Let me get this out of the way right now: I am pro Sonic. Ever since I was old enough to play games I always though Sonic was so much better than Mario. In fact, the only reason I owned a SNES was to play Final Fantasy VI, otherwise it was Sega all the way. I have played nearly all the games (up until the Wii exclusives, but I did play Generations) so I hope that gives me the right to lay out this battle.
The Sega Dreamcast. I love the system but I have my own gaming confession to make. I did not play this system until after it was deemed a failure (and that even hurts to say it) but enjoyed the hell out of this system. So many games that I still love to this day began here. Power Stone, Ikaruga, Grandia II, Shemue, Crazy Taxi all were played on this system.
Sonic 3 is a game I remember fondly. I remember getting it when it just came out, when it cost $50 for a Sega game! I loved it. I played that game so much I knew where all the special stage rings were, how to find all the extra lives, the debug code, everything. And then it came: Sonic & Knuckles. The logo was awesome and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. And this was before I knew the best part! The lock-on technology. More on all that in a minute.
Sonic Adventure was my first game on the Dreamcast. At first it was a little awkward, and even in my pro-Sonic state, it did not control as well as Mario 64. But I enjoyed it. Playing as multiple characters, having an open world, the mandatory casino stage, and oh yes....playing as Super Sonic. Plus I loved the song Open Your Heart and just saying that makes it play in my head right now.
So here's the question: Did the leap to 3D make Sonic Adventure better than the 2D S3&K? I don't think so and here is why: S3&K just had more content. I know it's weird to say that given the system's limitations compared to the Dreamcast but it's true. You had more powerups, more variety in the levels, actual special stages, more bosses, super and hyper variations of characters, more secrets, more endings, just more. Plus getting to play as Knuckles was much more fun. Sonic Adventure was a great game, don't get me wrong, but it felt really restrictive. You didn't have a huge variety of bosses, only fighting against Eggman and Chaos. You didn't get to earn the chaos emeralds. Playing as Knuckles felt more like a chore. Big the Cat. And you didn't get to take control of Super Sonic until the last stage. Although it had something the Genesis game did not, which was the chao garden. I played the crap out of this and loved it!
I know it sounds like I hated Sonic Adventure. I didn't. In fact, it stands tall as a favorite in the Sonic library. And I also know that some will claim that S3&K is essentially two games in one. This is both true and false. Sonic & Knuckles was intended to be in the final Sonic 3 game, but due to time constraints they had to split them up. The next claim is the because of time constraints that S3&K was allowed to have more content. S3&K came out 2 years after Sonic 2 and 1 year after Sonic CD, both games that are highly regarded as the best in the series. Sonic Adventure came out 3 years after Sonic 3D Blast.
Still, Sonic Adventure was a pretty great game, and to this day I still play it whenever the mood hits. In closing though, I feel that Sonic 3 & Knuckles was the superior game. I can't wait to see this discussion!
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
This comparison is baseless. It's like comparing apples and oranges, since Sonic has struggled to make much sense in 3d space (my opinion). But just because one has better/worse graphics, doesn't mean that it has any bearing on gameplay. The issue should be 2d vs 3d GAMEPLAY, not 2d vs 3d VISUALS.
Mario 64 was good in 3d because he moves at a slower pace. Sonic is already kind of disorienting when going too fast in 2d (but Sonic 2's levels accommodated high speed through it's well designed levels). Sonic in 3D is just too much dead space crossed with too much speed. Personally, I think the cancelled Sonic Xtreme game had the best potential of being a fast yet manageable 3d Sonic that uses traditional controls, not motion controls like the Wii games.
Graphics certainly do not make a better game, but they help sometimes. I usually rule in the favour of gameplay over graphics; for instance, I'd much rather play GoldenEye on N64 opposed to Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
I don't think this comparison makes sense. Sonic and Knuckles has arguably better graphics respective to its 2D artstyle. Just being in 3D doesn't make your game visually superior, it just means you have a different type of game.
A better comparison would have been Sonic 4 to Sonic 2, or something of that sort, and then contrast that with some other genres, such as racing sims, and action games. I think in some cases graphics are more important than in others.
I like Sonic 2 better than 3. I think that Sonic Adventure was fine. But because of Mario 64, it had an uphill battle where Sonic Adventure needed to be earthshattering.
While i can't really speak to Sonic games i can to the broader issue, - no - prettiest pixels & huge wastelands ( emphasis on wasteland ) while always welcome additions never concern me the most just some, fun gameplay every time concerns me, i have a good story for this... COD 3 on PS3 i love it it's old but true - visually dated but solid, simple in design & play but better for it - no silencers & a sweet minimap showing teamates arrows & a red dot that shows quickly then fades when an enemy fires, NO UAV's, no perks - beyond simple things earned for your class during that match ( like more mines & grenades up to 3 each for machine gunner, longer airstrike for sniper ect. ) so simple & fun yea some knuckle farts jump spam bunny hop, exploit old glitches & teamkill like crazy but when you get a full 24 people rocking & playing right on a huge TDM on Les Ormes, or CTF on Edar Dam.... you just have to play it once before they eventually turn off the server & they will miss you PS2 Madden 08...RIP Oderus