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Sonic the Hedgehog Community |OT2 Battle|
- Thread starter Professor Beef
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A Huge Battleship
Member
Every couple of years I replay S3&K and come away with new feelings about the game. This time I realised that Marble Garden, Carnival Night and Sandopolis are nowhere near as tedious as I formerly believed they were, that Ice Cap is actually pretty unremarkable, and that Death Egg Act 2 is the best stage from any of the Genesis entries. Oh yeah, and the far right Super Emerald special stage is the hardest of the 14.
Also I recently gave Sonic CD's OST a thorough listen for basically the first time ever (both JP/US versions). Have to say, I wish I'd done this earlier, because there are some ridiculously catchy tunes there that for some reason I didn't fully appreciate while playing the game. Probably because one of them is US Wacky Workbench's and FUCK YOU WACKY WORKBENCH
Also I recently gave Sonic CD's OST a thorough listen for basically the first time ever (both JP/US versions). Have to say, I wish I'd done this earlier, because there are some ridiculously catchy tunes there that for some reason I didn't fully appreciate while playing the game. Probably because one of them is US Wacky Workbench's and FUCK YOU WACKY WORKBENCH
SonicGAF's Song of the Day - #2
Song: Hidden Palace Zone
Game: Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Composer: Masato Nakamura
Everyone who played Sonic 2 as a kid found this in the sound test. Everyone. If you were into gaming magazines at the time you already had some idea that there was stuff that didn't make it into the game, but if you weren't, this song was a complete mystery. It was clearly for something special, because it didn't sound like anything else in the game, but what?
So, while it's a simple and repetitive song, I do admire it for how well it conveys the sense of mystery and wonder that Hidden Palace was intended to inspire.
I also like that it's one of just three songs Nakamura wrote for the series that's in 3/4 time instead of 4/4. One of the other two is Sonic 1's special stage, so there's a neat little musical link between the two games' handling of the Chaos Emeralds that got lost when HPZ was axed. (The other song is Death Egg Zone, which is part of why it's so unsettling.)
Song: Hidden Palace Zone
Game: Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Composer: Masato Nakamura
Everyone who played Sonic 2 as a kid found this in the sound test. Everyone. If you were into gaming magazines at the time you already had some idea that there was stuff that didn't make it into the game, but if you weren't, this song was a complete mystery. It was clearly for something special, because it didn't sound like anything else in the game, but what?
So, while it's a simple and repetitive song, I do admire it for how well it conveys the sense of mystery and wonder that Hidden Palace was intended to inspire.
I also like that it's one of just three songs Nakamura wrote for the series that's in 3/4 time instead of 4/4. One of the other two is Sonic 1's special stage, so there's a neat little musical link between the two games' handling of the Chaos Emeralds that got lost when HPZ was axed. (The other song is Death Egg Zone, which is part of why it's so unsettling.)
I actually quite like this song, it manages to give off a grand feeling, like you are part of something that is important, which I can assume would have gone well with the stage had it made it in. Not having an idea of whether the stage was meant to be part of a slightly deeper story for sonic 2 a la 3 and K's hidden palace, it's hard to say whether this was meant to be epic in tone, but compared to the other HPZ music track I think this one sounds quite sad. Maybe it's that 3/4 time you mentioned, and it sounds like it might be in a minor key? My musical ear hasn't been worth shit for 3 years so I can't tell. I've found that 16-bit music can sometimes struggle to pull off the more sombre serious tunes, but this one does it well I feel. Is it better than it's counterpart? Maybe.
Box of Bunnies
Banned
No wonder he doesn't chuckle.
Not like guide books/hint sections in magazines are US exclusive phenomena though,
Nocturnowl
Member
My last run through Sonic 3 was similar in a sense that I appreciated Marble Garden more and Ice Cap less.
And US wacky workbench is the only thing saving that messy stage.
I kept waiting for it to truly get going but it never really does and the part towards the end of the loop feels a bit cut short.
Otherwise it's not that bad at all, I prefer it to the other Hidden Palace theme at least.
