Sonic and the Secret Rings - Feb/March

LBD_Nytetrayn

I just recapped a bunch of stuff from the new Nintendo Power here, including a nice, lengthy look at Sonic and the Secret Rings for Wii, but I'm not sure if it's too long to put here or not.

(And if posting it here is the difference between this being locked and not, then by all means I ask a mod to just copy the Sonic stuff into this post, if you must. Or I can do it later, whatever)

This game has me VERY stoked, though, from the idea of powering Sonic up to seeing Knuckles dressed as Sinbad to fighting a Majin Buu lookalike with a big-ass knife.

This could very well be everything we wanted the 360 game to be... which is funny, since that was originally what they were going to put on Wii.

IGN just did a hands-on, too, complete with 5 new videos... with music!

"Press the 2 button to get off the flying pot." ...that just sounds SO wrong...

(But I was really worried when I heard the female voice in one video that it was Sonic speaking...)

So... yeah. I think before Super Paper Mario entrances me, this one will be my next Wii purchase.

Anyone else on board? Or did the other guys finally make you lose hope with the 360 tragedy? Because so far, this looks like all the best parts of Sonic, minus the bad.

2/7/07 Update: Some new screens showing "Eggman."





From Sonic Stadium's impressions here.

UncleSporky

Oh man oh man. This just sounds better and better.

The only thing I was skeptical about was the story, and now even that sounds ok. None of Sonic's shittier friends, but the ones who are present are in arabian getups? Reminds me of those cartoon episodes where someone goes to an alternate universe and all their friends are totally different.

Plus, leveling up? Holy crap.

ToadTheMushroom

God. What happened SEGA. What happened?

DekuStick

Well one of the videos looked pretty cool.

Looks like some good fun.

Marlor

It looks like Sonic's run of success on Nintendo machines continues. The handheld Sonic games have been the best since the demise of Sega hardware, and this game looks pretty damn nice.

A Sonic game where you have to run really fast through levels. Fancy that.

My only worry is its length. Especially with the news that they have added mini-games to it. To me, mini-games often seem to be an apology for skimping on the length of the single-player game.

UncleSporky

Marlor wrote:

My only worry is its length. Especially with the news that they have added mini-games to it. To me, mini-games often seem to be an apology for skimping on the length of the single-player game.

Hmm. 8 stages with 12 missions each...I hope that doesn't mean 8 levels - acts - with 12 things to do in each level. Yuck. Although with lots of branching paths, I guess those 8 could be pretty long...

Marlor

UncleSporky wrote:

Hmm. 8 stages with 12 missions each...I hope that doesn't mean 8 levels - acts - with 12 things to do in each level. Yuck. Although with lots of branching paths, I guess those 8 could be pretty long...

I'd be happy with 10 hours or so of gameplay from start to finish. If it's anything like the Genesis and handheld games, it will be extremely replayable and will have plenty of frustrating levels that take several goes to get past.

Eight acts would be way too short. But if it has 8 zones with 12 acts in each, then that would be way longer than I would expect.

I guess we won't know until the game is reviewed. I'll be sitting on the edge of my seat until then.

plufim

I can see this game being seen as the true celebration of sonic's 15th birthday.

I suspect there'll be a 9th supersonic level. And hey, if this game is fun, we might be replaying it enough to get the gold medals!

I am so glad wii didn't get sonic 360.

MarvellousM

Can't really watch the videos right now, what's the music like? I was dearly hoping for another Sonic Rush style soundtrack, I friggin' love that game.

UncleSporky

Music doesn't sound anything like Rush. It's generic rock with arabian overtones and some guy screaming about "let the speed" something.

Voice acting reminds me of Baten Kaitos.

LBD_Nytetrayn

UncleSporky wrote:

Marlor wrote:

My only worry is its length. Especially with the news that they have added mini-games to it. To me, mini-games often seem to be an apology for skimping on the length of the single-player game.

Hmm. 8 stages with 12 missions each...I hope that doesn't mean 8 levels - acts - with 12 things to do in each level. Yuck. Although with lots of branching paths, I guess those 8 could be pretty long...

