The Sonic Center
Welcome Center => News and Updates => Topic started by: Rolken on November 15, 2006, 12:07:51 am
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The final word is in on S1GBA - the problems that it was experiencing in 95%-form have most definitely not been fixed. Don't buy it. I mean it. If you're really tempted to, wait until a ROM gets dumped first to give it a test run.
Sonic 06/360/next/whatever is also out, but the only review I know of so far is from Play Magazine, which gave it a 9.5 (!). magnum12 from TSC's gotten the game early through Target shipment hax and has been giving us impressions in the chat, which I'll transcribe in the comments.
Update - Well, there's two new Sonic06 reviews... and... uh... they suck. I could tell you why they both gave it a 5.x, but if you've played any 3D Sonic you can probably guess for yourself.
Update2 - A caveat on Play Magazine and why their score is unreliably high in the comments. :/
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I think the only thing more upsetting than the state of Sonic games today is the state of gaming journalism.
They think it's the GameGear version.
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Since the "remake" most likely sucks, I suggest spending the money that would go towards that game on Disgaea 2, a supremely awesome strategy RPG for the PS2. Deep, addicting gameplay plus a hilarious yet twisted sense of humor equals an extremely good time. :)
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but the most glaring issue with Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis is that Sonic is completely neutered of his ability to run really, really fast because the game suffers from serious slow-down issues. [...] and you leave out the one thing that said character is known for. When you take away Sonic's trademark breakneck speed, what are you left with? An incredibly substandard and unfun game, apparently.
Looks terribly like the sonic jam for game.com reviews. :P
P.S. the "Game On" show gave Sonic the Hedgehog a 8.7.
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20$... I'll buy it.
By the way, the SPA maps are awesome :D Where did you find those maps?
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Don't waste your money on it.
I think Rolk hacked into the SPA rom and pieced together the map pieces.
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This has significantly lowered ranks on my priority list.
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I was hoping the GBA port wouldn't go bad...
At least I've still got my PSP's Genesis emulator, which easily runs all the Genesis Sonic games at their full speed with proper settings. Emulators are the main use for my PSP, actually, along with Sonic Rivals. The PSP is my Sonic machine :P
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20$... I'll buy it.
You have got to be kidding. >:(
Watch it. I dare you. Your eyes will BLEED. (http://media.gameboy.ign.com/media/837/837198/vids_1.html)
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I didn't see that vid yesterday. The game is even slower than gamespy's review says. I'll wait for the rom xD.
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Oh my God. I didn't think it was possible to make GHZ sound so terrible.
And if they can get the spring and ring sound effects right why can't they do the same for any of the others??
Oh God and that background glitching at the end. Horrendous.
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On Play Magazine's review. I thought 9.5 seemed extraordinarily high, so I checked their review history, and... well... they have a certain optimism towards sonic games. According to gamerankings:
Sonic Heroes - A (highest)
Shadow the Hedgehog - 7.5 (second highest)
Sonic Rush - 9.5 (highest)
Sonic Advance 2 - 5/5 (highest)
Sonic Advance 3 - B (maybe Sega cut their advertising)
I'm tempted to wonder if they get paid off by Sega - Sega at least appreciates their opinions, as they quote Play's reviews in places like the official Rush site. At any rate, its scores are less than credible.
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At least Rush and Advance 2 are deserving of their scores. >_>
Also it is my opinion that Heroes and Shadow weren't that bad, albeit not perfect. Call me optimistic, but I didn't mind the games (the PS2 versions, nonetheless). Just a few problems here and there (such as general slowness in Shadow jump dashing, Shadow's shitty spindash, or Heroes' lame filler characters (i.e. Cream, who was originally made for Heroes)).
And yes, I'm proud that I got heroes the day it appeared on shelves. :( (To any negative response: fu)
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I highly disagree that the games deserved those scores. 9.5+ games are supposed to be jawdroppingly awesome, games that pretty much any gamer can recognize as being great. HalfLife, GTA, Mario64, Zelda qualify. Advance 2 and Rush do not, and Heroes particularly doesn't. I hardly hear non Sonic fans even mention any of those games, much less harbor enthusiasm for them.
