Sonic Frontiers Free 'Birthday Bash' DLC Is Out Now, Here Are The Full Patch Notes

Happy Birthday Sonic!!

Spindash added is a very, very big win.

I'm intrigued as to what the "New Game+" entails.

[edit] For those unaware, we've at least 4 DLC updates for Frontiers coming, all of which make significant additions and tweaks to the gameplay by adding moves, new challenges, filling in empty areas etc. Its all very ambitious and the way Kishimoto explains some of it makes it sound like things you would typically expect in a sequel rather than updates.

There are far more updates and additions coming than were initially planned, because he has been interacting with fans, taking on feedback and suggestions, and even trying out community mods and watching speedruns to get ideas that can be incorporated into the full game. He seems genuinely dedicated to progressively improving it as much as possible, and learning what will make the next game even better. I'm very impressed with his intentions and dedication.

New game plus sounds pretty great to me.

YESSSS, GONNA UPDATE AS SOON AS IT RELEASES!!!

@samuelvictor i'm so excited for the playable characters update later on

@SnakeForce Me toooooo! Especially if Amy is playable 🥰

Sonic fans are feasting today!

@Mauzuri As I said in my post above, Kishimoto has been very active in listening and responding to feedback and one of the major changes and improvements planned is for the boss fights, which he has admitted that he feels are some of the weaker parts of the current experience, especially in the latter part of the game. Theres tweaks to Sonic's moveset to make the fights better, changing patterns for the bosses attacks, changing locations of them and balancing tweaks, adding back in new bossfights originally planned and cut, including ones from the original versions that were playtested then removed which are now being tweaked and likely added back in, if he feels they work better with the new movesets. He spoke in quite a bit of detail about improvements to the bosses that he wants/plans to implement through dlc updates and this was a big part of why he's now commited to at least 2 more updates than were originally planned.

Wonder how new game plus works?

Oh right I realized that Sonic’s birthday is the same day as my parents anniversary.

@samuelvictor This part about 2 extra updates is news to me, but that's pretty cool. Is that a recent confirmation?

@Orpheus79V @Mauzuri Yeah, its very cool (and unusal for someone in such a high position)... Kishimoto has been extremely vocal in dropping leaks here there and everywhere when he probably isn't supposed to, just replying to random fans who @ him on twitter when they correctly guess a feature, or suggest something that he happens to already have thought of and been working on - perhaps he wasn't aware that personal replies were public for everyone to see? He also embarassingly didn't know that his likes were public and liked some (pretty vanilla, thankfully) JAV content! 😅

He's been regularly asking people what changes or improvements could be made, asking for people to send him mods and exploits that people are using so that he can see if he can incorporate the successful ones either in Frontiers or the sequel. He's also been actively watching streamers play the game to see their reactions and things they have trouble with, as well as reading comments under youtube videos etc to get ideas of what could be improved - essentially using the community as extended playtesters of sorts. He's said that he's adding 2 more dlc updates that he didn't originally plan in order to add all the changes on his current wishlist, at least 4 dlc confirmed with potentially more if he can get them greenlit.

"The Sonic Show" on YouTube has done extensive videos where he spent weeks going through every single one and translates and compiles them into a digestable format. He spanned that over 3 long videos but since then there have been more leaks and he keeps doing the same and keeping us updated 😁

BTW, its not just Frontiers info that Kishimoto has leaked early. In these videos was where we first learned that a non-mania team was making a modern classic sonic 2d game, and he was very excited for how it was coming along. He's revealed other info on future games and the direction of the franchsie as a whole, and I think perhaps some minor movie stuff too?

This is a big update. Everything looks nice and playable.

@Mauzuri no it's still awful.

@samuelvictor Sonic has been having it really good recently, and has made a comeback In my opinion, and this year has been really good to him!

Also playable Amy let’s go!

@Snatcher Totally! Sonic fans are eating good!
And eeeeeeek I'm still still reeling over playable Amy being in TWO games in the same year 🥰

@samuelvictor i hope to see her play a bigger role in games now, since frontiers seems to allude to her character arc as such.

