Sonic 2 Innovative

This green hill zone is simply fabulous!
This is the first basic sonic 2 hack with great ehz art I've ever seen, good job

Edit: and the layouts flow perfect with that background deformation, I love those moving leaves in ehz2.

 

Very good. Level design is fresh, with crazy loops all over the place. A few path-swapping errors, but nothing major. Nice palette changes throughout the zone, combined with the almost abstract-looking art style, makes this look pretty good. Act 3 shows as Act 1, but that's just another minor flaw.

Looking forward to the next release!

 

This is a really nice-looking hack, with some neat layouts.

One problem, though...

 

Pretty sexy stuff. I very much like the direction you're taking with the art, and although palette changes between acts are nothing new, I've not seen it done as well as this very often. The level design as it stands is a little bland and repetitive, but you're definitely on the right lines and it'll only take the addition of a few more 128x128 chunks to spice things up. Looking forward to future releases!

 

The first thing that caught my eye when I tried this hack out was the art—it's graphically stunning! I absolutely love the mixture of the trademark Green Hill-esque patterns together with not one, but three distinct—albeit familiar—backdrops. The different palettes complement each act well and create a brilliant composition that is easy on the eyes and great to look at. In that regard, you've done a fantastic job, though I'm not entirely fond of the flat grass. That's a minor niggle, though.

When I started playing, however, I was let down a bit. Starting up, I found myself a bit disappointed when I was greeted with the classic Emerald Hill tune. I realize I shouldn't always expect music changes, but given the wide graphical revamp, I expected a similar change in music; still, this was a minor detail and I continued playing. What really bothered me was the level layouts. The levels appeared to consist of the same basic formula—run to the right, go through a small loop, descend a bit, maybe run into spikes, go through a vertical loop, jump across a pit, and then repeat. That was it. I appreciated the lack of unreasonable bottomless pits and the several paths available depending on where you were in the level vertically, but every single act felt exactly the same in terms of gameplay. It didn't feel like there was a lot of chunk variety and the level suffered as a result. I nearly got lost wondering if I had gone backwards to an earlier part of the level because I couldn't make the distinction between them!

Regardless, I enjoyed what I played and I'm looking forward to more. This hack certainly has a lot of potential; as long as you work on the layouts, maybe try and make some music changes, and work out the kinks in general, you'll have a very cool piece of work on your hands.

Many kudos! Looking forward to more.

 

I like the per-act backgrounds, but seriously hope those lazy green curves are placeholders.

 

Here's me wondering if the art is ever so slightly inspired by Sonic 4 or coincidental.

Kinda inspiring, though! I haven't dared make a grassland myself, it'll be interesting to see how it pans out.

What I'll say about the hack is the buzzbombers seem to be used all over the place. There are other badniks, you know. :P

 

Well, I'm happy to see you've implemented the grass shadow I suggested in Sonic Masters. This art looks incredible, and I agree on Dalek when he said it remember Sonic 4. This is so much impressive, except for the path swaps when you loop, Sonic sometimes go down to the floor. It should have something to do with the collision from the floor or something else. I noticed some "weird" background deformation (water effect in the grass!? What the...). So, you should fix this. I think the ring placement are so much are very uniform in relation to each other. In some parts you see many rings, for others it is seen absolutely no ring. The same goes for the enemies. As I said in SMF, I suggest that you "separate them" to make it something even more professional than it already is. For the art I have no complaints, except for the slopes that are in need of a texturing as the straight grass.
Great work as well, I can't wait to see the next release.

 

I thought this was pretty good, but one thing I want to see changed, along with the music, is none of this:


ESPECIALLY right after a loop.

Other than that, add another watcher for you!

 

I like what you've done, but the only thing that I don't like is the darker ground tiles. The transition seems to fast between light and dark and doesn't look good. Try making some tiles that add up the the trasition, like in any EHZ or GHZ that have bumps and dips in the ground art. But besides that little "Tidbit" its good.

 

And the moral of the story: don't rush!

EDIT: Anyhoo, I downloaded and played it. Heaps fun! I like those square shaped loops, but you're overusing them. The U shaped holes are nice, too, but at the first one in act 1, you can get on top of the loop with it, and maybe you should put a monitor there as a reward or something. Act 3 is pretty empty, and I don't really like the straight ground in the levels... but yeah, personal preference and stuff. I like this hack. owo

 

But...isn't that the point of a Sonic game? To rush?

 

Well, you can't really not, I mean it comes right after a very tall loop, so it's not like you have much choice but to get up enough speed to get through it, which you end up keeping anyway because of the vertical exit.

Erm, and it's only a minor thing but has anyone mentioned the ripple effect in GHZ's background? =P

EDIT: Unfortunately, a lot ofeach act seems given to these spike encounters. It seems rather cheap, to be honest...

 

Nice changes! E really like the new art, it's very unique. The levels are a little 'empty' now, as you said, since there are no badniks or rings. But as far as I can tell, the collisions works fine - I didn't found any glitch/bug.

 

Oh my God, maaaannn!!! This looks AMAZING!!!
You did a GREAT join of concepts, so you have no idea on how excellent it is. This time I have no criticisms. Everything there fits very well. What incredible work, man! Incredible. It to don't say FANTASTIC!!

 

I'm using the Mac emulator, Genesis Plus, so I don't know if these bugs are present in the windows emulators but...

-The layer switching for loops is non existent

-You can not enter a loop from the right side. For some reason Sonic pushes against the right side of one instead, as if there was a wall there.

 

Other than the bridges having an incomprehensible texture to them, everything's pretty spot on. Obviously needs rings and enemies, but otherwise very solid.