The part about the camera controls... The problem isn't the lack of camera control, it's the design intent behind it. The real problem is that the levels are corridors and the game plays itself half the time. A good example is Penny's Big Breakaway (PBB), it doesn't have camera controls, but the levels are not corridors and you can move through them in a lot of different ways. So in PBB the lack of camera control is not a problem.
Yeah it tries to be super cinematic and the problem is that the only way to play it perfectly is to memorize the camera switch bounding boxes and scripted segments. But honestly it’s the best attempt at fully realizing sonics control in 3D at least when it comes to official releases
20:10 is actually something I think about a lot when it comes to designing games, and even outside of games to an extent. Giving people options and letting them decide is more satisfying than just giving them one possiblity, even if they outcome they choose would've been the same. Making that decision is a big part of what makes it fun, and thats something that's becoming a lot less common in modern games.
Options are definitely preferable I agree, customization is super appealing and I’m surprised it took till sonic frontiers in order to get control options
nice essay dude, the way you point out all the ways it stands out makes me wonder how the hell did they manage to pump this out in 10 MONTHS i have never played a sonic game in my entire life and i am genuinely considering on getting the game, i just hope my laptop doesn’t explode
I bet your laptop could handle sonic adventure, I know there’s a mod called better SADX that fixes a bunch of issues with the modern ports and makes it more similar to its original Dreamcast release
They did but they largely boiled down to a very similar short hallways that get you back onto a main route, with the exception of seaside hill in generations
hey man, real cool video, just some stuff i noticed for next time: -some footage is lower quality than other footage making some parts of the video kinda jarring and -the frame interpolation you have makes some parts extra blurry super sick vid, adventure is a childhood fave of mine too
For some reason I didn't get a notification that you uploaded something new. I love you Sam, I miss you, and I can't wait to watch this and hear you talk about something you have been passionate about since you were 5. Love you bro❤️
@@samonsamoff The part where you talk about the level designers making the backgrounds with what the players can see in mind lol. You really focused of that for some reason and i thought that was funny.
@@existential_narwal9257 oh yeah the hallway thing, I honestly think if sonic team focused on good art direction and spread their polygons a bit more around rather than in front, we could get something looking more like sonic unleashed which would be a big step up imo
@@samonsamoff btw this video is actually rly good, can take it from an autistic sonic fan, wish more people would comment on this genuinely instead of just mentioning ur animations, I feel this is worth its own merit
@@sip9549 thank you it means a lot that you like it this much, honestly the best way to get the word out about this vid is sharing it with buddies. It really goes a long way :D
4:50 "I know this can sound like tonal whiplash, but I think that's the point. Not everything in life is going to be kicking ass and screaming at people, sometimes you gotta go to the store. Catch a fish." You know what I never played Sonic Adventure, hell I only ever played one Sonic game and that was for the GameBoy Advance. But the way you describe, I am reminded of the Yakuza games. At least in the sense of intentionally using tonal whiplash, and reminding you that life is about more than just dramatic situations, and that you can find joy and excitement in the little things.
I think RUclips’s not pushing my channel at all, make sure notifications are enabled for the channel and in your app settings, also sharing the vid helps a lot
@@samonsamoff absolutely!! this and adventure 2 are fantastic- honestly 1 edge out over 2 for me purely for the hub worlds, i adored just running around in them, and felt super bummed out when i popped in SA2 and realised theyd gotten the axe D:
Right!? like when you delve into the games development and it starting out as an RPG, you can kinda gettit @o@ i hope if we ever do see a remake of SA1 that they really make the hub worlds waaay bigger, and give us more areears to just play around in
I do agree most Sonic games post-Unleashed have been playing it safe, but not because of the camera it's been everything else. A majority of them look and plays way to similar to one another.
