SAGE 2011: Review Slew #5

The final installment!

The final day our SAGE reviews here at TSSZ is at hand! Outside of one or two incidents, I’ve been pleasantly surprised that I went through almost the entire roster of games without running in to serious playability problems. Normally I have to make a big long speech about how Game Maker never works right on my system and how many others are stuck in the same boat I am. Nearly all Game Maker games this year have actually managed to actually work properly! Of course, you’ll note that I am avoiding the word “all”. And that’s because….

Get used to seeing this area.

Sonic NXT
Standing out as the one and only Game Maker project my PC wouldn’t normally run, I had considered handing this game off to Solus for review much like I did last year. Fortunately for him, I had recently come in to ownership of a hand-me-down laptop. Not the most powerful machine in the world, but good enough for basic things like surfing the web and playing the odd fangame. And much to my surprise, Sonic NXT worked! …after spending nearly three full minutes watching the “Now Loading” bar slowly creep across the system, while Game Maker brought my entire system to its knees. The game itself is a game broken from the mold of Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors, with lengthy boost sections, homing attacks, and quick time events. And while on the surface that looks all well and good, the game has a number of problems. The most immediate issue is that the game has a number of different systems for gaining score bonuses, extra boost, and so on, and does absolutely nothing to prevent you from exploiting these systems to your gain. For instance, there’s a combo system for chaining multiple actions together, but you can simply repeat the same actions over and over again for bonus points without experiencing any diminishing returns, essentially providing you with infinite points. The boost system is similar: You gain boost energy for collecting rings – including rings you drop from taking damage. If you have zero boost, all you have to do is jump in a spike pit and you’re almost recharged back to full. Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad, but the level design isn’t really the best – I was stuck for several minutes on a jumping challenge involving moving platforms – except all the platforms moved the same direction, meaning the no matter where they are, the jumps are always spaced the same distance from each other. This is a problem, as the ceiling is deliberately low, meaning to get across (and thus access the other 75% of the stage), you have to make some extremely difficult boost-jump maneuvers that mostly involve more luck than skill. I could actually keep going – there’s also the weird controls (that basically force you to play using a keyboard), the strange homing attack system (that basically lets you fly), the over-bearing wall jump, and so on. Basically, every step Sonic NXT takes forward, it takes at least one step back. Despite my proclivities towards not liking Game Maker games, I was willing to give this a shot – and while it gets the broad strokes down, a lot of the smaller details are what it ends up not quite executing on.

This is the entire thing. Literally.

Freedom Fighters Fangame
I’m almost tempted not to even write anything for Freedom Fighters Fangame, because the booth clearly implies that they know the game is not ready for the show and that progressively more complete builds will be uploaded as the show goes on. But, given that SAGE launched on Sunday and it is now Friday night/Saturday morning as I write this, I’d say that’s quite a long time. I’m actually disappointed there’s not more here – not many people pick this corner of the Sonic franchise to make games about (that is to say, the Saturday Morning Cartoon/Archie Comics universe), and at the very least, FFFG showcases some pretty nice looking sprite work for the whopping ten seconds of level that exists for you to play. No, seriously – you see that screenshot? As of writing this, that is the current build. To Dwapook’s credit, he’s not using Multimedia Fusion. In fact, he’s not using any kind of pre-built Sonic codebase whatsoever. As incredibly basic as this is, with weird controls, I can at least respect his decision to break out on his own and do things differently. Best of luck to everyone who’s contributing on this project – too bad there’s basically nothing here to actually play.

Don't worry, I'll drown before I die of old age.

Sonic Labyrinth
Besides sharing its name with what might be the worst Sonic game ever created for the Sega Game Gear, Sonic Labyrinth sees Sonic return to the Labyrinth Zone for some brand new puzzles to solve. Within the first 10 seconds I jumped in to a room that, once inside of it, quickly became obvious as a trap, as all the walls are too high for Sonic to jump out of (see picture). Thankfully, given that this is a water zone, you don’t have to wait ten minutes for Sonic to eventually get a time over and die, as he drowns relatively quickly instead. It quickly becomes apparent that Sonic Labyrinth is no ordinary hack of Sonic 1, but a special breed: the challenge hack! And, unfortunately, challenge hacks are not my thing. I may be harsh in some of my SAGE reviews, but that’s because I want everybody to do their best – and its easy to give advice, because most of these games are trying to emulate the styles and themes of official Sonic games. Sonic Labyrinth doesn’t, really. And while I most definitely do not like and do not see the point in simply remaking existing content to be harder, I respect that others do like that. Otherwise, I just come off sounding like a frustrated child who isn’t smart enough or skilled enough at the game to survive and figure out the solution (and it may not surprise you to know that is exactly what ended up happening here). In the end, all I can really say about it is that Sonic Labyrinth does live up to its “pre-pre-alpha” state, at least, as to access the new level layouts at all you need to use the level select code to skip to Labyrinth Zone. There are also a number of objects seemingly floating in space where they don’t belong. If you’ve been wishing for more water levels in recent Sonic games, maybe you should give this a shot, as long as you keep in mind that it is an early work in progress.

Real time water reflections!

