Sonic Zoom!

Discussion in 'Showroom Archive' started by LooneyDude, May 2, 2014.

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  1. Selbi

    Selbi The Euphonic Mess Member

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    Also, a month doesn't count as a bump. Unless bumps are now already frowned upon when the last post was more than five seconds ago. :V
     
  2. EMK-20218

    EMK-20218 The Fuss Maker Exiled

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    This is a very nice hack with a unique cartoon-ish graphical style. I like most of the level designs but not them all. GHZ per example looks incredibly cool and enjoyable. Also the level's palette fits it very well. My only complaint is against the music choices. Some of them are too loud and some of them just don't fit to levels (such as SLZ and MZ). But the music is a very small detail in comparison to the effort which was applied to the hack's art and level layout design. Keep up the great work you're doing! :D
     
  3. LooneyDude

    LooneyDude Back after a long absence! Member

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    Well, time for a giant wall of text.​
    SONIC ZOOM
    FINAL RELEASE
        Here it is. After 2 years of work, Sonic Zoom has finally been completed. This is the first big project of mine to be worked on to completion. All the countless hours spent on the levels, art, code, ect. has finally paid off. It's safe to say that I won't make anything this big in scope again, but you never know. Frankly, I'm glad to have something that I can reflect back on happily. Even with the input from the countless amout of players, it never strayed too far from the original vision. So, I'm proud to present my ambicious culmination of hard work in its completed state.

        This update includes many graphical changes in different places and, most importantly, ALL of the levels. I'd like to thank the wonderful community of SSRG for making this possible, because heavens knows I couldn't do this without you. You may be glad to know that even though I've completed perhaps what may be considered my magnum opus, I'm not leaving the site. I've still got to finish Sunky the Game! Additionally, I might be open to help more people on their projects now that I'm not working on Sonic Zoom anymore. All in all, I'm not leaving this place anytime soon.


    Also, keep an eye out for a hidden easter egg in Frantic Factory Zone Act 2.​
     ​
    EDIT: Should now work in Regen.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 30, 2015
  4. Pacca

    Pacca Having an online identity crisis since 2019 Member

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    Yay! I'm so hyped right now :3 Anyways, to reviewing...

    GENERAL

    On Regen, the SSRG screen caused an error; spamming the buttons, as with most of these kinds of things, let me continue, but it was a bit jarring to start off with.

    I love how the Demos have there own theme song :D

    I didn't quite notice it at first, but the new HUD life icon looks really nice!

    Every Badnik ever is awesome. Decided to put it here instead of in each level, the artwork is perfect :3

    SPECIAL STAGES

    As awesome as ever. I didn't play these too much over my playthrough, but the ones I did play looked and felt fantastic!

    GLAZED GRASS ZONE

    It's interesting how Sonic can run through breakable walls, Knuckles style... I like it!

    The gateway to the next zone after act 3 has finally been fixed :D

    I was fully immersed in this zone; I haven't had been so immersed in a hack for the longest time...

    HECTIC HIGHWAY

    [​IMG]

    The spring in the above screen shot looks really weird; it's easy to fix though, just go to those blocks subscreen, and give all of tiles in the block priority, then the blocks will display over the spring, instead of under (alternatively, if you don't want to change the blocks in the whole level,  copy/paste the ones in question here, apply what I said above, then make a new chunk with those new blocks instead).

    [​IMG]

    Not only does this curve look really strange, it doesn't react very well; you can't spindash up from inside the glass building thing, and if you roll down, it tries to push you in the floor instead of on it, making really odd looking things happen.

    It's still very easy to die accidentally before the boss area in act 3; where did that little flow breaker go? I personally like to use spikes to slow the player down; there solid, and bring you to a stop, but are easy to jump over.

    The springs in the boss area temporarily show scrambled art, then turn back to normal in the boss area. Try removing things from the boss arena VRAM loading lists, it's likely that an unused/unnecessary part of the old SLZ boss is overwriting the spring art.

    CASINO CITY

    I lost my last life to a Buzz Bomber that hits you right at the start... Try to avoid things like this, I've learned from experience that they can be more dangerous then they seem

    I love the new design of the weird rolling badniks in this level; It's like a Droideka my favorite star wars thing ever!

    The poker chip platforms are pure genius :p

    Lovin' the pinball setup at the start of act 3; hard but not too much so.

