Super Sonic Nerd Rage part 2!
The Super Sonic nerd-rage continues! You've been warned!
Re-playing the older Sonic games has been really good for me recently, psychologically speaking. It's a much healthier past time, racing through brightly coloured lands of distinct character, collecting rings and freeing small animals from inside robots. Certainly healthier for my addled mind than the claustrophobic, blood-soaked corridors of Castle Wolfenstein. So I've been making a big effort to return to Mobius and lighten my mood.
After becoming frustrated with Sonic Unleashed, I moved on to try Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog - I got both of them for less than 70p each online. 70p! Before I begin to talk about them, lets just finish ripping Sonic Unleashed a new one.
So far, I’ve no idea how far I am through the game, about 2/3?, I’ve counted over ten stages which can be finished in less than a minute. Not because of our trademarked-hedgehog’s super speed, but because there is actually nothing to these stages. For example, one of the Arabian zone stages involves moving forward about 15 feet (less than a move action!) and activating a ring dash (most likely a free action - press ‘O’). That’s it. How the fuck can you justify calling that a stage? There is almost nothing you could cut out of it! Move the tiniest amount, press a button. Unless a level consisted of just a single button press, it couldn’t be any shorter! Fucking stupid. It takes longer to load than it does to play!
Continuing the rant, why do you have to speak to all these NPCs? None of them are interesting, or characters at all - they all just have one “funny” trait, like the guy who’s scared or the kid who’s plucky, or the old man who’s grumpy, etc. It slows the pace of the game to a crawl, because you *must* speak to so many of them. And none of it advances the plot!
I do like some of the designs of the dark Gia creatures; obvious Phantasy Star influences. But why so few different designs? Fighting the same chumps over and over is 100% times more interesting when the chumps look different (see Devil Kings vs. Dynasty Warriors). However, I’d rather be fighting Dr. Eggman’s robots and, oh, I dunno, actually have Dr. Eggman involved in something other than an expensively bland CGI cut-scene.
And another thing - why does the radar always seem to get in the way of the character? Repeatedly I find the 3D were-hog platforming more difficult than I’m sure was intended, because the radar (which is almost entirely useless anyway) ends up covering Sonic and the edge of the platform he’s jumping from. This happens almost every time were-hog jumps from right-to-left. I thought radar was supposed to improve your awareness of your surroundings!
When you combine this with the poor controls, it makes you hesitant to chase after any of the “just out of reach bet there are some secrets down there” moments. Compare this with a good 3D platform game, such as any of the PS2 Prince of Persia trilogy. You *want* to risk your life to jump down and find out what’s just out of sight.
Another crucial difference between these two games (PoP and SU), is a sense of momentum and weight. In PoP I *know* when I’m swinging from a pole or hanging onto something - I can feel the weight of the Prince through the controls. With the were-hog - I’m just guessing based on what I can see. And that isn’t usually very clear.
Sonic Heroes is something I have tried before. Playing it again reminds me why I didn’t like it so much. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not fucking awful, just awful. About 90% of that is down to the combination of the camera and the controls. If just one of them got fixed, just tightened up a little, then the other could be overcome. But instead you have to fight with an uncooperative camera, using loose controls. Really kills the fun, since you can’t run at any speed as you’re always crashing into a wall (or worse) because the perspective - and thus the controls - have just shifted on you.
The presentation is spot on, though. It looks like a 3D Sonic game should - all bright and happy, with simply drawn characters. Sonic is a cartoonish hedgehog - I don’t feel the need to see his actual prickles and fur texture, a la Unleashed. The line up is good, although I do have two thoughts. Shouldn’t Amy be on Team Sonic with her hammer, moving Knuckles to Team Chaotix? And shouldn’t there be a custom-team mode?
Shadow the Hedgehog was totally new to me. I’m not a Shadow fan, and the advertising was clearly not aimed at Sonic fans. That said, it surprised me by being the best of this bunch, by quite a way! Let me explain some of the reasons why.
The controls are pretty fluid and you always have control over the camera. That said, you don’t constantly need to fight with it, as it seems pretty smart and does an okay job by itself. Score one over Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Heroes already!
