SAGE 2016: Review Slew #3

Sonic FTS

Let’s get this Slew’s sole letdown out of the way first…but where do I even start with this one? This is an attempt to build a 2.5D Sonic game in the Unity engine, but it’s got a long way to go. Characters remain stuck in T-poses throughout. Levels are barren, and their graphics are primitive. Red-colored rings can bring your total ring count into the negatives with no real repercussions, and spikes never seem to kill you. You can’t jump if you’re running down a hill. Curved slopes don’t work, meaning you’ll get stuck on them endlessly, and I clipped through the level geometry more than once. Special stage controls are maddeningly stiff. Do you get the idea yet? I understand that this may still be proof-of-concept, but this doesn’t even achieve tech demo status in my mind.

Sonic & Tails

Okay. Back to the good stuff. With Sonic & Tails, we’ve got a game that’s about as straightforward as they come. You’ve got a smooth platformer that echoes the classic Genesis side-scrollers while adding a few fun visual effects of its own, such as characters leaving wispy motion trails. Level design is fun, if a touch uninspiring, and it weren’t for the inclusion of the elemental shields, it would be easy to mistake this as some kind of more colorful and souped-up version of Sonic 2. We’ve got a simple, no-nonsense 2D Sonic platforming game here, and though I wish it had more than one act to explore, this one’s definitely worth a look.

Sonic Generations: The Lost Levels

Here’s one that struck a chord with me. Sonic Generations: The Lost Levels essentially applies the Sonic Generations formula and structure to a Game Gear game, and the results actually really impressed me. The game feels like a faster, busier, and much smoother version of one of the 8-bit Sonic games, and it uses zones from those old titles as the foundation for something new. More advanced visual effects like parallax scrolling make an appearance, and it’s really fun to see these old zones come to life in a new way that’s still very faithful to the originals. I’ve always maintained that Sonic Team never did enough with the remixing possibilities that Generations afforded them, and this is a great example of that concept getting used in a creative way. Don’t miss this one.

Simple Sonic Worlds

Simple Sonic Worlds is just as its name implies: it’s a more straightforward version of the Sonic Worlds engine that’s more appealing and welcoming to newer users. The underlying physics have been tweaked to more accurately emulate the classic Sonic games, and it ultimately results in a satisfying and engaging gameplay experience. The included test level shows off how everything can come together in an all-too-brief way, and for those who want to dig a little more, a more complex version is included that adds a boss fight, controller support, and resolution scaling. There’s not too much to say about this one, but it’s there if you want to look into it.

Sonic Beyond the Speed

To put it simply, Sonic Beyond the Speed tries to translate Modern Sonic gameplay into a 2D, sprite-based platformer, and it’s well on its way to doing so quite well. All of the important moves like boosting, the Light Speed Dash, tricking off of ramps, and the homing attack are all here and work surprisingly well. A special stage that more or less mirrors a flat version of Sonic 2‘s halfpipe is also fun, if a bit underdeveloped at this point. Though its graphics are still very much a work-in-progress and the whole project could use more polish, the core mechanics are there, and there’s a fair bit of potential here. It’s speedy, snappy, responsive, and engaging in a way that something like Sonic Hero Warriors (a game with similarly underwhelming graphics) wasn’t, and it’s a game I’d be happy to revisit in a more polished state down the road.

Sonic: Project Survival

We’ll wrap up this Slew with my favorite game of the bunch – Sonic: Project Survival. It’s another smooth, solid game powered by the Gmate engine – I’m noticing a trend here. Acts are connected via a hub world reminiscent of Sonic Advance 3, and there’s lots of fun to be had. Come for the slick gameplay and presentation, stay for the awesome water-slide segments. Also, the soundtrack is straight fire, and we’re not just saying that because our boy Noah worked on it. Nope. Not at all. In all seriousness, though it may not break new ground in terms of its gameplay, this one puts it all together really well, and it’s one of the standout games for me so far. I would love to see this project make it all the way to completion.

Believe it or not, we’re not even halfway done! Check back soon for more Review Slews as our SAGE coverage continues!