Sega CO Takashi Iizuka Expresses Interest In A New Sonic Adventure Game

I dont really want one tbh.

Oh please I love both Sonic adventure 1 and 2 not only great story also the characters and hope chance to bring back chao garden i missed from Sonic adventure 2 one of best features in the game.

He’s done this half a dozen times if not more, it’s a marketing gimmick to keep fans invested comparable to the Capcom Test except nothing ever comes of it.

The real question should be : Why the hell did they lost themself in all the s*itty 3D Sonic since then and never continued with SOAD3? Why a werwolf? Why a freaking knight?! WHY SONIC BOOM??? Don't get me wrong, SOAD 1 and 2 were far from being perfect, but that was hell lot better than all those awfull games we got since 20 years now!! I just don't get it

The Adventure series is massively overrated. Everyone fawns over it, probably because "OMG 3D!!!" nostalgia, but the gameplay has aged like milk. The Sonic/Shadow sections are all right, as are the Adventure Fields, but the biggest issue is that you spend the majority of the game playing as other characters whose gameplay doesn't feel like it belongs in a Sonic game. I play a Sonic game for speed and momentum based platforming, not for plodding mech shooting, aimless treasure hunting, and gimmicky fishing. If they can update those gameplay styles so they expand on the speed/momentum gameplay instead of replacing it I'd be fine with another Adventure game, but otherwise no thank you. I don't want to suffer through a game where more than half of the gameplay is boring, gimmicky filler that has nothing to do with the core appeal.

I'd love to see this, even though I have mixed opinions on the Adventure series.

The action Stages for Sonic are some of the best 3d Sonic has ever been in my opinion, even though there is some camera and control jank in spots. But some of the slower sections such as the Big the Cat levels or the Knuckles treasure hunting (where the radar is often irritatingly broken) are boring, and other sections such as the shooting levels with Gamma feel so completely out of place... the full on "Adventure" parts which link everything together with a narritive have some great music and story ideas, character progression etc, but for a Sonic game, they really slow things down and feel a bit like padding, because making a whole game out of the action stages would have been too expensive and time consuming, and the whole game would have been too fast to complete.

That said, if they made a third Adventure game, and concentrated on pouring more time into action stages, and made the "Adventure" part a more interesting and involved RPG/adventure style experience, I'm 100% for it.

And of course, it NEEDS a Chao garden, else there will be riots in the street!

As an aside, "Sonic Pocket Adventure" is one of the best Sonic games and needs a Switch port asap.

Wishlist for a third Sonic Adventure game:

1. New Hedgehog character
2. Stand-alone sequel
3. Chao Garden
4. Current voice actors

@Bolt_Strike Haha I feel like we just typed the same points at exactly the same time. Adventure 1 is literally 6 different games in one, with only 1 or 2 feeling like actual "Sonic" games. I always felt that they spread themselves too thinly and the quality suffered as a result. The fact SA2 forced you to play all of the levels in a specific order rather than just choosing which character to play as made it seem even more disjointed and like you had to wade through an hour of slow bits before you got to run again.

Before everyone hate piles on me: There are moments of genius in both games that I absolutely love. But other bits are a slog. Sorry.

Distinction between Adventure and other 3D Sonics is pretty meaningless semantics. Adventure 2 did not have Adventure field stuff while most 3D Sonic games offer playstyles that are distinct from Sonic.

@SalvorHardin What's the Capcom Test?

@Tinglemies I remember being massively disappointed when I played Sonic Adventure 2 and saw they got rid of the hub and adventure fields. It felt sterile in comparison and really made it feel like less of a coherent and connected world.

I've been ready! Played the original Sonic Adventure games on Dreamcast where they ran the best.

Two words: Chao Garden. Nothing else matters.

Sonic, Sonic, Sonic. It seems to be all we ever hear from Sega anymore. And yes, personally I'm sick and tired of it. Surely even folks who are fans of Sonic would appreciate them revisiting some other IPs. They claimed that they would do so earlier this year, but so far it's been one long parade of Sonic hype.

There's a law of diminishing returns when you start throwing too many eggs into one basket. And Sega has lost the vast majority of the reputation they once had among hobbyists for a reason.

No, if they screw this game series up with a potential third instalment that turns out to be a disaster, they will lose so many old-school fans. Technically, they already screwed over the SA formula with Sonic 06. I know it isn't called SA3, but it was pretty much a SA game minus the Chao Garden.

