Sonic Unlimited (formerly Sonic 2006 2D)

[Lightspines]

This is a neat little fan game that tries to replicate Sonic 2006, but in 2D:

It's been in development for about 4 years or so, and it's finally taking off.

[thedarkknight]

This is a neat little fan game that tries to replicate Sonic 2006, but in 2D:

It's been in development for about 4 years or so, and it's finally taking off.

Looks pretty good!

[SuperClassic]

As good as this hack looks, I think it'd be even better with its own original plot, being based off Sonic 06 just taints it.

[JezMM]

Funny how the real thing looks terrible, yet this looks really awesome despite the fact that it truly does capture the 3D versions's style perfectly. I'm sure it'll gain little interest from classic 2D Sonic fans, but as a novelty it's pretty amazing. I'd play it.

[Nepenthe]

I realize the game is in 2D, but it's amazingly linear without anything interesting to do to make up for it. He's barely going backwards or taking real advantage of vertical space to add some general depth. That hole between the two ramps in the beginning of Flame Core should've dropped him into the underground volcanic portion, but he avoided it completely, making me think it was a rather uselessly-placed bottomless pit. Also, enemies with healthbars are the bane of normal Sonic gameplay. Regardless, I like it as a general concept; The aesthetics seem recreated well at this stage. Also, I like the idea of a kick you can do to take out enemies while running, but I wonder about its usefulness considering the Spin Dash is already there.

[sonfan1984]

Oh wow, Sonic 2006 in 2D! Best Sonic game ever!

[Diogenes]

I've been asked a number of times what I'd think of '06 had it been finished. After seeing this, I can say, with more confidence than ever before...

It'd still be shit.

Large expanses of flat or nearly-flat ground. Groups of enemies dealt with by spamming the homing attack. Boosters, springs, and grind rails doing half the work of playing the game. While it's (presumably) not as buggy as the real '06, it's otherwise scarily accurate...and I say "scarily" because it's accurate all the way down to the flaws.

This game baffles me. It's a terrible game made well, and I cringe thinking of the time wasted on it.

[Vertekins]

The replication of the bugs part is very prevalent because this 2D fangame even imitates the complete lack of speed generated by 'hopping' on the rail, an action you'd think would have the effect of speeding you up on the rail that has no percievable effect in the final game.

There's no gainage of momentum when spindashing down that first hill in Dusty Desert. It's even got the floaty, slow falling after homing attacking an enemy.

Either this game is purposefully imitating the questionable '06 physics to give the '06 "feel" or it's pretty misguided in doing this because '06's "physics" were condemned across the board.

That said, it still looks like it had a good amount of effort invested in it

[Eastwood]

Looks cool.

[Gaming Misfit]

Oh cool...

You know it's sad though when fan games based off of the original are better looking then the original itself.

[Octarine]

The worst part of Sonic '06 to me, worse than the glitches or the character models or even the story, was the need to hammer enemies with the exact same attack over and over again to defeat them. The same one-button move, the same terrible attack animation, the same sound effects. Again. And again. And again.

This game looks decently put together, but even in 2D, there is no situation in a Sonic game where you should have to use the homing attack more than once to destroy an enemy. You could maybe excuse Heroes for it because it needed a way to give Power characters a reason to exist, but it was stupid in '06 and, though I appreciate the effort, it's stupid here too.

I might still give this a try for the hell of it, mind. I'm still sort of curious.

[Sion-Ta]

... Why would you recreate 06's flaws?

I mean I know its supposed to be a 2D version of the game but... why would you put so much time and effort into recreating a game hardly anyone liked, and not change anything about it?

[Dr. Crusher]

I'll have to agree with Diogenes. It's just a waste of talent IMO. And there's also me just being, how should I say this... tired of 2006 and all it's rubbish.

Anything relating to 2006 (aside from the music) simply does not interest me. Even if the gameplay was somehow done well, you'd still have the plot, and unlike other folk, there was absolutely nothing I liked about 2006's plot. Not Iblis/Mephiles/Solaris, not Silver and his future crisis and tarnishing of Blaze, not Shadow/Omega's bizarre conundrum, nothing.

Edited July 7, 2011 by Dr. Crusher

[Sami]

Meh. This just leads me to believe that all 2D Sonic games should follow the classic formula at this point. Don't get me wrong, I love the original Rush, but I think the Unleashed style is just a better version of Rush, honestly.

This just looks really, really dull. It's like Rush without the boost, but somehow still worse than Sonic 4.

[Gaming Misfit]

... Why would you recreate 06's flaws?

I mean I know its supposed to be a 2D version of the game but... why would you put so much time and effort into recreating a game hardly anyone liked, and not change anything about it?

I'm not trying to drag this debate back out from the gutter, but if 06 had some actual TIME put into it, it wouldn't be half as bad as it is. Sure, we would still have the cheesy story line, stupid plot, and mind torturing characters...But think of all the problems that related to crappy effort. It's the majority of them.

