Now that Sonic Origins have added Knuckles to Sonic CD and Amy Rose to Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic CD, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, my questions for all Sonic fans are two:
1) Is the speed different for each character in Sonic Origins and Sonic Mania? I ask because I'm not really sure.
2) What do you think the pros and cons of the following characters are and who is your favourite and why?
Sonic (Sonic Origins and Sonic Mania)
Tails (Sonic Origins and Sonic Mania)
Knuckles (Sonic Origins and Sonic Mania)
Amy (Sonic Origins)
Ray (Sonic Mania)
Mighty (Sonic Mania)
I think that the most balanced characters are Sonic and Tails. Sonic can use shield abilities and is the only character with an additional airborne move. Sonic is one of the most fun characters to play because of that. On the other hand, Tails is able to fly in any direction without running up. Is Tails the "best" character because of that? I think that he might be.
Knuckles is a great character and I enjoy gliding and climbing but I don't like that his jump is capped. He might be heavier but is it fair in gameplay terms that his jump is lower? I don't think so.
Amy. I still haven't played as Amy in Sonic Origins.
Ray. I've been playing as Ray for a short time. Ray is fun to use because of his realistic flying ability but is that useful? I prefer Ray over Mighty, though.
Mighty. Thanks to his tough shell, Mighty is very useful in most levels, being safe in many occasions but his special ability is not especially useful or fun.
My ranking would be: Tails, Sonic, Knuckles, Ray and Mighty (I haven't played as Amy yet).
In general, Sonic is the fastest overall. Knuckles accelerates slower, and doesn't jump quite as high. Tails has a slower top speed when running. I'm not sure about the speeds of Mighty and Ray I don't use them much, but honestly, I don't really notice the speed differences between the various characters as I mostly use momentum, bouncing and spindashes and they all feel pretty similar in this regard.
Sonic is the only one that can drop dash, and who can use the extra powers of the elemental shields.
Sonic has always been my favourite in the classic games, preferably with Tails following him (even though he can be annoying in the Sonic 2 special stages!). This is admittedly partly because I just like the character and they are "his" games.
I've always been happy when new characters are added to Sonic games because it expands the world, and I enjoy playing as them all for variety on occasions, but I always go back to Sonic because he was designed for the core gameplay style. For example, Knuckles being slower but able to climb, glide etc feels like a very different style of gameplay. This is great for variety, and its fun to explore levels that you know well in a different way.
But usually when I feel like playing a "Sonic" game, I'm feeling like experiencing "Sonic" style gameplay. This means that when choosing to control other characters, I'm basically doing it to have the novelty of a "pallet swap" skin for Sonic, and I mostly just stick to running and jumping, and don't really use the extra abilities. I know this is the exact opposite of what most people do, but for me, I just enjoy momentum based running, jumping and bouncing around.
In games where Tails can properly fly, this can be useful if there is a difficult section and you get stuck. I don't tend to need this anymore, but when I was young and inexperienced in games I loved playing as Tails in Sonic Chaos so that I could learn the level layouts and get past certain tricky platforming areas I was having trouble with. To this day, that particular game is one where I usually choose to play as Tails out of nostalgia, whereas usually I'd always go with Sonic.
The only character I have a "problem" with is Ray. I really like the character design and find him very cute but I don't think the "Super Mario World" style flying/floating works well with Sonic level designs at all. Theres too much verticality and stuff to bump into. Its not as useful as Knuckles being able to climb and glide, or Tails being able to freely fly (in the games where he can do that).
As far as character designs, I really like Vector and Charmy from Chaotix and would love to see them in a proper platform game without the tether. I also really like Cream the Rabbit from Advance 2/3 and think that she would fit with the classic style characters very well.
I've spent many hours over the last few days playing as Amy in Sonic Origins and I really love it. I honestly think she might be my new favourite way to play the classic Sonic games and might be my new "main" from now on (or Amy with Tails following, just as I do with Sonic).
