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Sonic Bosses with Missed Potential

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by Myriad, Aug 3, 2012.

  1. Myriad

    Myriad

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    There are many boss fights throughout Sonic's long history, many of them succeeded and ended up being great fun, while others went up the wrong track entirely. Take for example the boss of Collision Chaos, from Sonic CD, the concept when written down on paper sounds really good:

    A brawl with Robotnik, set on the chaotic field of a pinball table.

    However, when it actually hit production, the end result was far less satisfying. For starters, it's not even really a boss, instead, it's merely a climb up a pinball table. It's either a boss that will give you some random luck, which will send you flying right to the top of the map and bring you victory in the first minute, or one that will endlessly infuriate, lasting around 5 minutes, as you continually reach the top and get betted down time after time, thanks to the messed up pinball p-hysics of Sonic CD. Like I said, it had potential to be fun, but ended up just being a mess.

    So the question is, what other bosses can you think of that had great potential but ultimately failed?
     
  2. GT Koopa

    GT Koopa

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    Does Time Eater count?
     
  3. Ell678

    Ell678

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    I think of all the classics, CD has the worst bosses. Collision Chaos', as you described is just utter shit.
     
  4. Joltanz Mantis

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    All the bosses in Sonic Generations 3DS, which are somehow inferior to their original versions.
    Also, every rival battle ever. They're all either jokes or broken. The only exceptions are the ones in Generations and Knuckles / Rouge and Sonic / Shadow in SA2.
     
  5. Machenstein

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    I just love the word filters here.

    I do wonder what the Collision Chaos boss would be like with Sonic 2's physics for the pinball flippers instead of what we got for Sonic CD. I also think the Metal Sonic race should have been a running boss fight like it was in Generations. Hopefully the next iteration of Sonic CD will take more creative liberties with the levels and the boss fights.
     
  6. Dark Sonic

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    I love the Generations Rival Battles, I would go as so far to say that vs. Metal Sonic and vs. Silver are 2 of my favorite pick up and play levels. A good 45 second beat up for Metal Sonic to go along with an awesome looking level and great music is always a good thing.

    All the Eggman bosses in Sonic 4 Episode 2. Such cool machines, such annoying bosses. That flower thing and that trash machine? Awesome looking things that look like they could do so much more. But instead you're treated to some slow battle with tentacles trying to smack you and tetris followed by hopping.
     
  7. minichapman

    minichapman

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    I concur greatly on this matter. On the other side there was a lot of creativity which just failed. There is no boss that takes more than 4 hits apart from the first part of Tidal Tempest 3.

    And don't get me started on the Metallic Madness. I swear it is nigh on impossible to defeat that boss without getting hit.


    Hang on. What is filtered here? I know we have the CUTE FLUFFY KITTENS filter. I'm scared to say anything now, especially if it has something to do with physics.
     
  8. GT Koopa

    GT Koopa

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    It is possible. You just wait and he makes an opening. Do you just barrel through, get hit, hit him, then win? To fix it I would say either have the rotating blades block Sonic even when he's flashing invincible, or just have zero rings available for the entire act.
     
  9. Dark Sonic

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    I think it's I HAVE NO UNDERSTANDING OF THE SONIC ENGINE (p I n b a l l physics).
     
  10. Metalsonicmk72

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    I have to say that I personally disagree with this to an extent. The boss battles against the rivals, yes, I agree they are inferior as they're all just "race to the finish" type boss battles that, while somewhat fun, are lazy attempts at recreating those battles. Metal Sonic's race is in Casino Night and Silver's is in Tropical Resort... why? The resources for Stardust Speedway Bad Future and Crisis City already exist, allowing Dimps to use them as a reference. If they wanted to argue THE BATTLES MUST TAKE PLACE IN AREAS UNIQUE FROM THE CONSOLE VERSION, why not settle for Stardust Speedway's Good Future and Soleanna where the battles/races would make more sense than where they were in the final product.

