Yeah, looks good. Definitely getting an ancient abandoned Cathedral vibe with a bit of Botanic Base and maybe Egg Garden. I like how original it looks compared to all the other classic stages. The red fish and black dog head are interesting. The red lampost thing on the left reminds me of the blue lampost in the Sonic CD Final Fever concept art: I wouldn't mind it if they a do a 30 second reveal like they did with Flying Battery. No need to show more than that prior to release.
Well, there is a difference between a few screens and a complete zone reveal. And it does spoil the game.
I was kind of hoping for a Flying Battery style trailer, with the rest kept secret till release. Not showing off the entire zone. Either way, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. :v:
I don't know if this was because the games were released later here in comparison to the US, or if I was just too poor to buy games at launch, but back in the day I'd often read everything about a game and see multiple screenshots of every level in gaming magazines before actually being able to play them, and I never felt like that spoiled the fun for me. That would be kinda like saying that pornography spoils sex (which some people actually do advocate!), but seeing it and doing it yourself are completely different experiences, and the former may actually get you pumped up for the latter. That being said, I don't want to know every little detail of the game before its launch, which is why I've watched probably about 20% of the footage that's been released so far. I don't watch every shaky cam video taken at events, I don't watch multiple officially released videos of the same zones, I don't rewatch videos to "look for stuff" or memorize level layouts... But I do get pumped up from knowing a little more of the overall feel of the game.
What is considered a big spoiler differs from person to person. Personally I want to see as little as possible of a game before I play it because I want everything to be fresh and surprising when I actually do play it, so yeah I'd be okay with it if Sega didn't reveal any new zones at all before launch. Meanwhile I'm sure some others here wouldn't mind knowing about every zone before playing the game. I think it's better to not reveal every zone in marketing and especially not before launch though. Those who want to know about every zone can just look that up when the game is actually out.
Look, if you don't want to be "spoiled," practice some self-restraint and avoid the media. Not marketing your game is a great way to ensure it doesn't sell well.
They don't need to spoil the entire game to market it. That's what Sega did with past Sonic games and it was completely unnecessary. And with the way social media works, it would be pretty hard to avoid each reveal. I have the self-restraint to avoid trailers, but my Twitter feed sure won't have that.
Words of wisdom. Honestly, not tripping over spoilers just takes some self control. Looking and seeing is different from the actual experience. Plus, the second the game is out, the spoilers will be even worse. Anyways, you know what easter egg I'm looking forward to the most? Having an ending credits which shows Sonic running through a few select levels and being able to fuck with him. I bet you all forgot about that shit in Sonic 1!
Easier said than done avoiding spoilers. I agree with Timmit's take. It's nice when everyone is collectively surprised with a game's content. It's only full zone video I have a real issue with, screenshots still leave allot to the imagination. Just look at how everyone's been going mad over that one grainy screen of the new zone. I think that's amazing. There's allot to be said about building hype from showing very little. For example take Daft Punk's last album, masterfully hyped (although imo not their strongest album) - Just a few stylish clips and bang, everyone goes mental.
Then surely you can control yourself and not click the play button if the preview looks spoilerish, or stop watching a video if you think you're seeing too much.
I'm split between the two camps. Obviously I'd like to know everything I can about the game, but thinking back to Generations and it's PR lead up really spoiled me. None of the zones were a surprise anymore, and I think in retrospect I would have preferred seeing them blindly. The most surprise I got were the side missions with their unique objectives and interactions with the side characters. At this point I don't think I want any more classic levels to be revealed. I like the thought of being surprised by an old favorite. As for the new levels, I would be fine with a few screens and small segment videos similar to Flying Battery, but no full level playthroughs. People start to dissect the footage, then there is nothing left to discover.
This reveal is long overdue, seeing as Studiopolis is the only truly original zone we've seen so far when Mirage Saloon was based on existing assets. We need two examples to establish a pattern.
re: spoilers You know, some other forums about other things (e.g. TV shows) sometimes have two separate discussions, one with spoilers and behind-the-scenes content, and another one without. It should have been suggested 297 pages ago, though.
We can have 2 threads, spoiler tags, whatever, but what the people who don't want to see stuff revealed are saying is they don't get their info only from the forums, so this won't solve their problem. I'm of the opinion that if you really don't want anything to be spoiled, you simply shouldn't click the play button. If you think a still image of a Zone and its name will spoil the game for you, then you probably have pretty low expectations for the gameplay.
That's not it at all. It's just that people would like to go into a game totally blind when they know they're going to play and enjoy it anyway. You get the thrill of seeing the new content at the same time you get to play it for the time. It's an awesome feeling. I recommend you guys who want to avoid spoilers download a plugins to protect your browsing. I use Spoiler Protection for Chrome. I've got it set to block any content with a bunch of custom tags pertaining to Mania. It works a treat. I used it for Pokémon Sun/Moon and went in seeing virtually no new Pokémon or details. It was great.