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Post by Nam on Sept 20, 2011 21:06:15 GMT
I'd wager (thought I've no doubt there are people on here who will say otherwise) that everyone is in agreement that Sonic '06 is the worst game in the series. Shoddy camera, stupid story, awful glitches, obvious beta, loading times that would embarrass the PS1, unnecessary padding, and generally just plain awfulness in all directions that serves to make it one of the worst games ever.
But can anyone actually put there hands up and say "this game, of all the other really bad Sonic games, is the one that comes closest to being most awful"? There have been a lot of stinkers, Blast was awful, Heroes is practically a running gag for "bad videogame" on this forum, and I don't recall anyone having a good thing to say about Secret Rings either.
In other words, the obvious answer of '06 aside, which one Sonic game would you call worse and why?
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Post by Blizz on Sept 20, 2011 21:10:29 GMT
Based on all the ones I've actually played, I'm going to say Labyrinth.
Also, I liked Secret Rings at the time. Not sure what I'd think of it now though, having played Colours thoroughly...
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Post by Alex on Sept 20, 2011 21:12:05 GMT
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Post by Juliett. Bravo. Alfa. on Sept 20, 2011 21:13:14 GMT
Worst Port: Sonic the Hedgehog: Genesis
I would pretty much say that Sonic Blast/G-Sonic is the worst. Looks ugly, plays like crap. It also wants to be a proper 8Bit Sonic. Fails miserably. Labyrinth isn't really a bad game. Skypatrol is just bizarre.
Most of the other bad Sonics are pretty much just either Sonic Team not really wanting to make a Sonic game or just rushed out pap.
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Post by rj on Sept 20, 2011 21:24:43 GMT
i liked secret rings shut up
also shadow is obviously the contender I would THINK
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Adamis
Artist Hume
Yay
Posts: 1,339
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Post by Adamis on Sept 20, 2011 21:26:39 GMT
Worst: Tails Skypatrol Second worst: Sonic Blast
I won't tell why Heroes and 06 are great for me again, no.
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Post by Nam on Sept 20, 2011 21:45:19 GMT
I never got the Heroes hate. Yes there are bugs, yes there are places where it's unfairly hard, yes there are choices that make you question "What were they thinking", but in all honesty I had a lot of fun playing through it recently (albeit, with a lot of frustrated swearing). The levels are varied and interesting, with loads of bright colours and cartoonishness to them, and a lot of fun gimmicks, and it's actually just the right amount of awful cheesiness, and somehow just the right amount of awfulness to veer into "So bad it's good" territory, with a hefty dose of camp for good measure.
I'll concede, playing it alone, taking it seriously, and playing it with the intent to properly invest yourself in it, and it's appalling, but play it with your tongue in your cheek, and treat it as a laugh (even when the bad gameplay rears it's head), and it's actually pretty enjoyable.
Heroes is the gameplay version of an old Bond film (yes I am totally making this analogy just because Goldeneye is on TV, sue me). It's cheesey, nonsensical, full of stupid points that only work if you stop trying to make sense of them, and is much more enjoyable if you overlook the corny cheesiness, and just go with the overall experience. It's not an excuse for bad gameplay, nor any bugs, but the rest of the experience is so nonsensical when held up to any sense of realism, but still somehow just sort of works.
Of all the bad games I've played, I'd say that Blast is worst. It's a 2D side scroller that's ugly, barely functional, bland, and unappealing in every way, but unlike most the other so called bland games, there were other games on the same platform, made by the same people, that somehow did it better. There was no excuse for Blast to be bad as it is, not technical limitations, not emulation problems cause by different software, not bad gameplay ideas (because really the gameplay in Blast is identical to any other Game Gear Sonic, it's just executed badly).
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Post by Balls on Sept 20, 2011 22:02:21 GMT
Shadow is great. It's not the most perfect game ever but there's tonnes of fun in there. [censored] off X.
Heroes is not even close to being the worst. It is, however, the most disappointing. Adventure 1 and 2 were by no means great, but they seemed like they were working toward something. While Adventure 1 turned out to be a glitch filled mess, looking back, SA2 did make some improvement, Sonic and Shadow's levels were good and it seemed like, while it didn't pull of 3D Sonic with flying colours (which wasn't done until, fittingly, Sonic Colours), they were an acceptable formula to build upon into what could eventually maintain the high standards we'd come to expect from Sonic games from the MegaDrive legends.
