Sega and Nintendo Are Getting Cozy

If you've been paying attention to Wii U news at all in the last day or so, then you've seen the above screenshot.  You know what it is.  You know -why- it is.  So you know why I'm using it - not only because it's like the only damn screenshot flying around (I believe), but because it's already created a little bit of a buzz on its own merits.  For those in the dark, the above is a screenshot or concept shot of Sonic:  Lost World, the newly announced Sonic game that will launch exclusively for the Wii U and 3DS at some point in the near-to-far future.  However, what it represents is something far bigger than just one game, no matter how good or not the game itself will be.  Personally, based on Generations, I'm hedging towards "really good", but we'll just have to see on that one.

Sonic:  Lost World is the first of a three-game exclusivity deal titled as a "Worldwide Partnership" that Sega and Nintendo have decided on with regards to the Sonic franchise.  This was announced during the Nintendo Direct from the other day and, as mentioned, made something of a splash considering Lost World -seems- like it's going to be a big-deal Sonic game.  Of course, Sonic games coming out exclusively on Nintendo consoles isn't anything new - look at Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic and the Black Knight and Sonic Colors, all exclusive to the Wii, with at least Colors being fairly well-regarded.  So to find out that they're running with that (ha!) still isn't much of a surprise, even after Generations skipped the Wii (and I believe the 3DS version wasn't quite full-featured).

The second game of the three-game deal, you might be wondering?  Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games for the Wii U.  It's the fourth installment of that particular franchise that I really don't see how it has seen four iterations.  It's...probably going to release sometime around Winter.  Moving on...

Switching gears for -just- a moment, and offering a nice little segue in the process, another part of the Nintendo Direct was the announcement that the 3DS' Virtual Console is getting more classic Game Gear games.  And classic in this case actually means classic, and not 'classic'.  With just about every Sonic game that came out for the device announced - Sonic Blast, Sonic Drift 2, Sonic Labyrinth, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and the tangentially related Tails Adventure - and a few other things to write home about surely - Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Shining Force II:  The Sword of Hajya and Vampire:  Master of Darkness - it's more than a little bit of a welcome development.  Announced all at the same time, it sort of elevates it by that much more, and makes me wonder how Sega can manage to get that many games up at once (or at least lined up at once), given how....difficult it seems to be to actually populate the Virtual Console.

Getting back to that third game that was mentioned as part of the deal, you're probably wondering what it is.  Truth is, we -all- are, since it's yet-to-be-announced and is likely going to be an E3 hold-over (even though Nintendo still isn't going to have an official E3 presser, just an obvious presence).  But simple knowing that it's going to be -something-, and that it's going to involve Sonic in some fashion leaves the door wide open to a whole network of possibilities.

From my little bit of investigating and a little bit of my own thought, one prominent theory seems to be a Mario Kart/Sonic All-Stars Racing Cross-over.  Which, I personally think is rather brilliant.  For some reason, to me it's felt like the Mario Kart series has been going a little downhill, though I'm not quite sure if I base that on my own personal opinion or opinions I've gleaned from portions of the internet.  Still, regardless of quality or lack thereof, the Wii U has not yet seen a Mario Kart game and with Nintendo's pro-crossover stance (as evidenced by Pokemon X Nobunaga's Ambition, Fire Emblem X Shin Megami Tensei, etc.) combining what are, in fact, two actual popular franchises into one with the added effect of that extra impact seems like a no-brainer.  Who -wouldn't- want to hop into a vehicle as Knuckles and Dash past Bowser, for instance?  Or, maybe even drive Luigi right past Sonic to pick up a last-moment first place?  It's definitely the thing I would expect from the last game of the deal, but we won't hear anything about it til about E3.

Now, my own personal hope would be for something a little more....inspired.  Which is a funny thing to say since my idea is basically Sonic Generations, but with Sonic -and- Mario, but, hey, Generations was pretty damn inspired, really.  Both franchises have seen shining installments in side-scrolling and fully 3D games and doing a mash-up of their various levels and styles would be something to see, especially since you have to find a happy middle ground for their clashing design philosophies.  Since Sonic is 'Gotta Go Fast', meaning he's got to have a longer track to go on than most of the classic Mario levels could offer, perhaps they could do a sort of system where all levels of a zone are connected end-to-end (as they are in the game, really) so Sonic speeds through an entire zone in a go rather than just 1-1 or 3-2.  Alternatively, having Mario bounced around by bumpers in a 3D, brightly-lit Casino-themed level from one of the Sonic installments with badass music in the background just brings some sort of sensation of joy to my brain and I'm not sure why.

