When X comes out I will get one.
Also, here's a thing.
I wish real life was like this.
Someone please make one of these with his giant swing:
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Sonic the Hedgehog Community |OT2 Battle|
- Thread starter Professor Beef
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Someone please make one of these with his giant swing:
I'm laughing way harder than I should be at "more like 3BS."
Seven Force
Banned
Also, here's a thing.
I wish real life was like this.
I've found it really hard to hate his whole "real American" schtick when he does awesome shit like this.Someone please make one of these with his giant swing:
Shadow Hog
Member
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
Holy shit, Troy Baker OWNED the Joker role!
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
This is something I wanted to touch upon if I did write that large AC post that I probably don't have time for. But I was telling qq more about how good the myriad of design decisions in Animal Crossing: New Leaf are. There are a ton of Little Things that make the entire experience very good. I think I wrote about this briefly on my tweeter once, but I think touched on it more in-depth with qq and I'm surprised he didn't bring some of my arguments up when he was debating with you since he knows my stance on it already.
However, I legitimately think a decision to make the game the way it is and not P2P is an excellent and admirable design decision. This has everything to do with competent design decisions, and it's up to the player to play however he or she wants, whether by playing naturally or by manipulating time (which you aren't encouraged to do by any means because there are small penalties for doing so, which I think are quite clever).
Of course, one of the goals in the game is to essentially collect everything: catch all of the bugs, catch all of the fish, get all of the fossils, fill out your store catalogue, deep-dive, etc. But you as a player merely make that decision. You don't actually have to do a single thing. You can play the game at your own pace and at your own leisure. And the game never really penalizes you for that. I've logged months into that game, for example, and I still haven't done everything with respect to collecting things because I just don't care as much unless I'm close to filling a catalogue. The game doesn't penalize me for doing that at all. I don't have to accrue money, or this game's example of EXP. Shit, I don't really have to do anything because I'm not on a time-limit in-game to complete everything like I would be in an Atelier game, for example.
What I like a lot about the game is that it feels like it's designed very much like an RPG, but you aren't necessarily forced to do everything the game asks of you. It's more "open world" of sorts, with the main objectives being: achieve a perfect town and/or pay off your house debt. The game doesn't necessarily care if you don't even do that. I don't feel like going to the island and accruing bugs half the time every time I play it, so I don't choose to do it. Game doesn't penalize me by adding interest to my house debt, so I still get the house expansion without paying the debt (even though I'd have to before expanding again), so I respect the game for at least respecting my time as a player by its design. The game doesn't really care if I don't really maintain my town and go for a perfect town status, so you can concentrate on other things. It allows the player to allocate their playtime accordingly without pushing the player to meet stringent and time-based objectives in the grand scheme of things.
Although there are time-based objectives in terms of doing quests for NPCs, buying shit at stores before they close, etc. they aren't entirely as significant as you'd think because the game doesn't necessarily force you to do chores for neighbours or buy stuff at shops before they close for the day.
I think the game would be essentially ruined if it became F2P. Animal Crossing New Leaf's design philosophy seems to be telling the player to consider the mantra "take your time". No one's going anywhere (unless you don't tell your neighbours to just "not move out" and even then you don't have to do much with 'em), the town itself isn't going anywhere, and you don't have really any time constraints to deal with unless you're going bug/fish hunting (and even if you did, they're available for a long enough time for you to keep trying to get them).
Of course, ACNL's design philosophy runs absolutely counter to current game design philosophy, which is to do everything quickly, try to finish games fast enough because games should be short and players should move on quickly. There is little semblance of replayability because you need to finish the story, not think too much about how the game is designed, and adhere to the game's constraints instead of making your own decisions as to how you should play the game outside of main game missions. ACNL's focus is also counter to the idea of monetization in video games of its type. However, making the game free-to-play simply goes against the overall design philosophy of the game. Much like Farmville or any other simulation game that requires the player to maintain their games, ACNL has progress roadblocks (ie: your debt for your house, funds for public works projects, etc).
