S.L.W. Screenshots (P. 54) "Grammar Errors? This game is a sequel to Sonic's Schoolhouse!?"

[Spooky Mulder]

On the topic of the badniks being "too cute" as some have said, I actually kind of like the cuteness factor they've got going on depending on the portrayal of Eggman in this game. Eggman is a mad scientist who believes he's doing good by replacing the natural animals with his robot creations. He's all about creating his own personal paradise, I mean his dream is to create Eggmanland which isn't some dystopian city like most villains would create—it's a mad carnival. So it makes a lot of sense that Eggman would be fashioning his badniks in the manner they're being designed for this game. Just because they're cute doesn't mean they're any less evil. I can practically hear Eggman admiring one of his new motobugs or slicers "OHOHO what an adorable killing machine!"

[Hyper-Shan]

Dude!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icv-7qvFAHQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI1VpElKWF8

I want this to happen... I need this to happen.

But aww man, this game is looking fantastic. Can't wait for October.

METAL GEAR SONIC: LOST ZEROES

Tactical Extremespeed Action

That scene actually reminds me of Zelda: Manoras Mask as well somehow - I keep thinking that Sonic is trying to Sneak into Clock Town whilst the gret owl is on nightwatch.

[dabbido]

Casino level and those new screenshots look awesome!!! Im liking this more and more : )  Although the Casino being a new zone... its not one of the tropes shown in the map (ocean/beach, green hill place , forest, ice, desert and lava) but considering how diverse zones are this time around, it could be anywhere. I like that, its a welcome change!!!

 

Also I think we need to clear the whole Desert mess, cause theres: -a desert (seen in the new trailer), a candy filled level, a beehive, a tomb/ pyramid, the first and last make sense, but the others not too much, not that I mind, since I like the approach of totally different looking levels, but are they really all from the same zone? I noted from the beehive and candy level, that they have fully explorable stages (like windy hill) more 2D-ish stages (like the candy level) and speedy 3D sections (beehive) could it be that all zones will have one of each? cause if thats so I believe the desert one is our "main" zone.

[Johnny Boy]

Speaking of White Space, I hope Sonic asks about how he got out in this game during the Sonic & Eggman cutscenes, dropping the Doctor right in it and poking fun at him.

Maybe Orbot and Cubot got him out, speaking of which, is there a chance they might appear in this game?

[Barry the Nomad]

I love the variety the game promises, but it is a bit goofy that a candy filled stage would be dubbed "Desert Ruins". At least give the individual acts their own titles that fit in a with the theme a bit more. Maybe that'll happen with the soundtrack CD.

[Octarine]

My fingers are still crossed for Orbot and Cubot. There might not be room for them if Eggman's going to team up with the heroes, but I'd hate to see them just be forgotten about.

Edited July 18, 2013 by Octarine

[Celestia]

I think it'd be cool if each Zone had a subtitle. I want "Honeycomb Havoc" to be a thing, okay?

 

Buuut I still think it's intended to be a Desert/Dessert pun. Especially since the ground in certain parts of the honeycomb zone look a bit like popsicle sticks ... or am I just seein' things?

 

 

My fingers are still crossed for Orbot and Cubot. There might not be room for them if Eggman's going to team up with the heroes, but I'd hate to see them just be forgotten about.

I'd love to see them (probably unwillingly) serving the Deadly Six. Especially if Orbot snarked even more at them than Eggman, as a subtle hint that as much as he made fun of Eggman he's still loyal to the guy.

Edited July 18, 2013 by ElementofChaos

[Hyper-Shan]

God damn the amount of variety in this games levels so far is insane. I don't think there's been any other Sonic game that's even come close to having this much variety. So far we've had the Windy Hill stuff with day and night variants, a candy level, a honeycomb level, jungle levels, desert levels, snowy forest level, Amazonian ruin like levels and a casino level and we've barely scratched the surface of the levels so far.

Also, drawing attention to these two shots:

I wonder what the deal is with those white tokens. Are they like unique sort of rings specifically for the casino levels?

