The only baffling thing to me is that only 4 "aesthetics" were used for every single one I expected them to add more the further you got into the game, like imagine endgame ones with the Space Colony ARK aesthetics... Really missed opportunity.
Plus it confuses me on why the city levels are new when they’re literally pulled from Sonic’s memories, why couldn’t they just have them be called Skyscraper Scamper since the levels look identical?
@@calebproductions1264 The level types are not named in-game AFAIK, so that'd be on the fans not recognizing the "highway" ones as Skyscraper Scamper. But to be fair they aren't as obvious as the others.
@@calebproductions1264 It's probably a combination of City Escape and Speed Highway amd Skyscraper Scamper but with new layout. Also 1-7 is probably a bit of Westopolis. You know, the tanks ans helicopters
@@richardperaza5083 Idk why that one stage in particular has such a hard S rank. I wonder if the devs thought it'd be funny just to just make the second cyberspace level a Mr. Perfect run.
Happened to me too, it's because the levels use some layouts from older games but a lot of them are not the exact same level, they add some new level sections too.
Hot take but I'm actually totally cool with Cyberspace reusing layouts. If it was the only thing in the game it would be unacceptable, but as a side activity to the main open world gameplay it's actually really cool playing through a level and being like "This seems familiar...wait I know this one!" Specifically playing the SA2 levels with boost gameplay was such a unique experience. A real meshing of the different eras of the series that made things feel more connected than they've been for a long time.
@@monovailable tbh the theming is my only major complaint with these stages. I think having only four themes across the whole game is a little weak. Especially when three of those four themes have already been massively overdone in the franchise. It would've been cool to see themes reappear that we haven't seen in awhile. Like Red Mountain from SA1 or Rail Canyon from Heroes.
@@monovailable Oh yeah definitely that part of it is cool. I'm just saying I would've liked to have seen more settings than the four to really mix things up. It might've been cool to match theming to each overworld. So Kronos Island could have all the grassy green levels like Green Hill, Green Forest, Angel Island. Ares Island could have desert levels like Savannah Citadel, Pyramid Cave, Rail Canyon, Sandopolis. Chaos Island could have volcanic/lava levels like Red Mountain, Lava Reef, Crisis City. And so on.
@@smoogieboogie1694 oh yeah that would've been awesome. It would've been cool to see Final Rush/Final Chase as one of the actual levels, just with different layout. I really liked the space themes. They could've been on Ouranos Island as a neat bit of foreshadowing lol
Hopefully making the cyber space levels will help educate the new level designers in Sonic Team on what is interesting and fun to play through. The original Cyber Space stages are neat too - I really like the skateboarding one.
The completely original stages have some really great level design, especially 4-2. It gives me faith that Sonic Team can still make well designed linear stages.
Personatly, I'm cool with seeing Adventure 2 stages and Generations classic stages because they give us the opportunity to see how do these stages translate into boost levels(even though there is a Sonic Generations mod that allows us to play the classic stages but that's not official so that doesn't count)
PS : "SEGA managed to implement Adventure Era stages into Boost levels and that’s amazing." you should not be congratulating SEGA, it's Sonic Team you should congratulate
I think the idea of past stages coming back as bonuses would be cool, but the Generations level themes just feel a little pander-y. I think it'd probably be cooler if they just used a wholly original cyberspace theme or something. Still fun tho
There are 3 outlooks you can have while playing cyberspace levels. "Oh, This is new!" "Seen this before..." "Oh! Seen this before!" Its a little frustrating that they recycled so much, but the fact they went out of their way to pull more obscure levels is nice. Hell, Rooftop Run Act 2, a Bonus stage from Unleashed, is one of the layouts.
The same can be said with Dragon Road Act 3, or any of the SA2 And Unleashed levels we never saw again until this point, like Metal Harbor, Green Forest, Sky Rail and Savannah Citadel!!!
