Right, I *love* BotW, but I was never that big on Zelda before. But I had lots of friends/YouTube co-workers express the same sentiment about post-BotW Zelda, and the more we saw of Frontiers, the more I was like, "Uh oh, I might know exactly how they feel before long..." xD

I'd also want it to be a sequel to SA1, not SA2. So we still have Adventure Fields and Action Stages, no character-specific stages, the Rashomon plot structure, and a brand-new VMU accessory in the box for the Chao Garden, same as HGSS had the PokéWalker.

CHOOSE YOUR BUDDY!
SONIC - Duh.
CREAM & CHEESE - Easy Mode
BLAZE - Hard Mode
TANGLE & WHISPER - Come up with some buddy/duo gameplay for 'em.
SILVER - Psychic powers finally get to be in a good game
ZAVOK - Here to ensure that it will be a good game

Really though, this sure does highlight how much quicker generations used to be. When the PlayStation was five years old, the PS2 was released. 1995 seemed as far removed from then as 2005 does to now in terms of game design & technology.

I Am All of Me is the definitive Shadow theme.

I'd have to watch Underground and I love myself too much to do that.

I would like Live & Learn better if I hadn't listened to it on a constant loop non-stop from July 2001 to January 2003. It was my favorite song at one point, but I ruined it for myself.

I used to just open a Notepad and type out the lyrics when I was bored, I was gosh-darn OBSESSED with it.

Great piece, very insightful, and also your blog is pretty much exactly the same color and layout as the Xanga I had as a teenager. xD

I really like Chaos Island, Kingdom Valley, and (actual for real) Radical Highway though, and of course they're the ones that *don't* do any of that. I don't think it's as challenging or speedy as OG Gens, but it's definitely good stuff.

When it's good it's REALLY good. But a good chunk of the levels are bogged down by unskippable cutscenes and nonsense where Black Doom takes you to Radical Highway AGAIN so he can blather at you for minutes at a time and you do little more than hold forward, which *really* hurts the replay value.

The upside is that if they do a similar model again, they'll pretty much HAVE to make new level design this time. We'll see how it goes! I do at least trust 'em to keep Sonic focused on being a speedy action-platformer, based on what Iizuka has said in interviews.