If nothing else, that just goes to show just how open speculation can be on this sort of thing since details are very very sparse and we're just given a few things that are, likely just meant to inspire certain avenues of thought.  I know people are already thinking Lost World might be in the vein of a Mario Galaxy-type game because of the look of that single screenshot and Nintendo's involvement, and hell, that might actually be a good idea.  And even if the third game is 'just' a Mario Kart/Sonic All-Stars Racing Cross-Over, well, that's not a bad deal at all.  Of course, the game doesn't -have- to involve Mario at all, but it would seem a bit silly to announce two Sonic games...roughly at the same time, which is what they'd do, so unless he's partnering up with a different character (which isn't a bad thought), then look for -some- sort of Mario involvement.  Just one more reason to eagerly await E3, I suppose.

Sega also announced Yakuza 1&2 HD for the Wii U in Japan only and I couldn't think of a way to integrate that since it means nothing for North America, goddamnit Sega

Rollin' Around at the Speed of Sound...

In my quick crusade to make sure these games from 2011 that I got for Christmas are played at least somewhat before I have to vote for my Games of the Year in 2011, I threw Sonic Generations into the PS3 yesterday and gave it a whirl.  Between my playings yesterday and today, I think I have a fairly good profile on the game itself considering I've almost beaten it already.  Which I'll get into in a bit, but for now, I just wanted to focus on the fact that even though I've only played the game for a bit, I do think I am qualified to speak on it in at least a semi-informed manner which is crucial.  Because I'm gonna, and I wanted to ensure the relative lack of time and urgency of it doesn't detract from my perceived opinions on it.

I just wanted to start this off by saying that the game is an absolute goddamn visual treat.  It's bright, colorful and the frame-rate is more or less solid the whole time throughout which is at least somewhat impressive.  And, to that credit, the only time I've ever had issues with framerate seeming like it's pausing or janking or something like that, is when I'm trying to select a level or something so it's not even that bad.  During the actual gameplay, I've not had it chug or shift enough to have it 'screw me up' or anything like that which is honestly damn good.  So not having those wonderful visuals that were obviously crafted with a little more than the usual amount of care hampered or at a trade-off with the framerate is nothing short of fantastic.  It's probably worth losing a few lives to the game just so you can stop or slow down here and there to actually take it all in.

The other area the game really excels in unquestionably is the music department which shouldn't be a surprise at all.  After all, I have gushed just a bit about the music from the semi-modern versions of the game and that assuredly is just the first of at least a couple posts covering the songs from the entirety of Sonic.  Plenty of classic tracks from the games Sonic Generations cherry-picks its levels from have been remade at least once (to reflect the opposite version of what it was; modern remixes for classic songs and vice versa) which just sound amazing to begin with and the remixes are really good at the very least.  They might not always stand up to their predecessors, but they're decent enough in their own right.  For instance, when you take City Escape and put it against the remix made for Classic Sonic's stage....well, I'll let you hear it for yourself.

It's not as good in certain respects to the original, but it's most certainly a very good song, something I could definitely see myself listen to with just as much frequency as the original as well.  Another less-good example would be the remix of Open Your Heart which.....is going to take some getting used to.  I'm not willing to say I dislike it, but I prefer the mood the original has, the upbeat, on the attack nature it has to it, and the remix simply lacks that while replacing it with....distortion for effect.  What kind of effect, I'm not quite sure on, but it's -an- effect, that much is for sure.  And besides, on top of the remixes, they have a goodly bit of music from other games in the series that were skipped over for one reason or another.  (Such as coming from Sonic Spinball, which was a pinball game.)  These are straight-rips, which is a good thing for purists of course, and I'm not sure how much of the 50 songs in the music sections are just these and how many are going to be remixed tracks (since they're used for alternate stage music if you prefer) but suffice to say it's a good chunk of tunes.

