Sonic Before the Sequel'12 - Released with OST

I said that the reason I finally got off my lurking arse was to give my remarks on this fangame in my introductory post and here I am. I guess I'm a little late to the party now that the SAtS is being worked on and this new enhanced edition for SBtS was annouced, but I have to say the afternoon I spent with it was incredibly enjoyable. I had some grievances, but most are reasonable nitpicks.

Lake, you've done a wonderful job creating some very fun and dynamic acts filled with a whole slew of imaginative gimmicks on top of keeping the whole thing quite polished and robust. The physics aren't 1:1, but they clearly aren't supposed to be and still captures the essence of Sonic. I'm actually surprised how it didn't really bother me at all in my playthrough. Though a few acts at first glance looked like a mishmash using art from various games, they are combined and used in ways to make them look and feel unique. One of the limitations of not having an entire art team devoted to a fangame means you have to borrow from somewhere, and for the most part I think you pulled it off. I didn't exactly like the art direction the bosses and some new badniks took though. They looked kind of tacky with the eyeballs and all.

Going back to the acts, the way they transition from one area to another was something I felt has been lacking in the recent 2D Sonic games. Act 1, 2, and 3 all had their unique feel and sense of progress. IE: Rocky Ride starts off at the base near a lake and in early parts of act 2 transfers fully into the cloud backdrop or Sunset Star's roller coaster segment transitioning into the full city. Heck the first transition from the very first act into the rain was completely unexpected when I first started the game up. I have to say I loved it. Level design was serviceable at worst and pretty damn good at best, which overall was absolutely fine. For example, the interesting slope platforming with the pipes in Sonic's water level was a very unique twist. On the downside there exists Sunset Star's act 2 star collection arena...which really rubbed me the wrong way.

I think I enjoyed the Sonic acts more than romping around as Tails though. I didn't particularly care for some of the tropes like the Lost Level acts for example, even though the transitions in the third act were very clever homages. I guess they felt more blocky and restricted because Tails' flight ability needs to be kept in check. There are plenty of really fun gimmicks thrown in that actually impressed me more than I thought they would. Titanic Tower's wall boosters were way too much fun, and pretty much the entirety of the gravity gimmicks in Arcane Altitude made me smile. Adding a water level without the risk of drowning was a very unique take and I enjoyed the change of pace with the double jump bubble shield. Bosses were definitely unique for the most part. I don't have strong feelings one way or another outside appreciating some clever mechanics that never appeared in the originals such as how the end boss's spike attacks were able to be outlasted by spinning into them and destroying them. Though I did make mention that I did not care for the designs. There are some really good use of badniks here, like the electro bunny and the repelling spinnies were neat. Some like the Gear like one and bats were pretty awful though. And yes, I couldn't get over the hilarity of the turtles.

One of my more unreasonable qualms was that the game didn't have it's own unique soundtrack to make the stages much more memorable and not remind me of Kirby all the time. I was surprised to find out someone was already on the job regardless that the game was already "released" so to speak. But Falk here. Goddamn sir. I've been listening to your tunes all day like they are infectious earworms. I cannot wait to hear what you are doing with the rest of the tracks. Excellent job.

I guess that's it. I spent my afternoon enthralled with the game and came out very satisfied given the polished experience. Thanks for the entertainment and keep up the good work. Looking at the demo videos of After the Sequel it looks as though you haven't entirely run out of ideas just yet. I'll be waiting until then.

 

@Tiller
thanks for the feedback, really
I'm glad you like it
and I'll not run out of ideas so soon, I have a lot of them in my mind and new ones come up almost every day =P

 

Game's fuggin awesome. If only I didn't game over because of Tails' limited lung capacity and finicky bubbles, I'd have finished it in one sitting. :3 that's the kind of Sonic I like to play.

 

Falk I love the dubstep when you hit the trippy puffs

 

So exieted to play this again with a real soundtrack

 

I love this game, although I have two complaints.

Firstly, that awful trippy thing when you hit those puffy things. If I'm honest, those things creep me out something fucking fierce, they creeped me out in Yoshi's island too. I'd like some different music, though I see you're working on that?

The other thing is that the enemies feel a bit lazy. The normal ones need to be resprited, they just often look like awful colour swaps though in the later stages you've done a much better job. Your unique enemies and boss vehicles also have your own nice style, but I don't feel like those enemies with brum eyes match the aesthetics of the rest of the game. Maybe they need some gradient and proper lighting on 'em.

