4847 replies to this topic

[kurt91]

The iOS ports of Sonic CD, Sonic 1, and Sonic 2 were all made with earlier versions of Mania's engine. That is to say, the developers created the Retro Sonic engine and used it for CD, then as they continued updating and improving the engine, they used the newer versions for S1 and S2, before getting the go-ahead to make Mania with the newest version.

 

Oddly enough, since the engine was originally designed for PC use, the Steam versions of these games (I believe all three, but I'm certain of it for S1) use embedded emulators instead of the new engine. SEGA got the developers on-board with their new engine before their previous porting deal with a different company had ended, so they weren't able to put the new versions on Steam.

 

Anyways, I've just recently started playing Bayonetta on PC. It's pretty fun, feels a fair bit like Metal Gear Rising (one of my favorite games), which makes sense since it's the same developer. I just can't quite get the timing on activating Witch Time, so I take a lot more damage and die a lot more often than I feel is normal. For anybody who's played this before, is there a recommended upgrade order that I should follow, like how MGR pretty much necessitated buying the parry ability before buying anything else?

[Cukeman]

I watched a new video by King K, and while I don't always agree with him. I can see why people aren't into Sonic 1. Sonic 1 is a different game than its sequels because most of the courses don't have speed flow, they are obstacle courses. The reason I prefer Sonic 1 over Sonic 2 is that the player's experience in Sonic 1 is really well thought out and designed with a lot of effort and care (even if it has design goals different from the sequels).

 

Sonic 2's levels are larger and faster, but they also have empty open stretches with nothing to do in them, and some levels simply feel too large, possibly because later games have level-specific gimmicks, which aren't always present in Sonic 2. The fact that the level design in Sonic 2 feels half-hearted (in some places, not everywhere) and the fact that many of the music tracks in Sonic 2 feel really drab, and my dislike of certain zones like Oil Ocean and Wing Fortress, and the disinterest I have in Casino Night (great look, but full of things to distract you from the level itself that I don't want to go out of my way to do, like slots and bounce-back-and-forth-traps), I just feel that Sonic 1 has tighter design and a more appealing aesthetic, even if it's lacking in speed and fluid controls. Sonic 3 along with Sonic & Knuckles fixed the problems I have with Sonic 2, which is why my Genesis ranking is S&K > S3 > S1 > S2

 

My other thought is that Sonic games with new features and physics really shouldn't have the original title to them, because they AREN'T the same game at all. Call it Sonic+, Sonic: Special Edition, Sonic 1.5 or anything- it doesn't really matter what subtitle you use, but no one should play Sonic the Hedgehog using the Sonic 2 standing spin dash and walk away thinking they'd experienced the same game that came out in 1991. That's just not right. History is important. That's why movies need to have "special edition" or "director's cut" clearly placed with the title.

 

EDIT: Also, being a helpless target while rotating a giant screw (how apt) in Metropolis Zone is something I never liked.

Edited by Cukeman, 09 September 2017 - 04:59 PM.

[Titanium Justice]

So I beat Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age yesterday. It could possibly be one of the best games I've played from the series. I dare say it may even crack my top 5.
Graphically, the art style still holds up incredibly well. I like that it had a more gritty and realistic look to it.
From a gameplay standpoint there's an overwhelming amount of content. I always felt like there was something interesting to do, and I became familiar enough with the maps that I didn't get lost too often.
Combat was surprisingly addicting, even though the characters do act of their own accord most of the time. There were some occasions where it did take away from some tension or made some boss fights feel anticlimatic, though there were still some tense points where I had to input commands manually to counteract an onslaught of bad status ailments and whatnot.
As for the story, I do feel like I'm going to have to watch an analysis. I felt like it was confusing at times, though that could be because of the politics.

I liked XII enough that I just might want to play it a little longer to beat some of the side quests.

Edited by Titanium Justice, 10 September 2017 - 02:43 PM.

[Cukeman]

I've been going back through Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon getting Boos, and Gems I missed before. The Boos I feel are worth it, the gems I don't care about, and getting 3 stars is not appealing to me. Other than unlocking the levels from Boos, I really doubt the gems and 3 star ratings are worth the effort.

[Anthus]

I got the crazy idea to start playing Sonic Heroes last night. I played Team Sonic all the way up to Mystic Mansion. I'll probably write a more thorough summary of my thoughts later, but generally speaking, I enjoy most of my time with this game, and find myself revisiting it with more enthusiasm than the Adventure games, BUT that's only cause I have gone back to those a lot more recently.

