61 Frames Per Second

Browse by Tags

• Watcha Playing: Sonic Unleashed (Wii) and Sega's Design Difficulties

  First an admonishment to Sonic fans. Granted, my observations are limited mostly to message board comments, but it seems to me that there is a certain segment of the Sonic fandom that will absolutely not be happy with Sonic unless he is running at high speed around loop-the-loops. Imagine if Mario fans turned their backs on the character every time he tried something different, and demanded that he stick to stomping on goombas. I admit I'm an outsider who's never been a Sonic fan, but I almost feel sorry for the little blue insectivore to be so hobbled, like a character actor forever doomed to reprise a signature role. Read More... Posted Mar 09 2009, 10:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 11 comment(s) Filed under: wii, sega, amber ahlborn, watcha playing, sonic unleashed

• Sonic Unleased: Worse Than Syphilis

  My husband and I bought a certain game about a certain hedgehog being unleashed. We were playing Tails' Tornado Quick Time Event when suddenly I felt something like a gas bubble travel gently up my spine and pop in my brain. After that, a numbness spread to the tips of my fingers and I thought I would never feel happy, angry or sad ever again. I realised I was wrong when an acquaintance on Facebook mourned his return to work and I automatically replied with, “Sonic Unleashed is worse than syphilis.” I've decided it would benefit me to stay indoors until I can be sure I won't respond to greetings/questions from retail clerks, doctors and policemen in the same manner. I guess I was taken in by the infamous Sonic Cycle, which is interesting because I thought I was aware of the writing on the wall after Sonic Adventure 2. This is the first time in ages I've given the Blue Streak a moment to redeem himself in my eyes. Sure enough, Sonic ran in and only had time to belt out “HEY, WATCH THI--” before he tripped, hit the ground at 300 MPH and exploded. Read More... Posted Jan 05 2009, 06:54 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 9 comment(s) Filed under: sega, sonic the hedgehog, retro, sonic team, sonic unleashed, nadia oxford, broken promises

• Sonic Unleashed is Filled With Lies

  This is a lie: “Sonic is all about speed. Without it, he is not Sonic. So we needed to put absolute priority on the sense of speed.” – Yoshihisa Hashimoto, Project Lead, Game Director, and Lead Game Designer on Sonic Unleashed This is also a lie: “Yes, I think this will be the game Sonic fans have been waiting for. Sonic will be reborn in the state he always should have existed in with a new control scheme, fresh new gameplay elements, all while simultaneously returning to Sonic’s roots.” – Yoshihisa Hashimoto Yes, Sega has pulled quite the switcheroo with Sonic Unleashed. The very first screens and video that leaked last spring showed only the gorgeous 2D/3D platforming levels in Sonic Unleashed and, since then, Sega has placed all emphasis on these portions in their promotion. It’s classic Sonic play in 3D! It’s a return to Sonic’s roots! It’s what people want in their Sonic games! Even just two months ago, when I sat down to demo the game, I was allowed to watch and play a number of Unleashed’s platforming levels. But only a portion of one werehog brawler level was shown and I wasn’t allowed to play that. Wasn’t ready, they said. Based on what I played then, Unleashed really was the perfect 3D Sonic. It was fast, gorgeous, and you actually had to play the game; pressing right to sprint through Unleashed’s pan-continental levels wasn’t enough to win. Well, I finally sat down with the finished version of Sonic Unleashed last night. Turns out Yoshihisa Hashimoto is big liar. He lies to people. He obscures the truth behind honeyed words. He is not a nice man. Read More... Posted Dec 03 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, xbox 360, sonic the hedgehog, sonic team, sonic unleashed, Yoshihisa Hashimoto

