Running commentary: -Ugh, Aaron just talked about how people didn't like slamming into things at high speeds, so they've slowed Sonic down. Great, not like anybody needs to get GOOD AT THE GAME IN ORDER TO NOT SUCK or anything. I mean, ugh. It'll be fine if the game is designed around it. But they knocked it out of the damn park with Generations, and I'd be fine with an iteration or two more of that. Oh well. Let's let it succeed or fail on its own merits. -Spin dash is back, but it doesn't look all that much faster than just running... -The homing attack looks kind of... automatic? Like you target a group of enemies and take 'em all out? -Keep in mind that we're seeing the first level, here. It's going to look incredibly easy. -Hah! Gold cannons! How many people are gonna remember that? -Wisps are definitely back, just saw the laser. -Sonic landed on a planetoid at the end. How very Galaxy-esque! -Aaron specifically called guys like me out, haha. I'll see what I want in level three, eh? -Looks like Sonic has a little backflip double-jump. -Hey, there's the cannon launchers from Oil Ocean! -The most notable thing I'm seeing here is that Sonic doesn't seem to have any real difference of momentum. You're either walking, running, or spin-dashing, and there's no balance between those states. The game seems built around straight lines rather than curves. -Aaron was wrong. Watching level 3 isn't making me any more interested in this, haha. Said there's no way you can stop running in this part. It looks like SkyRoads in a sense. Overall, it looks... solid. I mean, I think it'll be a decently fun time. But not at all what I personally wanted or expected for the next major Sonic game.
Aaron is also talking while playing, so I wouldn't be surprised if he played shitty because of that. Also MACH SPEED SECTIONS RETURN WORST SONIC GAME SINCE SONIC 2006 CONFIRMED.
It looks alright. Getting much more of a Colors vibe from this, as in, it's a lot slower paced. Which is weird, considering there's like a dozen speed boosters in that first level alone. Is it me or do the speed boosters not really make you go that fast at all? Generations had that same issue for Modern. They just seem kinda pointless. Maybe they'll propel you faster if you're in full throttle mode? Too early to tell, but as with a lot of people here, unnecessary speed boosters rub me the wrong way. I'm not exactly thrilled by the notion of "going fast" stages simply because it's automatic. That's kinda lame because I liked the idea of having a stage like Star Light where I could just cut loose and go fast on my own terms. And the 2D stage there looks incredibly linear and boring, with speed boosters and no momentum based physics from what I can tell so it seems pretty shallow. Possibly only a portion of the stage for the demo was shown? It was kinda short. I'd need to see more before passing judgement but what I've seen so far looks pretty bland. I do like the parkour system however, that's something that should have been implemented a long time ago. I also like how the spin dash is abusable again like in SA1 going up walls :v: And I'd need to see more gameplay but it does seem that there's no momentum at all here. It's just 3 gears and a top speed and that's it? I certainly hope that's not the case, as that's not really at all fluid. The linear stage design isn't helping matters either, but again, we haven't seen much and they're presumably the first stages of the game. So yeah, more gameplay for me before I can honestly say. This is just a knee jerk reaction really. I'll remain cautiously optimistic for now.
I just can't bring myself to like the art style. I mean, Desert Ruins 2 looks like something Dimps would throw together with how bare-bones it is. The overall style of the gameplay looks extremely clunky. All-in-all, the Wii U version isn't impressing me in the least. The 3DS version on the other hand is looking great, with bigger areas and better level design. It doesn't look bad, but it makes me wish they had implemented things like the 3-speed modes and parquor to a more refined Generations-style game than this attempt at Galaxy. As is, it looks pretty lacking to me. I hope my opinion changes.
I totally get the Galaxy comparisons, but the 3D portions, particularly in the 3DS version, remind me a lot more of Super Mario 3D Land. This isn't a bad thing; the linear level design and heavy emphasis on jumping puzzles worked very well in SM3DL, and frankly Sonic needs to be a bit more linear than Mario generally does anyway. I just find it an interesting choice.
The level layout/fixed camera in Windy Hill is rather disorienting. Music is great, though, although I'm still wondering why Sonic Heroes is the Speed Up theme ( at least in the 3DS version).
it just seems like placeholder music to me, especially since the invincibility stars don't even show up.
It just feels like this design would be perfect for a style of bonus level, but they've expanded the concept into an entire game. Maybe this is where they've been all this time? :v:
Nevermind I saw the invincibility stars on the other video, and it still has the same music. Anyways I'm liking the look of the 3DS version more than the Wii U version. I quite like the new Black hole wisp there, looks quite fun to use.
I was kind of hoping we'd get some new badniks at this point. It was neat in Colors when they brought back old badniks and in Generations it made sense, but now it just feels kind of lazy.
Windy Hill looked awesome, but everything else looked okay, honestly. I'm hoping that the majority of the levels are like that first one, because it looked literally like 2D Sonic in 3D space. Multiple paths, awesome visuals, great music, different tiers of speed, everything just looked right. The side scrolling level looked good enough, fun, but nothing special that wasn't done in Colors. The 'mach speed' level also looked fun, but again, nothing special. The game seems to shine in the fully 3D levels with multiple paths and such, here's to hoping the majority of the game is like those.
Would it be too much to assume that maybe this different play style might be specifically for the Nintendo deal, and might be more Generations-esque for the cross-platforms?
They will have some new stuff. Sonic seems to have some sort of stun attack from the air, so they seem to want more variety in attacking enemies rather than just spamming homing-attack.
Looks like the Colors team is handling this, so it wouldn't be out of the question to expect another Generations-esque game after this one at some point.
No, not really; I don't really see anything in Sonic's new moveset from this game that can't be implemented somehow with Generations' level layouts. Also found this tidbit in IGN's writeup:
This is going to sound extremely narcissistic but the music in today's reveals sounds so much like something I'd write that I'm genuinely confused.
I gave the Wii U version another watch and my opinions sort of improved on it. I think a lot of what made me worried simply boiled down to Aaron's probably not that good. But over all I think there's enough variety from what we've seen that'll make the game fun, and for all we know the first desert ruin level may have more paths than meets the eye, it's just hard to tell from Aaron poorly bouncing on truffles. Also points and no ranking system. Very interesting seeing as how this would be the first 3D Sonic game since SA1 to not have any rankings. Honestly I feel like this gameplay is kind of a combination of Generations and Adventure gameplay as well. You get the spindash back, you can hold onto ledges again like in SA2, there's that kick move that's kinda like a slide but in jump form, and there's no boosting. And is it just me or are Sonic's animations almost identical to his animations in Brawl?
I'm just drawing a blank on how to feel about this game. Game looks very easy, not very fast.. some basic platforming elements.. levels seem kinda on the short side. The donut world stage aka. Desert Ruins Act 1 (How the hell is this a desert? "Dessert Ruins"...now THAT makes more sense) looks like very basic and bland platforming.. I'm getting a NSMB. vibe. Also happy to see Sonic CD badniks return. 3DS version looks a bit more interesting as well. Looks really good too. I'm impressed with the visuals.