Absolutely I just meant that the camera was an easy thing to point to that everybody could visualize. But ever since unleashed it seems ambitions been at an all time low
I love video essays, and please keep making them - my only advice would be try to maintain focus. I feel like I was routinely losing the point you were trying to make because of how disjointed it was at times. Try to structure your thoughts one at a time, and then make each point individually, breaking up with jokes when they're relevant or in between segments
Thank you so much, and yeah I was definitely all over the place. I kinda wanted it to be like a stream of consciousness but refined in some areas to better get across what I mean. I’ll get better in the future tho
Where can I find the first 3 seconds of this video? The giant inflated sonic popping? I googled that and have decided I no longer wish to keep searching
I don't see how Colors is the start of "not trying anything ambitious" when it has just as many unique ideas as what came before and completely original levels. I'd say maybe Generations is more of the start since that's when they started to rely heavily on nostalgia (though Generations is still a really good game). And the part about cutting corners in the levels, Colors has a lot of that too, and that's not even including how much speedrunners have been able to break the game with glitches like the 3D gameplay in 2D sections for example. Honestly feels like you're cherrypicking there.
That’s fair colors did a few new things, I think the whole no ambition started with the other sonic game that year Sonic 4, colors was just a sign of things to come with the next ten years. And the cutting corners part, I saw vids on people using glitches to change 2D and 3D sections. They’re cool but at the same time since it’s using glitches I didn’t think it was as important as adventure 1s shortcuts. Adventure 1 uses the intended move set given at the start to pull off shortcuts but colors uses unintended exploits to break level transitions and trivialize the level geometry and collision. I do like that it’s in the game but I personally wouldn’t compare it to adventure 1s spin dash and slope jumping.
@@samonsamoff That's fair, but even without glitches I think there are plenty of opportunities to cut corners. For example, you can skip parts of levels with a carefully timed boost, and the Wisps are also good for finding shortcuts as well as exploring the levels.
Matthew got called the fuck out. In all seriousness, Sonic Adventure is a game that I have always gone back to. It’s absolutely a mess, but it holds up more than enough for me. It’s a game that I can actually say I loved in my childhood and still love to this day, despite all its flaws. This essay does a great job of being honest about the flaws but also saying ‘fuck it, it’s still hella fun.’ Gonna go jam that snowboarding theme after this. Great job, dude. Keep it up!
Have you played Sonic Pocket Adventure? If not, you should give it a go. You could make an entire video out of how good the level design is because the devs went out of their way to hide collectibles EVERYWHERE and it really requires a mastery of the physics and controls to collect them all. Highly underrated Sonic experience.
@@samonsamoff It really is. It's like Sonic Mania before Sonic Mania, remixing aspects of all the best 2D Sonic moments with really solid physics and level design. Also...as an aside, all those shots of planes in this video...they reminded me of that tragedy.
I always felt like this game was objectively obliterated by the passage of time, as someone with sensory issues, whenever I tried to play this game the control was so imprecise that I generally had to stop, the way it controlled agitated me to the paint of pain.
@@samonsamoff SA2[B] does things that I much prefer over SA1[DX], overall. The chao evolution system was pretty advanced for it's era as side content, and it had a lot more replayability overall. But SA1 is still a very special game with a very special presentational scope. Nostalgia blast, arguably!
@@TheSutanian sa2 definitely has a lot of upsides, it’s chao system is far better than sa1 and it’s really replayable. it trimmed the fat of sa1 but I also think that fat made for a more engaging experience all around
Sonic team is kinda returning to form with Frontiers, but the cyber stages and 2D sections are pretty bad. I'd rather have they focus on 3D, and let other studios make 2D Sonic games.
That would be great, I think they should also get some people to make a retro 3D sonic like the adventure games similar to how they made a new classic with mania
@@noahalcantar2431 I think lately sonic team is starting to remember certain things that made him cool, but it’ll be a long time till we get a sonic game with the soul of adventure or even unleashed
0:08 I've thought I was the only one who noticed how bad Is the series nowdays in the artistic department. Sadly the franchise Is more souless now than ever.
Adventure was kind of a turning point with how people looked at sonic. Before, you had sonic being a cool cartoon character in a cartoon world with a cartoon story, adventure started the weird trend of expecting the audience to take a story seriously that had sonic characters in it. It's so hard to take anything seriously when you have a very human us president interacting with a cyclopean blue hedgehog.
@@samonsamoff typical Matthew Also discovering a skip to a sonic adventure stage for the first time on your own in 1999 was really special. You start to realize the mechanics aren't broken, you just have more freedom than you realized.
Игры
The guy who makes the funny animations now makes video essays
Thank you I’m gonna try to make these more often
How original!
