#hardlight studios

The Sonic Forces PC port really isn’t very good. Lately, I’ve been getting serious stuttering problems and no matter what home remedy gobbledygook I try, nothing seems to solve it.

Running it Windowed? Tried that. Turning off “full screen optimizations”? Also tried that. Disabling the Steam overlay? Yup. Capping the framerate? Uncapping the framerate? Turning Vsync on and off? Of course. I have the game on medium-to-low settings and it just shouldn’t be running like this.

And there’s no rhyme or reason, either. The framerate isn’t having problems due to a specific effect, or a certain section of level, it seems to happen utterly at random. Just, sometimes, it’ll go from a solid 60fps to 30fps or below for 2-3 seconds before correcting back to full speed again.

I… don’t… really like Hardlight Studios. I’m sure they meet Sega’s standards but there’s no style or panache to what they do. Sega says, “Make us a Sonic endless runner with monetization systems and turn a profit” and they did exactly that, with an incredibly generic, incredibly shallow game that honestly isn’t fun to play at all.

Don’t get me wrong, Sonic Dash isn’t necessarily a bad game, it’s just not fun. I played it until leveling up Sonic required serious grinding, and by that point I had enough resources to unlock a freebie character who was… identical to Sonic in every single way, but started at level 0. That’s not fun, that’s a treadmill. You grind to unlock a way to keep grinding… or you pay money to skip the grind.

But skip what grind? The entire gameplay loop is a grind. You can’t pay to skip all of it, only part of it, because the grind is forever. It’s barely even worth doing “once.” And somehow, this became a massive tent pole of Sega's mobile software catalog. Completely baffling. 

And even though I implied I’d played Sonic Jump and Sonic Dash 2 in this post, I played enough of Sonic Dash that it killed any minor, tangential interest I had in Hardlight’s other Sonic mobile offerings. I’m willing to bet that Sonic Jump is just a Sonic-skinned version of Doodle Jump, with the exact same endless grind, and “Sonic Dash, but now with Sonic Boom characters” isn’t a sentence I would ever find appealing.

First Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom dev diary released, gives inside look into Hardlight Studios.

SEGA has released the first of three developer diaries for its upcoming mobile, endless-runner Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom. The video gives us a rare look inside developer Hardlight Studios, who was responsible for the original Sonic Dash. Overall, it’s an interesting video that shows off the new features and additions to the game, which is set to release on iOS and Android very soon.

Ready to hit the streets again? Well, a new Crazy Taxi: City Rush update adds night driving, new events!

Crazy Taxi: City Rush has featured some pretty wacky updates since its release (Remember this one, brother?). Developer Hardlight Studios has released its latest update, bringing it to 1.5, which adds a whole slew of new features and events.

The biggest addition is “Night Shift,” which is essentially a night mode. There’s also new events, like Gold Rush and Pretty in Pink where you can win new…

Crazy Taxi: City Rush drifts to iOS today and includes some pretty expensive microtransactions #sega

It’s been a longtime coming, but Hardlight Studios’ next mobile title Crazy Taxi: City Rush finally releases on iOS devices for free today. You can download it off the App Store here.

City Rushtakes a departure from previous entries in the series and is designed entirely for mobile and tablet devices in mind. The game features touchscreen driving controls, many customizable cars, unlockable areas…

iOS Review: Sonic Jump Fever

Sonic Jump Fever

A mobile game developed by Hardlight Studios, i’ve spent the week delving into Sonic Jump Fever by Sega. Jump fever is a fast game, just like it’s iconic titular character. You start the game off with a tutorial in which you play as Tails, and you’re placed right into the action. This isn’t a side-scroller but a jumper as mentioned in the title. Collecting coins and jumping to…

Before Crazy Taxi: City Rush invades our phones, let's take a look at how the original stacks up on mobile. #sega

To create some positive hype ahead of Crazy Taxi: City Rush’s release, the latest entry and re-imagining of SEGA’s classic Crazy Taxi franchise, SEGA slashed the price of the smartphone version of the original Crazy Taxi to free.

While I’m not the biggest fan of repurchasing retro games I already own, I do enjoy playing these classics on modern platforms, so I hopped at the chance to get Crazy…

PRESS RELEASE: Sega Announces Mobile Game Crazy Taxi: City Rush

Legendary Crazy Taxi Franchise Returns to Mobile Platforms with New Arcade Experience Full of Signature over-the-top Excitement and Action

SAN FRANCISCO, LONDON – March 14, 2014 – SEGA Networks, Inc. is pleased to announce the newest game in one of the company’s most iconic franchises: Crazy Taxi™: City Rush. From Kenji Kanno, the creator of the original Crazy Taxi arcade smash hit and…