Tails, for the record, is a step up (the actress talks too slow, though), but you have to do a pretty awful job to make me start missing Griffith immedeately. I'm not sure I even want to know what they've done to the rest of the cast now.
Well Sonic Free Riders is out now and you can hear the some of the the cast here. Also here's a confirmed list of new VA"s so far.
Roger Craig Smith as Sonic
Kate Higgins as Tails
Travis Willingham as Knuckles
Michelle Ruff as Cream
Kirk Thorton as Shadow
Laura Bailey as Omochao
Kyle Hebert as Big the Cat.
I was able to obtain a translated version of some of what of the reviewer said (Thanks to TOOT-TOOT from the SEGA Forums).
"-best 3d Sonic game yet.
-it could rival Galaxy 2
-there is a Japanese language option. "
You can see Starlight Carnival and Aquarium Park in action in that video by the way and tons of cut scenes (thought voice is barely heard).
There are a couple small things in that video that still piss me of (The way the camera jerks whenever you do a quickstep, the muted/tacky looking explosions for the badniks) but otherwise, it's looking damn fine. That japanese language option is a godsend.
In trying to make comparisons between those and what I'm used to, I realised that I am in fact fairly out of the loop in terms of what most of the characters actually sound like recently. :( The last fully voiced game I actually bought was Sonic Heroes (though I rented Shadow as well). I did watch all the cutscenes in Sonic 06, but those voices haven't stuck in my head, really. Anything after that has just gone past me almost entirely.
That said, I thought many of those were quite good. Amy, Tails, Rouge, and even Cream were nice (Rouge's was even debateably better than her SA2 voice! Definitely a step up from Sonic 06, where she sounded like a 40-year-old chain smoker). Knuckles is good too, though maybe a bit too peppy (though, again, certainly an improvement from the forced, overly gruff voice I remember him having last).
Shadow is the kind of character who's always going to be hard to voice well, but this was rather more silly than I'm used to. He sounds like some sort of smarmy scheming cocktail-sipping villain. Then again, that's amusing in its own way.
Vector somehow manages to be worse than literally anything ever.
The biggest surprise is actually Sonic. Is that really the same guy doing him in Colours? He sounds way better here! Maybe it really is all just down to the horrible animation in that cutscene.
Going off these, this seems like the most consistent voicing job I've seen for a Sonic game in a long time.
[EDIT] Just realised that I completely ignored the video with the birds at first. Shows how much I care about them! Swallow's voice is fine, the other two are crappy, but I have literally no idea what they were like before, if any different at all.
Omochao needs to learn how to interview like Mr. Zero.
But yeah, voices are pretty cool. Sonic sounds better than in that leaked Colors cutscene, but neither is that bad. It's almost impossible for Jet to sound worse than in Drummond's nasal squeal, so he's improved, too. Rouge does not sound like a ditz or an overly seductive 40-year-old, and that's fine.
I wasn't too much of a fan of Cream, but then again, I never was. Shadow is the oddest out of the bunch, but tolerable.
The new voice acting seems to be pretty good. I actually sort of dislike Sonic's new voice. It sounds a bit deeper than I'm used to, and it didn't help that it was coupled with really awful dialogue in the Colors cut scene. But I'm fine with the short snippets heard during actual gameplay, and that's pretty much all I care about.
Jet's voice is even worse than before, which is surprising given how annoying his previous voice was. But I suppose my beef is really a matter of Jet not sounding like I'd always expected him to sound like. I can't exactly describe it, and it doesn't help that most Sonic-sized male characters have sounded and continue to sound like some variation of Sonic. But I don't imagine Jet sounding as high-pitched and awkward as he has always been.
Vector's new voice is hilarious. "Hey hey hey! Find the computer room!"
Roger Craig Smith
Kate Higgins
Mike Pollock
Kirk Thornton
Wally Wingert
Cindy Robinson
Karen Strassman
Michelle Ruff
Mike Mycheck
Kent Hampton (Travis Willingham)
Interesting, it seems they didn't bother with a story or full cutscenes this time. Given what I've seen from the previous Riders games, this was probably a good move! Of course, they could've just cut out all that banter entirely but I guess then they wouldn't be able to justify hiring a whole new voice cast.
A few of the music tracks here, mostly map themes. I like this part in particular.
Also, IGN reviews of both Wii and DS. 8.5 each way. Main gripe with both seemed to be unfair difficulty spikes towards the end (unfortunately also apparently from "cheap" reasons). Obviously the co-op mode on Wii got a bashing too.
I actually want both versions. Damnit. Admittedly though the DS reviewer clearly knows fuck all about the Rush games since he makes no mention of them, so that score is probably more representitive of the impact on someone experiencing the gameplay style for the first time.
If the demo is anything to go by, the DS version, despite using the Rush engine, is quite different (better) in style, but yeah, he probably would've mentioned the similarities if he had the knowledge.
Bunch of tracks from the soundtrack here. Trying not to listen to much, but it's funny just how completely and utterly this game's music destroy's the dogshit in Sonic 4.
Radrappy wrote:yeah they're absolutely gorgeous. I love all the level variations. Im sad that the game is apparently already leaked. What's wrong with people.
Yeah that is disappointing. A 3D Sonic that actually shows that they're willing to put some fucking effort and smart design choices for once is leaked.
And thinking about something in regards to this game since it occurred to me. We didn't hate the previous 3D games because they didn't slavishly adhere to the Genesis days SEGA. We hated them because they sucked. This maybe different but at least it doesn't suck.
That's the truth. But to be fair, many of the fans recognize that they didn't adhere to the Genesis formula and claim that's the reason they sucked. On the surface, that's the difference, and that explains to some people why they sucked. But that's not why they sucked. They sucked because they sucked. Unpolished and full of bloat. I just want the games to be good and focus on what really matters (being fun) while improving on the formula, and Colors seems to be doing that greatly.
Admittedly, I'm just butthurt about stepping into the topic and seeing everyone yelling the really spoilery Super Sonic is (according to the soundtrack) playable in levels, even moderators. I suppose I was too used to the very sterile Sonic 4 discussion, where you were absolutely required to censor anything beyond the first Zone. It's not really a leak, either, since it's apparently out in Europe now.
