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If another classic style sonic game was made, what would it need to do to keep from getting stale?


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It's just a question of making it exactly like Sonic Mania but with all new levels. I don't think that style will get stale for the next installment at least.

I'm sure with the current Sonic Mania team it would be pretty epic. Classic sonic is not needed in the modern style games now. That void has been filled.

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Not introducing unnecessary gimmicks!! People like the classic Sonic games how they are and we like how they play. No need to change much really other than adding new levels. I'd like to see online features such as races, that'd be pretty cool I think .

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Completely new levels, more focus on the story like Sonic 3 & Knuckles, a different art style (or at least a new original Sonic sprite) and at least 1 new playable character would be more than enough for me tbh.

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Use less recycled levels, and make more new ones, that's one way to start.

New characters and abilities wouldn't hurt. I liked how the Sonic Advance games included a lot of extra abilities that were mostly optional, but allowed the players to feel more in control of the characters, like having Sonic kick, Knuckles punch, or Tails tail whip. I want to see more characters with unique abilities, like Amy with her hammer, Espio with the ability to wall jump and throw shurikens, and Vector being able to ground pound and breathe fire.

On 9/5/2017 at 11:06 PM, Rusty Spy said:

Take some ques from Rayman Origins. It may not be a Sonic game, but it's movement mechanics have just as much of an emphasis on letting the player be fast, and it's level design has such amazing flow that I could easily call it a spiritual successor to the classic Sonic formula without hyperbole. It honestly blends speed and platforming better then Sonic in most instances, even if the game doesn't have as much of an emphasis on momentum and physics. 

Seriously if you haven't played Origins (or Legends) already, many of the set pieces in that game would not look out of place in any Sonic game. And those music levels from Legends. I don't care if people call Sonic a ripoff, just rip those levels from Rayman wholesale.

As far as gameplay additions, give Sonic a wall jump. It's high time Sonic be given better movement options and it's a criminal the fact that this isn't already a staple of Sonic's moveset, and giving Sonic some form of vertical mobility can open up many possibilities for level designs. Again, you need look no further than Rayman Origins to see how much it adds to the character's movement options.

I would love to see a hand drawn Sonic video game with similar art style to Rayman Legends, that would be epic. 

On 9/6/2017 at 1:47 AM, Miru the Living Planet said:

Mania 2 should add Modern Sonic as playable to repay Forces in turn. Base his moves off the later handhelds, to see what he does in truer classic level design. But not off Sonic 4, that game is a downgrade even from those. Maybe introduce time travel back. And this time a 50/50 split between original and old levels, so next time can be focused on new. 

Then the classic fans would get hypocritical, and complain how it's not fair, despite not realizing the irony of Classic Sonic being forced into Sonic Forces, despite getting a grand return in Sonic Generations and Sonic Mania... 

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7 minutes ago, SpongicX said:

Then the classic fans would get hypocritical, and complain how it's not fair, despite not realizing the irony of Classic Sonic being forced into Sonic Forces, despite getting a grand return in Sonic Generations and Sonic Mania... 

There's no hypocrisy when I didn't want classic Sonic in Forces either.

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On 9/6/2017 at 11:01 AM, FFWF said:

 

Well, I suppose that's certainly true of the Time Stones, which don't even have a gameplay function...  It is difficult to get rid of a tradition unless you can present something to replace it, however.  I think there is a case for rethinking Chaos Emeralds and what Special Stages are for, though.  Regarded as "crazy levels which don't fit the usual rules," if you made their gameplay more along the lines of the main game then I think you could even fit them into a plot; conversely, what I think people like about them is their very visibly bonus nature, with Super Sonic as the ultimate bonus reward.  It's a difficult question.

Speaking of Super Sonic, this might be controversial but I was thinking earlier today about whether there might be ways to nerf him a bit.  For experienced players - well, my memory of S3&K once I got really good at it was that Super Sonic trivialised the game, and bosses especially, and while it takes time to get to that level of practice then perhaps it does make it that bit less fun.  I thought it might add just a touch more challenge, without diluting the nature of the reward, for bosses only to have one attack only which can knock Sonic out of Super Sonic form - just so you have to actually think about what you're doing still.

