Project Needlemouse: old threads

On the subject of Sonic CD... Why not bring back the Time Travel? I always thought it was cool exploring other parts of the stage in different times, and finding the Badnik generators, too. =P

 

God no. I liked destroying those cute Badnik Generators, but damn, the time travelling gimmick was gameplay-breaking and making running fast simply unpleasant.

 

I had no problem with the time travel itself. It was LOADING that makes me never want to see it in a modern game.

Also because it really doesn't lend itself well to general Sonic gameplay.

 

I thought it lent itself to the gameplay wonderfully - speed-based exploration, anyway. If you just want to get from point A to point B, then yeah, it's pointless. If you want to jump to another time era, and possibly reveal hidden rooms and pathways in the process, you have to find a suitable spot to keep momentum and be able to maintain it for a set period of time (promoting both exploration - finding the spot - and speed - actually traveling through time). Your reward is a unique spin on the level you just did - remarkably similar in most regards, but with differences both minute and colossal that make it worth looking around. Or, if you went to the Past, access to the Badnik creating-machine, destroying all of which nets you the good ending even if you suck at the Special Stages.

So yeah, it really depends on your definition of Sonic's gameplay. Since I include exploration here, I'd say it integrates very nicely. If you only consider speed, though... well, yeah, you're probably wasting your time.

 

Both these could be fixed by a way I call "Warp Drive"

Basically, when you hit a goal post NOT at full speed (AKA Peel-Out Speed), you would just collect it like normal. If you hit Peel-Out Speed while you had the icon of the time period you are going, you would have a 2 second time interval to slow down. If you stay at that speed, the game screen would literally shift to the left, and would shift to a cutscene showing Sonic going through a "Warp Tunnel," still running and the warp music would play, and then it would shift back to the game the same way. This makes the speed not be lost, and is alot faster. Also this works in any direction, so there are "Warp Tunnels" for each direction you can run in.

 

Well said, can't find anything I do not agree with at all.

 

Kinda what I was talking about. That loading is so damn frustrating. Okay, perhaps it MIGHT work if it switches with a quick flash. But even then the 'slow down to stay in the present' is a horrible idea.

 

Regarding the whole Wentos thing, from a NeoGAF user:

To counter that, from a NeoGAF member who is a SEGA employee:

Pardon me if he's already been debunked, (I wasn't aware of it, but feel free to fill me in) but it's something that I thought could be of interest, as I've yet to see someone from SEGA say anything about it.

 

Hmm, I don't think it's too unlikely. It's possible that SEGA planned it out to reveil the game itself via teaser to wet people's appetites until TGS, since it was the Dreamcast's anniversary and it wasn't that far off to TGS, so they decided to present a teaser to celebrate the Dreamcast's birthday as well as get people excited for the game, but then truly show it at TGS.

 

On the subject of Wentos...



I don't know anymore, I guess everything he told us were just very logical guesses then. If a SEGA employee is calling bullshit on this guy, then I guess he is bullshit. Thanks for the heads up.

Also, I'm pretty sure right now we'll get some more info on this at TGS. Honestly, a high res artwork or some screens would be enough for me. I'm still hopeful we'll see the classic art work return in this.

 

Well, if they are going to show anything at the TGS, we won't have to wait long, with it only about 12 days away. I think we should keep a very close eye on news coming out of that show.

Anybody here going to it?

 

Don't get your hopes up, but there still is a strong possibility of them showing it off there. I mean, why would they tease us this close to a gaming convention they were going to if they weren't planning on showing anything of it there?

 

If they don't show anything new, I'm sure they'll at least just show the teaser trailer again for those who haven't seen it. :P

 

Sounds about right to me. After all, that guy didn't say a lot that was really that hard to predict that has been confirmed.

Except the shit about publishing games at a loss. Makes no fucking sense for a company that's almost never out of the red.

 

Even if the game isn't ready to show off in motion, they could still show screen shots or information.

And if Wentos were real, he would have been fired long ago. Remember, he said that he was the one who suggested the "Tails is a girl" wrong answer, that's enough to identify him and oust him.

 

I think the one big thing we can currently take from this teaser is this spinning ring.



This could give us a hint as to what the art direction of this game is going to be. Given its smooth animation, one might speculate that this is going to be a 2.5-D game. However, given its texture, one could also speculate that this game is being painstakingly hand-drawn frame by frame. It could also be a combination of both; this ring might be a model with a hand-drawn texture placed over it.

In my opinion, if the game models are all being hand-drawn, I'll be ecstatic. After all, pseudo-3D is the kind of art style Sega was going for when designing the original '90s Sonic games. They took clusters of colorful pixels and gave them a three-dimensional look and feel. A hand-drawn style would share a similar approach -- instead of being designed with polygons, it's being designed in a virtually flat plane and made to pop out at the player. Personally, I think that's as close to an HD Sonic game as one can get. And if all the models in-game would animate as fluidly as this ring, this game would without question deserve an award for best graphics! After all, a game doesn't need polygons in order to look its best.

I can't wait to see what new information (if any) Sega divulges about Project Needlemouse when they make their appearance at TGS.

 

If nothing else is true...THAT IS.

If SEGA messes up on one more Sonic game...they may very well lose half of their fan base. That is NOT something they want/need right now in this time of economic crisis.

 

Want to know the best thing about the time this game was announced and its 2010 release? Now Sega will have no excuse to rush this game's release in time for the holiday season.

 

HAHAHAHA, what a great joke! You know how I know this is a joke? Because people have been saying that for the past decade...and what do you know, they are all STILL HERE.



Personally, I'll be satisfied as long as the game doesn't have any slowdown when I lose 100+ rings. That's far too retro right there.

Yep. Before they make any announcements, I'll give them until 11:59 PM on Decemmber 31st, 2010. Plenty O time.