King of the Hill
Sunday, 30th September 2007, 1:24pm (UTC), 0 Comments
Update: Hill Top Zone added to the Sonic 2 section
Hurrah, it's here! Again, sorry it took so long - it really shouldn't have because it was a nice, easy level to map. Not many objects, non-complex routes and no extra scenery bits to add. As I mentioned in the last quick blog post, things have gotten in the way, and unfortunately, will continue to get in the way for the foreseeable future. I'm out of the summer holidays now, and back to university, in my second year. Things are about to get alot tougher there, so I'm going to have alot less time to work on Zone: 0 than I have in the last few months. On top of that, my eye problem is playing up again, and sometimes I have trouble concentrating on a computer-based task for very long before my eyes start to hurt unbearably, and it's especially difficult when it comes to all this html/php coding and map making that I have to do. I've been to the doctor's about it, but he thinks it's just because I've over-strained them and they'll probably settle in time. While it's not quite as bad as it was when I was first struck by it, it is, at the very least, extremely irritating and I really hope it goes soon. I've been trying to rest them whenever I can, but it's pretty difficult, and I can't stand being so idle like that. As if that wasn't enough, my internet in my new accomodation here has so far been very unstable, if available at all, and I really hope that gets sorted soon.

So I'm afraid updates will almost certainly become fewer and further between. I had originally hoped to stick to to my schedule of approximately two new levels per month but I think it's probably going to be more like one, for the time being - If that. It's hard to say at the moment, and depends on whether my eye and internet problems will get better, and unfortunately, Zone: 0 isn't at the top of my list of priorities at the moment. There are no plans to give up on it yet however - It's just a case of having to be a little bit more patient.

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Just to let you know..
Thursday, 27th September 2007, 7:10pm (UTC), 0 Comments
I'm not dead. Hill Top Zone's completion is imminent, I just haven't had time to finish her off, what with uni starting, a currently very faulty internet connection in my new room here, and a freelance job.. Oh alright, and a bit of SRA aswell, but as I say, it's nearly done and I hope to upload it over the weekend, if I can. I thought I best just let you guys know, if you're wondering, as it's a pretty simple level that didn't take me as long to map out as Casino Night did, and you might be wondering what's going on. Now you know.

That's all. Cheers!

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Sonic Rush Adventure - Impressions ahoy!
Saturday, 15th September 2007, 7:05pm (UTC), 4 Comments
Well, European Sonic fans everywhere have been enjoying Sonic Rush Adventure as early as this past Thursday. Somewhat funny story for me - I ended up with two copies. I originally ordered from Play.com, attracted by their £25 price tag. Little did I know at the time that they're based in Jersey, and I'm not, therefore postage delays were probable. I did want it asap, but I also return to University on Sunday, and I was afraid it wouldn't get here before then, so I cancelled the order on Wednesday, and ordered a second copy from GAME. Couldn't cancel it in time though, and unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to order on Wednesday for GAME to deliver it on Thursday. Lo and behold, they both turn up on Friday! Nevermind, I can return one of them as long as I leave it unopened.

SO! In one word? Excellent. It is an excellent Sonic game and will probably become my favourite secondary Sonic platformer thus far. I'll start by saying that I never disliked Sonic Rush, it's always been good fun, but I always felt it was a bit overrated, and not without faults, particularly regarding its level design and frustration factor, in initial play. I would say that almost all of these problems have been fixed for its sequel, and while its frantic flowing style of gameplay is still very present, there is an absolute tonne in here that separates the two games very significantly.

Rather than a traditional menu, all of the game modes can be accessed within the hub map of Windmill Island, and within the map, small RPG style rooms and docks that Sonic can walk around in, and talk to people such as Tails, Blaze, new character Marine, and her various Koala-based friends that the team meet along the way. Great to see new NPC's that aren't humans, even if they do all have to be the same animal. It would seem that the powers that be are determined to make RPG style gameplay work alongside Sonic's usual running and jumping shenanigans, to help freshen the series. There will always be those that are dead set against it - the annoying, bitching type of people that never want Sonic to do anything that he didn't do prior to 1995, and I admit I was eager to plough through the initial ten minutes of story scenes and training sequences to get to the action. But after that, I think those two main modes, and the sailing (which I'll get to in a minute) gel quite well together to form a neat little adventure, and the game certainly feels deeper and longer as a result.

