Sonic 4 built with HD 2D sprites

For a while now all I have been wanting is just a straight up 2D sonic game. So yes this would make me so happy if they did it all in 2D.

 

This feels like if you asked me: How would you like to keep breathing...

OF COURSE!
I'd speak to Sonica in his thread on the Fangaming forum if I were you. He may have an answer to what you seek.

 

I would have been satisfied with 2D, but the 2.5D doesn't really bother me as long as it looks crisp and in full HD. It's obvious that in this day and age, Sega wouldn't let go of the 3D-esque Sonic they adopted after they decided to abandon what made them go big.

Nevertheless, when it comes to Sonic 4, I'm more concerned with the story, music, physics, and level design/layout. And if you ask me, I don't think they know how to make a 2D game anymore.. they burned the blueprints to that a long time ago.

 

No I wouldn't necessarily have wanted them to do it in all 2D sprites. Rather, I would have been very pleased with how they did things if it wasn't so half-assed.

Sonic Generations actually presents how I would want any new Sonic game, 2D or 3D, to be done graphically speaking.

Spoiler

And to be honest I originally thought that the title Sonic 4 would've gotten the same care and attention that Generations got. And all around that really effects all the problems I have with Sonic 4. Outsourcing such a coveted and awaited title like Sonic 4. Really Sega? But that argument is old and is like beating a dead horse so I'll stop right there.

 

I'd love to see a hand-drawn cartoony 2D Sonic game, I thought that games like Wario Land: The Shake Dimension, Castle Crashers or Rayman Origins show really well how good 2D games can look today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Js3nXKuErg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNeiHvmvwTw

If a new "16-bit" Sonic game would be made today it would just piss me off because it'd have the potential to look much better. Besides that, I've seen so many indie retro games now that I've gotten sick of them.

 

I actually kind of wanted something like Mega Man 9 and 10, though maybe not quite as much of a throwback. What I mean is that it would have been cool to have a new 'Sonic 4' made to emulate what could be done with the Mega Drive hardware, in the same way the recent MM sequels are designed with the NES in mind. Think of how much that visual style could have progressed by now with the same kind of limitations? Or if we actually got a Sonic 4 before 1996?

 

If they ever make a new 2D Sonic with 2D artwork and whatnot, I do not want to see a Megaman 9 style thing. I want something more like Rayman origins or Wario Land. If you want to see what can be done with sprites nowadays, go play a hack or something. If I see a new game made in 2012 I don't want to see pointless throwback limitations when they can make something so much better if they try hard enough.

Sonic 4 tried to emulate the music from the Genesis games and failed horribly. If they used something more in the direction of Generations or Unleashed, it would not only have been better, but also modern. Why people want these pointless throwbacks is beyond me. It's not cute, or neat, or whatever. It's annoying and it's wasted potential. Now, if they were to include a throwback graphic option within the game as a separate bonus, I see absolutely no problem with that. In fact I'd applaud them for their effort. But the main game must be done right. There's a reason why I have my hand drawn avatar instead of the old sprite made one. It looks nicer.

 

I'm completely open as to how a 2D Sonic game could be represented graphically today. Sprites, hand drawn / high-res art or 2.5D can all look wonderful in the right hands.

2.5D does present the opportunity to have level paths that branch in 3D while still being controlled on a 2D axis though (think Sky Sanctuary in generations). That's one thing Ep2 doesn't really take advantage of.

 

HD 2D sprites are ideal for me but I would be incredibly picky on the style of them. That Wario Land Shake it! has a brilliant art style that fits that type of game but to have that cartoon look for Sonic, really doesn't do it for me to the point I would be very disappointed. I would be happy to see it in the style of the official artwork and not like the Sonic cartoons because I've always felt that they have a cheap art style, which is understandable for any cartoon series but for a game like Sonic, especially if it was aimed at the classic crowd just wouldn't be appreciated.

 

I would have loved something like Rayman Origins or Wario World Shake it, very very much. It fits much better what I think a real Sonic 4 should be if made today. Something like this:



Not necessary that complex, but more like that, like if it were handrawn.

 

Interesting question: thank you for it. Also, welcome to Retro :v:

I personally think Dark Sonic's got it spot on, there's no need to pretend hardware restrictions are in place just to have a retro feel. Sonics 1-3K, CD and even 3D and Knuckles' Chaotix to some extent were all about pushing the boundaries of what could be done on the Mega Drive/Mega-CD/32X, it'd be against that philosophy to implement forced 'restraints' on a Sonic 4 game. That doesn't necessarily mean we need a Shadow/Sonic '06 clusterfuck - rather just natural progression.

I hope all that made sense...

 

No it totally does. Think Generations. It did retro right. It brought back classic ideas and motifs and brought them into the modern day. It didn't say "Hey lets replicate Sonic 1 sprites for Classic Sonic" (Although admittedly I thought it might have been kind of cool to have replicated the art style for each level for each Sonic, so for example, GHZ would use the same sprites and everything for classic Sonic, and modern Sonic would have his own set of sprites. CPZ would be based off S2 art, SSZ off S3, and so on and so forth. Each level would have used different models/sprite sets for each character based off what they looked like at the time.) Of course if they did it that way, we would have never got the beautiful recreations of the levels that they did make. So I'm glad they did it the way they did.

 

Whenever I think of the whole drawn sprites or retro pixels, I think of it this way. If Sonic 1 was made today (As in no other Sonic game existed before it and it was being worked on by the same staff), would it use sprites? Hell no. So why should any new Sonic game?

 

Because when done nowadays it's more of a design choice than because of limitations, since you can have a lot more colours and such on consoles nowadays, you could probably make some really nice sprites. And some sprites can be positively gorgeous, I prefer them over any 2.5D type stuff they've used in other games, or atleast the kind they used in Sonic 4. But a Warioland: Shake it or a Rayman Origins styled Sonic game would be wonderful too. I even remember when I played Warioland, there's a part where you make him run really fast and his legs go into a sideways 8 just like Sonic CD, which made me imagine a Sonic game done in that way.

But overall yes, I'd much prefer 2D art, whether it's sprites or hand drawn, over whatever the heck Sonic 4 had.

 

Pretty much what TimmiT said. If a pure 2D Sonic game was made with HD 2D sprites, I'd want it like how Rayman Origins (and maybe Legends) did it/will do it, with that Sonicy feeling of course.

 

It actually does in one zone, but yes, not nearly enough; that was simply some parallel foreground/background stuff.

 

uh the physics are nothing to do with the visuals.

I quite like episode 2 in the way it looks compared to the terrible episode 1.