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Special Stage

Discussion in 'Project: Sonic Retro (Archive)' started by Mobiethian, Nov 20, 2008.

  1. Mobiethian

    Mobiethian

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    Let's come up with a unique special stage for the game.
     
  2. Sonic Boom

    Sonic Boom

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    Gonna bring this idea back to the light for those who may not have seen this in the 'Concepts' thread...

     
  3. Mobiethian

    Mobiethian

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    I love that special stage idea! I'm so glad that you brought that over, even though I should have did it for you. :)
     
  4. Ollie

    Ollie

    DIGGY DIGGY HOLE Member
    Nice Choatix/Sonic 2 mix there. I was thinking a lot more basic than that, similar to the Special stages on Sonic 2 but will loops, corkscrews and other cliches :)
     
  5. Spanner

    Spanner

    The Tool Member
    I like Sonic Boom's concept for the Special Stage. A bit off topic, will the Special Stage be entered through a Giant Ring or something else?
     
  6. Hybrid Project Alpha

    Hybrid Project Alpha

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    I still like my old idea of making the special stage like an actual zone with a boss, much shorter and more gimmicky than the main zones of course.
     
  7. Matwek

    Matwek

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    That sort of gives the impression that robotnik got to the emeralds first and sonic has to beat a boss to get them back.
    It could work although I still think we would need a sonic style special stage before coming up against the boss, like sonic 2's special stage, part one get enough rings, part 2 get enough rings, part 3 get the emerald back from the boss
     
  8. Spanner

    Spanner

    The Tool Member
    Maybe you could do it Triple Trouble style, having to fight Fang/Nack to get the emerald.
     
  9. DimensionWarped

    DimensionWarped

    Erinaceous! Oldbie
    I'm just going to take a quick note here that every special stage entry method for the three Genesis Sonic games was different... so in keeping with the project's stated objective, I think it would be almost necessary to come up with a new form of entry.

    That isn't to say not to use the big giant ring, but I do believe a change of pace is in order for that...

    Continuing with the patterns, of the three Genesis titles, only the first placed them at the end of levels. The rest make them accessible at various points throughout all or at least the majority of other stages. I think it's safe to say that they probably would have stuck with that pattern since it allowed the player to collect the emeralds at his own pace.

    In terms of mechanics, there aren't a whole lot of remaining options. Tying them onto checkpoints was less than an obvious choice as it was. Spreading them in hidden locations via giant rings in S3 was a lot more obvious of a choice to make I think...

    Other possible in-level methods I can think of revolve around gimmicks ala Sonic Advance/Sonic Rush or Sonic CD's time travel activation. Then there is the destruction of some kind of object/recurring enemy... which isn't much different in practice from the giant rings.

    If the crew doesn't want to stick with in-level entry though, plenty of other options exist... There is always the annoying hub-world entry with it's own set of entry rules, then you can always just throw a ring at the end of the level if you want to follow off Sonic CD and Chaotix instead of the Genesis titles.

    Being picked up by the plane with some always-available-at-50-rings action is a novel idea, but I can't help but find it tacky for some reason. No offense intended of course, it just doesn't seem to fit is all.
     
  10. Tweaker

    Tweaker

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    Hm... how about a Golden Motobug that you could find hidden in each level? Once defeated, it would spawn a Sky Sanctuary-esque teleporter instead of a flicky. This teleporter would take you to the special stage.

    You could have a different badnik you have to destroy based on the level's theme, as long as it references an older series badnik and fits the level's style. It reminds me of those golden enemies you'd destroy in Sonic Adventure 2, which give you metric fucktons of bonus points once you destroy them.

    Thoughts?
     
