Sonic Nexus [BETA DEMO]

[Mark the Echidna]

If that helps, before I got stuck into the endless loop of death, Sonic was spinning on the pipes... Then he suddenly kept going straight after a turn... Passed trough the entire stage spinning in a straight path... And left the playfield trough the right side. (Then I pressed F6)

[Serephim]

If that helps, before I got stuck into the endless loop of death, Sonic was spinning on the pipes... Then he suddenly kept going straight after a turn... Passed trough the entire stage spinning in a straight path... And left the playfield trough the right side. (Then I pressed F6)

That same thing happened to me and i quit the game (Only because im used to ending my game while testing it.)

I dont know where all this crappy bitching is coming from about the graphics. This is the best looking fangame peroid, i think the only thing that comes close to this was Time Attacked.

Please people, lets not bitch just because its an anticipated game.

[DimensionWarped]

Yo Seraph, try the boss fight thing I just uploaded.

And Mark, that explains it perfectly. I hadn't anticipated that possibility at all.

[ssbfalcon]

I for one enjoyed the demo. It felt like labyrinth zone but with a more Sonic CD feel.. More like a cross between Labyrinth and Tidal Tempest...

It was different, and being a water level, you were courageous to show that off as the featured level in the demo. Since most dislike water levels...

Excellent water parallax, effects, and the like... It's the Waverace 64 of fangaming water... I'd like to see the running on water bit, but it's not necessary if it's not in your design...

The boss sequence was fun. Wasn't too hard, wasn't too easy either. I liked how you could see the "storm juice" left in the boss's first part, and the second part while far fetched was pretty cool. It was unexpected so I guess it served the purpose you wanted... Multi Part bosses are always great...

Water levels were never my favorite, besides Hydrocity, which was probably due to the fact I usually take the above water routes... And Tidal Tempest... I never really Labyrinth Zone for some reason...

This one was a mixed feeling for me. I loved many aspects of it, but I can guarantee that this won't be my favorite level in the game...

Visuals were great. I like the teleportation transition effect, as well as the lightning flash effect. Subtly done well... And they really added to the game experience...

I know it's beta, but stage 2 was more of WTF than anything else and was frustrating at times, but I plowed through trying to get to the boss sequence, while not mind blowing, was satisfying... Then again, it's obviously not a major boss level...

I'm going to give this Demo a AAA/AAAA. But I feel the game will be an AAAA once complete...

*edit* Need a better, more precise grading system... I give the demo an A- in it's current state... Even with the few issues, the game was still fun to play...

[Serephim]

Yeah. 4/5.

Only reason it isnt 5/5 is because of the 2 auto-rape bugs i encountered during the game, but had i not seen those it would be 5/5 anyway.

So i guess you can say 4.5/5. (like when IGN rates a game 9.5 instead of the 10 it deserves just because they dont want to. Except without the dickheaded IGN'ness.)

Edit:

mark that bug was hillarious

[TRD]

Whoever complains about the boss is so full of shit.

That boss was awesome, who gives a fuck if it's an edit?

Nice Work, DW. That second part boss blew my ass away. XD

I'm gonna fight it again.

[Spike]

Whoever complains about the boss is so full of shit.

That boss was awesome, who gives a fuck if it's an edit?

Nice Work, DW.

God forbid someone actually drops it.

Sorry I gave my honest opinion. Fuck. I'll remember to change my opinions to better match what everyone around me thinks next time.

[SkyLights]

I'm far more interested in hearing what people thought about my boss sequence aside from the fact that "zomg" I used an edited sprite.

Here's what I think. Both bosses are pretty solid. I had no collision issues with them at all, and were fun. Especially the rendition of the Lava Reef enemy as a boss, I thought that was pretty cool.

The thing I was annoyed about though was the way the yellow pod thing dropped down. Maybe I'm stupid or something, but the first thing I did when I saw that flashing thing appear was get Sonic to try to do something with it. All too late I realized that the pod was coming down and it would crush me if I stood underneath.

[DimensionWarped]

@Spike: Learn to take your own advice.