@Snatcher Yes definitely! I think Sega was very aware of how many calls there were for her to be added to Mania Plus, and from that moment on they realised she could be a "selling point", perhaps for add on DLC. So we got Origins Plus, and 99% of the comments on the video were about Amy, so then she was added by default into Superstars from the begining for an easy "win" from fans.

Of course that last one could just be because of the 4 player aspect... but I hope thats a sign that in all/most major games from now on, she will be a large part of the game as a matter of course, either from the begining, or in DLC, as the fans will be happy.

Its similar to Nintendo knowing that they had an easy win with the fans by adding Daisy into Mario Wonder. For those watching that trailer who still weren't won over, suddenly having Daisy appear was a good way to tip the balance of hype - Superstars trailer did the same with revealing Amy halfway through.

As you said, it certainly seems like there was plans to eventually have Amy as a big part of Frontiers from the begining and I'd be very surprised if she wasn't a playable character in there eventually in one of the DLC drops.

@samuelvictor I always thought Amy should have been a playable character, it just made sense, and I’m glad sega is starting to realize that too, if she end up becoming a main stay character like tails or knuckles, I’m going to be so happy!

They had Rosalina in 3d world which I’m vary happy about, but I do notice daisy gets the short end of the stick, honestly she is perfect for those games yet it’s always just sport games she’s in, I think they have finally noticed she can be used for more.

If she doesn’t get in, (which honestly I don’t think she won’t) I will be so sad 😞

@Snatcher I agree. Don't worry I feel sure she will be added in one of the DLCs. Kishimoto has all but confirmed... certainly hinted at it a lot.

I totally understood Sonic Mania only having Sonic, Tails and Knuckles as playable because they were the ones that were controllable in the original Megadrive/Genesis games. But at the time I was SO hoping for DLC to include Amy, and I know many people were too. Seemed like the logical choice, especially as so many younger fans grew up with the Adventure and Advance games, where she was playable.

So when Mighty and Ray were included in Mania Plus, it felt like Amy had been purposefully skipped over for whatever reason. And me being autistic and feeling emotions of fictional characters, I felt sad for her, like she would feel excluded. Thats why I was so happy when she was brought in for Origins Plus and I saw how many other people felt excited for her finally getting a chance to play with the boys Don't get me wrong, I've nothing against Mighty and Ray, I'd love to have them too, and any other characters! I just feel like the "core 4" should always be Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy, as that was the order in which they were introduced to us. (Of course next was Mighty and Ray from the arcade game, then Vector Espio and Charmy from Chaotix).

As for Daisy, I think the reason she's been excluded for so long is Miyamoto wasn't involved with the Super Mario Land games and doesn't like them very much. But for many, especially in Europe where the NES wasn't as popular, the Gameboy games were our first introduction to Mario, and we love them. Heck, there was even a song in the UK pop charts about Mario rescuing Daisy.

We'd pretty much learned to accept over the years that there was zero chance of Daisy being in a new platform game, but when they started even excluding her from sports titles, thats when there was real uproar online. Seems like Nintendo noticed that and realised that an "easy win" when reinventing and rejuvinating 2D Mario games (after many felt the NSMB games were a bit stale) would be to add Daisy by surprise and win internet points from all the fans who were mad she always gets left out/forgotten. Definitely worked on me, I was genuinely surprised and delighted

@samuelvictor I think this change started when they made Daisy her own character in Smash Ultimate rather than a costume for Peach.

@NatiaAdamo Oh, I didn't know that! (Must admit I'm more a Mario Kart than Smash guy, I kinda stopped at Melee). Thats really cool that she is now her own character rather than just a Peach reskin. Thanks for letting me know

Props to them for releasing these major updates. And for free. It’s nice to see the game getting supported long after it’s initial release, imo

I'm so glad they're letting you adjust the jump deceleration for cyberspace. That was easily the most annoying thing about those levels, especially the 2D stages. I hope they continue to improve the cyberspace physics as there are certain issues that are still present in the game.

