In Matthewmatosis’s game design theory essay on context sensitivity he posits a theory: The games that stand the test of time are low on context sensitivity. I think the video is illuminating but it’s also an hour long so I don’t want to make it required viewing for this thread. To try and summarize the key points: - Context sensitivity within the context of action games can be defined as when the outcome of an input changes depending on the context surrounding the player character. - An overt amount of context sensitivity has the potential to cause ambiguity and thus frustration with the core control scheme. - 3D games necessitated an increased amount of concept sensitivity that had ripple effects on the entire industry, specifically the platforming genre and it’s decreased relevance. Sonic isn’t ever brought up in the video but I couldn’t stop applying the theory to the series since I’d seen it. There is an increase in context sensitivity as the series embraces 3D gameplay, and it’s arguable that it’s created problems that we take for granted compared to it’s 2D counterparts. Sonic Adventure 2 has a textbook example in the action button, which features a host of interactions based on Sonic’s proximity to certain objects. This was such a common occurrence in 3D games that it gets brought up several times in the video, but I think Sonic has the potential to magnify the problem since judging the distance between objects when moving at high speeds can be tricky. The most common way this manifests is the light speed dash/somersault problem. We’ve all had the light speed dash fail when approaching a trail of rings with a momentum killing somersault spilling out instead. The consequences of this range from minimal outside of you losing a few precious seconds off the clock, to catastrophic when sonic accidentally rolls near a ledge instead of taking a ring path across a gap. This is probably the most damning example of how harmful these types of controls can be in these situations. The game mistaking a light dash for a somersault is a rank running misfire that wouldn’t happen if each action had dedicated inputs, as later games in the series improve on. THE CLASSIC ERA Rolling it back to the classics for reference, we have a much smaller pool of actions to work with. Sonic’s jump attack is entirely context insensitive. It might be tempting to label the roll as a context sensitive action, but if we define context sensitivity as the action changing, the line becomes fuzzy. The outcome can change based on spacing and timing, but this is also true of Mario’s slide. It meets a very loose definition of context sensitivity, though one that might be beneficial to the game in the end. Either way, I think it’s fair to say these games have a fairly low amount of context sensitivity. Sonic’s Jump and Spin attacks are available at all times, with depth and new mechanics being provided by stage gimmicks. This gives Sonic a reliable control scheme and easily understandable “skill floor” without causing much confusion or ambiguity even as the more complex stage design raises demand. Stage gimmicks have the potential to manipulate and endanger Sonic in new ways but it almost never changes the core controls, just variables related to his inertia. Sonic’s control scheme in the classic era has it’s quirks, but the consistency and reliability of actions means you always have some control over him, making it enticing to master. In the essay, Breath of the Wild is cited as a positive example of context insensitivity, due to the limited number of actions that have wide application. While I don't think Sonic the Hedgehog has much in common with that game, the classics at least share this strength. THE HOMING ATTACK 3D Sonic games are a much more difficult problem. Sonic Adventure introduced the homing attack, an entirely context sensitive way to engage with enemies. On paper it makes sense to compensate for the increased precision to land on something in 3D with a softlock, but the question then becomes how do you determine what to lock on to? Like most early 3D games, Sonic runs an algorithm based on proximity, and like most early 3D games, edge cases hold the potential for failure. You could argue that this is the case for the 2D games too with Sonic’s momentum based inertia, influenced by outside factors, but I’d argue that you still ultimately have a lot of sway on where Sonic lands. The homing attack is the opposite. The game is making the choice for you, it’s just hopefully running on a reliable enough algorithm that the choice is always in line with your thoughts. But that’s the tricky thing with lock ons and algorithms. The game can’t be in line with you 100% of the time. Sonic Adventure’s level designs and object placement are simplistic enough that this won’t be a huge issue for a lot of players, but it’s not like pressing the A button to get a homing attack and getting a jump dash, or vice versa, is an unheard of phenomenon. One might wonder whether it’d be best for these actions to be decoupled. The homing attack would still have the potential to fail, but you’d still have a choice on which action to execute, which can go a long way reducing frustration. Heroes mostly avoids context sensitive actions, but the action button from SA2 remains and is about as prone to failure. The biggest way Heroes comes up short in this regard though is the homing attack. It’s mostly unchanged, but with enemy mobs and homing attack denying obstacles demanding more precision, the fact that it’s actually less precise than the previous game can become an annoyance very quickly. It’s prone to locking onto the wrong enemy or failing outright, releasing a jump dash instead and sending Sonic hurling off of in a direction he didn’t intend to fly in. The Homing Attack problem reaches it’s apex in Unleashed, where it shares a button with the air boost. These actions serve completely opposite functions, and yet