Once again I don't really have much to input on this one
Hot Coldman
Banned
Should be off to Eurogamer tomorrow. I'll try and get a go with Sonic Lost World and report back. Might as well, seeing as there's fuck all chance of me getting a go with Titanfall.
I remember hearing this and wondering whatever happened to that "Hidden Palace Zone" that was in the magazine previews, and also for some reason thinking this could have been used for a cancelled 2P Aquatic Ruin.
Shadow Hog
Member
As a kid, I'd always kind of assumed this was for a bad ending of some sort - one you'd get if you really sucked. One that I never unlocked, for the simple reason that
That said, I recall somebody telling me "hey, did you know you can access a secret level if you manage to fall into a bottomless pit in EHZ1? It's a bit glitchy, though." So I tried, as best as I could, to get down there (the first proper bottomless pit is in EHZ2, you see), but the collision detection, for as buggy as it can be, wouldn't give. So I concluded this guy was full of shit.
I didn't truly learn about all the missing content until my first unfettered experiences with the Internet at two separate week-long classes (C++ and 3D Modelling) down in College Park around 2000 or so, where I finished the lessons a bit early, had some time to kill, and decided to see what searching for "Sonic" would get you. The answer: SegaSonic.Net, SonicHQ.org, etc. But also SSRG, Secrets of Sonic Team et al, and learning that there was a publicly-released beta of Sonic 2 was downright mindblowing. Also learning that fans were making their own Sonic games, some of which I downloaded with haste to check out. (Anybody remember the SoniChaos series? All five thousand of them?)
And amongst all of that: Hidden Palace, a level you could access in Sonic 2 that was glitched beyond belief, but that was fairly complete in the beta. Guess the guy was only half full of shit (I still don't think dying in a bottomless pit in EHZ1 would do jack).
But regardless, the music. I like that it's a somber piece, but I'll have to agree with Owl; it doesn't quite go as far as it should. It feels like there should be a bit more just before the loop point, which goes pretty far into making the piece repetitive as all hell.
Shadow Hog
Member
Guys, I'm trying to find that quote from that Naughty Dog game about how Jak 2 was furthering gaming by not being a platformer or whatever it was. People're straight up eviscerating Anticitizen One for making a comment saying Naughty Dog is more interested in developing movies than games, and I swear that Jak 2 interview vindicates his opinion a bit - and yet, I can't find it. I know it was in this thread at some point...
Shadow Hog
Member
Yes, that's it. Guess I didn't go far enough back. Thanks.
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
Dolphin nearly melted my laptop and ran at 30 fpm (frames per minute). Was not expecting it to be so taxing tech wise.
Professor Beef
Banned
Tizoc
Member
Well the Genesis we had had games stored in it that you can play when a cart isn't in it, and one of the games was Sonic 2.
Nocturnowl
Member
Beef changing the facts so he can be condensing, i'm not surprised at all seeing as this is our corrupt leader of Sonic GAF.
Shadow Hog
Member
He's kind of glossing over how he could barely run a game from an earlier console that ran at a much lower framerate (20FPS or so), too.
Professor Beef
Banned
Nocturnowl
Member
This evidence is new to me!
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
Stick to the cows, beef boy! You want no part of what I got!
I don't know. Beef may very well be about that beef.
Those three zones can get tiresome if you don't know what you're doing; MGZ occasionally has spots where you can fall and lose progress, and the other two are just long-ass, slow-paced levels that drag on if you don't know the short routes.
Ice Cap isn't too involved, but that's the point: It's a relaxing filler zone to give the player a break before Launch Base ratchets the intensity back up (see also: Starlight, Sky Chase, Sky Sanctuary).
The sound test is in the options menu, which I guess is technically secret if you never tried scrolling past the 1P/2P choices, but that hardly counts.
HPZ was intended to be a special zone you'd be taken to once you got all seven Chaos Emeralds, where you'd unlock the ability to go super. So yeah, special music for the special zone is absolutely intentional.
Man, I haven't thought about most of those sites in years. Those were the days when every rediscovered sprite was an incredible novelty and people were going nuts putting together theories about what stuff was supposed to be, and how all those bits of lost content fit together. Good times.
