Ya!

I want the memory game.

Is glitching automatically = cheating?

Using glitches is not cheating because it doesn’t give any advantage over the competition. Since it’s still within the framework of the game, anyone with the skill and knowledge can perform them. -SigmaAlpha via TSSZ

A lot of people tend to think that using glitches is "cheating."  To some extent, glitches can be used to cheat.  We see it a lot on the leaderboards of certain games and Sonic games are no exception (Ep1, Ep2, CD, Generations PC, etc.).  Though it will always be based on opinion, there are glitches that either take away the effort in the speed running experience in exchange to make it past the finish line (i.e. in 00:00:00).  Then there are glitches that do the opposite, being that they usually add to the effort for actually completing the stage.  There is still the possibility of error for making it through a section 00:00:50 to 00:05:00 seconds faster because of that glitch.  Basically, you're still playing the game.  Even though this is two ends of glitching where one is simply get the fastest possible time without playing the stage and the other plays the stage to exploit the stage, how far those glitches can go for the sake of shaving off time varies.  Some prefer using a glitch or glitches to conquer small bits of the stage, while others, a large chunk. (Note to reader: performing that glitch in Sonic Unleashed which skips a large chunk of the level makes your game prone to physically breaking within your console.)

Cheating is defined by breaking the rules through deceit.  When it comes to speed running... are there any rules?  Is there any form of deception being used?  First of all, if we are talking about the people who get 00:00:00ish times, well... they're not speed running at all more than they're just deceiving the game and the people that actually play the game.  Their focus is not the stage, just the leaderboard.  They want to appear superior at simply doing something not many people can do.  It's not a speed run more than it is a leaderboard hack.  Secondly, if people are conquering the stage by using glitches to go faster within the realm of the game, be it in small bits or large chunks, it cannot be considered cheating as they are doing something anyone can do.  Sometimes I feel that there is a lack of understand that goes in the word cheating where if one person sees another person perform something unusual (feeling deceived), they get labeled a cheater.  The accuser most likely never attempted to even perform such a glitch to understand the depth behind it even though the person who performed it makes it look easy when it's very possible for it to be difficult or have huge consequences if performed wrongly.  There is only one rule most speed runners go by, and that is to play the stage as fast as possible, and I personally believe that the legitimacy of the run is weighed in by the amount of effort that's put in to playing the stage.

It is just me, but I believe glitching is not always synonymous with cheating.

Not everyone is going to know the best methods for what makes a speed run faster (and developers don't always know all that's capable within the framework of their game).  There is usually a lot of knowledge that goes into speed running a stage in these types of games as it's usually never as simple as it looks.  If those methods are understood as ways to expand the experience for any competitor (opposed to taking away the experience) who's goal is to be the one to make it first to the finish line, why shouldn't people use glitches?  If we limited our efforts, the game grows stale because there would be limitations instead of plateaus.

And right now, I think that's what makes Sonic Unleashed more favorable than Sonic Generations for speed running among the top speed runners on YouTube.  It's not only allows Sonic to do a lot on his own while moving fast, but after much time, people are just finding ways to make him go faster.  It doesn't make Unleashed unique to other Sonic games, but it definitely stands out as the more complex game compared to Generations.

But if you're a fan of Generations and not Unleashed, don't worry... it's time just may come sooner than you think.

Where it all began.

Once upon a time, in an alternate dimension, where everything in this dimension moved in the 2nd tense, there was a blue hedgehog who could run at the speed of sound, but was speed capped for about 80mph.  His name... was Sonic The Hedgehog.

Although Sonic was bestowed with the top speed of a Toyota Prius, like the Prius, Sonic's journey starting in the blue, green, brown, white, yellow and purple zone where the hills were most definitely green, sought out to stop the unenvironmentally friendly Dr. Eggman.

Nothing was going to stop Sonic in his quest to stop Sonic from preventing the evil doctor to prescribe trickery amongst his friends and the land.  Not even the rocky hills themselves would get in his way.

Not these spikes that grew through the plains.

Nor the doctor's underlings.

Sonic pushed on with the momentum of a pinball, the weight of a 3ft marble, and the sharpness of a blade sharpener. Always looking forward and with each step, each jump and each spin he was closer to signs that would point him towards his goal.

Sonic...

Nothing was ever so flawless as the beginning, and when you finished, you'd often return back to where you started to make sure you left it looking better than how it was at the jump.

But sometimes... things don't always remain that way.

After enough time passes, pollution eventually rears it's ugly head upon our lands again.

Things change.

You've changed.

And today, to make everything right, all you have to do is run, breaking the sound barrier at will if you must to set things straight again.

Someone... was nice enough to bestow you your true power, unaffected by 80mph speed caps and given a world where you can move more than just up, down, left and right.

Sonic...

Let us use that power...

So I can break my damn Green Hill Act 2 record!  OHHHHHH YEEEEEEEAH.