 

They could go the Sonic Adventure route, and still have the Chaos Emeralds as a plot device, but don't require you to have to find them in every single level. I personally hate how much of a hassle it is to hunt Chaos Emeralds down through special stages. Sonic Mania made it a little easier to acquire getting the chaos emeralds, all you have to do is beat the game, and keep replaying Green Hill Act One, and find that hard to miss special stage ring, and keep replaying it until you get the chaos emeralds. Not every gamer is skilled enough to handle Sonic games though, so it is kind of a shame that there are so many features, endings, and boss fights players may miss out on, because they aren't skilled enough to handle it.

As a kid, I was terrible at 2d Sonic games, and it made me feel bad to realize I missed out on so much of them, just because I couldn't play them properly, despite trying so hard. It didn't help that the classic ones had no proper level select either...  I'm a lot better at games now, but I still have trouble playing classic Sonic games. I did manage to beat Sonic Mania with all 3 characters, and even found all 7 chaos emeralds for each character. I even managed to 100% Sonic Advance 2 with each character, and that was a pain to go through, having to beat the game with 4 characters, and earn 7 chaos emeralds with each character, just to unlock Amy as a playable character, yet be tasked to find all 7 chaos emeralds again with Amy.  That was too brutal to go through, just to unlock Amy as a playable character. Sonic Advance 3's special stages were more complicated to access. I was never able to unlock even one special stage in that game... 

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All they gotta do is make it exactly like Mania, but with all new Zones and bosses, a new Special Stage, and a new plot.

That's literally it. 

The Classic Sonic formula won't get stale, as long as the levels are always new and inventive.

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50 minutes ago, Chaos Control Freak said:

All they gotta do is make it exactly like Mania, but with all new Zones and bosses, a new Special Stage, and a new plot.

That's literally it. 

The Classic Sonic formula won't get stale, as long as the levels are always new and inventive.

I don't know, people once thought the old Mario formula would never grow stale, but when Nintendo put too much focus on repetitive New Super Mario Bros. games, fans were finally starting to worry about the future games.

Luckily, Nintendo managed to switch things up by releasing Mario Maker, and finally making a new hd successor to Super Mario 64 with some new and never before seen mechanics in a video game. Just when you think Nintendo is becoming stale and repetitive, they make some big announcements that remind others of why they love them.

Sega is relying too much on reusing Genesis Nostalgia, or boost gameplay, while completely ignoring the fans of the Sonic Adventure gameplay. We don't want small nods to the Adventure games, we want actual gameplay that represents how it felt to control Sonic in those games, along with other playable characters. We want to see the concept of Sonic Adventure evolve and be improved upon, not ignored, or only brought up as nostalgic throwbacks.

I liked Sonic Mania, but it felt too familiar overall. I had more fun playing the 4 new zones, and wished that the rest of the game felt more like a new game, instead of a collection of rehashed or slightly reimagined stages.

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1 minute ago, SpongicX said:

I don't know, people once thought the old Mario formula would never grow stale, but when Nintendo put too much focus on repetitive New Super Mario Bros. games, fans were finally starting to worry about the future games.

I started getting sick of the NSMB games, largely because they started becoming lazily designed and way too easy. It became clear that they were just getting cranked out, with no care being put into them, after a certain point.

As long as each new 2D Sonic has actual time and care put into them, and SEGA doesn't oversaturate us with them, I could probably play them indefinitely.
 

6 minutes ago, SpongicX said:

Sega is relying too much on reusing Genesis Nostalgia, or boost gameplay, while completely ignoring the fans of the Sonic Adventure gameplay. We don't want small nods to the Adventure games, we want actual gameplay that represents how it felt to control Sonic in those games, along with other playable characters. We want to see the concept of Sonic Adventure evolve and be improved upon, not ignored, or only brought up as nostalgic throwbacks.

