Awwww…The only nitpick I have over Cash Cash’s remix for Radical Highway is I think they put the synth a bit too high after finally being able to hear it clearly through good speakers. Same goes for their Big Arm Boss Remix…but even still that’s my second favorite arrangement/remix for that track.
Browsing Gaf and someone pointed towards this tumblr that has this guy posting various bad artwork from the Sonic Archie Comics. I’m fuckin dyin at some of this.
http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxuvf4DcTV1rnsvazo1_250.png
http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxv8pb6FSa1rnsvazo1_500.png
This was all I needed to see.
http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxwmxl2zgF1rnsvazo1_400.jpg
I don’t like all the weird sounds later on in the songs. But my biggest complaint is that none of the remixes feature the main part of the song.
:10 - :13
I love that sound in it.
[media=youtube]68WOBoyRLwM[/media]
I think I know the sound you’re talking about…no neither one of the Radical Highway tracks have that ‘beat’ during the main guitar riff…especially Act 2 since that one takes far more liberties with the source. Act 1 does pretty much make reference to everything else in the source at some point within it. I would have thought that the guitar riff would have been main part of that song though but I feel ya.
I kinda wish they’d drop the auto tune garbage. The vocal tracks in Colors were embarrassing. The only time I found it excusable was in classic City Escape because they were trying to put one song’s vocal track on an almost completely different song.
I know that Black Knight sucked but the music was amazing. More Crush 40/Ted Poley/Tony Harnell/Sonic Boom lady/everything music-wise before they hired the whiny boys at Zebrahead and that dreary Secret Rings song. LESS crap.
Haha, I personally might not read the old Sonic comics mainly due to the art. Bob Bates and Yardley’s art is IMHO very good and has some cool stuff-
I didn’t even know anything about ‘the legs’ until I looked through that tumblr account and I think I probably could have been better off not knowing about them lol.
Edit: yeah I was semi interested in trying to go back and get some of the older issues buuuut I’m kinda afraid now.
This is just me here but you don’t think playing the demo and watching someone play doesn’t give you the full effect of judging the game?
Uh, no, I don’t think that at all. I got my hands on the game and got to try out both sets of mechanics, and I saw all that play out. So, yes, I’m qualified to judge it.
Oh Specs is just picky as fuck. He’s special like that XP.
I am pretty picky. I pick lettuce out of my burgers.
No problem. In reading my second question I thought it could be perceived as a little douchey is all. I read some of your other reviews and saw you had a higher opinion of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, which is why I chose that example.
I was actually thinking today, why exactly do they feel they need to include so many pits in the modern games? I think the problem kind of lies with the badniks themselves. I mean, do you ever really die because of a badnik anymore? I mean besides missing a homing attack on a badnik that’s been placed simply to be a platform.
The traditional Sonic enemy just doesn’t pose that big of a threat in the 3D plane and there has to be something that causes you difficulties or death in a platformer, so I guess the only logical thing left are pitfalls and spikes. If you think about it, if there were no pitfalls you’d pretty much be left with “hold boost and watch the stage play itself.”
I’m not defending the pitfalls or anything, god knows those are most annoying things in these games. I’d just like to see them focus on maybe enemy related threats rather than pitfalls to give the game difficulty.
But if you do that then you kind of have to reinvent the wheel in terms of Sonic’s skills. It’s like Sonic grew and got better/more skills as the years went on, but the enemies pretty much stayed the same. I think that’s why games like Mario and Zelda transitioned better into the 3D realm. Yeah you’re in a 3D environment, but your character, the enemies, and the way you interact with them has largely stayed the same as in the classic iterations.
Problem is, with modern Sonic’s current skill set I can’t think of a way to improve the enemies without making them downright annoying to deal with.
That’s why I found the classic Sonic Generations levels to be so refreshing in that the enemies and stage traps pose more of a threat to you, rather than a stage filled with pitfalls simply because there’s no other way for the player to lose. Aside from the first few zones where you can just hold right and blaze through the level, the rest of the game is focused more on platforming with the occasional speedy bit here and there. While there wasn’t too much exploration, I didn’t feel as “on rails” as you do with modern Sonic.
