While graphically this is a clear step-up from the previous demos, as far as gameplay this demo honestly felt rather frustrating and buggy. I do like that levels seem to have more going on now, but due to how narrow the paths are I found it easy to fall off.
As for the bugs I encountered, these included being able to launch yourself way up in the air particularly with the spindash which I can't imagine is intentional, getting stuck in geometry (once soft-locking the game), sometimes falling off the level for longer than intentional (causing Sonic's model to separate), and one time the effects from killing badniks reappeared after the level is reset.
Another thing I noticed is that the ability to rotate the camera was removed, and I honestly have to wonder why? I get that it may not have been possible at a stable framerate on the actual 32X, but I feel the goal here likely is (and should be) to make something that FEELS like it could run on 32X, rather than be 100% hardware accurate. Seems like a feature that could lessen some frustration and (unless I'm missing something here) was ultimately harmless at worst, not to say it's outright required either and I get that you can now zoom the camera in at least.
One last thing that I feel like pointing out is that the the music (particularly the title theme) honestly sounds worse to me compared to before, mainly in terms of instrumentation. And I know some people criticized the music in the past, but I honestly didn't mind it and feel that the new music sounds less accurate to the 32X. Which again this game doesn't need to be entirely hardware accurate, but I'd argue the music should at least be close. Maybe I'm in the minority here as far as not liking it as much, but I don't know.
Hope I don't come off as way too negative here since I do seriously like this project, and have enjoyed seeing it progress over time. This should all be fixable stuff plus I did at least have some fun with this new demo, so keep at it and I'm sure this will be a really fun and unique Sonic fan game once it's done!
As for the bugs I encountered, these included being able to launch yourself way up in the air particularly with the spindash which I can't imagine is intentional, getting stuck in geometry (once soft-locking the game), sometimes falling off the level for longer than intentional (causing Sonic's model to separate), and one time the effects from killing badniks reappeared after the level is reset.
Another thing I noticed is that the ability to rotate the camera was removed, and I honestly have to wonder why? I get that it may not have been possible at a stable framerate on the actual 32X, but I feel the goal here likely is (and should be) to make something that FEELS like it could run on 32X, rather than be 100% hardware accurate. Seems like a feature that could lessen some frustration and (unless I'm missing something here) was ultimately harmless at worst, not to say it's outright required either and I get that you can now zoom the camera in at least.
One last thing that I feel like pointing out is that the the music (particularly the title theme) honestly sounds worse to me compared to before, mainly in terms of instrumentation. And I know some people criticized the music in the past, but I honestly didn't mind it and feel that the new music sounds less accurate to the 32X. Which again this game doesn't need to be entirely hardware accurate, but I'd argue the music should at least be close. Maybe I'm in the minority here as far as not liking it as much, but I don't know.
Hope I don't come off as way too negative here since I do seriously like this project, and have enjoyed seeing it progress over time. This should all be fixable stuff plus I did at least have some fun with this new demo, so keep at it and I'm sure this will be a really fun and unique Sonic fan game once it's done!
