Does anyone else want a "Sonic R-2?"

I've been playing a lot of Sonic R recently for some reason. If I had to guess it probably has something to do with the level design being as open as it is. Compared to something like, say, Mario Kart, or Need for Speed, the levels in Sonic R are infinitely more open. (Even Radiant Emerald, with it's two ring-activated shortcuts that you can open up at whatever time you need to.) This is good as it opens up a lot more variety in the races, and it becomes more than just "Fastest man wins!", and it also allows for things like the Tag mode and the Balloon mode, which I find pretty fun. Amy in particular is fun to play as because of the strategy needed to time your boosts effectively and take the right shortcuts. And sometimes the shortcuts aren't as good as they seem, as you miss out on rings you can use on the Accelerator or on the gates, like with the loop in Resort Island.

Unfortunately, the characters are horribly, horribly unbalanced, especially with the Metal characters. Super Sonic is the best character in the game. Period. You cannot beat Super Sonic unless you're very good with shortcuts, and even then just based on raw speed Super Sonic is going to beat you anyways. Likewise Eggman and Eggrobo are easily the most useless characters in the game. They can't jump, they aren't very fast, and their bombs tend to help the player more than hurt them. This makes multiplayer with anyone except Sonic/Tails/Knuckles turn into "My character is better than your character", which really tends to make the game not all that fun.

 

I'd be totally down for a Sonic R 2, as long as the controls are made easier/smoother and Tails doesn't play his flying sound effect even when running (that shit got really annoying fast).

Or just a Generations/Unleashed boost style racing would be great too, maybe keeping in line with the whole speed/fly/power they always do for the riders series, but basically change how some of the boosts work. Speed types having the most boost but can't boost in the air while Flying types can, and Power types boosts are stronger and can break through stronger barriers/can boost better up walls and such.

 

Some more hacking of Sonic R itself would be interesting to see, though I admit it's probably not an easy game to work off of (if a full model of Amy is ever found in the game though, you know what must come of it...). :P

By the way, did anyone notice those random balloons floating around in the background of certain tracks (even in non Balloon mode)? Anyone found out what those were about?

 

I was thinking along these lines. Really, when you think about it, the Unleashed/Colors/Generations style of gameplay is essentially Sonic R's basic control scheme (move, with drift replacing the sharp turn) refined; the only major difference is the boost.

Just give everyone else that same control scheme (sans boost, or give boost to specific characters) and bam, you have Sonic R-2. I can see an on-foot Sonic racing game making excellent use of the quick step and drift mechanics in course designs. I'm totally down with the idea.

Just give more unlockable characters and courses. Sonic R can be breezed through in an hour, if that, with all unlockable characters. Plus, once Super Sonic and Metal Knuckles were unlocked, you essentially broke the game. Of course it was still fun, though.

 

I tried using a RAM editor to walk out of bounds and attempt to collect those balloons. Nothing happens, but if you're in Resort Island going out that far sometimes causes the camera to freak out and start heading for space. (If anybody's interested, grab the Cheat Engine and tell it to NOP out addresses 0x4D8B13 and 0x4D8B1A. Those seem to be the calls to the collision-detection routines so you can just waltz your way through the fences. PC version, of course.)

If I had to guess, it's probably so that the balloon model is guaranteed to be in memory so it doesn't have to worry about weird case conditions messing up the RAM or anything. (As to why they had to put it in the level, I have no clue.)

 

In the sonic Boom game trailer there is a small section where all characters run through a track at full speed. That and track design like sonic riders where there is speed, power and fly sections is something I would like to expect to be a sonic r 2 (let's not forget drift of course)

I actually like Sonic Riders, but the first one, the second was mediocre and the third one was horrible... Playing multiplayer with friends was very entertain and challenging...

 

Challenging because it was so annoying! Seriously though, don't remember playing 2p, but single player was hard because signs popped up blocking your view around corners and the signs filled the screen. That's unforgivable in my books.

 

I didn't care for Sonic R even back in the day. It felt...unfinished. But as someone else said, a more polished version with parkour (and more than 5 tracks) might be pretty cool.

 

Being a fan of All Stars Racing Transformed... and a fairly decent player at it as well... I'd prefer to see the ASR series.

That said, I also have nostalgia for Sonic R, having played it constantly for the longest time before my first computer shit the bed. While I'm not clamoring for Sonic R2 (don't call me D2), I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't give it a look, if it were ever done.

Seconded.

 

For some reason the AI in the PC version is just ass. The factory level is just a broken mess where the characters run in circles in that part towards the end. It also seems much easier than the Saturn version.

I haven't played the PC version in a bit, for some reason I like the Saturn one more, maybe due to more nostalgia or something like that. But I just feel like the Saturn one offers more of a challenge, even if it can be almost impossible at one point (Unlock Metal Sonic and Knuckles and you aren't coming in first until you get Super Sonic).

 

Weird, cos' the PC version is also the one used in Gems, and I understand that doesn't happen. Patched, perhaps?

 

Probably the equivalent of trying to play Mario 64 DS with a joystick on NO$GBA. I totally understand their grief. That said, anyone bitching about the PC's controls... not so much.

 

Are you seriously complaining about control on the All-Star Racing series?

I mean the controls on those games are excellent and much, much better than Sonic R.

In Sonic R, the character controls like tanks for some reason. And while I have nostalgia for that game its a much inferior game compared to Sega All-Star Racing series.

Nope.

I played it on the Saturn and it still plays like ass. Also I played it on Win98 back in the day with a Microsoft Sidewinder and it still played like ass.

Sonic R just plays like ass. Objectively it's a bad game. With only 5 levels and 9 unbalanced characters its a really broken game. I like it in a so bad its good sort of way and it certainly has a charm thanks to it being the closest thing to a 3D Sonic game back then and the glorious soundtrack.

But make no mistake, Sonic R is bad. And when you compared it to ASR its even worse.

 

The saturn version has analog controls...

*subjectively

 

At least in the case of GDK, it would be possible (imagine full Sonic physics while racing :D ) but it would require a hell of a lot of re-coding. I for one would love to see it, as I haven't played Sonic R at all.

 

Although probably without (or with a nerfed) boost, a game with similar controls to the boost-era games would be best for a Sonic R sequel if you ask me. Multiple characters dashing, drifting, hopping and twitch-reacting to the tracks.. man I'd take it in a heartbeat.

 

While I agree most of gaming is based on subjective opinion you can make a solid argument that Sonic R is objectively a bad game.

Its extremely unbalanced, lacks content and the controls are bad.

It still has a certain charm but I would never pay $50 for it.

 

People who say the controls are bad must not have realised the L R buttons are for drifting and probably just slam into walls.