I'm not against the idea, but... Why are people at Sega talking about some other theoretical Sonic game while Frontiers is in the home stretch of development, and not getting great press? I see this headline and it come across as, "Don't worry about Frontiers, you can skip it because we'll make a new Sonic Adventure." Again, I'm not against a new Adventure, but talking about it now is the kind of bungled marketing that Sega is infamous for.

@TheFox Yep. They are talking like Frontiers was a game of a few years ago, and what did/did not work has been learnt for applying later...

I love Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, but it is far to late for a 3rd entry in that series now. The story wouldn't make any sense at this point in the timeline to be naming it "Sonic Adventure 3" unless they wipe clean the existence of half the characters as non-canon to the series such as Silver, Blaze, etc. Assuming they decide to count the story of Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog as part of the Sonic Adventure canon, otherwise that would technically mean Shadow is still dead after the events of SA2 and/or is missing somewhere with his full amnesia, or perhaps they just simply bring him back just "cause his Shadow" since technically the amnesia was introduced in Heroes and his memories don't return until Shadow the Hedgehog they can technically just deem that not canon anymore and now he just simply reappears like a badass with his full memories from SA2. And let's not forget the moon, half of it needs to be destroyed again and not "magically rotated to the side that is not broken" like they claimed that happened during the Sonic 06 Q&A.

If we learned anything from Sonic Forces, that would be the fact that the modern current SEGA and Sonic Team are fully incapable of making a proper Sonic Adventure-like game. I highly doubt they have what it takes now to make a true proper sequel to that series without dropping a bombshell of a disappointing disaster. Let's face it, our expectations are far to high for SEGA's reach at this point in time.

@Chibi_Manny Have to agree. The time for it was building from the ground up on the Gamecube imo, when ST were all in on focusing on that. And saying this as someone who still considers the Adventure games in my top 5 games of all time.
I don't think I want a new one now.

@Clyde_Radcliffe Yeah I've told this story before here but I was so dissapointed with Sonic Adventure 2, that after pre-ordering, being super excited and queing to pick it up, its the only game I've ever returned to the store and asked for a refund However, I realised it was an over reaction and bought it again a few months later to give it a proper chance. There's a lot to like about it, but the core game is definitely weaker than the first.

❗️Just port/remaster SA2:B as it had an AMAZE-BALLS Original Soundtrack.

AND FIX THE 🎥CAMERA!!!

I really like the controls in Sonic Adventure 1.

It's upsetting that Sonic controls so awfully in Forces and Colours when we already had some great Sonic controls in the Adventure series.

@samuelvictor It was like going backwards to Mega Drive Sonic in a way. I like it a lot more these days than I did at the time myself now I'm comparing it to the games that came after rather than Sonic Adventure 1! It's crazy how much better the level design and controls are compared to the likes of Forces and Colours, honestly.

Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 are a guilty pleasure of mune. Exactly the right amount of good and bad in those games to make it both entertaining and hilarious.

That said I don't think a third game would work. They'd either end up taking it too seriously, or not seriously enough. I'd still love to see it though.

No matter what they do, Nintendo will always beat them easily. I am sega supporter, I owned genesis and dreamcast, bought genesis mini, and bought a lot of sega games on PS4 and switch, I think sega should release a console similar to switch.

@Clyde_Radcliffe Yeah I was much kinder going back to it. I think the reason teenage over-reacting me was so mad, is that I'd loved how Mario 64 adapted Mario into 3d, and owning a Saturn I constantly hoped for the same for Sonic which never came. Then I bought a Dreamcast on launch as I was so hype for a 3D Sonic finally... and I didn't love it... but there were PARTS of it that I loved, and I saw so much potential. So in my head the sequel would remove all the filler which was probably there as it was rushed for launch, and obviously the second game would be the best ever, right? And when it was a step back, I felt essentially 5 years of anticipation (Mario 64 demo in 95-2000 release of SA2) crushed in one fel swoop. So I threw a hissy fit and demanded a refund. Kinda embarassed about that now, its not really that bad at all.

I'd be fine with a new Adventure game, but they should probably make a game where people like playing as Sonic in 3D again before they add more gameplay styles on top of that.

Fun fact sonic o6 and unleased where supposed to be adventure games

Please just sell the IP and break up Sonic Team already.

@OllieMar28 Let me get what I want. Lord knows it will be the first time. Nice Smiths reference.

He’s just saying to get people excited since the response to this game isn’t great. People forget Sonic 2006 is basically Sonic Adventure 3.

