I love X1, specially for the OST but can't care for X2 and 3. I didn't enjoy the new synths and the boss themes are specially annoying in 2-3, looping super fast.
X4 is great but has that horrible dub, 5 is nice, 6 is meh and 7 is terrible. As for 8, I liked it a lot and the OST is pretty much rock everywhere. Special shout-out to Lumine Second Form.
I love X1, specially for the OST but can't care for X2 and 3. I didn't enjoy the new synths and the boss themes are specially annoying in 2-3, looping super fast.
X4 is great but has that horrible dub, 5 is nice, 6 is meh and 7 is terrible. As for 8, I liked it a lot and the OST is pretty much rock everywhere. Special shout-out to Lumine Second Form.
I thought X1's OST handily outpaced X2 but I'm seemingly outside the consensus when it comes to the games themselves in that X2 just came across as stronger to me (outside of some boss encounters) I found X1 levels to be a bit too safe I guess?
Rockman X2's graphics are great but the music is pretty meh so far. HOWEVER I do remember listening to a kickass remix of Flame Stag's theme and sure enough his stage theme is badass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqLsqb2n3Cg
Fire stages in games tend to have the best music I've noticed
I just started looking over this and I'll have to read the design doc at some point but this just makes the whole history of Sonic Boom even worse. The biggest problem with Sonic Boom, as a whole, is that it's clear the people behind it didn't really want to make a "Sonic game" or a "Sonic show". They wanted to use the IP because it's well known but they wanted to heavily alter it in order to fit the sort of game/show they wanted to make. That's not how you use an IP. You're supposed to take an existing IP, take advantage of it's strengths (instead of ignoring them), and add some sort of twist that lets you see the IP in a different light while still retaining what you loved about it.
You know those sort of failed projects like that animated Batman high school show, or that FPS Megaman game? Those sorts of projects that rarely get off the ground? That's what Sonic Boom feels like, except it actually did happen. At least the Sonic Boom show, from the little I've seen, looks ok. Still, it's just another weird experiment that is just splitting up the fan base even more than it already is.
You aren't playing X4 right if you aren't listening to that wonderful dub.
I think most of the classic MM games are stupidly overrated but I genuinely love X1, 2, and 4. X3 is ok but rather uninspired. Playing X4 as Zero is an absolute blast and is the only way I play through that game. It's a shame that every X game that let you play as Zero afterwards ranged from poor (X5) to arguably as objectively terrible as Sonic's worst 3D outings (X7). I will make an exception for X8 though since I've never played it. Capcom refuses to put it on PSN for some reason.
I don't know what came over me but I decided to play a few levels of Sonic Heroes and Sonic Lost World.
I still find Heroes to be a fun game, and I love its art direction for the stages. Really colorful and diverse. Sonic Lost World... well that one's more of a mixed bag, at best. I knew which few levels to go back to that are actually passable so I didn't have an awful time. It's a shame that Lost World botched itself with some awful gimmick levels, awkward controls, and little incentive to replay levels, since some of its ideas (parkour, bringing back the spindash, etc) were promising.
If it sounds like a strongly dislike Lost World, I don't. I know a lot of people really despise it but the game is still functional and has its moments so I wouldn't call it a terrible game or anything, it's just not terribly exciting or fun to replay when compared to most other 3D Sonic games (yeah, despite their problems I do enjoy most 3D Sonic games to at least some extent. I can even manage to squeeze some enjoyment out of Shadow the Hedgehog despite that game being a hilarious mess),
Yeesh the Sagesse boss fight is tough as nails without Full Health Tanks.
Almost done, but I find that the Random X-Hunter positioning and the these final stages are knocking down my enjoyment of the game.
Serges can definitely be a bit of a pain, but I think like a number of MM bosses you can prosper with less movement IIRC.
While I still much prefer X1 for how grounded and straightforward it is, I often find myself bouncing between it X2 from a stage design perspective. I think for what it did X1 is a really tough game to extrapolate a sequel that is just "X1 but better" from, but I believe X2's decisions in keeping a sense of pace/progression going forward were the correct ones. Like many
movie
trilogies X3 tried a lot of things at once to one-up its predecessor but mostly ended up feeling needlessly congested at times. X3 is still a blast though, especially given the difficulty early on and the different boss paths you can try out.
And Zero is neat too, if cumbersome to use.
Fwiw, I believe X4 - X6 reflects that entire trend pretty well too, though X5 leans towards the X3 school of experimentation and X6 is a much bigger drop off than X3 was to X2. Can still be a fun time in a masochistic kinda way though, and it's got some of the best audio work in the series.
X7 is mediocre to average, mostly more good ideas than great execution. X8 has a lot of quirks and a bit too much auto-scrolling but it was a solid and bold step for the series had it continued. It really is a shame they didn't make at least one more game to wrap up the new plot and everything before the events of the Elf Wars.
If it sounds like a strongly dislike Lost World, I don't. I know a lot of people really despise it but the game is still functional and has its moments so I wouldn't call it a terrible game or anything, it's just not terribly exciting or fun to replay when compared to most other 3D Sonic games.
Yeah, my reaction to 100%'ing Lost World was just frustration. It was a lot of potential thrown away on very barebones or simplistic...or just straight up weird design choices. I mean the post-game ends on the damn Pac-Man level for goodness sake.
