[UPDATE] Earlier today, S2HD Project Manager Canned Karma announced that LOst, Sonic 2 HD‘s programmer who needlessly added DRM protection to the long anticipated fan game, is no longer part of the project, as stated in the Sonic Retro forum.

All of us had the exact same reaction everyone here did, and we’re actively looking into it to the best of our abilities. That said, we’ve heard just as much from LOst as anyone here has lately, so I’m not sure what, if anything, we’ll be able to find that corroborated or refutes what’s been brought to light. I will say this though. LOst is no longer a part of S2HD. I’ll have a more in depth response soon. We’re just as pissed off about this as the community is.

[ORIGINAL] Scarred Sun of Sonic Retro advises everyone who has downloaded the Alpha Demo of Sonic 2 HD to delete the entire software in light of a recent keylogger discovery, the cause behind triggered antivirus alerts. Read the full statement after the jump.

Earlier today, I was contacted by a professional antivirus employee who was interested in why Sonic 2 HD consistently popped up as a threat by multiple antivirus software programs and did some investigation. His results showed that a keylogger is part of the Sonic 2 HD software. After receiving this notification, we conducted our own independent tests and found that there is indeed a keylogging program as part of the Sonic 2 HD alpha software.

I want to emphasize that at this time, we have found no evidence that the software has been “phoning home” any data—only that we have found the capability exists.

Because this vulnerability has been found, we are strongly advising that the software be removed. You will need to delete the files included with the Sonic 2 HD zip, as well as the registry keys hooked at HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/NakaSMK (if you are unfamiliar on how to do this, go to Start->Run.., type regedit, follow the folder path, and then delete the NakaSMK folder.)

We will have more information on the situation as it evolves.

-Scarred Sun

To those who don’t know what keylogging is, it is a manner of tracking which keys are being typed onto a keyboard. In other words, those being keylogged will likely not be aware that their actions are being monitored. Again, there is no evidence of Sonic 2 HD actively doing this, but the fact that it is capable of doing so is enough to warrant deletion.

To reiterate: to those who’ve downloaded Sonic 2 HD‘s Alpha Demo, delete the software immediately.

Here’s to hoping for the best to the Sonic 2 HD team and that the project will be fixed soon.

Special thanks to MetaRyan for tipping in.

After a tech demo over three-and-a-half years ago and a teaser trailer last year, the team behind Sonic 2 HD has now made a playable alpha demo available to the community. Eager players can experience the entirety of Emerald Hill Zone in high definition, complete with Sonic 3 & Knuckles-style act transitions and upgraded music.

As of now, the demo can only run on Windows operating systems ranging between Windows XP and Windows 7. Download links are available on the Sonic 2 HD homepage, as well as 1080p screenshots and beautiful desktop wallpapers. Further project details are available on Sonic Retro.

Check out some footage after the jump!

Click here to view the embedded video.

After weeks of screenshots and videos, you can stop salivating.  Sonic Fan Remix is here.

Sonic Fan Remix is a 2.5D game by Pelikan13 and Mercury, creator of the “Sonic Physics Guide.”  In this three level demo, you get to experience a re-imagined Emerald Hill Zone.  Act 1 and 3′s layouts will seem familiar, but Act 2 is entirely original.  What’s also unfamiliar is the crazy amount of detail put into this project.  From the water/rain effects to the game’s lighting, this is truly Emerald Hill as you haven’t imagined it.

A welcome addition to 2.5D Sonic are the original physics that made Sonic a hit in the first place.  There are even a few adjustments to suit Mercury’s tastes.

About the whole “rolling off a cliff onto a badnik rebound height” thing:

I didn’t really like the way classic Sonic physics handled this. If holding the jump button is what makes Sonic rebound, then that should happen in all cases. I don’t like the fact that in some cases the player has no ability to cut the rebound short by releasing the button. There’s no homing attack or anything, so you can just hold the button down as you hit the enemy to rebound.

In other words, the change was intentional.

A second intentional change is that Sonic can control the trajectory of his jumps even if he jumps while rolling. Sonic CD is the only one of the classics to do this, and I find it vastly superior. In fact, I can’t imagine why the other way was ever used – what’s the logic behind it?

