Clement's Sonic Heroes Let's Play.

He may not have the best video quality in general, but I enjoy hearing his commentary.  Seems like I've been watching a lot of his videos lately.

When I get the urge to play an old Sonic game that I played before but didn't like, it's probably not a great idea to watch someone else play through it.  This is mostly because if I'm reminded about why I didn't enjoy the game in the past, it might ruin the appeal of playing it again.  That's not something I should seriously worry about when it comes to this game because I do not own the XBOX version of the game.

Ugh.  Well, he uploaded his playthrough of 3 out of the 4 teams, and I was reminded just how poorly implemented some of Team Chaotix's missions are, but that won't stop me from playing it.

Too bad it's not on Steam, but even if it was, I'd still have a bit of a problem playing it as for reasons beyond me, my corded XBOX 360 control pad doesn't want to work.  It was a $30 aftermarket pad (forgot which company made it) and it wasn't perfect.  RT would sometimes catch/get stuck (sucks for needing to drift in Unleashed/Generations)  I find it bad that I own 3 XBox 360 pads and I have an issue with all of them.

The one that came with the console (the one I use the most) has an LB that doesn't want to work (this is problematic for Sonic Unleashed if I want to QSS.)  The second cordless pad I bought (which turned out to be an older model) has a d-pad that responds iffy when I need to use it (I remember this being an issue for games like Bayonetta) and occasionally the pad wants to lose it's signal.

Feels like my days with the Sega Genesis where buttons would get stuck - and that was back when we all thought the mouth was the dirtiest place on the body.  I think I went through at least 4.  Nope.  It's your hands, and it doesn't take an actively used control pad to prove it.

But I definitely encourage keeping game pads clean with a toothbrush and hands cleaned with soap and water.

Sonic 3 & Sonic & Knuckles.

So, I decided to play both of these games (well, all of the classics except CD) to get a high score, seeing that one of my friends on my friends list was beating me in every classic Sonic game.  I think I was able to rank at the top for all games except Sonic 2 because I really do not like the bonus stages in that game.  I understand that it's mostly memorization, but the design was never appealing to me.  There's no sense of speed, no sense of platforming (like Sonic 1 or even Ep1's bonus stages) and I don't get how Sega felt it was worth bringing back in many future titles since 1992 all the way to 2012.  Maybe it's because Sonic 2 was their favorite game (as well as for many fans of the franchise, too) but I dunno.  To me, it just took away from the experience instead of really adding to it like the other bonus stages in the franchise... which I have a lot to talk about soon enough.

But I want to discuss these two games.  It's rare that I'd play them separately, but this was a score attack and generally, score in a Sonic game is trivial to me (and I just noticed Sonic 3 & Knuckles - the complete game... has a Leaderboard as well, where my score ranks at the top of the list on my friends).  A casual playthrough of both of these games would involve me getting the Chaos Emeralds as efficiently as possible and taking routes in stages that I am most comfortable with.  This time, I wanted to clear acts with as many rings as possible, though I don't know which routes allow you to profit the most, so my goal was just to not lose what I've collected.  (I also do not know if Tails is the better character for this, but given his added mobility, I would guess YES, but I played as Sonic & Tails.)  It's easy enough for me to not die playing both these games so this wasn't generally a challenge.  Another way of ensuring you can attain a high score is to complete a special stage in either game with a Perfect, and this alone separates the Sonic 3 special stages from the Sonic & Knuckles ones in terms of difficulty.

Personally, if I simply clear all of the blue spheres in the stages for the Emerald (as I've always done as a kid), I find that Sonic & Knuckles has the easier stages, thus it makes getting Hyper Sonic or Knuckles (or Super Tails) that much easier.  However, obtaining a Perfect in Sonic 3 is much easier because turning blue spheres into rings mostly involves collecting the outer blue spheres (until the last stage where it begins to become a bit tricky).  In Sonic & Knuckles, the difference is that you're not only turning blue spheres into rings, you're also turning red spheres (surrounding these blue spheres) into rings as well.  The concept is still the same where you're still turning the outer blue spheres all red (which form a square or a rectangle with reds in the center) so they can all turn into rings.  This means that you have to take a whole new approach at collecting rings.  Plus, Sonic & Knuckles (unlike Sonic 3) has loose rings already scattered on the stage, and there is one stage in particular that makes collecting them pretty challenging as the stage speeds up gradually from you being in it.

Nevertheless, I got a perfect in all the stages and even got a perfect while still failing it once (which means an extra 50,000 points, so I suppose you can make the most out of this if you know where every super ring in both games is and save 7 of them for getting emeralds and a perfect to obtain the highest score from each stage.)

Sonic 3 was a score of 672910.  I think my previous score was literally under 200k for both games.
Sonic & Knuckles was a score of 783920.  Interestingly enough, I rank at 130.  I'm guessing because there's no Tails.

In the future, I'll run Sonic 3 & Knuckles and do a score attack.  I may try another Sonic 1 run because I don't know the bonus stages well, so I had bad luck collecting more than 2 emeralds.

I'll be recording another speed run soon.  It will be my first full Unleashed stage and fortunately (or unfortunately) I can't think of a song to use for the run, so it might wind up being an upload that's not double compressed...

... or is it triple compressed if I upload it to YouTube?  Shit.

Sonic games I would like to play that I've never played before.

This will be ultra brief.

Sonic Rush Adventure - I like the artwork (not so much the 3D artwork), the characters, and the rush gameplay does interest me.  Blaze The Cat kind of interests me.  Currently, I own no handheld system, so who knows when this will occur.

Sonic Colors (DS) - From what I've seen, the story isn't... all that memorable.  Again, gameplay curiosity.

Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) - This is seriously up in the air right now.

Sonic Pocket Adventure - My pleasure button could possibly be pressed very firmly with this title.

Sonic Generations (3DS) - I'm actually kind of pessimistic about this title.  It couldn't possibly be as bad as Sonic 4.

Sonic games I will always play.

Sonic The Hedgehog (1991) - I played this recently, and I was still discovering things which I at first didn't think were possible, but are.  It's fascinating.  I almost want to record an LP of it in spite of the fact I don't know the game that well.

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 - My least favorite of the Genesis titles, but without a doubt, I've played through this game more than it's predecessor and have familiar paths I took memorized.  What makes this game the least favored are the special stages.  Only once have I gotten all the Chaos Emeralds through the special stages and I didn't even do it legitimately. (Thanks, YouTube + Pause Button + Save Feature.)  As a kid, I abused the Super Sonic codes the most in this game.

Sonic The Hedgehog 3 - I honestly cannot enjoy Sonic 3 without Sonic & Knuckles.  The game alone probably has my least favorite stages in terms of their themes.  However, it does have my most favored Sonic animations and it gave birth to the best special stages.  I hated Ice Cap 1 because Sonic/Super Sonic could clip through the ground during the first slide.  Was pretty creepy for me as a kid.  Who could forget the horrendous effort it took to get the sound test/level select/debug code to work?  It was a party when I got the debug working...!

Sonic & Knuckles - I absolutely love the stage themes of this game... all of them (now that I think about it).  I loved Hidden Palace Zone with it's Death Egg poking through the ceiling and the Master and Hyper Emerald altars.  The enemy design was smarter than Sonic 3's.  The music was also better than Sonic 3's as well (don't worry, I love Hydrocity Act 2's music).  But again... I just can't bear to play it unless it's...

Sonic 3 & Knuckles - What I feel was the pinnacle of the classic Sonic experience.  Everything all of a sudden was better.  No more clipping through the floor of Ice Cap 1 among other bug fixes.  Tails was in Sonic & Knuckles.  I don't want to list everything that made this game legendary.  The Genesis series was just the best to watch go from Green Hill Zone Act 1, to Doomsday Zone.  At least you could access the sound test/level select with the S&K code.... though I don't remember how debug worked.  I rarely used it for this game.


What?  Only the classics?  I never mentioned Sonic Adventure 2 on any of my lists.  Adventure 2 is probably going to become a game that I won't play again for much longer because I swear, the last time I played it, the only sense of enjoyment I could get out of it was running the forest stage with Shadow, and Sonic's last stage with all the grind rails.  I doubt that I would be interested in speed running those stages as I'm really not a fan of Adventure's controls.  It really is the most mediocre Sonic game that I've played.

Sonic games I would like to play more of.

Sonic Spinball - yeah, there's really nothing too special about the game.  It was the first spin-off title that I played and still own.  It's concept wasn't bad and neither was it's execution.  Just average, really.  It took me forever to beat it, and even though I'd play it again, the next time just might be the last.

Sonic CD - in spite of me having this game for a year and some months, I really do appreciate it and all, but I feel as if I haven't gotten the most out of it.  I don't play it too often.  It's not a difficult game, it's just not the most enjoyable to me and I think it's because it's level design is nowhere near as linear as Sonic 2 and Sonic 3.  It's like playing Sonic 1... on steroids.

Sonic Battle - played this once, and, it actually wasn't too bad.  Can't say I remember much of it, though.

Sonic Colors (Wii) - in spite of not owning a Wii, I own this game and played through it once.  The experience was charming.  There really isn't a game that speaks so loudly as this one that Sonic for once since his Genesis titles (or maybe even Sonic Heroes) where the franchise was heading in a positive direction.  Even more than that, it proved how competent Sega was.  The overall presentation of the game however... best since the Genesis titles without a doubt.  Simple & clean.  Corny (not as corny as Heroes) but nevertheless, sufficient.

Sonic Unleashed (360) - I think I've expressed my feelings for this title already in a recent post.  There is so much to enjoy from the daytime gameplay and I can't wait to post my next speed run from this game.  Probably won't be comparable to the best, but it will be an entertaining speed run, I hope.

Sonic Advance series - between the 3, I enjoyed 2 the most.  3... eh... I liked it, but not sure how much I really enjoyed it.  However, the one I really want to give a try again is the first one.  When I played it, I never really thought of comparing it to the classics.  I only played it once and didn't dive into the cast much, but I know some people were raving about it being considered the true Sonic 4.

Sonic games I may never play again.

Sonic 3D Blast - definitely not the Genesis version at least.

Sonic Heroes (PS2) - unfortunately, I learned how this was the worst version of the game after once calling it the worst Sonic game I've ever played.  Fortunately, that spot has been reclaimed by...

Sonic 4 Episode 1 - there's that no damage during the final boss stage achievement I was considering getting one day, but I'm literally closer to deleting the game off of my hard drive.  This game underminds everything that made the franchise so great to begin with.  Everything.

(btw, why was Episode 2's demo have a 2 minute restriction on it?  When Sega had it on demo pre-release at some gaming conventions, it didn't have that.  Suspicious.)

Sonic Adventure - possibly the last Sonic game that I purchased over XBLA and this game... gives me a headache when I play it.  I never had that issue when I was playing the DC game.  Looking at this game feels so weird.  It took me a while to finish Sonic's playthrough and I couldn't finish Amy's.  Who knows if I'll play it again.  It's not really that great to me.

Knuckles Chaotix - most detestable level design, ever.

"Roo-gey." And who's to blame for Sonic '06's failure?

