The Ideal 3D Sonic Game?

With separate control scheme, the transitions would come with an almost audible clunk, just like in most of Unleashed.

Not to be mean, but that whole game was really ugly and generic.

As for art direction in my ideal Sonic game, I'd use the classic games as a base, primarily Sonic 3. I'd like to have a surreal world, but most of Sonic 1 and 2 would have taken it a bit too far to put it in 3D with much detail. I'd love to have random lights set into the sides of caves, like in EHZ, and hovering stuff. Also, geometric plants.

 

Two things need to die immediately.

Rail Grinding
Light Speed Dash

All these do are shamelessly add on to the level. I don't care if the level is shorter if there are no rails. You don't do anything on the rails. You do even less Light Speed Dashing. Homing attack is ok though.

Oh and Unleashed art direction all the way kthnxbi.

 

Intelligent level design solves everything.

 

Ok, let me rephrase. The characters IMO looked very well-done (minus they're cutscene counterparts, those were nasty, ugly, terrible with facial expressions and puppet-like in quality). And the generic bit was just adding to my point when I said about using more inspiration art-style-wise. As for art design for enviornments, I would say taking Unleashed's realism and the Genesis game's surrealism and fusing the two together.

True. But, the only reason I'm including them in my concept is because they introduce even more varieties in alternate routes. Especially the fact that they won't render the levels in my concept linear, since my levels are practically sandbox. =P

 

The character models were easily the worst part D:!
Sonic's model has a protruding forehead, it looks like he's been smashed in the face, and he's so skinny that he's lost any cuteness he might have had. His quills limply flop about while he goes about his business, and his running animation is ridiculous looking. Then there's Amy, who always seems like she's about to go for my throat.

What's wrong with Eggman? What's right with Eggman?

It seems to me like rail grinding is the least interesting way possible for someone like Sonic to get from place to place.

 

OK, I get it that the 2006 models don't look like the Genesis days of yore (don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Genesis style) but I happen to like the athletic Sonic design. Remember, this is my opinion. =P

 

Afti gave me a good idea. I should switch the brake and crouch buttons.
And then switch the [] and /\ buttons.

Left Stick: Movement.
Right Stick: Camera.
L3 (Push in Left Stick): Braking and Drifting, mostly.
R3 (Push in Right Stick) centers the camera behind Sonic.

X: Jumping, Midair Precision (MAKE SONIC GO UP)
O: Speed Abilities (MAKE SONIC GO FASTER)
/\: Crouching, Spinning (MAKE SONIC GO DOWN)
[]: Wall running, I guess.

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Here's the full control scheme, all fleshed out (proper spoiler tags would be nice):

While standing still, walking, or jogging:
Left Stick: Walk, hold to start jogging, continue to hold to start running.
X: Jump
Hold O: Charge Peel-Out. The Peel-Out is faster to charge than the Spin Dash, but can leave Sonic vulnerable.**
Hold /\: Crouch
Hold L3 (Push in Left Stick): Pivot (push the Left Stick left and right to turn)

While crouching:
Left Stick: Pivot (push the Left Stick left and right to turn)
Hold O: Charge Spin Dash. Slower to charge than the Peel-Out, but does not leave Sonic vulnerable.**
Release /\: Launch Spin Dash. If Sonic didn't charge up his Spin Dash, he just stands up.

While running:
Left Stick Up: Accelerate.
Left Stick Left and Right: Change direction.
Left Stick Down: Decelerate.
X: Jump
O: Speed Boost. Can be used to attack enemies.**
/\: Spin
Hold L3: Brake
Hold L3 while pushing Left Stick Left or Right: Turn body while continuing to skid in the same direction. (If you Speed Boost before slowing down completely, you can handle tight corners with ease).

While spinning:
X: Jump
O: Speed Boost. Can be used to attack enemies.**
L3: Stop spinning

While charging Peel Out:
Left Stick: Pivot (push the Left Stick left and right to turn)
Release O: Launch Peel-Out. If Peel-Out is charged up enough, Sonic can damage enemies in front of him.

While jumping:
Hold X: Sonic will adjust his trajectory to hit the nearest target (badnik, bumper, etc.) without increasing his momentum. Auto-aim, if you will.
Hold X while pushing Left Stick: Sonic will adjust his trajectory to hit a target in the direction of the Left Stick without increasing his momentum. Selection of targets without a clunky targeting system.
O: Sonic boosts towards the nearest target. This is essentially the Homing Attack we're all familiar with.**
O while pushing Left Stick: Sonic boosts towards a target in the direction of the Left Stick. Targeted Homing Attack.**
Hold /\: Sonic will adjust his trajectory to hit a target below him. If there are no targets, Sonic will aim for the nearest solid ground or helpful obstacle (like a rail). All the bottomless pits in the world can't stop Sonic anymore.
Hold /\ and press O: Sonic boosts towards a target below him. Great for bouncing high.
[] near a wall: Sonic runs on a nearby wall with his current momentum.

