Nintendo Gets Sonic the Hedgehog Double Love

Gamecube exclusive? This is the kind of business sense that drove Sega to third-party limbo. Well, what would you do if your first multiplatform title in a series was one of the biggest success stories of the year? Sonic Heroes was the sixth biggest selling game of last year in our region.

Madness, sheer madness. And 2004's performance had me so hopeful, too.

You know there's a simple solution to that.
Buy a pissing Gamecube.

Honestly, they're only like £50 at a stretch these days, and I've gotten more enjoyment out of mine than my XBOX.

It's a good sign, and hopefully this will be GC exclusive. Billy Hatcher turned out great when Sonic Team only had one platform to concentrate on. Sonic Heroes was a good game, but a poor Sonic game, and certainly not the quality of previous Sonic's, despite how much it sold. People will buy anything these days, just goes to show.

... and yes, I'm a BIG Sonic fan. Check me ol' website. :P The fact of the matter is, is that Sonic Heroes was using renderware, and had Sonic Team's attention on all three platforms, deterring them from making any substantially above-average game.

Of course, the XBOX juttering and the abysmal PS2 graphics don't help their case (I have a copy on each platform), so it really wouldn't make a difference. Sonic Heroes was best played on a GC, and somehow the original Sonic Mega Collection was superior to Sonic Mega Collection +. So it would benefit all Sonic fans to just have Naka-san and co. develop for whatever platform they feel most comfortable with.

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=TSS= The Sonic Stadium! The True Blue Source!
http://www.sonicstadium.org/

I have no need for a spare, though thanks for the suggestion are in order. I've got a Gamecube and 23 games at present.


It sold because it was marketed effectively and available to as many people as was possible. That works for great games as well as less worthy stuff. I agree that Billy Hatcher was a stronger title than Heroes though.


Burnout 3 is an utterly fantastic game that is on two platforms and uses Renderware. It's predecessor was on all three and was no slouch either. Granted, it's the difference between a team that created the middleware and a team that merely uses it, but fantastic results can be achieved. Being multiplatform shouldn't be an excuse for some glaring design faults (and Sonic Heroes, as much as I've enjoyed it, has some).

As for being a Sonic fan, I believe we'd be in the same boat. You may have visited this SSRG page in the past.


Problem is, whilst I understand the need to appease the fans (and I've done more than my share of highlighting Heroes' positive aspects at the old Sonic Cult forums), it's not a good move from the business point of view. The other thing that Sega would be wise not to do is piss the new fanbase on PS2 and Xbox off, because those audiences account for a lot of potential sales (particularly PS2).

I have no problem with the game being on the Gamecube, and indeed would probably buy the Gamecube version as I did with Heroes. The problem is, Sega is a business and needs to start thinking like one. The inferior PS2 version of Heroes did that game no harm in the eyes of the public - there should be no reason why an inferior version of the new game would do any different. They have an existing engine for each system that they can iron out the remaining flaws from, and then concentrate on making a great game - for all gamers. As a business, they'd be foolish not to seize the opportunity.

Makes poerfect business sense to me; Sonic appeals to kids. The Cube is for kids. End of.

Sega are very good at putting their games on platforms that their target audience will own; Virtua Fighter on PS2, Sonic on Cube, Outrun 2 on Xbox- that sorta thing. What i don't get, is Sega Rally not going to Xbox...

Maybe Heroes was a test of the three systems, to see which one does best.
Do we have any figures on which version sold the most?
The cube is more kid friendly, and kids love sonic. Perhaps the cube was the best, after all.
(PS, have heroes on cube, still prefer SA1 to the other 2 3D ones.. Oh, and hello all you sonic fans. I have no sonic websites! I only have Platdude .. )

I think it makes sense. Cube has a large audience of a lower age, the previous Sonic games were on it so it's got a lot of fans and Heroes sold very well on it.

Good games that are exclusive to Cube also sell very well.

Agreed. SEGA know how to market so well, it's just a case of whether they can actually be bothered to do it. =| I mean, it can be argued that games like Outrun 2 don't need any marketing really in order to sell buckets and gain #1 XBox position for a couple of weeks, but the fact is they didn't. It could have been sold so much better than it did. I do agree that SEGA should act more like a business.


Fair point on Burnout. The thing is Sonic Team never used Renderware before, and Criterion are pretty much used to it. That's not to say that Sonic Team should just give up on Renderware - practice makes perfect.


Ah! Yep, have been there many-a time (not recently though - I was certain I recognised your name from somewhere, lol! ;)), it's good to see SSRG doing well after all those problems it had ages ago... Matter of fact, I do believe we met before online at one point, unless I brain farted. My online SN is 'Dreadknux'.


There does need to be some compromise. Although many fans were listened to for Sonic Heroes, which is a good thing, we had to deal with Shadow (and supreme plotholes, and just Shadow lameness in general) for a second time. He was great in SA2, but should have stayed dead. I think Sonic Team listened to the wrong people for the wrong aspect of game element they wanted to implement :F


True, but it would probably be much more effective if, like Sonic Mega Collection, it remained exclusive so that time was spent concentrating on the game itself rather than how well it transfers. I know we mentioned this before, but the problem is that, with Sonic Team's constant game quota, they often tend to rush things. Sonic Heroes ended up being very buggy; though naturally reasons were not explained I'd lay it down to the fact that in Sonic Heroes they were actually making three games instead of one. And referring back to Criterion, Burnout is like their only franchise anyway.

Gee, Sonic Team really need to cut back on the amount of simultaneous projects they do. x_x


It pretty much was a test - or at least, not a completely canon Sonic game in the gameplay sense. It was mostly a game to test the water with Renderware, and also a sort of "Sonic best-of" to treat the fans. Although, I reckon they would have been best off leaving that three-team idea (and Shadow) well alone. Funnily enough, I see it as a spin-off.

Great site, BTW :)

LOL, they created Renderware ;).

I hope they stick with Cube, a good Sonic game and Nintendo would be an excellent combo. Then they could write specifically for the system rather than use Renderware.

LOL! :D I wasn't sure whether to add that they created it after "they're used to it", because I wasn't entirely sure and didn't want to look a tit. XD

But yeah. If Sonic Team feel easier and more comfortable developing for just one system (or indeed, one system at a time), then who are we to stop them? I know SEGA need to act like a business and should push this to every market, but SEGA also said they'd be specifically "platform agnostic".

Which has pissed me off, because I'm hating the fact I'm going to have to get a PS2 purely for SEGA Superstars, the new Shining Force coming out and other SEGA games, the only games on PS2 really appealing to me on that console. And since I collect Sonic Team games anyway, usually there's three/four versions of each game to get (US, UK/PAL, Japanese NTSC, Brazil/Other) - Sonic Heroes essentially bumps that up to 9. :P