Sonicka

I found it quite odd that this was a topic of conversation for both trailers.

Prime Remastered seemed visually more impressive to me, however I suspect that was mostly due to the facelift on pre existing assets.

Prime 4 is brand new and seems to go for more stylised visuals, which is a different choice to the previous 3 games - but it didn’t appear out of the ordinary for anything the Switch 1 could cope with.

I think it’s also easy to forget that a lot of the 1st Party Devs are magicians. They have always been able to take advantage of the Switches capabilities and potential output over 90% of other game releases.

@bleeflooflah I mean, I would hope it’s NOT chat personally. That’s should be a basic and expected feature of any console. It’s just… Nintendo.

Knowing them they will throw a curveball and C will stand for “Create” or something like that instead 🤣

Oh god, what if C is for “Calibrate” - Nintendo’s favourite pastime 😆

Whilst an option for a dual screen thing would be cool (as in connect), I don’t think a specific button makes a lot of sense to enable a mode like this (not to mention users that don’t have or traded in the Switch 1).

More likely? As as others have mentioned, “Cast / Community / Connect” but for sharing (like PlayStation has the Share button” for example).

Similarly, “Cursor” mode also makes some sense, but why would the C button also be on the Pro Controller (if the leaks are real). This would mean it would need to ensure the other joycon has the option of doing that too since it has no identical button.

Personally, I think that “Chat” seems like the most obvious answer, and as boring as that might sound consider how Chat options are practically non-existent on Nintendo platforms - this would be pretty revolutionary by Nintendo’s standards.

@BlackenedHalo Personally, I’m pretty glad they got rid of all the extra junk and levelling and so forth. It’s needlessly over complicating things and I was not a fan of this in the original.

Not to mention, Field skills and complex menu and reward systems also seeped over in XC2 and that IMO was one of the games worst and most egregious aspects.

Since they’ve worked on XC1DE, Monolith have clearly heard a lot of feedback into what the overall player base wants from their titles, this is what has allowed them to trim the fat, learn from their mistakes, and make menu systems and levelling (in the recent releases) much more user friendly.

On the plus, you still have the WiiU version to return to if you favour things there 🙂

@bimmy-lee you are quite right, I meant Apple Arcade and was getting the subs muddled up.

Yeah, it’s not very clear to me what I’m doing in this version - not only that but I can’t re-read the tutorials to try and understand how to progress.

Just wish I could make it past the tutorial. I weirdly can’t wrap my head around understanding the mechanics of this title and have yet to win a single game (and I’ve come back to this game on three separate occasions and each time leave more frustrated) 🤣

Thankfully it was “free” on Netflix. Maybe someday I’ll understand so I can get into it properly since it’s apparently very good.

Metroid Prime 2/3 Remasters
Metroid Prime 4 Trailer
Zelda WW & TP HD ports
Starfox Zero Port
Kirby Planet Robobot Port
Xenoblade Warriors
Hyrule Warriors 3
F-Zero GX Port

You know, the usual unrealistically high expectations 🤣

I feel like the missed opportunity here is not having Pac-Man himself AS the Ball you move around.

@abbyhitter this is actually very true, and I have a feeling it may have been included in error because of Xenoblade X.

XC3 is definitely a segmented map and not open world despite being close due to the grandiose feeling.

On the flipside, if Xenoblade 3 fits this lists’ definition of “open world” then where is XC2? XC1? Monster Hunter Rise? Pokémon Legends? Scarlet and Violet? Sonic Frontiers? Etc… etc…

@weisske personally I think that they excel in their fields 😏

Whilst it’s gunna be tricky for them to address all the main issues from the Beta (which are likely hard baked into the gameplay experience) - it’s good to know they hear the audience enough to hopefully be able to adjust a few things.

TBH though, I think the main point of the Beta was for SEGA to stress test how well their servers coped during online races and matchmaking with this title, so I’m not expecting much outside of item rebalancing.

I’m still going to fight on my hill and say that Future Connected should really be on this list.

It’s a seperate epilogue to the main game, can be played anytime, and I know quite a few people that bought XC1DE so they could just experience it. It’s no different to complete editions of titles having DLC chapters packed in (except this DLC wasn’t available prior).

I do however, somewhat get the flawed logic of why it isn’t listed - it can’t be purchased without buying into the main experience. But if we’re being honest, the other two DLC’s have had entirely different ways of being released. Saying FC is just an epilogue is no different to Torna or FR acting as prologues really.

