Why does anybody like the time limit in Sonic games?

Nice to know that people completely ignore my posts. Pretty sure I bring up a good point about time limits in games, not that anyone, I dunno, scrolls up two or three posts to actually read it?

I was even nice enough to condense it into one line of text this time.

Edit: Actually, here, let me quote that for you.

Does this make it easier?

Pretty sure there's no debug mode in Sonic 4 (or any modern game, really)

 

And aside from Sonic 4, none of the modern Sonic titles have forced time limits outside of certain missions.

Hence why I specified classic Sonic titles. :specialed:

 

Also when is the last time you have successfully activated Sonic 3's debug mode? Just curious.

That's the one where you have to hit 8 buttons in a split second, if I'm not wrong.

Actually, I didn't know the GameGear games had a debug mode, I think I'll go look that up.

 

My Goodness, why are you always so angry and defensive? He just posted his opinion on time limits, but you jumped down his throat and accuse him of not reading your text-walls as if they are required for posting in the topic. People will inevitably have different opinions than yours, Volpino; there is no reason to get mad and shout insults and vulgarities over it. Surely after years here you would have realized this by now. I'll probably properly respond to the Topic at hand later, as I am exhausted now.

 

Sonic 3 and Knuckles largely removes the need for that with how the codes for level select and debug work. Yes, Sonic 3's level select is a pain in the butt to pull off, as even being a pro button mas—fighting game player still has trouble hitting UUUDDDUUUU in the span of about... 1.5 seconds? I've gotten it to work, but only like... four times.

 

I got it to work twice, sadly, 3K is missing something from its debug mode that Sonic 3 had: The super box. That was awesome.

When I am repeatedly bringing up a point (And not all of my posts are text-walls, by the way, there's one right above you, is that a text wall?) and having people skip over them and not addressing them, that is annoying. It has nothing to do with people not agreeing with me; they don't even respond to me. Hell, I asked the same question on S2HD's thread 6 times and never got an answer while several team members would respond to several other people, so I felt put out and skipped over and that is not an infrequent occurrence on here; I actually get more of a response from people by being an asshole half the time than being a nice human being, go figure.

 

It seems to be the case in at least Sonic 1 and SCD from what I recall. Though in S2 and S3(K) I'm not 100% sure either way. I think if you end up dying from a time over in the latter two you might be able to use debug to keep alive if you press B before Sonic falls off the screen.

EDIT: In Sonic 2, you can't get a time over. In S3K at least (didn't bother to test S3 alone), that trick above -- using debug during the dying animation -- works, and disables the time limit, though you can't be Super Sonic any more.

 

Just throwing this out there, but what about all the fangames that use the time limit? It was mentioned in the OP, I'm just trying to bring it out. Should they have a debug mode or just some option to turn it off? I'd vouch for the latter.

Edit: That's not meant to disrespect fangames, but it IS 2012 and it's just a thought.

 

For those who don't feel like playing the game in Debug mode, I hacked Sonic 2. See This post for the hack. :v: And for the most part, I don't care either way about the time limit. The only time I hated getting a time over was in Carnival Night Act 2 with the damn barrel when I was younger.

 

There's something seriously wrong if you can't beat Sonic 2 in the time limit...even exploring everything as a kid I never got a time over. The only time I recall getting a time over is when I spent like 9 minutes playing the slots; I also got 999 rings!

I have run out of time in Marble Garden, Sandopolis, and Death Egg. I usually haul balls trying to get through now.

 

I don't know, I like being compelled to not drag my feet and I like the games having a very cohesive sense of "Okay, Robotnik is terrorizing the inhabitants of x and upsetting the balance of nature and industrially diminishing the beauty of x's untainted lands, so run as fast as you can through all the zones, stopping him at every crossroad, and defeat him once and for all at his main base to prevent him from carrying out his ultimate objective." The games' storylines give off the sense that Sonic has a time limit each time to stop Robotnik. No time for lollygagging or exploring!

That aside, I find the time limit actually very annoying, and I did die a bunch when I was younger because of it. I feel if the games must have it, it should be roughly 16 mins.; anyone who takes that long to pass an act deserves to lose a life as punishment. :v: Just my 5¢.

 

Sonic is a fast game. Time limits push you to complete the level quickly, because if you don't hurry up, you're going to run out of time.

