Sonic Generations Discussion

[Barry the Nomad]

I'm hoping that with the Colors engine as nice as it is, they squeeze out another Wii title before the next Nintendo console arrives. Not a Colors 2, but something the same size and scale of Colors to be released in 2012. Colors sold like hotcakes, so I could only see another title selling great! Of course, they could move to the next Nintendo console, but considering how many Wii systems are out there, and the rumor that the next N console will be backwards compatible, a Wii game would be cheaper to produce and would surly sell better.

[Chaosmaster8753]

I think I recall hearing that Colors uses the same engine as Sonic Riders 2.

[Suzuki Yu]

I'm hoping that with the Colors engine as nice as it is, they squeeze out another Wii title before the next Nintendo console arrives. Not a Colors 2, but something the same size and scale of Colors to be released in 2012. Colors sold like hotcakes, so I could only see another title selling great! Of course, they could move to the next Nintendo console, but considering how many Wii systems are out there, and the rumor that the next N console will be backwards compatible, a Wii game would be cheaper to produce and would surly sell better.

what i am expecting is a new sonic game in 2012 using the current hedgehog engine for Nintendo's next platform as a lunch title.
specially if Nintendo goes on with this strategy of offering lower tech compared to the competitors.

[Sega Uranus]

All of the Wii Sonic games are designed on the foundation that was originally for Sonic Riders 1, mostly made by former UGA developers and some of AM3 (I think).

You know you have a good engine when their first Wii release still looks better graphically than 90% of the games on the platform. Though, that might say more about third party support than anything.

The Hedgehog Engine was a massive failure and was used far too early I think. If Sonic Generations is running on it at all, most of the complaints with the graphics should be aimed at the level designers for their fairly sloppy mapping. Which isn't to say the level design is bad itself, just the placement of some of the objects in the foreground mostly.

[Team Andromeda]

The Hedgehog Engine was a massive failure and was used far too early I think. If Sonic Generations is running on it at all, most of the complaints with the graphics should be aimed at the level designers for their fairly sloppy mapping. Which isn't to say the level design is bad itself, just the placement of some of the objects in the foreground mostly.

There is nothing wrong with the engine at all, it one of the best next gen engines there is , sadly under used and under optimised by SOJ.
 The whole trouble with Sonic Unleashed was it was released  6 months before it was ready to ship, to meet the silly Christmas period

[Chaosmaster8753]

The whole trouble with Sonic Unleashed was it was released  6 months before it was ready to ship, to meet the silly Christmas period

That sure sounds familiar...

[Trippled]

The whole trouble with Sonic Unleashed was it was released  6 months before it was ready to ship, to meet the silly Christmas period

That sure sounds familiar...

Difference is 06 could have been average/mediocore, while Unleashed could have been even bettter and more accessible round the masses.

The Real problem with Unleashed lies around it's structure. They handeled the Werehog the worst they possibly could, making you play 2 stages in a row sometimes, making it mandatory to look in every corner in the Levels to collect Medals to progress through the game, and a slow Level-up system, were a detriment.

It should have been no manadatory Medal Grinding and either:
Making Werehog a seperate sort of Storyline sort of speak/more more freedom to choose Hedgehog/Werehog stages, similar to SA1,06 and JOD.

Or/and have all/most Moves unlocked from the start, to  make it more fun from the get go.

Oh and remove the Battle Music.

Simple desicions like that, would have made Unleashed at least in the 70's on Metacritic, and woudn't be regarded as a "bad" Sonic game.

[CrazyT]

sonic unleased's daytime stages lacked balance in design. The boost was way to overpowered. Seems as of now in generations the boost is gonna be filled by almost everything. Also sonic is faster than ever again. I don't like how they overpowered sonic as a character so much lately. The boost kills and breaks everything in sight. The move shouldn't be spammable like that imo.

I reckon that the only thing compensates with such an overpowerd move are unexpected botomless pits. I know it's gonna happen. Also I don't like watching a game of cimetatics. It's like those old QTE games like back in the days. I think it was dungeons and dragons.

I'm a bit underwhelmed by sonic generation's gameplay. It's like i'm seeing unleashed with different aestethics. C.sonic may be more my thing but analyzing that gameplay video a bit, I see that they adjusted, improved on the 2d controls and made it as close as possible to the pinball physics. I see lack of gravity though.

I think the c.sonic's gameplay is gonna be way better in controls and level design compared to sonic colors 2d, but i'm cautious. Gonna have to wait and see more vids.

[ezodagrom]

Oh and remove the Battle Music.

In my opinion, battle music would have been okay if it was just a more "action" version of the stage music, with each stage having its own battle music, kinda like Phantasy Star Online.

[Barry the Nomad]

A bit more footage of GHZ:

[youtube:2bue38pt]IKSrxnZYHUA[/youtube:2bue38pt]

And I combined the available footage so we can see the complete stage:
[youtube:2bue38pt]CuqCzlu4rqA[/youtube:2bue38pt]

[Gagaman]

Nice job on the video combining Barry.
That's quite a short level really. I wonder if there will be quite a few acts to each zone much like Sonic Colours? Would make sense really, three for each Sonic would probably work, with their own bosses too.

[tarpmortar]

And I combined the available footage so we can see the complete stage:

Thanks for combining the video, game looks beautiful.

Still I feel like one of the issues with Sonic in 3D is he loses the depth of level design his 2D games have, they are really obsessed with delivering his speed, but all that is really important is the sense of speed and not that he actually travels super fast. I think slowing him down but applying the proper effects to make him seem fast would make the games more controllable and allow for greater variation in level design. With the kind of variation, depth and quality that we might have seen in 2D from the franchise.

With all that said, here is what I am doing while I wait:

[Radrappy]

Im sick of these games being so much about speed.  The unleashed day stages are for the ADHD generation.  I spent a good deal of time playing sonic 2 and 3 today and let me just say the games were 75% about precision platforming.  Please Sonic Team, take what you learned when you made colors and implement it.  Because by all rights you're completely ignoring what it was about colors that made so many people enjoy it.

[Pao]

The kind of 3D platforming I wish to see in Modern Sonic.
The DLC levels from Unleashed:

The bits at 0:55 and 2:31
[youtube:rdhj76db]FkoXZwDHzqo[/youtube:rdhj76db]

Here as well:
[youtube:rdhj76db]lbXYrHJHKwc[/youtube:rdhj76db]

Here at 1:07
[youtube:rdhj76db]W6dtrxaQU0I[/youtube:rdhj76db]

I don't see the need to Platform in 2D when its already working perfectly fine in 3D.

Just add a lot more of this type of platforming + Polish the Camera and Animations + Improve the physics (Sonic Adventure physics is a good start) + Remove Boosting, add momentum based gameplay + If possible, remove the homing attack (I can imagine 3D Sonic working without it) + Classic Sonic Model

= My ideal Sonic game! Though of course the Green Hill Zone footage had nothing close to anything I mentioned, I wish to see a lot of 3D platforming similar to what I posted above in later levels.

[Radrappy]

Those portions looked reasonably fun.  Why did they save all the best designed stuff for DLC?