    This zones boss is pretty scary, but not impossible. The approval, you have been given.

    CRYSTAL CAVE

    How do you make the best zone ever even better? I don't know, but you did it somehow; Congrats!

    MOLTEN MADNESS

    You can't spindash up some of the 45 degree slopes here; it needs a bit of a less steep slope connecting it. This issue completely stopped me up in a speed section in act 3 :|

    The boss here takes more then 8 hits; also the fireballs that jump from below are really dickish; I don't think it's possible to not get hurt here

    FRANTIC FACTORY

    This level starts with a blind jump; not good.

    Act 1, at least is awful; you can't see anything that would hurt you until your dead. I skipped act 1, because it's just awful.

    Act 2 started out pretty much the same...

    I ended there. I feel sorry to point out more issue in need of fixing, but as they say, a great work is never done. It's mostly complete though; just a few fixes in Hectic Highway and some extra platforms and layout fixes in Frantic Factory, and this could be quite finished.
     
  5. LooneyDude

    LooneyDude Back after a long absence! Member

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    The reason Frantic Factory is so hard is because I've been into really difficult stuff like Dark Souls and Castlevania, and I wanted to add some of that toughness to the last stages. It was a big risk, and I'm a bit down that people aren't enjoying it.
     
  6. Pacca

    Pacca Having an online identity crisis since 2019 Member

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    Sonic can be a huge gamble when difficulty comes into play, especially with offscreen things; in comparison to Mario or Castlevania, the camera is about 2-3 times more zoomed in, so the player has much less time to react, and seeing a death pit or a pile of spikes below you can be nearly impossible when flying through the air at high speeds. I'm not saying that making the level difficult is bad, just that you have to account for the camera size (I feel your problem, though, I've had to fix entire zones in my hack to take this into account :S).
     
  7. Crash

    Crash Well-Known Member Member

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    ​Dark Souls and Castlevania are difficult in that if you rush into things, you'll get fucked up. You have to take things slow, watch and learn enemy patterns, and wait for an opening. Frantic Factory is difficult in that you can't see anything and just have to keep making blind leaps of faith, dying, and trying to memorize the location of every enemy/spike/pit, game overing again and again and again until you just give up. It's a really sour note to finish off what is otherwise a pretty neat hack.

    You did a good job of the difficulty of the bosses though, you really have to learn the patterns and can't just keep taking hits and recollecting rings, and actually feels closer to the games you're trying to emulate there.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 1, 2015
  8. ElectricSparx

    ElectricSparx Active Member Member

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    Introduction

    Well, it's been a long time since I've gone on here. Guess it's only appropriate that I play the final version of this hack now.

    Glazed Grass Zone

    Still a pretty fun level, I love what you did with the end-of-act bonus emblems, making their sprites bigger the more points they award. Nice touch!

    Hectic Highway Zone

    I'm a bit disappointed that it's still basically a recolored Star Light Zone, but there was some new art that I felt was nice. I swear those Orbinauts are coded to be as annoying to hit without getting hit yourself. OH GOD DAMN IT, that was a cheap pit placement before the boss. At least put something to stop yourself from careening into that pit when you were going incredibly fast just a few seconds ago!

    Casino City Zone

    This level's pretty fun to play through. I like how good the background is, though to be honest I paid more attention to the background than what was coming at me in the level. :p Replacing Rollers with 8-Balls was a nice idea, especially considering the casino level. Kept dying at the boss because of me jumping down into the arena and causing tons of the extra platforms to fall.

    Crystal Cave Zone

    This level's pretty nice now that it's completed. Towards the end of Act 2 I heard a bunch of shield activation sound effects before the drowning music started playing. ...Okay, yeah, the shield sounds play before the drowning music happens. Is that intentional?

    Molten Madness Zone

    This zone's music is kickass. The moving pillars being made of glass also looks very nice.

    Frantic Factory Zone

    Act 1 is pure bullshit. This is not a difficult level in terms of actual difficulty, it's difficult because no rings, you can't see what's coming at you, and bottomless pits are literally everywhere. This is probably what most people would call "Dick Move Zone." Act 2 isn't any better. Thank God level select exists or I would be raging right now.

    Rainbow Ravine Zone

    ...Why is this even here? There's no hazards whatsoever. It's just like Sonic 3's Hidden Palace, but without the story-driving events; a passthrough to the next zone.

