from: http://www.droidgamers.com/index.php/game-news/android-game-news/3359-gdc-2012-hands-on-preview-of-sonic-4-episode-ii-for-tegra-3-android-devices I don't see them randomly changing the layouts of two of the special stages in a different version, so it looks like there will be unlockable stages.
Wasn't Advance 1 built from 3&K's engine or something along those lines? That meaning, Sonic 4's engine is using a bastard, ravaged 3&K engine in some way? Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Whatever its original point was, it ended up not being retro in the least. Unless you consider Sonic Rush "retro", that is.... =P
I'm pretty sure the Android "bonus stages" will be exactly like how the iOS version of Episode 1 kept the minecart and pinball challenge acts as exclusive "bonus stages".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od_00nFyK9U&feature=player_embedded At 2:28, that looping looks really stiff.
Direct feed gameplay footage with an interview with Ken: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/gdc-2012-sonic-the/728043
Not that I know of. I don't think that would be possible. I'm shite at tech, but I would imagine that a physics engine built on the Mega Drive wouldn't translate well in its raw format on the GameBoy Advance. I've always just thought that they studied the original games well and created something incredibly similar.
God the entire second half of that level is filled with pits. "No see it's cool guys we have signs now that makes it okay right :specialed:"
Ken: Sonic no longer will uncurl > at the same moment video shows sonic hitting a speedbooster, turns into a ball and uncurls a second after
I don't believe that it is. I mean, it's POSSIBLE. Half-Life 2 runs off he Quake engine, and Modern Warfare 2 ran off of the Doom engine... But, I don't think that that'd work. The two games are very different animals running on very different hardware.
I know it was Ken's job before to sugar coat things, but it's really nice to hear PR finally speak more truthfully about the important things. He just got a bit more respect from me, as did Sonic 4 Episode 2.
Figures the music is muted for the video. <_< Unless of course the song that was played in the video is in the game, but that sounds unlikely.
RE: Advance built off 3&K's engine Yeah, did some looking around and I was dead wrong on that. Sorry. Could have sworn I read that somewhere on this forum at some point, but perhaps the post was just covered with subtle sarcasm, or they themself did not know what they were talking about. Anywhoo, didn't mean to make a nonexistent point. I'll stop with the off-topic posts now.
They addressed my major gripes with Episode 1 except for keeping speed boosters. I think I might buy this, knowing that SOMEONE's bound to remove them. Also I don't know why you idiots complain about bottomless pits. I happen to like them, provided they are large and have a bunch of moving/static platforms above them, rather than just a big hole.
I hate bottomless pits in Sonic games. The whole bottomless pit thing doesn't really work very well with Sonic's gameplay style. You're sitting there, running really fast and then boom, instant-death from bottomless pit. It also shows a somewhat lack of creativity, as in the designer doesn't really know what to put there, so he throws in a bunch of bottomless pits. Now I'm not saying all bottomless pits are a bad thing, but over-saturation, in a Sonic game especially, definitely is.
Sonic Rushs' engine isn't built off the Advance engine. Advance games were written in assembly, and the Rush engine in C+ if I recall. They were talking about what SEGA will do for Sonic 4 Ep 3, Sonic 5, or whatever 2D Sonic game dishes out next.