Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is being ported to the Japanese Panasonic P902iS mobile phone. Unlike the recent mobile port of Sonic the Hegdehog, this new release contains all the features of the original Mega Drive 1 player mode, including the special stages.
Its unclear if the game will sport any enhancements. However, pictures released by Sega reveal that both the HUD and title screen have been re-designed to make better use of the smaller screen.
A release date has yet to be announced.
More information can be found at the Sega Mobile home page.
Without meaning to launch yet another 'when will they stop whoring out old games' rant, I find it quite weird that they're still going back to 15 year-old games and messing them around a bit. Quite aside from the issues of creativity and integity that have been faught over for some time on this forum, I just think that it must be outright strange to be a programmer going back to a game released in 1992 for the Mega Drive in order to change its title screen dimensions to fit onto a modern-day mobile phone.
It's boggles my mind to see something I'm so familiar with yet again changed in small but significant ways.
I think it is kind of cool. Old games are kind of fun and a lot are really easy to play on the run, especially if you can save your progress.
One of my favorite features of 360 is the Xbox Live Arcade. I got excited when I found out they are bringing Galaga to it and that game is 25 years old. People, not all people, but some anyway still like simplistic games where the only purpose is the high score. Also the nostalgia factor plays a decent role.
Was the HUD in Sonic really that significant? Or were you referring to the new screen?
It's kinda sad they're downgraded to "time-fillers" (like typical Japanese business man playing Pong/ Pac-man on the train and so).
The problem with Live Arcade is that most of the games can be easily emulated on the 360 and the original XBOX, the only point to have them that way is for any charming extra they could have.
I didn't know you could emulate stuff on the 360 yet, and you can't with the Xbox without hacking the fuck out of it making it impossible to log onto Xbox Live. Also a lot of the games on XBL Arcade are new games like Geometry Wars.
Zarathustra wrote:It's kinda sad they're downgraded to "time-fillers" (like typical Japanese business man playing Pong/ Pac-man on the train and so).
There's a problem with that? The Genesis Sonics have always been arcade-style pick up and play games that anyone can get into, but the more devoted can experience it on a different level.
Larger pictures have appeared at Sonic Channel. The special stages seem to be in full 3D (as apposed to the sprite trickery of the original).
I wonder if the 3D special stages are a left over form the planned special stage mode that was cut from Sonic Mega Collection +. It seems odd would remake the stages just for a mobile phone port.
Light Speed wrote:I didn't know you could emulate stuff on the 360 yet, and you can't with the Xbox without hacking the fuck out of it making it impossible to log onto Xbox Live.
Me neither, I saw a great arcade emulator (maybe Xbox's MAME?) running on an Xbox of my father's friend son. I though that could be possible... yep, the guy had his machine modded.
Light Speed wrote:Also a lot of the games on XBL Arcade are new games like Geometry Wars.
He, GW looks like a visually redesigned Asteroids made by Tetsuya Mizuguchi. Stunning (that is, for a minigame).
I don't like how Sonic and Tails aren't shaded at all. I know it is possible just based of the gradient in the word Sonic, so whyed they make the rest of the logo look so flat?
Geometry Wars is way crazier than Asteroids, visually and just based on the sheer amount of shit on the screen. After like 500,000 points you are basically running from a million shapes while hoping clearing a path big enough in front of you for you to get through. Meanwhile also trying to kill the shit behind you that might catch up to you. It is pretty insane.
hey guys, just wondering what did you really think of the first Sonic port to mobile? I know it didn't have the special stages but that was purely done the hardware limitations.
spob
Last edited by spoboyle on Wed Oct 25, 2006 7:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
Sonic 1 mobile was okay. The main problem was that the screen was way too small which often led to you getting hit by stuff you couldn't see until it was too late. It also meant that you had to play more cautiously and slower, having the up button as jump was also a bit of a pain and I'd rather have game as a whole instead of split into two parts. Other than that though it was okay, better than most mobile phone games.
Cool, glad you liked I was the lead programmer and I certainly had fun working on it. The control system is something we inherited from Sega and although we found it weird at first it soon became natural; particularly with the addition of the diagonal jump.
The game was split in 2 because of the limit on the size of game you can install on some phones. And to keep things consistant we split the game on all handsets. Some of the older phones were split into 6 parts by zone (although not sure if they were ever realsed).
