The best Sonic game is the one I grew up with. The franchise peaked with Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games.
Blue Spheres is a fully-realized minigame unlike 1 and 2's attempts. I think 3's set is just the right amount of challenge considering the reward. Not to mention you technically only have to beat them once if you're on a save. S&K's 4th stage is an evil piece of shit though I'll give you that. Never been sure how you're supposed to figure this out without some kind of guide.
Really? It must be one of those very subjective things, because I always thought that it was one of the most straightforward Blue Spheres maps. Unlike the almost all of the others, it's entirely linear. There are basically no options presented to you other than the correct one. You just follow the path of blue spheres in a circle, and then walk/jump into the yellow sphere at the end. Rinse and repeat until the Emerald is yours. The only threat comes from mistiming those jumps on to the yellow spheres, but the first little circuit doesn't even have that risk so it teaches you pretty well. That and SK Special Stage 2 (the orange Emerald) are the ones I anyways choose to leave do the end in Super Emerald playthroughs because they're so easy.
Is it unpopular to say I like Sonic CD's special stage more than all the others? More than Blue Spheres, more than Mania's, more than S3D Saturn's. I'm sure it's not an unpopular opinion to say I prefer the original version to the remake's though. It's more forgiving with the UFO collisions.
That stage is always nerve-wracking for me, because unlike most other Blue Sphere levels, one mistake means an instant loss. I actually think the open-ended nature of the other stages makes them easier, because you can basically stall indefinitely while planning your next move without having instant death right next to you. Although, I do make it harder on myself by going for the Perfect every time; that requires a lot more finesse to pull off.
IIRC you can't tell where the yellow spheres will take you without knowing beforehand. It looks really easy mapped out like that but in-game I just find it really hard to keep my orientation even if I've looked at a guide beforehand. It's probably a brain thing. I think I just need a little space to think while I run around.
The margin for error is small, especially when you're going for a perfect. But in terms of just clearing the stage, it's straightforward because it's entirely linear. Kazz was talking about how difficult it is to figure out, and I'm arguing that there's basically nothing to figure out. It's just a matter of timing your jumps and turns. If you're confident with those, the stage goes from nerve wracking to easy. You can't see where the yellow spheres will take you. But the level doesn't expect you to have that information either, because it limits your options to basically zero and wants you to keep going steady ahead. At the end of every little "circuit" except the very first one you're surrounded directly by red and yellow spheres. The first one gives you an extra empty tile, encouraging you to run straight into the yellow sphere that's dead ahead. You just have to do the same logic on every other circuit - hit the yellow sphere in front of you when there are no blue spheres left. Unless you're going for a perfect, which is an optional task that meant to be an extra hard rest of skill anyway, a guide is basically worthless. Turn when you can see blue spheres next to you, and in all over circumstances just go forwards. It's linear.
It's not clear you're supposed to just go forward every time unless you've already beaten it or looked up a map. It's just tricky despite being simple when you know the trick. The other stages give you space to figure them out without instantly killing you for not already knowing the perfect linear sequence. That or I'm stupid. Whatever you want me to say. Point is I distinctly struggled with it as a kid. It's probably in the more challenging half of 3&K's special stages for a reason. Nice you got it right away though.
Sonic Dream Team doesn't hold a candle to Sonic Frontiers and Superstars. I've played a few levels and I just find everything so boring. The gameplay and story is boring, the music is more of a miss than a hit, I just don't get it.
Honestly, I think the game LOOKS good and the level design is decent, but I won't consider it "peak 3D Sonic game" or something (I've seen some people saying it). Like, the game is definely solid, but I wouldn't consider it in "same level of Sonic Adventure". For a Mobile game tho' I think this game is impressive and very good.
Looking through the last few pages, I'd like to ask that this be less of a "single sentence hot take" thread and more of an "actually give some articulation to the hot take" thread, please.
Like I said before, it seems to just be one of those very subjective things. Faced with no option other than the yellow spheres, I just assume that the game wants you to move straight forward. Blue Spheres is all about recognising and following patterns. They're never very puzzling puzzles if you're not going for prefects, because the challenge is mostly in managing your reactions rather than working out a novel solution.
Sonic games having incredibly varied visual styles is a strength, rather than a weakness. This franchise goes from stark realism, to stylized abstractness, to naturalistic but surreal environments, and many more all between single releases. No other Sonic game looks quite like Adventure, no other Sonic game looks quite like 3&K, no other Sonic game looks quite like Frontiers, the list goes on and on. It leads to each game in the series having a pretty distinct visual identity that clearly separates it from other titles, and I think that's really cool!
