xxOLDReviews – Page 3 – The Sonic Stadium

It feels strangely satisfying to make loud sexual noises in public and be able to blame it on a handheld games console. Not that we would condone such practice – not after the restraining order – but heads were certainly turning when Project Rub was released for the Nintendo DS last year. Now that Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, SEGA really do want us to ‘feel the magic’, once more, with The Rub Rabbits promising more absurdity and touching than ever before.

The Rub Rabbits is essentially the same game as its predecessor, with the story revolving around some bloke who fancies some bird and said bloke’s attempt at wooing that bird. Maybe we’re old fashioned, but we tend to respond to our ‘love at first sight’ experiences with a cheesy chat-up line that garners a slap in the face in return. And possibly a burp or two somewhere inbetween if we happen to have been drinking.

When our hero spots an attractive filly however, you’ll end up unicycling on scaffolding, throwing snowballs at robot bears, and chucking your sweetheart up trees. And that’s not counting the fact that this time you have many rivals all vying for the same lady, and another girl that falls in love with the main character.

The graphics are very artistic, with silhouetted characters, cutscenes as if they were lifted from an obscure manga and a visual style that can be considered an art form in itself. We have seen it before in Project Rub, but seeing them again is no bad thing, and the animation on the models seem to have improved.

We can’t help but feel though that some of the impact that The Rub Rabbits is trying to create is lost. Project Rub was a unique title when it was released, with an intruiging new premise on a brand new console. This, in a way, makes The Rub Rabbits less appealing because you know exactly what you’re getting. The art style is still creative but it doesn’t quite grab you in the same way as seeing Project Rub for the first time.

As for the sound, the major selling point for perverse exhibitionists of sensual moaning, inane giggling and the “Rub It!” man-choir remains in The Rub Rabbits. Oddly enough though, the bulk of the music happens to be a revamp of the Can-Can for some strange reason. Perhaps it’s to add to the circus-like nature of the game, which works to capture the atmosphere and insanity of it all, but unfortunately the rest of the music is quite forgettable. Which is a shame, because Project Rub’s main themes were instantly hummable and we were kind of hoping for some more weird, original tunes rather than a remake of a popular theme.

Your journey is now twice as long, with a huge story-mode spanning 37 chapters. The mini games here are not as unique or varied as those found in Project Rub, although they tend to use the dual screens in a few new ways. Some might require you to hold your DS to the side (like a book) or even upside down, in order to use the two screens to their full potential. And there aren’t many instances of a redundant screen either – one game has you checking the top screen to see whether any of your friends are falling asleep, while using the touch screen to slap them awake!

However, some of the games you’ll play are similar or the same as those found in the original game. The ‘Stampede’ game where you must tap oncoming enemies to defeat them makes about two appearances in The Rub Rabbits’ Story mode alone, which seems to show a lack of ideas. Granted, it is insanely difficult to come up with fresh new games all the time, but the Story could have been cut back a few chapters and wouldn’t have suffered for it. Repeat mini-games on a sequel that promises a fresh new experience smacks of padding to us.

As you complete mini-games, beat friends in multi-player and beat high scores in ‘Attack’ mode, you earn love hearts which can be used to garner yourself bonus material. As you play through the Story, more hearts will unlock different modes and games to play in certain settings, but as you complete the Normal mode your sack of hearts is used to obtain new costume pieces to dress up your dream date in the ‘Maniac’ mode. It’s not an entirely convincing reason to keep playing once you’ve completed the Story, but you do open up a ‘Hard’ mode which will keep you coming back every now-and-then to see if you can complete that one mini-game that keeps being cheap on you.

This doesn’t mean that you won’t have fun though. You’ll chuckle playing a strange anime-inspired version of ‘Rock-Paper-Scissors’ against your bitter rivals, while your schoolgirl stalker tries to win your affection by force-feeding you with cake. And blowing you up with heart cannons. There are many more options too, with the aforementioned ‘Maniac’ and ‘Memories’ modes returning from the first game plus new additions, such as ‘Baby Making’ – the ability to create a newborn with a friend/loved one without the legal hassle – multi-player battle versions of story mini-games, and a ‘Hullabaloo’ mode, which has an unlimited number of players having a bizarre but enjoyable form of ‘Hand Twister’ on one DS.