But if you paid real money to reset the Timmy and Tommy inventory instead of waiting per day, resetting the fossils in-town, for Katrina or Redd to come to your town, for another money rock to appear in your town, and for certain clothing items to instantly meet that Gracie Fashion Check, you've essentially won your game without doing much of anything and will instantly drop the game when you've already paid for everything. The design intent of the game is for the player to play through the game for perhaps even an annum if they so choose because there are small changes throughout the year. If you make your round throughout the town, catch stuff, etc. but don't find anything new, your time isn't necessarily wasted because you can sell your products for EXP gain. You're improving and gaining EXP a little bit each day (with the island acting as your "power-levelling" spot), so you're not exactly losing any sort of benefit if you didn't find anything new in-game.
If you're absolutely, positively impatient while playing the game and speedily try to do everything, the game provides you with this wonderful absolutely subtle negative feedback. Run on the grass, and you fuck up your grass. Run around and you scare away fish and bugs if you want to catch them for EXP. Trying to even time travel and doing it often will either make Resetti appear and berate you if you have him in your town, ruins your turnips that you could use to barter and profit from, and even perhaps, if you do play online multiplayer, brand you as a "time traveler" and thus everyone you play with online may learn that you do cheat at the game (so in turn, there is a slight social negative feedback attribute if the player actually cares). If you even press buttons while Kappn's singing his song, he'll berate you for doing that, too. Little things like that just make me like the design aspects of the game even more.
Even the positive feedback is nice. The obvious signs are getting HHA rewards and badges, but even the little things like using emotional expressions with some NPCs to see how they'd react (like there's one character who reacts joyfully if you give any hint of being sad like crying or shock) can be just as rewarding as accruing EXP.
Trying to play ACNL and thinking about it as a game of instantly gratifying the player as opposed to a slower and elegantly-designed process does not allow for the player to benefit from some of the social features like perhaps online trading and online play (which is where the bulk of my enjoyment with the game came from). If you paid to refresh the fossils or stores or whatever in your town, you wouldn't feel the need to possibly exchange with other players or go to other towns because lol, you paid for it anyway, so why even bother playing with other people to exchange anything with them? I've had people just outright give me furniture because since they put it their catalogue, they felt to pass it on to me to put it in my catalogue (thus minimizing my need to send EXP in the direction of clothing or housing items and putting my EXP into more important things). If I needed to complete a set of furniture, I have friends who just go out of their way to search their catalogues, find the missing piece of furniture that I don't have, and just give it to me. Heck, even when I started, I was pretty late to the party and my buddies gave me a bunch of stuff to even start with. That sense of camaraderie would not be fostered and grown in this game if it were F2P. I would expect the community to be even more selfish if that were the case.
ACNL's way of design isn't toxic like the likes of Farmville, because in comparison to Farmville, which is designed to make you spend money as you can't maintain your crops 24/7, you aren't forced to keep an eye on everything you do. I imagine that someone like Coldman, who left his town unattended for months, came back to miraculously find his town still alive and the player not as majorly penalized to the point of not playing it again (you may have to pull a few weeds, people probably moved in, but that's not much of a hassle to fix). You're not fucking running out of class to go check on the computer to see how your crops are doing or hogging places in public spaces to say, "fuck I need to water my crops or else they'll die" or something. I've seen my peers do that when Farmville was in its heyday, so that's why I do respect ACNL for at least respecting my time as a player and absolutely not making me do that shit.
