The Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Megathread

This. This exactly.

Don't get me wrong, Sonic 4 has some physics issues, but I'll be damned if people aren't over-exaggerating about them sometimes. Seriously. You call Sonic 4's physics downright appalling? Go play Sonic The Hedgehog Genesis for the Game Boy Advance if you haven't already. That's fucking appalling physics right there.

 

Define "correctly."

So, we're just playing quality by comparison now? OK, I'm game. I compare Sonic 4's physics to the Genesis games. Oops, not as good.

I don't want "good enough." I want "awesome." Sonic 4 isn't supposed to be "okay." Who waits 16 years for "okay?" Sorry, I don't like settling. End of story.

You may now continue on your respective crusades against people who don't like mediocre things.

 

Correctly is "not inching around a curve" which is exactly everything the classic games, and this game, does in its power to impart on you. The fact that, when you're going to slow, you stand in place on a curve should be a pretty big indication of this.

You say this like the original games were perfect. Earlier today, I played Sonic 2, and jumped from high up on emerald hill zone, and hit a bridge in such a way that the collsion detection missed and I fell through and died. Sonic 3 routinely had you getting stuck in wall so much that they put it in the manual to try and play them off.

pretty sure these sorts of bugs are gone in Sonic 4. But no no, those are only game destroying glitches. No need to ever mention those. Instead let's complain about the game not being "awesome enough" because when you're inching along a curve, you stand in place (which shows the game takes into account the momentum behind your movements, btw) instead of slowly falling back down like you did in the classic games. Because I know thats what I looked for in the old games.

When you're being nit picky, don't get so uppity when someone calls your complaints overblown.

 

Isn't this a bit redundant? You can replace "Sonic 4" with any video game. Maybe some of the "bitching and pissing and moaning" are just that, but a lot of it stems from expectations—a bar set by SEGA once they announced Project Needlemouse to be Sonic the Hedgehog 4. I mean, you seem to think classic Sonic physics is trivial:

It isn't blown out of proportion. The physics are what make the game feel like classic Sonic or a fangame. During SAGE 2010 there was a nicely-put together demo that was great but the physics killed it. The developer said he'll work on it. Either way, that's a fangame. This on the other hand is officially Sonic 4. A game that might end up being $15... for the first part of it!

This reminds me of the parable of the broken window. If you don't know what I'm talking about you can look it up, but the basic summary is that there could be unintended consequences. My point is that while these bugs might be "gone" (which doesn't make sense—they made the game engine from scratch. Of course classic bugs won't be there. They aren't even the same developers) we aren't seeing what new game destroying glitches are in Sonic 4.

 

Said classic bugs aren't inherent to ONLY the specific sonic engine they used, it's a problem with nearly every collision detection system around. The problem is simple - to go faster, you make each step you character does increase, I.e. you move more pixels. Eventually, you can have your character going so fast that he literally skips over solid walls.

There are ways around it, vector-based collision detection is the technical term I learned for it in college. It's likely what Sonic 4 does that classic sonic couldn't which solves the problem.

 

The game's issues with slope physics aren't going to be as annoying as its issues with air physics.

Just sayin'. You might not be able to notice the slope physics so easily, but the air physics you literally won't be able to get around.

 

I love your point of view. Couldn't agree more.

 

I've seen enough gameplay videos as well as watching three streams of the PartnerNet leak to see that Sonic 4 will perform "very rough" in terms of physics.

As for the price, I'd only pay $15 if there was at least 6 full zones. Other than that, 5 zones, 17 acts and 7 special stages isn't adequate enough to fit the price. I would expect that SEGA would look at the reaction to the proposed price and consider reducing it to a fairer price such as $10. It appears that they thought that this game would have fit the price from day one, but it's obvious that this really wasn't going to happen.

 

Yeah! Why support progressive steps in the right direction? Keep knocking them down until they somehow clear the staircase in one leap!

Oh wait. That's stupid. If you never accept anything good you're never going to get to anything great.

 

No need for someone who'd rather not "settle" to support those progressive steps. There'll always be others who are willing to settle. Let them support "progressive steps" and let the pickier people be the ones who support them when they final hit the ball out of the stadium.

 

The squeaky wheel gets the oil. The picky ones are being the loudest, they'll be the ones heard most. Although, you're right. These complainers will be insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

Edit: I'm just saying, it's not quite fair to say: "This isn't an instant return to the high point of the series, will not buy".

 

It is fair to say "This is still a continuation of crap, will not buy". I don't really see how S4 has taken any progressive steps. It's any old modern Sonic game with a classic paint job. While not bad game, it's crap for what it's supposed to be (and has some pretty sloppy work regardless).