There's a downhill, however, and it starts at the gameplay unfortunately.  Now, I'm not about to call the gameplay of Sonic Generations -bad- because there are other Sonic titles with far worse gameplay, but I feel like there's a level of precision that could have been put in place but hasn't been, and the game lacks for it.  Classic Sonic takes some getting used to but is largely easy enough to play as, whereas Modern Sonic is a little more fluid to play but suffers from a camera that is poor at times as well as maps that are plagued with spots where you can accidentally fall off or miss a jump to to fall to your death.  Sometimes repeatedly if you just can't stop yourself from doing that one jump the wrong way.  Or are unable to just get a little more to the right after the swing launches you up in the air and you miss the platform AGAIN and it's too late to get back into the swing and.....well, you get what I mean.  These moments are more the exception than the norm, really, but they exist and in a frequency higher than 'you might do it once or twice in the whole game'.

And the low-point of the game would have to be the plot, but in all honesty, the plot is so whatever it doesn't even matter.  You get Sonic Generations to play these remixed stages of classics and enjoy the best Sonic game in recent years, not to find out the very intricate and detailed plot of why Sonic is racing alongside Sonic to save time and space.  There's token sequences here and there that very briefly explain what just happened and it's all very interesting I assure you, really, but they're scarce by and large and serve as only a means of dividing the four sections as they are, which unfortunately leads to what seems to be a quite short overall playtime.  Every section has three areas and each area has two stages; the modern and classic stage.  After you clear those stages, challenge stages unlock and Boss keys show up; one key for each section with about four or five challenge stages for you to pick from to unlock that key with as it only takes one.  The rest are there to add replay value as there are, again, modern and classic Sonic versions of each.  After you beat the boss, you unlock a new area, do it all over again until you've beaten three bosses, wherein the final stage opens up.

I haven't been to the final stage yet, but I am right on the cusp of doing so; I have the third boss gate open before me, simply waiting for me to fire up the PS3 once more.  Depending on how it goes and how the final stage/boss treats me, I might just beat it tomorrow which would be both good and bad.  Good because hey, beat a game in 2012 from 2011!  Bad because then I would have little reason to play Sonic Generations anymore because I seriously am not going to get the Platinum for it, so I don't think I'll even bother.  I guess saying that it'll be a bad thing for me to not play it anymore is telling enough of how much I like the game,  though it's not an overwhelming like.  It's simply a charming, fun little romp through the history of Sonic.  And it serves as a bar that all future Sonic games should try to raise themselves up to.  Let's just see if Sonic Team can manage it.

Merry Christmas! - The Haul

Now, we all like Christmas for various reasons, whether it's for the time with family, the great meals, simply getting a day off of work (In most cases), or a combination of all those reasons or something else.  But we all enjoy presents, all of us, and almost better than getting the presents is being able to talk about just what you got.  Not to gloat, of course, but just to show off the excitement we feel in getting something we wanted without parting with sweet sweet cash to do so.  It is a time-honored tradition after all, of talking about presents that you get, whether it be for your birthday, holiday or some other occasion; mostly because it's in answer to someone inquiring about your gains.

So to answer the question that wasn't asked here, I got quite a nice haul between my parents and siblings and couldn't be happier.  Honestly, I probably got a little too much, but I certainly can't complain nor do I intend to.  Nor will I suggest that I deserve it all, but it has been a fairly rough year so getting what I got was quite nice, not to mention that my actual Christmas day went quite a lot better than I had expected.  Without saying too much on it, my family hasn't all been in the best state this year (Which is part of why it's been a rough year, but not near the full reason) but we managed to get together today and really mend fences and be...well, a family for once and it was nice.  I was quite surprised by that really, and while the cynic in me is being cynical, I'm just going to roll with it.

I got a few games this year which were the main highlight obviously, but the above-pictured Sonic Generations was the real surprise here.  Three of the games I got, Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3, Fist of the North Star:  Ken's Rage (Two more Warriors-esque games?  I'm obviously a madman) and Shadows of the Damned (in preparation for Lollipop Chainsaw of course), I knew about before Christmas unfortunately as I had to take part in ordering them since folks in my family aren't too well-versed in computer things and the first two games are fairly difficult to find in store.  Ken's Rage and Shadows were both used (only option, unfortunately) so they didn't cost a lot thankfully and I'm just glad to have them, but as I said the element of surprise had been lost on them.

