Run Away

Recent happenings of pertinence to Sonic fans.
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big_smile
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Re: Run Away

Post by big_smile »

Apparently, Sega are working to make the game less frustrating, as the new worldwide version has several enhancements:
・Items
 Item button added so players can activate item effects.

・Continues
 Players can now continue twice. When continuing players get 1000 Rings and a Combo Bonus, Springs, Shield, Magnet, and 1 randomly selected Color Power activated.

・Experience System
 Earn experience in accordance with your score and level up your characters!

・Free Items
 Equippable Items and Boost Items will be free to use once everyday.
It launches tomorrow.

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Dr. BUGMAN
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Re: Run Away

Post by Dr. BUGMAN »

Is this not showing up on Google play for anyone else? I don't want to give the impression that I'm eager, but I'd like to get a jump on unlocking Classic Sonic.

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Protodude
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Re: Run Away

Post by Protodude »

It's there, I downloaded it this morning. I had to search for it by name though and click "more" under apps. For some reason it's third under Sonic Dash and something called Super Hedgehog Runner 3D. Or hey look you can just click here

Classic Sonic isn't available until tomorrow.

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Dr. BUGMAN
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Re: Run Away

Post by Dr. BUGMAN »

"Your device is not compatible with is version". Damn. It's not an old model, either. ( 4.4.2.)

Oh, well.

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Re: Run Away

Post by G.Silver »

I had to update the iPad to play it. I suppose that's fair since it hasn't been updated in forever (if ever) but it was a little nuisance. Then the game has a lengthy additional install process the first time it loads, plus a long load time at the title screen, and then it makes you agree to a TOS (!!) before you can play, and then when it started the first round absolutely bombarded me with pauses as it explained every small detail of how to play the game. It was not exactly a quick "pick up an play" experience." While it did its secondary round of installations it showed character bios and some details about the game, which was sort of nice but immediately gave an unpolished impression when the character bio got to Charmy and displayed Knuckles' description instead. Sega, going the extra mile.

After the first tutorial-filled play it showed an ad (lots of ads still to come) and then led me around all the menus and spin wheel shit that of course I do not care about. When I was finally able to get to the "play" button again, a "news" post appeared to let me know that they had attempted to weaken the Rappy Buddy (!) by 30%, but accidentally made it 60%! Instead of fixing it (or did they?) I was informed that Rappy owners would receive a ring-based compensation. I can imagine some might find this news useful but it certainly wasn't relevant to me--I felt like an old man, baffled by the whole experience. (It reminds me of my first time playing Lost World.)

After playing for a bit, the game stopped letting me play. I don't know why that was, it certainly explained a lot of stuff before but there wasn't anything about "you can't play after x hours" or anything like that. But glancing at the top of the screen, I could see that I now had -4500 rings somehow. I closed the program and then turned it on again, and I had a bunch of rings and free wheel spins and stuff. So I don't know if I just cheated the system somehow or if it glitched on me.

Progress in the game is like, I don't even know what's going on. The game is easy(???) as you go through the first "act" of the first stage, racking up tons of points, and then I can get pretty far before it kicks me out. After "losing" I am able to advance the story dramatically, the story "map" shows 5 or 6 "checkpoints" requiring a certain point total to move past, but because I am apparently like, really good at this game, I have always made it through the entire chapter in one go. It gives me enough points that, if I were able to keep them between chapters, I probably wouldn't even need to play the game at all. It is faster to advance the story by just playing for a little bit and then dying on purpose because you don't need to get very far to get all the points you need.

So yeah, I don't really get this game. It's pretty fun but they've wrapped this massive selection of text-based story and all this in-app purchase garbage around it, like, they're doing everything in their power to make it seem like you aren't just running through the same four stages full of gems and crap to collect, really squeezing that content for all its worth. It works, it's fun, but it's also kind of gross that it works.

And what's up with those springboards, like the ramp-like Sonic 2 ones? Sometimes I bounce high off them and collect a ton of stuff, and other times I just fall off after a tiny little bounce.

