Sonic The Hedgehog xbox 360 DEMO

[dojosky]

tonite i was checkin out new stuff for my 360 and saw sonic the hedgehog demo there. So I downloaded it (didn't take that long) ... and played a bit of the game its really very amazing and seems like it will be a GREAT game !!! so hope ya 360 owners download it !!!! .. enjoy the demo ! and share your opinions here ...

[business]

Whoa, so, is this legit? Is the demo up on Marketplace?


Shit, I'm at work!!

[RCM]

I had a chance to check this title out a couple weeks ago and I was really impressed...with Sonic's portions. The human to hedgehog kiss isn't as bad as everyone is saying! I'm downloading this right now! It's taking a long fucking time though.

Can't wait to spend some more time with Sonic!

[Gamereviewgod]

Wow. This is just... bad. Awful even.

It starts with the terrible level design which not only features more pits than land, but only one spot to gain any real speed.

Of course, when the camera adjustment is as slow as it is, maybe it's for the best. It's constantly out of place too. You always end up stopping to adjust, which completely takes away the pacing.

Control is flat out terrible. Sonic doesn't stop. He floats and skids all over the place, leading to more deaths. Collision isn't responsive, and there's a spot where you need to grab onto an eagle. I went straight through it twice.

I can only hope this wasn't far along, and these features have been fixed. They never should have released this demo.

[Princess-Isabela]

I beat the demo in like 5 minutes, and I must say its really awesome.
there are some issues with controls, sometimes you'll fall randomly, camera is a bit slow when you're trying adjust it, but the gameplay overal is great and graphics is much improved since SA of course.
I'll definetely buy it on a launch day.

[diskoboy]

That right controller camera contol - WTF is up with reversing the controls?

The game has potenital... It has the Genesis feel down, but there are bugs all over the place.

The sense of speed is mindblowing, though...

[Half Japanese]

Wow. This is just... bad. Awful even.

It starts with the terrible level design which not only features more pits than land, but only one spot to gain any real speed.

Of course, when the camera adjustment is as slow as it is, maybe it's for the best. It's constantly out of place too. You always end up stopping to adjust, which completely takes away the pacing.

Control is flat out terrible. Sonic doesn't stop. He floats and skids all over the place, leading to more deaths. Collision isn't responsive, and there's a spot where you need to grab onto an eagle. I went straight through it twice.

I can only hope this wasn't far along, and these features have been fixed. They never should have released this demo.

I agree completely. The demo is fucking awful. Someone seriously needs to let Sega know that although Mario has made the move to 3D with relative ease, Sonic has definitely NOT followed suit with the same grace. The Sonic games are all about speed, which is terribly hard to convey properly in a 3D platformer. I can't imagine such a miraculous change in the coming months that this will get any better really. It falls flat on its face at the first hurdle. I was just doing the basic homing attack and flew off the side a half dozen times (not to mention the times I got stuck almost catching myself going over, where Sonic was caught in a permanent falling pose at the edge of the bridge and I had to let him fall to start over).

Business-wise, it would be best for Sega to pull the demo as soon as possible and hope word doesn't get around how awful it is. Maybe they can trick some kids into buying it down the road when it hits the shelves. I don't even think I would even send out review copies of the game if it doesn't pull a complete 180.

[GM80]

By the way, everyone should double check their Controller Sensitivity in the Xbox 360's Game Defaults menu. I was surprised to learn that the Sonic demo actually respected my "High" sensitivity setting which made the game uncontrollable.

I set that down to "Medium" and found the game to be better. Then it was just nearly uncontrollable.

There's one part where a bridge is supposed to fall down as you near it in the air which allows you to get on top of it to continue the demo. I could never get it to do so reliably, and got so frustrated at that point that I quit the demo and promptly deleted it from my hard drive.

The game looks like it has more promise than any of the other 3D Sonic titles, but I must hear confirmation that they've fixed this stuff before I even take another look at the game.

[Anthony1]

I played the demo last nite, and while the game isn't too bad, I think I've come to the conclusion that I'm never going to truly enjoy a 3D Sonic game. Alot of people say , "Sonic is all about speed". I can't really argue with that, but I must admit that when I play the old Sonic games on the Genesis, I like playing them in a slower fashion. I don't like blowing through the levels in mere seconds. I like to explore every nook and cranny. I like to kill every bad guy on the level, and find every single ring. If you go super fast and just blaze through the level, it's kinda impossible to do that. Once I've found every ring, and killed every bad guy, then I'll speed through the level as fast as possible, but I like playing Sonic slower, in more of an exploration mode. Like you would play a Mario game.