Please no lol, Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 were horrible

@accc That profile picture along with the comment is very sussy.

@Gamergirl94 There should absolutely be a third spiritual successor to the Adventure games, maybe it doesn't need to be called Sonic Adventure 3, maybe something else because it's been so long since the 2nd game was released.

But imagine what Sonic Team could improve upon by going back to the Adventure style formula. They could now add the green target reticle from the recent games and make it more easier to know the distance between you and the enemy, the light speed dash can be tweaked to another button so it doesn't bug out sometimes or accidentally mis-input like in SA2, the treasure hunting stages in Knuckles and Rouge's levels can return with improvements, maybe they could bring back a playable Eggman again.

The possibilities not just with the gameplay improvements but with the return of some fan favorite characters being playable in a mainline Sonic game again is just something we've been wanting for a long time now. And now is as a good time as any to do it since the classic Sonic games have been making a resurgence in popularity, why not the good early 3D Sonic games?

@Bolt_Strike You can go fast and collect stuff in the treasure hunting sections, people like that style and goes well with Sonic's core gameplay style.

No one's asking for fishing to be brought back, but the mech sections can be substituted for something else better.

Overall, I think playing as only Sonic gets boring after a while when half his levels can be done with almost no thought or effort, and I'm guessing that's mainly why some people say when they like only the Sonic portions of those games because it's short and easy.

I played Sonic Adventure 2 (Dreamcast) for the first time last week and was actually quite disappointed with it. I know the story is legendary, but the treasure hunting is boring, the mech stages feel like you just spam shoot while walking forward, some crucial upgrades weren’t obvious, Amy is a big part of the story but isn’t playable, the sound mixing is horrendous, and that’s just from the beginning of the hero story. I prefer two stories over 6, but both play nearly the same.

Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast) is definitely the better game. It has a great story, epic Tails character development, fun treasure hunts, high speed action, funny facial expressions, spam-dash, hub worlds with small puzzles, chase sequences, and more. I think 6 stories is too many, and Big was unnecessary, but at least it doesn’t have copy characters.

I would hope a Sonic Adventure 3 would be more based on Sonic Adventure then Sonic Adventure 2, but I personally prefer the 06 style over both.

@russell-marlow You can technically go fast in the treasure hunting stages, but they're not designed for you to go fast. The Emerald Shards are all randomly placed so that you slowly search the entire area to find them, and that's counterintuitive to how Sonic games typically play.

Also, it's really insulting of you to claim that not liking the other gameplay styles has anything to do with wanting the games to be easy. I've played harder games than the Adventure games, that has nothing to do with it. It has everything to do with cramming an unrelated gameplay style, not everyone enjoys those styles of gameplay and if they did, they'd play another game where those kinds of gameplay styles are the focus. Having them in a Sonic game dilutes the gameplay that Sonic is actually known for.

A lot of people tend to either forget or not pay attention that the vast majority of gameplay in Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 were based on building up speed and retaining momentum.

Adventure 1:
Sonic - the most obvious one, especially with his rolling and spindash
Tails - his gameplay is purely racing. You have to build up and maintain speed to keep ahead of Sonic/Eggman.
Knuckles - while his is built more around exploration, he still has momentum when running, gliding and rolling down slopes. You need to be fast to get to the emerald shards for his A missions, even with the restart trick.
Amy - while being slow on the ground, her gameplay is still based on building up speed and maintaining momentum. It's just that instead of running all the time you're using the hammer jump to pull off big jumps and maintain air control, which in this game is pretty easy
Big - he is not part of the vast majority; I will whole-heartedly admit his gameplay sucks and shouldn't have been part of the game
Gamma - considering his levels operate on a countdown that gets refilled by blowing up multiple enemies, that requires you to build up speed and maintain it if you want to finish the level in good time

Adventure 2:
Sonic and Shadow - again, the most obvious due to all the tricks you can pull off, like rail-grinding, spindashing, lightspeed dashing, chaining homing attacks, etc.
Tails and Eggman - while they are slower than gamma, they still do have a degree of momentum behind them that can be maintained once you master the levels' setup. They're just slow at acceleration (which can be helped once you get the hover upgrade).
Knuckles and Rouge - Once you get the locations of the emerald shards down-pat (at least going by one hint monitor) these levels are shorter than Sonic and Shadow's, barring Space Colony ARK's stages. While they don't roll around, they can still keep pace moving through the levels quickly by a decently fast running and gliding speed, which is required for an A-rank (faster time between gems = more bonus points, and going by one hint monitor each doesn't offset that by much). I will admit that limiting the radar to one piece at a time was a dumb decision though.