The stages are arranged like a racing track circuit, so if you get to the end without completing your goal, you find yourself back at the beginning again, with some enemies and items respawned, some not (like hidden extra lives, etc.). While not traditionally Sonic, this leads to a much more Sonic-like experience than Heroes or Unleashed. You find you need to do several ‘laps’ sometimes, picking up speed as you get used to the layout and the larger mini-boss-esque monsters haven’t respawned. Before you know it, you’re running at top speed through loops and dodging enemies quite fast. Kinda like Sonic R. Kinda.
The stages are set up in a branching fashion, with which objective you complete (your choice) deciding what the next stage will be. You can usually choose between good and evil objectives, and occasionally neutral. The good missions are tied to another character from the Sonic universe, such as Sonic saying “help me do this”, who then follows and helps you. I really enjoy teaming up with Dr. Eggman - he has a little TV monitor follow you around, dispensing wisdom. Awesome! This gives you a degree of control over where the story goes, although, being Shadow, it’s all about angst. The bosses are good too - they take a lot of hits and usually take something special to score the hit in the first place. A lot better than the 3-hit bosses from Sonic Adventure.
This whole thing takes place during an alien invasion, with the aliens playing the role of the bad guys. The military jargon shouted by nameless human commandos and the theft of purple alien rifles gives (IMHO) a strong ‘Sonic meets Halo’ vibe, but in a good way. As for the driving vehicles bits, apart from the motorcycle, they handle okay and are mostly optional. It’s fun riding the dragons about, although I wish it had been done in a way that was more of a nod to another Sega classic, like Panza Dragoon, Golden Axe, or Space Harrier.
The only real thing I don’t like about the Shadow game are the guns. If the levels had been re-jigged ever so slightly so Shadow could rely on his spin dash and homing attack a bit more, then the guns could have been removed completely. That would have left us with a very strong game. As it is, the guns kinda wreck the Sonic ‘feel’, and I think a lot of Sonic fans found themselves agreeing with Sonic when he points out to Shadow “I wouldn’t be caught dead using one of those things”.
So, yeah, that *really* surprised me, but Shadow comes out on top of those three titles. Amazing.
Following the style of the previous Sonic-rant, and my doctor’s advice, I’d like to take a minute now, to finish up talking about two more Sonic games that aren’t part of the “classic” series, but both of which I’ve been playing and I love; Sonic R and Sonic Rivals 2.
Sonic R was, arguably, the first 3D Sonic game. It’s basically a racing game, featuring Sonic characters running around tracks that should look familiar to Sonic fans. What makes the game even better, is there are a *lot* of secrets hidden around each track. Stuff that leads to extra characters, including Robot Knuckles, the special stage-based track, and the Chaos Emeralds, and thus finally Super Sonic. No, there aren’t a world of extras, but for the time, there were quite a lot. Point of interest - Travellers’ Tales were responsible for this title, that’s right, the guys and gals behind Lego Star Wars. How can it be bad? :) Great graphics hilarious/awesome music, real difference between characters and a variety of challenge and two-player modes, makes this an awesome 3D Sonic game.
Such a promising start, eh? Following this with the epic Sonic Adventure? Ah, well.
Sonic Rivals 2 is a recent discovery for me. I stayed clear of the first one due to the reports of glitches and serious balance problems in the gameplay, but picked up #2 for a mere £5.00 as it had no box-sleeve. Bargain!
There are numerous level types, to keep things varied, including an original Super Mario Bros. style one-on-one fight, time attack, ring attack, capture the flag (Chao!), freeplay, etc. But the core of the game is a vs. race through a side-scrolling stage. There are all the hallmarks of classic Sonic, including hoops, twists, power ups, trickily placed badniks, etc. The only thing missing are the star-posts. :(
All of this is 2D, but with gorgeous 3D graphics.
The bosses are classy and are some of Eggman’s craziest yet, the plot is reasonable, certainly more in depth than say, Sonic 2, so we can’t complain. The final boss battle is epic, and a lot of fun, but incredibly easy compared to some of the earlier ones. There are 4 teams of 2 characters, which are reasonably well balanced against each other in terms of special moves - only Espio really gets shafted. The story alters slightly, depending on who you’re playing as.
