Sonic Chaos Reimagined (Fan Game)

[Sonictrainer]

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Sonic Chaos

Sonic Chaos is a fan game and re-imagining of the 1993 Sega Game Gear and Master System platform game of the same name. Based on the current style of 2D classic Sonic games inspired by Sonic Mania, Sonic Chaos updates the 8 bit visuals of the original and adapts a play style more closely resembling the classic 16-bit games. The game has been in development for almost an entire year, of which the last 3 months was spent building a brand new engine from scratch. Sonic Chaos uses this new engine, Crimson Engine, and with it we've strived for classic Sonic gameplay accuracy.

Credits

• A+ Start - Project Lead, Lead Designer, and Artist
• Mr. Potatobadger - Project Lead, Lead Programmer, Crimson Engine Programmer
• TheStoneBanana - Chaos Engine & Gameplay Programmer
• Micheal Staple - Lead Composer & Musician
• Heraga - Lead Level Designer
• Jassbec - Level Designer
• Tpot - Additional Programming and Assistance

Link to Download https://sonicfangameshq.com/forums/showcase/sonic-chaos-turquoise-hill-demo.228/

OST Playlist: 

 

[PC the Hedgehog]

Everything about this looks great. The artwork, the gameplay, the level and enemy design, the sprite work, the music...all of it. I wouldn't mind this being official at all.

[Balding Spider]

I'm just tossing this out there but can we get a remake of Pocket Adventure down the road too?

[Celestia]

Easily one of my favourite games at SAGE this year, and that's saying a lot cuz this year had a lot of solid entries. The only bad thing I can say about it at all is that I had some collision issues (sometimes Sonic would fall through platforms, fortunately never while I was at the very bottom of the stage but...still). IIRC this is built on a brand new engine tho' so it could be that they just need to iron some stuff out.

There's also a bit where you have to go left in Act 2 that I've seen throw people off a little, haha. Maybe they could make it more clear where you have to go there, but personally...I liked that section as is and I don't mind if I have to think a little about where to go.

[superman43]

1 minute ago, Celestia said:

Easily one of my favourite games at SAGE this year, and that's saying a lot cuz this year had a lot of solid entries. The only bad thing I can say about it at all is that I had some collision issues (sometimes Sonic would fall through platforms, fortunately never while I was at the very bottom of the stage but...still). IIRC this is built on a brand new engine tho' so it could be that they just need to iron some stuff out.

There's also a bit where you have to go left in Act 2 that I've seen throw people off a little, haha. Maybe they could make it more clear where you have to go there, but personally...I liked that section as is and I don't mind if I have to think a little about where to go.

I think I do know what is wrong with that part. When you are going right you come to a room with two ring boxes and a shield, I think. And there you see holes in the BG resembling arrows signaling that you should go right. And well, you can´t. Plus the lower path is not going anywhere, though, it could, if there was a spring at the end. Plus plus, there should have been 2 paths going upwards, not just one, really.

[TheOcelot]

Yeah, I've had a lot of fun playing this.  Looks beautiful, nice music and really digging the boss fights. Level design does get repetitive, but it's a fun little playground. I like how halfway through act2 the background colour subtley changes, perhaps inspired from Mirage Saloon.

I uploaded a playthrough:

I like Sonic's act-clear animation.

 

Was anyone able to play this with a controller, because I couldn't (doesn't appear to be an option to use a controller) and had to use a keyboard instead.

[Balding Spider]

Aha, I thought that rapid fire countdown from the mini-boss intro sounded familiar.

 

[Tara]

Definitely going to have to try this out later.

Wouldn't mind if all the 8-bit games got this treatment, actually.

[superman43]

So, I did a speedrun attempt on the Turquoise Hill Act 1 from the demo. Here it is:

51''42. Also did Turquoise Hill Act 2, but it wasn't a clean run, so I will do another one soon. TheOcelot, like you in your playthrough I managed (for the first time) to ignite the music glitch = boss music didn't start, that's another reason why I want to do a proper run.

[superman43]

Act 2 for anyone interested. 2'18"54, am sure that if the real speedrunners try out it will be below 2 mins.

[Emerald Chaos]

Wasn't someone doing a similar project to this for Triple Trouble? I got the two confused for a moment.
I think the Triple Trouble one is less Mania style and is more attempting to capture the feel of the original game though

[Iko]

I played it, it's very well made!

