Former Gamespot employees give Sonic an award… unfortunately.
In similar theme to Yahoo declaring that “Sonic needs to die”, GiantBomb.com has posted the results for their “Golden Anniversary Year-End Awards Extravaganza Spectacular”, awarding Sonic the Hedgehog the “Take a Break” award. To quote the site:
“Gaming is a sequel-driven business, we’ll admit, and we’re perfectly happy to keep playing new installments in beloved series as long as the quality stays up there. Hey, we have a “Most Satisfying Sequel” category for a reason.
There’s a real danger of letting a franchise get away from itself, though. Sometimes the core design goes off the rails; other times you simply reach, then pass, the saturation point. That’s when it’s time to pause and reevaluate. These are the most egregious offenders we could stand to miss for a year or two.”
The total list of nominees for the award included Guitar Hero, Tomb Raider, Lego, Naruto, and Sonic the Hedgehog. Commenting on Sonic winning the award, GiantBomb says:
“2008 continued the trend of Sega producing bad Sonic the Hedgehog games. It’s a trend that’s been ongoing since, well, depending on your perspective, you could claim it went all the way back to the Genesis. Personally, we pin Sonic’s continuing failure to please on polygons, and the gameplay’s failure to stay true to the series’ high-speed roots. There’s only one problem: Sonic Unleashed has moments that attempt to stick to what Sonic does best–running too fast for you to do anything other than watch–and it’s totally boring.
Aside from a few handheld outings, the franchise has been a mess since Sonic & Knuckles. Perhaps instead of continuing to bash their head against the hedgehog year in and year out, the folks at Sega should take a few huge steps back, take a break, and figure out a new direction. Because it’s become pretty obvious that what they’re doing now isn’t working.“
GiantBomb is a gaming news, reviews, and Wikipedia-style gaming community website, founded last December by former Gamespot.com employees Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis in cooperation with Whiskey Media. Jeff Gerstmann was forcefully let go from Gamespot.com under vague circumstances related to a review he gave to the game Kane & Lynch: Deadmen. The Publishers of Kane & Lynch (Eidos) were heavily advertising on the Gamespot website at the time, and though nobody has ever come out and stated the absolute truth, many assume Jeff was fired because Eidos was unhappy with his review. Jeff’s departure marked a mass exodus of staff from Gamespot.com, including Brad Shoemaker and Vinny Caravela, who joined Gerstmann and Davis at GiantBomb.com when it launched.
Though GiantBomb openly admitted to recieving a review copy of Sonic Unleashed for the Wii the week before it went to retail, no official review for the game has ever appeared on the site. GiantBomb’s unspoken policy has been to only review games that they were interested in reviewing (in other words, they don’t just review every game out there). Most recently, Jeff Gerstmann admitted to having picked up the Xbox 360 version of Sonic Unleashed and sounded off about the game’s flaws on the GiantBomb Podcast for December 23rd, declaring that the game felt like it was made “for children” and that it “practically plays itself”. There is no word on whether or not a review for the Xbox 360 version of Sonic Unleashed will appear on GiantBomb.
Stick with TSSZ as we cover whatever the industry has to say about Sonic – good or bad.
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@Keydown: how do u know?
BTW i have always heard rumors of Sonic becoming part of nintendo! And if this happens….. will Sonic still play like in SU and things? Or will Nintendo slow him down as heck? OH NO! IF IT IS NINTENDO…. (all depends like) cause i didn`t enjoy SU wii`s speed and …. ugh never mind. lol.
Well for all you know SEGA could be working on a new Sonic title and coming out in 3 years time or something ey? Well if Sonic doe`s take a break…. will he be back? or dead? plus if the series are coming back then i suppose i can wait
i`d have to won`t I?
btw ppl im not a fanboy T_T i play loads of other games too and Im not just a fan of Sonic
Well, if only fanboy-ism was that simple…
Of course, there are worse cases even in non-gaming related matters…
Look at the 20th Century Fox/Warner Brothers Watchmen legal mess, I swear some movie buffs want to takes sides as if this whole thing was a wrestling match, heels, faces and everything.
