WI: Sonic 2006, was not rushed and was actually good?

Sonic 06, what can I say about it? Some people hate it, others defend it...me, I'm in the middle. But that's not what I'm here to ask.

-----------

(Taken from Sonic Retro)

Beginning development after Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog was meant to be a rebirth of the series, taking elements that people had praised in the preceding Adventure titles and bring Sonic "back to his roots." Nothing pointed more to the idea of using this game to celebrate what made Sonic the Hedgehog the "Most Famous Hedgehog In The World" then naming the game after the first in the series.

However, instead of keeping things simple, the staff behind the creation of the game came up with numerous ideas they wanted to flesh out, wanting the game to also be the ultimate Sonic experience.

The existence of what would become Sonic's 15th anniversary celebration became known to the masses during the Electronic Entertainment Expo of 2005, where a video was shown behind closed doors of what the team hoped to accomplish with the game. Although an unplayable demonstration, the video was leaked to the Internet and speculation began to run wild.

Some of those questions were answered later that year at the Tokyo Game Show, where a playable demo of the game was showcased. Although not a full level, the demo was meant to display the new technology behind the game, including the day/night cycle visual effects and the use of the Havoc engine for the physics.

It wasn't long after this outing, however, when the original Executive Producer of the game (and one of the founding fathers of the Sonic franchise) Yuji Naka announced his resignation from Sega, going off to eventually create his own development studio, Prope. Without this central figurehead, pressure was put upon the director of the game, Shun Nakamura, to release what Sega would hope to be a stellar title in the Sonic franchise, and to help relaunch the brand for the new generation of consoles.

Fate would not be on the side of Nakamura and the rest of the team, for development of the sprawling game would prove to be too short.

Pressured into having the game ready for Christmas of 2006 regardless of the consequences, the game was shipped to less than stellar reception from critics. Many of the features that had been promised were absent, control issues and prominent bugs littering the product. For many, it became the worst Sonic game released, and for a few, it was considered a contender for being the worst game of all time, promising too much and not delivering.

------------

So many ideas were planned for this game, and it had the potential to be a truely great title to do all what Sega hoped and more. However it never had it's chance to bloom and be truly created into the masterpeice it could have been.

So, what if this game had been given the time it needed how would things have gone.

POD is Sega giving Nakamura and the development team, the time they needed to finish the game. How would things have gone from there?
 
Top