Sonic Rumble, a "Fall Guys" inspired game coming this winter

Why they are going so fucking hard for this game soundtrack lol

 

Especially since they refuse to let people play it.

 

Can they just release the fucking game already????

I’m all for games getting the time to cook but this game’s been playable in several territories since last year, and it’s still getting a regular stream of updates despite this idea that they’re not ready to launch it globally. The logic just does not track.

 

I wonder if Jun Senoue is helping with some of Sonic Rumble's music by providing guitar contributions, especially considering that 0:32 to 0:54 sounds quite a bit like 0:01 to 0:13 of Mad Gear Zone: Act 2; also, 1:54 to 1:59 sounds a tad similar to Advertise: Rhythmic Passage from 0:19 to 0:22. Fantastic track overall, I love the combination of 007 / James Bond motif brass backing with rockin' guitars in the foreground!

Not only do I long for a full worldwide game release but also and even moreso an official soundtrack release including comprehensive credits. That said, if they do actually produce an official soundtrack release, I sadly wouldn't be surprised if the Sky Sanctuary Zone remixes have either no crediting whatsoever for their original composition and arrangement or instead it's once again broadly attributed to "SEGA" ala the Sonic Generations Original Soundtrack: Blue Blur official release.

 

They don't wanna launch in the US because they wanna make sure their monetization is sufficiently predatory at launch. They realized they didn't have enough forms of currency to buy.

 

By the drums alone make me suspect it's Jun because it sounds a lot Akt's drums.

 

You think so? I don't think so. I think this could be the Sonic Symphony guys.

 

The thing is... it's kinda not ready.

Im publishing a pretty big video on this game next week, but this game... doesn't really feel complete.

Aside from several issues specific to the PC version, there's a few issues with this, some that can be fixed, others that can't.

For example, there's currently a huge problem with de-Sync. It's gotten noticeably worse since they delayed the game and it's ruining a lot of games where you feel like you've won by several seconds only to find yourself in third place.

There's also a ton of problems with the skill system, several skills are hilariously over powered and outright broken in some stages.

One skill in particular that I highlight in my vid allows me to steal content from parts of the stage I'm not even supposed to access.

But the main issue I've seen is that the game just doesn't work well on a large number of devices. Whilst you always have this discrepancy with mobile games, Rumble seems to be taking it quite badly.


Then you have some weird stuff that feels like it's a beta test for the full release.

E.g. in yesterday's update, they added a few new characters to the Red Ring shop. 1 of them came with a huge discount... Way lower than the usual discounted price...

And it feels like it's a market research test to re-price a lot of the content since the ingame ecconomy is also quite broken at the moment.

And then there's other things specific to the PC, like how the UI isn't made for that format, and how there's features missing since Steam doesn't support the mobile ad incentives that mobile platforms do.

 

Well thanks for contributing that insight, is does clear a lot of things up because, from the outside looking in, I really wasn't seeing these things from edited gameplay montages that just show off the new stages and such. Ultimately it is still frustrating how this is all being handled, and I think I'd be taking it better if SEGA had actually communicated these things and given some kind of a roadmap. That said, Marvel Rivals had closed betas for a while (albeit more limited than this), so hopefully this ends up working out and the game kicks ass when it actually releases (also please just bin the mobile ads SEGA - if you make a good game, people will spend on it).

 

If it's in that bad a state, what the hell were they doing announcing the global release for two weeks ago? Did they just...not know?

 

The only possible comparison I can think of... is what happened to Big Red Button and Rise of Lyric.

They designed it for one thing, then suddenly the people in charge decided "Well now we want this!"

Even before the skills update, the game feels like it was designed for something else.

The biggest clue is the level design, one of my biggest complaints is that it's too easy, but it's too easy even with a lobby of 24 people.

Players don't end up becoming an obstacle because the level design is too generous for the player count. There's never really any moments of "this platform can only hold X people, but there's Y number in the game".

Whereas if you had lobbies of 60-100, it would suddenly be a lot better because you now have more people fighting to get through the stage.

And the skills update is a similar thing, it's totally transformed the game, it's less a game of player skill, and more a game of "who has the best/most upgraded skills."

It feels like a game which doesn't or has never had a clear focus, it's almost like they made 75% of the game, then a producer said, "Hey we look too much like Fall Guys, what do we do?"

And they've spent all these pre-seasons desperately trying to make themselves unique with no firm or clear "this is the direction our party mass player game is going in."

 

I mean all of that might be true, but are you implying that the week before the game went live was the moment that change happened? I'm just saying it seems weird to have all of that going on, but then still move forward with the projected launch date up until that point, and then just suddenly switch to what must be an extremely radical retooling of the game (if I take you at your word, since I still haven't played it since the beta).

 

So lets split Rumble into 2 eras.

• Pre-Skill Update.
• Post-Skill Update.

I got my paws on the PC build in the Pre-Skill update around April 10th. Played it a few days later, and then decided to do a video on it.

I don't remember when the Skill Update dropped, but I want to say I was playing it around 1-2 weeks before the original release date (May 8th).