 

I like the level themes, the return to a simpler story, and the team mechanic. It's a lot more light hearted in style, and presentation, and honestly, at times feels like a truer successor to the Genesis games, from a thematic standpoint. There's also no bullshit fishing, or shooting. It's mostly levels focusing on platforming, zooming through set pieces, and traversing some of the most fickle grind rails in gaming. I find the game really fun, when it wants to cooperate that is. One of the biggest, glaring problems I have with this game is way momentum is carried into a wall, forcing you to run parallel to it causing numerous deaths if you're not paying attention. This can be compensated for, by jumping, but still, this wasn't a problem in the Adventure games so why is it here? Also, fighting with the Power characters advances you a few steps up, and it can be easy to send yourself careening off of an edge when fighting a lot of enemies on an open platform, something you'll be doing a lot late-game.

 

The other major issue I have is with some of the level designs. In particular, uh, well, basically the entire back half of the game. There's seven zones, with two acts each, and the fourth zone, Rail Canyon/ Bullet Station introduces us to rail grinding again. Okay, technically it shows up for a second in Grand Metropolis, but it's not the focus of the level there. This is fine in and of itself, it's a fun way to move around, but the problem here is there are entire stages where you are doing this over bottomless pits, and the game can seriously just fuck you right up sometimes. It's like they forgot about regular levels. Frog Forest and Lost Jungle also have a ton of grinding, and so do Hang Castle, and the Egg Fleet levels. I think this would be fun if it worked correctly. A game that doesn't work 10% of the time is a broken game. (See my rant about motion controls in SS). You also have to have split second reactions, which is fine and a staple of the series, but when you get dicked by the controls, or miss a rail, or get thrown off somehow, it is infuriating.

 

You're not dying because you aren't good, you're dying because of shoddy coding, and that is what it so bad about it, and why people harp on this game so much, imo. This is compounded by loooooong stages, and a small number of lives. I got to Rail Canyon with 11 lives, and game overed twice (you start with 3 lives, but it's really 4 cause 0 counts). I'm not saying I'm a master of this game by any means, and surely I'm not blaming all my deaths on glitches. The game works most of the time, and a good chunk of deaths were my own fault, but the ones that aren't really stick out. This is most apparent in, here we go, Rail Canyon, Bullet Station, Frog Forest, Lost Jungle, Hang Castle, chunks of Mystic Mansion, Egg Fleet, and Final Fortress. Oh, is that over half of the game? Hey, the first 3 zones are really fun. Even Rail Canyon has some "wow" moments, but yeah.

 

Then there is Mystic Mansion. Oh my God, this is literally, bar none, my most hated level in any Sonic game. It goes on, and on, and on, or focuses on combat, and puzzles which are clunky at best here, and the combat is a boring mash fest. Then there's that part at the end, which has some precision platforming, and after you are 19 minutes into a level with 0 lives, that Game Over can be a real controller snapper. This stage also brings out another issue, where there are so many jumps that are literally do, or die. This game is hard, and loves to throw you into pits for missing one jump, even when the controls are working properly. Hey remember when missing a jump, or messing up a speedy part just dropped you into a lower part of the stage, usually not insta-killing you? What happened to that?

 

By now, it probably sounds like I hate this game. But, you must understand, I am a Sonic fan after all. I could complain about the padding in the form of requiring you to play the same levels with little difference four times to get the true ending, or I could whine about the utter lack of good bosses, or I could whine about a lot of stuff, but all in all, I do like this game. Understand that it has some serious flaws, and can, and will troll you, but it's not a horrible game. It could have used a little more time in the oven to iron out the kinks (a sad reality for the string of Sonic games to follow). As an aside, I would have liked to see Generations use the Casino levels from this instead of Sea Side Hill since you'd have a pinball level, and not another "first level" tropey area.

 

I'm going to be getting Freedom Planet soon too. It's been on my radar for a while now, and it looks really awesome.

 

 

Oh, and don't ask me about the special stages. I'm not on speaking terms with them.

 

EDIT: Started a Team Rose playthrough to grab the Chaos emeralds. I actually like playing as Team Rose, for a few reasons. Mostly, Big, in spite of being derpy as all hell (and voiced by the guy who voiced Duke Nukem) has some good attacks that pretty much destroy anything in your path. Team Rose's stages are a lot shorter, but they feel more in line with the length of the older games. No area really over stays its welcome, and it's a less tense, more leisurely experience. But seriously, why do Cream and Amy have to say "Here we go!" every 10 seconds? You're not Mario. I do find the banter to be a nice touch for the different teams, but sometimes, it's a bit much. Also.. why are there so many.. panty shots of Amy? Isn't she like 12 in this game? It's so much easier too. It is pretty much the game's easy setting. I have 30 lives at Rail Canyon/ Bullet Station's boss, to put it into perspective.

[Dark Ice Dragon]

i had troubles too whit the cannon...lost a couple of lives whitout an apparent reason, i have not other complains for the rest of game,  the first play can be had but when you know it better, even the mystic mansion is not so hard.