I'll always have a soft spot for the Adventure games. But, without going too much into it (because, honestly, that's whole other topic, in and of itself), the Sonic Adventure games, from a fundamental design level, are inherently flawed. Not saying that something better won't eventually come along, but the Boost Formula is the best thing we've got right now, as far as 3D Sonic is concerned, in my opinion. I've always believed that 3D Sonic should handle like a race car, and that's more or less what the Boost Formula is.

What I've been wanting is for the style and narratives of the 3D Sonic games to have a little more edge to them, and take themselves a bit more seriously (like Adventure), and Forces looks like it might very well deliver on that! :smiley:

 

14 minutes ago, SpongicX said:

I liked Sonic Mania, but it felt too familiar overall. I had more fun playing the 4 new zones, and wished rest of the game felt more like a new game, instead of a collection of rehashed or slightly reimagined stages.

That's just it, though. More than two-thirds of Mania's levels *were* new. All of the Act 2's of the old zones were basically completely new, and really only shared music and aesthetics with their original counterparts. Hell, Stardust Speedway is practically all-new, from the ground-up. I hated it, in CD, and now, thanks to Mania, it's one of my new all-time favorites.

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1 minute ago, Chaos Control Freak said:

I started getting sick of the NSMB games, largely because they started becoming lazily designed and way too easy. It became clear that they were just getting cranked out, with no care being put into them, after a certain point.

As long as each new 2D Sonic has actual time and care put into them, and SEGA doesn't oversaturate us with them, I could probably play them indefinitely.
 

I'll always have a soft spot for the Adventure games. But, without going too much into it (because, honestly, that's whole other topic, in and of itself), the Sonic Adventure games, from a fundamental design level, are inherently flawed. Not saying that something better won't eventually come along, but the Boost Formula is the best thing we've got right now, as far as 3D Sonic is concerned, in my opinion. I've always believed that 3D Sonic should handle like a race car, and that's more or less what the Boost Formula is.

What I've been wanting is for the style and narratives of the 3D Sonic games to have a little more edge to them, and take themselves a bit more seriously (like Adventure), and Forces looks like it might very well deliver on that! :smiley:

 

That's just it, though. More than two-thirds of Mania's levels *were* new. All of the Act 2's of the old zones were basically completely new, and really only shared music and aesthetics with their original counterparts. Hell, Stardust Speedway is practically all-new, from the ground-up. I hated it, in CD, and now, thanks to Mania, it's one of my new all-time favorites.

What  bugs me about the boost games are how stiff the controls feel. Try running around in circles in Sonic Adventure, and notice how smooth the controls are, try doing it in Sonic Generations, and notice how sluggish and choppy it looks and feels.

I miss the spin dash. The boost controls might be fun sometimes, but I miss being able to charge up a spin to roll down hills and launch off slopes and ramps.

I also hate how Sonic is the only playable character in boost games. It would have been nice to finally play as Tails, Amy,  Knuckles, and the others in these games, but we're still stuck with two Sonics, and a cringe filled avatar maker. The avatars don't even seem unique, and rely on just using one weapon at a time, it just doesn't compare to all the things Tails, and the others can do. Instead of flying and tail whipping as Tails, we're just shooting out of a weapon as a generic custom character who doesn't mesh well with the other Sonic characters...

Sorry, I didn't mean to go off topic, I just wish Sega would stop ignoring the other characters in 3d Sonic games. I miss playing as them, and am sick of only being able to play as them through mods.

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3 hours ago, SpongicX said:

Use less recycled levels, and make more new ones, that's one way to start.
New characters and abilities wouldn't hurt. I liked how the Sonic Advance games included a lot of extra abilities that were mostly optional, but allowed the players to feel more in control of the characters, like having Sonic kick, Knuckles punch, or Tails tail whip.

You say this about Advance, but the extra attacks were ultimately useless. There's no reason to use them and they brought you to a complete stop if you did...besides Cream's.

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24 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

You say this about Advance, but the extra attacks were ultimately useless. There's no reason to use them and they brought you to a complete stop if you did...besides Cream's.

