Thumbs up Sonic, Thumbs down Eggman and Metal S. ... Smells like CD I just hope they don't cling too much to CD for it. But a "new" badnik and a non-standard zone art (then again hard to tell) aren't bad signs.
Reminds me of Aquatic Ruin Zone. And with the marble garden ball thing, maybe the first zone will be a mix of those two.
Those pillars really look like Aquatic Ruin Zone. Considering how much the zones in EP1 were essentially HD rehashes of old zone concepts, I'm not too sure how excited I am about that. :| edit: beaten derp
So, currently we got ruin design (it's not like ARZ invented a curved pillar top), a sunset (or sun rise) it seems, Marble Garden gimmick, and a hermit crab badnik. Maybe the first zone takes inspiration from Seaside Hill/Ocean Palace?
I want to see an original level trope, dammit. I sincerely hope this isn't just one big shitty "HEY GUIZ LOOK NOSTALGIA" game. But I'll buy it anyway. Because I'm a dumbass. Also I never liked Aquatic Ruins, those arrows, man.
Is it me or does it look more like models as apposed to pre-rendered pillars. I know its hard to say, but they look like they are facing different directions. Good if it is.
Do you think that the fact that a comic adaptation of Episode II might possibly confirm an overall longer game with something possibly resembling a story? I'm hoping for more than 4 zones, at least 5 or 6 with 2 acts each and Sonic 3 & Knuckles style level progression.
Excuse me if I'm incredibly dense, but I've searched and searched the topic and I don't see the ruin design and sunset concept art anywhere. Where is it?
Concept art: post #321. Ruins: post #340. Not that some tiny strip of background on a comic necessarily implies anything about the final game, anyway.
The ruin design is from the banner at the very top of the cover on the previous page. EDIT: yeah okay lag make my post pointless
Well, the entire level line up for Sonic Generations was determined by toy packaging, so this isn't entirely far fetched.
That doesn't imply that an analogous sequence of events will occur for this game. All I mean is that folk might want to avoid reading too much into a small background on a comic. I spent about a minute comparing it to ARZ before I concluded that it just might be new art! Wait - 'new' art.
It should imply something about Episode II, else there's no reason for the designer to have put it there. It doesn't go with anything else on the cover except the Sonic 4 logo which could've just as easily had a solid color background behind it.
Oh, sure: it should! I just mean that, ideals aside, it might or might not. Given previous marketing of this game, anything is possible, right? :P
Let's not forget that in Sonic 4 Episode 1, there's an entire darkened part of the map, some of which looks like desert mesas. Or at least, last time I checked, that's what I saw.
To be honest, when I first saw the concept art on for Sonic 4: Episode II, those drawings had done nothing but just make me feel very frustrated on one of two things. Revealing of concept art The badnik concept lacks some originality Right now, they seem to be repeating the same method in revealing concept art with no indication of it's purpose or zone rather than being a foreground/background prop. Obviously anyone can tell that it's the trigger wheel thing from Marble Garden Zone, but for what reason did they have to bring it back? To me, it's to boost the nostalgia-level with something that's never been revised till up to this point, and with the looks of that small banner used in the scan for the Sonic Super Special that just might be a mix of both Aquatic Ruin and Marble Garden, it's probably going to be yet another rehash of it's ancestors. Only this time, we're hopefully lucky enough to not see any revisions of previous badniks like Chop Chop or Spiker from before. That said though, the hermit crab badnik doesn't really do much for me, despite it being an original enemy for once (not to mention that the multiple blades at the top of his shell ruins it for me).
You know what a remake of Marble Garden would imply, right? More fucking Bubbles. At least they'd be at home, now.