JezMM

Chamomile #83

Marker Street's a servicable remix, and despite being a collab with a different artist, it feels like it's a part of the same soundtrack as Boo's House, so that's good. Overall though it feels a little flat - there's no highs or lows, and the natural highs and lows that come from the melody have been ironed down to all feel the same. It lacks the "rustic" energy of Spagonia without any piano or string swelling. Ohtani's own remixes in Generations were a fucking tough act to follow though. My only concerns now is whether every single song is going to have this exact same energy that we've heard in the songs so far. It could cause the music to become a little stale and predictable. Transformed had sorta the same deal at times (with exceptions) where a lot of the remixes could be chalked up to "Richard Jacques put a modern beat on top of it". I hope Jun's gonna pull in the reigns now and then and give us something a little different to listen to here and there. My other curiosity is we know they're doing the SaSASR style of diving the tracks into zones with three tracks a piece... I wonder if all three tracks in a zone will have the same song? I sure hope not coz that makes for 7 gameplay songs in the whole game lol (and will make the final track feel completely unspecial even if they give it a cool aesthetic to differenciate it from it's two siblings from earlier in the game). While that's unlikely, the second question is whether we can expect three remixes of Rooftop Run for the Rooftop Run tracks, or three different songs - obvious choices for tracks 2 and 3 would be Rooftop Run Night and maybe Endless Possibility (unless Jun is sticking to his weird promise of never covering that song lol), but another option would be using a myriad of different songs from across the series for a similar locale. For example the three Sandopolis tracks could use, Sandopolis of course as we've heard, but then Pyramid Cave and Arid Sands for the other two tracks - etc. Ice Mountain could use Cool Edge, Frozen Factory and uhh... well, Ice Mountain, I guess, lol. Be interesting to see what happens. I'm hoping for at least a consistent style but since this is a Jun Senoue-helmed soundtrack so I... probably shouldn't. Guy is a fantastic musician but he has a track record in his games for playing it wild and loose with regards to what zones have a traditional "the same song for every act but remixed differently" and what zones have "every act has a unique song" across the soundtracks of singular games (Sonic 4 Ep II being a particularly noticable offender). Next time on Jez's nerd-ass Sonic music organisation corner: Does Hidden Palace use the same music as Lava Reef Act 2 or does Lava Reef Act 2 use the same music as Hidden Palace? Why do returning bosses Zavok and Metal Sonic get remixes while returning boss Egg Dragoon gets an original song in Forces? And conspiracy theory - how on earth could the composer of JP Sonic CD be responsible for Iron Fortress in Forces I mean c'mon?

Chamomile #82

I mean that name doesn't really matter that much, but it's fairly typical for "2" to signify an entirely new revision when it comes to software, whether that's built from the ground up or not. If it was a refinement of the same engine, they could call it the Hedgehog Engine version 1.8.5 or something.

The theory put forth by some of the more prolific modders/hackers in the Sonic community, from what they saw when they pulled apart Forces' code, is that it's likely there was no-one on the team that actually understood Generations' coding. Despite everything, it was easier for them to modify Lost World's code, that they did understand, into something resembling Generations, than it was to modify Generations' code directly. And just to pre-empt the likely thought people would have that "well fans could reverse engineer Generations' code, why can't Sonic Team?" remember fans mostly just make levels and model-swaps with some tweaks to numbers (for the Sonic Adventure Sonic mod), to my knowledge, no-one has put in any entirely new characters with entirely new mechanics like the Avatar + Wispon is.

I've long-since added Forces to the pile of Sonic games that I desperately want to love, and occasionally get the urge to go back to, but every time I am disappointed by their shallowness. In the end it's better to just relisten to the soundtrack if I want to re-experience my first playthrough in my imagination. Still love the soundtrack to Forces, but yeah, overall the experience was a disappointment. Loved my first playthrough, including 100%ing the game, but now that's done... there's nothing there. It was the satisfaction of checking off objectives and unlocking everything, coupled with the new additions to the Sonic franchise's wonderful library of music and aesthetics, that made that first experience good for me. Now that those things are no longer fresh, there's nothing holding the game's lame level design up. The cardboard facade has fallen flat, alongside other Sonic games I had the same experience with, Heroes, Colours and Lost World. A real damn shame, coz I was so gunning for this one. I'm at least thankful for that first playthrough, just sad that it couldn't join Unleashed, Generations, the Adventures, and hell even Shadow the Hedgehog - as a game I enjoy at it's core enough to play more than once and feel like I'm having a meaningful experience each time.

To be fair, we have no idea how working it is outside of the explicit footage we got in the trailer. Most likely balance is the biggest thing, but animations may not be final, there might be numerous glitches with how he behaves with other game elements, etc. The fact that he did a disclaimer and yet nothing looked wrong might just illustrate the difference in insight between observer and developer. I know it's unlikely but just as developers make bullshots that don't reflect the final quality of the game, I'm sure that can occur in trailers too - like they specifically animate something for the sake of a trailer to make it look how they plan for it to go in the final game, but it's all just animation, the programming isn't actually done yet, etc. Likewise on the flipside, we have no idea how far along Mewtwo was behind the scenes even though they chose to not show gameplay footage.

Untrue, Pirahna Plant is still being developed. Sakurai explicitly said so in the direct. It won't be avaliable until February. Like it's literally the exact same case as Mewtwo.

Kinda funny that they bill Forces first considering narratively these games are a "Part 1" and "Part 2" of a connected story but I guess they know their audience here. While fans will probably assume it's an attempt to try and get those who would be more attracted to Mania to play Forces, I assume it's the opposite - they want to attract kids with Forces who will then also play Mania, increasing the audience for classic Sonic products.

Not enough people. Shantae has a much more obvious fanbase because of what a fanart-friendly series it is, but Shovel Knight is the much bigger success story as a game, and he only managed Assist Trophy status (which of course, to say "only" is a bit disrespectful to how cool that is for an indie developer). It might be hard to imagine with all the deconfirmations the last direct brought, but one has to assume that the 5 DLC fighters chosen are more well-known than Shantae.

Shy Guy is one of my fave Mario "races" for sure (and the SMB2 fanservice potential... mmmmm)... but I think Pirahna is a way more funny/interesting choice and just looks great too. Shy Guys are... as the name suggests, fairly reserved in their animation. Plant is a lot more manic and has a lot more potential for slapstick and big animations, which lends itself to a great surprise character.

Not gonna lie, Toad would've been boring as hell. I love Pirahna Plant for it's surprise factor. I think if Toad had got in as the DLC bonus I'd just be like "wow, didn't expect them, okay." Pirahna Plant I was like "wow, didn't expect them, okay!?!" And like... I'm sure no-one thinks ill of Toad but I don't think I've ever heard anyone express something so bold as "love" for the guy.

Oh man pleeeeease let there be more Yuzo Koshiro tracks in the game she's just way too good. ...The aside, I assume Guile's Theme will be the one song in the game that is available on the My Music list for every single stage, for obvious reasons.

I know this isn't the topic of discussion but UGHHHH they're doing the 2-minute abridgement thing again, no guitar solo in Fist Bump. I'd have rather just had the Null Space version than just the first half of the song but oh well. Probably means we can expect the truncated versions of Id (Purpose), Counterattack, Guar Plains - and more importantly since Smash is the only place to hear them - Brinstar and DK Rap again too.