The Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Megathread

If it matters to anyone, here is what one of SOA's veeps told me ultimately caused Sonic 4's delay.

I know Aaron was very direct in saying what changes stemmed from the delay, but those directives ultimately had to be born out of something—and it appears a bad round of focus group testing was that something.

I certainly have my opinions as to whether Sega would have went ahead with the Summer release had those results turned out more positive and how wise that would have been. I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

 

Eh... I'm gonna take back my last post. That's just me grasping at straws, I was caught up in the argument. I guess what I mean to say is sonic is still affected by slopes, just when you hit a certain speed slopes stop mattering. Like, I've seen when sonic isn't already moving fast, he moves much slower up slopes, and downward slopes help him get running much faster. I can see why it's annoying that the slope there didn't slow him down, but I think it's just there to say "If you aren't going THIS speed, you'll have to go slower", much like the loops.

Edit: And TSSZ that's interesting I guess, but it's obvious now that the delay happened because of multiple things and not just one. I honestly doubt sega would delay a downloadable game solely because of focus group's opinions.

 

Okay, I'll stop arguing too. Can't be too sure of this and that right now anyway. Plus it's boring.

So moving on to the TSSZ article, interesting stuff. It's difficult to understand all the reasons why the game was delayed, but it keeps seeming more and more than fan responses didn't really have much of an impact. Surely if they did then priorities would be different.

 

Then why bother with a focus group to begin with? X_X;;

 

Well they still need to test the game and all, what I meant is why would they delay the game 3 months just because of some bad focus testing? Or am I confusing two different things, and are focus groups something completely different from testers. Either way, the 3 month delay wasn't necessary just for some focus group opinions. Like, the new world map, or the acceleration thing. Something makes me feel the focus group didn't mention this.

Focus groups are there to help you with the game while you're developing it, not when it's about to be released.

 

Much as I'm not super happy about the physics, they're actually not nearly my biggest complaint about the game. Nor are the reused badniks, the excessive bubbles/homing attacsk, or the crappy synths. Here, right here, is IMHO the BIGGEST problem that I've seen:



I didn't like these in Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventure, and I don't like them now. I don't recall the ground having any convex curves in the classics (except Sonic CD maybe?), presumably because they exist for the sole purpose of letting Sonic run down walls, something that he pretty much never used to do.

 

Well, Sonic 1 introduced loops, Sonic 2 introduced corkscrews, Sonic 3K introduced running on ceilings, and Sonic 4 introduces convex curves. :specialed:

 

Sonic CD did have lots of convex curves, but so did Carnival Night Zone. Granted, there are none that take him from running horizontally to running straight down, but the ones on the ceiling... well...

 

...that's not really the same. At all.

 

My point was that convex curves did exist in the classic games.

 

This is awesome.

Actually to be honest, S3K gave me the most slope-based glitches out of all the classic games. Like in that video Sonic would (at least seven or eight times a playthrough) be going at intense speeds down a hill, hit a ramp and all the sudden the physics throw him backward and to a halt for no reason.

Moral of the story: even the perfect game isn't perfect.

 

Not to mention the sliding down slopes, spindashing on walls, sticking to the convex curve on the ceiling and other glitches. And does this make Sonic 3 & Knuckles crap? No, of course not.

 

My only beef with Sonic 4 actually doesn't have to do with physics or anything. I'm just a little frustrated that Sega played the dash panel card a bit too much for this game. And I don't even mind it too much in Lost Labyrinth and the other stages, because they aren't used in those nearly as much. The issue with the dashpad overload is mostly just because of Splash Hill being absolutely loaded with them to the brim, where you don't put much input into it. The other levels, thankfully, don't seem to suffer like Splash Hill does.

 

If you really wanted to nitpick. Technically you could say that they were in Spring Yard Zone.





Though could something like this really count? To get Sonic to do that. You really have to try instead of holding right to win.

 

It kind of reminds me of someone of the crappy layouts in heavily technical Sonic 2 hacks like Esreael's Sonic 2 Alpha

 

The main reason for a lack of convex curves in the original Sonic games is that the collision system doesn't really handle them all that well. It's not an oversight, just a limitation of the way it works. The Mega Drive is only fast enough to calculate where the player will end up next frame, with no steps in between. So the faster the player moves, the more likely "shit happens" like coming off a convex curve or stopping dead on a concave one.

Both my engine and Stealth's E02 have been able to fix this by calculating more steps in between on the player's trajectory path.

Having played Sonic 4, I could run off heaps of things that are different on a technical level. The problem is listing it all just makes you look pedantic in the eyes of others who aren't intimate with the Mega Drive series. Make no mistake, the play style of Sonic 4 is different to the classics. It's a new paradigm where careful execution of the homing attack is favoured over rolling and spindash. Whether or not you can adapt to it will ultimately be one of the deciding factors of if you enjoy Sonic 4 or not.

 

There are convex curves in Launch Base, too. Personally, I like them as long as they aren't overused.

 

I'm impartial to them. I'm not opposed to them in splash hill, they're just there for me... they add nothing, nor do they subtract from anything.

 

Not really, the pipes make one in Act 2, but it's more scenery related that just so happens to have collision. Not really worth noting.

 

didn't Mushroom Hill have them in a few places too?