@Snatcher I am pretty sure Amy is going to be in the third Sonic movie too so expect big things to come for her. 😀

@TheDragonDAFan I’ve been messing with all the toggles and there is a lot more in there than just jump deceleration that affects Cyberspace than Sonic Team will have you believe 😉

@samuelvictor do you have any links or reference sources for this extended roadmap as I can’t find any discussions about this? I’m wondering if a few bits might have been lost in translation as I’m aware kishimoto had discussed putting in additional abilities and modes alongside updates in the present roadmap (that wasn’t mentioned last year), but as far as we know, officially the 3rd free DLC coming at winter is still the final one.

Regardless, it’s gunna be a big update when it drops with the extra story for (presumably SAGE) alongside 3 other playable characters. Dataminers have already found the animations (and more) for Tails, Amy and Knuckles alongside their extensive skill trees which thankfully confirms they will be usable in the open zone gameplay (and not limited to specific locations of cyberspace).

Frontiers is the game that keeps on giving 🙂

I might go back to this game, with all of the updates. The jankiness of the original version kind of killed the fun in the later levels, but maybe it performs better now.

@Sonicka It was mentioned in one of the recent "The Sonic Show" YouTube summaries that a fourth update is now coming and Kishimoto specifically said it wasn't originally planned but was because of ideas he'd had because of watching fan playthroughs and listening to suggestions for improvements from people on twitter. Originally there was only 2 DLC planned, which extended to 3 and now 4, and possibly more because he has other stuff he wants to squeeze in, and isn't sure how much to save for the sequel/next game, or just patch into Frontiers to make it as good as it can be before he moves on.

The "birthday" DLC was always planned but originally was going to be much smaller and cosmetic stuff, things like the new moves added were squeezed in by him because of fan passion/demand - the spindash specifically is something he originally thought would be kept for teh sequel but he saw that it was the #1 most requested thing from fans so pushed to get it included as soon as possible.

I can't remember the exact quotes and I don't think theres an official roadmap released anywhere, the Racoon dude is just piecing together Kishimonto's random replies to fans @ messages, but he always puts the screenshotted tweet onscreen (google translated) and reads them out in full, then speculates as to what it means. I'm sorry I don't remember which exact video, he's made at least 5 of them as there is so many of these tweets, and they keep coming! lol

@JohnnyMind No worries!

As you've not played Frontiers yet, my personal opinion would be if you aren't in a hurry, maybe wait until all the updates are out, as many of the planned changes deal with some of the niggling problems that people have with it, and the fully updated version will be your best experience. Also, if possble, play it on more powerful hardware than Switch, though the Switch version isn't awful by any standards.

Of course, beign somewhat Sonic obsessive I had to get it on day one and play it. My general opinion of Frontiers is its not perfect, but still pretty great! Possibly the "best" 3D Sonic game once it clicks with you. My own personal bias is annoyed that its not the "3d Sonic game of my dreams" because its too realistic in style and combat heavy, and seems almost completely unrelated to the classic games that I love, however, it really does have a lot of great ideas and is really fun One of my main problems was the lack of spindash and now thats been added that will help a lot, and all the updates and tweaks I've been hearing about have really gotten me feeling very excited about the future of the game, and I'm sure the "finished" version will far exceed the launch day release.

@samuelvictor no worries, cheers.

I'm just purely running off the Official 3-Part DLC roadmap Sonic Team released to us last year. So apart from the nice little extras or QOL updates they also managed to include, I found it odd they've not amended this officially if there's a fourth coming after the the Story / Character DLC.

Buy hey, weather it happens within these 3 DLC's or beyond is fine with me. At the end of the day it's free additional content anyway to improve an already impressive game.

@JohnnyMind Ah no worries the Switch version is still good! Its not like it runs terribly or anything, its just obviously less pretty and I find the lower res and higher popup makes some sections harder as its more difficult to see whats coming up when you are moving at speed. You'll still have a good time, its very playable.

