Game Anniversaries: Zelda Vs. Pokemon Vs. Sonic

Pinkie-Dawn · Jan 25, 2016

2016 marks the 30th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda, the 20th anniversary of Pokemon, and the 25th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog. Of course, there are other milestone anniversaries this year for other popular game franchises such as Metroid, but those got neglected 5 years ago because of Zelda and Sonic, so I expect them to also get neglected this year. TPCi has recently posted their super bowl commercial, and there have been rumored leaks about what SEGA's planning for Sonic's 25th anniversary, but so far, Nintendo hasn't said any word regarding Zelda's 30th anniversary, at least until it gets mentioned in one of their newly formatted Directs. This thread was created to ask you guys: Which of these franchises will have the best milestone celebration this year? These are the known upcoming games they have this year:

Legend of Zelda
Hyrule Warriors Legends
Twilight Princess HD
Zelda U

Pokemon
Pokken Tournament
Pokemon Go
Detective Pikachu (Update 1/26/16)

Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice

We know that a Pokemon Z is on the way based on patterns from previous gens, but we don't know if the leaks about the upcoming Sonic games are true or not. Will Zelda U avoid the accursed Zelda Cycle? Does Pokken Tournament have the potential to be a competitive fighting game? Is there going to be a possible repeat of Sonic 06 for the hedgehog 10 years ago? Discuss.

Harmonie · Jan 25, 2016

I won't believe that Zelda U is coming in 2016 until I see it.

Either way, Zelda wins this one pretty easily for me. Although I don't think any of them are particularly exciting (noting that I don't play the Sonic franchise, so I can't talk about it), unless Zelda U really does come out this year. The most exciting thing to me are the Zelda and Pokemon symphony orchestra concerts, of which I still haven't seen either of them. T.T

Arsenic · Jan 25, 2016

Getting myself the new, new 3ds pokemon anniversary version. Figure it's time to upgrade my hunk o' junk. I hear you don't even have to wear a neck brace to use the 3d on this one!

As for which will have the best milestone, I've never been terribly interested in the two other series.... So I suppose that leaves pokemon for me!

Nakasu · Jan 25, 2016

For Sonic in particular i'm not expecting too much and not getting my hopes too high. I'm not even sure if my country even got Sonic Boom or if we are even getting Fire and Ice. I do know they most likely have a game planned for this year, they always have one planned for the anniversary. Hopefully it's not a rushed piece of garbage. I honestly think the sonic Franchise is 100% completely dead if this game doesn't do what it's supposed to.

What is this Zelda Cycle if I may ask? I don't particularly have a WiiU but what I do know is if you have Zelda Franchise Amibo's you never have to spend a dime supposedly, refilling hearts and arrows. I mean I would say this subtracts from the difficulty of the game, i would have liked it if it did something like character switching or an extra unique dungeon, but eh. I expect a lot from Zelda U, since this is our first actual Zelda Console game since Skyward Sword. Hopefully it lives up to expectations, take what skyward Sword lacked and fixed it.

Ehh I wouldn't say we know that it's going to be Pokemon Z based on previous Generations, since Black and White threw that concept out the window with Black and White 2. I do agree that there's enough evidence to support that Z is more than likely going to happen, especially with the title of the new anime, and the forms of Zygarde. Hopefully Pokemon go and the next main Pokemon game are great.

wolf · Jan 25, 2016

I'm most interested in Zelda Wii U. I didn't like SS so I'll be more cautious about buying this one haha. TP HD looks nice but I'm not willing to throw $60 at a remake.

Hopefully they'll announce a good Metroid game this year. 3DS seems more likely than Wii U given the state of that console. Metroid would be really nice with a bottom screen for the map. However, I've learned not to expect anything from Nintendo when it comes to Metroid lol.

Pinkie-Dawn · Jan 25, 2016

Nakasu said:
What is this Zelda Cycle if I may ask? I don't particularly have a WiiU but what I do know is if you have Zelda Franchise Amibo's you never have to spend a dime supposedly, refilling hearts and arrows. I mean I would say this subtracts from the difficulty of the game, i would have liked it if it did something like character switching or an extra unique dungeon, but eh. I expect a lot from Zelda U, since this is our first actual Zelda Console game since Skyward Sword. Hopefully it lives up to expectations, take what skyward Sword lacked and fixed it.

The Zelda Cycle is when the newest main Zelda title gets panned by fans and love the previously released Zelda title, that also got panned by those same fans before. So once Zelda U is released, the fans will bash the game and praise Skyward Sword, even though they previously bashed that game before.