The reason Amy works so well for me, is she is essentially "pink Sonic" and plays extremely similarly - which some people won't like of course, but is perfect for me. I think the sprite design is really cute. Advantages of her are that she is slightly smaller so has a smaller hitbox which makes some of the platforming slightly easier, and also you can press the jump button a second time once she's already jumping and she swings her hammer, effectively making her "spin" reach a whole tile bigger all round - this is very handy for hitting enemies that are just slightly out of reach, and means you can somewhat "cheese" the boss fights in a lot of games as you can attack Robotnik at times when you wouldn't usually be able to reach him, or would get hurt for touching him. Some people will think this is cheating but for me the boss fights have always been my least favourite part of the games, so a way to finish them easier and faster is welcome for when I'm replaying. She has a "drop dash" equivalent with a hammer attack too but I don't really use the drop dash much in any Sonic game. Perhaps I should. I'm just stuck in my ways from playing the old titles.
I'm sure that Amy is probably slightly slower than Sonic and also the timings of jumps etc are slightly different because she is smaller, but honestly I didn't even need an adjustment time, literally my first run at Green Hill Act 1 it felt completely natural and I had no problems switching my brain off and playing "on automatic" in a flow state like I do with all classic Sonic games, played through all 4 games in one night with no issues.
Super Amy is exactly what you'd expect, but Hyper Amy has a new move thats hilarious and seriously OP. I won't spoil it for you and many people seem to not realise it even exists as you have to press a specific button to make it happen (rather than all buttons doing the same thing like usual). But its kinda hilarious.
The only problem I have with Amy compared to Sonic is that when she has the elemental shields she can't use their extra abilities. I especially miss the air dash you can do with the Fire Shield. That was always my favourite to do.
I was intrigued about the speed and acceleration differences among the charactes. I have noticed the top speed of Tails being slightly lower but I wanted confirmation about that and other statistics. Sonic is also my favourite character and the most fun to use although I consider Tails having the biggest advantage without sacrificing much. I used to fly much as Tails as a kid but now I mostly use jumping, bouncing and spin-dashing, too. The shield abilities that Sonic can use are great.
I agree about Ray. His and Mighty's airborne abilities were introduced in fan-made Sonic Mania and I don't think that they are great. Mighty is just a bit tougher than the other characters and Ray's flying technique is not useful in these games, at all. Not even the Encore Mode of Sonic Mania, that introduced these old characters with new abilities, are designed for them as the level design is basically the same as Mania Mode.
I got the expansion but I haven't played as Amy yet because I'm trying the Game Gear games, being slightly disappointed with the audio and satisfied with the input response. I have already beaten the classic Sonic platformers (1, 2 and Chaos) with the chaos emeralds although they only change the ending. Well, there is an extra zone in Sonic 2 when you find all the emeralds and I think it's the first time I play it. How bad the Game Gear version of Sonic 2 is compared to the Master System version! Not just the boss battles but the platforming and the whole Scrambled Egg Zone. The game is very hard but the Master System is more playable. I really wish we got the Master System versions on top of the Game Gear Collection.
Back to the characters and specifically Amy, I remember a game where she didn't move as Sonic but just jump and use the hammer but I don't remember what game now, it must be one of the handheld games. It was not intuitive playing as her so it's awesome that she moves as Sonic in Sonic Origins. It's wonderful that we can play as six different characters in the Mega Drive classics in Sonic Origins!
@Banjo- You're thinking of the Sonic Advance series for the game where Amy doesn't spin, but instead jumps and uses her hammer. It works well (I especially like that she can hit the floor with her hammer as she jumps to go higher) but I prefer the way she plays in Origins Plus, even if it is very similar to Sonic's playstyle.
Adding new moves to the classic games is very risky, as the levels weren't designed for them - as you pointed out, neither Mighty or Ray's unique moves work particularly well in Mania. I did wonder if Knuckles wouldn't work well in Sonic CD, but actually because of teh larger and more exploratary nature of that game, him being able to climb and glide actually makes the game a lot easier - also I noticed that if you stand still and rev the spindash after touching a signpost, he can time travel... I'm not sure if thats on purpose or a glitch but it makes time travelling a lot simpler and less frustrating!
Tails being able to fly certainly is useful - but I actually prefer havign him as a second character following, and then when I want to fly I can just get him to carry me! lol.
If you are interested in the exact speed and acceleration differences, as well as jump heights, all down to the exact ratios, I am currently looking into the code of various open source engines to get my own as accurate as possible, so I can probably give you a very detailled answer soon But in general, knuckles doesn't jump as high and accelerates slower, tails is the same jump and acceleration as Sonic (I think) but has a slower max speed.
