Let's Talk Sonic

13th December 1993 was the day I first received a Sega Mega Drive (Genesis if you're American and wrong) with a copy of The Lion King from my parents.  On the 25th December of that year I got Sonic 1 and 2 as presents, that was a good day.

At the age of 4 I was fucking enthralled with these video games and thanks to Sonic and The Lion King I am now the game loving lunatic who writes crap articles on a blog you are seeing today.  Sonic was fucking great back then and he was a big deal too.  There was all sorts of sonic related shit like merchandise, comics, TV shows and the list goes on.

But something went wrong, arguably around 2006 when he got a game on the Xbox 360.  Ever since that fucking game the Sonic franchise has been in the absolute shitter, and the only game that has come close to delivering a good sonic experience is Sonic Generations.

What makes the whole situation really sad is that you could fix the whole Sonic thing on basically no money and it baffles my goddamn mind why they don't do this.  So, here they are, 2 points that would save Sonic the Hedgehog.

1) Get rid of the fucking friends

Sonic's friends are the fucking worst, I can't stress how bad these characters are.  I'll give you Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, they are fine but shit like Shadow, Amy, that fucking cat from Rush, Cream and every other strange creature just need to fuck off forever.  NO ONE with any kind of brain or taste like Sonic's friends.  The people who do like this group of stupid arseholes are the kind of people that do weird fan art on the internet and do character cosplay to go fucking shopping.  They need help, not games designed for them

2) Just make it 2D; the more Mega Drive-like the better

Part of the problem with modern Sonic is the whole 3D thing.  I mean it was OK in Adventure 1 and 2 but for the most part, playing Sonic in 3D is fucking arse.  Trying to control a character who moves at that speed is basically impossible and I think this fact just has to be accepted.  So I said before that you can make a good Sonic game for no money, here is now!  Simply take the engine used for Sonic 2 or 3, get some level designer who knows what he/she is doing to get a bunch of shit together, get a decent musician to bash out some catchy 16 bit tunes, release it on PC under steam or some shit and BAM! Sonic might not be terrible anymore.

Megaman went and released fucking TWO 8-bit games on the PS3/360 and they did pretty damn well.  Why are you clinging to this fucking 3D garbage when no one wants it.  I don't care that you have designs for Cullus the Dung Beetle or some shit ready to go, throw that shit in a fire and go make a 16 bit Sonic game so that you remember how to fucking do it.

Then mail me 50% of your profits. You're fucking welcome.

Castlevania Series Run: Castlevania Bloodlines

OK! This will be the last update in my Castlevania Series Run posts because today I finally got round to starting the PSP remake of Rondo of Blood! This was the last game I played before I took my little break but now I'm back to vampire killing in full force!

This, to me, is probably one of the most interesting Castlevania titles out there.  First of all, it was on the Sega Genesis (or Megadrive if you're not American) which is a strange fact on it's own since every other Castlevania game up to this point was on a Nintendo console at that point.  But what's really interesting about this game, is the fact that it tries to tie in Bram Stoker's Dracula book with the series of games.  Of course, the tie in is a very loose one and there are lots of problems with what's written in the manual and what actually happened in the original story, but it was a cool idea to try and pull off something like this.

So in this game, you get to choose between two guys, John Morris (Whip dude) and Eric Lecarde (Spear dude).  The game isn't designed so that it's easier with a certain character, so playing with both of them is pretty fun.   For the run is just completed, I opted for John Morris because how many games are there where you can whip things to death?  They both play in distinct ways and each character will have to tackle certain situations differently which gives the game some replay value for a while.

The level design is also really good here.  The whole game isn't set inside Dracula's castle, instead you go around most of Europe whipping the shit out of whatever nasties are being thrown at you, and the stage traps are fun and interesting without falling into the realms of bullshit.  The most famous example of this is probably the "mirror" room right near the end of the game.

The whole room starts to split up and it really fucks with your sense of where you are in relation to the platforms, but it doesn't feel like an unfair challenge.  Everything can be figured out with a bit of thought and careful planning, but the game does a good job of making you think on your feet.

My one real complaint about this game is the difficulty.  Good lord is it an easy game, I'd imagine even people not that familiar with the challenge of the past games would be able to breeze through it without too much difficulty. 

That said it's still a good laugh and worth at least a single playthrough, so give it a go!  The next post will come when I beat Rondo of Blood, so expect a bit of a gush at that time.