Sounds like a good exuse for the PS3 version. And for the 360? I suppose the reason for it being bad is because it's not good. Maybe that's also George Bush's fault.

Well, Sacred Rings is getting some decent mentions in alot of places. Check out Gamerankings.

Sure, that explains the crappy load times. It doesn't explain why they thought putting realistic-looking humans and Sonic in scenes together was okay.

I think the whole article was mistranslated. The real answer was probably more like "because Sega corp isn't exactly flush with cash and we figured even if we shipped this piece of crap, people would still buy it and put money in the coffers".

Cause that's the real answer in the end. Companies almost never make games as art. They're making games in order to sell copies of them. If you can figure out way to make a game people will buy (Madden!) without it being any good, wasting money making it good just reduces your profit margins.

EA has learned this very well.

Furries loved the human kissing, thus Sega was appealing to Sonic's core fanbase. Srsly, besides those drama queens, who really truly loves Sonic and his games anymore?
The rest of us are merely holding out hope that he'll stop sucking.

I'm picking up Secret Rings tomorrow, so here's hoping.

...I think though, they need to dig into Sonic's roots a bit... Ditch the extraneous hedgehogs (Anyone not named 'Sonic' or 'Mecha-Sonic'), no humans, maybe leave Espio, Tails, Knuckles in there...

Stop trying so hard with the X-treme plot, maybe introduce something like the American Sonic Saturday Morning cartoon (the one with the squirrel princess, and the 1/2 roboticized bunny, and the Walrus) ... maybe? I liked the simple 'Eggman's making all the animals into robots, we're resisting Eggman.' plot. No weirdo Chaos emerald chaos gods, no... whatever the story for Shadow the Hedgehog was...

I'm just gonna sing the theme song and hope for the best now...

"Blue streak... speeds by... Sonic the Hedgehog... too fast... for the naked eye... Sonic the Hedgehog... Sonic... he can really move..."

This week's issue of The Escapist has a feature on Sonic.

Click...and mourn.

Sonic failed because they added bad narrative/story/plot, bad voice acting, and bad "open endedness" to a game that was meant to be a speedy pick-up-and-play action platformer.

I see the reviews for Secret Rings on Wii are actually pretty good... so could someone who has the game tell me how many of the above 3 negative elements are still intact?

My eyes hurt just looking at that pic! Do they really expect you to be that accurate bouncing around those blue things and collecting those yellow things - all while dodging those other yellow things? This is like another one of those games where your poor repressive motor skills can't properly coordinate to because it is so overtly complicated and very time-consuming.

I think the closest they've ever come to a good 3D Sonic game was Sonic Adventure 1+2 (And those were still only just above average games). Everything after has just progressively stunk, Heroes was awful and if Sonic The Hedgehog is really as bad as everyone says it is then it looks like it's following the same trend. Unfortunately either they just can't find a way to effectively make a good 3D Sonic game or they really just aren't doing it right.

Excuses...all excuses...

Here's a clue Sonic Team: play the game before it releases. If it's not enjoyable, with a camera that is worse than any boss enemy, suspect controls, terrible voice acting and the music is ridiculously annoying rock that doesn't fit, then the game is a failure.

I used to respect Yuji Naka and Sonic Team. Now they are one of the worse developers I've seen in years. How can you continually embarrass your development team by reducing your key mascot to shovelware status.

Come to think of it...Other then the barebones port of VF5...has Sega released anything worthy of mention lately?

I say make Sonic 2D again. Sonic in the 3D world sucks badly.

I've played through Myst a couple times and I never saw Sonic running around.

That explains the glitches, even though it was a very poor team decision. So where are the excuses for the horrible game design or was that just intentional?

Haha, as if they couldn't have delayed the PS3 launch. With analyst predicting shortages months in advanced on the PS3 there should have been no indication that the install base would be high enough to warant a rush for launch. Brilliant strategy boys.

The last two or three didn't have any "launch pressure" so the excuses don't hold water.

SEGA published another Sonic game with real problems becuse they sell plenty with little investment. Until now of course.

Hey, Sonic Team, the real pressure is on now.

Why does everything have to be 3d can't they just make an awesome side scroll Sonic, ala Cloning Clyde which was very good, very successful . . .

It would be less intensive to develop(cheaper) and profitable(corporate will be pleased).

Sure, that excuse works. For the first game. The thing is, Sonic has had the same issues for the last two iterations. On this project, you ought to reduce scope, emphasize what you did wrong before, and know your limits.