Sonic X Shadow Generations thread, movie level out now

I guess I'm mentally comparing it to the Mod Manager code for almost no air turning radius at all, where it seems pretty pronounced. It is a little wider with some speed (or maybe that's the limit of my thumb dexterity), but it definitely looks closer to vanilla Frontiers than it does to the mod.


EDIT: please everyone take a second to appreciate how dogshit image hosting sites are that I had to try four different ones and two different GIF optimizers to post this and the only one that worked was the one people use for porn

 

Of course late 90s/early 2000s America is to blame for the edgy/grimdark phase.

 

Yeah, I think you are right. I would hope the main arm of the Frontiers team are busy on the sequel.

 

I think I found out why Classic being excluded from the Japanese box art makes it my preferred one, besides the fact I just don't care at all about Classic. Maybe it's just me, but Classic just looks so out of place alongside Shadow and that red sky. Like, seriously, I don't know about you, but I have a hard time taking it seriously with him there. And I'm a very serious person in general.

 

It's hilarious how often this phrase always comes up for every new Sonic game as if it's going to improve and it never does.

 

It literally does lmfao.

First of all, it's a basic tenant of basic game design thst your first level isn't the most complicated or intricate, I don't know how Sonic is somehow immune because

Second, yes they do improve, even Forces has levels later in the game that more intricate than Lost Valley, Frontiers had levels more intricate and original than 1-1 later in the game, Superstars of course as well, Unleashed, Generations, Colors, Adventure, Adventure 2--

And third of all, paying attention to Space Colony ARK Act 1's design, it's extremely obviously a tutorial level in more ways than simply being the first level, namely how it enforces the idea that Chaos Controlis 1) a mechanic you are expected to use regularly and 2) a mechanic that impacts the level in different ways. It makes you use it multiple times, in different ways.

No footage shows this, but Chaos Control also allows you to fly through trails of energy, something the level also allows you and will teach you.

Anyway, blanket cynicism is not a substitute for actual analysis, and frankly the fact that there are people still going "but Sonic Forces exists!" to justify their uncertainty about something we can in fact see and judge ourselves is ridiculous. It's not like you're NOT making a judgment, like "oh, we won't know for sure until the game is out", it's just "this other game exists and no matter how not-like that game this new one is, it's somehow the same".

This tutorial level, as simple as it is, is still very much not poorly designed and bodes extremely well for the rest of the game, as the level is literally designed to ease you in to the rest of the game.

 

Yeah, I love the option to choose between the original scheme and Frontiers', but if they had to choose one, I would definitely prefer Frontiers'.

 

In the replies of that Tweet he also showcases the Drop Dash, which also shows the Chao rescue icons in the HUD

There's also now a HUD to display which red rings you've collected inside a level, a QoL feature I forgot base Gens didn't have until now. Very nice.

 

While I do have more confidence in Shadow Generations, the response of "it's just the first level" to criticism was notable in Forces because it wasn't being used on Lost Valley. It was being used on Sunset Heights, the exact halfway point in the game and fifteenth stage. We didn't even know Green Hill was in the game at the time.

Now...I think Forces actually does have better levels than that, but the point is, never say this about anything. You'll just look foolish. A game getting better later is only a defense when you already know it does.

 

Besides, the first stage absolutely should impress you. It's literally going to be the first impression you have actually experiencing the game, there's a reason why so much effort was put into Green Hill Zone in Sonic 1. Sunset Heights was bad regardless of it being the first stage or not (I hated it at the time thinking it was the first stage in fact), and I think it's fair to assume that anybody criticizing a newly revealed stage already considered that it could be stage 1 and just don't care about it because they think the level sucks

This is going to fuck with my muscle memory

 

You're clearly going to defend every decision this franchise makes, so I don't even see a point in debating this with you.

 

So far it doesn’t look like they’ve addressed any of the stuttering that’s always plagued the game since it still happens after the giant chopper sequence, the Chemical Plant’s water slide and Speed Highway’s goin down are more infamous examples of this kind of stuttering.

 

Yeah there definitely needs to be an option for legacy layout cuz I'm not fond of the Frontiers control scheme at all and it makes it way harder to do things like boost + quick step/drift at the same time.

 

The fact that Forces' level design was generally so bad that the fifteenth level in the game was as linear and as simple as the first, that people thought it was the first, isn't a strong counter to "it's the first level". And it's not anyone's fault for thinking that the first level shown off for Forces, the level set in the same setting the reveal trailer and most marketing revolved around, that had Sonic run into a city under siege by Eggman, was the first level. Blame that on Forces being a complete mess and borderline lying to its audience in marketing (hello, Chaos).

People said that the Green Hill and Sky Sanctuary Cyber Space levels in Frontiers were the first levels and they were correct, because even Frontiers' marketing wasn't as misrepresentative of the game as Forces' was.

If the entire rest of the game does not improve, we know that because the entire game is out, so we're no longer talking about "is the rest of the game like this". For now, we have one level, which is fairly obvious a tutorial, and a good tutorial at that. I'd rather look foolish believing my eyes than look foolish denying what I see because Sonic Forces existed once.

TL;DR: This fanbase REALLY needs to get over Sonic Forces.

An interesting statement, considering how many people borderline think that Green Hill Zone is the only good zone in Sonic 1. It's also a case where it's absolutely not representative of the rest of the game, with the immediate next level being its near opposite in pacing and Spring Yard Zone basically being the only other zone with the same design as Green Hill. It impressed, alright. Too much, I think.

Not all of them, just the ones that get extremely weird and bizarre receptions, which is almost all of them.

 

I was curious about contrasting controls after the Shadow HUD revealed that his boost was assigned to R2. This is a positive change honestly. Frontiers finally revised the series' general control scheme and actually made it make sense. I'm glad that Generations is being made consistent.

 

I acknowledged Sunset Heights for what that was but ultimately it's like. You can't know how the entirety of game's going to be on footage of just one level. You just can't, no matter how much you might believe otherwise (not directed at you personally, but I digress). I went out of my way to make plain that what I'm saying is not to try and "defend" this game in any way or to suggest it's going to be great and they're just not showing us those bits yet, simply that I think we need to see more gameplay to form a clearer picture. Forces and Frontiers obviously didn't end up a whole lot better on release compared to their initial showings, but that doesn't mean that it's not reasonable to say that we knew that for a lock just from that first footage. Hell, Superstars got a hell of a lot worse than what its initial footage suggested it might be and it burned me hard for it. It goes both ways.

 

This is a good point now that I remember that Generations actually uses the Quick Step and it isn't ass

 

Boosting getting moved to trigger is a really good decision. I really prefer not having to hold down the x button to boost.

I honestly really wish we had an option to turn off the boost music effect, or greatly reduce it. its' a cool effect, but in a game where you're boosting so much i'd prefer to hear the music normally. i'm sure there will be a mod for it day one, but i'm playing on console so whoops.

Didn't think about quick step, wonder if moving quick step to like dpad or something could help?

 

I'm genuinely curious for why people prefer it this way. Doesn't it make more sense as a double-jump? Wouldn't that free up a button? Isn't it less cumbersome to have to hop your finger to a different button to use a homing attack after jumping?