If you did pay for item refreshes or new furniture, you would never have that anticipation of catching new fish or bugs to see if it will be a new addition in your catalogue, making the fishing/bug catching contests even more null-and-void than they already are, making streetpass/online MP interactions insignificant because you can buy whatever you want anyway, going into stores and seeing what the inventory is like, getting new K.K. Slider songs, or even what kind of joke you'd get from the comedian dude. It would ruin the steady growth of the game, and you wouldn't come back to experience the game itself. I'd almost liken it to pruning a bonsai plant. Slow and steady while taking your time will give you greater satisfaction than if you went through the game speedily with less satisfaction if you already paid for all the shit you would've bought anyway. Part of MP is opening your gates to people who want to buy stuff from your stores, doing online sidequests, getting non-native fruit, or going to sell turnips in another person's town. The MP is essentially the best gateway to accruing EXP fast outside of the island since the community can actually be pretty decent. I'd almost liken the idea of going F2P with the game to the stupid level packs they have out for Tales these days (ie: pay us $4 to increase your levels by 5!).
In the end, ACNL is actually a remarkably-designed game. That's why I don't think it's garbage. You aren't forced to do anything, but at the same time, the game is so elegantly-designed where you are penalized when you hastily do something, or you are rewarded when you take the time to look for the little things. Paying $40 for a very beefy game that does respect my time as a player is much better than $1.99 per item or item refresh, because you will likely spend more than that $40+tx.
Hell, ACNL is one of the most popular games on my school campus, it looks like. Tons of people have played it. I get a new streetpass house every day, for crying out loud, and it's stuff like that that has encouraged me to take my 3DS around more often. Not freaking Mii Plaza games, but for the streetpasses for this game and Pokemon that will benefit me in the long run. The social aspects of this game are so good and well-designed. It's one of the most succinctly-designed games I've played in maybe 5 years. With that said, the game isn't without shortcomings. The inventory space is cramped, the MP could use some work because we do get forced offline for no reason (and I never was in other games before), and the UI could be so much better. Regardless, the overall design of the game is very interesting to me.
So if you do think you'll make that thread, Beef, just know that I'll probably expand my thoughts and post this rebuttal in that thread. And I wouldn't be surprised if people just took one look at my post, decide it's long and positive and just say that they agree. :lol
...And I think I just made the ACNL post that Nocturnowl was waiting oh-so-long for.
Haha, you taking Beef and JC to heart. :lol :lol
It's just video games, qq. Beef, JC, and PKrockin are totally welcome to dislike it as much as they do cuz simulation games just ain't their sort of video game. If it were a game with another type of premise alongside collectathoning and interior design like Fantasy Life (you battle stuff in that game), then perhaps it would make more sense to them as a video game.
Heck, I saw him make shitposts, and I had to chuckle because I know JC's usual posting MO, and I'm surprised that even made the twitter feed in the first place since people just don't seem to 'get' his posts in the first place.
Unfortunately not everyone can be as famous for their antics as Anihawk.
Edit: Good post btw.
Edit 2 Electric Boogaloo: Finished reading it properly, and you do give a very good explanation of what makes the game good. And If Beef does make the thread (and you do post it) then make sure to get it in early so people see it, as I can assure you it will make other posts pale in comparison.
I was honestly waiting for that post! The reason why I didn't use your argument is because I'm sure you would do a much much much better job than I would do, considering I sometimes word things poorly. I didn't really want to risk ruin any of your points is all lol
Great post, that was really in-depth and makes me appreciate AC's design philosophy even more.
I just don't get it being called the worst game ever lol
Great post, that was really in-depth and makes me appreciate AC's design philosophy even more.
I just said that!
I just don't get it being called the worst game ever lol
Shadow Hog
Member
Speaking of amazing tomes, I'm trying to encapsulate the general distaste for Lost World on the 3DS to a guy who just gave it a 9.5/10. I brought up the three basic issues I've heard - bad level design, slippery controls and the absolute worst special stages in the series - but since I didn't get a copy of the 3DS game, I can't speak from experience and elaborate on them very well, leading to him deflecting all three ("it seemed okay to me", "the controls aren't bad!" and "the controls are fine, go get a swivel chair"). :\
Of course, he also thinks I'm echoing opinions from Sonic Retro, when I actually haven't touched Retro's topic in a few days... (Not because of the Halloween snafu; I'm just gonna pretend that didn't happen, hope people forget, and shrug it off if they haven't.)
