Sonic (4) Cybernetic Outbreak

In regards to the art, Yes I am using Placeholders for most art as we're working towards  more original art [like Radon Factory's Foreground for instance] Kai was chosen because testing the BossLink system with the Giant Egg Robo wouldn't be proper, but that's not to say Kai is an actual place holder or not, There's a lot of surprises in store with this game, and I hope you all know how Megaman games work in terms of the final levels, [specifically the X series] cause it will be similar for Metal Star. That's all I will say on that for now, Two other zones are being worked on currently aswell. I will not say which they are, You'll just have to wait .



Another shot of Kai with the WIP BG [The basic outline of the BG taken from CD will be completely revamped soon]

 

Varion, I am getting a bit pissed off with you using my "early morning look" =P

 

Bump,  Updated Original Post.

 

My God Varion, the art is incredibly beautiful and very well detailed, you really did a phenomenal job!

Also, again, the Mecha Sonic arena reminds me a lot a scene from Megaman X game.

Again, awesome work man!

Edit: Oh yeah, true, forgot about that detail. I'm still impressed though.

 

​VadaPega has become the artist for the hack, So he's been really helping it along. The games also a merge between S3K and Chaotix in aspects of programming.

 

Varion, please refrain from quoting the post directly above yours, thanks.

On topic, I'm glad that this is getting a release for the contest, I am looking forward to playing it.  Hope you realise that I and may others have high hopes for this... except... that red metal Sonic boss thing (I haven't played Chaotix much, I don't know it's official name), I'm a bit disappointed he isn't going to be in the build, seeming as you've shown off that the most.

 

Here's my try on the hack:


Link

 

It pains me to say this, but despite my high hopes for this hack, I did not enjoy playing it at all. While the foreground art was impressive, the backgrounds being rehashed still disappointed, but worst of all was the gameplay. Quite frankly, I hated it. The first boss, fine although pretty much a carbon copy of the S3K fight. I understand this is supposed to be a continuation of S3K so I can see the reasoning behind this. What I can't see the reasoning behind is the disgustingly hard boss you felt the need to follow it up with. Technically impressive, yes. Enjoyable, no. The boss has a minimal window to actually land a hit, moves a fuckload faster than your reaction speeds and is near unpredictable. Even worse is when it actually mimics your exact position meaning you can't even get out of the way in time before you take hit after hit. It's like taking the frowned upon dick moves that may crop up in a hack, and making a boss full of them. Frankly, if this is a sign of things to come, this is a hack I will not be bothering my time with. I believe in playing hacks for fun, but this was nothing short of frustrating. A huge disappointment.

 

Sometimes... Fusion is strange. nvm Carry on.

 

Did you read hack entry description?

You need a BIOS.

 

You need to get the standard 32X BIOS's to get them to show up. The default 32X BIOS('s?) in Fusion is/are crap.

 

This hack is one of the reasons I joined SSRG. After playing the SHC build I was disapointed because of the unfair bosses and no real levels was done. I completely agree with StephenUK. This hack is like a bomb of disappointment so far. But I hope for the best still. 

 

I believe a difficulty setting can easily fix the issue about the bosses being too unpredictable.

 

I was pretty disappointed with the hack, so I agree with StephenUK and CaveQuest. I was disappointed by the lack of content I saw, and the unfair difficulty, and considering I've heard the development time for this was about a decade, I was further disappointed. I didn't have fun with this, it was just too damn brutal after the first boss. I believe the ideas for this hack are alright, but thr execution was just rather poor. I'm sorry, but that's just I feel about the hack.

Also, there was nothing wrong with what CaveQuest said, it was just his opinion. Being technically impressive in any way does not automatically make it the best thing since sliced bread in every way.

Learn to respect others' opinions for once, people. Grow up.

 

I've played this hack twice so now it's time for my review on it:

I am impressed by this hack from a technical standpoint, what surprises me is that this is a Sonic 3 and Knuckles hack considering how rare we get hacks of that game so props to you for that Varion. I really like Sonic's new sprite, it's very refreshing to see a new sprite of the blue blur, while I do really like his 3&K sprite I welcome change for the heroic hedgehog's aesthetics. Anyway the first boss is Mecha Sonic ripped straight from the original 3&K. It's a nice little throwback but here's the problem: the difficulty spike is huge when you get to the next boss (Silver Sonic) who's problems I can sum up in three words: He's too fast!