  11. Baby Ghost

    Baby Ghost

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    Moving this thing over from the Concepts thread.
    <!--quoteo(post=245282:date=Nov 13 2008, 09:50 PM:name=Baby Ghost)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Baby Ghost @ Nov 13 2008, 09:50 PM) [​IMG]

    In writing:

    1. Sonic gets 50 rings while going through the stage. Once he does, if he jumps in the air and presses the jump button again, he'll do a flip and jump off the side of the stage to land on the Tornado, flown by Tails (if playing as Tails or Knuckles, Sonic flies the Tornado.)
    2. The Tornado rises into the air to Part One of the Special Stage (if the special stages had names, they'd consist of the first word in the name of the corresponding stage plus "sky", so "Canadian Sky" and "Tropical Sky".) which works similarly to the special stage in Sonic Advance 3. If he fails here, an engine on the Tornado bursts and Sonic jumps off the falling plane back into the stage.
    3. If Sonic gets enough rings on Part 1, the Tornado lowers out of the sky and Sonic jumps off, and begins to run along the land. This is part two, which works similarly to a combination of the Sonic Advance 2 special stage (without turning around) and the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 special stage (without the tube walls, but with strange hills and turns). Sonic will have to dodge things like enemies and holes.
    4. (not in the picture) If Sonic gets enough rings on Part 2, he gets to the edge of a cliff where he finds the emerald and the stage ends. If he fails to get enough rings, he fails to stop in time and falls off the cliff, back into the normal stage.

    Is it any good, cause if it is, you can use it.[/quote]
    I think that maybe if this isn't good enough, it could be combined with Sonic Boom's concept. He flies in the air like I said, and then he lands on a track like Sonic Boom's concept. Also, someone else said that he should jump on the Tornado if he has 50 rings at the end of the level, so for that, Sonic could:

    Go by the post, it spins and stops, and Sonic does his "finger wag" animation from Sonic 3. Then, he starts walking, then running, and the camera follows him as the Tornado comes near, comes down, and while still moving, Sonic jumps on it and it flies off, the camera no longer following. It then fades out, then into the Special Stage.
     
  12. Hybrid Project Alpha

    Hybrid Project Alpha

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    that sounds like it would take forever and get really irritating to sit though every time
     
  13. Afti

    Afti

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    [​IMG]

    It's a bad mockup of a Special Stage. This is a psuedo-Mode 7 rail shooter.

    The basic idea is that you are on a little UFO-thingy with a gun turret, chasing Metal Sonic, who is holding the Emerald. Being hit will make you lose time. If your time runs to zero, you exit the Special Stage. However, if you shoot enemies down in succession, you can get combos, which give you time bonuses. In order to claim the Emerald, you must shoot down Metal Sonic, who flies across the screen at all times, before time runs out. This is harder than it sounds- Metal Sonic will actively dodge your attacks, is fast, and can take quite a few blows before going down. He can also use homing missiles.
     
  14. muteKi

    muteKi

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    I like this. Of course there should be some sort of challenge in finding and killing the robot, maybe less than being hid there should be a difficult platforming challenge leading to it as a reward, except maybe for the first couple.

    Also it should not use the system of games like Sonic Heroes, Blast, Rush, etc. where the game ties emerald collection only to certain levels at a time. That's something I really liked about Sonic 3K -- that it was easy to retry special stages after beating the game once.
     
  15. DimensionWarped

    DimensionWarped

    Erinaceous! Oldbie
    So is that to say special stages would be specific to the zones they are accessed from? Or that they would all basically be the same animal and function the same as a goal ring that you have to kill? If its just one per level and if the exact stage is tied to the zone, I have to say it's decisively similar to Sonic Advance 1.
     
  16. muteKi

    muteKi

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    I mean to say that such a setup is what I don't want to see -- though like with the Sonic 3 special stage it shouldn't return again until after the beating the game once.

    (On a similar note, even if a simple Mario World styled overworld area was used, backtracking shouldn't occur like in that game, but it should serve a purpose like the maps in Sonic 1 Master System the first time through the game -- however after beating the game it can be used to play single stages at a time like the map in Sonic Adventure 2.)
     
  17. Retro_Stew

    Retro_Stew

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    I made that for my GBA game, you can use/edit it :

    [​IMG]
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    [​IMG]

    Good idea for a special stage, no?
     
