Has anyone created MIDIs yet? I would like to try to play with Spoiler Sylvania Castle Act 1, Oil Desert Act 1, and especially Sky Base Act 1. A lot of the music would be better if it were extended and if some notes were changed to add a little bit of variety.
There are two things that annoy me with the whole Sonic 4 game : -The graphisms look like they belong to Super Mario Bros Wii, they look goofy even in the more "serious" levels. It's like you could expect to encounter Mario in a penguin suit in White Park. Most of the skies used in the backgrounds are beautiful though. -The levels lack epicness a lot. For a game that is supposed to take place after Sonic & Knuckles, it's a bit sad. In S&K, I had the feeling that Sonic was not running through the stages to just reach the signpost at the end of the act, I felt he was only passing through the stages to reach a bigger goal, because there was a running story through the stages, with instant cutscenes and transitions between the levels and the acts of a same level (transitions that kind of made sense I might add) that made a level look like a whole part of the island, and some elements (sometimes very small) that contributed to make the story consistent (the Death Egg in the background of LRZ for exemple). The stages were just steps to save the island. And the music didn't sound like Sonic was just having fun like I feel it is the case in Sonic 4. To my ears they all sounded like the environment he was in was going to be a pain for him to pass through. I don't feel like that at all regarding Sonic 4, to me it's like another Sonic Advance game : various levels inspired by the Megadrive games without any link with those same games, without interesting transitions between levels, and the same story as ever that only S&K managed to make epic in my opinion. Spoiler Having several references to Sonic CD is cool and makes Episode 2 a little more consistent than Episode 1, but I really think they have to start thinking about a new kind of story for the next games, because having a new space station in every game that is never as badass as the S&K's Death Egg is starting to get on my nerves.
Not sure if old already but I created a mix with a song from S4 and the one from Generations (SPOILERS IF YOU HEAR IT).
^The reason there is no feeling of it being a world in which Sonic is going from place to place to get to the end of the game, rather then just singular acts, is because Sonic 4 takes inspiration from Sonic 1 and 2. There are no act transitions, rather a loosely tied together story. In fact, just like Sonic 2, the plot only becomes visible in Sky Fortress Zone, where they fly the plane up from where ever, land on his ship, and then chase after Eggman to the Death Egg. It's literally exactly the same. It's also why we don't have elemental shields. Sega likes to ignore Sonic 3 & Knuckles, which is a damn shame because it brought many good ideas to the table that were never used again up until Generations. Spoiler So after playing this game in full I am left with one question. Where are the gimmicks? Unlike Episode 1 which had a sort of "here's the gimmick theme of the level," Episode 2 has more of a "Here's the environment theme for the level." Thing going on. Other then that, there are the staples, like springs, loops, boosters, Sonic & Tails, etc etc., but after that it's hard to think of any. Death Egg Mk 2 has some gravity manipulation, Sky Fortress has the rings from DEZ in Sonic 3 and wall running, and then there's the tornado. Maybe they were just integrated in the levels in ways that didn't just throw them in your face, which I guess is a good thing. Still, I don't understand why they never integrate gimmicks for a level, not just an act, instead of "OIL SLIDES ONLY EXIST IN ACT 2. THE REST OF THE REFINERY WAS PATCHED UP A FEW MONTHS BACK." Oh and as far as Super Sonic with bosses. It actually might not be as bad as previously thought. You don't need to do Sonic & Tails team up except for like, once, on the final boss. Also Super Sonic hits seem to be almost double (bosses tend to take 5 hits instead of 8 while super). Makes sense. And at least one thing I can look forward to is seeing a finished version of this game. As it is right now, you can tell it's not. While I haven't experienced many glitches, the red rings don't do anything at this point, and if you beat the game with all the chaos emeralds and all the red rings, you get nothing. No bonus ending (If you don't get all the emeralds it says "TRY AGAIN"), no unlockables, nothing. I must say though I'm still really hoping we get something like a classic Sonic skin as an unlockable. I've said it once and I'll say it 1000 more times, you already have the fucking character models, do something with them. And don't go all on about this crap that "Oh Sonic 4 is a new game that's why classic Sonic's not in there." Bullshit. With that logic I can say "Oh Sonic 4 is a new game so the music shouldn't sound like cats looping every 40 seconds." If you have to pick and choose, pick and choose what people actually want to see. Speaking of music, I propose we as a community think of a soundtrack that might sound good in place of Sonic 4's current soundtrack. Just like with Sonic 4 Ep 1, it instantly became more enjoyable once I played other songs over it. Some songs, like Metal Sonic's boss theme, would be great if they had better instruments, but others, there's probably a good classic equivalent. Hell Sky fortress Act 1 would sound great playing Tornado Scramble.
