^Wow I could not play a Sonic game in an environment like that. As far as the repetitive nature of the zone tropes is, I fail to see it. Two zones involve trees, yet one is deck the halls with bounds of folly and snowing while the other one is aquatic ruin. They may both have water, and they may both have trees, but they barely look alike (Also it's good to make up for Ep 1's lack of any water what so ever. Only one level involved water). I think the consistency of environments is actually a good thing, it shows some transition and shows that they're running around the same area. The world map was absolutely stupid in Sonic 4 Ep 1 because why the hell is there a Casino next to a grassy plane, next to ruins, next to a factory. Wtf kind of world is that? Where the hell would you find these things on an island? This game seems to be from aquatic ruin they take a plane to the forests behind them where it happens to be snowing. Once inside the forest they come out to find a carnival set up, where they notice, Oh fuck it's Metal Sonic, and then they run off after him to the oil refinery. That last transition isn't too coherent right now but the rest of it makes sense. And during all of this Little Planet is being turned into the Death Egg, and each level we see that happen a little more each time. What I didn't like about Sonic 4 Ep 1's art style was more then simply "lack of polish." It was the fact that the art was just awful. Everything is somehow shiny and grainy at the same time, like someone took forehead grease and rubbed it on top of sandpaper after painting it green. Some how that's supposed to equal classic. Just... why?
This is why the next 2D Sonic game should be sprite-based. It would look better and be easier for the hardware to process. Whether it be retro-styled or high-res, it would be better than this 2.5D nonsense.
Oh well this obviously, I wanted Sonic 4 Ep 1 to look like Wario Land Shake it way before we got pictures of what it came to be. This is a step up, but not nearly the best option. A Sonicfied Rayman Origins all the way
As cool as that would be, it wasn't a realistic option. Sonic 4 has taken inspiration from NSMB from the beginning, which is a 20-million seller. Both Wario Land: Shake and Rayman Origins sold abysmally, so I find it doubtful that SEGA would draw inspiration from two games that were generally unsuccessful.
A sprite based 2D Sonic side-scrolling game that looks exactly like the Genesis games would be ideal, but that's probably never going to happen again, unfortunately.
Am I the only one who's bothered by the comments of "he's turning Little Planet into the new Death Egg"? Sega isn't creative enough to combine those two plotlines. It's just an exact retread of the Sonic CD plotline where he encases Little Planet in a big metal fortress cage thing. It's even designed the same. Mind you, I think they couldn't have picked anything much better to retread. It's just not meant to be the Death Egg.
It looks just like the Generations-styled Death Egg is being built over Miracle Planet / Earth / whichever one it is.
Putting it that way they could be trying to force it into being a prequel to CD, but would that really make sense? EDIT: The way Hinchy put it I mean. I'd find it interesting if it were Death Egg though
You know, I've got to wonder why they bothered to bring out the original Tornado if they were just going to cop out anyway and make more modern Tails inventions for Metal Sonic to hijack. Oh wait! Am I trying to debate continuity and consistency in a thread about Sonic 4? Whoops! And that's obviously the Death Egg being built around the Little Planet, Hinchy. As cool as it would have been to be the giant metal planet from CD, this one will have a definite mustache.
Oh, when did we get a clean (not to mention jAwesOme) version of this picture? With the remake, I guess? Nah. It is. Azukara is right on. If the band around the middle weren't convincing enough, you can see the 'tache and everything.
Good god ,,, woah hold on, stop stop stop! umm the Death egg is actually little planet ?! Hey Sega ? Who the hell came up with that idea?! Its an interesting and original concept, but wait a minute...... seriously ?! P.S. Hey Hinchy, Where'd you find that Sonic CD graphic art?! I've been looking for some CD Art that high quality for awhile now...
All that, and also take note that using the original Tornado means nothing, considering Tails didn't even invent that. Sonic had that from way before he met Tails.
Do not forget, I was neither here when you 'set people straight' nor did you last long in my room. :p However, thanks for the clarification. That was why I mentioned gameplay—to figure out, whether it was you thought bad art meant bad gameplay, or whether art > everything for you. I see the latter is the case... which is just fine. I just wanted that clarification. As for me, art is nowhere near as important. Sonic 2 blatantly reused tiles. Sonic 3 had a ton of water stages. Were those the worst games ever because they reused things? No. It's just the attitude of current Sonic "fans" that if anything is slightly off, it's bad. Yet they forget, time and again, their beloved classics contain multiple flaws, ones they would rip to pieces if those games were released today. I do not operate on such premises anymore, after having found it to claim that games I found perfectly fun were null and void. While praising other games I outright didn't care for. You know what works far better? Imagine for a minute, if these games came out back when the other ones were, before you/I/everybody developed these peculiar traits of nitpicking. Would it have been fun then? I'll be honest; S4E1 would have been treated by my young self as a slightly better improvement to Sonic 3D Blast, not on par with the others, but tolerable, if disappointing. Yet of course the current rating for it is "PURE EVIL", since as adults/older people we can rip something into a billion pieces over a single part of the game which, by itself, is not going to ruin every single other part of the game. On that note, to us adults, S4E2 does have a kind of weird mix of graphics in it, but so far I see nothing that would have relegated it to the junk bin of Sonic 3D Blast when I was a kid. That may change, but not enough data to see. But, I see and respect your opinion; you like the art more than anything else, and so it is already ruined for you. Of course, this begs the question—will they ever make a game up to your standards? I don't see it happening, honestly.
Before I saw Episode 2, I would agree, but seeing the level of details to things like a possible Little Planet being engulfed in a possible Death Egg makes the experience way more cooler IMO. These next-gen 2D Sonic worlds look way more immersive than the Genesis titles.
Honestly, I have to say fuck sprites. Yes, I have to admire the work they put into creating the sprites they did back in the day, and all the palette trickery that had to be done, but we're in 2012. Hi-res sprites or gtfo. I felt like Megaman 9 and 10 were incredibly dumb for going in that direction when they could have gone the hi-res sprite route if they wanted to while keeping the same gameplay. If the developers back in 91 had the option between Sonic 1 sprites and something that looked like Rayman Origins, they probably would have with the latter. They did what they did because they had to, not because they wanted to.
With hi-res comes hi-fagability. Compare Megaman 1-6 to 7-8. Sometimes the queerality cannot show itself when you limit what can be done. According to Capcom Megaman was always suppposed to be like that rancid-looking 'chibi' PSP game. Although is anyone really saying use exact Genesis-style graphics? I think these suggestions are for a 2D game with authentic art direction as opposed to 3D models that look like a launch-title PS2 game.