General Sonic The Hedgehog thread

I can't think of anything that I'd keep as a series mainstay, outside of more music that makes me feel like I first felt playing Starlight Carnival from Colors.

Seriously, Starlight Carnival's first level intro, with that music... easily in my top 5 favorite video game moments.

Chao

Also more things like 06's Amigo DLC missions

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@ShadowHog: Metroid Prime's Morph Ball physics puzzles provide a hypothetical start for a potential return of spinball physics.

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I still haven't played Colors (haven't been in the money for a while), but at least in Generations, the Spike Wisp could go die in a fire. It's ironic that the most critically acclaimed Sonic game in years had the absolute worst levels in Generations.

You think that's bad? Emerl's default Aerial Special attack can KO anyone in three hits. Whenever I go back and replay that game, I pretty much never have to rely on anything else when fighting anyone and playing as Emerl (one on one at least). I'm pretty sure it can't be blocked if the opponent is set to guard against Aerial Special attacks, so it even cheaps its way through there.

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So, despite how much I really didn't like it when I first played it, I recently rewatched Brain Scratch Commentaries' Sonic Lost World LP, and that actually got me in the mood to try it out again. I won't have time to play it for a couple weeks, but really looking at the game again, I feel like it'd probably be a lot more fun to play when you know what the hell you're doing, as opposed to a first-time run where all you can do is stare in befuddlement as Sonic rolls himself into a snowball.

edited 23rd Apr '15 2:43:13 PM by Odd1

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Indeed. That's kind of my point. The game is fun in its own right, but it's really rather broken in a lot of areas and widely unbalanced.

I'm sure a tourney could work, but Emerl would probably not be allowed due to broken combinations. At the very least, banning all ???, Ultimate, and Combo cards are a must. Another issue is that the choices for Attack and Strength supports are balanced around a a particular moveset. Despite Sonic's high Attack support, he doesn't deal much damage since his moves are subpar power-wise. His Strength is better by a decent degree. Shadow has a very low Attack support, but hits like a truck due to his moves being very powerful and fast.

And then there's the Emerl issue you mentioned. All the other characters are balanced enough on their own(although Gamma is really hard to hit with, while the rest don't suffer from this issue. Even Chaos Zero is fairly easy for me to work with).

It's certainly what I tend to think of whenever the concept comes to mind; that, as well as Marble Blast and Damizean/Mark the Echidna's old BlitzSonic engine. That last one especially - it handles high speeds correctly, altering your velocity when running up half-pipes and loops as expected, while also handling slow speeds appropriately, making fine platforming relatively simple to do. Acceleration might be a tad sluggish, though.

In other news, DOS/Windows game reviewer Lazy Game Reviews tackled Sonic's Schoolhouse:

Moon◊

One thing that I'd like to test to see if it works for Sonic in 3D is a kind of "Slingshot Boost" powerslide. You slow down briefly to drift, then fire the boost off to slingshot tight turns.

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As far as a 3D take on classic pinball esque physics goes, I actually think that the classic Tony Hawk Pro Skater games are an really good take on that style.

Personally, if they wanna continue in the Lost World style it wouldn't hurt for Sonic Team to take a look at THPS 1-3 in terms of level structure and physics feel (especially the way the Neversoft level designers used grind rails, since let's be honest the grinding mechanic always felt really half assed and was never really all that interesting.)

edited 25th Apr '15 12:26:33 PM by RoboZombie

I want a Sonic game that controls similarly to Jet Set Radio. It'd work so well.

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Ehhh, JSR's control hasn't aged very well.

I tried to play it a few weeks ago a holy damn the controls shred scrotum

Also I really want to like it cause the artstyle and soundtrack are fresh as hell but the physics and gameplay are just so bad IMO. If they were to take Sonic in that direction they should honestly look more at how THPS did it that JSR in terms of "game feel" and shit.

edited 25th Apr '15 4:38:24 PM by RoboZombie

It controls and plays just very well for me and I'm using a keyboard.

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Jet Set Radios base controls are really good but flawed. It honestly just needs a little polishing.

Is there any control scheme that's absolutely perfect?

I'd assume that Jet Set Radio Future would be a better base for a Sonic game than the first but I can't say for certain since I haven't played it. In JSFR, there's a much larger emphasis on maintaining your momentum and doing tricks.

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Jet Set Radio's controls are pretty damn awkward most of the time—you really need to put a ton of work into it if you wanna have an easy time. Haven't played Future yet, though I have a copy that's been sitting around for a long time, and I've heard the controls are far more intuitive in that game.

I still love all of the game's aesthetics, though.

That'd actually be a pretty cool feature. Something kinda like how the charge boost feature works when turning corners in Kirby Air Ride maybe?

edited 26th Apr '15 5:47:15 PM by Odd1

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That's pretty much how drifting in Sonic Riders worked...kind of.

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The slingshot boost in Sonic Riders could use a little fine-tuning though.

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Well they could start by not making it the same button as breaking, because that's the main problem with trying to drift in the game at all. It'd be a lot easier to actually get the boost.

edited 26th Apr '15 6:35:02 PM by randomness4

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Something I don't understand is why they have these very low spaces that you can't roll under in some games. (Those spaces you have to somersault under in Sonic Adventure 2 and you have to slide under in the boosting games). It's a rather arbitrary decision and it would've been a lot smoother to just let you roll under those spaces.

At least in the first Adventure, it worked very much like the classic games since you can roll while running by tapping the B button, even if the physics weren't quite "pinball" like the classic games and the game only let you play as Sonic in the full stages and the other characters in select sections of his stages waste of potential if you ask me.

On that note, do you think that making Sonic's friends almost as fast as him ruins the point of Sonic being fast? That's a bit of a linchpin in the debate between alternate gameplay vs. slower Sonic with ability X. If you go with the latter, there's no point in playing as Sonic because everyone can run almost as fast as well as fly and climb. If you go with the former, the game doesn't flow together quite as well.

edited 26th Apr '15 8:13:43 PM by WaxingName

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...Which most people indeed do?

If anything it's generally an invitation to start Spin Dashing.

"Tell them to shut up and have some faith in me." - dead flashback guy

i'd rather have the latter. you can design levels around special abilities and such, like adventure did (even if the alternate playstyles were controversial).

Perhaps make Sonic significantly faster, rather than a little bit?

To the point where Sonic might still be the fastest choice for a level, despite being the only character without a shortcut?

Or you could make everyone be the same speed but with unique X, with Sonic's X being the Boost to make him faster and give him his own unique shortcuts.

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I'll also note that the latter option is already pretty much every Advance game.

As interesting as it sounds, adding the Boost would probably only compound the issue of most stages being designed primarily around Sonic.

edited 26th Apr '15 9:12:44 PM by Demonfly

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Well that is the Level Designer's responsibility to properly balance the stages. From a gameplay perspective, that would be a possible solution. As long as the Boost isn't broken or useless.

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Would boosting really work if you wanted to make it Sonic's exclusive ability? If you do, the other characters would be at a massive disadvantage because those long halls that are designed for boosting would make it really tedious since you would have to slowly dodge every obstacle and fight every enemy.

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