In short:

Image

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Neo
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Re: Run Away

Post by Neo »

Dr. BUGMAN wrote:"Your device is not compatible with is version". Damn. It's not an old model, either. ( 4.4.2.)

Oh, well.
Recommended Devices
Android OS2.3 or later *excluding certain devices

It kinda looks like they're going for the lowest common denominator what with supporting ancient Android versions, but then I get locked out anyway at version 4.1.2 probably because of my phone's relatively low 480p display. (Which I picked intentionally, because it's a freaking PHONE and not a television.) Go figure.

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big_smile
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Re: Run Away

Post by big_smile »

It's strange. My phone is horribly old (from 2011!) and it works fine. Although the ads, which weren't in the original Japanese prerelease, cause it to crash. Looking at various threads, it seems old phones tend to handle it better. On Android, try killing background processes for better results.

@G.Silver
The game is an endless runner, so it's impossible not to die. Story mode has 50 chapters with an average of 2 parts each. Up until chapter 30, progress is fairly easy (unfortunately, the first 30 chapters recycle the same kidnapped plot. And to be honest, the story as a whole is badly written, although I like all the Master Emerald/animal friends back story).

During special events, there are bonus episodes, which only “air” for the duration of the event, so the game feels like a TV show.

Playing the game requires revive tokens. One is given every 25 minutes (to a maximum of 3).

For the spring boards, tap them repeatedly as jumping on them to preform tricks for higher placed bonuses.

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Neo
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Re: Run Away

Post by Neo »

So now it lets me download and install it, but it doesn't survive past the first loading screen. Go figure.

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big_smile
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Re: Run Away

Post by big_smile »

It seems the new version is quite RAM hungry. Try downloading the following, it worked for me:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... linuxtools

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Dr. BUGMAN
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Re: Run Away

Post by Dr. BUGMAN »

Redownloaded this for shots and giggles, found out Opa-Opa and O-Papa are unlockable I *think* as playable characters. Either way, pretty rad, though it's disconcerting how these types of games are functionally monotonous, but constantly mutable. I already miss out on life, don't need this from a video game. :lol: :lol: :lol:

I wonder how my animal crossing towns are doing :neutral:

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big_smile
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Re: Run Away

Post by big_smile »

Dr. BUGMAN wrote:Redownloaded this for shots and giggles, found out Opa-Opa and O-Papa are unlockable I *think* as playable characters. Either way, pretty rad, though it's disconcerting how these types of games are functionally monotonous, but constantly mutable. I already miss out on life, don't need this from a video game. :lol: :lol: :lol:
The Opa characters aren't playable. Instead they give new skills.

A new version of Sonic Runners is released later today. It has so many new features, including a new "Quick Mode", that it's essentially a sequel. Unfortunately, they've increased the "leveling-up" ability of the characters, which might end up making the game a chore to play (as it's going to take forever to reach the max levels). We will see...

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big_smile
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Re: Run Away

Post by big_smile »

Sticks has been added to the game, which marks the first time a Boom-exclusive character has appeared in the main Sonic universe. From the profiles, it sounds like she is part of the main Sonic world (i.e. it's not a cross over).

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Re: Run Away

Post by big_smile »

https://twitter.com/SEGAbits/status/696608776523116544

^ Sega has deemed this game a failure.

It's a shame the core gameplay is decent, but they ruined it with all the roulette nonsense (especially after the version 2.0 update). I bet if they just let players buy characters outright and had them more balanced, then it would have been a big success.

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Re: Run Away

Post by Wombatwarlord777 »

Yeah, that is a shame. I remember playing it and actually having a pretty fun time, but the freemium aspects of it totally killed it for me.

Just out of curiosity, is Sonic Dash 2 any good? My device can't play it and I never hear anyone talk about it. What's weirder is that SEGA doesn't seem to promote it at all.

