Music I can change easy. Just pop in a track I like over the one that sucks. So that's a minor problem. Can't fix a game though that easily, so at least they seem to have got the right part down.
Yeah, that's what I meant. xD; Sorry about not being clear with the wording. Anyway, it seems like Sonic Team is learning from their mistakes in Ep01, which is honestly the most important thing they need to do right now. Looking forward! :D
What's really annoying is how you can see Sonic clearly getting around the loop without a booster. Fucking Dimps.
Yeah, the boosters seemed absolutely pointless in what I played. Sonic gains and loses speed and momentum like he used to in the old games (probably not exactly but, it's good), so it's not like the damn boosters are needed for anything other than set pieces.
I analyzed older Sonic games, then compared them to Sonic 4 Ep 1, and Sonic 4 Ep 2, to help explain my point. In the older games, there are springs and boosters, but they are used sparingly. Stages change up the means of getting around and many stages almost entirely eliminate springs and several have no boosters at all. Or if they do, they change them into more interesting means of speeding Sonic up than just a lazy booster sprite that is unfitting in anything but a speed highway/Chemical Plant Zone like level. Even when Springs pop up, they are often optional, or you get to control where you land/how you fly through the air. In Sonic 4, both episodes so far, you basically move from one chunk of automated spring bouncing to another, with bubbles chains or boosters in-between. I don't care if the physics are improved; this is simply not classic Sonic gameplay. This is Sonic Advance/Sonic Rush style derpery, which has worn out its welcome. Thus, playing the Sonic 4 games give no feeling of accomplishment to me. I have successfully moved from one booster/spring maze to another, without any real aiming of Sonic, and without any need to really care what my trajectory is. Sonic is no longer a sentient pinball, but a dumb real pinball which is as in control of his actions as a real pinball is—pretty much not at all. As such, Sonic 4 has addressed the concerns of physics complainers, but pretty much remains unchanged with regards to gameplay. I forecast that yet another group of people will buy the game, realize it is nothing more than Spring Booster Maze 2: The Metal Sonicking and rage yet some more, while people like me will shrug and go "Told ya so."
Truer words have never been spoken! Leading me onto another point about this game... there's absolutely fuck all to do! White Park is a snow carnival in landscape only, apart from the homo-attacking through the snow and automated snowboarding sections there's nothing remotely trope related to play with, not to mention NOTHING to do with carnivals in the gameplay - they might as well have had a lunatic asylum in the background. Think back to Carnival Night, there was fucktons of stuff to play about with specific to that zone! To say White Park is a combination of Ice Cap and Carnival Night is an insult to both those zones.
Remember when SEGA PR said that in order for the physics to be fixed in Episode I they would have to have Dimps rework a lot of the levels? Can't wait when Episode Metal is replaced with the old layouts then.
But aren't there three separate acts, each with its own unique theme? As I understand it, the White Park act seen in all the videos is the one that's focused around snow. There's another one that's focused around water, and a third focused around the more carnival-like aspects, appearing to be set (at least partially) on a rollercoaster.
The exclusive levels are based on Episode I's content. I'm sure a bunch of people here will figure out how to hack in the old layouts and such to see how well they would perform with the fixed engine from Episode II. It's not like we're going to get a green screen when people try and hack the game, are we? As for myself, might buy Episode II when it hits the sales. Don't think the full price that was offered for Episode I was rather appropriate for a game that was buggy to hell and was underwhelming in a matter of ways.
That's a major problem with Sonic 4. Acts should never focus on anything. That's one of the things that looked really shitty in episode 1 and now episode 2. "This is the torch act, this is the minecart act, this is the card act, now this is the water act", the classics had act specific gimmicks, but they all felt like part of a great, rich organic experience which blends together beautifully from act to act. Did anyone call Launch Base Act 1 "the elevator act" and 2 "the water pipe act"? (I can think of many more examples) exactly!
Actually, yes. That's exactly what I called them when I got used to them. Bear in mind, the only thing I liked about LBZ was the music. The other music. Yep, I said it.
^ I've never noticed before that the elevators were only in act 1! But yeah, S3K really shone in this department. Each zone had a set of gimmicks and level structures used in both acts, and perhaps and extra twist thrown into the second one. It really bugged me that in Splash Hill you only got S-tunnels in act 1, vines and corkscrews in act 2 and pulleys in act 3. But at least all the acts had lots of speed boosters and springs!
Ristar says "Hi there, fuck you." Honestly, the fact that every level has a specific feel is the one thing I really like about Sonic 4 and probably the main reason I was interested in playing it in the first place -- homing attack chains of bubble enemies notwithstanding, no two acts use the exact same set of ideas.It keeps any one idea from becoming stale. Having thought about it over time, in fact, put me in the group that thinks Sonic 3 / S&K didn't separate ideas by act enough, because they sure as hell didn't separate the way zones play from each other -- I.e., there's not a "slow level" like labyrinth pairing up with a "fast level" like star light. The most I can say in its favor is that at least the faster routes are usually at the top of the stage?
Some of the classics had gimmicks that were specific to acts, especially in S3&K. So why this feature would make Sonic 4 shitty but not S3&K? Also, all hail VARIETY! I can't believe that something that is supposed to make the game less redundant is being regarded by some as a feature that make the game shitty <_<'
Because in the classics act specific stuff was mixed in with fucktons more stuff that WASN'T homing attack chains, boosters and spring corridors. It takes more than one specific gimmick per act to make it a good one, ALOT more.
