General Sonic The Hedgehog thread

When SA 2 came out it did feel as if the SOAP shoes were meant to be the next logical step to Sonic's modern design. It's concerning how SEGA kept rail grinding as a core mechanic but ditched the one thing that "made it" so. But then again, it was also Shadow's debut and it made sense for him to be tied to the grinding mechanic seeing how he literally skates with his speed. Today Shadow's design still has the rail space in his shoes; I think a huge part of his popularity came from being inspired by the Extreme/Action sports scene that was dominating the new millennium at the time.

Edited by Tony-Sharx on Sep 23rd 2022 at 5:04:37 AM

Shoutout to Big grinding in sandals.

He doesn't grind with his feet...

He slides on the rail.

The levels returned, but not their music. This truly is a bizarre place full of horrors.

To be fair to Sega with Green Hill Zone, every time they use the song, they have to pay the game who composed the music for it, and they must feel it's not worth the effort.

This feels like what they were going for with Forces but actually accomplished it

2 things.

That "how Sonic 1 was made" video that was posted earlier made me appreciate just how iconic Green Hill is. There's a reason it gets reused so much.

Second. Apparently we had a Sonic fangame that did open-world before Frontiers.

I played Sonic 2 first, so Emerald Hill always stuck with me more. I love those corkscrew-style loops. And Act 1 is like, the one Sonic level I actually know how to speedrun.

I played Sonic 2 first too. I think the big lasting effect is that I've always mentally associated Emerald Hill Zone as Tails' theme song, moreso than any of his other actually official ones.

I think there've been loads of Sonic fangames that have tried or did open world before. They just all end up basically being tech demos because they don't get past level design, don't nail Sonic's mechanics, or simply don't get past "okay, so we can make Sonic do this cool stuff. How do we get from here to a game?"

I've been playing and replaying a lot of Sonic games recently. And after replaying Heroes and Shadow close together, I don't think Shadow is that bad. Heroes is even more annoying to play than I remembered. The the biggest problem to me is that the levels (as anyone other than Team Rose) get way too long, and it's made worse by how similar the levels in the same "zone" are and how parts of levels just get reused so it looks like the level is repeating. And of course it's so janky it feels like I can never trust anything to work correctly.

In contrast, Shadow's level design is mostly alright. They're not too long nor have much janky bullshit killing you. And the controls feel better than Heroes throwing too many actions on the B button. The main issues keeping the game from being great are that it's built off of Heroes' base, meaning it still has the awkward physics with Shadow accelerating way too fast (luckily the game doesn't throw too much precision platforming at you, but when it does it's quite annoying), and some the missions can be tedious. There's a few confusing, non-linear levels that kind of suck regardless of mission, namely Central City, The Doom, and Lost Impact.

Maybe this shouldn't be surprising though, since I haven't heard of Shadow having major development trouble, while Heroes had a bunch, including Iizuka working by himself to near death trying to finish the levels in time for release. No wonder the level design is so bad in that game.

Idk I still really enjoyed Heroes last time I played, and the only levels that felt overly long to me was wing fortress and the mystic manor candle one(ugh). I kinda enjoy meatier levels as opposed to the fun sized ones that's been plaguing the games' more recent entries. Plus the levels themselves were really fun theme wise and the closest to capturing the aesthetic of classic games.

Like if there's a game where a new chao garden would be justified this new games would be it. I WANT MY CHAO GARDEN BACK! It's one of my favorite things about the Adventure games.

Sonic Utopia was one of the most talked about fan-games of the "X" year...

Then Sonic World because it keeps getting updated with levels and characters...

Then Sonic Islands because Sonic's skill-set and reasonable speed gain.

Then Sonic GT because it actually got finished.

Then Sonic in the infinity engine.

Then Project Hero.

—-

The most positive thing about SEGA's attempt at this is that Sonic's speed won't break the game despite a few bumps.

Man I hate how people forgot Time Twisted and Fallen Star and Triple Trouble 16-bit real quick.

What ?

I know Tripe Trouble. Are the other two fan games?

Also interesting that open world Sonic has been attempted before.

I keep meaning to check out Fallen Star. One of these days, I'll fit it in.

It's pretty easy to forget those...when they aren't 3D fan games...

Which was the topic of that post.

We got info on combat in Frontiers.

https://twitter.com/Memey_PW/status/1573575128511913985

• You have different finishers of the basic combo depending on where you tilt the stick.
• Hold to Parry. Parry fills up the Phantom Rush gauge, does not work on projectiles.
• Phantom Rush is basically a Devil Trigger, increases your attack speed and has a unique finisher.
• Combo meter lasts for a while.
• Stomping does more damage when followed up with a Homing Attack, really good option.
• Cyloop becomes stronger the more you loop it.
• Pretty much anything can be canceled into another combat option.
• Enemies stomp attacks kills Sonic instantly.
• You can tech Sonic's hurt animation with a dodge.
• Slide and Drop Dash are attacks, not particularly useful.
• The Jump Stomp move is an attack, not very useful.
• Freeing Amy gives you a Perfect * Dodge counter attack.
• How much damage you takes seems random.
• Multiple types of enemies can appear in an encounter.
• Banger will always chase you until you kill it.
• Bubbles' bubbles will regenerate if you do not Cyloop it during its shock attack.

Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Sep 24th 2022 at 2:38:50 PM

> Pretty much anything can be canceled into another combat option.

> You can tech Sonic's hurt animation with a dodge.

Bodes well making the gameplay smooth. One of my biggest worries looking at the initial footage was how it "felt" to play.

Edited by erazor0707 on Sep 24th 2022 at 2:03:23 PM

I really want to see and hear less about combat and more about traversal. We already know the combat looks good.

I want to know if actually navigating the world, transitioning into and out of combat, and interfacing with the environments is smooth, whether the world is vibrant and interest rather than empty except for specific setpieces, etc.

Man, combat being more in depth is what I wanted.

I'm not really looking for a Sonic Devil May Cry though where people start making combat look effortlessly stylish.

It is good to hear that.

It would be nice to hear more about that.

That being said, from what I understand, we've heard good things about this game.

The biggest irony of Frontiers is that it feels tailor made to reintegrate multiple play styles (via other characters) due to the Open World nature of the game. So if it's successful, maybe we'll see Sega start taking risks with other characters again.

But that's me getting so ahead of myself that I might break time and lap myself.

I get the feeling the traversing is gonna be fine. It sounds like they really kept their promises about thinking this through.

Edited by HandsomeRob on Sep 24th 2022 at 12:38:40 PM

But its cool.

Any particular reason why? That seems like the kind of thing that fits the blue blur like a glove TBH.