[Stardust Speedman]

Hi girls & guys!

I wrote the following text in a different forum, in a topic about your favourit game. I thought you might find it interesting:

My list of 30 favourite games would look something like this:

01.   Sonic Rush (Nintendo Double Screen – 2005)
02.   Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Mega Drive – 1991)
03.   Sonic the Hedgehog CD (Sega Mega CD, Personal Computer – 1993)
04.   Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles (Sega Mega Drive, Personal Computer – 1994)
05.   Shadow the Hedgehog (Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft X-Box, Sony PlayStation 2 – 2005)
06.   Sonic Adventure 2 (Battle) (Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo GameCube – 2001)
07.   Sonic Heroes (Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft X-Box, Sony PlayStation 2, Personal Computer – 2003)
08.   Sonic Adventure (DX Director’s Cut) (Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo GameCube, Personal Computer – 1998)
09.   Nights into Dreams (Christmas Nights) (Sega Saturn – 1996)
10.   Oddworld Munch’s Oddysee (Microsoft X-Box – 2001)
11.   Oddworld Abe’s Exoddus (Personal Computer, Sony PlayStation – 1998)
12.   Rayman 2 The Great Escape (/Revolution) (Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, Sony PlayStation, Sony PlayStation 2, Personal Computer – 1999)
13.   Tomb Raider 3 Adventures of Lara Croft (Personal Computer, Sony PlayStation – 1998)
14.   Diablo 2 (Expansion Set Lord of Destruction) (Personal Computer – 2000)
15.   Oddworld Abe’s Oddysee (Personal Computer, Sony PlayStation – 1997)
16.   Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear – 1992)
17.   Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear – 1991)
18.   Sonic Riders (Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft X-Box, Sony PlayStation 2, Personal Computer – 2006)
19.   Tomb Raider The Last Revelation (Sega Dreamcast, Sony PlayStation, Personal Computer – 1999)
20.   Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 2 (Personal Computer, Sony PlayStation 2 – 2001)
21.   Legacy of Kain Defiance (Personal Computer, Microsoft X-Box, Sony PlayStation 2 – 2004)
22.   Tomb Raider Legend (Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Double Screen, Microsoft X-Box, Microsoft X-Box 360, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation Portable, Personal Computer – 2006)
23.   The Lost Vikings (Sega Mega Drive, Nintendo Game Boy Advance, Personal Computer – 1993)
24.   The Neverhood (Personal Computer – 1996)
25.   Monkey Island LeChuck’s Revenge (Personal Computer – 1991)
26.   The Secret of Monkey Island (Personal Computer – 1990)
27.   The Curse of Monkey Island (Personal Computer – 1997)
28.   Grim Fandango (Personal Computer – 1998)
29.   Escape from Monkey Island (Personal Computer – 2000)
30.   Full Throttle (Personal Computer – 1995)

The order is in all probability not correct, but Sonic Rush is my favourite. As you can see, I’m a VERY VERY VERY BIIIIIIIIIIG Sonic fan! Before I can say why Sonic Rush is my favourite, I have to explain generally why I’m so fascinated by the Sonic series.

Visually, Sonic games have always been very varied. Already the first Sonic game in 1991 had 6 completely different worlds, each of them giving you a different feeling. And there were worlds never seen before in any other game. At that time, it was always either “jungle level” or “snow level” or whatever. Then along came Sonic and you got to “Spring Yard Zone” and there were all these pinball bumpers and flippers and some dark city and purple mountains with orange clouds. It took everything you expected to see in a platformer and turned it around.

Soundtrack-wise, the Sonic series also belongs to the best. Almost every Sonic game has many cool, creative soundtracks, which mach the feeling of the game perfectly. And then also so varied! Till today, Sonic games have already covered a lot of different music genres. In my opinion, after gameplay, music is the most important thing in a game after all. It is muuuuuuuuuuch more important than story or graphics or play time length. If a game has real good gameplay, but the music is shit, you can’t enjoy the game way not as much as you actually could enjoy it if it had good music. I think the topic music in games is often underestimated. But in Sonic games they always have set a lot of value on it.

The graphics in Sonic games are pretty, detailed, varied and really not childish. Sonic games are made that way that everyone from any age can enjoy them. There are no too brutal scenes, but also not hills with eyes, like in Mario games. With the music it’s the same: No childish music, but kinds of music that can also appeal to children. I’m not one who says games have to be very mature to be good. I also don’t like brutality. But Sonic makes it ideal. There are just a few other games out there which are not too childish, but also not too mature or too brutal.

Another cool thing about Sonic is that it already has had a lot of different styles. The styles are sometimes so different that one could say they were different series of games. For example, we have the Sonic games from before 1998 and from after 1998. (In 1998 Sonic games experienced some important changes. The Sonic games before this year are called the “classical Sonic games”.) And even in each of those periods there have been many different styles. Rough style-groups would be for example for the classical Sonic games the Mega Drive games and the Game Gear games, and for the newer Sonic games the 3D and 2D games, which really have been designed in completely different styles. This is due to the fact that Sonic games have had a lot of different games designers. This fact has also negative sides, but, as said, an important positive aspect of it is that it arranges for a lot of variation.