Camera Controls:
Right Stick: Move Camera.
R3 (Push in Right Stick): Center Camera behind Sonic.
L1: Zoom In
R1: Zoom Out
L2: Lower Camera
R2: Raise Camera

** All commands that use O use Ring Energy. Without Ring Energy, O does nothing. Refill Ring Energy by collecting Rings.

 

loosing all your momentum after a HA wasn't any fun in Sonic 06. This whole maneuver sounds too contrived.

Why is everyone treating this like it's rocket science or something? It's just a matter of making a Sonic game in 3D without all the bullshit and terrible controls introduced with the later games.

 

And be momentum-based. That's basically was Sonic was all about.

 

While I'll go with the "no chainline" idea, I'll have to agree with everyone else on this one: Nextgen's HA was no fun.

Seriously, was everything about the modern games bad?

Sure, it's not exactly "genesis sonik lulz", but I found the Adventure series, Unleashed, and some of Nextgen (flamewar's a comin') to be at least SOMEWHAT enjoyable. Yes, they had their flaws, but I believe that the ideal Sonic should NOT be "back to his roots", but a fusion of both the old and the new.

 

Unleashed did that, it didn't work. "Back to roots" is the only thing that I can seriously imagine working, if you want Sonic to be something special, rather than an also ran.

 

Stripe, there is one thing I have severe issues with in your controls.

It's no fun beating a hard platforming segment if you know that no matter what, you will ALWAYS land on solid ground.

But I'm okay with the rest, the only thing I'd add is changing the Left stick's crouching function to a sort of momentumless 'slow-roll' with a constant speed. It would let you quickly dodge if you spot an obstacle coming for you, but can't be abused for speed, cause it isn't all that fast and doesn't gain acceleration. Pivot would activate via the L3-press, like when standing.

 

I bet you all Sonic team does in their 'generating idea' stages of game development is read threads like these, and then do exactly the opposite of whatever we're saying. So with that in mind I'll say 'the werehog is great. Let's have an entire game with the werehog. Sonic sucks.' 'Sonic 2006 was a good game and the stopping to fight enemies was not annoying at all, and the controls great.' 'I'm so tired of people saying they want a normally-controlled sonic-only game - why can't we have Shadow the Hedgehog 2? That was the best sonic game ever.'

Also,

I think that's the funniest thing that's ever been said on this forum.

 

Well I don't mean to suggest that holding /\ in midair would ensure a safe landing regardless of where you were in relation to solid ground. You do have to be reasonably close to being above solid ground, and capable of moving over it with your current momentum; if you fling yourself towards a bottomless pit, you can't snap yourself back. But yeah, either the platforming would have to be extremely difficult to warrant the presence of ground homing, or it should be eliminated altogether for making the game too easy. Hmm... what would SEGA do?

"Make the platforming insanely difficult and remove ground homing altogether to make the game unbeatable."

BRILLIANT!

But seriously, I'll change it so that /\ does nothing if there are no targets below Sonic.

This might work. It would make the controls more consistent. I wonder how effective a "slow roll" could be for dodging, though.

 

It had a stupid fucking Werehog.

I don't think it tried doing old and new at all, but something else entirely. Yes this applies to the daytime levels too, outside of the 2D perspective there wasn't really much of a throwback like in games like Mario.

But really I'm cool with that, they just ruined it with a lame gimmick.

 

Unleashed's problems only start with the Werehog, not end with it. It would have still been crap, but it wouldn't have taken as long to play.

Ok, what are the merits of New Sonic over Old Sonic?

 

I can't believe I forgot to ever mention this, and that nobody else has either.

Get rid of lives.

Seriously. As long as level design continues to be crap, the player will appreciate the charitable gesture of giving the player unlimited lives to pass a level (though maybe with score penalties for each death). Almost every game nowadays has no limit on how many times you can restart at a checkpoint before having to start the entire level over. The Sonic series needs to join those ranks.

 

Way I see it, you'd be able to move in any direction without being bothered by momentum. But what's driving me crazy is that I can imagine exactly how it would feel, but I can't really figure out how to explain it...something like Sonic suddenly jerking into the ball form, and rolling in the direction you point at a pretty quick, yet non-accelerating, constant speed. You would be able to move him in any direction with him turning on a dime, and yet it would be incredibly hard to abuse for speed.

The transition from crouch to rolling though, I find hard to describe...like a sudden, stiff motion...and the darnedest thing, I can explicitly remember what I'm thinking of being used for another game.