Seven levels, two acts and a 3D boss each, and all very similar to how things were done in the first game, but there are many notable differences that any discerning Sonicologist will be able to spot, and to me, just about all of them are for the better - Except perhaps for the control system. It's the same basic thing, but the X button is now unused, and B is used to perform combo tricks while in the air, although the R button still does tricks while grinding and dashing across or up, aswell. It's a bit fiddly and confusing at first, but you get used to it. Thankfully the pinpoint tight movement controls of your character remain the same.

The wonderful level design more than makes up for that. Their locations are more original, with bright colours and the environments are full of stuff, compared to the slightly empty feeling I got in the first installment. Speed is still of the essence, and I felt that my bursts of speed flowed a bit better, and for longer. There are more level-specific objects ("gimmicks", if you prefer), and loads more occasions where Sonic's 3D model is used to great effect, popping in and out of the layout, and even indulging in the occasional, completely 3D segment, such as hopping between adjacent grinding rails. There are so many new, innovative moments that I think most fans will enjoy. The focus on enemies is back to being just right, with almost no health bars in sight, and none of those areas where you have to beat a group of them to pass through.

Perhaps most importantly, someone over there at Sega or Dimps or wherever has finally said "Hey, yanno what.. there's too many death drops these days, lets do something about it".. hallelujah. They're still there, but occur much less frequently, particularly in the earlier levels, and even later on, I still felt that their inclusion was reasonably fair. As a result however, the game does feel alot easier, probably quite a bit too easy, in fact, and most of the levels feel at least a minute too short too. While they're still very entertaining and keep you on your toes, and I infinitely prefer too easy to having challenges that are just too difficult, there just weren't as many particularly tricky bits for me to get stuck on for a little while as I would have liked. I never actually got a Game Over - something I was getting all the time in SR1, and if the levels were played one by one, with nothing in between, you could probably race through, even on your first time, in little more than an hour or even less. I beat all levels and the final boss by the end of my first day.

What's more, I don't think I even lost a life on any of the bosses, and that was definately not the case for the bosses in SR1, whose dodgy ring loss system made me want to throw the damn DS out the window in unbelievable frustration. That problem is fortunately very much fixed, and the bosses actually have both an easy and normal difficulty setting in the options. Mine was on easy so that might have explained it. Still, they remain very interesting challenges that really break the boundaries of anything we've seen before in Sonic bosses. Multiple routes in the levels are of a similar style to original. Plenty of places where you can see separations, but I don't think many of them last all that long, but I'm sure there's plenty more for me to explore yet.

The sailing was an area that I thought might not have been fully refined, but as it turns out, it's just as well implemented. Four very different crafts lead to significantly different methods of play, from Special-Stage-like moving and ring collecting, to firing at enemies by touching them with the stylus, and they all travel for different maximum lengths and over different surfaces, etc. They're necessary for travel to the different islands that house the levels, and Tails builds the crafts one by one from different amounts of materials that you can gather by completing each act. You often end up needing more than what one playthrough of any level will give you though, so you must either do the level again (which is something I would do anyway, but there was something about the fact that the story seemed to force you to do it that didn't quite sit right with me), or you can explore many of the hidden islands on the great, sea map. These contain small, fresh chunks of level that are either of a special seaside location, or based on the appearance of one of the full levels. This is a great addition that helps to make up for the lack of the length in them, and some of them are actually quite a bit harder too. The whole thing reminds me alot of Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker actually, which is also a great game.

