Why doesn't Amy have the ability to curl?

To make her slow and force you to use her hammer. That's literally it.

 

Because her dress makes it hard to bend into a curl

 

My guess: In SA1, half the cast could curl, so they didn't want to give the ability to Amy as well. In Sonic Advance, they were just being consistent with SA1. I'd rather they had never given her the curl; she plays too much like a Sonic clone in the games she has the ability.

 

She was only given the ability to curl in Adventure 2 to balance out multiplayer, and in Heroes because it's easier to design levels when all the teams play more-or-less the same.

I like her better without the ability to curl. It makes her more unique while still keeping her relatively Sonic-like. I never had a problem going up inclines in Advance - you still have the stepdash move which puts you at a decent running speed nearly instantly, which is more than Sonic had in Sonic 1, and it can double as an attacking move with the headbutt.

The hammer gives her the ability to do an insta-shield; to gain great height; and to smash through walls. Her not having the ability to roll balances the game so she can't do everything the others can too. You could argue that the better fix is to give the other characters more moves, like giving Sonic a bounce he can use at all times, or giving Knuckles a jumpdash-like drill move; but then the argument becomes "how much control do you give to the player" rather than "why can't Amy curl?"

 

Or she could just do what Espio does and twirl around. They could justify it by making it look like a ballet move.

Actually wait, Lilac does that too. Hmmm...

 

Sure, a Super Peelout variant works too; I'm not arguing that she shouldn't have an ability that allows her to gain speed.

What does this have to do with going up slopes?

Well no, of course the bit where I address you saying it's difficult to get up slopes doesn't address a different situation.

But, er... as you said yourself, other characters have an auto-attack. Amy's is just a manual attack. I don't see it as much of a disadvantage, just requiring more input from the player (compare with insta-shield in Sonic 3).

 

I always thought in terms of story purposes is that she was simply less athletic than Sonic - having to use her hammer as leverage to do pretty much any of the things Sonic can do naturally - and my backing for this is that in SA1 Amy is simply a citizen of Station Square, you even see her with a typical grocery bag before she's shoehorned into the plot by Zero and the bird.

 

Or in just running backwards for a bit and then forwards for a bit (Green Hill Zone, Star Light Zone).

I agree, which is why I've already supported having a Super Peelout variant.

In the context of what was said:

The only time I mentioned Sonic 1 was quite clearly in reference to going up inclines. But this is an aimless argument anyway.

 

Amy is kind of a bystander. She doesn't have super speed like some of the others.

Honestly there are a lot of characters that probably shouldn't be able to do that attack but do because it is just kind of accepted as a thing everyone in Sonic can do, either because gameplay or because of a donutsteel level of creativity.

 

I guess the SA1 staff just really liked how she played in Sonic the Fighters, where she also wasn't a curling carbon copy of Sonic/Tails/Knuckles? :v:

 

Sexism

Nah but she's just not experienced like Sonic and the others as a fighter. It made sense back in the earlier appearances -- Adventure 1, Advance 1 and such, because all she did up until then was glomp Sonic at the end of Palmtree Panic and get kidnapped. I like to imagine by Adventure 2 and Heroes, she just got stronger.

and 06 didn't happen so I don't have to bullshit some explanation for it

 

Late to the party, but nice question. I'll bring in a couple of maybe-someday-used design ideas I have for her on different maybe-someday-developed projects I have in mind:

1) In a project with many many characters that adhere to the classic formula of characters even if rolling or spindashing doesn't make sense for them, Amy uses the hammer as an insta-shield like you said (with some little quirks, in my case), now that Sonic has the drop dash. The hammer goes unused the rest of the time, and the difference between characters comes in the form of different sizes, jump heights, spin radius, and acceleration. In that project, Cream also rolls and doesn't throw her best friend towards the enemies, has a new double jump skill instead.

2) In a project where I give her a more unique moveset (not the same as in Advance games, but there are coincidences), she rolls but doesn't hurt enemies with her roll unless she uses the hammer, and does things that make her quite different from Sonic but still balanced to be a reasonable counterpart that doesn't fly, glide or climb.

Either way, I feel Amy should roll just because, unlike Tails, she's a hedgehog, a more suited species for rolling than a fox, and the little two-tailed buddy was the first one getting the spindash after Sonic. At least we had Mighty once for an alternate rolling character.

 

I just briefly thought of a sprite for Amy where she cartwheels instead of spinning and it made me spit up my tea.

 

:v:



I know, I know... y'all mean "officially". :P

 

I never understood why Amy's gimmick in that game was turning invisible. Like, why? How? At least Espio is a chameleon, so he has an excuse.

 

Honestly, this is an adorable concept.

 

Advance 1 does that too.