Lava Lamp
Friday, 28th October 2011, 11:00am (UTC), 20 Comments
Update: Lava Reef Zone added to the Sonic & Knuckles section
Lava Reef guide now up! Probably one of my favourite levels if I had to choose. As I mentioned last time, I wanted to get it finished before Sonic Generations comes out next week, because once that happens I'll be rather preoccupied!

I had to make quite a tricky decision with my arrows in the Act 2 map, as unlike most stages, the vast majority of it is made up of internal tunnel walls rather than the background, and neither the all-characters blue nor the Sonic-only blue arrows showed up very well on that annoying wall pattern. So I've given the arrows themselves a background block colour of a lighter blue to help them show up better. A little untidy but it was the only thing I could do, save for painstakingly cutting out all the walls myself, which I don't think would have been better.

There's not much left to go now really is there? Hidden Palace won't take long, I can probably squeeze most of it in during November, although I'm also looking forward to the new Zelda game later in the month, that being my second favourite game series, so I best not be making any promises just yet, just to be on the safe side. I've got a lot of time off around Christmas though so I'll easily have it done by then and will be able to continue with Sky Sanctuary, which of course is only one act long so that's reduced my normal map making time by half. And then there's only one full level after that, but in Death Egg, the fact that I only have to worry about Sonic's route through and that there are no Special Stage rings actually helps a lot. The Other Modes page is quite big for this game too and will be put in there somewhere along the way, but after all that and a few more bits and bobs, we can call it all finished! Probably some time during Spring 2012, lets say for now.

I'm getting more and more certain that I really don't want to be heavily involved in writing or publishing any more guides after this, I must admit, but I have been thinking more about what I could do regarding site features, if only for a somewhat selfish reason; My day to day occupation is actually as an Actionscript developer, making Flash applications, sites and games mostly for kids, employed by a small company in London. I actually haven't done much HTML-based work since this site's last major update in 2009, so I have been meaning to get back up to date with such things as JQuery and HTML5 if I can. So to this end, I might tinker around with a few things on the site, possibly including the creation of a mobile-friendly version of Zone: 0, if I can figure out the best way of displaying all that content on the small screen. So just because I can't bring myself to do any more guides at the moment, doesn't necessarily mean that Zone: 0 is dead just yet!

Also, a quick thank you to a man I know only as "adam UNKNOWN" who has recently offered his services to help out with a few things, very kindly, so I gave him a task I've been meaning to get round to since the aforementioned 2009 update - uncropped versions of the screenshots! You may have noticed at some point that if you clicked on most of the shots in Sonic 1 on any page before Scrap Brain, you'd get the uncropped version pop up in a lightbox. Thanks to Adam, this has now been implemented on Scrap Brain, and in Sonic 2 for levels Emerald Hill to Casino Night. I'm hoping he can carry on with some more too. Cheers Adam!

Finally got a nice 20th anniversary collectible in the post yesterday - the Sonic 1 and 2 OST, including Masato Nakamura's original demo versions of the tracks he created! Of course I went straight to those, and while naturally they're not quite as easy to listen to as the final versions we've grown so attached to, they're nonetheless an interesting thing to own. Maybe when the CD becomes harder to obtain, I might add them to the Sonic 1 and 2 downloads sections. In the meantime, see if you can grab a copy yourself! There's only two left on the above link at the moment.

So, if I check my calendar, as of writing it is now only 6 days and approximately 6 and a half hours until the earliest conceivable time that I can get my hands on Sonic Generations! That's if Amazon get my highly exciting (albeit not cheap) collector's box of goodies to me on Thursday rather than Friday as they have speculated, and that I can get home from work round about 6:30. I know, as ever you lucky Americans will have it a couple of days before then but you'll just have to keep quiet for that time. I've been playing the new demo to death, and both modes really do just feel so solid. I'm convinced the classic mode has had some minor tweaks in the jumping and rolling departments since the first demo, and now feels extremely comfortable to play, and modern Sonic feels like a more refined Sonic Unleashed experience. In a 3D area, if you just stop and walk around, the control really feels right now, as SU had a lot of inconsistencies there, often feeling very slippery. Now, Sonic adjusts between slower, tighter controls and faster, responsive speed very very smoothly. At the moment, the only two things I hope that the game offers options for is to turn off Omochao (surely, you must be able to, right?) and to turn down the sound effects a few notches, as they do overpower the music quite a lot. Overall, as you'd imagine, I am extraordinarily excited. I think a full review from me will probably be quite likely next month at some point!