Probably the most amusing moment in all of Sonic 06's story within the intro and ending cutscenes (because those are actually the best moments in the game, period).

... (... and Shadow kicking Silver in the back of the head.)


Seems like a number of Sonic fans still think it's their fault Sonic '06 sucks.  I believe I heard this when I initially began to learn more about why the game sucks (which was a long time ago).  Was it not some Sega or ex-Sega employee who made that statement?

Honestly, this has to be anti-intellectualism at it's finest.  It has to be.  It makes no sense for a company to blame it's customers (who had nothing to do with the development of the game) for their product being rushed.  First of all:

• What kind of a fanbase whines at a company to rush the development of their product?
• What kind of a business gives the customers that kind of power over them?
• What kind of a company blames their fanbase on their incompetence?

Simply unbelievable.  I can see how it would be believable if one never played '06 and just heard and saw how glitchy it is, how expressionless the characters are, how terrible the graphics are in general and how garbage the storyline is.  After carefully analyzing the game inside and out, it isn't hard to see that the design choices of the game are it's biggest flaws.  It raises a mountain of questions when they decided to prioritize programming a mountain of gameplay styles over refining smaller aspects of the gameplay to make it playable.  It's really like the game was carelessly finished after whoever took over the game had to finish what was previously started.

Whatever was going on at Sega during the time when employees were quitting left and right could be considered nothing but chaos for the Sonic franchise.  You'd think if the fans were this influential to Sega, Sonic 4 would've actually been... a pretty damn good series.

SEGA~ Sonic Team Presents... PS4/NextBox720

Watching SGB's Sonic 06 Let's Play, which offers more insight on SomecallmeJohnny's view on Sonic 06.  Currently on Shadow's playthrough and Johnny makes some really strong points about this game and more importantly SEGA's decision making abilities - the root of this entry.  How will it affect future Sonic games for future systems to come?

When I think of Sega's decision making with Sonic 06 with stupid small tidbits like the spindash only being able to be used being at a complete stop, the fact that you can't jump out of it, the fact that the spin attack is no longer an attack, it's like... who programmed this shit?  The point that Johnny made about SEGA was that they try to make Sonic do everything.  They make Sonic games where they try to make Sonic and his friends do something unrelated to what made Sonic good to begin with.  Now, we can look at the Adventure series and find that the gameplay styles outside of Sonic's gameplay were generally met with more negative criticism than that of Sonic's.  Or you can look at other Sonic games such as Sonic The Fighters, or newer titles like Sonic & The Black Night or Sonic Unleashed.  Agreeing with Johnny again on that it probably would have been better instead for Sega to incorporate these ideas (and further develop them) in different games... no game in the franchise speaks louder about how overcompensated the programming is than Sonic 06.  Speaking of other games, Johnny also pointed out that when you play a Sonic & All-Stars Racing game, how many of the other Sega IPs do you recognize that aren't Sonic?  Me?  VERY FEW.

For myself, it really does beg the question again why Sega would re-release Sonic The Fighters.  If there's one thing about Sega that hasn't really changed, it's their own unlaced ideas for promoting Sonic in ways that further his unpopularity through his weaknesses, opposed to promoting it through his strengths.  Since Adventure, we've been given so much nonsense in one game, it totally makes sense to me now why:

• a) Sonic Heroes was such a financial success outside of it's accessibility, and
• b) why Sega can't please their fanbase.

Heroes was kept simple with two gameplay styles which gave players the access to characters they (more than anything) simply wanted to play as, even if their playstyle didn't completely reflect their actual abilities (i.e. Amy being speed based... Big being... okay, he was being big.)

But thanks to games like Adventure 1 and 2 and it's successors, the fanbase wants more story, more story that's edgier (SA2), more story that's dark (Shadow The Hedgehog), more Big The Cat (SA1), more hub worlds, more playable cast, more playable cast that has it's own gameplay (SA1/Sonic 06), more Chao Garden, another Shadow The Hedgehog game, more Sonic The Werehog, another storybook title, another isometric Sonic game, another Sonic RPG, a sequel to Sonic R, another Tails game, more Silver The Hedgehog, a successor to Knuckles Chaotix, a THIRD Sonic 4 episode, and the list goes on.

The problem with everything I've listed is that it is all the pinnacle of Sonic mediocrity or worse.  There is a group of fans out there who likes these things, and all Sega can do is say to themselves from their efforts, they have made this little blue hedgehog famous and simultaneously infamous.  It makes me wonder if Sonic's popularity will outlive Sega's financial stability because this strategy of popularizing Sonic's image over his gameplay that made him good in the first place doesn't seem like a long lasting tactic.  What better example of this could you find of this fact that's not Sonic 4 Episode 1 & 2 from the marketing to the music and the meat and potatoes of the gameplay.

And now, I appreciate Sonic Heroes a bit more because even though I found it's story weak and disenganging, it took the Adventure gameplay and streamlined it.  It was probably better on paper than it was when the game was finished, but I can honestly say it had much less to fix because it was... simple.  A lot of people were pleased.  Unfortunately, I wasn't among them, but look at the sales #s.  Someone did something right, obviously.

Sonic really has no need to try to go head to head with Mario anymore, but to some extent maybe he should for the sake of an almost futile comparison.  I do not closely follow the franchise, but I am a huge fan of it.  It is a wonder why there are no fully 3D Mario titles for the Wii systems as of late.  Everything has seeming fallen back to it's SMB1-3  2S roots.  I don't know if Nintendo is trying to save money or what, but it's easy to say the franchise has made some smarter decisions be it transitioning from 2D to 3D and back to 2D, some racing games that were mostly successful, and some RPGs to go down in RPG's history of great RPGs with successful spin-offs starring Luigi or Princess Peach without turning the cast into something it wasn't.

