[Jorpho]

That reminds me, does anyone remember that brief Youtube clip that showed up a few years ago, featuring some extra fancy-looking hires rendered 2D Green Hill zone?

[Psychlonic]

Sonic 2 HD? GHZ was released, the team did a good job but internal bickering ground the project to a halt and nothing else ever really happened. Supposedly they're still working on it... except they're not.

[Chaos Rush]

I can understand why some people are skeptical of this given SEGA's history in the 21st century, but personally I'm excited for this. This is the first 2D Sonic game in the past 20 years that is NOT being developed by Dimps; it is being developed by Christian Whitehead and Simon Thomley who accurately recreated Sonic CD, 1, and 2 for mobile in their own game engine. These guys have analyzed every nook and cranny of Sonic CD, Sonic 1, and Sonic 2 (and probably Sonic 3 & Knuckles), and it's about damn time that SEGA finally lets them make a Sonic game. I am so glad that SEGA seems to finally be ditching Dimps for 2D Sonic games. Sonic Mania is in good hands, and the guys behind it* have a good track record so far

*I'm not talking about SEGA, I'm talking about Christian Whithead and Simon Thomley

[Gemini]

I agree, the fact that Whitehead is working on this should give the game a solid gameplay. I also love how the trailer tries so hard to phrase the idea of "oh yes, we know recent Sonic fucking sucks, that's why we're giving you a proper one actually going back to what made it good".

[FAST6191]

Unless the staff is going around editing posts of the sonic fans then I fail to see why staff of anywhere should be required to hold neutral opinions -- it is the whole "mods are normal users with a broom" principle. I would have to agree though -- trying to be a Sonic fan after the 16 bit era was an exercise in masochism, I guess Rush was not the worst, though by no means comparable to the classics, and some people liked colours but the rest... even most of the ports/remakes were sub par. Similarly I have no idea where the Sonic Adventure fanbase sprang from as at the time the games were generally panned, most people in the years since pointed at them being where it all went wrong and that was how it was set to be. I don't think I was echo chambering myself (it seemed to be the opinion on ign, gamespot, gametrailers and gamefaqs as well as nice places to be on the internet), then again I did not see ? the hedgehog fan fiction ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA-4B2d4L18 ) coming either and would not have pegged it as a franchise close to being amenable to that sort of thing.

To that end I will believe it when I see it. There were some nice ideas in the thing I saw in a video I was linked but some of the animations and colours gave me pause.

[MathUser2929]

People liking Sonic Adventure now is kinda like how people grew to like Zelda Winds Waker years after it came out. At the time it came out people said the graphics were kiddy but over time people began to revere it as a zelda game.

[FAST6191]

People liked wind waker at the time though and the gameplay is pretty solid, end game treasure hunt not withstanding. Sonic adventure was panned by basically everybody (or at least "this ain't sonic") and does not exactly have solid gameplay to fall back on.

There have been plenty of games I have unexpectedly found a huge fanbase for but I never expected it for adventure.

[SleepyFist]

I actually like SA2 dark tone and all (though it could have used more work) but hated how it ditched the hub worlds from SA1, on the other hand I tried to go back to SA1 directors cut and found it kinda awful, music is great in both though.

[MegaManJuno]

Personally, while I've never downright hated what I've played of any of the Sonic games I've tried, I never really jumped on the fan bandwagon either.

They built a character for speed, then either designed levels where you have to take it slow, or they throw in random "traps" that punish the player for using said speed. So while I don't mind the character and the idea behind the games, the level designs generally left me feeling a bit "meh".

[FAST6191]

Some have argued that speed was never the aim, control however was and the levels reflected that. High level play then also reflecting that a bit and instead getting you to memorise things. Some mistook the marketing cretins as having a valid point and went for speed later on.

[USC]

Wow, the graphics look like a mix between Sonic Crackers and the fan-game Sonic: Time Attacked. I'm super excited about this!

And I definitely agree with FAST6191 about control vs speed; my favorite Sonic game was Sonic CD, which is probably the "slowest" of the originals. The exploration and warping between different versions of the level was what made it fun - but once you have a time period's area half-way memorized, you can blaze through pretty quickly.