Brand Manager Hints at “Really Cool Unveilings This Month”
On Friday afternoon, in response to some concerns that recent concept art reveals for Sonic 4: Episode II were leaning toward the next chapter being as unimaginative as the first, brand manager Ken Balough said on the Sega forums only one of the game’s upcoming zones will be recycled fare.
“Ep II [....] has new Zones that we hope will keep people happy,” Balough said. “In fact there is only (1) zone that is a genuine throwback – but that actually is more how the story unveils than anything else. ”
Balough added that a major reveal was possibly in the cards for later in the month, with our first good look coming “sooner than you think,” in his words.
“We have some really cool unveilings this month,” Balough added.
But Balough also admitted that, after 20 years of Sonic, there can be only so many new areas concocted for new games.
“The reality is that after 20 years of games, it’s super easy to say something is a re-hash; becouse [sic] there are only a limited number of terrain types in the world,” Balough said. “If we do a ‘Cave’ enviroment [sic], people will say ‘oh that’s like, Mystic Cave zone or Crystal Cave’ or if it’s a African enviroment [sic] people will say its a rehash of Savannh [sic] Citadel, etc. You get the idea.”
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I’m positive there’s only been 1 actual city-styled stage in a handheld Sonic title.
And that was from Sonic Advance. So why not try that? Especially since it’s Modern Sonic who we’re talking about..
@Stephan Well Starlight Carnival and Levitated Ruins had disappearing and reappearing roadways that formed loops, but that’s really a stretch. But knowing classic tards, they’d pick it out for that slimmer of a resemblance. It’s extremely hard to create something 100% original with people that search like hawks for resemblances.
@Nuzamaki: Zone 1 from Advance 3. Route 99.
@Darkgomugomu
…..Um…. Well…… A giant moving robot/monster could BE the level and later, it could become the boss… And… You know what, fuck it.
@Stephan Well if you REALLY wanna stretch it, there was the first phase of Dark Gaia where you ran across the Gaia Colussus. I’ll admit that was a hard one.
@Darkgomugomu
Fuck… Well… A level made entirely of Modern Art…?
I’m pretty sure they’ll have Aquatic Ruins as the throwback level. As for a new genre…I can’t think of anything. Volcano, Cyberspace, space, castle,palace in the sky, islands, music. Have they used a sea port or the inside of a huge (mechanical) animal?
I always thought a fun idea for a level would be like a Scrap Harbour Zone.
Consider a junkyard of old robots and such, with an underwater section amongst all the trash and scrap metal.
Would break away from the usual water themes of underwater ruins/palaces/etc…
They really should rehash Quartz Quadrant
well.. i think Balough made a point about saying its hard to do something not seen before cause there is a limited number of terrain types in the world, but still when you have Bingo Highway and Carnival Night Zone that are the same terrain type but completely different stages and you have Casino Street Zone and Casino Night Zone that almost have the same TILESET there’s no excuse.
but still you have New Super Mario Brothers Wii that use the same generic type of worlds without any inspiration or identity and the same fucking music in almost every stage, rehashed enemys, etc. At least in Sonic games you remember each zone of each as an unique location and thats why i like more Sonic games than Mario’s because even when in Sonic you see repeatedly the same terrain type it always have a twist and an identity
so give Sonic Team some respect.
(sorry for my bad english xd)
IMHO…
I don’t care just as long as the level design is fun…