Some of the physics inconsistencies aren’t intentional, though. Unity can be a pain sometimes, and I wasn’t able to make everything as accurate as I’d have liked. (For instance, the camera isn’t accurate to the classics yet.)

I, along with many other members of the community, have been beta testing this game for a few days and we’ve caught a few of the issues lingering in the demo.  Pelikan has released this project a bit ahead of schedule and has yet to correct everything that we’ve given back to him.  If you find an issue with the project, don’t hesitate to air it.  It will only make a great project even better.

I’m sure that this demo will be all over Destructoid tomorrow.  They love the shit out this project (5:11 mark).

Visit the official website HERE!

Download Sonic Fan Remix HERE!

Rapidshare has removed SFR from its webspace for being “illegal” or whatever.  Here are a pair of mirrors:

Mirror 1

Mirror 2

It must be 3D-Sonic engine season or something.  We’ve had that kickass video, Damizean’s “Egg Engine” and now this?!  What an awesome week!

One of the creators fangame Ashura: Dark Reign, Xaklse, has released the third preview build for his engine.  The “SonicGDK Engine” is standalone and built within the Unreal Development Kit, which is free to download and distribute.  What’s great about this engine, out of the stuff we’ve shown you recently, is that you can play it!  Xak is looking to make this engine the best it can be, so he wants your feedback.

Here are the controls:

Keyboard

WASD and arrow keys for character movement.
Mouse movement for looking and turning.
Left mouse button or left control to jump.
Right mouse button or C to crouch.
Space bar or left shift or right shift to perform special move.
Q to dodge left.
E to dodge right.
Mouse wheel to zoom the camera in/out.
F9 to take a screenshot.
Tab to open up console.

Gamepad

Left-Thumbstick for character movement.
Right-Thumbstick up or D-Pad up to look up.
Right-Thumbstick down or D-Pad down to look down.
A to jump.
B to crouch.
X or Y to perform special move.
Left-Shoulder to dodge left.
Right-Shoulder to dodge right.
Left-Trigger to strafe left.
Right-Trigger to strafe right.

One of the sweet new improvements to this third build is the ability to snap from 3D to 2.5D, a la Sonic Colors.  Cooooool…

Download the engine: Mirror 1 | Mirror 2 | Mirror 3

Make sure that you have the latest DirectX. A “D3DCOMPILER_43.DLL” error means that you need to upgrade your DirectX.

Play for yourself and leave some comments below.  Try not to start a fight (again).

[via Sonic Retro]

With the announcement of SAGE 2010 today, I thought I’d hit you with something from the scene where I hail from, fangaming.  Sonic Fusion has been around for years and has released an impressive demo at each SAGE it has attended.  The creator, Felik, is one of my good buds and one of the nicest people at Sonic Fan Games HQ.  He also managed to bring Splash Hill into Sonic Fusion as an extra stage, as shown in the video above.  What do you think of his Sonic 4 portage (aside from the graphical mismatching)?

Check out some more Sonic Fusion action. It has a story mode, online multiplayer and some brilliantly animated cutscenes!

More fangame action flyin’ at ya!

We’ve covered Sonic Fusion (by Felik of SFGHQ) here at TSS before and it has been better with each demo.  We haven’t played anything since the demo at SAGE 2009 in July, but this video is more than good enough.  On display here is “Flooded Capital Zone,” a lost empire submerged underwater, complete with ancient Greek/Roman architecture.

The level design is incredibly well thought-out and creative.  It bears a striking play-style to that of Marble Zone, except with a bit more bells and whistles.  Have I mentioned the graphics yet?  I haven’t?  Oh, uh… well… they’re THE BEST.  Rarely do you see custom graphics for an Advance-style fangame, so I’m thoroughly impressed.

You’ve seen countless Genesis and Advance-styled Sonic fangames, but there is only one project out there that is channeling the look and feel of the 8-bit adventures.  I’ve talked about Sonic Mayhem before and I have been always one to praise the project.  Over the weekend, the project’s lead, Amesuki, has released a short demo, pictures of the new zones, and a gameplay video.