the developers saw fit to place them on the same button and let the game decide which action would actually come out when you press the input. Thankfully this quirk is offset by the addition of the reticle, which removes a lot of fuzziness from the context. You’ll have an idea of what the game is thinking before you hit go. It’s not always fast enough for a game that moves at the pace of Unleashed, but it’s a step in the right direction for the mechanic. Colors and Generations would at least have the decency to decouple the homing attack and the air boost, and other refinements came too with mixed results. Colors replaced the air dash with the double jump which dramatically reduced the chances of a mishap at the expense of the game’s fluidity. It also introduced a quirk where the homing attack’s aim would be guided by the camera, and not Sonic’s direction. Pretty harmless in this game’s case where there was rarely a reason to turn around, but it had ripple effects on a certain other title we’ll get to later. Frontiers is actually what inspired me to write this because it produces a lot of complicated edge cases for the homing attack to navigate and show’s it’s propensity for failure. Enemy mobs can’t be too complex or varied or mixed in with the platforming because Sonic’s control scheme simply wouldn’t allow for it. If you don’t believe me, try accessing some of Sonic’s mobility options during combat. Trying to cancel an air boost with a stomp often results in a cinematic attack happening instead, which isn't a problem most of the time since combat challenges and mobility challenges are usually separate, but as someone who thinks combining the two has potential in a future game I think it's a problem worth examining. All this is to say that the homing attack has barely evolved over the past 20 years of Sonic games. It’s still inflexible and prone to failure, which just makes it a hard mechanic to build complex game design around. A far cry from the flexibility of the spin attack or Sonic’s original movement system. Some concessions are necessary as a crutch just to get a game out while you figure out other solutions, but if anything the mechanic stagnated and ended up holding back the more complicated situations they wanted the player to navigate later with Frontiers. It might have been holding them back for the entire series if you think about it. Now I’m not advocating strictly for the homing attack to be removed, but I do think Sonic Team should consider building ways for the player to opt out and sidestep the homing attack into the controls. One easy gimmie is already explored in Generations: The homing attack behaves as expected, but landing a more precise bounce on the enemy rewards the player by retaining their momentum, giving the player an option. A choice to sacrifice precision and safety for control and freedom. Ease of use for flexibility. Another thing they could do is add a way for Sonic to quickly switch targets before landing. it wouldn't be ideal, but it would a bit more input from the player that could then be used to build more complex gameplay around. I believe that choices like that could be seeded all throughout Sonic’s kit and accommodated for by the level design to great effect without disrupting the ease at which 3D Sonic games can be played at the ground level. CAMERA SYSTEMS Another, less considered piece of the puzzle that can change the context of inputs is the camera, and while I think it’s a problem in early titles Sonic Team does a pretty remarkable job stamping this issue out in later titles, opting for a more static camera earlier than a lot of their contemporaries…except for Frontiers, which awards full control back to the player, warts and all. Now, if 3D Sonics were ever going to increase in complexity they couldn’t avoid the camera issue forever, so I’m actually glad they’re trying again. Plus, the game does a decent job keeping focus on the action even in places where it might have failed in earlier titles. But there are a few quirks to keep in mind. The camera can rip away from the player to focus on certain enemies and minibosses, which can be frustrating when the whole point of this open world business was choice on what type of content to engage with. The now mobile camera puts a spotlight on a quirk I talked about earlier.. The opponent must be center screen along with Sonic’s proximity to them. Easy enough to align in a lot of cases but it can lead to some wacky interactions where Sonic won’t prioritize targets that are right in front of him because they’re just slightly off camera. Pair this with all the problems with the homing attack and control scheme we just outlined and you would have a recipe for disaster if combat wasn’t designed to be simplistic and easy. Frontiers might scrape by for now, but iterations on this system will have to grapple with these core issues if they want add more depth. Some of these issues are inevitable growing pains from the jump to 3D, but as the video presents, there is proof that you can retain that 2D sense of control in a 3D space with some effort. As the video presents, Mario 3D World opts for an even more static camera than games like Sonic Colors while Odyssey and Bowser’s Fury almost completely relinquish the camera over to the player’s control instead. There's no guarantee that either of these approaches would work for Sonic, but Penny's Big Breakway released this year and presented an interesting middle ground. The camera stays at a 3/4s angle above Penny, keeping track of the action but also keeping sweeping, dynamic movements and sudden shifts to a minimum. It makes me wonder if a similar system would be possible for the Sonic series. More certainty with your movement direction might not mean a whole lot these days with dynamic systems being so common, but I think it could be valuable in both widening the skill floor and making high skill ceiling gameplay more desirable.
