Sonic the Hedgehog CDX

I love the attention to detail present in the sprite work, especially the chain coming out of little planet. Nice work so far.

 

Wow, this is gorgeous. Good luck with this project!

 

Oh good, another reason to live. Looks just gorgeous, wishing you and your team everything you need to complete this endeavor.

 

This looks great! That final screenshot is very intriguing to me with the dual Sonic and Amy icons and their reflections on the tiles

 

Very nice looking. The sprites are amazing, and especially Sonic himself.

What is the code based on, or is it done from scratch?

I'm going to disagree about the chain though. I think it's a detail best left out. It looks very strange to me as is presented, and someone not familiar with the story would look at that and say "WTF?!".

I would also be careful about glass reflections, because it might not look right if it's only going to reflect certain things, and not other things.

 

That Palmtree Panic background art is slick as fuck. It's so easy on the eyes, and the multiple layers look very nice in motion.

 

will you implamanet the unuzed true final boss? i always had hopes some one would finaly make him a playable fight

 

On the subject of unused content - any chance we'll see your team's take on the missing Round 2? I know we don't have a lot to go on information-wise, but we have more idea of what it was supposed to entail than even in 2011 when the remake launched. I'd be excited to see what your team could come up with based on what scant information there is. Would be great to finally hear that Little Planet theme as stage music like it was intended to be...!

...Admittedly, this would also mean remixes would be needed for Past and both Future time zones; with that and designing a stage completely from scratch, I'm guessing it'd be a much heavier workload than any of the other stages. So even though it's something that'd be great to see, I also completely understand if it's something not being considered for this project...!

 

Actually, I believe R2 was in the works, as I knew about this project's existence already via Daan Demmers/Ramiro Bandicoot's (now aRBee's) YouTube channel. I've been checking up on that channel ever sense he posted the Mania styled Tidal Tempest tracks years back. My concern, however, is that it seems like he's going the "Relic Ruins" route with that BGM, and if there's one thing I'm not a fan of, it's elevated "fan/hoax music". Maybe he wasn't aware of it, but D.A. Garden/Little Planet has been confirmed to be the present track for R2, as it's a holdover. Sonic CD's my favorite game in the series and R2 is the one missing link I want more than anything else left to discover in 90's Sonic, but it's going to feel wrong if it's not using the right BGM, I'll admit (which would also need past and future arrangements of, which is something we don't have).

There's lots of good information and speculation in this thread we had over the summer. https://forums.sonicretro.org/index...-level-discussion-post-origins-edition.41136/

The OP is missing this image for whatever reason...
https://info.sonicretro.org/images/5/5b/SonicCD_MCD_Development_LittlePlanet.png

Some things included R2's visual aesthetic was possibly less like a straight up Marble Zone and more like a jungle ruins trope with a heavy emphasis on underground gameplay and gimmicks, such as Amy falling into a(n ant lion) pit early on and shrieking on her way down. It being jungle above and ruins underneath also makes more sense of the BGM provided in a way that a strict Marble Zone pastiche wouldn't have, and honestly, it even matches the Toei animation clip (at least somewhat, it's still a little mechanical for a stage that was only supposed to be 10% influenced by Eggman, according to Little Planet's conceptual map). We also know it takes place during the day time, it had Marble Zone's swinging platforms, and some fan based gimmicks, similar to what Tidal Tempest ended up having but perhaps on a much bigger scale.

Also, this map is really good for Zone transitions, if you want to go that route.

Actually, if I may offer one other consideration in terms of BGM, something I've noticed for the past decade and a half is that, more than any other song, Collision Chaos 'G' Mix is a fan favorite song that is often attempted but almost never nailed, with fan arrangements feeling flat or empty (or even grating). I think it's because people can't quite put a handle on the genre of it. If broken down, it sounds like a combination of New Jack Swing and New Wave (the part people aren't getting), so if the plan was for something authentic in the soundtracks (perhaps for one of the acts), I would have Daan listen for some inspirations in those genres. In fact, Screwstache already has and it's the most on point cover of the song ever made.
https://soundcloud.com/big_screwww/sonic-cd-collision-chaos-good-future-remix

It has all the warmth every other arrangement lacks. Just something else to pass along if you want to, depending on how true-to-the-original you plan for CDX to be. I apologize if I'm a bit overbearing when it comes to the music, but it's one of the very few things about the franchise I hold pretty dear to be honest.

That all said, even though I knew this project was happening, I'm still excited (and a bit anxious, no doubt) about it! An expanded Sonic CD is something I've wanted ever since I was a kid, and felt a bit like I missed out on getting after Taxman showed what he planned to do but couldn't.

 

I hope it's alright if I offer my concept for an R2 implementation. Keeping with the alliteration naming motif and the theory of R2 being akin to S1's Marble Zone, I'm thinking "Rainbow Ruins" or "Heavenly Halcyon".

The theme is essentially a more fleshed out Marble Zone with shades of Sanctuary Zone and Greco-Roman architecture, a la S3K's Marble Garden. All with rainbows and waterfalls over a bluish-silver landscape peppered with green grass and other flora growing like grass from a sidewalk, as though Sonic showed up as nature begins to reclaim the area.

In the past, the zone was not unlike The Garden of Eden from Abrahamic faiths, lush and green with an ecopunk design showing an advanced civilization living in tandem with nature.

In the bad future, Eggman's sins have turned the heavenly sight hellish. Fire has burned all the plant life away as lava flows. Imagine the first act of Lava Reef Zone if it had S3K Hidden Palace's architecture.

In the good future, the area has been restored into a crystalline utopia bolstered by a sudden arctic chill.

Basically the futures either represent either a fiery hell or an icy heaven.

 

Not bad! And by that, I mean pretty freakin' sweet! I love the sprite work, which adds more animation and expressiveness than the original while remaining faithful to the original design. It's a big improvement over Sonic's "mania" sprite set!


Would you be willing to share the tools and assets you used to do the remake after some time has passed following the proper release? Everything about Sonic CD was good, except the level design. When I used to play SCD, I was so wrapped up in how good the music, art, and time travel were that I overlooked how boring most of the levels actually were. After playing SCD about 30 times, the one fault in the game just becomes too hard not to notice, and simple layout hacks are so much easier to make than any other type of mod.

 

Sounds like there's more than one reason to get excited about this project.

Here's a question; I see time travel seems to be assigned to its own button. How does that work? I don't have any problems with the original mechanics but I know it's contentious for most people so I'm curious how you're planning on handling it.

 

No matter what you're not gonna please everybody. Maybe a easy/medium/hard setting? Easy: Literally just press a button. Medium: What you have or something similar to it. Hard: The original time travel method (some people might want the option? Maybe?)

Echoing others to say the look is fantastic. Really smart porting assets and layout from the Retro engine version. Gave you a huge head start, I'm sure. Good luck, and looking forward to seeing more.

 

can you make it so that the bad future has harder/ cooler bosses? i love a good "hard mode" like knuckles in s3&k i loved how he was a hard mode for the game and bosses. so hoping scd can finaly get a proper "hard mode, esp if playing through the hard mode is a good way to get the true final boss like maybe bad future is hard mode, unless you have all time stones, then ALL bosses become Hard mode variants and true final ending/boss unlocks?

 

That’s a lot of hard modes.