I'm starting to wonder if you can use parkour to climb on those tower of poker chips in the first screenshot. Would be ace! That being said, if the Casino would be a separate world from the others, then what other tropes would you love to see with this zone/world? I personally would love to see another haunted mansion like place like in Shth/Heroes, or a haunted themepark!

Make it happen sometime in the future, Sega!

[Voyant]

God this game...just keeps getting better and better wow! <3

[Balding Spider]

Anyone else think this Casino stage looks like a NiGHTS re-envisioned version of a Sonic Casino Zone.

[Blitz 'n Burst]

Guys guys guys, clearly Desert Ruins act 3 is actually a creation of Zomom to satisfy his large appetite. This would explain a) why this level looks so bizarre even compared to the other levels and why it's in the Desert Ruins stage in the first place.

[Willsy]

Thing I don't get is, how did the casino zone come to be? I thought Lost Hex was called Lost Hex for a reason. Eh, maybe there will be civilization on Lost Hex? I'm pretty sure a PR from Sega said there would be new friends...

[Sonictrainer]

My fingers are still crossed for Orbot and Cubot. There might not be room for them if Eggman's going to team up with the heroes, but I'd hate to see them just be forgotten about.

 

If the Badniks look different in this game, I wonder how they'll look.

[Hyper-Shan]

Oooo, who's this friend the Egg Pawns here have made? That silver 'bot in the back? Doesn't look like a classic-styled badnik, but it doesn't look like anything from more recent games either. From what I can remember, at least.

Also Sonic's left arm looks a little awkwardly placed in this screenshot, haha

Somehow reminds me of Heavy from Knuckles Chaotix... Sorta. & Somic looks like he got shot on the left arm a while back. Don't mess with Chibi Egg Pawn..?

[Carbo]

2. I don't know, they had the classic look down with the classic levels of Generations and they could have just translated that look to new areas. But they said they wanted to achieve 60 FPS so here we are.

There are at least three key factors you can attribute to why the art design is simplified to it's point.

First off, ease of optimization as you and others have put it, making the game run better. In terms of actual effort though I'm tempted to put this on the bottom of "reasons as to why they went with this", mostly because considering the hardware being worked with, games tailored exclusively for one platform have far more leeway to be programmed in order to accommodate to one piece of hardware. The Wii U could most likely run a game of Generations' visual quality in 60FPS if it wasn't run through Unleashed game play - which Lost World isn't.

That leads to the second point - interactivity. Considering how much Sonic Lost World is effectively rehauling the game play in terms of movement and actions, it requires a level of terrain and design that lets you know what is possible to interact with, which in Lost World's case is almost everything. If you design a game with a bloated artistic design, which is especially true in modern games, you'll more often than not find yourself confused as to what pieces of terrain there is you can perform context-specific actions (i.e Uncharted) and a lot of games these days solve that issue by throwing a highlight on points of interest, which is a cheap and poor way to know where and what to use. Due to it's artistic design Lost World doesn't really have to worry about any of that because most of everything looks to be able to be interacted with.

Finally there's an issue of scale. If you're taking a level of the same size of Sonic Generations that means that there are little to no ways to extend levels or come up with extra acts of that same quality. This isn't even a problem inherent to Sonic games but it's one very exemplified in the franchise especially in Gens/Unleashed. Considering the former was stripped off of all the padding that the latter had to extend the game into 20 hours it comes to show just how hard it is to make a long Sonic game. The new art style allows for continuous variety in acts and worlds, and while it's by no means perfect in terms of graphics and textures it's the principle design choice that I think is mostly the cause of "how".

If you want a more succinct summation of that last point, skip to the 02:38 mark of this video and let Yahtzee explain it, because this can be attributed to almost every single game out there right now.

[Stasis]

The one thing I hated about Sonic Colours and Generations was the redesign of Motobug, so I couldn't be happier that they're using the old design again. "We're taking Sonic back to his roots." You got there eventually SEGA. This game screams Sonic.

[Hyper-Shan]

I love the variety the game promises, but it is a bit goofy that a candy filled stage would be dubbed "Desert Ruins". At least give the individual acts their own titles that fit in a with the theme a bit more. Maybe that'll happen with the soundtrack CD.

