You’re quite right. It’s a running animation only seen in prerelease versions of Sonic 2.
There are two major prototypes, and several minor prototypes dumped:
‘Nick Arcade’: Named for the television show it appeared on, and only known instance. Very early build, as it has only 6 zones, one of them Green Hill from the original game. All zones use Sonic 1 music. Features the ‘rebound’ when running into a wall at high speed (using sprites present but unused in the later proto). Hidden Palace (Spring Yard from level select) features placable triceratops, jumping fish and alligator enemies (all removed from later prototypes).
‘Simon Wai’: Named for its discoverer, and earliest found Sonic 2 prototype (uncovered in 1998). Had been ravaged by pirates, who removed the SEGA logo on startup. Features Hidden Palace and another removed stage, Wood Zone. Casino Night is present, but has completely different art (a pink and blue playing card suit theme). Oddly enough, Hidden Palace is as complete as it was in the Nick Arcade version, leading to the idea that there wasn’t any more work done to it until it was scrapped.
Beta 4-Beta 8: The more minor prototypes. These come from later in the development cycle, where levels that were ultimately scrapped have been removed, and the new special stages have been implemented. Build dates cover a span from between September 18 and September 24th. However, some interesting things did happen in that week. The final title screen was put in, the ending was added, as well as the new level select.
This is great n’ all but they gotta step it up. Pressing a direction and 1 button to jump/charge really doesn’t cut it by todays standards. Nostalgia (parse) will only do so much with this and no, I aint saying give him a rocket launcher and slow-mo SONIC time… but come on guys, something’s gotta be added to make it more interesting.
I’m keeping my eye on it. I found Unleashed to be decent and that’s about it (storybook series is a joke) so I’m pretty curious as to how this will end up. Consider my hype however, unwavered at 0%.
Agreed about a homing attack. I hated how they kept that attack in the 2d games post sonic adventure 2.
You’re right, that series is a joke. However, i’d be lying if i said i didn’t and still don’t enjoy the first level of Secret Rings. You gotta admit that despite the motion gimmick, that level is pretty fun. It’s those small instances of fun that keep sonic hope alive for me. Just blows my life how they manage to continuously fuck up a good thing.
Yeah the homing attack should leave I guess in place of the insta-shield. Maybe we can get that move in the next episode. And I have hope for this one. Whenever Sonic Unleashed went 2D I enjoyed it a lot.
Except, as mentioned in Destructoid’s article, that the second stage of the cycle has been broken already since Sega’s confirmed that Sonic is the only playable character.
WHOA WHOA WHOA! Quick someone gag this guy and lock him in a closet! Do you understand what’s been happening every time Sonic Team has tried to add something ‘interesting’!? DO NOT PAY ATTENTION TO HIM SEGA!
Thanks for that. I knew about the prototypes but I didn’t know that much into it.
The only thing wrong with Sonic CD’s jump noise was that it was ear splitting. Whoever it was that was doing sound design decided that Sonic’s jump should just take over everything including the background music.
It could probably go either way for me…I don’t know if I want exact Genesis sound considering the way how the game looks now currently. It works for MM9 but I think it might be a bit funky to be playing the game the way it looks now with a Genesis soundtrack. It should at least be updated to a certain extent IMO. Sonic CD music sound quality if not better.
Let the speculation begin! Something else that I know other people noticed about the site is in the characters section there’s a locked portrait…is Sega trying to pull a fast one or is that just going to be Eggman?
Oh yeah…and make sure Sonic has his Idle animations please…It’s part of his character.
Multiple playable characters doesn’t automagically make a Sonic game bad. Sonic games being bad make Sonic games bad.
Society begins and ends with Dr. B. Back when Vealinger reamarked ?the power struggle will continue while the great tale of humanity remains untold? he, contrary to my learned colleague Sir George Allen?s recent publication ?Into the eye of , could not have been referring to eighteenth century beliefs regarding society. Difference among people, race, culture and society is essential on the survival of our world, however Dr. B helps to provide some sort of equilibrium in this world of ever changing, always yearning chaos. Status, Security, Fame - Dr. B, all revolve around this ‘golden fleece’. To put it simply, people like Dr. B.
But he’s right, more characters don’t make for a bad game. They all use Sonic as a base and then receive a gimmick to help or hinder them. We’ve just had bad games.
It might work if they first develop the songs with the Genesis in mind, i.e. making the music fundamentally good with limited space/resources…not relying on special effects and technology.
Then, once the song is finished, they give it the next-next-next-gen high quality treatment. That way it’s a Sonic song at its heart, but with high quality instruments and sounds.
As long as it retains that classic Sonic game mastery of memorable melody…and doesn’t turn into high quality, futuristic, 5.1 dolby forgettable ambience.
So why is it called Sonic the Hedgehog 4: “Episode 1”…makes you wonder if they’re gonna actually make it a full game or just release it bit by bit or some crap.
But it’s true. Sonic 3 & K was magical because of the 3 different characters (who did more to represent the game’s difficulty than anything else). And those of us who played Sonic 1 Megamix know of the greatness there, too.
Frankly, Megamix is an example of what I always hoped that Sonic Team would do some day. Maybe as “Sonic 4” goes on, we may stand to get something closer to that…
Tread carefully specs, this thread can only handle so much sheer, unadultered win XD.
Eh? Music is music. Whether it’s good or bad, making it in Genesis synth first isn’t going to make it any better or worse.
Composing a song to sound good in Genesis synth only accomplishes one thing: It makes it sound good in Genesis synth. It might sound awesome arranged, but that isn’t going to be the result of the process that was used to originally compose the song.
“high quality, futuristic, 5.1 dolby forgettable ambience” O_o. I’m not exactly sure what kind of music you’re trying to convey is bad from that description. Actually, if anything, it sounds a lot like it describes some of old-school Sonic’s music. Wacky Workbench, Metallic Madness, Death Egg S3&K, Flying Battery?
What in the hell