 

Well he didn't say he thought it was crap, he said it was "good enough" and he didn't want to settle for that. Still, Sonic 4 is certainly a step forward from any 2D game in the past 5 years, isn't it?

No boost, less dash pads, more platforming, less bottomless pits, faster acceleration, more powerful spindash. The level design in general is just a lot better and there's no boost to win, I'd say that's a step back in the right direction.

 

Sonic 4 is a progressive step in the sense that it's a first step into the classic series style in quite a long time—and in an even longer time if you just factor in console titles. It's a progressive mis-step, but a progressive step nonetheless. It's the start of a thread that deserves to be picked up and evolved from this point onward. It may only be a progressive step because of all the steps back that preceeded it, but yeah...

You're wrong about one thing, though, glem. Those complainers aren't insignificant in the grand scheme of things—they're actually quite necessary. Those are the guys who aren't buying the first Episode but would probably buy the second if the big issues were solved. In other words, they're SEGA's incentive to do better next time. Them, and keeping the ones who bought the first episode interested enough to continue buying as the series moves on.

We all play our part in the ol' dance. It just depends on how well SEGA knows the steps.

 

edit: Not even worth it.

LOL CRAP TERRIBLE AWFUL ABOMINATION LOL

 

Following on from my previous post about 50 pages before, I'm pleased that you can finally speed past the finish and off the screen now, I'm puzzled as to why that wasn't there in the beginning, but its there now
Seeing this http://www.tssznews.com/2010/09/24/only-so...ys-ken-balough/
has made me just give a shout out to RubyEclipse:
I hope you've seen my previous post on my thoughts on Episode 1, and SOnic 4 as a whole, and I've bought 2000 points especially so it covers any cost of what Sonic 4 may be
Just for Episode II, I do hope that the bosses are totally original. Thinking as to how Sonic 1 to 3 was. It got from basic bosses, to Sonic 2 where Robotnik used the zone to his advantage, like oil ocean, Mystic Cave, to Sonic 3 where it just went one more step.
But the other thing I miss too, are the mini-bosses.
So this is my request: Could there be a chance of mini bosses, and *Original* Robotnik bosses be brought into the second episode? I'm all for nostalgia, but to make this the Sonic 4, I want there to be at least some bosses with great imagination and originality so it pushes the player to their limit and gives them and me that sense of accomplishment, just like how it was when you beat Mecha Sonic and EggRobo in Sonic 2.
And just one more thing: the sound Sonic makes when he fires away after a charged spin dash, do please change it to how it sounded in Sonic 2+3, right now it doesn't sound right
All the best and I look forward to the release date!
EDIT: Another thing too, the music. The title screens of the past Sonic games, its the drums that made it their own themes I felt. Here its just like the synthesiser went into overdrive. Bring back the drums and the beat!

 

Hm. We'll tone it down a bit then. And I think Mirai's got the right attitude down. I'd also like to see the return of mid-bosses and truly great original Robotnik encounters.

They understand him well enough. Most of them grew up with the Genesis or Mega Drive and loved those games. Saying they don't understand because they may not cite the same complaints with the same vitriol as "this game fucking sucks" and "it's a worthless piece of garbage" is a little close-minded. Yeah, they do get that classic Sonic wasn't just about speed and that Sonic Rush doesn't play exactly like them. They're just not nearly as picky or pessimistic, and they have other games to give a shit about. Sonic's not that important.

I'm concerned less with the vague catch-all term of "physics" and more concerned with level design, object placement, and other things more specific, like the aforementioned air physics, uncurling, and the I/O relationship between Sonic and the d-pad. Saying the physics are bad is too easy and too vague to support meaningful conversation, as is making any reference to classic Sonic physics by name alone.

Granted. The physics should feel right, but they don't necessarily carry the full weight of a game's enjoyment. That's more evenly distributed between the music, the visuals, and the fundamental designs of each level. Again, saying the physics "feel right" needs some specification. How does it feel right? What's missing in Sonic 4? How does it matter? We should talk more about specifically what made the classic games enjoyable and what could make Sonic 4 not enjoyable rather than throwing out vague terms with little definition and degrade into general shit-flinging over it.

 

Pretty please with a cherry on top.

 

Oh chicken strip, you so crazy. Remember the shit slinging that took place last time that happened? Nobody in this thread would know what to do with their lives if they can't bitch and moan about Sonic 4, so instead of doing something useful with their time they would spill into the rest of the forum.