Is the Retro Engine All It’s Cracked up to Be?
Kotaku today posted video from PAX of the Sonic CD re-release in action on the XBOX 360. We can’t embed the video, so you’ll have to go here to view it.
One of the things you will notice is a much nicer hi-res smoothing, which will be apparently be available on the fly. So those who want to play the jagged original have the option, while others looking for a true HD experience can do so without Backbone Entertainment’s faux filter.
Interestingly, there hasn’t been a lot of video from Sonic CD’s showing at PAX, its first public showing. We will, however, keep tabs on this project when we can. So far, Christian Whitehead’s Retro engine appears to have passed fans’ first impressions with flying colors. After watching the video linked above, You can offer your thoughts in the comments below.
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Oh my gosh I love it
Everything looks and sounds great! XD
Hope they fix that “Hi-res”-”Lo-res” problem, though. .
The retro engine is quite fantastic, as long as the sprites are high res (which appears to be the case here). All I really think is needed to modernize old Sonic games and to build new classic inspired sonic games like Sonic 4 is a modernized engines which handle high res sprites with fluent smooth movements we do not need 2.5 D sprites or quirks like that, I believe that as long as the retro engine can create cartoony graphics like I described then it is a great fit.
Sonic CD, true widescreen support, hi-res smoothing with its original Japanese soundtrack?
Pure win!
Would be nice if the video was a bit longer.
Switching graphics on the fly? That’s awesome. Tecmo Bowl Throwback did this as well and while the effect here isn’t as drastic as there – Tecmo Bowl got a complete graphical overhaul for Throwback – it’s still a cool feature that should be standard in re-releases with upgrades. Turtles in Time Re-Shelled didn’t do it; not a huge deal, since the upgraded graphics were great, but it still would have been nice to be able to switch over to the Arcade graphics at will.
That angle he recorded in gave it SUCH an awesome 3D effect.
@db316bh
You can’t really expect something like that from a game like Re-Shelled, because it’s not just a filter being toggled on or off, but an entirely different game that was merely BASED on the original. That would be like playing Sonic Generations and being able to toggle back to the original 16-bit GHZ mid-level… that’s just completely unrealistic.
But it is pretty damn awesome that you can toggle the filter for this game. And the widescreen factor is just glorious!
@dl316bh
The Monkey Island special editions games are what sprung to mind for me. Its an awesome feature, especially nowadays where most people play on HD TV’s.
Wow! Really love how it kinda looked 3D, I think ot was because of the angle the guy was recording, it looks beautiful! I am so getting this game C:
Looks nice cant wait to play it on my xbox.
Wow this looks fantastic!!!!
Neat, but nothing special. Perhaps if it were the first time. =)
pretty awesome!!! hey does someone know if Sonic Generations is at PAX and what levels they’re showing? speaking of sonic generations, why is it that as soon as Jack revealed Super Sonic, that no one cares about the official 20th anniversary figures, or the proper in-game models for both supers?
Sonic CD in HD looks beautiful. Palmtree Panic’s JP music still kicked ass like it did from 1993. And the best of all, the Retro Engine is a shows to be a great addition to the game.
SO wish Sega/Sonic Team would’ve contacted Whitehead during Sonic 4′s development. Maybe, it would’ve been been an actual sequel to S3K rather than of a lousy rehash cash-in built on nostalgia.
Did anyone else notice that the end-of-act tally has finally been fixed?! Every version of this game (including the original SegaCD release) had the tally start automatically after appearing and the sound effect would only come on if the time/ring bonus was long enough. Now it finally waits its turn and makes the sound effect from the start. It might not sound like much but if the Retro Engine fixes all the little nuances of the classic series then I’m *highly* impressed.
Though this isn’t a port of the PC version, thank god they didn’t include that tacky loading screen of Little Planet =)
Finally, I was never a diehard fan of SonicCD, like many others are, but this re-release is really catching my attention and giving the game a new lease on life!
For those with a Wii get Sonic Gems for the GC
Wow SEGA done a great job with this port,
If Sega releases a combined Sonic3&Knuckles release on XBLA using the same engine and standards for this port it will sell really well Ill buy it even if it is 2400 Points! S3&K really deserve this treatment since its the best Sonic game ever.
-Retro Engine
-Full HD Widescreen support
-60 FPS
-The Awesome Smoothing filter
-Original Menus (No Backbone Crap)
-Challenging & Hard to get achievements (so that not everyone have 200/200 just by playing the game once)
Please do it Sega the fans wants it!
For those commenting on the ’3D’ effect, it’s been said that of the improvements to the game offered by the Retro Engine is the improved background scaling, creating a much better visual ‘pow’ than the original title was capable of generating.
For those confused, compare the parallax background scrolling of Sonic CD (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R8kyNs9f4k&playnext=1&list=PLCCBDCD9DD6A693AD) with the scrolling from say…S3&K (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urAxupGOe5k). Sonic 3 was producing more layers and had smoother scrolling compared to Sonic CD, which always did look a little flat. Now watch the above video, and the scrolling looks much smoother and much more vivid, much more like S3&K’s smoother engine was.
Now before any purists explode, this doesn’t effect the game AT ALL. It’s strictly a cosmetic change designed to make the game look a little nicer past the foreground. But that’s why most of you are commentating on the ‘pop’ that the visuals have. It’s because the new engine runs the background layers far better then the original was able to. Also, being at 60 fps helps as well.
Congrats Sega, I’ve got my wallet out…
Pleeease SEGA release Sonic 3&Knuckles using retro engine !
The angle that the camera had on the TV made the game look almost as if it was in 3-d. Amazing!
It already is in Youtube: