Sonic Generations: PSN/XBL Demo

[Voyant]

A Sonic game won't become great for dabbling in the open-world style of level design. It will be great, when the level design, regardless of linearity, is thoroughly engaging and innovative for its genre. I don't give a fuck if the stages are literally 20 mile long arrow-straight lines with no alternate routes, just as long as those straight lines are the most interesting and well designed straight lines I've ever played.

[Pawn]

The scripted ramps are hard to notice at first, but then you begin to realise that Sonic moves left/right in the air to land on a platform without you doing anything, and that there's no way that ramp should have sent you so high/should have sent you higher. It's utterly disappointing.

[Rusty Spy]

Games aren't great for a particular facet of their design. Games are great when they do everything they were designed to do, nigh on perfectly.

That is why most modern games aren't 'classics', merely "extremely competant". Being a classic isn't defined by being old. A classic is something timeless. For example, I consider Call of Cuty 4: Modern Warefare a classic. "BAWWWWW, its a generic shooter".....No. Its the generic shooter. It pretty much pioneered the modern-day shooter genre that everyone and their mother is milking the success of. It is a classic, not because of what it is; a First Person Shooter, but rather for what it did as a shooter. It had a great plot (save for the ending), with excellently characterised characters, excellent use of set-pieces, no explosion overload and Rambo-styled action. To date my favorite Video Game storyline ever. Fuck I think its plot is better than Ocarina of Time.

A Sonic game won't become great for dabbling in the open-world style of level design. It will be great, when the level design, regardless of linearity, is thoroughly engaging and innovative for its genre. I don't give a fuck if the stages are literally 20 mile long arrow-straight lines with no alternate routes, just as long as those straight lines are the most interesting and well designed straight lines I've ever played.

[ChikaBoing]

A Sonic game won't become great for dabbling in the open-world style of level design. It will be great, when the level design, regardless of linearity, is thoroughly engaging and innovative for its genre. I don't give a fuck if the stages are literally 20 mile long arrow-straight lines with no alternate routes, just as long as those straight lines are the most interesting and well designed straight lines I've ever played.

[Patticus]

You're talking as if the classics never had scripted events.I'll list them:

-The tubes in Chemical plant.You're stuck just waiting for Sonic to finish getting through them

-The elevators in Launch Base.

-Those yellow flying rings in Death Egg(S&K).Even as a kid i always hated them.I remember there's one that takes like a whole 20 seconds to finish(or at least it feels that long).

-Those spheres in Oil Ocean.You're going from sphere to sphere and can't do anything till it's over

-Those spiders that grab you and take you to the other side of something in Flying Battery.Why couldn't we have a spring or something?

-Snowboarding in Ice Cap Zone.Yes you can jump,but come on,it doesn't really make any difference.

The Sonic Games have always had scripted events.

Come on people take your nostalgia glasses off.The classics are great games,but they're far from flawless.

[Scar]

In Generations, almost the entire bloody level is scripted - even something as simple as a fucking ramp or spring!

How can so many people not understand that by scripting the whole level you REMOVE FREEDOM AND CHOICE.

[Diogenes]

"Almost everything" is an exaggeration, but having so many things scripted, especially things that have no reason to be scripted, is a major problem.

[pppp]

In Generations, almost the entire bloody level is scripted

[Scar]

"Almost everything" is an exaggeration, but having so many things scripted, especially things that have no reason to be scripted, is a major problem.

Edited June 26, 2011 by Scar

[pppp]

Well if we're going this way here i go: Half of Death Egg is scripted.It has lots of Yellow ring things(I have no idea what those bloody things are called),gravity shifting tubes and those wide tubes in which Sonic is spinning around when inside them.

[JezMM]

Actually, I was surprised how unscripted Generations was, modern-wise. Well, sort of. The queues weren't bad at SoS so I had a chance to sort of have a "messing around" run on the demo. It turns out a SURPRISING amount of scripted moments could be done in reverse, though as usual you had to use careful timing to jump over the speed boosters that push you that way normally. Didn't encounter a single anti-backtracking invisible wall like Colours had either (plenty of anti-backtracking obstacles, but none felt out-of-the-game's-reality).

Edited June 26, 2011 by JezMM

[KrazyBean]

Debateable.

Games aren't great for a particular facet of their design. Games are great when they do everything they were designed to do, nigh on perfectly.

That is why most modern games aren't 'classics', merely "extremely competant". Being a classic isn't defined by being old. A classic is something timeless. For example, I consider Call of Cuty 4: Modern Warefare a classic. "BAWWWWW, its a generic shooter".....No. Its the generic shooter. It pretty much pioneered the modern-day shooter genre that everyone and their mother is milking the success of. It is a classic, not because of what it is; a First Person Shooter, but rather for what it did as a shooter. It had a great plot (save for the ending), with excellently characterised characters, excellent use of set-pieces, no explosion overload and Rambo-styled action. To date my favorite Video Game storyline ever. Fuck I think its plot is better than Ocarina of Time.

A Sonic game won't become great for dabbling in the open-world style of level design. It will be great, when the level design, regardless of linearity, is thoroughly engaging and innovative for its genre. I don't give a fuck if the stages are literally 20 mile long arrow-straight lines with no alternate routes, just as long as those straight lines are the most interesting and well designed straight lines I've ever played.

...Here, have some cookies!

You deserve them!

Actually, I was surprised how unscripted Generations was, modern-wise. Well, sort of. The queues weren't bad at SoS so I had a chance to sort of have a "messing around" run on the demo. It turns out a SURPRISING amount of scripted moments could be done in reverse, though as usual you had to use careful timing to jump over the speed boosters that push you that way normally. Didn't encounter a single anti-backtracking invisible wall like Colours had either (plenty of anti-backtracking obstacles, but none felt out-of-the-game's-reality).