"Not that bad" qualifies for a 6 or maybe 7 tops, with a "pretty spanking good" for 8. Beyond that rating systems lose any meaning.
Also my impression was that Shadow got raped in reviews more for lack of improvement and abuse of the Sonic franchise more than any particular technical flaws. I didn't mind the gameplay myself, but I still wouldn't give it over a 7.
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What I usually do in terms of "professional reviews" is ignore them and see for myself (i.e. rent first) unless the average score is greater than an 8 or less than a 4.
My opinion on Shadow is similar to Rolken's, except that I noticed some improvements in the camera, light dash (fixed issues with light dash and blue shields), and major improvements in rail switching physics. So far, Sonic 06 is much better than Heroes or Shadow from my experiences.
-Edit: I've heard that 1UP and gamebrink are not the most reliable sources for a review.
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maybe SEGA cuts some of Sonic Team's funding to give it to PLAY :p I mean if anyone has seen a PLAY mag, its really high quality stuff.
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Someone dumped a ROM of S1GBA (Sonic Genesis).
IT'S FUCKING AWFUL.
Don't waste $20 on it. Don't even waste $5 for a used copy. Just forget that it even exists.
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It really is.
Because I'm a sadist, I uploaded it (http://rolken.soniccenter.org/Sonic Genesis {romshark}.gba) for yall.
edit: and because I'm masochistic enough to play through it, a save file (http://rolken.soniccenter.org/Sonic Genesis {romshark}.sav)
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Definitely the worst Sonic game ever by far. I mean, I knew it would be bad, but . . . ugh.
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Trust me, it IS HORRIBLE! And to think, I thought it would be okay. Psshh!
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I've seen videos of this on Youtube. Holy fucking shit it is seriously the worst thing ever.
I think it defines a whole new level of horrible in gaming all by itself, in almost every possible way.
Oh yeah, and Sonic 06 looks really mediocre, too.
WHO KNOWS THE BIG SPOILER IN THE LAST STORY EH?? HAHAHAHAHA!
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It's not that big. I knew about the whole story before the game even came out. :P
But, yeah, I liked the ending to Silver's Story more than I did the Final Ending. I just hated the music that was played during the "SPOILER" of "SPOILER" - again, talking about Silver's.
Although, I did like the Introduction to the Last Episode a lot. I just didn't like Knuckles' expression when "SPOILER SPOILER". Omega looked like he could care less, but I loved the expressions of Tails, Amy, Rouge, and Shadow (even Eggman seemed a little upset!) - and no, I don't have the game; although I KNEW what happen'd I SAW the scenes on YouTube from various users. Amy just seemd to lag on with her "emotion". I didn't like the scene right after the End of the World act.
Anyway, so did you get it? Guess not since you said 06 "looks" mediocre. Ah well. Just curious. There's my ramblings on 06 for the day.
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I tried Sonic Genesis (downloaded it, of course) last month. It's old news, but TSC was down the whole time.
It's unbelievable how badly-made it is. The title screen is flat (one layer plus the Sonic emblem),
and there are no animations. The framerate is so choppy that it's a little hard to play.
The invincibility music plays about 40-50% longer than I remember because the game's so slow.
I guess this explains why the Sonic Advance games had less-than-deep backgrounds.
And isn't the GBA supposed to be quite a bit more powerful than the Genesis?
(I haven't looked at the real Genesis version in a while, but I remember it well enough.
The framerate in the real version shudders a little, but it's not so bad that it hinders gameplay.)
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As Marth said, it's kind of old news, but I tried the Sonic Genesis rom out as well. How did they manage to make it run so slowly/choppily when they sacrificed things as basic as sound quality, part of the screen display, and brick collapse animations?!
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Anyway, so did you get it? Guess not since you said 06 "looks" mediocre. Ah well. Just curious. There's my ramblings on 06 for the day.
Nah, not even got a 360, I just saw a gif of Mephiles doing the dirty deed on 4chan.
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I finished playing the last story. The game has issues, but its not as bad as the critics say it is.
-Pros: * Good story.
* Awesome level music.
