1:10:43 This tangent is pretty much how I feel about Sonic stage design. Playing through my newest favorite Sonic game in recent years, Neon White, made me realize that short-form, snappy stages naturally lend themselves way better towards that "going fast and shmooving hard" style of intended gameplay. In that game, you learn the obstacles in shorter, digestible chunks and then get to execute fast routings through them with nonstop momentum. The overall experience is super rewarding--all while the game actively encourages players to keep replaying these short stages to learn them even better. Meanwhile in Sonic's approach to stage design, stages are much longer experiences comparatively--and yet they still demand players to learn their nuanced obstacles (because they really just love to keep adding really silly things like this 1:05:02) if players want to keep any semblance of momentum ongoing. This realistically isn't going to be an experience most (non-speedrunner) players are going to achieve, especially because Sonic games' overall structure doesn't really offer an incentive to keep replaying their long stages and learning their obstacles. You get your S rank, you get your 5 red rings per stage, and you move on from the game without ever really having learned how to navigate fluidly through entire stages without stopping--without ever really feeling that oh-so-coveted "Sonic speed." (Side-note: Maybe this is why I love SA2? If you engage with the Chao Garden as intended, the game teaches you to learn the stages from running through them several times to collect silly little glowsticks. The same can be said from playing its VS mode, since that also lets you learn the game's stages even more. As a result, I've found that picking up SA2 years later still feels great despite the game being riddled with constant "fuck you" obstacles that would halt momentum entirely, just because that's a Sonic game with stages I've ran through countless times.) Also: I don't necessarily think that not being able to sightread stages in this genre of obstacle-based speed gameplay is a bad thing, though. It's kind of really hard, if not inherently paradoxical in nature, to try to pitch a game centered around "going fast" and blind-sightreading while also maintaining interesting stages filled with obstacles. Not that it's impossible! You'd just need to focus on conveying gameplay elements very fairly and prominently and have as little visual clutter as possible, probably. And maybe not have such a zoomed-in camera for horizontal/2D segments. I think I'd really love to see a fast-paced Sonic game structured in a similar manner Neon White, with a focus on short-form stages that feel incredibly rewarding to speed through and offer solid incentives to keep replaying. And then maybe by the end of the game, they could add back their traditional style of longer stages--at a point where players' ability to process the game's unique speedy visuals has been refined and they'd have a much easier time sightreading obstacles (ideally). I'm fully aware I'm kinda comparing fps/puzzle apples to platforming oranges here with this comparison, but like. I really do feel like there's new things Sonic games could adapt in order to let a wider range of players actually get to experience more moments of "Sonic speed" gameplay--more than just the occasional long-runway boost segments where players get to go "Wow, this sure is fast!" before being hit in the face with a spring that halts their momentum entirely because this is their first time playing through a 3-minute-long stage (and they're very likely not going to replay said stage more than like 5 times, so that spring in particular and all others like it encountered throughout their gameplay experience are going to leave a very odd, lingering aftertaste once they're done with the game). This was meant to be like a 5-sentences-at-most comment but... I am a Sonic Enjoyer, so of course that means that I have investment in this ballpark. Oops. 😔
Man Barry missed out by not talking to the NPCs more. Theres some really good dialogue tucked away there! Like Omega asks Shadow if he can turn his hand into a gun since he’s part black arms or Maria gushing over how cool she thinks shadow is and him blushing about it, its so good!
I'm still kind of surprised how actually good this entire segment turned out to be, even if the original Generations looks extremely outdated and clunky in comparison...
1:10:43 This tangent is pretty much how I feel about Sonic stage design. Playing through my newest favorite Sonic game in recent years, Neon White, made me realize that short-form, snappy stages naturally lend themselves way better towards that "going fast and shmooving hard" style of intended gameplay. In that game, you learn the obstacles in shorter, digestible chunks and then get to execute fast routings through them with nonstop momentum. The overall experience is super rewarding--all while the game actively encourages players to keep replaying these short stages to learn them even better.
Meanwhile in Sonic's approach to stage design, stages are much longer experiences comparatively--and yet they still demand players to learn their nuanced obstacles (because they really just love to keep adding really silly things like this 1:05:02) if players want to keep any semblance of momentum ongoing. This realistically isn't going to be an experience most (non-speedrunner) players are going to achieve, especially because Sonic games' overall structure doesn't really offer an incentive to keep replaying their long stages and learning their obstacles. You get your S rank, you get your 5 red rings per stage, and you move on from the game without ever really having learned how to navigate fluidly through entire stages without stopping--without ever really feeling that oh-so-coveted "Sonic speed."
(Side-note: Maybe this is why I love SA2? If you engage with the Chao Garden as intended, the game teaches you to learn the stages from running through them several times to collect silly little glowsticks. The same can be said from playing its VS mode, since that also lets you learn the game's stages even more. As a result, I've found that picking up SA2 years later still feels great despite the game being riddled with constant "fuck you" obstacles that would halt momentum entirely, just because that's a Sonic game with stages I've ran through countless times.)
Also: I don't necessarily think that not being able to sightread stages in this genre of obstacle-based speed gameplay is a bad thing, though. It's kind of really hard, if not inherently paradoxical in nature, to try to pitch a game centered around "going fast" and blind-sightreading while also maintaining interesting stages filled with obstacles. Not that it's impossible! You'd just need to focus on conveying gameplay elements very fairly and prominently and have as little visual clutter as possible, probably. And maybe not have such a zoomed-in camera for horizontal/2D segments. I think I'd really love to see a fast-paced Sonic game structured in a similar manner Neon White, with a focus on short-form stages that feel incredibly rewarding to speed through and offer solid incentives to keep replaying. And then maybe by the end of the game, they could add back their traditional style of longer stages--at a point where players' ability to process the game's unique speedy visuals has been refined and they'd have a much easier time sightreading obstacles (ideally).
I'm fully aware I'm kinda comparing fps/puzzle apples to platforming oranges here with this comparison, but like. I really do feel like there's new things Sonic games could adapt in order to let a wider range of players actually get to experience more moments of "Sonic speed" gameplay--more than just the occasional long-runway boost segments where players get to go "Wow, this sure is fast!" before being hit in the face with a spring that halts their momentum entirely because this is their first time playing through a 3-minute-long stage (and they're very likely not going to replay said stage more than like 5 times, so that spring in particular and all others like it encountered throughout their gameplay experience are going to leave a very odd, lingering aftertaste once they're done with the game).
This was meant to be like a 5-sentences-at-most comment but... I am a Sonic Enjoyer, so of course that means that I have investment in this ballpark. Oops. 😔
Man Barry missed out by not talking to the NPCs more. Theres some really good dialogue tucked away there!
Like Omega asks Shadow if he can turn his hand into a gun since he’s part black arms or Maria gushing over how cool she thinks shadow is and him blushing about it, its so good!
Finally, all my teenage fanfics come true.
I'm still kind of surprised how actually good this entire segment turned out to be, even if the original Generations looks extremely outdated and clunky in comparison...
I missed the Shadow stream? Damn, not here.