General Sonic The Hedgehog thread

I wonder if the specs will be lower than Generations' were...

See for yourself.

...Adventure 2 was the last game until 06 to employ permanent upgrades, and more than half of them are entirely optional unless you're jumping straight into the late-game missions.

Yeah. Heroes and Shadow had no upgrades at all.

Ancient Light was fun as hell, though. Charging up the Light Dash until you can obliterate enemies with a single burst of power? Awesome.

Honestly, I prefer starting a game without having to search around for abilities my character should logically already know how to do.

Anyway, I can't wait for the Lost World Steam release—I'm seriously curious what hackers and modders will be able to dig up on it. (And who knows, maybe we can finally get a clean copy of that Yoshi's Island Zone music without the ocean sounds in the background.)

Said abilities are consistently just barely off-screen from where you'd be required to use them (if not literally right in front of you, as seen in Pumpkin Hill and Pyramid Cave), and you're never bothered with the process of fetching them again.

I suppose those extra 6 seconds would be pretty detrimental to one's Blind First Try A Rank run, but I don't see any real problems with how A2 handled upgrades.

edited 6th Oct '15 8:17:43 PM by Demonfly

If you're suppose to use them, then you should already have them...not halt your pace just for a minor detour.

In Unleashed's case, it wasn't even a detor, they just put them in the area you learn how to use the ability.

Since you had to buy them in 06'...it just meant Sidequest were mandatory.

I don't see why an echidna needs an upgrade to be able to dig.

Or why Sonic needs a bracelet to be able to bounce.

edited 6th Oct '15 9:10:22 PM by Zoroark69

7*: In cutting off the context for that sentence except for the very end of it, you removed the list of issues relevant to the accusation of overuse in the series as a whole. Thus presenting the only part of that list that was included due to being overused in that particular game rather than the whole of the series out of context, as if the whole post was about that as apposed to a variety of issues. Which it wasn't.

Or in short, you're right in that most other Sonic games didn't have upgrades.

Frankly I wasn't interested in tackling the rest of your post in the first place since there wasn't anything else that came across as anything more than purely opinionated, but if you insist:

Radical Highway, Green Forest, White Jungle, Crazy Gadget, Final Rush, Final Chase

Radical Highway, Green Forest, White Jungle, Sky Rail, Final Rush

One would certainly hope that they're not as stuffed as the likes of Heroes or 06 seeing as how that somehow ended up being a detriment to both entries, and with the sole prior comparison being Adventure 1, the simple answer is that most of those stages were designed to be shared between various other characters.

I truly can't recall any instance where Light Dash was required for anything outside of its brief re-introduction and, once again, filler missions, but I do know that you're perfectly capable of simply walking under/around Homing chains for a pretty substantial chunk of the game. Surprisingly, however, most players preferred to take the faster and simpler route.

It would have been nice if you took the time to elaborate on why this was such an issue like a normal response would, by the way.

edited 6th Oct '15 10:04:57 PM by Demonfly

The Light Dash is required in Crazy Gadget at least once (maybe twice) in the story mission.

It's required the moment you find it.

Crazy Gadget is the only other time.

The light speed dash's main purpose is for short cuts or faster movement through ring trails.

It's the only ability that doesn't always rely on situational things.

edited 6th Oct '15 10:28:05 PM by randomness4

A rundown of most of the stages mentioned, with comments on whether they were well designed, varied, gimmicky, etc.

• Radical Highway: An exception, I suppose. Far less inspired than the Sonic stages, but is still a solid level. It doesn't apply for the criteria though it throws in a lot of setpieces from other stages, but certainly not as bad as the other highway level in the game (Tails').
• Green Forest: Already listed as an exception.
• White Jungle: The poor man's Green Forest - largely consists of running straight down identical half-pipes, turning sometimes, and the occasional fight of the same gang of enemies. About as inspired as Pyramid Cave.
• Sky Rail: Gimmicky. Incredibly gimmicky. Possibly the gimmickiest speed level in the game. Relied on very repetitive, level specific platforming gimmicks and lengthy rail segments for the bulk of its content.
• Final Rush: Exception. Best speed level in the game. Despite relying a lot on rails, the level actually uses them in creative ways - with branching paths, wildly different areas, etc.
• Final Chase: Like White Forest in that it's similar to it's Sonic counterpart but far less inspired - unlike Final Rush which gets a lot of out of both its rail segments and its different areas and platforming concepts, this stage largely repeats the spinning cylinder gimmick over and over again, with the occasional rail segment.
• Crazy Gadget: Only becomes an exception towards the end. Relies on gravity gimmick, but it largely - go to this room, kill enemies, go to next room, kill same group of enemies in the fist half of the sage. Last part is one of the most legitimately inspired parts of the game.

I'm not sure I understand the request as written, but if you want me to explain what I was referring to here goes:

In Adventure 2 they were more like unnecessary roadblocks - parts of the level that abruptly slows things to crawl so the player could have an excuse to use the roll for a wall in the middle of the road, or the bounce bracelet for a platform that was just too high.

It didn't help that neither of those had much use outside of that (besides looking cool) - not to mention the roll got used less and less as the game went on and the bounce bracelet was only used sporadically outside of the level where its introduced. The thing kind of stunk of fake content - stuff that looks like part of the levels' challenge/progress but is more the platforming equivalent of padding.

It's likely that that sort of thing was just a carry-over from Adventure 1 (where powerup gates were part of what kept the player from entering levels early), but applied more haphazardly.

edited 7th Oct '15 12:13:36 AM by KnownUnknown

The Bounce Bracelet also allows for some sick score attack runs, since bouncing prevents the Trick Counter from stopping and allows you to bound over to the next bunch of targets/grind point.

So, Zavok and the other Deadly Six members are "biding their time", and letting Zazz "collect data" so they can defeat Sonic one day.◊

Even with all Adventure 2's problems, the 2-player mode was crazy fun.

Zavok's quite the Manipulative Bastard isn't he.

I'm glad the Deadly Six aren't out for good. It's nice to have non-Eggman related recurring villains.

"I'm going to drag you to the very depths of hell!" - Zazz.

o_o

Yeah I really hope they make more appearances. One-note as they were, I still found them really interesting.

I think the only other villain Sonic regularly faced off with was Eggman Nega, but somehow I don't think that guy will show up anytime soon.

edited 7th Oct '15 1:12:03 PM by Customer

Just...DO IT! Don't let your dreams be dreams, Zazz!

Eggman Nega was a great idea, I think. Still keeping with the theme of eggs, evil mad scientist, but even MORE evil. Maybe not the most original idea, but what really counts as "original" these days? Eggman's generally characterized as being a light-hearted, Card-Carrying Villain these days, why not have a guy whose a little crazier?

Of course, Eggman Nega isn't the most flattering name. At the least, I wanted him to be the Eggman of Blaze's dimension, instead of Sonic's future.

Eggman Nega is a literal recolor.

Blaze looks completely different from Sonic, so why should her villain be a recolor of Eggman?

Cause...Laziness?

@Deadly Six As long as they try to do something more with them beyond sterotypes, I'd be glad to see them again. As much as I love Robotnik, it is good to have some new people to face off against sometimes.

Though I'm wary to trust a phone infinite runner game on confirming whether or not the Deadly six will return in later games.

Also, loving how they still have lines that are pretty dark like wanting to drag Sonic to hell.