The Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Megathread

If they went with what would essentially be 16-bit ROM-hacks and emulators, yeah, it'd be plenty possible. But not with what they're shooting for in Sonic 4's technical aspects.

 

The point is, I think this game could have just been a ROM hack. Just edit some sprites, make some new ones for Badniks (or no new ones at all).
Make some new levels and call it a day. THAT would have been lazy.
The fact that they actually took the time to build everything from scratch shows some effort being put into this game. Sure some of the enviroments and badniks are rehashed, but they actually had to build the levels and badniks from the beginning. Its not like they could just copy-paste it from Sonic 1/2.
Episode 1 is lazy in terms of creativity (hopefully solved in later episodes), but isn't lazy at all in terms of actual work put into it.

The physics need work, but thats a given really

I really do hope that the later episodes pull in some originality and completely new zones.
That would be great.

 

Not really. It's just another path to another take on the same concept. What would decide whether it was lazy or not would be quality of the product.

 

I'm not really that worried about the lack of originality for later episodes. In a video of somebody playing Splash Hill Act 3 on the iPhone, the person talking to him mentioned something along the lines of "opening the floodgates" for later episodes. I would be more worried about how the new stuff in the later episodes might affect the gameplay. If by "opening the floodgates," they mean introducing a new feature that adds to the game play in an organic way like the wisps, elemental shields, spindash, and multiple characters in a style like S3&K where they are completely optional to play as, then that's perfectly fine. However, it is not fine for something that clearly doesn't belong in Sonic such as the werehog, shooting, fishing, forced hunting, emphasis on repetitive and tedious combat, etc. to be shoehorned into Sonic 4.

It gives me hope that Sega is taking fan feedback into consideration. While they wouldn't listen to suggestions that would be just plain dumb (I WANNA SHADAW!!1 HEZ MAI FAV!!!!1! I LIEK GUNZ IN SONIK 4 AZ WEL), nitpicky, or would hurt Sega more than it would benefit them, I'm confident that they are already considering fan feedback that would help improve Sonic 4.

 

One of those instruments is really weird, as if it is the sound of someone gargling water. O.o Other than that I like it.

By the way, when will the Mad Gear songs be remade like this? We have to wait until they are officially released don't we?...

 

When there's suitable midis and the original song is public, then it's able to be posted. I haven't tackled Mad Gear yet, I still have to do Splash Hill Act 2.

 

Who the fuck is this guy? Cause I've only heard about him in this topic a couple times, and I already wanna slap the shit out of him.

 

Oh, the story I could tell about Ken. Maybe I will, one day.

 

I'd be interested in seeing what Sega's process for making Sonic 4 is. Of course, I'm generally just curious about things like this.

 

I would assume something like this.

"Hey Dimps, go make a 4th Sonic game, because we don't feel like it."

"HUR HUR sure Sega!1!!1, Let's just place a dashpad here, here, here, and over there too! Now let's prerender some level tiles cover them in noise filters, add 5 lightsources, and badly Photoshop Sonic from Unleashed to give him a bad cell shading effect!!!!111!"

"WOW Dimps, that looks exactly like the classics, with all the classic elements like the dashpad and homing attack!!!!1"

 

Oh, yeah, I know. Im just saying that since in case it was one of those "this should be how it should sound" kind of things.

 

After reading through that Donkey Kong stuff, some guy who was playing Sonic 4 in that room told me that he believed that the new DK game was faster than Sonic 4. It should be noted he only based that off what he saw of DKCR, since he hadn't played it at that time because he didn't know where the West Hall was. Still, the thought of DK being faster than Sonic seems a bit embarrassing. I don't think Sonic 4 feels 'slow', though.

 

Yay, hapisan made an Act 3 version of Splash Hill 3 in a Jazz Scat way like he did for Act 1. I love it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=685hmExKKK8...amp;feature=sub

Not sure if he already did Act 2 though.

EDIT:

Oh, here it is. XD

http://www.youtube.com/user/hapisan#p/u/1/o75PuBW2CmY

 

Hahah, awesome. XD I'm so going to be playing through with these playing through my 360 when it's out. Jazz Scat Sonic 4 FTW.

Can see it working scarily well in Casino Street, though, so the hilarity may be lost there. = P

 

Right now I wish for a megadrive chiptune of Mad Gear Act 1, and a scat version as well. Hilarity will ensue.

 

I love Retro Studios so much. ;~;

 

It feels like it's missing a certain... ambience, really. If that makes any sense in reference to one of Sonic 4's tracks. >_>

 

Listening to the scat remixes of these songs, and the chiptune versions.. They just keep reminding me of how the songs can sound great, but their instrument usage in the game is just... lacking.

I know that's kinda obvious but I just can't get over how they actually missed the mark on the music. It's rather unlike them, considering how they're usually so good at this. :C

 

Ehhhh, it still feels like the opposite problem to me. I don't care if it's played on a chip, it still sounds very boring and same-y. It's a core musical problem, not an issue of presentation, in my opinion.

I'm also really irritated that whenever any new remix or change is made to any Sonic 4 song, it's immediately praised as being the best song ever (basically). How about judging the mix on it's own merits, rather than "it's not the original, so it must be good"? Fanboy logic goes both ways you know.

Yep. It's all Jun's fault!!1!!11 But joking aside, he's not Sega. The actual Sega Sound Team could probably do a great job if they had the chance. If.

 

A little bit of column A, a little bit of column B. The core music problem in this case is that the music needs more varied, and in fact, more modern instruments to sound interesting; it's not the kind of composition that really sounds good when you lower the bit-level, if you know what I mean. All you're doing is swapping out one synth for another synth. The other point is more of a soundtrack-wide issue of the synth just sounding too similar from track to track. It does give that old-school feel, but in a notably inferior way.

...Kind of a running theme of the game, really.