Get the Details, Watch the Video, Play the Demo
With a lot of the fan game attention focused on items like Sonic Fan Remix, Retro Sonic Nexus and the like, there’s another project joining the fray, and it looks and plays as good as they come.
It’s called Sonic Before the Sequel, and it’s the product of LakeFeperd. It is a Sonic fan game with a simple purpose and plot: What events happened in between the end of the 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog, and the beginning of Sonic the Hedgehog 2? As it appears in what’s been shown thus far, the answer appears to be tons more platforming. Sonic and Tails will be a part of the adventure, which includes a fair bit of originality in both stage structure and gimmicks. The video below has more.
The best part is that there’s more than video for SBTS–there’s also a playable demo. It includes three stages and a boss area. You can download it here.
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This is just… awesome, seriously awesome.
…Ristar music?
What happened between Sonic 1 and 2? Sonic 2 GG. =P
Still, this looks amazing. I’ll give the demo a sniff. =)
im the type that hates sonic fan games. There’s way too many of them and they’re either statements against the franchise, do some incoherent graphic bullshit, or have completely ridiculous level designs.
This however made me jizz a little
um…didn’t Sonic CD take place in between sonic 1 and 2? I know it was realeased after sonic 2, but according to the timeline, it came after Sonic 1 but before Sonic 2.
at least it’s not from the EVIL sonic retro
“What happened prior to Sonic 2?”
…uh gee, there’s this GREAT FUCKING GAME called Sonic CD. It seems the creator of this game didn’t get that memo.
Now to be nitpickey:
- logo / title screen is gigantically boring; not even an attempt at getting the SONIC font?
- Nothing about the game’s level design even remotely says “Sonic The Hedgehog” to me. It instead says “S Curves, trademarked by Dimps” only they’re much more unexciting to go through.
- Sonic 2 Beta “full speed” animation. Why? (On the flip side, that’s a neat “full speed” animation when you go past the aforementioned speed)
- Eye rape when it comes to clashing foregrounds and backgrounds (as seen in around 1:20); the designer (s) should have taken more care of this to make one part stand out from the other.
- Just overall boring to look at.
Just played the demo, I think that it is a great start, but they need to do more in terms of level design and enemy programming. The game crashed on me after I finished the first level did that happen to anyone else?
Oooooh boy. It’s like the Star Wars prequels. lol
I guess it’d be pretty cool of a fangame at least, if they changed the title that is. Looks more like something that’d happen between Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 (had Sonic 3 not taken place directly after Sonic 2)
But Sonic 2 takes place on Westside Island, where Sonic meets Tails. And this looks like a totally different location. lol
but anyhoo, like I said, for a fangame it looks pretty cool. Wonder why they gave Tails spinny feet? Did they not like his original pose? I did. lol And Sonic’s run animations are funny. lol
This is a very smart idea I give props to the creator can’t wait to play
Better than Sonic 4, at least is more original and variated
@Haru
Now to nitpick on some of your nitpicks
!
Sonic CD took place ‘presumably after the events of Sonic 3′ ACCORDING to Wikipedia, see story line. If Wikipedia’s not reliable for you, gimmeh proof otherwise!
- logo / title screen is boring… Well, at least it’s better than Sonic just wagging his finger… Or even ‘nothing’. Tail’s fur is fluttering in the wind, the bobbing of the title thingy (lol), death egg is viewable (S&K says hi), it’s set in the sky/clouds instead of the same old ocean/island scenario, heck you even see Sonic flying on the plane with Tails.
Either a neat Sonic Fan game (not a hack) that’s catching on nicely with some good physics and has hopes of being finished! Or ‘just’ another Sonic Fan Game using the Worlds engine, spamming some Green familiar zones most Sonic fans have heard of.
In terms of font, I didn’t even notice the creator didn’t use ‘Sonic’ font. Meh, to each his own xD!