The brief demo (download here) runs for about a minute and, to me, is a picture perfect re-creation of the 8-bit Sonic games.  The music, the graphics, and the physics all feel correct.  I just wish it were longer!

Check the video for gameplay of one of the best fangames around and hit the break for screenshots of other levels.

Review by Kain of SFGHQ, Submitted to TSS

As a preface to this review, I will say that I am being particularly harsh in my criticisms of this game, because I feel no need to patronize this team or treat the game as “just a fangame,” mostly because of its enormous size, publicity, and history.  I’m also sore because I get motion sickness from playing jerky 3D games and am being doing it for spite from all the physical pain it put me through.  On to the review…Sonic Robo Blast 2 is a project that has been in development for over a decade and it shows.  In the eyes of many fangamers, including this one, it’s in a class of its own.  The volume of content and detail in this game is incredible.  It is and it feels like a full game.  However, it’s far from feeling like a complete game, as there are a large number of truly unfortunate glaring flaws with this game which keep me from really enjoying it.

For starters, the controls suffer from hyper-fluidity (something common in FPSes, but exacerbated by the fact that this is a high-speed platformer).  Every time you press a button you feel like the fly in the windshield, effecting the momentum of the car you hit in imperceptibly low ways.  There is no discreteness to the controls: no skidding, no sense of friction, or traction.  The entire game’s a giant ice stage in space.  Even jumping and rolling feels more like a nudge than a switch as you’re just shifting from one gliding motion to another.Though especially uncharacteristic when on the ground, this is particularly damaging when you’re in the air where it literally takes 5 seconds to alter direction when going at mid-speeds.  In a platformer, this is unacceptable as it makes everything frustrating, even the otherwise wonderfully well-done belt gimmick in Arid Canyon Zone.The view is limited vertically and tied to movement horizontally, probably done for the sake of keeping the sprite-count low.  This method can get a little frustrating when things are coming from above or you need a wide-angle view of what you’re jumping into.  But this isn’t really so bad; at least you have substantial control of the camera contrary to some of the official 3D Sonic games.

Though you can really tell the difference between the graphics made eons ago and the ones done recently (the ones done recently being much prettier), this game is graphically impressive.  The antiquated Doom rendering engine will test your sensitivity to aliasing and lack of bump-mapping and other modern rending techniques, especially in the spacious level design that SRB2 has on display.  But if you can get past that, there’s a lot to enjoy in the later levels.  The character sprites are immaculate and the use of pixel art techniques in the level textures of Arid Canyon Zone and Egg Rock Zone make them absolutely gorgeous.

Presentationally, the game has a unique and congruent style.  This is such a rare thing in fangames and is so well-done in this game (though some of the old areas could use some going back to and retouching).

As with the graphics, level design quality is somewhat varied from section to section (attributed to the gigantic time this game has been in development, no doubt), but on the whole are conceptually wonderful.  The look, the feel, and the scale of the levels show a real creative eye for design.  There is a wonderful amount of variety in the later levels and a nice flow to the layout.  However, somewhere in the transition from conception to player, all the fun and design of the level get rounded off by unreasonable (and probably unintentional) difficulty.

This game is simply frustrating and shows a lack of sympathy for the new player.  Common with way too many amateur or independent game projects, SRB2 suffers from a lack of leniency, adopting a “the best is just enough” difficulty balancing policy.  The levels are in many ways designed to be played through as Sonic, but playing through as Sonic is at all times frustrating and at many times next to impossible due to a combination of the aforementioned loose controls and the aforementioned lack of leniency.  Far too often the only way to make a jump is to reach the platform right at the top of your jump.  In my opinion, this is a cardinal sin, even for platforms which are right next to you and most definitely should not be practiced regularly with variable-distance long-jumps.

