If you're like most respectable Sonic fans, you gave up on the Sonic
Adventure World Rankings a long time ago. After the first four or five rounds, it became
clear that if you weren't cheating, you were wasting your time. Aside from the fact that if you
aren't a braindead 13-year old middle school dropout and don't exactly have the time (or desire)
to hunt down fruity glitches like pulling back on the analog pad just as Sonic reaches the top of
the third loop as the timer hits 00:30"00' and maneuver him into the lens flare to zip straight
to the lighthouse near the end of the first area...there's also the matter of inconsistency
between control pads. It was discovered several months ago that certain third-party controllers
actually allow the player to move faster than the standard DC pad due to differences in
the calibration of the analog components, among other things. Anyway, Sonic Team issued a polite
request to all contestants to play nice, and discontinue the use of unofficial devices that may
give an unfair advantage. Y'know, if life were that easy, the world would be a much better
place. While I personally haven't even given the Rankings a second glance since about November
of last year, things have apparently gotten quite out-of-hand recently. Out-of-hand to the
point where Team Sonic has to crack the ol' whip and reaffirm the rules of this little game. On
July 17, the following announcement was posted on the Adventure front page:
"It's come to our attention that the Sonic Adventure World Ranking contest results are
becoming tainted with altered scores.
We hate having to police the site but there is no alternative to the blatant cheating we are
observing. We can not stop the use of peripherals that enhance your gaming experience, but in
order to level the playing field for everyone, we must reserve the right to disqualify those
scores that just seem unrealistic. We hope you can understand our position."
It's cool that the big men on campus are finally acknowledging the problem with
World Ranking cheaters, and stepping in to do something about it. But it's repulsive that such
measures had to be taken to begin with. As far as I'm concerned, it's waaay too late to save
the long-desecrated World Rankings. Hopefully the next time such a potentially fun feature is
integrated into a future game, the schematics will be streamlined to deal with poor sports from
the outset.
