According to the Japanese Sonic20th twitter there is an article about episode II in the latest Famitsu including screenshots. Wherever they are the same screens as these leaked ones who knows yet..
New screenshots at sega's official blog, though the site seems to be broken or too busy for me at the moment. EDIT: the screens are on their flickr.
Intereting to see new angles and lack of shiny plastic. But I'm wondering why tthese pictures are completely different (not that I'm complaining). I say we get a new trailer tomorrow!
I approve 100% of christmas zone. Hands down Also they made the signpost look less derp, nice touch. Also nice hummingbird badnik. The badniks look wonderful in the screenshots. And anyone catch that Eggman Snowman? That's a nice touch right there. More of that please. Can we change the name of Ep 1 to just Sonic nostalgia fun time and make this Ep 1?
Also notice how there's no homing attack reticule when Sonic jumps near a badik now, and a new Hummingbird badnik too!
Ok I think I can see that. It's almost as if Sonic's jumping trajectory is based off of Sonic's initial running speed, ya know... like the classics. Suspicious. The Sega blog is supposed to say when we get a gameplay trailer. But the Sega Blog is down. EDIT: 9am PST, Feb 23rd. That's the time we'll see the first gameplay trailer.
Oh woah, yeah. As opposed to the Ep1 and Rush trapezium jump. Guess gravity makes more sense when Little Planet is in close orbit.
Tails jumping looks odd. I can see they're trying to do the tails behind the circle like in the classics, but if you can see tails moving around while jumping it just doesn't look right Either this player sucks, or this is a really long level. But this shot is beautiful. And here's an example of not derp signpost
I don't think the jump looks any different than it did in Episode I, really. I'm excited to see the gameplay trailer, however I doubt it will tell us much or showcase more than 15-20 seconds worth of footage tops. It'll be nice to see the game in action, however, but until I see footage of someone playing it and/or play it for myself, I can't really bring myself to be super excited. I can say with 100% confidence that it looks gorgeous, however. Great looking game thus far, damn the haters saying it's inconsistent or ugly, I think it looks beautiful. EDIT: The stages have tons more character than they did in Episode I though. Not even just the fully 3D environments, but they just look more like real places than they did previously. Not real as in realistic, but it looks like a concievable world that Sonic can live in, I'm happy with the visuals so far. Dimps/Sonic Team upping the ante on the visuals gives me hope that the music will be better as well. I don't know if they're going to use Genesis instruments or not, nor do I care, but I expect a better soundtrack this time around.
While I think Episode 2 is a big improvement from Episode 1 looks wise by those pictures, it pisses me off that one stage is a complete rip off from Aquatic Ruin even to the point of them using the hollow tree truck you can go through. It's not so much the fact that it's unoriginal, it's the fact that they are trying to pass it off as an original level which is just insulting. Also the reusing of Badniks in different zones has pissed me off as well to the point where this game is looking to be yet again half arsed like Episode 1.
Didn't Balough or whatever his name is explicitly say that there'd be one more throw-back-zone in Ep. 2?
Looking closely on the Flickr, Episode 2 is running at 720p instead of 1080p, HOPEFULLY this was to keep the frame rate at 60fps. Is Tails invincible or are those sparkles from running on water?
No they aren't, Ken even said how one of the levels was a throwback, and its to start off the plot. And honestly I don't see the problem with reusing badniks, Sonic 1 reused badniks all the time.
I dunno, I think that the first stage is unique enough for it to be considered new. It's esscentially the same motif, but I feel that it's to Aquatic Ruins what Emerald/Seaside Hill is to Green Hill. The same, yet different enough where it feels new, with new enemies, atmosphere, etc. I just want more stages, as good as this looks visually, 4 stages sucks. If they wind up like, making each act feel different enough where it almost feels like a new level, that should be alright since it's basically the same length as Sonic 3 & Knuckles, but still, 4-5 levels is very poor and I'll continue to say that until they make a longer game.
^That's the problem with this format. I say make this game lead up to Sonic 5, and release that as a full game. And even if the first level is a remake of Aquatic Ruin, it's not nearly as shameless a remake as any of the Sonic 4 Ep 1 levels
