RE: Meta Era
YamiShadow > 09-19-2021, 01:19 PM
I was a little confused at first what you meant by the meta era, to be honest. Usually in my mind I sort Sonic game eras by gameplay style (Classic, Adventure, Boost; Boom is its own tumour). xD Under that kind of classification scheme I usually put Unleashed in the same category as the other boost games.
But, it looks like maybe you've categorized based on narrative and dialogue style. Looked at from that perspective, I see why Unleashed would be excluded.
As far as this specific era goes, I've got three main opinions, but it's probably my second favourite overall. xD
First and foremost, yeah the dialogue and narrative is very kiddy. I don't like it much, although I do often find it funny. But I think it's easy to forget, even the edgy Adventure era that I adore is kiddy in its own right. Being a 90s kid, that's my kind of kiddy. Back then, Sonic was cool. Nowadays he's much more washed up and survives in no small part due to meme culture and irony. Epic but extremely cheesy is the Sonic I grew up with and loved too, but I think this change makes a certain kind of sense, even if I'm not exactly a fan of it.
Secondly, boost gameplay. It is very much simplified compared to the much loved Classic era or even the Adventure era. More challenge would be nice (but really I just want more 3D stages, though we'll come back to this for the third point). But, having said that, personally I think the boost games are a heck of a lot of fun. I don't think anything else, Sonic or otherwise, can actually compete with the exhilarating sense of speed these games offer. Whatever the auto segments as well, the gameplay in between is like rhythmic perfectionism when you really get into it for its own sake rather than just to progress the plot. Boost could present more of a challenge, yeah, but it's definitely not a drag to play.
Finally, we get to the elephant in the room: Classic Sonic in particular and, more generally, 2D gameplay. This is probably my biggest play complaint for boost style Sonic games. I go in hoping for boost fun, and I almost always walk away with more of something else. Whether that something else be a Werehog, levels being overwhelmingly 2D (looking at you Colours), Classic Sonic, or (surprise!) Classic Sonic once again, there's always something that isn't 3D boost gameplay that I walk away with being the thing that took up most of my time. Sometimes these gimmick gameplays are fun, I occasionally think Werehog is okay and I actually really enjoyed the furry fan characters in Forces (especially in the stages with both them and Sonic!). But, the point is they often take up too much of the game for my liking. There are undoubtedly reasons why they exist (variety, lengthening playtime, budget and development hurdles, etc.) and I'm not opposed to there being other gameplay styles. It worked fine enough in Sonic Adventure 2 (and to a lesser extent in Adventure) and it was totally okay in the Classic Sonic games when Tails and Knuckles showed up. It's just that in the boost era, and by extension the meta era, there's too much. This has always been a risk, even the games that get this balance right have had me occasionally wary. It's just that the newer stuff is hit the hardest, despite Sonic's friends being largely relegated to cutscenes. Arguably Generations suffers the least from this issue given the roughly 50/50 split of classic and boost stages. Even then though, arbitrarily assuming each stage takes the same amount of time to play, that means you're playing in 2D a good 60-75% of the time.
Still, having said all that, I do genuinely enjoy a lot of these games. They're very fun, flawed or not, and it's a gameplay style I'd be sad to see go in favour of anything else besides maybe the Adventure style. I hear talk about leaks which suggest that may be exactly what we're getting with Rangers, but as always with Sonic, although I know I'll get it, I won't let myself get too excited until I know what exactly I'm getting myself into. xD