@samuelvictor Hey Samuel, can characters that aren't Sonic collect the chaos emeralds in the Sonic Origins games (excluding Game Gear games)? I know that in Sonic 3 & Knuckles they all can because I have a file for each character and collect the emeralds for each, no problem. On Gamecube, I remember that you could collect the super emeralds on top of the emeralds but I don't remember the purpose. Because you can recycle game files (first New Game Plus ever?), it's never been that bad in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
In Sonic CD (Xbox 360), I know that Tails can't collect the "emeralds" (time stones). Can Tails and Knuckles get them in Sonic CD (Sonic Origins)? What about Sonic 1 and Sonic 2? Can the other characters collect the emeralds? I want to collect all the emeralds in each game after doing so in Sonic Mania.
What button do you press for Amy's overpowered special move? I don't mind gameplay spoilers, I looked on YouTube but couldn't find that move.
EDIT:
Regarding that trick you talked about, how is it? I restarted Sonic 1 to get another emerald in the first level because it's easier to keep rings there but if I continue, I go to the next act and if I restart, I lose the first emerald.
The reward for collecting all the Super emeralds is that you can now have your "Hyper" form on top of the Super Form, having a slightly different appearance and giving extra moves - for example (spoilers), Hyper Amy flashes between her normal and Super form colours, can now use her hammer when falling (previously only when spinning) and can throw an unlimited amount of hammers as a projectile! You do it just by pressing the same button you use to turn into super form
I've just quickly tested for you, and all characters can collect emeralds in all games in Origins Plus.
As for the trick to get emeralds easier, it doesn't work exactly how I thought because returning to the title screen and using the level select to go back to the first level to collect more emeralds causes a new save game and overwrites the existing one without asking.
In Sonic 1 and Sonic CD, you can't You also can't restart the same act over and over to collect more emeralds in a single zone, because of course after you collect an emerald, it skips to the next zone.
What you can do though, is if you accidentally reach the end of an act without 50 rings, you can pause the game and restart the level as many times as you need to. However, make sure you pause BEFORE the results appear and start counting up your score. Easiest way is keep slow towards the end of each act and don't touch the signpost but if you do touch it accidentally, pause the game really quick before it stops spinning. Once it stops spinning, you can't pause.
Sonic 2 is FAR easier than 1+CD because collecting an emerald returns you back to the level, rather than jumping to the next act. You can literally collect ALL of the emeralds in Act 1 of Emerald Hill by just restarting the level every time you are returned to it after getting an emerald
@samuelvictor I just collected all the emeralds in Sonic the Hedgehog and I'm playing Spring Yard Zone Act 3! Actually, the only special stage that I had to retry more than once with coins was the second and you get three coins after getting an emerald, so I still have 999 coins. I think that it will be Sonic CD the one that will give be problems, we'll see.
Hyper is for Sonic 3 & Knuckles only, right? I think that the second part of the game lets you collect super emeralds instead of emeralds and are automatically placed inside a cave. Or is is that after collecting seven emeralds you start collecting super emeralds? I don't remember right now.
EDIT: Now I'm wondering if I can play the game as another character after Sonic and not erase the emeralds that I got.
Yes you can only go hyper in S3&K because you have to collect the 14 emeralds, 7 chaos, 7 super.
I think the special stages and emeralds will just go in order of which ones you've completed, so once you have all the chaos emeralds you move on to the super ones. I don't think you have to get all the chaos emeralds before Mushroom Hill or anything like that, you will just keep collecting the emearlds in order no matter what stage you are on.
@samuelvictor That's right. I just beat Sonic the Hedgehog and if you continue with another character, you restart the game without the chaos emeralds. No big deal because in Sonic the Hedgehog they only change the ending. In Sonic CD, they only change the ending, I think, I have never got them. In Sonic 2 they trigger Super Sonic transformation, though. That means that players can only transform after collecting them all in that particular playthrough. You'd have to get all the chaos emeralds with every character to see all the transformations. In Sonic 3 & Knuckles you have save files so no problem, every one that you collect stays saved and you can play any level after beating the game. I think that's how the chaos emeralds work in Sonic Origins.
@Banjo- You're right that traditionally you can only go Super in Sonic 2 & 3&K.
However, in Origins, In Sonic 1, if you enter the level select cheat (up down left right + action button on the title screen once "press start" appears) you get the option to enable max emeralds to 7 emeralds, and then you can go super in the original game too
As far as I know, you can't go super in CD.