Of course, he also thinks I'm echoing opinions from Sonic Retro, when I actually haven't touched Retro's topic in a few days... (Not because of the Halloween snafu; I'm just gonna pretend that didn't happen, hope people forget, and shrug it off if they haven't.)
I like the fact 75% of the review is about the story instead of the actual game itself. :lol
"the controls are fine, go get a swivel chair"
In order to enjoy craptastic gyro controls, buy a swivel chair! Yes, that is good defense right there, let's ignore gameplay faults and pretend they're PERFECT. How dare people dislike something I like?!
I love the fact he kind of contradicted himself there, telling you that the controls are fine but then tells you to spin in an office chair. Like... wouldn't you get dizzy from this? I mean it's fine that he enjoys Lost World 3DS but holy shit some of the stuff he says sounds downright fanboyish.
Also... lol @ his Retro comment. Pretty sure the 3DS version got a lot more hate than the Wii U version does around the internet.
"the controls are fine, go get a swivel chair"
In order to enjoy craptastic gyro controls, buy a swivel chair! Yes, that is good defense right there, let's ignore gameplay faults and pretend they're PERFECT. How dare people dislike something I like?!
I love the fact he kind of contradicted himself there, telling you that the controls are fine but then tells you to spin in an office chair. Like... wouldn't you get dizzy from this? I mean it's fine that he enjoys Lost World 3DS but holy shit some of the stuff he says sounds downright fanboyish.
Also... lol @ his Retro comment. Pretty sure the 3DS version got a lot more hate than the Wii U version does around the internet.
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
Nevermind...
especially since jason rubin wasn't in the director's chair.
haha i joke but not really. i really hate jak ii. i really do. it's also been a shitty day so i needed to vent a little.
It doesn't get any easier from there, but at least the jumps stop being so aggravatingly pixel perfect and poorly telegraphed.
Music is godly, yes. Tallarico knew how to rock the Genesis hardware.
PhantomOfTheKnight
Member
Spent two hours making an OT only to find out that someone didn't read the Volunteer thread and made one two weeks ago without telling me. >:I
Eh, I'm not too upset. At least someone didn't actually forget about the game.
Shadow Hog
Member
I finally got off my butt and played Lost World.
Well, um... yeah, it controls really awkwardly. I keep overshooting or undershooting jumps, and nothing feels particularly intuitive somehow. The Homing Attack's new chaining ability feels more annoying than useful, because I can never get myself into a good enough angle to kill all the enemies I'm jonesing to kill in one go - the crosshairs simply refuse to appear, so when I hit the button, I only take out 1-2 of a group of 3. I also keep thinking Homing Attack is on Y instead of A, and kicking enemies I intended to chain as a result (I blame Unleashed, where I swear Homing Attack was on the 360 equivalent of X or PS3 equivalent of Square).
Also, I died to the first boss.
...twice. ._.
This is really going to take a damn lot of getting used to. But hey, I thought it looked like it controlled awkwardly from some of the hands-ons before launch, and it turns out I was pretty much dead-on. So much for those who said I can't judge controls from a video. (I mean, you can't be 100% certain, for sure, but chances are, if it looks like a person is moving in a rather unwieldy fashion, that'll carry over to your own playthrough.)
Here's a video of a guy playing it without dying at all. Reference it, I guess.
Of course, you can always do what I did as a kid, and recite the magic words, "ABBA, ABBA..."
