Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board: filmzombie - Viewing Profile - Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board

Well guys, I've just completed my third run of Sonic 3 and Knuckles now and I've been regaining my experience with the Blue Spheres Special Stages.

There doesn't seem to be a topic dedicated towards this, possibly because of a lack of interest or possibly because people don't think there is much to discuss here. But just what are your opinions of Blue Spheres, how far have you gotton and how far can you go in them? What kind of stages do you prefer and how difficult do you find in achieving a perfect?


I personally recall only ever making it to around 2000 in the numbers when I was younger. The game beat me after that. However, I did enjoy working my way up towards the pinnacle, although never quite reaching it. Another little aspect I loved was observing the amount of animals or characters that appeared at the end of every level, although again I can't quite remember if they were generated by a particular difficulty level or some other goal.


In Sonic 3 I find the special stages are far more uniteresting then those that exist in S+K. I don't know why, but personally I have a preference towards the sphere grids that require tactical knowledge yet at the same time force you to go down single routes.

The idea of exploration where you spend ages and ages searching for 4 spheres in an area such as the central special stage puts me off entirely.

But again, let me know what you think. I'd be quite interested to hear the opinions of others who enjoy Blue Spheres as much as I do.

SONIC SYNTHESIS

Initial Aims- A complete, original redesign of Sonic 2's Layout and Pallettes.

Once those two sections are completed, we'll see if I can change music and sprite/art for the levels themselves. Although I wouldn't be too hopeful in either of these areas. I am extremelly incompetent with these sorts of things. However if any skilled person wishes to lend me a hand, feel free.

Layouts will feature Act 1 as a Running Stage and Act 2 as the Platforming Stage. And for those who want to whine at me for saying Sonic isn't a platforming game, don't bother me because your wrong.


Given that we're all advanced players here I intend this game to be challenging. However, that does not mean there will be a ludicrous amount of dirty tricks or bottomless pits, at least not unless you plan to go Emerald Hunting...

...which reminds me. One thing I am adamant on introducing is a removal of the Special Stages and the re-introduction of Emerald Exploring. I preferred the game gear/master system way of gathering emeralds but in the meantime, until I actually work out how to implement this feature the areas I am considering putting Emeralds in are instead inhabited by Extra Lives. Small levels of pride if you find them I guess...

Other hopeful yet unlikely concepts;
Picture Title Cards for each Zone (Again Like Sonic 2 GG)

A completely seperate pallette colour for Zone Acts. (Again highly unlikely)


That's it for now. If you have any genuine requests or feedback for gameplay elements you would like to see, let me know and I might consider it.



UPDATES:

17/03/09; I have now completely redesigned every layout and every pallete of each zone from scratch. However, don't get too excited just yet. Objects still need including and the whole thing is buggy as hell. The layouts themselves still need a lot of work. But I now have a basic grasp of the way every zone functions.



PROBLEMS:

1) For those that saw the vid- as you know Sky Chase and Wing Fortress are now set in space. I consider these and Death Egg to be one zone and to make it seem like this I changed the music of Wing Fortress to Death Egg's track. Sky Chase is also now a ringless stage with loads of badniks. To make this seem more dramatic I changed it to the traditional boss fight music. Upon testing it works well but does get a bit repetitive.

Unfortunately somehow by doing this some music and sound effects have gone screwed up in zones. The extra life music now is just a series of mucked up sounds and I am unsure as to why this is.

2) Chemical Plant Path Switchers I still for the life of me can't understand. And believe me when I say this is annoying in the first act.

3) Wing Fortress Zone. I need to remove the cutscene where Sonic chases the rocket. I also want to just add an egg capsule in there to complete the act. Unfortunately, the object sprites are funny and I'm not sure what it would take to correct them.


REQUESTS:

If anybody could provide me with original vgm music files I would really appreciate it. xmp4smps is still failing to work on my computer.

A better way to sum this up.

"That Motobug...what a laugh..."

"Emerald Hill Zone...same old same old..."

"Silver Sonic...easy peasy..."


Okay, well these are pretty much assumptions. But I can imagine people would think this, since I do.

But lately, I've been taking a few steps back. For example...that motobug. At age four, first time around its a little bit difficult to pick up the concept of "jumping". As much as I mock my gran for failing seven times running...

Emerald Hill is a gorgeous re-take on the old Green Hill for a second game and when your not used to it that drill car...such a fantastic new exploration of Robotnik's machines.

And as for Silver Sonic. If you don't know his attack pattern...with zero rings its an uphill struggle. "Spin spin..." got that now. Then "What he jumps!". Now you have to start again. Then you remember his attack pattern and then suddenly...when he has one more hit to go, "Whoosh! Spikes!" And dead again. Who did that, Robotnik or Silver? Oh well, too late too figure it out because you have to restart the whole game again!


Of course, after we get used to all these things its difficult to appreciate them second time around.

But just for once, for this topic I'd like you all to remember what those first little experiences were like...whether it is how impressive Angel Island was first time around...or how unfair that opening platform was just before the Chemical Plant boss. More importantly, what did it feel like?

I haven't seen any similar topic to this as of yet (and if there is one elsehwere I apologise). However, I think it would be quite interesting to discuss how you feel the music in the Sonic games really suited or contrasted against the levels. Not just some poll, what tunes do you really feel fitted in with the zones and why?

For example, I know this is going to come as a shock to most of you considering so many of you use them in hacks. However, I just can't stand the old two-player tunes in Sonic 2. I think Emerald Hill is acceptable but the others just really grate on me.

Don't get me wrong- its not that I think the music for CN and MC didn't suit the zones. I just think they're still incredibly irritating and repetitive to listen to.

One tune I really loved though was the music for Scrap Brain Zone. The reason being that although it sounded slightly silly I really felt the whole piece really suited the clockwork nature of Robotnik's base and almost reflected that crazy supervillain insanity you can just picture inside his egotistical mind. So in a strange sense although it doesn't really go out there to do it, I think it succeeds in making our beloved villain seem that little more frightening.

Any other opinions anyone?

For me personally, it would have to be the atrocious error in stand-alone Sonic 3, where playing as Tails it is virtually impossible to complete the Ice Cap Zone due to falling through the ice at slide junctions, over and over again.

I only ever succeeded past it once.

Thankfully however, they seemed to correct this in Sonic 3 and Knuckles.