If funding was the main issue to begin with, they should've made the game 16-BIT. It worked for Contra ReBirth, why wasn't Sega smart enough to hire M2 to do the same for Sonic? I just love how every old game series gets to have new retro styled games, ironically except for Mario and Sonic.
I love the way that they always say "We cannots do dat we'd haff to chaing da level layabouts" like they were ever going to do it in the first place. Seriously, they could have easily changed the physics in Episode I and it would have made NO difference to level design if Sonic couldn't walk on 89 degree slopes or didn't stop on a dime, yet they still busted out this shitty excuse. Now they've announced Tails as a sidekick character, and really milked his appearance right from the beginning, only to then tell us he isn't playable. Surely if you had ever had any intention to make him playable, you would have started off by assuring the level design could accomodate this change in gameplay. Fair enough if you're dickish enough not to implement Tails- something everybody wants and it being the logical extension of the classics- but don't fuckin' tell us you can't do it now, because we all know that at SEGA nobody anywhere wanted to have Tails at any stage at any point in time. Secondly in my rant, they also say how they don't have time to delay any further. And I present to you; "A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever." Miyamoto has never let me down. This is the reason I believe what he says. Apart from the BS from SEGA, the actual game is looking really good! Not perfect, but really good.
Thing is, Tails is now yet another gimmick and the levels have been made to accomodate it as well as the homing attack. So, not only you wouldn't be able to play without the homing attack now, but also you just can't play as Sonic alone. ...Which makes me believe that a hypothetical "Sonic 4 Episode 3" would be a 2D version of Sonic Heroes, featuring Knuckles and stuff to punch before proceeding.
And didn't we learn a year ago or so that Sega was planning on a Sonic Heroes type of title in the works? Well, shit. Sonic 4 is beginning to fit the bill. And with it, come the same problems Heroes had. It's business as usual in Segaland.
I thought I recall Taxman saying the Retro Engine was capable of doing 3D. ( not that it matters though, since they're still right about just simply porting the content, it's more complicated than that as already said in the video)
If Tails as a support-only character were to be implemented in one of the 3D core titles, I would have been fine with it. However, when you are making a game directly comparable to a predecessor that did something that is a step backward if it were to be removed, that's a problem. Even if you can't play Sonic or Tails alone, I would have been fine with it had there been a Donkey Kong Country tag-team system. Compared to that, the way they are executing the system here is lazy no matter how you slice it. One appeal of having Tails in the old games was finding areas you can't get to with Sonic, or just totally breaking the game, as with Tails in Taxman's Sonic CD. The idea of having an optional character to explore a world that may not be tailor-made for it as opposed to a world where everything is built around that character being there in order to finish it will always be more appealing in the case of 2D Sonic. Which really, could be said for the homing attack as well. The reason it was fine in Sonic Adventure and Sonic Advance 2 was because the game was not built around the mechanic for the majority of the game and was merely an additional ability, as opposed to Sonic 4 where it is a necessity. For all of my gripes, I'm still very happy about the improvements to the physics.
This video has made me conclude that making this game a digital download was an awful idea. Since there's probably going to be three episodes, the average consumer will pay $45 anyways. Considering how Sonic Generations was $50 in stores and $30 on Steam, I can't help but think I would have gotten a much better game for around the same or less money if they just didn't make it a low budget downloadable game. I also don't understand the logic that the level design deserves to suffer because of budget. Sonic Advance 3 allowed up to five characters that could partner with each other and had the levels designed around all five characters. The game also had 7 zones with 3 acts each that also came with beautiful graphics. I probably spent $30 on that retail game at launch which was made by the same developers: Dimps. Either Sega is fucking up their own game for additional cash, or some people are just making some really dumb game design decisions. Maybe a bit of both.
