YE' GADS!!! Sonic '06 finally does something good!

[Wombatwarlord777]

I was out getting Sonic Unleashed at my local Best Buy today, when I wondered if Sonic '06 was still on the shelves. It turns out it was, in a X-Box 360 gaming bundle with Viva Pinata Party Animals and Shrek the Third. Apparently, part of the proceeds from the set goes to the Children's Miracle Network. The whole thing was $29.99. Here's a picture of it shamelessly ripped from Circuit City's website...

I'm still not recommending that you play the game, even for charity. Shrek looks like fun, though. Sorry if this is old news.

[P.P.A.]

These games aren't worthy to be bundles with Sonic 06 and its awesome soundtrack, pretty good level design and horribly flawed everything else!

[Locit]

These games aren't worthy to be bundles with Sonic 06 and its awesome soundtrack, pretty good level design and horribly flawed everything else!

I know it's been said before, but dude, give it up. The game sucked through and through. That the game is now in a charity package is kind of insulting to, well, charities everywhere.

[Owen Axel]

These games aren't worthy to be bundles with Sonic 06 and its awesome soundtrack, pretty good level design and horribly flawed everything else!

Good level design is worth absolutely nothing when the gameplay used to traverse it is completely broken. Thus, you're left with nothing to praise but its awesome soundtrack. Ergo, the message is never ever play the game, but purchase the soundtrack if available and affordable.

God, when was the last time I used "ergo" in a sentence? Must be years now.

Charity package is a fair effort to get rid of the unsellable stockpile of Sonic 06.

[Baba O'Riley]

Digital crack and two suckass games for one great cause!

[Oompa Star]

It would be much easier for me to send a donation directly to Children's Miracle Network. At least that way I won't be stuck with two games I would never play. (Viva Pinata being the game that I would try out)

[Senbei]

Actually, that's Party Animals, which is a party game and is probably on par with its packaged fellows.

[Shadow Hog]

Remind me again how this qualifies as "good"? Sure, charity, but I'm sure there are better incentives for charity than three games I'll probably never play ever. One of which we already own, for that matter (Party Animals).

[Wombatwarlord777]

I was wondering if that Viva Pinata Party Animals game was any good.

P.P.A. wrote:
These games aren't worthy to be bundles with Sonic 06 and its awesome soundtrack, pretty good level design and horribly flawed everything else!

That, and the game's good graphics. I've only had the chance to play the demo version of Sonic '06, the one set at the beginning of Kingdom Valley. It seems odd that Sonic Team would showcase a stage that illustrates the game's flawed physics (I think I lost about five lives on the section where you're supposed to run along the wall), but man alive, it was a visual treat!

I know this has been said elsewhere in these forums, but its so sad that there were parts of Sonic '06 that seemed as if they had a lot of time and care put into them (the graphics and music), while the controls and physics were an utter mess. This could've been such a great game...

To Shadowhog: I don't know... I guess the potential for Sonic the Hedgehog to do good is there.

[Ngangbius]

I thought this thread was going to be about the Something Awful's Let's Play: Sonic 2K6. I'm kind of disappointed.

[Radrappy]

That, and the game's good graphics. I've only had the chance to play the demo version of Sonic '06, the one set at the beginning of Kingdom Valley. It seems odd that Sonic Team would showcase a stage that illustrates the game's flawed physics (I think I lost about five lives on the section where you're supposed to run along the wall), but man alive, it was a visual treat!

I know this has been said elsewhere in these forums, but its so sad that there were parts of Sonic '06 that seemed as if they had a lot of time and care put into them (the graphics and music), while the controls and physics were an utter mess. This could've been such a great game...

To Shadowhog: I don't know... I guess the potential for Sonic the Hedgehog to do good is there.

No they arent/weren't. The graphics are utter shit. the level design is shit. Everything about the game is shit. The music? Are you kidding? it's shit.

I want all of you who love this game to know that I spent some quality time with it last month with a couple friends. We played some kind of aqua plant level. How you could find ANYTHING worth praising in this absolute train wreck of a game is beyond me.

Besides, I thought we've already agreed to disagree. P.P.A. I swear to god if you mention this again I am going to come over to Germany or wherever the fuck you are, sit you down, and have a nice fireside chat about how bad this game is.

[FlashTHD]

P.P.A. I swear to god if you mention this again I am going to come over to Germany or wherever the fuck you are, sit you down, and have a nice fireside chat about how bad this game is.

Will there be violence? If so I want ringside seats. Name your price.

