Sonic Adventure: A-Button Challenge - Speed Highway (0)
2That ONE jump! Why is it always ONE jump?
So in my LB of SA1 about two and a half years ago, I advertised a series I was gonna do where I'd complete levels in Sonic Adventure while jumping as few times as possible. Well, I never did that, favouring such oddities as Let's Plays and Sonic-only runs of Heroes stages. So I've decided that now, of all times, I should remedy this. Welcome, one and all, to Let's Break Sonic Adventure In A Different Way: A-Button Challenges!... or the SA1 No-Jump Run for short.
Speed Highway's a great stage. It takes you forth, and back, and 'round the track. Really, it's a shame I skip most of it with That. One. Jump. or I could better sing just how fun of a stage this is to blaze through. Either way, there's really nothing after maybe the fifty second mark that's particularly noteworthy, outside of the fact that I finished the level. So...
Uncurling - Timing is EVERYTHING:
For the three of you not familiar with SA1, this is the only 3D Sonic game where Sonic would actually curl into a ball for the entire duration of your every jump. Later games would get rid of the ball animation altogether, add in hopping graphics, or have Sonic uncurl after a few seconds of hang time. This isn't necessarily important, I just find it cool. That said, this /is/ the only Sonic game to date where Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles can uncurl from their ball form mid-jump at the push of a button. While uncurled, their movement in all directions is sort of locked, so you fall slower but also lose speed along the X plane. That said, the act of uncurling with the Action Button actually resets your mid-air movement, allowing for this little skip in motion. This is great for - as seen here in That. One. Jump. - adding a tiny bit of distance to your longjump. Timing is everything with this technique, so play around with it and find out what works for you.
On a more general practice, uncurling from a spindash, longjump, or just a regular jump, has some pretty minute yet notable effects on the physics of your character. Depending on how well this series is received, we may see a few examples later on with other characters.