Homing Attack: Want or Do Not Want?

[Rusty Spy]

(does it by any chance relate to the H.A.?).

Yes.

[Dummy Bear]

My personal opinion on the matter? I see the homing attack as a necessary evil of sorts, at least for smaller baddies. On the other hand, I have little to no trouble trouncing enemies without it and removing it would give relevence to Sonic's other attacks again. Sadly, I could see a bunch of idiots complaining about how it's hard to hit enemies and the like...

[Phos]

Interestingly, this is another case of Sonic's classic properties actually making the transition to 3D easy. Really, the challenge of hitting the enemies in the air in the old games had to do with their sporadic movements. They would arrive on screen at an altitude relative to Sonic when the camera hit a certain position, stop when their gun was lined up with you, fire, and then leave. Typically, they would be way too high to hit regardless of what you did, or would be practically right in front of you. If they're too low, they would almost fly directly into you, and you could just short hop to kill them.

If the enemy is placed at the right altitude, you have a pretty big margin for error in the "forward" axis:

The red line represents the altitude in question, and the length of the overlap represents the margin for error.

Conveniently, going faster increases this margin for error in proportion with your speed:

If the enemy is much higher, it would be out of reach regardless unless the Homing Attack in question targets above you, but I think the only one that does is the one from Smash Bros[/irony]. If they're much lower...

...They do have a shadow after all.

The only real problem arises if the camera is side on to the path between Sonic and the enemy but not constraining him to two dimensions. I don't think this problem will arise all that much, but if it does, I suppose you could add a soft-ish lock on or some kind of assistance to hitting the enemy.

I feel like I should mention that my distaste for the homing attack is only half the result of personal taste, the other half is based on a number of factors. Chief among them is how often I have personally observed people having difficulty figuring it out, or perhaps unaware that they have the option. Indeed, I was surprised when I discovered that the "double jump thing" would make me fly at enemies. Then there's also the case of the HA's tendency to fail and harm or kill the player. True, it was often poorly coded, but that can partly be blamed on the properties of the Homing Attack. Collision detection as complex as Sonic's tends to be hard enough to code as it is, but when you factor in abrupt speed changes and collision with a variety of objects, it's probably going to fail somewhere. Think about Sonic Unleashed: There are two stage specific gimmicks I can think of that you can homing attack, and one of them randomly doesn't work when it is HA'ed, or will sometimes bait the homing attack from strange angles, and then kill you.

[SuperStingray]

I feel like I should mention that my distaste for the homing attack is only half the result of personal taste, the other half is based on a number of factors. Chief among them is how often I have personally observed people having difficulty figuring it out, or perhaps unaware that they have the option. Indeed, I was surprised when I discovered that the "double jump thing" would make me fly at enemies.

I don't know why one wouldn't be aware of the option or especially able to figure it out, especially considering it's lined out in the manual and usually the first (tutorial) stage. If one was introduced to the homing attack in a game after playing a Sonic title that doesn't include it, it's more understandable I guess, but the surge of new moves present in 3D Super Mario titles didn't seem to intimidate anyone transitioning immediately from 3 or World.

Then there's also the case of the HA's tendency to fail and harm or kill the player. True, it was often poorly coded, but that can partly be blamed on the properties of the Homing Attack. Collision detection as complex as Sonic's tends to be hard enough to code as it is, but when you factor in abrupt speed changes and collision with a variety of objects, it's probably going to fail somewhere. Think about Sonic Unleashed: There are two stage specific gimmicks I can think of that you can homing attack, and one of them randomly doesn't work when it is HA'ed, or will sometimes bait the homing attack from strange angles, and then kill you.

Homing attack failures are relatively rare (at least in my own experience), but when they do happen, I normally only see it occur due to issues in the stage or game itself. (I recall there being an glitch in Crisis City where Sonic crashes into nothing while homing onto one of those fire bats and falls into a pit.) If this is the case, all it needs is some better coding.

One major issue I can say there is with the attack itself is that there are some times that the homing attack locks onto something offscreen or in a different direction than intended and Sonic heads for that by mistake. This is why I find the targets present in the Storybook games and Unleashed very useful, but it doesn't change the fact that Sonic can lock onto something else like one frame before you actually execute the attack. It could probably be fixed, or at least improved, by making a stiffer lock-on or just attempting to keep different targets as separate as possible.

Incidentally, while I feel Unleashed had the most awkward handling of the homing attack of any 3D Sonic game I've played (mainly due to the unnecessary button shift, and to the same button as the air boost no less), it actually made me like the homing attack more. Why? Because it showed its potential to have more diverse uses and challenges; namely those electrified robots (though it would be better if they had some sort of warning before they attacked and Spagonia Act 5 and Holoska Act 5 showed that it can be used for alternative paths.

Edited August 25, 2009 by SuperStingray

[JezMM]

Hmm, I can defend the homing attack's lack of user friendlyness for people who just wanna pick up and play and ignore the hint bubbles. Yes, they're stupid, but, still.

The comparison to 3D Mario wasn't great really. In Mario 64, all the moves were VERY flexible. 90% you didn't even need to finish the game, but they help to know. They were all variations on jumping based on angle, speed, and timing. With a seldom few being activated during crouching.

However, Sonic is a very different game... I can't imagine a flexible control scheme like that working, but who knows?

I agree though, I love all the uses for the homing attack in Unleashed. Lap 1 of Holoska Act 2-2 is probably my favourite for most inventiveness.

I think mapping the homing attack to X was a fine idea, it was just the air boost that ruined it. Perhaps we should limit one trigger for drifting and have the other trigger be the boost in the next game, hmm...

[SuperStingray]

Hmm, I can defend the homing attack's lack of user friendlyness for people who just wanna pick up and play and ignore the hint bubbles. Yes, they're stupid, but, still.

I can install software without reading the Terms of Use, but if I end up giving the manufacturer legal possession of my kidney, that's my own fault.

The comparison to 3D Mario wasn't great really. In Mario 64, all the moves were VERY flexible. 90% you didn't even need to finish the game, but they help to know. They were all variations on jumping based on angle, speed, and timing. With a seldom few being activated during crouching.

That's exactly what I'm saying; the homing attack is "a variation on jumping based on timing." It's performed by pressing the jump button after jumping. I just can't see it being any hard to master than, say, Mario's long jump, let alone discover on one's own.

However, Sonic is a very different game... I can't imagine a flexible control scheme like that working, but who knows?

I'm not asking for a huge map of controls like that, I'm just saying that the homing attack doesn't infringe on Sonic's simplicity. Edited August 25, 2009 by SuperStingray

[JezMM]

Hmm, I see, well, we're in agreement then actually. I do also feel it's very simple, though I can understand why others might not...