Thank you letter to Sumo Digital

[DaytonaUSA]

Hey guys, I figured I'd share this with you all. I sent out a thank you letter to Sumo Digital for making (among other games) Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing. What you may find in his response is kinda surprising ... it's a good read:

 

 

From: Darryl Benson [mailto:
Sent: 01 April 2010 15:01
To: Sumo-Info
Subject: To all of Sumo Digital's staff:

 

(If it is at all possible to email this to your staff, it would be greatly appreciated)

 



Dear Sumo Digital Game Designers and Staff,



 

I know this will seem out of left field, and I can't remember when the last time I was ever compelled to do this, but I wanted to thank everyone who works at Sumo Digital for their hard work in making one of the best games this generation. 



 

I cannot express how much your games have been the pinnacle of my PS3 collection. Your team captures perfectly my favorite era in gaming, the mid 90s, when 3D arcade racers were at their finest; well before games like Need for Speed or Burnout Paradise came around and took the instant action, excitement, soul and fun away from the genre.



 

I have thoroughly enjoyed your take on Virtua Tennis and GTI Club+, and your original games like Super Rub 'a Dub and Sega Superstars Tennis. However, the main reason for this email is to thank your team for Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing. 



 

I grew up with Nintendo and Sega, and after owning a Wii for two years, decided that Nintendo simply wasn't for me any longer. Mario Kart Wii wasn't original, and how I perceived a "next gen" version of that game was completely different than what was actually produced. It was safe, in every sense of the word. My main problems were the bland, flat textured graphics, the poor sense of speed and the horrible roster of characters, half a which should have never have been included. All-Stars Racing however, is exactly what I wished for in a modern day kart racer.

 



I'm sure you often only have your profit or Metacritic scores to judge the success of your games, but let me tell you as a fan of the Saturn and Dreamcast era, you hit it squarely on the head! While of course there are characters that aren't present (I'd seriously pay $50 in DLC to play as a Gallop Nascar from Daytona USA, haha!) , your fan service and production quality are through the roof! On top of that, you have given me the speed, graphics, and character roster that actually EXCITES me when I play, still after all these gaming sessions with your racer, that Mario Kart hasn't given me since the SNES/N64 days.

 



Seeing my favorite characters like Beat and B.D. Joe in HD makes me excited about the possibilities of future Sega games, games in which I wish you would pressure Sega to allow you to make. Your care and love for Sega in this game is seen in every frame, every screen, and it's VERY appreciated. Think of all the PS3 blockbuster titles out there... and yours is first place above all of them to me, and that I cannot stress enough. 



 

Sure I'd love it if you could release Outrun Arcade on the PS3 here in the states, sure I WISH that you could somehow get past EA's license with Nascar and make a Daytona USA sequel, and sure I wish that you could remake all the famous and not so famous arcade games of the mid 90s that I hold so dear to my heart, just like you did with GTI Club+....but for now you deserve simply my thanks and appreciation. 



 

I look forward to all your future projects and wish you and your "family" all the success in the world. You are the only ones who capture arcade racing like it used to be, but in a modern vision, and for that you all are amazing.




 

Thank you for your time and all the great memories,

 



Darryl A. A. Benson

 

 

 

Hi Darryl,

 

I’ve passed on your email to the team here as it’s always nice to get feedback like this. You’d be surprised at how rare it is!

 

We had a lot of fun working on ASR, not to mention the other SEGA titles we do, and hopefully we’ll start looking at another SEGA project in the not too distant future! If I can just get them to let us do a new Daytona or Super Hang-On game

 

We tried very hard to get OutRun Online Arcade out on PS3 in the US (as did SEGA), but so far no dice. We’ll keep working on it though!

 

Thanks again for passing on your thoughts and best wishes, it really means a lot to us. Whenever we do a game, we think about the people who will be playing it first and foremost. Of course it helps we’re all big SEGA fans to boot!

 

Best,

 

Steve Lycett

[Reaperman]

It's always nice to see responses like that. I found a similar response tucked away in one of my old Imagic games once. I think you should print this one out and stuff it in the game case for later.

Edited April 21, 2010 by Reaperman

[+HammR25]

EA doesn't have a NASCAR license anymore either so you can be excited about that.

[jboypacman]

Now that is super cool they took the time to send you a response back just awesome.

[Atariboy]

I don't ever even remember any NASCAR referances in any of the Daytona titles. I doubt they ever had a NASCAR license.

 

And they can certainly license the Daytona International Speedway for the name. That's been possible even when EA had an exclusive NASCAR license and it's been seen regularly in games the past several years ranging from PC software like iRacing to console titles like Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.

[Austin]

Nice!

[moycon]

Very cool post Daytona!

[DaytonaUSA]

Yea, I thought the reply was really nice. For a while there I didn't think they'd respond, but it was nice to hear back from them. Good to see there are devs out there who have the same taste as me.

 

As far as the rolling start song, I'm not sure, but I know for sure the only song with lyrics in "Sega Classic Racing" is Fly So High. The other two have been edited.

[otaku]

sweet nice to see them respond and in a personal way to! sumo and sega are great!

[Atarifever]

I could copy and paste this as a letter from me. I absolutely love all of their Sega work. I have logged a lot of hours in Superstar Tennis lately. Unlocking Space Harrier was great and it made me very happy to see what they did with that one. Their games don't get the scores I think they deserve most of the time, but I'm glad to see other people like their stuff as much as me.

[DaytonaUSA]

I could copy and paste this as a letter from me. I absolutely love all of their Sega work. I have logged a lot of hours in Superstar Tennis lately. Unlocking Space Harrier was great and it made me very happy to see what they did with that one. Their games don't get the scores I think they deserve most of the time, but I'm glad to see other people like their stuff as much as me.

 

Yea, I agree. They seem to get picked on a lot and overly criticized simply because their games say "Sega" on them. In reality, if it was another moniker on their games, I think they'd score a lot better.

 

You and I seem to have similar tastes in games, so that doesn't surprise me. Though, it's nice to know of another Sega fan out there haha.

[Reaperman]

They seem to get picked on a lot and overly criticized simply because their games say "Sega" on them.

Hell I spend my days willing cancer upon Sega, but I have no problem with Sumo. Especially sending out letters like that. GTI club+ gave me a good afternoon of fun, and the same when the car pack came out--that's exactly what that game was supposed to do. Cars drove well, scenery was nice, and it was quickly accessible. I wish Sumo had done sega rally revo too, it would have turned out a lot better. (I do buy sega games, but only used ones so they don't get my money)

Edited April 27, 2010 by Reaperman