Whereas Mario's identity was established and streamlined literally by Super Mario Bros, Sonic was an identity crisis once he landed in the Adventure series.  Where Mario remained simple, Sonic tried being complex and wound up being complicated.  No Luigi in Mario 64?  Welcome to Sonic & The Gang.  1 hub world?  Here's 3.  No mini games?  Oh we've got plenty in Adventure, from pinball, to shooting an airplane, to raising Chao and even playing Frogger.

You see, Sega forgot one thing that made Sonic a worthy competitor to Mario.  Maybe you've seen it on YouTube when Sega reps were comparing Sonic to Super Mario World graphically.  Some Sega reps (or maybe it was Naka, idk) said something on the lines that Sonic was able to look just as impressive because they made the most out of their system in spite of the fact the Genesis was technologically inferior to the SNES.  To their credit, they called it "Blast Processing" (and I know, for Sega it was a challenge to make Sonic work the way it did), but Sega made no commercial comparing Sonic to say... F-Zero.

My point here is that less was more with Sonic's success from day 1 to today.  If you look at the main series console titles and their success from each predecessor, the evidence is clear.  SA2 was more successful than SA1 because it streamlined the gameplay from the first game.  Sonic Heroes was more accessible than SA2 was, but it lacked the excess of SA1 while offering a little bit of everything while being even more streamlined.  Sonic Unleashed succeeds Sonic 06 for offering a promising 3D AND 2D Sonic experience (non-werehog), more hub worlds, just 1/10,00th of the sizes offered in 06 that are full of optional things.  Sonic Colors rids the hubs, rids the mandatory non-Sonic gameplay all together, focuses on 2D through a condensed and modified Unleashed style gameplay.

Sonic Generations? Generations brings back an alternate gameplay that reflects the classic 2D gameplay, brings back 1 hub that accesses everything on a 2D plane, makes use of the cast in a non-invasive way, dumbs down the Unleashed style controls (a positive for the most part), but condenses the level design making it more about speedy platforming in open  3D areas with 2D areas that don't take advantage of Sonic's abilities enough.  Generations was as much of a small step forward as it was a small step backwards where there is a flexibility a lot of Sonic fans are all too familiar with.  It's a safe game that offers our favorite dishes of Sonic microwaved instead of freshly cooked or served edibly raw.  After what's derived from Unleashed be it Sonic 4 ep1, ep2, Colors and Generations, it's about time for a new recipe or to expand/ improve these foundations instead of making their portions (of the gameplay) smaller and refined to a fault .

And finally, what do I expect of Sonic for the next Gen systems since the PS4 has officially been the talk of the Internet town?  At first, I thought SA3.  Really?  Sure, why not?  They've had over a decade to get it right and I can still have some optimism.  However, after what a Sega forum mod said about their financial standings being that chances are there won't be a Sonic game that takes full advantage of the new graphics capability, perhaps it's time that Sega... like Nintendo has done with Mario - really go back to his roots?  If 2D, I hope Sonic Team makes a real 2D Sonic game and doesn't bite off more than they can chew for crying out loud.  Generations focuses on what works well with Sonic, but there's so much more that could have come out of both gameplays that's easily found from the games they originate from, being daytime Unleashed and the Genesis titles, or even the Advance series most people overlook.  I know Sega wants to popularize Sonic through other mediums, but he's a video game character.  He needs good video games to be worthy of being morphed into a stuffed toy or an action figure or an energy drink.  I feel like everyone is going to lose if the next Sonic game doesn't do better than Generations did, but Sega usually succeeds when it means bringing something new to the table that's Sonic related.

After 06, how can a fan not worry, though?

btw, Johnny's playthrough is making me change my mind about wanting to play 06.  Gamegrumps makes it look bearable, but Johnny?  I think it's because I've watched his Silver playthrough while the grumps are still on Shadow's with an incomplete Silver run.  The missions look atrocious and redundant, Silver's gameplay look redundant and uninspiring.  The story promotes anti-thought and when it tries to promote thought, it's not even thought provoking (yet I can understand how that aspect holds allure to some).  Johnny responds with the question, "What were they thinking?" towards a lot of things in this game, but it makes me ask...

"Were they even thinking at all?"

*drops mic startling everyone he put to sleep*

Sonic games I may never play.

There are some Sonic games that I have no interest whatsoever in playing (or purchasing), and they are.

Any Game Gear title I have not played - Just hated them when playing them on the actual machine or whichever ones were in Sonic Mega Collection for the PS2.

Fan games - And this is just to the extent that I don't go actively seeking them out.  Sometimes I run into them and check out videos of them.  Most of the time, I'm not impressed (especially if it's derived from a classic).  However, I am liking some of the stuff that's coming out of PC Generations mods!  Soon enough, I'm going to be able to make my purchase of the PC Generations very worthwhile!

Sonic Shuffle - It never looked fun and the character models are even uglier than they were in Sonic Adventure.

Sonic The Fighters - I will never understand the reasoning behind releasing this game on XBLA/PSN.  I guess it's because I take the genre seriously knowing this game was released in an era when fighting games were becoming increasingly popular.  When it was re-released again, it just so happens to be during an era where the popularity of genre has gone up again.  I'm not a fan of most 3D fighters in general, but this one does not appeal to my tastes.

Sonic 4 Episode 2 - Fails for the second time by thinking the game is fun because it tries to work like a 3D game in a 2D world and so much I've already said about the game, but that sums it up well.  This could very much be the only main series Sonic game that I'll never get to play.  The only one I have not played is Sonic 06.