Well it's not a straight up port at least, they remade the levels from the ground up. Even if I recognize the levels they still feel different enough. *I don't encourage them doing this from here on, but still, fwiw, it's fine.*
Hard to beat the aestetics of Unleashed. I kind of wish they had used assets more close visually to the origin stage rather than green hills. Still, most of the cyberspace levels are pretty fun.
The existence of Generations act 2 Chemical Plant 3D and 2D being seperate stages means a boost level can have 2 different cyber space level With that in mind Cyber space 1-3 is the 2D section of Windmill Isle.
Honestly did anyone get the impression that this game feels like Unleashed 2? Boost Sonic, Collecting items to progress the story, combat gameplay with rpg leveling up and a reference to Dark Gaia.
These reused stages were implemented just right. They're built so that they don't overstay their welcome or take much longer than necessary. That way, replaying them to complete the missions never feels like a chore.
As someone who does not own PS/XBox Sonic games, this gave me a chance to experience those popular levels. I was very happy with my time playing through these levels!!
You know what? It really speaks numbers of the Generations level design when even with worse controls when compared to that game, it still managed to feel fun.
Windmill Isle act 3 also one of the stage's inspiration. The 2D rail sunset green hill paint. Also the drift level took inspiration from the Mazuri drift act.
Something else I have noticed is that they don't just reuse previous levels for cyberspace. Somewhere in the third island hub there is a rail grinding section that is almost exactly like windmill isle act 3. Just thought it was something interesting and makes me wonder if there are any other sections of the islands that are reused from previous games.
Now that I think about it, both of the SA2 shadow stages being here are kinda contextualized in the story, if you think about it. Sonic actually HAS been to radical highway before, in Generations 3DS. So he could just be remembering all that. This possibly implies that both versions of Sonic Generations are canon to some degree, which I don't think that actually interferes with anything. Makes sense to me. And for Sky Rail, if you look at the map of the levels in Sonic Adventure 2, the only quick way to get over to Eggman's desert base is through the pumpkin hill/sky rail area. When Shadow went through sky rail, and was chasing the tornado, he only sees Tails in it. In addition, the old E3 2000 trailer shows sonic in sky rail. On top of that, Shadow starts off the level "directly in pursuit" of the tornado, and at the end of the level he has to wait for it to catch up. Implying that running through sky rail on foot is faster for Shadow/Sonic than taking the tornado. What I'm implying here is that Sonic never actually took the tornado to get to the pyramid base and went there on foot, because its faster and more fun for him. Meaning that Sonic actually went through the same level as Shadow, just at a slightly different time. And iirc it had already been theorized for a while that sky rail was originally meant to be a Sonic stage, but was changed to a Shadow stage to give the dark story some more balance in its gameplay types, and to give Shadow some screentime with less tension and internal conflict. So both of them are actually locations that makes sense for Sonic to remember.
@@xscythe67 I’ve been hearing that a lot but I don’t see the resemblance Although there was a specific turn that reminded me of that stage Edit: okay, the second part definitely reminds me of Lethal Highway now
The "Eternal Highway Zone" had the best aesthetic. It was nostalgic and original. Sega should've used that design for all of the game's cyberspace levels. It matches Sonic's character.
Everyone upset that they reused old stages is forgetting one thing: This is an OFFICIAL Sonic Team game that has successfully implemented the boost mechanic into classic Adventure style stages. I see this as an absolute win
They just had to make the boost less powerful than it was in previous games… I see the boost in Frontiers as like the 3D counterpart to the drop dash. A instant burst in speed to keep momentum.
Man as much as I like the cyberspace levels, it's kind of a bummer that it's mostly recycled from older Sonic games. Thanks for making this video, I was curious as to how similar the levels were to the older games!
I know I should probably be talking about how lazy Sega is for doing this but honestly the Cyber Space levels reusing level design from previous games is really cool. Especially when it’s levels that were originally from non-boost games or Classic Sonic Generations levels because we get to see how these levels that weren’t designed around the boost formula translate into the boost formula (Sky Rail in particular works really well as a boost stage)
These cyberspace levels are coming from his memories, so it makes sense. In fact I never noticed that they shared similar level design except for maybe one or two levels. Is it lazy? I dunno. I just wish there were more than 4 level themes overall.