The animation/creator to analysis video pipeline is real. Tbh, its a good combo.
@@Pleasestoptalkingthanks thank you, I just love certain games so much
Add em to the list
Man these oney bits are getting intricate
Tanks mane :)
"wake up, program the funny blue rat, go to bed" i already fucking do that and it FUCKS ASS
In a way I do too with the game I’m working on, except it’s the funny blue critter
the animator to lets player pipeline lays parallel to the lets player bit animator turned video essayist pipeline
The pipeline strikes again
something something lays pipe that's all I heard
I got hurt trying to read that.
Glad you noticed the weird noises Eggman makes before the Egg Viper battle
Thank you it was so bizarre I had to bring it up
I’ve gotten to the point where I like this game genuinely and ironically.
Same i can’t separate my nostalgia from it but I still love it
I think the reason people don't "like" spectacle, is just cus that's all the series is these days, so any sight of it makes them go "eugh"
Yeah sonic team forgot that the spectacle needs to be the style rather than the substance
The part about the camera controls... The problem isn't the lack of camera control, it's the design intent behind it. The real problem is that the levels are corridors and the game plays itself half the time. A good example is Penny's Big Breakaway (PBB), it doesn't have camera controls, but the levels are not corridors and you can move through them in a lot of different ways. So in PBB the lack of camera control is not a problem.
Yeah it tries to be super cinematic and the problem is that the only way to play it perfectly is to memorize the camera switch bounding boxes and scripted segments. But honestly it’s the best attempt at fully realizing sonics control in 3D at least when it comes to official releases
Sonic will always be cool in my heart.
Sonic is cool he just used to be cooler
This video gives me Running Shine vibes and that brings me bliss.
Thank you I’m a big fan of his. Love his work so much
I will give this game credit for trying new things and having fun with them.
Yeah it rocks man
@samonsamoff It's not my favorite, but it definitely has it's moments, style, and a decent story or two.
Oh, and Emerald Coast is a BANGIN' LEVEL. 🤩
I'm glad to see the chill but funny vibe from your animations translated well into video essay form. Here's to many more!
Thank you I’m happy that you enjoyed it
20:10 is actually something I think about a lot when it comes to designing games, and even outside of games to an extent. Giving people options and letting them decide is more satisfying than just giving them one possiblity, even if they outcome they choose would've been the same. Making that decision is a big part of what makes it fun, and thats something that's becoming a lot less common in modern games.
Options are definitely preferable I agree, customization is super appealing and I’m surprised it took till sonic frontiers in order to get control options
The robots story made me cry 10/10 game fr
Hehehe thank uuuuuuu
Very nice video man! Keep making videos about the stuff you like, it all feels so genuine!
Thank you so much, there’s so many games I’d love to talk about
I cant believe i just watched a video essay.
Is that a good thing or a bad thing lol
nice essay dude, the way you point out all the ways it stands out makes me wonder how the hell did they manage to pump this out in 10 MONTHS
i have never played a sonic game in my entire life and i am genuinely considering on getting the game, i just hope my laptop doesn’t explode
I bet your laptop could handle sonic adventure, I know there’s a mod called better SADX that fixes a bunch of issues with the modern ports and makes it more similar to its original Dreamcast release
thanks, that’s nice to know
If you want to know how hard it was to get sonic into 3D look up the development of sonic xtreme, that story is crazy.
I saw vids on it, i kinda liked xtreme and I even put my level referencing its gameplay at the end of the vid :)
Colors and Generations had multiple pathways.
They did but they largely boiled down to a very similar short hallways that get you back onto a main route, with the exception of seaside hill in generations
I’m gonna need more of these!
Thank you, which part was your favorite
Fuhnie cartoons, fuhnie game, and now fuhnie video. You're becoming too powerful...
Thank you I’m glad you like my stuff
Imagine if Sonic was in the Simpsons and he was like MMMMM CHILI DOGS
Mmm chaos hemroid
Sonic IS so cool
Sonic is crazy cool
hey man, real cool video, just some stuff i noticed for next time:
-some footage is lower quality than other footage making some parts of the video kinda jarring
and
-the frame interpolation you have makes some parts extra blurry
super sick vid, adventure is a childhood fave of mine too
Thank you I love the pointers I always wanna improve
For some reason I didn't get a notification that you uploaded something new. I love you Sam, I miss you, and I can't wait to watch this and hear you talk about something you have been passionate about since you were 5. Love you bro❤️
Thanks Danny, and yeah youtube only sends out notifications if your phone has them turned on and they’re turned on in the app, love ya too
This dude discovered what optimization in videogames is
Which part?