It's one of those things that's kind of supposed to be annoying, but in a good way. Like underwater levels. Being pressured to do something quickly can be fun in the right doses. It's an element of tension.

It also helps reign level designers in - I mean, really, does anybody enjoy Sonic levels that last more than ten minutes? That really cuts down on replayability, at least for me. That's when you get garbage like Sonic Heroes' and their "lol let's cut and paste this same identical corridor three times because the level should be longer".

 

I am in the minority... I love time limits. To me they reinforce that they game is about speed... and what is more motivation to haul ass than a time limit?
I am neutral about lives, although I am quite happy when I get 99 lives... or in Sonic 2, exploiting the Chemical Plant Zone bug to get 255 lives. They really do nothing for me though... I can complete the games without dying. (except Metallic Madness Act 3... I still get stuck on THAT one.)

I am including both, agreeably archaic, aspects in my fangame... for the sake of tradition. With time limits though... I am implementing options: Either traditional 10:00 limits, fixed time limits based on the zone/act/difficulty you are playing, OR no time limits. That will make everyone happy...
But I am NOT including continues... IMO those are the things that are pointless to me. I have 100 lives, what the hell do I need a continue for??? Sonic 1, I could understand... but after that, go away...

As far as the Sonic CD achievement Savior of the Planet... As long as you know where the machines are... that achievement is shit easy, time limits OR not... If you aren't familiar with the machine locations... that's fine... but if you know where they are, you can't say its too hard... I can zip through many of those zones and get the machines. Only a couple give me a little bit of trouble.

As far as Time Over... I've only gotten Time Over on a couple of occasions:
1. Carnival Night Zone Act 2 barrel when I first played it.
2. Sandopolis Zone Act 2, the first couple times I played it.
3. Sonic CD, when I stayed still for a few minutes just to see if what everyone said would happen was really true... I was pleasantly surprised and laughed.

 

Ignoring most of the whining here, Sonic 1 should have level time limits of two minutes. Sonic 2 should have three. Then it would mean something. Gamers don't like to be challenged much anymore though, do they?

 

Haven't a lot of games done away with the time limit and the timer is just a way to time yourself in a game about speed?

 

A lot of games these days are also unreasonably easier than they used to be, too. There's a lot of things people are getting rid of in games today because they're trying to be more "cinematic" and "accessible" and less game-y. I remember listening to a podcast a year or two ago where somebody went on a tangent about how Bayonetta felt like a bit like a "relic" because it had a visible HUD at all times that displayed combo counters, score information, etc. and how "games don't do that anymore".

I found that kind of offensive, because there's a lot of things that "games don't do anymore" that maybe they should.

I'm a firm believer that sometimes a game has to grab you by the skull and force you to do things the hard way for it to be fun. "Time yourself" is a great idea in practice, but that just means "the game allows you to be lazy". Don't get me wrong, accessibility is great - to a point. But there's a lot of "Yay, you came in last place, but at least you finished, so here's a gold star" in videogames these days.

The punishment for failure has been reduced, and reduced, and reduced until you run in to situations where you have 75 lives in New Super Mario Bros. DS by the time you hit world 3 and you weren't even going out of your way to collect them.

Like I said, a timer means you have to hurry. The games are usually balanced so that you'll probably ever even take more than 6 minutes to beat a level, but there's still the lingering tension that you have to get to the end quickly or else you will die.

While you can say time limits have been phased out of games, keep in mind that Super Mario 3D Land actually added them back in, and as per Nintendo's recent reversion to making their newer games pretty challenging, SM3DL apparently gets legitimately difficult in its second half.

The flip side in all of this is that most recent Sonic games with 10 minute limits have also had the option to turn the timelimit off. It was in all the Sonic Advance games, for example.

 

The time limit was only bothersome in Sonic CD. I can't imagine anyone spending more than 5 minutes in a Sonic level, unless they were just looking at every nook and cranny of the map, which one of you can probably attest to.

 

I have never died from a time over, so I don't really care. If the level takes near 10 minutes to complete, then it's probably too long for its own good. I guess it could be a problem if you're searching through the level, but I've done some of that myself and, at the most, it's taken me around 6 or 7 minutes. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough for the time limit to become a problem or something? :v:

And slightly off-topic:

The "S" box is in Sonic 3 & Knuckles' debug mode; it just turns the character Hyper instead of Super (unless you're Tails).