Has anyone thought of how Sonic gains and maintains speed?

[Biggs]

Lock the thread and forgive me if this has been covered in another thread in some capacity, but as we all know, Sonic Boom is a more battle and exploration orientated game as opposed to the 3D installments between 2008 and 2011, where the focus was more on platforming whilst maintaining a high speed.

 

Notably, past Sonic games have always had a method of getting Sonic up to a higher speed. In most of the 2D games, speed was gained via using the spindash, the exploitation of slopes and rolling in order to build up and maintain speed for sections where Sonic has to run across water and the like. This was somewhat true in the Adventure games, with the addition of the homing attack to get things going.

 

With Sonic Unleashed, Colours and Generations, although it was possible to use momentum to gain speed on very steep slopes with the slide move, the main mechanic to gain speed and maintain it constantly was with the boost.

 

In Sonic Lost World, the focus completely shifted to essentially sectioning off speed into three different types: walking, running and spindashing.

 

So my question is this: how does Sonic achieve speed in Sonic Boom? From what we can tell in the trailer, Sonic must posess the ability to go at a faster speed as he needs to dash across some water. Is there a boost mechanic tethered to this? Does Sonic have to build up his speed after running for a few seconds until he reaches a 'boost mode', akin to Sonic Advance 2? Or is there a new mechanic? I heavily doubt sections like this are scripted due to how open they are; so how does Sonic achieve the speed to do this?

[Diogenes]

I expect he'll control like a generic platforming character 99% of the time and only go fast in gimmick areas.

[Chic]

I love it when he can maintain for a while, it makes it much more fun and less tedious

You were expecting something here weren't you

But no really, I haven't thought of the physics. What's funny is that in Sonic Heroes particularly, he's using all the wrong technique by having his arms in a position that would reduce speed in a normal situation.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

I expect he'll control like a generic platforming character 99% of the time and only go fast in gimmick areas.

So, in your eyes, what exactly is a "generic platformer"?

[Diogenes]

So, in your eyes, what exactly is a "generic platformer"?

Mario, DK, Banjo, Crash, etc.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Mario, DK, Banjo, Crash, etc.

So basically, platformers aside from Sonic in general. =P

[Diogenes]

More or less, I guess. Sonic did something no other platformer did. And I don't believe for a second this game is going to do anything like it.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

I think it'll do stuff like it and much more to boot.

[The Pit of Mystic Cave]

My guess is that they'll implement a run button for Sonic like in Lost World, and make it exclusive for Sonic. The button could produce different outcomes for each of the characters as well (i.e. Tails shoots LAZARS, Buffles punches stuff, and Amy does hammer-related things)

 

The more I speculate about this game, the more excited I get.

[Old dead account]

In the genesis games it's just momentum, in later games, I' don't think it's really explained... My headcanon is that Sonic is somehow an airbender in the boost trilogy and that is how he "boosts" himself to such high speeds so quickly (or just really bad gas from chilli dogs). and Sonic is slow as shit in Lost World lol. My guess is that it'll go unexplained again, and simply be "run"

[VGamer]

I kind of agree with the idea that he'll just be controlling like any other 3D platformer for the whole time, and then there'll be the "warp speed" sections, as Tails calls them, where all characters go fast. There'll also most likely be some Sonic-only sections where you have to switch to Sonic to speed up a ramp with the spindash, or run over water, but I have a feeling it's mostly context-sensitive.

[frostman007]

Some good theories and thoughts, to be sure.

[LoiLoi17]

Never understood why they never tried to use the mechanic from Sonic Advance 2 & 3 but in 3D instead. More control, without making him uncontrollable and make the moment you speed up only the more satisfying.

[TheLaw34]

Some good theories and thoughts, to be sure.

That's sad to hear considering there been so much talk of how he's going to control like a generic plat former most of the time.

 

well let me split my thoughts into 2 parts what i'm seeing and what I want to see.

 

What i'm seeing is a obvious split into different level of speed that being the normal speed which we see when amys walking or in the clip from the behind the scenes when everyone is moving as a group through what looks like a hub and the mach speed. In normal speed we have not seen a singe hint of acceleration and it really does look like a generic plat-former. Mach speed on the other hand would not facilitate the exploration we were promised unless we ad some pretty huge maps.

 

What i want to see is the team not being stuck at one exact speed and instead having some acceleration from standing to running . I don't want it to be unleashed levels of speed because then it would be pretty uncontrollable but something above the mario speed that he got now would be better. Right now his normal running animation looks like a light jog and i'd prefer an athlete level sprint and the speed that accompanies it.

 

So yeah that what i'm hoping to see when more footage is released however i doubt its gonna happen so that aspect of the game wil definitely be a turn off for me.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

My approaching guess to this game and show is that Sonic's a faster "The Flash" .

 

Basically, he'll start off at a normal speed like your-every-day athlete; the catch is that he's capable of reaching ultra high speeds.

 

He'd pay mind to momentum of course, but once he reaches a certain speed, unlike the Classics, the steepest of slopes won't hinder him.

 

In a nutshell, once he achieves said speed, he becomes the ultimate, but legitimate (not literally game-breaking) "screw you physics" character who then would boast access to more abilities the faster he goes in this state.

[SlickEvan]

I think he'll build up speed kinda like some others said. But the speed won't be as high as boost speeds until mach speed. So in normal gameplay not hubs, he will play somewhat like the adventure games (more closely to one I presume) and in mach speed, probably boost game speeds. And characters top speeds may also vary like the aadventure games with Amy being the slowest. In the trailer she's the only one we see actually moving in "normal" speed and it closely resembled her adventure counterpart. Thats what I think anyways.