* Sweet enemies and bosses.
*Some of the best level designs in a while.
*Sonic (when not in mach speed or on a snowboard), Silver, Blaze, Shadow (when not on a vehicle except the hang glider, note that I always play on foot except when nessecary) and to a lesser extent Omega are quite fun to play.
*Camera is better than previous games (especially SA2).
*Decent voice acting (except Silver, Omega, and towns folk). Special props to Mephilies for sounding like a good villian.
-Meh.
*The gameplay of Tails and Amy.
-Cons: *The snow boarding and mach speed sections are a nightmare to deal with. The former because the jumps and rails are inconsistent in terms of executing right. The later because the controls suck (especially since you can't change direction mid air).
*The camera is still bad, primarily when attempting some short cuts and during boss fights.
*The vehicles suck.
*The gameplay of Knuckles and Rouge. Rouge's gameplay sucks more than Knuckles' gameplay does because you have to go through treasure hunting hell without ANY radar.
*Load times, load times, load times.
-Overall: A mixed bag overall. Still, with X-Box Live around, there is still hope. Most of the problems with the game could be fixed with a good patch (improve Sonic's acceleration, Shadows acceleration/top speed, Silver's top speed, fix load times, give treasure hunting sections a good radar). a 6.5-7/10.
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I'm actually watching some of the cutscenes now on Youtube. Mostly they look pretty lame (especially the one where spoiler spoilers spoiler), but Shadow's ending is quite cool.
Okay and Silver's intro is good too. Shame he can't do that in-game huuur.
What's Blaze's gameplay actually like, by the way?
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I disagree about the story being good, on account that everyone is out of character for worse (Blaze especially), the fact that we have another Shadow clone on our hands, and also the Elise-kissing-Sonic part. It all seems like bad fan-fiction to me.
And Blaze plays kind of like she did in Rush; A little slower than Sonic, but instead of hax hovering (which Silver stole), she gets a double jump technique. She can also utilize a homing-attackish move and a move similar to Sonic's sliding techniqe, except she turns into a spinning flame vortex (which can't jump like in Rush. Sega continuity ftl).
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Yeah I saw Blaze's non-fiery-spinning-top jump in a clip where she hangs about with Silver during a boss-fight. Sucks.
From what cutscenes I've seen (all of Silver's so far, GOD BLESS YOUTUBE) the plot premise is pretty good (despite lots of convoluted time-travelling), but it's just executed so poorly. The direction of the cutscenes is fucking terrible most of the time, and the acting, both in terms of voices and character animation, actually seems to be a step DOWN from SA2!
And people are getting way too hung up about that kiss. It was too predictable to be that big of a deal (though I'm not saying it's a good thing or anything).
Having watched everything now, I see that the ending is ripped straight from Final Fantasy VIII. I must admit I don't really dislike it, though.
One thing that continues to bug me is why Mephiles couldn't simply merge with Iblis in Silver's future. I mean, they were both THERE, so what was stopping him?
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STHG is indeed
super uber-crap. Now, if they can remake Sonic 1, then (If the fix the slowdown) why cant they remake S3&K?
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Sonic '06 is bloody amazing.
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Sonic '06 is bloody amazing.
I call BS.
But in all seriousness, what makes you like it so much? I'm pretty much never going to own it so I want to hear as many varied opinions as possible.
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It's good. Best Sonic 3D game since SA2. 7/10
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Id go so far to call it my favorite Sonic game ever.
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Dammit, RPG, how can anybody wail on eggFL's inevitable rants when you're saying stuff like that? :(
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This game definitely isn't my favorite Sonic, but it's okay. Playing as Sonic feels like a hold-forward adventure sometimes and feels like there's just one route you're supposed to go, and then jumps to amazingly-broken once you get the Sky Gem or Purple Gem (hax jumping/infinite jumping, respectively). Still though, the stages have nice design to them, and I do like the mach stages and their out-of-control feeling.