When I went to GameStop with my dad to fix a screw-up with a present for my nephews (more online ordering, got a pretty bad case/game, managed to swap the game) and he not-so-subtly sent me back to the car while remaining, it was fairly obvious that there was at least something else in store.  Being an over-analytical ass, I saw some white in the bag that he carried out and (correctly) deduced that it was Assassin's Creed:  Brotherhood as it had been on my list, which again ruined a bit of the surprise.  But I couldn't tell if there was anything in that bag which sparked the fire of wonderment; really I think that's half the fun of Christmas presents, wondering just what they are.  At the top of my list of possible suspects were Alpha Protocol or Mass Effect 2 for PS3 which are both, thankfully, a mere $20 a piece and just one of them would have been more than enough. 

So as you can see, Sonic Generations completely and happily took me by surprise and I found myself in the delightful quandary of trying to decide between playing DWG3, Sonic Generations or AssBro.  It's a lucky dilemma to be in, let me tell you, and one I don't take lightly.  DWG3 won out, as I loved DWG2 dearly despite not playing enough of it, and as such I've been excited for DWG3 for quite a while.  At face value from a few hours of playing it I am a bit...conflicted, actually.  But that's exactly how I felt between the original and the sequel, so I figure it just takes a little bit of time to get used to how this one works.  If nothing else, I'm sure the new mobile suits and pilots will be enough to make me love the game (especially since I believe Duo Maxwell and Deathscythe made the cut) and can't wait to really get into it.

The other big thing would be the dearth of Gift Cards to GameStop that I received from just about all sides, meaning that my expectations for February's finances just got a whole lot easier.  To say that I got more than I expected is quite the understatement as I saw a figure on a list that was obviously for me because my dad is....not very good at being sneaky with such things.  This completely neglected to factor in my siblings adding to that total (as I didn't figure they would) or the idea that my dad could, er....forget that he bought the amount he was supposed to get for me and buy it again.  The first, I could probably think on, but the latter, well....that was just one of those happy accidents that never ever happen, I'd say.  And I am quite happy with the fact that it did of course.

It was really a very Merry Christmas over here as you can tell, and I hope you all have had equally wonderful Holidays.

Ragequit - Sonic Unleashed

I'm sure we've all heard the horror stories of Sonic games past Sonic Adventures 2 (or the original SA, depending on your tastes) on the Dreamcast, excluding Sonic Generations, but most of us have yet to truly step into one of those games if purely because of the stories and rumors about them.  When presented with the ability to jump in head-first to one of these games free-of-charge and running in my cousin's XBox 360, I took the opportunity, if just to see what truth lay in the words whispered in disgust.  As you might be able to tell, I have to unfortunately agree with the bulk of them, or at least the ones that say that Sonic Unleashed is not really a good game.  It is a serviceable game with flashes of brilliance, and by no means is it completely bad, but it just doesn't make it past the threshold into 'good'.

I'm sure you've heard of the premise already, but for the pretense of explaining it, I'll figure that you don't or have forgotten it by now.  While I didn't catch quite all of it, I caught enough of it to know what was going on, at least, and as with all the Ragequit posts, don't take everything I say at face value since I have obviously let my feelings on the game color my opinion of it as a piece of work.  The barebones of it is that at the start of the game, the planet semi-explodes and Sonic is a werehog for reasons that are completely unexplained.  Along with that, Sonic meets a little rodent thing that can't remember anything himself, so the two decide to join together on a quest to figure out their own personal mysteries.  Along this journey, they run across a professor and somehow they all realize that putting the chaos emeralds into altars scattered around the world will pull it back together and thus a quest is born.

Apparently Sonic starts the game with the emeralds already, as at no point in the game was I, or my cousin, forced to gather then, unsurprisingly and it was only after boss fights that they came into play as every boss, of course, marked an area where an altar was.  By all means, however, know that this is mostly all I gleamed from my hours upon hours of playing Unleashed, so know that the story is...unobtrusive to say the least.  'Barely present' is the better term, and even when it's right in your face, 'slipshod' is a good word to describe it as it's poorly executed and it was clear that nobody really wanted a story in the game, yet there it is.  Half an effort is worse than no effort folks, and it's about time we all learned that.  There are other 'hooks' I could touch on, but doing so would...more or less be a spoiler and even for this type of post, I would hate to do that.