Actually, I think the game gets amazingly easier after Escape from the Cave. I mean, Rug Ride's a bitch, but if you've been stocking up on lives, then repeatedly failing will just shoo you on to the next stage anyway (the only stage to do so). Inside the Genie's Lamp has absolutely nothing out to kill you, other than some tough jumps, but none so poorly visible as the orange-on-orange one (well, I think a few might require you to look downward as they're offscreen otherwise, but that's about the worst of it). Sultan's Palace always struck me as a fairly straightforward, simple stage; sure, the water's instant-kill, but there are large swathes of the stage that take place in areas totally devoid of those pits, and the areas that do have them are pretty easy to handle. Jafar's Palace... isn't a cakewalk, but even then I think it's easier than Escape from the Cave (I can more readily beat it over the lava level, anyway, which says a lot about what a difficulty spike that stage is).
Well, um... yeah, it controls really awkwardly. I keep overshooting or undershooting jumps, and nothing feels particularly intuitive somehow. The Homing Attack's new chaining ability feels more annoying than useful, because I can never get myself into a good enough angle to kill all the enemies I'm jonesing to kill in one go - the crosshairs simply refuse to appear, so when I hit the button, I only take out 1-2 of a group of 3. I also keep thinking Homing Attack is on Y instead of A, and kicking enemies I intended to chain as a result (I blame Unleashed, where I swear Homing Attack was on the 360 equivalent of X or PS3 equivalent of Square).
Also, I died to the first boss.
...twice. ._.
This is really going to take a damn lot of getting used to. But hey, I thought it looked like it controlled awkwardly from some of the hands-ons before launch, and it turns out I was pretty much dead-on. So much for those who said I can't judge controls from a video. (I mean, you can't be 100% certain, for sure, but chances are, if it looks like a person is moving in a rather unwieldy fashion, that'll carry over to your own playthrough.)
Ah, yes, that level. It's a real bitch, yeah. There's this one jump that always got me as a kid - it's at the tail end of being chased by three boulders in a row. You have to do this jump at the very last minute, but because the platform you're jumping off of turns to bright orange on the far right, where it overlaps a bright orange background, it's hard to tell - so I always jumped early, and always got nailed by the boulder as a result. Once you get past that boulder, it's a little more sane.
Here's a video of a guy playing it without dying at all. Reference it, I guess.
Of course, you can always do what I did as a kid, and recite the magic words, "ABBA, ABBA..."
Actually, I think the game gets amazingly easier after Escape from the Cave. I mean, Rug Ride's a bitch, but if you've been stocking up on lives, then repeatedly failing will just shoo you on to the next stage anyway (the only stage to do so). Inside the Genie's Lamp has absolutely nothing out to kill you, other than some tough jumps, but none so poorly visible as the orange-on-orange one (well, I think a few might require you to look downward as they're offscreen otherwise, but that's about the worst of it). Sultan's Palace always struck me as a fairly straightforward, simple stage; sure, the water's instant-kill, but there are large swathes of the stage that take place in areas totally devoid of those pits, and the areas that do have them are pretty easy to handle. Jafar's Palace... isn't a cakewalk, but even then I think it's easier than Escape from the Cave (I can more readily beat it over the lava level, anyway, which says a lot about what a difficulty spike that stage is).
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
saw "super best friend's play" sonic lost worlds, and it really piqued my interest in it.
Professor Beef
Banned
Animal Crossing F2P thread is gonna have to wait until Wednesday. Work is ramping up.
Fuck November.
Fuck Black Friday.
Fuck November.
Fuck Black Friday.
Shadow Hog
Member
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Beef, making a thread that's just going to turn out shitty partially because of the fact that you've merely never played the game is incredibly unbecoming.
Stop while you're ahead.
Stop while you're ahead.
Professor Beef
Banned
I just think that it would fit a F2P model. No need to preemptively judge!
This is cute.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
What is your rationale behind that, though? You never said why.
Jeez this game is so bad for a Nintendo game. I mean I can't even play it for the story unlike Super Paper Mario because the story in this is very minimal and without any personality or decent story telling. It honestly feels rushed, heavily rushed. The intro is very monotonous with all of the peeling and the combat is the dullest form of any RPG Mario turn based system. The music is also very repetitive and very bland. It's like elevator music except it's too noisy to enjoy.