Team chaotix is my favorite, except the first level that is a bit boring.

As for Amy pants...c'mon, is not a scandalous thing...

Edited by Dark Ice Dragon, 12 September 2017 - 03:15 PM.

[Nicholas Steel]

As for Amy pants...c'mon, is not a scandalous thing...

American legal department will crucify you if any police find you with comics containing underage girls doing adult stuff in them. I wouldn't be surprised to see them eventually take the next logical leap and target underage anthropomorphic characters in comics (& video games).

Edited by Nicholas Steel, 12 September 2017 - 10:42 PM.

[Russ]

Then there is Mystic Mansion. Oh my God, this is literally, bar none, my most hated level in any Sonic game. It goes on, and on, and on, or focuses on combat, and puzzles which are clunky at best here, and the combat is a boring mash fest. Then there's that part at the end, which has some precision platforming, and after you are 19 minutes into a level with 0 lives, that Game Over can be a real controller snapper. This stage also brings out another issue, where there are so many jumps that are literally do, or die. This game is hard, and loves to throw you into pits for missing one jump, even when the controls are working properly. Hey remember when missing a jump, or messing up a speedy part just dropped you into a lower part of the stage, usually not insta-killing you? What happened to that?

This freaking level... To put things in perspective, I'm not a huge fan of Heroes. For the most part, it feels like it really wants to be Adventure 3 but never is nearly fun enough to claim that title. But some of levels are decent enough to pass the time. And then. There's. This. Freaking. Stage. I can't even really tell you how most of it goes. It's just fifteen minutes of boring followed by the Bottomless Pit of "I want to set fire to Sega". Oh, words can't describe my hatred of that stage, and especially that freaking pit.

For myself, I've been replaying Assassin's Creed's Ezio Trilogy. Good stuff all around, even if, in retrospect, those games are buggy as hell sometimes. It's made me gain a newfound appreciation for II, as well as reevaluate Brotherhood's merits.

Maybe I'll play III when I'm done with Revelations. Or maybe I'll just emulate the experience by paying somebody sixty dollars to whisper seductively into my ear before punching my in the gonads, kicking me, and stealing my dog.

[Dark Ice Dragon]

American legal department will crucify you if any police find you with comics containing underage girls doing adult stuff in them. I wouldn't be surprised to see them eventually take the next logical leap and target underage anthropomorphic characters in comics (& video games).

 

OMG ! we are talking of the pants of a immaginary hedgehog ! she is 12 ? a hedgehog is old at 12 ! i will never understand America  anyway i like your post.

America  release tons of soap operas, movies and series  based on marital infedelty, sex and killing and they get scandalized of pants ...

 

Returning on topic, i restard Genso Suikoden after something like 10 years, i forgot a lot of things, i want try to found all the 108 characters just using my memory, i wonde if i will remember all ?

[Cukeman]

I remember thinking Half-Life's graphics would never look out of date, today I was playing RE4 and noticing all the ugly compression on textures and some blurriness. Both fantastic games still, but can't believe the graphics are feeling dated to me the way I used to look at the N64.

[Anthus]

I remember thinking Half-Life's graphics would never look out of date, today I was playing RE4 and noticing all the ugly compression on textures and some blurriness. Both fantastic games still, but can't believe the graphics are feeling dated to me the way I used to look at the N64.

 

I felt that way in particular about OoT. Especially the day/ night/ sunrise/ sunset stuff. Blew my 9 year old mind. 

[Orithan]

As someone who is not really a fan of Classic Sonic, I really enjoyed Heroes. Maybe because it played a lot more like a Mario game than other Sonic games, with it's slower pace and more of a need to make precise movements than other Sonic games. Maybe because I really liked the Team mechanic and perhaps would like to see it return in another game. Maybe because I enjoyed the presence of Team Chaotix and the diversity in their objectives a lot more than any of the other teams. Maybe because the first half of the game was very well designed. There was something about the game that really stood out to me as great, but I really can't pin it on one particuar thing.

 

I got the crazy idea to start playing Sonic Heroes last night. I played Team Sonic all the way up to Mystic Mansion. I'll probably write a more thorough summary of my thoughts later, but generally speaking, I enjoy most of my time with this game, and find myself revisiting it with more enthusiasm than the Adventure games, BUT that's only cause I have gone back to those a lot more recently.

 

I like the level themes, the return to a simpler story, and the team mechanic. It's a lot more light hearted in style, and presentation, and honestly, at times feels like a truer successor to the Genesis games, from a thematic standpoint. There's also no bullshit fishing, or shooting. It's mostly levels focusing on platforming, zooming through set pieces, and traversing some of the most fickle grind rails in gaming. I find the game really fun, when it wants to cooperate that is. One of the biggest, glaring problems I have with this game is way momentum is carried into a wall, forcing you to run parallel to it causing numerous deaths if you're not paying attention. This can be compensated for, by jumping, but still, this wasn't a problem in the Adventure games so why is it here? Also, fighting with the Power characters advances you a few steps up, and it can be easy to send yourself careening off of an edge when fighting a lot of enemies on an open platform, something you'll be doing a lot late-game.

