Sonic Classic Heroes

This modification/hack for Sonic 2 has actually made a milestone in Sonic Genesis Series, if this really gets implemented into Sonic The Hedgehog 1, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3, I would literally die happy. What surprises me is that it takes us this long to create such wonderful modifications to games (even the future generations ones) and these developer companies are missing out on these wonderful developers dedicated themselves to making a completely different game out of their products.

It is people like these that deserve to work under Sega, and all those other gaming companies. Why? Because they know what the fan-base wants, and they also read what fans want and try to make it happen. Sega, doesn't do squat. Just look how Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) for 360 was. It was the worst game in history of sonic series and it used the same title as the one from Genesis. I kinda get disappointed at this fact, that ROMs, and hacking is illegal now-a-days. Without them, programming, visual basic, even HEX editing would little or no fun. I'm glad this modification was released, and that I stumbled upon it.

Sonic 2 Heroes
The game itself uses Sonic Heroes based elements such as switching between characters, it also includes features from Sonic 2 Lock on and Sonic 3 series such as: Monitors, Characters, Abilties (Characters), and physics. This really brings a complete new perspective to the game, the combinations of charcters you can use and how you use them. The game does require a bit of work though. The plain-vanilla version of this game doesn't really ask you to use Tails or Knuckles forcefully at all. We should have someone use a Map Editor and change the layout of the levels to where there are multi-paths for whatever character you take, with their own goodies and features if you choose to go this way. In addition, the game should less emphasis on speed and more on strategic usage of the Heroes-style switching to make the game more up-beat.

GamePlay (9/10)
Same old same old here, its still Sonic 2 Level layout and gameplay, but it changes since you can use Tails and fly with his ability, and Knuckles who can also climb (Same as Lock-On feature). Still, makes the game completely different and it does feel like you are playing Sonic Heroes 2D style, whats wrong with that?

Sound (9/10)
Same sound, but not exactly, all sound effects from the other games are also added to this one. Such as the monitors, and the special abilities. You may not have noticed that, but they are there.

Optimization (7/10)
This is the lacking area of the game, however, you cannot blame the author for this one. Seeing how the Genesis System works, VRAM gets overloaded with data and too many objects on screen is the exact issue here. The additional features, characters, and on screen events causing some major framedrops that can't be helped, but atleast the game doesn't freeze up and give you the flying bird randomly. So the game is still beatable and playable. It could have been worst...

Skills (10/10)
Just when you thought hacking skills of ROMs was limited by users such as these, wrong! The thing you may notice is, some features, such as the character switching comes with a little animation in the bottom left corner where your avatar of the character flips and turns to the character you are now using (Just like in Sonic Heroes). Which, is not part of the game engine, as far as Sonic 2 goes. So it shows that even, a little spice from custom Tech Hackers is still a good thing. This shows people do know what they are doing, and want to make the game feel...well...a little different and unique at the same time.

I will say this. If you haven't played this game aside from Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (Vanilla), you better start downloading your favorite emulator, and grab this rom. If you own a Genesis Console, and you have one of this RAM editable ROM Cartridges, by all means, copy it over and try it on your Legal System, it would be nice to know if the actual physical system can handle this modified thing. I personally played it on the Fusion Emulator for Sega CD and Master System, ran wonderful and without problems, aside from the ones mentioned in optimization.

Would love to see the continuation of this user and his projects.

 

Good news for you, because all the levels from Sonic 1 will be included in the next revision.

 

When you say Revision, I get the feeling you are saying Sonic 2 Heroes is going to be combined with Sonic 1 Elements and Levels, meaning that Sonic 2 Heroes will begin with Sonic 1's Green Hill Zone to Scrap Brain Final Boss and then automatically transition to Sonic 2's Emerald Hill Zone. So I am assuming that the Sonic 2 Heroes project will be combing the entire series into a single game, making the Level counter go up 3 times as high...and elongating the game rather than forcing you to switch cartridges to Sonic 1 Heroes...

Is this how I understand it?

 

It's more along the lines of.. it'll be called Sonic Classic Heroes with all the levels from Sonic 1 and 2 combined into one massive game, preserving the core elements currently used in Sonic 2 Heroes (HUD, title card, font, etc.) That's the gist of it.

 

http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_2_Heroes – the posts linked therein, the discussion surrounding them, and the last bunch of pages of this very thread.

 

Sounds good to me. Anyway, in the mean time I created a little Trailer for Sonic 2 Heroes, in no affiliation with being the official trailer for the game, or by Sonic Retro themselves. This is just fan-made trailer you can choose to use or not. I decided to make it cause I think this hack deserves a trailer for what it is worth. If you have any questions, concerns, edits, cuts, removal of something that is unneeded let me know. I'm willing to collaborate and making the trailer better, if needed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwll94JyXk8

Update: May 10th, 2012 2:17 PM

 

Nice vid but ouch, Sonic Retro gets credit and flamewing doesn't?

Since you were also asking about edits, I would make the Knuckles section a little better to watch (instead of just gliding over flat ground then messing up a loop) and the same with the homing attack.

 

Hey there Mr. Wing. Just thought I'd comment on this since it's really just been too amazing to "not" say something. This mod of Sonic 2 (which will apparently become a Sonic 1 mod as well) is probably the most amazing mod I've seen to date. Maybe even better than Megamix (yes, I just said that and here I am loving Sonic Megamix). The idea of Sonic Heroes was a great one, it was just the fact that SEGA/Sonic Team couldn't really grasp the potential of what it could be (sadly, a common practice with the company) and make it amazing to play in it's design/physics.

Sonic 2 Heroes, or should I say "Sonic Classic Heroes" is definitely the epitemy of modding a Sonic game. It keeps what was done right, loses what was done wrong and then makes it even better than ever before. I salute to you, FlameWing, and I can't wait to hear about the release of your new upcoming revision of this wonderful mod title. C it wen I see it! Take care yo.

 

No-one's posting? Huh. Well, to make it seem that FWing hasn't doesn't posted in the near future, I'll put this here and post the question he was probably going to post next it to disguise it being a double-post breaker. Had your computer's GPU died or was it something more vital what's going to pause the development of this hack?

I still load up this rom every now and again and run through it, so it's nice to see you're still working on it.

 

what

He literally just said, right there, that he thinks it was the GPU. The implication is that he's uncertain but is going with that as his main guess.

But he's not working on it. That's the point. Not permanently or out of choice, of course, but nonetheless.

 

Lmao, nothing like a dose of dsrb. :v:

This sucks though, cause I've been wondering what the status on the hack was. Like, how far along were you from the build you've planned for a release?

 

I was wondering what had happened...That sucks to hear, FlameWing. I hope that things can work out here soon, I'd hate anything to happen to all the progress made on this amazing, source combination hack. Here's hoping you can continue soon.

 

Just one question... Does anybody know why it gives an "address error" when trying to play it on an emulated Japanese system? I'm using Genesis Plus GX.

I'm really curious about that.

 

Right on startup... and happens with every version to date.

I'll see if I can post a pic tomorrow.

 

Here's the S3&Kfied Amy Rose in Tornado sprites for you flamewing, but I know you seen this before.



Anyway, hope you like it!