Any little things you'd like to see change in the Sonic series?

[Scott]

Little things, eh? 

 

MAKE SONICS EYES BLACK AGAIN! NOT GREbkcnsdnsl;fns;lnslfndl;nsd;lfns;lfn;snf;'.....

[Indigo Rush]

Smoother and more dynamic animation and poses.

If you've noticed, in many of the more recent Sonic games, Sonic's idle animation is... not really an animation (unless you wait long enough for him to stretch or something). Like, he just stands there, stiff as a board. It's not quite as noticeable in 3D since you're usually moving anyway, but I implore you to look at Sonic standing in a 2D plane in Colors or Generations on a slow moving block or something.

Just a straight stance. Boorriinngg.

Compare to something like this:

He's breathing. Moving. Lifelike. He's not much, but he's not stiff as a board.

This is really painful to see in 2D for some reason. I think it has to do with the shape of the hitbox or something, but it's more visually appealing to see a "square-like" character over a thin "rectangle-like" character. This is why I'm okay with Sonic Advance's idle stance, as Sonic's legs are spread out (and moving!) to give that "square-like" hitbox.

Is this vague enough? lol.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

What the fuck is Sonic actually doing when animated there, though? He always looked like he was trying to do a goofy jig but had his feet stuck in cement.

[speedhog58]

2 hours ago, Nepenthe said:

More interesting unlockables would also be a good thing too. It shouldn't take all that much effort to put in existing concept art assets or to quickly paint up some alternate costume skins for the characters as little rewards. Little 10-20 second animated shorts would be nice as well, and if we're worried about them taking away development time just outsource them to Marza.

I've gotta agree with you on the unlockables!

Although; rather than short cutscenes; I'd like to see different forms of audio files that expand upon the game's law.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 did this perfectly while not taking anything away from the gameplay, it'd be fun to be able to unlock G.U.N intelligence files or even something as light hearted as Sonic's voice mail. There's really no limit with the concept

[Drunk Michael Myers]

• Objectives like "infliltrate the evil factory-stage" on the loadingscreens. Should actually say "Run from point A to point B" in each stage. Thats all you do anyway.
• More world-maps. Colours and Lost World had the right idea here. Either that or straight stage-to-stage-to-boss action. No more hubs or menues.
• Emerald-get jingle is now the 1-up jingle. Why?

[Diogenes]

2 hours ago, Detective Indigo said:

Compare to something like this:

He's breathing. Moving. Lifelike. He's not much, but he's not stiff as a board.

I dunno, the more I watch this, the more his jiggling starts to get...unsettling.

I do agree that a dynamic neutral pose looks better than the generic standing pose though. Lost World did a good job with it; the animation's pretty minimal, but he still looks more aware and "ready" than a casual straight-on standing pose.

 

 

[Potada]

Not sure if it's little, but I kinda liked Lost World's attempt at combining the Spin Dash and Boost. I think it could lead to some neat stuff if done right. Also, I'd like it if Super Sonic was kept as an optional reward like in Colors and Lost World rather than a requirement.

[Sonictrainer]

I would like the Sound Test to return, where you can listen to the game's music. Not just the customizable music like in Generations.

I would like the Collection Room to return, where you can rewatch cutscenes, look at the game's concept art, and listen to music.

I like the idea of Sonic Unleashed's bestiary, where it has a catalog of the game's enemies and bosses that Sonic encounters as well as Bios.

While the Statue Room/Models of characters in Generations was cool, I wish they did it like Smash Bros and added the Profiles and information with each one.

Finally, more awesome DLC please.

[peterpan]

I want character model style resemble more like 'classic' era. The music need to change, no more orcestral stuff, please. I want Sonic game sound like they used to.

[BlueFlare]

3 hours ago, peterpan said:

I want character model style resemble more like 'classic' era. The music need to change, no more orcestral stuff, please. I want Sonic game sound like they used to.

Oops, I accindentally used my other account which I created because of early dementia...soorryy!

