After having finished Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Heroes, I finally decided it was time to confront the big one, Sonic 06. As such, I went out to Gamestop yesterday to pick up the PS3 version for the ominous price of $13, and then gathered a group of friends to dig into it today.
And... it's been an experience, that's for sure. Having watched Pokecapn's LP and what Game Grumps did of it, I was knowledgeable enough to steer us around some big pains, like figuring out the stupid hub maps. Yet of course the game that's left is still full of some serious awfulness. For now, we've managed to make it through the Sonic campaign and about half of Shadow's.
First off, the game actually does control a good bit better than Shadow does in his game, so that's nice. It's still not GOOD, but it's not ungodly awful at least. Though the lag is terrible, and seems to flair up when Sonic tries to home in an area with more than a handful of enemies. Oh, and I'm apparently surprisingly good at this game. Not great, but outside of the mach speeds I managed to make it past a good bit of most levels on a single life, which caught me off guard.
In Wave Ocean, I just wanted to note how hilarious it is when you fail the whale part. My friend made it to just before the switch, so close that we thought he it, only to be treated to about a minute long cutscene of the whale flailing and clipping through the gate and then finally the ocean floor, dragging Sonic to a glitchy abyss. Oh yeah, and it's great how the light speed dash for the level entrance doesn't even grab all the rings.
A lot of the other levels actually went surprisingly smooth. We did die to the silly part at the end of Dusty Desert where you're sent of a spring and immediately into sand and have to use your princess power (why exactly does she have the power to walk on sand/water again?) Oh yeah, and in the cutscene with the newspaper you can see that it says Soreana instead of Soleana. Also, there's an accordion dude hanging out in town, which is awesome.
SIlver's boss fight was of course amazing to see, as it even ended up randomly falling upon my friend with no knowledge of the game whatsoever. And it was glorious. He surprisingly figured it out within a handful of lives, but still ended up dying. I also gave it a shot, and man, it's surprisingly frightening having him chase you around and not knowing where the hell he is thanks to the terrible camera. One of my friends got shot up onto a rooftop and hid out up there for a bit. He managed to grab me for a throw which glitched and sent me flying slooooooooowly back, so he ran up and grabbed me again as I was flying. Amazingly, I lived through the intervention of a random ring along my flight path, but I still ended up dying due to some furniture catching me within his radius.
Perhaps the most amazing part of the night was Crisis City, though, because MAN is that level glitchy. I mean, seriously. I think my favorite moment was when my friend was trying to figure out the snowboard controls at the start of the level, did a tiny hop and landed back on the rail. He then vibrated slightly, slid down the rail, and the death scream played. Apparently he found a way to die on the rail.
Of course there's also the usual complaints too, like the mach speed sections controlling just atrociously. Also, lots of little issues. Like, why does it turn from night to day between the intro cutscene and the first part you control? Did Sonic take a nap off screen or something? And why are there boosters you never touch in the end of the board section of Crisis City (it would seem they're there for a loop that Shadow uses, but as the section ends right after the loop, why is it only used for him?)?! And WHY do they have you go back to Wave Ocean as Tails when you already played part of that level as Tails?!
Oh, and one of my friends apparently loves the chips, and was sad we couldn't buy the last few due to lack of rings. he also used the mach speed one to run to the other side of the level during the "test of love," apparently determined to role play some commitment issues for Sonic.
The Shadow campaign is of course stupid, and the vehicles control super poorly as well. But still maybe not as bad as in his own game. But mostly it's pretty similar to Sonic's thus far, only with a laggy homing attack and crappy vehicles replacing the awful Mach Speed stuff.
So yeah, thus far it's certainly plenty crappy as reported. However, weirdly enough, right now I feel like it may still be a bit better than Shadow, if only because the controls feel less goddawful, and it doesn't have you using freaking road signs with ammo. But there's still a full campaign and a half plus the endgame to help change that opinion.