What I'm getting at, is this game actually had quite a bit of time put into it. It had effort and unlike original 06, it isn't a piece of crap (or from what I've seen at least).

Not to mention 2D is kewlz.

[StSi]

Think this would of sold more than the original. Even so Silver is still the same. ^^; I like this!

[Sion-Ta]

I'm not trying to drag this debate back out from the gutter, but if 06 had some actual TIME put into it, it wouldn't be half as bad as it is. Sure, we would still have the cheesy story line, stupid plot, and mind torturing characters...But think of all the problems that related to crappy effort. It's the majority of them.

But the thing is, the creator of this fan game is actively looking out for and recreating Sonic Team's crappy effort. The physics, the unnecessary speed boosters, frequent groups of enemies, all with health bars.

Hell he even kept the same issues that made the Silver boss fight such a pain. In the original, if Silver ever caught you in mid-air, you would never have enough time to recover before he grabbed you again, which essentially meaning you were dead if you found yourself in this situation... and that's still present in this fan game. That's the point I and several others are making. All the flaws that were in 06's gameplay are here in this fan game, only this time, they're intentional. Effort has gone into recreating Sonic Team's crappy effort. |3;

[Diogenes]

I'm not trying to drag this debate back out from the gutter, but if 06 had some actual TIME put into it, it wouldn't be half as bad as it is. Sure, we would still have the cheesy story line, stupid plot, and mind torturing characters...But think of all the problems that related to crappy effort. It's the majority of them.

Like I said, this is the game that proves that wrong. This does have a lot of effort put into it, I'm not denying that. But it's good effort thrown at bad design, and no amount of effort can turn bad design into good design.

It had effort and unlike original 06, it isn't a piece of crap (or from what I've seen at least).

I really have to ask, what part of this "isn't a piece of crap"? What do you see that looks like fun?

[BADavid]

I've gotta agree with Sion-Ta, at least in part... having time and effort put into something doesn't automatically equate gaming gold. It depends on what the time and effort is put into. I can understand the appeal of trying to recreate a game - and I appreciate that some do enjoy Sonic 06, despite its flaws - and this looks to be well-made and to duplicate the feel of the original, so they should be commended for their effort and skill. However it doesn't somehow automatically make this game a masterpiece - does it play better than the original? No idea, I've not played it - but from what I can see it looks like all of Sonic 06's non-glitch-and-control-related flaws are still there.

I suppose what I'm saying is that the creators of this should be praised for their talent, but it seems like a waste of their talents to try and recreate the game with its flaws intact, unless it's some sort of joke or satire... At the end of the day, Sonic 2006's problem wasn't that it was in 3D - regardless of perspective, its faults remain. Nothing against the creators - if they wanted to create this, it's their choice - but I don't necessarily agree with the notion that if this is how Sonic 2006 was, it would've necessarily been a superior game.

[Gaming Misfit]

Like I said, this is the game that proves that wrong. This does have a lot of effort put into it, I'm not denying that. But it's good effort thrown at bad design, and no amount of effort can turn bad design into good design.

I really have to ask, what part of this "isn't a piece of crap"? What do you see that looks like fun?

[krazystitch]

IT'S NO USE!

But seriously, it looks pretty well done considering that it's a fan game and all. But, other than that it does look kind of plain and straight forward like others mentioned. Nothing that I wouldn't try out though, I mean, it still looks interesting. But just..I don't know. It seems to me that if they were going to try to make an alternate version of a Sonic game, it should have really been any but Sonic 2006. I guess they made it look a little bit better than the actual game, which is pretty sad,, but it still looks to me like they could have done a better job, or atleast based it off of a better concept.

[Nepenthe]

I still think that the core gameplay concepts of Sonic 06 are actually commendable, particularly how they did multiple characters as they're merely are cut from the same mold but have variable moves and abilities that either alter the landscape or allow them to move in different ways. And as far as I can remember, level design proceeded to be different enough between the three mains to not have the game entirely reek of Reskinning Syndrome. Honestly, these aren't inherently bad ideas. Now perhaps it was the boredom caused by watching the level design or fading memory, but I didn't particularly notice any significant recreation of the game's level design here. But if that's what they're going for however, right down to the actual glitches, then yeah, this is potentially a waste. But it is WIP.

[Scott]

Man, if SEGA did this for GBA/DS back in the day, they probably coulda made a shitload of money

[Speederino]

It definitely looks better, but a few of Sonic 06's bad design choices are still showing. I don't like the enemies with health bars that take forever to kill and the constant use of the homing attack. Will we still be able to jump on enemies like we normally would in a 2D game?

[JezMM]

level design proceeded to be different enough between the three mains to not have the game entirely reek of Reskinning Syndrome.

Edited July 8, 2011 by JezMM