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This Would Probably Be More Fun If I Wasn't Looking For Medals.

I’ve been playing Sonic Unleashed this week. Don’t get all facetious, it’s not like there has been anything interesting released. I’m using the time to delve into the past Playstation games I missed. I just so happen to like Sonic. The game is fine really, nothing special, nothing terrible. Sadly though, it falls into the trap of one of my most hated video game pet hates — treasure hunting.

I don’t care if it takes me 20 hours to find all of the collectibles hidden in a game because I’m not going to bother with them anyway. Gold trophy or not. I don’t give a shit. I really don’t want to collect them. Fair play if someone does, I can respect the developer for incorporating hidden collectibles and a reward for those who want to spend more time in the game world. But with Sonic Unleashed I don’t want to collect them. So why, oh why is the developer making me.

Basically, to give some background on the way the game is structured for those who haven’t played it: Sonic Unleashed provides you with a variety of medals to collect; sun and moon. Collecting enough of these raises your play level so you’re able to tackle new stages. Yes that’s correct, you have to collect them to progress. That means revisting old levels, searching the gameworld top to bottom just to access the next level. I wouldn’t inherently mind so much if it wasn’t so glaringly obvious that the game would last about 3 hours if you didn’t have to backtrack looking for medals all the time. It’s irritating and it’s not fun at all. In fact it’s actually hurting my enjoyment of the game.

What’s Sonic all about? Running really fast right. Well now I realise that I have to collect these stupid fucking medals, I’m finding myself running really slowly. After all, I might run past a fucking medal. And if I do, I’m going to have to play the whole level again. Why are you destroying your own game? If the main campaign is short, fair enough, extend it with reasons to replay – how about scoreboards? How about alternative routes? How about different costumes and stuff? I don’t know – I’m not a developer – I just know I’d rather Sonic Unleashed were a short game with reason to return than a drawn out campaign that’s frustrating as hell.

Another game that did this was Prince Of Persia. You can just hear the developers saying to each other – “We could let them go straight to the next level, but why don’t we make them collect another gajillion glowing orbs before we let them progress”. Who in the hell decided that would be a fun idea? Obviously someone did. Well I’m putting it out there, it’s not.

In fact I don’t particularly find it fun when it’s not paramount to the game experience. Who shot those bajillion pigeons in GTAIV? Who collected the shards in inFamous? Who does any of this shit?

Super Mario 64 tasked you with collecting 120 stars. That was fun because you unlocked each one by completing a particular mission. Didn’t matter whether you’d beaten the game or not, you’d return to collect all 120 because there was more to do. If those stars had been hidden around the castle, would anyone have bothered? I know I wouldn’t.

Come on developers… Find interesting ways for making people replay your game and explore your game world. And if you really must send us on a treasure hunt, for the goodness sake don’t make it paramount to the campaign’s progression.

It pisses me off.

“Twiggy” is an anonymous PushSquare columnist who has been spotted in three major cities across the globe. It’s rumoured he’s on the run from the British monarchy who accused him of treason.

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