One of the main criticisms from Project Rub that The Rub Rabbits hoped to have fixed was the length of the story mode. Even though The Rub Rabbits is over twice as long, you will still see most of what it has to offer in a few days of on-off play. The appeal to Project Rub and The Rub Rabbits is their sheer eccentricity and addictive nature, so anyone who is interested in the style of this game will want to run through and see everything. Having said that, the story mode really is the only part of the game that you will want to play on and often, as the other modes are really extensions of the story. Again, it seems a little like padding to make the game appear larger than it actually is.

The Rub Rabbits is an enjoyable, extended addition to Project Rub. It’s not as manic, insane or inspiring as its predecessor was, but it’s rather more of the same. Which is fine by us, because for as long as it lasts, The Rub Rabbits is an addictive handheld game. For those that have never experienced Project Rub however, this is a must-buy title, as the extended features and bonus material make it a better buy than the original. One for Valentine’s Day, wethinks.

8/10

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xxOLDReviews

Shadow the Hedgehog

1st December 200518th April 2024

Dreadknux

When you think of Shadow the Hedgehog these days, you think of Star Wars. The constant mutterings of Hero or Dark side has pretty much become stagnant, but surprisingly fights a plausible case in the black one’s very own game.

Playing as the verse’s only representative of angst, you zip along levels, bounce off robots, collect rings and try to stop a greater evil. That’s where the similarities end pretty much – you have a choice of missions to complete, you bounce off humans and aliens as well, can choose to shoot them down and your greater evil is all dependant on your story path.

SONICTEAM have impressively managed to avoid a dire reason for searching Shadow’s past a THIRD time running by wrapping a nice, twisted storyline around it. Takashi Iizuka at his best, Shadow the Hedgehog returns fans to the bleak and dark world we last knew in Sonic Adventure 2. The world is being attacked by a new evil – the Black Arms. It’s leader, Black Doom approaches Shadow in the best Dr. Claw impression, stating that our antihero promised to bring them the Chaos Emeralds. Shadow sets forth to uncover these gems, as he snags that whatever promise he made and whatever secrets his past has will be revealed once he ‘catches ’em all’. The story is quite impressive, and it’s taken a paragraph to write about it because not since SA2 has such a moody outlook been successfully created on such a happy and bouncy video game series.

In fact, there’s a lot to be appreciated in Shadow the Hedgehog, because it’s not a Sonic game and it doesn’t follow the standard gameplay procedure. Yet the game fails to aid the player and inform them that this is a very different game to Sonic Adventure 2. Your first play will no doubt be insanely confusing, and there won’t be much help from the game alerting you to goal differences.

The levels range from extremely linear to the confusingly free-roaming, which makes for a bit of inconsistency in the design. Stages such as Westopolis and GUN Fortress are boringly simple “run forward” affairs, while Central City and The Ark result in you running around in circles on your first agitated attempt. Mad Matrix appears to be one of the only stages that has a decent mix of these extremes. However with a little bit of practice and trial and error you start to enjoy these levels much more.

Pages: 1234

xxOLDReviews

Sonic Gems Collection

1st October 200518th April 2024

Dreadknux

If you were a jewellery shop owner, and you decided to sell to your customers a collection of your most precious Gems, what would you decide the contents would be? A diamond, perhaps? A sapphire? A ruby or two?

SEGA, lapping up the (quite justified) success of Sonic Mega Collection, have decided to bung a compilation of apparently similar value featuring our favourite hedgehog. Sonic Gems Collection boasts an array of games that the fan just cannot pass up. Is the press release (and indeed, the box) accurate in this claim however?

Production of Sonic Gems Collection appears near-identical to Japan VRI’s Mega offerings, from the rather basic menus to the apparent humdrum extras. Just like Mega Collection, this title is no doubt going to be sided next to Sonic Jam in terms of just how well SEGA have treated us in the bonus content area. However, perhaps this comparison is both unfair and justified – whereas Mega Collection was more akin to Jam with the game content, thus making Gems rather exempt of scrutiny, the extras of Sonic Jam has no doubt set the standard for content to satisfy Sonic fans.

The offering of the games however, while excellent in Mega Collection, appears confused and rather inconsistent in Gems. For headlining titles, you get three: Sonic Championship (or Sonic the Fighters as it was known in Japan), Sonic the Hedgehog CD and Sonic R. Sonic CD, SEGA knows, is a star title that fans have been anxiously waiting for since Mega Collection was even announced – for many, Sonic Championship and Sonic R are simply hors d’oeuvres to the main course.