@@samonsamoff The part where you talk about the level designers making the backgrounds with what the players can see in mind lol. You really focused of that for some reason and i thought that was funny.
@@existential_narwal9257 oh yeah the hallway thing, I honestly think if sonic team focused on good art direction and spread their polygons a bit more around rather than in front, we could get something looking more like sonic unleashed which would be a big step up imo
I like how you showed mr beans sworn enemy when cool blue car was mentioned
Thank you lol I’m glad you saw it :D
@@samonsamoff btw this video is actually rly good, can take it from an autistic sonic fan, wish more people would comment on this genuinely instead of just mentioning ur animations, I feel this is worth its own merit
@@sip9549 thank you it means a lot that you like it this much, honestly the best way to get the word out about this vid is sharing it with buddies. It really goes a long way :D
@@samonsamoff I got a few pals who'd prob be into this. hi jager if u read these comment chains *waves at the local news camera*
3:35 Didn't have to call me out like that 😭
Who else was gonna do it, wizardo the foolish?
I’ve always loved 1 way more than 2
It’s so much better imo
interaction
Thank you :D
4:50
"I know this can sound like tonal whiplash, but I think that's the point. Not everything in life is going to be kicking ass and screaming at people, sometimes you gotta go to the store. Catch a fish."
You know what I never played Sonic Adventure, hell I only ever played one Sonic game and that was for the GameBoy Advance. But the way you describe, I am reminded of the Yakuza games. At least in the sense of intentionally using tonal whiplash, and reminding you that life is about more than just dramatic situations, and that you can find joy and excitement in the little things.
I love the little moments so much, it really humanizes the atmosphere
Love the random MJ rants.
Thank you I’ll definitely put it in the Michael Jackson compilation lol
I only just now got a notif for this
I think RUclips’s not pushing my channel at all, make sure notifications are enabled for the channel and in your app settings, also sharing the vid helps a lot
Finally, a sequel to the sonic fan wiki video
Thank you I’m glad you remembered that, super blast from the past
This video is hilarious dude lol
Thank you I’m gonna try to make more of these kind
You made me rofl several times AND think about sonic, thank you very much for that. Do more plz
Thank you I’d love to make more vids like this
samming off rn
Yoooo poggers
Eyyyy i just did avideo on this game!! absolutely loved SA1, it was a huge corner-stone of my childhood
Nice, this game has aged really well imo
@@samonsamoff absolutely!! this and adventure 2 are fantastic- honestly 1 edge out over 2 for me purely for the hub worlds, i adored just running around in them, and felt super bummed out when i popped in SA2 and realised theyd gotten the axe D:
@@MilkshakeSkunkette yeah 1 just felt bigger in everyway, that late 90s videogame maximalism like dk64
Right!? like when you delve into the games development and it starting out as an RPG, you can kinda gettit @o@ i hope if we ever do see a remake of SA1 that they really make the hub worlds waaay bigger, and give us more areears to just play around in
That Mitch McConnell image lmao
He is not turtly enough for the turtle club
Hell yeah Sonic
Sonic is teh best
Could never get into sonic, so fast hurts me eyes
After a while it gets easier
Preach brother hold aloft the light of this our most holy game!
It’s the best sonic game tbh
Sonic is so cool
Sonic is epic sauce
Froggy is the bolder, and I, Sisyphus
Pure poetry
I do agree most Sonic games post-Unleashed have been playing it safe, but not because of the camera it's been everything else. A majority of them look and plays way to similar to one another.
Absolutely I just meant that the camera was an easy thing to point to that everybody could visualize. But ever since unleashed it seems ambitions been at an all time low
Sonic boom sonic is like an epic RUclips gamer I think hes awesome.
Sonic boom sonic is a frat guy who never left the house
How did you not know Gamma could jump?