That's the thing, they were optional, not everyone in gaming is a speed runner. Some of us might have liked the challenge of trying to attack enemies without jumping or rolling. It sometimes feels good to know  you stopped an enemy with good timing.

Plus, they weren't always useless, there were times where you have to stand around, but an enemy might come flying at you, it was neat to be able to just attack it with a stationary attack, instead of being forced to dodge or jump at it. Some of us want to attack without always having to jump or spin dash. 

As long as they're optional, what's the harm in putting in additional attacks? So many buttons in those classic games are wasted as clones of the jump button, so what harm is there in having one button do something else?

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If a new character was added, I'd prefer the Knuckles' approach: new cool, useful abilities that let you access new zones. It was revolutionary back in the day, remember? Tails was just a Sonic akin in Sonic 2, but Tails and Knuckles in Sonic 3 were actually different from Sonic.

That would be so difficult to achieve, but it would make the game so interesting.

Btw, I disagree with New Super Mario games being boring. I had so much fun playing them with friends. And it wasn't easy. The levels were designed not to be very difficult but getting the 3 coins was another thing. Also, the game was really long and there was so much variety.

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14 minutes ago, molul said:

If a new character was added, I'd prefer the Knuckles' approach: new cool, useful abilities that let you access new zones. It was revolutionary back in the day, remember? Tails was just a Sonic akin in Sonic 2, but Tails and Knuckles in Sonic 3 were actually different from Sonic.

That would be so difficult to achieve, but it would make the game so interesting.

Btw, I disagree with New Super Mario games being boring. I had so much fun playing them with friends. And it wasn't easy. The levels were designed not to be very difficult but getting the 3 coins was another thing. Also, the game was really long and there was so much variety.

I wasn't saying they were bad the first one on DS and the one on Wii were decent, but then the 3ds and Wii U version borrowed far too many visuals and sounds from the past games, that they were starting to feel too repetitive, uninspired, and predictable. NSMB 2 even flat out reused the same final battle concept from the Wii game... Not to mention how these games were coming out too quickly apart from each other.

People were starting to wonder if there would ever be a 3d exploration Mario game again. 3D Land and 3D World were good, but the  linear gameplay and time limited levels weren't for everyone. It did a good job at mixing classic gameplay with 3d controls and visuals, but it wasn't the same as exploring huge non linear worlds at your own pace, searching for coins, stars, and other secrets.

Lately, Nintendo has done a better job at trying to take turns with it's Mario fans. Instead of focusing too much on sidescrolling, or 3d, they're finally giving a chance for both sides to get the kind of games they want.

There was a time where Nintendo put too much focus on 3d platformers, then they ignored 3d platformers to regain the attention of sidescrollers, and now they seem to understand that there is a crowd for both types of games, and are trying to alternate in order to give both sides a fair amount of attention. If only Sega could do the same, but they have more than 2 sides to please. They have Genesis, Adventure, and Modern fans, yet have mostly lost faith in 3d games, while ignoring the Adventure fans.

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1 hour ago, SpongicX said:

That's the thing, they were optional, not everyone in gaming is a speed runner. Some of us might have liked the challenge of trying to attack enemies without jumping or rolling. It sometimes feels good to know  you stopped an enemy with good timing.

Plus, they weren't always useless, there were times where you have to stand around, but an enemy might come flying at you, it was neat to be able to just attack it with a stationary attack, instead of being forced to dodge or jump at it. Some of us want to attack without always having to jump or spin dash. 

As long as they're optional, what's the harm in putting in additional attacks? So many buttons in those classic games are wasted as clones of the jump button, so what harm is there in having one button do something else?

It seems like you're forcing the positives here, but I wasn't exactly arguing against having them.

 

I'm just saying that if they're gonna be there, they shouldn't stop your movement or only be useable from a standstill. Sonic even has a bounce attack, but it's pointless...because you can't even move or bounce very high when using it.

