Considering special stage layouts are just code - Burton has said he can make any change as long as it doesn't require new assets - this seems reasonable at first, but then again this means giving Sonic a rainbow-ish pallete, which could cause problems in say Green Grove. Sonic also has no(?) sprites for having super saiyan hair.
What would even be the point of implementing Hyper Sonic? I don't see his Hyper Flash move working in Sonic 3D's isometric engine. Besides, the game has no Hidden Palace to upgrade the Emeralds. If he just shoehorns the Super Emeralds in without explanation, it will feel less like a director's cut and more like a fangame.
That's literally what came to mind after I saw his menu design. Fact is, as amazing as it would be, I doubt there'd even be space to fit it... The again, he's performed greater miracles than this already...
Small update, but it's a welcome change. The backgrounds showing the level colors look nice, and Sonic now stops running when you hover over a level.
That new map screen looks awesome. I'm very positive about one emerald per zone, but to be honest I didn't even find them on Gene Gadget, not to mention Panic Puppet. I've just never cared about them since I had them all in Spring Stadium, so this is a nice change to have us seeing more content of the game (because nobody do special stages for collecting lives in a game that gives them away like this one).
This afternoon I took a spin through Sonic 3D Blast to see if I could find any Tails or Knuckles locations for Gene Gadget and Panic Puppet. They do not appear to be in those levels at all. Does anybody have a level map with their locations that shows me where they are? I could not find any such level map online in the usual places.
I'm with the others on the 1 emerald per zone restriction. What's the point of going to great lengths to showcase Super Sonic being playable if it can only be used in a couple of levels. I'd try to argue that only one emerald per act but even then the nearest possible stage to unlock Super Sonic would be in act 1 of Zone 4. In the original, all seven emeralds could be unlocked by the second act of Rusty Ruin. All seven emeralds in Sonic 2 & 3 could be obtained before the second zone ends if you were skilled enough. I do agree on the Special Stages being a bit more difficult. I remember being able to get the rings required for the third part of the Special Stage before finishing the second part.
Homing attack was my thought too. And the point is to give incentive for the players to play through the special stages like Jon wants. But Canon is important, yes, Super Emeralds are dead and never coming back SwatBotErectingNoFunAllowedSign.jpg
Wouldn't the Hyper Flash's effect of instantly wiping out all enemies onscreen make the homing attack pointless? The targeted enemy would be destroyed when you initiate the attack and before you reach him. As for giving players a reason to go through all 14 special stages, he could make it so that after you get all Emeralds, the other special stages give you Sonic Medals.
There are no Tails and Knuckles in Gene Gadget or Panic Puppet (what a weird name). You can tell because there's no bonus for either of them in the results screen.
I think this would kinda ruin the whole 100% challenge factor - or most of it at least - since getting the medals requires you to explore the stage and encourages you to keep your flickies on hand rather than delivering them all to the ring at once. Now that they've got an actual purpose beside continues, there's more incentive to collect them.
I imagine they mean extra Sonic Medals in addition to the stage ones. So essentially you'd have to complete all the Special Stages, not just the first seven for the Chaos Emeralds, as well as finding all the medals.