    Final (Fight?) Zone

    Why the Doomsday Zone music...? Literally everyone uses that for the final boss music in their hacks. Don't do that. Also, this is Sonic Erazor's final boss with cheap bottomless pits. I get that coming up with a hard final boss wasn't easy, but was this the best you could do? It doesn't help that the stage is practically pitch black and it's incredibly difficult to see.

    Bosses

    Bosses are still pretty fun, for the most part. I like the new boss music, it feels very fitting for a boss battle.

    Special Stages

    Oh god, did you change the rotation speed? This feels way faster than before, and with smooth rotation it's a blast!

    Conclusion

    Overall, this is a pretty good hack. Granted, as the hack ends it becomes incredibly cheap, but it could still be a good thing to play for a few minutes when you're bored.
     
  9. M.N.K.

    M.N.K. In the River of Darkness... Member

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    Had done a full playthrough of this earlier [no cheats used]. It was quite fun. The levels were pretty much the same though you changed them up a bit. That and the special stages as well were pretty fun too. Everything was all good up until I got to the last level as some have already stated. There were just way to many dick moves and this goes for both act 1 and 2. Now I can understand trying to make things a little more challenging but in this case, it was just awful with all of the blind pits with no way of knowing when the next one will be, along with some of the enemy placements as well made things a bit more difficult for a normal player like myself to maneuver. Lastly even though I was able to beat it [thank fuck for savestates], the last thing about this I didn't really enjoy that much was the final boss. the platforms were to small which caused me to fall off countless times, the crushers move too fast for me which lead to me bearly having any reaction time to move, and the electric balls impared with the small platforms made it even more difficult as there was barely any places aside from the crushers to stand on to properly dodge them. Forgive me as I know this is not what you expected to see but this is just my honest opinion. don't get me wrong, the hack itself for the most part is great. it's just that one level that just put a bit of a damper on things. but other than that, again I actually had fun playing this and hope to see what other stuff you will make later on.
     
  10. Burst

    Burst You call this a connection? Oh, give me a break. Member

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    This hack is back? Well, time for review soon. 

    I will record the final zone later, but for now, i will enjoy it.
     
  11. LooneyDude

    LooneyDude Back after a long absence! Member

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    Alright, I'mma respond to some things people wrote.

    But first...



    Razor and Zenon did a playthrough of the newest release, so those who don't want to deal with the new zones's bullshit (which I will address later in this post) can just watch them play with their rockin' skills!

    Anyway, time to respond to what people have said...

    1. "Hectic Highway looks too similar to SLZ."

    Huh, I thought I made enough changes to the art. Maybe someone could tell me what needs changing to look unique enough.

    2. "There's no stopping the player before SLZ's boss."

    WHEN WILL PEOPLE STOP SAYING THAT!?! I've changed that section approximately five times already, but nobody's satisfied! The ring box is supposed to stop the player, but I guess adding an extra platform wouldn't hurt.

    3. "Crystal Cave is great!"


    Thanks :). That seems to be a fan favorite.

    4. "Frantic Factory is terrible!"

    Yeah, I know :(. I thought people would enjoy it, but all this backlash has made me go back and redo it. So, the "last update" won't be the last update after all. Oh well, at least that means I get to write another long goodbye!

    5. "Rainbow Ravine is pointless."
     

    It's supposed to not only provide a break from the chaos in the last two zones (not unlike the water levels from DKC), but also provides players 100 rings if they feel like collecting them. Also, it provides nice atmosphere.

    So, I'm gonna work on all of that while working on a sequel to Sunky.MPEG. I've got a full plate in front of me, so I'll be busy for a while. Just stick around!
     
  12. Pokepunch

    Pokepunch That guy who posts on occasion Member

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    The ring box doesn't work because, in my case anyway, I was always rolling when reaching it so I just went straight through it to my death. 
     
  13. ElectricSparx

    ElectricSparx Active Member Member

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    1. The problem is it still uses a lot of SLZ art that's just colored light blue. Maybe if you were to make it look more highway-like, it'd look more unique.

    2. Monitors don't stop players when they're rolling, which is what most people will do considering the area before the boss is rather sloped.

    4. I like the night setting, but the level itself is just complete and utter bullshit, less bottomless pits and blind jumps, and some rings would be nice.

