I really like this stage - played it over and over looking for reds, and kept having a blast, pun intended. But yeah, the slide zones you can't really see coming, it's not just you
Ah, so THAT'S where Rocket went! XD Zone 3 time babyyyyy! The theatrics and pure scale of console Starlight Carnival are amazing, so the sprawling ships flying by would probably be chaotic to reproduce. Still, impressed with what they managed to capture in 2D, especially those launchers that pull you into the foreground - feels very Sonic-Advance-esque! Combined with the hangtime we get with Rocket, it feels like a more forgiving neon version of Huge Crisis from Rush... and sticks with me pretty solidly. Also props for nearly blitzing Special Stage 4 on the first try! Very nice! Excellent call on the "jewel city" hint. It always makes more sense for G.U.N. to send Rouge to the Interstellar Amusement Park on recon rather than "oh just Sonic and Tails", because not doing anything when FIVE PLANETS ARE TETHERED TOGETHER IN THE SKY seems bizarre. Right?
Onto the Starlight Carnival, with Orange Rocket in tow~ Orange Rocket's identical to how it's used in Wii, except that there are devices that can change which direction it flies mid-flight. As for DS Starlight Carnival, as you see Act 1 is completely contained within one of the spaceships you see in the Wii version, with the lighted paths changed out for light rails, with blue ones that activate when you hit a switch for a limited time. Despite being inside for the entire act, there's still a lot of neon lights and stuff happening~ Enemies Introduced: Batbot - The Carnival Night Zone bat robots with a lightbulb for a butt are a DS exclusive enemy, appearing in Starlight Carnival with the same circling attack pattern as in Sonic 3~ Just bash them and keep on trucking through space!~ Flapper - The flying Eggman robot we all know from Heroes, although only the basic red-orange variant shows up in this game. They simply fly back and forth in a set area, never attempting to attack. Unfortunately, their patrol paths often line up with being target fodder for Orange Rocket. Only doing enemies that are unique to the DS version, which isn't a large number, but they exist. "Yeah, Rouge, she's sexy and smooth!" - Actual lyrics in a Sonic game Of course, our favorite bat jewel thief and superspy is here. Someone's going to have taken note of the giant space installation and captured planets, so sending her to investigate would be a reason for her to show up~ Rouge's current VA is Karen Strassman, who's voiced her since 2010. She succeeds Rouge's 4Kids VA Kathleen Delaney, who voiced her from 2005 to 2010 and Lani Minella, her original VA who voiced Rouge from her introduction until 2004.
Given how pivotal a role Lani Manella played in voice directing and casting during the Drummon/Dreamcast era, each Rouge was always a tricky business to adjust to. But much like her supporting cast, Karen managed to stick the landing on Rouge and really emboldening the character's forwardness pretty well. And if I'm remembering the friend cameos for this zone correctly, I believe her reasoning for being here is more than just recon for G.U.N. XD
thinking about the missed opportunity here - they call each world an Area in the level intros, when they're literally separate worlds Eggman has chained up :v Calling Worlds a different name makes sense in a lot of games, but here, they probably shoulda just called 'em Worlds; it'd have been so good :>
Death count: 0 [4452] (0 today) Deathless episodes: 7 [690] (1 today) Special Stage success rate: 4/7 [158/591] (1/2 today) (0:51) Wow, catching the Rocket Wisp there seemed quite tricky, but you finally got it. (2:09) Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off agaaaiiinnn...! :P (3:03) I'm surprised the Rocket doesn't auto-collect rings that you pass close to during the launch. (3:35) How come that slide didn't kill that enemy, and instead injured you? I thought a slide was considered an attack. Or, am I mistaken? (5:19) Ah, so that's what can change the Rocket's direction. That looked kinda silly. (6:02) Dood! (6:07) Looks like the "?" ring box gave you 30, helping you recoup from your mistake. I'm not