Tracker_TD

All part of SEGA's 60th Anniversary celebrations, rather than Sonic's 30th Anniversary. https://store.steampowered.com/curator/36333614-Sega-Promotions/sale/sega60th

It might well be a nod to something, but I doubt it's something as obvious as "3 = Sonic Adventure 3". If anything I find it more likely that they used the SA image because one of the names given to that specific spiral is "The Golden Spiral", but even then. I'm sure in a year it'll turn out it was a hint that like, Katie has three favourite pizza toppings or something specific like that.

But it's not better utility. It's not necessarily intuitive either, as Advance 3 demonstrated. It's just doing things for the sake of doing them. I really don't get how the Drop Dash could get in your way in a setup where they're mapped to the same button when you need to actively hold down the button for at least 1-2 seconds, before you hit the ground as opposed to the Insta-Shield, where you... tap a button quickly to use it. It doesn't make any sense; refer back to the earlier Fire Mario example.

I mean sure, you could add more moves on different buttons, but we're talking about the Drop Dash and Insta-Shield. They really have no actual reason to be on different buttons, unless the mere chance of holding it for a second longer and triggering the drop dash animation that you can then instantly let go of just, upsets you to your very core.

I also think it can come across an unintuitive - in Advance 3, the Sonic & Knuckles combo actually *does* map the insta-shield to B, and I frequently forget I even have it because having it be a double-jump action makes more sense. Same goes for the drop dash. You could move it another button, but there's no real reason to, nostalgia or not.

I don't really see much point in splitting the Drop Dash and Insta-Shield across two buttons; is there any situation in which just doing an Insta-Shield before a Drop Dash would be a negative? It's like how if you're Fire Mario in [Mario Game], when you start running you'll throw a fireball because they're the same button. Like, sure you may have just intended to run, but it's not like the fireball toss has a downside per say. Just tap jump for an insta-shield and then hold it for a Drop Dash. The Max Control cheat setup from Mania, basically.

I find the odds of them getting Troy fairly unlikely; IIRC he became far more prolific following his stint in Sonic (not because of Sonic, obviously) and SEGA probably couldn't afford him anymore. His role as Espio went to Matt Mercer, as an example.

Yeah, echoing the bosses thing. There's a lot of times where I'll hit the end of a zone and think "oh god this overly long boss" and just use the dev menu to skip it. Heavy Gunner didn't need that many phases, Hydrocity 2's boss is one of the worst, etc. It's maybe not too surprising given how bad Hidden Palace's boss in Sonic 2 Taxman was, but still. Maybe I should hammer out a quick mod to cut the Act 1 bosses... I'd also have at least made the save system more generous i.e. start at Act 2; I've had multiple friends give up at Flying Battery because of the saves working like Sonic 3. Other than that, it's just the tiny, small stuff really, like the bugs Plus introduced (that I also fixed through modding, lol)

I mean, Balan may not be a AAA game, but it's certainly got a AAA pricetag. It's $60... and for a game that looks this iffy, I'm not sure people will go for that. (I know people just dropped $60 on three 3D platformers in a pack, but that's Mario.)

I think Balan looks alright and all (though the recent Switch footage was... iffy), but I think it's hilarious to suggest it's 'dancing on SEGA's corpse'. Put down the Dreamcast-era kool-aid for a minute and consider that SEGA's realistically doing fine. Modern SEGA sure ain't perfect (porting Banana Blitz was weird, though on the upside rumour has it a new 'retro' Monkey Ball announcement is imminent), but a) they definitely weren't back then either and b) having to point out SEGA's actually fairly strong current back catalogue every time someone makes this ill-informed take is getting tiring. I'm not saying folks have to like SEGA's modern games, but this isn't even acknowledging them.

Funnily enough this isn't the first time I've seen the whole 'press the button' thing done, but that's typically reserved for multiplatform stuff. In practice it's not exactly any different to the whole "press the 'action' button" games of the time did, but with the old VA in mind it definitely seems... off.

https://www.segadriven.com/2020/09/sonic-30th-anniversary-logo-and-merchandise-plans-revealed-including-idw-classic-sonic-comic-miniseries/ 30th Anniversary logo is a go.