Apart from that, brilliant game, and be sure to make a MASSIVE post when you've updated it, I've been following your work for a long time and I'm greatly impressed.

 

Cannot wait for the original soundtrack! Well done Falk

 

A question: Is there any way to fix this horrible lag I get on my near 7 year old computer? It happens if I play it for too long. Like after 3 acts if I'm lucky.

 

I love everything about this game, but two things just look ugly about it. The end of act tally, and the title screen "SONIC" font that looks like it's made from Arial font or something. They both just look really messy and confusing. Everything else is perfect though. Keep at it.

 

Not a member of the Sonic Before the Sequel Team, but I like your fan game and I do badnik design.

I could make some custom enemies if it would help your efforts.

Here's a link to my badnik gallery if you are interested.

 

well, the only thing I'm doing for BTS is fix most of the glitches and make the levels fit the soundtrack, at least this is the plan for now being that I want to give all my focus to ATS.
the enemies aren't lazy, they are just very, very amateur, like the bosses

@Crasher
sorry to say this but... not really
there isn't much I can do about the slowdown, although this new version will probably run a bit faster

@Dark Sonic
yeah I know about that, I've learned my lesson
though, I have no plans on changing it

@bluejayfusion
that would be really cool, but all the badniks are done with a knowledge of my limitations and I'm really afraid that something gets unused if you jump in.
so, I'll keep doing it for now, their designs are far more superior in ATS than they were in BTS btw

 

Can't find the original topic so I'll post it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUitLGt9sHY

MegaGwolf has started a new segment. Much like his old "Sonic Hack Showcase" he reviews fangames and weights in his thoughts, and S BTS got the first vid of the series.

Enjoy.

 

wow, never thought that would happen. the sonic show is also doing a playthrough of it which is really nice to see
anyway, it's really good to see fan games are getting a bit more recognized these days

 

I agree, that's pretty awesome! :D This game definitely needs to continue to get exposure, especially since you're just now putting serious effort into making it more original with the addition of new music and graphics.

 

I am of mixed opinion in regards to this game. There are parts of it that I really enjoy, while on the other hand, there are parts that frustrate me, perhaps to an unreasonable extent. I quite like the way the story's handled. Exploring what could have happened between Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 is a great idea, and I really love how parts of it seem to introduce this huge, encompassing mythology. I also quite enjoy the humorous bits that are thrown into some of the cut scenes, like the interactions between Sonic and Tails. Furthermore, there are flashes of brilliance early on in regards to to level design, mainly in the first zone. The huge drops from the sky, and the platforming to climb back up through the mountains: amazing, and at points drop dead gorgeous. Later on in the game, it seems to devolve to long stretches of roller-coasters or platforming that comes off as too repetitive. The physics are okay, but sometimes not faithful enough to disengage from the game when I notice issues or inconsistencies.

My biggest gripe has to be the art. Frankly, it's pretty bad. It's been pointed out already that the badnik designs are bland and uninspired, but that wouldn't bother me quite so much if I could actually see them. But, no, there's no contrast. The enemies blend in with the backgrounds or are disguised by the setpieces. Not necessarily a bad thing if you want to add some challenge. Sonic 3&K did so quite nicely. Here, it comes off as bad design. That lack of contrast also makes navigating some levels a real pain in the ass. A level where the background, middleground, foreground, setpieces, platforms, and badniks are all purple or blue is not really much fun. The player is just blindly jumping around, or bumping into walls, or losing rings and dying without good reason. It grates on the nerves. I do, however, quite like the Sonic and Tails sprites. The new Tails running sprites are a bit disconcerting to start with, but after I got used to them, they were pretty neat. I'm trying not to come off as too negative, but I also really don't like the bosses. I commend you for wanting to create original boss fights, but neither the Angry Orb nor the Sentient Flying Warship seem like devices Eggman would really use. Not to mention, it's too often confusing to figure out what to do to fight each boss, and the automatic scrolling in Sonic's fights is just that much more annoying.

Anyway, sorry for all the ranting, but hopefully it's helpful and ultimately comes out as constructive criticism. I think there are wonderful ideas here, combined with several that need to be tossed. I look forward to seeing how things turn out for After the Sequel. I have confidence that you can improve and impress me.

 

@Klaypersonne
thanks for the feedback, I understand what you are saying.
letting me know where I failed in BTS will sure help me out on the future
the bland badnik/level/boss design, the art, cheap badnik placement, all of that will be probably fixed on ATS