Sonic And The Mystic Gems (previously known as Sonic 1 Harder Levels) is a Sonic 1 rom-hack that began in 2005 with the simple purpose of being a generic Sonic 1 for Sega Genesis with increase difficulty and revamped versions of the original levels. But now, it's going to present a completely new gaming experience with a new style of level layouts full of paths everywhere among new enemies, new objects, new character abilities, new menus, completely different styles of the Sonic 1 special stages and much more! This time, the Sonic 1 original zones gave place to new zones with unique art and a different pleasure to the eyes. The music is also being reformed to give a better ear-hearing experience, now less amateur and more like what a Sonic game must be. Charactes can glide, climb, fly, swim and homing attack everywhere. But the same time these are their generic abilities, they work slightly different to make the levels more explorative and fun to play. Smashing blocks, smashing ceilings, smashing walls and smashing enemies is what will make you positively shocked with how the game has absolutely nothing to do with its predecessor "Sonic 1 Harder Levels". Gameplay now focuses in the new "characters alternation" gameplay methodology, so to proceed in the game you'll need to know each behavior from each of the three characters available on it if you don't want to be completely stuck or lost into the mazes of the game's explorative sections. -- IMPORTANT NOTE -- Although the game is about to show a different gaming experience, it should be borne in mind that the current version is in an alpha prototype state and a lot will be modified until the next versions are released in the future. Many objects, screens and cutscenes are currently under development and may have been cut from this demo; and that includes enemies, bosses, badniks, new mechanics and even stages. Currently only a total of 5 acts and special stages are available to play. The project is not being developed quickly, so be patient and understand that a lot will be improved over time. However, we at Harder Project are open to constructive suggestions and comments that will surely help us in the evolution of the project. CREDITS Programming: HPZMan & Hcktrox (The main ones), Disco The Bat, Vladikcomper, Genesisfan64, Esrael Neto, Eduardo Knuckles, Selbi and many others Level layout design: Eduardo Knuckles, MightyArnold Sprite artists: Eduardo Knuckles, Dolphman and Anne/Sketch (from The Spriters Resource), Prilix Bokun, Mr. Cat Level artists: Eduardo Knuckles, The Spriters Resource, Estlib Music department: Eduardo Knuckles, Valleybell (because this work wouldn't be possible without his awesome tools), Hardline Team and also many others Additional support and feedback that's helping the project to improve since the past until the current days: Erik JS, Esrael Neto, Tornado, MarkeyJester, Natsumi, SonicVaan, Megalomania, Stephen UK, Bennascar, LordXernom, Spanner, Tweaker, nineko among others that I don't remember right now (sorry! :/ ) DOWNLOAD (Current version: 0.8 Rev57 Sonic Hacking Contest 2019 built)
Had a go of this one the other day, and the art in this one is good, and the music is great (big thumbs up for even using music from Jazz Jackrabbit, hearing an Act 2 mix for Exoticus is sweet). The level design, on the other hand, is the hack's main problem. The first Act of Blue Lake Paradise is okay I guess, but it feels very "open" and flat in level design; it just needs to have more variety in it. But later levels become very confusing to navigate, especially Knuckles' Act and double especially Tails' Acts, that it doesn't exactly mesh well with the formula of a Sonic game. More confusing than Sonic CD I feel, and I can adapt to Sonic CD's levels. With Knuckles' Act in particular, I can see the direction you are going for with it (like the treasure hunting in the Adventure games), but there's no indication of where I'm supposed to look, and the Mystic Gem isn't as obvious as, say, the robot transporters from CD. I only found the Mystic Gem by complete accident while I was ambling around the level, not even noticing what it looks like. I would suggest having some sort of radar like the Adventure games or even hacks like Sonic Virtual Adventure did, and make the Mystic Gem more obvious. Tails' Act of Marguerite Garden had so many dead ends in it and was just tedious to get through. The boss in Neo Neon Star Act 2 felt unfair, particularly in that I'm not provided any rings.
um im not shure if you said this before else where or not, but how much of the game is done as of now? Trying to get a feel for the time fram/expectation curve for myself. if its like super early then ill let you chill for a duke. maybe even a full half life.
