Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Sega All-Stars Racing 2 Spoilers?

Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing: Transformed is currently sitting in stores, waiting for the release date.  Except some stores have already started selling pre-release copies which means there's people among us playing the game.  Um, SPOILER ALERT!!!


First of all, a lot of people are running their asses on the Internet right now.  So I'm going to give you a tentative feel to what I know.  This is mostly from browsing around the official Sega All-Stars Racing forum.  Here goes (once again, SPOILERS):

...

* Every character that was in Sega Superstars Tennis EXCEPT Alex Kidd is in.  EDIT: No, that's false, Alex Kidd IS IN.  That means MeeMee (Super Monkey Ball), Gum (Jet Set Radio), and Pudding (Space Channel 5).  All girls.

* There is a Burning Rangers track.

* There is a House of the Dead track.

* There is a Billy Hatcher track.

* There is a "Race of Ages" track that is similar to Mario Kart's Rainbow Road and features references to many Sega IPs.  No idea if there's any references to Daytona or Virtua Racing.  I doubt it but we'll see.

* The following characters are probably not playable: Chu Chus, Zobio & Zobiko, Jacky Bryant, Opa Opa, Bonanza Bros, Vectorman, Toejam & Earl, Big the Cat, Billy Hatcher, Bayonetta, Banjo-Kazooie.

* Sunshine Tour, Future Shibuya, Death Egg, and Roulette Road are the only tracks from the first Sega All-Stars Racing to be in Transformed.

* EDIT: There's two Jet Set Radio tracks, the one from the first game and a brand new one.

* There is a third 3rd-party character besides Danica and Wreck-It Ralph that hasn't been found.  And it is, according to some file names on the disc...Team Fortress 2 Spy/Heavy/Pyro?  I can't make this s*** up if I tried. I think this is total crap but at this point, I don't discount anything.  EDIT: There's also "references" to a Football Manager character, Total War character, and Alex Kidd just like the TF2 characters.  It makes no sense, I know.  EDIT: The TF2 "character" is most likely a PC exclusive character, makes sense if this is released on Steam...

* Then there's some "ultimate fanservice Sega character" that hasn't been mentioned.  It takes a very long time to unlock.  According to some guy's BS, it's....Taro Sega from Segagaga?  He's from some 2001 Japan-only Dreamcast game that looks like Phantasy Star but with lots of Sega character cameos.  Now like I said, this is probably crap so I'm not holding my breath on this.  I think Segata Sanshiro would make a better pick anyway but what do I know.  Taro Sega makes a slight amount of sense anyway from a fanservice point.  FORGET THIS, IT'S WRONG, this guy's full of it.

* EDIT: BRAND NEW, THE EXCLUSIVE CHARACTER is possibly the "Segabot," a robot constructed of various Sega things such as the Dreamcast VMU, the Afterburner Jet, and the Hornet from Daytona USA.  OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It totally makes sense, Hornet = land, Afterburner = plane, VMU, no Dreamcast controller = boat (well it's shaped like one).  I'll believe it once I see it.

* Segata Sanshiro exists somewhere in the game's code but most likely as a cameo.

* EDIT: Looks like Billy Hatcher was the 30th character but he got cut from the game.

* Now about our beloved Ryo Hazuki.  I don't think he's a playable character after all.  He's a hologram that appears in the Race of Ages track.  Same with a couple of other guys like Bonanza Bros. and Opa Opa.

Look, I'm not going to say anymore since I think everyone's full of crap.  I'm going to get the game in the mail in a week and then we'll play it and have lots of fun.  But about Ryo, I think it sucks that they dropped him.  He had a good showing in the first Sega All-Stars Racing but that's it.  Riding Ito's motorcycle and the forklift.


I think the main reason why Ryo didn't make the cut is because in the realm of this game, I just don't see how the bike or forklift could transform into a boat or plane.  It makes sense for guys like Joe Musashi, Vyse, and Gilius cause they come from fantasy worlds (or zones) with all these elaborate tools, gadgets, weapons, magic and stuff.  But Ryo is not a cartoon character, he's some average joe on a bike so it was crazy enough he was in the first game but the second was too much apparently.  Or it could be because no one gives a damn about Shenmue anymore so screw it, Ryo is gone?

As for all the girl characters, Danica included, I think it's ridiculous that some series like Super Monkey Ball would get two characters (who was stoked to see MeeMee in the game anyway?) but they needed more female characters so there you go.  As for all the people complaining about Danica taking a spot, I say this.  I think she's a totally unique character with a unique vehicle.  Yeah she's "realistic" like Ryo but between race cars, Go Daddy, and Hot Wheels, I think she has character traits appropriate for this game.  She also fills the quota of female characters.  Bayonetta would make a great female character except for the whole "being in a M-rated game" thing so that's unfortunate.  If you think someone like Ryo or Segata Sanshiro is more deserving than Danica, fine, I don't doubt it.  But see the forest from the trees...Sumo probably knows something we don't.

Speaking of which, this situation is awfully reminiscent of when the Super Smash Bros. Brawl roster was leaked.  I was there for that crap.  I hated the game but I wanted to know what 30-something characters were in the game, sort of like Willy Wonka and the Golden Tickets--you were stricken with curiosity.  And I saw first-hand the guys who wept over the absences of potential characters like Mewtwo, Issac, Ridley, Megaman, Geno, etc. so it sucks.  But it's impossible for these AAA games to cater to every single person so I'll leave it at that.  Adding one character to a game is hard enough.  Adding twenty-five is takes AGES.  So sorry they couldn't add 26, 27, or 28 instead of 25.

There'll probably be many complaints about this game, let's get by them, see what we can take away from the game such as the GAMEPLAY which looks solid!  Pray for DLC which I'll buy it if Sega offers any but they have really shied away from DLC lately so it's gonna be tough.  Just don't get on this "we need 100 more Sonic characters and tracks" bandwagon or I'm going to snap.

3 comments:

  1. Leakage ahoy! And yet I couldn't look away either. I'm actually pretty surprised with the inclusion of the TF2 characters, which is actually pretty neat.

    I felt somewhat bummed that some of the cast from the previous game was axed; characters like the Bonanza Bros, Opa Opa, and Ryo were fun to play as because they were more obscure compared to the Sonic characters. But it's understandable. Great for us adults but people like my nephew haven't the slightest idea who they are. I know some people are especially peeved about Ryo, and while I thought it was kinda cool he was in the first game, the fact the game recycled voice clips made the experience a bit awkward. I'm kind of feeling the same way toward the TF2 crew. That was probably one of the things that really did hurt the experience some. So less recycling in this game is good.

    The King of Fighters comes to mind. The roster is always changing and not everyone from previous installments return for the next game. And SNK's defense was that this made each installment unique and people would play the older games again. Not like the sports titles you see at used game stores. So it's not the end of the world if we don't see some returning faces. We should be glad they made it into the first game at all.

    I think the only thing I feel awkward about is the Total War and Football Manager thing. I realize they're pretty popular in Europe, but it's pretty much unheard of in America, and being American, seems really out of place.

    But if Hornet is really in the game in some playable form, that'll do it for me. Otherwise, I'm buying first thing and probably looking forward to the soundtrack above all else, lol.

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  2. About Hornet...

    http://youtu.be/dQWnEcAiDKE

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