In any case… although the list is dynamic - it pretty much aligns with my ranking at present.

XC1DE = XC3 > XC2 > XCX

FR > Torna > FC

Those that are worried about X being low shouldn’t be. All the games are basically 10/10 experiences, X also had the most limited reached of players considering it was a WiiU game, so won’t have been experienced by as many as the others in the series.

All basically 10’s. But for the sake of the list and my personal rankings.

XB3 = XB1-DE > XB2 > XBX

Torna, Future Connected & Future Redeemed are all solid 9 or 10’s as well.

…Actually… where is Future Connected on this list Nintendolife? It feels really weird to include the other two story expansions when Future Connected was just as robust an experience with its own game world and mechanics that can only be played seperately from the base game.

I can somewhat understand the approach of this list as “paid releases” - which means FC came packaged with the XB1-DE… BUT, given the nature of each games extra story content being released in an entirely different way each time (eg - FC packaged in as a bonus, Torna sold as a seperate physical game experience, FR sold as part of a DLC pass) I think FC should 100% have its own slot.

Please can you add this on? 🙏 🙂

@Folkloner Yup, exactly what I did a few weeks back. In the UK this retailer always seems to have a specific 10% discount off the latest releases. Best place to go.

Beautiful 🥲 I’m glad Reine released her tracks for this game.

It does however continue to make me feel very depressed that they felt Earthblade needed to be cancelled, I’ve been hyped for this game for a number of years.

From the initial concept and early gameplay it looked real promising. I hope they’re able to find their groove again with their next project.

I understand that during pre or mid development that things get cancelled all the time, so… please don’t announce anything until you are close to a release next time EXOK.

@Zeebor15 not entirely the same thing, CTR is primarily a remake of the PlayStation 1 game. The fact that we got all the course content and extras from NK is a wonderful bonus.

@larryisaman except they are not the same as those sorts of remakes, not entirely anyway - and neither was 1&2. I’ll admit I do think it’s a bit odd to remove something that’s part of that particular games experience, but honestly given the overall “classic” structure of TH games over the first 4 titles anyway, I don’t think it will be overly detrimental that it will make that much difference.

THPS4 was them playing about with a new idea which was then solidified in the Underground Series. This is them streamlining 4 to fit in with the classic gameplay structure. I don’t think we’re losing much value here IMHO.

Unless you’re a fan of the free roam option, I’m not sure this really matters all that much ultimately.

Seems like they just want the overall experience to be a cohesive package. Let’s not forget this is not exactly a direct remake in the same vein as Crash Bandicoot or Spyro with multiple games packaged together. Like the 1&2 Remake it will most likely be the sum of both games when fused into one experience.

I can almost guarantee it was considered during development to go in the other direction and add the free roaming to THPS3, or to keep both experiences different. Iron Galaxy have just landed on what they feel is the best option for this overall package, and considering what the original 4 games bring to the table it makes the most sense to me.

Now Tony Hawks Underground… that’s another story…

@HugoGED was about to say the same thing, they’ve somehow messed this up in the English advertising.

Oh well.

@Tasuki I see, I’m getting the who, what and where’s slightly muddled. Thanks.

Well, at least 3&4 appears to be back on the table again for whatever reason or change.

@Tasuki Ah, I was aware of Neversoft, but I thought Beenox took care of the Remake? Or VV… 🤔

Now I’m not sure. I thought I read that after the 1&2 remake the devs that worked on it got absorbed back into the main company thus thwarting a 3&4 remake coming out (which is why I am presently surprised it is happening).

Replaying the 1&2 Remakes in preparation.

…But honestly, 3&4 were where it was really at for me - this is exciting! 🙂

It’s also surprising as I thought Beenox were completely absorbed into Actiblizzard for COD duties.

Maybe there is a slither of hope left after all.

Sure. Can’t wait to catch all 3,300 Pokémon’s by then 👍

@Anti-Matter neither, it’s Xenoblade Chronicles 2 style (which presently seems to be the closest approximation)

Looks like a step from Arceus to me whilst keeping the same art design and character model types.

What’s makes this feel different is the flip from an Ancient Rural Landscape to a Large Urban city set in the present, so tonally it should feel different.

I can appreciate what they were trying to go for with Arceus and its style, but it is by far one of the most visually unappealing Pokemon titles they’ve ever developed, muddy, dull, empty, visual clippings everywhere and N64 fog aplenty. For all its issues even Sc/Vi was a substantial step up.