Huh? I don't get that...

[PeanutButterDimond]

Messed with the demo a bit. I messed with the last corkscrew. It's very easy to have Sonic only moving very slightly yet still have him stay on the side of the corkscrew and not fall when he should. Please get rid of the scripting, Sonic Team. It breaks the flow and is not needed.

[sonfan1984]

Messed with the demo a bit. I messed with the last corkscrew. It's very easy to have Sonic only moving very slightly yet still have him stay on the side of the corkscrew and not fall when he should. Please get rid of the scripting, Sonic Team. It breaks the flow and is not needed.

[PeanutButterDimond]

I tried to do that just now and I fell to my death. I dunno, maybe I'm just not doing it right or I'm not looking too hard enough to find some flaws.

[b_boult]

Assuming (probably incorrectly) that this video hasn't been posted a billion times already, the rolling physics may need to be addressed!

[100Modem]

I really enjoyed the demo and i can say it was the best Sonic experience ive had since Adventure 2.

But its just me or someone also notice the awful textures on those sunflowers in the beginning? They look horribly pixelated. Also Sonic jumps didn't feel "free" to me, i dont know how to explain this better, they didn't seem smooth like in the classic megadrive games.

Edited June 27, 2011 by 100Modem

[Pawn]

I really enjoyed the demo and i can say it was the best Sonic experience ive had since Adventure 2.

But its just me or someone also notice the awful textures on those sunflowers in the beginning? They look horribly pixelated.

They seem oddly dull in colour as well, especially in comparison to their surroundings. 0_o

Edited June 27, 2011 by Lungo

[Raging Raven]

I really enjoyed the demo and i can say it was the best Sonic experience ive had since Adventure 2.

But its just me or someone also notice the awful textures on those sunflowers in the beginning? They look horribly pixelated. Also Sonic jumps didn't feel "free" to me, i dont know how to explain this better, they didn't seem smooth like in the classic megadrive games.

I think its because it is an early version.

They already have fixed the textures in general I gues.

So don't worry about that.

[crush40rocks]

Or at least no critic has yet pointed out that Generations feels even a tad different from the Classics.

Edited June 28, 2011 by crush40rocks

[Birdie]

I actually found the demo fun after getting over the initial 'omg my eyes' at the sheer speed of it, something which 2D Sonic games have always done to me. The visuals and the ever so slightly rejigged music are great, too. I am intrigued to play the rest of the game, even if it doesn't feel as 'perfect' as the classics gameplay-wise it certainly plays a lot better than Sonic 4 which makes me wonder how the hell Sonic 4 is a project even worth pursuing any more.

Whilst I quite like this demo, it's worth me throwing something out there that's bothering me a tad. I replayed Sonic 2 a few days ago and I realised that in all fairness, there are quite a huge amount of sections within the 'classic' Sonic games where speed certainly isn't the key and that slow, precision platforming mechanics occur more frequently than I remember. Zones such as Aquatic Ruin, Hill Top, Mystic Cave, Metropolis and Wing Fortress rely heavily on avoiding zone hazards by way of careful planning and jumps as opposed to just simply holding down the D-Pad to the right and blasting through a level.

This is only a demo I know, and I am yet to see the rest of the game so I can't comment on it absolute but I hope there's a good balance between careful platforming sections and speed, the demo seemed to lack the former quite considerably.

Also Hi, I guess you could call this me returning to posting here again. Maybe?

[Milo]

Just pulling my thoughts about the physics/demo and posting it here.

"- Rolling. It still doesn't get you far. And on the corkscrew at the end of the level, Sonic uncurls. At times it also doesn't work-I recall rolling into an Motorbug and dying for some reason.

- The spindash. Overpowered, regardless whether you're doing it the classic way (down + X [PS3] / A[360]) or using the SA hotkey way (Square[PS3] / X[360]). There's little-to-no distance variation on charges, 2-3 taps and you're off like a bullet. Also, you can't tap it once and see Sonic charging off-he only rolls forward slowly.

- The tunnels are scripted. Regardless what speed Sonic's going, it'll suck him through and push him out at high speeds like the tubes from Chemical Plant Zone from Sonic 2.

- The springs are also automated-simply touch it, and you be launched in the air-even from below. And when you're launched from the spring, you can't move. Only on springs that launch you up you can move, but only after you've reached the designated height the spring has fixed for you.

- Upward ramps are also automated as well-just like the upward springs, you can't move until you've reached the designated height the ramp has fixed for you.

- I'm not exatly sure, but I'm pretty sure that regardless how many badniks you destroy, you don't bounce any higher with each badnik-the height stays the same.

- There's a specific area than once you go through, you can't go back up through it-it's literally impossible. All the paths at that point fold before that area, so there's no alternative way to go back there.

- Just like what other people are saying, Sonic's jump feels heavy at times.

Finally (this may be considered nitpicking), the screen doesn't move up or down when you make Sonic look up or crouch.

Other than the aforementioned flaws above, the demo was pretty good. Amazing visuals, OK level design and controls, nice animation."

[JezMM]

Huh? I don't get that...

In Sonic Colours there were literally thresholds that once passed over, you couldn't backtrack through. An invisible wall blocked your path from revisiting an early section of the level.

In Generations, I didn't encounter any of this. The only time I couldn't backtrack is when it made sense (due to dropping off a high cliff, etc).

[PeanutButterDimond]

Has anyone gone let in the demo? There is a tree in the way instead of an invisiable wall. I think it's a nice touch.

[thatguyfrom03]

Not my video, but a showcase of Modern Sonic in GHZ from SoS played almost perfectly. Features fairly effective usage of the Spin Dash Drift.