Never really poked my head into the fangaming scene though. I'd already been soured on those by the Commander Keen fandom.
Lightning Lord
Banned
And it was the best stream ever.
I just spent like an hour on a Rise of the Triad '94 boss trying to figure out how to beat him. Did every last thing I could think of until I gave up and YTed it.
It's a fantastic game though, with a few annoyances. I'll have to replay the 2013 reboot again to compare the two, but I think it fixed most of the problems I had with the original.
Now to watch Psychedelic Eyeball play through it.
Oh, um, Sonic... Fan games... Yeah, I played this weird Nack The Weasel platformer when I was a kid. It was fun. I wanted to make a Sonic Underground fan game at one point :lol
You don't shoot him, shooting him heals him. Just dodge a few attacks and down he goes.
It's a fantastic game though, with a few annoyances. I'll have to replay the 2013 reboot again to compare the two, but I think it fixed most of the problems I had with the original.
Now to watch Psychedelic Eyeball play through it.
Oh, um, Sonic... Fan games... Yeah, I played this weird Nack The Weasel platformer when I was a kid. It was fun. I wanted to make a Sonic Underground fan game at one point :lol
ViewtifulJC
Banned
Is that Sonic 4 Ep.3
Shadow Hog
Member
Ep. 6, actually
Hot Coldman
Banned
Hey JC I'm gonna go play DKC tomorrow
just sayin'
also I probably won't play Bayonetta
just sayin'
also I probably won't play Bayonetta
ViewtifulJC
Banned
fuck you
also
fuck you
also
fuck you
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
Freeze themselves inside a giant block of ice to prevent me from escaping the underwater cave so I can drown to death?
FUCK
Nocturnowl
Member
After finishing Metroid Prime once more earlier in the week I decided that instead of jumping into Prime 2 like my heart desired I would revisit the one Metroid game I'd yet to replay, a little something called Other M.
Well, lets just say that playing that one straight after Prime was probably not the best idea. The game feels like what would've happened had the series actually turned up on the N64, the visuals certainly look like they came from a time before Prime at any rate.
So very many bizarre design choices at points and the less said about anything related to the story and Samus characterization the better, the whole game is like playing a bootleg Metroid Fusion.
Why am I saying this now? I guess it's because I never really noticed just how damn mediocre it was when I first played it.
If it's the only option then its still worth taking.
Well, lets just say that playing that one straight after Prime was probably not the best idea. The game feels like what would've happened had the series actually turned up on the N64, the visuals certainly look like they came from a time before Prime at any rate.
So very many bizarre design choices at points and the less said about anything related to the story and Samus characterization the better, the whole game is like playing a bootleg Metroid Fusion.
Why am I saying this now? I guess it's because I never really noticed just how damn mediocre it was when I first played it.
If it's the only option then its still worth taking.
Also consider said Walrus is more than happy to give up its life of actual mobility to become a seemingly permanent iceberg just to complete this task.
Hot Coldman
Banned
For those interested in getting Sonic Colors to run on Dolphin.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=83823887&postcount=504
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=83823887&postcount=504
I'd love to, but the old Core 2 Duo just isn't up to the challenge for most games.
Yeah, emulating GC/Wii games takes a lot of CPU. We're still far from getting perfect performance in general.
God damn the game looks beautiful in HD.
(Don't mind the lack of widescreen, my old monitor died out and I have to settle with a temporary replacement)
Damn that looks great, better than some 360 ps3 games even.
Box of Bunnies
Banned
Sega ought to drop a Sonic: The Good 3D Game Trilogy collection on Wii U with the real versions of Unleashed and Generations and a HD remastering of Colours. I probably wouldn't buy it, at least not until it dropped in price a little, but it'd probably do okay.
I would buy it for the Off-TV play
Meccanical
Member
The best worst game of 2013 so far is Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death
Seriously, this game is better than it should be, but worse than it wants to be.
What a mysterious game.
Seriously, this game is better than it should be, but worse than it wants to be.
What a mysterious game.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
Funny with some surprisingly solid action chops
but also incredibly fuckin' broken
like game-stopping broken
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