Where is your God now?!

[Sacred Jellybean]

I do recall I mentioned the exact same thing. Sega hasn't "gone mainstream" so much as they are trying to go mainstream AGAIN. Perhaps you might recall that Sonic was CREATED to be a "to the EXTREME" answer to Mario? That was the entire point, he was faster, better, COOLER, than silly plumber boy. You seem to forget the console war of LEGEND.

I haven't forgotten anything. And you're right, Sonic was made to pretty much be the opposite of Mario (if my mind is filling the blanks in correctly... I haven't been technically educated on all the ins and outs of the game industry at that time). But still... who cares if Sega is trying to go back mainstream? This may be the result of a corporate sellout, but at least it isn't as tragic as Mario.

Sonic was presented to us as fast, strong, and badass in a fantasy world. Well, honestly... how much can they innovate with Sonic while still attracting the old school gamers? They've tried with Sonic Adventures 1 and 2 (personally, I liked them) and with Sonic: Heroes (that's the right title, isn't it?). I haven't tried Sonic: Heroes, but from the feedback I heard of a sequel (unless they were the same game? Sorry, I didn't take much of an interest in it and my memory isn't perfect). From what I heard, though, feedback wasn't good.

So why not try to push the gameplay in new directions? Maybe Sonic's gameplay was never meant to be deep... just fun for a quick fix, opposite to Mario, where platforming skills must have more attention payed to them (of course, I never beat no Sonic game without my Genesis fucking up on me). So if it's a franchise with shallow gameplay, why shouldn't the image be fun and shallow, too? I feel like Mario is a better escape from reality into fantasy, anyway. So what's the big deal?

The one where the battle was about image, about who was 16 bit-er than the other, but mainly, and most amazingly, about who made the better games. An amazing concept these days, but the constant battle to outdo the competition via superior games resulted in what may be called the greatest generation EVARS, to some anyway.

Don't cater to nostalgia too much. Gets you nowhere. ;)