When Sonic games made the transition to 3D, that kind of exploration seemed to be impossible. It's like the game is on rails, and you have to go super fast whether you want to or not. It's very hard to go through the level trying to discover every secret and kill every bad guy and find every gold coin. That's why I prefer the 2D Sonics by a huge margin. Sonic 2, Sonic CD and Sonic 3 are my favorites. Of course I also have much love for the original Sonic as well.


I will say however, that this 3D Sonic seems to be a bit better than the other ones I've tried. The camera is kinda sketchy, and there are some issues with the level design that result in cheap deaths, but it's definitely shaping up to be decent if you can hang with 3D Sonic games.

[GrandAmChandler]

I think you guys need more practice! I played this several times and I am having no issues whatsoever anymore now that I have mastered the homing move and the camera. Agreed with GM80, careful of the controller sensitivity.

This title shows promise!! Give it another go!

[geneshifter]

This is a very bad demo. The camera controls are so bad that I do not want to play this again. Just horrible.

[EricRyan34]

Couldnt get into it. Would rather play the F.E.A.R. demo :-P

[Daria]

Have to agree with most of the above posters. Demo sucked outright. The trailer promised some shit about it being the fastest Sonic to date with, and I quote, "Next gen speed", when it's nearly impossible to play the game "quickly" without immediately falling off the edge of the cliffs and dying-repeatedly. And I probably just suck, but I also find it impossible to speed through the levels when I consistently missed just about every fucking ring. If you're going to do rails, why not do them properly? I'd suggest killing the free falling edges, and locking Sonic onto the rings. That would make it play more like the 2D versions, while keeping with the 3D "look".

Anyway yeah, definately a game I'd never buy.

[pixelsnpolygons]

I'm not going to bother, I assume it is probably the same as the E3 demo - if so, I echo the negative comments above. I mean really, SEGA - the same horrible, broken, clunky controls and camera angles have ruined over half a decade of Sonic games and most likely won't stop. The games still sell and, no offense to the people here who liked it, manage to even impress despite being thoroughly mediocre. That's why I was so excited to play Sonic for Wii and so happy when it turned out being awesome. Sonic for Xbox 360 is nice to look at, but when it comes to the gameplay its about as awful as you can get.

[GrayFox]

I'll finally get to play the demo tonight. Finally.

Also, Sonic is not all about speed, that's a misconception.

Anyways, I hope I at least enjoy the demo, even though I hear the camera is quite bad.

[Daria]

Also, Sonic is not all about speed, that's a misconception.

No of course not, the games were about exploration and speed. It was awesome how the 2D games cater to either play style. You could take your time and pick apart the levels OR you could blaze through them in a minute. I don't think the new ones really do either very well.

[Princess-Isabela]

I dont know what about you guys, but I loved SA 1 and 2, and I'm loving this one as well, game looks beautiful and plays well(once you'll get used to it), there still maybe some random deaths there in the beginning but its all about the practice, demo was short though(about 2 minutes LOL ).

[Richter Belmount]

i had fun with the demo took a while to get used to it but i practice tore pavement to the end of the level >.>

[PDorr3]

I think the game can go either way based on the demo. For one it looks really awsome, and it overall feels like a re-vamped sonic adventure (not SA2), however the camera and controls were downright horrible, controling sonic was really loose when going fast, and the camera was just bad.
And vehicles in a sonic game (shadow), I just dont know about that...

I just hope they dont screw this game up because it seems to have alot of potential.

[Anthony1]

No of course not, the games were about exploration and speed. It was awesome how the 2D games cater to either play style. You could take your time and pick apart the levels OR you could blaze through them in a minute. I don't think the new ones really do either very well.



Yeah, I totally agree. I always hear people say that Sonic is all about speed, but for me, I liked to take my time and explore the levels, but once I collected all the gold coins and blasted through any secret entrences and killed all the little bad guys and freed the bunnies and birds, I would zoom through to the end of the level in a few seconds flat. Of course, I had friends that didn't play at all like that. They would blaze through the level in few seconds flat right from the get go. I could never really understand why they did that though. Seems like they wasted alot of the game, cause they never saw alot of it, by just zooming through the level like that. Oh well, to each his own.

I would play my Sonic games almost like a Mario game or something. I know that's kinda strange to play it slow like that, but that's how I liked it. Obviously, when Sonic went 3D, it just seemed that my way of playing wasn't going to be possible too much. With the semi-on rails gameplay, it was very hard to go through levels slowly and explore stuff. Sonic 2 will forever be my favorite Sonic.

[j_factor]

Man, this demo is really bad. It's like Sonic Adventure 1, but it uses the worst aspects of that game. Terrible.