Story scenes are numerous and mostly take place using images of the characters and text, like in Sonic Rush, but this time 3D sequences are also used to convey any significant action. Marine is the new Raccoon girl and she certainly has alot of life in her, decorating her many sentences with a barrage of crazy Australian phrases (some of which I've never heard in my life, so they possibly may have been made up entirely). For anyone who was wondering why this game was given an age rating of 12 for bad language, it's because Marine uses the word "bugger" on four different occasions. Probably intended to be perfectly innocent, but of course over here in Britain, it's something of a mild swear word, which Americans may not be aware of. It's rather funny that probably that one word caused the whole game to be inaccessible to anyone below the age of 12 without their parents handy. Anyway, Marine's childish naivity, bossiness and excitability ceratinly makes the other characters seem quite a bit less interesting, but it doesn't take long for her to get on your nerves.

Beyond the main story, there's more extra stuff to do than in any previous 2D Sonic game. On top of the hidden islands, you also get 100 extra missions to complete (containing all the usual suspects), and Chaos Emeralds and Sol Emeralds to collect, which seem to open up the inevitable extra boss encounter (which I haven't unlocked yet). No Special Stages this time though, Sol Emeralds are collected by beating harder versions of the bosses as Blaze, and Chaos Emeralds are won by beating "Johnny", the simplistically-named torpedo robot, at jet ski races. Incidentally, Blaze does not have her own story, she joins the others when they meet her in storymode, and from then on, you can simply choose to play as either Sonic or Blaze. Good news for me - I hardly ever play as Blaze in Sonic Rush.

What else..? Oh yeah. Good soundtrack. Not amazing, but good, and better than Sonic Rush's very unorthodox one. This is from the same sort of vein, but features much more traditional, catchy Sonic style tracks. Good to see that each act has a different variation of the same tune aswell, rather than just a separate one for each character. The way it should be.

This is a bit of a historic week in Sonic history, as it marks his first official foray into proper online gaming, but I can't believe Sonic 2 on XBox Live Arcade pipped this game to the post by merely 2 days! Unbelievable, but regardless, the online competition in SRA is perfect. I've had a few races and there's been no lag whatsoever (unlike for Tails in Sonic 2), and I'm thrilled that it's even here - I was honestly expecting it to not make an appearance in the end. You know how Sonic Team are with letting us down on the little things. I'm returning to Uni tomorrow where there isn't a wireless connection, so if you want to play against me before then, be quick and enter my ID: 1007-7113-9238-4000, for when I can find the time to play for a bit, and whenever I'm home.

Overall, Sonic Rush Adventure is a superb game, that, at least on initial play, is way better than its predecessor in my opinion. However, what's important to me is its lasting appeal over the months and years that I'll return to it now and then for a play, at which point it can be properly compared to the other games of the series. It's a shame the levels are so short and easy, in fact I dare say this could be the easiest Sonic platformer we've ever seen, and it remains to be seen if this will impact much on its lasting appeal. That doesn't mean for a second though that it isn't a fun, innovative and highly enjoyable experience that is deepened tremendously by its sailing aspect and a not-too-overwhelmining smidgen of RPG. It's all so well thought out and the developers have really softened every corner, which is a sight for sore eyes in these modern times. Dimps may have kicked off for us the start of Sonic's return to the top, or at least a more comfortable alcove on the mountain of gaming.

By the way, Hill Top Zone isn't far off completion now. More people are flocking to this place to find out Sonic 2 info for its XBLA version, so I'll try to build it up as quickly as I can.

