[Myriad]

There are many boss fights throughout Sonic's long history, many of them succeeded and ended up being great fun, while others went up the wrong track entirely. Take for example the boss of Collision Chaos, from Sonic CD, the concept when written down on paper sounds really good:

A brawl with Robotnik, set on the chaotic field of a pinball table.

However, when it actually hit production, the end result was far less satisfying. For starters, it's not even really a boss, instead, it's merely a climb up a pinball table. It's either a boss that will give you some random luck, which will send you flying right to the top of the map and bring you victory in the first minute, or one that will endlessly infuriate, lasting around 5 minutes, as you continually reach the top and get betted down time after time, thanks to the messed up pinball p-hysics of Sonic CD. Like I said, it had potential to be fun, but ended up just being a mess.

So the question is, what other bosses can you think of that had great potential but ultimately failed?

This post has been edited by Myriad: 03 August 2012 - 04:18 PM

[GT Koopa]

Does Time Eater count?

[Ell678]

I think of all the classics, CD has the worst bosses. Collision Chaos', as you described is just utter shit.

[Joltanz Mantis]

All the bosses in Sonic Generations 3DS, which are somehow inferior to their original versions.
Also, every rival battle ever. They're all either jokes or broken. The only exceptions are the ones in Generations and Knuckles / Rouge and Sonic / Shadow in SA2.

[Machenstein]

Myriad, on 03 August 2012 - 01:10 PM, said:

... thanks to the messed up I HAVE NO UNDERSTANDING OF THE SONIC ENGINE of Sonic CD.

I just love the word filters here.

I do wonder what the Collision Chaos boss would be like with Sonic 2's physics for the pinball flippers instead of what we got for Sonic CD. I also think the Metal Sonic race should have been a running boss fight like it was in Generations. Hopefully the next iteration of Sonic CD will take more creative liberties with the levels and the boss fights.

This post has been edited by Machenstein: 03 August 2012 - 01:49 PM

[Dark Sonic]

Joltanz Mantis, on 03 August 2012 - 01:45 PM, said:

All the bosses in Sonic Generations 3DS, which are somehow inferior to their original versions.
Also, every rival battle ever. They're all either jokes or broken. The only exceptions are the ones in Generations and Knuckles / Rouge and Sonic / Shadow in SA2.

I love the Generations Rival Battles, I would go as so far to say that vs. Metal Sonic and vs. Silver are 2 of my favorite pick up and play levels. A good 45 second beat up for Metal Sonic to go along with an awesome looking level and great music is always a good thing.

All the Eggman bosses in Sonic 4 Episode 2. Such cool machines, such annoying bosses. That flower thing and that trash machine? Awesome looking things that look like they could do so much more. But instead you're treated to some slow battle with tentacles trying to smack you and tetris followed by hopping.

[minichapman]

Ell678, on 03 August 2012 - 01:40 PM, said:

I think of all the classics, CD has the worst bosses. Collision Chaos', as you described is just utter shit.

I concur greatly on this matter. On the other side there was a lot of creativity which just failed. There is no boss that takes more than 4 hits apart from the first part of Tidal Tempest 3.

And don't get me started on the Metallic Madness. I swear it is nigh on impossible to defeat that boss without getting hit.

Machenstein, on 03 August 2012 - 01:47 PM, said:

Myriad, on 03 August 2012 - 01:10 PM, said:

... thanks to the messed up I HAVE NO UNDERSTANDING OF THE SONIC ENGINE of Sonic CD.

I just love the word filters here.

Hang on. What is filtered here? I know we have the CUTE FLUFFY KITTENS filter. I'm scared to say anything now, especially if it has something to do with physics.

This post has been edited by minichapman: 03 August 2012 - 02:13 PM

[GT Koopa]

Quote

And don't get me started on the Metallic Madness. I swear it is nigh on impossible to defeat that boss without getting hit.

It is possible. You just wait and he makes an opening. Do you just barrel through, get hit, hit him, then win? To fix it I would say either have the rotating blades block Sonic even when he's flashing invincible, or just have zero rings available for the entire act.

[Dark Sonic]

minichapman, on 03 August 2012 - 02:08 PM, said:

Machenstein, on 03 August 2012 - 01:47 PM, said:

Myriad, on 03 August 2012 - 01:10 PM, said:

... thanks to the messed up I HAVE NO UNDERSTANDING OF THE SONIC ENGINE of Sonic CD.

I just love the word filters here.