Sonic Labyrinth - For the time it would take to get through it, I probably wouldn't even remember the experience if I did play it.  But after Sonic 3D Blast... please... no more isometric view Sonic games.

Sonic Free Riders - Speaing of forgettable, I'll never own a kinect and if I knew anyone with a kinect, I doubt they'd have this game.  From what I've seen, I actually like the Riders series and wouldn't mind playing it.

SegaSonic The Hedgehog - I don't even think about this game.

The Storybook Series - Secret Rings didn't seem so bad, but The Black Knight... outside of it's awesome intro, I don't imagine myself being pulled to play these games.

Sonic Rivals - How did this game even spawn a sequel?

Sonic Chronicles - From what I've seen, this has to be the most boring Sonic game I have ever seen.  It's one thing to deal with a game involving Sonic that has no sense of speed whatsoever, but it's another thing to write a story that moves at the same uninteresting pace with just as much an uninteresting plot.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing - Only because there seems to be no point of really playing it with it's successor and all.

Sonic Rush - There might be an interesting gameplay here for me in this series, but Rush Adventure seems to be the game I'd aim for.  I like the artwork of Rush Adventure a lot more.

Sonic X-treme - When I first heard of this game, I never really cared that Sonic was going to be in 3D.  In fact, to this day I still don't get why it was such a big deal to begin with.

Shadow The Hedgehog - I forgot this one.  I like Shadow.  It's not difficult to like Shadow, but I don't love him.  Though he's both a Sonic recolor and (I think) Super Sonic from SA1, a recolor of him, I didn't think Sega would actually try to capitalize on his popularity by not only giving him his own game, but attempt to further develop him as a bad guy superficially and character-wise.  The game is padded to death and I feel like it was such an unnecessary and overcompensated humanizing attempt at making Shadow more appealing and different than Sonic.  Hell, he was more appealing in Sonic 06 than he was in his own game.

Sonic The Hedgehog Genesis - Utterly the most unnecessary re-release of a Sonic game.  I honestly think that this game is a product of conspiracy.  Why was Sonic '06 called Sonic The Hedgehog, but this inexcusable excuse of a port of the original called, Sonic The Hedgehog Genesis.  How do you even...  Really?

What's next?  Maybe Sonic games I may never play... again?

Let's uh... look at Sonic Generations?

So I had a friend who doesn't really enjoy the concept of speed running... for they try their hardest to enjoy the beauty and detail that's put into the game while the game is played at their fastest.  It's not something worth ridiculing, it's just that some people actually don't know what to look at when it comes to a game they do not play... naturally.  It's kind of like showing someone gameplay of an MMORPG they've  never played and almost everyone's interface is different and some are just cluttered with all sorts of incomprehensible shit.  You don't get what's going on or who's killing who, or who did that spell, let alone what that spell was or how much damage was done or how someone got 1-shot.  I get it.  Sometimes when you see something for the first time, you want to absorb the atmosphere slowly and possibly have some type of understanding at a reasonable pace how the game works.

One of my suggestions was to just focus on Sonic as he ran opposed to the surroundings he runs through at a few hundred miles per hour which proved effective, but I digress.  Generations without a doubt is a game worth slowing down and enjoying... to a certain extent.  I had always wondered why you couldn't turn the camera like you could in Unleashed, but once you reach the very last section of Green Hill 2 and can get the cam to rotate to see where you came from... okay, I get it.  Basically, not everything was made to be looked at going backwards.  For the most part, I think we can all be grateful to play a 3D Sonic game that has zero camera issues (at least I've heard of none).  Still, that doesn't stop someone from... stopping and smelling the flowers even if you can't see how it'll play out going backwards.

My friend was pleasantly surprised that I had made a 10 minute video of what's possibly the shortest stage in the game.  Well, that's not too surprising, is it?  After I made it, I tried thinking of all the things I could've shown off in 3D that were not alternate paths.  It had crossed my mind that I could make a second video that covered areas that I missed.  Is this something worth doing for the other stages?  Well, maybe.  Personally, it would all come out better if it was the PC version with it's superior textures.

And that's all I have.  Think I'll tinker with Jungle Joyride 1-2 for a bit.

S-rank & Unleashed (Daytime) vs Generations (Modern) gameplay

One thing I have to give Sonic Unleashed over Sonic Generations is that the grading system isn't so... unrewarding.  Honestly, I wonder why S-ranks were literally handed to you simply for completing a stage within a reasonable amount of time without dying in Generations?  You could S-rank any stage with 0 rings if you reach the finish line fast enough.  Meanwhile in Unleashed, you actually get scored properly and unlike Colors (Wii), it wasn't abusive by spamming wisps constantly.  Hmm... either I've never tagged Sonic Colors or this is the first time I've ever spoken about it in this blog.

About 24 hours ago, I set out to get all S-ranks on all the main daytime stages (did not bother with Eggmanland, I can't stand that stage... yet).  Windmill Isle (Act 2),  Rooftop Run, Dragon Road and Arid Sands were S-ranked, so that left Windmill Isle (Act 1 - for the hell of it), Savannah Citadel, Cool Edge, Skyscraper Scamper, and Jungle Joyride.  Honestly... this is what it's all about.

