Allow me to bring up Sonic 2006 again.

We all read the reviews. Not good. Horrible even. But you know what? I hated a lot of the extra levels in Sonic Adventure 2 as well, but the amount of fun I had with the Sonic/Shadow levels made up for it. I thought I'd give Sonic 2006 a shot. Surely ONE of the Sonic levels would be fun.

No. Not ONE SINGLE GOOD LEVEL. Every single level was RUINED by the terrible physics and controls, cheap deaths, long loads and complete lack of checkpoints. There was NO fun to be had ANYWHERE in that game.

I'm not saying the WereSonic levels are going to be fun. They might be - they also may be dull as dishwater.

But even if they ARE boring as hell, they don't look frustrating, and may only prove to be a minor irratation. And if the Sonic levels are even HALF as fun as they look, there will still be TONS of fun to be had.

It's not the "I wish they'd stick to Sonic" people I'm disagreeing with, as part of me wishes the same thing. It's the "WTF! This sucks! I'm never going to try this game blah blah blah!"

Whatever the case, I doubt we'll see a sequel with Were Sonic, given the plot details. And if Were Sonic gets THAT bad of a response, the inevitable Hedgehog Engine sequel could be a vast improvement.

Also, I'm surprised more people didn't pick up in the Gamespot playthrough about this snippett:

Email Question: Are there going to be any remakes of the old Sonic levels?

Ken: …That IS a good question. I think you'll just have to stay tuned.

Does anyone remember WHY the last few 3D Sonic games were crap?

No, it wasn't because of the extra characters or different gameplay styles. It's because the gameplay and physics were horribly BROKEN. Collision detection errors, horrible camera, horrible controls...

The Were-Sonic levels - at worst - look solid in terms of controls and physics (note how the rubble from destroyed buildings is affected by WereSonic, but it doesn't adversely affect his movement... in Sonic 2006, that shit would have got him stuck in place for 5 minutes before sending you plummeting off a cliff). They may end up being MEDIOCRE, but Sonic 2006 wasn't an AVERAGE game. It was god-awful from start-to-finish.

I personally think the Werehog levels are put in there for the kids who won't be able to handle the rampant speed of the Sonic levels, as it looks very TMNT meets Spiderman: Friend or Foe, and my 5-year-old son ADORED the gameplay demo.

Personally, I'm not concerned until I get my hands on the thing and see for myself how it plays out. I'm liking the extra platforming sections in the night-time levels (very Ristar), and if the high-speed "Sonic Rush" levels were all that were there, everyone would be bemoaning the lack of variety and platforming of olde.

Still, given Sonic's track record of late I can see why everyone's a skeptic. And the more everyone hates on the new levels ("Waaaah! Change!") the harder it'll be for them to disappoint.

This has Aperture Science written all over it.

One thing I wonder though... Do games go on sale in the US? Like, at launch? Or are they generally their RRP?

We have special prices for various games constantly, and when a big title like GTA IV comes out, retailers are always trying to undercut each other. The RRP was AU$120, but most retailers were selling it for around AU$80, which isn't much more (if at all) than the US conversion.

The Australian price tag also includes tax, which I believe US prices don't?

Because it's a freaking DS, you moron.

There's a law against owning more than one console...?

I think the only game that ever made me tear up was Panzer Dragoon Saga.

"I promise... I'll come back for you! Please! Please wait for me!"

Don't make promises you can't keep, Edge. :(

Read: "Not enough brightly-colored mushrooms."

That is all.

That usually boils down to technical limitations - terrible graphics, horrible loading, boring gameplay/level design, etc. Because aside from those issues, it's mostly down to personal taste.

We all need to spend more time praising the good games instead of bickering over whether THIS good game is incrementally more "gooder" than THAT good game.

I weep for humanity.

And where did the idea come from that Nintendo could make a good Sonic game? The only Nintendo franchise that comes close to the necessary speed is F-Zero.

And who did they hand development of F-Zero GX to?

It's a DS game. A [b]DS[/b] game. What were you expecting? Lord of the Rings with hedgehogs and... well... rings?

As for the Robotnik vs Eggman thing... Meh. I cared when it first happened, but frankly, it's just one of those things you get over. Like when the name "Wii" was first announced.

At least they gave it some backstory. And his name still IS Doctor Robotnik... they're not FORCING you to call him "Eggman" - they just use his nickname more than his real name. Hell, "Tails" is a nickname too, remember. I don't insist on calling him Miles Prower (though it is punilicious).

Seriously, does anyone enjoy flicking their analog stick rapidly left and right to detach an attacker? It causes me physical PAIN to treat my controllers that way.

"'Piracy killed my game,' 'Console numbers are huge,' 'People don't want to play their PCs in the living room' - all these stories get written over and over again, and our view is that it's exactly the opposite."

So their view is that piracy isn't a problem, console numbers are small, and most people want to play their PCs in the living room?

Seriously?

Don't get me wrong... if you're willing to put the time, effort and money into maintaining a PC gaming rig, more power to you. If I had more free time, I'd probably do the same.

But let's face facts. Most people don't.