I'm guessing it's 8 levels with 12 different goals... not goals in the giant ring or spinny sign sense, but like it was saying, collect 99 rings or beat someone to the finish or something.

UncleSporky wrote:

Voice acting reminds me of Baten Kaitos.

Reminds me of... well, pretty much every Sonic game since SA.

Mumblyfish

UncleSporky wrote:

Voice acting reminds me of Baten Kaitos.

Oh, come now. That's being a tad unfair. Granted, Sonic's Little Helper couldn't sound less enthusiastic if she tried, but Sonic himself sounds like Sonic should. Wonderfully cheesy. I can only hope they give him more samples. If they have Stupid Bint saying a different line every ten seconds (typically just reading lines out of the game manual) they can give Sonic more than "Yeah!".

UncleSporky

Mumblyfish wrote:

UncleSporky wrote:

Voice acting reminds me of Baten Kaitos.

Oh, come now. That's being a tad unfair. Granted, Sonic's Little Helper couldn't sound less enthusiastic if she tried, but Sonic himself sounds like Sonic should. Wonderfully cheesy. I can only hope they give him more samples. If they have Stupid Bint saying a different line every ten seconds (typically just reading lines out of the game manual) they can give Sonic more than "Yeah!".

I guess I should've qualified that. Sonic is alright, but the girl's voice is spot on Xelha levels of annoyance.

LBD_Nytetrayn

She reminded me more of Tikal from SA1 than anything.

Gino

I'm cautiasly Optimistic about this game.

Lunker

Gino wrote:

I'm cautiasly Optimistic about this game.

Wordherder

The IGN writeup was REALLY enthusiastic, and they've been pretty hard on the 3D Sonics.

I'm taking that as a good sign.

InitialDK

I've loathed all of the 3D sonic games, but this seems like old school sonic in 3D which sounds better. It does look impressive at least.

AbsoluteZero

I'm optimistic about this one, but I'm going to have to wait for some reviews to pop up before I make a purchasing decision.

Looks very good, though. Should be a breath of fresh air for the franchise at the very least.

Pata

Knuckles looks pretty cool in that outfit.

Neva

One of the worst parts about the recent 3d sonic games (the 360 much more so) is that actually trying to have any involvement or control in the game would usually shoot sonic off the level. If they fix that, I can see this being a decent game.

I do like the fact that I can't really see a difference in the graphics between the 360 game and this one, so it is a little scary to think that this game may go the same way as the 360's sonic game and take 20 seconds to load anything; anything being the stuff that happens every 10 seconds when not in a stage.

Pooch

I like how the homing attack works in this game. You kind of sacrifice some speed to jump at the enemy, but it makes it so the camera stays behind you and you hit them, as opposed to the Sonic Adventures, where the camera would sometimes keep going and you'd miss completely.

Only thing I don't like is that section towards the end of that first level, where you come to a complete stop to sidle along the wall and have to stop every three seconds to avoid the spikes and fire.

LavaKnight

Wait, sonic fights with a knife?

LBD_Nytetrayn

Neva wrote:

One of the worst parts about the recent 3d sonic games (the 360 much more so) is that actually trying to have any involvement or control in the game would usually shoot sonic off the level. If they fix that, I can see this being a decent game.

As I said to a friend earlier:

<LBD_Nytetrayn>And check it out, it's not a bunch of flying sidewalks any more.
<LBD_Nytetrayn> There's actually some ground there.
<Wolf> Hrm, that could have promise.
<Wolf> Flying sidewalks XD

LavaKnight wrote:

Wait, sonic fights with a knife?

Only when challenging a knife-wielding monkey...

Dodge Aspen

So...this is basically a driving game?

JetBlackCenter

i dont think i get the controls.. you just go right or left?

PenguinSeph

JetBlackCenter wrote:

i dont think i get the controls.. you just go right or left?

And speed up and jump. And homing attack.

LBD_Nytetrayn

In about the same way as the morphing Yoshi segments of Yoshi's Island are, I suppose...

Accualt

Sounds like the 3D parts from Sonic Rush.