The thing I was annoyed about though was the way the yellow pod thing dropped down. Maybe I'm stupid or something, but the first thing I did when I saw that flashing thing appear was get Sonic to try to do something with it. All too late I realized that the pod was coming down and it would crush me if I stood underneath.

XD. I knew that would get someone.

[Spike]

It got me too. I just assumed the target meant "Go here". Then I remembered the final boss of Sonic 2.

[BlazeHedgehog]

You probably don't want bug reports, but this one is sort of obscure:

In Act 1 I got an air bubble, got hit while in mid-air, fell on to the bar. Sonic froze in his "I was hit" animation but followed the bar like he was holding on to it. I couldn't get loose, so it took me up and then lowered me back down in to the enemy where I died.

Now Sonic is stuck in his dead animation but the level won't restart because it still thinks he's holding on to the bar.

[Spike]

Oh, that reminds me of another bug I got. Sonic was stuck in his standing animation on the poles in the water, until I missed the path and hit the spikes, but he just bounced left-to-right against the spikes until I died.

[DimensionWarped]

You probably don't want bug reports, but this one is sort of obscure:

In Act 1 I got an air bubble, got hit while in mid-air, fell on to the bar. Sonic froze in his "I was hit" animation but followed the bar like he was holding on to it. I couldn't get loose, so it took me up and then lowered me back down in to the enemy where I died.

Now Sonic is stuck in his dead animation but the level won't restart because it still thinks he's holding on to the bar.

That water current spike bug is one I haven't seen though.

I encounter that one rarely and for reasons that I'm not too certain of...

Actually, if you let it shake you like a dead baby for a long enough time, you'll usually eventually go off the bottom of the screen and the level will restart.

[BlazeHedgehog]

I encounter that one rarely and for reasons that I'm not too certain of...

Actually, if you let it shake you like a dead baby for a long enough time, you'll usually eventually go off the bottom of the screen and the level will restart.

Unless the bar happens to be positioned right over a stream of air bubbles, like it was for me.

So far I really like the demo, though some of the enemy placement seems unfair. There's a spot underwater in the first act where you spring up and because you're underwater, you can't move out of the way fast enough to avoid an enemy that zooms right through you.

[Slingerland]

OK, I went to the store to calm down and come back. I was already angry going into this beta's release, because MMF2 was being very uncooperative with me. Plus, I'm also trying to actively direct SAGE, so that's not helping either.

I appreciate finding even more bugs than I have noticed. I have played through this thing about a billion times, listing everything that needs a good fixing prior to throwing this out here, but things like what Mark just found (HILARIOUS by the way) is really beneficial to this project. I want to apologize for and lashing out/doling of attitude was directed at you, for example SkyLights. Sky, you are correct in every way. Plus, I don't want to piss off the spriter of Dusky Deposit. Others, the same.

Check it. I probably would've had something more for you, but with the real life and running the show, that I hope you're all enjoying, the 3 acts did not come to it's full fruition. Act 1 and Act 3 was the real draw for most of it, as act 2 is about 5 minutes long. XD

SSBFalcon also addresses another point: the water level. Yeah, it was my choice to reveal this level. Why? Because EVERYBODY reveals their tropical island level at SAGE with magical holding right action. I felt that using a curved slope-less, loop-less level would put more emphasis on what Sonic fangames can do. Sure, I can pump out levels like Cosmic Chaos from SAGE 2006 like no other, but I wanted to take a different route. Plus, if all the levels had the same design setup, then each level becomes less unique, and therefore, less memorable.

Tonight, I'm going to get some sleep for the first time in 7 days. When I wake -up, I plan on optimizing the demo, so that the frame rate is silky smooth for everybody. Even Blaze.

Remember, the second act needs parallax and has a few bug fixes, so that's yours to dick around in.

I'm sorry if I disappointed anybody, but I had to post something. I hate to break promises and people were nagging me. Also, I wanted to SHOW you what kind of progress was being made.