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I guess I can finally elaborate a bit more on my post now that I've played Mania for so long! This can also be my answer to the "what if Mania 2?" topic :)

First off, I think Sonic Mania is not only a great Sonic game, but an incredible game on its own. Being a Sonic/SEGA fan is, of course, a huge bonus, because of the many references and easter eggs it has. Granted it can be even distracting, but in good way at least! This game is solid and fun overhall. It's complex on its simplicity. Anyone can pick up and play and have a good time, there's a lot to look forward, from visuals to music. If you have never played 2D Sonic before (or haven't in a long time), you will obviously 'suck' at Sonic Mania, but the game is never cheap or too harsh (unlike the original Sonic 1 and 2). That's what already makes it better than these two. There aren't nearly as many cheap deaths in Mania as there were in the original Mega Drive games. You will get hit and watch all those precious rings flying away, that's for sure. It is, as I call it: a soft learning process. It never becomes a mess where you can't stop dying or unable to move on. There's always room to get back on your feet and recover quickly. And this is due to its amazing level design and smart object placement. Even the final zones are incredibly well constructed and fair, whereas usually in 2D platformers this is the time when the devs go "fuck you, cheap enemy placement and bottomless pits everywhere" level design philosophy. You know this team made a great job when their take on the infamous Metallic Madness Zone  from Sonic CD, the now second last zone, is actually great and arguably more playable than the original ever was (My God that level was a mess in Sonic CD), even with brand new gimmicks.

But as I was saying, for Sonic/SEGA fans, it evokes that same incredible feeling of playing Sonic 1 (or whatever was your first Mega Drive Sonic game) for the first time. It's colorfull, the music is catchy, the levels are both exhilaratingly fast and open for exploration. It's never a dull moment in Sonic Mania. Nothing ever feels like filler or waste of time. You want to grab everything, find a lot of monitors, bounce on every enemy and also go as fast as only Sonic can and shout out a "holy shit!!!" when he flies off screen. It's amazing.

Just look at this:

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The game never stops. There's stuff happening all the time.

 

But hey, for a new game, as well as it should happen, one main thing is essential, and that is:

Keep this team and expand it. They know exactly what they want and what they're doing.

I see Sonic Mania improving "sideways". Trying too many new things, such as hand drawn graphics like Rayman Origins (which I know it's amazing) isn't exactly the way to go, at least not in my opinion. It might be even too risk this early.

They gotta keep the game as it is in terms of presentation. Actively, the Mania Team is at best 12 professionals. I must applaud this group of folks for delivering such a great game in so little time. For a true sequel, this team must grow to work on Mania's high points, which are 3:


1. Presentation (graphic and sound design): Mania is a joy to look at and listen to. The color pallete is incredibly rich, I think I've never seen a game in pixel-art so colorfull and vibrant, old or new. Improving this department is only a matter of bring in new people to add even more refinement and ideas. I can't recommend Paul Robertson enough, he's a great pixel artist. He did all the graphics for the Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game, one episode of Gravity Falls, another game called Mercenary Kings and much more already. His animations are incredibly fluid and cartoony:

Spoiler

 

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(he does some weird and NSFW stuff too, so be on the lookout when searching his stuff! :P).

 

The soundtrack is something else too. Tee Lopes proves that you don't need to use those 16-bits synths to "keep it classic". I really don't know how he could improve, just keep this man around! Same goes for Hyper Potions and the animator Tyson Hesse.

2. Level design: Again, keep this team, add in more people to create under their guidence, but also give them freedom to bring on new ideas. The level design in Mania is the best in any classic tittle, period. Yes, better than Sonic 3 & Knuckles. So keep it that way.

3. Original ideas: Mania shines the brightest when decides to throw at the players new ideas and zones. Really, it's kind of unballanced when you have incredibly rich and dynamic zones like Studiopolis and Press Garden alongside the Sonic 1 and 2 zones (eventhough the returning ones are vastly improved too). For a sequel, and this is obvious, keep the old zones at minimum or use them when it's essential to the plot, not just for nostalgia or celebratory means. We all can take another run on Angel Island for example, it's an important zone in the Sonic universe, I think it's perfectly fine to revisit it. Oil Ocean? Not so much.

---

With more people on the team and these improvements, I'm pretty sure it's easy to picture an even greater game in the future, which is in essence what a sequel should be.

