The quickstep was the best addition to Sonic's moveset since the spindash. A lot of people don't like it for some reason but I think it's genius.
It just makes the boost games come across as glorified Temple Run to people lol. I think it’s fine when it’s naturally integrated into levels and not in designated “quickstep sections” since that’s pretty simplistic game design.
Yea the drift and quickstep were great additions. A lot of people claim they only exist because Sonic's turning sucked in the boost games, but being able to strafe or take sharper turns at high speed is great. Kinda sucks Sonic Team didn't really use them for anything interesting outside of designated "drift here/quickstep here" areas. Speed Highway Act 2 is what I wish more levels in the boost games tried to do, there were some sharp turns with obstacles to drift around and even 1-2 alternate routes that you could access with a well timed drift. Its a shame the quick step never got anything like that.
Well part of it is that the drift and quick step were created with very specific purposes in mind. The more context sensitive a move is, the less versatile it is. The Drop Dash is the exact opposite; it has no context sensitive purpose and the player can conceivably play the entire game without using it once. But its general purpose to keep Sonic's pace going in speedruns. I don't mind the Quick Step and Drift tho, particularly since Sonic Team seem adamant at making Boost gameplay the new standard nowadays.
Yeah, my problem with both the quick step and the drift is that they're useless outside of aras designed specifically for them. Maybe that doesn't have to be the case got the drift, as I could see it getting some possible utility in an open area. But the quick step is really only good "switching lanes" in a corridor. It's limiting and uninteresting, even if the boost games where it belongs. Colours and Forces can get away with changing your controls in certain sections to force the quickstep because it's so context specific. It was introduced in Unleashed and hasn't seen the slightest bit of innovation since then. In the run up to Forces, I remember people being really excited by the giant crab chase in the Avatars Green Hill level. And I was just like "but it's the exact same thing seen in all the other quick step sections with a different skin. It's not even remotely unique". Shits old now.
I’ve never found the quickstep to be all too context sensitive myself like you guys are saying. I use it all the time just for basic things like realigning myself and of course dodging obstacles, I rarely if ever actually strafe in the boost games because of it. Sure there are plenty of designated sections for it but its usefulness has never felt specific to them to me. Sometimes I even wish it was there while playing something like SA2, haha. I have no excuse for the drift, though. I still like it but its usefulness is never really left up to creativity, it’s just “drift here” segments. The exception would be the fun drift snaking in Unleashed that lets you gain lots of speed, but I’m not entirely sure if that was an intentional mechanic or not considering Generations removed it.
I don't think the problem is with them being context sensitive moves, a bunch of moves introduced in the 3D Sonic games are fairly context sensitive after all. The problem is that they rarely ever organically incorporated into the level outside of some setpieces or levels intended to introduce the mechanic. Take the lightspeed dash for instance. Often its just a fairly basic "dash over bottomless pit" type deal, but SA2 in particular placed rings in a way where using the light dash would maintain the rhythm and flow of the level. Or like I mentioned in Gens Speed Highway Act 2 where most of the last 3rd of the stage is speeding through roads with sharp turns and crazy drivers to dodge, feels fitting that roads would be full of twists and turns like that. Starting to agree on the quick step tho, the most I can think of is pretty shallow, "quick step here for another path" type beat Edit: when i say organically i mean like fitting with the level theme and/or feeling "connected" to the rest of the level design
I am likely to anger a few Sonic Unleashed speedrunners by saying that between the game's more niche moveset, the most awful one is probably the stomp, because it does almost the exact opposite of what Mario 64 established in 'stomp' moves in 3D platformers -- it doesn't do much of anything to cut out the player's momentum, and in a game where unfamiliar territory tended to be instant death and the top speed was as ludicrously high as it was, the fact that the stomp is a worse move for coming to a complete stop than the damn homing attack is just utterly bizarre and made the game harder than it needed to be, unfairly. The drift is not a terrible move, but its use in Unleashed kinda sucks because it has such a wide turn radius when activated -- the best way to corner sharply is not to drift but to use the main control and camera sticks together; this is how I survived Savannah Citadel act 2. I think it's possible to maintain a coherent level design that uses it, but it is likely to always be a very situational move in levels that have a tube design, since you'll only need to make a turn when the level forces a turn.
I much prefer Unleashed’s drifting to Generations’. Generations’ felt way too tight and unnatural. The only issue with Unleashed is that letting go of boost to drift is anathema to some players lol. But I still don’t think it’s perfect. Judging from my own experience and vids I’ve seen, drifting in Unleashed has some quirk or variable that I’m not getting because it can feel pretty inconsistent in the angle/tightness you get.
While it's true, I still agree with sulphur on this one. Shadow's different shade of gold made him feel unique and just straight up looked cool. I never really understood while they ditched it from Shadow onwards...
Hey, you never know! With the current direction the series seems to be taking, maybe we'll see him back eventually. And there's also IDW and other supplementary medias he might show up in.
Regardless I kind of like the not quite gold color he had. It keeps his parallel to Sonic while still being a distinct color.
I mean, I don't disagree with that, compared with other versions. But I still think it's a great version though. But yeah, nothing will beat the Zebrahead version for me.