• Sonic Unleashed's Silver Lining

  The reviews for Sonic Unleashed are out, and they ain't pretty.  It seems that the enthusiast press is showing a lot more skepticism about all of the recent hedgehog reboots, too; Sega's claim of "This time we did it, guys!" has been used so many times that I honestly can't see what angle they're going to approach the next Sonic game from.  Really, the only way that they could save face would be to include a formal apology signed by every member of Sonic Team and a crisp, new one-hundred dollar bill inside every copy of Sonic 2: Unleashed Further. But recently, a magical thing happened: something of moderate to good quality related to Sonic the Hedgehog has been released to the public.  Obviously, this is big news.  The item in question, Night of the Werehog, is an animated short which I assume was made to promote Unleashed.  This CGI cartoon may star a character I've grown to hate and a new character I hated immediately, but it's also cute, clever, and, most importantly, tells an interesting story without a single line of dialogue.  We can only hope Sonic Team can learn from this: Read More... Posted Nov 25 2008, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: sega, sonic the hedgehog, sonic team, sonic unleashed, bob mackey

• Quality? Not For You, America

  Yesterday, i gave pure evil the benefit of the doubt and claimed that Sonic Unleashed might not be completely disappointing. Soon after making that post, I found out some disturbing news: we (meaning all of you proud, patriotic Americans out there) are getting an inferior version of a game that promises to at least be better than airborne, infectious cancer. According to Wired's Game|Life: Sega has announced that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Sonic Unleashed in Japan -- where it's known as Sonic World Adventure -- are getting pushed back from their original December 18 release date to the nebulous "spring 2009." The move doesn't affect the Wii version -- still set for December 18 -- and the only reasons stated for the delay are to "further enhance the content" and "improve the quality" of the title. The North American Xbox 360 version of Unleashed is set to come out November 24, and Sega's US site for the game has no mention of any delays. The transparency of quotes like "further enhance the content" and "improve the quality" are pretty astounding.  Where was Sega's PR department, whose job is to turn blunt statements like these into easy-to-swallow lies?  You know, stuff like "Our computers ran out of blue" and "We need to stock up on more RAMs."  Right now, Sega's statements are implicitly stating that there will be a lack of both content and quality in the American version of Unleashed, and that ain't good.  It's not uncommon to see a refined edition of a game come out later in Japan and never make it to the States--like Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System--but this is just some straight-up Sega dumbness. Sega, we all want to like Sonic again. Why won't you let us? Read More... Posted Nov 11 2008, 09:30 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: sega, sonic the hedgehog, sonic unleashed, stupid, bob mackey, delays

• New Sonic Game Looking Strangely Tolerable

  I know, I know; Sega's been using the marketing ploy of "This time we didn't fuck up!" for over half a decade now. But there's something strangely compelling about this new footage of Sonic Unleashed I recently scrounged up from YouTube. Many of the franchise's problems still exist in Unleashed, but the game play looks refreshingly traditional. Check it out: The clip starts out with a less-than-promising addition: a new shitty friend for Sonic who goes by the name of Chip. There's also about two minutes of cutscenes, when all we really need are two sentences: "You are Sonic. Go fast."  But the game play--which resembles the best parts of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2--looks okay, even if it does feature the same sort of cruise control action that's been attached to Sonic since the Dreamcast days.  I've always been under the impression that Sonic needs a complete overhaul; his simple transition from 2D to 3D produced a rather empty series of games that don't require much input from the player.  But still, we takes what we can gets, and Sonic Unleashed could be much worse. Of course, I'm going to hold my tongue until the game actually comes out--I won't exactly be surprised if Unleashed needlessly includes multiple game genres and interminable stories about inter-species love. But at least we know that they've gotten one level right! That's all the congratulation my healthy sense of skepticism will allow. Related Links: Sonic Bound: After Three Botched Reboots, Sonic the Hedgehog May Finally Get His 3D Due The Aberration of Sonic Sonic's Lost Innocence...Sort Of. Read More... Posted Nov 10 2008, 09:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: sega, sonic the hedgehog, sonic unleashed, bob mackey