Hopefully they'll announce a good Metroid game this year. 3DS seems more likely than Wii U given the state of that console. Metroid would be really nice with a bottom screen for the map. However, I've learned not to expect anything from Nintendo when it comes to Metroid lol.

Retro Studios has already mentioned that there's going to be a Metroid Prime 4, but production hasn't started yet, and it'll take about 3 years to finish it. So any unannounced Metroid game may most likely be a traditional 2D Metroid, which is bound to be for the 3DS, given how the last two 2D Metroid games were on the GBA.

mew_nani · Jan 26, 2016

So Zelda Cycle is just fans being a little shortsighted because the new game doesn't fit their expectations? At least it's better than the infamous Sonic Cycle where the series continually cycles from releasing good games to releasing games that continually lower in quality with each release until Sonic Team finally crashes and releases a game so awfully bad it defies belief and resets the cycle again.

It's neat that Pokemon's and Zelda's anniversaries fall on the same year like that, and I'm at least excited for both of those. As for Sonic though.... Just run. Sega took the last anniversary very badly, and released two of the worst Sonic games ever made. I'm not sure they learned from their previous mistakes.

pkmin3033 · Jan 26, 2016

Honestly, all three of them are going to have to do a hell of a lot better if they want to have memorable years.

There hasn't been a halfway decent Sonic game since Sonic Generations. Who even considers Sonic one of the greats anymore outside of in a nostalgic sense? Unlike Mario, Sonic did not make the transition to 3D gracefully, and Sega have felt this aggravating need to constantly reinvent his games every few years. Sonic Boom is easily the worst reinvention yet, and I doubt any game that is a part of it will ever be even worth playing.

Two re-releases of old titles doesn't really count for much with Zelda - as much as I am looking forward to playing Twilight Princess again - so it's going to ride on whether or not they can actually get the new Wii U title out this year. I'll believe that when I have a copy of it in my hands and not before, because broken promises go hand-in-hand with delayed video games. The Zelda franchise has some making up to do after Triforce Heroes turned out to be a complete screw up, so it remains to be seen if they'll make this a memorable year for the franchise.

As for Pokemon...honestly, asides from the re-releases of the original titles, I see nothing worth getting excited about. Another game set in Kalos, if that is indeed coming this year, doesn't fill me with confidence, because X and Y were mediocre at the best of times. I refuse to give Pokken or Pokemon Go the time of day. EU is getting Super Mystery Dungeon next month, but that doesn't count, because it's been out in the US since November and it should never have been delayed in the first place.

So, unless Sonic or Pokemon have a surprise release coming this year, I expect Zelda to have the most memorable anniversary...and only if they get the new Wii U game out. If not...well, all three of them are a bust, as far as I'm concerned.

Nah · Jan 26, 2016

mew_nani said:
As for Sonic though.... Just run. Sega took the last anniversary very badly, and released two of the worst Sonic games ever made. I'm not sure they learned from their previous mistakes.

Which games are you talking about? There's several Sonic games that could probably claim the title of "two of the worst Sonic games ever made" at this point.

Meloetta said:
As for Pokemon...honestly, asides from the re-releases of the original titles, I see nothing worth getting excited about. Another game set in Kalos, if that is indeed coming this year, doesn't fill me with confidence, because X and Y were mediocre at the best of times.

I'm kind of hoping that they'll use this opportunity to fix most of the problems that X/Y had. Though I suppose that I shouldn't really expect Game Freak to do anything close to what I hope for.

Pinkie-Dawn · Jan 26, 2016

Nah said:
Which games are you talking about? There's several Sonic games that could probably claim the title of "two of the worst Sonic games ever made" at this point.

Sonic 06 and the GBA port of the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Both were released 10 years ago.

I'm kind of hoping that they'll use this opportunity to fix most of the problems that X/Y had. Though I suppose that I shouldn't really expect Game Freak to do anything close to what I hope for.

If you've been paying attention to patterns, then you would already know that every vanilla version of a new gen Pokemon has less content compared to the third version of the last gen, only until the third version of the newest gen comes out with more content than the vanilla versions. So it's really unfair to call X/Y "mediocre" for this case, especially when it's supposedly the one game that brought a lot of people who haven't played Pokemon since the early 2000's back in the game, so you really can't argue with that without being labeled as an elitist what's currently happening with Fire Emblem since Awakening.

