SEGA has announced that the HD remake of Sonic Adventure 2 will be available for digital download today on the Xbox Live Marketplace in North America for 800 Microsoft Points ($10) and PlayStation Store in Europe for $9.99/£6.49/€7.99.
Sonic Adventure 2 has been remastered in high definition and upgraded for current consoles, and features full support for achievements and trophies. Sonic Adventure 2 also offers players the ability to grab the “Battle Mode” downloadable content for an additional $3.00/£1.99/€2.49/AU$4.25/240 Microsoft Points this Friday, adding in maps and characters from the the Gamecube re-release of the game.
It's no doubt in anyone's mind that Sonic games haven't been as good as the original ones, here is an interesting look at why.
Ever Since Sonic Adventure 2 on the Sega Dreamcast the hedgehog has suffered some pretty piss poor releases. Sonic fans have been hurting for a long time now with titles like "Sonic Riders" and more recently "Sonic The Hedgehog". What little good will gamers had left for the blue blur is quickly evaporating thanks to Sonic Unleashed, an otherwise decent Sonic game ruined by brawling levels that turn Sonic into a werehog combatant. So why exactly do the development team keep screwing things up exactly? Turns out it's an entirely conscious decision.
In the latest IGN Three Red Lights podcast at the 19:40 mark David Clayman recalls a time when he talked to a member of the Sonic Unleashed team about this very issue...
Sonic Unleashed, set to come out later this year.
"I asked one of the developers at TGS, you know I was like, come on everybody just wants Sonic running, like whats up with the werehog? And he was like, well, heres the deal... he runs at this miles per hour, kilometers per hour, and he laid out all of the statistics on how fast this hedgehog goes, and he was like In order to make a game where Sonic is running and everybody enjoys the whole thing we'd have to design this many miles of level, and it was some ungodly number. And he's like and that would be like maybe a three hour game and I was like wow, well that kinda stinks and he's like yeah, so we gotta do this other stuff."
So there you go! Sonic's speed means the level designers would have to craft and design miles and miles of scenery in order to make a game of decent length. Would you rather have a short, great Sonic game or the current lengthy and flawed Sonic games of recent years? I know which school of thought I subscribe to.
Feel free to discuss this in our forums and let us know what you think!
So there you have it, the Sonic Devs, are just trying to make it appeal to mass markets. I think they should listen to their fans and remember this simple trick, Quality > Quantity.
GameSpy's exclusive interview with Yuji Naka reveals the future of Sonic, where babies come from, and just what the deal was with the Hidden Palace.
Talk about a big year for Sonic Team! Not only are Shadow the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star Universe, and Sonic Rush all in the pipeline, but we've also seen an onslaught of other new announcements from them: Where do Babies Come From, Puyo Puyo Fever Chu, Sonic Riders, and an all-new, next-gen Sonic game. We were able to sit down with the head of Sonic Team and Sega Global Entertainment Software R&D, Yuji Naka, to discuss both the future and the past of Sonic Team -- and were treated with several surprises!
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