So, back to topic. The thing that bugs me with today's Sonic game music is mostly the Main Menu / Title themes that suck and have no real feeling of 'getting pumped' to play a Sonic game. I understand stages that are based on real world locations, for example in Unleashed, have music that create a certain kind of atmosphere to those stages. I really like that kind of choices, but they don't sound...Sonic style. 

Listen.

In my opinion, the music they used in both Sonic CD versions fit most stages nicely and generate that very special Sonic vibe for that game. For me, and I believe for the most, the music is something that is a part of the story. In my mind it creates an image of the story, a very realistic feeling of that environment. This is something I can't feel in most newer Sonic games.

[Blacklightning]

You know that thing where Sonic slowly floats directly upwards when you hit an enemy with a Homing Attack instead of continuing on in the direction you were facing?

Yeah, let's never do that again. Maybe an option to stop on a dime from a Homing Attack might come in handy in certain circumstances (like say for example, hitting an enemy or capsule on a small platform and actually being able to land on it afterwards), but otherwise this dumb floatyness just serves as a barrier to picking up speed whenever you're in the air, and it's really fucking annoying. Actually on that note, another thing - get rid of arbitary airspeed caps and drops entirely while we're at it, because it's even more annoying to lose lots of speed just for jumping and falling. How both of these problems have persisted since Unleashed beggars belief, because it would be absolutely trivial to fix.

I'd also bring back the "point bonuses for styling" thing that SA2 had going in some way. Speedrunning's alright and all, but SA2 - at least as far as Sonic and Shadow were concerned - still rewarded you for going the extra mile to do something badass even when it was never strictly necessary, and I'm honestly kind of surprised they just dropped the whole thing right afterwards because that sounds like exactly the kind of thing Sonic would actually do given the chance. Stunt ramps are kind of a start, but I still kinda wish there was more to it than that?

[Dee Dude]

Even for the dumbest and irrelevant things? Well all right then.....

I want the character ages to be rectoned. (Don't bother with this one.)

You know how when you jump or use the homing attack in games such as SA2,Shadow and Heroes, there's a colored aura that surrounds you?

I'd like to see that again. It was a cool aesthetic feature to see in Heroes.

You know whenever someone like Tails or Cream spin dash they still show a visible body part while in ball form? (Tails' tails and Cream's ears) I sure wouldn't mind seeing that minor feature come back.

[Multikaris]

• Variable ring loss based on the enemy that attacked you and possibly also with what attack. Some attacks may make you lose all your rings, and some of those moves may even kill you instantly if you do not have enough rings. Similarly, the same could apply to hitstun.
• Full 3D aquatic movement.
• When you are in space, you are at risk of losing air and drowning in space. There are a space equivalent to bubbles available.
• Mega Mack using SRB2 gravity physics.

[Bowbowis]

I'd really like to see some better cinematography in the cutscenes again because ever since Colors they've been comprised almost exclusively of static camera shots and it's really boring and only serves to reinforce the fact that the only things actually moving onscreen are the character's lips.

To illustrate what I mean take this scene from Sonic Colors:

And compare it to this scene from Sonic Adventure 2:

The scene from Colors has 11 shots with an average duration of 5 seconds per shot. Of those shots 10 are completely static with no camera movement whatsoever. Not helping matters is the fact that every shot actually is about five seconds in length and that eight of those shots are the same "shot reverse shot" repeated four times over. What this means is that not only are the shots themselves visually uninteresting but there's also very little variety among them.

Meanwhile the scene from Adventure 2  has 21 shots (not counting the title card) with a similar average shot duration of 6 seconds, albeit with much more variety in the lengths of each individual shot. Of those shots only 3 are completely static. For the rest of the scene the camera is tracking, panning, zooming and a whole host of other things. Furthermore despite the fact that the shots only cut to around three or four different subjects it still maintains a high degree of variety in its shots by shooting the subjects from a number of different angles and distances. It simply makes for a much more lively and visually attractive scene than Colors, even in the beginning when it's just Shadow standing and talking over the radio. 