There's apparantly a cheat to go super without the emeralds in Sonic 1, 2, 3&K. Just go into the level selects of each game and play sounds 04, 01, 02, 06 in that order, and an emerald sound plays to indicate it worked. It'll only work in Sonic 1 if you've already set max emeralds to 7. If you want to go hyper in S3&K, you can play those same songs it twice in a row.
@samuelvictor I forgot the cheats. I haven't find any cheat for selecting level in Sonic CD... They are the only way to be Super in the first game, I'll try that. So I started Sonic CD, that I had beaten previously (Xbox 360 version on Xbox One). I read the Wiki and there are two ways of getting the good ending. First would be getting all the time stones, second would be destroying the robot transporters in the past of every act. In this version, it's easier because you can restart the level/checkpoint after finding a good spot for travelling into the past [oops, restart doesn't take you to the last checkpoint but no problem with infinite lives], not to mention retrying the special stages with coins. The Knuckles glitch you mentioned doesn't work with Sonic, unfortunately. Destroying the Metal Sonic holograms make animals no longer scared and show up.
My first playthrough (Xbox 360 version) was with a guide and I didn't like that. Sonic is not a game for playing looking at a guide. This time I'll play without a guide to find the robot transporters unless I can't find them. The Wacky Workbench Act 1 robot transporter is almost impossible to find. I'll also try to destroy the Metal Sonic holograms. I did all that before with the guide but using a guide with a game like this, a labyrinth, is not ideal. It's better to explore remembering where you've been. The special stages of Sonic CD are the ones I hate the most of all games but with coins I hope to get all the time stones!
There is a level select for Sonic CD, but you have to unlock it slowly by completing each level in under a certain time in time attack. You can also unlock DA Garden, Sound Test and Visual Mode. Here's a guide to doing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTaceTiXec0&t=0s&ab_c...
As far as I know, there is no simple cheat to do it all, and sadly no way to go super. This is stranmge because its in all the other games, but I assume its a holdover from the fact they just ported the full 2011 code including the menu systems etc and it uses a much earlier version of the retro engine, this is presumably why Knuckles wasn't in there to begin with as well - adding stuff to CD is just harder for them to do without Whitehead doing it directly.
Yes you are right there's 2 ways to get the good ending in CD. I actually watched a handful of really interesting videos about the development of Sonic 1, Sonic 2 and CD on the YouTube channel "Kiro Talks" and they gave me a huge amount of appreciation for the game, and also actually have more appreciation for Sonic 1, whereas previously, I always felt both were quite flawed, even though I loved the characters, music and certain levels. For me, Sonic 2 & S3&K have always been where 16bit Sonic games were perfected. But replaying through the mobile remakes (and Sonic Origins) I enjoyed tehm a lot more than I used to, and these videos actually made me like them even more because I now understand why the "flaws" exist and were actually planned as part of the design, but just ironed out in later games to be less jarring.
You probably already know but Sonic CD and Sonic 2 were devloped simultaneously. Sonic 2 was developed in America by STI lead by Mark Cerny, but Yuji Naka (Sonic 1 programmer), Hirokazu Yasuhara (Sonic 1 level designer) and some other sonic Team Mebers went over there to guide the team. Sonic CD stayed in Japan and Naoto Oshima (Sonic 1 character designer) lead what was left of Sonic Team in making Sonic CD (in fact the next game after Sonic 1 to have all of Sonic Team working together again was Nights into Dreams on Saturn!!). This is also why Tails was designed by Yasushi Yamaguchi and not Oshima - Oshima wasn't working on Sonic 2.
Because Japan lost Yuki Naka, their lead programmer, Sonic CD uses the same engine as Sonic 1, but obviously adjusted and improved it to add the larger levels and new features. This is why in the Mega CD original, the Sonic sprite stayed the same as Sonic 1, and also the "spindash" was just the roll sprite rather than a new animation, and also why there is no option Tails following you. So, as far as engine tech and storyline is concerned, Sega were right to place CD between Sonic 1 and 2 in Origins Story Mode, even though people in the West found that controversial. In many ways, Sonic CD is the true second Sonic game, even though many, myself included, have always thought of it as the third game because it was released after Sonic 2. In some ways, at the time of release, the weaker spindash, lack of Tails or multiplayer modes, and the older sprite, made Sonic CD feel like a step back after Sonic 2... and now we know thats because it was meant to be released first, and the true sequel to Sonic 1.
