Sonic 2017

[G.Silver]

For some reason I felt a need to catch some details and watched the video in slow motion. I don't mean to go super analytical on it but it allowed me to notice some stuff that I didn't notice at regular speed (and there's plenty to catch at regular speed..)

When jumping, Sonic returns to a base idle animation for a significant distance before curling into a ball. The Choppers' mouths don't animate when they are jumping up, only when they move down (probably that is intentional, though I think it's weird). When Sonic goes into a pipe, he "jumps" to initiate a spin rather than simply rolling up like he did in Sonic 1, and there's a noticeable lurch when he "unrolls" at the end. The goal post sign begins spinning before Sonic actually passes it. Bridges don't sag under Sonic's weight.

I'm just going to take a wild guess and figure that the gameplay programmers banged this out in a couple months (at most) and were immediately shifted off to other projects or responsibilities.

I didn't care for Generations classic mode gameplay, but it completely destroys this when you compare them on the level of that sort of detail. The one thing I'll say for Forces is that the camera is a lot nicer--it doesn't bob around as much when Sonic jumps on flat terrain.

[Neo]

Is this a joke? The music even sounds like dying cats. What are they doing anymore?

[big_smile]

https://sonicjpnews.tumblr.com/post/159 ... ew-article
^ A full translation of the Famitsu article posted earlier. Nothing really new, although Iizuka mentions that the story will be more serious to set it apart from the comic tone of Boom (so hopefully that's an end to the 'lighter' stories we've had since Colors). He again mentions that this game has been in development for 3 years, which, after seeing the videos, seems baffling.

[Jingles]

Hands up - Who actually wanted "Classic" Sonic's gameplay to return? Because the first thing I thought of when I saw him in the original trailer was "Great, more filler!". I'll be honest - I didn't even give a shit about the guy in 2011. I mean, it was fun to say "Ha ha, that sure is a passable approximation of what the series was 20 years ago!", but I thought his levels were the worst part of the game by far. I have absolutely no desire for any more bland sidescrolling. Maybe I'm alone in this?

I mean, I get why he's in the game - to fill up space so that the player doesn't blow through all the Modern levels in an hour. But they can't use the "we didn't have enough time" excuse this time around - make your flippin' game!

[Wombatwarlord777]

I think the reason why we're so apathetic is because while Classic-style Generations is decent platforming, it's not really a great approximation of how the Genesis games and CD handled. Those games were so smooth and intuitive when it came to how the PCs moved around, but Generations Sonic feels a lot heavier, less naturally graceful, and needs scripted events to traverse a lot of set pieces (like the S-curves in Green Hill). And then with Sonic Mania getting a lot of press as well, the shortcomings of Forces's classic gameplay are more readily apparent.

I wasn't really wowed by the latest Forces teaser, either. I think the fact that there's sand rather than water flowing through Green Hill is supposed to be shorthand that it's being detrimentally affected by Eggman's rule, but that isn't apparent when everything else looks like the Generations stage. Which is a shame, because if you're going to keep shoving the zone down our throats, an environmentally-devastated Green Hill is a pretty neat twist.

[Yami CJMErl]

Didn't something like that exist in the Game Gear games with Mecha Green Hill?

[Wombatwarlord777]

I guess, but it seems like with Mecha Green Hill the entire zone was leveled and all of its natural elements were completely replaced with bright, shiny metallic analogues. It doesn't really showcase an environmental catastrophy because there's nothing natural left to show in ruin.

If I were making a ruined Green Hill, I'd mix in recognizable Green Hill features with a degraded twist. The grass and plants wilting and dying is obvious. Daming up the waterfalls could be both a dramatic visual and an excuse for some unconventional level design with Sonic traversing flooded areas and drained bodies of water. All the colorful totems would be replaced with ones with the same, replicated Eggman face. Gigantic Motobugs with steamroller attachments would be leveling out all of the zone's banks and curves, etc. etc.

The sandfalls are too obtuse to be an effective conveyance of Eggman's deleterious influence. They don't easily communicate that and come off more as a bizarre distraction than anything else. They could work in theory, but they don't when you change absolutely nothing else about Green Hill.

[Dr. BUGMAN]

Sonic Chaos really does give the impression it was meant to be Sonic CD's "companion piece", doesn't it? But for obvious reasons couldn't be called Sonic CD (unless there's an add-on for the Game Gear that never went into production). Mecha GHZ likely being one of the few remnants of what could've been.

It is odd, though, that all later appearances of the GHZ reverted to its bucolic self afterwards, even in the GG continuity, with no explanation given, never mind that G Sonic's GHZ looks nothing like the real deal even compared to Mecha GHZ. Was MGHZ just some sort of elaborate jest to vex Sonic and Tails?

Anyways, what every dystopic seaside resort needs is copious amounts of cigarette butts and dead fish and shrieking sunburnt children.

[G.Silver]

What the sandfalls really communicate to me is "here is something we can easily swap out later for a 'good future' variation where we put the water back in."

[big_smile]

Agreed. It's just so lazy. And it makes no sense, as they've had 3 years of dev time!

Generations had an especially short development cycle, so they reused a lot of assets from Colours to stop the levels from being bland. They could have easily done that in Forces to add a few mechanical elements to Green Hill, but it's like they forgot. What's up with Sonic Team!