I think Sega should just give up on Sonic in 3D and make all his major games 2d. I did enjoy SA2 at times, but Sonic just looks worse and worse.

[omnedon]

Loved all the 2D Sonics.

They lost me at SA on the DC.

This demo has not changed my mind.

So long Sonic. We had some good times.

[THATinkjar]

This is, quite simply, a dreadful demo. To think, I was actually looking forward to this! What the heck is wrong with Sega? They have once again let the same fundamental problems slip through - problems, I might add, which have plagued the series for seven years.

The controls are twitchy and awkward. Collision detection is basically broken. The camera gets worse with each game. And so on and so forth. *sigh*

Sonic's debut on Wii remains our only hope.

[Overbite]

Dammit SEGA, stop making freaking sonic games. you don't know how to do it anymore. :angry: :angry: :angry:

[evil_genius]

It's crap.

[Anthony1]

Wow :eek 2: The amount of disdain for this demo is a little bit suprising. I have to say that it didn't exactly rock my world either, but I think you guys are being a little overly harsh on it. First off, it's just a demo, and secondly, it's a very short demo, you don't really get to see very much of the game. Ok, so maybe this isn't the return of Sonic to his former glory, but it could still be a decent game, especially for those of us with kids.

I have two little rugrats, and the only 360 games I can play with them are Kameo and Lego Star Wars II. The rest of the games are too adult, and they are too young to be into racing or sports. I look forward to games like this, because these are the games that they are actually excited to play. I let them try out the demo, and they both loved the demo. My 6 year old, kept wanting to play that short demo over and over. He couldn't get enough of it. I will personally admit that it's not what I'm looking for in a Sonic game, per se, but if my kids like it alot, I know I need to at least rent it for an extended period, so they can mess around with it awhile.

[Doom Gaze]

Terrible, terrible, terrible.

There hasn't been a good Sonic since S&K.. this one isn't changing the trend.

[evil_genius]

It's a shame, it really is. I wanted to spend 60 bucks on that but its complete crap.

[Half Japanese]

Wow :eek 2: The amount of disdain for this demo is a little bit suprising. I have to say that it didn't exactly rock my world either, but I think you guys are being a little overly harsh on it. First off, it's just a demo, and secondly, it's a very short demo, you don't really get to see very much of the game. Ok, so maybe this isn't the return of Sonic to his former glory, but it could still be a decent game, especially for those of us with kids.

I have two little rugrats, and the only 360 games I can play with them are Kameo and Lego Star Wars II. The rest of the games are too adult, and they are too young to be into racing or sports. I look forward to games like this, because these are the games that they are actually excited to play. I let them try out the demo, and they both loved the demo. My 6 year old, kept wanting to play that short demo over and over. He couldn't get enough of it. I will personally admit that it's not what I'm looking for in a Sonic game, per se, but if my kids like it alot, I know I need to at least rent it for an extended period, so they can mess around with it awhile.

Huh? The people posting here aren't 6 years old (though the grammar of some would lead you to believe otherwise), and thus don't get as big a kick out of it as someone who hasn't developed their tastes yet. I used to play shitty games when I was a kid because they were all I had or I fucked up and rented a turd. Now that I have the means and know the difference between crap and quality, I don't need to play garbage anymore.

I don't think anyone here's been overly harsh on the demo. If anything, I think there have been too many apologists for a completely underwhelming and pitiful 3D platformer starring a character lots of us cut our gaming teeth on. The camera is awful, the 'on rails' aspect of the 3D Sonics wasn't welcome the first time, let alone several sequels past that and I personally could design better levels than the one in the demo. It reeks of laziness and "kids will buy anything." There is nothing there for anyone that isn't still taking spelling tests on a weekly basis. Sega needs to learn from their mistakes or kill off Sonic before they turn him into another Bubsy.

[Juganawt]

R.I.P. Sonic.

1991 - 2003.

No way for Sonic to come back now, he's had 3 duff games in a row, RIP our beloved blue hedgehog.

Let's just pretend that Sonic Heroes, Sonic Riders, and this game never happened.

Let's bury him on a high note with Sonic Adventure 2 on the Dreamcast.

[GrayFox]

Camera is terrible, but I enjoyed it. No surprises here.

But I think most people are specifically out to hate this title. GAF and other forums are just being ridiculous.

[MegaDrive20XX]

Gorgeous game graphically, I love the soundtrack from what I'm hearing so far.

However, it still suffers the same camera issues from Sonic Adventure series and the timely jumps are a bit annoying in this demo stage. 1 screw up and you fall to your death is not really reassuring.

It doesn't look too good for the later levels if they are all going to be this confusing