Edit: We've got another new Pokemon game coming this year.

pkmin3033 · Jan 26, 2016

Nah said:
I'm kind of hoping that they'll use this opportunity to fix most of the problems that X/Y had. Though I suppose that I shouldn't really expect Game Freak to do anything close to what I hope for.

I suppose it's possible, but honestly I don't think the mediocrity of X/Y can be fixed by a miniscule story touch-up and maybe one or two postgame additions, which is probably all they'll bother doing to it if past titles are any indicator.

...don't get me wrong, third versions of Pokemon games are always good, but the games they're based on have been good (except R/S, but Emerald really DID fix what was wrong with R/S by letting you battle both teams for a complete experience) so the additions have been a nice bonus. X/Y weren't particularly good, so they'd need to go above and beyond to make a good third game, and I can't see them doing that. But eh, to each their own, and who knows? They might surprise us. Honestly, I think they'd be better off either abandoning Kalos entirely or making a sequel again rather than a third version of the same game.

But I digress. This new detective game doesn't change my views...if anything, it puts Pokemon in an even weaker position with me, because if all we're going to get is lousy spinoffs and re-releases it's going to be a very depressing year. Sure, we'll get a new game announcement in all likelihood, but if it's out before Q4 2016 here I'll be surprised. A whole year of misinformed hype does not constitute a good year, in my opinion.

I'd say Zelda is still in with a chance for the best year if they get the new Wii U game out by the end of the year. Waiting six months between Twilight Princess HD and the new game would be fine with me, especially if they add in some proper DLC characters for Hyrule Warriors Legends across those months, which is definitely possible.

Nah · Jan 26, 2016

Pinkie-Dawn said:
If you've been paying attention to patterns, then you would already know that every vanilla version of a new gen Pokemon has less content compared to the third version of the last gen, only until the third version of the newest gen comes out with more content than the vanilla versions. So it's really unfair to call X/Y "mediocre" for this case, especially when it's supposedly the one game that brought a lot of people who haven't played Pokemon since the early 2000's back in the game, so you really can't argue with that without being labeled as an elitist what's currently happening with Fire Emblem since Awakening.

I am aware that that's what they tend to do. It's a bullshit practice on Game Freak's part, and doesn't change the fact though that X/Y (and many of the other first pairs) is indeed less than spectacular. But that is a topic for another thread I suppose.

Anyway, it's probably Zelda>Pokemon>Sonic atm. Hyrule Warriors Legends and the Twilight Princess remaster are basically guaranteed successes since they're related to (or are) already fine titles. Who knows how Zelda U will go, though the mothership titles for Zelda rarely are awful iirc. Sega pretty much has to do something amazing to salvage Sonic at this point.....not really expecting Sonic Boom to do that. Pokemon is sort of the more wild card one; it largely depends on how well Pokken and Go do, and I don't really know how they will do (though I have some interest in Pokken but do not care in the slightest about Go). Detective Pikachu I suppose is too early to call since it was officially revealed today (though there were rumors of it for a while, right?), but i would not be surprised if it joins the majority of the other spin-off titles as "unimpressive". Then who knows if we'll be getting a new main series game or not and how good it'll be.

Necrum · Jan 26, 2016

Supposedly Sonic Team is working on a game of their own separate from Fire and Ice. It hasn't been stated whether it's a Sonic game or something else entirely though, so I guess we will see.

mew_nani said:
As for Sonic though.... Just run. Sega took the last anniversary very badly, and released two of the worst Sonic games ever made. I'm not sure they learned from their previous mistakes.

What? Last anniversary was Generations right? Which was the best Sonic game to come out since Sonic Adventure in my mind.

mew_nani · Jan 26, 2016

Necrum said:
Supposedly Sonic Team is working on a game of their own separate from Fire and Ice. It hasn't been stated whether it's a Sonic game or something else entirely though, so I guess we will see.

What? Last anniversary was Generations right? Which was the best Sonic game to come out since Sonic Adventure in my mind.

The anniversary before that gave us Sonic '06, a late alpha mess Sega shoved out the door just to make the anniversary and Sonic Genesis, which is a buggy, butchered port of Sonic 1 on a console twice as powerful as the console it debuted on.

Sonic Team can put out good games if they're given enough time to do so, but Sega has before made them rush and scramble and put out games that weren't ready to be shipped. I frankly don't have a lot of faith in Sega to not mess this up.

Game Anniversaries: Zelda Vs. Pokemon Vs. Sonic

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