That's completely fair, I feel like we are gonna be getting actual gameplay around the time of the second movie releasing. And as for what I'd want, I'd actually love to see a more fleshed out version of the Lost World parkour system and think it'd work really well.
I dunno. Maybe I'm missing something, but the premise alone doesn't really scream SA3 to me. I guess the Open World reminds some people of the Adventure fields in SA1? That was always the weakest part of the adventure series to me anyway and is absent of many of what I would consider "Adventure era" titles. What really made the Adventure games to me was the general movement and how characters controlled, and the playing of multiple characters throughout the story(s) that tied together.
We only have a vague idea of how this game plays from leaks. There are no vids of gameplay yet. I think its too early to call this “Adventure 3” or anything else. Hell rn this game looks like it could end up being “Unleashed 2”: hub world, combat and boost levels. Tbc I’m not necessarily saying this game WILL be Unleashed 2. I’m just saying it’s too early to be putting labels on this
Regarding the Adventure 3 discussion, Besides the game being open world, and supposedly having RPG elements, I don't really see that many similarities (maybe down the road there's more?). Anyway, to me - Sonic Heroes was the closest thing resembling SA3. Adventure games have this distinct tone, radical, over the edge - accompanied by Jun Senoue music. If we ever get anything named SA3, I'm probably just gonna be disappointed, so Sonic Heroes it is for me.
To be honest, not even Sonic Adventure 2 is enough 'Adventure' for me. It doesn't have the same 'Adventure' feeling for the first game especially because the hub is gone. Tha aesthestic SA2 gives is more like "Sonic and his friends on a mission" or something like that. As Sonic Fronties, I think for now, it has a mixture of Sonic Adventure 1, Sonic Unleashed and Sonic and the Black Knight vibes; sounds a mixture of a bit of everything. By the way, would be weird to they return with the Classic monitors and springs?
Springs would probably be fine, but monitors wouldn't work. The reason Adventure switched to capsules is because an item in a 3D game needs to be visible from any angle. Unless the monitors rotate along with the camera (which would be kinda weird), they're a no go.
Heroes did try and I think did quite well... though the bottom bit feels a bit odd... I guess Dr Eggman... makes them... so they would have Egg Pawn styling?
I don't care what form they take, but I would really like to see the return of actual item monitors/bubbles/capsules. They've all but disappeared now apart from Wisp capsules, and God knows I don't want to see those ever again. It's just so much more satisfying to find a secret area with a 10-Ring monitor than it is to find a simple large ring with a 10 inside. I know that functionally they're no different, but it just feels more rewarding to get one, and you get that satisfying popping sound and animation to go with it. Something tells me that Frontiers is going to see a a lot of item caches or treasure boxes that are just the norm for open world games. They're probably going to look... generic, I guess, and will follow the triangular stone/metal look of the ruins seen elsewhere. I really want to see the game in action. I want to know how many traditional Sonic elements and mechanics have made it into the open world game, because the trailer shows absolutely nothing familiar.
Monitors do offer more functionality as well, actually, both in 2D and 3D by providing a way to bounce or a point to homing attack onto, like any badnik.
This. If somebody told me, that the trailer is some cut content from the black Knight game, I would believe that. It looks really similar. As for capsules - they can bring them anytime.
This actually got me thinking... Has Sonic ever maintained momentum after a homing attack, outside of balloons and fangames? I get why that might've been riskier in the earlier 3D days where Sonic's physics weren't the most sound, but I'm surprised we still haven't seen it experimented with more. You'd think that could make for more interesting traversal options/puzzles, or even just make the kind we get now feel more satisfying. Hell, whip up some enemies that Sonic bounces off of in different ways, I don't think they've done much there. Maybe this type of badnik bounces Sonic really high, or that model of robot is so fragile that Sonic smashes straight through it without gaining any height. Surely there's potential beyond the straight-forward homing attack chains we've been getting with the occasional "look there's a slightly further away Spinner you can try to lock onto instead".
The only homing attacks that sorta do that (off the top of my head) are the ones in Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventure.
Both of which, you'll note, are 2D titles. This sort of thing is hell to be able to control in 3D - it's precision platforming, only even harder.
Ya the whole point of the homing attack was to make attacking easier. Additional homing momentum in 3D would result in some very unruly attack chains. I actually think games like colors and Generations handle this well. Balloons preserve momentum, enemies don't. Maybe a bit nonsensical, but far more practical.
I dunno, I think the right air control, level design, and enemy placement could make it work and be fun. I can think of at least a couple of those fangames I alluded to that make a decent case for it. Maybe that's too much to ask of Sonic Team, though.
I guess it comes down to level design, this might work in Frontiers, with its more open design and fields and stuff. But if that was a thing in like Heroes? With its tightrope over nothing level design we'd have an even more miserable time with that game than we already do.