I know it's Sonic the Hedgehog but not everything has to be fast. The first time I played the hack he blindsided me. That was cheap, I really hate that you barley have enough time to hit him, you might want to slow him just a little bit to give the player enough time to hit him. Other than that his attack pattern seems relatively tame to me, I feel the speed was the only reason why he's hard, slow him down a bit (and please change his entrance) and he might a fun boss. Okay moving on to what I like to call "Filler Zone" because unless you don't know where to stand he's a waste of time. He could've at least been part of a boss instead of being part of an interactive cutscene.

And now for the main event: The second encounter with Mecha Sonic who tapped into his inner Super Mario Bros Z and wants to not just kill Sonic but wipe him from existence, this boss fight is epic but is also very cheap at times. I understand that he is the supposed to be the final boss but even some final bosses have some form of forgiveness. Similar to Silver Sonic you might want to slow him down a little bit (especially when you attempt hit him) and also cut down on how long it takes for him to lose the Master Emerald's energy. Other than that I actually liked this boss fight, he feels fitting for a final boss.

Overall I see some great potential in this project and I am looking forward to playing the actual levels you have planned, I would suggest holding off on the bosses until the zones are fully complete. If you take into consideration of the flaws that I and many others have pointed out and fix them this might be one of the best Sonic hacks. I am looking forward to future updates on this hack.

 

That would be better. But so far if the hack had difficulty setting I would still be dissapointed while the hack is being made for almost a decade and has no stages/Original art. It's a boss run atm.

This is how the rep system should work. Even tho down rep shouldn't be used in the way it has in just this topic from my last post and the one I had on the screenshot one. But not naming any names here,

While I completely agree with Ralakimus I don't think they did disrespect my opinion. I think they disagreed with me through the down rep feature. Who I think is really lazy and disrespectful aswell to the comunity. Since the point of that button isn't that much about opinions. It's about if the post is good or not.

 The rep system shouldn't be changed but explained better. Also I think that the Rep system is really badly used in this case. but I see what you are coming from. I would say that I am quite honestly not even gonna bother with the missued down rep feature in this case.

 

As about the reputation thing, I prefer to don't to discuss too much about it because this kind of discussion gave me too much trouble in the past. I just think that... hm... since there's the reputation thing, the people can use it as they feel comfortable of using. I mean that there's not much of disrespect depending on the way the people use it. Someones just gives negative reputation points to a post that they don't agree with (which was my case in your post) or that has content that may be unpleasant (which wasn't this case). They can do it without the need of posting, so they can show that they disagreed from it for some reason. It's just a matter of viewpoint for the one who given and from the one who received. And nothing more than this. If there's the right to give a opinion, there's would be a right of someone to disagree... or not?

As for the thing I quoted, I'll explain why I gave it my downvote.
Yes, it's true that the hack still has no fully playable levels. It's really kinda disappoint to wait for a hack for years and to see no full levels. But one of the reasons I disagreed from this opinion you gave is that instead of kinda repeating "Nah, I waited for this hack and the result really wasn't what I wanted." we should focus on give opinions to the content the hack offered. Lone Devil gave a nice suggestion about the bosses, per example. Look to the Sonic's sprite, look to the HUD, look to the effort applied on most of the stuff the hack is currently offering. In my opinion, the lack of fully playable levels was really a bad point in the current release, but come on, guys. The hack has lots of nice stuff and a very big load of effort applied. Let's consider this in the first place!

 

This hack is impressive don't get me wrong. But the unfairness and the dissapointment is strongly into it. That's why I did post my opinion cause of how my reaction was to play it after the contest week. Also I like that it does have stuff from my favorite game of all time but it lacks something that isn't seen in Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Fair bosses. 

 

Because clearly any boss that doesn't hand you the method to beating it efficiently on a silver platter or requires actual skill is unfair and needs to be adjusted.

Allow me to say something that I think needs to be said: The fact that the final boss actually requires quick thinking and action does not make it unfair. It simply explains how "great" some people think they are at Sonic, when in reality there's quite a few people that rarely post here and still beat this boss. Hell, I find it borderline impossible to not know how to pass the first phase. The second phase onward can be a bit of a jerk, but you just have to learn from your mistakes, something not many people here seem to be capable of accomplishing.

And no, before you ask, I'm not reading any flak posts that come out of this. I'm being blunt to get a point across. Brutal honesty, if you will.