Yeah, that's more like it! Great improvements. Also, Asteron? I'd probably never have had the idea, but that rat bastard makes a lot of sense in a beach level.
I did that =( That's the only art edit I did though =P StephenUK has always been good with art and I've always like his work. When he gave me this offer, I couldn't say no =P Yeah, he's always been in West Bay Zone. Thought a starfish would suit =P
Here is a new video! Please note, the Title screen is a work-in-progress! Link Edited SEGA logo by me, SSRG screen by MarkeyJester, and then a Work-in-Progress title screen by me. Pressing start will make the "Press Stat Button" rapidly flash and take you to Portal. Then hitting logo 1 takes you to West Bay. Notice the smoothness of the title card font when entering and leaving the area. And that it comes from one side, then exits another side (whereas Sonic 2, it entered and exited the same side). I then restart the game, and go to the title screen again, entered a cheat, and show you the "Cheats Enabled" text, then entering level select. It also enables Debug too, which is demonstrated in Gem Runway 2. What do you lo think so far? EDIT: Please be warned, because of Youtube's shit quality, it may be hard to notice Press Start Button rapidly flashing when presseing start Sonic's burst looking odd in Gem Runway 2
I think I should be playing it right now! This looks too delicious to just stare at. So lemme at it Reddy!
I love the Sega screen, it's great to see a completely different one that no one has made before. And it's even better that you coded it as well. I really like where your hack is going, and I can't wait to play it. The "cheat enable" text is creative as well, good job!
Thanks, guys. I'm glad you like the new SEGA screen. I might make Sonic burst past it rather than run past it for more effect next. Anyway, here is more cool stuff (if you find it cool anyway). I've already shown you lot the ARZ boss and my new "Gem Runway" boss. But, I have updated them both. They're now harder. And there's a new feature to them both. What's new to both (all) bosses? The first thing you will notice is that the bosses has a new Eggman counter. Yup, it's his hit counter. But unlike some hacks, where the counter just appears out of nowhere, the counter actually comes from the right hand side. It's at 0, then counts up to 16 (number of times you have to hit Eggman). When it reaches 0, when Eggman exits, the counter goes off to the right hand side again. This happens on ALL bosses. Note, in the ARZ boss you're about to see, it goes up to 15. This is because I hit Eggman before the counter had a chance to finish counting up lol Also, my "Nuts and Bolts" coding has greatly improved. I manage to shave a lot of cycles on it. So now, when Eggman explodes, it won't have to work as hard spawning all them nuts and bolts. You should see it moving a lot clearer than it used too. Except from that, there's no difference to the object itself. ARZ boss The ARZ boss has been updated since last showing. The first 8 hits, nothing has changed from normal Sonic 2. After that, Pinch mode begins, and the water rises, which you all knew from the old videos. What's new, is that a spike on each totem pole now appears; stopping you from going on top of them; forcing you into the water. After another 2 hits, Eggman will start to fire 2 arrows at a time. The second arrow will never be fired in the same place as the first one. When you need to hit Eggman one more time, he will fire 3 arrows! This boss also demonstrates the underwater sound driver very well (done by ValleyBell as you all know). I quite like the sound of the explosions when underwater personally. Gem Runway boss Gem Runway's boss. I got told that Eggman entering from the right hand side (through a wall) looked too weird. I agreed. So he now enters from above (and exits above too). Again, the first 8 hits haven't changed. Ater that, pinch mode begins. Basically, the spike balls start to appear a little bit earlier. Then, when there are 3 hits left, the spike balls will start to home-in on you! So avoid! So, what do you think? Have I made it too hard? Still too easy? Like it? Dislike it? Let me know! EDIT: Forgot to mention. Before entering the boss area, the boss music from Sonic 3D beta 819 will play. But sometimes, the same music from beta 825 (extra drums) will play (as demonstrated in the Gem Runway video). If you hear this version, that means the boss you're about to go against is a brand new boss!