The gameplay can have moments where it feels really good to play, but it's too often broken up by those weird stretches of randomness that really sours any serious replay time. Overall I really just wish it put forth a more consistent palette of stages that took advantage of the parkour better, as well as provided a bit more challenge and freedom instead of feeling like Sonic Team's attempt at making a Nintendo game.
The gameplay can have moments where it feels really good to play, but it's too often broken up by those weird stretches of randomness that really sours any serious replay time. Overall I really just wish it put forth a more consistent palette of stages that took advantage of the parkour better, as well as provided a bit more challenge and freedom instead of feeling like Sonic Team's attempt at making a Nintendo game.
Yeah, some more stages that lacked the unneeded gimmicks and just focused on the platforming and parkour would have been vastly preferable.
I think Sonic Team took the wrong lessons from Sonic Colors. People didn't love Colors because it had Mario-like elements in it (I remember Izuka stating that they purposefully designed Sonic Colors so it would appeal to "Mario fans"), people loved it because it was a mostly consistent Sonic game with polished gameplay, imaginative locals, and trimmed the bullshit from previous 3D Sonic games.
I love both Mario and Sonic games but I wouldn't want either series to blatantly copy each other. Things like the scoring system, lack of slopes, generic themed environments, and lackluster bosses are all elements from Lost World that were taken directly from the Mario games (mainly the 2D ones). Why they decided to copy the bad elements of Mario's games, and not the good elements is a mystery.
And yeah, that Pacman level was absolute garbage. Why on earth did they decided to end the game on that!?
Hi. Has anyone heard from Hero of Legend since June 3rd? He's had no activity on GAF or Twitter since that date (there's a tweet from an automatic thing where his YouTube account liked a video -- and the video was a commercial for a truck so probably some spam thing), no blog posts since a few weeks before, and a bunch of GAF posts the day before. I wanted to make sure he was alright. I thought some people here might talk to him outside GAF either having met him on GAF or knowing him from writing for the Sonic Stadium website.
Hi. Has anyone heard from Hero of Legend since June 3rd? He's had no activity on GAF or Twitter since that date (there's a tweet from an automatic thing where his YouTube account liked a video -- and the video was a commercial for a truck so probably some spam thing), no blog posts since a few weeks before, and a bunch of GAF posts the day before. I wanted to make sure he was alright. I thought some people here might talk to him outside GAF either having met him on GAF or knowing him from writing for the Sonic Stadium website.
I didn't directly speak to him tons, but a cursory amount of digging (stuff you've probably already done, I bet) says the last time he was on the internet was June 3rd, on GAF. Same day of his last tweet.
His personal blog hasn't been updated since May (21st), his last front-page post on Sonic Stadium was in April (12th), and he last logged in to the Sonic Stadium message board in May (28th).
I think I'll start Amy in Sonic 1 soon...well after I beat Megaman X 3 at least.
So far X3 stages are easy, ALTHOUGH Tunnel Rhino's was tough due to the wall enemies and the tank that fires the invincible drills ugh. I had to fight Bit in there too which was a pain, seriously, that guy is some Dark Souls level shit.
Bosses hit like trucks though :V
Still not liking the music, too much 'synth' for my taste, or rather they just don't sound too good in their original 16-bit version.
So far X3 stages are easy, ALTHOUGH Tunnel Rhino's was tough due to the wall enemies and the tank that fires the invincible drills ugh. I had to fight Bit in there too which was a pain, seriously, that guy is some Dark Souls level shit.
I'm sitting in a panel for Sonic Mania with some creators. I think questions will be asked later. Anything on our collective minds?
Sonic Mania Panel
Will clean up notes in a bit.
1 - 1 year anniversary of Mania Announcement trailer today.
2 - First meeting in 2016. Sonic Discovery original title.
3 - izuka writes on board Sonic 1-K and then Sonic Mania.
4 - By the Mania for the Mania is something Izuka kept saying.
5 - 2nd revision whats egg man do after K? He falls into depression, no will to fight Sonic, goes back to base in pajamas, what happened to all the bad nicks after he left? Then 3 words, Hard Boiled Heavies.
4 - Length longer than 1, 2, 3 and K. Compatible to 3&K, more modes. We will be happy with length.
5 - Keep records of favorite bugs
6 - Special stage - Sonic 1 back ground, looks like CD with K spheres. Get blue spheres, go faster, catch UFO. Get emerald.
7 -Rings increase timer.
8 - true to how Saturn would render 3D.
9 - Dimension heist music. I like it! Going to grow on people. YouTube soon.
10 - Has Sprite cut scenes between stages SandK style.
11 - Animated short animation for the opening of the game. Like CD. aug 14th release.
12 - Super Emeralds. Izuka doesn't want a power creep to keep one upping themselves. So no Super Emeralds any more.
13 - Official name Ivo Robotnik, Eggman nick name. Both names are legit.
14 - Secret things, may be a debug mode...
15 - Instruction booklets! Real paper! Coolectable item! Looks great! Concept art, story notes, all this good stuff and I get one right now!
Will show photos in a bit! And clean up notes later
I don't ever pop in here, but I gotta say.....Mania is turning out to be my dream 2D Sonic game!
And that instruction booklet. They keep confusing me with all of this physical stuff BUT no physical cart/disc release. When they see how well it sells they'll probably do one.
As far as I know this was a special pamphlet for the panel. I could see elements of it being used for the digital manual but as of now there's no confirmation of a physical release of the game.