- I don’t know… There may be a lot of S curves, but I see a lot of platforming sections too! And it’s like you’re saying this is ‘Sonic 4′ ’cause that’s a DIFFERENT story xD! But yeah physics need tweaking here, Tails was kinda walking up here at 1:25…
- Why not?
- I agree with teh eye rape. ”/ At least there’s some pretty neat gimmicks (3:17) Cars anyone?
- Depends on how you’re looking at it.
/end rant that’ll get me bashed but t’was worth the procrastination!
looks good as it is beautiful…looking forward to it when it comes to light!
SonikKaos: Despite Sonic 4 Episode 1 being disappointing, it’s still an actual GAME compared to this, which isn’t even a finished project.
As much gripe as the Sonic fanbase gives SEGA for going back to the basics AND YET wanting something new, all the fanbase ever seems to do as far as game development is concerned is DO NOTHING BUT RETRO REHASHES.
I lost interest when he failed to capitalize the “S” in “Sonic 1″ and “Sonic 2″.
I have no interest in playing games made by idiots.
i wonder what would happen if the guys who made this went back to the future in 1992 and showed this to sega. hmmm….
@Matt
wow… just stop. really, these guys probably worked really hard on this and you call them idiots because the font is different?! what if you made a cool game and someone calls you a lazy retard because the logo sucks?
Ummmm… Didn’t Sonic CD happen AFTER Sonic 2?
Or are the stories out-of-order?
Cool concept, bad title.
“what if you made a cool game and someone calls you a lazy retard because the logo sucks?”
Me: “Yeah shit, you’re right, but I’ll look into changing it soon; don’t know why I didn’t just download the NISESONIC font. After all it’s a logo and logos have to look appealing to sell anything, free or not.”
There’s my response. Where’s your witty retort, genius?
I agree with Haru. One of the things that sells me on games is the graphic design work, which include kickass looking logos.
@sonicdudefan1996
Actually, I wasn’t even referring to the logo at all, because I hadn’t even watched that far into the trailer. But yeah….that is one ugly logo, and as Haru pointed out NISESONIC is a free font so there’s really no excuse. My original complaint, however, was that the very first sentence that appears in the trailer reads: “What happened between sonic 1 and 2″.
Not “What happened between Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2″.
Not even “What happened between Sonic 1 and 2?” (please note that there is no game called Sonic 1).
“What happened between sonic 1 and 2?”
Why should I have any confidence in this LakeFeperd guy’s skills as a game designer when the trailer, and even the logo of the game itself, suck so bad?
@Matt
That’s not fair, judging a game just because of a logo and a simple error. If you watch the trailer you can see that the gameplay is actually good. I played the demo and I thought it was great (Although a little work is needed). He also put in a caption fixing the error and apologising due to English not being his first language.
I think that it looks appealing, but I’m really tired of all of the Retro Sonic fangames getting the spotlight. Especially ones that rip sprites straight from SEGA, and with the awkward-looking beta-sprites no less. The latest and perhaps ONLY news that we heard of from a Modern Sonic one (called “Ashura”, I believe) was because one of the main teammates was leaving. As if that there is only worthwhile news to report if it’s on the verge of discontinuation.
We need some Sonic games that AREN’T just Sonic 2 reboots under a glossy new sheen.
@haru
i was not saying that he should keep the logo the way it is(it would be nice to see the actual ogo) but i was saying that it’s not fair for people to call the game crap because of a simple error. for example complaining about Sonic generations because sonic has buckles on his shoe is a nitpick not worth calling the game crap or insulting someone’s intelligence.
@Matt
Humans are humans, there not going to be 100% perfect all the time.
edit: “because classic sonic has buckles on his shoes”
Music is from Ristar. Level is Undertow (2nd part)
Ristar is awesome ^ ^
Hmm. This looks interesting, but I can’t stand the running animation for Tails. He never ran like that in any game. His tails always started spinning whenever he hit top speed.
