Sonic 2 HD teaser trailer

[CrazyT]

Sup guys.

For you who didn't know, there had been a hosted websited with a countdown, sonic 4 style. Today morning it was released and the content has been shown, being a teaser trailer and some screenshots.

The sonic community is going wild about it. Some positive and like what they saw. Some others thought it was dissapointing how they used the awful s4e1 method of beautiful promises and lots of hype only ending up to give a little bit of footage which looked like a "flash game".  

[youtube:2k1t51j8]RmpIkrl-B5M[/youtube:2k1t51j8]

http://www.s2hd.sonicretro.org/

I gotta give them credit for remaking a game that SEGA likes to rerelease a thousand times with no effort. When did SEGA ever remake a game anyways? A lot of companies do it with major succes. I mean how many people look forward to ocarina of time on the 3ds? I know I do.

On the other hand, it's turning out to be a carbon copy with nothing new. Unlike sonic fan remix for instance, it's not gonna have new layouts, more acts and visual spectacle. It's a plain carbon copy and honestly I never had a problem with the 16 bit visuals the original has so I don't really know what I have to think about this game. The guys promoting the game the last few weeks made the same mistake SEGA did. They overhyped the shit out of what was gonna be shown, saying stuff like it'll blow your minds. Sadly it was just 11 seconds of gameplay. Now where do I know this from? Exactly

I do think it would have great potential if it were official.

Anyway, what do you guys think?

[Sega Uranus]

That is a very good trailer.

As for SEGA on remakes, they actually do a fair amount. I do not know how you have forgotten games like OutRun and Golden Axe being remade a billion times over. A few years back they made one of the coolest remakes I have ever seen with Fantasy Zone II as part of the SEGA AGES 2500 series.

You again are mostly thinking of Sonic Team stuff, they do not like to work on past projects, but instead move on. This is why their concepts are always changing, usually for the worst.

Even then, what is really the point of remaking a game? Would you not rather just have a new game? Yeah, I am pretty excited for Ocarina of Time 3D myself, but that is only because I love the original and am excited that Nintendo is working on a Zelda game not based around stupid gimmicks... Besides you know, the 3D thing.

Technically it is a much more profitable and far less strenuous deal to just port games. For whatever reason, SEGA has been doing this very poorly lately, but they sell.

Look at it this way, see how much work was put into something like Super Street Fighter II HD on the XBLA and PSN? It was a big project. Almost two full years of redrawing the sprites, securing the rights to fan remixes, reworking the game to work on a widescreen plane, having to deal with hundreds of fans complaining about Guile's pants. Sure, it went on to sell like 500,000 units which was very impressive for the time, but then the fairly basic port of Marvel vs Capcom 2 comes along and completely crushes SFIIHD's reason for existing entirely.

[Sharky]

I'd take Vanilla Sonic 2 over this.
Why? Why not... It's exactly the same thing.

Hell the only way I can tell the difference between Sonic 2 and their HD version is that they have purposely made the classic footage blurry to pretend that their version is much better...

Looks like an even bigger waste of time then that one claiming to be a Sonic 2 remake and looks even more removed from Sonic formula then Sonic 4 is.

[CrazyT]

@Uranus

Oh wow I feel so ashamed right now. THey did make some excellent remakes. How could I have forgotten about those.

I'm an idiot and I take that back!

About the remakes. I think it only counts for games that don't age. Some games like street fighter 2 have aged horribly. Good visuals won't make it any better than new street fighter games. Whereas with timeless games like ocarina of time or sonic 2, remaking them, putting them in a new coat can be a very good and profitable thing, especially considering most gamers today are graphicswhores. I do think that when a game gets remade they have to add something which spices up the experience. Like for instance ocarina of time on the 3ds will have some new editions. Sonic 2 had a lot of unused stages like hidden palace zones, genocide city zone, dust dune zone and wood zone. If sonic 2HD included those zones, it's reason of existance would all of a sudden have a lot more merit to it. But them getting so far is unlikely considering coming this far has taken them more than 2 years.

[Aki-at]

I use to be like this, working on Sonic fangames, I was quite good when it came to pixel art. Then I realized I would be better off working on my own thing.

I'm surprised that not many more fans realize the same thing and if they really want to change the direction of a series, better working your way up from within.

Also Nintendo recently released Mario Collection, literally a rom pack on a disc and it's already a million seller. Remaking the games, I do not think, would have yielded much more profits than what it is enjoying now.

*Add mandatory comment about how remaking the same game over and over is a Nintendo thing*

[CrazyT]

@Aki-t

Taking this from a conversation between 2 guys at sonicretro.

(Kail @ Jan 2 2011, 03:33 PM) *
You obviously have a LOT of talent, why struggle so hard to get a project involving someone else's creation off the ground when you can just make your own original creation? I'm not speaking as a spectator, but as a fellow writer/artist. I wrote a feature length animated film script that took me 2 years to develop that I'm currently re-working into a graphic novel, so I know how troubling it can be to go through a journey like this on your own, but in the end you're actually spending hard earned money on something that can't POSSIBLY make money simply because you don't have and probably won't get the rights to the characters.

(Mercury)
Speaking for myself, I'm more passionate about making Sonic-related things than any of my own ideas (though I have a few). It's not about making money, and it doesn't really matter that it's not my own idea - like an adopted kid, I love Sonic just as much as if I invented it myself. Perhaps Kuta feels a similar way.

Agree or disagree, but I can sorta relate to his p.o.v.

