Saturday, January 24, 2015

SEGA is the Patrick Star of the Video Game Industry

The consumer is poor Gary

Yes, that Patrick, the one who a certain Mr. Enter declared a sociopath, the most evil character on SpongeBob. SEGA are sociopaths.

Unlike EA or Activision, which have a cold, business-minded sort of evil to them, or others like Atari who are just rather petty, SEGA seem to have a love for gleeful and active torment of their consumers. Lets take a look at their primary weapon, Sanic Sawneek Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic 2006 met a poor reception, and journalists everywhere complained. SEGA's response was to fix the wrongs with the game in a bizarre and extremist way with Sonic Unleashed.

The characters other than the Genesis ones are complained about? Pretty much give them the boot and make Sonic the only playable character. Too sluggish? Make a speed-oriented playstyle. Too serious? FOOD JOKES and unbuilt-upon world-building it is! Unfortunately, Sonic's playstyle was quite vapid and the other characters were forbidden, so they came up with a Werehog gameplay. Despite being Sonic, it was truly the series's most alien playstyle (other than the Tornado Defense and Gaia Colossus, which were COMPLETELY alien to core Sonic play but only lasted for a little bit), and rather trashy too. In the end, reception was lukewarm.

Past the energetic main gameplay, there wasn't much to it. Sure, there was the whole "collecting souvenirs" and other small bits here and there, but those weren't much compared to Chao Gardens. The lukewarmness, combined with some poor spinoff games, led to a game called "Project Needlemouse"



The game was given more and more tantalizing tidbits as the months ticked on, with all indicators translating to the revival of classic Sonic. And then it came. It was Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode One. Despite the modern Sonic and whatnot, people were still pumped for the game, and wanted it to be great. Then the game dropped, met a horrific reception in the fandom as a paraiah, and that was the last straw.

No, it wasn't. Critics only saw a lukewarm reception to the game, as opposed to despisal. SEGA, now knowing Sonic had lost all respect in the mainstream, killed Sonic, like Crash before him and Bomberman, B.K., Megaman, and others afterwards...

WRONG!

SEGA chose to torture the "fandom" and little kids with their old hedgepig. Have you even seen the games released recently?
Ha ha, so edgy. 


Uhh... I can explain

Other publishers and developers would have killed a franchise for a bad streak. Yet SEGA chooses to keep Sonic around as an instrument of torture, despite the games selling less and less, and appeal dropping to zero. They even got their paws on the spinoff media, like neglecting and at the same time overbearing the comics (remember the Pendering? It was SEGA's fault), making utter crap action figures (Storm before Blaze?), and the fiasco that is the Boom animated series (the opposite of what the fans desire). But enough of Sonic.

Their other classic IP are all laying dead in a safe somewhere, even though many of them are truly beloved by many, And some have came back for a short while to lukewarm reception. Super Monkey Ball has become a Peggle clone. And what of their newer IP? Shit, all shit (Except Hell Yeah!). Forgettable shit, but shit nonetheless. Particular mention goes to Jack Lumber, an indie game SEGA published. They mistreated and spited the developers of the game as well. And SEGA isn't doing this for money, no. They're losing more and more money even though similar tactics earn EA (Mr. Krabs) and Activision (Plankton) cash and territory (thankfully people ARE starting to wise up on them). SEGA are simply torturing because it is fun.

And that's what make them the true monsters of the industry.