@Sonicka Yeah as I mentioned, it almost seems like Kishimoto is making random anouncements or dropping small bits of info without getting permission from Sega to do so, much of what he states isn't officially confirmed until months later.

He just doesn't seem to be able to help himself responding to random twitter users! He's just casually dropped all kinds of info (including whole new games like Superstars and talking about unannounced sequel to Frontiers, possible Adventure follow ups etc) with casual abandon months before they are actually made public.

At times it sounds like he is a fanboy just making up a wishlist of things and swearing "my uncle works for Sega" in the school yard... except he's the director of Frontiers and many other Sonic games so its far more credible lol. I assume Sega doesn't chastise him for this because it helps raise hype with the absolute hardcore fans, but its obscure enough to not damage the impact of big announcements on mainstream fans when they officially happen at strategic times for maximum marketing effect.

The option to disable jump deceleration drastically changes the game for the better it turns a game that vaguely feels like Adventure into a legitimate successor.

@samuelvictor Yeah I think your right, there’s no way she’s not, k really do wonder how she will play.

I thought it was kinda strange they added them but not Amy, I like those guys sure, but I don’t think people know might and Rey nearly as much as Amy, if I had to pick, I would want Amy and then vector, if I had to pick.

Ah that would make more sense, as to why daisy wasn’t I’m many games, but she was such a cool character, a tomboy princess is great, such a shame they waited this long to actually use her (in platformers of course) and now peach is getting her 2nd game since the DS I think? So I hope they might try to make princess spin offs, because I daisy game would be great!

And as the other comment said, she is another character, she is a echo fighter, which is a fighter vary similar to another that already exist, in this case it would be peach, how ever, unlike the other echo fighters, who might have different damage numbers, attacks, daisy is litrally the same exact fighter, in every way, so she is kind of a skin, but don’t get me wrong, she has different track effects and a whole set of voices.

@Snatcher This evening I've just played through the whole of S1, SCD, S2, S3&K separately as Amy in Origins. Was grinning the whole time, she plays really well and I love her sprite so much!

At the time of Mania Plus, most people didn't know Ray, he'd only previously been in the original isometric arcade game which didn't get a wide release and needs a track ball to play properly so not many people have played it. Mighty was in that arcade game too but was also a character in Chaotix so slightly more people knew him, but as you said, if you were going to add a Chaotix character, Vector is probably the most interesting choice - Mighty and Espio are very similar to Sonic in appearance, and Charmy is cool but tiny and flies everywhere so not ideal for a platform main.

Yeah Daisy is a great character. To begin with in Super Mario Land she was just literally a drop in swap for Peach as a generic princess to rescue, being it was set in a different kingdom. But over the years, the sports titles and such fleshed her out more and she became a real fan favourite even for those that didn't play the Gameboy titles. I think Nintendo was shocked when people got so upset when she wasn't in some of the Switch titles, they probably hadn't quite realised how much people had grown to like her over the years, rather than just thinking of her as "orange peach".

Yes Peach had only one title of her own "Super Princess Peach" on DS. Its a fun game and quite original but somewhat problematic conceptually if you think about it too much... she's overdramatic and not in control of her emotions, and has to use her "vibe wand" to stay calm (!). Its not as bad as it sounds its actually a great game and a fun, well designed mechanic, but it certainly raised some eyebrows and isn't a 100% win for the people thinking Peach starring in a game was some kind of "feminist win" or something! lol

I really should go back and try Smash Ultimate properly. I occasionally play it at matches at conventions and stuff but I should take time to try out all the characters myself in my own time. In theory, I really like that characters from some of my favourite games are in there - I was excited for Ryu and Cloud, and very happy for Banjo... but as a series for some reason it never clicked with me as much as pure 1v1 games, and the more they kept adding realistically proportioned human characters from Fire Emblem etc it diluted the cartoonish appeal for me. I greatly admire Sakurai and his work ethic though - and as a indie games designer I find his YouTube channel really inspiring and helpful

It's going to be a while before I play Sonic Frontiers, so feel free to update whatever you need to update to make it play as good as possible. Hopefully by then it'll be ready for me.