    So anyways, my disagreement with the above quote comes in at the Biolizard battle. The battle itself is much more tolerable than the original. The 2.5D circular field makes sense here and the crouching is a huge improvement to "ducking" to avoid the energy ball attacks that the somersault in SA2 was used for.
     
  11. riomhaire

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    I found the Metal Sonic race in Sonic CD rather underwhelming. It's also doubly annoying that they almost used it in Sonic Generations but changed it into a fight instead of a race, throwing away its potential for a second time.
     
  12. Joltanz Mantis

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    I specified that the ones in Generations were exceptions that I enjoyed.

    Metalsonicmk72:
    So anyways, my disagreement with the above quote comes in at the Biolizard battle. The battle itself is much more tolerable than the original. The 2.5D circular field makes sense here and the crouching is a huge improvement to "ducking" to avoid the energy ball attacks that the somersault in SA2 was used for.

    Well, I prefered the one is SA2, because it was 3D so part of the challenge wasn't falling off, and since the arena was shaped like a Pokeball, you occasionally had to jump.
    Also, you had a smaller time window with the somersault adding challenge. Finally, the final section is laughable in Generations. You could've switched the orbs for Bubbles chains. At least in SA2 it was actually hard.
     
  13. Overlord

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    Time Eater was a really good idea but poorly executed. There should have been a few more objects from Sonic's past as the debris for a start, but minor nitpick. =P

    The boss's biggest problem is that you cannot tell if you are gaining ground on it or not - when I play it I tend to alternate between holding boost, and button-mashing to ensure it's actually staying active. Rings being hard to see makes this worse when you're constantly on a dropping ring clock.
     
  14. TheKazeblade

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    Whoa, I didn't even notice that when I played. What kind of stuff is flying around?
     
  15. JaredAFX

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    I don't know what's being filtered, but that's not the engine's name. It's literally named after us.
     
  16. Blue Blood

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    Parts of the levels in Generations. The big pillars form Sky Sanctuary and some sort of blue container from Sky Sanctuary. It's easy to miss them.
     
  17. Elektro-Omega

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    While I agree that sonic CD had some missed potential with some of the bosses I feel that Tidal Tempest boss 2nd form is one of my favourite from any Sonic game. The boss has a shield of bubbles that you have to breathe off.

    I agree with the time eater argument, you just can't tell if you are getting anywhere and the split second ring visibility makes it much harder.

    echoing some things people have already said, I would love to see CCZ boss with Sonic 2 style pinball mechanics as opposed to CD's style.
     
  18. Kampfer

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    The rival fights in Sonic Adventure 1. The fights against Knuckles and Gamma should have had been full scale fights, and not playable cut-scenes where you mash homing attack.

    The only other one that comes to mind is the Death Egg Robot in Sonic Generations. That guy was a menace back in the day, and they could have thrown in the little Eggman bombs launching from the mech as an additional hazard as the fight went on.

    As for the Sonic CD bosses, I think they could have been better had they required more hits. For example, needing 3 hits to remove each bumpers from the first boss and two more to secure the kill (8 total), and maybe for Tidal Tempest have Eggman regenerate some bubbles after each hit instead of making it a one hit kill, but making it easier to hit the boss. I do like Metal Sonic and Quarts Quadrant's concept without any changes, though.
     
  19. Dark Sonic

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    I know, I'm agreeing with you XD

    Oh yes and the Time Eater. Honestly I feel like an orchestral version of GHZ ala all the other recent games final bosses since Sonic 06 would have been quite epic as a final battle song (Or rather for each section the song could change to fit the rest of the rubble, so GHZ for classic, CE for dreamcast, and something like Planet Wisp for modern.) Or hell it could have easily been a compilation of past sonic theme songs, or past robotnik songs. Either way, it just seems strange that besides that one song in the white world hub, that was the only original composition in the entire game.

    Also they should have flown through complete levels instead of just random chunks (might have been easier to see the fucking rings as well if they did that)
     
  20. GT Koopa

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    I love the Time Eater music, it is just the battle is not good. What does the time slow attack even do? If nothing, it ironically wastes time.