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big_smile
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Re: Run Away

Post by big_smile »

I know no one here cares about it. But Sonic Runners is closing July 22th.

I've never been into mobile gaming, but there was just something about Runners that was so compulsive. And now it's going to be gone forever. I'm so sad... (especially as I'm just days away from having a 10* limit break pair).

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Re: Run Away

Post by G.Silver »

It's very strange to me that a game as conceptually simple as an "infinite runner" could have so much complicated baggage around it that it would make sense to shut it down. I know part of the draw was the continually updating story content (have they continued to do that?) but it seems like they could leave it as a static product and still allow microtransactions and advertising. I wonder if there are other costs associated with keeping it online?

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Re: Run Away

Post by big_smile »

They dropped the advertising a few months ago, which is probably why they have to close the game.
Just before Christmas, they stopped adding new stories.

Strangely, the calendar specific stories (such as the Easter and Summer episodes) didn't return in 2016 (which is odd, because it's just a case of reusing content). They did however bring back the stages for those stories, but unlike in 2015, there weren't any rewards for playing them.

I don't know why they just can't turn it into an offline only game, where you pay $2.99 and can work on grinding points to buy all the characters (or use microtransactions to buy them outright).

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Re: Run Away

Post by Yami CJMErl »

big_smile wrote:I don't know why they just can't turn it into an offline only game, where you pay $2.99 and can work on grinding points to buy all the characters (or use microtransactions to buy them outright).
That would make too much sense. Also it probably limits how much money they can make off the free-to-play "whales".

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Re: Run Away

Post by FlashTHD »

Didn't this game make barely a tenth of the money Puyo Puyo Quest was bringing in? So much for stable profit.

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Re: Run Away

Post by big_smile »

Yeah, Sega said earlier that it didn't achieve their profit targets.

The problem is that they were too greedy. The only way to get characters and buddies was by playing the roulette and there were far too many (mostly useless) buddies to unlock. Plus, the in-game currency used to play the roulette was priced too high.
So you could easily spend $100 and only get rubbish.

Towards the end they did let you directly purchase a small number of characters, but by that point, most players had stopped playing.

It didn't help that they had an overly steep leveling system. So you had to acquire the same character 10 times in order for it to be useful, which turned the game into a chore.

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Re: Run Away

Post by big_smile »

Apparently the US version is being shut down on Monday:
https://twitter.com/SonicRunners_US?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

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Re: Run Away

Post by The Doc »

Whatever tweet you were trying to reference, it looks like it was removed fairly quickly. The only tweets left in that account are from the game's launch.

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Re: Run Away

Post by G.Silver »

It was a tweet saying the game would be gone on Monday. "We hope you enjoyed Sonic Runners!" I guess maybe they posted it by mistake? I bet an identical one will be automatically posted on the correct date. :)

I was shocked to find that the official Sonic Runners twitter only had four tweets on it in total, and spread out over a pretty long time, too! You'd think with all the story elements in the game and characters becoming available over time (right?) that twitter would be a good place to mention that stuff. And, you know, dedicated PR people, right? Was the official Sonic twitter handling that kind of thing?

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Re: Run Away

Post by big_smile »

Until Xmas 2015, the official Japanese Runners account was very active, even posting regular teasers.

Through out its history, the game had lots of bad spelling errors (e.g. SONNIC, "King Boob"), so I'm guessing the Japanese development team didn't have a dedicated English speaker and so didn't bother with the US twitter account.

I get the feeling that somehow this game became a red-headed step child and Sega lost interest in it. (It was originally developed by Sega Networks, so perhaps there were some internal office politics going on).
srboo.jpg
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Re: Run Away

Post by Frieza2000 »

Sonic Dash, on the other hand, made it into the arcades last year. Apparently Olympics just got one too.

You know, it just occurred to me. Microtransaction games are like quarter eating arcade games on steroids. They're usually willing to take far more money than would be required to coin feed your way through an arcade game and offer less interesting content in return.

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