cookiefonster
Wiki Admin
Threads criticizing specific zones seem to be a new pattern on this forum, so I've decided to throw my hat into the ring and give my criticisms towards Arid Canyon Zone.
Act 1 is absurdly biased towards Tails and Knuckles, who can skip almost the entire zone and easily access any path just by flying or climbing/gliding around, unlike Sonic who has to interact with basically every gimmick or hazard thrown at him. Dust devils are great and very satisfying to use, but I am really not a fan of the rope pulley gimmick; it feels like a huge pace-breaker that can be incredibly difficult to control, but I'm pretty sure that's because of the game's wonky physics. The final rope pulley section is ridiculously hard and basically requires memorization of where to go and when to jump off each rope, which again is the physics' fault.
Act 2 has very strange pacing and path imbalance. I really like a lot of the paths the zone has to offer and its convoluted, intertwining path structure, but some of the paths are just disappointingly short, consisting of basically short platforming 1, minecart section 1, short platforming 2, and minecart section 2 (the final minecart section, that is). It's also weird that a lot of the most interesting content in the zone is exclusive to Amy and Fang. The zone's paths for them are by far my favorite Amy/Fang content in the game, but they also make the zone a bit more underwhelming for spin characters by comparison since they're locked out of so much cool stuff and don't get cool content that Amy and Fang don't.
I'm interested to see what other criticisms people have towards the zone. There's a lot of stuff I really love about both acts, but also a lot of stuff I don't.
Act 1 is absurdly biased towards Tails and Knuckles, who can skip almost the entire zone and easily access any path just by flying or climbing/gliding around, unlike Sonic who has to interact with basically every gimmick or hazard thrown at him. Dust devils are great and very satisfying to use, but I am really not a fan of the rope pulley gimmick; it feels like a huge pace-breaker that can be incredibly difficult to control, but I'm pretty sure that's because of the game's wonky physics. The final rope pulley section is ridiculously hard and basically requires memorization of where to go and when to jump off each rope, which again is the physics' fault.
Act 2 has very strange pacing and path imbalance. I really like a lot of the paths the zone has to offer and its convoluted, intertwining path structure, but some of the paths are just disappointingly short, consisting of basically short platforming 1, minecart section 1, short platforming 2, and minecart section 2 (the final minecart section, that is). It's also weird that a lot of the most interesting content in the zone is exclusive to Amy and Fang. The zone's paths for them are by far my favorite Amy/Fang content in the game, but they also make the zone a bit more underwhelming for spin characters by comparison since they're locked out of so much cool stuff and don't get cool content that Amy and Fang don't.
I'm interested to see what other criticisms people have towards the zone. There's a lot of stuff I really love about both acts, but also a lot of stuff I don't.