Okay, I'm done with the cut & paste dramatizations.  Yes, Green Hill Zone is definitely my favorite stage in Sonic games.  As a kid, I NEVER wanted to leave it and it still looks as profound and amazing to me 21 years later.  Gotta love the result of what Sega was scheming when they were starving for success and fame.  Green Hill in Generations was a pretty good reimagining of the stage and it really made me wish that the camera in the game was free like it was in Unleashed.  If it was, I'd probably find myself spending tons of time just staring at it like I did when I was a child.  What about the classic Sonic version, you say?  I think it's gorgeous.  Perhaps it could've felt like there were 3 levels of paths instead of just two like the original had (Acts 1 and 3), but for what it's worth, it's sheer beauty.  However, the 3D version really seems to just make you feel surrounded in it opposed to peering at it like a painting with the value of the property you sleep on.  I never ever once thought I'd see it.  Green hills, blue pools and rivers of water, pencil shaped mountains in the distance, and a blue sky... and a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog... in my most childish love for all that is Sonic...

... wouldn't ask for anything more.

Oh, am I going to talk about my speed run?  I left all that in the video description.

btw, Happy Birthday to my Dad today.  Fun fact - it was him who took me to Toys 'R Us and bought me the Sega Genesis with Sonic 1.  He hooked it up to the TV that day and as my mom told me (as I got older), he would just sit watch me play.  I love you, Dad.  If it weren't for you, I may not have been able to find the one thing that has had such a positive and profound effect on me to this day.  Thank you for providing me the opportunity to find things in life as a child that would simply make me happy for a very long time... seemingly a lifetime.  I only wish there were a way I could tell you these words as elegantly as they are typed.

(credit to: http://jasondoesjournalism.blogspot.com/ for the nice Sonic 1 screenshots I googled.)

Yuji Naka speaks out on recent Sonic games.

TSSZ News released some news on Naka's reaction towards the current generation of Sonic titles and his feelings about returning to the franchise.  If you don't mind, I'm going to paste this article here:

Expresses Interest in Returning to Help with Franchise 

In an interview with GamesIndustry International, Prope’s Yuji Naka, one of the key individuals behind the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog, conceded that in his opinion, recent Sonic fare simply doesn’t compare to the past. 

“I also think that recent iterations have not been as fun when compared to those of the past,” Mr. Naka said in the interview.  “I think the number one reason for this is that the games have become much easier, so the gamer doesn’t feel that extreme joy that comes with the satisfaction of accomplishing something that was very difficult to achieve.” 

In the interview, Mr. Naka suggests Sonic games of today are tailor made to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.  He believes it would do Sega some good to up the challenge a bit. 

“Sonic has a very simple control scheme that is capable of doing a lot of advanced things while sprinting at a high speed, that’s what makes it a good game in my opinion,” Mr. Naka explained.  “I think even moderately raising the difficulty level in the future could work well.” 

Those remarks led to Mr. Naka expressing an interest in returning to Sega in the future to perhaps work on Sonic again, or properly revive another of his classic franchises, such as NiGHTS into Dreams. 

“Unfortunately, I haven’t had the opportunity to do so but perhaps at some point in the future if I could come back and contribute, that could be fun and gratifying,” he said. 

Mr. Naka also noted he’d like to see the rivalry between Mario and Sonic from the revived again.  You can read the piece in full at the link cited above.

My thoughts?  I think Sega intentionally made crappy 2D Sonic games to lure Naka back in.  I'm serious!  I think Sega plotted this since 2009 and said, "We are going to get Naka back in.  How do we do that?  We take the best parts in Sonic games and make them into something worse.  We'll get Dimps to do it w.i.t.h l.i.t.t.l.e m.o.n.e.y, make it look like an old Sonic game, and it shall be called Sonic The Hedgehog 4!  If he doesn't come back, we'll use the earnings and make another episode where we'll have room to butcher even more of his legacy!"

This has to to be the most logical reason behind those pathetic excuses for a Sonic game, to bait Naka as a plan to increase the value of the franchise by making terrible Sonic games based off of the classics that brought Naka into the limelight.

And if it works... meaning Sega gets him to work on 2D Sonic games, I'll buy Episode 2 on every platform I can play it on.  Naka working on 3D games?

(Why is that the best line in the entire game?)

But seriously, Naka and 3D games?  Lets take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?

Now, Naka may have aimed Sonic in the direction (sort of) of Sonic's future in gaming jumping from 2D to 3D, but while these games get praise for players by simply stepping outside of it's 2D boundaries being somewhat of an over-complex Mario 64 (Adventure series), the games had many design issues such as clipping through the floor to fall to your death (or fall eternally), disobedient cameras, and terrible collision detection.  After Heroes, I was done, mostly because Heroes was pretty on paper but pathetic in pixels.  Just like Sonic 4, Naka wasn't free from making games that were utterly boring that were centered around forced mechanics (but at least they didn't stop the flow of the gameplay and coated with multiple forms of automation).  Shadow The Hedgehog (game) to my knowledge was his last finished work and although I never played it, it was received as the worst game on the Adventure engine.