One thing I'm still left wondering about, which would help me greatly, is if I can reselect the difficulty when using NG+.
Or if I can carry over affinity tokens, or whatever they were called.
Because those tokens are why I dropped the game for a time,

@samuelvictor can you link any sources of him saying that there's more updates past #3? if thats true then imma pop off

Why’d it take 7 months to add the spin dash? Still a nice addition overall

Very nice. I really need to get back into this game and finish it. I put about 25 hours into it on PlayStation 5 and really enjoyed what I played. I just got swept up with other games and I haven't gone back to it since. But having additional DLC that can help liven up the experience is more than welcome.

@GogGogGogGog Kishimoto has stated at length on Twitter that his original plan for Frontiers was to have a middle point between the momentum based gameplay of Sonic Adventure / Heroes and the Boost gameplay of Unleashed / Colours/ Generations.

From the begining, spindash was included. However, because of time constraints, he couldn't get the feel of the combined movement correct and the level designs to work organically with momentum style play, so instead switched to temporarily mostly relying on boost style movement and putting dashpads everywhere that needs a burst of speed. He then has continued to experiment with combining momentum and boost gameplay in prototypes for the eventual sequel to Frontiers.

However, when he saw on Twitter that Spindash was one of the most requested features, he made it a priority to add it back into the Frontiers code and tweak it to make it work better, with what he'd learned from his protoptype experiments. Other movements he'll be adding back in through DLC include rolling into a ball, and drifting.

@epicgamner As I've already said its "The Sonic Show" on YouTube thats been translating and compiling all the leaks from Kishimoto over the last few months. His videos have all the twitter posts. However because you and multiple other people have been asking me for more info, I have been going through rewatching all his recent videos and making extensive notes about all the reveals as I thought people might find it useful and intersting. I thought this would be a quick job but so far its taken me 3 hours and I'm not finished! Theres been a lot of leaks... lol

@samuelvictor yeah ik about the tweets i just wasnt sure if i missed one that outright confirmed that more dlc was coming past #3

@samuelvictor I was waiting for the dlc before getting Origins, so it’s great to hear that she plays well!

I mean I guess they must of wanted to pick a more underrated pick, but because of that they robbed Vector of the spot, but in all honestly If it just had to be one of the two, I would pick mighty then amy, because I like mighty much more then Rey, and cooler!

It honestly crazy that she wasn’t in strikers at launch, sports is her big thing! Not adding her was a crazy decision! It’s crazy a litrally swap for peach became so love, just goes to show the concept was there, they just needed someone to unleash it.

And for the new peach game, there is a goodish chance that they have playable princesses, daisy being one of them maybe? I hope!

It’s vary stereotypical, that might not be the right word, but I feel like it was peaches first time in a game, she literally didn’t have a personality other then getting kidnapped, they tried to give her something, luckily she has developed a little bit of something now and the movies giving her a leader vibe and she actually feels like a princess, we don’t have to get into it here but I honestly I think samus, at least in my opinion is one of the best female characters in any video game, she is amazing! And I wish we had more Metroid games then what we do, while peach didn’t really have a character, and her being in a video game would mean vary little character wise I feel like. Till now! She got a great character in the movie and I can’t wait for her next game.

Hey sometimes we don’t enjoy games, and it’s ok, if it just isn’t for you it just isn’t for you, but if the online aspect is what you don’t enjoy, the game provides a lot of single player content!