@PJMan
They would have to be insane to sell Sonic!
As Keydown has said plenty of times he will come back in 2010!!!
Next Gen: 2006
Unleashed: 2008
‘New Sonic’: 2010
Sonikku Master: THANK YOU
I’m honestly not even sure what to say at this point. I mean, we’ve got fanboys argueing and not knowing what a fanboy is (no offense Keydown and blueblur, by the way), we got people agreeing, and a lot of other stuff…
I’m sure people wouldn’t mind if Sonic took a break, but if you think about it, breaking isn’t really Sonic’s style. He can’t slow down like Tubby da Plumber. He’s gotta go fast (faster faster fastfaster SONIC X!!!ONE11). So, if he took a break, he would be going slow…and thus ruining the point of the whole Sonic series. FAST!!
Nintendo can afford to do this. They’ve got Super Idiot Galaxy (that’s STILL selling like hotcakes, GIVE IT UP), Overrated Prime 3 (seriously, what is SO GOOD about this game? Just plays like Prime 1 and 2), and Zelda: Twilight Princess (no wierd pun? I actually really like Zelda). However, Sega only really has Sonic, other that the recent trend of them releasing M-rated gorefests (see MadWorld, The Conduit). Little kids can’t play that. They need something THEY can play. So they play Sonic.
…not that I’m saying Sonic is a juvenile little kids game. Heck no. I’m just saying that it’s SUITABLE for little kids to play.
Whoa, whoa whoa, Hypo Prower.
Take it easy. I thought Metroid Prime 3 was pretty good.
And those weren’t even puns….-_-;
@Sonikku Master: Oh of course the next legitimate Sonic game will come out in 2010 (Actually I’d almost see the next game coming out in 2011, because that would be Sonic’s 20th anniversary), but what about the likely number of crappy spinoffs between now and then? Those won’t stop.
@Hypo Prower: The hell are you talking about. The series taking a break has nothing to do with the character’s attitude at all. Also, if something sells, why would they give up on it? BTW I think that New Super Mario Bros is the one that’s still selling like hotcakes. It’s been out for longer, and it’s still popular. Obviously Sonic needs to make something like that, a really fun retro knockoff (No, I’m not talking about Sonic Rush. So that means no excessive amounts of holding right, strange music, or boost spamming)
PJMan: Wouldnt it be his 25 anniversary?
MAKE SONIC 4!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
No one is right, everyone is wrong.
NEW SONIC = 2010???? O_O I NEED FUCKING PROOF & INFO! PLZ!!!!
^There is no proof, it’s just expected as it follows the pattern we’ve seen lately, with Sonic 06 and Sonic Unleashed.
An average Sonic game takes about 2 years to develop. Often times the projects overlap each other though.
@Sonikku Master: No. Not by this current team. They don’t know what classic Sonic is. I don’t trust them to do anything.
@Keydown: Nope, 20th. Sonic was created in 1991. Thus 2011 would be his 20th birthday.
What do you mean the new sonic team developed things on the older games
Geez, people. All I did was try to joke a little. I mean, honestly, when does Sonic ever go slow? On ANYTHING?
(insert joke about some old lame game where he went slow, like Labrynth or 3D Blast)
@Soap Scum: Yeah, you’re right, those weren’t puns. Sorry, I was typing kind of fast and I lost track of what words I was actually putting down. Not what I meant.
Looks like someone has getting some nasty e-mails
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/sonic-the-hedgehog-finally-makes-sense/733/
Giant Bomb please decide if video games are SERIOUS BUSINESS or not, you guys have are bipolar about it.
Sonic is the best character ever !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Give Mario a break not Sonic hes been there longer than Sonic has
Or someone whos been longer than Sonic I mean what would Sonic fans say?
Seriously give mario a break all he does is act stupid and hit his head on rock on all of his games but not Sonic its always something new