The gameplay is, surprisingly, the least offensive part of the game, yet it is also what holds the game back from being good, obviously, as the story is so barely-there it hardly counts.  In here is where the flashes of brilliance occur and they're not quite as few and far in between as some would suggest, but they certainly don't carry the overall experience either.  The gameplay is divided between Regular Sonic (during the day) running from Point A to Point B ala classic style in 3-D and sidescrolling style with several options for branching paths here and there depending on how awesome you do (which, by proxy, makes you feel more awesome playing it) and WereSonic (during the night, obviously) maneuvering about similar areas in what is well-spotted by several other critics as a God of War clone that is fairly clumsy but unoffensive.  The werehog stages are most definitely weaker by comparison but, again, they're not outright bad until you get into the later levels where the game starts hurling bullshit at you in large piles.

Really, that's true for both halves of the game anyway, but it's a little more taxing in the Werehog stages, since the 'bullshit' in the Regular Sonic stages can generally be mastered or skipped altogether if you find a different route.  Not true in Werehog levels since they have a very clear and defined path and even if you have to go completely backwards for twenty minutes to unlock a switch back halfway through the level that you've already been at purely to open a new door, the path is so straight it makes complaints about Final Fantasy XIII look tame.  As far as the types of set pieces there are in GoW and GoW-styled games, I'm sure we've all grown to fear and loathe the balance beam areas, but at least they've never been 'poorly' designed.  Not so in Sonic Unleashed as, not only do they introduce (far too early) spikes on the edges of balance beam sections (meaning if you stray, you fall to your death), but they also introduce spiked beams that crumble when you start to walk on them, thus requiring speed in sections that are not built for them.  It is, again, in a single word 'bullshit'.

Through the whole game, an upgrading system is prevalent, but easily ignorable that has, again, two halves to it for both of the versions of our protagonist.  Upgradeable for Sonic is his speed and the ring energy (boost) gauge only, whereas WereSonic has access to "Combat" which teaches you new moves, Strength which governs how hard they hit, Life which is obvious, Unleash which governs how much energy you can store up for unleash (basically every power-up trigger mode ever), and...something else, I can't quite remember Shield which we didn't upgrade at all since it only affected blocking and blocking was not going to get you far.  They're all arbitrarily necessary to level up several times to be any good at the game, yet you'll find that you mostly get the experience necessary for them in the werehog stages since you only get them from defeating enemies and the werehog stages are where 95% of the enemy encounters will be.  Again, something that was clearly not thought-out well enough beforehand.

For a while, a good while even, I was having fun with the game and was quite surprised that it was as poorly received as it was.  Again, I never claimed the game to be 'good', but I never said it was 'bad' either, but I was quite leaning towards the latter option when we got towards the end of the game.  The above mentioned spike beams were about en masse, hit detection for Werehog's moves was starting to become poorer and poorer (as was his ability to take damage, since it kept scaling up and up in ways that shield would not have prevented) and for Regular Sonic's side, required randomized jump pads (hit the corresponding button to jump) and quicktime events of three to five rapid and random buttons started to pop up mid-level which meant magically training up your reflexes or being stuck for the remainder of your lives until a Game Over meant you had to play the whole stage over again.

Quicktime events become a running theme, of course, and towards the start and then not again until the end, there is a certain type of level that may as well be a rhythm game, since it was certainly nothing else.  Without giving too much away, it was a defense mission that would bring up the buttons of the controller that you had to press in a small window or take damage.  Enough damage, obviously, means you die and have to start over from the last checkpoint.  Or it would, except there are no checkpoints in these levels which means if you get to the end and die to one of the 10-string button combos, you get to look forward to fighting your way back to it and trying again.  Once again, I had to call 'bullshit' which was time number two.

Then we finally got to what I can only assume was the last level.  I won't give it away, but suffice to say it was thematically set to be the last level or at least the penultimate level, which was like a wave of relief to us.  The fun and excitement the game had brought for a day had already faded at this point and we were left with a dull, uninspired and constantly infuriating shell of the game we assumed was present in the final stages.  It was in this level that the game threw its final curveball at us which was all at once great and terrible.  Throughout the game, you've been presented Hourglasses in the hub worlds that you can strike to switch between day and night which would allow access to the other half of the levels that you could play.  It seemed a little odd, since the hub worlds themselves were entirely too small for it to matter, but we figured it was a convenience thing, so as to prevent having to go into the village (past a loading screen) and shift day/night there (causing another loading screen) only to then go back into the hub (for the third and final loading screen).  We were wrong.

