Moose the Fat Cat
Member
It's crazy that the 'best' of the existing hub worlds in the Sonic franchise are the... adventure fields???? Has there been anything else? Sonic Unleashed kind of I guess, arguably, either way it's terrible? Did Sonic Team really just do one awful attempt at a 3D hub world for Sonic, and then give up entirely??? What a nightmare.
Of any 2D to 3D platformer character, Sonic seems like the one to most benefit from a hub world. It's just that the few attempts at it - Sonic Jam, Adventure 1, if you want to include Generations or Unleashed but this is all making the same point - they've been unbelievably incompetent and half-assed attempts.
The one level of Sonic Utopia is almost precisely what a hub world ought to be for Sonic. A gigantic skate park with fun interesting terrain where you run around and jump on springs and collect rings. No enemies. Just hills, loops, springs, and spikes as one obstacle.
Around the Utopia Hub, call it South Island, there are Warp Rings that act as the Mario 64 paintings.
The levels progress as they do in the Classic games -- that is, without returning back to the hub world, unlike SA or Mario 64 -- unless you choose to return, by throwing a Warp Ring home, which is like creating a save-state for that level.
Completing a level unlocks the Warp Ring entrance from South Island. There's no text. Within the spinning Warp Ring, you see a snapshot of the zone, like the level select menu screen. They'd be arranged in the order of progression.
When you're bored of the levels, or you're frustrated mid-campaign by a boss, you can always return to the skate park to have fun and hone your skills, then jump back in when you're ready to go again.
Theoretically this could be made with existing materials, as a kind of ultimate "level select" emulator for all kinds of completely different Sonic levels. It'd be like instead of Generations recreating levels in a useless hub world, it would be an incredible hub world with the ability to travel instantly to City Escape, then exit and enter a Warp Ring that's a fight as Sonic against Bean in Sonic the Fighters, Hydrocity from S3K, a fight from Sonic Battle, Studiopolis, Speed Highway. The levels would be straight emulation; they look and play differently from the hub, from Utopia, and just are what they are.
Sonic Utopia + levels accessed by Warp Rings
Levels being fill-in-the-blank emulated levels from different Sonic games.
This would be Godly, and what would be even extra godly in any form of level select, is an ability to randomize order of acts/levels, and/or create custom level campaign playlists. This would be shown in the hub as a line/string of Warp Rings in a row (the playlist or the randomized list).
...
Alternatively or more practically, this could be done in a slightly different way for SRB2.
First you need the creation of a massive playfield, in the same general concept as Utopia -- a massive home-base South Island -- but SRB2-ified. There's rings, springs, a few spikes, no enemies, and a bunch of interesting terrain as a giant playground / skate park. It's a hub. It's empty and peaceful and pointless but fun to run around. There's a lot of room and space, and it's not all flat, but it's not dangerous and you'd have to really work at throwing yourself repeatedly into spikes to die in the hub.
From there, Warp Rings act as Mario 64-like level select for GF, TH, DS, CE, AC, RV, campaign plus extra bonus levels and optional mod levels -- represented by Warp Rings in the hub world
...
tl;dr Why aren't there more examples of Sonic hubworlds? He seems like the platformer character who most deserves a big/wide peaceful area to run around, separate from the proper levels/zones.
Mario 64 castle: Sonic Utopia, Mario 64 paintings: Warp Rings to SRB2 levels
Of any 2D to 3D platformer character, Sonic seems like the one to most benefit from a hub world. It's just that the few attempts at it - Sonic Jam, Adventure 1, if you want to include Generations or Unleashed but this is all making the same point - they've been unbelievably incompetent and half-assed attempts.
The one level of Sonic Utopia is almost precisely what a hub world ought to be for Sonic. A gigantic skate park with fun interesting terrain where you run around and jump on springs and collect rings. No enemies. Just hills, loops, springs, and spikes as one obstacle.
Around the Utopia Hub, call it South Island, there are Warp Rings that act as the Mario 64 paintings.
The levels progress as they do in the Classic games -- that is, without returning back to the hub world, unlike SA or Mario 64 -- unless you choose to return, by throwing a Warp Ring home, which is like creating a save-state for that level.
Completing a level unlocks the Warp Ring entrance from South Island. There's no text. Within the spinning Warp Ring, you see a snapshot of the zone, like the level select menu screen. They'd be arranged in the order of progression.
When you're bored of the levels, or you're frustrated mid-campaign by a boss, you can always return to the skate park to have fun and hone your skills, then jump back in when you're ready to go again.
Theoretically this could be made with existing materials, as a kind of ultimate "level select" emulator for all kinds of completely different Sonic levels. It'd be like instead of Generations recreating levels in a useless hub world, it would be an incredible hub world with the ability to travel instantly to City Escape, then exit and enter a Warp Ring that's a fight as Sonic against Bean in Sonic the Fighters, Hydrocity from S3K, a fight from Sonic Battle, Studiopolis, Speed Highway. The levels would be straight emulation; they look and play differently from the hub, from Utopia, and just are what they are.
Sonic Utopia + levels accessed by Warp Rings
Levels being fill-in-the-blank emulated levels from different Sonic games.
This would be Godly, and what would be even extra godly in any form of level select, is an ability to randomize order of acts/levels, and/or create custom level campaign playlists. This would be shown in the hub as a line/string of Warp Rings in a row (the playlist or the randomized list).
...
Alternatively or more practically, this could be done in a slightly different way for SRB2.
First you need the creation of a massive playfield, in the same general concept as Utopia -- a massive home-base South Island -- but SRB2-ified. There's rings, springs, a few spikes, no enemies, and a bunch of interesting terrain as a giant playground / skate park. It's a hub. It's empty and peaceful and pointless but fun to run around. There's a lot of room and space, and it's not all flat, but it's not dangerous and you'd have to really work at throwing yourself repeatedly into spikes to die in the hub.
From there, Warp Rings act as Mario 64-like level select for GF, TH, DS, CE, AC, RV, campaign plus extra bonus levels and optional mod levels -- represented by Warp Rings in the hub world
...
tl;dr Why aren't there more examples of Sonic hubworlds? He seems like the platformer character who most deserves a big/wide peaceful area to run around, separate from the proper levels/zones.
Mario 64 castle: Sonic Utopia, Mario 64 paintings: Warp Rings to SRB2 levels