From a personal point of view, it's not really my ideal Sonic game, it tries too much to be like Mania or Sonic CD, but I can't deny that it looks like an official game.

I like the first boss, the second one (Kracko from Kirby lol) is fun but that rotating attack IMO is a bit cheap and hard to read/understand.

The level design is fine but I feel like it's missing something, maybe more and bigger, more flashy gimmicks? Or some more badnik variety? IMO the flow can be improved, I think it's a bit too "slow" (a lot of quarters and wall platforms to climb that slow you down; springs that send you backward too). I also found a bottomless pit in Act 1 that's hard to read, it seems to tell you that there's a secret path below (or maybe it's just me), instead it's a death pit.

Those falling platforms, I think there is no visible difference from the ones that actually fall, to the ones that only go down a bit due to weight but stay.

I like the background of act 2 a lot and the sunset effect is awesome.

This along with Sonic Advance Revamped and Petit Hedgehog are my favorites from this SAGE so far (I haven't played all of them).

[Tracker_TD]

Honestly wasn’t crazy about this. The artwork is very nice, in fact in general the presentation is nice, but it highlights that all the good physics in the world don’t mean much without good level design. I spent 5 minutes trying to figure out Act 2, which for a second level is insane. It simply doesn’t do a good job guiding the player, and honestly I felt outright misdirected by it at points. The physics are good but they prioritise accuracy - Mania has that and some added nuances of its own that make it feel more fun to control than the originals, nuances I feel this lacks.

It’s an incredibly impressive demo all the same, and I want to see more of it, but I think Mania comparisons stop at the graphics for me. 

[Iko]

9 minutes ago, Tracker_TD said:

Honestly wasn’t crazy about this. The artwork is very nice, in fact in general the presentation is nice, but it highlights that all the good physics in the world don’t mean much without good level design. I spent 5 minutes trying to figure out Act 2, which for a second level is insane. It simply doesn’t do a good job guiding the player, and honestly I felt outright misdirected by it at points. The physics are good but they prioritise accuracy - Mania has that and some added nuances of its own that make it feel more fun to control than the originals, nuances I feel this lacks.

It’s an incredibly impressive demo all the same, and I want to see more of it, but I think Mania comparisons stop at the graphics for me. 

I had no problem at navigating the levels and I finished them quite fast, though I agree that the level design is a bit confusing at times.

[superman43]

13 minutes ago, Tracker_TD said:

Honestly wasn’t crazy about this. The artwork is very nice, in fact in general the presentation is nice, but it highlights that all the good physics in the world don’t mean much without good level design. I spent 5 minutes trying to figure out Act 2, which for a second level is insane. It simply doesn’t do a good job guiding the player, and honestly I felt outright misdirected by it at points. The physics are good but they prioritise accuracy - Mania has that and some added nuances of its own that make it feel more fun to control than the originals, nuances I feel this lacks.

It’s an incredibly impressive demo all the same, and I want to see more of it, but I think Mania comparisons stop at the graphics for me. 

Feeling outright misdirected, that´s true. I do feel the problem with the Act 2 lies within the fact that: it´s vertical, it has for the most part only 1 path. Plus it´s the second level. Whereas Mania had this kind of level as the 4th level, had 2 paths and I do think I remember b*tching on it as well. So, I would go for the fact that people believe vertical levels are not Sonic-y enough rather than it being outright terrible level design. 

Plus, similar thing with level designs happened with Mania too (albeit not in that kind of scale), but after a year they are not brought up anymore, because most played the game and mastered those areas. And the same will happen when this demo softens out in few weeks/months. 

As I tried to master the Acts I noticed that the second Act doesn´t really misdirects you, it´s just that... when you got out of the cave... if you go right you will definitely find a room with two ring boxes and shield. There it seems like it directly says you should go right, but you can´t. So, everyone goes down and then it directs you left and you will find a dead end. So, naturally, you are confused, there should be a spring. Apart from it, the level design is quite solid. (There is one more point, in the very beginning, you go up, then left, there is a loop and spring that bounces you back. Above this place, there are too many platforms that fall off. And as they don´t respawn, they tend to confuse the player as you need to make huge ass jumps to go the right direction.)

