I always thought it was a little unfair that all of Sonic's unique abilities were gained from shields while Tails and Knuckles could spam their flying and climbing abilities anywhere anytime. Putting it as a shield ability makes it far too rare, like in 3D Blast, you got a gold shield only a fair few occasions and once you got hit ONCE it was gone. Having shield abilities may work with something like, say Mighty from Megamix's mechanics, where you better control and customization of how you use them, but you're still screwed in boss areas and other areas that don't have shields at all. They could maybe tone down the homing attack's radius so it isn't as god moded (so long as it isn't like Advance 2 where it was so minimal and unresponsive as well as combined with the ultra fast pace of the game, making it near pointless) or merely expand on it's use and be more innovative than 'bubbles scattered everywhere' but I think Sonic needs an advantage, as stated earlier, so he can access his own pathways and easter eggs that Tails and Knuckles could with their abilities. So long as it is optional like the others I don't think it matters. I don't like the main character being the dud.
It's interesting, I actually felt the same way as a kid, but now I prefer having Sonic as the 'jack of all trades but master of none' gameplay mode. It gives another dimension to playing the same levels as different characters. Sonic might have a tougher time getting through the levels, but that's why he's the coolest :P All things aside though, something will have to give if episode II features more than just Sonic alone.
Hey, I loved using the homing attack in fangames like Megamix and Xero. When there is no target, it functions as an exhilarating air-dash; when there is a target, it's just as fast, and you can do it again in the very next instant. Furthermore, the levels are simply designed either in spite of it or clever utilizing it, but never necessitating it, and certainly not in the exact same way in every stage without fail. It's just a boring move put to use in a boring fashion. I'd almost call it braindead. It's that special combination of bad physics, boring level design, unimaginative and uncleverly boring implementation, and poor unexciting tuning that makes the homing attack a really awful and all too automatic a move. The bottom-line difference between Megamix's homing attack and Sonic 4's homing attack is that the former is much more satisfying to use than the latter, in spite of its usefulness. That being said, I still would like a game where I need to aim my jumps instead of pushing a button to have them done for me. Perhaps just having an airdash exclusively for Sonic would suffice.
That was the thing with Megamix, the intelligently placed monitors served as a puzzle element. It may have been easy to reach a certain monitor with the HA but could you do it with Mighty? If you thought about, you usually could. Reaching high areas with Shadow's double jump was easy but could you do it with other characters? Yes, if you gave it some consideration. That's the sort of thoughtful design that needs to be put in Sonic 4, I doubt it ever will be. Also I don't see why everyone is blaming DIMPS, they are puppets under Iizuka's direction.
Good point. It begs the question of what he even contributed to Sonic 3 & Knuckles, if anything valuable. Still, the idea of Retro Studios taking the helm is still quite tantalizing.
Because DIMPS was behind the Sonic Rush series as well, and they're not exactly brimming with awesomeness, at least from a classic standpoint. They were also behind Sonic UnWiished, and that was shit. Also Iizuka was behind Colors I believe, and that's a good game. I bet there is some sort of mixture to explain why Sonic 4 is bad though.
The Sonic Rush games are awesome but are a different kind of awesome than the Sonic 1/2/3K kind of awesome, the mistake of putting Dimps was because they are used to making one style of Sonic gameplay (Fast with an emphasis on reflexes) while the one that's expected of a S3&K sequel is another style (Slower with a emphasis on platforming and using the physics engine to your advantage)
Right that's why I said at least from a classic standpoint. Sure they're fun but not in the way I want. But the only thing is they also made Sonic Advance 1 and Sonic Pocket Adventure. They can make a classic style Sonic game, they just didn't for some reason.
Eh. They can make it look like a classic game, but not make it play like one. Advance 1 and Pocket Adventure just don't have the level design that agrees too well with the classic Yasuhara style of design, much less build upon it.
No but the engine is closer to those of the classic games. Besides Sonic 4, the whole uncurling after ramps idiocy is only found in the Sonic Rush series. Sonic remains in ball form after ramps in Sonic Advance 1 through 3. Even beyond that though, Advance 1 had proper bouncing mechanics when it came to chaining enemies, and while the unnecessary amount of friction was present in the Advance titles, the engine could still handle pinball and momentum based physics better than Sonic 4. The level design could use work though in all the Dimps games I agree. Also I hope Episode 2 does away with those stupid "LOL HERE'S A PIT FOR YA" end of act segments. SSZ Act 3, CCZ Act 2 and 3, all of LLZ, and MGZ 2 are all guilty of this. These levels could have simply ended slightly earlier and it would have been fine. But no, they had to put in a "challenge." It's not really a challenge, it's just kinda stupid.
Rofl I love how it's referred to as a "Challenge". Yeah, I was pretty psyched when the game came out, but now that I look back, it was pretty God Awful. Has there even been any info on Episode 2 yet? How long are they going to wait before they release the so-called "sequels"?
http://blogs.sega.com/usa/2010/12/15/new-s...items-are-here/ Just because Sonic 4: Episode 1 sucks doesn't mean the Avatar items have to! :D + - also holy crap is that plush classic-styled?!
I finally gave in and got this for the iPhone. I was expecting lag as my iPhone is only a 3G and there wasn't any, it ran smoother than either S1 or S2. That is, however, the only positive thing I can say about it, everything else was just fucking terrible. After Splash Hill the physics differences just caused me nothing but fustration. The music is absolutely fucking abysmal, monotonus and utterly irredeemable. I was thinking how could someone as good at his job as Senoue produce something so awful, then it hit me, Senoue has never been that good, his best work to date was for bonus stage in S&K. The stage design is just everything that's wrong in Sonic level design. The level art was confusing, on the small screen of the iPhone it was sometimes difficult to tell what was background, foreground, and what was a platform and what wasn't. If I'd of paid for a console version, I would have been seriously pissed off.
It's made me realise, I'd love it if SEGA would release the original Sonic standing sprites to be used as Avatars on the PS3 and Xbox 360, hell, I'd throw money down, my PS3 avatar is one of the default ones but I'm seeing Capcom release a lot of classic sprites as avatrs.
I never wound up buying Sonic 4, but in all honesty when my friend and I played and beat it for PS3 I left fairly satisfied. I mean, after unlocking Super Sonic it became extremely apparenty how automated everything was. Super Sonic just didn't work with the game, honestly. Either way, if Episode II changes the level design up a bit (Although I must say that the multiple paths were definitely a breath of fresh air), makes more original bosses and themes, etc, then it'll be a pretty damn good game. Right now, Sonic 4 is around a 6/10 or 7/10 for me. It's good, above average, but not by much.
I got a gift card for Christmas. I'll use it to buy enough Microsoft points to get the Fallout: New Vegas DLC and those Chaos Emeralds. It would be nice if they worked with the Avatar awards to give you a Super Sonic outfit.
The back of the box does, yeah. It oddly looks like the NA back cover art for Sonic 1 though I could be just imagining that.