When I check out Unleashed speed runs on YouTube, very commonly I see comments of on videos of people saying, "C?!  He got a C for finishing THAT fast?"  At first, I didn't understand it either, especially considering I started taking this Unleashed gameplay seriously in Generations.  Grading in Unleashed required finishing the stage while meeting certain requirements, and although I do not have how it's calculated down to a science, you cannot overlook the results screen.  Score depends on:

• time completed
• rings collected at the end
• your speed as you passed checkpoints
• how many enemies you obliterated
• and how many trick rings (the rainbow colored ones) you used

I'm quite certain that if you die, your score is resat, making S-rank impossible from certain checkpoints (if not all).  Every stage seems to have different requirements.  Speed running means:

• points in time will be maxed out
• you will most likely skip a lot of rings if not lose some on accident or purposely if it makes you go faster
• checkpoints might be skipped because of their placement or unnatural shortcuts taken
• you will skip lots of enemies and kill only what's necessary
• you will likely skip various trick rings unless you have to go through them

All in all... this means the game has some replay value in it, and being that this is a grading system that takes your overall performance throughout the stage into consideration, that makes it rewarding.  Unleashed also not an easy game.

So, how'd it go?  Well, I don't play Unleashed a lot, but as of late I am definitely appreciating what it has to offer over Generations, but I'll get to that later.  In spite of a bit of frustration, it was rather quite fun and it's always cool to see Sonic get an S-rank and run through these stages.  It was quite the learning experience, though my LB button on my controller seems to be responding randomly.  The casual approach fortunately was more fun than frustrating but... one stage in particular had me on edge and yeah, you guessed it.  Jungle Joyride Act 1.  Oh, I have a lot to say about Jungle Joyride.

Jungle Joyride Act 1 is... so hard.  It makes Act 1-2 look like icing on the cake and when I compared both levels in my mind, I swear - there are only two areas in Act 1 that are actually easier than Act 1-2 and the first one is the 2D section after homing attacking the springs that switch from springs to spikes and the 2D sections before the last Quicktime ramp where you can get squashed.  There might be more but when I run 1-2, it's always a speed run so I take the fastest route across the water (which is hell due to the intense slowdown).  Everything else in Act 1 is hard.  Honestly, I wonder if these stages were switched at birth and given the wrong act.

Eventually, I got an S-rank...  that time!  If I actually speed run Act 1, hell must have frozen over.

Aaaaand, we're not done with Jungle Joyride just yet.  Not too long ago, Millernusgaming did a speed run of Act 1-2 to where I responded with a question as to how on earth does one get Sonic to 3D->2D glitch the first 2D section. (Actually I asked on sobatsuyu100's video, which is just below.)  Days later, someone by the YouTube name of SONICADVENTURE1999 left a comment in a Sonic Generations videos of mine I've yet to discuss here about with the how-to on the glitch.  I've only done this glitch on accident and it's not like your usual jump in 3D just before 2D switches over to exploit and expel some time off the clock, oh no.  Who would've ever thought that doing this allowed you the opportunity to go through all of that whole section.  The first time I saw a speed run of that glitch was by SHINTARO917 - and that was made in '09, haha.  I'm sure I've mentioned this before.  But yes, I finally  have the power!  But I swear, to this day, I have yet to truly understand the fastest path over the 2nd water section, but when I do, I will try to make a speed run.  That, and of course I have to get better at what's sometimes the trickiest part of the stage - the very beginning.

Not too long ago, sobatsuyu100 ran the stage...

... into the ground... sub-3 minutes?! o_O

And yes, if you speed run 1-2, it will result in an S-rank.  Why?  Noooooo idea.  Rooftop Run 1-2 might be the same?  Dunno, but either way...

Before I close this, I mentioned earlier what it was about Unleashed that has me appreciating it more than Generations?  In a discussion on the official Sega forums (yeah, I haven't been there since after the release of Ep2) talking about how Generations gameplay can be rewarding, I decided to make a comparison between how this Unleashed gameplay over time has become kind of worse.  Basically:

1. Generations is just a condensed version of Unleashed and Genesis gameplay.
2. Generations offers everything Unleashed needed - improved controls, speedy platforming, less automation, some online modes, etc.
3. Generations lacks a lot of key elements that made Unleashed strong such as an involving 2D gameplay.
4. Generations lack of an involving gameplay for casual players leave something to be desired, thus for casuals to earn a sense of involvement, it means they have to learn how to play the game as it is meant to be played: a speedy platformer.  Unfortunately this means they have to play like skilled speed runners and well... I know how that can turn some people off.

It's the same with Colors Wii, which was just an even more condensed version of Unleashed which had a platforming scheme similar to Sonic CD (which didn't allow for much speed) and lacked an involving 3D gameplay.  A lot of people talk about how "linear" Unleashed is because it's 3D gameplay aspects are mostly trapped in narrow hallways, but if you compare that to Generations, you're basically just running and jumping.  Why couldn't Generations have been a bit more like Unleashed by making better use of Sonic's abilities such as side-stepping and allowing better use of the Light-Speed dash?  And why did they nerf the light speed dash in the first place?  From what I've seen, it seems to work better in Sonic 06! (At least in the 3D view.)  The closest you can get to Unleashed-like gameplay in Generations is the Planet Wisp mission called Action Master.  It is probably the best stage in the game.

In spite of Unleashed's broader use of 3D pre-rendered backgrounds, Unleashed may not be the better looking game technically, but it is the better looking game aesthetically.  I mean, everything else about the graphics is about as absorbing as a 3D Sonic could get on a console.  Generations on the PC is very impressive, but Unleashed... you know, if graphics weren't so ridiculously praised these days, I could get away with saying that the work here is quite memorable.   It is arguably the best looking 3D Sonic game ever made.  I really appreciate how much more dynamic the cameras are in this game.  My favorite use of the camera just  happens to be in Jungle Joyride after the last QTE and Sonic is just running down a slant coming out the forest and pretty much the use of the camera through the trick rings.  Why couldn't Generations have been this thoughtful?