 

The other major issue I have is with some of the level designs. In particular, uh, well, basically the entire back half of the game. There's seven zones, with two acts each, and the fourth zone, Rail Canyon/ Bullet Station introduces us to rail grinding again. Okay, technically it shows up for a second in Grand Metropolis, but it's not the focus of the level there. This is fine in and of itself, it's a fun way to move around, but the problem here is there are entire stages where you are doing this over bottomless pits, and the game can seriously just fuck you right up sometimes. It's like they forgot about regular levels. Frog Forest and Lost Jungle also have a ton of grinding, and so do Hang Castle, and the Egg Fleet levels. I think this would be fun if it worked correctly. A game that doesn't work 10% of the time is a broken game. (See my rant about motion controls in SS). You also have to have split second reactions, which is fine and a staple of the series, but when you get dicked by the controls, or miss a rail, or get thrown off somehow, it is infuriating.

 

You're not dying because you aren't good, you're dying because of shoddy coding, and that is what it so bad about it, and why people harp on this game so much, imo. This is compounded by loooooong stages, and a small number of lives. I got to Rail Canyon with 11 lives, and game overed twice (you start with 3 lives, but it's really 4 cause 0 counts). I'm not saying I'm a master of this game by any means, and surely I'm not blaming all my deaths on glitches. The game works most of the time, and a good chunk of deaths were my own fault, but the ones that aren't really stick out. This is most apparent in, here we go, Rail Canyon, Bullet Station, Frog Forest, Lost Jungle, Hang Castle, chunks of Mystic Mansion, Egg Fleet, and Final Fortress. Oh, is that over half of the game? Hey, the first 3 zones are really fun. Even Rail Canyon has some "wow" moments, but yeah.

 

Then there is Mystic Mansion. Oh my God, this is literally, bar none, my most hated level in any Sonic game. It goes on, and on, and on, or focuses on combat, and puzzles which are clunky at best here, and the combat is a boring mash fest. Then there's that part at the end, which has some precision platforming, and after you are 19 minutes into a level with 0 lives, that Game Over can be a real controller snapper. This stage also brings out another issue, where there are so many jumps that are literally do, or die. This game is hard, and loves to throw you into pits for missing one jump, even when the controls are working properly. Hey remember when missing a jump, or messing up a speedy part just dropped you into a lower part of the stage, usually not insta-killing you? What happened to that?

 

 

Oh, and don't ask me about the special stages. I'm not on speaking terms with them.

 

As much as I enjoy Heroes, I agree with most of your complaints and I will admit the game as a whole is a mess. The game appears to be badly rushed, probably because I presume SEGA's developers ran into issues in implementing something like the Team mechanic and it took far too long to get it in (and were forced to ship it by the deadline they were given) and, as a result, had to resort to padding the second half of the game with rail grinding and skimp out on the bugtesting phase. It's a shame, because the second half game had many good ideas that they did not get to flesh out properly. Even so, Lost Jungle and Hang Castle were great and could have been a whole lot better if they could put a lot more time and effort into the level design. Mystic Mansion in particular would have benefited with more time and effort placed into the level design.

 

As far as the precision platforming and bottomless pits thing, I didn't really mind it. Well, outside of some scenarios like the stupid long Homing Attack chain in Sonic's segment at the end of Mystic Mansion and several moments in Bullet Station. It really could do without some of the grinding over bottomless pits segments it had.

 

 

...and I probably should replay the game at some point so I can form a deeper critical review on it. Preferably soon, so I can establish wherever it was actually as good as I remember it being.

Edited by Orithan, 14 September 2017 - 06:02 AM.

[Haylee]

So I completed the Project Octopath Traveler demo.

My thoughts

[Anthus]

@Orithan Sonic Heroes was initially going to only be for The GameCube, then at some point Sega told Sonic Team it was going to be multi-platform, presumably in the middle of developement. As a result, instead of getting one polished game we got three "works most of the time" games. I still like it though, and also agree with your additional points, and the forest and jungle levels, and rail canyon are some of my faves based on the idea alone.

Yeah, the Octopath traveler game looks pretty cool. It's the same team who made Bravely Default. Looks like they're sticking with their guns, and giving it a goofy title too.

[Cukeman]

I tried Sonic Heroes for GameCube for the first time yesterday, it's a really cool idea, but execution is kind of clumsy. Right away I wished the pathway wasn't so narrow, gameplay feels so constricted. Beat the first boss.