I'm sure many had said this before, but It's most likely a play on the words desert & dessert, so that's like a hell of a mashup for this. Maybe there could be a mini boss (like the golem in S3&K) that would be a mummy, but is obese from eating too much sweets, maybe...?

Come to think of it, it sounds like it's straight up Earthworm Jim's alley!

Has anyone noticed in the honeycomb screenshot, that maybe, the on-rail acts like that would be bridges to the next zone? Considering the far end of that area looks like it could very well be Silent Forest!

[dabbido]

Especially since the ground in certain parts of the honeycomb zone look a bit like popsicle sticks ... or am I just seein' things?

 

 

 

 

I always heard of this, yet I never saw it, until now xDD its not all of them, but it certainly looks like it (specially the one just right of the acorns)

[Dantemustdie00]

Thing I don't get is, how did the casino zone come to be? I thought Lost Hex was called Lost Hex for a reason. Eh, maybe there will be civilization on Lost Hex? I'm pretty sure a PR from Sega said there would be new friends...

I would guess Eggman built the Casino area on Lost Hex, likely before he woke up the Deadly Six, Eggman likes building large scale cities on ancient sites like Carnival Night on Angel Island.

 

As for why the Robots are disobeying Eggman (assuming he really is just tricking Sonic),  I may guess that Zic (the blue eldery Deadly  Six member) might have turned them against him, he kinda looks like he could have some kind of techno magic or something.

[Victoes]

I would guess Eggman built the Casino area on Lost Hex, likely before he woke up the Deadly Six, Eggman likes building large scale cities on ancient sites like Carnival Night on Angel Island.

 

As for why the Robots are disobeying Eggman (assuming he really is just tricking Sonic),  I may guess that Zic (the blue eldery Deadly  Six member) might have turned them against him, he kinda looks like he could have some kind of techno magic or something.

Of corse the Eggman built it, how els would you explain carnival night zone on floating island that hasn't been disturbed for over several thousand years. Simple, Eggman built it!

[Stasis]

Of corse the Eggman built it, how els would you explain carnival night zone on floating island that hasn't been disturbed for over several thousand years. Simple, Eggman built it!

 

I liked how they addressed this in Sonic the Comic. 

[Victoes]

I liked how they addressed this in Sonic the Comic. 

How do they addressed it in the comics?  

[Stasis]

How do they addressed it in the comics?  

 

http://stc.wikia.com/wiki/Carnival_Night_Zone - There you go

 

I'm going to assume that Eggman was setting up shop on Lost Hex before he discovered the existence of the Deadly Six. He probably tries to bribe them in some manner but to no avail. Not wanting his creations in the hands of someone else, he teams up with Sonic and tells him he'd rather they be destroyed.

[Victoes]

http://stc.wikia.com/wiki/Carnival_Night_Zone - There you go

 

I'm going to assume that Eggman was setting up shop on Lost Hex before he discovered the existence of the Deadly Six. He probably tries to bribe them in some manner but to no avail. Not wanting his creations in the hands of someone else, he teams up with Sonic and tells him he'd rather they be destroyed.

Aha am like that Mario brothers parody aha

[Tani Coyote]

Eggman represents the industrial age: scientific brilliance but with zero regard for the long-term consequences, hence his love of pollution (which I'm really glad they brought back in Colors). It's even seen in the classic titles based on how the bad future is completely destroyed; his "victory" was short-lived in that he destroyed the environment to such a point he wiped out his own empire over time.

It's an environmental message that's not so in your face like Captain Planet's; this has become a theme of the games again, and it was also a highlight of SatAM.

More on topic and less generally: the casino zones/cities represent this industrialist tendency. The rabid industrialist cares not for how ancient a site is; if it's good for a city, it's good for a city. Burial grounds, hot springs, etc. only exist to be tapped into for profit. Everything must be commercialised for the good of the conglomerate.

Ergo, it's no surprise that Eggman sets up a city in every place he lands in. Never mind he has hordes of robots that need something to do when they're not fighting freaky animal people.

...he really should just become a real estate developer.