Sonic Fan Remix

I don't really have an opinion of this either way because I can't get this to run well, even at the lowest setting on my oldish desktop. Anyway, I think I can help a little bit in this argument.

If you ever played the first Portal game, you can see how simplistic the design is. This choice was intentional, as it helps players grasp the new concept of portals, while not getting distracted by scenic items. Too many scenic items would have confused the player in thinking they might be part of the solution of the portal puzzle. Simplifying it helps keep the player knowing which object is what.

In this fangame, I assume that the enemies are hard to see against the background when moving at sonic speeds. Not being able to easily differentiate between object and background can either cause the player to slow down so that player can differentiate things easier, or get hurt because that player couldn't react fast enough since the enemy was harder to see at fast speeds.

So, the goal should be that the design of this game have objects that are very easily distinguishable from the background (or other objects). That doesn't necessarily mean reducing the overall detail of the game, but it could mean changing the details of the game so that it these issues are reduced.

EDIT: So, I got this to play at a somewhat playable speed on my computer and can see where the complaints are. I think one thing that could be implemented to help the game out is to have a sonic CD type of camera so the player can see farther up the field of play. Another thing is to reduce the background object interactions. While the whale jumping from the background looks neat, it caused me to get a hit from a badnik. Maybe have those background objects look more faded, and farther away so that the player can see important things easier.

Well, the camera gets somewhat further when you play the game in a higher resolution and you can see what's up ahead when you're running, I suppose. But sadly, my computer is not powerful enough to play it in higher resolutions :c

I just can't believe people would gripe about the visuals saying it's so good it sucks, that makes no sense at all. If you can't see what you are doing, then maybe you need to get your eyes checked. Maybe they are just running into enemies cause they are not paying attention to what they are doing moving at such high speed. If I run into an enemy or die, it's my own fault not the game. Seems people have gotten too soft these days and can't handle what Sonic used to be. Otherwise the visuals are gorgeous and there is nothing wrong with them, it's just eye candy and has no effect on gameplay.

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Ah, eye candy has no effect on gameplay.

Bullshit.

One of the things you'll notice with pretty much every Sonic game from 1 to 4 is that Sonic stands out. The enemies all stand out. Anything that potentially could cause the player harm stands out.

SFR breaks this. Enemies start blending in with the background due to the sheer amount of things going on at once. People start to take hits to enemies that were right in front of them because either they couldn't see it in the first place, what they were running into looked like it was just a typical background object, or their attention was focused elsewhere by what appeared to be an actual enemy on first glance (but was infact just a flag in the foreground, for example).

This is dead wrong from a gameplay perspective.

As I said, you can easily notice the enemies in a higher resolution where the camera stays further, so it's no big deal when you can play it without lagging (you will need some good computer for that)

But it's not a problem with the resolution. It's a problem with the fact that the level of detail in the level is so high, it draws your attention to it and away from the hazards that you should be focusing on. A game should never do that.

Ya know, I never focus on anything else other than the character I'm controlling, because I know what I'm doing it's important

But I admit the background can be very distracting

GTF said:

Ya know, I never focus on anything else other than the character I'm controlling, because I know what I'm doing it's important

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If you only focus on your character, you don't focus on potential hazards. Just saying.

Also, could you please start using full stops?

I liked it, myself.

I liked the whole look of this game, but I can understand what people are talking about when they say the details and movements in the background are too distracting from the game. Plus, there's a factor of some foreground foliage that can partially obscure badniks. I'm not noticing any personal effect, but I can see it being a problem for other people, and I actually don't think I would miss it if the details were dumbed down some. A graphical option to remove non-essential foreground elements or move them to the background would be welcomed, I think.

The enemy placement has alot of problems, however. I'm getting the sense that if I'm NOT rolling at every possible oppurtunity, I will get hit. Plus, I ran into 2 instances where a spring sends you straight into a badnik. Not cool. I actually get the sense that an attempt was made to make these basic "move back and forth and hope Sonic bumps into me" enemies into an actual threat (I could be wrong, mind)... But it actually comes across as more "unfair". I do think games are allowed to have completely non-threatening enemies, especially in an early level. Leave the actual danger aspect to the more complex enemies (like those round, floaty badniks with the spikeballs spinning around them), and let players have the freedom to run rather than roll if they wish.

But to continue, I liked the physics. Jumping down onto a slope, holding down, and speeding away in a fast-moving ball made me feel especially nostalgic~

After playing a bit, I noticed that there was a very minor delay in the controls... Did anyone else notice? It's not a framerate issue, the game plays smoothly for me on Fantastic, and I did try Fastest to see if it was still present.

There was also an oh-god-what moment when I failed to maintain enough momentum to get a quarter through a loop... And fell through the ground and died. I know bugs are expected, but this just seemed noteworthy to me. :P

Overall, regardless of the issues, I do like this, and I would love to see a full, finished game of this. Enemy placement IS the biggest issue to me, mind.

