In more recent news, the demoes for both of these games came out for both of these platforms on the same day. I downloaded and tried all of them. There’s a theme here because these particular games do not represent my usual forte. My oeuvre, if you will.

I never got Sonic, I find the classic games frustrating and the movement system is just wrong to me. The 3D games, according to popular opinion, I should just not bother with for the most part. But for me, free is the right price and I gave the demoes a spin. Get it? Because he spins.

Yeah, they didn’t win me over. Basically it’s like Mario Galaxy but all slippery and confusing. I did find that the 3DS version agreed with me much more than the Wii U one did, I mainly chalk that up to a much better presented demo that actually taught you mechanics and showed off different things you would be doing in the game. Also the more general trend of big console games being overdeveloped and valuing style over substance. This was represented subtly here, really the two were pretty similar.

But yeah I have tried a few Sonic games and they never clicked with me. This one blunders all over the line between smooth and fiddly, difficult platforming and the feeling of not being in control. I think that’s my general assessment of Sonic really, and I can’t go any more in-depth on this one just from a demo. So thumbs down.

As for Lego Marvel, well it’s a Lego game. I’m intimately familiar with them by this point, but it’s the Marvel side that I’m not big on. I’ve really only been exposed to the “cinematic universe” and all those other cinematic universes that they don’t have the rights to. Come to think of it, I’ve probably seen more Marvel movies than DC, but that’s probably because DC movies that aren’t Batman have been notoriously bad. But, I have more DC experience what with Sandman, borrowing some Batman comics from the library, watching the Justice League cartoon (and the Teen Titans one… one of them anyway). I’m not super invested in either of them though.

Anyways this is just another Lego game really, and if you’re not interested in the paerticular IP attached then you should just play Lego Star Wars again or something. It is the newest and hence shiniest one, and I guess it could have some new ideas? I don’t know, I just saw old ideas really. I’ve said before that I have more faith in TT Fusion (the handheld division) than TT to make a stable and interesting game, and for the second time I’m siding with the smaller iteration of the two games.

The 3DS has more new ideas with the rewards system and the super moves, although that seemed quite useless. But the sub-chapters thing with just one character at a time seems nice and less fiddly, with the little quest things inspiring quick replays. Sure it may be less ambitious and impressive than the console one, but I dunno I guess I’m once again feeling that I prefer the tighter experience than the bloated one with a million lighting shaders or whatever and the crashing.

Realistically though, if my wife was interested at all, the console one would be the only way to go with its big screen co-op mode. At least until the miniature version eventually goes on sale in the iOS App Store. So yeah it is just another Lego game, and I’ve played lots and have a few more to play still (just iPhone ones). In fact I’m doing Harry Potter 2 handheld now and it’s fairly alright. Ah, demoes. They don’t come often enough.