You can skip levels in Mario without dying a lot? I must be blind, then, because I was pretty sure that's not actually possible. :specialed:
Die eight times, AND GET A FREE STAR! Not to mention in a game like Super Mario Galaxy, don't you only need half of the stars to access the last level? So many levels you don't need to ever visit to beat the game.
Pretty much. It's not like Alone in the Dark's 'chapter skip' feature. It's only there to help people who are legitimately having trouble with stages, and you are pretty much penalized for using it. There's a difference between 100% completion and actually being able to beat the damn game. Many Mario games don't require you to beat every damn stage, and nobody complains.
Oh. o_O And that works well for Mario and has been happening in Mario games since Super Mario Bros. What pisses me off is the fact a lot of reviewers want that element of Mario games to become part of the Sonic franchise even though Sonic games have never done that and they're already really damn short games.
Colours did have a big world map filled with lots of short levels, it was the kinda thing that would have multiple routes in a Mario kinda style...anyway back on the topic of Sonic 4 episode 2, what about the zones? We've seen the aquatic ruin stage, the snow/theme park stage (not sure if they're the same yet) and the oil ocean type place. and looking at the desert themed badniks I kind of feel like the last zone will be a desert. Then you'll have the Death Egg type final level. So does this mean we already know all the zones?
I think the oil drilling zone is also the desert zone. Look at the background of that zone; there's a vast expanse of sand. On top of that, clouds of sand are blowing by in the foreground. So, if that's the case, we'll have the aquatic ruin, the winter carnival, and the oil desert -- we may still not know what the fourth zone is.
Why bother with special stages, just give us the option to turn on Super Sonic from the beginning. I also want to be able to see the ending right away. Go the whole damn hog.
Yeah I see all the sand and stuff now. So I guess there's only one more zone left to be revealed then...wonder what it'll be
If we truly don't have pics of all the zones then I hope the 4th zone involves what seems to be happening on (what appears to be) Little Planet. Yes, I do expect that to somehow be involved with the end of the game already, but it has potential to do much more than 1 boss act like Egg Station Zone. I'm very curious to see how the game will expand upon that and show us exactly what is going on there.
I didn't mind Egg Station Zone, actually I really liked it but its music ruined it. :v: I do hope this game has cut scenes though. And them not being Console only please.
"I want to suggest continuity between stages, so I'd better draw one tree and tile it for 2/4 of the game." That's fucking stupid, man. Not only that- if you really wanted to use that as an excuse, where's the snow in the oil desert?
At least the art style is consistent and doesn't suffer from Ep 1's identity crisis Clouds look slightly real, Sonic is made of two colors yet doesn't look like paper mache, even though the badnik does, the item monitor doesn't look like either of the two since it seems to have shading, the gras is shiny and grainy at the same time, the sunflowers blind you, and the leaves in the background look like some sorta yoshi story cardboard cutout repeated 27,000 times. Sonic 4 ep 2 may not be the gem of all time in terms of graphical quality, but come on, how the fuck can you think this looks better?
To some extent, this issue can be quelled simply by rendering the whole thing in 3D instead of using that nasty hybrid they did with e1. My (admittedly limited) experience with 3D has shown that it's pretty much impossible to mix realistic shading, cel-shading, and non-shading in the same scene, at least by accident. They would've had to go out of their way to make it bad, if it'd been fully rendered in 3D.
Yes, E2 is far more consistent. Everything is consistently shit! And don't even pretend that they didn't do a better job of filling in the middle ground in Splash Hill. The only reason I can even isolate the tiling is because of the awful seams where they flipped the image horizontally. They're still using the nasty hybrid in E2. Has no one noticed that the backgrounds are still largely 2D?
I'm just saying that that could be the explanation for it; I was simply speculating a reason as to why SEGA would they use nearly the exact same tree and mountain background (they are slightly different) other than just calling them lazy. Yes, it is very possible that SEGA/DIMPS made a mistake here, but given the evidence seen in the screenshots (like the fact that Aquatic Garden is in sunset, and Carnival Cap is blatantly at night) it is also quite possible that they intended the levels to transition together. On the Mountain that the Desert is at the base of? Or perhaps Oil Desert Zone is Stage 4, and we haven't yet seen Stage 3 yet? Anyway, what I do hope is that this game does geometrically fun/interesting things with those stages, to counteract the realistic feel it has. EDIT: Though I know this probably won't happen, but wouldn't it be great if this included some unlockable Sonic CD Stages updated with 3D visuals, since Little Miracle Planet seems to be visible? I'm curious in general of what they will do with Little Planet. Final Boss Level?
After a day of looking at these screens I can tell you guys I'm really not that interested. Generations was the best Sonic game since Sonic Adventure 2, but it's incredibly short length and lack of different level tropes really fucking killed it for me. The gameplay was perfect for a Sonic game, both sides of it, but there weren't enough levels, the story wasn't engaging considering what they had to work with (what could've been a fun time traveling story with tons of references to past memories became a "lets just travel from one zone to the next" thing without ANY references to specific games), and I beat the story mode in under 4 hours. Don't get me wrong, I loved Generations, but for $50 I was expecting a lot more, especially since Colors had a good 7 to 9 hours of gameplay in the story mode alone with a very good story. With that in mind, Sonic 4 Episode I was god awful and Episode II looks like an improvement over Episode I, but I don't know. I'm not going to get excited for it, and I'm not even forcing myself not to find interest in this just because I'm cynical, I just don't see much to get excited over. Though I will admit the co-op mode seems pretty cool, if they can improve it from what the Genesis games let you do (which was essentially Player 2 controlling a useless Tails, except in 3 he could airlift Sonic which was good) then I'll gladly shell out for it based on that alone.
Considering there's online co-op, which means each player finally gets their own screen, that makes it better by default if you ask me.