And a main course it is too. Sonic CD plays every bit as well on the Gamecube and PlayStation2 as it does on the Mega CD. The difference is that you don’t have the fiddly SEGA add-on console to worry about. It’s refreshing to play a solid version of Sonic CD on a console that has a stable savestate and is easily accessible. There is the odd technical glitch, but it doesn’t suffer too much. The Japanese version contains the glorious native soundtrack, yet the European version has been severely shot down with the unthinkable inclusion of the horrendous American soundtrack. It is sorely depressing to play this game on a European or American console – Spencer Nilsen gets you wanting to slit your own wrists come Collision Chaos Zone, the compositions are tame and unspeakably boring; the original atmosphere and ‘Sonic’ feeling found on the Japanese version has been lost on the US version.

Sonic R’s inclusion seems strange, considering that it’s age and the opinions held of it does not really justify its place in this Collection. Nonetheless, it’s still as enjoyable on the Nintendo Gamecube as on SEGA Saturn. Control is only a problem for those missing fingers – effective turning using the shoulder buttons makes for expert play, even if the idea of using these buttons to turn properly seems absurd. Perhaps due to the limitations on SEGA Saturn control input and architecture. Playing on a PlayStation2 however will give you several problems – the “Run” button is bizarrely placed on the “O” button while jumping is commanded with “X” – while it’s a simpler “B” and “A” button for Gamecube respectively. It is also much more difficult to turn using the PS2 shoulder buttons. Further, Sonic R is extremely limited in its offerings; Sonic fans who know their route through the game already will complete it well before even the 60 minute Sonic Museum mission.

Sonic the Fighters appears to be the only title to be truly considered a “gem” by which the collection defines; Sonic R and Sonic CD can be easily picked up on the PC for an extremely budget price. Being able to play this arcade rarity in your home is strangely satisfying, despite its extreme shortcomings. For Sonic the Fighters is indeed a very short game, and has little depth to it. One could argue that in the time of Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers, there was no real ‘techniques’ to speak of in 3D fighters. It simply did not exist at the time of STF’s conception. And being a spinoff title for quick plays at the arcade in any case, Sonic the Fighters is enjoyable in what it achieves and succeeds in providing a new, if short Sonic experience lost on a generation.

Alongside the three major titles, Sonic Gems offers a smattering of Game Gear games as well: Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic Spinball, Sonic Triple Trouble, Sonic Drift 2, Tails Skypatrol and Tails Adventure. Despite the fact that Sonic 2, Sonic Triple Trouble and Tails Adventure are three extremely playable Game Gear titles, you will be hard pushed to even consider playing them. There’s just something about playing games with a stretched resolution on your huge TV to compensate for the small GG screen that deters you from playing them. Those looking for a complete ‘GG Collection’ on PlayStation2 will be happy though, as this will complete what Mega Collection + started. Gamecube owners, and even most PS2 owners, won’t see the point in their inclusion however. Especially considering all of these titles appeared on Sonic Adventure DX on GCN.

There are, however, bonus games of considerable quality. The Japanese version of Gems wins points for featuring Vectorman, Vectorman II, Bonanza Bros and the Bare Knuckle (Streets of Rage) series. Our castrated European copies leave us with the Vectorman duo – which are excellent in their own rights. The green robot dude with attitude holds two great and very playable games under his belt, but of course, for omitting Bonanza Bros and Streets of Rage (because a 2D comical cops and robbers and a simple on rails beat-em up may do the same damage to a child’s psyche as a 3D bullet to someone’s cranium in GTA, for some reason) SEGA have done their collection no favours.

Sonic Museum is another attempt at collating various Sonic related nik-naks to appease the fans inbetween the games. Sonic Mega Collection’s extras were poor. Mega Collection + had even worse bonus features. Sonic Gems Collection is surprisingly well endowed. There are hundreds of artwork pieces – all of which we have seen before, but most aren’t actually ripped from Sonic Jam for once. We have the ‘Sonic the Screensaver’ images that were in Sonic Jam naturally, however there are character and badnik design images for Sonic CD, track course renders for Sonic R and character poses for Sonic the Fighters, along with a bunch of random images (including, ironically, a page of Knuckles’ Chaotix stills). This gallery is strangely satisfying, and yet there remains several exclusive Sonic remixes and videos – the videos are good enough, but nothing to shout about. The music remixes are quite decent. When you consider Sonic Jam’s extras, the only things of note missing in Gems is a 3D explorable world, a Hall of Fame and Japanese commercials.

An assessment of a compilation must primarily focus on how the collection is presented; in this case, the extra features alongside the games it offers. However, the quality of the games themselves must also be taken into account, but on a somewhat subordinate level. On the first front, Sonic Gems Collection succeeds with its much improved Sonic Museum and its changes in unlocking such content.

