Does anyone see the irony of the old cartoons to the games of old and new like I do?

[Blazey Firekitty]

I never got very far in the original Sonic Adventure, so I'll ask the following question: What exactly is the difference between Casino Night Zone in Sonic 2 and Casinopolis in Sonic Adventure?

[Sean]

Casinopolis's pinball boards were more like minigames in their own right than CNZ's were, which were part of the level. Casinopolis in itself felt more like a minigame hub than an actual level, with the true level lying underneath your feet.

[Blazey Firekitty]

Casinopolis's pinball boards were more like minigames in their own right than CNZ's did. Casinopolis in itself felt more like a minigame hub than an actual level, with the true level lying underneath your feet.

Oh, okay. So kind of like having a whole level made up of the bonus stages of Sonic Spinball.

Edited August 8, 2009 by BlazeyBakeneko

[azoo]

Casinopolis's pinball boards were more like minigames in their own right than CNZ's were. Casinopolis in itself felt more like a minigame hub than an actual level, with the true level lying underneath your feet.

Yes, "Dilapidated Way" was absolutely awesome, and should have been it's own level. =D

[188Eternal]

but didn't anyone who watched the other characters on the show think, "Damn it, shut up, JUST SHOW ME SONIC ALREADY!"

On the contrary, I actually enjoyed watching Antoine flirting with Princess Sally in his Frenchy accent. It was very cute. I could never get enough of that dude.

And I was also very excited to see what Rotor's next contraption/gizmo would be.

But talking about actual plots/storylines, I really prefer when there's a balance between darkness and cheerfulness. Both elements are essential IMO, but one shouldn't overshadow the other.

[Nepenthe]

The sense of wonder came from the environments. The best example is arriving at Sky Sanctuary Zone. You arrive at a floating ruin via an ancient teleporter (With Sky Sanctuary's music playing, of course), and see the Death Egg emerge from the clouds. That's by no means the only example. Flying Battery Zone has you running all over a giant airship that manages to feel almost alive with all the stuff going on inside of it.

Of course you know this is subjective. Now, I have a feeling we'll proceed to agree to disagree at this point, but I felt that Unleashed had a much better character than the classic games. Its positive take on Earth and the heavy borrowing of various cultures, the subsequent diversity and detail in the environments, the various citizens, the travel motifs, and the humor and music actually hooked me on an emotional level. It not only made me care for the planet I was charged with piecing back together, but I felt everything injected Sonic's world with a level of charm and realization that I personally never received from the Genesis games.

EVERY game seems great at the concept art stage.

The quality of the art wasn't my point so much as the subject of the art itself.

Yeah, Sonic is the ball, but to the player, it's just another pinball table.

And to the player, those mountains are just mountains. Nothing entirely profound about either set piece if we're going to ignore what makes them so interesting in the first place. xP

Green Forest/White Jungle's altitude are most likely lazy game design rather than an intentional artistic decision, but would still fall flat because the environment isn't at all convincing. It seems that the designer (probably Iizuka) forgot that the player should be able to move in more than two dimensions without coming to a bottomless pit.

I hardly doubt the environment wasn't rendered intentionally merely because it has those icky bottomless pits. xP Regardless, I thought the whole point of this particular tangent was to suggest implausibility. From my objective viewpoint, fifteen story ice caverns in a mountain that lead to looping glaciers are just as impossible as sequoia-dwarfing, water-logged rainforests where the trees somehow supply waterfalls and the vines are elastic, and both require a good level of creativity to concoct.

Yes, "Dilapidated Way" was absolutely awesome, and should have been it's own level. =D

I agree with this. I'd intentionally lose the pinball levels just to play it, if not for the experience of doing so then for the fact that it's ironically easier to get the set amount of rings you need to pass than earning them in those blasted pinball games. xD

Edited August 8, 2009 by Nepenthe

[FeathersMcGraw]

An important distinction between the Mickey Mouse Game and Sonic is that the Mickey Game is a non-canon spin-off holding absolutely no bearing on any portrayal of the characters outside the confines of it's own universe. I'd imagine if Disney had instead announced that they'd only be portraying their characters in their zombie steampunk forms from now on the reaction would have been far worse.

(cue mental image of kids being greeted at the gates of Disney World by Zombie Goofy)

Edited August 8, 2009 by FeathersMcGraw