TSS @ SAGE 7: Day 2 - Sonic KI, The Fated Hour, New Beginnings and More

Yes, after a hiatus from reporting on the event, TSS is back bringing you the best of the Sonic Amateur Games Expo! Only The Sonic Stadium can get you impartial comments and reports right from the booths themselves, and every day this week we'll be giving you reports on many games at once! We've also got a bunch of interviews lined up too, so make sure you tune in every day for the latest! Are you ready for this?

SAGE 7 Day 2 Coverage

Games Covered Today:

• Sonic Ultimate: New Beginnings - UltraSonic;
• Sonic Eruption - Chaos Team;
• Sonic The Fated Hour - BlazeFire Productions;
• Sonic And Ice - Abacus Software Entertainment;
• Sonic Ki - Showoff Games;
• Shadow Game - Fernando F. Finamore;

Game of the Day:

Sonic KI

Games Coverage

SAGE Coverage provided by Dreadknux
Click on the images to enlarge them...

Sonic Ultimate: New Beginnings - UltraSonic

Dread: UltraSonic's appearance at SAGE leaves a nice impression. The 'New Beginnings' moniker at the end of the game name does not mean that this is a sequel: when chatting to UltraSonic, he revealed that this simply meant that there has been a difference in the development engine.

Playing the game is better than I anticipated, although when hit by an enemy, you get blown back about ten thousand feet :P Also of note was the inclusion of a wall kick - now included with almost every Fan Game since Sonic Avalanche. The wall kick itself is a little difficult to pull off, meaning that to kick off you have to keep smashing Shift and Space Bar hoping you'll get up the wall.

That said, the level design on the secret level - Hidden Palace - is better than the first zone stage that is on offer normally. I can see this being interesting, but nothing really ground breaking.

• Visit Sonic Ultimate SAGE Booth

Sonic Eruption - Chaos Team

Dread: If I was to put my evil 'bashing' cap on, I'd say this stinks. If I were to take it off, I'd say that this game needs an awful lot of work to get to the standards now expected by many Fan Gamers out there. The sprites are good enough, it's the actual engine - the rings are using a simple "Get hit once, lose one ring" schematic, Sonic floats when falling, stopdeads aplenty, and simple 'walk right while pressing jump every now and then' level design.

If this is a first game, this is good enough for a test engine to build upon your skills, but this shouldn't become a game if the points mention above are still painstakingly present.

• Visit Sonic Eruption SAGE Booth

Sonic The Fated Hour - Blazefire Productions

Dread: One thing pops into mind when playing this game - Tails Adventure. Which is certainly no bad thing at all. Blaze has done a good job with level design and storyline. There's a timer when playing the game, showing the amount of time you've spent playing the game. Odd, but most likely will come into use in the full version.

The demo lets you get to Eggman's base (after, in the opening sequence Tails was killed, mistaken for Sonic). The suspense is very nicely added, and it'll be interesting to see how these special powers from the Chaos Emeralds will be used in the full game. One to watch.

• Visit Sonic The Fated Hour SAGE Booth

Sonic and Ice - Abacus Software Entertainment

Dread: This is certainly nicely presented - Sonic tries to defeat Eggman with Tails' help... only it turns out Tails isn't Tails, but some mechanical creature of some kind. You can easily see the Terminator 2 inspiration here :D Playing the game is not too shabby, although the jump movement physics do seem pretty lifeless.

The level layout is excruciatingly short too, but this is a demo, and all likely to change. Sonic And Ice has the potential to be something great, but at the moment only falls short of that.

• Visit Sonic And Ice SAGE Booth

Sonic KI - Showoffgames

Dread: Oh, if only I could be bothered to make some screens of this game in action ;P Obviously, there are a few tweaks that can be made, yet this is so darn playable it's untrue. Play as either Sonic or Shadow, and by spindashing, you can charge up your "ki". Your ki will make your character run faster, perform much more choice moves and further boost your score. SA2-style, your ranking is made at the end depending on how much Ki you have, score and whatnot.

The level design is superb, with the ability to perform as many combos as the eye can see - link with destroying baddies and grinding, and all sorts :D Plus, differing levels for Shadow and Sonic, with different attacks and controls make this quite a package indeed. We can't wait for it's completion.

• Visit Sonic KI SAGE Booth

Shadow Game - Fernando F. Finamore

Dread: This seems to be a full game that has been released for SAGE 7, and it's quite basic, in all fairness. It takes some getting used to - Stopdead happens like no other game has before, level layouts are pretty dire, and the jump attacking method is quite awkward - but it's one of those games that, although in theory should suck, you keep playing... if not because it's quite a challenge. Review soon.