How much do you enjoy Metal Sonic's gameplay personally?
I'm back and forth with it. In certain situations he's really fun, but he's also situationally boring. Levels like Greenflower Zone and Techno Hill are great as Metal as his abilities have potential with a little thought and skill to gain access to shortcuts rather than counteract main level gimmicks. Levels with more bottomless pits and floor hazards on the other hand end up feeling like a joke as him, and remain fun only as long as the novelty of abusing his powers.
Would you say that Metal Sonic rewards skillful play?
Yes and No. As I mentioned before, certain levels have a feel to them as though mastery over his abilities can bring great rewards, while others are just way too easy due to his abilities being a direct counter to their biggest gimmicks. I would probably say that's not entirely a problem with his moveset however, and more something that would need to be addressed in level design by giving him more unique paths.
How do you think Metal Sonic contributes to or detracts from overall game balance?
For the sake of simplicity, I will compare him to the main trio and not to Fang and Amy, as I feel the game is primarily balanced around those three and as such most of the level design was probably made with them in mind first, and then added on to for others later.
His hover ability can be compared to Tails' flight and Knuckles' glide. As I mentioned in the suggestions topic, it overall feels superior to both of these abilities despite them both having certain advantages. I will explain in more detail:
Tails can gain vertical height, and a rather substantial amount at that. This situationally gives Tails an advantage over Metal when there is a particular emphesis on upward verticality within a level. However, to make up for this Metal excels at horizontal movement through the air, and indeed is the most powerful character at doing so.
Tails can only fly for so long, and loses speed trying to maintain airtime vertically through multiple flight button presses. This places Tails at a disadvantage against Metal in levels that are more horizontally designed with lots of floor hazards and bottomless pits, as Metal has no limit to how long he can hover and can keep up a decent pace with ease. His horizontal movement potential in the air is infinite, and this is barely offset by any kind of punishment for messing it up by bumping into things or making sharp turns.
Knuckles has more horizontal potential compared to Tails, but still less than Metal. He loses height at a consistent rate as he glides through the air, while Metal does not while hovering. Knuckles can grab onto certain walls and climb along them to maintain height and increase distance, but Metal can breeze through areas that lack walls Knuckles can latch onto, as well as through areas with them faster than Knuckles can. The only saving grace Knuckles has here is that when there does happen to be something he can climb, he can gain height with it while Metal is capped at the height he started at each jump.
Sonic has more immediate speed potential than Metal, able to go from 0 to top speed in the blink of an eye with his thok. He's also generally easier to keep control over than Metal. Metal makes up for this with his dash ability, V. Maximum Overdrive. It removes his speed cap and allows him to blaze through the stage so long as the player can avoid bumping into things, giving him crazy skill potential. This also doubles as a buff to his fully charged spindash.
Overall, Metal might not necessarily be the speed run king in every level, but he is the character I believe to have the easiest time clearing levels in the highest number of situations, and generally feels like much more of a "Jack of all trades" well rounded character than Knuckles. His ability feels like a superior compromise between Tails' flight and Knuckles glide, and he generally has the speed to keep up with Sonic in the right hands.
I feel as though in his current state he's a positive addition to the game, but he could use some tweaks to make him slightly more different.
The development team has been considering whether or not to change Metal Sonic's ability set entirely. If this were to happen, would you miss the current playstyle?
Yes and No. Part of me would miss abusing his moveset in levels that become a joke because of it, but I feel like the benefit would outweigh this. I don't really feel like his entire moveset needs to be changed though, just tweaked. Some big changes would be nice, such as altering how he behaves underwater and in a vacuum compared to other characters. His hover ability on the other hand I feel like is fine with the exception that while in base form it should drop like a rock when you lose too much speed, rather than falling slowly. This combined with his lack of a thok to gain speed back easily would allow it to stay powerful while offsetting that with a heavy risk, making it more of a risk vs reward playstyle.
If major changes were necessary however, I feel like making him reflect his boss battle in gameplay a bit more could be a really fun reward for players who unlock him, even if this means the requirements to do so are made harder. In particular, I would give him something resembling true flight but for a limited time like Tails, as well as projectiles he can charge up and shoot at enemies while in the air.
I would also tweak his dash move to replace spindash entirely, time it based on how many walls he has collided with, and have him bounce off walls when he collides with them. The ability to control which direction he is moving during this state would be minimal, and as such it could be risky to try to use to skip huge gaps with. He would be able to use it in the air as well as on the ground, charging it up for longer would allow him to bounce off more walls before it ends and make it move faster. He could not enter this state while running.