Sometimes people gotta be told
Wake up Sam ! Turn on the TV it's on every channel !
Reminds me of that tragedy
I love video essays, and please keep making them - my only advice would be try to maintain focus. I feel like I was routinely losing the point you were trying to make because of how disjointed it was at times. Try to structure your thoughts one at a time, and then make each point individually, breaking up with jokes when they're relevant or in between segments
I really liked the segment comparing normal play through versus speedruns, I'm gonna start doing that now
Thank you so much, and yeah I was definitely all over the place. I kinda wanted it to be like a stream of consciousness but refined in some areas to better get across what I mean. I’ll get better in the future tho
I love ur videos and this was a good essay but please master the audio I can hear peaking all over in headphones.
Thank you I definitely got stuff to improve
Where can I find the first 3 seconds of this video? The giant inflated sonic popping? I googled that and have decided I no longer wish to keep searching
I think it’s from here ruclips.net/video/DmTC0m7wQbs/видео.htmlsi=UItiDLCZP-a2KhdA
@@samonsamoff thank you!
"Brain goes to 480p" is crazy
It’s true lmao he starts pouring Fanta orange in his skull and laughing
I don't see how Colors is the start of "not trying anything ambitious" when it has just as many unique ideas as what came before and completely original levels. I'd say maybe Generations is more of the start since that's when they started to rely heavily on nostalgia (though Generations is still a really good game).
And the part about cutting corners in the levels, Colors has a lot of that too, and that's not even including how much speedrunners have been able to break the game with glitches like the 3D gameplay in 2D sections for example. Honestly feels like you're cherrypicking there.
That’s fair colors did a few new things, I think the whole no ambition started with the other sonic game that year Sonic 4, colors was just a sign of things to come with the next ten years. And the cutting corners part, I saw vids on people using glitches to change 2D and 3D sections. They’re cool but at the same time since it’s using glitches I didn’t think it was as important as adventure 1s shortcuts. Adventure 1 uses the intended move set given at the start to pull off shortcuts but colors uses unintended exploits to break level transitions and trivialize the level geometry and collision. I do like that it’s in the game but I personally wouldn’t compare it to adventure 1s spin dash and slope jumping.
@@samonsamoff That's fair, but even without glitches I think there are plenty of opportunities to cut corners. For example, you can skip parts of levels with a carefully timed boost, and the Wisps are also good for finding shortcuts as well as exploring the levels.
Great video, more please.
Thank you, have you seen the game I’m making
@@samonsamoff no, what is it?
Haha, funni blue rat go brrrrrr
Sonic is a fast boy
Matthew got called the fuck out.
In all seriousness, Sonic Adventure is a game that I have always gone back to. It’s absolutely a mess, but it holds up more than enough for me. It’s a game that I can actually say I loved in my childhood and still love to this day, despite all its flaws. This essay does a great job of being honest about the flaws but also saying ‘fuck it, it’s still hella fun.’
Gonna go jam that snowboarding theme after this. Great job, dude. Keep it up!
Thanks man I love your kind words, I’m trying to think of the next game I should do an essay style vid on
I'm still waiting for the transition to move Sonic to 4D
Can’t wait to play sonic 4d with smell o vision on my psp
Have you played Sonic Pocket Adventure? If not, you should give it a go. You could make an entire video out of how good the level design is because the devs went out of their way to hide collectibles EVERYWHERE and it really requires a mastery of the physics and controls to collect them all. Highly underrated Sonic experience.
I gotta play it, I’ve heard nothing but good things about it and I bet it’s super high quality
@@samonsamoff It really is. It's like Sonic Mania before Sonic Mania, remixing aspects of all the best 2D Sonic moments with really solid physics and level design. Also...as an aside, all those shots of planes in this video...they reminded me of that tragedy.
@@AfroRyan ah yes, for this year, ranked the number 1 in customer satisfaction is jet blue airlines
I always felt like this game was objectively obliterated by the passage of time, as someone with sensory issues, whenever I tried to play this game the control was so imprecise that I generally had to stop, the way it controlled agitated me to the paint of pain.
I’m sorry it didn’t work well the last time you played it, honestly it’s not for everybody but I’m glad you gave it an honest try
Is the sonics dad thing real?