Also, one of my friends is definitely planning to bring over his PS3 controller next time so we can see what on earth the multiplayer is like.
And... it's been an experience, that's for sure. Having watched Pokecapn's LP and what Game Grumps did of it, I was knowledgeable enough to steer us around some big pains, like figuring out the stupid hub maps. Yet of course the game that's left is still full of some serious awfulness. For now, we've managed to make it through the Sonic campaign and about half of Shadow's.
First off, the game actually does control a good bit better than Shadow does in his game, so that's nice. It's still not GOOD, but it's not ungodly awful at least. Though the lag is terrible, and seems to flair up when Sonic tries to home in an area with more than a handful of enemies. Oh, and I'm apparently surprisingly good at this game. Not great, but outside of the mach speeds I managed to make it past a good bit of most levels on a single life, which caught me off guard.
In Wave Ocean, I just wanted to note how hilarious it is when you fail the whale part. My friend made it to just before the switch, so close that we thought he it, only to be treated to about a minute long cutscene of the whale flailing and clipping through the gate and then finally the ocean floor, dragging Sonic to a glitchy abyss. Oh yeah, and it's great how the light speed dash for the level entrance doesn't even grab all the rings.
A lot of the other levels actually went surprisingly smooth. We did die to the silly part at the end of Dusty Desert where you're sent of a spring and immediately into sand and have to use your princess power (why exactly does she have the power to walk on sand/water again?) Oh yeah, and in the cutscene with the newspaper you can see that it says Soreana instead of Soleana. Also, there's an accordion dude hanging out in town, which is awesome.
SIlver's boss fight was of course amazing to see, as it even ended up randomly falling upon my friend with no knowledge of the game whatsoever. And it was glorious. He surprisingly figured it out within a handful of lives, but still ended up dying. I also gave it a shot, and man, it's surprisingly frightening having him chase you around and not knowing where the hell he is thanks to the terrible camera. One of my friends got shot up onto a rooftop and hid out up there for a bit. He managed to grab me for a throw which glitched and sent me flying slooooooooowly back, so he ran up and grabbed me again as I was flying. Amazingly, I lived through the intervention of a random ring along my flight path, but I still ended up dying due to some furniture catching me within his radius.
Perhaps the most amazing part of the night was Crisis City, though, because MAN is that level glitchy. I mean, seriously. I think my favorite moment was when my friend was trying to figure out the snowboard controls at the start of the level, did a tiny hop and landed back on the rail. He then vibrated slightly, slid down the rail, and the death scream played. Apparently he found a way to die on the rail.
Of course there's also the usual complaints too, like the mach speed sections controlling just atrociously. Also, lots of little issues. Like, why does it turn from night to day between the intro cutscene and the first part you control? Did Sonic take a nap off screen or something? And why are there boosters you never touch in the end of the board section of Crisis City (it would seem they're there for a loop that Shadow uses, but as the section ends right after the loop, why is it only used for him?)?! And WHY do they have you go back to Wave Ocean as Tails when you already played part of that level as Tails?!
Oh, and one of my friends apparently loves the chips, and was sad we couldn't buy the last few due to lack of rings. he also used the mach speed one to run to the other side of the level during the "test of love," apparently determined to role play some commitment issues for Sonic.
The Shadow campaign is of course stupid, and the vehicles control super poorly as well. But still maybe not as bad as in his own game. But mostly it's pretty similar to Sonic's thus far, only with a laggy homing attack and crappy vehicles replacing the awful Mach Speed stuff.
So yeah, thus far it's certainly plenty crappy as reported. However, weirdly enough, right now I feel like it may still be a bit better than Shadow, if only because the controls feel less goddawful, and it doesn't have you using freaking road signs with ammo. But there's still a full campaign and a half plus the endgame to help change that opinion.
Also, one of my friends is definitely planning to bring over his PS3 controller next time so we can see what on earth the multiplayer is like.
