I don't know many hermit crabs that live in frigid climates, but I don't think Sonic games pay too much mind to those details anyway. Just a thought.
Yeah well, I didn't see any hermit crabs wondering around town today, but you know. I'd just love to see an ice stage cause E1, Generations and Colours all missed out on the opportunity.
I like these new badniks. They're new but they still have a very classic feel to them, something I didn't feel with the Advance series.
An icy/industrial zone would be great. Glacial Galaxy in the fangame Sonic Axion is fucking beautiful! (I can't believe you mods and admins haven't made vexer a full member, shameful!) Also a watery amusement park for the (awesome!!) seal badnik would be great as well.
I don't know many Orbinaut's that live on this planet, in fact I know none. Badniks are robots so I'm sure that temperature isn't going to be an issue for design but if anything I think the expectation of Badniks is that they are supposed to fit in with their surroundings. But then I remind myself of Lava Reef and later Death Egg 2 and remind myself that they don't fit the formula.
I actually like those badnik designs. Is the Colors team helping out this time? Those badniks look like something I would see in Sonic Colors. Now let's see some new interesting Zones and samples of GOOD music that doesn't use the same god awful sound font Sonic 4 used.
It does look like that's the art direction. For E1 they just added lines and bolts to all the old badniks and they looked awful. They had no character. Colours and Generations redesigned them all again and added extra details that really worked. These guys are definitely done in that style, and I'm glad about it.
In Labyrinth, they're supposed to be sea urchins... But yeah, their identity pretty much got lost as soon as Star Light Zone. =|
I like the what they're doing here, I'm starting to have some real faith in this title. We are definitely due for an ice level so here's hoping that's where this guy belongs!
...Emerald Hill is not a Beach Zone. Perhaps you were thinking Emerald Coast? Neo Green Hill Zone? Anyway, a Marine Carnival Zone would be awesome, as it has been barely used to my knowledge (if you count Carnival Night's small underwater section).
Since Colours every Badnik started to have perfect round eyes, preety much like Metal S., Dr. Eggman even used it as a symbol on his doors (Colours), I kinda like that. (Are they mean to simbolize Eggs? not Chichen's Eggs, Egg as in general biology stuff.) These also have perfect round eyes, so yeah they might be designed by the Colours team, or at least inspired.
I'm hoping that the new graphics engine means that the models don't look like crap, and actually have depth and such to them so they don't look like paper cutouts.
New badniks! Always makes me happy to see a new set of Badniks based on actual animals rather than mass-produced eggman caricatures - not that I don't love the E-series, Egg Pawns and Egg Fighters, but they're just not really the same, are they? You can noticeably tell the difference between the Episode I and II concept art too; this new stuff looks like it has more soul to it, and seems more cartoony, whereas the Episode I artwork just looked like SEGA's attempt to make older Badniks look more robotic and less charismatic. Also, I'm going to echo the sentiment of a good beach level. Not your standard ocean/Green Hill hybrid like Seaside Hill or Emerald Coast, but something a bit closer to civilization. I'm thinking deck chairs, parasols, sand castle-like structures, starfishes, a more interesting background than a blue sky (sunset would be appropriate) and so on; maybe even some elements from Carnival Night/Balloon Park type levels, and potentially a city in the background (although maybe just for one or two of the acts?). Beach balls could function like the fabled checkered wrecking ball of Sonic 1 that Sonic would've been able to run on. Might as well make it the second or third level too, because starting on a beach has gotten too cliched for its own good, which is why Green Hill (in Sonic 2 MS/GG) and Sunset Hill (Sonic Advance 3) were breaths of fresh air.
They'll probably look like those updated models in the iPhone version. I have a weird theory that time travel will be involved in this episode because of the obvious cues it's taking from Sonic 2 and CD so far. Perhaps it's possible when Sonic goes to the past in levels he becomes his classic model, same for Tails. I base this off of absolutely nothing, it just seems like something SEGA would do.
I know you're not basing it on anything, but I would sincerely hope that SEGA would be smart enough to not do that. Not only does that make 0 sense in terms of actual time travel (Surely Sonic would just disappear in Sonic CD if the length of time he travelled back in affected his being), but I want either ALL or NOTHING. SEGA aren't going to tease us with a classic Sonic in 2D only to bring back them switching between Modern Sonic again. Generations should be a one off- they don't need to keep switching them all the time. They should make a game as either Classic or Modern and leave it at that. Also, inb4 it's a game story and principles of time don't matter.
Ya know guys, I feel really bad for actually looking forward to this. Especially since we really don't know much of anything about it. I just hope that the iPhone version won't look like complete garbage, even compared to how bad the console versions were.
We're already up to 30 pages and the game hasn't even been fully revealed yet. What the fucking fuck. Anyways, yeah, I'm also looking forward to this. Haters gonna hate, but after playing Sonic Generations 3DS with the semi-revised physics, I'm ready for anything Dimps throws at me now.
LOL I'm going to say that you should check out that Zero Punctuation video on the front page about how Sonic fans react to new games before they even play them. Personally I would just wait and see what they actually release. The Sonic Team got alot of constructive criticism (referring to that info at that meeting with Ken and Ruby) from Episode 1 so lets find out if they did listen.
after S4E1 I'm not looking forward to this game, but I'm still keeping an eye on it just in case it plays better.