Z-A at the very least seems to visually hold its own a little bit more and has substantial improvements. But it’s no peak of the system like BOTW or the Xenoblade games achieve.

@Meowmixes98 the obvious answer is likely to be...different game modes & customisation for rulesets (both offline and online).

The Chaos is fun (I'm not discounting that), but skill is also a reward unto itself for players that want a challenge.

@LXP8 MK8: DX is indeed the Smash Ultimate of Racers, but it’s also consists of 10 years worth of inconsistent updates and multiple paid DLC passes.

CTR: NF is similar in that it was supported for about a year with free updates and free DLC (with only the characters and cosmetics gated behind free battle passes and MTX if the grind for the shop wasn’t for you).

Sonic Crossworlds seems to promise a fair amount out of the gate with more to come in the future when you consider the character variations from other series such as Sonic Prime is included. After Shadow Generations I have no doubt the Movie Verse skins will eventually appear as well since SEGA is very much pushing a cross media marketing approach right now.

We also know characters represented from other franchises are making a return - in fact, one of the Crossworld tracks (the fire/lava world) is referencing from SEGA’s Galaxy Force II (an old arcade game), so it wouldn’t surprise me if there is more is to come later on.

Having played the Beta like many this weekend, I can certainly confirm that it's presently a chaotic mess, but a weirdly addictive mess at the same time. Winning is random, and if you want to make your way up the ranking stakes then you better be feeling lucky.

I will say that if there's any remaining doubt over Sumo Digitals involvement in this title, then that can now be thrown to the wind, they are not involved and this feels absolutely nothing like their trilogy of racers whatsoever.

This is not necessarily a bad thing mind you, as the attempt here is for something much closer to Crusin' Blast in terms of pure arcade shenanigans. But the weighty handling, the over-reliance on drifting to turn at any given moment, the sensory overload of things going on on-screen, the fact that the game doesn't penalise you for mistakes apart from getting hit by items AND the way it pushes you forwards (almost automatically sometimes) has this feeling dangerously closer in scope to Mario Kart Tour right now.

The soundtrack is also oddly subpar this time with some weird synth choirs that have me hoping this is just placeholder music (otherwise the actual melodies are great). But disappointingly this does not play as close to a 'Transformed 2' as I hoped; boats are missing the proper drifting mechanics and planes no longer have flexible movements or barrel rolling and so forth, it's all very very stiff. It kind of makes sense when you conciser that the transformed sections of the track are very short (and straight) set pieces as opposed to what the original Transformed game offered, here it is not the primary feature for the courses, but just a cheap secondary gimmick for spectacle which is a damn shame.

The positives are that despite it all... it is actually quite fun! There's a clear ambition with the scope of worlds and characters this time around (compared to TSR's limited worlds and roster), and the Crossworlds feature keeps things fresh and exciting a making every race feel slightly different to the last. Oh, and car customisation is pretty damn sick.

Anyway, this is just the Beta and we only had access to the online multiplayer, so it's just a merger slice of the overall pie. Hopefully any feedback the team receive will allow them to adjust any issues into the final build.

I hope it's a remaster of 3 & 4. The remasters of 1 & 2 were awesome, but I had so much more fun with 3 & 4 growing up

Probably paving the way for a new rewards scheme with the Switch 2 I suspect.

In any case, it still massively sucks. I love earning and spending gold points on the eshop, it’s like giving yourself that personal sneaky discount.

@PrinceVegeta sure thing. Apologies, I’m not trying to come across as argumentative on this one, I’m only going by what the Developers are announcing on Twitter as involvement.

But it honestly would not surprise me if Sumo are still involved somehow. The modern racing series (amongst other Sonic spinoffs) was their bread and butter for SEGA. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

@TheSupaShinobi it's because it was directed at you, and potentially I've misinterpreted your statement.

I was just backing up your claim, but also stating that the devs behind Initial D working on the game was not common knowledge until yesterday.

@PrinceVegeta to be honest, I was on the "it's still Sumo Digital" team until recently. However, it's becoming more and more clear now that they really aren't working on this title (especially when you take into account the recent layouts within Sumo Group).

This does appear that SEGA have taken this on as a more in-house project this time around, which in fairness they've always said was the case since the announcement.

(It would not surprise me if some of the original assets were shared however).