Sonic GML
If Sonic NXT reminded me of what frustrates me about Game Maker fangames, Sonic GML makes me see why they can be awesome. Though it may be just a glorified engine test, it’s a glorified engine test packed full of awesome visual effects and great ideas. And while there’s currently no gamepad support, there’s a fancy menu where gamepad support will eventually go – something I am grateful for. And hey, there’s a lot to do in this engine test, with a hub world to explore, three test levels (including Sonic GML‘s take on Sonic 2‘s Emerald Hill Zone) three bosses to fight, and tons of achievements, if you’re in to that kind of thing. I can’t wait to see what actually gets made with this engine, though I do hope some elements of what’s here go under further revision. Sonic’s boost lacks the appropriate “punch”, and much of the content in this demo seems like it’s designed for the zoomed out, 640×480 view instead of the more classic Genesis-style up-close camera angle (the bingo table boss in particular seems like it would be impossible in anything but the full 640×480 view mode). A zoomed out camera like that can make levels feel more empty and helps show off repetitive tile work. None of that matters right now, though, I guess – but Sonic GML is certainly showing a lot of promise. Here’s hoping it actually goes somewhere.

Goo-goo G'joob

Revenge of the Walrus
A last minute addition to the SAGE website, Revenge of the Walrus is a Mario fangame where you fight your way out of a chilly prison… apparently constructed by Walruses? Revenge of the Walrus appears to be constructed using one of Hello’s Mario engines (or something very similar), which, if you’re not aware, are basically like Sonic Worlds for making Mario games. The controls aren’t perfect – Mario often feels a little too slippery (even when not walking across some of the demo’s many frequent patches of ice), but then again, I guess the same lack of total 1:1 accuracy could be said for Sonic Worlds, too. Levels themselves seem to be designed well enough regardless, adhering to the gameplay flow established in Super Mario Bros. 3. Levels are well designed, often short and laser-focused on a single gimmick or theme, with the same “match 3″ card mechanic cropping up at the end of every stage. Leftover items can be stored and kept for later, like Super Mario World. It’s pretty standard Mario stuff all around, but now there’s Walruses everywhere. I had quite a lot of fun with Revenge of the Walrus, even though there does not seem to be formal gamepad support (c’mon, folks!). You should really give this one a look.

Make sure you build a portal to the nether.

Minecraft on Mobius
I was all set to review this one when I realized I probably can’t fill enough space to talk about a Minecraft texture pack. After all, this is actually less of a game than “Amy Dress Up“. This is just a texture pack, really, that converts all of Minecraft‘s textures in to Sonic the Hedgehog equivalents, essentially decking your world out in the checkerboard patterns of Green Hill Zone, the purple stone of Marble Zone, and so on. It really is quite well done, and I’m hoping it stays up to date as Minecraft evolves – part of the reason texture packs can be a hassle to deal with is having a new update roll out with new monsters and new tiles and whatever texture pack you’re using doesn’t support them. Minecraft on Mobius currently supports all of the tiles and creatures from Minecraft 1.8.1 (with some clever Sonic-ized makeovers for certain hostile monsters), and I’d assume it’ll probably see an update for the impending Minecraft 1.9. Really, if you’re some kind of weirdo who still doesn’t know what Minecraft is, simply head this-a-way to read my not-review article thing I wrote nearly a year ago (jeeze, was it really that long ago?). For those of you who do know, well, you’ve already made up your mind about whether or not you want to get this texture pack likely based on my screenshot or the copious number of screenshots on the booth’s website itself. Which means my work is done here, I guess!

My controller rumbles in anticipation

Sonic Zero: Remastered
And for the final game I’m scheduled to talk about here at SAGE, we have Sonic Zero. If it was up to me, I’d give Sonic Zero “Game of the Show” for one reason, and one reason alone: upon booting up the game for the first time, the very first screen you’re shown is one where you set up your controls for the game. You see, folks, Sonic Zero is one of the few Sonic fangames that really “gets” the importance of having good gamepad support. And not only does it let you set up your key binds, but once you actually start playing Sonic Zero, you realize that they went the extra mile and implemented force feedback support! It probably helps that Sonic Zero itself is actually pretty good, with strong art direction, intuitive level design, and great music. I just wish there was more of it! All compliments aside, this is yet another “Green Zone” (a fact Sonic Zero itself actually mocks) demo where you’re provided one level and a boss and that’s it. Especially a bummer considering this was a level they showed at SAGE last year (though it has been visibly improved since last SAGE). Though, I have one question, and it ultimately doesn’t matter either way. but: If Sonic Zero is quite clearly the prequel it appears to be, why am I allowed to also play as Tails and Knuckles? Then again, as I only just learned a few months ago, apparently Knuckles’ campaign in Sonic 3 & Knuckles apparently canonically takes place six months after Sonic destroys the Death Egg in his ending of the same game. What am I even talking about anymore? Sonic Zero: Remastered? Yeah, it’s cool. You should download it.

And with that, I’m off the hook! Okay, sure, maybe Shadow’s Fall didn’t get reviewed, but that’s hardly my fault. And maybe I got some things wrong over the course of my reviews – apparently Cheddly and Clouds Crazy Adventure 2 wasn’t the game they were showing at SAGE, it was Cheddly and Clouds Crazy Adventure 1, even though going by release chronology one would expect Cheddly and Clouds Crazy Adventure 2 to be the game to focus on. And apparently Sonic: Before the Sequel has way more content in its demo beyond the boss I got stuck on. And apparently there’s a new 1.2 alpha for Project Float with a lot more nifty goodies in it that you guys should probably take a look at because it’s markedly better than the version I reviewed on Tuesday. And apparently I just said all of that stuff without actually having to come back tomorrow and do a sixth article!

Though, if Shadow’s Fall gets released tomorrow, maybe I will anyway! Apparently!

(See you next year!)