[Jingles]

What are the Choppers jumping out of if there isn't any water?

[big_smile]

The game will have a custom character creator:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJZfptketUc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... 5x1yL2kGT0
https://www.destructoid.com/sonic-force ... 6357.phtml

There will be a choice of 7 animals each with their own abilities.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. It's lame, but I can't but help think that eight year old big_smile would have found it neat (Well, maybe not eight year old big_smile, because I hate customization stuff. I just want to play a game and not have to set up characters. But maybe a normal eight year old child with dreams of creating their own Sonic character would have been excited).

[Jingles]

The worst part of that trailer (for me) was how it was very clear about segmenting 2D Sonic into platforming and 3D Sonic into "speed". It is a dark day to be an Adventure fan.

The custom character stuff looks like some kind of Mega Man game or something. At about 13 seconds in, the camera cuts to a different angle in the most jarring way possible. It looks more confusing that anything else.

I dunno, the game looks kind of like a mess to me, but everyone else seems to like it, so.

[big_smile]

I wonder how they will handle cut scenes with the OC. Will they give the option of customizable personalities and voices? Or will all the OCs be "edgy" anti-hero types.
I hope they don't just take the easy way and make the OC silent.

I dunno, the game looks kind of like a mess to me, but everyone else seems to like it, so.

It reminds me of the worst of the Adventure to Unleashed era, where they had too many ideas and none of them were executed particularly well. After the new tighter focus with Colours and Generations, I was hoping that those days were behind us.

[Neo]

I just don't understand, why do this now that Sonic is decidedly unpopular with the kids and they've effectively killed off the 30+ character cast? This would've been great some 12 years ago during the deviantArt furry inflation boom.

[Jingles]

Check out these special abilities:

Wolf -- Automatically draws in rings when near them
Rabbit -- Has longer invincible time after receiving damage
Cat -- Keeps one ring after being hit
Dog -- Restarts with five rings after the player dies
Bear -- Blows away enemies with a homing attack
Bird -- Flies high with double jump abilities
Hedgehog -- Collects rings when getting damaged

Hedgehog does WHAT!? And only Bear can use the homing attack? I guess that's why they added weapons (keeping in mind that some portions of the OC's levels are going to be in 3D), but what kind of game is this mode shaping up to be?

These abilities are really unbalanced, too - who's going to pick Dog or Bird when Wolf and Rabbit clearly have better powers?

[big_smile]

https://twitter.com/warrengraff/status/ ... 5331476480
Ugh! One of the writers from Colours/Lost World is back. Why? Hopefully that Ken guy is staying away.

Also, Dark Sonic on Sonic Retro, pointed out this post back from 23rd July last year:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C_91LRSU0AAaS84.jpg
It's very accurate, so it's probably someone who had insider knowledge.

[Crazy Penguin]

I just don't understand, why do this now that Sonic is decidedly unpopular with the kids and they've effectively killed off the 30+ character cast? This would've been great some 12 years ago during the deviantArt furry inflation boom.

It's pretty wild to see this level of fandom awareness in an actual Sonic game. It's even wilder that they waited until 2017!

This is without a doubt a kid appeal feature. Sonic seems to be perennially popular with children, at least here in the UK anyway. I imagine that Sega must have received a lot of fan character drawings from kids over the years. It's goofy as hell and they chose the blandest design to showcase the feature in the trailer, but I'm completely on board with it. It has an almost Adam West Batman appeal to it - kids will take it seriously and get a real kick out of it, whilst older fans will be in on the joke and enjoy it on a more humorous level.

[big_smile]

Isn't the Boom TV show quite popular with kids? Maybe they are trying to tap into that market.

If the main Forces game was more compelling, then I don't think the OC creator would be such a big deal. It would be interesting to see what the reaction would be if they had included it in Generations or Mania.

[Jingles]

All of the OC models in Forces look exactly like the background characters in Boom. Maybe that's what inspired the character creator?

[Frieza2000]

We have achieved full parody. It is somehow consoling that Emperor Iizuka has been the one to finally bring us across this line, though some more bad jokes from Pontac would complete the circle.

I just don't understand, why do this now that Sonic is decidedly unpopular with the kids and they've effectively killed off the 30+ character cast? This would've been great some 12 years ago during the deviantArt furry inflation boom.

More astonishingly, how can they target the furry demographic and not include foxes as an option?! Tails recolors probably account for 40% of all Sonic OCs! I mean, seriously, where did wolf and dog come from? I don't think we've even had animal friends of those species. And their abilities are completely arbitrary! We could've had an anthro version of Rocky that could breath underwater, or a turtle that could hide in its shell and deflect damage, or an actual gorilla guerilla that could break walls or something.

They'll be partially forgiven if you can make the bird look like a Flicky, though.

[Dr. BUGMAN]

NO MOLE OPTION BUT THE WORLD NEEDS ZIGGY STARNOSE MY CREATIVITY WILL NOT BE STIFLED

[Dr. BUGMAN]

ah well, at least I can now officially play as SQRXZ in a Sonic game.

[Malchik]

Guys, guys, guys! You are missing the obvious opportunity Sega is giving us, here. We can finally create our own Sonichus and troll that dumb fuck Chris-chan into submission once and for all! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

[Dr. BUGMAN]

What's your fixation with this person? Jilted, perhaps?