[Dr. Crusher]

1 hour ago, Bowbowis said:

I'd really like to see some better cinematography in the cutscenes again because ever since Colors they've been comprised almost exclusively of static camera shots and it's really boring and only serves to reinforce the fact that the only things actually moving onscreen are the character's lips.

While maybe not to the same extent as later games, I'd argue that Unleashed was the first game that started the trend of characters talking and not doing much else. There's a bit of heavy action near the beginning and end, but aside from the odd bit of slapstick and obligatory "something bad happened" reactions, a lot of not-much happened in the cutscenes during the middle section aside from talking and finding the temples.

[Kiah]

My list of little things I'd like to see change in the Sonic series is a long one but I'll just mention a few things as many of them have already been mentioned...Hope I'm not being repetitive at this point.

Multiplayer/Co-op: Instead of Sonic only with gadgets or those multi-colored Sonic robots being playable here, why not Sonic's friends? I think this would be a pretty harmless way to have Sonic's friends in the game even if it isn't along the main stream of things that they are playable. Not to mention that would be a way to have Sonic's friends playable in a sense if I can't get my way with no more "Sonic-only" as far as main gameplay goes.

If there are going to be clones here in either one of these modes then it should be done right like THIS 

Speaking of Sonic's friends...

Character Interaction: I guess this is a "little" thing in the sense that has no impact on the playing experience of Sonic games but I really do wish this is something that would change as it is terrible where it stands now as far as the main series of Sonic is concerned. If this massive entourage to various degrees is going to simply appear can Sonic actually interact with them like friends usually do?

Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric of all things I felt got this right with amicable gestures during conversation.

Sonic Generations...not so much with Sonic not even speaking back.

I just want Sonic to be friends with his friends and actually show it.

Also, for interaction sake can these guys actually talk?! It's an utter shame that parts of this talented Sonic voice acting cast is being wasted as they have said hardly anything in the past 5+ years.

Environmental Elements: I love seeing various settings in Sonic games whether it is a blistery snowy day in White Park Zone from Sonic 4 Episode 2 or a gorgeous sunset in Windy Hill Zone 2 from Sonic Lost World. But I believe it has been a while since we had a rainy Sonic level like Pirate Storm from Sonic and the Secret Rings:

So I would like some "rainy days" Sonic levels to come back, as well as more variety with environmental elements for that matter. 

Ranking reactions/animations: I'm not talking about how Sonic Generations did it with both Classic and Modern Sonic still smiling after you got a D rank of all things, no. I'm specifically talking about how Sonic Unleashed did it as I would love to see this return if ranks will be a main thing again in Sonic games:

I liked how Sonic looked at the stats and followed them down to when the final rank unfolded for starters like he was reading them, whether it was favorable or not as if he was definitely curious to see how you the player did after completing the level. If you did great Sonic's reaction would clearly show it via his celebrating to various degrees and if you didn't...Sonic's temper tantrums, falling out and having a straight up attitude were clear indications of that as well.

I also liked how Sonic actually had something to say regardless of the rank to go along with his reaction. It's things like this that reflect well on Sonic's personality IMO as he is definitely an animated character and a very animated character at that  

[Azul]

My ULTIMATE SONIC THE HEDGEHOG GAME. (Prepare yourselves.)

-A sense of freedom of movement akin to the Sonic Adventure duology or even other free-roam games lke GTA. Generations, Colors, & Unleashed were stupid fun and all but I can't get around the super stiff mechanical movements. The weakness in those gamestyles is that some sections, aside from the obvious speed sections, feel too automated and lack a wide range of things you can actually do. Soon enough, you're gonna end up exhausting all of the motions you can do in a stage and that sucks. They focused too much on speed and not enough on flexibility.

-Playable characters who, wait for it... aren't Sonic. Don't get me wrong, I love ol' big blue to death but it's a shame they've got all these characters they don't use. Also, variety is the spice of life.