The way I see it, Unleashed was still overall a good game, though the daytime segments were great after you come to understand the game more.  The ranking system was a challenge, the stages were a challenge without the need to speed run them, they were more involving, they looked better, most of them were longer.  I mean, just the overall experience from the Daytime levels felt so much more rewarding than Generations.

But the real question is, will the next Sonic game be another nerfed, better safe than sorry version of Sonic Unleashed daytime?  Or will it be another synthetic successor with Ep2-like "improvements?"  Guess time will tell given Sega's budget.

Everything about Sonic 06 that could be said.

So "The Great Clement" did a thorough review of Sonic The Hedgehog 2006 some time last year and it is about a good 3 1/2 hours short.  Personally, I have never played this game, but because it is Sonic, and because of it's overall reception, I find it a very difficult game to ignore.  Yesterday, I decided to read about the legacy and impact of the original 16-bit version of Sonic The Hedgehog, the "Genesis" of the series and how it stood out leaving a permanent positive checkmark on gaming history and how it paved the way for future platformers.

... and then, 15 years in the future, there's Sonic 06.  After all that I've heard of it, I'm actually interested in playing this game that allowed not only Sega, but anyone anti-Sonic to feed off the rage of what remains of the Sonic fanbase - because it's had every right to be what most fans of this franchise dreamed of: Sonic Adventure 3.

Though Clement's review is long, it's really just an episodic review of the game being played but focuses on what there is you'll encounter rather than what he says during an uncut playthrough.  It is all rather entertaining and literally drives home the significance of the design choices this game made, which in turn reflects Sega's decision making during their time of crisis as this game was being developed.  I really do appreciate it.

Even more recently, SomecallmeJohnny also covered a few things and offers another perspective about 06 that Clement didn't touch in 1/7th of the time.

And of course, who's perspective of Sonic 06 could best the powers combined of EgoRaptor and JonTron a.k.a. Game Grumps?  Of course, this isn't a video review but just the two of them casually playing, singing, raging, and touching themselves (while raging)... literally... I'm serious.  More importantly, their playthrough proves that there's yet more to be said about this game, because Sonic 06 is a dead horse that refuses to rot and cannot be buried even if Sega banned it out the series though the game's story retcons itself out.  It is immortal, morals.

Case and point.

Sonic - (Sonic The Hedgehog Fan Film)

I...

I...

... I...

... don't know what to say just yet.  Well, let's first start with my first initial impression of the fan film where a lot of us old school fans are brought to it thanks to the contribution of Jaleel White, who as most of us know starred as Steve Urkel in the old 90's sitcom Family Matters and the successful Sonic SATAM cartoon as none other than Sonic The Hedgehog.  Back then, Mr. White gave life to Sonic in a way that would be appreciated for many years.  He was great... but I do not think he was the end to all english Sonic voices.

Blue Core Studios wanted to make a live-action movie of Sonic and there were some clips of CG Egg Carriers that made their entry into the series in Sonic Adventure, as well as the E-series robots from the same game.  We have a very, very, very serious Dr. Robotnik/Eggman which all looked nice... until I saw what Sonic looked like.

Now, I know this is a live-action movie and I will admit that the furry level of Sonic's 3D model was looking rather... plushie.  I suppose the artist was aiming for a Sonic that would resemble more of a hedgehog based on it's real-life appearance with transparent hair, an unsmooth, scattered and very detailed exterior with a bigger mouth that opens front and center opposed to on one side, and teeth.  I have not seen too many 3D models of Sonic that were fan-made or centered around a real-life setting, but here if I could sum up Sonic's appearance in a few words... it would be... frighteningly cute.  Imagine Sonic The Hedgehog from Sonic Unleashed and you wrapped Sonic The Hedgehog's body with Sonic The Werehog's exterior... and dyed the white parts blue.

The e-series, Robotnik, plus everything else Sonic related seemed quite comfortable to me.  It didn't take long for me to warm up to Eggman's appearance and portrayal at all, even if his outfit was looking super 16-bit.  Sonic's o.g. voice actor did not fail to disappoint me, even if he sounds a little older from our more matured Jaleel White - for a more matured modern Sonic.  Unfortunately, this is where all the fun stops for me.

Outside of Sonic's rough around the edges exterior, by the time it had all come to it's 18-19 minute conclusion, I was glad it had ended.  I'm not exactly sure what is going on with this story.  Eggman has trapped the "highly intelligent" animals on South Island by roboticizing them and is aware of some creature called "The Blue Blur" who has yet to be caught and identified.  So... Eggman doesn't know Sonic exists yet. But for some reason, the presence of G.U.N. is here on planet Mobius... what?  (In other words, the canon is fucked here.)  So Eggman's new objective after identifying Sonic is to destroy him and after 4 G.U.N. soldiers get saved from Sonic after not really putting up a fight with less than 5 of Eggman's machinery.  The soldiers prattle on about needing Sonic's help while one of them is untrusting due to the fact Sonic is from South Island which apparently is some unexplored territory that we somehow have observed has highly intelligent animal life.  After landing from riding a missile into the sky and free falls in the sky landing on a Buzz Bomber to help him hit the ground safely, Sonic runs to the Green Hill Zone excitedly where Knuckles watches him from a distance for reasons that have yet to come.