As for the cameras, I'll admit they could've used more work. All the same, quite a few 3D games from that era and before it didn't have an excellent camera either, so I'm willing to look past that.

I think another thing people don't realize is that these games (and Sonic games in general) aren't meant to be instantly beatable. They're based more on you learning how the characters work and bettering and honing your skills to get the fastest time and highest score possible. Much like arcade games, which SEGA specializes in. I know I didn't 100% these two games that easily; they take time to learn and master and people these days don't want to do that. That I understand since there's a lot of games out there to be played, but playing a level or two and then saying the game sucks since you're not an expert at it after trying it once just shows you're not willing to learn. That could be applied to pretty much any video game to any demographic.

This isn't meant to be targeted towards anyone, but I am so sick and tired of people crapping on these two games and making general assumptions on them (i.e., "only Sonic/Shadow has speed/momentum gameplay", "no-one likes treasure hunting"). I know they're not perfect by any means (facial expressions, voice acting, fishing, etc.), but they're not nearly as bad as people make them out to be.

So yeah, if they make a Sonic Adventure 3 that brings back multiple playable characters with different playstyles (without fishing), a few Chao Gardens, some open areas to explore and toy around with and ironed-out kinks I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

if they went back to what Sonic Adventure 1 was like, instead of whatever SA2 was, i'd take it.

I don't really care about Sonic Adventure, but I do love this trend we've been seeing lately with open world / sandbox games from major publishers.

Game Freak releases Legends Arceus, then immediately expands upon it with Scarlet/Violet.

HAL releases Forgotten Land, then immediately discusses their plans for an even more open 3D Kirby game.

SEGA works on Sonic Frontiers, and while it's still in development discusses their ideas for revitalizing the Adventure series.

Lots of instances of gaming companies saying, "Hey, we made this ambitious new 3D game where you can explore like never before. That's cool and all, but it's just a stepping stone. We actually have more ideas, and we're going to apply what we leaned here to make even bigger and better games moving forward."

People have been speculating for a while that Nintendo was doing this with Bowser's Fury as well, and that it was more or less a proof of concept for making a full, open-world Mario adventure.

Mark my words: these next few years of gaming are gonna be CRAZY.

Sure. Watching Sega continually faceplant is highly entertaining.

@AtlanteanMan We have had old IP, it just isn't really from Sega. Shenmue 3 was a kickstarter, Monkey Ball, Panzer Dragoon, Space Channel 5 VR, even Alex Kidd. All had developers that were not under Sega's leadership or Sonic Team and hardly anyone played them.

Well, I mean, that’s good and all, - especially since SEGA’S FINALLY STARTING TO LEARN FROM ‘06, WHICH WAS THEIR LAST 3D OPEN WORLD SONIC GAME BEFORE FRONTIERS (sure, you can count the Chao Garden in Adventure 2, but that doesn’t count for me since it’s more of a mini game) - but I feel like it’s kinda too EARLY for an announcement like this. If Izuka said this AFTER Frontiers came out god-knows-when during this year, maybe I’d be more on board. But just like some people’s reactions to Luke in Street Fighter V, I’m not on board with the announcement JUST YET.

@AtlanteanMan I feel like this would be a perfect time to point out that Bayonetta, Puyo Puyo, Sakura Wars, Persona and Yakuza exist. Oh yeah, and that Shenmue anime that’s upcoming as well. SEGA makes stuff other than Sonic games, just not ALL THE TIME.

Much as I like a new Adventure game I don't feel like I can trust Iizuka and ST to handle it properly.

They should atleast remake SA1 & 2 and then see what they can use from the remakes for a SA3.

@GinMiguel my sister loved space channel 5

@Ruler-Of-All-Evil By all means you can feel free to point those out. Only A) a lot of gamers (myself included) aren't remotely interested in ANY of them (BTW, I personally don't count any anime, film, or TV show as "support" for a game IP in any way that matters), and B) an absolute ton of incredible IPs ranging from the coin-ops that once dominated Arcades everywhere to console staples like Shining Force, Skies of Arcadia, Shinobi, Landstalker, and so many others haven't been seen in decades. C) how many Sonic articles or announcements have you seen since even any of the franchises you mentioned saw a new installment (and yes, I'm aware there's a new Bayonetta game on the way)?

