If ranking is calculated by your score and not specific time/enemy/death requirements that could actually be a thing.
Just checked this footage and nope, in Forces you fill the boost meter with Wisps and by beating enemies.
Interesting point. Technically, as some have already said, rings still hold some say over your game score / ranking, but it's far from the only factor, let alone even the major one. So unless there have been other changes made to Sonic's system mechanics we don't know about yet, they may as well had given Sonic and co. multiple hit points. Rings in this game are now only a slight cut above acting as standard coins to collect as in many other platformers. And speaking of Mario, that reminds me of another point: alongside lives being removed from Mario Odyssey, standard coins now serve as in-game currency for the various shops in the game. If you die in the game, the penalty is that you lose 10 coins. This is an example of the designers making some balancing changes in Mario's system mechanics, so player deaths still have an impact on the player's progression in the game. A Sonic game where there are no lives system, you lose all of your rings in one hit, and you can't recollect dropped rings result in a game where dying is much easier, but dying itself is virtually meaningless on your performance. If there aren't any other changes being made to the system mechanics to balance the game difficulty, then the game's level design will have to be significantly more challenging; lest your risk the game coming off as a cakewalk to beat. And that in itself creates its own problems. Sonic generally isn't known for being on the higher end of the difficulty scale in the platformer genre, so you'll have to be really smart with making the increased difficulty for the game's levels seem fair and not coming off as cheap. Remember how Lost World got a lot of flak by reviewers for its difficulty spike in the later half of the game (which was compounded by the game initially lacking the staple mechanic of earning additional lives with 100 rings)?
I feel like it was the tropical area's third or fourth level is where it started to get bullshit, because that was where the obstacles started to become primarily instant-death. But the whole difficulty curve on that game was basically a really sharp roller coaster.
If you think the two rail grinding stages were that difficult, then you'd hate the Donkey Kong Country/Land games. Even getting all of the red rings wasn't that difficult. I won't pretend that I didn't die, but there was only one section that I recall causing repeated deaths and that was only in Lava Mountain Zone 2: Right after the third checkpoint, you're expected to notice the rings at the end of the rail and that you should collect them to stall for time before jumping to the next rail. Too early and you'll always just barely hit a bomb cart before it rolls into the pit when jumping to the rail after that. It's unfair since the only indicator that you should stay on the first rail are the rings, with nothing suggesting that an upcoming threat will kill you for acting too soon. The 3D section at the end of the stage has a similar bit, but this doesn't kill you if you fail: The final door takes time to open and you were supposed to have realized that red and green rails decelerate and accelerate you, respectively. If you don't think to take the red rails to the side of the main rail, you're taking a hit because the door will be too high to jump over. I'll admit that, for some reason, it wasn't until I rewatched my last run that I realized what I did about the red and green rails. I thought merely switching rails slowed Sonic down when in reality, he was just returning to the speed he has on the gray rails every time he jumped.
Don't forget that while the Wii U version got retardedly cheap towards the endgame, it was nowhere as "do or die" and absolutely retarded as the 3DS version. I've seen Sonic games start off bad, or be consistently bad, but I've never seen one that starts off so good at the start, if not above average at least, and then nosedive into something borderline unplayable and teetering to a couple dozen minutes per level lategame. The only thing comparable on my mind to that level is Sonic Heroes, which the 3DS version of Lost World incidentally used the theme of for invincibility music for some obscene reason, and even then I can at least enjoy almost that entire game as Team Rose or Team Sonic. Here's hoping DIMPS just.. isn't hired for portable versions of Sonic games or spinoffs anymore.
I'm not sure what the problems are with this one, but it still doesn't look like something I'll enjoy playing as much as Colours, Generations or the classics. At least with the previous gameplay footage I was able to identify why it didn't look fun.
The first half is a straight line boostfest with 3 homing attacks and the second half is a werehog level if you choose the bottom path and one huge lightdash if you choose to do that. Doesn't help that the combat looks clunky and unfun as hell. It just screams uninteresting to me. Generations was miles better than that, even Colours which is a game I really don't like was better than that.
Ouch, my F*cking ears! What is that noise they're playing over this? Had to mute the video, it was so bad. Anyway, on the one end, good to see a purely 3d level. On the other end, Sonic Heroes is looking pretty damn good right about now after watching that. I'm gonna go play my PC version of Heroes just to be certain I'm not being "insert excuse here". Edit: Just got done playing Sonic Heroes, it was F*cking awesome. To be clear, I played as Team Dark on Final Fortress...and I didn't die once, got an A rank too. Not to say there wasn't any BS moments but Forces is clearly trying to do Sonic Heroes without the switching and it just doesn't work. Granted Generations did something like that with an assist button which did work but those weren't part of the main campaign.
I unironically loved the rail grinding stages in Lost World and would be first in line to buy a game with nothing but that. One of my favourite tracks in the game as well. THE TEST AUDIENCES ARE AS EXCITED AS EVER
There's things about it I like. I like the fact it's in full 3D, since I think if they have classic sonic they should just give the 2D to him. And I love the fact they have removed lives, that's long overdue. I also have to admit that the cheesy, dumb nature of this game is getting more endearing. Watching Sonic and the OC high-five and do a double boost is so funny, ironically or not. But it just looks simplistic to me. As the above poster says, it's either lightdash three times in a row or jump on cogs, it's hardly inspired. It's not even as good as the best levels in Generations. There aren't the open ended designs of Seaside Hill and Sky Sanctuary and there isn't the fast-paced spectacle of Speed Highway or Rooftop Run. Like, it doesn't look offensive and it's probably going to be mildly fun, but it's disappointing to me, as someone who actually really liked the Modern gameplay of Generations. This isn't building off that game at all and looks to me like a regression. If anything it resembles the mini-levels of Colours more than anything, which was done because of the hardware limitations of the Wii. No idea why they are copying everything wholesale from Colours other than they just don't understand why people liked that game so they are literally copying everything from it. Bizarre to me.
The interface looks really bland to me. Dunno but Futura in red and black with rectangles just doesn't cut it for me anymore
This whole game looks bland to me. I didn't see a whole lot of engaging gameplay right there. A lot of repeated jump pressing and holding a boost it seems. Enemies on the 'racetrack' + - aka every level while boosting? Why are they even there haha, like seriously, why?
Here's some cleaner gameplay, although it's in Japanese http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgSIlSk4kGU Ya, same opinion as before. Looks ok. I don't see myself not enjoying this game at least. A little disappointed it seems to be taking design cues from Sonic Colors rather than Sonic Generations, but hey it could be taking design cues from Heroes or Lost World and I liked Colors. Hopefully after this game though they'll take a nice look at themselves and they'll try to incorporate what worked in Mania into future 3D titles. I mean I see some positives. There are different ways to go through the level. Despite their being enemy gauntlets you can kill them all in pretty much 2 seconds. It takes a while apparently but they actually do something with their industrialized GHZ theme and it actually looks kinda nice. The wispon makes wisp powers a lot less clunky. And I'm guessing Green Sand zone and that city level are like levels 1 and 2 of the game, so maybe they're just easing you into things difficulty wise? Idk why Fist Bump has to play during the double boost though, that seems silly. And speaking of the art, I'll admit I like what they're doing with the environments. They're not as bland and simple as Lost World but they're not as busy as Generations, which while beautiful was somewhat distracting and also caused the game to chug at some points (same with Unleashed). It's a nice middle ground.