Anyway - both games were purposefully devleoped with the user and review feedback of Sonic 1 in mind. Sonic 1 had been criticised by some people - myself included - for feeling unbalanced and havign some levels be a lot "better" than others. The slow paced Marble Zone directly after the fun fast Green Hill still feels jarring to me to this day. Labyrinth Zone is another that players famously didn't enjoy.
However, in Sonic 1, this was actually done on purpose. Each level was meant to give a completely different experience and play style, to add percieved value to the game. Green Hill teaches you the basics & lets you perfect how Sonic's momentum controls. Marble Zone is more like a Mario stage, emphasising timing and precision platforming. Spring Yard is a pinball table. Labyrinth is a maze, and was also designed to show off various graphical effects, like the palettes changing underwater and teh tile warping. Starlight is a rollercoaster to show the most of Sonic's speed. Scrap Brain is Robotnik's base, full of traps and building anticipation for the final boss.
With all that in mind, I now have slightly more appreciation for Sonic 1's levels. I always felt that Green Hill, Starlight and Spring Yard were the most fun and felt the most like a "new" type of game compared to older slower titles. I'd have prefered a game just full of this style of play. But I now appreciate that they were trying to give unique experiences and different play styles to fit different players' preferences, either for speed and momentum, or challenge and exploration. Thats a cool idea and incorporating different playstyles in gaems is actually quite important to my own games that I design - though I try and keep the balance a little less jarring. I can't blame teh dev team though, this was 1991 and no game like Sonic had ever been made before! It was an amazing technical achievement, as well as havign such incredible music, graphics and character design that I instantly loved it despite its flaws.
Sonic 2 was made to concentrate on the speed and momentum design that people enjoyed from Sonic 1's Green Hill and Stardust Speedway levels, which most players said were the best. The spindash was added to stop you ever being frustrated and needign to backtrack to gain momentum to get up hills or go round loops. Its also the reason it moved from 3 acts per zone to just 2 and added the boss to the end of the second act, so the player would see more variety quicker. Super forms were added. The special stages went from slow and relaxing/trippy with a birdeye view to running down a half pipe with a third person view. They even removed teh speed cap from the programming meaning that theoretically Sonic can get infinitely fast if nothing gets in his way, often outrunbning the camera. Just keep everything as fast and fluid as possible, thats what players and reviewers liked most in Sonic 1.
But Sonic CD was designed to encorporate BOTH playstyles and users could chose which they prefer. If you want to race and be fast, you get the good ending by getting the emeralds in teh special stages. But if you prefer to take your time and really explore the levels and indulge in the world and storytelling, you can use the time mechanic to make the good future in all the levels and bring back all the animals and grow all the flowers, you get the good ending this way as well because Sonic did the right thing and helped everyone. I really like that idea and admire that they tried to make the game for people that liked different styles of gameplay.
Its a shame for childhood me that I played Sonic 2 before Sonic CD... even though there were elements that I really loved - the music, the animated story parts, Amy and Metal Sonic, it still felt like a slower, less tightly designed, and less fun game than 2. I'd still argue that Sonic 2 is the better game overall but the design of CD is a lot more thoughtful that I originally felt, when I played it back in the 90s and imagining that I played it after Sonic 1 but without playing Sonic 2, I'm sure i would have loved the game a lot more as it obviously feels like a huge upgrade to Sonic 1.
I think if you consider all the things that both Sonic 2 and Sonic CD were tryign to achieve, S3&K actually combines everything together perfectly. A huge amount of variety, storytelling, level transitions, levels changing over time, act 2 being different to act 1, very fast and powerups to make you even faster, but also having enormous levels you can slow down and explore if you want... presumably that was the reason to bring in a playable knuckles who is slower but can climb and glide and really go everywhere. Theres both 3d bonus stages and different styles of 2d and top down special stages... They basically learned from the previous 3 games and designed the perfect Sonic game to fit every idea and playstyle together in a way hat makes sense. Thats awesome.
