If Sonic dashes and then runs of the side of something, I noticed he gets a considerable speed boost - there's a section in Lost Labyrinth at the very beginning where this is very prominent.
I think I know what you mean. On an unrelated note, goddamn my thumb is sore. Now I remember why I usually play Sonic games at a leisurely, medium-speed pace.
So, I've been stuck on special stage 5 for a whole day now. I got the emerald, very easily. How? This method is pretty time consuming, but, Sonic is a LOT easier to precisely control in the special stage if you continuously hit the pause button. I can almost literally hit every single time bonus, coin, etc. Just a tip I thought I'd share for those, like me, who SUCK at special stages. EDIT: To prove it, I'm #1 on the leaderboard (excluding cheaters, and under score attack) for Special Stage 5. Though, of course, that's going to change since you all know my secrets. Cunts.
One thing that bothers me about people saying the physics are able to get used to is the fact that the game on more than one occasion confuses you. There are so many times in the game where it expects you to know to hold the button to the right when coming out of a ramp, spring or cannon, and then there are areas where if you hold the right you'll miss or overshoot your platform or next spring and ruin your progress. That's not a feature, bro, that's just annoying.
After playing this game for a while, I have come to this conclusion: -The physics are absolute shit. -The uncurling is annoying as fuck and often causes me to get hurt. -The only reason Sonic rolls in a ball after touching a booster is because the spinning physics are so poor. -The only reason they need so many boosters is because of the dreadful physics. -The game definitely doesn't feel like a true sequel to S3&K and feels more like a homage to the older games which isn't a bad thing except it has the title Sonic 4. Regardless of these criticisms, I really like the game a lot but it's a shame the physics are so horrible. I'll never understand why this game uses a modified version of the Rush physics. The Advance games had much better physics with Advance 1 having vastly better physics than what we get in this game. Yes, I know everything I just said has probably been uttered five thousand times already in this thread but I lack the patience to read through the entire topic plus I wanted to give my final opinion. >_> Also, in my first attempt at trying to beat the final stage without getting hurt, I only got hurt twice but in every attempt afterwords, I couldn't make it to Robotnik's final form without losing rings prior to reaching him. >_<
Er, to be honest, I held right by sheer force of habit on those parts. I didn't notice that, for example, the minecart at the end of LLZ2 would toss you into a bottomless pit if you didn't hold right until I actively experimented with it. Now, the rolling physics, on the other hand, I had to be told about before I understood them. ...BAH, this is why physics that don't make sense shouldn't be in any game, let alone a Sonic game. The player's brain operates on what they assume would physically happen, I.e. they assume that Sonic wouldn't snap to a midair halt, so they don't expect it to happen until it dicks them in the nose.
That's another thing too: fun game, but too many speed boosters. I think it'd really challenge DIMPs to innovate and put more effort into the level design to nix the speedboosters altogether or reserve them for a token Chemical Plant Zone-type level. That's '-type' level, not '-rehash' or '-homage' level, just to be clear. Same goes for the bumpers and similar elements. I understand that there were other elements in Sonic games that either sped him up or bounced him around besides the spring and booster, but that didn't mean the level designs weren't significantly different from each other. Yeah, the zones in Sonic 4 are different from each other in that they use different gimmicks, but along the same vein of removing excessive boosters and bumpers, we want each zone and each act to be even more unique at a fundamental basis. You don't even need 3 or 4 acts. Just make it 2 long acts with Robotnik at the end of Act 2. That's nice and familiar, and leaves a lot more space for more unique zones and acts, AND it leaves more room for that oh-so-delicious exploration incentive of finding secret ring portals or a ring post to a Special Stage or something—but not like in the Advance games. Finding the Emeralds in those games just sucked. On that note, wouldn't it be cool to have more than just the Special Stages to find during acts? Sonic CD had you looking for machines and projections of Metal Sonic in the past to destroy. What if there was more you could do to change the gameplay experience or overall game flow during acts? Or at least get you different endings along with getting the Chaos Emeralds? Be creative, but don't frustrate the retro player too much. EDIT: Oooh, and how about mid-bosses between acts? You know how Sonic 3 & Knuckles had you fight mid-bosses in between acts, and you'd seemlessly transition right into Act 2? It would clash with the whole world map thing, but it'd be great to at least have mid bosses and modest little act-to-act and/or zone-to-zone transition scenes like that. Besides, you could also just limit the "going back to the world map" option to between zones. Also, I'd recommend swapping the "Press A to progress to next act" with "Press A to go back to the world map". Helps sustain the retro flow of gameplay.