The game had been preparing us to know of these hourglasses because they were present within the final level itself.  Don't ask me how it works, since the stage seemed to be in a constant state of darkness of night, but you start it as Sonic and then part-way through find an hourglass that turns it to night (without a loading screen somehow) to play the next section as Weresonic.  It is a good idea on the very surface, to finally blend those two distinct styles into the final level and appropriate as well, but once again, the execution is Sega-Quality, which means they just don't know what the hell to do with it.  Switching once and then back is understandable, and even switching to weresonic again is 'okay'.  However when I switch back to Sonic only to imagine one last section as Weresonic, that's where I draw the line.  There is a such thing as overstaying one's welcome after all.

And that was as far as we made it.  That stage was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, as after one final death that brought around a Game Over during the third time you played as Regular Sonic in the same level, we both realized quite at the same time, awash with dread, that if we were to conquer the game, we'd have to play the entirety of the stage once again.  It was not a trial we were prepared to, so much as it seemed an exercise in futility, so we turned to one of a different color:  Modern Warfare 3.  I won't pretend that I was too 'indignant' to turn down a chance to play the title, nor will I suggest that I would've played anything so long as it wasn't Sonic Unleashed at that point, but I will say that it was quite a bit more enjoyable.  Which is disappointing, since every Sonic game that has been poorly received (likely for good reason) could have been so much better, as could have Unleashed.  But it was, unfortunately, as bad as you might've heard, if my breakdown is any indication.

Music! Sonic Edition

I've been watching a lot of stuff for Sonic Generations lately (which looks like a surprisingly good game, by the by) and I have to say that it reminded me of something that I've known for a while but, well, I guess I'd forgotten in past years:  Sonic games have friggin' fantastic music.  Now, while there's plenty of the classic songs I could throw up here and justify as to why they're there, I going to stick with Sonic Adventures 1&2 this time around as, while I haven't come right out and said it before, I loved the Dreamcast and I loved Sega as a whole way back in the day, so those two games probably had more of a lasting impression on me than any of the others.

First up, I've got the first of two songs from Sonic Adventure 2 (Which, amusingly enough, I don't think I ever beat.  At least, I don't remember doing so) which really needs no introduction.  Primarily because it was the introduction, basically, provided you decided to be Sonic at first by picking the Hero path.  Whosoever doesn't have fond memories of Sonic Adventure 2 while this song played is someone I don't care to meet, personally, because back in the day, if just for what it did, the first level of Sonic Adventure 2 (Hero Path) was fantastic and something everyone should've experienced.  So without going on about it anymore, here's City Escape from Sonic Adventure 2.

Next up is a song that, if the video is right on, is apparently the main theme of Sonic Adventure 1.  If it is, it's news to me, as I only remember the song from hearing it during the very last boss battle of Sonic Adventure 1, which I'm not going to name of course.  There's no real way this song can be embedded into my head any other way than with that fight, so to suggest to you that there's any possibility otherwise would just be lying to you.  Which I'm not known for doing, I would say.  Aside from being in the Final Boss fight, it's just a fun song to listen to by all means.  I haven't really heard it in Generations, but I have heard that there's some remixes in the game and the one of this was not stellar.  Can't confirm or deny myself, but considering that's what got me to talk about the songs, I figured it was mention worthy.  So here's Open Your Heart from Sonic Adventure 1.

The last song is the second of the two I picked from Sonic Adventure 2 and once again this appears to be the main theme of that game if I'm being told right.  Again, I couldn't tell you if that's true or not, since I don't remember a whole -lot- about the games other than some of the songs and some of the moments the games held.  Not really my overall experience or anything like that which is unfortunate and likely something that will get remedied at some point.  With any luck Sonic Adventure 2 will get an up-port treatment like it's predecessor and come out on PSN/XBLA where I could then snag both and overkill on the Sonic playing.  We'll just have to see, but in the meantime here's Live and Learn from Sonic Adventure 2.

It's always fun to look back at the songs from earlier years and realize that, yes, Video game music has -always- been awesome, general, and it's not some new trend that started with this or last generation, but far before that.  Music might be a little more loud, a little more booming, a little more involving or a little more 'epic' now, but if it's good, it's as good as it's always been.  I imagine if I do another look at Sonic music, I'll include some real classics to make that point a little more obvious.