The one thing I hate about Sonic games: Small field-of-view

It makes the games worse.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBlUcoA7UTo[/youtube]

edit: But it makes Comix Zone amazing.

 

That's what Sonic CD does... but anyway, except for Aspect's Game Gear games (which should be played in Master System screen mode), I think the classic Sonics have plenty of screen to react without resorting to memorization.

Which is precisely one of the main things that separated Sonic from Zool, Bubsy or Awesome Possum, in my oppinion.

 

I was playing Sonic 2 on my iPod earlier, and that's pretty much what the Taxman ports do, especially if you've got a wider iPhone/iPod. The amount of extra screen space it provides compared to a Genesis game is almost unbelievable.

 

I did it once. It was meh...I can upload a video if anyone wants?

 

Rayman, in his original game, is bigger than Bubsy or Awesome Possum or Zool, and has no such problems. It's all a matter of designing levels that suit your engine and sprites. A great example of this is the classic Prince of Persia. The prince takes up a larger chunk of the screen than Sonic ever has, but for such a slow and precise game, it's not an issue. Hell, that game compounds it by having no scrolling whatsoever, and yet it still works fine.

The only Sonic games I ever felt had a problem with the FOV were Sonic CD and Knuckles Chaotix. Sonic CD had dick object placement designed to fuck you up, and often didn't give adequate time for the player to react, a problem that they were apparently aware of and attempted to mitigate fancy camera movement, but it wasn't really enough. Knuckles Chaotix's bonding mechanic causes characters to be at extreme edges of the screen constantly with no proper visibility in front of 'em, but it's not an issue because the level designers went on vacation and forgot to put obstacles in most of the game.

But Sonic 1-3K? Those games knew their screen real estate limitations, and designed within them. When the player has a genuine opportunity to go fast enough that it might be an issue, rolling protects them from enemies. Usually the game will actively stop the player before an area that requires a slower pace, so they don't find themselves spindashing in a seemingly safe area and then careening into a pit of lava. Even Wing Fortress Zone, which is set entirely above a giant bottomless pit, makes it pretty constantly clear when it's safe to spindash and not, and generally does a good job protecting the player from FOV-related problems.

edit: I can't believe I forgot to bring this up, but one major reason for a limited FOV is that it helps instill a sense of speed, regardless of what your speed actually is. You zoom out too far, the game is gonna feel slower, because Sonic is gaining less distance per second relative to the screen. Sonic's speed relative to himself is ultimately inconsequential, where exhilaration and advertising point blast processing is concerned.

 

Is anybody going to mention Sonic Rush? :specialed: Seriously, though. You had two whole screens to see where you were going, and that combined with a seek-ahead camera was really nice. Besides a few death pits I couldn't see coming, navigating my way through both Rush games, and Sonic Colors DS, was never a problem. I could find shortcuts, see tons of hazards coming, and save myself from falling if I could see a spring or platform to recover on.

Don't even get me started on Sonic Advance 3, though. Even memorization is a huge problem with how ridiculously tiny the resolution is. Dimps worked well within the limitations of a screen fit for a mouse, but you can only do so much.

 

I've never had a problem, and the games that do this (aka Jazz Jackrabbit 2) probably take it too far?

I do think there's a case to be made with 3D games and draw distance though, or specifically, what's the point in a widescreen Sonic Adventure 2 when you move forward into the level. But that's something different I guess.

 

Honestly, I do agree with the OP that there's too little room up ahead to see. I don't play Sonic nearly as often as I did 10 years ago, and thus I'm a little rusty. I think it's unfair to not consider players that aren't as skilled or out of practice.

While I don't think the view is that suffocating and I usually can react, there are times that I wish I had more than 160 pixels of visible area to react (a bit less due to the camera deadzone) to when going at a speed meaning that that part of the screen only lasts about 44 centiseconds. I'm disappointed that Sonic CD is the only game to have done the seek-ahead camera. I suppose widescreen accomplishes the same thing, but ideally, I'd prefer widescreen + seek-ahead.

 

This is impossible on the genesis hardware. Also, zooming would change the way the game behaves. Remember that many objects only exist to the game when onscreen. What you are asking for is definitely possible in the remakes (Unless the engine was explicitly designed to disallow that sort of thing, but I doubt it because you'd engineer your platform to be as future-proof as possible). In short, this feature will never show up in rom hacks, but might show up in fangames. It probably won't show up in future issues of the re-makes because it would be considered changing the way the game plays.

 

It always did seem to me that the most difficult aspect of the Genesis games was trying to react to what was coming up. A wider field of view seems like it's a great addition to those remakes. I suppose the alternative for the Genesis games would have been to have the camera lead Sonic a little. Dunno.

The equivalent in the 3D games might be Unleashed's excessive fish-eye effect, since it makes all the upcoming obstacles harder to detect. Guess it's the price for speed.

 

I've never seen it as an issue.

However this is what Sonic Xtreme was trying to eliminate with the fisheye view.

 

It's the problem of having a fast character traversing the unknown with the limitations of the hardware. Growing up with playing Sonic games it's not a big deal when you are used to it. Revisiting everything with Widescreen support also helps. But it really places emphasis on the level design understanding the potential problem areas and building around it. Thanks to 3D, zooming, panning, and twisting perspective works wonders with giving the heads up on tricker level design.

 

Sonic CD's camera is a bad thing which should have never happened.

That said, personally I never had any issue with any of the 8-bit and 16-bit Sonic games.

 

Uhuh, and why are you running into enemies again? You know we consider it to be dick level design when you end a speedy section with a wall of spikes, right? Of course reaction time is a problem when you're outrunning the screen, but in areas where that are things to run into, there sure as hell shouldn't be anything to make you go fast. Lay off the spin dash; you don't gotta go fast, you know? Take your damn time. I'd hate to see your reaction to Marble Zone.

 

Marble Zone is different. It pretty much doesn't even allow you to go fast unless you memorize it, or at least large chunks. The stage would be too difficult when played quickly, and they know it, so it's pretty clear they prevented it on purpose.

 

Care to elaborate? I personally thought it was a great solution.