DS Daily: Has it changed your view?

by David Hinkle { Oct 21st 2008 at 9:00AM }

With Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood finally releasing and all of us having ample time to play it, we'd like to know: has it changed your opinion of the blue, spiky hedgehog? It's quite the good game, which is weird for us considering Sonic hasn't been in one of those for quite some time. Maybe it's changing our view of Sega's mascot a little. How about you? If you haven't given the game a try yet, may we ask why?

Gallery: Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood

Tags: bioware, rpg, sega, sonic, sonic-chronicles, sonic-the-hedgehog, the-dark-brotherhood

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Nigeria @ Oct 21st 2008 9:19AM

Why the surprise? Sonic has featured in some of the best games this generation. In fact, Sonic 360 aside, I don't think there has ever been a bad Sonic game.

Ever since Sega left the hardware business there has been an eroding level of respect towards Sonic, and Sega, as a whole. It's a bit unfair because their premier games are still outstanding.

And, yes, Sonic RPG is a very good game: the music is awful, and navigation can be a bit of a pain, but it's definitely one of the best DS games I've played this year. The battle system is really fun.

MarkShark @ Oct 21st 2008 9:40PM

I'm with this guy here. Sonic 2006 may have been a real chore to play through, but with the exception of Rivals which I'm hesitant to give a try (being a DS fanboy and all), I'd say every other game was worth my time, even if some weren't nearly as good as the others, like Advance 2, Heroes, and Shadow. I'm not even much a fan of Sonic 2 compared to some others.

The Rush series and Secret Rings were awesome as far as I can claim. I'm enjoying Chronicles so far and I'm looking forward to Unleashed and Black Knight.

Phil @ Oct 21st 2008 9:40AM

I haven't seen a good press review of it yet. I thought the gameplay videos I have seen looked clunky and the character navigation used the touchscreen too much for very no good reason.

I guess I need to try it. I know I was excited for it BEFORE I saw all the videos and read all the criticism.

pinkechidna @ Oct 21st 2008 12:14PM

"Hasn't been in [a good game] for quite some time?" How quickly we forget the Rush series.

Gumbyx84 @ Oct 21st 2008 9:59AM

I have to say that Sonic Chronicles didn't do much for me. I don't have negative views of Sonic as I look at each game individually. I liked the Sonic games for Wii and DS, while I don't think I will be touching the PS3 and 360 Sonic anytime soon. I love the classic Sonic games and hope they can capture that feel in the newest Sonic games (even if the new Sonic for Wii sounds ..... just plain bad).

PS I know everyone is giving Sonic Chronicles large amounts of praise, but does everyone really love the battle system that much? Every review I have read praises it as fresh and inventive. I got tired of it real fast as I hate the fact that if I can't heal anyone using Cream if I can't perform the "actions" properly. Rule 1 of RPG: Do not make it harder then it has to be to for the player to survive. If any FF game introduced such a system, RPG players would be in uproar.

Also, the battle animations make the fights drag on.

Matt G. @ Oct 21st 2008 10:28AM

Yeah, I pretty much knew I wasn't going to like the game months ago. All those touch screen sequences during battle? Talk about making grinding a chore!

Sonic Rush Adventure is the only Sonic game I own. It's awesome. I'll stick with that.

xeleion @ Oct 22nd 2008 3:55AM

Yeah... I played The Dark Brotherhood for 2 hours and was done with it. It's both lacking, which is surprising considering it's a Bioware game. and in terms of Sonic games, I think I'll stick with my favorite three:

Sonic 1
Sonic 2
Sonic Advance

I don't need anything else.

folkie_1 @ Oct 21st 2008 10:20AM

"It's quite the good game, which is weird for us considering Sonic hasn't been in one of those for quite some time."

It's like you guys haven't even played the other, real Sonic DS games. Everybody seems to forget that Sonic Rush exists. I say it everytime someone bashes Sonic, but Sonic Rush Adventure was an amazing game, it even managed to get something right, sailing around on the ocean, that Nintendo can't get right with Link.

Tim @ Oct 21st 2008 12:11PM

Agreed. The Sonic Rush series are great handheld games.