    5. It'd be better if it was a secret level only accessible after getting all the Chaos Emeralds like in Pacguy's hack.

    Again, the hack's still pretty fun and enjoyable, just needs a little more work and polish!
     
  14. ProjectFM

    ProjectFM Optimistic and self-dependent Member

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    The best technique for slowing the player down is launching Sonic in the air. That way, Sonic comes to a complete stop and it doesn't break the pace.
     
  15. Burst

    Burst You call this a connection? Oh, give me a break. Member

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    I hope we will get a Sonic Zoom 2 soon xA I mean, with a cartoon sonic and tails!
     
  16. Giovanni

    Giovanni It's Joe-vanni, not Geo-vanni. Member

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    I can't say how much this hack is perfect in one only word...

    Everything in the hack is perfect! Music, layout, graphics, everything! (I said everything twice because this hack is incredible)
     
  17. Niko

    Niko All's well that ends well, right? Member

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    (Typing this as I play, by pausing, then playing.)

    I really gotta admit, I enjoy this hack a lot!
    At first, I thought it was going to be something I would just think "oh, that's nice."
    But, it's a lot better than that!
    The SSRG splash looks nice, to me.

    I have to admit, the Mario 64 Bob-omb field got me laughing by surprise, but in act 2, I finally got to enjoy just how nice it is.
    Beating Act 2 in 0:50 on my first try, I feel like... Well, I dunno!
    [​IMG]

    So, why isn't there a springing animation?
    He just rolls, and it doesn't feel as smooth as the rest of the game. 

    Not to forget, in act 1 I thought "This is fun, and all sorts of inspiring things!"
    Anyway, to play act 3.
    (Phew, that special stage felt like the iPhone Sonic 1, but better.. Good job on the GFX!)
    I like your Glazed Grass Zone Act 3 palette, but that background still makes me think of sFactor, and I wish I did that before I re-did the BG in my hack's ERZ.
    I don't recognize the new boss music, but it fits. 
    Dammit, I died!
    -cough-
    Well, it was still fun!
    Going left to get more rings like I do in GHZ, I died from a Crabmeat.
     . (A few minutes later.)
    Pfft, Casino Whatever-it-is Zone has a nice new "spring flipper" thing.
    Cool ideas!
    I look forward to seing updates on this, and any other hacks you make.
     
  18. LooneyDude

    LooneyDude Back after a long absence! Member

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    Here's an update to the game that:

    • Makes Frantic Factory less dickish.
    • Makes Hectic Highway look a tad different.
    • Adds a bump in the ground to stop the player from running into a pit in the final boss level.
    • Fixes beginning-of-level death in Casino City.
    • Adds a wall before the Hectic Highway boss.
    • Minor graphic tweaks.
    • Fixes Molten Madness slopes. Spindashing on them should work for the most part.
    Download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ur4ysavpyjxv2r6/Sonic Zoom.bin?dl=0
     
  19. ElectricSparx

    ElectricSparx Active Member Member

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    Right, new update means I get to make some comments!

    First of all, thanks for actually putting something to stop players from careening off into the bottomless pit before Hectic Highway's boss. ...Still, it doesn't need to be that high. The new art looks nice and makes the level no longer look like a SLZ recolor. Good work there.

    And sorry, but Frantic Factory still seems like the Dick Move Zone of the hack. It looks like you just put collapsing platforms over maybe a couple bottomless/spike pits and that was it. I get it's supposed to be the final level, but this feels like a huge difficulty spike compared to vanilla Scrap Brain.
     
  20. ProjectFM

    ProjectFM Optimistic and self-dependent Member

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    This is an overall great hack but I have a few criticisms:

    -The levels seem too short. A zone isn't very memorable if you can beat it in 2 minutes.

    -Frantic Factory needs more rings. Removing health items is a cheap way to add difficulty to a game.

    -Casino City's background bothers me because the buildings are at a completely different angle than they should be.

    -DON'T USE ESRAEL SOUND IMPORTER FOR S3 SONG PORTS. There is a much better converter out there that yields more faithful results.

    -As ElectricSparx said, the wall before the Hectic Highway boss is too large leading to the player not seeing the boss area and them having I likely chance of falling into a pit. As I stated in an earlier post, flinging Sonic into the air is the best way to slow him down without ruining the pace. You could also make the boss area higher as well (along with the boss itsself and bottom boundary) so the player knows where the pit is.
     
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