The question now is if the game will still feel true to the original, as I really enjoyed the feel of the speed and drift mechanics from the first 3 titles. Crossworlds already to be more Arcadey in nature (that's not a bad thing mind you!).

@theSupashinobi it's not common knowledge - the team behind the arcade game "Initial D" literally just announced their involvement as the developers of the game on their official Twitter account hours ago.

Essentially, this means SEGA's arcade racing game division is the driving force behind Crossworlds, so at least the game is in safe hands.

I guess that officially puts Sumo's involvement as lead developer to rest I suppose, which honestly is / isn't a surprise.

@russell-marlow you can do far worse in the racing kart genre, but “safe” this series has rarely been.

Perhaps the original you could call a Mario Kart knockoff / competitor, but Sonic Team Racing has a fantastic idea in concept that has not been done before. The problem is that it wasn’t fully realised and had a lack of substantial content.

But Transformed? Now that was title that actually outdid Mario Kart back in the day (until MK8 came along anyway). Transformed against MK7? There was no real competition to be had there.

@DragotheKomodo no specific reason that it ties the the other things other than it’s a brand new character, I’m just easily excitable 🤣

@DragotheKomodo it comes from SEGA’s own press release.

That’s how we know IP’s from other franchises and Sonic universes will be included:

https://x.com/saac_news/status/1889818015069511715?s=46

Sonic Prime Characters / Skins will also be available for those signing up to the digital deluxe and SEGA also confirmed this is just the starting roster from launch.

Once we get going it’s more than likely that other IP characters will boost the roster from the 23 spotted in the trailer. We also know that Sage from Frontiers will be playable, as well as other Crossovers characters and skins from other Sonic Universes (tho not yet announced, I suspect this will likely pertain to the movie universe, boom, and retro skins to say the very least).

They’ve also confirmed that the game will contain (at the start) 24 different tracks and 15 crossworlds.

So yup, it’s definitely looking like they are going to surpass ASRT in terms of content.

@Anti-Matter fan of Smash Bros? I genuinely don’t really understand the problem, just choose not to play as those characters if it’s an issue.

@JakedaArbok Actually, it’s Metal Harbour from Sonic Adventure 2 and not afterburner that’s this is based on (but I TOTALLY see it as well).

I clearly spoke too soon… The press release actually states characters from other SEGA properties will be in this game as well!

https://x.com/saac_news/status/1889818015069511715?s=46

Not only that but Iizuka’s statement on the game:

“ In Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, not only did we want to introduce the innovative idea of racing through different worlds as you warp through the Travel Rings, but we also wanted anyone who had fun playing our previous Sonic Racing games to really enjoy this title, so we took a lot of elements from those past games and incorporated them. We included the Extreme Gear from the Sonic Riders series as well as the Transform feature from the All-Stars Racing series, making it a great culmination of all the Sonic Racing series games to date. I hope everyone really enjoys Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.”
– Takeshi Iizuka, Creative Officer, Sonic Team”

I gotta hand it to Sonic Team, they’ve been pretty good at listening to fan feedback over the last few years.

Wowsers! Now that was a trailer.

So basically this is the next evolution on Transformed, incorporates the gear from Riders as a Vehicle type, AND (as we suspected) you do portal to different tracks and worlds mid race… and better yet - this gets mixed up as well.

I’m personally not that bummed out on losing the other SEGA IP from TRANSFORMED, but I am excited that they are doing what Team Sonic Racing failed at… which is finally having a larger variety of zones, areas, acts, levels from across the entire franchise. Seeing stuff like Metal Harbour from Adventure 2, the Dinosaur and Pirate worlds from Secret Rings, or Chao Park is all the right kind of things I like seeing.

Sign me up for the beta playtest! Yes indeeed!

@Clyde_Radcliffe now THAT would be an option.

Indeed, from the initial "leaked" screenshots (if true) it does seem to point towards "Crossworlds" actually inferring more towards being a smashup of all previous Sonic Racing games (yes, ALL) in one, especially with vehicle types.

However, I'm still willing to bet that as part of the tracks you'll be portal-ling mid race to other worlds in the Sonic Verse. If Shadow can do it in his game, there's no reason to think they won't simply leap between different acts/worlds from each game series (like Storybook / Lost World / Boost / Classic / Adventure / Movie / etc...)

It’s not a dealbreaker, but I’d hope there is at least an option for LCD and OLED models at launch.

