[QUOTE="Strider212"]
You are not understanding me. How did he lie by pointing out the fact that a game was poorly designed? You do not have to play through an entire game to realize that the camera system is awful or that the controls are broken. Do you think that suddenly after the "false" ending the basic mechanics of the game suddenly fix themselves and the game is totally redeemed? Absolutely not.
100% of Matt's complaints with the game revolve around its design and nothing else. His entire second page is dedicated to this, so your point is useless. You are a sonic fan and are upset that he left out a small portion of the game, not including it in his review. But who the hell cares about a second portion of a bad game? Do you think anyone would care if there were bonus missions on the Atari version of E.T.? Absolutely not.
Furthermore, I listened to the podcast again. Bozon clearly points out that there are extra missions after a two hour playthrough. Therefore, he isn't lying only withholding unnecessary information. At it's core: he's not wasting his time. Nothing redeems the game, so there's no use trying to keep it above the water. End of story.
EDIT:
The Sonic series has jumped the shark.
GabuEx
Here, I'll go through every single one of his complaints in the review (except for the online stuff, which I haven't tried out yet) just to illustrate the factual inaccuracy in them:
"Imagine the trademark intense speed, loop-de-loops, corkscrews, jumps and pinball mechanics that have helped define the Sonic name over the years. Good. Now throw all of that tried-and-true stuff out the window,"
Already we run into falsehoods. Loop-de-loops, jumps, and pinball mechanics are all present in the game. I don't remember if there are any corkscrews, but even if there aren't, that's only 1 for 4 - not a terribly good start.
"slow down the action to a relative crawl,"
False again. The only way the action slows down to a relative crawl is if you take the time out of your life to kill every single enemy that comes forth, an entirely unnecessary and pointless endeavor. And that was the case in the Genesis games too.
"give the blue hedgehog a big sword, and throw enemy after enemy in his path."
Now this is technically true, but it's rather easy to either just ignore enemies or plow right through them if you know what you're doing - a quality that Matt seems to lack.
"This is the backbone of the offensively awful design template that is a succubus, perpetually draining fun away from the experience. To make matters worse, Sonic himself is controlled clumsily with the nunchuk's analog stick -- he moves like a tank, barely able to nudge to the left and right so that he might sidestep approaching obstacles --"
False, false, false. There is nothing difficult whatsoever about controlling Sonic.
"and he is constantly locked in stupid swordplay."
False once again. Again, this is only the case if you have OCD and feel the need to make your experience worse by obsessively killing every single enemy in the game.
"His trusty sword is controlled with the WIi remote. There's an incredible amount of unresponsive waggle -- not gestures -- in the game. You simply shake, shake and shake some more to slice enemies down as they approach. The title does not consider vertical or horizontal motion, so you can just waggle the controller mindlessly and win."
For once, this is actually a valid complaint, if you care about waggle.
"It's one of the worst control choices I've had to endure for any Wii game, not only because your movements actually have noticeable lag before they are translated on-screen,"
...and now we're back to a false claim.
"but because you battle so many enemies throughout any given level that you arm is sure to be sore by the time you're done."
I played the game for hours on end and my arm was not sore at any moment.
"You encounter the occasional boss in fights that are supposed to be epic, but the ensuing battles are over in seconds -- all you have to do is shake continuously and you'll lay waste to your enemies before they are done with their opening dialogs."
I tried just shaking continuously and died. So, false again. Although the complaint about them not being epic is true - but then again, that's just his impression of what they're "supposed to be".
Don't believe me and still think that this is just a difference of opinion? Well, that's why I made this video. Gameplay starts at around the 2:30 mark. Watch that, and then come back and try to tell me that Matt is correct in saying that Sonic and the Black Knight "slows to a relative crawl", that Sonic "moves like a tank", that Sonic is "constantly locked in stupid swordplay", that loop-de-loops, jumps, and pinball mechanics have been "thrown out the window". Go on, I'll wait.
Alright, first off, one level? You are using one level to justify your claims? One level of decent design does not make up for a whole game of bad design. I watched the entire video, and here are a couple of things I noticed:1) Compared to SatSR, this game is slower.
2) I counted the time between obstacles (whether they be enemies or environmental objects), and there is not a single time in your video where the gameplay isn't slowed down by one of these things within 10 seconds. What happened to the speed from Sonic Adventure 1 and 2?
3) Sonic slows down every time you jump, so your point about the game not slowing down due to groups of enemies is moot.
4) That was a pitiful excuse for a loop-de-loop. Remember the loop-de-loops from Sonic Adventure 1 and 2? Maybe the 5 second long one on the forest stage from SA2?
5) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhtAdWp9Rkc
Watch this. The reviewer literally turns around backwards, holds "up" on the analog control stick and waggles his way to victory.
6) This is clearly a badly designed Sonic game with bad design decisions made. I'll grant you that Matt's review has large amounts of sarcasm and exaggeration, but I don't expect any Pulitzer-prize-winning journalism on a badly designed game. If he were reviewing Super Mario Galaxy, a new Zelda, or anything that people actually cared about, then we might have something to talk about. But in the meantime, you might as well criticize him for taking a few liberties on Anubis 2 or Ninjabread Man. Why no criticisms there? There is just as much sarcasm and exaggeration. Let's leave the real writing for the real games.
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