The development of Sonik series is closely related to SEGA's home game consoles. From the birth of the first game of1991sonic, it represents the ace work of MD console and confronts Mario series of Nintendo console. From MD to SS to DC, Sonik on these three generations of mainframes can be said to be a truly brilliant period of the series. Later, with SEGA quitting the first host, Sonik became a cross-platform third-party IP. Although it has performed well in various fields, it can never return to the throne of that year. Many old players think that only Sonik on SEGA's own host is the real sonic boy.
Among Sonik's many works, Sonik Adventure 2 released on 200 1 can be said to represent the highest level of DC host at that time, and it was also Sonik's last swan song as the first game of SEGA host, because several months before the release of the game, SEGA had announced the termination of DC host production and withdrawal from the host market. Originally planned for the tenth anniversary of Sonik, this work unexpectedly became the end of a series of chapters, and such an excellent work is quite tragic. The birth of this game is actually the final evolutionary result of Sonik's transition from 2D to 3D. This article will talk about it in detail.
Back to 1996, SEGA is fighting against Sony and Nintendo, and the three companies have launched a large number of excellent works on their respective SS, PS and N64 mainframes. Surprisingly, SEGA's ace Sonik has never released a new work except for a Sonic Jam with the nature of MD collection. Sonik, a 3D gameplay that adapts to the new host hardware environment, is far away, and players who are used to 2D sprints can't help but ask a question mark.
It was not until1996165438+10 that SEGA released the first Sonic 3D Blast, which is a nominal 3D game. Surprisingly, the platform actually chose the previous generation host MD, which has been retired for several years. This work is actually a "pseudo 3D" game. The scene map and characters all use 2D images, and the terrain elevation difference and jumping are realized by using a 45-degree overlooking angle. This method has been successful in many RPG and war chess games on 16-bit mainframe, but it is very common in Sonik, which emphasizes high-speed sports. Players lack the fun to concentrate on running in one direction, and the screen of MD host is obviously outdated, which generally feels like an experimental work. Although the game was later transplanted to the SS platform, it was difficult to arouse the interest of players. They prefer to watch Sonik's real sequel. The IGN score is only 6, which proves that this is an unsuccessful attempt for SEGA to transform from 2D to 3D.
By the end of 1997, SS mainframe has been gradually overshadowed by Sony PS. Sonik's real 3D version of Sonic R is late. This game almost hollowed out the function of SS, and realized the translucent and light-shadow effect that the host didn't have. It can be said to be one of the best games on the SS console.
In terms of gameplay, this game completely subverts the previous Sonik single-player 2D sprint gameplay, and adopts a third-person rear-end perspective similar to racing games, which not only ensures that players can focus on the immediate direction, but also take into account the surrounding scenes. It adopts a racing game in which multiple characters start at the same time, and realizes a two-person split-screen game on the SS host for the first time.
The map of the game is similar to a racecourse. At the beginning of the game, there are four scenes to choose from: island, city, ruins and factories. The final scene emerald can be unlocked by winning the first place in all four pictures. In addition to the main road, there are a lot of contents to jump and hidden route shortcuts in each scene, and there are many powerful props to use, including acceleration, attack and jade.
This game has as many players as 10. The first four people hid six people, and each had its own advantages in accelerating, turning, jumping and attacking. In addition, there are unique stunts, such as Sonik can jump twice, the tail can spin and slide, and Ross can move freely on the water.
Sonic R has created a brand-new sonic gameplay, allowing players to see that this flying man still has infinite vitality in the 3D environment. Unfortunately, when the game went online, the SS host was going downhill. Although developers have made a lot of efforts, compared with SS simultaneous games, the 3D performance of SS console is obviously different from the other two consoles, and its appeal to players is limited. Although the PC port version has improved a lot, the number of players playing on the same screen has increased to four. At that time, GameSpot gave the game a score of only 5.6, while Mario64 launched the year before last was as high as 9.4, and IGN gave a rare high score of 9.8. It can be said that Sonik has fallen far behind in the field of 3D.
Time is up 1998. Sony's PS console has released some heavyweight works such as Final Fantasy 7, metal gear, Resident Evil 2, etc. SS is unable to compete. SEGA decisively adjusted its strategy and laid out the next generation DC host in advance. In addition to greatly improving the hardware environment, Yuji Naka, the producer of Sonic in MD era, once again manipulated the series, allowing players to see new Sonic games again. At the end of 1998, just one month before the release of the DC console, "Adventure of Sonik" was officially launched, which quickly became the focus of players' attention with its good production level and the upsurge of new console release.
The gameplay is improved on the basis of Sonic R, and the visual angle and operation mode are basically unchanged. However, a lot of events and explorations have been added to the map scene. Although it also requires faster completion of the goal, this game is more like an action game that pursues fast customs clearance, rather than a pure racing game like the previous one. In addition, different characters can experience different levels, which adds rich playability to the game and gives players the motivation to experience more characters.
This story mode player * * * has seven characters and 1 1 scenes to experience, and there are three adventure fields with the nature of leisure puzzle solving. The rich content makes it easy for players who have never been exposed to this series before to get started, overcoming the shortcomings of tight rhythm and slightly difficult to get started in sonic games before.
Zhong Yusi and the Sonic team he led carefully polished the game, and the final picture was much better than the first publicity version. In addition, one year after the game was launched, Sonik Adventure International (Sonik Adventure International Edition) was also launched. In addition to adding English pronunciation and multilingual characters, the game perspective has also been adjusted to look more "cinematic", which fully reflects the team's attention to details.
The Adventures of Sonik has sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide, with IGN score of 8.6, GameSpot score of 9.2 and FAMI score of 38. It can be said that it is one of the most successful works of DC game consoles. At that time, Sony and Nintendo's new consoles had not yet been released, and Sonik became the strongest representative of the first console IP, which also laid a good foundation for the sequel.
The success of The Adventures of Sonik made SEGA arrange the development plan logically, and gave the sequel to Team Sonik USA for production. Although Zhongyu no longer participates, the two great gods who played an important role in the previous work, Iizuka Takashi and Hoshino, still make players look forward to the sequel.
Surprisingly, the new SEGA mainframe was launched only two years ago. Under heavy pressure, DC mainframe stopped production on1October 3 1 day, 2006. At this time, the unsold Sonik's new work became the last swan song of SEGA host in advance. In June, Sonik Adventure 2 was finally released.
In the second generation of sequels, firstly, the story mode is greatly increased. In this game, players can choose hero and darkness as two main lines, and the scenes are 16 and 14 respectively. Each main line has three main characters: speed, machinery and exploration, which alternate levels, and finally interspersed with BOSS wars and * * *, and each level is given according to the completion time and the collection of gold rings.
In this game, the double mode has been added. According to the three types of characters, three competition forms are designed, which are to compare the completion time to see who can break the opponent's mechanical battle first, and find two jadeites for treasure hunting first, thus raising the 3D version of Sonik's gameplay to a new height.
The Adventures of Sonik 2 has sold more than 6,543,800 copies worldwide, with IGN score of 9.4, GameSpot score of 8.6 and FAMI score of 33, keeping the top level of its previous works. Although the SEGA console has since become history, this series of 10th anniversary works ended with a satisfactory result, leaving a memorable classic for players.
Today, SEGA has become a professional third-party developer, and Sonik continues to show its role charm in many fields. The Adventures of Sonik, two works on DC mainframe, have also been transplanted to other platforms, and can still be played on Steam. The praise of many players fully proves that the old games 20 years ago are still blooming, and I hope to see more excellent Sonic games in the future. This blue boy who pursues speed has always stayed in the hearts of players.