How the heck do we go from Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door to this?
How the heck do we go from Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door to this?
Professor Beef
Banned
Probably because I came up with the idea as I was getting ready to shut my laptop down before leaving for work.
Animal Crossing has the perfect setup for a F2P game. You play it in short bursts, you do some errands, catch a bug or two, then turn the game off and do something productive. You could easily attach an energy system to this, and it would affect how people play, because it's not like people have 5 hour sessions or anything. Nobody I know who loves Animal Crossing (and I have tons of Nintendo diehards as friends, one of which even works for Nintendo) plays it for more than a couple hours at a time, max. The longest stretch of time people usually play it is when they make a new character, because you can't do anything else until you run those tutorial errands for Nook.
That's just one of the points I planned on addressing.
This sentence is for qq more: If you're opposed to F2P only because you don't like the idea of F2P, then just say so. Don't try and go on the defensive without actually having something to back up your defense, because F2P games aren't the enemy. Poorly made ones are. AC is essentially Nintendo's Farmville.
B-b-b-b-but it's amazing! How dare you hate on the most brilliant Paper Mario ever made?! You all are just hating it because it's different!!!!!
(It's really a mediocre game compared to first two Paper Mario games. I really wish Miyamoto didn't interfere. It wasn't even that good on its own.)
I'm kinda having this issue with AC: Infinity right now. All I've seen for the game looks surprisingly good for a Namco-funded F2P game and something that Team Aces seems to be really behind on making, yet people are immediately calling it a "slap in the face of every fan" despite there already being an even worse retail game that could be described like that. I'm generally not a fan of the F2P model, but I at least try them out before I say that particular game isn't for me. :/
Box of Bunnies
Banned
I enjoyed Sticker Star. The story/characterisation was minimal and I'm sure the lack of any real statistics bothered the more number focused, but I thought it was an okay adventure platformer with RPGish combat. I didn't love it or anything, but I was happy with the time/money I put into it.
In what way would a F2P model actually improve the game experience?
Schala pretty much already outlined why a F2P model would undermine what actually makes the game enjoyable, so there's no reason for me to really bother.
It's only similar to farmville in the sense that they're both life sims.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Your points, however, are merely anecdotal, though. That is not sufficient evidence for your position at all. Especially if your premise is one for Nintendo to make bank on the game (but given the worldwide sales on the game, I'd say that they've already done that).
What if people played the game for longer stretches of time, because you do have to make the consideration where it is very likely that people do play for longer stretches of time. You are penalizing those people who do by implementing such an insipid system in the first place. Imposing penalties on players for the sake of profit is absolutely counter to the design philosophy of the game itself as I've already stated. It . Suppose you're leaving your system idling because you're doing something or playing multiplayer and will shortly get back to the game, your energy's going to deplete and then you'd have to pay for more time? That's silly and it runs counter-intuitive to the game's core philosophy of essentially being like a Japanese garden. It takes time to be good, like a fine wine.
And that bit for qq more is erroneous. He isn't against the general idea of F2P at all given that he's played games that use the model well without penalizing the player such as, for example, PSO2. Your mere suggestion of an energy system is something that generally penalizes players who do spend a lot more time with the game as-is. Implementing a formula for them to pay more for more hours of time they put into the game--which could accumulate to even more than even the current asking price of the game itself at present--is absurd and generally counter-intuitive to the user experience as a whole. It would probably encourage people to engage in multiplayer hours even less, or even force people to drop it anyway.