[Sega Uranus]

About the remakes. I think it only counts for games that don't age. Some games like street fighter 2 have aged horribly. Good visuals won't make it any better than new street fighter games. Whereas with timeless games like ocarina of time or sonic 2, remaking them, putting them in a new coat can be a very good and profitable thing, especially considering most gamers today are graphicswhores. I do think that when a game gets remade they have to add something which spices up the experience. Like for instance ocarina of time on the 3ds will have some new editions. Sonic 2 had a lot of unused stages like hidden palace zones, genocide city zone, dust dune zone and wood zone. If sonic 2HD included those zones, it's reason of existance would all of a sudden have a lot more merit to it. But them getting so far is unlikely considering coming this far has taken them more than 2 years.

This is a bit of a Catch-22 here as well. Remaking games people hold so near and dear to their hearts might only lead to negative reactions, a good example is how people reacted to SFIIHD even though the company had only good intentions.

On that, I think a game like Street Fighter II is more deserving of an update than something like Ocarina of Time. Nothing against the game (it is one of my all time favorites), but the game plays completely fine even to this day. Twilight Princess is a great example of how Nintendo really just has no idea as to how to move the IP further, and a remake cannot change too much unless they want the fans to freak out on them.

Where as something like Street Fighter II can actually improve with online and a more consistent framerate, something like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is pretty much just perfect the way it is.

I personally would love it if SEGA (not Sonic Team) were to update the Game Gear Sonic titles and Sonic Pocket Adventure up to either Genesis-style quality or maybe something like Sonic the Hedgehog 4 without shit physics and art. The majority of those games have fantastic art and music, but are hard to appreciate because with how they aged.

[ShaunShikeishuu]

I'm really not that excited about this. Mainly because they've been working on this for how long and were just now getting a teaser trailer? The updated graphics are nice and all but it just doesn't seem like anything worth getting excited about.

[Barry the Nomad]

THIS is what Sonic Team should have done all along!

Joking

Looks pretty, nice job in swapping out the sprites and making a very crisp looking game. I'd prefer fan made level maps and new music over the same ol' game, however. Between this and the original, I go with the classic. I'd equate this with colorization of black and white films. Unnecessary retooling.

[CrazyT]

@Uranus

Ah I see what you mean now. I thought we were talking about updated graphics and new elements only, but you mean updating the gameplay mechanics and controls as well if i'm correct.

If that's the case, i'm totally with you. Aged games can be remade with updated mechanics. I think that's where SFII remix fell flat too, in the sense of that it just updated the visuals. I played the demo and I was really dissatisfied. It was more than just the outdated mechanics. I thought the updated visuals looked weird and the remixed music wasn't that great either. It was a bad remake, simple as that.

The game gear titles will never be remade. The big boss Iizuka at sonicteam doesn't even know that you could run on ceilings in the classics, let alone him even knowing/remembering the game gear titles.

I also would like to note that even though i'm not really interested in this project. Realising that the sonicteam of today would probably not be able to do this, I still respect how far they have come. I especially like the fluidity of the sprites. There's a lot more frames compared to the classic. Other than that, this hasn't grabbed me that much.

Some awesome wallpapers too.

http://www.s2hd.sonicretro.org/images/w ... c_1920.png

http://www.s2hd.sonicretro.org/images/w ... k_1920.png

[ImSmartUrDum]

If this ever gets fully completed (I'm sure it will!) I can't wait to play it.

The thought of playing Sonic 2 on a 100 inch screen and my eyes not bleeding is very nice sounding...

As for the whole artistic debate, unless you do whatever the fuck you want to do you are not an artist.

If you want to make Sonic 2 again, make Sonic 2 again.

Art is about expression, so if you feel that you'd like to see Sonic 2 in HD what better way is there to express that other than to simply remake the entire game in HD?

If an artist was to give up on whatever he was working on, because someone else told him that he shouldn't be doing it... then he is not an artist.

[MadeManG74]

About the remakes. I think it only counts for games that don't age. Some games like street fighter 2 have aged horribly.

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo aged badly?



Sorry  

But really, SSF2T is considered one of the single best fighters ever made, and it still gets competitive play (Via GGPO and now the remake) and still gets plenty of tournament showing. It's actually one of the best aged games I can think of.

I know the game gets a lot of hate, but I really loved HDR, I thought the images looked nice (even if they lost some charm of the sprites) and the music was pretty cool. The balance changes seemed like they well implemented, although I never played the original enough to really compare them fairly.

In any event...

I was excited when I heard about the concept of this, since i always wanted Sonic 4 to be HD 2D graphics rather than 3D, but when I saw it in motion I thought "Wow, this just looks like Sonic 2."

I don't think that Sonic 2's small sprites really benefit from this HD facelift. As Sharky said, I would much prefer if they made a HD 2D game but made some new levels or something like that. This just looks like the same game only slightly smoother. Not to take away from their work as it's a really cool achievement, but it just doesn't really strike me as much as I was hoping.

[ImSmartUrDum]

Slightly smoother is an understatement, for a reference, play the original Sonic 2 on a 56 inch TV.

Now, watch the HD segment of that trailer in 1080p on a 56 inch TV.

Sure they've stuck with the original art style, but it is now the same game... in high resolution.

I don't know about you but the idea that I can play Sonic 2 on a big screen without it looking horrible is really appealing to me...

[MadeManG74]

^You got a good point, I can't get the full effect of the HD from watching via Youtube. I'll check out a better vid tomorrow when I get a chance.

[CosmicCastaway]

I play Sonic 2 on my PS3 and it looks fine. I don't mind playing a 16-bit game on my widescreen.