-Stats. I think one of the best things a platformer can do is make subtle differences to the characters so they don't all play exactly the same. One way to do this could be implementing stats, that is to say each character has their capabilities quantified. My ideal stats include speed, power, jump, and defense (being how many rings you lose per hit), and they can either be ranked via the letter system, with S-ranked stats being reserved for super forms, or stars that go up to 6 (again, reserved for super forms). Additionally, stars can be split in half to give more variety.

-The return of types. I liked the whole idea, it was a neat niche in Heroes.

-Short cuts accessible to certain types.

-Idle animations are neat ways of showing off the character's personality. While it's only natural that everybody does something unique, I'd have it so that each character has one where they look at the player and do something to encourage the player to move (i.e Shadow impatiently scowling at the screen or Omega turning his hand into a gatling as a warning). Additionally, when the camara is zoomed in on them, the characters will occasionally mess with the scree (Sonic knocking on the screen, Rogue winking at the player).

-Melee attacks. Hand-to-hand combat is life. Such attacks typically aren't as strong as spin attacks but quicker in execution. Combos also fill up the boost/gauge quicker.

-Each character having abilities unique to them (Espio: invisibility and shuriken, Omega: switching between a gatling gun, flamethrower, and missles.)

-Of course, everybody will still play with most of the territary Sonic attacks but some characters can't perform certain attacks like spin dash in favor of an alternative.

-The boost gauge doubling as an ultimate attack gauge that completely drains it in after one use.

-Being able to play in teams of 2 or 3, including various team attacks depending on the character combinations.

-Also, special idle animations for certain characters.

-Skills. Skills are neat and increase replay value.

-Kind of goes without saying but multiple paths. BUT HERE'S A TWIST LADS: There are even different routes for the type exclusive short cuts. There'd also be neutral short cuts because options are fun.

-Multiplayer madness. Multiplayer would have a variety of different modes: foot race, duo race (making you use characters of two types) and team race and the races can have laps, boss race (singles, duos, & teams), go-karting, treasure hunting, duels (anything between 1-on-1 to 1-on-5 for crazy people) tag, infection tag (basically, avoid being hit until the time runs out) to name a few as well as other mini games.

-Leaderboards because who doesn't like showing off their mad skills?

-Chao Garden making a comeback with online features i.e sharing & trading and competitive racing and Chao Karate tournaments.

-World Map.

-I'm crazy enough to suggest hub worlds on a scale of a Spider-Man game but I want the focus to be more on the stages. Hubs shouldn't be too big. I'm a fond believer of big and expansives levels with reasonably sized hubs.

-Being able to talk to NPCs that ethier give tips, missions, or just say what's on their mind. Same goes for the characters your're not playing as. Text changes on the point of the game you're in.

Missions which lead to unlockables.

-Difficulty varying from Easy, mid, hard, to true blue which is basiacally super hard mode. The dispersity and speed of enemies & obstacles escalates with each spike in difficulty. Bosses are faster and take more hits to kill and perform moves they normally wouldn't in easy & normal modes.

-A sound track and cinema section are prerequisites.

[Muscles Maximum]

I'd really like Super Hard mode to be a thing again. Playing through the entire game arcade style with a much higher difficulty, it's definitely for me. 

I'm saddened only 2 games had it. SA2 and 06 had the harder levels, but it isn't quite the same.

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

1 minute ago, monkokaio said:

I'd really like Super Hard mode to be a thing again. Playing through the entire game arcade style with a much higher difficulty, it's definitely for me. 

I'm saddened only 2 games had it. SA2 and 06 had the harder levels, but it isn't quite the same.

Heroes had it to but only with Team Sonic. 

But yeah I'd like that to return again and it adds replayablity to the game. 

[Muscles Maximum]

11 minutes ago, Mikyeong said:

Heroes had it to but only with Team Sonic. 

But yeah I'd like that to return again and it adds replayablity to the game. 

For sure. Super Hard mode is my favorite thing to do in Heroes. I do wish you could go through it with the other teams though. It'd be so much harder with Team Rose or Chaotix. Oh well.

And Expert Mode is one of the few things I can enjoy about ShtH.

It's been over a decade since these games have been out and I still like to go back and run through hard mode every now and again.