@Mauzuri @Orpheus79V @Sonicka @JohnnyMind

For anyone interested in everything that Kishimoto revealed about the updates for Frontiers and the plans for the sequel, I just went through and rewatched all of the videos covering his tweets and wrote a huge article summarising it all. Theres an enormous amount of news and fun annecdotes etc. You can read it here: https://justpaste.it/aqzql

@epicgamner Nearest quote is: "At first, we thought that the evolution of Open Zone would be separate from the update and in the next game, but after talking with everyone here, we are starting it with an unplanned update. You will be able to check some of them (the new moves evolving the controls to be more momentum based) in the second update."

So, possibly a fourth unanounced update, or the size and scope of update 3 being vastly increased. In another tweet, he also confirms that rolling and more momentum style controls will be in "future updates" after DLC 2. Note the "updates". He also confirms the "new story" from the roadmap is not just refering to the ending, but a whole new "story update" plus mentions another "large update". Implies a new update after update 3.

He repeatedly talks at length about things he wants to add to Frontiers via updates if there is time and if he can get approval. If he can't get these all squeezed in, they will be added to the sequel, but he expresses multiple times a desire to get Frontiers as "complete" and polished as possible and has dedicated a team of 60 people to the task. He also states he's using updates as a "secret" way to playtest code and ideas from the movement, physics and combat of the sequel, and wants to continue doing do as it will help him to launch the sequel in a more satisfactory way from the start.

He mentions an enormous amount of content for updates including prety expansive new story stuff, multiple characetrs, new combat and moves, filling out empty areas of the map, replacing/adding to the ending, possibility for extra cosmetics etc etc. It seems unlikely that all of that will be squeezed into just one more update.

@samuelvictor 1 update or 2 more, it doesn't matter to me! This is excellent news either way. If Sega keeps up this trend of actually fixing problems with their games real time in accordance with fan advice there is a bright future ahead for we sonic fans. Or they could, y'know, have the games be complete on release BUT ILL TAKE ANYTHING AT THIS POINT PLEASE SEGA CONTINUE TO BE SMART

@Snatcher Yup can confirm I'm still playing as Amy and she's still brilliant! I've been playing as her all day except for taking a few hours to type up that massive Frontiers DLC summary posted above this one... Grrr I literally thought it would take an hour tops! 😂

I think perhaps Ray is a more interesting a visual design than Mighty and his ability is more unique... but I do find that I prefer playing as Mighty to Ray in Mania. I'm not sure the Super Mario World style flying works very well with Sonic level layouts. While I like them, to me in Chaotix for 32X Mighty and Espio always seemed close to Sonic palette swaps, whereas Vector and Charmy were completely new designs, visually.

Yes Daisy being left out of Strikers on launch was madness, as you said, she's the sporty one! And she was in the original Gamecube and Wii games! I think Nintendo was surprised by the reaction, to them, she was an unimportant minor character.

I'd not considered that there may be more princesses in the Peach game but I'd really love it if there is. 4 player multiplayer with Peach, Daisy, Rosalina and Pauline, perhaps? 😍

I think my issue with Smash is that I grew up getting very into 1v1 fighting games and learning the technical side of them. The chaotic nature of Smash and also the fact the camera keeps zooming in and out makes me find it hard to get adjusted, and while I know there is a lot of technical depth it does seem somewhat simple and easy to win by button mashing which doesnt' scratch my brain itch the way learning complex moves, counmters and combos does in other fighting games. That said, I have happy memories of playing multiplayer N64 & Gamecube matches with my cousins and I always have fun in matches with people at conventions.

I really do like the amount of game history and references, trophies, asssits, unlocks etc that are thrown in there though, its very impressive. That definitely appeal to the retro collecting nerd in me. Banjo and Kazooie beign added was a joyous moment. Of course I was also excited when Sonic & Green Hill was added to the Wii game. And seeing Sakurai explaining how much thought and details he put into each fighter that he added is inspiring to listen to, even if it doesn't make me want to play the game.

@epicgamner Yeah I agree, its really awesome how much attention is being paid to making this game the best it can be, and hopefully means the sequel will be taken very seriously by Sega also. I think before release, Sega treated the game as "just another Sonic game" to rush out as thats part of their regular income. If it wasn't well recieved, who cares? There will be another next year and fans always buy them.

