I have no intention of actually playing this thing, but I'm watching a playthrough right now, and all I can say is it makes a weird kind of sense to me that this is resonating with the fans, because its look is surprisingly close to what my 10-year-old self imagined the Sonic games of the future would look like. I have never felt the need to say that about a Sonic game before.
Sorry, I should have mentioned that when I was 10 it was still the 16-bit era. I knew 3D games were on the horizon but I had only the vaguest idea of what they were 'supposed' to look like, and had no idea at all what trends would emerge in 3D level design.
You're right about the visuals being off-brand, but I don't even think that this is the most off-brand thing that this wretched franchise has coughed up.
It doesn't have to be this way. The core mechanics of the original franchise were cool and good.
Reject modernity, Sonic! Return to Tradition!
Fair enough. I'm mostly a Sonic 3 guy, and it avoided a lot of that.
Sonic Unleashed still looks great all these years later and it’s art direction was way more Pixar-esque, which I think is a good fit for the series. Looks more visually distinct, instead of the HIRE THIS MAN style Frontiers went with.
"Sonic fans" who?
Literally who are these people? This series has been shoveling out garbage for approximately as long as I've been able to create and store long-term memories. Who on this earth is actually a fan of and looks forward to and buys these games?
I don't like sonic. I don't even like sonic mania. I liked sonic 2 as a kid, but playing it now, I don't like it. I also agree with your analysis of frontiers looking like shit.
That said, frontiers is calling to me in a weird way... I feel like I need to play it.
I'd be hard pressed to name a 3D Sonic game that didn't suck. Even in the best possible scenario, lateral movement at high speeds makes navigation difficult. The camera goes flying around and makes you nauseous. Tight confines with sharp corners are a pain to move through while wide open spaces are bland and boring.
The things that make Sonic good - the frenetic pace, the pinball-like twitch gameplay, the springboard puzzles and gimmicky boss fights - aren't smooth and fluid in a 3D setting.
The big exception to this is when Sonic is basically played like a racing game - you're functionally glued to the floor, every map is like a giant race-track, the camera is over-the-shoulder instead of free-floating. Even then, they never seem to top the original series.
Oh shit, that does look good. But can you play it on a microwave display?
I wouldn't know, apparently it's a modified Doom engine so maybe it's too taxing for graphing calculators. It just amuses me that to my (non-Sonic fan) eyes this looks miles better than what I've seen of any of the actual official 3D Sonic games
Oh absolutely. And it seems like it plays better, too. Just a better game all in all.
Credit to the fans, and never let anyone tell you there will be no cool treats without Capitalism.
How can you code a fan game when no phone or computer under communism :kubrick-stare:
