I would have loved to have had a 24bit colour Comix Zone with a 2 player mode and CD-DA sound track and a super improved Vectorman II on the Saturn. Well I've always been for dropping MD internal support in 1994 and all projects moved up to Saturn and just have left it for 3rd parties to make the bulk of MD games in 1994/5. Granted it probably wasn't possible but it would have been better than an old Mega CD game.
SONIC STADIUM FORUMS FULL
My next suggestion would have been to launched Sonic 3 as is on the Megadrive, then rework the Sonic and Knuckles project in to a full standalone Saturn game aimed at the US launch instead of being just additional levels for Sonic 3. However I would say that 5 Sonic games between 19 was overkill imo (Sonic 2, Sonic CD, Sonic Spinball then Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles). Its why I suggested delaying Sonic 3, TA made the (I guess fair) point that Sega would not want to delay Sonic 3 to 1995. Sonic CD would of been old by then and its not like it set the world on fire when it came out on the Mega CD. That was kind of point I was making in my original post in this thread. Unlike the Mario Team, the Sonic Team were asked to make a new Sonic game each year and given super tight deadlines. Sonic CD took like 3 years to make, I'll high doubt the team either in the USA or Japan would have been able to get Sonic CD II ready for May or June 1995. Using SMAS as the launch title would have been terrible because it would look like the new hardware just plays updated versions of old games.Ī real sequel to Sonic CD would have been much better received than a port.īut you had new games to take off and show off the Hardware with Panzer Dragoon, Virtua Fighte, Bug, Clockwork Knight SONIC CD special Edition would have just plugged a hole, until SOA Sonic game of SOJ Sonic game were ready to go. Look at what Nintendo did with the SNES, they released Super Mario All-Stars with updated versions of their classic titles, but they still launched the console with a brand-new game built to take advantage of the new hardware. Its a shame we never got to see stuff like Shenmue and Sonic Adv on the Saturn or the planned Team Andromeda new IP on the Saturn too, that was canned early in.Įvery new console gets ports but usually they aren't a huge selling point if they were already available on a previous console. You can can clearly see some of the Saturn desgins in the Final Sonic SAdv game on some of the levels and even Boss battles like Choas 4 battle on the Water lilies, which looks for all the world like a VDP II effect. Sonic Jam 3d engine was amazing for a Saturn and its so sad we never got to see what Project Sonic (Sonic Adv) would have looked like in final form on the Saturn, The Avv part was unlike most Platform games and would have been increabile back on the Saturn in 1997. I can't fault that myself, but SEGA Japan should have made sure that some Sonic game came on the Saturn, while the main Sonic Team and SOA Sonic games were in production. I think that unlike the Mario Team who have 3 to 4 years before each main sequel to Mario, the Sonic team after making 4 Sonic games in 4 years got a little slick of Sonic and wanted to try something new and given SOA had started a 32Bit Sonic I guess SOJ felt they could wait for a Real Sonic Team Sonic game, while they made a new IP inbtween. And it was a very small hub, not the kind of open levels you have in a Sonic game.
Sonic Jam worked well because they already had the Nights engine done, so they just needed to build the levels, not work on the engine. Sonic Team decided that they did not want to make a potentially poor Sonic game on the new unexplored hardware, so they worked on Nights instead. Sonic Mania is more for me, what Sonic CD should have been and thats with widespread use of the ASIC chip on the bosses Ect. It's just a shame SOA Sonic X was such a mess and that SOJ Sonic game (Sonic Adv) was moved up to the DC, when that game would have been really somthing, given it was made by the orginal Team members directed by Ohshima-san and shown in Sonic Jam had a stunning 3D engine in place. A 2D Sonic for the Saturns launch in the west, would have been ok, but SEGA really would have needed to make Sonic a 3D game. It's not quite that simple, the very 1st time Mario 64 was shown off in playable form, there was no going back to 2D and if SEGA did make a 2D Sonic game (as its main Saturn entry) people would have laughed and used it as yet more proof the Saturn sucked at 3D. If the Mega CD could run it that would be cool but it's still a very expensive add-on for another 2D Sonic title. Sonic Mania looks a little too much like a 16-bit game, which is fine today for nostalgia but not something that would get people to purchase a $400 console in 1995. Well, they had a year and a half before Mario 64 was even released, but I agree they needed something more than this for a next-gen console.