(Man I hate Matthewmatosis. Even when he's tackling an interesting subject he does this thing where he claims to have found a formula of objective game design becauss there is a pattern somewhere. Of course he'll conveniently brush aside any counterexamples instead in reflecting on the wider, multifactorial, chaotic landscape of games for what it is) You did a great writeup there about the problems context sensitivity may vring and how much 3D complicates things. I had never thought about some of these elements, and the way you compared classic Sonic with BotW was thought provoking. Thanks for sharing this! Would you say SA2 Green Hill aligns with the scheme you mentioned for Penny's Big Breakaway? It doesn't work the same, of course, but the camera there insists on also being a frame for the stage, indicating direction.
Penny's big breakaway was my immediate thought while watching the video and reading this topic when it came to ambiguous context sensitive actions, because I've seen that complaint a lot when the context to use Penny's Yoyo on poles isn't always obvious. These are kind of thoughts I've read about over the years in regards to how 3D Sonic games have evolved compared to their 2D ones, and would go about explaining why Shooters became the dominant genre over platformers in the jump to 3D.
It's closer than most yeah. I hadn't considered this for the topic but it's the closest adaptation of 2D level design to 3D there ever has been so there's probably insight to mine there. The main thing is that the camera is resisting interesting framing aggressive auto-correction so the player's inputs remain consistent though. This train of thought is technically older than this video. I see Sonic Frontiers get compared to BOTW often and wonder what an actual adaptation of that game's philosophy to Sonic would be like. And yes, I don't think the video is air tight, but the theory had some application to my actual experiences as a fan. It's undeniable that 3D Sonic fell short of it's 2D counterparts in terms of accessibility. My mother is actually the one that put me on 2D Sonic but whenever I put a 3D game in her hands she was only ever confused and frustrated. Many attribute this phenomenon to the changing of the times but I think it's a bit deeper than that and this theory might provide some answers. After all, she felt the same way about 3D Mario games too until 3D world came out
'USE THE THING' is the bare essence of going on an adventure, that's why there are so many interactable objects in SA2.
an aside, I've been replaying the OG dreamcast release of Sonic Adventure and holy shit the Chao stuff is so shaky without any indication as to whether my button will make me spindash or make me pick something up. It's so nerve-wracking. additionally, Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 both introduce context-sensitive actions that can trip you up: going Super. this is especially bad in Sonic 3 as of course the same input for going Super also handles Tails' and Knuckles' movement mechanics.
This notion of context sensitivity formalizes a more minor gripe I have with Superstars: the gimmicks which cause Sonic to suddenly behave differently because he is flying a spaceship, in zero gravity, or is now a pixelated jellyfish for some fucking reason. This almost never happened with the classics. In Sky Chase, we still have regular control over the player, despite the plane gimmick. In the Marble Garden boss, we're sort of using Tails' movement system, so is not without precedent. Death Egg puts you upside down but that's it. Even the bonus stages tend to involve some of the game's core physics system. Doomsday Zone is probably the closest we have to a quite different moveset.