On the second front, the games on their own stand up well, but their placement is misjudged in Gems. The inclusion of other ‘real’ gems to stand alongside Sonic the Fighters such as SEGASonic Arcade (or even Chaotix) would have been worth the wait. Instead, SEGA relied on the Sonic fighting game to help bolster a collection that was in fact just a way of selling a re-release of Sonic CD.

For £20 however, it is a good budget priced title for those missing Sonic CD. But we severely advise against purchasing the European or American version – only die-hard Sonic collectors should get Sonic Gems Collection, but having said that, only die-hard Sonic fans will have the good sense to import the Japanese version. For skipping on Streets of Rage and Bonanza Bros this collection suffers – which is a shame because if Sonic Gems offered what it advertised than the omission of these games surely wouldn’t matter. But for failing to localise the game for the European market – a third time SEGA has done this – and including the god-awful SatAM-wannabe American soundtrack for Sonic CD, the US and EU versions of Sonic Gems Collection really are stinkers.

Buy it by all means if you wish, but be sure it’s the Japanese version.

Japanese Version: 7/10

Western Version: 4/10

xxOLDReviews

Playtest: Sonic Gems Collection

24th September 20052nd June 2013

Dreadknux

During our trip to Tokyo (more on this in our upcoming ‘TSS In Tokyo’ special, where we visit SEGA Joypolis and tour the many game shops in Akihabara), we snapped up a copy of Sonic Gems Collection. In the US this title remains a Gamecube exclusive, yet in Japan and Europe it is also available for the PlayStation 2. This article is a brief analysis of our first playtest of the game, ahead of our full review. We don’t want to give people the wrong review score, yet we strive to bring our readers the info as far ahead of its domestic release as possible, so expect these types of article to become a fairly regular feature.

SONICTEAM usually make a habit of including an English language set within their productions, which makes importing the latest Sonic games from Japan easy if you don’t happen to speak the language. Bizzarely, not so for Gems Collection. No English setting. The menus were fairly simple to navigate, yet we reckon the reasoning behind this is because the English language version of Gems has been altered in terms of game offering.

The games that are staring you in the face when you first boot up the game are the three headlining titles: Sonic the Fighters, Sonic the Hedgehog CD and Sonic R. More on these later. You also get a bunch of Game Gear titles; with the facility of savestates for the first time on Gamecube. Five unlockable titles are not available from the offset; Vectorman 1 and 2 and the Streets of Rage trilogy. Note that the Streets of Rage series is only available in the Japanese GCN/PS2 versions of Sonic Gems Collection.

Select Metal Sonic in the main menu and you access a list of manuals. This being the Japanese version, we were treated to an abundance of colourful and interesting manual scans and artwork; the Game Gear manuals and Sonic the Fighters scans are of particular interest. The bottom selection of the main menu, illustrated by Eggman, features the miscellaneous options, including the familiar ‘unlockable hints’ list and credits roll.

The proof in the pudding, aside from the games themselves, will ultimately come from the ‘Sonic Museum’, a gallery of images, music and movies for players to unlock. Regarding Sonic the Fighters, Sonic CD and Sonic R, unlocking artwork and other extras has been excellently handled – artwork becomes available once you complete Sonic the Fighters, or once you play Sonic R for intervals of 90 or 120 minutes. You actually have to play the games in order to obtain the rewards, which is a definite step in the right direction. Unfortunately, only the headlining games in this compilation have been reformatted and fiddled with by SONICTEAM: the Game Gear games still follow the aggravating ritual of the ‘Game Log’, where you have to “play” a game a certain amount of times to unlock some extras. And despite the objectives outlined in the major three games, there are still some ‘Game Log’ objectives for even STF, Sonic CD and Sonic R.

Despite this, the museum appears to be expansive; having played this for only a little while, we cannot lay a full review on the contents nor the compilation itself yet. However, the museum holds the artwork you remember from Sonic Jam, as well as artwork specific to Sonic CD, Sonic R or Sonic the Fighters that haven’t previously been on a collection. Other unlockables, aside from images, include special game remixes and movies – the latter of which includes a “History of Sonic” trailer… although we imagine our hearts will sink if it is similar to the “History of Sonic” trailer found in Mega Collection.

