Sonic Mania's "FATAL FLAW"

[IkePoR]

Nautilus said:

IkePoR said:

I agree, however I think it has less to do with being babysat and more to do with casual players.  Especially with a classic IP like Sonic, some people who don't really play games anymore are just messing around to see if the new Sonic is good.  Point being, they probably aren't very good at the game, but should they be punished for that fact?  They paid the entry fee just like good players, shouldn't they get to experince the entirety of what they paid for?

I guess what I'm suggesting is a casual mode, or perhaps a free "Super Sonic" box appearing next to a checkpoint pole, like in recent Mario games.  Good players can ignore it, while the less skilled can progress on a tough level.

Also, in Dark Souls, you only lose your souls and enimies respawn upon death. You also have one chance to get those souls back. So it's not quite that punishing :p

But I dont think that every game needs to be "acessible".Most of the time, a game quality is tied to its difficulty.The experience playing Dark Souls, for example, would be vastly different if you had a difficulty that lets say, the enemy did 50% less and the AI were much more forgiving, but your charachter stats would remain the same.I would say the same holds true for Sonic Mania, even if in a lesser capacity.

The question now would be if developers would be ok to jeopardize their vision for the game and the thrill that the player is suppossed to feel with each acomplishment in the name of acessability, since the player that is playing on easy in not having the experience the developer crafted and intended to have(which would be on normal difficulty for example).

My point is, not every game needs to appeal to someone, both in genres and difficult.If someone is not good at gaming, it should research beforehand if the game is hard or not, the same way you research is the type of game you like or if the game is good.

Dark Souls is marketed to be "hard as balls" and it's near impossible to hear about the game without it's scathing difficulty being mentioned.  Much like Fire Emblem games before casual mode, every preview and review talked up permadeath to warn players.  Sonic Mania doesn't do this, it's just another Sonic game to the average person.  But let's be real here - the average consumer doesn't research any game they play.  It's why terrible games that have terrible practices do so well(Shadow of War will be a huge success despite the awful controversies for example).  The majority who are willing to research things are gamers already and won't have an issue with the difficulty.

You make a point - no game should have to compromise their vison.  However, with the ideas I proposed, I don't think it's being compromised. You don't have to pick up the invincible tanooki tail in New Super Mario Bros. You're not forced to play casual mode in Fire Emblem Awakening.  Those games are still true to their series when those options are ignored.  Developers are always up to giving options when it comes to DLC and microtransactions, why is it any different with something as simple as a optional power up?  Keep in mind these companies want as many people playing as possible and consumer frindliness goes a long way in that reguard.