This really makes me empathize with Sonic Team a bit, because I can't really begin to imagine how you can create a context-insensetive game for someone as fast as Sonic without the game just breaking in half. He really does feel like a character that was only designed to work in a 2D plane. I do understand the logic and reasoning behind the homing attack, but the fact that it works the exact same as it does for over 20 years, without any thought going into innovating it, is a problem. Even the rework they did for it in Lost World, it's still as context sensitive as ever
I think it's a lot deeper than just time passing, but I believe the concept of context sensitivity doesn't scratch the surface of it, much less is it a descriptor of relative success in games. Sports games tend have very context-sensitive interfaces and controls and, contrary to what the theory would expect, FIFA ended up toppling Winning Eleven (later PES and eFootball) completely because it had a more complex control scheme (among many other things), including and maybe especially among older generations. And it's a huge hit -- enough to be in the conversation about "titles/franchises that stand the test of time". The reason for this is that the context sensitivity helps the game syntax more familiar and easy to follow, whereas more arcade-y sports games end up developing their own syntax, completely divorced from what you know by seeing it on TV. Like in how you can almost always score a goal in WE by going to the goal line and passing for a tap-in. This parallel may or may not be important enough and is contingent on many other factors: context sensitivity is only one of them. So I understand 3D requires different spatial/kinesthetic abstractions, which make actions harder to manage in a limited controller. So, naturally and all else constant, the game's entire language is harder to learn. But trying to make 3D Sonic less context-sensitive also means paying attention to other elements, and what Sonic is supposed to do in that world. To be fair, compared to other platformers, 2D Sonic movement is fairly complicated. Jumping causes Sonic to go different directions and behave differently, depending on the angle of the surface and his own speed; however, we know a few implicit rules that make reading the game rules easier: Sonic can only interact with objects by colliding with them; Only Sonic can interact with objects, and they hardly ever interact with each other; Sonic can only destroy objects, never create nor hold or (almost never) move them; Objects that are beneficial to Sonic never move, at least not by themselves; This makes it so that even though movement is complex, it can only serve very few select purposes: moving right and destroying things on your way. Even pure 3D Boost stages share this trait, whereas Sonic Heroes (for instance) doesn't: sometimes you have to kill a lot of badniks, sometimes you have to find and hit a switch etc. It's a layered and negotiated understanding of how the game is supposed to work and what you are supposed to do, which the video touches upon, but I think makes up an ever bigger part of why 3D games can be complicated than pure control context-sensitivity. It isn't just the profusion of possible actions/outcomes, but the profusion of necessary courses of action too.
So I think if you were to ask matt about this he might argue that FIFA qualifies as a licensed game(which I understand you think is a pretty flimsy point to make regardless but hear me out here because I think we're on the same page), but I also think your point applies across a pretty wide series of games regardless. Grand Theft Auto is a game with a heavy amount of context sensitive actions but it's still stood the test of time, because the wide amount of actions you can perform is closer to how you can respond to a situation in real life. To provide another counterpoint, a lot of people were burned by the absence of a fishing minigame in Breath of the Wild, even though you could technically act out the entire process of killing fish and yanking them out of the water yourself. It's because literally letting you fish doesn't scratch the same itch as gameifying the very real act of fishing we do to unwind which is the actual reason people care about fishing in Zelda. This is all to say that sometimes a wide variety of actions or subsystems is actually the more resonant and intuitive thing to do for some. I think even he'd agree that the theory isn't all encompassing since he leads with Ghost Trick stands as an exception. I think the only point the video tries to present is that context sensitivity is enough of a factor to be worth discussing, which I agreed with enough to make this thread. That's the thing though, 3D games don't necessarily have to be more complicated in this regard. We end up there because the temptation with 3D environments is to make them more believable to traverse, and thus the interactions have to become more believable too. Mario 3D World, to become more akin to the 2D games, had to sacrifice a lot of the believability of a game like Mario Sunshine, but it was still possible to make 3D World all along. It just didn't stick out as the obvious choice back then. On the other hand I think, at least as long as we're working with a modern controller and camera system, context sensitivity might seem more necessary. I think it might be possible to make a 3D Sonic game without the need for a homing attack, but most think it would be necessary even in a more "pure" ruleset like the one described in your post. It might be possible to ship, say, a third person action game without a softlock mechanic, but good luck doing that when it's so entrenched in how we think.