Hang on. What is filtered here? I know we have the CUTE FLUFFY KITTENS filter. I'm scared to say anything now, especially if it has something to do with physics.

I think it's I HAVE NO UNDERSTANDING OF THE SONIC ENGINE (p I n b a l l physics).

This post has been edited by Dark Sonic: 03 August 2012 - 02:16 PM

[Metalsonicmk72]

Joltanz Mantis, on 03 August 2012 - 01:45 PM, said:

All the bosses in Sonic Generations 3DS, which are somehow inferior to their original versions.

I have to say that I personally disagree with this to an extent. The boss battles against the rivals, yes, I agree they are inferior as they're all just "race to the finish" type boss battles that, while somewhat fun, are lazy attempts at recreating those battles. Metal Sonic's race is in Casino Night and Silver's is in Tropical Resort... why? The resources for Stardust Speedway Bad Future and Crisis City already exist, allowing Dimps to use them as a reference. If they wanted to argue THE BATTLES MUST TAKE PLACE IN AREAS UNIQUE FROM THE CONSOLE VERSION, why not settle for Stardust Speedway's Good Future and Soleanna where the battles/races would make more sense than where they were in the final product.

So anyways, my disagreement with the above quote comes in at the Biolizard battle. The battle itself is much more tolerable than the original. The 2.5D circular field makes sense here and the crouching is a huge improvement to "ducking" to avoid the energy ball attacks that the somersault in SA2 was used for.

[riomhaire]

I found the Metal Sonic race in Sonic CD rather underwhelming. It's also doubly annoying that they almost used it in Sonic Generations but changed it into a fight instead of a race, throwing away its potential for a second time.

[Joltanz Mantis]

Dark Sonic, on 03 August 2012 - 01:51 PM, said:

Joltanz Mantis, on 03 August 2012 - 01:45 PM, said:

All the bosses in Sonic Generations 3DS, which are somehow inferior to their original versions.
Also, every rival battle ever. They're all either jokes or broken. The only exceptions are the ones in Generations and Knuckles / Rouge and Sonic / Shadow in SA2.

I love the Generations Rival Battles, I would go as so far to say that vs. Metal Sonic and vs. Silver are 2 of my favorite pick up and play levels. A good 45 second beat up for Metal Sonic to go along with an awesome looking level and great music is always a good thing.

I specified that the ones in Generations were exceptions that I enjoyed.

Metalsonicmk72:
So anyways, my disagreement with the above quote comes in at the Biolizard battle. The battle itself is much more tolerable than the original. The 2.5D circular field makes sense here and the crouching is a huge improvement to "ducking" to avoid the energy ball attacks that the somersault in SA2 was used for.

Well, I prefered the one is SA2, because it was 3D so part of the challenge wasn't falling off, and since the arena was shaped like a Pokeball, you occasionally had to jump.
Also, you had a smaller time window with the somersault adding challenge. Finally, the final section is laughable in Generations. You could've switched the orbs for Bubbles chains. At least in SA2 it was actually hard.

[Overlord]

GT Koopa, on 03 August 2012 - 01:30 PM, said:

Does Time Eater count?

Time Eater was a really good idea but poorly executed. There should have been a few more objects from Sonic's past as the debris for a start, but minor nitpick. =P

The boss's biggest problem is that you cannot tell if you are gaining ground on it or not - when I play it I tend to alternate between holding boost, and button-mashing to ensure it's actually staying active. Rings being hard to see makes this worse when you're constantly on a dropping ring clock.

[TheKazeblade]

Overlord, on 03 August 2012 - 02:48 PM, said:

Time Eater was a really good idea but poorly executed. There should have been a few more objects from Sonic's past as the debris for a start, but minor nitpick. =P

Whoa, I didn't even notice that when I played. What kind of stuff is flying around?

[JaredAFX]

Dark Sonic, on 03 August 2012 - 02:16 PM, said:

minichapman, on 03 August 2012 - 02:08 PM, said:

Machenstein, on 03 August 2012 - 01:47 PM, said:

Myriad, on 03 August 2012 - 01:10 PM, said:

... thanks to the messed up I HAVE NO UNDERSTANDING OF THE SONIC ENGINE of Sonic CD.

I just love the word filters here.

Hang on. What is filtered here? I know we have the CUTE FLUFFY KITTENS filter. I'm scared to say anything now, especially if it has something to do with physics.

I think it's I HAVE NO UNDERSTANDING OF THE SONIC ENGINE (p I n b a l l physics).

I don't know what's being filtered, but that's not the engine's name. It's literally named after us.