Heroes had the stage set. The screenshots and videos showed a celebration of characters, with nice shiney graphics and some nice fast paced gameplay and colourful, varied levels. It was to be the first multi-platform Sonic game and so was not just set to be everything the Adventure players were anticipating, but also the first 3D Sonic outing for all those people who skipped the Dreamcast and dug into the PS2 or XBox.
Then that happened. It came out and it was not only glitchy and camera [censored]ed, but generally poorly designed, downright boring, frustrating and irritating, with broken up gameplay that just didn't make sense. It was kick to the balls for any Sonic fan- a term that before Heroes was not that embarassing a title- with a pain that lingered purely because of what we all hyped it up to be. And that got the ball rolling for the volume of terrible titles that followed.
Sonic Heroes was the cruelest and most upsetting game in the series, but by no means the worst. That would go to Sonic Drift, if I cared enough about it because it's a crappy spin off title anyway.
No, the main entries. They are what deserve my scrutiny the most. And you know I'm talking to you. You know who you are. That's right, you.
[censored] you, Secret Rings. [censored] you in the [censored].
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Post by Arch on Sept 20, 2011 22:04:32 GMT
Sonic 06 is by no means anywhere near the worst in the series. I enjoy going back to each and every level and the story's quite enjoyable, really. It's massively brought down by loading times, recent plays through Flame Core (?) and that final level. I'd happily go back and do everything else again.
That said, I'd say either Blast or Drift 1 for worst game. I just can't get on with Sonic 2 SMS but I know it's a good game deep down.
Oh, or Eraser.
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Post by MentalAnalysis on Sept 20, 2011 22:56:59 GMT
Sonic 2006 was so bad, you had to be fascinated by it. It's kinda like the Room of videogames.
But if your talking about "second worst", Sonic and the Secret Rings, hands down!
I can tolerate the crap in sonic games and hell, I'd defend Shadow the Hedgehog for being an overall decent game if I had to.
But....Secret Rings? That game was just dreadful in so many levels. First of all, I hate the Arabian Night concept. It's overused and the stories have always been one dimensional (2 at best.) Then you have the controls. Something obviously went wrong in development when you were having a hard time with the tutorial and if that wasn't enough, you constantly had to turn your wii-mote around like an idiot to people around you and Sonic will not run but waddle. Half the time, he will refuse to move in the way you turn the damn wii-mote and the fact that the game was a rail game didn't help when it came to jumping.
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Post by Arch on Sept 20, 2011 23:06:56 GMT
Then you have the controls. Something obviously went wrong in development when you were having a hard time with the tutorial and if that wasn't enough, you constantly had to turn your wii-mote around like an idiot to people around you and Sonic will not run but waddle. Half the time, he will refuse to move in the way you turn the damn wii-mote and the fact that the game was a rail game didn't help when it came to jumping. Sounds like you have no idea how to play it and/or didn't level up. :/
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Post by Juliett. Bravo. Alfa. on Sept 21, 2011 8:24:18 GMT
Also, it seems no one played Black Knight.
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Post by madhair60 on Sept 21, 2011 8:51:05 GMT
Black Knight was better than Secret Rings by virtue of not being possible to complete with an A rank while in a different room having a crap.
Sonic '06 defence toes the line between hilarious and deeply depressing, that people will see fit to reward it with praise despite - clearly, to anyone in possession of standards (which everyone is) - being an objectively worthless game.
Second-worst is a toughie. Glad to see only one person being wrong about Sonic Labyrinth, which is fine. Heroes isn't there, it's got a couple of excellent levels. Shadow either, which is alright. I'll have to give it to Sonic Free Riders because it simply isn't possible to play.
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Post by Juliett. Bravo. Alfa. on Sept 21, 2011 9:35:13 GMT
To me, a bad Sonic game kinda has to be when Sonic is in his style of game. i:e a 2D or 3D platformer.
I mean no one really Mario went bad after 9 odd Party Games, Super Mario Ball and Double Dash!!
Which is why Sonic 06 to me isn't how you make a 3D Sonic game and Sonic Blast isn't how you make a 2D Sonic game. One cannot exist without the other. But not really.
Heroes is the greatest let down though. I mean it actually looked like a Sonic game. Metal Sonic. Chaotix. Just [censored]ed it all up.
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Post by Beeth on Sept 21, 2011 10:05:16 GMT
For me, it's a tosser between Sonic Blast and Secret Rings. Blast is just apalling, it looks and plays like a cheap knock-off put together by some bloke in a bedroom in Hong Kong.