I’m not gonna comment on the gameplay because I haven’t played it, nor do I have any intention to for the time being, but however…
@Aero: BROFIST.
@Pointlessname: “That’s not fair, judging a game just because of a logo and a simple error”
Oh right, because the rest of it just looks -so- promising, doesn’t it?
@Prince of Bell Air:
“- logo / title screen is boring… Well, at least it’s better than Sonic just wagging his finger… Or even ‘nothing’. Tail’s fur is fluttering in the wind, the bobbing of the title thingy (lol), death egg is viewable (S&K says hi), it’s set in the sky/clouds instead of the same old ocean/island scenario, heck you even see Sonic flying on the plane with Tails.In terms of font, I didn’t even notice the creator didn’t use ‘Sonic’ font. Meh, to each his own xD!”
All that XD and
reminds me of ShadiWulf from the SEGA forums. Ugh.
If you don’t notice the title logo then that means it didn’t stand out to you at all, and that’s a problem.
“- I don’t know… There may be a lot of S curves, but I see a lot of platforming sections too! And it’s like you’re saying this is ‘Sonic 4′ ’cause that’s a DIFFERENT story xD! But yeah physics need tweaking here, Tails was kinda walking up here at 1:25…”
…uh, what? I wasn’t saying this was Sonic 4 at all. It’s just very unoriginal and boring platforming in general.
“- Why not?
”
Because it’s terrible. There’s nothing wrong with what the animation became in the full product.
“- I agree with teh eye rape. ”/ At least there’s some pretty neat gimmicks (3:17) Cars anyone?
”
Oh, you mean those blocks with some circles on them called ‘cars’ and ‘trucks’? Yeah, because that’s the one part of Speed Highway (SA) that I loved most; dealing with the cars on the road.
Oh wait, no I didn’t, I just ran above/past them because they’re a pain in the ass to deal with.
‘neat gimmicks’ =/= productive or good. A gimmick is only useful when it adds variety and IN TURN makes a section of a game more enjoyable or a different type of enjoyment.
“- Depends on how you’re looking at it.
Either a neat Sonic Fan game (not a hack) that’s catching on nicely with some good physics and has hopes of being finished! Or ‘just’ another Sonic Fan Game using the Worlds engine, spamming some Green familiar zones most Sonic fans have heard of.”
I’ll just play my complete Sonic games that I can buy anywhere, thanks.
@Aero: Agreed 100%…except that I don’t really like this to begin with.
@sonicfan: “it’s not fair for people to call the game crap because of a simple error.”
It’s not even an error, it’s just that the creator is god damn lazy and it looks uninspiring, how hard is that to process? As I said before though, it’s not like the rest of the game looks that promising.
Trailer seems to have really well designed level art at least. I mean, REALLY well designed. Although the levels are quite empty so far.
@haru
again, i’m agreeing that the title should change. but this guy probably worked pretty hard on this game. does that mean it’s good, no but we should at least compliment the hard work he did? i think so. again i will bring up classic sonic. he’s not the same like in the classics. sega’s to lazy! even though the game looks great so far? doesn’t take any fun away. same with this, if the creator fixes up the levels but the title stays the same doesn’t take any fun away.
When playing the demo as Tails in the paltree level, if you fly up into the rock formation at the top of the level as it starts, the Sonic 3 and Knuckles boss music plays and upon completing the level, it restarts over. Also, sometimes the camera follows an invisible object, which then can kill you. A boss is obviously planned here!
Lemme guess. No Mac port.
Sigh…..SonicWorlds yet again. It just feels the same. It’s boring.
@Haru: Eyesore? C’mon, really? Those environments are original and BEAUTIFUL! Remember Azure Lake Zone? Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking. What I think you mean is that some of the background pieces are bland and paper-ish. THAT, sir, would have been a reasonable piece of criticism.
That first part of that stage with all the loops reminds me of Hanging Waters from Ecco the Dolphin:Defender of the Future… So high up… I’m lovin those trees!
when the full game comes out ?