Sonic 'Hog News Wanted
Larry J Brackney
Okay, all you lucky dogs who got copies of Sonic yesterday - I'm
expecting to hear more about it! (This will help me pass the time
until my copy shows up in the mail.)
I know the graphics are top notch. Sound? Music? How long are the
levels? Any other goodies?
- Larry
--
/ Larry J. Brackney | E-Mail: brac...@mn.ecn.purdue.edu \
|-------------------------| S-Mail: 3116 Hilltop Dr. W. Lafayette IN 47906 |
| Mechanical Engineering | Phone : (317)-463-1602 (Home) |
\ Purdue University | (317)-494-6552 (Office) /
Tobish E Smith
>
> Okay, all you lucky dogs who got copies of Sonic yesterday - I'm
>expecting to hear more about it! (This will help me pass the time
>until my copy shows up in the mail.)
>
> I know the graphics are top notch. Sound? Music? How long are the
>levels? Any other goodies?
>
> - Larry
Well, I nabbed a copy yesterday (the local Electronics Boutique had sold
16 of 'em (and all the rest were reserved) by the time I picked mine up.
Here are my initial impressions. This certainly ain't a review, having
had it for only a day, just some thoughts.
First of all, what's the game about? Well, you're Sonic the Hedgehog,
super varmint, trying to save your fellow critters, who have been turned
into evil robots by the dastardly Dr. Robotnik. You run through 6 levels
(each with 3 stages, called Acts), doing the ol' Super Mario/Mickey Mouse
jump-on-things-to-kill-'em routine. When you kill these robots, they turn
into little animals (rabbits, squirrels, etc) that run merrily away. Sonic
is one speedy dude; the longer you hold down your directional control, the
faster Sonic goes (to a point...). At top speed, his little legs whirl around
underneath his body cartoon-style. As you go through the levels, you have
two objectives: to collect as many "rings" as you can, and to get through
the level as quickly as possible. Rings are to Sonic what coins are to
Mario. But there's more incentive to get rings in Sonic. By default, you
get no continues when you die. If you collect >100 rings on any given act,
you earn yourself a continue. Also, if you get more than 50 rings on any
act, you get to go to a secret bonus stage, involving a rotating maze. The
maze is laden with rings and there's a "Chaos Emerald" in the center of each
one. You try to get to the Choas emerald before hitting one of the other
exit areas; not an easy task. There are six different Chaos Emeralds that
you're supposed to collect by the time you finish the game. I've managed
to get two...
So, how do I like _playing_ Sonic? Well, truth to tell, the first few
games I played, I kept thinking "I like Mickey better, I like Mickey better."
The reason is that I was pretty overwhelmed by it all. Sonic moves a _lot_
faster than Mickey, plus there's a lot more to discover on each act. There's
no one linear path through the levels, you have _many_ options. This is
wonderful, of course, but the first time I played Mickey, I immediately just
fell right into the game and happily played for a night. With Sonic, I had
to adjust to what was going on for a few games, 'cause it's so much more
involved and fast than Mickey. But after a few games, I started thinking,
"Man, Mickey's a wimp." The gameplay is fantastic! It's a lot more
challenging than Mickey is; Act three of the second Stage is about as hard
as the dungeon scene in Mickey. Plus, Sonic utilizes two features that make
the game a great run-and-jumper: first, as I mentioned above, there are
route options galore, and _lots_ of secret areas/items to discover. There
are also some in plain view that have no obvious access path. There are
actually some points in the game where you have to think something through!
For those who have the game already, getting to the extra man capsule on
top of the second 360 loop is a good example. The second thing that sets
Sonic apart is the ability to go _back_. That's right, you don't have to
just go to the right. You can try out a route, decide you want to try
another, and backtrack. It's much more open-ended.
The bosses (so far; I've killed the third one) are really wimps. No
challenge there at all. I'm not complaining though; I've never been big
on bosses anyway. I prefer that the levels themselves be challenging, and
Sonic's level fit that bill.
This game is Sega's showpiece, and it shows. The graphics and music
are phenomenal. As someone else here mentioned, the game even sings the
word "Sega" when the logo appears at the beginning of the game. The music's
great, very catchy. The music on the third level has a great bass line...
Anyway, that's about enough rambling for now, I guess. All this talk has
me wanting to go play some Sonic!
Tob
Sean Michael Goller
copies held, I got the last one...)..one question..Can you not go to the bonus
stage after the 3rd act? I beat the first boss and had 70 rings, but then I
went directly to Marble zone......just curious.
EXCELLENT GAME!
The Intro screen is great too, when sonic pops up into the logo and waggles
his finger at you...
Sean.
sg...@andrew.cmu.edu
"That's all, nothing else."
Carnegie Mellon University, Pitt. PA.
Tobish E Smith
>I picked up Sonic at Babbage's last night..(The dude there had all their
>copies held, I got the last one...)..one question..Can you not go to the bonus
>stage after the 3rd act? I beat the first boss and had 70 rings, but then I
>went directly to Marble zone......just curious.
>
>50 rings doesn't assure you of going to the bonus round. You have to jump
into the huge ring that appears at the end of the level. This might seem
trivial, but I know I've missed it several times by zooming along too
quickly and not paying attention... Also, after jumping over the Dr.
Robotnik sign, it's possible to still move a little bit. I once missed the
huge ring, and Sonic was about 90% off the screen. In desperation, I tried
moving to the left, and lo and behold, he came back on-screen, allowing me
to jump into the ring and go to the bonusd round. I think you can only jump
once after passing the Dr. Robotnik sign, though. I tried hanging out in
that area and jumping a lot, to get bonus points, but Sonic just walked off
the screen after I jumped once.
I managed to get to level 6 last night... Whew! My vote for niftiest
music goes to level 4. I find myself walking around, humming that song.
Is it just me, or does the music on level 3 sound a _lot_ like the music
in the city scenes in Revenge of Shinobi???