As for the games, for accessibility we tip our hat off to Sonic Gems Collection. Sonic the Fighters is certainly very basic, but its charm was never in its ability to mirror Tekken 3 (it was a spinoff game remember) but in the comic situations and the special moves that were authentic to Sonic the Hedgehog. Depending on your difficulty setting, Metal Sonic can be one MEAN boss as well. Certainly not extensive, and not particularly lasting in longevity, but then it is an arcade game, a title designed for quick plays on the seafront, not sessions lasting hours in your own bedroom.

Sonic CD is every bit as playable as on the Mega CD, and in some ways even more so. Despite the odd graphical glitch here and there (which are barely noticeable and don’t really impede on gameplay), it’s refreshing for someone like me to finally play this great title on a stable console. Those who have collected the Mega CD version can agree that it was a pain in the ass to setup your Mega CD system, then rather a traumatic experience worrying whether your Internal RAM had survived longer than two days. The Japanese version retains the original Japanese soundtrack, which is much more melodic and ‘Sonic’ than the American soundtrack, which sounds closer to a ‘SatAM’ wannabe tracklist.

Sonic R is the game that people love to hate, or love to love. Opinion on this game is divided (if you want TSS’ definitive verdict, check out the Sonic R section and read the review), but short as it is, it is quite playable once you get around the rather awkward controls. Just like on the SEGA Saturn, effective control is down to your advanced use of the trigger buttons. Once you began turning corners like a pro, you’re laughing. It’s a shame the game lasts a dedicated Sonic fan about an hour or two to complete, because the course design and format was something truly inspired – a real breath of fresh air compared to all the silly Mario Kart clones going around, Sonic R actually set a new benchmark in explorable courses. Something that hasn’t really been taken advantage of. Ahead of its time.

The Game Gear games are a bit of a mystery – why compile a shortlist of games already available on Gamecube in the form of SADX? For those with a PS2 weaned on Mega Collection +, this selection will complete your Sonic Gear Collection. And the savestate function is a first – and a godsend – for the GCN version. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Tails Adventure remains some of the best Sonic Game Gear titles ever made, yet you could be hard pushed to actually play them regardless.

All in all, accessibility and the improvements over past collections will be sure to be stable good points for Sonic Gems Collection. While the downsides that will undoubtedly drag the final score down will be its questionable offering: where was SEGASonic the Hedgehog? Whatever the case, this will inevitably benefit those hardcore Sonic fans who chucked away their old Game Gears or couldn’t be arsed to faff about with a troublesome Mega CD add-on system back in the day. Sonic CD remains the star of this compilation by a long shot.

Stay tuned over the next few days for a complete review, the only definitive rating you can trust for Sonic fans. Only on The Sonic Stadium!

xxOLDReviews

First Look: Sonic Rush

18th May 20052nd June 2013

Dreadknux

Sonic Rush, then. As with Sonic Gems Collection, this game was already being banded about well before SEGA could talk about it. They should really guard their secrets more often. There was talk that this was going to be an all new racing game featuring Sonic and co. But this turns out to be false, instead a rather new way of playing your classic 2D platformer. The name threw many fansites off the mark concerning genre, as many rumours were dead certain that a racing game was in the works.

Contrary to popular belief though, this isn’t your racing game, but a whole new take on the Sonic platformer. A 2D Sonic game, using 3D models, that uses both of the NDS’ screens to give a larger perspective of the gaming field. It’s a very cool idea that appears to be being put to good use judging by these first snapshots we have of the game. The graphics don’t appear to be up to the proper standard, but assuming we know our Sonic Teams, Naka and co are simply trying to make the gameplay as solid as possible before touching up the graphics.

The level design, although it’s folly to judge base on five screenshots, do look nice however – the backdrops look like a very gorgeous blend between Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic Advance style scenery and styles, with levels you could call Hydrocity, with the fourth image above reminding us all about the level design of Carnival Night Zone. The fifth screen, while bearing resemblence to Desert Palace and Sandopolis, is a great sneak peek at the potential for many alternate routes in this game. The screens certainly show a promising game, with Sonic grinding up a vine and double-screened loops shown.

Which leaves just a few questions; mostly concerning that purple character that’s posing next to Sonic. Well, we can reveal that her name is Blaze. Blaze the Cat. Blaze is the queen of another world, and protector of the “Sol Emeralds”. Much like the Chaos Emeralds, these Sol Emeralds are quite the dangerous tool if in the wrong hands. She’s also a bit nippy on the old legs, assumedly.

