At Gamescom, I was able to play the first and second acts of Planet Wisp... except in the act I played, I was climbing some sort of tower. The video of the second act on the Sonic Stadium showed something entirely different. Also, I can't believe a new Sonic game is GOTY contender for me.
I could be something as simple as them switching acts around. What was act two is now act three, and vice versa. I don't think they up and scrapped the previous act two entirely.
This, they could have switched the acts just for the demo. Maybe they just thought it was a better act to show to the public,
That could very well be it but the thing that makes it seem weird is that Dread took a completely different path in the first act than we've seen anyone else take and then he ends up at a different goal ring. Then, this different goal ring leads him to a different act 2. Just seems a bit weird. Though looking at the level map... I see optional levels but no splitting paths. They could have switched the acts just as well, the act right above the beginning of the map looks like the tower stage, but it's still interesting to see.
Well, swapping stages around for balancing reasons isn't exactly foreign to the series, is it, Retrogoers? :v:
As a side note, I still can't get over how much Planet Wisp makes me think of Phantasy Star Online. It's mainly the fact the stage makes me think of a mixture between Caves II and Forest I, and the giant dome looks a lot like the dome from Phantasy Star Online which plays a big part in the story of episode 1. Every time I see it I remember the good ole' days of playing that game with friends. >_> EDIT: As a bonus, Dread confirms my theory is correct, each zone has 3 songs for it and each song gets played in two stages. Then each of the three songs are also retro-ized for an act in the Sonic Simulator. Also the game appears to have 7 zones and then a final stage, so seven zones with six acts each and a boss then "Final Zone". So now knowing that, 7*6 is 42 obviously and then add 1 (for final zone) and that makes 43 regular stages not including boss battles. IF you include boss battle acts, then the game sits neatly as having exactly 50 stages. So including then, we have 50 acts (7*7+1) and then bringing in the Sonic Simulator, which has 21 stages, we'd have a grand total of... 71 Stages. Minimum of 71 stages in Sonic Colors (who knows, there could be something like a secret stage maybe...) confirmed! This also means in terms of stage music, not including final zone as not sure if a stage or a stage/boss, we'd have 21 music tracks in the normal games stages plus retro versions of each, making a total of 42 stage songs. Add to that the seven Wisp themes (49), the title screen (50), the main map (51), the seven stage maps (58), and at least one boss song and final boss song (60), the stage results screen (61) and then finally the two vocal themes we know are in the game (63)... So we know the content of 63 songs inside the game. This is good knowledge!
Where are you getting this info, Dusk? If it's all legit I'm super pumped, after Sonic 4 I'm not sure if I should be getting excited for a Sonic game but, wow.
Just saw the gameplay videos. I've not felt this way about a game in a long time. I need this game... I need this game in my pants RIGHT NOW. It flabbergasts me that after a decade of mediocre to terrible games, SEGA FINALLY gets it right, no, perfect. Flabbergasted, but in a good way. :>
Oh my god. This entire Act. And that music. I'm actually smiling the more I see footage of this game.
I just noticed that Planet Wisp Act 2 is almost entirely a 2D segment, by the way. Hope there aren't too many acts like that, as fun as this one looks.
Holy shit. This is phenomenal. Tons of music, tons of levels. Dusk Golem, I must thank you for bringing all this knowledge to light. It's wonderful that we have a Sonic game that finally does it all right. It's... It's as if... Sonic Team actually cares for once.
That entire act, yes. My only problem with it is that I'm seeing a bit of cookie-cutter level architecture, I.e., it looks like the structure the level's made of is built to be re-used for something else, with paths that appear to blocked off and stuff. And this particular Act doesn't seem to have much in the way of alternate paths, although, I could just be missing them. Still, can't really tell without having the game in my hand so I can hyper-analyze it myself.
I can totally hear elements of the NiGHTS track "Gloom of the NHC" in the music for that act (around 1:10). Anyone else?
This level. This is the most beautiful thing ever seen for me. It could be me but I'm seeing even more classic things on this game rather than Sonic 4. First, spiny in that screenshot... and now that scrolling platforms there, almost in the final, they are like the ones found in Spring Yard Zone. As for the music, it's relaxing, beautiful and really fitting for a level not really focused on speed. I'm really digging for this beautiful game. Liking it more than Sonic 4.