There was one “what the hell was the designer thinking?” moment in particular: in Deep Sea Zone Act 1, the game sets out to recreate the old “logs slowly flowing down a waterfall” scenario, but the “logs” come out randomly and are spaced 3/4 Sonic’s max jump distance apart with no downward leniency (if you lose any vertical footing, you have no chance of making it).  The degree in which the planets must align in order for you to make that jump as Sonic is indeed cosmic.  I say it again: What the hell was the designer thinking!?  The game tries to sell you off of playing as Sonic unless you know the game like the back of your hand, but I get the feeling that this is a bit of a cop-out reaction to the fact that no-one could complete their game as Sonic.

Playing as Tails or Knuckles, you blast past all the entire level, segments at a time, without ever experiencing them.  Until you get to the Egg Rock zone, where you’ll hit a brick wall anyway, made all the more insulting by the fact that they start you off with 1 life when if you try to play it after losing all your lives.  It forces you to play the whole game over again, scavenging for extra men.  Please, a little sympathy.  I like being challenged, but I don’t like being toyed with.

Another area where the level design suffers is in a lack of direction.  I know the developers are reluctant to patronize the player by planting arrow signs everywhere, but there is a lack of distinguishing landmarks indicating the direction you should or should not be going, often resulting in you going in circles.  The game gets better about that later in the game, though that’s more of a product of the increasingly distinct graphical design and less of a conscious effort to make sure the player knows where he should be going.

To use an extremely over-used cliche, SRB2 is the proverbial diamond-in-the-rough, complete with rough.  As I have no experience modding (much less Doom modding), so I won’t speculate as to what’s an engine limitation and what’s an unfortunate design choice or programming flaw, but I think it’s safe to say two things about using the Doom engine: (1) SRB2 will never be a modern game using the Doom engine and (2) it is possible to polish a very good game out of what is there already without having to recreate it in a non-Doom environment (maybe not as good as it could be, but very good nonetheless).  In many ways, this game reminds me of my experience with Sonic Heroes, whose catastrophic implementation flaws get in the way of its legitimately impressive content.   And like Sonic Heroes, I’m sure if I spent days and days playing SRB2 I’d come to love it even through its flaws, but that doesn’t change the fact that these flaws simply shouldn’t be.

Kain is a veteran fangamer and senior member of SFGHQ.

]]> http://www.sonicstadium.org/2009/08/sage-spotlight-sonic-robo-blast-2/feed/ 13 http://www.sonicstadium.org/2009/07/project-mettrix-becomes-first-sonic-fangame-on-wii/ http://www.sonicstadium.org/2009/07/project-mettrix-becomes-first-sonic-fangame-on-wii/#comments Sat, 25 Jul 2009 08:24:10 +0000 Brad http://sonicstadium.org/?p=7844 Continue reading →]]> Stealth is the master of bomb-dropping.  To list a few, he has ported Tweaker’s Sonic 1 Megamix hack to the SEGA CD, tricked morons with news tips, and released a port of Sonic 1 for the Game Boy Advance that doesn’t suck.  At this year’s SAGE though, Stealth has outdone himself.  His long-time project, Sonic: Project Mettrix, has been successfully been ported to the Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation Portable.

Project Mettrix uses Stealth’s “E02 Engine,” a multi-platform game development tool for 2D games.  Mettrix has been around for quite some time, but it is really flourishing with the E02 treatment.  Now, you can play and create custom levels for Mettrix on your Wii and PSP.

Those with homebrew enabled Wiis should download this game right away and experience this momentous occasion.

VISIT E02′s BOOTH AT SAGE 2009!

Aside from the fangames, there are many cool events to check out.  The SAGE chat room is always happenin’ and ridiculous.  An awesome chat client is provided on the site, but can be accessed through programs like mIRC (irc.rizon.net, #sagexpo).  In the chat room, you will be able to talk to Mike Pollock, the voice of Doctor Eggman, and Tom Payne, the level artist for Sonic 2.  Check the “Events” tab to see when they pop in the chat room.

Also, the ever-entertaining SAGEcasts are broadcast from a flash player on the site.  Sonic community members from all over will be broadcasting their music, thoughts, and sketches throughout the week.

The biggest online Sonic community event is waiting for you to come on over and enjoy yourself!  It runs from July 25th through the 31st.

ENTER SAGE 2009