With the kind of controls i've been having to deal with in Unleashed for 360, I bet there's a chance he'd adore that too if he's not whining too loudly about the environment design

[Locit]

With the kind of controls i've been having to deal with in Unleashed for 360, I bet there's a chance he'd adore that too if he's not whining too loudly about the environment design

I really, really don't get how divisive the controls are in this game. Esrever and I seem to be having no problem whatsoever, but that's clearly not the case for everyone.

[Rob-Bert]

I initially found Sonic to be a tad hard to control, mainly because I was used to Sonic not automatically going up to top speed as the control stick is pressed all the way, where as in Unleashed, you can only make Sonic move at walking speed by not pressing on the control stick that much.

It's because of this that I'm starting to think BlazeHedgehog's idea to have a run button might've been in order. Sonic's default speed could've been that of the hub areas, and holding the run button would allow him to accelerate to the speeds that are prevalent in the stages themselves.

[FlashTHD]

Sonic's default speed could've been that of the hub areas

Which would be too slow. In fact, I think the Werehog, with his run button, navigates the town stages faster than Sonic.

Once again most of it boils down to control stick sensitivty. They simply cannot balance that out right to save their lives. As it is, I have Sonic's top speed at level 5 and i'm afraid to jack it up any higher.

[Rob-Bert]

Couldn't they just make his default running speed as fast as the Werehog's dash then?

[P.P.A.]

You know, instead of praising Sonic 06's advantages I'll just wish everyone a happy new year!

[FlashTHD]

Couldn't they just make his default running speed as fast as the Werehog's dash then?

I guess, but then, if you're gonna include a run button for Sonic, you have to figure out what to do with the boost. I'm not so sure you can have both.

Either way, it's nothing without making the movement control decent. Sonic in Unleashed is about like, if they took the twitchy sensitivty/acceleration of the Shadow game, tightened up the walking speeds a little, and loosened up the rest. (Also, I think they've more or less lifted the speed cap - try running around in Empire City's entrance stage and watch the speedometer.) It gets better in 2D areas, but then his heavy jumps make for occasional trouble.

Meanwhile, the Werehog seems to control alright, except for those split-second pole grabs over bottomless death, and when you have limited space to move and have to face a specific direction to do a dash-jump. He has worse problems - such as, I dunno, grueling stages that take 20-30 minutes to clear the first time?

The game as a whole is not very good, but for whatever reason, it's kinda addictive to suffer through it...

Addendum after typing all of the above:
On the other hand, playing Dragon Road 1 at day can warm one up to things pretty quickly...

Adabat at night is fucking gorgeous.

You know, instead of praising Sonic 06's advantages I'll just (insert anything here)

Wise.

[Owen Axel]

except for those split-second pole grabs

Hold B during jumps to automatically grab any handhold.

It's the game's greatest anti-frustration feature, and they hide it away behind a souvenir sidequest instead of making it an unavoidable hint bubble in the first werehog level. The concept of enjoyment = good, frustration = bad always seems to hard for these guys to grasp.

[Rob-Bert]

I've been stuck on this one part in Chun-Nan's first Werehog stage trying to jump from one swinging pole to the other, but no matter what I do the cursor doesn't appear. I must've died on that part 37 times in one sitting. Anybody have any advice?

[FlashTHD]

I've been stuck on this one part in Chun-Nan's first Werehog stage trying to jump from one swinging pole to the other, but no matter what I do the cursor doesn't appear. I must've died on that part 37 times in one sitting. Anybody have any advice?

Remember to double jump or consider the angle you'll be flung at when you jump off?

If you think that stage's Tarzan antics are bullshit though, there's a good chance you will be pulling hair out when you have to do Holoska at night. Beware.

[Rob-Bert]

Is it possible to double jump when WereSonic's in his ball form after jumping off a pole like that? I know for sure I jumped right towards the pole every time, and every time I did he never went high enough for the cursor to appear. I'll be sure to remember what you said though...

[Shadow Hog]

Yes. Any time Sonic makes a leap, be it from the ground or a pole, he can double-jump.

Also hold B, just in case the cursor shows up in a splitsecond and you aren't fast enough to catch it. The game will handle that automatically for you.

[Wombatwarlord777]

I was gonna ask this on the Sonic Unleashed? board, but this seems like a convenient place to do so: Is there any difference between the handling of daytime Sonic on the PS3/360 version and the Wii/PS2 version? My entire experience with this game so far has been on the Wii.

[K2J]

Yes. The level designs are all different, and I believe there are multiple acts per area.