Sonic The Hedgehog Miscellanies

[Moniker]

In the final stages of S3&K. Overall thoughts:

What the hell did I just play? I'm know I didn't do much platforming (save only the Sky Sanctuary), and I'm pretty sure I didn't engage a single enemy except by accident. My only deaths came from figuring out when bosses were vulnerable. What exact kind of game is Sonic? I kind of feel that it's the precursor to the kind of all-set-piece design that's so often derided in the current gen.

Not to say I didn't enjoy myself to an extent, but I really can't put my finger on what exactly I did during the playthrough.

[null1024]

In the final stages of S3&K. Overall thoughts:

What the hell did I just play? I'm know I didn't do much platforming (save only the Sky Sanctuary), and I'm pretty sure I didn't engage a single enemy except by accident. My only deaths came from figuring out when bosses were vulnerable. What exact kind of game is Sonic? I kind of feel that it's the precursor to the kind of all-set-piece design that's so often derided in the current gen.

Not to say I didn't enjoy myself to an extent, but I really can't put my finger on what exactly I did during the playthrough.

Sonic 3&K doesn't throw enemies at your face because the game expects you to be going fast, too fast to deal with them without it feeling like "you need to know this is here or get hit" [rather odd, considering those swinging chainballs in Marble Garden]. Also, it was made before bottomless pit syndrome became pandemic in Sonic games, so there were very few pits of doom.

The result? It's fairly easy. There are quite a few platforming bits throughout the stages, although it really doesn't come to much until Lava Reef [which is my favorite stage in the whole game, barring the painfully stupid bit right before the boss where the screen hasn't unlocked and you're supposed to go down, but doing so before it unlocks kills you for no valid reason].

The most dangerous enemies fire projectiles, but that's fine, because you can insta-shield against them. I actually think that's the best addition to Sonic's moveset, a much worthier one than the spin dash that kills much of the ability to use momentum control in level design, despite it being core to the Genesis Sonic games. The insta-shield lets you skillfully deal with situations, and it isn't mashable, it actually needs you to time when to unleash it. It's a shame that the only time the game really bothers with wanting you to use it is during Hydrocity, where you have to kill those turret enemies to make the ground fall. Jump at it, and instashield the projectiles if need be. It's the only situation where the game seems to expect it, and it's a shame.

Even with the water in every stage bar Marble Garden in Sonic 3 [and not one stage in Sonic and Knuckles], it wasn't particularly deadly, even in Hydrocity [it's been a while since I've been near to running out of air there, unlike in Sonic 2's Aquatic Ruin if you accidentally take the bottom path].

After Lava Reef, the game starts to get particularly interesting. That's not to say earlier stages are completely devoid of any sort of challenge, but for the most part, it's relegated to bosses [which are the hardest of the classic Sonic games, there are a distressing number of bosses in Sonic 2 that are "hit 7 times, wait for it to do its attack, hit 8th time, not so much in Sonic 1 [even GHZ is a bit tricky, if not actually difficult], but they are still easier than Sonic 3's"].

And hell, Sky Sancturary has less platforming than Lava Reef, what the hell were you playing? SS has as much as the rest of the S&K half, barring Mushroom Hill [which wouldn't be too platformy, being the first level of S&K].

[mesh control]

Sonic CD has some rippers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOjsKKFz-0w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cln1eRzK2s

[drunkninja24]

So I picked up Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed on Steam for $15.

Holy crap this game is awesome. I love all the tracks and the mid-race vehicle switches. So good.

[njiska]

Finished Sonic 06 this past weekend. For all of the pain and misery I thought I had endured playing the normal campaigns, nothing could have prepared me for the bullshit that is The Last Story. That stage is an ungodly nightmare that took two hours too long to get through. The suction effect of the time rifts is just too damn strong to make playing as someone like Omega enjoyable. So glad this part of my life is over.

On to Sonic Unleashed. Best intro cutscene I've seen in a game in ages. If Sega made a Sonic movie like that I would happily watch it. Gameplay for day missions is incredibly fun. The werehog stages are kind of fun too, but very repetitive and slow. It's far from great, but compared to it's predecessor it's a fucking god send.

[njiska]

It's taken me something like 23 hours, but I'm finally on the Dark Gaia fight of Sonic Unleashed. Boy do I have a lot to say...

Pros:
Daylight Gameplay: It's fantastic. Sonic is fast, the boost mechanic works well and generally it's just a blast to play.
-Artwork and Animation: My good is this game just visually stunning. The characters are all well designed and expressive. The human characters have a Pixar-ish look about them and the Werehog is just adorable. Despite some framerate issues, motion is fluidly animated and looks very well polished compared to past entries in the series.
- Opening Cinematic: The opening animation is beautiful, well animated and incredibly crisp and sharp. I would love to see a Sonic the Hedgehog movie done like. Nice little nods to Star Wars.
- Mike Pollock: Easily his best performance as Dr. Eggman and by far one of the funniest. The two short cutscenes where Eggman gets criticized by one of his robots are hysterical and a large part of that is owed to Pollock's vocal characterization.
- Story: One of the better tales to be told by a Sonic game. Simple, easy to follow, yet fun and effective at motivating play.

