bigthecat

Ok now I'm confused again. I thought when using Super Sonic in modern green hill, the scenery around the goal ring will be bursting with flowers in bloom, which I assumed was a reference to Sonic 1's good ending (where flowers appear as the emeralds vanish). But I just tried it with regular Sonic and the flowers were there anyway! I must be really unobservant... So yeah, now I'm none the wiser what Hogfather was on about either!

I have a suspicion that they were made for promotional reasons only, mainly due to the fact within the context/mechanics of the game, both Sonics are never in a stage at the same time. I know the cutscene where both Sonics run past Tails near the start suggests otherwise, but consider this. Ignoring the fact we play the acts as different Sonics separately, it's still probably not the case that within the context of the story both Sonics are doing their own stages simultaneously. In fact it seems that both acts of the same stage tell a mini-story in some cases (eg. Rooftop Run : Modern Sonic is bombed with spike barrels by the airship, then Classic Sonic destroys the airship. City Escape : the truck isn't visibly destroyed at the end of Modern Sonic's act, but is clearly trashed at the end of Classic's.) I'm rambling a bit now, but is this making any sense? I reckon the CG sequences are meant just to showcase the differences in appearance and moves of both Sonics side by side in as little airtime as possible. However the exception to this is the cutscene of the Time Eater's appearance in Green Hill with all 4 characters, that looks like a scene that could be missing from the final game. Maybe someone on the team thought it would be funny/nostalgic/self-referential? It's certainly not the first time we've heard something like this. Some examples : "Get a load of this!" "You know what they say, the more the merrier!" "Hold still, you devil!" "It's no use! Take this!" And any quote from Heroes when you switch team mates over and over and over... But it tells you how to access the statue room in the (Euro) manual, so I doubt Sega intended to keep the existence of the room a secret. It's just the codes that they want to keep hidden until they're ready to give them out. ....wait, what? I'll have to check this out myself.... EDIT : Tried it, haha, that's awesome! I noticed you don't have to be transformed into Super Sonic, just have the skill equipped and the level changes. Do any other levels change like this if you have Super Sonic on??

Personally it took me longer to get all 250 gamerscore on Sonic Adventure DX on XBLA than it did to get 1000G on Sonic Generations, and I know SA1 inside out!

Sega are planning on releasing the codes as promotional bonuses in the near future, I believe (for example, the M&S giveaway one mentioned on the home page - which may or may not be in effect yet). It's not possible (AFAIK) to find them in the game legitimately.

So after some experimenting, it seems the wisp powers are a bit dodgy. You can take damage while in spike form. Was this intentional, I wonder, to increase the difficulty of the final stage? Or did Sonic Team just forget to program in invincibility... Also, the rocket wisp tells you to charge up the Y button to launch, but there's no point in doing so, a simple tap of the button results in a perfect launch (and thus, eliminates the risk of a false start). Odd.

One complaint I've seen in some reviews that I can kind of agree with (to some extent) is that modern Sonic gets lumped in with 2 eras, gets 2/3 of the bosses and Classic Sonic draws a shorter straw in this regard. However the only fair way to rectify this would be to have a 3rd Dreamcast Sonic and give each zone 3 acts, with the 3rd act being heavy on exploration. Obviously this would take up far too much development time and money, but is nice simply as a 'what if' scenario. I know I'd get a kick out of seeing a square fisted polygonal Sonic interacting with the other two Sonics.

Are they sick of it, though? The game's got a score of 77 on metacritic currently, so Sonic Team must have done something right. I agree that nostalgia alone can't carry a game, it has to have the gameplay to back it up ; Sonic 4 failed in this regard, where Generations excels (IMO). I said rarely results in good, not never. Colours was one of those rare occasions. (Although here's hoping Sonic Team continually improve from this point onwards so it doesn't become a rarity...) Yes, dammit! Seriously though, it's not just as if being in HD gets it a free pass, (Sonic 4 was in HD too) it's more about appreciating the presentation as a whole, the aesthetics of the environments, the architecture or the stage designs, the little details and flourishes in the background, the sound design, the sheer number of new remixes, it all adds up, it really shows that a lot of love went into the making of the game. Have to disagree on this point. It works both ways, the modern acts do have a freshness about them (The differences between Generations Green Hill and SA2 Green Hill are like night and day), "blazing through classic zones in an all new perspective" does seem new and exciting (to a certain extent). Likewise, the classic stages based on modern zones feel like completely new stages (Speed Highway and Rooftop Run play being my personal high points). You keep referring to the stages as simple retreads, but look at the additions that have been made, for example, underwater sections of Seaside Hill or the carnival elements and airship added to Rooftop Run. Personally I think it's these little touches that keep things from becoming stale or boring. Regardless of whether or not you think Sonic Team failed in this regard, you could at least still acknowledge that they tried, rather than just saying everything's copy/pasted from the old games. You're absolutely right, I can't compare 2D stages to 3D ones. I was thinking more along the lines of comparing Forest Falls to Green Hill, Hot Crater to Lava Reef, Mirage Road to Sandopolis, Blizzard Peaks to Twinkle Snow, that sort of thing. Pretty damn well, I'd say. Partly because (imagining for an instant that this was the first Sonic game ever made) platforming with speed and precision is something that you simply can't get from any other (good) game, Sonic's literally in a league of his own. Admittedly, I would also say it's success is due to a lack of competition in general, I can count the big budget platform games (released at retail) on one hand. Mario, El Shaddai, Rayman Origins.....um...that's it? Platform games aren't exactly an overcrowded market right now.

Yep, Dreamcast games have been released by indie developers every now and then over the last few years or so (and still are!) http://segabits.com/blog/2011/01/28/5-indie-dreamcast-games-worth-your-time/ Appparantly the DC has quite a big homebrew scene, seeing as how burned CD-R's can be loaded up with the aid of a boot disc (and PAL DC's don't even need the boot disc!)

While going for S rank on City Escape Act 2 Doppelganger Challenge, I ran into 2 glitches with the truck on 2 subsequent runthroughs. The first time I ran out of boost while evading the truck flying on its side near the end, it caught up and killed me at the same time as pushing me through the building and into nothingness. Second time, on the bit with the extra lane to the left (just before you get the final red ring), the truck ran me over and ended up in front of me, just waiting for me to overtake, which I couldn't do as an invisible barrier formed around the truck, which I assume is to prevent you getting behind it normally.