[GuyWithThePie]

On 2/3/2016 at 11:05 PM, Sonictrainer said:

While the Statue Room/Models of characters in Generations was cool, I wish they did it like Smash Bros and added the Profiles and information with each one.

Sort of like how Generations 3DS did it with the collectible character models, right?

[GuyWithThePie]

On 2/3/2016 at 6:23 AM, Blacklightning said:

You know that thing where Sonic slowly floats directly upwards when you hit an enemy with a Homing Attack instead of continuing on in the direction you were facing? Yeah, let's never do that again.

How about something similar to the balloons in Colors? When you perform a homing attack on those, you keep going in the direction you were going instead of going directly up.

[Blacklightning]

I hear that comparison a lot, and while I understand where people come from with that... at the risk of sounding hopelessly pedantic it's not quite the same. Having forward momentum at all is a start, granted, but it's almost irrelevant to what you did leading up to it, which is something that should be considered in basically every interaction in a Sonic game short of running straight into a flat wall.

I mean, look at it this way. Find any classic game where you can drop on a monitor or enemy from a great height - in Sonic 1 you can do it as early as Green Hill with the help or a roll-forcing tube. You'll drop from high up and be sent high up again, right? That's cause and effect. Balloons don't do that. They generate upward and forward momentum, but not proportionately to any you had prior. By applying this same treatment to Homing Attacks, suddenly there's a whole new layer of strategy to it. Not only would your prior speed play a part in where you end up after homing in, but more importantly the angle at which you trigger it from - notably, attacking from more or less directly above would cause high bounces, and hitting from lower angles would carry over more lateral momentum instead whilst sacrificing extra bounce height as the tradeoff.

 

While we're on the subject of homing attacks, a little sub-idea I had growing in my head was giving Knux a homing attack of sorts, with the distinction that it's a strictly grounded attack (whereas Sonic's can only be used in the air). Press button, Knux lunges at the closest motherfucker and punches right through them, keeping his leftover momentum as he goes. Think I'm gonna have to try expanding on that someday.

[Indigo Rush]

I've put some thought into Sonic & Knuckles (and Amy, actually) both having variations of homing attacks on the ground and air, so I'd love to see what you have in mind. Sonic bounces on enemies, Knuckles blasts through enemies, and Amy charges, swings her hammer and knocks the enemy away like the kick in Lost World.

[Muscles Maximum]

2 hours ago, Blacklightning said:

I hear that comparison a lot, and while I understand where people come from with that... at the risk of sounding hopelessly pedantic it's not quite the same. Having forward momentum at all is a start, granted, but it's almost irrelevant to what you did leading up to it, which is something that should be considered in basically every interaction in a Sonic game short of running straight into a flat wall.

I mean, look at it this way. Find any classic game where you can drop on a monitor or enemy from a great height - in Sonic 1 you can do it as early as Green Hill with the help or a roll-forcing tube. You'll drop from high up and be sent high up again, right? That's cause and effect. Balloons don't do that. They generate upward and forward momentum, but not proportionately to any you had prior. By applying this same treatment to Homing Attacks, suddenly there's a whole new layer of strategy to it. Not only would your prior speed play a part in where you end up after homing in, but more importantly the angle at which you trigger it from - notably, attacking from more or less directly above would cause high bounces, and hitting from lower angles would carry over more lateral momentum instead whilst sacrificing extra bounce height as the tradeoff.

 

While we're on the subject of homing attacks, a little sub-idea I had growing in my head was giving Knux a homing attack of sorts, with the distinction that it's a strictly grounded attack (whereas Sonic's can only be used in the air). Press button, Knux lunges at the closest motherfucker and punches right through them, keeping his leftover momentum as he goes. Think I'm gonna have to try expanding on that someday.

I feel you, that's a neat homing attack idea.

And Knuckles actually has a move like that in Sonic 06. The screwdriver punch where you hold the attack button, let go, and he drills towards an enemy. It's a really cool maneuver. I really would like to see it return if he's ever playable again.