Lol nah but I couldn’t resist putting it in
Happy Madisonic
Need
“Was Sonic Adventure worth it?”
Well it had the objectively best soundtrack of the entire franchise. So yes.
Sonic adventure is imo the best sonic game ever, it sticks the landing in so many aspects and I can’t think of another sonic game better than it
@@samonsamoff SA2[B] does things that I much prefer over SA1[DX], overall. The chao evolution system was pretty advanced for it's era as side content, and it had a lot more replayability overall.
But SA1 is still a very special game with a very special presentational scope. Nostalgia blast, arguably!
@@TheSutanian sa2 definitely has a lot of upsides, it’s chao system is far better than sa1 and it’s really replayable. it trimmed the fat of sa1 but I also think that fat made for a more engaging experience all around
Sonic team is kinda returning to form with Frontiers, but the cyber stages and 2D sections are pretty bad. I'd rather have they focus on 3D, and let other studios make 2D Sonic games.
That would be great, I think they should also get some people to make a retro 3D sonic like the adventure games similar to how they made a new classic with mania
I'll edit this after I watch the vid. Before I start I just wanna say I fking hate frontiers.
It’s all good, I totally get how frontiers is divisive but I liked it more than the past 10 years of modern sonic tbh
LETS GOOOO
Sonics iconic catchphrase “HEY ABBOT!!!!”
@@samonsamoffshadows iconic sonic screwdriver
Sonic used to be cool but later on he became a fraud
No wonder why Sonic is a laughing stock
@@noahalcantar2431 I think lately sonic team is starting to remember certain things that made him cool, but it’ll be a long time till we get a sonic game with the soul of adventure or even unleashed
@@samonsamoff Only if the the fanbase wasn't extremely toxic non of this would've happened
9:28 wait is this part true?
Shigo Miyamo inventor of the Nintendo iPad haunts the hotel
"Fuck you sonic I've got all the chaos hemorrhoids"
(Blows up the moon)
Sonic games used to be cool
They used to rock so good then sonic colors happened
@@samonsamoff it's always the coloreds that do it
good vid dude, recommend getting a new mic tho
Thank you I’ll work on it for the future
You should be in a oneyplays ep
I’d love that so much omg
Really good video, I just don’t like the 60 fps filter
Thanks and yeah I saw the recordings were 30 and it just felt too choppy
I miss sonic advneture. I'm not giving them any money till I get my SA3. Fuck forntiers. Give me my shonen plot. Give me my anime bullshit.
The adventure games were peak
25:26 real
Thanks so much, I’ll definitely make more of these vids in the future
Sonic : )
Teh hedgezorz
This review is the tits!
Thanks man I appreciate that:D
0:08 I've thought I was the only one who noticed how bad Is the series nowdays in the artistic department. Sadly the franchise Is more souless now than ever.
I think it can still bounce back but it’s got some work to do
@@samonsamoff i hope so man
Comment tribute
Thank you I hope you liked the new style
Adventure was kind of a turning point with how people looked at sonic. Before, you had sonic being a cool cartoon character in a cartoon world with a cartoon story, adventure started the weird trend of expecting the audience to take a story seriously that had sonic characters in it. It's so hard to take anything seriously when you have a very human us president interacting with a cyclopean blue hedgehog.
he truly is a cyclops lmao
It can be both cartoony and serious at the same time and indeed should be that way. Also the serious tone started with the sonic the hedgehog TV show
This was a great video!
….I mean I disagree with a lot of your opinions….
But it’s a great video! I’d like to see more.
Thank you so much, I’d love to talk to you about areas we disagree on, I always love seeing new viewpoints
@@samonsamoff I don’t wanna type an essay in the comments lol. But I like the vid, the jokes are on point 👌🏽
matthew >:(
He messed up bro
@@samonsamoff typical Matthew
Also discovering a skip to a sonic adventure stage for the first time on your own in 1999 was really special. You start to realize the mechanics aren't broken, you just have more freedom than you realized.
Literally no one gives a shit
About what
Sonic was never good.
Yeah and Mario was always horrible too
@@samonsamoff Kinda, yeh.
this is a surprising to see , and i love the style. Reminds me of the game essays by the channel Lute .
I gotta check them out I always love to find new stuff to watch