Gaming Sonic Classic Collection DS impressions- Nintendo World Report

[granville]

I wasn't sure where to post this, but i guess this is a fair place to do it. Didn't want to spam up user submitted news or anything. But anyways, some details are now available on the Sonic Classic Collection on DS. From a user perspective that is. A person at Nintendo World Report got a hands on try at a few of the games in the collection. Here's his impressions-

"Sega's upcoming Sonic Classic Collection for the DS will include Sonic the Hedgehog 1-3 along with Sonic & Knuckles. These games have appeared on numerous compilations, yet they've never appeared together on a portable. I recently had the chance to play an early build of the title.

Upon booting up Sonic the Hedgehog 2, I was pleased to see that the game looked exactly as I remembered. The Sega Genesis title was running on the DS's top screen while the options to pause, save, and load the game were on the bottom screen. The original Sonic sequel didn't look squished or contorted, and the colors sparkled on the bright DS screen.

As I made my way through Emerald Hill Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog 2's first stage), I did encounter some slowdown when Sonic was moving at high speeds. Going through multiple loops and a corkscrew caused the game to noticeably chug. However, it definitely was still playable and nothing close to the mess that was the Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis port on the GBA. There was also some minor slowdown in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. I did not have a chance to try the other Sonics.

While I was only able to listen to the music through the DS's speaker, I am happy to say that it sounded pretty accurate. Sonic composer Masato Nakamura's music sounded faithful to the Genesis versions, and only a couple of sound effects sounded slightly off.

The game's save anywhere feature did not appear to allow a player to resume their game from exactly where they hit save. When I attempted to load a save made during an Eggman (Dr. Robotnik) battle, I found myself back at the start of the act.

If Sega can get the games in this compilation running at full speed, Sonic Classic Collection could be an extremely worthy purchase."

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impress...cfm?artid=21122

So they didn't manage a PERFECT port as it does have some minor slow down, enough to notice. But from his perspective, he feels the game plays like the original and sounds faithful to the music. This game is of course, a compilation of the 4 Genesis Sonic games- Sonic 1-3 and Knuckles. Lock on ability was confirmed earlier for at least Sonic 3 and Knuckles.

This game is releasing on March 3rd in the US. So we'll see soon enough for ourselves. I wanted to post this somewhere for those interested in a real world test. Might want to keep JenesisDS around, just in case. At least it works really well for the Sonic games in case this port sucks!

 

[Terenigma]

This is good news slowdown would suck but i also read earlia this week that sonic the hedgehog 4 is actually coming out in true classic form none of that 3d crap so this post has just made my week complete

 

[_Chaz_]

I would have preferred a Best of Genesis compilation.

This is good news slowdown would suck but i also read earlia this week that sonic the hedgehog 4 is actually coming out in true classic form none of that 3d crap so this post has just made my week complete

The confirmation of motion sensing controls made me a bit skeptical, but it's gonna be a great game.

 

[granville]

To be totally fair, I'm personally used to slowdowns. I will be posting my impressions of this when it's dumped. I have a VERY sharp eye and will notice anything amiss. You can expect me to tear the port down if it's got issues. I am very good at it too, i've done it for ports before and nothing escapes my notice. Had a lot of practice from the classics too.

 

[Terenigma]

To be totally fair, I'm personally used to slowdowns. I will be posting my impressions of this when it's dumped. I have a VERY sharp eye and will notice anything amiss. You can expect me to tear the port down if it's got issues. I am very good at it too, i've done it for ports before and nothing escapes my notice. Had a lot of practice from the classics too.

Used to it or not depending on how bad the slowdown is it could tarnish the game as speed is one of the big selling points of sonic but like you im a sonic fan and id notice slowdown in the game especially in 3 as i played that to death. Even so it would be great to have them all in 1 game slowdown or not so ill be keeping a close eye on the release date from now on

 

[granville]

I'm not saying slowdown is ever good, but i've been playing stressful games on subpar pc's for ages, i have developed a tolerance for it. Minor slowdown that is. Like, I can handle a game skipping a few frames more than it normally would, as long as it's not disorienting or a slideshow. And the slowdown in this game is likely not to be a framerate thing so much as just slowmo. I'm curious to get my hands on it. There is no excuse for it though, seeing as all the Sonic games play 60fps at ALL times on JenesisDS... That probably is proof SEGA didn't hire Lordus to make them a DS emulator for Genesis games. His work doesn't suffer from slowdown (in fact 99% of all genesis games never slowed down at all on his emulator).

