August 16, 2019 Sonic World Website Uncategorized Ace, one of our dearest friends and member of the Sonic World crew is quickly heading towards becoming homeless. His mother has suffered a lot at the hands of terrible doctors and nurses and their home is falling apart. Sonic Journeys 2. It is rumored that the fangame Sonic Journeys 2 will have a holiday themed zone only accessible on Christmas. Sonic Adventure 3: Rebirth. In January and December, players can access Ice Cap from Sonic 3, Holoska from Sonic Unleashed, and Diamond Dust from Sonic 3D Blast: Flickies' Island as levels in Single Player mode.

SonicRebirth is another Sonic fan game, showcased at this year's SAGE. It's a remake ofthe original Sonic the Hedgehog for the Mega Drive. The full versionwas just released today, which is why I didn't post my thoughts on itearlier.

Since I'd first seen the Sonic Rebirth SAGE booth a few days ago, I'dbeen really looking forward to it. The screenshots looked impressive,and the fact that there were remakes of the 8-bit zones mixed in wasintriguing, as well.

Now that I've downloaded and played through the story mode, I have, asthey say, some good news and some bad news. Let's start with the goodnews.

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The most exciting prospect about Sonic Rebirth was that it was acomplete game, not yet another demo. Thus playing it will give you afull gaming experience, and not just a few moments of excitement over atech demo. Beyond simply having the full complement of zones, it alsohas extras - such as cinemas, emblems to collect, and unlockableartwork.

TheSprites

The sprite set for Sonic is nearly perfect. It's easily the best setI've ever seen used in a fan game. If the sprite set is borrowed fromsomewhere, and not original to Sonic Rebirth, then I apologise forgiving it the credit. But I haven't seem them elsewhere.

I am, though, confused as to why there is a choice in the options menuto play with the original Mega Drive sprite set. I believe playersshould be given freedom of choice in many areas, such as control anddifficulty, but allowing them to change the art style of the characterseems a little much. It also makes the experience feel less authentic,because I can't imagine a professional Sonic game giving you such achoice.

Sadly, that's all the good news there is. Now on to the bad news.

ThePhysics

While the game doesn't have many overt flaws in the physics engine,there is an overall sluggishness to Sonic that makes it hard to getused to for anyone who is well-aquainted with the Mega Drive titles.

This in itself is an easy enough thing to ignore - with practice, youget more used to it. The same has to be said for Sonic Advance, orSonic Rush. But where the physics really fail isn't Sonic's movement,but everything else. The timing for all of the Badniks and theirprojectiles is so off that it makes them look like they are onfast-forward. The platforms in Scrap Brain are timed in an almostperverse manner that it makes it nearly impossible to play comfortably.The bosses pose much less of a challenge than in the original. And thesee-saws in Starlight Zone are so badly done that sometimes the littlespiked balls fall right through them, rendering them useless!

TheMusic

The music (both MIDI and OGG) is so badly remixed that it would havebeen better to just leave it alone. The 1-up and Zone Clear jingles arepainful, and the bass instruments in particular are atrocious.

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Fortunately the music is stored separately, so we can hope forimprovements in the future.

TheGraphics

Sadly, the graphics are inconsistent. Instead of being as good as thesprites throughout the whole game, some parts are gorgeous (such as theBridge backdrop), and others are hideous (Scrap Brain in general).

Furthermore, instead of improving on the original, in some places ittakes a step backward. The flowers in Green Hill don't spin, Marble'sbackdrop is completely butchered, and the lights in Starlight don'tglow. Speaking of Starlight, that enormous moon in the sky destroys theentire feeling of the zone, and the stars move faster than it does, makingthem seem to go in front! Inconceivable.

TheStory

There really is no story, though there are about 4 cinema scenes.Instead of trying to add to the story of the game, by perhapsexplaining Robotnik's motives and why Sonic travels to these locationsin particular, they (perhaps wisely, perhaps not) did little more thanillustrate what is implied in the original. There is nothing to begained by watching them, but they are mercifully short, and skippable.

The cinemas aren't drawn badly in their own right, but they are acompletely different style than the rest of the game. It is bizarre tosee a green-eyed, modern Sonic on the top of the screen, but theportrait by his text box is black-eyed, classic Sonic. Also, the EmblemScreen that is shown when you complete a zone is hideous, and lookstransplanted from a much less polished game. There needs to be aconsistency of style. I know that several artists worked on the game,but they needed to set some standards, as Sega does when using multipleartists. It's called a style sheet, people!

TheGameplay

This is the aspect that I'm most disappointed by. I can allow forgraphics and music not being up to par. I can't really expect them tobe on a professional level to begin with. But there is little excusefor such sorry gameplay.

The zone layouts are minimally changed, making the occasional slightlydifferent area jarring. Also, most of the changes seem to be made toavoid programming a difficult part of the original.

There is nothing added - there are no new puzzles, platform types,loops, or tricks that aren't present in the original. Sonic has no newmoves to speak of. In fact, lots of things are subtracted. Gone aremany enemy types, and hazards. No more Flame Throwers in Scrap Brain?No more Caterkiller, or Newtron? What's the point in remaking Sonic theHedgehog if, instead of improving it, you cut out half the gameplaythat made it fun in the first place, and with nothing to make up forit?

TheBottom Line

Overall, there is nothing to be gained by playing Sonic Rebirth insteadof the original Sonic. I can't see anybody preferring to spend theirtime playing a gimped version of a good game simply because sometexture is added to the blocks and grass.

One thing that could have helped save it is the inclusion of the 8-bitlevels, expanding the main game into a longer narrative. Instead, theyare unlockables that can only be accessed after you collect enoughemblems. Well, I'm sorry, but most people probably won't want to sufferthrough the zones enough times to unlock them. So, probably the bestpart of the whole thing is also the part you don't get to access rightaway.

I hope that most of these issues are due to the fact that the game mighthave been rushed in order to have it ready to show at this SAGE. Ifthat's the case, we can look forward to patches and improvements thataddress some of the issues. Ultimately, though, even with all theoutright bugs fixed, there doesn't seem to be much point in a remakethat subtracts instead of adds.

Maybe someday the sprite set will be reused in a game with originalzones that's a little more exciting.