@samuelvictor I checked the Xbox 360 version of Sonic CD to see what I had unlocked: D.A. Garden, Visual Mode, Sound Test, Stage Select. Everything. The Stage Select lets you play any of the variations of each level. I guess I have to unlock things again in Sonic Origins. The menus are not exactly the same, though. Sonic Origins have some options in the hub. In Sonic Origins, people complain because of the blurry pixels. The Series X version is 4K and I turned the anti-aliasing off and it looks good to me. Is the Switch version blurrier in 1080p?
Yesterday, I played until Stardust Speedway and I got all the time stones! I only got two in the Xbox 360 version. I retried the special stages but not as much as I expected, only a few times the more difficult, five times one of them. I also found all the robot transporters but not every Metal Sonic hologram. The story of the game is quite interesting with the time travelling that is not just a gimmick. They called each act zone because it has several variations so they called each zone a round. I'm enjoying the game much more this time and I found the robot transporters without help. Actually, in two acts (zones) I couldn't find it, I checked the guide and I realised that I had already destroyed them but went so fast that I didn't realise. When they are destroyed you can see the debris but I didn't pay enough attention.
The replayability value is huge because the levels are big and have different graphics and music in each variation with two different soundtracks, not to mention finding the Metal Sonic holograms and robot transporters. Being able to get the good ending in two ways is a masterstroke and makes sense because both ways change the past. You can say that I like Sonic CD much more now and I consider it one of the best Sonic games. I'm going to watch that Kiro Talks video about the first game. I know you love Nights into Dreams because you mentioned it elsewhere. I have the Xbox 360 version but I haven't played it yet. I will after this Sonic marathon.
Sonic 2 has an excellent soundtrack and all zones are fun. Sonic 2 basically spoils players with candy. That's how I see it. What can I say about Sonic 3 & Knuckles? You know, for me is one of the best 2D platformers ever made. Even the part I didn't like, Blue Spheres, I managed to control and beat.
Back to Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic 1), those Marble and Labyrinth zones are the ones that I like the least, especially because of the music and when the air bubbles take too long to appear, respectively. Sonic 1 is more a classic platformer although the first zone defined the Sonic gameplay perfectly. In my opinion, it also has the weakest soundtrack of these games except, obviously, Green Hill Zone. I had noticed the gameplay differences. For instance, the pinball style of Spring Yard and some traps in Scrap Brain being "unfair" because they were made by Eggman, that was introduced as Robotnik by a manual translator. This is what I want to watch that video, to understand the rest of the game although you explained it well.
I originally played Origins on PC and yes to begin with it was very blurry, this was due to the fact that when Sega implemented the retro engine to work with their menu system, they made it so the retro engine was running on a 3d polygon that scaled to whatever resolution the screen was. This caused some pretty horific blurring at certain resolutions. This has subsequenmtly been patched and improved, but its still not as perfectly crisp as the native integer scaling that the retro engine uses when everything is just in pure 2d. In other words, Sega used a 3d engine to make 2d menus and messed everything up unecessarily. Its very frustrating but as you said as long as you turn AA off it should look pretty crisp at 4k because teh soft edges are 4x smaller than at 720p. There's a mod for Steam that fixes it entirely, I'm not sure how it works, but I'm grateful it exists!
On Switch, its still got this problem of slightly soft edges, but its more noticable in docked mode than handheld. This is because the handheld screen is 720p, which allows the engine's native resolution of 424x240 to scale perfectly at a 3x integer. (It also integer scales perfectly to 1440p and 4K on more powerful consoles). The problem is that 1080p is the outlier and the image will stretch to 4.5 scale, meaning no way to have 100% crisp pixels no matter what you do.
When making my own games, which are targeting all modern consoles and PCs, I chose to replicate the ultra clean and crisp look of Sonic Mania by programing my engine to use the exact same base resolution. I knew this way it would look 100% perfect on the Switch screen, and also perfect on the Xbox, PS5 and PC at 4K. Because its perfect integer scaling, the 4k and 720p images are essentially identical, neither looks better or worse. Again, the only problem is 1080p which will be slightly soft, and this is what the Switch will used docked, and on some pcs, laptops & televisions. Its not too noticeable as long as you stay in a dedicated 2d fullscreen mode (like Mania does) but its still not quite as perfect as 720 and 4k... so I've added the option to have it set to a 4x integer scale with a slight black border for those that want pixel perfect sharpness at 1080p. I've also created a really good fully customisable CRT shader with options like scanline, rgb separation, av noise, tv curvature so people can dial in their prefered retro look if they want to make eerythign look more like on their old TV, which of course gets rid of the problem of the pixel edges not being crisp
I totally agree with your assessment of Sonic CD and Sonic 2. I think when I was younger I was somewhat soured towards Sonic CD because I'd been so excited for it and read all the previews in magazines etc and imagined this amazing, huge "ultimate Sonic" game, but I didn't actually own it until several years later when it became affordable to buy a second hand Mega CD, and while I liked it and had fun, there was no chance it could live up to my expectations - especially after I'd already played Sonic 2 so much. I had the same experience with Knuckles Chaotix on 32X - reading all the previews I was desperate to play it, loved the designs of teh new characetrs, but when I could eventually afford to get it, found it was slightly disappointing. However, I still loved both games for their weirdness and for the things about them I enjoyed - mostly the addition of new characters, story, and the music and level themes.