If Sega can get it right on PSP, why can’t they get it right for the PS2 and the current generation of consoles (*cough*SecretRings*cough*Sonic06*cough*)?
Well, that’s it for now. I’m going to leave you with the lyrics for “Living in the City” by Crush 40 - one of the music tracks from Sonic R. I’m working on the assumption that you’ve not gone to the options screen and selected “Lyrics: Off”. Enjoy!
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
(Living in the city)
You've got to keep that dream alive
(Living in the city)
Where everything is free
(Living in the city)
Can't you see
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
(Living in the city)
You've got to keep that dream alive
(Living in the city)
Where everything is free
(Living in the city)
Can't you see
So many different things to see
There's no time
So many different things to do
But there's no time
So many people all around
So many feeling to be found
Living in a city where no one lets you down
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
(Living in the city)
You've got to keep that dream alive
(Living in the city)
Where everything is free
(Living in the city)
Can't you see
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
(Living in the city)
You've got to keep that dream alive
(Living in the city)
Where everything is free
(Living in the city)
Can't you see
So many things that we've been through
Can you feel it
So many things for us to do
But can you feel it
So many faces all around
So many places to be found
Living in a city where nothing gets you down
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
(Living in the city)
You've got to keep that dream alive
(Living in the city)
Where everything is free
(Living in the city)
Can't you see
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
(Living in the city)
You've got to keep that dream alive
(Living in the city)
Where everything is free
(Living in the city)
Can't you see
In the sky at night
The stars are shinin' bright
You can see the city lights
Cause I'm here to make it right
In the city
Oh
Yeah
Oooooooohhhhh
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
(Living in the city)
You've got to keep the dream alive
(Living in the city)
Where everything is free
(Living in the city)
Can't you see
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
(Living in the city)
You've got to keep the dream alive
(Living in the city)
Where everything is free
(Living in the city)
Can't you see
Ohh
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
(Living in the city)
You've got to keep that dream alive
(Living in the city)
Where everything is free
(Living in the city)
Can't you see
In the city
In the city
Living in the city
In the city
Living in the city
Ohh
In the city
Living in the city
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
Ohh
Living in the city
Ohhh
Living in the city
In the city
In the city
In the city
Re-playing the older Sonic games has been really good for me recently, psychologically speaking. It's a much healthier past time, racing through brightly coloured lands of distinct character, collecting rings and freeing small animals from inside robots. Certainly healthier for my addled mind than the claustrophobic, blood-soaked corridors of Castle Wolfenstein. So I've been making a big effort to return to Mobius and lighten my mood.
After becoming frustrated with Sonic Unleashed, I moved on to try Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog - I got both of them for less than 70p each online. 70p! Before I begin to talk about them, lets just finish ripping Sonic Unleashed a new one.
So far, I’ve no idea how far I am through the game, about 2/3?, I’ve counted over ten stages which can be finished in less than a minute. Not because of our trademarked-hedgehog’s super speed, but because there is actually nothing to these stages. For example, one of the Arabian zone stages involves moving forward about 15 feet (less than a move action!) and activating a ring dash (most likely a free action - press ‘O’). That’s it. How the fuck can you justify calling that a stage? There is almost nothing you could cut out of it! Move the tiniest amount, press a button. Unless a level consisted of just a single button press, it couldn’t be any shorter! Fucking stupid. It takes longer to load than it does to play!
Continuing the rant, why do you have to speak to all these NPCs? None of them are interesting, or characters at all - they all just have one “funny” trait, like the guy who’s scared or the kid who’s plucky, or the old man who’s grumpy, etc. It slows the pace of the game to a crawl, because you *must* speak to so many of them. And none of it advances the plot!
I do like some of the designs of the dark Gia creatures; obvious Phantasy Star influences. But why so few different designs? Fighting the same chumps over and over is 100% times more interesting when the chumps look different (see Devil Kings vs. Dynasty Warriors). However, I’d rather be fighting Dr. Eggman’s robots and, oh, I dunno, actually have Dr. Eggman involved in something other than an expensively bland CGI cut-scene.
And another thing - why does the radar always seem to get in the way of the character? Repeatedly I find the 3D were-hog platforming more difficult than I’m sure was intended, because the radar (which is almost entirely useless anyway) ends up covering Sonic and the edge of the platform he’s jumping from. This happens almost every time were-hog jumps from right-to-left. I thought radar was supposed to improve your awareness of your surroundings!