So what gives on the storyline? Well, Sonic and Blaze meet through a dimensional paradox that somehow collides Blaze’s parallel universe with Sonic’s own. Hedgehog and Cat (kind of an odd combination… but then what the hell, we’ve had a hedgehog and a fox for 13 years!) join forces to retrieve the Sol Emeralds before anyone else gets to them… presumably someone who happens to don a peculiar orange moustache…

Sonic Rush takes a nice and simple route regarding character control. At present, only Sonic and Blaze have been confirmed as playable characters. This is a somewhat refreshing move by Sonic Team; we were getting worried that every single Sonic game would have to have Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Espio, Cream and their mothers all join in on the action. Given how Sonic Team love characters so much (especially making new ones), we have to say we’re quite glad that the focus is solely on two characters (and undoubtedly, Eggman). Let Sonic be the star of the show for once. Having said that, Sonic Adventure 2’s early trailers merely played out Sonic, Knuckles and Eggman as potential playable characters, and then look what happened. Keep it simple, Yuji, we’ll love you for it.

All in all, we’re quite chuffed and, shall we say, excited about this one, despite the touch-ups required for the graphics. The touch screen will apparently be used for play, although how this will work out is yet to be seen. We do know that Naka-san specified that a part of the E3 2004 Technical Demo (remember, the one where you\’re rubbing the bottom screen to make Sonic run faster) will be incorporated into Sonic Rush, so perhaps we will be seeing this in a Special Stage of some kind. A brand new Sonic adventure, using touch screen, double-screened, lush backdrops and scenery, and only two characters? Slap us up some of that classic innovative design we’ve been missing for oh so long, Yuji and co, and you’ll have us biting.

xxOLDReviews

First Look: Grabbing us by the Gems

18th May 20052nd June 2013

Dreadknux

Well, with all the rumours being banded about well in advance of E3 2005, the announcement of Sonic Gems Collection was no real surprise, although it was a pleasing addition to the roster of upcoming Sonic titles. ‘Gems’ was first fired up for rumour when SEGA filed a patent for the name of the game, along with a logotype. Many suspected, due to hints being dropped by Yuji Naka and the similar namesake to Mega Collection, Gems would be a compilation of the hard-to-seek Sonic games. One of the bugbears of SMC was the omission of Sonic CD, which Sonic Team would seem want to address.

The demo pod for Sonic Gems Collection was discovered at Nintendo’s E3 booth, which added fuel to the rumours of Gamecube exclusivity. We have a feeling that the game is headed for the PlayStation 2, according to our sources. No word on XBOX, but assuming Mega Collection got the multi-format treatment, it would seem odd that Microsoft would be left out of the Sonic love.

So, WHAT are we getting? Well, first of all, as hinted in the first paragraph, you will be getting Sonic CD and Sonic the Fighters in the compilation, and what journo’s will be playing at the demo pod. This morning, Sonic Team launched an official Gems Collection website, and confirmed a (potentially tentative) game list, below:

Sonic CD
Sonic the Fighters
Sonic R
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (GG)
Sonic Spinball (GG)
Sonic & Tails 2 (GG)
Sonic Drift 2 (GG)
Tails Sky Patrol (GG)
Tails Adventure (GG)

Some may think that Sonic CD, Sonic the Fighters and Sonic R is enough for the compilation, regardless of the conservative choice of adding some Game Gear games. And that’s fair enough. We can clearly see why Sonic Team chose this selection of GG games too – these were the titles that were mercilessly missing from Sonic Mega Collection + on XBOX and PS2 – furthering the idea that this could be heading for consoles other than Gamecube. All the Game Gear games were present in Sonic Adventure: DX however, which makes the selection here rather dubious on Nintendo’s platform.

Despite the appeal of Sonic CD and ‘Fighters, we hope there’s room for some unlockables, akin to the original Mega Collection. Our “Sonic Collectioning” would be complete with at least Chaotix and SEGASonic the Hedgehog in the mix. As mentioned before, it would be slightly odd to have half the offering on a new Gamecube collection being something you could just get elsewhere (SA:DX). The screenshots and common elements seen in Sonic CD and Sonic R show PC versions – which means Gems must be using some kind of PC emulation to run these versions of games. Which is fine by us, as long as we don’t get Windows XP runtime errors booting up Sonic CD.

The extra offerings are what makes a retro compilation from Sonic Team so good. Sonic Jam still remains the ultimate king, with a 3D explorable world full of Sonic history, artwork and exclusive Japanese movies up the wazoo. Sonic Mega Collection managed a timid smattering of Archie cover scans, a yawnsome full scan of their tiresome “Firsts”, and some movies of little interest. Sonic Mega Collection + took things better (or worse) when the only movies they had involved Sonic Heroes in-development scenes (of which half were just the finished movies anyway). Special extras have turned out to be nothing but a crock as of late.

