has the sound of the homing attack, but doesn't actually home in, especially fresh off a playthrough of SA lol. It would also help a lot if tapping the spin dash button in a roll caused sonic to exit the roll and get back on his feet, again like in SA.

I turned off auto-rotating camera and adjusted its turning speed to be faster. That's allowing me to run by holding up on the stick and using the camera to steer. I found this really good in levels but then bad for bosses. The tutorial talks of a lock-on mechanic that doesn't seem to be in the game yet, they just talk about the button. If it did, this wouldn't be an issue in the boss stages.
 

Ristifer

Member
I genuinely think Adventure 1 and 2, Unleashed, and Generations are all good games. But they also all have annoying flaws which prevent them from reaching great status. Generations is the closest 3D Sonic gets to being great.

With Sonic Team, the bad outweighs the good, unfortunately.
 

SnapShot

Member
Adventure 1 was great but feels so clunky and dated today, still a good game if you can overlook the occasional glitches and incredibly cheesy (and sometimes cringeworthy) voice acting

Adventure 2 is solid aswell and improves on Adventure 1 in many ways but for some reason Tails became phyisically handicapped here

Heroes is great, ditches the slow Mech and Emerald Hunting stages and replaces them with other, much more engaging stages

Sonic and the Secret Ring / and the Black Knight are alright if you get used to the motion controls

Unleashed is great and has the best Modern 3D Sonic gameplay to date (followed by Generations), everyone likes to hate on the night time stages and hub exploration but they are a nice change of pace

Colors is okay-ish but is barely a 3D Sonic game, most of the levels and sections of levels take place in 2D for some reason

Generations is alright but felt too short and the Classic Sonic levels felt tacked on

Lost World is okay too, the parkour and spindash mechanics are incredibly addictive once you learn how to use them, sadly just like Unleashed everyone usually overlooks it just because (generic answer ahead) it's different again

TL;DR - Yes there are good 3D Sonic games
 
No, there is none. Some people look back at sonic adventure 1 and 2 and remember them as being good. They are wrong. 3D Sonic always sucks. But I'm sure Sonic Frontiers will break the spell.
False, I can literally play sonic adventure 1 or 2 now and enjoy it as much as I did at the time. Most people just want to be sheep and hate on sonic games since its the "cool" thing to do.
 

BlackTron

Member
False, I can literally play sonic adventure 1 or 2 now and enjoy it as much as I did at the time. Most people just want to be sheep and hate on sonic games since its the "cool" thing to do.

To be fair, unless you were there in 1999, and playing the Dreamcast original instead of the abysmal PC/PS3 version, I can see why people would judge it harshly, especially with its reputation.

Yeah, it's got some really annoying stuff to tolerate, for example the famous "Oh no, you're gonna crash AHH!" is one of the worst examples of VA/character sync in history, but what directly follows is one of my favorite opening game levels of all time. If what you care about is actually playing a Sonic GAME, then flaws like that aren't going to stop you from playing it. At least it's not a gameplay related flaw, like when SA2 had the genuis idea to make a Zelda style context-sensitive button in a 250MPH Sonic game. And make it the same as the spin dash button...

Edit: Another example that springs to mind is how terrible the VA is at the beginning of Castlevania SotN. But nobody who actually wants to play a good CV is getting hung up on that.
 
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Mhmmm 2077

Member
Like, don't hate, but... is any Sonic good? Maybe I don't get what Sonic is about, I like platformers, but like, what's the point of these games? You go fast, bounce off shit collect and lose ring, I simply don't get it. Which game should I try to play and see if I like it?
 

Shut0wen

Member
Go play another series. Saying this about Generations is just delusional and objectively incorrect. You clearly don't want to play a Sonic game.
Must be why i brought mania and origins recently, been playing sonic for years and gave up on the series after heros and 06, not my fault the game is a mess
 

SnapShot

Member
Like, don't hate, but... is any Sonic good? Maybe I don't get what Sonic is about, I like platformers, but like, what's the point of these games? You go fast, bounce off shit collect and lose ring, I simply don't get it. Which game should I try to play and see if I like it?
Reach the end of each level or complete the objective as fast and efficient as possible, sometimes the gameplay changes to put more emphasis on combat, shooting or exploration and that's what people usually have problems with.
 

Chukhopops

Member
Like, don't hate, but... is any Sonic good? Maybe I don't get what Sonic is about, I like platformers, but like, what's the point of these games? You go fast, bounce off shit collect and lose ring, I simply don't get it. Which game should I try to play and see if I like it?
3D Sonic is about learning and mastering a given level until you execute it well enough to obtain the best rank possible.

Most mechanics, from the ring system to how you access different paths based on your speed, actually reward perfect execution. This is what people find satisfying and different from other platform games.

The game doesn’t stop you from just going fast and bumping into any obstacle and limping your way until the end of the game. But that’s not where the fun is for people who like those games.
 

Togh

Member
If we are talking about platformers only, then Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 are good,although I think they didn't age well because of the stages were you have to play as Sonic friends and usually their gameplay seems out of place from what you would expect from a Sonic game. Dreamcast versions are the best though, as the GameCube ports (and consequently the PC ports from steam which are ports from the GameCube versions) are uglier and full of bugs (proof1 and proof2). If you want to play the PC version on Steam, you will want to mod the shit out of it to correct the atrocious GameCube problems that where carried out with these ports. Here's a tutorial on how to mod Adventure 1. There's ways to correct Sonic Adventure 2 too if you want.

That said, Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations are better than the Sonic Adventures, but for Sonic Colors you must play the Wii version because the remaster that was recently released is complete garbage, it has worse graphics, worse illumination and the gameplay is full of bugs.

Sonic Unleashed is the most beautiful Sonic game, but it was the first with that modern gameplay so it's not as polished as Colors and Generations. The best way to play it is via Sonic Unleashed Project, a mod for Sonic Generations.

Sonic Lost World had the potential to be fenomenal, but for every step in the right direction, right after it does two on the wrong direction. It has some of the coolest stages and gameplay from all Sonic games, but it's like for each good stage, there's like 2 or 3 bad stages between them... Some stages are pretty good and satisfying but there are some that are VERY frustrating.

Bonus mention: Sonic Robo Blast 2, it's a fan game but it's really cool.
 
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