Okay... first, I can't say that I really enjoyed this film.  The overall presentation would get an A- for effort, but between the times Sonic and Eggman are not on the screen, and you see people staring at the Egg Carriers in NEW YORK CITY, I kind of expect the people to kind of have some sort of verbal reaction from seeing a ton of Egg Carriers scraping their skies.  What are the Egg Carriers even doing?  One of the fires a missile into some random forested area only to tell less than 1% of mother nature, "Fuck you. I'm here."  They do not appear to be a significant threat or concern to anyone except G.U.N. who sent 4 soldiers on the ground to... shoot an Egg Carrier from "out of sight" when they are just beneath them.  I can understand putting soldiers out for an assault on Eggman, potentially endangering the soldiers of course, but this... isn't exactly a convincing way to execute it.  Why not have some of the e-series on the ground be the targets of G.U.N. for whatever reason and then have them get caught by surprise?  When one of the soldiers announced that there were Buzz Bombers, immediately that's what I expected to see, but you don't see them for another 30 or so seconds for the very first time.  When Sonic enters the scene, a part of me is personally bothered that his every jump is a spin attack and that's probably because Sonic in a real-world setting or even in current games, has more than 3 ways of jumping in the air.  It just seems to give off this feel that I'm watching a video game than Sonic being as theatrical as he naturally is.  Secondly, there isn't any emphasis on speed and I don't really see how difficult executing could be.  Yes, he gets chased by (of all things) Motobugs, and Buzz Bombers which barely matched Sonic's running speed in Sonic 1, and in Green Hill he runs and rolls - all at the speed limit more than the speed of sound without a care in the world.

Even though I couldn't care too much about who voices Sonic these days, I can honestly say that Jaleel White's voice acting was by far the best aspect of this film.  It's not so much that it's him, but it's the enthusiasm he brings.  The attitude of Sonic that made him attractive when a voiced Sonic came into existence is one of those things about the current Sonic Sega seems to overlook.  After Naka left, it was as if this part of Sonic was left in the backburner when this kind of expression really reflected on what Sonic was as a character.  It was the most professional aspect of this entire film - not a surprise, really but it stands out so much that if Sonic's script/personality was similar to that of Sonic Colors... oh boy.

Still, I'm sort of glad that this was made.  It may not be the greatest written, the best directed, the best animated, but it does have some charm to it.  Given that the story is messy, it's completely up in the air whether or not I would want to see the next part of it.

Yeah, why not...

Seems like taking a break from speed running Sonic (or just games in general) wasn't such a horrific idea.  At first I was convinced that I'd have to keep playing to stay sharp.  Eh... perhaps if it meant me trying to execute a speed glitch, maybe.  Otherwise, I can't say that I've really unlearned anything.

Throughout January and December of 2012 (Happy Belated New Year, btw) I was occasionally playing Generations, and instead of taking on something new and large like a main stage, I decided to focus on taking on something new and small, like a mission.  It wasn't something I was doing too often, just whenever, really.  I had always wanted to speed run the Way Past Fast mission in Green Hill Act 2 and 1 minute turned to 58 seconds... which turned into 57 seconds... and eventually turned into 56 seconds, and here I thought that it's probably a good time to start recording.

And the result is that I believe this is the fastest non-glitched run of the stage (so far).  I think it can go faster.  It may seem minor, but the mistake I made here was holding on to the boost button after Sonic was launched where the drift section ended.  That small amount of boost could've been used at the end of the run.  I can't help it if he looks so cool covered in his own blue speedy element.


After that, I gave my favorite stage another run and almost effortlessly broke my old record.  Time to record again?  Yeah... and what semi-strange times I trapped...

Even after I record a run, I look back at it over and over and ask myself, "Can it go faster?"  For a much more complex stage such as this one, the answers come clear (also after looking at other people's runs not so compulsively).  There are quite a few things I could've done better.  The difficult air boost to platform->jump to next platform thing I pointed out at the start is still weird, but after a thousand deaths I realized it seemed a bit more successful not only boosting as late as possible but to the far left of it as well.

On the same token, I feel like it's possible that Sonic's jump height from the platform is almost always high enough (though it does fluctuate).  It's just that if it's low, then I might have to air boost earlier.  I decided to play with the skill that slows down time and tell me... why is it that when I used that skill to play in slow motion, 3 out of 3 times when I landed on the platform, I made that jump every - single - time.

I made a mistake after the first pulley because I hadn't practiced that part with boosting it and that resulted in a late homing attack on the spring (and I know now to aim for the far right one).

The cloud... oh... I hate the cloud.  It's always more rewarding to hit the cloud as early as possible, but it's placement + Sonic's controls after hitting it just make it much easier to land on the far left of it so you line up with the tick launcher.

Maybe I should've tapped boost going down the rail or attempt the new way of leaving the rail with an air boost in 3D... because I was a full second behind to the next checkpoint, geez...

After landing on the rotating platform, I could've air boosted a bit earlier to that brief narrow hallway as it's not that high.

And when I air boosted to the transport thing - that was completely spontaneous and was the first time I did it while recording.

Just before the side-step area, I was able to do that faster by boosting as soon as I landed on that area.  It can go faster if your jump to there lines up right in front of the dash pad so you can just boost right on it's path (or maybe side-stepping to the right as you boost, maybe - though I think side-stepping in this game without skills slows you down a bit).

And everything else after that went pretty much the way I wanted it to.  I ended the stage with a lot more boost meter than I expected.

I will be attempting Sky Sanctuary with skills along with another mission.  SS2 will be my first serious skills run.  The Green Hill skills run with the Unleashed run I did back in November '12 wasn't really serious.  It was really just filler and seeing how tieing two speed runs in 1 video would work. (The Unleashed run however was serious.)


Outside of my speed runs, anything in the Sonic universe that concerns me?  Actually, yes.  But that will be in a near future post where I'll be talking about what I've come across in what is known as the worst Sonic game of all time.  The speed runners I keep up with still seem pretty active and I've managed to collect a few new names that have come out and even best one of sobatuyu100's times.  Who in the world Japan could do this?  Find out next time!