Secret Rings I suppose I'm biased against. I just can't get to grips with it. The oddest thing is I managed to get the hang of the sequel Black Knight. At any rate, I find the control schemes in both games to be ridiculous and counterintuitive. I'd wager the same, if not more so, if I ever played Sonic Free Riders. Kinect is already poor enough with its response times as far as I've experienced, I'd despair to see just how unplayable SFR really is.
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Post by Samface on Sept 21, 2011 10:16:00 GMT
I've only played about half of all the Sonic games (and '06 is one I haven't played, so yeah), soooo......maybe Drift. Abysmal.
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Post by madhair60 on Sept 21, 2011 11:01:15 GMT
For me, it's a tosser between Sonic Blast and Secret Rings. "Toss-up", for [censored]'s sake. XD
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Post by Beeth on Sept 21, 2011 11:21:45 GMT
For me, it's a tosser between Sonic Blast and Secret Rings. "Toss-up", for [censored]'s sake. XD I have genuinely no idea how I wrote that instead of "toss-up", or failed to notice it thereafter. Blerrrr. I need a coffee.
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Post by Alex on Sept 21, 2011 11:51:01 GMT
Black Knight was better than Secret Rings by virtue of not being possible to complete with an A rank while in a different room having a crap. I enjoyed Black Knight. It's quite well put together, gives proper life to the interesting concept of gameplay featured in Secret Rings - but without it being done in the same awful way - and is actually one of the more playable Wii games in general. It looks like a big streak of piss compared to Colours now, but without Colours, it'd definitely stand as the best Sonic game on the Wii. I enjoyed the story and I enjoyed the music. The level concepts were also nice, even if the levels were unplayable. On a design standpoint, as different as it was, I liked it and it could have made for an epic game had the development (or lack thereof) not ruined it by making the game pretty much literally unplayable. I'd also submit any and all Sonic Riders games as they were are universally awful in every single way, from the character designs, to the 'story', to the music, to the broken gameplay.
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Post by madhair60 on Sept 21, 2011 12:01:32 GMT
I liked Sonic Riders 1 enough that I finished it, which is telling I guess. It's impossibly hard to grasp for a kids' game though.
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Post by MentalAnalysis on Sept 21, 2011 12:07:54 GMT
Sounds like you have no idea how to play it and/or didn't level up. :/ I did. Just that the game refused to work with me half the time and it wasn't like my wii-mote was broken (seemed to work fine when I was playing other games).
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Post by Beeth on Sept 21, 2011 12:11:52 GMT
I'd also submit any and all Sonic Riders games as they were are universally awful in every single way, from the character designs, to the 'story', to the music, to the broken gameplay. I would understand and agree with you on every point there except the music. The soundtrack is far from awful I think. The themes from Digital Dimension and Sand Ocean from the first game, Botanical Kingodm and MeteorTech from the second, all pretty good tracks to cite a few examples. Hell, even free riders has some good musics from what I've heard so far. The Metropolis Speedway theme in particular is a damn good and uplifting track. That aside, Sonic Riders is a bit [censored].
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Post by MentalAnalysis on Sept 21, 2011 12:45:00 GMT
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity would be one of those games that I have to place on the good selection mostly because the gimmick of controlling gravity actually improved the game. That and the fact that the damn gears didn't require refills like it did on the original.
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Post by Nam on Sept 21, 2011 12:53:22 GMT
I liked Sonic Riders 1 enough that I finished it, which is telling I guess. It's impossibly hard to grasp for a kids' game though. For a kids game nothing. Riders is difficult from the get go. I got the the "Sonic chases Robotniks in the floating babylon kingdom thing" level before getting utterly stuck. Before that it was sheer fluke how I even got that far. Generally the game starts hard, and stays ball-achingly hard throughout, primarily because the game suffers some seriously broken rubber band AI. Thing is, I don't know if it was bad. yes it was hard, and yes the control system and turbo system was bizarre, but it wasn't really flawed bizarre, and it seemed to work with what it was, it's just the concept wasn't really any good to begin with.
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Post by L. T. Dangerous on Sept 22, 2011 8:58:57 GMT
Looking at all the crap spin-offs, I'm surprised Billy Hatcher even made it past the design phase without being turned blue and spiky (though Hatcher is a wicked game). It just seems that many of the bad games aren't truly Sonic games, just games with Sonic in. Sad really, in the 80s and 90s Sega would have been able to release them hog-free and had some other franchises out of it.
I hate Heroes with a passion, so it still gets my vote, sorry, all. Shadow is a perfectly fine game with a few minor flaws.
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