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I find a small problem for newcomers: explanations. I mean, imagine you know nothing about classic Sonic. How do you know how to beat Chemical Plant act2 boss? How to glide/climb/fly/drop dash? I let friends play at home and they couldn't figure out that. Of course there's the user manual but these days games have in-game tutorials or at least messages that explains any movement. There should be an option before starting the game, to tell the game your "Sonic experience" in order to get info. 

Of course it's not a problem for me, but for newcomers it could be a pity.

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Make the Super Sonic music optional and so players can disable it. It gets old after a while, and I like the level music more. :(

Full level transitions- it was disappointing how they kinda stopped midway through Mania.

I'd love to see something different with the special stages. Maybe pull a Triple Trouble and have Fang as an antagonist? Maybe while Eggman's doing his thing, Fang/Bark/Bean are also after the emeralds/whatever mcguffin. Could even expand what S3&K did with Knuckles by having them occasionally appear in the levels.

If I were to add any new playables, I think I'd go for Amy and Vector. Espio's a more popular choice, yes, but I think there's a lot of unique stuff you could do with a big guy like Vec, and I like crocodiles more than chameleons, anyway. :P

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On 11. 9. 2017 at 6:33 PM, Mega said:

Make the Super Sonic music optional and so players can disable it. It gets old after a while, and I like the level music more. :(

 There is an option.

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I think as others have said, I really don't think Sonic Mania 2 needs to reinvent the wheel as such. I mean, it can be an issue for games like Assassin's Creed which was pumping out a title every year without changing much that it got very stale, but I feel like Mania 2 could get away with it really, as well as perhaps Mania 3. The game's engine is fine, the 32 bit look is fine, the character sprites are fine, and I think there is no shame in reutilising them for Mania 2.

As for my own wishlist, I'll try and keep it in the realm of possibility, although really I feel like I will be happy with Mania 2 regardless of what they do with it with perhaps the exception of recycling more levels again, but I really doubt they would do that again.

1) Don't call it Sonic Mania 2. I feel like the name of "Mania" was always meant to be a bit of a title signifying the sortof remix of new and old zones together, and I feel like calling it Mania 2 would be a bit redundant, especially if it is all new zones next time around. In fact, I would say aside from maybe another title (like the pitched Discovery), I really think they should call it Sonic the Hedgehog 5. I don't see any reason why they shouldn't, with so many calling Mania the "true" Sonic 4, and I think it would be great for marketing, and make Sega look good by having the confidence to give these devs to develop the next offical sequel to the classic games.

2) New zones. Nuff said really. I'd be very surprised if they tried to do remix zones again, and as much as Sega can make bad decisions, I really think that even they would realise that doing the anniversary schtick won't work for Mania's sequel, especially if (hopefully) the game comes out in 2019.

3) More characters. Aside from new zones execlusively, I feel like Mania 2 does kindof need at least 1 new character to add to the freshness. I mean, having 3 characters is fine, but really when Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are basically the same as they were in S3&K, plus the Drop Dash ability, I do think there has to be a new character to the roster, although personally I think they should try and be ambitious and try and add 2, especially with the revelation in the game's files that at some point Amy may of been planned, I feel like Amy is inevitable considering how she is basically the 4th member of the main cast nowadays. I wouldn't mind if a new character was really different in style, but honestly, at the same time, I'd be happy with a character, like for example say Shadow who plays exactly like Sonic but instead of the Drop Dash, gets a Chaos ability or something.

4) An attempt at a story. Really, Mania's anniversary plot really stopped it from having any true story, and I think it was admirable how much they got out of it, like the Hard Boiled Heavies. So really, I would like to see the Mania team really try and do a proper story, not to mention I'd love to see them do something like the HBHs again, be it another bunch of Eggman minions, or perhaps even a new villian entirely. Or hell, I'd be happy with a second wave of Hard Boiled Heavies since I feel like that concept could be done again, it reminds me a bit of the robot masters from the Mega Man games.

