Actually what ticked me off the most was that half the time you had to play through the same level twice in the same level since that game reused level geometry all over the place (This stands out the most in the Power Plant levels). The game likes repeating itself for you at every chance it gets.
Now that we've almost settled the whole "length" thing, I'd just like to add that Sonic 3 takes me roughly an hour and 15 minutes/and a half to beat with all the Chaos Emeralds, and Sonic 4 takes me pretty much that same amount of time. The levels are shorter, but the game itself still pans out for the same time scale. There's less replayability as you can't play as Tails, but that's a different kettle of fish.
Ya as soon as I posted that I remembered that Egg Fleet and Final Fortress were both awful in that aspect as well.
I dunno. While it's still shitty game design, it at least makes logical sense in Egg Fleet- mass-produced warships and all. Not fun, but you can at least get what they were going for. Power Plant doesn't have even such a weak excuse.
It doesn't really phaze me. Sonic 1, 2, 3 and Knuckles all had places that repeated similar level design in places- Labyrinth Zone, Starlight Zone, parts of Chemical Plant, Metropolis, Hydrocity, Flying Battery etc. I really don't think that the issue is as bad as is being made out to be- levels repeat certain parts to create the feel that you're in the same area, and places like Power Plant from & Egg Fleet from SH are repated as such because it's the logical choice of the level design and landscape.
Funny though, it was the level I had the most fun playing in Heroes outside of Frog Forest. Another thing that's funny: S4E1 feels absolutely awful on the PS3/360, and for some reason is much more enjoyable on iOS. Not just because of dropping standards for an iOS game, but also because speed is retained much better when holding forward, for some reason. Although much more enjoyable, it's still not that great. At all. =v
I wouldn't need to justify something which I had no actual involvement in initially. I'm just saying, Sonic levels often repeat similar parts or areas. There are a number of occasions when I've gone to one part of a level (in many games) looking for a particular item or box only to realise that it's a little bit further up. It's all well saying Power Plant has loads of hover walls in circle rooms with baddies in, but circumstances like these are seen throughout Sonic games. Levels like Egg Fleet and Power Plant get away with it because Egg Fleet is- low and behold- a fleet of whale shaped airships, and Power Plant is a hexagonally themed level.
Yeah, I remember getting a lot of ending fatigue with Heroes' levels. Team Rose's are supposed to end abruptly but Team Sonic and Dark's seemed like they could've ended around a quarter earlier. It didn't help that levels like Power Plant and Lost Jungle also had intense, timed finales that the earlier bits of level prepared you for in almost no way. I don't remember the acts in Sonic 4 necessarily feeling small, though truth be told the only 2D game I do remember having levels that felt a tad small to me was Sonic Advance.
I liked the music for most of the levels (wii-ware synths) but I think they should get authentic synthesizers (70's to 80's style) and less electronic sounding music, like mix up the style abit with some rock, jazz and natural sounds. Make it upbeat and funky, but easy for the ears to listen to (In other words, don't overdo the synths!)
Speaking of the wii-ware synths, does anybody know where I can get the wii version tracks of both the prototype and final versions? I've been looking for ones that are decent length and all I've found are either no lopped versions or ones that are looped to 10 mins+.
Actually a youtube user has made a rip of all the final WiiWare version's music. The user's mediafire link.
Guess these will do. Now on to the prototype and beta tracks... Also, is it true that the Ipod touch/Ipad versions of sonic 4 use the 360/PS3 version tracks?
So am I actually, and it's annoying simply for the gap in my music archive. I'm still keeping an eye out.
Oh, neat, good to know! All that's needed then is the prototype tracks, which shouldn't be a problem to do at all.
Sonic 1, 2 and CD have their level structured repeated as a design choice. By repeating the structures over, you create a sense of continuity within the stage, so that the player can easily localize which "part" of the stage he's in. It's kinda tricky to explain, but it's something like "oh, I remember this slope, there was one exactly like that 30 seconds ago that ended in a ramp instead of spikes, so I feel like I can safely roll here", or "oh I'm in an 'inside' section of this stage, that means that there are spikes and traps here". It's not only good to make each stage feel like its own thing and more memorable too, but it's specially useful to create that lack of fear of going too fast, since once you go through a level or a part of it, you can paint a picture of how the next part of the stage will be like in a kinda subconscious way. It's slightly noticeable, but once you "watch" yourself play while playing the game, you notice how you end up taking certain actions through specific levels, sure that it is the most effective way to go through certain parts without actually memorizing that part or exactly predicting what exactly might happen if you take that action, like "Oh I just don't let go of the right D-pad on Emerald Hill Zone, while on Mystic Caves I stop and turn a lot more, I wonder why". Sonic 3 & Knuckles has a tad of that, but not really as much as the other classic games, because they wanted to make their environments look more like they're constantly changing and all. I don't know whether they designed Heroes like that, this repetition of Heroes' stages might have been some inspiration on the classic titles' stages, but I am unsure whether they did it with that same understanding of this design choice that the classic titles had. I haven't played much of Sonic Heroes (cleared the game with three teams back when it released, and then cleared the game with Team Sonic a year ago), and quite frankly I am not sure whether I want to play more of it.
