Sonic Strife - Now With Open Sourcery

[Strife]

A few years back, I was working on a fangame called Sonic Strife that focused more on exploration and fighting badniks than pure speed. It's hard to believe that I started working on it when I was only a junior in high school. xD

Anyway, it's been collecting dust on my computer for three years now, and aside from a few screenshots I posted here back in day, nobody else has really gotten a chance to enjoy it. I've stopped working on it, and I don't think i'll have time to go back and finish it with all of the stuff going on in my life right now... but the least I can do is dig it back up and share it. At least then, all of the effort I put into it won't be a complete waste.

Sonic Strife follows the latest adventures of Sonic and Tails, both of which are playable characters with their own unique attacks. Once you've picked a character, you should know the drill by now: jump, dash, and smash your way through a variety of unique worlds in order to stop Dr. Roboteggmanik's latest Chaos Emerald heist. Despite its incompletedness, a large portion of the game is still playable, and I have to say that i'm quite happy the way it turned out.

Here are some screenshots of the game:

Here is the link to the playable EXE:

http://jadephoenix.org/jpgame/SonicStrife.zip

There is a readme file included that explains all of the controls and features. The same information is also displayed when you first launch the game.

Here is an open-source MFA file, for those of you who are interested in seeing how the game was built:

http://www.mediafire.com/?ueaq8qu8qefbfjn

Feel free to dissect it to your liking. Hopefully you find some use out of it for your own Sonic fangame.

There are four noticeable issues with the game, which I shall list below:

- Zone 5 Act 2 is incomplete. There is a dead end in the middle of the level, and at that point, i'm afraid you'll have to restart the game. The only way to get to Zone 6 is through the portals in the main menu.

- Likewise, Zone 6 Act 2 is also incomplete. There is just a bottomless chasm after the second checkpoint. ^^;

- When all of your lives have been lost, the Game Over music will play, but the level will appear to restart. At this point, the music will play again, and then you'll return to the main menu like you should.

- In Zone 3, sometimes when you smash two large blocks at once, the screen will get flooded with particles and cause major slowdown. This is a known bug with the way MMF create new objects. To avoid it, try to aim your attacks so that only one block at a time is smashed. Since they're so big, it shouldn't be too hard.

That being said, enjoy playing around in all of the levels!

[Rael0505]

Holy crap, I remember you. And this game. It's hard to forget a game with a unique graphical style like this. I remember being very interested in it for this reason. It's good to see it again.

I downloaded it, and I'll be typing as I play:

-Love the menu screen when you start the game. I love how the background scrolls with a parallax effect as you move through the menu screen.

-As I stated before, the I love the graphics. The backgrounds have a unique style, different from both genesis and advance style graphics, yet they still look good. Normally when people try for a new graphic style, it doesn't work out, but it's great in your game. How much of your backgrounds are custom? I can recognize enemy sprites and such to be from genesis or advance games, but the backgrounds seem completely original. That's a huge plus for me.

-I'm digging the slow gameplay. The engine is solid, and the moves are simple. Props to you for creating your own engine, rather than using an example as your base. I like that Sonic will jump higher if you hold the jump button down longer. If I were to criticize something, I don't like the spin dash. It doesn't make Sonic move any faster than he would if he just walked, and that kind of makes it useless here. Even revving it multiple times doesn't seem to do anything. Also, I really like the wide variety of enemies you made for each level. I thought it was interesting how the bumper enemy can't hurt you, but is just there to be annoying. Also how it turns into a regular star bumper if you touch it enough times.

-I like the elements idea. It's cool how I have to play the game differently based on which element I have equipped. Overall, I find Sonic Storm to be the most convenient. I have to say that I find the hammer one to be mostly useless... except when I need to open an area blocked by a door that can only be opened with it. I actually found the forest level kind of frustrating with the part where you needed to go back and forth grabbing different elements to open different doors. It's an innovative idea overall, though.

-Some of the boss battles are really unique. I especially loved the carnival level's boss, with the spinning wheel of fortune kind of thing. The totem pole in the forest level was interesting, too. I tried it with a few different elements, and had to use different strategies with each one.