5) Have characters be paired up with any other character. Really, I don't see the harm in it, in having say Sonic paired with Knuckles or Tails and Tails paired up. Mania practically allows like half the combinations already, and since Sonic & Tails is designed to be for brothers to play together, I feel like you may as well just put in the ability to pair up whoever you want and use a save file.

6) Probably a more unrealistic thing I want but something I really do want expanded on would be to see more character exclusive levels. I think I would love to see every character get say 2 levels each. I mean, in Mania Knuckles only really gets 1 execlusive zone while Sonic and Tails don't. I mean, they get Sky Chase 2.0 but considering how Sky Chase is basically a special stage I don't really count it. In my head, the way I would do it, especially with say 5 characters would be to give each zone a 3rd act, perhaps barring the first and final zones. The first 2 acts of every zone is accessible for all characters but a 3rd act is specifically designed for 1 character. So to use Mania as an example, if you play as Sonic you get a 3rd act of Chemical Plant and Oil Ocean, if you play as Tails you get a 3rd act of Flying Battery and Lava Reef etc. Really, take the idea of a Knuckles campaign and increase the scope of it.

 

 

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Having not played Mania but looking from the outside in, I suppose it'd just need to be entirely focused on new levels and new gimmicks within them. Perhaps make what's going on in the story it bit more clear if you're going to bother having one.

After that though? I dunno. I'm not a Classic Sonic player but I assume everyone just likes playing those games regardless right? 

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Speaking for myself and only myself...almost nothing. I'm easily pleased when it comes to Classic Sonic. As long as it keeps the overall aesthetics and gameplay in tact, I'm game. No more reused levels is all that I'd really ask. And even then, you could get away with it if you sourced them from more obscure places like the 8-bit games.

However, I understand that for people in general, it might be better to mix things up. So maybe include some new minor gimmick each game, e.g. new playable character, new elemental shields and power-ups, or occasionally something more extensive like CD's time travel. A more extensive story would be a nice touch, too, as would brand new sprites for Sonic and Tails.

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I finally played Mania (took me a second, I know) and here my extra thoughts

Stagnation will happen, there is no stopping it. Mario isn't even trying. Zelda tries something new with every game, yet people call it 'stale'. Sonic kept being original, and look what happened. Stagnation will happen, but we can live with it.

With that said it would be nice if:

1 Story. I want every game to have unique story. Drop Eggman for one game and see if works. Make new cool place, ancient artifact that isn't emerald/ruby/stone/equvelent. Think about storytelling through enviroment, etc. Maybe add special gimmick, like CD time travel

2 I wouldn't mind if gameplay stays the same. "Don't fix what isn't broke". Stagnation will happen, but you can space-out releases or add more characters (if they interrupt with the story, make then unlockable, like Metal Sonic in Adventure 1). Metal and Amy are first choice, but pleeeease let Modern fans join. You had your 'perfect game' and we have to let Classic Sonic in Forces. So why not make few modern characters as unlockables characters or something.

(Also, returning Insta shield and Peel Out as unlockables is great, other restriction not so much)

3 More zones fresh. Between Mania, Generations, Sonic 4 and Lego Dimension (and possibly Forces) we 're seriously running low on classic zones. (And speaking of those games stop with the damn Death Egg Robot. Lego Dimension already made fun of this, and here he is again and jokes becomes somewhat tragic)

And

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Good aesthetics and story are the easy bit. 

What you need are levels that stand up to early Sonic reputation. Distinct zone design that takes Sonic's handling into the highest consideration possible. Levels should be open and tall but flowing, and can be played in any style you please, of course a bit of practice is required to be flying. The game needs to make you think as Sonic would think when he comes to a formation and how are you going to get around this and where is it going to take you? Also, more gimmicks and elements should be based off Sonic in his ball form. But that's just me. 

Oh and also don't make insta-shield and unlockable, make that shit front and centre please. There should be more emphasis on the insta-shield in the game, like Sonic should be able to use it maybe to get through barriers that would only react to what the insta-shields properties are, like a quick button press would get you through an electric barrier with good timing or something, on top of what it already does. 

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