Watching people constantly type "A U T I S M" in the YouTube E3 chat during the Sonic Forces segment is a continuous sad reminder of how we are perceived as a community. Are full levels playable on the show floor? If so, I'd imagine we'd see full playthoughs soon. What has been shown screams lack of confidence. There are cool bits here and there, but nothing spectacular. In fact, if feels very recycled. A further evolution of the Boost gameplay is welcome. The OC is a neat idea that will make everyone cringe. Classic Sonic appears to be not only superfluous, but it's Green Hill again, Green Hill Boss again, AND Egg Dragoon again. Having everything in one package is so 1998. This could have only been Modern Sonic and OC, and it would already have been better. I always expected this to be reviewed worse than Mania, but I can picture points falling off the Metacritic score every time I see new clips.
SIGH. I'm getting really sick and tired of seeing all these stupid 2D sections. If the game is in 3D then why can't it stay in 3D? This game is literally all 2D sections and the only 3D sections I've seen so far is the first 30-40 seconds of Modern Sonic gameplay and in the recent E3 footage today it went straight to 2D again past the 40 second mark. I really hate the 2D crap in the more recent Modern games. It usually has bad level design, it's small and zoomed out and also hard to see, and if I'm playing the game on a console and I'm not on top of the TV screen it's very hard for me to see everything on the screen which results in me getting hit by enemies. I really liked Sonic Generations and and still do but even in that game I would find myself lost in all the detail and get hit. If I'm playing a 3D game I really want it to stay 3D. If I wanted to play 2D stuff then I'd play the old classic Genesis games or Sonic Mania. People like to give Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 a lot of crap but at least they stayed 3D the whole time. The 2D sections especially in Sonic Colors were not fun to me. They felt more tedious if anything. I didn't mind the 2D sections in Unleashed and Generations because in Moderns gameplay it was every now and then it would be 2D and then would go back to 3D unlike Colors where it was 90% crappy 2D. Another thing too is that they shoehorned Classic Sonic into this game so that his gameplay style would be "2D" so then why the Hell is almost all the footage of the Avatar character's gameplay also in 2D and even Modern Sonic's gameplay? It makes Classic Sonic's inclusion all the more pointless. I was initially excited for this game when it was first shown off but the more footage I've seen of it the less impressed and enthusiastic I've become. And I liked the Boost gameplay too. But if it means relying on crappy gimmicks or 2D sections to make the gameplay style work then I think it's time to find a new gameplay style for Sonic that works. Also, remember when enemies were actually useful and could attack you? Now all they do is just stand there and wait to get hit by either you boosting or the Avatar character's flame thrower. Another thing that bothered me is that E3 presentation. I thought it was really disappointing and they really didn't show us much of anything. It was literally the same footage we already saw this morning. Also, I really hate the wisps and wish they would stop reappearing in every Sonic game. They have really overstayed their welcome in my book.
Well... http://www.seganerds.com/2013/08/06/iizuka-color-powers-will-be-standard-in-future-sonic-games/
Unfortunately. -_- Their implementation has only gotten worse since then. Anywho, there was recently another showcase of Mania and Forces on the YouTube at E3 Live stream. They showed the full levels of the classic Sonic boss fight with Eggman and Custom Hero gameplay (it ended with a giant spider/crab chase). Modern Sonic they cut away though, albeit they still showed more info than before. The game is still continuing to not impress on its level design choices. The dash panel abuse isn't restricted to the classic Sonic levels, we have things like a dash panel placed squarely at the bottom of a half-pipe, and a a dash panel placed before a dash panel placed before a grinding rail in the Custom Hero stage. Almost all of the enemies in that level were lined up in rows of five too for whatever reason. And a huge chunk of both the modern Sonic and Custom Hero gameplay is mostly 2D too, and its all the same Colors/Lost World-styled fifth-rate NES platformer level design. I will say the Green Hill level in the Custom Hero level is a step up compared to the Green Hill from the classic Sonic level from April. About a third of the level through, the player enters some sort of factory setup placed in the level, and it has those giant spider/crabs running about, which saves it from looking like a direct rehash of Green Hill that the classic Sonic level was.
https://youtu.be/MzwPrWAeHKo?t=189 I really love this very low delay with homing attacks. Gives Sonic so much more flow. EDIT: original video was removed for some reason, replaced it with another.