Comments   4 Comments have been posted.
#1. Comment posted by 1963886 on Saturday, 15th September 2007, 8:34pm
...I didn't know that. No wonder it has a 12+ rating, I guess. America will get this game in 3 days, and I'll be getting it then. I'm curious, what are the "real" lyrics to the boss music? Have YOU figured them out. I really hope it doesn't say what everybody thinks it says. The game sounds great, though
#2. Comment posted by LiQuidShade on Saturday, 15th September 2007, 9:03pm
lol, yeah, I don't think it says that either. That's certainly what I say when I'm humming along to it though. If you're on the Wi-fi, let me know your ID number.
#3. Comment posted by 1963886 on Sunday, 23rd September 2007, 1:05am
Uh... Well, I guess that's up to you, but, one of the reasons I like the
Sonic series is because it has/had NO bad language. There's no reason for it to change, and if it does, I won't buy anymore Sonic games. I'm a little unhappy with Sega. Even if the song really doesn't say that, the should have relized it was to close to keep in there. That being said... The game itself is awsome. I still haven't beat a number of the missions yet, though. Do you have any advice on getting through the zones as fast as you can?
#4. Comment posted by LiQuidShade on Tuesday, 25th September 2007, 3:05pm
Not really, sorry. I'm kinda stuck on those time limit ones aswell. Guess it just comes down to working out the best shortcuts, of which there seem to be plenty.
Sonic's Gambling Addiction
Thursday, 6th September 2007, 1:08pm (UTC), 3 Comments
Update: Casino Night Zone added to the Sonic 2 section
Sorry it's taken so long, but I've finally finished Casino Night Zone. Blame my eyes giving up on me, although they seem to be getting much better now, thankfully. The Act 1 map in particular was a bit of a nightmare. So many bloody bumpers and flippers etc, and then I had to add in all the Sonic and Tails panels in the foreground too, which was pretty time consuming. I rather hope Hill Top Zone will be much less of a struggle. One thing to note is that for this page, I tried out a whole new organisation system. Before, each page had its own specific CSS file that specified a particular div id for each individual paragraph and image in the html. I've done away with this and from now on, I only specify what I need to in the actual html file, so much less code needs to be repeated. I no longer use p tags either, so the page should look mostly the same in Firefox, IE and hopefully everything else now - the differences used to drive me nuts. IE still sucks though. Use Firefox.

So, only a week to go til Sonic Rush Adventure washes ashore at game retailers, and I am rather excited, moreso than I was at this point for the first one anyway. Most people prefer plots not to be spoiled for them - I'm the same, but because level design is my first love in Sonic, I don't want levels and general gameplay contents spoiled for me either. I just love the feeling of exploring a brand new level for the first time ever, and it's amazing when you haven't seen a single screenshot or movie clip of it, and haven't heard the music, don't know what type of level it's going to be or even know its name until you actually play it. In recent years, most games could not offer me this experience because I'd already found out something about all its levels - I really hate it when official media spills the beans on all of them, so now I refuse to see any more screens or movies, hear the music that's on the rather stylish official site, or find out anything else about SRA. I know five of the seven levels, but I want the remaining two to be kept a complete secret, thankyou very much. The only video footage and music I've seen/heard is in the trailer too, so there's plenty of new ground for me to cover - can't wait!

One thing that's still up in the air as far as I'm concerned is whether or not the game will feature online play via wi-fi. If it does, it'll be the first ever Sonic game to officially take the big leap into online play (and about time), but I'm trying not to be too excited. Some sources say it will, some don't mention it, but after it was promised, then taken away from us in Sonic the Hedgehog on 360, I remain on the fence. If it doesn't, then apparently Sonic 2 on XBox Live Arcade might take the leap instead, but Streets of Rage 2 apparently is very slow online, so that might bomb a bit too. Bah!

Expect a full on bout of impression giving on SRA next weekend. Should get Hill Top up before the month's end aswell.

Comments   3 Comments have been posted.
#1. Comment posted by 1963886 on Friday, 7th September 2007, 9:48pm
I'm looking foward to Sonic Rush Adventure, too. I have high hopes for this game! Casino Night zone is looking really good, and very detailed!
#2. Comment posted by Fueledbyrings on Saturday, 8th September 2007, 5:28pm
Actually, Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast had World Ranking contests (sponsored by Reebok and AT&T), a Christmas mod for Station Square, a Halloween "Tremble Park" mod, a Dreamcast launch mod, and several Twinkle Circuit downloads, as well as the Chao stuff and the voice themes. I guess that would make it the first Sonic game to go big online, but who knows what SRA will do?
#3. Comment posted by LiQuidShade on Saturday, 8th September 2007, 9:30pm
Very true, but I was thinking more of actual online play, as in playing against other gamers in real time, and ideally, competing against them in levels, at the same time. I've heard that there was some sort of not-very-good online patch for Sonic R on PC, and of course some emulators can play the Megadrive 2-player games online, but other than that, it hasn't really been done yet, officially.
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