I'm very disappointed that you can't play as Tails in Episode 2. One of the best things about Sonic 3 and Knuckles was the ability to play as different characters that, unlike say Sonic Adventure 2, still kept the core gameplay while creating subtle differences between them allowing one to find alternate paths and extra goodies. I still don't understand why they can't slightly tweak the level design to provide alternate routes for Tails. I'd personally would be fine with a delay of the game, after all, if Sonic 06 taught us anything, its that making a rushed game is a terrible idea. Or, they could do something like they did in the port of Sonic CD, where you could play as Tails after you beat the game as Sonic and then you could get enjoyment and make the game more replayable by being able to break it as tails I can understand the argument that Tails doesn't have a homing attack, so the level design wouldn't work for him, however, if you were to make Tails playable, it would instead discourage level designers to create chains of enemies for Sonic to homing attack, thus making us even happier. Oh well, even without a playable Tails in single-player mode, I'm still excited to see what's next for episode 2
Why can't developers just make it where if you switch to Tails, you can pick up Sonic and then have Tails toss Sonic? Homing attack issue resolved?
I just don't see why if Dimps were such pros at it before, making as many as 5 playable characters at once in the Advance games, why they can't do it now. In the end it's kind of a non-issue for me since I always played as Sonic, but it just doesn't make any sense.
Not too farfetched, and really has been done before in Sonic Heroes with fly formation's attack. But really, I have a difficult time saying homing attack deserves to be in a 2D Sonic at all, except for maybe in a super-reduced, Sonic Advance 2 state, and maybe only in a shield. Does Sonic really need that kind of "precision" without a 3rd dimension to mess with it?
I would love to see the return of the homing shield! That would make the game much more balanced and stop annoying bubble chains. It would also leave SEGA with very little reason to not include Tails as a full playable character. At the same time, there is little to no chance of them changing it, after they made such a big deal about the homing attack in Episode 1
In regards to Ken's comments about the Retro Engine and Sonic 4: Ken's not a programmer as you're all aware so he's doing his best to try and explain it, but essentially what it comes down to is this. Dimps are an external studio with their own pipeline of tools they work with to develop their games. I am my own studio with my own pipeline (Retro Engine, plus some other things I haven't divulged publicly). It's not as simple as just passing my stuff on to them because it would essentially mean working in a different way to what they as a dev studio are already setup to do. It would make more sense to them to just continue improving their own stuff for Episode 2 and beyond. If Sonic 4 were to switch to my pipeline, it'd only be if SEGA wanted Sonic 4 developed by my studio instead of Dimps.
I would be more than happy for the next Sonic game to sacrifice 3D graphics for the correct physics and gameplay feel. Also I did not know retro engine wasn't designed with 3D in mind. I take it that it's not possible at the moment but it's not beyond your reach, if you worked at it?
The Retro Engine could always do 3D, but 3D in the sense of what a Sega Saturn could achieve. This is purely a scope thing as stylistically, I wanted the Retro Engine to do games 32bit and lower. The Retro Engine isn't the only thing in my programmer's arsenal though, so yeah, I could happily work on an HD game if the opportunity came up.
Here's hoping this happens one day! I'd love to see a Sonic 5 rendered as it would have been on the Saturn As for Sonic 4, however, do you think that it will be an option to remove the hint markers for tag-team attacks and pitfall signs? I don't like how big and blatant they are.
I think alot of us here would be quite happy to have you and a competent team develop something new for the Sonic universe.
Oh if only. I would trust you over DIMPS to make a Sonic 4. Not trying to bash DIMPS though, since I think DIMPS would do a wonderful Sonic Advance 3 sequel. But SEGA and DIMPS is the way things are going so this post is just wishful thinking.
I figure SEGA's typical way of business practice really hurts development by outside studios. I mean, they still have strict deadlines even though the disaster that is Sonic '06 should have taught them better.
I think most gaming companies are pretty strict with deadlines. Shame more developers don't go the Valve or Nintendo route of quality > quantity. No wonder those two companies are my favorite gaming companies.
