[quote=“Arcie”]
Back when the Saturn/PS came out, people were making games 3D for the sake of it. Bug! and the newer Sonic titles come to mind. A 2D Sonic game with the kind of graphics modern consoles can throw out would rock, but most people would dismiss it as lame as it isn’t 3D. Unlike Sonic Heroes which was so linear it was painful.[/quote]
The masses seemed to like Sonic Heroes… a lot I might add. Linear games can be good as long as they are fun. However, I’m leaning towards open-ended games nowadays. I wonder what we will see next: Sonic Adventure 3 or Sonic Heroes 2?
And yes, during the Saturn era, and even on the eve of the 128 bit era, 2D games were still extremely popular in Japan.
I still have an old issue of Sega Saturn Magazine where the staff interviewed the president of Sega who said there was still a huge market for 2D games. Sega sold 5 million Saturns in Japan and yet (I believe) only managed to sell a meager 1 million Dreamcasts there. If the Dreamcast had captured the same market as the Saturn in Japan, then I dare say things would’ve turned out differently.