When Sonic Games Play Themselves | Automation Analysis

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I had whiplash when you switched from original Sonic '06 footage to P06 footage immediately😭🤌🏾.

4:19 sir that is a loop

"It's not quite finished yet"

Neither is Sonic '06.

Shadow Generations gameplay requires you to just hold forward to win lol

So in conclusion sega just need to make super mario maker but sonic

i defend the wii and motion control was more than a gimmick.

Wii Sports
SM Galaxy
Super Paper Mario
Rabbids
Mario Kart

all used well.

Ok, so automation has always been in Sonic's DNA. But what if it was taken out? Would that not make way for something better?
Sonic GT has joined the chat.

Sonic 06 was easily the worst implementation of both the Sonic Adventure style, and the newer runner style that seems to have taken over after 06. Because it had both.

And here's my thoughts. In Sonic Adventure, yeah, the game DID have extended sections where you didn't need to input any controls. But you COULD. Sonic A2B had a lot of amusing shenanigans you could do with the slightly janky controls, and you could almost always wrest control back from the game if you really wanted to.

In 06, if you were in a boost panel section, and you TOUCHED the control stick wrong? The game would just fucking space you. If the game took control away from you, and it did so at an alarming rate, it would actively discard one of your lives if you tried to intervene.

And its high speed sections were just an obvious (bad) prototype for the later games. Which I also didn't like, but at least those were more functional

But as for whether or not automation is bad… I would argue it depends entirely on the duration. Glory Kills from Doom 2016 are perfect. Quick, short, satisfying, and 100% player choice to engage with. 15 seconds of spring bouncing where you can put your controller down? Once or twice a level is fine. But the more time is wasted, and the more frequently it happens, the worse it gets. The more you interrupt the gameplay, the more annoying it becomes. The old games were usually pretty quick about this sort of thing. Though I do remember the tubes getting pretty egregious at points.

I also don't think the boost style gameplay is necessarily "automation" unless you're not pressing buttons. Even in 06 you're still moving left and right. I don't LIKE it, but it's just a different style of gameplay.

With Sonic Forces, there's also very little spectacle to what's happening. You keep behind Sonic and see a blur of a straight path before you. If it didn't fail at making automation seem spectacular that then maybe it'd have less of a bad rap, especially since it seemed to be geared for fans who are…… Not good at the gameplay of Sonic but engage with the culture of Sonic a lot

Automated sections, Spectacle segments, and Boosting (as a mechanic) were never inherently bad. As this video points out, they've always existed to some extent throughout the series. The issue is when these elements are used as a crutch in substitute for weak or uninteresting level design. Which is my biggest beefs with many Boost formula levels and some other Sonic games.

To showcase Sonic's speed, yes, Sonic Team likes to lean into these elements. As a safe and guaranteed way to make a level feel exciting or show off a nice set piece. But the reason this approach grew so tiring is because they began to either slack hard in the actual fully controlled segments of games, or in the case of Forces… had little actual controlled segments to offer at all.

I get so peeved when Boost gameplay is called "the peak of 3D Sonic", because there's few moments where you'll get that fully 3D control. Yes, you'll get your reaction based obstacle segments… but will soon be thrown into 2D gameplay that is inferior to the 2D gameplay in the Classics or even some of the handheld games. It just feels thrown together sometimes to extend the illusion of the 3D segments actually letting you do some cool things.

NOT to say games like Unleashed & Generations have nothing worthwhile in their 3D segments at all, because its not true. They can have some great set pieces with a good amount of control.

It's just as the games continued… obviously stuff like the 2D sections and long stretchs of empty boost roads got even worse lol. So it just made me feel more bitter to it.

And again, that's not to say the other formulas were immune to this issue. Because they weren't. But those formulas HAVE to feature more level design with actual thought into it naturally. Its far more noticable if not otherwise.

But that's just for Sonic himself, obviously if we're talking some of the other characters and their unique playstyles… they have their own rabbit holes. But that's just my two cents.

I don't know how people complain about prolonged near-automated level segments and don't talk about Sonic Mania. Mania has a lot of fairly lengthy sections you can get through just holding down.

Is it okay to say the automated parts are cool depending on the game. I mean sonic is cool when he’s jumping wall to wall or running upside or on water!