Sonic Generations was a step in the right direction, but if Sega really wants to stick with Sonic’s roots then they need to stay more focused on what they did with classic Sonic. There needs to be more paths to take so it isn’t so linear. And don’t get me wrong, I love doing speed runs, but why does the focus need to be on finishing the stage as fast as possible? In the Genesis titles I felt like I could take my time and explore and that the stages weren’t some premade race track just for Sonic.
I suppose they’ve finally somewhat figured out a formula that works for modern Sonic with the Colors, Unleashed and Generations style of levels. I like playing them and I like the sense of speed, but yeah there’s something missing.
I agree, 100%, that making Sonic work in 3D isn’t easy, and I can see why they’re like 90% pit. It’s tempting to take Sonic, a character known for his canonical speed (and surprisingly not for the solid platform games he comes from) and make the 3D incarnation of him something akin to F-Zero: thin “tracks” of land surrounded by instant death hazard.
I’ve said before that I feel Naughty Dog, back in their Crash 2/Warped days, would be the dudes to turn to if wanting to make a great 3D Sonic. They had the whole “it looks 3D but it’s on rails and regardless feels like a solid-ass platformer” thing down with their Crash Bandicoot titles, and they’re the dudes I always wanted to see tackle Sonic.
Agreed re: the linearity. That’s not always bad, but even in Sonic 3 & Knuckles – which I don’t like as much as Sonic 2 – many levels felt like there was one rigid path-ish. Death Egg Act 2 comes to mind: it branches near the beginning, meets up halfway, and then you take the same path all the way to the end. Mushroom Hill feels a tad more open, but not nearly as much as Sonic 2 or Sonic 1 zones.
Truth be told, despite liking S3&K, I feel it’s where a lot of Sonic’s problems actually find their roots…
do you think Sega would allow a company like Naughty Dog to touch there big franchise like Sonic?
You have to have motivation to search a stage and find different routes. S2 and 3K addressed this with lamposts and rings to find the chaos emeralds. And now starting with Unleashed they’re putting optional items for you to find should you decide to explore that allows you to progress further or just unlocks extra stuff. Back then finding the chaos emeralds led to the ‘true ending’ and for the most part was optional.
With the current speed that they have sonic going now I think it’s really just the amount of time that goes into the game. If they actually held off and made a 4 year main console sonic game I’m sure they’d have been able to work on it long enough to have enough pathways to satisfy even the most hardcore. 2 years though? remember…what was probably 1 minute and 30 seconds to you…was probably 3-5 months of work. And that’s per stage. Maybe if they slowed him down to Colors speed?
Pretty much though, I’d imagine the game designing process to even get sonic to this point to have been a headache.
It’s probably sad that I’ve been trying to think of ideas to make Tails and Knux work gameplay wise in a modern setting while still retaining the goal of reaching the end without resorting to treasure hunting, racing to the finish or jumping in a mech. I might have to brainstorm some stuff just for the hell of it and see what I come up with.
They let Dimps and Backbone entertainment touch Sonic. Let’s be honest, those guys don’t have the best track records
Honestly? Probably not. They should, though. They let BioWare, and BioWare produced a surprisingly un-BioWare-ingly mediocre product with it, so maybe they’re scared?
And it’s not like Sega needs to. Sonic makes money.
If Naughty Dog made it now though it’d be exclusive to PS3…that’d be interesting.
Sonic gets most of his speed in 3D. The speed difference is easy to tell when you perform the 3D->2D glitch in Generations. In Colors, you didn’t get much out of the 3D sections. Putting more 2D sections (good ones) that aren’t as platform heavy as Colors, but aren’t as basic as Generation’s, may mean they can work more efficiently on the levels. Of course all the Adventure fans who love 3D sections just may cry, but Sonic Team hasn’t really made 2D interesting since Sonic Unleashed HD. The only problem was SonicUnleashedHDSonic felt like ass to platform with in 2D, and SonicModernSonic also didn’t get to make use of his skill set as much as UnleashedHD did.
What in the Flying Fuck!
That was impressive. I have “borrowed” by brother’s game and enjoy it for the most part.
Fav Track: Flying Battery Zone!
My bro also DLed Sonic 4 Episode 1. Haven’t played enough too judge it (about 5 min), but it seems decent.