Hyper Sonic Discussion Thread

[time gear]

Since we were beginning to derail the Red XVI discussion thread with this, this seemed appropriate. Should Hyper Sonic officially return to SRB2 in some form?

Personally, I would love to see Hyper Sonic come back as some sort of secret unlockable. I probably wouldn't bring back the black emerald, but maybe have the secret have to do with finding and obtaining the Master Emerald? In terms of gameplay, Hyper Sonic could either just be a skin for Super Sonic, or have a slightly higher stat boost. Doesn't need to be anything too fancy.

 

[Soufon]

Hyper Sonic as some sort of Extras Menu-type reward doesn't sound all that great, but I guess I can see the charm of having it in the base game in some fashion.

Personally, if HS were to be put in, I'd love for the Special Stage list to be expanded with the remaining indev zones (Dark City, Grand Eggship?) during a singleplayer run as a bonus challenge, coming after after Ring Satellite. Hyper Sonic would be unlocked after beating both.

 

[time gear]

Oh I don't mean restricting it to the secrets menu, I just mean having the unlock itself be optional and secret, so that you have to discover it somehow.

I don't think I would want it to replace Super Sonic entirely though once you have it, maybe make it so tapping the transform button turns you Super, while holding it down turns you Hyper? Could even have this instructed to the player when they discover it via text on screen. "Hold down the transform button to become Hyper Sonic!" or something.

 

[rocklight124]

Yes Hyper Sonic lets do it.

 

[cerealgoo]

Dude what's wrong with SEGA? They haven't made hyper appear in another game since 3 and Knuckles (also Sonic and Knuckles)

 

[Eis-Kold]

SRB2 seems to be the perfect place to re-introduce Hyper Sonic, to be honest. As a fan of the transformation, I think it would be nice to see again. However, there comes an issue when you consider the transition from 2D to 3D.

A glaring issue I have with Metal Sonic and even Super Sonic, to an extent, is control of speed. Horizontal movement is the primary axis in 2D games, which is why the transformations there aren't as difficult to maneuver, but once you transition to 3D, vertical movement - and as a result, walls - become a lot more common. Granted, Hyper Sonic would most likely have a much higher jump, allowing him easier movement along walls - but his top speed would likely become somewhat difficult or even frustrating to control without the proper ability to do so. AltSonic is a cool character because his Atom Dash allows him to slow down and then instantly speed back up, but the only thing similar to that for Hyper Sonic would be the full-screen attack he does that allows him to change directions. (This would probably become a combination of the Speed Thok and Jump Thok for SRB2.)

There are pros though. I'd love more motivation to collect emerald tokens every run (even if only for two characters), and to see those tokens possibly become Giant Rings after collecting all the emeralds - or even having to go discover Giant Rings in hidden locations - sounds entertaining. I'd also like to see how Special Stages would be handled, being that in S3&K, the original S&K stages are used for the reason that they are much harder. Something that sounds interesting to me for NiGHTS stages, although it's not explicitly "making the stages harder" per se, is adding bosses kind of like the ones from the NiGHTS series.

TL;DR: Although it could potentially conflict with existing level design and be tricky/annoying to control, Hyper Sonic could bring a lot of fun to gameplay (and it's just cool and deserves to appear again anyways).

 

[time gear]

SRB2 seems to be the perfect place to re-introduce Hyper Sonic, to be honest. As a fan of the transformation, I think it would be nice to see again. However, there comes an issue when you consider the transition from 2D to 3D.

A glaring issue I have with Metal Sonic and even Super Sonic, to an extent, is control of speed. Horizontal movement is the primary axis in 2D games, which is why the transformations there aren't as difficult to maneuver, but once you transition to 3D, vertical movement - and as a result, walls - become a lot more common. Granted, Hyper Sonic would most likely have a much higher jump, allowing him easier movement along walls - but his top speed would likely become somewhat difficult or even frustrating to control without the proper ability to do so. AltSonic is a cool character because his Atom Dash allows him to slow down and then instantly speed back up, but the only thing similar to that for Hyper Sonic would be the full-screen attack he does that allows him to change directions. (This would probably become a combination of the Speed Thok and Jump Thok for SRB2.)

(snip)

TL;DR: Although it could potentially conflict with existing level design and be tricky/annoying to control, Hyper Sonic could bring a lot of fun to gameplay (and it's just cool and deserves to appear again anyways).

There could be ways to work around the downsides though. Hyper Sonic doesn't necessarily need to be faster than Super Sonic. This is their chance to re-invent the wheel so to speak, to redo how Hyper Sonic works to fit within not only a 3D space, but SRB2's specific gameplay style. For example, they could increase his jump height significantly and allow the player to adjust their height somewhat while hovering, or even outright introduce the Egg Reverie style flight as a Hyper Sonic exclusive.

