Sonic Heroes Remake in UE5 Rumored, So Who Knows If It'll Happen

I know exactly the Lion King remake will objectively bring to the table: loads of money for Disney.

 

trust me, you can.

at this point I'm "the guy who checks every 3D sonic game to make sure you can turn around in mid-air"

 

I've actually played the game and that is not the same game feel as SA1/SA2 in terms of jump control or movement. It's good in its own way, but still lacks the turning and acceleration in the originals.

 

Yeah, you can turn in mid-air, but it's slow and has relatively wide a turning circle. The game controls well enough that it's almost always comfortable and works for what it sets out to do. But it what it sets out to be is very, very limited.

Like in the other boost games, Shadow basically has two control states. In the open zone and at low speed in the action stages, he feels responsive and you have a lot of control. Personally, I think this is how Sonic games should always control. It's how the any other 3D platformer works, including everything from SA1 to 06, and the Frontiers open zone. When not done right, the game can feel twitchy (see 06, Heroes, Shadow 2005...). But when done with more care, as in ShGens, the control feels fluid and natural.

When running in the action stages, Shadow transitions to "car mode". This takes effect when he's going fast enough for his standard running animation to kick in. He becomes very difficult to turn either on the ground or after jumping, and instead just kind of swerves in the direction you push (same as the other boost games). It's all so that you can continue running forward across the straight paths. That's why the levels are still designed sort of like highways, because Shadow plays like a car. And it's also why the game is so fond of turning any basic run and jump platforming sections into homing attack staircases. They still can't let's the player handle 3D platforming for themselves. The game is designed like this, same as the other boost titles, and it's certainly a valid approach. Shadow Generations is easily the best iteration of this style, but personally I don't like it and think it's a naff approach for a platformer.

And then of course there are the slope physics. We mocked 06 for this, we mocked Sonic 4 for this, but Frontiers and Shadow Generations get a free pass? This just looks sloppy, and it's fatally misunderstanding one of the key fundamentals of Sonic games.


Heroes' level design is kind of highway like, so honestly I can't imagine it being the worst fit to see Heroes remade with controls like Shadow Generations. In fact, it might even be beneficial a lot of the time. As previously mentioned, Heroes is twitchy and I've responsive. But without slope physics and with the excessive amount of splines that all modern Sonic games have whenever there's a turn in the road, I still think that a Heroes remake would have that same "sterile" feeling of any modern Sonic game. They've improved jumping and other controls finally, but yeah it still aint right.

 

What is challenging about having an if statement that says:
```
if (player.mode != STICK_TO_WALL_ALWAYS and player.mode.speed < SMALL_SPEED) {
....apply_downward_fall_gravity();
} else {
....apply_magic_gravity_with_respect_to_wall_or_ramp();
}
```

 

Lol

Point is, the slopes and angles have no impact on speed anymore. Even going downhill won't make you go faster.

 

Right, but even doing a basic version of it isn’t challenging (arguably). It’s SOO weird.

 

It's very simple, probably. Any kind of slope physics probably interact very poorly with what they want boost titles to play and feel like. So they just axe it, or don't bother, because the gains must be minimal and such general rules must make the "intended" game glitchy in situations they can't even test.

It's not that they can't do it the way I can't do it (because I can't code to save my life). It's just not what the team wants the games to be about anymore, or isn't worth the hassle for the time and resources they have.

Do I like it? I hate it. Always have. But it seems to be working for them.

 

I agree. It's literally just been so long that the overton window shifted. There are way more Sonic games where physics either don't matter at all or are actively detrimental to the experience, most of the fanbase grew up with those, and reviewers are at the point where they just appreciate the added precision over anything else because they just want a smooth ride to the credits. Sonic as an actual game is pretty much fucked in my eyes unless Kishimoto has been doing some soul searching behind the scenes.

 

Cursed suggestion, great sense of humour
Hahaha

 

I feel like ever since Sonic Rush the boost has been used as a crutch for this sort of stuff, which makes it kind of easier to get away with in these types of games. When you strip away the boost like in '06 and Sonic 4 it becomes a lot more noticeable, hence the ridicule. Sonic Superstars is an okay game but it's made so much better simply by having physics that feel great and fun to control, just dicking around with the movement in that game is fun. This is why the only remake I'd be even remotely interested in is an Adventure remake because I really want to see how modern Sonic Team handles that game.

The boost gameplay was made for dashing in a straight line, but a major paradigm shift is going to have to happen if they really want to make the open-zone concept work in the future and I think the end result is that they will eventually bite the bullet and fully pivot back into Adventure style gameplay.

Iizuka is a big fan of Zelda but if they're going to take anything from Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom, I hope they would look at how those games use physics to encourage emergent gameplay and see how they can apply that to Sonic.

 

Iizuka, probably: makes a Silver game where he uses his telekinesis like the ultra hand and you can make cars out of junk. None of the slope physics is changed.

 

The Legend of Silver: Tears of the Fanbase

 

Hot-take (?): Give Silver a 2D game:

Half-joking, but I think it work amazing if done right.

 

I mean. with how fast Sonic is going in these, too much slowing down on a slope would feel terrible and unrealistic gameplay-wise. if I'm going 200 MPH going up an on-ramp, the slope is not going to matter except in how my car will probably go flying when it crests it - which, is exactly the behavior everyone comes across in SA1 and behavior I happily exploited in Frontiers. Too little slowing down going up a slope and...why waste development time making that, for something no one but someone outright looking for it would notice, and can impact the physics in other places in unseen and potentially buggy ways?

accelerating going down a slope is basically the only thing I can think of that would feel good (speed highway opening segment my beloved)....eeeexcept in boost and most of the time in an open zone, you're already going max speed anyway?

 

The video shows Shadow sticking at a right angle while moving at nearly 0 speed.
This is why we need some acceleration instead of constant speeds. All they have to do is set-up an if statement asking if the speed is below a certain number. This isn't about ramp physics. Rather, shouldn't Shadow fall off a vertical ramp/wall if he's not moving?

 

I miss emergent gameplay

 

Boosting was never the only way for Sonic to go fast on an uphill slope. I know I'd definitely prefer a little more give-and-take from the level design where maybe I do have to pop off a spindash to maintain my speed when going uphill. Sounds fun! Like I'm more in control. I've always disliked the boost because of how it removes all that uphill/downhill friction from the gameplay.

 

No comment on the character of this Midori fellow but from what I recall his leaks have been pretty consistent and reliable so that's good enough for me if he's still insisting on it.

Stupid idea but whatever. I should know better than to have expectations of Sonic at this point. It'll be nice if it's actually good.