Shadow's part of the game is okay, I suppose. I haven't played around with it very much, but I can stand it, unlike ShTH. :(
Silver surprised me actually. He's the character that controls the best out of all three, mainly due to his speed being the slowest. This character is probably the reason that Sega used the Havox physics engine in this game. Also, his hover technique acts like Blaze's does in Sonic Rush. His voice may be somewhat young and annoying at times, but he's definitely one of the more fun parts of the game.
There are parts that I hate and just ignore the existence of, but the parts that I like are fun and provide a good enough challenge and reason for me to play the game. This game is in between Adventure 2 and Heroes for me.
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fu Crow, I just like it a lot ok :(
Although I ruined the disc so I need to steal a new copy from a rental shop and switch them or something.
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As I said earlier about the game being a mixed bag, I'd say its a love it or hate sort of thing.
-I'd say that of the three main characters, the game play of Sonic is the worst. Reason: Control. Of all the main characters, Sonic is by far the most likely to experience cheap deaths as the result of some cheap control problem.
-Silver legitimately surprised me. His game play was much more fun than I was expecting. The targeting for his PK is usually spot on. Smashing magma demons with cars or the bodies of their fallen comrades never gets old. He controls really well except for trying to land during a hover (most of the time its the camera's fault as opposed to the movement controls.
-As I mentioned earlier, Shadow's gameplay is fun when you're not forced in the vehicles. He also controls much better than Sonic does. I like his emphasis on heavy combat perhaps because as a kid most of the games I played (Mega Man, Contra, and Castlevania) were very combat heavy.
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Smashing magma demons with cars or the bodies of their fallen comrades never gets old.
I concur. Or there own projectiles X)
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-Pros:*Decent voice acting (except Silver, Omega, and towns folk). Special props to Mephilies for sounding like a good villian.
I love Silver's voice so much. He sounds kinda 'nerdy' and an adolescent. It's so fitting. Silver is my favoritest Sonic character ever.
*The gameplay of Knuckles and Rouge. Rouge's gameplay sucks more than Knuckles' gameplay does because you have to go through treasure hunting hell without ANY radar.
Are you kidding me? Rouge's stage is so easy. And you don't need radar because they keys are placed in landmarks as opposed to random obscure locations like in SA2.
And how can you say Rouge is worse than Knuckles. Rouge is way better. She is faster and flies farther, and she has Tails bombs but unlike Tails she can throw them in air and 10 at a time. She's like Knuckles and Tails put together on crack. And she looks damn cool. She's the best. (on the other hand, Knuckles is absolutely pathetic in every regard. He has no range, he's slow, he looks lame, and he doesn't even use his knuckles to climb. Really kind of disappointing. Meh. At least he's taller than Rouge, unlike in Heroes.)
*Load times, load times, load times.
Perhaps the single worst thing about the game, really.
Yeah I saw Blaze's non-fiery-spinning-top jump in a clip where she hangs about with Silver during a boss-fight. Sucks.
She can spin in a fiery top as a replacement for Sonic's slide attack. It's awesome.
Sonic vs. Shadow vs. Silver: Shadow is hands down the best in the game.
He's exactly like Sonic but way more engaging and cooler looking. And instead of idiotic snowboarding and mach speed, he has vehicles and more normal gameplay. And his stages are generally 50% longer than Sonic's.
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So it figures that when egg does post it's pretty much only to say things I either can't disagree with or actually do agree with. :(
I also like Silver's voice, and, having seen all the cutscenes, I have to admit that Shadow is just a much better character than Sonic now. His character development is done with, but he remains appealing because, unlike "I'm an archetypal hero" Sonic, he actually has some sort of edge, and what's great is that this edge is not just the stereotypical confused angst he had in SA2. I almost disliked the fact that they tried to get more development in with him in the form of Mephiles trying to convince him to seek revenge on the world, but Shadow didn't take even a bit of shit from him which was just awesome.
However, what I meant about Blaze's spinning top is the fact that it's her jump in Rush, and isn't in this, instead being relegated to a slide attack so that her jump is now generic, which is what sucks. I take it you've never played Rush.
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I have Rush. But I don't like her jump in it. The top works better as a ground attack imo. It -is- effective. Sonic's slide attack is useful as it is but with Blaze it's the best. It's like mowing the lawn but with enemies instead of grass.