The Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Megathread

I'm bringing up the "floatiness" argument. Sonic's air time is no different when comparing Sonic 3 to Sonic 4.

 

He was simply displaying that the jumps aren't really as floaty as everyone thought. If they sped up the rotations a bit it'd probably help, though.

EDIT: Ninja'd.

 

I actually enjoy the presence of Motobug and Eggman's wrecking ball as well, but why take almost everything but the physics from the classic Sonic games? Of all the engines to reuse, why not the one from the game you're trying to make a sequel to?

 

Oh, I was hoping you weren't referring to how he landed; the SHZ image has him landing on a steeper slope than those in AIZ.

 

Yeah, that's probably the sole issue is the rotation speed of Sonic's jump in Sonic 4. That makes it seem like things are floaty...when, in reality, it really looks like it's the same as (or deadly similar) to the classics.

 

Oh, the floatiness? Well, damn, I've been wondering where that complaint came from the since the first leak. It probably is just an illlusion caused by the unchanging speed of his jump rotation.

Because the games they're trying to make a sequel to are on the god damn Sega Genesis, that's why. It's not as easy as copy-and-paste.

It's obvious they aren't just "re-using" the Rush engine, anyway. Even if they have used it, it's been modified, and may yet be modified more still. And if their Rush engine can be modified into a classic engine (or a reasonable facsimile), then who cares if it was originally the Rush engine?

Really, the only issue I have with the physics is the slope-and-acceleration-up-vertical-surfaces thing, so far. There really isn't anything else I've seen wrong with the physics that I'd be able to detect without a controller in my hand.

 

Do you honestly think they believed it was good when they released it? Again, the marketing and sales strategy came first. '06 surely wasn't a blunder they couldn't see.

I'm not flipping anything.

Whether the physics do or do not have to be the same is another topic. The point is that the target audience does not appear to be classic fans, and the rehashed content is the closest thing to classic those fans have got. No conspiracy in that.

 

Incidentally I keep having thoughts about this game comparing it to how I feel about Megaman 7.

 

About the jumping in this, it looks so much better than what they did in Rush. I always hated how in rush you start falling again as soon as you let go of the jump button.

Why exactly are people so sure that this is using the same engine as Rush anyway? It could just be programmed similarly, right?

 

Using the Rush engine just seems logical I think, especially considering how deceleration and slops are handled.

 

It has to be rush, otherwise people wouldn't be able to base their Sonic Rush HD arguments

 

This is true, it could just be a new engine that happens to have taken coding influence from previous engines. We don't know, because we have no real idea of what's going on behind the scenes.

Either way, it shares a few of Rush's little physics quirks. That doesn't necessarily mean anything other than that it shares a few of Rush's little physics quirks, though.

 

So, I can't be 100% sure. All the stuff I have been comparing so far matches up to Sonic Rush.

Here is why I believe it is the Sonic Rush engine:
- Because I have programmed my share deal of engines in the past, and I know how long it takes to make an engine and how much resources it takes. At one poinjt you are dedicated to use all the problems you created in the past.
- I have been comparing Sonic engines for years now, and I have spent weeks on each Sonic Advance game seeing what they improved and what they did worse. Sonic 4's engine is so different from Sonic Advance 1, 2, 3, but it hasn't changed much from Sonic Rush's engine (second official trailer really screamed Sonic Rush all over it, and leaked videos confirmed it).
-Sonic Rush's engine is the first step away from the original Sonic design, and bases most stuff around 3D technology (the only thing that sells nowdays, according to Iizuka).
-All the leaked Sonic 4 videos have their moments where I could see Sonic Rush's reflection (I had to sometimes open Sonic Rush and play to a point until I was sure).
-Sega basically said it was the Sonic Rush engine in one of their interviews (as well as compared it to Sonic Rush).

So Sonic seems to jump better. That's something Sega said, that they had tweaked. And he seems to handle balancing better (hard to tell, I only saw one screenshot). The rest of Sonic Rush seems to be there, only that it looks a little better when pixel wobble happen in HD resolutions instead on the GBA screen. It one pixel was one meter, you would get pretty sick, I'll assure you!

I haven't been wrong yet. I will gladly come forward and say I was wrong if it is proven. But if it is proven that I was right all along, can I get a badge of victory? *shot*

 

When did they "basically" say that?

 

@ Guess Who:
It's about as incredible as rushing a university assignment and handing it in knowing it's rubbish. And they just couldn't have not-noticed.

I explained my thoughts on why they rehashed everything. A mistake in your reasoning is simple to suggest also, but you're starting to carry on. If you want to keep debating, chill out first.

 

Any company with a Quality Assurance team would have seen the issues in Sonic '06's gameplay from a lightyear away. Companies do that sort of thing—anyone who's ever played Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2 knows that Sonic '06 wasn't even close to being the first obvious rush-job, although it's certainly one of the worst.

Whether they realized the magnitude of the marketing problems they'd cause for themselves in the future because of that game, who can say? I doubt nobody in the company thought more than one move ahead, but obviously the people who matter didn't... or else there's just a lot more merit to the rumor that Microsoft forced them to rush it, than one would think.

My thought is this: the rehashed content is too much and too large in volume to logically point to the game and say, "The retro crowd wasn't the target audience!" The non-retro crowd doesn't give a damn about rehashed content. The game as it stands is trying so hard to be familiar.

If the game doesn't appear to cater to the retro fandom, then it's probably because it's catering to them with the wrong aspects... as I've said, "miscalculated" fanservice.

 

I really see all that the other way.
The rehashing is too blatant in a game with controls too altered to support it as a legitimate aim at the retro crowd. As many have said, it wasn't that hard to get it right, and as many have also said, they actually got this backwards.

It does appear to cater to the retro fans. That's the point. That's what sells it to those fans.


So yeah, I call it deliberate. I'll just accept that some will see it that way, some won't.

 

You're probably not the one they're trying to win over. If you're dead set on hating new Sonic, that's not a great market. Now, the people who just don't know much about new Sonic but have fond memories of the old ones, now that's a market to go for. That's the retro crowd (rather than the crowd from Retro).

Sky Sanctuary. The pop-up spri- I mean, square areas that do nothing but propel you up ramps, back and forth, in a predetermined direction. I've seen more of those in that level than I've seen speed boosters in Splash Hill.