I like everything I see, and the old/new boss intro difference is pretty cool. However, I do think you should tweak the spike thing in the ARZ boss mod. If you don't know they're coming the pillar spikes are hard to avoid, and even if you do know of them like you yourself would it seems easy to get hit. I'd do something to try to force or encourage the player to go into the middle before then. Perhaps a diagonal spring could appear for just a second to push you back in the middle before the spikes appear, or straight upward ones if the diagonal would just put you on the other pillar, so you have the time from springing up to notice the spikes appear. Or if reasonable you could have the hit on Eggman that makes them appear cause you to barely bounce at all and maybe pass through him unharmed if you try to get more hits in during the fall. Just something to avoid a kind of unfair looking hit in a nice boss.
I understand your point. It can catch you unexpectedly. But that's the thrill of it! You know it's going to get harder when he enters pinch mode, it makes you think "what is he going to do?" Also, if you die because of it, at least on your next go, you know what is going to happen =P But, depending on what others say, I may change this. I think the spring idea will be too weird for it to appear then disappear again. Although, the idea of falling through Eggman on the 8th hit sounds much better, I may put that in. Let's see what others think. Thanks for your comments so far, keep them coming!
Don't change a thing, pinch mode is supposed to make it more challenging, so I like your take on that. And I love Eggman's hit counter as well, fits better than a life bar IMO at least in a Sonic hack. :v: Keep up the good work RHS! ^_^
How have I never seen this before? It's absolutely amazing! I love the idea of Robotnik having a hit counter, alongside the voice clips, and well, just about everything. Hope to hear more from this soon!
Pretty much everything Neo Hazard said. This is one of the few hacks that I'm really interested in, two others being Sonic Megamix and Dr. Robotnik's Creature Capture. Keep up this great work! I really love that change in the music when you go underwater and the new boss.
Might I suggest a wider range of reaction voices for Eggman? Seems like the ones you are using are from Sonic Advance 3, right? There is a Sonic Colors DS voice rip here which could fit, and Sonic Rush voices here that could fit as well.
Perhaps instead of spikes suddenly rising from the totem, a set of columns lower from the top of the screen on each hit, the player would see them lowering and would be unable to use them after a certain point, this would feel much more balanced and fair towards the player. Also I love that gem runway boss, I wouldn't change a thing with it.
Maybe for the final boss? =P Thanks, I will look into these. I might use a couple, as I did think two ("Ow" and "You little...") weren't enough as you may get fed up of him saying the same thing. Thanks for this. That would be strange. Columns coming from nowhere. Thanks for your opinion though. Anyway, thanks for the advice guys. The majority of people have said not to change anything, they like it as it is. But a few are still concerned about the spikes on top? Personally, I see no problem with it. It might catch you out at first, but that's the point of pinch mode, right? Plus, from then on, you're always aware of them. Also, a comment on YouTube, I've been told that 16 hits for the bosses seem "ridiculous"? I think it's fine. 8 hits for normal (let's face it, we can hit him 8 times in less than 10 seconds on almost every boss) then 8 more for the pinch mode. It seems balanced to me. EHZ boss is 16 hits, and with the 8-hits pinch mode, I can still defeat him within 20 seconds.
I like the spikes on the totem poles. This is something similar to what I was going to implement in the future. Keep up the great work!
I played this hack back in 2009 and I liked it. Now that I see what awesome updates you have planned, I just can't describe how good it's looking. The beautiful graphics, the music and sound updates, the new abilities and partner system... Not to mention the bosses. It becomes boring pretty fast when a boss can be repeatedly bonked for a 5 second defeat, but that'll never happen to the excellent Cyber Track homage and or the ARZ boss with the new changing arena! I have a few things to say about the bosses, though: first, the ball shooting rate of the Gem Runway boss gets such a sudden increase, it may look better if it increased proggressively, a little every 2 or 4 hits, for example. And about the ARZ boss, does the water raise high enough to prevent Tails from flying up to its belly? That would make the boss even more clever-proof, which looks like it's your idea.