Shadow and Rush, Opinions and General Bitching
Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 5:56 pm
So the two 'big' Sonic games this year have been released and I wondered if anyone has picked them up and more importantly what people think of them after playing. I got them both today, a day early no less and it's half good news, half bad.
First the blindingly obvious out of the way; Shadow isn't looking too good. I'm refraining from calling it a steaming turd until I finish it (indeed, I'm only 2 levels and a boss fight into it). Unfortunately the beginning isn't brilliant. It starts off well enough with a typical angsty opening with Crush 40 metal and CG cut scene.
It starts proper and oh dear, I've got mixed feelings. It tries so hard to be your friend but utterly fails. The graphics are poor but the voice acting is ok for the most part, Sonic's voice in particular being an improvement (Charmy’s makes me want to shoot him). It's nice to have an option with your missions but they are shoved down your throat too much, Sonic or Dooms Eye getting pissed if you attack the wrong thing. At this stage I don't care about the Black Arms so I'll help Sonic and he wants me to kill 45 Black Arms. Ok, no problem... Ah, there's only 45 in the entire level. The potential to miss just one is infuriating. Fortunately there is a way to get about, checkpoints acting as teleporters.
The less said about the boss battle the better though. The Black Bull or something. Shoot its eye. You are supposed to homing attack it in places but the homing attack usually turns to cack just as you've reached the top of the chain of bad guys feeding you up to the target.
It's got a hell of a lot to do to keep me interested. No sign of Eggman to help out either.
From the bad to good. Sonic Rush is fairly good. I've hard people complain about how hard it is but I've a theory on this. I booted up the game expecting the first level to be a breeze. At the end of it I just managed to get across the finish line in one piece. The reason? I totally underestimated the difficulty. On my second play through the same level I aced it because I expected a challenge and to be honest, got to grips with the boost mode.
The 1st boss too, you've seen the videos so have seen how 'easy' it is. Haha, it’s another exercise to fool you into underestimating it. Sure it's easy to avoid the hammer attack and bop it on the head. The rolling bit is easy to jump over and it doesn't even hurt you if it hits you while in mid jump. 2 hits left and, wow, the music got faster. I have to jump the rolling block twice now, easy. One more hit and the rolling thing has been dodged twice and a third... shit, I messed up my jump. What? NOOOO! Sonic has just been rolled off the side of the screen. Instant death. "Try again and this time jump better" the game laughs. Second time through the boss was aced, with an S rank no less.
The graphics are cool, I love the music and am relishing the challenge. If it keeps up the high quality I’ll be a happy man.
First the blindingly obvious out of the way; Shadow isn't looking too good. I'm refraining from calling it a steaming turd until I finish it (indeed, I'm only 2 levels and a boss fight into it). Unfortunately the beginning isn't brilliant. It starts off well enough with a typical angsty opening with Crush 40 metal and CG cut scene.
It starts proper and oh dear, I've got mixed feelings. It tries so hard to be your friend but utterly fails. The graphics are poor but the voice acting is ok for the most part, Sonic's voice in particular being an improvement (Charmy’s makes me want to shoot him). It's nice to have an option with your missions but they are shoved down your throat too much, Sonic or Dooms Eye getting pissed if you attack the wrong thing. At this stage I don't care about the Black Arms so I'll help Sonic and he wants me to kill 45 Black Arms. Ok, no problem... Ah, there's only 45 in the entire level. The potential to miss just one is infuriating. Fortunately there is a way to get about, checkpoints acting as teleporters.
The less said about the boss battle the better though. The Black Bull or something. Shoot its eye. You are supposed to homing attack it in places but the homing attack usually turns to cack just as you've reached the top of the chain of bad guys feeding you up to the target.
It's got a hell of a lot to do to keep me interested. No sign of Eggman to help out either.
From the bad to good. Sonic Rush is fairly good. I've hard people complain about how hard it is but I've a theory on this. I booted up the game expecting the first level to be a breeze. At the end of it I just managed to get across the finish line in one piece. The reason? I totally underestimated the difficulty. On my second play through the same level I aced it because I expected a challenge and to be honest, got to grips with the boost mode.
The 1st boss too, you've seen the videos so have seen how 'easy' it is. Haha, it’s another exercise to fool you into underestimating it. Sure it's easy to avoid the hammer attack and bop it on the head. The rolling bit is easy to jump over and it doesn't even hurt you if it hits you while in mid jump. 2 hits left and, wow, the music got faster. I have to jump the rolling block twice now, easy. One more hit and the rolling thing has been dodged twice and a third... shit, I messed up my jump. What? NOOOO! Sonic has just been rolled off the side of the screen. Instant death. "Try again and this time jump better" the game laughs. Second time through the boss was aced, with an S rank no less.
The graphics are cool, I love the music and am relishing the challenge. If it keeps up the high quality I’ll be a happy man.