Eversonic In-Depth: Japan Expo 2010

The Sonic and Sega Presence at France’s July Tradition

In early July, plenty of game, ANIME, and pop culture connoisseurs  flock to Paris, France for Japan Expo.  Held at the Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center this year, an estimated 182,000 attended this year from July 1 through 4.  But in between the powerhouse conventions of E3 and Gamescom, Japan Expo’s spectacle remained largely uncovered by major media outlets.

Among those in attendance was Fox Gungrave of TSSZ News affiliate Eversonic, and he provides this translated overview of what was at the show, including Sega France demos of both Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and Sonic Colors, as well as the pending XBOX Live re-release of Sonic Adventure.  Originally published in French, some additional edits have been made for better grammatical structure, understanding, and clarity.  Below is part one; to view the entire preview in its native language, with additional pictures and video, head to Eversonic.  We thank Fox Gungrave for furnishing this to us in English, so we may share it with you.

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Aaah! Japan Expo. The required passage for all of the fans of JapANIME had his 11th edition this year and as usual, it was the place of all excess: stands with a lot of goodies beyond imagination, many guests (Kojima \o/) and video games everywhere–and all of this in constant noise to make deaf fans of death metal, and heat sufficient to light a cigarette. Though the climate was was less demanding on Saturday, with beautiful gray clouds and pouring rain; even if the evening was a very other odyssey with the concern of the RER, that’s Japan Expo: an incredible adventure wich can be turned into a movie.

For another year, SEGA was present–this time close to Konami and Dofus stands–and they had already teased us for a few days with various advertisements and previews of its stand which, it can be said, was certainly the largest, most impressive, and most visited, not only because of Shinji Mikami’s Vanquish presentation but also for the range of SEGA fare shown and distributed.

The stand was presented concentrically  with a giant screen in its center which, in addition to a live test of Vanquish, showed to the public some trailers for Valkyria Chronicles II and Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (and hide the tiny room where the staff could rest.)  A Full HD screen and PSP allowed us to test Yakuza 4, Valkyria Chronicles II, Sonic 4, Phantasy Star Portable 2 but also the Live Arcade version of Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure DX.

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One of the more curious appearances in SEGA’s line-up was undoubtedly the port of Sonic Adventure DX on XBox Live Arcade and Playstation Network. This news surprised fans and especially made some teeth squeak, because in spite of some upgrades brought to the Director’ s Cut version, it always was rated lower than its famous original version, Sonic Adventure, which was given to us in 1998 and remains after 12 years  one of the best game of the era.  So, what about this por ?

For what we saw, the game is a certified copy of what you can find on GameCube and PC, and this makes SADX a simple and stupid port without interest for anyone who has played one of the those versions, but we can salute the effort for those who haven’t played the Dreamcast edition.  The gale remains coloured, the melody is here without fault and the XBox 360 pad does not pose too much problem  due to the familiarity with the Dreamcast one. Note that SADX, like Crazy Taxi, was only presented on 360.

However, the game seems to suffer from ugliet bugs than its precedessor. The whole game is played in the same way but it is aggravating to note large numbers of collision bugs, passing through the ground and walls and even jumping issues in the sole level of Emerald Coast. I don’t think I saw someone completing it without losing a life on a list of 8 people, including myself–and I can assure you, I know this level by heart.

I don’t know for this moment if this is the worst to come as we only played Emerald Coast, mainly because we were only allowed to play a level per person. The SADX download is scheduled for an Autumn release, so we just pray for a largely corrected version without all of these bugs–because to pay 1200 MS point for what I’ve played is fucking disgusting.

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If it was a game that we had to wait for playing (aside from non-rush hours), it was certainly Sonic 4. Yes, even if the whole game is known thanks to the leakers, I truly wanted to play it mostly because it was annouced it will be improved, thanks to the fans who criticized what they saw… for once, thaks to the leakers.

So, what about this new game? Both demo kiosks were dedicated to the 360 version and were the same as at E3 2010, or more recently, Summer of Sonic 2010. It allowed us to play every stage of Splash Hill Zone including the boss. Like SADX and because of the mass of people who wnated to play the game, we were allowed to play only a single act per personn. So, how did Dimps manage to upgrade this monster?

Graphically, the game remains the same one but a little finer. We find the Mega Drive/Master System/Game Gear level design without problem and Splash Hill Zone passes without problem to be in the same vein as Green Hill and Emerald Hill.  The depth effects are well done and gives us a true impression of moving in a vast coastal landscape; I truly loved the blur effect when passing behind a waterfall. There’s bothing else to note because everything has been told since the first screens months ago. I just emit a regret for having better exploited the night and day idea on the 4 acts with just day and twilight and not morning, day, evening and night but since the demo of Sonic 2006, all of my dreams and hopes in this domain rest in peace.

About the soundtrack, we easily found the good old rings sound and other little effects we all had in our minds for years (almost 20 years, incredible!)  But I have some reserves for the main level soundtrack wich, for me, does not fit with the level itself, as is the case the invincibility theme–which annoed us and did not give us the desire to run at high speed and crush every badnik in our path. Too bad the game is almost finished, so I guess we can’t change this point.

We finally reached to the part you have all waited for: the gameplay. I tried to complete a level without homing attack and it’s pretty easy; even if you are one of those “just erase the homing attack of Sonic 4! ” fans, you can completely play in the old way–at least for Splash Hill Zone.  On the other hand, when used, Sonic becomes slower for no reason, and it’s not rare to have a subtle bug make us miss our target despite locking it on.  And so, we lose 30-45 seconds to pass the stress on the controller when it is necessary to defeat 4 or 5 badniks in a line, hoping to move forward. That’s as fucking lame as being forced to play 10 minutes in a level in recent Sonic games, whereas that should be the choice of the player who prefers to explore, rather than to race.

We can also remark that the very useful Spin Dash is here but useless, since its use gives way to the good old of ninja technique known as hammering  the B button to pass any obstacle while going at mach speed; here, Sonic will go at the same speed and pass slopes at 180°, our blue blur simply stop in the middle…when you didn’t go back. It’s a very disturbing point to correct and dishonour the original trilogy.

Unfortunately, the list of ills didn’t stop there and I cannot prevent myself from thinking of anti-gravity shoes à la SatAM when I think about our dear hedgehog able to remain motionless while fully inclined, and even of being able to impersonate Knuckles without the gloves while just walking to pass the almost right angles we encountered where we pushed the B button years ago. I always have in mind a funny quote made by RaianOnzika while playing and took pleasure in failing his test and told us: “Look at THIS! Sonic can walk on the walls at 6 miles an hour!”  It is also amusing to test the loop-de-loops to see how it deserve a facepalm: take a loop and stop while rolling then try a Spin Dash, the truth is before your eyes because when you simply go back in the old games, here, you can do it… Epic Win!

To conclude, there are some “mega” collision bugs wich will be repaired for the final version and even if we don’t have doubts about this point, we largely pray for that because if they give it to us like this, fans will simply burn SEGA and Dimps buildings.  There is also (as always) passages where an enemy hit seems inevitable despite an almost perfect knowledge of the level design (by watching others and testing), and we had to remark that many Newtron appear and disappear without being transformed into a rocket and rushing that sometimes, we can’t do anything to prevent one to hit us… Disgusting, isn’t it?

So, the game was actually improved but there’s a lot of things to to fix before playing something good at the end of this year.

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In Part 2 of the In-Depth, to be published Tuesday Wednesday on TSSZ News, impressions of Sonic Colors and final thoughts.