Look, arguing here is pointless; the fact is that Sega abandoned the vast majority of their user base years (if not decades) ago. And after awhile all those half-baked promises to revisit former IPs (most of which end up getting outsourced to third-party developers to middling results or require Kickstarters to exist at all) kind of ring hollow. When Sega has just released a second Sonic movie, rereleased Colors last year, has TWO Sonic projects currently in the pipeline (Origins and Frontiers), and their bigwigs drop a comment like, "Boy, another Sonic game sure would be nice", then yeah, I think the point of my OP is valid.

I'm not trying to bash you or anyone else for liking/defending Sonic here (or any of the other franchises you mentioned). They're just not for me, and there's so many Sega IPs I would readily put my money down for if they'd just give them another chance. I suspect that a lot of other gamers would as well.

@AzzyC Great for her.

@Bolt_Strike I prefer sonic games too be less "linear", if we're on the topic of keeping Sonic's core gameplay philosophy intact. By that I mean there has too be a focus on getting some collectibles, like for example in the old Sonic games you had different routes you can take to get to the end goal, how you got about it was your choice.

A few easy or mediocre linear Sonic games that come to mind are Colors and Forces, it's one of the complaints some fans have about the "boost to win" game style of the newer entries.

But along the way, there were rings to collect and checkpoints you could cross or secret rings you could find in order to go to the special stages to find the chaos emeralds. Not everyone would collect the emeralds but they would be missing out on the other half of the content in the game. And replay ability is one of the key things fans talk about whenever they mention the retro games. Besides the games wouldn't be talked about as much if they were easy or didn't include some form of collectibles besides rings for lives.

And yeah, replay ability, playing stages over and over until you recognize the pattern and layout of each stage so that you could recognize the enemy placement, so you could avoid incoming obstacles find various secrets hidden throughout, you couldn't save in Sonic 1 or 2 but you had to play it one go in order to beat the game. In Sonic CD, you had to go around and find specific robots to destroy in order to get a good ending.

And you know, the Adventure games held this same principle as well, Adventure 2 more than the first game. Though, still Adventure 2 expanded on the concepts of Adventure 1 by having a ranking system and tweaking the physics to be more weighty feeling.

I'd argue that the treasure hunting sections take inspiration from the old Genesis games and does it's own unique thing. I'd say it complements Sonic's main gameplay because you can find the emerald pieces pretty fast, there are videos that show this, and if you replay the levels they become more enjoyable to quickly run through and get a higher rank in SA2.

Now I was talking about some of the positives about the Adventure games but I understand there are some "filler" gameplay styles like you mentioned. These types of undesired styles that didn't stick around too long or were just a one and done deal and didn't return in following games. Not many fans are asking for too many of those styles to be brought back like the fishing or SA 2's mech sections, because I will admit that they aren't very good.

That being said, however, it doesn't necessarily mean they were all bad. Just keep what complements the main gameplay or rework it to fit. Besides, even newer Sonic games have some sort of gameplay gimmick to keep things interesting and not just feel like you're running to the end goal as fast as possible. And some people may or may not like those gimmicks just as much as the people who say they don't like the multiple characters in the Adventure games.

In fact, you're mainly playing as Sonic through most of the newer games with some sort of gimmick, there was a time when you could play as three different characters with differing styles ever since the old games and you weren't just playing as Sonic only. Those old styles would evolve into some of the Adventure styles that people fondly remember where you play as some of Sonic's friends, so what's to say that they shouldn't return?

@russell-marlow Colors and Forces usually aren't the games that boost fans typically highlight as the gold standard for boost games (Colors is praised, but more so for its gimmicks not interfering with the core gameplay, whereas its design differences from other boost games, such as having lots of 2D, lots of blocky platforming, lots of scripted/limited 3D sections, are more scrutinized). The games boost fans actually praise more often are the 360/PS3 versions of Unleashed and Generations, especially the latter. Those games are a bit further towards the "choose the best path to the goal" style of the Genesis games (or at the very least you had to skillfully maintain the high speed of the boost to avoid falling down to lower, slower paths), and the "boost to win" complaints are fairly exaggerated (really those are no more "boost to win" than the 2D games are "hold right to win" or the Sonic/Shadow levels in the Adventure games are "hold forward to win").

