Comapnion System: Idea how to use Sonic friends

[MetalSkulkBane]

(Not sure if it's worth own topic, but whatever, I;m curious what you guys think)

I've been talking with my brother what to do with characters that aren't fit into Sonic gameplay (mainly Silver, since his telekinesis doesn't fit with fast platforming) and we came up with Companion System (I'm terrible at names). The idea is that while players controls Sonic, one of his friends is following him (ala Sonic 4 ep 2), but constantly influencing level (ala *sigh* Mighty no 9). Bu the point would be that partners are always the same in every stage, to make it part of a level design/set piece.

Let me give you an example: You ran as Sonic and you're being shoot by badniks, beyond Sonic's reach. Suddenly Silver shows up and starts destroying them (maybe he can give players a boost to higher ledges or Sonic must destroy environment to keep ammo for Silver). Then there is a chasm, Silver builds a bridge. But in the middle of the run, he gets ambushed by robots, bridge begins to fall apart. Sonic must quickly jump on the falling rocks, not only to save himself, but also to Homing Attack at robots that pinned down Silver. Bosses could work similarly, just like Zelda helps Link in few games.

So, any thoughts?

[Muscles Maximum]

I'd rather just be playing as them. There's tons of things you could do with the other characters while still keeping the same Sonicy gameplay everybody is used to.

I've had the idea of this huge theoretical game with every character playable. All the characters function like Sonic, while having varying stats like acceleration, top speed, traction, jump height, plus a signature move that makes the character especially unique. So a character like Shadow might have a lower top speed than Sonic, while having faster acceleration but much lower traction because of his skates. His signature move would be something like chaos spear giving him a nice projectile which most characters wouldn't have. Knuckles would have a lower top speed, acceleration & jump height, but good traction and his signature abilities are gliding and climbing which help mitigate his lower ground speed and jump height. Tails could have decent jump height, fast acceleration, and his signature move is flying obviously. I don't know little things like that. It makes perfect sense to me, and I know something like this would never actually happen. Or at least not to the scale I'd like it to be, but it's still an idea I've had for years. I'd do something about it if I had the skill and know how lol. Something sort of like this actually came to fruition with Sonic World, so that's cool, even though I don't like what they did some of the characters.

But yeah, point is, there's plenty you can do with these characters. Blaze I think has the honor of being handled the best in the Rush games, at least in my opinion. Lower speed than Sonic, which makes sense, better tricking ability, a glide, and can hold her breath twice as long underwater, which also makes sense (well sort of) in that Sonic's one weakness is the water. This also proves you can make a "slow" character while still making them tons of fun to play as. So, yeah. That's how I feel about that.

[Multikaris]

3 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

(Not sure if it's worth own topic, but whatever, I;m curious what you guys think)

I've been talking with my brother what to do with characters that aren't fit into Sonic gameplay (mainly Silver, since his telekinesis doesn't fit with fast platforming) and we came up with Companion System (I'm terrible at names). The idea is that while players controls Sonic, one of his friends is following him (ala Sonic 4 ep 2), but constantly influencing level (ala *sigh* Mighty no 9). Bu the point would be that partners are always the same in every stage, to make it part of a level design/set piece.

Let me give you an example: You ran as Sonic and you're being shoot by badniks, beyond Sonic's reach. Suddenly Silver shows up and starts destroying them (maybe he can give players a boost to higher ledges or Sonic must destroy environment to keep ammo for Silver). Then there is a chasm, Silver builds a bridge. But in the middle of the run, he gets ambushed by robots, bridge begins to fall apart. Sonic must quickly jump on the falling rocks, not only to save himself, but also to Homing Attack at robots that pinned down Silver. Bosses could work similarly, just like Zelda helps Link in few games.

So, any thoughts?

I had something similar, but it used a special item instead of just being there right away. To be exact, a Sega Genesis monitor would summon the character to aid. For example, Bean would fling bombs all about, especially aiming at foes.

[MetalSkulkBane]

4 minutes ago, Memento Miru said:

I had something similar, but it used a special item instead of just being there right away. To be exact, a Sega Genesis monitor would summon the character to aid. For example, Bean would fling bombs all about, especially aiming at foes.

I thought of it, but turning allies into power-ups is a bit limited.

Like this Bean example, in most Sonic games enemies can be easily taken down with a Homing Attack, bombs would be less practical and pace breaking

[Diogenes]

1 minute ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

I thought of it, but turning allies into power-ups is a bit limited.

So's making them into level gimmicks.

When I think of a "companion system", I think of something conceptually similar to Advance 3's partner system. Pick a partner character, get a team-up move or two. Pair with Tails and call him for a brief airlift, pair with Knuckles to ride him as he glides for a bit, pair with Amy and she'll hammer you into the air as a superjump or something. Different partners would give you access to different routes and different solutions to platforming sections.

[Badnik Zero]

I'm not really into a swapping type of system because it reminds me of Heroes. I feel like swapping kind of breaks the flow a Sonic moveset should have. However, if the characters acted as a single unit, that'd be cool. Like in Heroes, if flying was one button and spindash was another button, with no swap needed. I think that's how Advance 3 worked, right? It'd have to be tuned so one character combo wasn't just ridiculously powerful though.

[Flyinpenguin117]

I had an idea to incorporate other characters. Its basically a combination of Runners' buddies and Generations' Friends missions. At the start of the mission, you'd pick a character to accompany you, and they'd provide a set of additional activated and passive abilities. For instance, Cream can throw you a limited number of spare rings if you're out, and once per level save you from a falling death. They'd also have a few lines of unique dialogue in each level and certain cutscenes, like Mass Effect. There would still be multiple playable main characters in addition to Sonic, but this would allow for a wider cast without awkward, underdeveloped playstyles or relegating them to cutscenes.

[Shadowlax]

i would rather be playing as them. 

And I think that system would work better with multiple playable dudes. I played that game, it was sonic advanced 3, it was a pretty good game.