When you combine this with the poor controls, it makes you hesitant to chase after any of the “just out of reach bet there are some secrets down there” moments. Compare this with a good 3D platform game, such as any of the PS2 Prince of Persia trilogy. You *want* to risk your life to jump down and find out what’s just out of sight.
Another crucial difference between these two games (PoP and SU), is a sense of momentum and weight. In PoP I *know* when I’m swinging from a pole or hanging onto something - I can feel the weight of the Prince through the controls. With the were-hog - I’m just guessing based on what I can see. And that isn’t usually very clear.
Sonic Heroes is something I have tried before. Playing it again reminds me why I didn’t like it so much. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not fucking awful, just awful. About 90% of that is down to the combination of the camera and the controls. If just one of them got fixed, just tightened up a little, then the other could be overcome. But instead you have to fight with an uncooperative camera, using loose controls. Really kills the fun, since you can’t run at any speed as you’re always crashing into a wall (or worse) because the perspective - and thus the controls - have just shifted on you.
The presentation is spot on, though. It looks like a 3D Sonic game should - all bright and happy, with simply drawn characters. Sonic is a cartoonish hedgehog - I don’t feel the need to see his actual prickles and fur texture, a la Unleashed. The line up is good, although I do have two thoughts. Shouldn’t Amy be on Team Sonic with her hammer, moving Knuckles to Team Chaotix? And shouldn’t there be a custom-team mode?
Shadow the Hedgehog was totally new to me. I’m not a Shadow fan, and the advertising was clearly not aimed at Sonic fans. That said, it surprised me by being the best of this bunch, by quite a way! Let me explain some of the reasons why.
The controls are pretty fluid and you always have control over the camera. That said, you don’t constantly need to fight with it, as it seems pretty smart and does an okay job by itself. Score one over Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Heroes already!
The stages are arranged like a racing track circuit, so if you get to the end without completing your goal, you find yourself back at the beginning again, with some enemies and items respawned, some not (like hidden extra lives, etc.). While not traditionally Sonic, this leads to a much more Sonic-like experience than Heroes or Unleashed. You find you need to do several ‘laps’ sometimes, picking up speed as you get used to the layout and the larger mini-boss-esque monsters haven’t respawned. Before you know it, you’re running at top speed through loops and dodging enemies quite fast. Kinda like Sonic R. Kinda.
The stages are set up in a branching fashion, with which objective you complete (your choice) deciding what the next stage will be. You can usually choose between good and evil objectives, and occasionally neutral. The good missions are tied to another character from the Sonic universe, such as Sonic saying “help me do this”, who then follows and helps you. I really enjoy teaming up with Dr. Eggman - he has a little TV monitor follow you around, dispensing wisdom. Awesome! This gives you a degree of control over where the story goes, although, being Shadow, it’s all about angst. The bosses are good too - they take a lot of hits and usually take something special to score the hit in the first place. A lot better than the 3-hit bosses from Sonic Adventure.
This whole thing takes place during an alien invasion, with the aliens playing the role of the bad guys. The military jargon shouted by nameless human commandos and the theft of purple alien rifles gives (IMHO) a strong ‘Sonic meets Halo’ vibe, but in a good way. As for the driving vehicles bits, apart from the motorcycle, they handle okay and are mostly optional. It’s fun riding the dragons about, although I wish it had been done in a way that was more of a nod to another Sega classic, like Panza Dragoon, Golden Axe, or Space Harrier.
The only real thing I don’t like about the Shadow game are the guns. If the levels had been re-jigged ever so slightly so Shadow could rely on his spin dash and homing attack a bit more, then the guns could have been removed completely. That would have left us with a very strong game. As it is, the guns kinda wreck the Sonic ‘feel’, and I think a lot of Sonic fans found themselves agreeing with Sonic when he points out to Shadow “I wouldn’t be caught dead using one of those things”.
So, yeah, that *really* surprised me, but Shadow comes out on top of those three titles. Amazing.