Pre-Skill Update. It felt like it didn't matter who you picked, who won the game was dependent on player skill, however I do think that PC users with a controller had a massive advantage given how I was able to dominate so many games, my win loss ratio was shockingly high considering how I came into the game as a new player to an already established userbase.

Now there were still issues I had with the game (wait for my vid next week to save many many paragraphs). But ultimately, it felt like you could 'play as you want, the winner is decide based mainly on their skill and understanding of the game/the course'.

Then the skill update dropped... and the entire game changed over night.

The Skill System has drastically transformed the game. It plays totally different to the pre-skill era. Winning is no longer down to skill and having a controller is no longer that much of an advantage... The character you pick + what skills you have unlocked and upgraded are now the deciding factor.

My ability to win games has collapsed overnight, just because I'm at a huge disadvantage being a Free to Play player. Paid players get tons more resources so they can upgrade skills easier. The skill system is such a huge overhaul that it's simply not fun to play if you can't afford to upgrade your stuff or as what I think most players will do... you pick the wrong character and upgrade the wrong stuff.

Pre-Skill update: My conclusion was essentially, "The stages need to be made harder/increase the player count"
Post-Skill Update: "The skill system is unbalanced, who wins is now decided on their character over player ability and the game is skewered towards pay to win players.

 

Sooo you're saying the skills update took it from something that was flawed but release-worthy to something that needs to be held back until they rethink it? Or that some other thing is holding it back from before then? I'm kinda getting lost in the weeds here, I'm just trying to understand how we go through months of "coming May 8th" only for that to become "who the fuck knows when" a week beforehand. From their perspective, I mean. The gist I'm getting from most of your posts is that you don't think the game is all that good or balanced, and while that may be the case, the most damning things are the desync and lack of proper UI on the PC, which feel like footnotes in all your posts. If the rest of it was good enough to push to the softlaunch, I'm not totally seeing where the issues you seem to take the most ire with would actually be the things standing in the way of the global release, and most importantly, the abrupt timing and sudden swerve away from that release. What changed so dramatically between April 9 and April 29th? It's less than three weeks.

 

I had to go back to the start of this thread and actually rewatch the trailer. Anyone else getting the vibe this game's like a ghost?

 

I think they'd released it prior to the skills update.

Most people would have got about... maybe... at the absolute max... 2 weeks... before they got bored. They might return for the odd event, but I doubt they'd be playing daily.

As it stands right now, unless people REALLY get into upgrading stuff, maybe a week at the most... Before they realise it's just not worth the effort.

 

So I've finally got it out.

I'm not sure.. how much to tell you about what's in the video, because this game has sort of deflated me.

I did make a point to go into the PC settings to show you some of the accommodations made for PC users. It's not much, but it does show they're tried to do something for the PC crowd. However saying that there's some outright comical things left in the PC version that shouldn't be there. Like how the UI in the game is still designed for mobile, so you have actual on screen controls that PC users do not need that take up space in the gameplay area.

I'm not sure what to talk about here without spoiling my entire video and... well... I put a lot of effort into it so I'd like some of you to check it out... lol.

But I did make a point to go into detail about the gameplay and level design and explain why I don't think it works too well due to a major limitation of the game. And also there's some video examples of how the skill system has... sort of totally broken the game at the moment. If you've not seen what the skills have done to the game, I think you'll be shocked when you see some of the outright insane things you can do that nobody can counter.

But I think the biggest potential controversy, which I suspect will become a topic in this thread... When I was making this video, I wanted to keep in mind what would the experience be if I were a Free to Play player, so I didn't engage with any of the microtransactions. How well could I do... And... I'm quite shocked.

F2P players have a major disadvantage in both the acquisition of content, and more controversially... they get a major advantage in actually winning stages due to the increase of resources they get. Due to the way the skill system is designed, it's totally skewered the ability to win from the player, to what skills they have unlocked and use, but the ability to be able to do this is so heavily influenced by how much money you put into the game, I honestly don't think you could claim the game isn't pay to win. The advantages you get from how much you pay into the game affect every competitive meta, there's almost nothing it doesn't touch.

But the thing that I think is the death nail for the game... is how even if you don't care about being competitive. You just simply cannot unlock other characters unless you pay into it. Once you exhaust all the sources of red rings in the game, it will take you 1 year to unlock a single character. I'm actually quite shocked at this, there's just no way to farm or obtain red rings (well there are ways to obtain them, but... the video goes into detail). It's not even a case of "Well you can't unlock everything," it's more a case of "You just can't unlock anything!"

Like, say tomorrow they announced "Oh here's the Sonic the Fighters cast! All designed in their low poly glory!! All behind red rings!!!" I'd have a reason to replay the game daily if there were ways for me to grind red rings since I know that eventually, I'd be able to unlock them. Sure it make take me a few weeks, but I'd do it!

But since there really isn't anyway to do that. I'm just... not wanting to waste my time on something that I've realised is completely futile. Take the current Sonic Prime event, every character is behind red rings. It'd take multiple years to unlock those as a F2P player if you've exhausted all your sources of red rings.



Well anyway... Please give the video a look since there's a lot of detail in there and I think you guys would enjoy it.