But Kishimoto had much bigger aspirations for it, shaping the whole future of the franchise (see my big long summary linked above) and rebuilding 3d Sonic's reputation.

After Sega saw that Frontiers is the biggest selling game since Sonic Heroes, and is the first to sell over 3 million, they trust his vision a lot more and will let him really tailor the sequel so as to not lose that momentum and good will. From all the information and updates he's shared, I'm very excited for what he's continuing to work on for Frontiers, and especially the direction he wants to take the sequel.

@samuelvictor to think this game could have been another 06; thank god it turned out this way. Honestly, the outcome we got (somewhat unfinished and unpolished but free updates that kick ass) is realistically the best we could have gotten. My only complaint is that every time a new update comes out, the mods i have for it on steam become invalid which stinks since there's some killer cyberspace/open zone momentum and move set re-tooling mods. Can't complain other than that though!

@epicgamner Yeah I agree with everything you said there. Don't know if you checked the document I typed out but theres several notes of specific community made PC mods that have been sent to Kishimoto and he's been impressed enough to consider making them official or incorporating similar moves and improvements in Frontiers or the sequel. Similarly someone recomended he played Spark the Electric Jester 3 (which lets face it is basically a Sonic fan game) and he actually did play it and says he will adapt several ideas from the movement and controls of that game too.

@samuelvictor kishimoto is so awesome huge sonic team W

@epicgamner Agreed! A definite W for Sonic fans in general - also funny because Kishimoto himself often ends his tweets with a "w" - because its the Japanese way of writing "lol" 😅 it can be quite funny reading his tweets and thinking he's declaring everything he says an epic win. 🤣

@samuelvictor yeah ive seen that i watch some of the sonic show's vids its pretty funny

What were the additional bug fixes?

@samuelvictor I feel like knuckles showed how well it could work, but he’s flying can feel a bit slow, it’s usually why I don’t like playing as him to much.

Oh my goodness like an all princesses game? I would be so down for it! And Nintendo has to know how much that would sell!

I wish I could play them, I just can’t get past my anxiety to actually play fighting games even though I love them so much! Yeah it’s definitely more casual in that sense, there’s combos you can kinda do but it’s not going to give you that satisfaction of landing it like a 2d fighter would, so I see where your coming from, still makes for a great park game!

The team put a lot of work into it, and it makes me sad that we’re not getting another game like it again ):

@Snatcher Yeah I agree, Knuckles being so slow (and also having a smaller jump meaning all my muscle memory is off!) does make me not really want to play as him very much - however I've been enjoying playing as him in Sonic CD because the layout of those levels is a lot more vertical and "block based", so theres genuine use for his climbing and short bursts of gliding between surfaces. I have no idea why they didn't include him in Origins to begin with, he fits the game perfectly.

I too would love a platform game with all Princesses! I have always leant towards playing female characters and/or cute animal mascots in games. Big uber macho soldier types are just really not appealing to me - something like Contra or Castlevania is ok, I love those games! But I'd still prefer a female option, or the exact same game with a cuter aesthetic. Infact my own Hazel game that I'm developing is pretty much Symphony of the Night but with a cute, Sonic style visual aesthetic and you play a little girl witch and her animal friends (and outside areas in between castles are more like traditional Sonic levels).

In more modern "realistic" games I just find it completely uninteresting and even offputting to have an agressively macho character. Gears of War is a complete non-starter for me, for example. I also find this in other media, I like action movies if they are creative and visually interesting (usually sci-fi) but films like Rambo, Rocky, or the uber masculine Schwarzenegger movies etc just hold precisely zero appeal to me. As a kid I prefered She-Ra to He-Man, Barbie to Action Man. I've nothing against other people enjoying them, I just completely don't get it.