Let’s hope this changes somewhat – the images above, taken from the official website, shows a new section called “Sonic Museum”. According to the Japanese site, there will be many secrets including movies, character profiles and artwork. So far, so good, Sonic Team. So far, so good.

Now we’re all up to scratch on what Sonic Gems Collection is all about, it’s only a matter of time before we get more details. Hopefully, if we can get extras on the scale of Sonic Jam-style quality (even if we can’t have many of the quality Japanese adverts or movies, just having some will suffice) and squeeze SEGASonic the Hedgehog and Chaotix in there, this collection will surely live up to its name.

xxOLDReviews

Preview Log: Shadow Shaping Up

2nd April 20052nd June 2013

Dreadknux

The announcement of Shadow the Hedgehog to the world was certainly a shock to the system. For those Shadow fans it was finally a chance to see his past, what really happened, fill in those plotholes. For those who didn’t like Shadow, they took to it with disgust (and even some fans spat at it for the implementation of guns) and refuse to look at it. Those who just aren’t bothered, weren’t bothered though. So at least that’s progress.

Since the trailer, TSS voiced its opinions on the game, wondering how well the gun system would be implemented. The graphics really did look sore and dated, and really didn’t look like things had progressed from Sonic Adventure 1 on the Dreamcast at all.

Recently however, SEGA were kind enough to send us five high resolution screenshots for the game, that look, we must say, absolutely gorgeous. There is no way these graphics were produced on a PlayStation2, so there is hope for a release on other platforms too (although it has NOT been confirmed, rumour has it that Shadow will be PS2 only).

Even more news on the game that we can tell you, that Shadow fans will 50 missions to blast through. We will be seeing Shadow caught in a huge battle involving aliens, good old favourites GUN and, excellently enough, Dr. Eggman will be pitching in an appearance too. Players will be able to grab more weapons than previously imagined, with a huge list of guns apparently noted for disposal, as well as objects and vehicles. Yes you read, vehicles.

We were under the impression that Sonic Team USA was developing this title. And of course, TSS was correct with its prediction – although the studio now seems to be under the rather coi name of SEGA Studio USA, most likely a result of the SEGA merge-in over in Japan, there. Takashi Iizuka, Game Director of the studio, will be heading the project up; his noted work includes Sonic Adventure 2 itself and Sonic Adventure DX. Here’s what he had to say on the Sonic spinoff:

“Since we first introduced him in Sonic Adventure 2, we have wanted to feature Shadow in his own game… we maintained Shadow as a mysterious character and now fans can control his destiny by engaging in a unique gameplay experience that offers a multitude of possibilities!”

Hoo-hah, here comes the bomb. Those waiting to hear about how Shadow ‘survived’ and what the real deal is with the plotholes may come away disappointed, as it appears that Shadow the Hedgehog will feature multiple endings! Although an excellent gameplay mechanic, this can only come as very confusing to Shadow fans and anti-fans alike. Surely fans won’t be thrown into the frustrating situation as to be confronted with five different explanations for the events that passed since Sonic Adventure 2? But maybe it’s a feature SEGA Studio USA may produce tactfully. We can only hope.

So, is Shadow a robot? Is he suffering from anmesia? Lord knows the real reason now, it appears SEGA don’t really want to say anything official on it, but what matters is that YOU control the ending, via many different routes at many different points in the game. We’re assuming how you play the game – how much you use your guns over your agility, for example – will help decide in how “good or evil” Shadow really is.

To top this all off, we have a treat for you. A brand new Shadow the Hedgehog trailer, woo. You can download it for free in the Movies section, but it appears a little strange.

Alongside showing different camera angles of exactly the same gameplay, we noted that the graphics are nothing like what we’ve seen in the high resolution shots, displayed above. We’re hoping that the high-res aren’t just PC engine test snapshots – it’s looking very much that possibility, which is a shame because the graphics now look drab again. And we get the impression that the guns, Chaos Control charge-up moves and other specials that Shadow may have at his repertoire could get boring very quickly – they seem to “do a Sonic Heroes”, in which using such moves slows down gameplay. If you hated Sonic Heroes because the team system and moves were “stop-start”, you won’t be impressed by Shadow’s new trailer, unfortunately.