a fan of how it only shows the "?" for the collected item capsule below, instead of the actual number of rings it gave you, though. (6:24) Should've stomped to descend more quickly and avoid the bat there. (6:39) And, because of that final derp, no Special Stage for you here. (6:51) "A Class D License. I can't believe it. Was that your best? I don't think so." - Crazy Taxi (7:32) Chipmunk time. (8:23) How did you get hit there while you were boosting? (8:48) Whoa, you maybe almost got pancaked there. (9:08) 299 rings. The Ring Lord is pleased, despite the oddball hit at 8:23. However, his OCD is bothered by the fact that you were just 1 ring short of 300. :P (9:30) Special Stage 4 time. (10:28) The quota increases by 10 per lap now, it seems. (11:24) Oh, never mind. The quota stayed at 85 for lap 3 here. Weird that the quotas for this one went 75-85-85 instead of a more typical 75-80-85. (12:05) Dang, fell just 2 short. (12:09) More chipmunk time. (13:01) Good thing you already had enough blue orbs there. (13:37) Quota reached! This round is a success! (14:33) Yep, as soon as the word "jewels" appeared, we just knew it would be Rouge. (14:38) Hey there, Rouge. How's it going? (15:52) I would've at least waited until time actually expired there, just to know for sure. (16:25) Again, why did you get hurt there? Something fishy is going on with that spot. (16:35) Start of the winning run. (17:24) Success! And, it looks like you may have indeed been able to just barely win when you chose to restart at 15:52. (18:03) It's more like you daced it. "FISH!!!" :P
8:23 Maybe he tapped instead of held. Frame advance showed the boost was only active for a fraction of a second. 16:25 Is the button he uses for boost wearing out!?
Playing the special stages with a stylus was really fun and I can imagine it being alot harder any other way.
Chains are purely there for your final score so you don't have to worry about maintaining em.
I really like this stage - played it over and over looking for reds, and kept having a blast, pun intended.
But yeah, the slide zones you can't really see coming, it's not just you
Ah, so THAT'S where Rocket went! XD
Zone 3 time babyyyyy! The theatrics and pure scale of console Starlight Carnival are amazing, so the sprawling ships flying by would probably be chaotic to reproduce.
Still, impressed with what they managed to capture in 2D, especially those launchers that pull you into the foreground - feels very Sonic-Advance-esque!
Combined with the hangtime we get with Rocket, it feels like a more forgiving neon version of Huge Crisis from Rush... and sticks with me pretty solidly.
Also props for nearly blitzing Special Stage 4 on the first try! Very nice!
Excellent call on the "jewel city" hint. It always makes more sense for G.U.N. to send Rouge to the Interstellar Amusement Park on recon rather than "oh just Sonic and Tails", because not doing anything when FIVE PLANETS ARE TETHERED TOGETHER IN THE SKY seems bizarre. Right?
Tails grades on a curve.
Tags: orange, like a rocket
Onto the Starlight Carnival, with Orange Rocket in tow~ Orange Rocket's identical to how it's used in Wii, except that there are devices that can change which direction it flies mid-flight.
As for DS Starlight Carnival, as you see Act 1 is completely contained within one of the spaceships you see in the Wii version, with the lighted paths changed out for light rails, with blue ones that activate when you hit a switch for a limited time. Despite being inside for the entire act, there's still a lot of neon lights and stuff happening~
Enemies Introduced:
Batbot - The Carnival Night Zone bat robots with a lightbulb for a butt are a DS exclusive enemy, appearing in Starlight Carnival with the same circling attack pattern as in Sonic 3~ Just bash them and keep on trucking through space!~
Flapper - The flying Eggman robot we all know from Heroes, although only the basic red-orange variant shows up in this game. They simply fly back and forth in a set area, never attempting to attack. Unfortunately, their patrol paths often line up with being target fodder for Orange Rocket.
Only doing enemies that are unique to the DS version, which isn't a large number, but they exist.
