Sonic X Shadow Generations announced, releases Autumn 2024

I play fighting games on a controller regularly so having to move my finger to the other button for an entirely different command is how I stay alive, so I have no issue with that. I wonder how it would be for casual players, though.

 

I do prefer having the homing attack on the same button but I also don’t think it’s a good idea to keep screwing with people’s muscle memory by remapping it game to game. Commit to one option as a default and offer legacy controls in games that can accommodate it.

 

D-Pad wouldn't be very quick. It was great on the triggers for the fact that, well, if was quick.

This wouldn't be a problem if back paddles were standard...

 

Homming Attacking with Square is infinitely better for any game that has a double jump, since it allows you to actually choose what you want to do even if there's an enemy near you, and I also like that you can Homming attack from the ground in Frontiers specifically. While in the case of this re-release, I assume everyone's okay with it because of consistency as Starduster mentioned

 

But Sonic doesn't have a double jump in addition to Homing Attack. I thought the whole point of a double jump in a platformer was to give you some midair control in case you jump in the wrong direction, which homing attack on A/X helps with.

Remember when games had control options? Like "Control Scheme A, Control Scheme B-D", etc? What happened to those? What happened to being able to remap controls the way you want (in the game, not the Switch home menu or some shit)?

 

He has one in every single main 3D game since Colors, with the sole exception of Generations

 

...So he doesn't have a double jump.

 

I wasn't talking about Generations in the first half of my post. Frontiers changing it to square is good because you have a double jump in that game, while Generations having a Homming Attack on square is good for consistency

 

But Shadow does. Maintain consistency between games, especially if they're being sold in the same package.

Homing attack being married to a separate button is such a non existent issue in the scene of what's "cumbersome". One button to jump, one button to attack/action. That's fairly common in games, no? Plus we know that both Modern and Classic Sonic have the Drop Dash implemented. Considering everything, it makes sense to me that homing attack shouldn't be mapped to double jump.

 

Well good news! You don't actually get to make that rationalization. You're inventing a reason that people (maybe you, I don't know and it doesn't matter) might have said it was the first stage, but you don't actually know that for sure for any person unless they tell you. Actually, I'm telling you the inverse right now, because I guarantee that when I was the person saying it, I was just saying whatever could suggest to me that I'd still have fun with the game and everyone else was wrong. "Wait and see" can defend literally anything bad in a game until it's released and sometimes not even then. If you want to argue in favor of the game, argue in favor of this level. It's not without merit, it's better than being compared to Forces in a lot of instances, and frankly, people overstate how much worse Forces is than the other boost games to begin with. If you're just mad people don't like it, just tell us to shut up. At least that would be honest.

Yes it is, actually. Nobody told you or them to do that. The first level shown off for Cyberspace was 4-2. 06's marketing focused on Crisis City and Kingdom Valley, Secret Rings used Night Palace, Forces literally has a Classic Sonic Green Hill level and it's not the first. Forces is not an exception to any particular rule, and if you're arguing that people were wrong to assume it was because it was actually following a different rule that nobody could have known before the game came out (and which is also subjective), you're not making any kind of nuanced statement.

I'm not really directing this at you, since you're not prone to outbursts denying the lion's share of criticism that Sonic games face. But I also think it's just a shallow way to engage with the discussion. This is the level they're showing off, this is what they want us to see, so this is what is being criticized. Does it get better later? Maybe! Forces and Frontiers both did. But if we can't know that for certain, we should work within the bounds of what we do know.

With regards to the control debate: Having Boost on RT and homing attack on X only works in an idiom where the homing attack is more accessible than it is in Generations, and the boost is as versatile as it is in Frontiers. It makes sense in a game where Sonic turns well enough to not need to drift that you would map something else to the right trigger, and boosting is not a precise action. In the same game, X has become a more all-purpose combat button, so separating the homing attack from all that and making it automatically switch off the double-jump like in previous games is both unnecessary and more prone to failure. There are very few Homing Attack misfires in Frontiers! The series should shoot for more of that, but it's also because Frontiers has no air dash, instead letting you go wild with the air boost. Generations...I dunno, the air boost is a lot more unwieldy in that game, but now you're going to have muscle memory for Shadow or Frontiers and sending yourself over cliffs. There's also still the possibility for HA misfires due to the presence of Generations' crappy air dash. I generally don't think it's a wise decision overall (especially knowing I won't be able to drift with my right index finger, that's gonna fuck me up), but as long as there's an option to switch it back (and well, I'm a PC player, so I won't have any issues) I guess it's fine as one choice.

 

Yeah, that's a good point! Wasn't thinking that much, mb. I do have back paddles on my 8bitdo ultimate controller so i guess they'll be good for that. Worst case scenario, there's at least decent system wide options for remapping (i swapped around the triggers in frontiers to make it more playable) on most systems.

 

It's common in games where you're not moving 300 miles an hour and also have a precedent for that control scheme across multiple games (including the original this is a remaster of), sure. It would be a non-existent issue if you could remap your controls, or change back to the old controls, but it's pretty obvious you won't be able to, given no prior Sonic game has ever done that. Even for PC players, setting your own profile in Steam may or may not alter the in-game button prompts.

Imagine if the PS4 or PS5 didn't have a way to switch X and O, and we just told Japanese people to get over it.

 

@DefinitiveDubs said it best. It feels like SEGA took someone's DeviantArt of Shadow with wings, and made it canon. With a large percentage of fans appearing happy with this change (which personally surprises me), I'm not going to sour on it too much as I'm happy that the fanbase is happy. I just want to vent that it's a change I'm not a fan of, that's outside of my personal preference.

To me, Sonic is best when there's a good mix of playful/serious. The Adventure series had this mix down to a science, and I'd argue the mainline Genesis titles even with there being no voices and much when it comes to the "cutscenes." I am not a fan of when Sonic games go into the goofy/cringe/kiddy side, which is what Sonic Unleashed (i.e. Werehog), Colors, and Lost World felt to me. Again, this is all my humble opinion and I'm sure it'll ruffle feather with some of the words used, but it's just how I honestly feel.

Anyways, I feel like Shadow with edgelord wings goes more into the goofy/cringe side of things and it feels out-of-character to me, personally. Like, seeing Shadow with a gun would feel better to me (please don't though), and I also cringed HARD when they gave Shadow a gun. I get that they probably want to continue to explore ways of making Shadow different than Sonic, and I like the idea of him having unique abilities from his alien blood stuff, but I'd prefer that to come across differently than what's presented.

I'm happy the fanbase is happy, and I'm getting this game Day 1 regardless.

 

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... didn't they literally do this with the PS5?

 

Not really. You can swap controls at the system level with the PS5 similar to Switch, whereas with PS4 you can't really do that IIRC, so it's a dedicated option.

 

Sure, but that swaps the controls for everything instead of just for confirm and cancel. That's not always very convenient.

 

47 seconds in, I just realized something. And this was spotted when this game was first revealed, but the particle effects from tricking which are meant to go to your boost gauge, here they go to where the boost guage would've been relative to a 1080/720p display. Why did they not fix this yet. Shit game literally unplayable.

 

Colors Ultimate had remappable controls. I don't see a reason to think this is any different, especially considering this looks to be much more comprehensive than Colors Ultimate

 

My muscle memory from Generations is about to be fuuuuucked.