Many moons ago, I posted about Bioware working on a Sonic RPG for the Nintendo DS. Certainly sounded great on paper, and I was certainly enthusiastic enough to believe Bioware can make it work. But by “work”, I meant the parts which required the button-input playing parts, hoping in some odd twist – making the whole damn thing unique enough to be remotely enjoyable. Plot-wise however, the Sonic series has been notorious for some of the most bizarre and melodramatic trite I’ve ever seen come out of the anthropomorphic animal kingdom. And I really enjoyed Kingdom Hearts! So I’m skeptical, to say the least, that Bioware can pull it off any better. Then this cute piece of animation came about… well, it’s not really “animated” per se, not in the traditional sense anyway. Regardless, it stands as a firm reminder. No matter how many gut-wrenchingly bad plots can emerge from the Sonic games of now, they can be a hell of a lot worse off. Like. A whole lot worse.

But then again! I’ve known to be proven wrong on countless occasions. Yes, there’s that too, isn’t that right, Sega? Effin’ Boneheads, man. I tell ya.

Continuing with the tradition of our Thursday Top 10’s, we decided to look at something very obvious, but yet very distinct. So far we’ve looked at the Memorable Character Deaths, the Best Weapons Featured in a FPS and the Top Ten Nine (don’t ask) Original Game Songs. This week, we’re doing a run on some of the most memorable video game themes.

Why? Because apart from the fact how great games really are (no, really!), gamers themselves often tend to rate a game based first on graphics, game play and artistic appeal (though not necessarily in that order) – which is pretty much what decides whether its good enough to play. But EVERY game has to make use of sound and it’s plain to see that, what with games like Half-Life 2 and System Shock 2. Music forms a crucial component of the game-play experience; get the right music at the right time, and you feel the adrenalin pumping. But while most newer games now use ambient noise and music, a lot of cue based intros and then outros – the games we’ve all grown up on and loved have always had that catchy tune, hook, phrase or riff that made everything that much more captivating!

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SAGE (Sonic Amateur Gaming Expo) is an online event held every year by the Sonic Fan Gaming community, where talented fans get motivated into showing off their latest creations that pay homage to our forever beloved speed addict. Whereas a lot of the Sonic seen today has veered tremendously away from its 16-bit heritage (for better or worse), SAGE rounds up like-minded nostalgics like moi and I can’t help but get all volatile and stuff! If you ever wondered what would’ve happened if the Sega Genesis continued churning out cartridges, take some of these examples for reference. Minus the cartridge, of course.

Be sure to check out Kain’s SAGE Review for all the info on what’s worth playing (and more importantly, if there’s a download available). My personal favorites? Too many to list! But here are some anyway: Retro Sonic, Sonic Nexus, Sonic XG, Emerald Ties: Crossing Fates, and Sonic 1 Megamix.

Since some of these games were made using ClickTeam tools, you’ll need to download the DDLs here so you won’t run into any problems.

Wow, time flies when you are having fun. And time is money. So money flies when you are having fun. Especially when you spending over and over on games that, according to GamesRadar, haven’t really changed all that much over the last 10 years, even though (they are very quick to add) you may actually find them enjoyable.

Taking a sharp poke at fanboys who are seething with rage and burning up the Intertubes right now with death threats, the article takes a look at how games like Metal Slug, Guilty Gear, Football Manager, Virtua Fighter, Pokemon, Crash Bandicoot, Street Fighter and yes, even the Nintendo fan favorite, The Legend of Zelda, hasn’t evolved as much the other franchises like Super Mario, Prince of Persia or even (oh boy) Sonic! Trying to fix the situation, the GamesRadar article offers tips to developers on how they can reinvent the games, like maybe making the trip to the third dimension or adding more open-ended freedom to a platformer like Crash Bandicoot (this doesn’t sound too bad, Kameo could do it) or do something innovative with the Wii controller instead of ripping off the gameplay from Ocarina of Time all over again.

Yes, changes are required, and a lot of franchises have tried lots of new concepts – some are hugely successful, like Super Mario, Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider, Rainbow Six, etc. whereas others, like Sonic, have blown up in the developers’ faces. While some games lend themselves to a change, it has to be done in such a way that it attract a load of old gamers without leaving true fans high and dry, like Sega seems to have done in the recent years. The best thing to do is to ask the gamers what they want to see change in their favorite games. Chances are that if you sit down and talk to your target audience and long time fans, you will unearth a rare gem among the piles of garbage that will inevitably pour in. Also, game developers have to understand that, sometimes, its best to start a new franchise instead of flogging the dead horse.

Almost as if to counterpoint the whole issue, especially with the Sonic debacle, Sega is now looking to mature games like Condemned 2, Alien and comic book adaptations such as Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Captain America and Thor to help them rise to the top tier of videogame publishers. Let’s hope Sonic can make some dent and rise again in the eyes of his fans with the upcoming Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, and yes, quite possibly, even Super Smash Bros.!

Games that haven’t changed in ten years [Games Radar]
Sega Goes Beyond Sonic [BusinessWeek]

SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON (June 21, 2007)—SEGA© of America, Inc., SEGA® Europe, Ltd., and Canada-based developer studio BioWare® Corp. today announced a partnership to create a new video game based on the classic SEGA flagship icon Sonic The Hedgehog. The exact name of the game is undetermined, and it will ship in 2008.

“BioWare is one of the hottest names in RPG development in the world,” said Simon Jeffery, President and COO, SEGA of America, Inc. “Everyone at SEGA has huge confidence that Sonic is in the safest of hands, and that BioWare can create the ultimate handheld RPG experience for gamers of all ages.”

Somebody pinch me here. And I thought the whole Mario and Sonic At The Olympic Games item was a real funky ordeal, but holy crap does this take the motherfuckin’ chocolate cakes of them all. Sonic the Hedgehog games haven’t been so hot for the past few years, so it’s great to see a well-known developer like Bioware get their hands dirty with one of my all-time favorite franchises. And it’s gonna be a RPG! Bioware congregate role-playing games in their sleep.

God, the Furry Communities must be dancing in the rain right now at the sound of this news.

Source: Press Release from BioWare