Roto13 @ Oct 21st 2008 1:36PM

While I strongly disagree that sailing around added anything good to the game, Sonic Rush and Rush Adventure are both great games and the fact that everyone forgets them makes me think that game journalists probably have a pretty strong bias against Sonic games these days.

That's not to say Sonic has been in many good games lately, but he has been in a few, and those should be recognized.

SephFinale @ Oct 21st 2008 4:02PM

Rush Adventure was okay, but Rush was better by far. Also, Wind Waker to Rush Adventure comparison, haha, you're funny.

aj @ Oct 21st 2008 11:26AM

It's not that good, but it's not that bad, and oddly enough, the thing where battles have 45 different mini-games in them to make levelling up obnoxious and painful just makes the game annoying. Frankly, I wish I could get my 35$ back so I could put that toward a fun game.

I still don't really care for Sonic, and I still love the original platformers. At least Sega had the sense to put out Sonic Mega Collection, which I enjoy immensely on my PS2.

styroteqe @ Oct 21st 2008 11:50AM

Ehhh, the game is alright. It kind of drew me in initially, I played it pretty balls-deep for a week and a half, but eventually the tap mini-game POW moves bs really got to me. And the story seems pretty dry.

I really expected more from the people who brought us gems like Knights of the Old Republic.

Crass @ Oct 21st 2008 1:10PM

Besides the Sonic Rush games there hasnt been a good Sonic game since the genesis and any true game knows that. Anyways Sonic RPG suffered from slow down issues that made the game seem very choppy, which for a Sonic title is a bad thing IMO (Sonic games are all about speed and smoothness, anyone remember "blast processing"?)

Anyways terrible music/sound fx, and graphics asside, this is just another generic rpg, with an uber simple and repetitive battle system, all tied together with another hair-brained lame-ass sonic the hedgehog storyline. Horrible game through and through, although if you are a younger game and new to the RPG genre this might be an easy title to pick up and play.

Roto13 @ Oct 21st 2008 1:38PM

It's not Sonic's fault that Sonic Team doesn't know how to make a Sonic game any more. My opinion of Sonic himself has been the same since the 90s. He's awesome.

RupeeClock @ Oct 21st 2008 2:18PM

Good game? Don't make me laugh.

This has only inforced that Sega still don't know how to get it right.

The last few good Sonic games were Rush/Adventure and Advance 1/2/3, which weren't made by Sonic Team.

Covarr @ Oct 21st 2008 4:27PM

This game stank. It's not just slow paced, it's much slower than most other RPGs I've played. The battle system isn't bad, but everything it does has been done better by other games. The music is grating; I wish they'd reused themes from classic Sonic games where appropriate, but they didn't, and the new music is painful to listen to. The overworld puzzles are WAY too easy, with solutions never more complicated than "You have to switch to Amy because she has the hammer." Sure, it's better than Sonic 2006 or Sonic Heroes, but that's like saying stale asparagus ice cream is better than dung; it may have surpassed our expectations, but it's still crap.

To all the people saying Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventure were great, you're mostly right, except for the less than stellar level design in Rush and the hideous story and HAVING TO REPEAT LEVELS TO GET MATERIALS in Rush Adventure.

Serenity @ Oct 21st 2008 4:36PM

It has actually. At first I was meh about the game especially since the manual told me the plot long before the game did >_< . As I've kept playing it I've grown to like it. It's a new and different type of game. the pow stuff is annoyed though. I hate leveling up and for once I'm going through the game as low as I can. I only enjoy fights when the enemies don't use many pow move and I don't have to. Gah when will Sonic get better again? I had hope for Sonic unleashed but no more... wareheghog? really? -__-

leonus11 @ Oct 21st 2008 4:45PM

i've seen some pretty good reviews on sonic chronicles on gamefaqs. then again i've seen some bad ones as well. it all depends on what you like. some people like sonic, some don't. although sonic unleashed and dark knight are looking very promising. so i still have hope for sonic. sega just needs to make a sonic 2D sonic game. or even a 2.5D will do it!