But who really knows?  Since he left Sega in the midst of working on 06, perhaps he's got some good ideas?  He says that the current formula isn't challenging.  Now... before I go, OMG, speed running is sooo hard, he has a point.  Have you ever just walked up to some of the enemies in the recent games to see what they'd do?  You can idle around a lot of them or just avoid them easily.  Unleashed did a decent job of enemy placement to prevent Sonic from boosting through everything.  For players who do not speed run these games, you're pretty much left with simply navigating Sonic in a comfortable, unchallenging manner.  In Generations main acts, there aren't many enemies that check you for going fast or not going fast enough.  It's mostly memorizing the level and reaching the end without any objectives within the level.

So yes.  If they bring back Naka and he throws in ideas for the 3D Sonic games, all I can say is... if it ain't broke, don't fix it.  Right now, as I've stated before, 3D Sonic is where it's at now.

Absolutely worth watching.

I love videos like this.  What we have here is a video of how speed works in the Sonic games as well as a few others.  Watched it once and now I'm about to watch it a second time, if you will excuse me.

I know you had to be thinking the same thing.

Nice random Sonic fan art.

Yeah, I've been meaning to surf through the endless amount of Sonic fanart over the internets and throw in my blog what I like.  Not too sure how I should go about it.

I am a sucker for cute classic Sonic anything.

A Sonic The Hedgehog Q&A

Oh, I love these guys for their Sonic reviews.  It had just dawned on me that the people behind the youtube name SomecallmeJohnny had been making some pretty nice animations and they are (to say the least) pretty entertaining, especially if you're a fan of the cast.  Recently they released a belated part 2 of them interviewing the cast, so I'll be posting both for anyone's enjoyment.

I cannot find part 2 through blogspot's youtube search, so you can just click these underlined words which will send you to it.

Where you can feel my heart just raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace~

Just need a starter post to know what blog posts will look like, but I might as well make the first post somewhat captivating, right?

Firstly, if you're curious - what kind of Sonic fan am I?  To answer that, it would probably be a good idea to make a list of some random things within the Sonic franchise and give a brief answer about them stating whether I favor it or not.  Ready?

• Big The Cat - don't care
• Classic Sonic games (main series) - love
• Storylines - don't care (there's never been any good ones)
• Archie Comics - I can appreciate these, though I haven't read them in forever
• Black/Green Eyes, shoe buckle/no shoe buckle, soles, etc - GTFO
• Fan games - depends... don't really care for something like Sonic 2 HD or something unfinished
• Fanfics - don't really read them
• Shadow The Hedgehog - don't care
• Riders series - sure
• Takashi Iizuka - sure
• Amy Rose - sure
• Speed runs - looooooooooooooooooooooove
• Adventure games - yes
• Sonic Heroes - no
• Sonic 06 - no - though, "His World" is a really nice song.
• Silver The Hedgehog - I like this theme w/o vocals.
• Labyrinth Zone - *trollface*
• Game mods - not really
• Sonic 4 Episode 1 - terrible, just no.  If Yuji Naka played this, he must've demanded for an oxygen tank so he could laugh
• Sonic 4 Episode 2 - not saying anything until I've touched it
• SatAM/The Adventures of... - Yes
• Miles "Tails" Prower - can't say no to Tails
• Sonic R -Richard Jacques and TJ Davis's contributions are the only thing that matter in R.
• Team Chaotix - bleh
• Chao - seeing that Sachiko Kawamura created them... oh, yes.
• Storybook series games - eh...
• Blaze The Cat - another purple cat?  Well, at least this one's pretty fast and isn't silly.  I approve.
• Fanart - of course, though it's not something I seek.  No furry-love plx
• Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing - sure
• Knuckles - Out of the original 4, Knuckles is my least favorite but I don't dislike him.
• Planet Wisp Act 1 - proof that Sega has a never-ending river of talent for finding talented music composers
• Metal Sonic - neutral
• Advance series - 1, yes. 2, yes. 3, okay
• "Modern" gameplay - yes
• Solo Sonica - yes
• Playable friends - waiting for them to get it right
• Classic physics - yes, they matter, but...
• Music - looooooooooooooooooooove, Jun Senoue is amazing... ! (Except in Sonic 4, but he's still the best!)  Kenichi Tokoi... and other composers whose names I haven't memorized yet.

So, yes.  If I were to sum up my top 3 favorite things about Sonic The Hedgehog it would be

1. Sonic
2. Sonic music
3. Sonic running

That's all there is to it, really.  I play the games for the gameplay, and even though it's a platformer where you currently run, jump, drift, air dash, slide, stomp, homing attack, wall jump, grind rails, destroy enemies, collect rings and bounce off springs, I just want to see who can do it the fastest.

Time to stop here and doll up the blog a bit~