Sonic Nexus has been nominated for a Sonic Site Award for fangame of the year. The voting starts next week, so I want to get a completed Pristine Palisade by then. I shall have everybody here at SFGHQ beta test it and we'll ship it off to the SSAs. Then, we vote and have a sexy party with blackjack....aaaaand hookers.

Keep a-postin' those bug reports. I won't get so riled up now.

~Slingerland

EDITS:

In Act 1 I got an air bubble, got hit while in mid-air, fell on to the bar. Sonic froze in his "I was hit" animation but followed the bar like he was holding on to it. I couldn't get loose, so it took me up and then lowered me back down in to the enemy where I died.

Whoa! You can play this demo? XD

I know what bug you are referring to. I took it out post-EXEing the demo.

[Spike]

No problem, man. I've also had a pretty bad day (Fighting with nearly everyone in my family at once, stressing about not finding a job in a month and a half, getting ready for school) so disregard most of what I said. Sorry.

[BlazeHedgehog]

EDITS:

Whoa! You can play this demo? XD

I know what bug you are referring to. I took it out post-EXEing the demo.

I'm actually a little surprised it plays as smooth as it does. Whenever I've tried doing a water ripple effect like that it always hits the framerate really hard. Not so, here.

For the most part it seems to be smooth enough. Though there was a jump I couldn't seem to make underwater, so I dunno if that's because my computer was slowing down and I didn't realize it or if it's just a place I wasn't supposed to go.

[DimensionWarped]

Probably the later. Low frame rates shouldn't be capable of causing odd behaviors.

[Asuma]

I cannot get past the first act.

[Slingerland]

I cannot get past the first act.

Don't know what to tell you then. A lot of us can.

I think now is a good time to mention that this is zone 6, so the difficulty gets up there in some areas.

[BlazeHedgehog]

Everybody seems to have a had a bug up their ass recently. Every forum I've gone to has been arguing about something. Gives me a headache.

[TRD]

Let's just all kiss and make up.

Please disregard that "kiss" part, god.

[tentril]

I cannot get past the first act.

Do you know about the teleporters? They stick out of the ground a little. Press up and away you go.

The only bug I remember is when I died and then got air bubbles after.

[Kain]

I encountered several severe, though not game-ending, bugs involving doing any two of the following three things simultaneously: (Getting hit), (Riding the grabbable moving platforms), and (Getting a bubble). Most are similar to Blaze's. The one I think you might not know about is I got hit by a Zoom-Fish maybe the exact same frame I hit a bubble and was stuck in one place in the hit position til I got another bubble.

Also, there's one checkpoint where, when I died, it spawned me below the tile and so I kept dying instantly, but I know you're checkpoint system is thrown together.

Now a few more nitpicky things (and I understand that this is an incomplete demo and were probably going to get to many of these things in time):

-The first that's been mentioned many times before is the cranks and teleporters have no indication that you press up. Now this is a later level and by then, in the game, the precedence to do so will probably have been set, but if not, an Up arrow when you're touching them would be nice.

-The only thing I have against the starfish is how close he closes the gap when Sonic's far away. I know this is to keep Sonic from running away easy, but it seems like it gets a tad too close before slowing down, so it's pretty vicious. Or maybe it has something to do with your slowness in water. I just found them annoying as hell, but I guess that's fine.

-Bubbles appear far to randomly. Sometimes 4 come out in quick succession while other times it takes nearly the entire you're drowning (the 5 seconds, that is).

Anyway, the level can get rather annoying, but it's one of the later levels and a water level to boot, so that's to be expected. The presentation and implementation (apart from those mentioned glitches) is amazing. As is the level design, music, and everything else.

I have tons and tons of good things to say in my review just in case you were thinking I'm being only critical of the game.

[DimensionWarped]

I've found a pretty worthwhile fix regarding the bubble oriented bugs. Expect that in the next build. Also, I'll tweak the starfish seeing as everyone complains about it.

As for the need to touch up, I'll add a GUI indicator above Sonic's head for that. Not the most Sonicy thing in the world (lol, Carnival Night), but it works.