But no matter how different the styles are, Sonic and his games are simply the coolness itself. Graphically, musically, gameplay-wise, technically, story-wise, character-wise, everything points out coolness.

Characters are especially important in Sonic games. I think Sonic Team (developer company) has a very good talent for making “alive” characters with very specific characteristics, a lot of feelings and typical behaviours. You really develop feelings for the characters in the Sonic world. Although there are a lot of other games which have this same characteristic, I believe there are just a few games where this feature is as strong as in Sonic games.

Things what make Sonic characters so alive are not only behaviours, movements and appearances, but also the voices and the ways of talking. Not only makes this the games more alive but also avoids the childish speech bubble form. OK, in Game Boy Advance games you have no other choice than using speech bubbles. But even there Sonic makes it better than most other games: In Sonic games you usually don’t have to read a lot. The only Sonic game where you had to read a lot was Sonic Battle. But the texts there were at least funny, the story was cool and you could enjoy the facial expressions and behaviours of the talking characters. It was never really boring.

About the audience again, like said, Sonic games can appeal to any age. But in my opinion, the main audience is not children, but most of all teenagers. Especially since 2001 Sonic games have more been designed for professional players. That is also a reason why Sonic lost some fans in 2001 and since, the audience of Sonic games has been smaller than before. This is not necessarily bad. In my opinion, the new Sonic games are in no way worse than the classical Sonic games. They are just different. I could talk a lot about this, but I better won’t. But even in the classical Sonic games, professional players have been the main audience. Sonic Team wouldn’t probably say it like this, but I think it’s true. Sonic games have never been easy, if you wanted to finish them completely (with all the Chaos Emeralds, Emblems, A-ranks, extra levels, extra characters…). So, if someone wants to finish a Sonic game completely, she or he should be a really good player, and children are normally not that good players, even there are also exceptions. But children can also always enjoy Sonic games, because the story modes are usually not that hard.

Gameplay-wise, I just love Sonic’s principal concept! There is really no game in the whole world which is similar to Sonic games; only Jazz Jackrabbit, a game series which tried a lot to be like the Sonic series. Jazz Jackrabbit 1 even had Special Stages similar to Sonic. But even though JJ-games are good, they never managed by far to be as ingenious as Sonic games. Nevertheless, I liked JJ1 very much, but JJ2 has poor level design. A very important thing that makes Sonic games so unique and gives you such a unique feeling is the incredible high speed. There are next to no games which trigger so much adrenalin in your blood like Sonic games, especially if you’re a good, fast Sonic player. (That is why Sonic games make more fun for professional players.) Especially the newer Sonic games are less platforming, compared to the classical ones, but trigger even more adrenalin. Time Attacks and collecting A-ranks affect this even more. In addition, you can always play Sonic games over and over again to train yourself and make better score-, time- and ring-records. There is even the Sonic highscore site http://soniccenter.org for freaks, to post all their records. Absolute freaks have gathered there and you see incredible records, which make your mouth wide open until it touches the ground! After all, Sonic games are so fast, fluent, full of action and cool, there has never been any other game like that! The ring system is also very unique; also an idea which you have never seen in any other game: You collect valuable rings, but which you could all lose if you are not careful enough. It is similar to a casino game: Either you get rich or you lose everything. This gives the player the impulse to collect rings as much as possible and be careful all the time not to lose them. The more rings you have, the more you are afraid of mistakes. This makes the Sonic games additionally very exciting. Unbelievable, but true! How many other people did actually realise how ingenious the ring system is?

Now, I think I can start to talk about Sonic Rush. :P

I simply love the hectic rush and the adrenalin-kick in Sonic Rush! I love it to collect S-ranks and make time records and feel like a professional gamer! I love it to use every possible moment in the game to do tricks! I love it that I have never time for a rest and am always rushing! I love the incredibly awesome soundtracks! I love it to collect masses of rings and be careful not to lose them! And I just LOVE the whole cool feeling of the game! No game in the world can give me the same feeling!

[KnucklesSonic8]

Thanks but no, I didn't find it interesting, but that's just me...

[Bilan]

01.Sonic Rush (Nintendo Designer Studio – 2005)

le fixed~ :o

[Thorn]

09.   Nights into Dreams (Christmas Nights) (Sega Saturn – 1996)

You sir, win my respect.  Again (forcing me to TA Night Carnival 2 was the first time).

...http://soniccenter.org for freaks, to post all their records. Absolute freaks have gathered there...

*slaps you* Benedict.

[Bilan]

09.   Nights into Dreams (Christmas Nights) (Sega Saturn – 1996)

You sir, win my respect.  Again (forcing me to TA Night Carnival 2 was the first time).

I almost played that today, I got the disc out and everything, just never found time to play it X)

[PsyBorg]

Thanks but no, I didn't find it interesting, but that's just me...

You're wrong.


It isn't just you.


Also lol at "being designed for professional players".


PS: one other thing... where did you post this? I hope not on some n00by forum... /me demands to know what this forum is.

[KnucklesSonic8]

Thank goodness for that. And here I thought I was the only one who thought this topic was lame... (uh.. no offense...) :P

*Starts running...