Not that it matters in any way but for reference I'm a completely cis/het male. I've always been aware that many of the things that I found uninteresting seemed to especially appeal to most of the other boys/men around me. I've no idea why more feminine and cute media has always appealed to me and ultra maculine portrayals put me off - perhaps its because I read them as violent or negative rather than fun and positive? I'm also autistic, I've heard that can lead to people having more of an aversion to traditionally laid out gender roles, regardless of their own gender identity.

Obviously I've no problem whatsoever with Mario and Sonic, or other cute male character in games or cartoons, I love them! But once more playable characters started to be added to those games, I always felt that it would be nice if the female characters got to tag along as well. Thats why I was so happy to see playable Amy being added to Origins, Superstars and Frontiers, and Daisy finally getting her chance to join the gang in Wonder. I feel like they've been "left out" since I was very little, and its like they finally are gettign equal treatment

@Snatcher As for fighting games, you might think that Smash Bros would appeal to me because of all the cute characters, and that's definitely true... I remember when the first game came out and my cousins got it on N64 and it was such a fun novelty to see them all together, and awesome fun to play in multiplayer with them. I'm an only child though, and as a single player experience it was less interesting... but I was so hyped when I heard Sonic got to be in the Wii game! Every time a character that I like is added to the roster, I was very pleased. Though, over time as more realistically "human" characters got added it became less interesting to me, too many Fire Emblem characters etc for my prefered "cute mascot characters playign together" vibe.

You're right that the team making Ultimate did an outstanding job. I've watched pretty much everything Sakurai has ever put out as far as interviews and info on the devlopment process with so much interest and admiration.

Despite all that, I think the reason its not my favourite fighting series is just that I was such a hardcore fan of all the early Capcom, SNK and Mortal Kombat 1 on 1 fighters that a less focused and technical experience (or maybe its just different and I don't know the nuances) is hard for me to fully adjust to and enjoy in the same ways. I mostly play games single player but find it fun to do this with fighting games to practice and get really good and then be able to challenge friends or family on teh rare occasions I have the opportunity. Smash Bros is equally fun in multiplayer experiences but I get less out of the 1 player game.

You might also think my distaste for overly macho characters or violent games would make it strange that I got so into Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat but at the time of tehir arcade dominance it was impossible to not be aware of them, and what appealed to me was that there were so many different and varied characters - including females, but also aliens, mutants, people with different magic abilities etc. Everything was colourful and fun, shooting fireballs etc.

Over time, once fighting games started moving to 3d engines, the graphics kept "improving" to the point of things becoming more realistic, and they've appealed to me less. Especially the Mortal Kombat series seems to have lost a lot of its humour and colourful appeal, the violence is more like a SAW movie than Tom and Jerry. Similarly I loved the early FPS games like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D for their colourful and cartoonish aesthetics, and obvious humour. Over time, I lost interest in teh genre as the graphics and violence got more realistic and the games became more "serious". I'm not a prude or calling for censorship in any way, its just less appealing to me personally.

As a big Sega fan, I loved the first couple of Virtua Fighter games, even though I wished more fanciful moves and characters would be added. I think this was mostly because I was amazed by the tech, and they played very fluidly. By the time VF3 came around the novelty wore off completely and though I try each entry, I prefer the first 2 for the more chunky Lego style visuals and the novelty of remembering just how impressive the games are for the hardware - this is probably why my favourite versions are VF1 on 32X and VF2 on Saturn, both pushing their respective systems to the absolute limits playing passable renditions of arcade boards thousands of times more powerful.

Possibly predictably because they have so many female characters, and don't take themselves too seriously, my favourite "modern" 3d series of fighting games and the only ones I play consistently are the Dead or Alive games.

[edit] PS I'm sorry that fighting games trigger anxiety for you. I have several mental health issues and I really appreciate when others are open about their feelings and emotions as it helps normalise it for other people. If its the violence that makes you anxious, you may find the older games in more famous series are more palettable as they aer more cartoonish and silly. But if its more about anxiety caused by the extreme speed and reaction times needed, then its probably not the genre for you as a whole. And that's ok of course!