It's an interesting idea, having a "Modern Sonic Dimension" and a "Classic Sonic Dimension" that both share Sonic 1, 2, 3&K and CD as a foundation. It's a given that "Chaotix" isn't part of the Modern Sonic Dimension, but it could easily be part of the Classic Sonic Dimension. Similarly, Sonic 4 is part of the Modern Sonic Dimension, but the Classic Sonic Dimension could get to ignore it entirely. Iizuka already said that Mighty the Armadillo is part of the Classic Sonic Dimension (CSD) and not the Modern Sonic Dimension (MSD). So neither SegaSonic arcade nor Chaotix 32X happened in MSD, but one or both of them happened in CSD. Modern Sonic Dimension timeline Sonic 1 Sonic 2 Sonic 3 & Knuckles Sonic CD Sonic 4: Episode I Sonic 4: Episode Metal Sonic 4: Episode II Sonic Adventure Sonic Shuffle Sonic Adventure 2 Sonic Advance Sonic Advance 2 Sonic Heroes etc. Sonic Forces Classic Sonic Dimension timeline Sonic 1 Sega Sonic the Hedgehog Sonic 2 Sonic 3 & Knuckles Sonic CD Chaotix Sonic Mania Sonic Forces (Of course this is just theory and guess work. Sonic CD might take place before Sonic 2. Sega Sonic might take place after S3&K. Mania might be a prequel to Chaotix. But you get the point.) Being two different dimensions could also explain why the Chaos Emeralds in Sonic Mania are a different shape and colour set compared to how they've looked for the past 19 years. If they wanted an in-story explanation for why there are now two dimensions, the events of Sonic Generations could have created a divergent timeline for its Classic Sonic. After all, Modern Sonic didn't remember fighting the Time Eater when he was younger!
The whole dimension talk is just an excuse to have both a Modern pillar and a Classic Pillar (FINALLY) going simultaneously without them having to deal with timeline-obsessed fans asking them timeline questions they've never bothered to worry about in the past but don't want to outright tell them they're over-analyzing things. It's fine by me; Mario has had no issues with having multiple sub-series that explore different directions with his gameplay, and there's no reason Sonic shouldn't be able to either. I really want to get a hold of Forces because I'm getting the distinct feeling from the movement seen in Modern Sonic's gameplay shown that Sonic Team may have finally messed with Sonic's low-speed maneuvering to be a bit more Adventure-esque, which I would be very happy about. Just a bummer his zone is still pretty automation/2D heavy and pretty linear from what I can tell. Hopefully Sonic Team don't forget that Modern Seaside Hill from Generations is literally the best 3D level they've ever created and that it should be the standard by which all future Boost-formula levels should be judged. Custom character Green Hill I didn't actually mind all that much. I have such low expectations for that style that I can just look at it and see a fairly fun time in it. Classic Sonic still looks shoe-horned in and inferior to Mania's classic gameplay, so the status quo remains, I guess.
See, I feel like maybe it took them that long because of the character creator. I can definitely see them spending a lot of time on how they wanted to tackle that. And then having to reuse assets to make deadline. Whether the end result was worth it I guess that's up to people to decide on their own. Plus, I would be surprised if there's not another game coming next year to tie-in with the movie.
Assuming that's true, that just begs the question on why they're making a game that has its focus spread so thin to begin with, IMO. If they really wanted to make a game around the character creator and gadgets, they should had held off on the concept and made it a spinoff. Not squeeze it as a third wheel into a main series game that has its focus already split between classic Sonic and modern Sonic as it is (though honestly, this also applies to classic Sonic too. This should had strictly been a boost game.) As for the film, it hasn't even started production yet, despite being first announced three years ago. Despite being touted for release next year, it's still in pre-production (if not development hell) as of this writing. It's entirely possible the project doesn't get off the ground.
Judging by the GHZ footage for the avatar, it seems "cheesy lyrics, drum & bass and synthwave" are the norm in their stages.
Is "Perfect Bonus" awarded for no death, or rather no hit? Hopefully the latter, unlike in Generations.
Without knowing the behind-the-scenes of Sega we can't really answer that. For all we know Sonic Team wants 7 years to make a game and Sega doesn't let them. On top of Sonic don't they also lend staff for Puyo Puyo games? It just seems they get spread thin.
Four years however is a lot more time they've had to develop a game compared to past titles. The last time a main Sonic game had even more than two years of development was the Adventure games from over ten years ago. Moreover, its the first project they're developing without also working on a major side project (i.e. alternating between HD games like Sonic 2006, Unleashed, and Generations with the Wii's Storybook games and Colors). The only thing they've done is Sonic Runners, and that was a small mobile game that was only live for one year. (As for the the Puyo Puyo titles, despite being credited to Sonic Team, its been said they have been developed by another group for a while now. Can't seem to find the post, however.) Meanwhile, Mania is being developed on a smaller budget and less available staff, and has been in development in far less time (believe it was said it has been in development for eighteen months, roughly a year and a half). Yet that game has a clear direction on what title it is going to be, and is a receiving a more widespread positive response from the press/community. They are impressing far more, with far less materials; compared to Sonic Team. I'm not really seeing any strong arguments as to why we should give this studio any benefit of the doubt here--and I talking here without haven't even bringing in their past track record of the quality of their past games (re: games prior to and following Colors and Generations) as it is.
So I watched E3 gameplay videos of the game and have to admit I like what I see. Of course it's not great (far from that) but looks fun enough to spend an evening with. Definitely will but the game on release.
I was super excited to see how fast the homing attack is, I've always hated how much delay they usually give it. On the other hand, while I'm happy rings no longer give boost, I'm disappointed to see that enemies do. Looks like boost will be overly easy to come by, after all.
