I like it quite a bit. I've seen a lot of debate going on whenever the move gets brought up so I wanted to see this forum's thoughts on it.
Always loved this ability, especially from Sonic Adventure 2 onwards. Flashy but simple, and a neat way of using rings as a movement tool.
I like it the way it's used in SA2, where the ability to Light Dash while running complemented that game's flow. I also liked it in the boost games, where it provides alternate paths that you can only take by hitting the LD button in a split-second moment, fitting those games' reflexes-based gameplay. In SA1 and Heroes it didn't add much, though. There was no skill involved, you just stood at the start of a ring trail and used the LD.
I like the Light Speed Dash, specifically the Sonic Adventure 2 incarnation where you simply have to press a button near a trail of rings to activate it. I second Blue Spikeball's quote 'in the boost games, where it provides alternate paths that you can only take by hitting the LD button in a split-second moment, which fits that game's reflexes-based gameplay.' I must say though, they completely ruined the Light Speed Dash in the final version of Sonic Adventure by making Sonic spindash while charging up. In the Autodemo, Sonic instead struck a cool pose while charging it up: There's 4 buttons on a Dreamcast controller plus the shoulder buttons, they easily could've tied the Light Speed Dash to something other than the spindash buttons.
The light dash in SA2 just frustrates me personally. Sonic always seems to just use his other B button moves when I try to use it, and worst case scenario I get dumped into a bottomless pit with the bounce bracelet.
Ah, the wonders of Naka's "our games should use as few buttons as possible" philosophy. Gotta love you're having a nice run and try to light dash but miss the rings and do a momentum-killing somersault instead.
I always felt like SA2's version was the most satisfying to pull off and looked the coolest too but yeah it's completely ruined by the fact that they had to cram every action onto one button. It took them until 2008 to finally figure out they could use the other face buttons lol
I liked they added ghost rings later if you had to reuse the same ring trail. Prior to Shadow's game, getting some of the first rings by accident made sometimes impossible to start or finish properly some mandatory trails. And later they removed them and kept the only as a wisp power. It makes no sense. Ring trails being gimmick paths is a good idea in any case, it's the usual implementation issue which can make or break it.
You have to screech to a halt, carefully line yourself up, then press the action button when you're sure it's actually going to trigger, lest you fling off into the void once again. Nah, not a huge fan. Homing attack's better.
I generally like the lightspeed dash but I don't like when it's used as a "get on the different path"-button. It's a bit too simplistic of a mechanic to be the determining factor between taking the high-level path or low-level one. It's frequently used as a crutch to avoid making more involved level design.
If they utilized it in such a way where ring trails could send you flying to other paths and secrets and let you use it as a glorified rail to smash into enemies from afar using your speed (instead of the very "loose" go-to-one-place way its implemented in Unleashed and SA1), I would've liked it a lot more. But as it stands it's just barely used in cool ways! I like how it's used in Lost World (SA1) but that's it.
It gives Sonic somethkng to do while moving at speed midair, something that can require a little timing or skill to do. Cool. It just feels good to use, giving Sonic tons of momentum. Cool. it means level design at times is just placing rings randomly in a perfect line/curve in levels or in the air in a way that feels unnatural, gamey, and out of place, not too unlike the level gimmicks in Frontiers. Not too cool. like, it’s clear they are artificial, at least kind of justify them. Iirc, 06 uses some switch like mechanisms in kingdom valley to create wind currents to grind on. Maybe something similar to that? There is a another quality to this I dislike that I am struggling to put into words. Repetitive? With little variation? Can only be used one way? i don’t know how to word it. I can only provide an example I think it doesn’t apply to. Currently, it’s always a trail of rings you’re forced to follow the way they are laid out. But if it wasn’t a trail but perhaps a single ring. And you don’t just approach it directly in front to be propelled forward, but could approach it from various angles (above/below/from the side/etc) to get different results and go in a different direction. Like if you are to the right of it, light dashing will make you go left as you go into and through the ring. And you use this to propel Sonic in different directions than just forward dependent on the situation. Like if . _ | This is top view. Pretend the ring represented by the dot is a little bit more to the right. The two lines are platforms. if you are running up the left-bottom platform, jump off of it, let your momentum carry you to the point where you are next to the dot or ring and then dash into that ring, the trajectory carrying you onto the top most right platform.
What you’re describing is basically how the light dash works half the time when it screws up in Adventure games lol. If there’s a singular ring, or it janks out and doesn’t carry to the next ring, it’ll just propel you along the direction you approached it from. I can see it being used in a cool way if the stages were designed around it.