For PC gaming to be as successful and marketable as consoles, it would require standardised specifications, better marketing and more ease-of-use. And then it would be a console.

PC gamers: Rejoice in your niche! If PC gaming were popular, you couldn't be elitist about it.

While I disagree with critics who believe that "acting out" violence in a game is worse than observing it, I think a lot of gamers don't take into account the frequency of violence in video games.

When it was mentioned that a Saw video game could be in the works, many gamers assumed that it would be considered worse than the movies.

And you know what? It probably would. For the simple fact that your average Saw movie contains less than 10-20 deaths, whereas your typical game translation would include hundreds.

Which is not to say that I disagree with games like Manhunt or GTA, but I'd personally prefer it if a more mature attitude by game developers would result in a game where there were fewer, but more IMPACTFUL deaths.

It just seems odd to me that Nintendo admits that BMI is completely inaccurate for children, yet the game KNOWS your age, and STILL makes you do the BMI test. Why couldn't they have just made the BMI test only available for people over a certain age?

As for everyone who says that Wii Fit won't help you lose weight or build up muscle... Spend half an hour doing the jogging game and push-ups. If that's not a workout, I don't know what is.

Apparently so.

You also have to phone the car dealership once a week to get permission to drive your Ferrari.

Many Ferrari's won't be able to use every type of fuel without having some work done to the engine.

And fewer and fewer gas stations will stock the only type of fuel you can use in a Ferrari, because people keep driving off without paying.

Actually, this is pretty much exactly like a Pepsi representative stating:

"We're not in competition with Coke. We're in competition with every type of beverage that's competing for a customer's attention - coffee, energy drinks, mineral water... So we need to make sure we keep our product relevant and competitive, and I think we're doing that."

Take THAT, Coke fanboys!

Do you watch Friends?

I'm starting to get really tired of people saying that there should NEVER be a movie based on a game, because they've always been bad in the past.

That's merely symptomatic of the film adaptions not being taken seriously and handed off to a moron who has no idea how to make a good film.

If someone can reference for me a bad video game-to-movie adaption that was produced and/or directed by someone even remotely competent, I'll change my vote.

There are plenty of lousy book-to-movie (Da Vinci Code) or comic book-to-movie (Daredevil) adaptions too, but hand the reins to the right person, and they can be fantastic.

As for those calling for the end of movie-to-game adaptions, are you really going to boycott:

Star Wars: Force Unleashed
Ghostbusters
LEGO Indiana Jones
LEGO Batman

?

The justification of "I don't kill hookers in real life just because I do in Grand Theft Auto" doesn't mean that we'll ever be able to shoot 5-year-olds in the head in a GTA game.

They're made of a concentrated polymer of blue skies and Richard Jacques CDs.

SHENANIGANS!

This isn't taken from a sensationalist article by the press; this is a BBFC report detailing the details of the game and addressing any violent/sexual content in context to justify the rating they gave it.

As you can see, it appears that nothing has been called out as being inappropriate, and there are no complaints being raised.

I'm not sure whether the ESRB releases any such information, but if it doesn't, it should. If the Australian OFLC and the BBFC are so open and release the ratings reports to the public, why not the American ratings board?

Then, all of a sudden, her skin is torn from her body, revealing the huge, glistening carapace and drooling mandibles of her true form. "She" surveys you with her millions of eyes for a moment, then promptly devours your head and lays her eggs in your neck.

Game over.

And as an added bonus, I could rest easy knowing that the games I can and can't play weren't decided by my government....... Just the ESRB, Nintendo, Sony and Walmart.

Why did no one inform me of this?

A remake of Zwei and/or Saga with improved graphics (no need - or way - to improve the soundtrack) would be incredible, especially on the Wii.

I wonder though, with the PS3 being region-free, will retailers be forced to lower their prices? Or will they just cut back on Sony shelf space if the games don't sell?

Some characters and brands can survive hard times like Sonic has. Look how many crappy games and movies (i.e. the prequels) the Star Wars brand has managed to survive through. But if you weather the storm, occassionally, you'll be rewarded (Lego Star Wars, Force Unleashed... hopefully).

I have a lot of nieces and nephews, and they all love Mario and Sonic, but Sonic is generally the favourite. It doesn't matter what game they play, or what cartoon they watch... the character always clicks.

I guess when Sega gets unbridled love from kids, and nothing but spite and cynicism from hardcore gamers, that's when they switch their target market (Sonic and Mario at the Olympic Games), and then we wonder why.

Oh.... OH. You think this is a SERIOUS STRIPPING SIMULATOR.

As opposed to, y'know... something to do for fun, excercise, and to make an idiot of yourself in front of your friends.

Like Singstar, or Wii Sports, or any of these other popular party games.

This game is a fantastic idea, and I really hope it gets through. If games like Grand Theft Auto 4 and Bioshock can't convince the mainstream market that not all video games are meant for a 5-9 audience, perhaps this will.

But I doubt it. Countdown to "media outrage" in 3-2-1...

Which doesn't bother me in the slightest, because I don't care about online leaderboards. Nor do I care about Mario Kart, for that matter, but to each his own.

Also, welcome to the internet. People are morons.