Life would be so much easier if we just had an American/British development team that spoke the same goddamn language as the people complaining about the physics. So, you know, they could just read the forums and have done with it, none of this middleman stuff. >_>
DIMPs/Sonic Team is Japanese-only? Hey guys, if you're really that passionate about communicating all of this to SEGA, learn Japanese and go to the Japanese SEGA forum or something. Might not get anywhere, but at least you know Japanese.
In the classic games, Sonic had three distinct states, all with different rules. Running, rolling, and jumping. Your momentum and inertia would be affected depending on which state you're in. In Sonic 4, that seems to have been simplified. This is why you see so many people complaining that, for example, Sonic comes to a dead stop in mid-air if you're not holding down a direction. That's no big deal to me, just learn to keep pressing forward. It could even be argued that it gives you a little more control over what you're doing, and it definitely makes jumping platforms easier on the n00bs. Most of this is no big deal, and are just things you get used to. But I am going to play devil's advocate and say three major things I hope they change for Episode II: 1) Sonic should NOT uncurl if you go over a ledge while rolling. 2) The homing attack, if we're going to keep it, needs to be sped up. Sonic takes way too long to flip back around and regain control after he hits one. 3) The way the roll works needs to change. Sonic needs to be able to pick up more speed while rolling downhill. Basically, pay more respect to that sense of I HAVE NO UNDERSTANDING OF THE SONIC ENGINE.
Yeah, Stage 7 was a bitch, simply because I kept getting bumper trapped on the section covered in bumpers. I was so relieved when I got the Emerald.
Haha, I actually started a new save file and played through the whole game again, just so I could go back and play Special Stage 7 on Splash Hill Zone Act 1. That way I wouldn't have to play through like a five-minute level just to have a five-second chance.
I actually had more trouble with 6; I did 7 on my first try. As far as the rest of the game goes, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Once you got used to the changes in physics they weren't THAT bad. That said, it's still in no way deserving of the title of Sonic 4. Hopefully Sega will take all the criticism to heart when making Episode 2. I haven't seen a single review/opinion that haven't mentioned the shoddy physics, even positive ones. With any luck they'll get the message and do it right next time.
Hrm... that's actually a good idea. At any rate, on my seventh go of it or so, I got the emerald. I ALMOST bumped myself in that hellicious bumper room, but then I was all good. Heard the chime and grabbed my emerald. EDIT: I just transformed into Super Sonic. Oh Sonic 4 I love you, all is forgiven we'll work on that air inertia/momentum thing in Episode 2, but right now I'm going to play the fuck out of you as Super Sonic.
yes, where's the poz button? Lol thanks hey I'm curious do you guys use the Wiimote to tilt or do you use the control pad? I use... either depending on XD Still only have 5 emeralds but I only played for like an hour yesterday and not at all today
C'mon, you'd think after eight and a half months of discussion, more people would have remembered an important lesson Nintendo taught us more than twenty years ago. Super Mario Bros. 2 (US, not the Lost Levels) was a very, very different game from SMB1 and SMB3. The only way it even really resembled Mario was that it had Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Peach in it. And yet, despite this, there are quite a few Mario fans who like it. It's nothing like the classic Mario series that it's a part of. Heck, it wasn't even supposed to be a Mario game. Nintendo just called it Super Mario Brothers 2 and tossed it in with the classic series. If Super Mario Bros. 2 can be part of the classic Mario series when it's less like classic Mario than Sonic 4's like classic Sonic, then Sonic 4: Episode 1 can definitely be part of the classic Sonic series. ***** And now for something completely different: I'm kind of late responding to this one, but... You do realise the point of games is usually to have fun, right? Games tend to be judged on fun. People with a background to understand the finer parts of programming aren't any more qualified to judge a game than other people, especially when most people who play games don't have a technical background. Programmers aren't most games' target audience.
Yeah, and I'd like to add that I am LITERALLY a professional programmer. It's my day job. I draw a salary from programming. Tokumaru, do you? Because if not, then you don't have a professional perspective, you have an amateur's perspective by definition.
