Lunchtime Discussion: Changes

Something I’ve noticed this generation is a lot of armchair executives. What do I mean? Well it’s people like me, who don’t just critique the games or the hardware, but the advertising and the business plans of gaming companies. We point out where we think these companies that make millions or billions of pounds a year are going wrong, and despite them obviously being wrong they continue to make money. It’s almost like their highly paid executives know better than you! Madness!

However it’s much easier to point out the mistakes in hindsight. We can see what products went wrong, where they failed and why. So lets play with our time travelling microwave, waggle the tin foil, and work out what could have been done better. First lets travel to 1994. You know what happened in 1994? Sonic 3 (and Sonic & Knuckles) came out. So what would I change?

I’d go find the Sega executives in Japan, beat them within an inch of their lives and tell them not to put out Knuckles’ Chaotix the next year, which added three characters, had a weird partner mechanic, and was the game that really began the slow decline of “Hey, I know what fans want! To play as someone who’s not Sonic!”. No, that’s not what I want in a Sonic game? To play as Sonic. Maybe Knuckles, because he’s awesome, but that’s it!

What about Tails you say? No one wants to be Tails, not even Tails really wants to be Tails. ‘Oh, oh look at me I can fly!’. On your bike. Instead of all the terrible, terrible games they could have put out Sonic 4 in 1996 and not make us wait 16 years for the fourth part of the ‘main’ Sonic series.

Wow, I didn’t actually know I was that angry about Sonic. Before I find something else I hate and blow a blood-vessel I think I’ll throw it open. What would you change in history? It could be as simple as a controller layout (for example making the N64 controller usable for, you know, humans) or as complex as redefining an entire series. Let us know.

Thanks to bunimomike (again) for suggesting this topic. Have your own topic? Why not suggest it?