That'll probably be the next time you hear from me, so I hope you enjoy the game as much as I'm sure I will!
Comments   20 Comments have been posted.
#1. Comment posted by TheGuyWithTheGames on Friday, 28th October 2011, 3:40pm
Great Stuff! I love your guides, they are chock full of information that you can't get anywhere else.
#2. Comment posted by Anonymous on Friday, 28th October 2011, 3:45pm
By the way, i never noticed the Death Egg in the backround of Lava Reef zone Act 1 (shown in lava reef's miselicious notes section) (Yes I know I spelled miseluious wrong)
#3. Comment posted by Hyper_Sonic on Saturday, 29th October 2011, 1:06am
Awesome guide, thanks!
#4. Comment posted by Hyper_Sonic on Saturday, 29th October 2011, 5:30am
SEGA have already announced their next sonic game. Sonic Dimensions, it is similar to sonic colours, but instead of wisps sonic is split into multiple personalities. eg red sonic. They each have different features, similar to wisps. Eggman also gets split, into good and bad. That's all from me. You can read more at tssz.
#5. Comment posted by Adam UNKNOWN on Saturday, 29th October 2011, 8:57pm
Sonic Dimensions is a fan game engine.
#6. Comment posted by nore#! sonic on Sunday, 30th October 2011, 11:12am
it is by SEGA and it's on the wii u


thanks

nore#! sonic
#7. Comment posted by MoDaD on Tuesday, 1st November 2011, 12:03am
Great work. As always, your attention to detail is appreciated.
#8. Comment posted by Whoracle on Tuesday, 8th November 2011, 2:34am
Great site you have here. Amazing work.
#9. Comment posted by MoDaD on Sunday, 13th November 2011, 8:12pm
As this project is coming to a close soon, I was wondering if you had plans to redesign the homepage to reflect the complete nature of all the game guides once Sonic & Knuckles is done (as I'm assuming there will be less emphasis on timely content like blog posts or "new" features when that occurs).
#10. Comment posted by LiQuidShade on Sunday, 13th November 2011, 8:53pm
That's exactly what I'm planning, yes! Stay tuned!
#11. Comment posted by Hyper_Sonic on Monday, 14th November 2011, 6:50am
Maybe a pic from each zone, like how you did at the top left corner is S&K, but for all the zones that you did a guide of.
#12. Comment posted by Hyper_Sonic on Tuesday, 15th November 2011, 9:50am
Well, isn't this interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_3#External_links
#13. Comment posted by Hyper_Sonic on Wednesday, 16th November 2011, 11:50am
Well here's some news about sonic CD http://www.sonicstadium.org/2011/11/vocals-dropped-for-sonic-cd-ports-soundtrack/
#14. Comment posted by LiQuidShade on Wednesday, 16th November 2011, 7:25pm
Thanks, I am still technically in hiding from Sonic news until I finish the 3DS version of Generations, as there's a couple of levels in that which I still don't want spoilers for. It's a shame they seem to have so many problems with rights to soundtracks, you'd think that they should be able to use whatever they wanted.
#15. Comment posted by Hyper_Sonic on Thursday, 17th November 2011, 1:55am
If sega cannot re-create their OWN music how can an independent team re-create Sonic CD in HD? They hvae started. This would also apply to Sonic 3 HD because of MJ, even though they have already re-mastered Ice-cap.
#16. Comment posted by Hyper_Sonic on Friday, 18th November 2011, 7:50am
Why is it that 2nd zones always have the best music. Chemical plant, Hydrocity, Flying Battery. All of them are favourites of mine.
#17. Comment posted by Hyper_Sonic on Friday, 18th November 2011, 9:29am
More news, the first is BIG news. (VERY BIG news, especially for LQS)

http://www.sonicstadium.org/2011/11/sonic-snap-contest-runner-up-entries-and-winner/

http://www.sonicstadium.org/2011/11/sonic-snap-contest-runner-up-entries-and-winner/ (just some Hyper cool fan artworks, but still worth a look)
#18. Comment posted by LiQuidShade on Friday, 18th November 2011, 7:55pm
You posted the same link twice. What was the first one supposed to be?
#19. Comment posted by Hyper_Sonic on Saturday, 19th November 2011, 4:32am
The IMPORTANT news.

An update happened today, that is the second link.

http://www.tssznews.com/2011/11/17/eu-publisher-to-sell-sonic-history-book/

http://www.tssznews.com/2011/11/18/sonic-history-book-to-be-published-in-english/
#20. Comment posted by LiQuidShade on Saturday, 19th November 2011, 8:39am
Thanks, I'll definitely be getting myself a copy of that! Seems like this 20th anniversary year just keeps giving and giving!
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