A small concept, but since the characters all handle differently we should let them have different special stages... I personally like the 3D Sonic 2/3d/Chaotix type stage for Sonic.
I like the idea of a race but I pictured something a little different. I picture a race against a botnik or metal sonic but in the play style like sonic 3 multi player racing. So I imagined the screen spit in 2 with npc on the bottom and player on the top and they just raced in a map that is 3 times bigger then one ones used in sonic 3. At the end you can have the emerald there. Making a totally new special stage sounds pretty hard. muteki had a pretty good idea with the bosses being stronger.
There definitely should be evidence that Robotnik was there before, although I'm kind of skeptical about actually racing with him.
Why not? Robotnik has made it pretty clear that he can hold his own in a race against Sonic. Skip to 3:18
If you don't want to use his unrealistic speed from in-level sequences, give him a powersuit or something. He could definitely build one.
Hmm. I simply have one quick question. If the Special Stages are going to be Outrun based (Emerald Special Stages, I'm not sure if the ringpost bonus rounds are in or not ), is there going to be a certain sprite set for the characters when they are running along? Or are we going to do a mixture of the types? Just my opinion, but I imagined a cross between the Sonic 2/3 three dimensional sprites with the animations and such of the Sonic CD special stage sprites. Simply put, we can use the 2/3 Sonic sprites as a baseline, and gradually alter them to our artstyle that Chimpo and the others have designed. As for the special stages themselves, I believe there was an idea about the Big Ring showing up before the Minibosses. That would actually work quite nicely, as the minibosses could be set up as a 'Act 1.5' when you exit. (I cant find the link, but I KNOW someone said something similar to there being a warp gate or something that shot Sonic out of the special stage into the Boss Arena). Anyway, that's just my opinion. As always, keep up the good work guys!