"Yeah, Rouge, she's sexy and smooth!" - Actual lyrics in a Sonic game
Of course, our favorite bat jewel thief and superspy is here. Someone's going to have taken note of the giant space installation and captured planets, so sending her to investigate would be a reason for her to show up~
Rouge's current VA is Karen Strassman, who's voiced her since 2010. She succeeds Rouge's 4Kids VA Kathleen Delaney, who voiced her from 2005 to 2010 and Lani Minella, her original VA who voiced Rouge from her introduction until 2004.
Given how pivotal a role Lani Manella played in voice directing and casting during the Drummon/Dreamcast era, each Rouge was always a tricky business to adjust to. But much like her supporting cast, Karen managed to stick the landing on Rouge and really emboldening the character's forwardness pretty well.
And if I'm remembering the friend cameos for this zone correctly, I believe her reasoning for being here is more than just recon for G.U.N. XD
thinking about the missed opportunity here - they call each world an Area in the level intros, when they're literally separate worlds Eggman has chained up :v
Calling Worlds a different name makes sense in a lot of games, but here, they probably shoulda just called 'em Worlds; it'd have been so good :>
Now we're blasting!
Umm, I got a buzy day today so I'll (try to) talk about red ring tomorrow...
Silver Parade Zone
Death count: 0 [4452] (0 today)
Deathless episodes: 7 [690] (1 today)
Special Stage success rate: 4/7 [158/591] (1/2 today)
(0:51) Wow, catching the Rocket Wisp there seemed quite tricky, but you finally got it.
(2:09) Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off agaaaiiinnn...! :P
(3:03) I'm surprised the Rocket doesn't auto-collect rings that you pass close to during the launch.
(3:35) How come that slide didn't kill that enemy, and instead injured you? I thought a slide was considered an attack. Or, am I mistaken?
(5:19) Ah, so that's what can change the Rocket's direction. That looked kinda silly.
(6:02) Dood!
(6:07) Looks like the "?" ring box gave you 30, helping you recoup from your mistake. I'm not a fan of how it only shows the "?" for the collected item capsule below, instead of the actual number of rings it gave you, though.
(6:24) Should've stomped to descend more quickly and avoid the bat there.
(6:39) And, because of that final derp, no Special Stage for you here.
(6:51) "A Class D License. I can't believe it. Was that your best? I don't think so." - Crazy Taxi
(7:32) Chipmunk time.
(8:23) How did you get hit there while you were boosting?
(8:48) Whoa, you maybe almost got pancaked there.
(9:08) 299 rings. The Ring Lord is pleased, despite the oddball hit at 8:23. However, his OCD is bothered by the fact that you were just 1 ring short of 300. :P
(9:30) Special Stage 4 time.
(10:28) The quota increases by 10 per lap now, it seems.
(11:24) Oh, never mind. The quota stayed at 85 for lap 3 here. Weird that the quotas for this one went 75-85-85 instead of a more typical 75-80-85.
(12:05) Dang, fell just 2 short.
(12:09) More chipmunk time.
(13:01) Good thing you already had enough blue orbs there.
(13:37) Quota reached! This round is a success!
(14:33) Yep, as soon as the word "jewels" appeared, we just knew it would be Rouge.
(14:38) Hey there, Rouge. How's it going?
(15:52) I would've at least waited until time actually expired there, just to know for sure.
(16:25) Again, why did you get hurt there? Something fishy is going on with that spot.
(16:35) Start of the winning run.
(17:24) Success! And, it looks like you may have indeed been able to just barely win when you chose to restart at 15:52.
(18:03) It's more like you daced it. "FISH!!!" :P
8:23 Maybe he tapped instead of held. Frame advance showed the boost was only active for a fraction of a second.
16:25 Is the button he uses for boost wearing out!?
Looked neat enough, but Starlight Carnival Act 1 without the outside setpieces just doesn't feel the same...
raocow you can just do the special stage after act 2!
2 or 3 off is almost as bad as just 1 off and it's only getting harder.