If you like DragonBall Z though, you’re in for a treat with the hugh explosions that look like they take ten seconds to charge up. Kudos for SEGA for the sword for Shadow though – despite what we’ve said about the guns, we rather like the big fat meaty sword in the middle of the trailer. Other highlights of the new trailer include a big fat mutant boss that seems to spit fireballs (looking like it escaped from Doom or something) and a few rather cool homages – Shadow does his own take of Sonic Adventure’s “Sky Chase” Bonus Stage by chasing what seems to be an Egg Carrier look-a-like, on top of some kind of dragon thing. Hey, when you don’t have a fox with a plane to do it…

Overall, we’re getting slightly interested in this one. It looks rather appealing to some degree. You can never really go nuts for a game that’s in essence, a spinoff. Because spinoffs are always to be taken with a pinch of salt. Sometime they turn out great (Sonic Battle) other times they turn out a chunk of turd (Sonic Labyrinth). Shadow has enough going for it, but our main concern is the treatment of the gameplay – a return to “stop-start” gameplay from Sonic Heroes plus some charge-up moves that seem to take a rather pointless length of time look like potential turn-offs. We’ll keep you posted.

xxOLDReviews

Preview Log: Feel the Magic!

8th October 20042nd June 2013

Dreadknux

A love-dating sim? It doesn’t seem to be Sonic Team’s style now, does it? And you’d be right – Feel The Magic is being developed, like Space Channel 5, Rez and Astro Boy before it, by the artist formerly known as United Game Artists. UGA have always had a flair for innovative artistic display, and Feel The Magic looks set to break the boundaries of at least the Sonic Team label.

The graphics are shaping up to be superbly unique, suiting the cult-like following and niche audiences UGA have recieved from their past projects. The graphics use both the 2D and 3D capabilities of the Nintendo DS console: at times the silhouetted characters turn out to be actual polygonal figures as well, and the design of the entire game produces an air of cool not seen since the ‘status quo’ already established with the Apple iPod adverts. And how much more niche could you get for the Western market too – Dating titles are very much a gaming delicacy best served in its native Japanese homeland, but this brave move to retail Feel The Magic to even America is as bold as the colourful graphics themselves.

Not that any of us should be complaining; it saves us all the trouble of importing it, doesn’t it? And far from being one of the generic and confusing love quests littering Japan, Feel The Magic actually keeps things as entertaining and as simple as possible. You play as yourself (albeit not ‘with’ said person, else that kind of denounces the point of the game), a guy who desperately falls in love with the hottest gal in town. But she’s not putting out so easily. She wants you to show how much you will dedicate yourself to her. She wants to be impressed. She wants a guy to truly love her, and treat her like a true gent (you being the gent, not her).

At this juncture, usually you would expect a bunch of annoying, tedious and rampantly agitating adventure quests and modes, chatting up her friends to maybe see what she likes best and all that tosh. Feel The Magic really does have some tricks up it’s proverbial sleeve, choosing to stick to short, amusing and downright wacky mini-games. Think more along the lines of Wario Ware on Game Boy Advance, but with an actual love interest theme. And the games revealed so far sound very innovative and promising:

In one mini-game, a random dude manages to eat all sorts of sealife animals. On the bottom screen of the Nintendo DS, using the touch screen you must push the animals out of the person’s stomach and up his throat so that he can then regurgitate them out of his fat gob (shown on the top screen of your NDS) with cheeky grin and all. Another allows you to clean the apple of your eye, as she falls face first into a pile of crud, while in a similar touchy game you must pick scorpions off of your potential Valentine, whilst being careful to not actually rub her up yourself (she’ll get a little annoyed you’re not bothering to pick the scorpions off her back if your hands start a-wandering…). One really imaginitive aspect that struck me as fantastic was the way even the Nintendo DS microphone was being used: one mini-game has you trying to blow out candles, and you do this by blowing into your DS Mic. The DS can detect how hard you are blowing (easy) and will show on the touch screen accordingly. Thus, if you blow too hard (oi) you could end up winding yourself.

The touch screen and microphone are apparently the only functions of the Nintendo DS being used for this game, to keep things relatively simple throughout, and with 30 mini-games like the ones mentioned above, including tapping bulls to avoid a stampede and digging for your love’s lost possessions on the beach, you can tell United Game Artists will help turn Sonic Team back into the cult original developer it once was during it’s Burning Rangers hey-days. This is going to be an incredibly quirky game that uses the DS’ functions and makes perfect display of the things that make the new handheld unique. It will be released as a launch title in Japan and in America too, and that shouldn’t leave much doubt for a launch title proposal for Europe too, pray the powers above.