They don't necessarily even need to go that far, however. Hyper Sonic could be nothing more than an aesthetic easter egg acting as a reference and homage to S3K rather than a full transformation and I wouldn't complain much. You can always rely on the modding community to implement a more complete form regardless, even if it means taking up the torch and doing it oneself.

 

[Zwip-Zwap Zapony]

SRB2 currently has Hyper forms "in some form"; If you're Super, with godmode, without debug mode (devmode?), then you flash in 7 bright different-hue colours instead of 5 same-hue colours.
(There's no gameplay change compared to just being Super, aside from what godmode itself brings (e.g. no drowning, crushing, dying in pits, et cetera).)

 

[GrayAngel]

I like the way Hyper Sonic is with the Hyper Abilities add-on. All it changes is that it gives Sonic's thok a screen nuke, and it makes it so he can't drown. I'd be fine if Hyper Sonic was like that, but I'd maybe unlock the thok so it can go in any direction, not just straight ahead.

As for how to unlock him, I have a few ideas. We already have Black Hole Zone as an eighth extra hard Special Stage. Why not repurpose it? Instead of unlocking it by getting an A in every other Special Stage, you unlock it after collecting a certain number of emblems, or by completing the game with every character. Then the next time you play with Sonic, whether a new game or a complete save, collecting the emerald tokens would take you to Black Hole zone. If you beat it, you're teleported to the Hidden Palace Master Emerald altar, where you see the Chaos Emeralds transform into Super Emeralds. From then on, in that save, you can transform into Hyper Sonic. This way, if you still want to play as Super Sonic, you can have another save where you simply don't beat Black Hole Zone.

 

[Jaco4126]

Honestly Id love if they made hyper a unlockable. Im loving these ideas!

 

[GrayAngel]

IMO, the current design of Hyper Sonic works well for SRB2, but if official games bring him back, I think a more subtle color change effect would work both in 2D and 3D.

 

[time gear]

In regards to a Modern Sonic design for Hyper Sonic, an idea I absolutely adore is him having rainbow eyes, with the colors actually moving around similar to something like electricity in digital circuitry. I do enjoy him being primarily white, but he should at least have a rainbow aura.

Super Sonic usually looks pretty aggressive, but I feel like Modern Hyper Sonic should look more indifferent. Not necessarily full Ultra Instinct Goku's blank stare, but just a general apathetic expression to signify that he's at a level of power so great that he doesn't need to try all that hard anymore. Almost as though he's bored. It would help sell the feeling of raw power the form has, as though Sonic has truly become unstoppable far beyond that of Super Sonic.

 

[SIG7Pro]

Since we were beginning to derail the Red XVI discussion thread with this, this seemed appropriate. Should Hyper Sonic officially return to SRB2 in some form?

Personally, I would love to see Hyper Sonic come back as some sort of secret unlockable. I probably wouldn't bring back the black emerald, but maybe have the secret have to do with finding and obtaining the Master Emerald? In terms of gameplay, Hyper Sonic could either just be a skin for Super Sonic, or have a slightly higher stat boost. Doesn't need to be anything too fancy.

1. 8th emerald
2. type "God" in console and get a ring, type in "killingdead" and turn super

 

[time gear]

While playing around with the new v6 demo release of Mystic Realm (Which is apparently also canceled in regards to further development) an idea as to how Hyper Sonic (and other hyper/tier 2 forms) could be implemented into the vanilla campaign came to my head. The idea actually originated as I was first testing out the new levels after release, but I have further expanded on it since, and think I'm ready to share my thoughts here.

The idea is this: Scattered throughout certain zones in their act 2, hidden emerald alters can be found in each of the colors of the Chaos Emeralds (Perhaps each alter could also have a different visual aesthetic fitting the zone it's in). For example, the green alter could be hidden somwhere in Greenflower Act 2. If you currently have the Chaos Emerald of the alters color, you can deposit it there, converting it into a Super Emerald. Once the conversion is complete, the player can pick the converted Super Emerald up, adding it back into their inventory.

You can only turn Super if you have 7 ordinary Chaos Emeralds, and you can only turn Hyper if you have 7 Super Emeralds. Any combination of the two sets will not allow the player to transform, so the player has the choice of if they would rather ignore the alters and just shoot for collecting the emeralds to turn Super, or if they would rather search for the alters and go even further beyond. Of course, you can always just go back into a stage on a cleared save data to search for it's alter after the fact, so it's also entirely valid to just shoot for Super on your first playthrough and try to unlock Hyper later.

Effectively, this makes the process of unlocking Hyper Sonic (And any other character with a tier 2 transformation) something of an additional, optional scavenger hunt adding additional incentive to explore the levels and also comes with the same cost from S3K of not being able to go Super anymore once you have started collecting Super Emeralds. The alters would also give the process of unlocking the more powerful transformation an epic, mysterious feel. The entirely optional (and therefore missable) aspect to this would hopefully help create the feeling that there's more going on in these levels than just tropes for Sonic and friends to rush through on their journey to stop Eggman.