Following the style of the previous Sonic-rant, and my doctor’s advice, I’d like to take a minute now, to finish up talking about two more Sonic games that aren’t part of the “classic” series, but both of which I’ve been playing and I love; Sonic R and Sonic Rivals 2.
Sonic R was, arguably, the first 3D Sonic game. It’s basically a racing game, featuring Sonic characters running around tracks that should look familiar to Sonic fans. What makes the game even better, is there are a *lot* of secrets hidden around each track. Stuff that leads to extra characters, including Robot Knuckles, the special stage-based track, and the Chaos Emeralds, and thus finally Super Sonic. No, there aren’t a world of extras, but for the time, there were quite a lot. Point of interest - Travellers’ Tales were responsible for this title, that’s right, the guys and gals behind Lego Star Wars. How can it be bad? :) Great graphics hilarious/awesome music, real difference between characters and a variety of challenge and two-player modes, makes this an awesome 3D Sonic game.
Such a promising start, eh? Following this with the epic Sonic Adventure? Ah, well.
Sonic Rivals 2 is a recent discovery for me. I stayed clear of the first one due to the reports of glitches and serious balance problems in the gameplay, but picked up #2 for a mere £5.00 as it had no box-sleeve. Bargain!
There are numerous level types, to keep things varied, including an original Super Mario Bros. style one-on-one fight, time attack, ring attack, capture the flag (Chao!), freeplay, etc. But the core of the game is a vs. race through a side-scrolling stage. There are all the hallmarks of classic Sonic, including hoops, twists, power ups, trickily placed badniks, etc. The only thing missing are the star-posts. :(
All of this is 2D, but with gorgeous 3D graphics.
The bosses are classy and are some of Eggman’s craziest yet, the plot is reasonable, certainly more in depth than say, Sonic 2, so we can’t complain. The final boss battle is epic, and a lot of fun, but incredibly easy compared to some of the earlier ones. There are 4 teams of 2 characters, which are reasonably well balanced against each other in terms of special moves - only Espio really gets shafted. The story alters slightly, depending on who you’re playing as.
If Sega can get it right on PSP, why can’t they get it right for the PS2 and the current generation of consoles (*cough*SecretRings*cough*Sonic06*cough*)?
Well, that’s it for now. I’m going to leave you with the lyrics for “Living in the City” by Crush 40 - one of the music tracks from Sonic R. I’m working on the assumption that you’ve not gone to the options screen and selected “Lyrics: Off”. Enjoy!
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
(Living in the city)
You've got to keep that dream alive
(Living in the city)
Where everything is free
(Living in the city)
Can't you see
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
(Living in the city)
You've got to keep that dream alive
(Living in the city)
Where everything is free
(Living in the city)
Can't you see
So many different things to see
There's no time
So many different things to do
But there's no time
So many people all around
So many feeling to be found
Living in a city where no one lets you down
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
(Living in the city)
You've got to keep that dream alive
(Living in the city)
Where everything is free
(Living in the city)
Can't you see
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
(Living in the city)
You've got to keep that dream alive
(Living in the city)
Where everything is free
(Living in the city)
Can't you see
So many things that we've been through
Can you feel it
So many things for us to do
But can you feel it
So many faces all around
So many places to be found
Living in a city where nothing gets you down
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
(Living in the city)
You've got to keep that dream alive
(Living in the city)
Where everything is free
(Living in the city)
Can't you see
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
(Living in the city)
You've got to keep that dream alive
(Living in the city)
Where everything is free
(Living in the city)
Can't you see
In the sky at night
The stars are shinin' bright
You can see the city lights
Cause I'm here to make it right
In the city
Oh
Yeah
Oooooooohhhhh
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
(Living in the city)
You've got to keep the dream alive
(Living in the city)
Where everything is free
(Living in the city)
Can't you see
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
(Living in the city)
You've got to keep the dream alive
(Living in the city)
Where everything is free
(Living in the city)
Can't you see
Ohh
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
(Living in the city)
You've got to keep that dream alive
(Living in the city)
Where everything is free
(Living in the city)
Can't you see
In the city
In the city
Living in the city
In the city
Living in the city
Ohh
In the city
Living in the city
Living in the city
You know you have to survive
Ohh
Living in the city
Ohhh
Living in the city
In the city
In the city
In the city