I previously felt CD was inferior to Sonic 1, but I changed my mind when I played the 2011 version and as someone older I had more patience to explore properly and give it a real chance. Its definitely a better game than Sonic 1, with the exception of Green Hill Zone which as we've estblished i think is pretty much perfect. Chaotix is still definitely the worst of all the classic Sonic games on the MD/MCD/32X, I even prefer 3D Blast / Flickies Island... but I don't hate it, there's lots to love if you look past its flaws.
Also, I agree that Blue Spheres is the only part of S3&K I don't like that much. I really enjoy the Sonic 2 halfpipe, especially the improved version in actual 3D thats in Origins and the mobile game. However when playing Origins I've noticed that I'm much, much better at Blue Sphere than I've ever been since forcing myself to play it over and over for Mania! lol
[edit] I'm excited for you to play Nights! I hope you enjoy it. Its definitely a very unique game, there's nothing else really like it. I see a few people try it for the first time on streams or youtube videos and don't really know what to do, or everythign seems to random, so they give up quickly and don't like it. But once you get a feel for it, its really wonderful. Miyamoto actually said it was the one Sega game that he wished that he had made!
It's interesting how Sega was much more popular in Europe and other PAL regions than in US. One thing I loved as a kid and still do is the environmental-friendly soul of Sonic. The video I posted is informative so I liked it more than one I just watched from Kiro Talks that is more a fan opinion about Sonic 2 and Sonic CD. The Splash Wave video taught me things I didn't know and how the development of the first game was. It's an amazing process and, thankfully, Sega extended the development time. I've always thought that Yuji Naka is one of the best programmers in history and I know that Naoto Ohshima designed the character but the video showed me what others did and how the process was. Hirozaku Yasuhara not only designed the levels but had the idea of attacking while jumping. He redesigned Green Hill Zone until it was perfect. It is.
I just realised that the fan opinion video is your second link so now I'm watching the other link. This is the one that includes all that information about speed, level design, etc. I liked it. "What would have happened if Sonic failed and Nintendo had a monopoly? It wasn't just a victory for Sega." Interesting. I agree with the ending, Sonic Team should have been treated like kings and they were not at the time. It's thanks to Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima and Hirokazu Yasuhara that Sega "won" and the Sonic character and gameplay exist.
@Banjo- Yes Splash Wave make probably the best and most comprehensive "making of" style videos for retro games on the internet, they are always fantastically produced, I've watched all of them, several times over.
I've always be especially fascinated with the history of videogames from 1990-1995. Everything was changing at such a rapid pace. So many different huge electronics companies tried, and failed, to launch consoles - Apple, Philips, NEC, Panasonic, Goldstar, Bandai, Commodore, Amstrad, etc. Atari, who previously created the videogame "craze", but then proceeeded to destroy it a few years later, were trying to make a comeback after several failed console and computer systems. There was an unprescidented amount of handheld systems all trying and failing to dethrone the Gameboy - not just the Game Gear and Lynx but also the Watra Supervision, Cougarboy/Megaduck, Gamate, Hartung Game Master, Tiger Gamecom etc... not to mention the Nomad and Turbo Express / PC Engine GT. Microcomputers were still super popular, and the various Amiga systems were doing well... but Doom was about to send "real" PCs stratospheric. Nintendo had a rare failure in the Virtual Boy, and fluffed the whole "CD addon" thing and accidentally created their own biggest rival, Playstation. Games tech was gettign more impressive by the month, and new genres were beign invented all the time. 3d games started really becoming a feasible thing, and 2d games were absolutely at their peak of people mastering how to make them look and play their very best. Arcades were king and had the bleeding edge of 3d tech, and infinitely powerful 2d boards like the NeoGeo and Capcoms' CPS2. Competitive fighting games and death match networked FPS both became an actual sport with leagues, sponsors and prize money. Online gaming was starting to be feasible in the home.