After getting an OLED Switch I genuinely could not believe the night and day difference it made to the overall handheld experience.

I get what he's saying on a personal level, but honestly the Wii game is what made the experience actually enjoyable in context of the gameplay being married with the IR pointer and motion controls, these worked pretty damn near perfect for my experience.

The PS2 OG may have had the superior graphical filter, but the slower analogue controls alone just don't cut it for me with the brush mechanic.

That said, the HD Remake is available now for the best of all worlds (and physically drawing on the tablet).

@HugoGED it would be quite a surprise if they weren’t.

But then again, allegedly Crossworlds is being developed by SEGA’s in house “elite racing team” …which doesn’t actually tell us anything because Sumo Digital has been SEGA’s pedigree racing go to developer for the last 20 years.

Still, crazier things have happened… we’ve had Sonic Riders and all that jazz after all.

Edit: @pikaphantom - basically this - everything you just said 🙂

Despite the evidence to showcase, I’m still not overly convinced this was ever the case in the first place (re: her being censored).

(Please, do not send me links either - I’ve seen it all)

Personally, it felt a lot more powerful to me without the inclusivity element, which has now somewhat overly politicised the character in the re-release, not to mention change how I was attached to Vivian on my original play through.

I had similar feelings when they retroactively did this to Madeline in Celeste as well.

Problem with this is I can’t write this without it sounding like I’m against the whole trans ideal, when actually it’s moreso about retconning the character development that I personally empathised with originally, and now cannot relate as much with the changes.

That being said, I do appreciate the what this does for the trans community and highlights diversity in gaming. It’s also a huge plus to be progressive, especially considering this is a Nintendo game.

@8bit-Man like to think that the last last 8-10 years of Nintendo trying to incorporate this technology essentially acts as one such consumer test for Magnets potentially losing their grip and/or failing.

That said, I feel it won’t be exclusively held on by the magnet alone. There extra trigger on the back helps with the joy-con disconnection process so I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a secondary latch to help keep it attached.

Considering that each has built on the previous installment and been more successful than the last it does make sense for there to be more (and of course, because of the teaser at the end).

In this industry they are always going to follow the money, and Sonic has been a bit of a surprise hit for Paramount and SEGA.

Thankfully though, it seems like the creative team behind the movieverse have taken a decent amount of care to ensure that these films work, especially within the often scrutinised live action setting. Sonic somehow achieved what Super Mario’s Bros. (amongst many other video game adaptions) could not in this particular setting.

There’s also this gathering of background lore and characters that seems to be building up piece by piece, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this does culminate towards something of an “Endgame” style event eventually.

As a fan of the series in general, it makes me happy to live in a timeline where this has been successful. I just hope that Zelda is able to find a similar stronghold and footing, not to mention Nintendo’s second stab in their animated Mario Bros movie venture.

Fact is, saying this is “based on the work of” isn’t good enough. This IS Retro’s (& Monster Games) work.

If I was a colourist and fine tune coloured a B&W Manga I wouldn’t be allowed to say “based on the work of” or claim that it was my work.

I’m not saying Forever Entertainment did nothing, Porting a game is still a job and a half to do, but this is most certainly a collaboration at least so other peoples efforts should be recognised in the credits.

The crazy thing is that it’s such a nothing piece of effort to add this in that Retro’s Staff not being included was almost certainly a decision made from above.

Not a fan, but I get that this is moreso them going for a redesign based on the original 1980’s design for some bizarre reason (even though that is really Kranky Kong).

I also understand confirmatory for publicity and reselling... But the movie designs were a huge step down overall (but that’s more an Illumination adaption issue than a Nintendo thing, even though they signed off on it).

If we’re going for new designs all around? Sure. Mario Wonder was very cool and trippy Mario-Esque stuff that conforms and extends to how we see the world already, follow the magic.

If they are trying to gradually move everything into the movieverse then I don’t really want to know. I’d keep the game universe as far away from the movie designs as possible. Nintendo do not need to be referencing or taking notes from a company like Illumination.

Not expecting a massive leap in graphics TBH.

Mario Kart 8 & Deluxe already felt like it was pushing the WiiU and Switch to PS4 levels of quality so I don’t really think the jump across here is going to be massive (plus as others have said - could likely be the platforms Cross Gen Title)

Knowing Nintendo - they’ll probably call this iteration “Mario Kart Twenty Four” or something 🤣