It's like none of you played Sonic Classic Heroes. The combi-mode co-op in that is goddamned perfect.
In most games, co-op consists of both players having to combine attacks or pressing switches to progress. I agree that style of co-op doesn't work at all in a Sonic game. But the co-op in the original Mega Drive games was okay for the non-speed sections. It suffered in the speed bits, as it was too easy for Tails to disappear. And when he finally returned, he would be going too slow and so would disappear again. If that could be fixed, then co-op would work well enough.
This. Last year at a game fair some dude brought that game (does it works on real HW? Because I remember he brought a real Genesis), and I got to play the ENTIRE game with some other random dude. And man. Best. Day. Ever. A fucking crowd came to watch us :P Something we did to keep ourselves entertained was to switch controllers every act. Lovely experience, and I find quite positive to see at least the classic co-op in Mania.
I don't know. Since the engine is rebuilt from scratch I'd love to see it if Tails (or whoever) was off screen for long enough time, another screen would pop up and you'd have the option to either fly back, or play through. Example below with crudely drawn arrow to show what I mean. Once gone off screen for X amount of time, you'd get your own mini screen until you came back. I'd be kind of sick actually.
After playing the demo for the second time at the Nintendo Switch event in London today (game looks GORGEOUS on the Switch's screen folks, like seriously), after trying out the same input combination from the Android Sonic 2 port, it appears that Tails carrying Sonic during flight isn't present. Is this a demo-only thing, to be added to the final game, or a conscious decision? Also, I was quite pleased to have a total of 222 rings by the end of the GHZ demo (played Studiopolis at Summer of Sonic, so decided upon GHZ this time).
Agreed with this. One system I think could be used as an inspiration for making a good workaround is in Retro's DKC games, in which P2 as Diddy/Dixie/Cranky could hop on P1's / DK's back. This not only allowed P2 characters to keep up with P1, but it also allowed P1 access to the P2 characters' special moves to alter their jump move (Diddy provided a horizontal hover move, Dixie allowed for a vertical hover move, and Cranky allowed for a bouncy pogo stick-esque ground pound move, a la Scrooge McDuck in the DuckTales videogame). That's not to say I'm calling for a function that allows Tails to hop on Sonic's back (though that would look pretty funny), but a similar system in which P2 could act as an "extension" of P1 I think could work for having co-op gameplay survive for speed-based sections. My personal idea for how it could function and visually operate would essentially be Knuckles Chaotix's tether, but if it didn't have the rubber-band mechanics. When things start speeding up, the players can activate a short tether that keeps P2/Tails just a few inches away from P1/Sonic, and whatever direction and speed P1 is going, the same applies for P2. This can also provide possible rewards for team synergy efforts too--if both players are on the same page and perform the same moves (like they both roll or jump at the same time), they're awarded with a bit of extra speed or a score bonus. And by-the-by, if co-op for two players does get implemented, I wonder how the gameplay rules would work for co-op players; namely in regards to item interactions (would P2/Tails be able to enter bonus/special stages, break monitors, and collect their own shields) and lives (Sonic and Tails share the same lives system, or they have their own).
I uploaded what should be the longest rip of Sonic Mania boss theme, check it out there: http://youtu.be/u37jvd3bP-k
This went ignored, but this is actually an idea I would like to see tried out. It might be a bit jarring at first, especially if each player's screen is cut in half horizontally, but it would actually make playing Tails as viable as Sonic. Although if they include it, they should also have the option to disable it if the classic style is more to your liking.
Same, although I'm not sure how long it would take to implement/test something like that. The slight pause might be a bit jarring also. I have my fingers crossed they are on top of the work load considering how close we are to launch (few months right?) quite a big undertaking for a small team
In addition to the obvious ones (which sound like a loose wire) here's some minor distortions consistent throughout the video that sound like analog line feed with shitty hardware. That, combined with the fact we've not heard them on any other video, tells me this is almost certainly not a problem with the game or port. And even if it WERE a problem with the game or port, that's exactly the kind of really obvious issue that gets noticed quickly by QA and fixed in a hurry + - unless you're EA developing the PS3 version of The Orange Box and you don't know how to make a competent sound engine that doesn't have constant clicking noises .
I never saw the 2-player mode in the classic games as a serious way for 2 people to play though the game. Helping with bosses and obstacles, sure, but going off screen and respawning all the time is too frustrating to be fun, IMO. ToeJam & Earl style 2P sounds great, but a lot of transitions between full screen and split screen might be too annoying, considering how much faster Sonic games are compared to T&E. Another option made possible by modern hardware is a little picture-in-picture box in the corner for player 2 whenever he goes off screen. Having a little box fade in an out should be way less intrusive than messing with the entire screen, and much less distracting for the first player.
Yeah, it's probably too late to implement any significant ideas. But hopefully they can at least add a button for Tails to teleport back next to Sonic when he disappears. (If they can't add that in the launch, then maybe as an update, if it's feasible to do such thing). Being able to teleport back wouldn't be perfect, but it would remove a good majority of the frustration that came from playing the classic co-op in the Mega Drive games (especially if Tails' velocity is automatically set to match Sonic's, when Tails teleports back). Of course that's assuming that they haven't got any 2P features that they aren't showing just yet (or had ideas that Sonic Team didn't want to go for).
I actually like playing co op Sonic like that if I have the opportunity. I give the inexperienced player control of Sonic and I play as Tails and will help them out. It gives me a chance to play the game from a different perspective, as I've beaten the classic Sonic games so many times that it's hard for me to think of ways to spice things up.
So, ProJared just did a video where he played this on the Switch. He admitted that while he likes the games, he's not enough of a Sonic fan to recognize any of the differences or similarities between this and the classic games. However, he did manage something pretty interesting. He was experimenting with a lot of the different things in Green Hill Zone rather than just beeline it to the end, and managed to break something just by going left through a corkscrew. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ-IzQe-OUI I know that some of you guys managed to play an earlier build of this. Is this bug or something Switch-exclusive, or did a major glitch go unnoticed all this time just because out of all of the people to play a demo of this game, nobody ever thought of going left?
There are a couple times where the audio becomes a little tinny in this video (probably a loose connection somewhere?) and all I could think about was if this is what the boost versions of the tracks would sound like if Mania were a modern game.
I might have run across one of the cork-screw bridges to the left when I played it at SoS, but I can't remember. I certainly don't remember seeing Sonic's animations slightly messed-up like this.