  18. Thundertimi

    Thundertimi

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    I love that idea.
     
  19. Rokkan

    Rokkan

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    I think there should be not only a Special Stage and a Bonus Stage, but also an idea that I came up with: A Challenge Stage.
    If you finish the stage without losing any lives, when you run through the Signpost of the stage's end, the character will run in circles around the signpost gathering speed and then is teleported to a Challenge Stage. In that stage you can collect monitors to be used at the next Act. For instance: At the Challenge Stage you got a Flame Shield and a 10-Ring monitor. When you begin Act 2, you'll have two icons at the bottom of the screen, which are those two items you got. Pressing a certain button will give you 10 rings and another button will give you the Flame Shield.
    I still don't know how the Challenge Stage will work. Maybe we can ripoff the Sonic CD Special Stage and instead of UFOs, Eggman badniks holding the items. It would be pretty challenging (duh) and getting the items will be a hard task. You can only have two items with you. If you get more than two, after you finish the Challenge Stage, you'll choose only two of them to be with you. You cannot keep the items you got in the Challenge Stage for other stages. After you got them, you can only use in the next stage you'll be at. Also, Challenge Stages will give you some awarding points.

    Also, I like the Golden Motorbugs idea. But I don't think we should only restrict to Motorbugs. We could have some other golden enemies which are slightly different than the normal ones. Some of them, depending on how convenient to the puzzle design involved on reaching them and killing them are, could have multiple armors (needs more than 1 hit to kill), different ways to attack and move than the original badniks they were based on, etc.

    And, another idea I threw in the Sonic 4 development forum: Fang/Nack would appear at a certain part of a level, depending on how much Chaos Emeralds you have. For example, you're at Blue Mountain Zone and you just got your 4th Chaos Emerald. He will appear at a certain part of this level as a mini-boss. He, however, won't steal your C.E.s if you lose to him (that would be too much of a pain on the ass if that happened...) but if you defeat him, you'll win some major bonus points or he would drop a 1up or a really useful monitor. If you lose to him, he'll not re-spawn at that place again and you lost the chance to win some good points.

    2 Chaos Emeralds: He'll appear with his Pop Gun, running, jumping high with his spring tail, and shooting at you like he doesn't have to reload anything.
    4 Chaos Emeralds: He'll appear with a small machine with a spring which can jump higher than before. It shoots two-way projectiles which bounce off the walls much like Gemini Man of the Megaman series. It also takes more hits to defeat him.
    7 Chaos Emeralds: Fang this time is for real. A floating machine that's really alike the other one, that flies and teleports really fast, it has 4 sattelites which provides protection and can shoot many kinds of different projectiles. From homming missiles to shockwaves. When he's almost defeated, it will try bashing you with full-power destroying the machine in the process.
     
  20. Rokkan

    Rokkan

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    I was looking at the Sonic X-Treme website and I think that this would be a very nice idea to a Special Stage (although it would be hardcore to program it):
    http://www.senntient.com/projects/xtreme/SonicDemo1.html
    http://www.senntient.com/projects/xtreme/SonicDemo2.html
    The Special Stage would consist of Sonic going through predeterminated paths, while your job is to tilt right and left to avoid obstacles and to catch rings. But by tilting right or left on certain paths, you may access hidden shortcuts, re-modeling your path to go. You would also sometimes perform little QTEs to avoid being hit or to jump platforms on the right timing, if not, you may lose rings or even die and be kicked out of the Special Stage (no worry, there will be an indication saying that you must press "x" button/buttons) your objective is to grab a specific number of rings. There will be small monitors with numbers in it, pass through them and the number you got from them will increase the time count, by getting hurt or not doing a QTE right, you lose 10 (or maybe 5) rings in the proccess. If you didn't get enough rings, you'll do it again, but with less time count of course.
    Also, the Special Stage would be less confusing than those and more straight-forward, to not confuse players.