what a grand return for VPhysics, a mod i genuinely did not expect to see again, especially after...over a year? god damn. i left a review before, talking about the pre-revamp version, but since it's gotten an overhaul i think a rewrite is warranted.
i won't go too far into the global changes since i'm pretty much apathetic to momentum mods at this point, but it's solid enough. i will say, though, i'm not much of a fan of preserving speed after being hurt. it's probably just because i'm used to being stopped dead in my tracks, but i feel like that allowed me to slow down and focus again after getting ahead of myself. plus, it also...doesn't result in my speed being preserved in the death state. miiiiight wanna fix that.
sonic's abilities aren't super remarkable in concept or execution, but i think enough was done with them for him to be the second most fun out of the lot. right out the gate, i think the wall climb is extremely negligible and should either be buffed or removed, since i didn't really find myself using it that much simply because it was too weak compared to the jumpthok. speaking of, the jumpthok is a quite fun headliner for sonic's moveset, and i can say the same of the homing attack and drop-out, lending themselves to quite a fun speed moveset for sonic. however, there were multiple occasions (emphasis on *multiple*) where i found myself being damaged by an enemy i was homing attacking. i know this was addressed in the thread, but i hope at least some kind of failsafe is implemented (like neo sonic has), because this is something that is 100% out of the player's control.
tails and knuckles are...weird, since it's exceedingly obvious that there weren't really any ideas for the two of them (not that that's a bad thing at all, i have idea drought all the time). i'm just kinda surprised that for as packed as sonic and metal are, that these have such little changed. tails' bomb ability feels very out of leftfield (except for the jump part, that part i like), and knuckles' abilities aren't bad, but aren't really anything to write home about.
amy and fang definitely have a bit more to talk about than tails and knuckles, but less so than sonic or metal. i think they're both a huge improvement, but with a lot of questionable design choices that leave me a little confused more than anything. for starters, i think amy's great, the double jump being fun to mess around with and the lack of a cut in speed with her hammer melee being a great touch. fang, however, is a little conflicting. i'm glad i'm not the only one who thinks cork jumping as a move is a fun idea, but the fact that you can't do it without some kind of target to lock into is...interesting. not good interesting. that, and the fact that there is no kind of gun'n'run while on the ground makes fang a good character with a lot of ???????? elements to go with him.
metal sonic, however, is where i got the most fun out of the package. the rocket jump, while easily exploitable for height and busted speeds (seriously, just load up srb2thicc and button mash), is an insanely useful tool for metal, and quite a fun one at that. the mid-air spindash, as well, is something that i felt metal was always suited for, and it works really well here, making for a genuinely pretty great package. i'd say this is where the mod shines the most.
overall, this is a huge improvement over the previous releases, but what it makes up in grandeur and genuinely fun elements, it does slightly falter when the thin veil is pulled back to reveal a decent portion of jank and inexplicable design decisions. that aside, though, it's quite fun. nice work!
(also what the fuck is a mommy sonic i don't get the joke)