I've been advocating for the homing attack's removal for years, but you put it into more objective terms than I ever could. It's a stagnant, stale mechanic that Sonic Team's designers, and fans, have grown complacent towards for the last 25 years. It doesn't necessarily need to go away entirely, but I still think there has to be a smarter way to attack enemies in 2024 vs 1998. And if it stays, then it can't coexist with the double jump or the boost being on the same button. Moves like the quickstep, drift, bounce, stomp, and slide are all treated as staples of Sonic's moveset, but do they have to be? I'm not sure they were ever necessary to begin with, or what they add to the level design that can't be achieved through other means, like stage gimmicks, equippable items, or other playable characters. They very much get in the way when designing Modern Sonic's control scheme. It's telling that Generations has an entire button dedicated solely to the light dash, a move I think you'll use a grand total of twice in the entire game (plus the Rocket wisp). And I don't know why it took so long for the boost to be moved to RT/R2. It's a control choice that should've been obvious all the way back in 2008. Sonic Team is just not good at economizing Sonic's moveset, and I can only guess it's out of some stubborn philosophy of trying to use as few buttons as possible, since that's what the Classic games did, but the context between the two is entirely different. A solution for the homing attack I've always liked is a relatively simple one that I'm not sure why Sonic hasn't ever tried (for ordinary levels, not open zones): a melee attack. I don't like the common Sonic argument of "why can't it be more like [insert unrelated game here]", but Solar Ash is a great example of this, as its structure and world design isn't dissimilar from Frontiers. You attack enemies with a wide swipe that you can use while jumping or running, and it can even chain into a combo for tougher enemies and bosses. It isn't unlike the instashield in Sonic 3, if you think about it. Note that in Solar Ash, jumping, boosting, attacking, and interacting are all separate buttons. There's also a grapple move that functions similarly to the homing attack, and it has a reticle, but unlike Sonic, there are no worries about context sensitivity, because it's never used for an enemy. The game isn't a masterpiece or anything (its combat is rather limited compared to its potential), but this set of mechanics is infinitely more flexible than 3D Sonic's controls have ever been, because it offers an equal amount of depth between both platforming and combat sections, with the same control scheme, and manages to combine the two in a natural way, something Frontiers never does, as you pointed out. A melee attack not only encourages flow and momentum better than the homing attack does, but it could even contribute to it by increasing your speed for a successful hit. It doesn't very much allow for bouncing off enemies to go across a gap, but that always seemed like a level design crutch to me anyway. With a double jump and proper physics-based platforming, you should be able to move across any gap without an issue. The problem would then come from asking the player to time a melee attack properly while going 200mph. Interestingly, Solar Ash originally had momentum gaining to allow for higher speeds, but it was taken out of the final game. I wonder if it was too unwieldy in the end. I'm sorry. I don't want to deviate from your point and make this into another "how do we fix Sonic" thread.
What an analysis. This actually explains why it’s been so difficult for me to fully embrace 3D Sonic….even though I was still a kid when Sonic Adventure can out.
I didn't mean to suggest it isn't! Especially in Sonic, I think it's very important and you outlined the most crucial problems that were tackled. I do think we're in the same page about how some subsystems scratch an itch that a compound of other smaller subsystems might not (like being technically able to fish but not being able to ~fish~). This is true; you don't need to make it more complicated, but as we've seen, simplifying and streamlining the actions is something of a conscious effort. I guess this comes in a landscape where widespread 3D was so important a technological innovation that simplifying the possible actions (thus reducing context senitivity) wasn't seen as desirable at first. Maybe the homing attack is entrenched and ultimately unnecessary, strictly speaking, but we've seen so many attempts at a softlock from so many fronts that it does look like you'll have to build a different game for it to be disposable.
I think BotW's greatest strength was definitely how natural interactions felt, like a 2D game in three dimensions if that makes sense. Don't know if that kind of design mentality could work for Sonic though, because fangame creators have tried numerous times to recreate classic in 3D and I've never been super impressed by the attempts, as they never quite capture the accessibility and depth of classic while weaving it into interesting levels. I guess out of all the games I've tried, Robo Blast 2 got kinda close? Also I still think the homing attack could've been much better if it didn't stop your momentum if you keep holding the joystick forward. Dunno why they never tried that
I think it's possible, but you have to acknowledge the camera issue. A lot of early 3D fan games were so obsessed with the idea of absolute freedom that they avoided any real camera scripting, making simple actions difficult with the added layer of lining Sonic up. I think this problem goes away if you make the camera as much of a non factor as possible though. Sonic's imprecise controls are enough of a quirk without the added struggle of playing cameraman That's something a lot of people do when they're playing the games casually, so they probably wanted something more concrete as a 'check' like maybe holding a button down mid flight
In my experience most 3D platformer camera problems are solved by just having a button that snaps it behind you. It's just that an embarrassing number of games (including Sonic Adventure) never bothered with simple solutions like that and now everyone's used to FPS controls where you're manning the camera constantly.
I actually disagree with this, I had been emulating Sonic Adventure recently and found that instinctively micromanaging the camera in this manner broke it - to the point where the shots of the whale run in Emerald Coast were completely busted (staying behind Sonic instead of in front of him, with the added bonus of also completely breaking the controls too). Sonic Adventure does also have a lot of camera scripting outside of "setpiece moments", it's just that it's unfortunately very bad and slooooow hahahahah.
it ostensibly does - when it works in the setpiece moments I don't recall being able to move it - but if you enter the setpiece with a broken camera it just doesn't fix itself for some reason.
