Here I am at E3 once again. I getting some quality time with the Wii and got to check out all the Sonic titles a'comin!! Here's my thoughts.
Sonic WildFire:
This one is my favorite so far. You play as Sonic going through the 101 arabian nights tales for some reason. The level I played had you playing through some ancient ruins. The level is pretty much an "on rails" game as Sonic is constanly running forward without you pushing up. You just tilt the controller left and right to steer, press the 2 button to jump or hold to stop (Also if you hold, then let go he jumps higher)pull the controller back to stop and back up, and jam it forwards for speed boosts, and hover blasts at enemies. The whole thing plays a little gimmicky, but it looks great, has perfect camera spots, a great sense of speed, and good control (unlike another game I'll be mentioning). If they have secrets to unlock on each level or different ways through each course, it'll be worth picking up. PLUS, I was told by the rep that Sonic and ONLY Sonic will be featured in the game. He told me "For the first time in fifteen years, Sonic will be in a game solo." Hallelluiah!!!
Sonic The Hedghog:
I'm getting worried. I first tried it out on PS3. On certain attacks, the framerate would get super choppy. The conrtols are EXACTLY like Sonic adventure 1 and 2 no different. Inlcuding the lock on hover attact that makes you fall time and time again. The controls definitely need tightening. I also played the 360 version which actually is alot smoother. Maybe it's a port problem, but it's kinda sad to see the game run better on a less powerfull system.
On the plus side, the graphics are knock down gorgeous. Plus, Silver.....is....awesome!! He has telekinetic powers, and can lift crate and objects to throw at enemies "half-life 2" style, or make his own bridges. The coolest feature on him is that if robots are attacking him with missles, just hold the R button, and he'll stop the bullets in front of him (Matrix style)he can then shoot the missles back at the robot or hold on to them and use the misles against other enemies. Silver makes Shadow look like a sissy.
Overall, I'm a little worried, but if they tweak the control on Sonic and the camera positioning, it could still be a solid game.
Sonic Rivals
Chaulk this one onto the "meh" board. You race Shadow through the Green Hill zone, you do loop-de-loops, go on springbaords attack your racing rival. It's just blah. Not good for the first Sonic game on PSP.
Check me out playing the Wii conductor game!!
Inlcuding the lock on hover attact that makes you fall time and time again.
Dayum! Are they ever gonna fix that =(
Thanks a lot for showcasing the news there.
I'm sad to hear "Sonic the Hedgehog" is playing like that, but I really look forward to playing as Silver now.
I'm personally disliking the "on rails" gig with the Wildfire game, as well as its overall style, but at least its somewhat enjoyable.
I read other impressions and Wild Fire is sounding very promising, I mean IGN is actualy really excited for this Sonic game. I hope the other 2 shape up nicely.
They said StH was still a work in progress, so hopefully at least the framerate will be sorted.
Remember what happened the LAST time they said a game was still a work in progress? >_>; And we all went "Well, maybe it'll improve by the time it's released."
Ehh... they have alot of time until the PS3 is released, I guess.
Quote:
Remember what happened the LAST time they said a game was still a work in progress? >_>; And we all went "Well, maybe it'll improve by the time it's released."
That was Sonic Heroes, wasn't it? 
Oh well, seems at least Sonic Wild Fire is doing well, although the "on rails" thing is kind of perplexing, yet if it as good as everyone's who played it says...
Well Playstation 3 is unfinished kit. Remember last year with every Xbox 360 game running like poop.
Don't know why but I'm happy about Sonic Wild Fire getting good reviews. Maybe because I thought it was a bit silly with the whole Arabian Nights storyline. But ignoring that it might be fun.