 

[geoflcl]

Welllll, if there's even slowdown in Sonic 2's single-player, I doubt they'll bother to include the multiplay.

 

[MarkDarkness]

I wonder why they don't include some achievements, in-game unlocks, etc... I have no reason to play these yet again.

Hm... Sonic & Knuckles badges. That would be awesome.

 

[DeepFriedAsian]

Slowdown...It's like Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis for the GBA all over again.

I hope they can fix it before it gets released. Good thing at the beginning he said it was an early build....If this was the retail build I would be pretty annoyed.

 

[Dr.Killa]

get ready for another sonic the hedgehog genesis...you know, the one on GBA? all because of that, i have no hope in this, my emus on my R4 will probably end up running better than this, especially since there already is reports off slowdown, and they won't fix it, like that GBA game

 

[Zerousen]

I'm still getting the game no matter what. old school games on modern day portables would be nice,it would remind me of when I played my cousin's genesis when I was 4. come to think of it,i still have my genesis in my basement somewhere......hmm... anyway, I heard that 2010 will be a good year for DS/Wii,hoping that this year will be a blast!

 

[granville]

Please stop jumping to conclusions people. The slowdown was cited as minor, not very noticeable. Sonic Genesis had extreme slowdown, and everywhere, not just in select places. Also, Sonic Genesis played badly, the gameplay and physics were all wrong. Plus the glitches were the worst ever. These impressions already sound positive in that respect at least.

It sounds like these are emulated games as opposed to ports or remakes. Which is probably for the best.

 

[CyrusBlue]

Everyone is overlooking the fact that what he played was an early build of the game. The port is not done and I'm sure they're gonna work on those minor bugs.

 

[Terenigma]

Put wifi multiplayer in this and id be sold especially if Sonic 3's single player had multiplayer (you remeber how someone could be tails and fly sonic around n such) that'd be so badass. it wont happen but i can dream haha

 

[Master Mo]

I would have prefered a Remake, since the game already got ported to so many systems...

Slowdowns are IMO unacceptable! We are talking about nearly 15-20 year old genesis-games!

The confirmation of motion sensing controls made me a bit skeptical, but it's gonna be a great game.

I guess the motion sensing controls will be used in special stages, like the touch-screen in Sonic Rush, which IMO was great!

 

[_Chaz_]

I would have prefered a Remake, since the game already got ported to so many systems...

Slowdowns are IMO unacceptable! We are talking about nearly 15-20 year old genesis-games!

The confirmation of motion sensing controls made me a bit skeptical, but it's gonna be a great game.

I guess the motion sensing controls will be used in special stages, like the touch-screen in Sonic Rush, which IMO was great!

A remake? How could you remake a game like this? It's already too simple and people would be pretty steamed if something was messed up.


I was speaking of Sonic 4, motion sensing controls have been confirmed on the PS3 and Wii.

 

[BlueStar]

People moaning about occasional slowdown should remember that for sonic 1 in PAL territories the entire game played in 50fps slo-mo!

 

[House Spider]

Cool, I never knew about this.

 

[Master Mo]

I would have prefered a Remake, since the game already got ported to so many systems...A remake? How could you remake a game like this? It's already too simple and people would be pretty steamed if something was messed up...
Yeah, like an update on Grafix, while remaining the gameplay-style and level-design. Just the looks

I wouldn`t want that, if the games weren`t already ported to nearly every system of this and the last generation but if it is necessary to recycle the game I think it is time to change something! But you are right: gameplay should remain the same!!!

QUOTE(_Chaz_ @ Feb 6 2010, 01:32 AM)

The confirmation of motion sensing controls made me a bit skeptical, but it's gonna be a great game.

I guess the motion sensing controls will be used in special stages, like the touch-screen in Sonic Rush, which IMO was great!

...I was speaking of Sonic 4, motion sensing controls have been confirmed on the PS3 and Wii.

Yeah, and I just assume, that the motion-controls in the Wii/PS3-version of Sonic4 might be used in a similar way to how the Touch-Screen was used in SonicRush: in Special Stages

But that`s off topic here anyways...

 

[Rayder]

I figure the Sonic Classics for DS will be fine. The guy said he was playing an early build and if the early build only has minor slowdown, then the final release should have been optimized to eliminate the slowdown. Well, as long as they don't just rush it out the door like they did with the ill-fated GBA Sonic Genesis, and I doubt they'll make that mistake again. That HAD to hurt Sega's credibility quite a bit.