And of course, the biggest headline was Nintendo vs Sega, or really, Mario vs Sonic. Without Sonic, Sega would have never managed to get to that top spot. Its a shame they went carzy afterwards and threw so much money into making countless pieces of unecessary hardware (and even things like the 200+ theme parks/attractions that I wrote about elsewhere!) that they were practically bankrupt by 1995 despite owning the entire videogame industry just a year or so before that.
Like you said, Sega being SO much bigger in Europe and other PAL territories in the early days is like an alternate history - especailly comparing the success/failure of the Master System and NES. Once Master System had firmly won in Europe, the Megadrive was always going to do well... but for Genesis to beat out Super NES in American where 1 in 4 houses owned an NES? Thats an insane feat of marketing and really was at least 75% down to Sonic and Sonic 2 alone, bolstered by some other smart decisions - working with big sports personalities, Michael Jackson, allowing EA to make "unlicensed" games, not censoring Mortal Kombat... but without Sonic none of that would have mattered. The history of Sega's home consoles in Japan is even more different. NEC's systems outsold the Master System and Megadrive. The only console that was really successful over there was the Saturn, which did incredibly well, despite being a distant third place everywhere else. But Sega's arcade business over there is enormous - its the only country where the Sega theme parks and giant arcades are still alive and thriving, and as we talked about before, even generic things like crane games, penny pushers, ticket machines, sports challenges etc are all made by Sega, as are the prizes you can win in them!
If you haven't read them, I highly recomend both "Service Games: The Rise and Fall of Sega" by Sam Pettus, and "Console Wars" by Blake Harris.
BOTH Sega and Nintendo turned down working with Sony. How different things could have been if Playstation had been Nintendo or Sega hardware, and Namco, Capcom, Konami, Square had sided with either one of them. Similarly, Microsoft wouldn't have entered the solo console war if Dreamcast hadn't have failed. Don't get me wrong, I love many Playstation and Xbox games, but Sony and Microsoft aren't really "games" companies at heart, they're electronics and software companies, that make hardware that other people make games for. Their biggest strength has been their advertising. Nintendo, Sega (and Atari previously) were/are companies that primarily made games and games hardware. There's something very pure about the games industry in the first half of the 90s, just when it was about to tip over into the mainstream, becoming more corporate and somehow losing something in the process.
@samuelvictor I just lost what I was writing on my phone... 🤪 I was talking about my experience with Nintendo, Sega, PS and Xbox in the order that they came to my life. Xbox is more gamey than PS, especially since PS4, and have the best hardware and value compared to both Nintendo and PS, with free cloud saves and free and enhanced backwards compatibility.
I dislike Nintendo as a company after Wii U because of their policies, hardware and because I can't recover my save files and play the games I own on newer hardware, mostly between Wii U and Switch. That was the time when I felt disappointed as a life-long Nintendo fan. I have a Switch but it's the Nintendo console that I dislike the most, not just because of what it did to Wii U users but the lack of new games in the IPs I like the most and the casual tendencies when there's a new game like Super Mario Odyssey. I wish they would just make games and stop the hardware but, obviously, most NL users disagree and think that Nintendo can't make games if they don't make hardware, something I find absurd. In any case, I think that they have changed and that few Nintendo games feel Nintendo these days. I say this as someone that grew up playing on Nintendo, not as a newbie that has fallen in love with Switch. I still play Nintendo games, old and new.
I had all Nintendo consoles as a kid but I didn't want to ask my parents for the Sega consoles on top of them, so I dreamt of having them and I used to play them at my friends'. The first time I had Sonic for myself was on Windows, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and the Mega Collection for Gamecube but that it's just emulation. I also have the Mega Drive Mini and I'm happy because I've always loved the Mega Drive design so much. Sonic has always been a great character. I have always like him. The gameplay and physics of the first game impressed me deeply and who would have thought that they wouldn't age.
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Topic: Sonic (classic) characters - pros and cons
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