Sonic 2006: 100% Save File and Research

EDIT: So apparently the zip was messed up? Someone really doesn't want this getting out on the interwebs! Zip's fixed now so get it before the server mysteriously explodes.

You might notice that my "Current Project" has said "Losing my mind" for a while now. This is why. After much searching and realizing that one isn't (easily available) online for mass consumption, I went ahead and did it. I made a 100% save file for the PS3 version of Sonic 2006. That's twice I've gone through this game to that extent.

Now no one has to endure playing this to completion again.

I'm not sure if it will work for the European consoles and I'd say it likely won't, so right now, it's U.S. only. I also didn't do any of the DLC Very Hard Mode stages, because if people for some reason spent money on them, they should at least have the gall to attempt to do them on their own. My own (more updated than this one) file has them all S Ranked.

Now, while doing all this, I had a thought. So we all give this game a lot of well deserved shit. Hell, apparently a few people within Sega had a good laugh at my 20th Anni picture when they saw where 2006 and Shadow sat in relation to the rest of the photo, so no doubt the feeling is quite mutual with some in the company itself.

However, outside of some slight hacking exploits and a small patch for both versions of the game enabling the Super forms in the game, there's not been too much research into the game and its development itself outside that we know two things:

-The game was rushed to all hell to meet the 2006 Holiday release period.
-There was a later build of the game which we got a taste of in the now defunct 360 demo with improvements all around. This build was apparently not labeled a stable build.

While working on this file, I broke out the Sonic 2006 Prima Guides book I bought way back when the game came out to help me find some silver medals. This book is well known for documenting the unused Speed Chip update for Silver, which would have made him walk faster. But with a little more indepth look, there are a lot of inconsistencies within the build used to write the guide and the final.

-Various photos have characters always with Sonic's life icon.
-Situations depicted such as certain enemy formations or the use of two Chaos Drive capsules to get into Shadow's Kingdom Valley instead of one never occur
-Documentation of the gems working in a different manner. This includes the blue gem emitting a Sonic Boom shockwave that kills everything near Sonic and giving him a speed boost, much like the Boost Attack; the green gem's Tornado going forward and shredding apart enemies after the initial kick. Couple this with the unused leveling up mechanic listed in the game's own instruction manual.

Already, I'm doing a few simple comparisons between both versions. Far and above, the 360 version is the better build. I can dismiss the long-stated point of the spin dash not working in the 360 version, as it does inflict damage on enemies. One I can introduce is that the Princess Shield kills enemies but hurts the player on the 360. This happens less frequently so in the PS3 version, making it a viable method on getting extra hits on giant enemies.

That said, some slowdown or freezing problems int he 360 version are fixed in the PS3 version, but at the cost that the PS3 version experiences slowdowns more frequently when things are exploding and flying everywhere. The 360 version also seems to feature a few more enemies in places than its counterpart.

There's a few more oddities I've found, but as this is getting long winded, I'll hold on to them for now.

We know that this game is a glaring black eye on the series and while it has its own fans, it has far more enemies. However, much like how there have been drives to document the likes of Sonic 2 Beta and Sonic Xtreme, it's worthwhile that we look into this game a bit more, especially now with the PS3 ripped wide open and assuming that the PS3 version isn't as locked down.

 

It's likely busted. I'll fix it when Comcrap decides to fix my Internet.

Also, next post I make, I'll talk of some very odd things that went down in my last recent run of The 360 version.

 

Link fixed. It should be working now. Sorry about that, folks.

So, like I said, I've been going through the 360 version again for shits and giggles, mostly just to see any differences between the versions. I don't know if there have been some shenanigans with the 360 getting improved performance on certain games or something, but the load times on it have been ridiculously better. I'm talking some stages loading up in about 5-7 seconds—Unleashed's average level load times—and some oddity I can't seem to replicate in that Kingdom Valley's first areas as Sonic loaded up with clearer skies, like the title screen. The rest of the segments had cloudy skies and jumping back in to the stage from the Trial Select menu had it back to cloudy too.

I know this game was never patched and I never remember this behavior going down on the 360 version from when I first played it back in 2006. Shenanigans are definitely about, here.

 

I figure I'll answer what I know.

The jump doesn't hurt enemies. However, as documented before, the homing attack has a slight downward arc—like a sting, if you will—and Sonic controls much less twitchier. On top of that, you can see the Drive Level Up bars are working. If anything, had 2006 released feeling like this, it'd have been much better regarded. And as you can see in runs of the demo, there are a few more dynamic camera angles when hitting those jumps. You lose control of Sonic for the split seconds you're launched. May as well have nice camera tricks there.

It's unfortunate (but expected) that Sega (or Microsoft) apparently removed the demo from Xbox Live for people who have never downloaded it. Luckily, I never deleted it from my hard drive so I still have access to it. No doubt a few people have it backed up somewhere too.

I've never noticed those in Flame Core, but there's a really obvious one on a rail in Sonic's first part of Radical Train.

A little more explanation on how the gems and Sonic's Custom Actions were set to work. As they stand, they're mostly extremely broken (or extremely useless) which can either be a great thing (Gun Drive, Shrink, Time Slow, Lightning Shield) or terrible (Homing Smash, Tornado Kick, Speed Boost) I've copied this from the Prima Games guide, with a few comments in parentheses.

As mentioned before, the Chaos Gauge was needed to operate these gems, draining as you used them and actually putting limitations on them. Leveling up was also a feature, which would have utilized that bar under the main gauge by slowly filling red as Sonic killed enemies with the gem equipped. As it filled up, the action would gain a level (up to three levels), which improved the abilities power and made it more meter efficient in that each ability ate up less meter.

Do note that the guide makes no mention of the ??? Gem (the Rainbow Gem), which would have unlocked the ability to play as Super Sonic within his stages. This was one of the earlier major findings back in 2006 by way of Sonic CulT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6yaBjCvySU

It's unlikely if Shadow and Silver had similar treatments in store. Doubtful, even.

 

There's quite a few Invincibility boxes in the game and they work. It just sometimes doesn't load up the effect (a weak lighting effect that looks like little rainbow pixies are dissolving into the air while a small gold glow is under the character's feet.)

If anything, the surprising one is that there's a Speed Shoes monitor used in the game in one of Shadow's town missions. It makes him impossible to control without slamming into a wall and recycles the Invincibility theme.

 

Try now. It should be working.

Anyway, for PS3, just slap it on any USB stick (or memory card if you've the older system) making sure it's in ms0://PS3/SAVEDATA (where ms0 is whatever drive your memory device is)

After that, simply plug it into the console and copy it over to your system's memory in the Manage Save Data part of the XMB, under the GAME section.

It's a fairly quick and painless process.