[Tracker_TD]

39 minutes ago, superman43 said:

Feeling outright misdirected, that´s true. I do feel the problem with the Act 2 lies within the fact that: it´s vertical, it has for the most part only 1 path. Plus it´s the second level. Whereas Mania had this kind of level as the 4th level, had 2 paths and I do think I remember b*tching on it as well. So, I would go for the fact that people believe vertical levels are not Sonic-y enough rather than it being outright terrible level design. 

Plus, similar thing with level designs happened with Mania too (albeit not in that kind of scale), but after a year they are not brought up anymore, because most played the game and mastered those areas. And the same will happen when this demo softens out in few weeks/months. 

As I tried to master the Acts I noticed that the second Act doesn´t really misdirects you, it´s just that... when you got out of the cave... if you go right you will definitely find a room with two ring boxes and shield. There it seems like it directly says you should go right, but you can´t. So, everyone goes down and then it directs you left and you will find a dead end. So, naturally, you are confused, there should be a spring. Apart from it, the level design is quite solid. (There is one more point, in the very beginning, you go up, then left, there is a loop and spring that bounces you back. Above this place, there are too many platforms that fall off. And as they don´t respawn, they tend to confuse the player as you need to make huge ass jumps to go the right direction.)

Thing is, Chemical Plant 2 is one of my favourite Sonic levels of all time. I don’t think the verticality is the issue, just the lack of sensible direction cues. I think the closest Mania came to this was Titanic Monarch, and really that was more about the length than actually working out where to go - and that was the final level. This is the second act in the whole game. Having only one feasible path to progress just doesn’t strike me as good level design since it limits the player’s options - even Titanic Monarch solved this with its hidden warp gates.

[E-122-Psi]

I feel like level design is one of those things they should have played closer attention to the original game, trying to aim for extended replicas of the original levels with their extra gimmicks hidden inside them giving it the needed bells and whistles to feel fresh and higher tech, much like say, Mania's Green Hill. It's not just in terms of playability but the fact that, as awesome as it looks, I sometimes forget it's actually a remake of Chaos and not just an original game with odd nostalgia tidbits.

They do a remake of Knuckles Chaotix, now THAT'S where they should make new level layouts.

[Badnik Mechanic]

The problem with Act 2 comes in two parts.

As said the lack of visual cues, but another issue is that at one point the path splits in to a low and high route, both of which double back on your progress.

The problem is that the lower path is incorrect, but the position of the springs suggest it's the right way.

[Sonictrainer]

I hope they add the Rocket Shoes in later.

[Sean]

The only part in act 2 that throws me off is that when you reach the part where the sky turns to sunset, if you go right it just takes you back to an earlier area. Unless I missed something but... I went down that path twice and both times it just took me back to where I started.

[superman43]

7 hours ago, Mayor D said:

The problem with Act 2 comes in two parts.

As said the lack of visual cues, but another issue is that at one point the path splits in to a low and high route, both of which double back on your progress.

The problem is that the lower path is incorrect, but the position of the springs suggest it's the right way.

That´s what I said, it´s dead end, when it should not be.

 

4 hours ago, Sean said:

The only part in act 2 that throws me off is that when you reach the part where the sky turns to sunset, if you go right it just takes you back to an earlier area. Unless I missed something but... I went down that path twice and both times it just took me back to where I started.

That´s it...

 

11 hours ago, superman43 said:

As I tried to master the Acts I noticed that the second Act doesn´t really misdirects you, it´s just that... when you got out of the cave... if you go right you will definitely find a room with two ring boxes and shield. There it seems like it directly says you should go right, but you can´t. So, everyone goes down and then it directs you left and you will find a dead end. So, naturally, you are confused, there should be a spring. Apart from it, the level design is quite solid. (There is one more point, in the very beginning, you go up, then left, there is a loop and spring that bounces you back. Above this place, there are too many platforms that fall off. And as they don´t respawn, they tend to confuse the player as you need to make huge ass jumps to go the right direction.)

EDIT: it´s like you said that it takes you back to where you get out of the cave, so it´s problem with fixing the routes... upper route is fixed by the upward tube which takes you on a platform (=you can´t go backwards), but the lower route is not fixed, therefore you can backtrack it, whereas you should not be able to... if the other route is fixed against backtracking the other one should be as well