07-27-2008, 08:23 PM
Slow sonic is boring, IMO. Rush did Sonic best in that he was always in motion. When you were stopped, you had the tension gauge to get him moving again. Rails and springs were livened up with tricks. Completing a flawless run with a stylish bout of tricks and enemy destruction was extremely satisfying.
Tails always seemed to be Sonic: Easy Mode. Not as fast, so twitch gameplay had less to do with things. If you weren't skilled enough to make the jump with momentum, you could fly instead. This made him really dull. The mech-based gameplay in SA2 gave him his own role; one he sorely deserved.
Amy (one introduced as playable to the series) became Sonic: Hard Mode. Nowhere nar as fast, and had little jumping capability. However, he hammer-based techniques gave har variety, and made playing as her almost a puzzle game, finding a route that she could safely use. Mirrored in SA1; it's a shame some of the cool gimmicks she got in her stages never arised again when she was involved.
Knuckles is the only character of the main 4 that wasn't a sonic variant. The ability to punch, glide, and climb set his gameplay in a totally different direction from Sonic, and I liked that. Fast is cool, technical is cool. The variety made the Advance and Adventure games good. I loved the treasure hunting stages, because I knew it wasn't trying to be fast-paced.
On that note, I would LOVE a Knuckles/Rouge (and maybe Tikal/Chaos 0) MetroidVania, exploring and gaining new physical abilities to hunt for treasure.
Tails always seemed to be Sonic: Easy Mode. Not as fast, so twitch gameplay had less to do with things. If you weren't skilled enough to make the jump with momentum, you could fly instead. This made him really dull. The mech-based gameplay in SA2 gave him his own role; one he sorely deserved.
Amy (one introduced as playable to the series) became Sonic: Hard Mode. Nowhere nar as fast, and had little jumping capability. However, he hammer-based techniques gave har variety, and made playing as her almost a puzzle game, finding a route that she could safely use. Mirrored in SA1; it's a shame some of the cool gimmicks she got in her stages never arised again when she was involved.
Knuckles is the only character of the main 4 that wasn't a sonic variant. The ability to punch, glide, and climb set his gameplay in a totally different direction from Sonic, and I liked that. Fast is cool, technical is cool. The variety made the Advance and Adventure games good. I loved the treasure hunting stages, because I knew it wasn't trying to be fast-paced.
On that note, I would LOVE a Knuckles/Rouge (and maybe Tikal/Chaos 0) MetroidVania, exploring and gaining new physical abilities to hunt for treasure.