The argument that boost is more popular because it simplifies achieving speed has merit, however it is way too generalizing. If that were true, sonic forces would've been the most successful game in the series, and sonic mania would've been an obscure game for freaks. There's some sort of common ground of what fans expect from sonic games, whether that is as simple as "I like going fast" or a sophisticated "I am invested in the mechanics of going fast" and so.
The video is dumb, but @ajazz is right. Getting rid of momentum-based gameplay is as conscious an effort as can be, and the fact that momentum straight up exists but is turned off in Frontiers, and the fact that the game plays like shit if it's toggled on, makes it clear as day that it's simply not the paradigm they want to work with. It has been the case for well over 20 years now, and probably won't change. That said, there's always this cherry-picking when it comes to Mania-- its success is credited to everything but the fact that it plays the way it does, and is made to be so extremely contingent that it can never happen again, especially not the part that it plays the way it does. Which I understand, but somehow the same standards never apply to any other game in the series. Similarly, the discourse about what made Superstars sell less than expected always focuses on whatever it has in common with Mania, not whatever it does differently. Why is that?
I credit Sonic Mania's success to it being a true return to classic Sonic gameplay, which people clearly wanted. To follow that up, we get Sonic Superstars, an unfinished game made on a budget that isn't as good, sold at full price. No wonder it didn't sell as well.
Yeah, this is never going to change and I don't expect it to ever change with these people. Sonic Team has big ideas but can't grasp executing the nuances. And this isn't just strictly speaking about replicating just Sonic physics. Everytime they take a stab at some other well established gameplay trend, they always copy it at the surface level. If they ever did decide to actually do a game in the style people keep clammoring for, I wouldn't expect it to be executed well.
One of these days I want to look and see how much staff gets kept from game to game- a feel like a lot of this comes down to the fact they cycle through devs so much that nobody has the opportunity to develop the skills they need. I'm reminded of the quote i read that was something like only 1 or 2 level designers for Sonic Forces ever worked on a sonic game before.
I have an excel sheet with that info and an easy way to compare history, but I've gotten too lazy to update it properly. The goal was to go back as far as Adventure, but I only got up to Colors. Shadow Generations was pretty promising though. A lot of new heads or people in minor roles from Frontiers being promoted to lead roles in various departments. Hope those guys stay on.
Really? I'd be interested in seeing it. Any insights you gathered from it? Like, do they go through designers and stuff more often than you'd expect? I'm glad that they are holding onto the people from frontiers- regardless of the opinions on the game, sega seems to see it as a success and wants to keep maturing that talent pool.
No real insights, I haven't really done any real analysis. I've just been doing data entry and spell checking and just keep seeing some names pop up. I can put it up on a Google Sheet at a later date when I'm bored. You can comb sources already like Moby Games. They got a pretty well maintain list of people and its easy to cross reference stuff.
Slowly making my way through Trip’s story again whenever I get the chance. In fact, I’ve realized my computer is decent enough to where I can record it and I have been uploading that to YouTube. Beat the first act of Sky temple earlier. So far, I feel pretty vindicated in saying I don’t think Trip’s story is noticeably more difficult outside the bosses. And so far, I don’t think the bosses actually are bad. I wouldn’t say I’d take them over playing the levels themselves, but I actually am getting a measure of enjoyment out of them that I don’t typically get from Classic Sonic bosses. it’s kind of different and weird having to actually try sometimes. I even died a few times. Some of that was just me kind of going on autopilot and doing stupid stuff, killing myself for no reason in particular on the Fang “boss” of Speed jungle act 2, but there was some somewhat legit stuff in there as well. Now I need to ask myself if that is what I truly want. Like yeah, it is more fun and interesting. But is it SO much more fun and interesting that I am okay with it taking longer and boss battles now being an actual obstacle between me and getting back to the stages which are significantly more fun. Also… I just wanted to say this while I am thinking about it. They get kind of… Spammy with the enemy placement. Like seriously, they place so many and sometimes so many IN THE SAME PLACE that it feels spammy and like I am looking at an amateur Mario maker level. But the thing about that is that it doesn’t actually make the levels any more difficult. If this was a Mario level and you had to weave through all these enemies or land somewhat precisely on their heads, more stuff to watch out for would be more challenging. But because in Sonic you can hit any part of most enemies with any part of your body while jumping, that’s not really the case. You can still bash through multiple of them in a single jump relatively effortlessly and without really much intentionality a good amount of the time. Them being grouped together really only serves to make it easier to hit more of them. Like pins set up in bowling. It kind of makes me wonder what the point is, and it’s honestly a little funny. Lol
Sonic Adventure DX for GameCube is an alright port. It's fine. I like some of the QOL improvements such as the maps and the option to skip cutscenes, faster load times, better Chao Garden etc. Plus I contend the GameCube controller is absolutely the best for 3D Sonic games, ever. It just really wasn't the enhanced, definitive version of the game it should've been. It's really a 1999 game in 2003 clothing and it shows. It feels like Sonic Team had precious little time to work on it on top of Heroes, Billy Hatcher and who knows what else. But as it is it's still a good time.