Langly

Man, i am just so tired of little helpers telling you what to do in adventure games. I'm not an advocate of the extremely difficult gaming of yesteryear, but christ people. You don't have to tell me that a monster breathes fire. He's breathing it on me right now. This map is linear, so obviously one of the dudes before a locked door holds the key. The range from inane comments of "there it is!", to "It looks like his weakpoint is that chest area!"

I know it's an attempt to help out younger players, but i would rather it be an option that I can turn off. Midna, this chick, and any other annoying little helpers can just fuck off.

JetBlackCenter

Langly wrote:

Man, i am just so tired of little helpers telling you what to do in adventure games. I'm not an advocate of the extremely difficult gaming of yesteryear, but christ people. You don't have to tell me that a monster breathes fire. He's breathing it on me right now. This map is linear, so obviously one of the dudes before a locked door holds the key. The range from inane comments of "there it is!", to "It looks like his weakpoint is that chest area!"

I know it's an attempt to help out younger players, but i would rather it be an option that I can turn off. Midna, this chick, and any other annoying little helpers can just fuck off.

i like midna...

Neva

Langly wrote:

Man, i am just so tired of little helpers telling you what to do in adventure games. I'm not an advocate of the extremely difficult gaming of yesteryear, but christ people. You don't have to tell me that a monster breathes fire. He's breathing it on me right now. This map is linear, so obviously one of the dudes before a locked door holds the key. The range from inane comments of "there it is!", to "It looks like his weakpoint is that chest area!"

I know it's an attempt to help out younger players, but i would rather it be an option that I can turn off. Midna, this chick, and any other annoying little helpers can just fuck off.

They did this a ton in the 360 version, mainly at points where the developers knew the game was broken. One level says "I better be careful not to fall off!", which means you better stop right now because they put boosters that were spose to keep you going through the level but instead launched you off a ledge.

bruin

At the very least the gameplay in this sounds a lot better than every other 3D Sonic game. There's also been a bunch of positive hands-on previews, so I'll keep an eye on it. I'm not super hyped or anything though.

UncleSporky

Positive previews? Ha. Can't tell you how many times I've read positive, hopeful, awesome previews for games at IGN and Gamespot only to see them panned in the end. It's almost like the more positive the preview, the worse it'll fare in the end.

Dirty

Yeah, they could preview a game that is total shit, and they will still put a positive spin on it. They downplay all the negative aspects as "minor issues" that will probably be resolved by the time the game is completed.

But then, its time for the review, and its still there. Suddenly, the minor issue is GAME-BREAKING!

StriderEdge

UncleSporky wrote:

Positive previews? Ha. Can't tell you how many times I've read positive, hopeful, awesome previews for games at IGN and Gamespot only to see them panned in the end. It's almost like the more positive the preview, the worse it'll fare in the end.

Indeed. I hate when media does that. I remember when EGM got the exclusive scoop in Evil Dead for the Dreamcast. They made it out to be amazing... like Resident Evil with the plot of Evil Dead 4. Then when it came out they hated it. I don't see how they could have missed some of the stuff... like the chainsaw never having enough gas and it being the only effective weapon. Other then the fact that it was a new chapter to the Evil Dead storyline it was crap.

Also I'm looking forward to this Sonic. I really like that some people are panning the game by saying things like "Wait you can only move left and right and jump? Thats stupid!" then later saying things like "Sega should stick to making Sonic games in 2D".

Typhus

Oh god oh god please let this be good. I need some Sonic on Robotnik action

Cowbomb

Typhus wrote:

Oh god oh god please let this be good. I need some Sonic on Robotnik action

If he's called Robotnik again in this, I will squeal with glee.

Anyone who calls him 'Eggman' is a filthy commie.

Thoughtless Muse

Man, how did they manage to mess this up? I'm dumbfounded. Why did they feel the need to add an extremely annoying helper who pipes in every other second?

GertBeef

Thoughtless Muse wrote:

Man, how did they manage to mess this up? I'm dumbfounded. Why did they feel the need to add an extremely annoying helper who pipes in every other second?

Probably because that might just be the very first level of the game.

StriderEdge

Thoughtless Muse wrote:

Man, how did they manage to mess this up? I'm dumbfounded. Why did they feel the need to add an extremely annoying helper who pipes in every other second?

Worked for Zelda.