Collectibles are fine, the newer games tend to have Red Star Rings that serve this purpose, but collectibles are usually best as optional bonuses to 100% the game. The Knuckles/Rouge treasure hunting stages are mandatory requirements to complete the game. Furthermore, finding the Chaos Emeralds is usually not something particularly obtuse or requires slow, methodical searching (it kind of is in S3&K, but not to the degree of SA1 and SA2). Usually it's just a matter of finding a certain amount of rings and holding onto them, which generally doesn't require much searching, certainly not to the degree of SA1/SA2's "find the needle in the haystack" sort of design. The radar sure doesn't help either, the hot/cold radar system does little to tell you if you're going in the right direction or not, especially when there's a very narrow window between the different levels of the radar and moving 3 pixels in the wrong direction could turn it from red to green. That's the main reason the treasure hunting feels so slow and aimless, you could be "near" the Shard for minutes and not have a clue as to where it might be because the hints and radar system are so terribly unhelpful when it comes to pinpointing the exact location. For them to fix the treasure hunting sections and make them more playable, they either need to ditch the needle in the haystack design and hide them in more conspicuous locations that don't require you to break every object or dig in every square inch of the level, or they need to make the radar MUCH more informative and expand the range of the different levels of the radar and perhaps even add a directional arrow to help you pinpoint the location of the Emerald Shard.

I'm not opposed at all to multiple characters, but like you said, they have to fit with what Sonic does. They can't design these kinds of gameplay styles that slow you to a crawl, if you're slowing down for anything it should be to safely navigate a difficult platforming segment (and even then you should have the option to risk potentially dying to shave some time off your score). The gameplay has already failed to fit Sonic's core appeal if you're forced to stop to figure out where you're going or methodically search every object and every pixel to find what you're looking for.

I would love a new Sonic Adventure game and still enjoy playing the first 2. Out of the 3D Sonic games my top 5 are

1) Sonic Adventure 2
2) Sonic Heroes
3) Sonic Adventure
4) Sonic Unleashed
5) Sonic Generations

Sonic Adventure 3 is long overdue. Let this be made, and please keep & expand the Knuckles/Rouge levels & gameplay as those were my favourite parts alongside the soundtrack- which is legendary! (The mix, of jazz, ambient, HipHop- bring that rapper back & house was magnificent)

“GIVE UP THE EMERALDS OR DIE… I DON’T LOVE YOU!”

… Wun can only hope. 💎

@AtlanteanMan Not trying to argue, man, and I understand where you’re coming from - I only found out about Skies of Arcadia, Shinobi, and Shining Force just recently. Plus, when Yoshinori Ono was still working at Capcom, he did something similar by ditching a LOT of old franchises that have big cult followings back then & nowadays, and it ended up with… Street Fighter V & Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. Believe me, I’d just love to see ONE Capcom crossover game with Darkstalkers characters in it that does NOT include Morrigan - I get that she’s the face of the franchise, but she only ends up foreshadowing every other member of the cast.

@Ruler-Of-All-Evil No worries. I guess we all get the feeling that the industry has left us behind for "greener pastures" from time to time. It's kind of a helpless feeling, and the most we can do (aside from writing letters and petitions which typically never get a response) is to vent on forums like these in the faint hope someone with say-so might see our posts and actually do something.

@Bolt_Strike Sure, but even though this is Sonic we're talking about, not every gameplay style needs too be blisteringly fast or all filled with cinematic set pieces that substitute for gameplay by taking away the player's control for a moment.

Honestly, the pacing of the treasuring hunting sections is just fine. It allows to go at a quick pace and momentarily stop to get a better view at your surroundings while you resume looking for the shards. I'm sure those stop-and-go moments also occur in Sonic/Shadow's gameplay portions when you're looking around for other routes to traverse. And besides, if you're having trouble finding the pieces, those hint monitors exist and will guide your were they could be.

What else is there to say, I agree with mostly everything you said. I just want some variety in Sonic games and to use a handful of Sonic's cast of characters that compliment the fast nature gameplay but also having it's own spin without dragging down the overall experience of the main game.

Either way, thanks for your input and I hope we've come to some sort of understanding and compromise.

@russell-marlow You're not quite getting my complaints about the treasure hunting sections. My issue is that the hints are so vague that it's NOT just stop for a few seconds and hunt, it's spend a few minutes wandering around and pixel hunting. The radar is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too sensitive to help you narrow down the search area and the hint monitors are way too vague to give you anything but a general location. They give you a good idea of the general area to look, but they're terrible at helping you pinpoint the specific location. That's what needs to be improved the most for this gameplay style to work.

@Bolt_Strike Oh, quit whining and grow some gamer chest hair.