People who are playing Animal Crossing range from a wide variety of demographics. Male, female, kids aged 6-12, kids aged 12-17, college-aged young adults, and finally, older people with disposable income. Your free-to-play model is not conducive to three types of those players. Just because people you know in an age bracket with disposable income simply play for only an hour and could possibly afford the f2p model, does not necessarily mean the model would work for a full-priced video game that people generally buy to last for a while until another special occasion where they can move on to another product. Recall that Nintendo doesn't merely make games for you or me, but they make games for a wider demographic. I know we make fun of Nintendo for concentrating on the family, but you do have to keep in mind that there are still kids who plug a lot of time into these games and penalizing them for spending a while with the game is nonsense.
I almost liken your recommendation of an F2P model to those companies who think that cellphone games with episodic content the Next Big Thing because people buy that shit like hotcakes even though they generally seem to lack any sort of depth or any semblance of elegant game design.
The only similarity to Farmville that the game has is that they are merely simulation games. The overall game design philosophy of both games couldn't be any more different at all. If you'd played both of them, you'd know that.
Tizoc
Member
I need to get around to playing Sonic LW 3DS and Mario and Luigi 4 on 3DS, i should alternate between the two at least...
Check out their 'Killer is dead' playthrough too, they really liked that game.
Check out their 'Killer is dead' playthrough too, they really liked that game.
Professor Beef
Banned
I should probably think about it more, then.
Nocturnowl
Member
A stealth tome?! it's sort of like an oxymoron.
I was expecting to spend my morning witnessing the chaotic aftermath of Beef's attempts to stitch AC and F2P/Farmville together but this is a good compromise.
Jak 2 is a prime candidate for such a position and let no one convince us otherwise.
As someone working on a review of the 3DS version I can confirm you literally need a swivel chair to play the special stages. When I'm laying in bed I deliberately choose not to go to the special stages because I don't want to have to walk into the other room and sit down.
Meccanical
Member
Hot Coldman
Banned
did I get mad about Animal Crossing last night
fwiw I wasn't in the best of moods and I was already fairly salty so I apologise
fwiw I wasn't in the best of moods and I was already fairly salty so I apologise
Lightning Lord
Banned
A-anyway...
SonicGAF's Song of the Day - #42
Song: Sandopolis Zone Act 1
Game: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles
Composer: Hell if I know
If you're ever in a Genesis music vs. SNES music argument with someone and you want to point him to a song that the SNES couldn't dream of replicating, pick this one. The system lived and died by its bass lines, and nothing hammered out a bass like Sandopolis.
Sandopolis is also a strong contender for the series' "Most Fitting Music" award. It's a slow, grinding piece for a slow, grinding level. It's impossible to listen to this and not remember the waiting. So much waiting. Waiting for sand to carry you away. Waiting for blocks to move. Waiting for badniks to attack, for columns to part, for the rappel line to travel, waiting, waiting, ever more and more waiting. It's as slow as Marble Zone, just paced better, and by the end you feel like you've been pounding the sand right along with the bass. The melody, like the level, is cryptic and hard to follow, changing abruptly from high to low and back again until you've lost all sense of where you are, along with your hope of escape. Sandopolis goes on, and on, and on.
And when you do flee Act 1, you'll wish you hadn't.
Hot Coldman
Banned
I still think Sandopolis is the black sheep of Sonic 3 and Knuckles, but damn it if that music doesn't stick with you.
Tizoc
Member
I'd agree on that but damn fuck those scorpions lol.
I love Sandopolis Zone's music. Like you said it's really fitting. Very eerie and unsettling.
As far as the level itself goes you can actually skip a lot of the "waiting." You can jump right past a lot of the block riding and rappelling, and you don't need to wait to kill those scorpions.
Act 2 is another story, though...
I wasn't in a great mood either, and being reminded of how I spent $70 on that game didn't help. lol. No worries.
As far as the level itself goes you can actually skip a lot of the "waiting." You can jump right past a lot of the block riding and rappelling, and you don't need to wait to kill those scorpions.
Act 2 is another story, though...
I wasn't in a great mood either, and being reminded of how I spent $70 on that game didn't help. lol. No worries.
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