Epyo
Dude
Posts: 2921
Registered: 06-02 |
Finished the game and loved it! Still replaying the levels over and over, and even doing all of the side missions, which I am actually enjoying (for the first time in a modern sonic).
For background, I've played almost all of the games in the main Sonic series. The only huge ones I haven't played yet are Sonic 2006 and Sonic Colors, and I own Sonic Unleashed but haven't played more than a couple hours of it. Anyway, I'm a typical huge Sonic fan who hasn't been interested lately.
However, the promise that each zone's first act would be entirely 2d was a good enough guarantee for me to pick this up, and holy hell I'm glad I did, because it's fantastic. The level design is smart, beautiful, and fun. I'd say the biggest factor in whether a Sonic game is popular or not is how often you fall off of the world. If stupid Sega would learn their lesson and make that result in a loss of rings instead of instant death, I bet Sonic games would still be 100% popular. Anyway point is, there isn't much falling off in this game, and when there is, there's always a gigantic orange diamond street sign warning you of where there is a bottomless pit (a pretty lazy design choice, but it works well, because at least you feel like some of your death was your own fault.) Usually, however, when you fall off a cliff, and you think you're going to die, you just end up on a lower path. That's what recent Sonic flops have been missing -- the multitude of lower paths and non-linearity that the genesis games capitalized on.
There are nine zones, which is actually more than I expected. The first three are from the genesis era, the second three are from the DC/PS2/GC era, and the last 3 are from the PS3/Wii/360 era. I actually think I ended up enjoying the last 2 zones of the game the most, (the zone from Unleashed and the zone from Colors), those are some fantastic, huge environments. And honestly, even though I bought the game for the act 1 levels, the act 2 levels were just as enjoyable or possibly even better.
The act 1 levels are slightly harder, and depend much more on the player's attention and skill. They're satisfying, but I bet most players are actually going to enjoy the act 2 levels more. The act 2 levels switch seamlessly between 2d and 3d a lot, so you kind of get the best of both worlds. In addition, Sonic has a lot of different moves which leads to more varied gameplay. The air dash is extremely versatile and mastering it's different utilities is fun. His instant extreme speed boosts (first seen in Rush) are an excellent addition as well, unfortunately they're pretty much the thing that will kill you--using boost at the wrong time can easily lead to your death. Anyway, the act 2 levels are chaotic fun, while the act 1 levels are more minimal and technical.
It's a great combination.
To be fair, I'll mention that the bosses are all either too confusing or too hand-holding, and the jump-dash is as glitchy as always, but you'll probably be having too much fun to notice.
For 3d sonic, my ranking would be something like
SA2 > Generations > Heroes >>>>> SA1 >>>>> Shadow > Unleashed.
Last edited by Epyo on 11-07-11 at 05:02
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11-06-11 08:56 
