Was it actually rushed or did the gimmick just limit the level design? What was the real reason for the bland, empty levels?
>>12004836It was supposedly cut from a larger Saturn project and rushed out the door in about a year or so.It could've been much worse, but at least the music and visuals were 10/10.
>>12004836Yeah it got rushed. It got moved from CD to Saturn and finally 32x and it was written in a few months.
>>12004836What would a "good" game with the rope gimmick look like anyway? It just doesn't seem like there's much you could do with it.
>>12004862The rope mechanic works pretty well in multiplayer. It doesn't with '90s AI running on 32-bit hardware
>>12004862Sonic advance 3 uses a similar mechanic. it's basically a more fleshed out version of chaotix.
>>12004858>It was supposedly cut from a larger Saturn project and rushed out the door in about a year or sothat doesn't add up with what i've read because Chaotix was conceived entirely for the 32x, if it was for the Saturn during it's initial brainstorming, planning and design stages and then moved to 32x to be help the shitty little add-on then that makes sense i guess
>>12004836The gameplay actually works well if you spend 5 seconds learning it, so it's just the levels that need tweaking.
>>12004948>it's just the levels that need tweaking.the levels need tweaking?? the levels need complete overhauls with shit to do in them and actual events and things that up the stakes. they copy and pasted them like multiple times, a lot of the acts are virtually indistinguishable from one another but with a few sections moved around like from the center to like a corner, and maybe some setpiece, decoration, or a device and they're kind of asleep and sedentary, almost like they haven't woken up yet or something.. like what the fuck?? chaotix needs little flowers you can touch to fight off painful headache inducing opioid withdrawals like tempo has
Sonic Crackers is dated April 1, 1994 and this game came out a year later so I'm going to say it's fairly rushed.
>>12005024Wtf is craxkers
>>12005724yt pipo
>>12005024I dunno, that seems like plenty of time to come up with at least one interesting level, especially if they already had the tools to build them.The game had level designers and they worked on this game for at least a year. If there was anything more they could have done with the gimmick they probably would have done it.
>>12004909Wasn't that just for a bunjee jumping mechanic? I never played too far into the game.
>>12005794I think the problem was they shelved Crackers after the pitch was denied by Sega (since I guess they didn't want to release a new Sonic game that late into the Genesis' run if they were preparing for the future). So they weren't working on it the entire time from the pitch to the release of Knuckles' Chaotix.But when they needed something on-brand to market alongside the 32X they turned to the Crackers pitch to turn into a full game. The game was retooled around Knuckles because Sega's internal doubt in the 32X instead of tying the actual Sonic brand to the platform (which is why Mighty's sprites are just drawn over Sonic's from Crackers). So there were probably months between when the pitch was presented and Sega's decision to greenlight it as a real game, at which point the game became rushed into the months up to the 32X's launch (plus it had to be rebuilt to run on the 32X, in addition to actually fleshing out the game).
>>12004861>to Saturn>this was supposed to be the Saturn 2D Sonic>We never properly got it because SoA wanted to promote the 32XDamn, i kinda hate the 32X even more for this.What a pointless piece of shit.
>>12004836the whole 32x, itself, was rushedi think they were planning on having a lot more time to implement more variation in between different lvls. and then they could ideally just let the randomizer do most of the "heavy lifting" to make it less repetitive. didnt work tho, since they made the game in like 3 months, so many of the lvls are just sprawling and same-y. as a result, the randomization hardly matters since you can barely tell youre in a different lvl
>>12004836If it's only bad because it was rushed, why haven't there been any ROM hacks with better levels then? No one can even imagine or conceive what a good level would look like.
>>12004935It was conceived on the Megadrive (see Sonic Crackers), then moved to the Saturn and from there to the 32x (according to one of the games programmers who said this on twitter) along with Tempo, because the Super Mushroom needed more games.
This game has one hell of a fascinating history. At least the game has some quality music
>>12008662The music is the only redeeming quality really. That and the potential for ROM hacks, which haven't happened yet as far as I know. The music is some of the best in the series though.
>>12005724Beta version of Chaotix.>>12005024The whole concept of this game was flawed from the getgo. Did they really think it would be fun having another character literally chained to you?
>>12009409I wouldn't even call it a beta. It's more like "what Chaotix was before it was Chaotix". It was a presentation of the gameplay concepts that were used for Chaotix but it was never intended to be that.
Also IIRC the second level in Sonic Crackers is Speed Slider, I think. So that's also evidence of being rushed (despite no longer being Sonic Crackers they just reused level design from the original pitch regardless to save time).
>>12009814It's chaotix before they reskinned it and added more levels.
>>12006601SoA and SoJ were both steaming piles of shit competing to see who could stink the most.
>>12005724Engrish for clackers
>>12005806Uhh yes and no, you pick teams and it’s like a mix of chaotix and superstar saga mechanics. The bungee chord aspect is just in one part iirc, but the idea of being tied to a partner and using special abilities to traverse the levels is directly inspired by chaotix.
>>12009409The hold-and-launch tether idea was interesting but honestly not something that would have really been needed in lieu of a Spin Dash.I think they wanted to make something that would involve Tails more than his role in the previous two games where he would just be tagging along but the player had nothing to do with him.Thing is if they just designed a game around what Christian Whitehead did with the Tails lift mechanic that would have solved it (which is what Noah Copeland ended up doing for Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit). The ring tether was just a slapdash idea that probably wasn't something they should have pursued since the ideas they wanted to implement with it could have been done in a more sensible way.
