So hey, I downloaded the demo for Sonic 4 from PSN last night. I played through the first level.
If any of you were reading this blog on, say, August 10th, you might remember me talking about stuff like Gravity and the Loop. The point being that classic Sonic's movement physics were what set his character free and allowed for an incredible physics-based experience.
Now, given that, when I tell you that I won't bother spending my money on Sonic the Hedgehog 4, you'll understand exactly why, right? I won't have to ramble for three pages? Good. Let's wait for Sonic Colors.
...Well, maybe I have a few more things to say.
Sonic 4 did get leaked a while back, and everybody on the Internet was whining about it. I abstained from the leaked content, so I got to watch from the sidelines. One complaint about the game was its "floaty" physics. This was a while before I wrote "Gravity and the Loop," so I disregarded it at the time. But man, are these physics... just... not right. For a Sonic game.
I'm really not one to give Sonic Team a hard time. I'm learning the rigors and challenges of game development as we speak, and I must sympathize with those guys for putting up with... well, everything.
On the other hand, though, the physics was the only thing they needed to get right. Presentation is fine, controls are fine, it's just those physics. Sonic is slow and drops like a lead weight. He carries no momentum. I think they might have missed the idea that Sonic is a physics-based platformer.
But what could they do? As I understand, they delayed its launch after the leak to work on it some more. But with an accusation like "floaty physics" leveled at you, what can you do so late in development? It requires serious engine rewrites and completely reworked levels. It requires an entirely new philosophy, and if Sonic Team had started with a different idea, there's no possible way they could reset the core of their game with the time and budget left. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Sorry, Sonic Team. Sonic 4's still not that great.
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Interview with Caboos15
1 year ago
The sad thing is, they /had/ the correct philosophy in the first place, but they didn't bother following it at all.
ReplyDelete"Momentum-based gameplay" was one of their public statements as to why this game wouldn't be like any of the other games released since the Mega Drive days. Then, a couple of days after, they said the game would have the homing attack (which in game mechanics basically means instant speed boost while in the air) and everything went back downhill from there.
You know, I think the reason they can't get it is because the man who programmed the original games isn't doing that anymore. The knowledge of how to actually make the classic games was replaced by something else as soon as he was hired up out of the programming division, and then he left the company and any chance of recapturing the old games left with him.
I think it's true that the man himself leaving the group caused us to lose this vital knowledge. On the other hand, if we know what it is we're trying to accomplish, we should be able to at least reverse-engineer it.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet there's some Sonic fangame programmer out there who could help us out... someone who's figured some of this out.
Mate, what fangamers do is they don't build the engines from the ground up; they either take the engine from somebody who did develop one but doesn't use it, or just snip all the code from Sonic 2. After all, that last one is clearly how Sonic 2 HD is going down.
ReplyDeleteOf course, ignore that comment. Sonic Fan Remix is built from the base up, and the physics have even been perfected. By guys who aren't being paid. By guys who have no professional training. And it was finished in a shorter time.
ReplyDeleteI am really pissed. I've got absolutely no sympathy for SEGA anymore.
While this statement seems pretty normal (since it's appeared on the Internet for about six years), remember for a second that I was a complete -optimist- about it all three weeks ago.