Anyway, this is just a quick run through your game. I really enjoyed it, and I'll have to get back to it later. Why don't you make a quick booth (website) and submit it for this year's SAGE? You can find a sticky thread in the General Discussion Forum where you can email your entry. I'd love to see it this year. It's a shame that it will remain unfinished, especially since it was so far in its development... but thanks for coming back to share it with us. Hope you stick around!

[LarkSS]

I can say right off hand that you should have probably lowered saturation or something to the graphics in the background to avoid the clash with the foreground you have going on.

I'll admit that the graphic style is interesting though, hahah. I'll be editing my post later with more when I try it out.

[Strife]

Thanks, Rael! Glad you like it!

The backgrounds are 100% custom. A large majority of the foreground graphics and scenery are also custom, though I did borrow some scenery pieces from other Sonic games and stripped down the shading to fit with the rest of the level.

Sonic's Spin Dash is indeed pretty slow. I think the main reason for that is that he doesn't uncurl until he comes to a complete stop. In any case, if I were to go back and edit the game, making it faster should be a simple matter of increasing a speed variable.

Glad you like the element system! As a matter of fact, I drew inspiration for it from the Kirby's Dreamland series in which you could get different abilities by swallowing enemies of different types.

I really like how the bosses turned out too. ^^ I had originally intended for the carnival boss fight to be in Act 1, but I couldn't think of anything for Act 2, so I moved it there instead. Zones should always end with boss fights. xD

As far as SAGE goes, I could take a shot at it. I've actually been thinking about making a portfolio site recently anyway where I could put all of my past and current projects.

Thanks again! =D There are definitely some really nice games here, so i'll still pop in every now and then to see what's up.

[VectorSatyr]

Pros:

• Unique art style with lots of personality
  
• Challenging level design
  
• Special Power-Ups and Abilities
  
• Addicting special stages
  

Cons:

• No 360° movement designs (=/)
  
• I hate those Kani Punch...
  
• Double-jump based Spin Jump takes time to get used to
  
• I hate those Kani Punch...
  
• Hedgehog Hammer truly is useless.
  
• God, I hate those freak'n Kani Punch
  

Glitches:

• If you tap down and A one after another quickly, you'll hop as you Spin Dash. Unsure if this is intentional or not...
  

Overall:

A real treat to play, but a shame it wasn't finished. More fangames should be like this one - straying just far enough from the formula to be unique, but not alienate fans of the series.

[FanGameRevolver]

When I tried to run this it told me I was missing a DLL... CNSC or somthing like that...then It exited before I was able to do anything. Does anyone else have this problem?

[EDIT] found the DLL but you really should have included it with the game. heres the DLL cncs232.dll is free for you to download! But...Its a very well made game! <--enjoying game!

[Daniel]

This is a pretty fun and cute game!

Good work! ^^

[Spike]

[EDIT] found the DLL but you really should have included it with the game. heres the DLL cncs232.dll is free for you to download! But...Its a very well made game! <--enjoying game!

Where is it, now...?

[Daniel]

Where is it, now...?

http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/pop.php?cncs232

=D

[Rael0505]

Haha, a quick google search does wonders Really though, it's important to include important dll files and such with the game itself so everyone can run it. This is only the case with TGF or MMF1 games, anyway. MMF2 games don't require any dll files to run.

Oh also, last night when I played this I found a fun glitch. I died against the forest boss as Sonic, and when I restarted at the checkpoint, I was suddenly Tails. No idea why, it hadn't happened yet up until that point.

Anyway, I still say this was a really fun game... why don't you pick it back up, Strife? It's so close to completion it doesn't look like it would take too much more work to complete Haha, it's up to you, of course. Regardless, I hope you consider participating in SAGE this year!

[Strife]

Thanks again, folks!

To answer your question, Aero, that "glitch" was actually intentional. If you press A while in the spin dash at any point, you can jump. By Kani Punch, do you mean Sonic and Tails' melee attacks?

Ah, rats, I forgot about the CNCS232 thing. ^^; But good thing you had no problems finding a copy of it.

If I were to continue working on this, I would probably scrap my original plans for the next zone and make a grand total of 7 Zones... which means that I would need to finish Act 2 of Zones 5 and 6, build the 7th Zone along with the final boss, build 4 more Chaos Emerald stages, and tidy up some of the bugs and such. It wouldn't be too bad if I didn't already have two other projects going along with 19 credit hours of school. xD; But we'll see. Nothing is ever certain.

[Aikocho]

This is really good. I like all you did with it though. the custom stages, the bosses, even the special stage. It's all done really well. But, It can always be so much better. I know this one will.

I suggest you work on the game mechanics a little more though. It's kinda broken when it comes to button mashing attacks, and it wouldn't hurt to add a little more differences between Sonic and Tails' game play. And sofar, I only hit this glitch once. After I lost the special stage with Sonic, I came back, and got sent right back to the special stage.

[Rael0505]

Oh snap, there's a special stage too? I'll have to check that out.

[Sslaxx]

If you don't plan on continuing the game yourself, you could always release the source?

[Asuma]

Something this awesome shouldn't be release open-source. I don't know how long you've been here, but there are certain reasons why good projects such as these should not be released open-source. That’s up entirely up to him.

[DimensionWarped]

If you don't plan on continuing the game yourself, you could always release the source?

Thats a major no no here. Go read the rules and I might overlook the transgression. And yes, I'll know if you've read them or not.

Technically, it's a vague case since you are suggesting making it a public resource. However, any time someone wants to do that, they'll probably think of it themselves.

[Strife]

If I were to release the source, I would only share it with one person who is a trusted and dedicated game developer and whom I am confident will help me complete the game to its rightful end. The thought did occur to be in the past, but I don't think this is a lost cause for me just yet. xD

And thanks for mentioning that bug, MCK. I've made a note of it.

[LarkSS]

Sorry, took longer than I thought to get around to it. =/

It was pretty neat. Took me some time to get into it but most likely because it's different than something I'd expect to play. Not sure if I can say much about the game though since I gave up on the third boss.

A bug I noticed was if you're running down a slope and try to jump, you'll jump in a ball causing you to only go up a little and give you no chance to double jump.

My prior comment about the clash between the background and the foreground still remains btw. Especially when I entered the third zone, my eyes began to ache as I tried to differentiate between the graphics since they were all colored with the same saturation.

The game itself was good though. The animation of the cannon caught my eye especially, hahah.

[VectorSatyr]

@Strife: Kani Punch are the crab enemies from Metropolis Zone. >_<

[Strife]

Lark - I can kinda see what you mean about the background of Zone 3 blending into the foreground. xD In any case, it shouldn't be too hard to smooth that out.

Aero - Ah, I see now! I got confused because the instruction manual of Sonic 2 refers to them as Shellcrackers. Yes, they're tough little buggers, especially if you're on their left side. Their claws are much easier to dodge if you can jump over them and attack from the right.

[Strife]

Hyper Emerson inspired me to revive this game by releasing the source code. I mean, I could care less about it now, so I figure that the best thing to do would be to make the game open sourced. I'm sure there would be more than a few people around here who would find some use out of the graphics and/or coding for their own fangames.

Anyway, here's the link to the MFA file. If you need a CCA file for MMF 1.5, lemme know and I can put one of those up too.

http://www.mediafire.com/?ueaq8qu8qefbfjn

For those of you who actually download it, you may notice a couple of extra treats that weren't in the official game's release:

- There was a special "Star" element that was dummied out of the final game. I had originally intended to make this element available when all 7 chaos emeralds were obtained, but the game never got that far into development. Sonic's star element gives him the Homing Attack, while Tails' star element gives him the Prower Mech, a giant robot that can rapid-fire energy bolts, hover, and detect hidden items. I felt really bad that I couldn't include the Prower Mech in the "final" version of the game, because it's really quite awesome. xD

- There is an alternate version of the Special Stage in the MFA that was also dummied out of the game. Rather than a Tornado sequence, it took place in a purple, crystallized temple, and the goal was to collect a certain number of rings and open the door to the Chaos Emerald before time expired.

- The last frame of the application has some unused enemy graphics.

Aaaand I think that's it. As far as credit goes, a little mention of me would be nice if you use anything from the game in your personal projects, but it's not mandatory. Go nuts.

[sonic101]

Really sad to see you won't be finishing this project. so close. Bu that's the reality around here ain't it.

[Strife]

Such is the way of many a fangame it would seem. xD It's probably the main reason why I don't make fangames much anymore and focus on original works instead.