Sonic Fan Remix got into Game Informer. Pretty awesome, if you ask me. Here's the site and the scanned page:

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/...ses-with-lush-visuals-and-tight-controls.aspx

http://www.tssznews.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/2j0mon7.png

I just unsubscribed from GI

*shot*

RedEchidna said:

I just unsubscribed from GI

*shot*

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Funny. I did too, but for a different reason. I was actually thrilled to find this in my last issue of Game Informer then got bitterly disappointed by their Epic Mickey. Especially once I started playing my copy of it from grandmother.

I'm glad Mercury had the balls to say which game marked the downfall of the series. Because despite Sonic Adventure being well developed, you have to admit... It fucked up any whimsical surrealism the franchise ever had in turn for a human dominated world. But that's beating a dead horse.

Good that non internet users now know about this game.

That wasn't really Adventure's problem. The core gameplay, in essence, was pretty good. The problem was all in execution, which wasn't apparent to me at the time, but becomes bleedingly obvious the more I go back to it. It's virtually impossible to go in a straight line without wobbling back and forth, and whatever momentum-based physics exist in the game are largely broken by how god-awful the collision detection is. The simple act of stopping to talk to people or pick up objects is busted by their insistence of combining that button with the Spin Dash button, and then not registering that I'm ready to talk to somebody unless I'm stepping on their toes AND facing directly towards them. And don't even get me started on the horrendous camera... Not even DX's "free camera" (which is inverted on both axes from what I'd like and has no option to change it, argh) is all that good.

Sonic living in a human-filled city? Doesn't bother me that much, actually. Sure, could've used a few extra furries for consistency's sake, but eh. Also kinda miss those weird floating TV things - the ones that apparently talk to you - that showed up in Adventure and never once since.

I've been playing Adventure again on the 360, and what Shadow Hog says is dead-on. That said, it's kind of depressing how bad this game is, considering I loved it back in 1999. I mean, I can still play Super Mario World and have a great time, but this game just gets worse on each playthrough.

Shadow Hog said:

That wasn't really Adventure's problem. The core gameplay, in essence, was pretty good. The problem was all in execution, which wasn't apparent to me at the time, but becomes bleedingly obvious the more I go back to it. It's virtually impossible to go in a straight line without wobbling back and forth, and whatever momentum-based physics exist in the game are largely broken by how god-awful the collision detection is. The simple act of stopping to talk to people or pick up objects is busted by their insistence of combining that button with the Spin Dash button, and then not registering that I'm ready to talk to somebody unless I'm stepping on their toes AND facing directly towards them. And don't even get me started on the horrendous camera... Not even DX's "free camera" (which is inverted on both axes from what I'd like and has no option to change it, argh) is all that good.

Sonic living in a human-filled city? Doesn't bother me that much, actually. Sure, could've used a few extra furries for consistency's sake, but eh. Also kinda miss those weird floating TV things - the ones that apparently talk to you - that showed up in Adventure and never once since.

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They appeared in SA2 as well in Knuckles/Rogue stages. It seems that Omachao took over the TV things due to it was a chao - it seems that SEGA thought that chao gardens were a real hit, so when they made Sonic Heroes and Riders they made sure some sort of a chao was in the game.

supersonic45 said:

it seems that SEGA thought that chao gardens were a real hit, so when they made Sonic Heroes and Riders they made sure some sort of a chao was in the game.

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Unfortunately Chao have never really been as cool since. They REALLY need to take the Chao/tamagotchi/pet thing and bring it back fresh and new, doncha think?

Charybdizs said:

Unfortunately Chao have never really been as cool since. They REALLY need to take the Chao/tamagotchi/pet thing and bring it back fresh and new, doncha think?

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Uh, how's about I play a Sonic game to play a Sonic game and not give a damn about a Tamagotchi pet as a side game to a mediocre game? Cool? Cool. I have my preferences, you have yours, but an excellent Sonic game should be Sega's top priority at the moment being. Sonic Team better give it their all and not let Dimps get involved.

Charybdizs said:

Unfortunately Chao have never really been as cool since. They REALLY need to take the Chao/tamagotchi/pet thing and bring it back fresh and new, doncha think?

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They won't because no one cares for them. The dude in charge for Chao Gardens in SA1 and 2 quit SEGA, and no one there really cares for them anyway.

Guess what came back from the dead.

Pelikan on Retro said:

well, I'm not dead... but I've stopped working on the project for the time being. I hope to return to it at some point though.

In the meantime I can't see anything wrong with releasing the work that me and Damizean have done on Chemical Plant so here is the link if anyone wants to try it out:

https://rapidshare.com/files/1343325069/ChemicalPlantWip.rar

:)

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If the link above doesn't work try this.

And have a gameplay video of the new demo.

This is still blowing Sega's work out of the fucking water. Even the most high profile Sonic game in years is nothing compared to this fan project. You think Generation's Chemical Plant is amazing? Wait until this is finished. Even as a WIP it's blowing my damned mind.

What's kinda funny to me is that it looks no better than the Generations Chemical Plant.

Sure it looks great compared to every fan project ever and there are some interesting technical achievements like that spiral rise but gameplay-wise it looks like it's just as much as Generations looks to be.

I played Sonic Fan remix, it good but it was to laggy for my pc.