Meet the modders who will fix your youth’s bad Sonic game

Sonic the Hedgehog has come a long way in the last few years. From the open-world reinvention of Sonic Frontier to the financial success of the film franchise, everyone’s favorite Sega mascot is booming. But while some at Sega may want us to forget Sonic’s more mediocre (or downright awful) outings, especially his mid-2000s, the stubbornness of the surprisingly lively 3D Sonic scene Modders are here to fix the problem. At that time, it haunted thousands of schoolchildren.

Among so many Sonic games that have come out over the years, in 2006 Sonic the hedgehog The most notorious. Featuring a wildly ambitious playable spread of his characters and a devastating interspecies love story between Sonic and a human princess, Sonic ’06 is the publisher’s hubris to date. One of the best examples of him. That said, does it deserve its reputation as the worst game of all time? And he’s not the only one who feels that way.

ChaosX はアルゼンチンの開発者で、”P-06（プロジェクト’06）」、Unity エンジンで作成された Sonic 2006 ゲームの明らかに非公式なリメイクです。開発者が子供の頃に Sonic 2006 を初めてプレイしたとき、彼は高騰と深淵の低さの混合に魅了されました。彼が今まで見たり聞いたりした中で最高のアート デザインと音楽でしたが、プラットフォーム ジャンルの基本に苦労しました。

「Sonic ’06 にはたくさんの楽しみがあります」と彼は言います。 「そうでなければ、コミュニティでのサポートはありません。間違いなくもっと悪いゲームがあります。ソニック ’06 を手放し、ゲームを終わらせる時が来たと思います。 [exaggerated] 16 years later, the constant hatred. ”

From one point of view, Sonic ’06 has an excellent game skeleton. Its large playable cast and segmented stage style appear to be the intended next step in the Sonic Adventure formula that has proven popular with fans. ChaosX eliminates many of Sonic 2006’s shortcomings rush developmentespecially with that confusing story tons of bugs.

The P-06 is the most complete remake of Sonic ’06 currently out, but it wasn’t the first attempt. In fact, the game has enjoyed a devoted modding community since its release. Thanks to this fact, ChaosX was able to use many existing mod tools to work on his P-06. This scene helped him learn how to code in new languages ​​such as his C#, and assisted in his beta testing and similar legwork. But when it comes to fixing the game’s highly malicious physics system or introducing his own mechanics, he’s had to work hard to implement his unique vision for the project. bottom.

ChaosX didn’t have a particular aspect of the game they wanted to fix with the P-06. Rather, I just wanted to improve as many parts as possible. As the project currently stands, this includes adding some new moves to the various playable characters in the game, as well as reworking the basic feel of their movements and jumps. ChaosX is currently in the process of completing Silver the Hedgehog levels for beta testing, adding all the bosses from the game’s story mode. Progress has been slow, but overall he’s happy with the state of his P-06 and feels he’s done the game justice.

However, while ChaosX enjoys working on this project, I am personally pleased that Sonic Team has moved away from the linear gameplay of 3D Sonic games, especially those created after the Adventure series. In his opinion, his classic 2D Sonic games were able to achieve a high degree of replayability by threading multiple routes within the same stage. This is a feature that 3D games have struggled to reproduce.

“It may be hard for some to hear, but Sonic Unleashed’s ‘werehog’ section is the most replayable part of the game because the gameplay design is more experimental and flexible,” he said. increase. “In conclusion, Boost games have a very compelling appeal, but they fall short of standing the test of time. Fortunately, Sonic Team recognizes the formula’s shortcomings, and with Sonic Frontier We have chosen to redefine the .This is a much-needed shakeup..”

Sonic 2006 may be generally considered the worst Sonic game, but Shadow the Hedgehog is certainly one of the strangest. While not as memorable (or memefied) as the disastrous ’06, Shadow is a game that perfectly embodies the spirit of its era, for better or worse. Best known for giving guns to its edgy protagonist, Shadow pushes a then-novel “moral choice” mechanic into levels, with different endings depending on the path you choose.Sonic Modder’s His LimblessVector describes the game as an “odd duck”.

“Shadow the Hedgehog definitely has its strengths,” he explains. “The branching paths offer a lot of replay value, and the Chaos power state feels like a more exciting version of the classic game’s Super Sonic Dynamics. But the game as a whole can be played for any amount of time.” It feels painfully stretched out to hit, it has some really good ideas, some fun parts, some awkward and uninteresting sections, and some very bad stuff about brand image. A strange combination of decisions.

LimblessVector and fellow modder dreamsyntax have created an ambitious project for the game. Shadow the Hedgehog: ReloadedDescribed as an extension and quality-of-life mod best played on the Dolphin emulator, Reloaded overhauls many of Shadow’s basic moves, fixing oversights and adding missing pieces like music and dialogue. Restore used content. However, most of the mod focuses on what LimblessVector calls “simple modifications”. This is the same change that prompted me to make a mod in the first place.

For example, dreamsyntax wanted to create a multiplayer version of the campaign, but he mistakenly thought it would be easy. The original idea for LimblessVector was to fine-tune specific mission objectives. These objectives are either too burdensome or simply too cumbersome to complete. When he discovered that the numbers were just plain text stored in a file, he was more than shocked when he edited the file and the game accepted the new values ​​without complaint. That was the real beginning of the Reloaded project.

LimblessVector explains: “It’s not that the game is particularly buggy or unfinished, it’s just that the numbers are too high. It was very easy to lower the numbers. It seems like you’re taking revenge on the game for hurting yourself.” But as time went on, we decided to improve the overall design of the game as much as we could.”

The full list of changes in Reloaded runs the gauntlet from basic to very small where only hardcore speedrunners will notice the difference. For example, the mod speeds up all the “very slow” elevators in the game and overhauls how Shadow and the game’s vehicles are controlled at a base level. Some of the shifts required creative solutions. For example, in the original game, Shadow’s “Light His Dash” ability (allowing the player to zoom large lines in the ring) stopped his momentum. To fix this, the developers placed an additional ring below the level at the end of each line to allow Shadow to snap to the ground and keep running full speed.

Modding console games is often seen as a daunting task, but both developers of Reloaded praise Dolphin’s features, noting that its design is particularly mod-friendly. Dolphin’s ability to run unpacked files (i.e. without the need to extract assets from the actual game disc and repackage them) was key to this project, and the two have managed much more than they thought in a short period of time. We have achieved a lot.

LimitlessVector and dreamsyntax are currently focused on other projects, but both are open to further improvements to Reloaded. Both discuss the possibility of adding new geometry to the game to confuse levels, and overhauling Shadow’s “expert mode” to make it a real challenge.

But overall, I believe they’ve managed to improve on one of the most misunderstood games in the Sonic series. Dreamsyntax states that the game’s internal build dates appear to suggest the game was developed in less than a year of his time. Like Sonic 2006 and many disappointing games before it, Shadow fell victim to an overly short development cycle mandated by the harsh realities of the video game market.

Exploring the world of video game mods makes us ask ourselves: Why would we choose to improve a game that wasn’t very good in the first place? For the series, the level of interest is always boiling, like the series’ most infamous entry, Rubbernecker Swarming Accidents. These dedicated modders are just giving the game what it missed in the first place: time and consideration.