Episode 1 made money because of all the lies, spin and hype, Episode 2 is being released now to a more cautious crowd and can only make money by being a good game - plain and simple. If it IS good, I want to encourage them to carry on making 2D Sonics and will be happy to buy. On that note, I agree about making Sonic 5, but as for making it like episode 2... no! Yes, it is beautiful to look at, yes the physics might be improved but it is still very much a compromise as far as I can see. The modern models and homing attack are just too polarizing, and a Sonic 5 that builds on Sonic 4 would be in danger of drifting yet even further away from the original, classic feel (see Resident Evils 4 and 5 for example). Levels like Seaside Hill and Planet Wisp with Classic Sonic just showed how awesome a possible Sonic 4 could have looked.
While a full sequel to the classic series would be nice... just throwing aside "Sonic the Hedgehog 4", which was SUPPOSED to be the true successor to the Genesis titles just seems... wrong. I'd rather them just get their act together and release a few good episodes, and then we can just "disreguard" the first episode. Maybe the other levels can then have some sort of disc release with extra content (lock-on type stuff, anyone?) And Episode 1 can just be a "minigame" on the disc. :P Then again... I wouldn't wanna buy all of the seperate episodes, just to buy them again on disc...
If we're gonna talk about a potential Sonic 5 or other future 2D game while we wait for the soon gameplay video of S4:E2, then it needs to be this or the highway. Come on SEGA, this is so much potential, with a solid engine already made too.
1. Haha, your room didn't interest me for long! 2. Hill Top gets a free pass because 1) the two zones were spaced far enough apart that the resemblance wasn't jarring, 2) the game was beefy enough that I didn't feel one recycled level was cheating me out of anything, 3) the tiles they recycled weren't monotonous crap, tiling is meant to create the illusion of variety and clustering identical assets immediately cancels that. Actually, Hill Top doesn't get a free pass for anything. It's the shittiest zone in the game, any kid would tell you that. 3. The word you're looking for is taste. It's not a hard sell. I'd be much happier if I were still so simple! 4. Colors was gorgeous. Four of Generations' stages were gorgeous. Advance 2 and 3 still hold up remarkably well in the graphics department. The Rush games were passable in comparison. Even S4E1 had its highlights. I'm not a hard man to please! All I ever demand is a basic understanding of the style that sets this franchise apart from everything else out there.
I'd trust Taxman with making the next installment in the Sonic Genesis series any day. On a side note: Isn't it ironic that this is the SECOND TIME Dust Hill Zone has been cancelled? XD (I know it was to be called Desert Dazzle, but it's the same thing really...)
Hold on, not done jerking off yet: "Hey, wait a minute. This is a goddamn movie/song/meal/mechanical contrivance/application of human effort. Why do I care so much?" I care because I like video games! I guess you don't? No one with a hobby they're actually passionate about would be dense enough to downplay the significance of that hobby. Show some pride. Play it loud, Semper Games.
I like video games. I never said I don't. I'm just saying that it's not that big of a deal. Just, like, chill, man.
I think you're missing his point. Heck, maybe I am too! But it would seem to me that his point is that if somebody is trying to encourage you to buy something, they should present a product that they have obviously put a lot of care into.
Which, aside from a few details, they did. As far as we know, anyway... It's a step up from a previous attempt, they've shown that they're learning from their mistakes. I see no reason to blow little problems out of proportion. But hey, if we get footage showing sonic moonwalking upside-down on ceilings and homing attacking huge chains of Bubbles, then by all means, bitch as much as you want.
What else was I supposed to think? How big a deal this is is directly proportional to how much you care about video games, you casual, casual scrub gay. Any medium worth pursuing is worth criticizing, that's how things improve. You seem to understand that a little bit, so I really don't see where you're coming from with this! We've already seen one Bubbles chain. How long does the chain have to be before we recognize that as a problem?
First of all, I understand that criticizism is necessary. But there's a different between criticizism and outright whining about things that don't matter. I would prefer the art style to be more surreal, the realism clashes with the bipedal, colorful animals running around, but is it really that big of a deal? Also, yes I saw the bubble chain. And I didn't like it, but who's to say it's not the only bubble chain in the game? Wait until you have an actual reason to complain before you complain.
Honestly, no I don't. But my point is, we don't know anything about the game except for what we've seen in some stills. So don't act like Sega let us down again until we know they have.
The art style is the very heart and soul of the visuals, everything else sucks anyway. It's an extremely fucking big deal! The tree wouldn't otherwise be a big deal if it weren't such a massive cop-out preceding a game that did nothing of the sort. All of the art made for E1 was exclusive to one zone, which is what you'd expect for a game only four stages long. That's a categorical example of something E1 did better. The bar wasn't set very high. They took their sweet time getting this out and they're not bound by the Wii's size or fidelity restrictions. This is very bad.
Despite taking steps forward, Sega still has not earned back enough good will for me to trust them to not fuck this up. While I do think the screenshots reflect considerably more effort than was put into Episode I (though still not where I'd like it to be - Ritz is right to suggest that they have the art talent at Sega to make much more beautiful levels), the failures of the previous episode coupled with an overall dearth of information on what has been changed are reason enough to be pessimistic.
So through my extremely boring night I wound up watching a Let's Play of Episode I out of boredom and a little hype for this new trailer. You know, the length of the game isn't really a problem. Accompanied with the special stages, for a Sonic title, it's of decent length. The problem lies within the fact that there are so few levels, thus a lack of variety. If they made it so each level was two acts, with an additional level or two to make up for the absence I would be very happy with the longevity of the episodes because there would be a fair bit of variety. My hope is that even with the 4 level limit, is that the acts will have a fair bit of variety to them visually and gameplay wise. The Aquatic Ruin lookalike seems to change from act to act as far as lighting and scenery goes, the snow/carnival level seems to have a huge change in environment between acts, etc. Stuff like that will make me happier with the game as a whole if it's a decent game to begin with.
^ Exactly. Sonic Colors has this same problem with 6 levels with 6 acts. If it was like 9 levels with 3 acts it would have been the ultimate game.