Sky Fortress Act 1 is incredible! Don't complain about it u.u! Srsly, one of the best songs in the game :O!
Huh, don't mind the self-quote, someone in IRC pointed out the bass on the old video was massive (3am headphone mix) so as expected of my OCD tendencies, I fixed it! edit: Consider that suggestion #1 for that, I guess. Although I do actually find the S4E2 special stage music catchy.
I was thinking how great Sonic 3D Blast Saturn's special stage song would go with that. Gotta say though, sad isn't it. A game made in 1996 did a better job trying to accomplish what this game did, a more complex variant of Sonic 2's Special stage.
In terms of actual gameplay, I wouldn't judge it from the first special stage alone. The second already throws a curveball into the mix; I haven't seen footage of any past that yet so who knows.
The game looks enjoyable and that's all I care about by this point. That being said, I've already pre-ordered it on Steam. I wish I could have gotten to play the beta yesterday, but oh well :P. The music isn't terrible either, but there's some tracks that I really don't enjoy.
I'll keep stuff in spoiler tags just to please some people. Spoiler The music is a lot better than what it was in Episode I, but there is still a need for improvements. If the boss pinch music really is going to be used for the entire fight, then no matter if Jun has dealt with the instrumentation problems, it's still too damn short and repetitive! Okay, so that first boss track is no longer there, although it would have been funny to see it used at the start of the SCZ boss since it's nothing more than a troll. Sky Fortress 2 is the best track in the game and I want it badly in a hack. Oh well... If anyone watched the final boss videos with Super Sonic, you'll notice that the Super Sonic music plays. Better to just keep the final boss track running whilst that happens. Not sure if it has been fixed or not but come on, keep things serious here. I had to laugh when even the Sky Chase act couldn't go without Bubbles being in the level. Stardust Speedway Classic with Sonic 4 instruments...no thanks. Oil Desert Zone 2 sounds a little bit...well you'll need to listen to it yourself. Still think that Jun Senoue was a bad fit for Sonic 4, this game desperately needed better composers to come in, but at least there have been improvements, just not as good as the artwork though. And that's my views on the music (and a few other things).
It's a huge improvement over Episode 1 in every way, but it's still not really that great. The character physics are improved slightly, you don't drop like a rock when you let go of the direction, and you can't stand on walls now, but they still Dimps'd up the game design. Oh and as an added note. Spoiler Don't believe their lies! This is the exact thing that will be released on May 15th, just without the random debug +100 rings button and the graphical glitch in the first stage. All gameplay, level design and music are final in this build.
Figured, it doesn't fit anywhere near early beta as they say. this shows clear signs of being a near final build, Yoshi 15's March 14th date confirms it. So you have it Polygon Jim? I know I'm going to regret asking this but does it look any different in terms of hacking the PC version? or is it the same impossible task like the first game?
It's the exact same engine base as the first game, so it's the same in terms of hacking as the first meaning we have nearly all the file formats understood already.
Spoiler Hey does anyone know if there Tails can go super? I know he's never previously transformed with the Chaos Emeralds, but it would be pretty annoying for the second player to not be able to catch up with Super Sonic.
Spoiler I'm afraid Tails cannot go Super, though using co-op moves cancels Sonic's transformation. Tails is badass like that, probably learned that from Knuckles =P
Spoiler From game play that is shown of single player, Tails doesn't go Super or anything of the likes.
