1841: Sonic Classic 2 v1.6.16 PC \\ Huge newly found version! Fan game 1st 1/2 playthrough, OST B!
0Playing through the first half of an apparently recently recovered 2022 build--version 1.6.16--of unfinished Sonic fan game Sonic Classic 2, by @HezMan2000 !
My Sonic playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZO3OPzPjIzMQt4FKIZafIKq1LZwrOXBR
0:00 - start
5:20 - Options & modes
14:21 - START GAME
1:00:56 - cool drill boss
1:14:12 - save & exit? ; D
1:23:41 - Fang
I found Sonic Classic 2 thanks to YT's algorithm showing me a recent playthrough of an older version ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pTaCY_zzNo ). Sonic Classic 2 is a fan game started by author Hez way back in 2011 https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads/sonic-classic-2.25938/ and is still in progress; four months ago they showed off the re-creation of another classic Sonic stage on their channel. This recently unearthed version 1.6.16 build--the most recent available, dating to 2022 it seems--is way bigger (~900 MB) than the other, older builds that have been archived so far by a user at https://gamejolt.com/games/SonicClassic2/842625 . It seems to have at a whole 'nother long game's worth of unlockable stages in it? = o And three soundtracks! (Aha, 700 MB of ogg files. ^ _^) There's a Sonic-y one, a techno funk one, and a chiptune one--I went with the techno funk OST, and it RULES. Like, really hard. Hard rules.
I'm pretty sure the pixel art is the most beautiful I've seen in a Sonic game. It is incredibly layered and put together; just thinking about all the sprites and parallax layers and stuff involved is kind of mind-boggling. And somehow it's actually cohesive and gorgeously composed, with lovely and varied palettes. Stunning work.
The layout of the initial stage--a Green Hill Zone type affair, of course 'p'--or so felt slightly mundane in spots, but I stopped get that feeling about 1.5 stages in--and I think the stages have actually been getting better and better as I've got further. Aside from a water-freezing insta-kill thing that isn't really explained to the player well at all, they manage mostly to avoid cheap hits and kills, even in boss fights; one of the boss fights, vs a giant spider-legged drill robot, was amazing looking, very well directed, and actually quite fun! Is that even allowed in a Sonic game??? = D Like, the author has actually tuned these stages and made them actually fun to play through, something very few amateur or professional Sonic designers seem able to do consistently.
The bonus stages are the rotate-around-ball-Sonic vertical maze type; one of the better classic Sonic bonus stage styles--which isn't saying much and they still make me a bit nauseous, but they're more forgiving here than in other Sonics.
There's time attack, a challenge mode I haven't tried yet, apparently loads of stages and other stuff to unlock (like, so much I still can't quite trust it = ooo), even what looks like a maybe still-in-progress multiplayer mode.
It falls down A LITTLE on the technical side of things; having gone through 13 years of development so far now, maybe the code is getting a bit creaky. I had it crash when going from one menu to another and one stage to another early on; fortunately that seemed to stop. Menus are somewhat awkward to navigate and I'm not even sure how the keyboard control mapping WORKS. (On the plus side, the game supports my DualSense just dandy.) Most awkwardly, once you've started playing, there doesn't seem to be a way to quit back to the menus aside from pressing F2, which simply restarts the whole game. Fortunately, it saves progress per zone (but not per act), but still.
Oh and it runs kinda chuggy in a lot of stages. Not horribly, but not quite Sonic-smooth. And a couple gameplay things feel broken, for instance you can't crouch on certain terrain, or while you have certain shields on (and you can have multiple shields stocked up, which is rather unique but also a pain to manage); and sometimes Sonic can barely move up a very mild slope, or will suddenly flip straight up a sheer wall.
The person archiving the builds on GameJolt said ominously of this circa 2022 build "don't know if the final boss softlock is still in there" so I guess we'll see how that goes. = oo
But technical quirks aside, it's an incredible game so far, and I'm kind of scared thinking about how many more stages there are apparently waiting to be unlocked! = o Is this the true behemoth of Sonic fan games??
Spoiler: Eh the second half gets cheap and the final boss fight feels really unpolished and I gave up on it. = p
3/29/24
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