Sonic Unleashed

My recent, or ever-loving, fascination with Sonic the Hedgehog is
something that I’ve talked about at great length on the show on and
this medium and is almost as omnipresent here as my love of 2d games. 
Well it has finally happened, someone at SEGA decided that 2d was the
way to go with Sonic the Hedgehog.  Don’t believe me, check this out:

In case any of you are still skeptical of this, SEGA confirmed this to
the German magazine SEGA ON and then quickly had them pull it.  Until
the story was pulled, SEGA also said that this was an unprecedented
collaboration between SEGA of Europe, US, and Japan.  Sounds a bit like
the collaborations between all the other great Sonic games of yore. 
Anyway, this game looks absolutely wonderful and it is nice to see a
classic series being redone the way it was done best.  Mario and Zelda
are done extremely well in 3d, and while I loved Sonic Adventure 1 and
2, I still feel like Sonic was done best in 2d.  Having a game and
using the current generation hardware to make the best possible 2d
graphics is something I have always wanted to see, and it looks like
that is finally taking place.

I’m not saying that every game should be 2d, that would be ridiculous. 
But, I don’t think that every game should be 3d either.  3d is great
for making realistic worlds, and fantastical worlds as well, but some
gameplay elements will always play better in 2d.  Metal Gear Solid is
an example of a game that plays much better in 3d than 2d, while Sonic
and Mario (while done well in 3d) are better in 2d.  

Just because a technological approach is popular does not mean that
every game should have to use that approach.  While I think that the
mainstream gamer market is more or less stuck in 3d, I think that the
hardcore market would snap up the chance to play some new ,well
produced, 2d games. 

Lets just hope that this Sonic is better than the recent Sonic console games.  If it is, I may just have to jump for joy.

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BreakmanX (AKA Matthew Nyquist) founded BreakmanX.com in 2001 after having small video game websites since around 1996. Things really took off in September of 2002 when he started The Game Show with Richie. BreakmanX.com quickly developed a tight knit community of gamers as the crew covered major industry events and interviewed top industry talent. Break later went to the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts to get his MFA in Film and TV Production. He worked in Hollywood for seven years with people like Fred Roos (The Godfather Trilogy, Star Wars) and Dane Davis (The Matrix). He's now gone full circle and returned to Kansas to write and direct a feature film (EyesOpenMovie.com), relaunch The Game Show (BreakmanX.com), and spend his day time hours as an tenured Associate Professor.

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