• Sega "Gets" the Wii

  As previously stated, the Nintendo Wii is just about two years old now, well enough into its life cycle to no longer forgive developers for unfamiliar hardware restrictions and lazy ports (yes, I'm looking at you, Harmonix and Rock Band). Most people still look at the Wii as home of the goofy mini-game collection despite its having also hosted some truly unique and wonderful unloved gems like EA's Boom Blox, Ubisoft's No More Heroes, Capcom's Zack & Wiki and THQ's de Blob. There is one major game publisher, though, who seems hard-pressed to make the Wii completely awesome with a wide range of aggressive titles, and that publisher is (believe it or not) Sega. That's right, longtime Nintendo rival Sega. Kinda makes you wonder why the Dreamcast flopped... Read More... Posted Oct 31 2008, 12:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: boom blox, derrick sanskrit, no more heroes, wii, madworld, the conduit, sega, sonic the hedgehog, zack & wiki, dreamcast, sonic unleashed, sonic and the secret rings, de blob, house of the dead, samba de amigo, nights, sonic and the black knight

• Me VS. Blue Hedgehog

  Just yesterday Bob Mackey posted about his experiences with Sonic the Hedgehog. Naturally, this put me in mind of my own rather odd relationship with Sega's troubled mascot. Back in the days of the 16 bit wars I was deep in the Nintendo trenches, so anything that came from Sega was of the devil. Sonic was an enemy general to be assaulted on any playground where gamers collided in verbal combat. Okay, enough with the war analogies. After growing up and leaving my blind brand loyalties behind, I decided to try and like the guy. After all, with such a large fan following, Sonic games had to be pretty good right? Read More... Posted Sep 25 2008, 10:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: wii, gamecube, amber ahlborn, ds, sonic the hedgehog, sonic unleashed, sonic and the secret rings, gba, sonic chronicles

• Do You Hold Any Hope For Sonic Unleashed?

  Well? The E3 Trailer is a mixed bag in my opinion. The first half is pretty awesome. It does look like Sonic Unleashed will lack the complexity of its 16-bit predecessors (oh God, what a thing to say). It's impossible to tell from a video alone, but it seems as if there's little exploration and more of the "push right on the control pad and let us do the work" sort of gameplay that the 3D Sonic games have long been criticised over. Still, I can't deny that I'm excited about the pretty pretty graphics. Sonic grinding down a rail that's suspended over miles and miles of suburbs? Yes pls. I can deal with that. I also like the dragon-themed loop-de-loop. It reminds me of Snake Road from the Dragon Ball Z series. (Yeah, I just defended Sonic and made a reference to DBZ. May as well take me out back and put a bullet through my head.) I'm pretty skeptical about the werewolf--er, werehog gameplay, though. It looks like Mr Hedgehog zips through cityscapes whereas Mr Shaggypants must grind to a halt and pound things with his fists a la the Hulk. It's generally not a good idea to stop the music in the middle of--well, I'll leave you to make up your own clever sex metaphor. Read More... Posted Jul 16 2008, 12:00 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: sega, sonic the hedgehog, retro, sonic unleashed, e3, 3d games, werehog, trailer

• Sonic Unleashed Wii: Should Dimps Be Trying Harder?

  Sonic the Hedgehog has the pull of a train wreck: no matter how tired you think you are of his lacklustre 3D adventures, you can't help but take a good long stare whenever one is announced. Sonic Unleashed, for example, exists only as a handful of screenshots and a couple of trailers, but gamers who insist they're thoroughly tired of the hedgehog are still finding plenty to mouth off about. The August issue of Nintendo Power created a stir with some new screenshots for the Wii version of the game. When compared to the preview material for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions, Sonic Unleashed for the Wii looks very...well, last gen. Read More... Posted Jun 30 2008, 01:00 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: wii, street fighter 4, playstation 2, sega, sonic the hedgehog, nintendo power, xbox360, sonic team, sonic rush adventure, dimps, super mario galaxy, sonic unleashed, playstation3, graphics, sonic and the secret rings