Second impressions:
I played STH again today (because if I beat it, they offered a free Sonic 15th anniversary T-Shirt!), and I finally beat Sonic level. It's starting to grow on me now, and I'm having fun with it. It still has some bad camera issues, but each level branches out in different paths, and I like that. Plus, the speed level that I kept dying on was my own fault cuz I kept pressin up and left or right to run. But, if your'e on a speed level he runs forward automatically much like Wildfire. You just need turn left and right and jump over gaps. I got through with three lives to spare. It plays alot like the orginal Sonic Adventure, but with a few twists. While STH does have a bit of a learning curve, once you get used to it it's pretty fun. I'm gonna raise my preview grade from 6 to 7.5. They also had a free Sonic laynyard near thier cell phone games. Two pieces of Sonic swag in one day!!
How long did it take to get through one level in STH? And did the environment change if you played at different times? In the tech demo it showed day changing to night. I hope that adds more variety to the level, maybe playing at different times opens up new paths.
Doesn't sound like there's anything new to get excited about, but I'll take a polished Sonic Adventure over a polished Sonic Heroes any day.
Quote:
Doesn't sound like there's anything new to get excited about, but I'll take a polished Sonic Adventure over a polished Sonic Heroes any day.
Very ,much my own thought, there. At worst, a Sonic Adventure clone with shinier graphics and branching paths ain't a bad thing.
Outside of the Sonic fan community, it seems that most people who played the next-gen Sonic games are praising Sonic Wild Fire and slamming Sonic the Hedgehog 2006. I wonder, if Sonic 2K6 will actually become polished enough to become a game that can be enjoyed by mostly everybody(not just blind Sonic fankids) when it is released this Novemeber. =
Question about the camera in Sonic 2K6, does it automatically positiion itself towards the goal like in SA2? I heard that many people were annoyed that they had to fight with the camera in the game.
Also, I hope Sonic Wild File also have different routes despite it being on rails. It seems to be a different experience than previous Sonic games, but I'm willing to try(not buy) it when it is released next year.
Wildfire was definitely awesome, StH for PS3 was definitely crap. I had a lot of fun with Wildfire and it was one of the Wii demos that was totally intuitive. I just had to pick up the controller and I was already there.
Being a sonic fanboy (who even liked Shadow the Hedgehog) I'm looking forward to both Wildfire and STH. I loved SA1 and think parts of Speed Highway and Lost World are great so I'm hoping for that kind of play but brought up to date.
How fortunate a coincidence it is that, IF I buy any next-gen consoles I would buy Wii, since so far I only have Nintendo's current generation console, Gamecube, and simply rent and/or borrow X-Box and PS2 every now and then and not very often at that.
Now I'd probably rent Wii before buying it if even buying it at all (might do the same thing I did with N64 via company comparison, or X-Box and PS2 via time comparison) but Wii would probably be the first console I'd rent.
So Sonic Wild Fire turns out to be anticipated to be the best one yet and it's on what I see so far as my favourite system yet. Sounds good. Also, "arabian"-style themes might be somewhat similar in style to the "Egyptian"-style themes from S&K then to more recently SA2B. I liked those themes in Sonic games.
Constantly running forward without you pushing up? Hmm... I can already imagine the potential for matching the music with certain things in the level, such as certain objects falling and/or Sonic hitting certain boosts to the beat of the music.
I can already imagine a level where you have to go forward and going forward there's Pyramid Cave's music fowards and at a certain point in the level for some reason in the story you have to go back to the beginning now that you've got something from the end and when going back to the place where you started it had what the music in Pyramid Cave sounds like backwards (I wonder if I'm the only person here who knows what it sounds like)
Inlcuding the lock on hover attact that makes you fall time and time again.
Am I the only person on Earth that knows how to use this? You need to constantly move the analougue stick in the direction of the enemy, I do that and I have NEVER been killed by this 'unreliable' attack. Never.
The conrtols are EXACTLY like Sonic adventure 1 and 2 no different.
I've never had problems with either of those games, in fact SA2 is what turned me into a fanboy, I never really liked Sonic before playing that.
Can Silver use Telekinesis on enemies?
I have no clue. You'd think he's be able to, but I don't believe so. *shrugs*
That might be a powah up you can buy with rings.