Just adding the flight cancel is a game changer for Tails, same with Knuckles having a glide cancel. I just finished a retroarchievements run on the OG Sonic 3 and really missed that. In other ways, Sonic Superstars really did get the physics right!
I'm still seething that Knuckles didn't keep his glide landing behavior in the Metal Sonic fight from Sonic Mania. It only triggers during that fight but it feels so right that it should have been the standard in Mania and carried over into Stupidstars.
The more I play through Trip’s campaign; the more convinced I become that the issues people have wirn this campaign’s level design is overblown. About to start golden capital next time I play. I can probably count the number of times I have encountered legitimately unfortunate hazard placement on one hand. And probably only one or two of those was the game using springs or water spouts or whatever to shoot me straight into a hazard. Mostly that was just because I was doing crazy stuff. And even then… Who cares? Again, this is sort of what the ring system is for. There’s no real consequence for taking damage here. Even if you die, there are enough checkpoints and you have infinite lives. It honestly does not matter. The game still stays fun, and these are rare instances. As far as the bosses, I honestly can’t comment on all of them. I have been abusing the emerald powers and at times even her dragon form to cheese them. But is it really cheesing? Is this not just the smart thing to do? Save your resources for when they really will be most beneficial and using them then? And it adds motivation to collect and hold on to rings that generally isn’t really found in Classic Sonic games past Sonic 2. Also, I am now convinced that I don’t have any issue with bosses sith insta-kills attacks in themselves in Classic Sonic. When you get hit by then, yeah. It may suck a little to replay a little of what you’ve already made it past…. So don’t get hit by them. As long as they are well telegraphed and stuff, I see no issue here.
Palas, the second I read your post I instantly knew exactly what you were taking about. lol In the giant auto scroller section at the end of act 3, I died 5 times; and it took me 8 minutes to beat the level overall. Got hard carried by rings. Serious skill issue shenanigans going on here, I must admit. But you know what? Even now, I don’t think that was THAT bad. Basically the same complaint from earlier. Not great having to repeat stuff, especially such a long section, but you know. Sucks to suck. Why this boss is “bad” (not really, but approaching that) really isn’t anything specific to Superstars, Trip’s playthrough, the difficulty, or anything. It is entirely because it’s a freaking auto scroller you can’t dictate the pace of. I was honestly wanting a fast forward button there for a bit, but again. It’s an autoscroller. Autoscrollers always suck. Not the game’s fault. Well, I guess it is the game’s fault for having it. And credit where it’s due, it’s probably the best attempt at a Autoscrollers the series has seen exactly because of it being a bit more involved, even if still not as fast paced as you’d want.
No offense to you, but I think that flight cancel ruins the whole point of playing as Tails and is not included in any official Sonic game for a damn good reason. Tails was never supposed to be the "easy mode". His flight is supposed to be all about having vastly increased mobility at the cost of vulnerability and limited duration, so giving the player countless easy ways to fly indefinitely and cheese boss fights like you're playing as Super Sonic just goes completely against his completely intentional game design. It's like Tails gameplay for people who don't like playing as Tails. I'd only ever accept flight cancel if it were to drop you into walk mode rather than ball mode.
Tails is still easy mode as is. Not being able to flight cancel only serves to make him an easy mode that is also kind of annoying when you just want to get back on the ground running/in a position to jump again.