Cons:
- Medal Collecting: Artifically extending the length of your game by making players hunt for hidden items is just absolute bullshit. This brought my gameplay to a screeching halt and easily accounts for half of my play time. The game is already long enough and making collection mandatory to progress the plot does little but break flow and ruin the experience
- Stages are Too God Damn Long: Day stages run long, clocking in at about 9-11 minutes on the first run through. Night stages can 15-20 minutes. Add in the fact that you have to keep an eye out for hidden medals and stages really start to drag. Eggman Land is a particularly bad offender, consisting of three day parts and three night parts. My first run through took 63 minutes and I got a C-Rank. Worst still, if I had died at the end, I'd have had to have done the entire stage over again, wasting at least another half hour of my life. If you're going to have finite lives, keep the stages short. Preferably under 10 minutes, or better, 5.
- Night Time Platforming: I actually don't mind combat as the Werehog, aside from the repetitiveness, but what I do mind is the way Sega has tried to take perfectly good Prince of Persia style platforming and ruining by adding homing attack style lock on requirements. In otherwords, when I jump at a ledge, if I hit it, let me grab it. Don't make me push B if the game happens to decide to put a lock-on cursor there. Which it probably won't. More than one time I hit a catchable ledge and fell because the targeting system did not work.
- Homing Attack Platforming Still Sucks!: I know I've bitched about this in every 3D Sonic game, but Homing Attack platforming is still broken. The lock on system is finicky and just does not work on a fairly regular basis. Combine this with bottom-less pits, which admitedly the game has less of than past Sonic titles, and you get a real head ache. Not to mention that boost is the same button, so if you try to attack and fail, you go flying off into no where.
- Dark Gaia Boss Fight: Boring, slow, long. It drags and drags and drags and drags and I just died on the third part, so now it's dragging even longer. Why do I have to fight the Egg Dragoon again in order to start the Dark Gaia fight? Very Annoying.

[Kiken]

Pros:
- Opening Cinematic: The opening animation is beautiful, well animated and incredibly crisp and sharp. I would love to see a Sonic the Hedgehog movie done like. Nice little nods to Star Wars.

There is a 15 minute animated feature that the same CG house did called "Night of the Werehog". I know it's on Youtube, but it can also be downloaded off the Japanese marketplaces for Sonic World Adventure.

Cons:
- Stages are Too God Damn Long: Day stages run long, clocking in at about 9-11 minutes on the first run through. Night stages can 15-20 minutes. Add in the fact that you have to keep an eye out for hidden medals and stages really start to drag. Eggman Land is a particularly bad offender, consisting of three day parts and three night parts. My first run through took 63 minutes and I got a C-Rank. Worst still, if I had died at the end, I'd have had to have done the entire stage over again, wasting at least another half hour of my life. If you're going to have finite lives, keep the stages short. Preferably under 10 minutes, or better, 5.
- Night Time Platforming: I actually don't mind combat as the Werehog, aside from the repetitiveness, but what I do mind is the way Sega has tried to take perfectly good Prince of Persia style platforming and ruining by adding homing attack style lock on requirements. In otherwords, when I jump at a ledge, if I hit it, let me grab it. Don't make me push B if the game happens to decide to put a lock-on cursor there. Which it probably won't. More than one time I hit a catchable ledge and fell because the targeting system did not work.

The stages get immensely short once you figure out how to navigate them effectively. It took me about 80 minutes to plow through Eggmanland the first time, but later on I was able to get that time down to 12 minutes on a No Miss run.

As for night time platforming... you are aware that all of the werehog's context sensitive button inputs can be buffered, right? Instead of tapping the grab/interact button after you see the lock-on reticule appear, just hold down the button before the reticule appears.

[njiska]

There is a 15 minute animated feature that the same CG house did called "Night of the Werehog". I know it's on Youtube, but it can also be downloaded off the Japanese marketplaces for Sonic World Adventure.

I've seen Night of the Werehog. I remember it from when the game was first released. It's not bad either.

The stages get immensely short once you figure out how to navigate them effectively. It took me about 80 minutes to plow through Eggmanland the first time, but later on I was able to get that time down to 12 minutes on a No Miss run.

As for night time platforming... you are aware that all of the werehog's context sensitive button inputs can be buffered, right? Instead of tapping the grab/interact button after you see the lock-on reticule appear, just hold down the button before the reticule appears.

The stages would be much shorter if I just didn't have to look for medals. I know the stages get faster on repeat playthroughs, but the first playthrough lengths are still just too damn long. A good Sonic stage should take something like 5-10 minutes on the first play through, maybe 15 for a final stage, but should take maybe a minute or two when you get the hidden paths down. Frankly I still think Eggman Land should have been at least split into Acts.

Yeah, I did try that, but at some points it made no difference as the lock-on just never appeared.

I feel like I should point out that I have had fun with the game. This is no Sonic 06, it's just there are a lot of things that I feel could have been done better.

[Kiken]

The stages would be much shorter if I just didn't have to look for medals. I know the stages get faster on repeat playthroughs, but the first playthrough lengths are still just too damn long. A good Sonic stage should take something like 5-10 minutes on the first play through, maybe 15 for a final stage, but should take maybe a minute or two when you get the hidden paths down. Frankly I still think Eggman Land should have been at least split into Acts.

Yeah, I did try that, but at some points it made no difference as the lock-on just never appeared.

I feel like I should point out that I have had fun with the game. This is no Sonic 06, it's just there are a lot of things that I feel could have been done better.

They wanted to implement exploration into the stages... I can't really blame them, because in the contemporary market, you can't really make a game that people can just blaze right through. The medals are really just there as a distraction since you'll normally find enough to unlock the next game area/level just by collecting what's in your immediate path.

As for the stage length... most of that comes from the fact that for you're first time through a level, you're missing several key power-ups/enhancements that allow you to take the alternate stage paths (all of which are faster than the standard routes). I would say that the werehog suffers much more from this in the HD version of the game as there are so many experience levels to raise up through. Much of this is heavily streamlined in the SD version of the game. And yes, the Eggmanland stage is broken up into 6 separate levels in the SD version (you should consider giving it a try). I think the final battle is much better in the SD version as well.

With the lock-on element... I guess it boils down to understanding the proximity that triggers the reticules in the first place.