Guys, think about it this way; we got 30 forces size (length wise) stages, where 11 are unique and 19 are redos. The stages are designed better (and more open, at least compared to the last 10 years) so we get 11 decent stages in the game for those who want, plus updates on adventure 2 stages. I won't say SEGA should be able to get away with this obviously, but at least its a step in the right direction.
After thinking about this for a while, something clicked as I'm watching these comparisons. If Cyberspace was indeed pulling memories from Sonic's mind, then clearly, Sonic remembers Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary, and whatever the hell the City thing was the most out of any Zone in his life, the AI behind reconstructing these locations had the highest success and accuracy rate. However, given that it is clear that Sonic also remembers a few stage layouts quite well, but NOT the locations, the AI simply attuned what it believes to be the closest fitting locale for that layout. As for the ones Sonic wasn't present in (such as Shadow's stages), most likely they were pulling from other people's memories to fill in the gaps.
I'll be honest, as soon as I got to 3-6 and realized it was Rooftop Run Act 2 from Unleashed, I instantly got ptsd from how many times I died when I was younger.
those launchers man wtf The iconic part of rooftop run was the narrow alley side-stepping and the aqueduct chase They instead recreated the worst part!!!
The DLC version of that stage was worse, if you’re going for an S rank in that stage you better have a lot of lives because most of the DLC stages in Sonic Unleashed don’t fuck around, especially Dragon Road.
@@game84cube Most of the levels on the last island are original. I think only 2 out of the 9 there are reused layouts. They’re actually some of the best levels in the game, so it really makes me wish Sonic Team could have had the resources to make more of those instead of making worse versions of great old level designs.
I really wish that there were more level themes in Frontiers, cause most of the stages were themed like Greeen Hill and Chemical Plant, with a few looking like Sky Sanctuary or City themed
As far as I know the Cyberspace is Eggmans memory These are the most memorable stages for him: Green Hill: his first fight with Sonic Chemical Plant: Idk probably his favourite base that isn't in space Sky Sanctuary: His almost victory against Sonic, Tails and Knuckless and probably he thought Sinic was dead then (after the fight with Mecha Sonic) City: What if this is the city of his childhood? Make me think. Will we ever get a game about Eggman before he met Sonic? His childhood, how he learnt about the Emeralds Probably after the Colony ARK kaboomed he was younger than Maria. About 4 years I think. He probably was abandoned by his parents and raised in this City in an Orphanage. He was a very smart kid and was proud of his Grandpa he never saw, but heard about. He wanted to be like him. Because of his overweight, his smartness and because Gerald Robotnik became the enemy of the United Federation he was bullied by the other kids and called Eggman. One day he made an early prototype of the badnik (a Motobug, an Egg Pawn, or one of these things in the Sonic Movie) and attacked a kid. He ran away from the Orphanage. He travelled across the world, became evil and found his goal. He no longer wanted to be a scientist. He wanted revenge. He wanted to rule the world. He became popular. He was the Number 1 scientist who came out of nowhere. He was a millionaire. Then he finally had enough power to revenge. He found his bullies and killed them. Then he broke in his orphanage and killed some people. He killed the director that let the kids bully him back then. Then he saw a girl bullied by others. She looked like Sage and would later inspire him for making SAGE. Eggman decided to adopt her. Over time he became nicer, forget his evil side and lived a normal live despite leading Robotnik Industry and creating Goodniks. Again he wanted to become like Gerald when he was good and tried to find out what he did. Eggman made many expedition, found South Island and learned about ARK. G.U.N. found him and tried to kill him for destroying the Orphanage and trying to make experiments like Gerald. He escaped but SAGE was accidentally kill it. He lost his believe in humans, fired all his workers and got depression. One day he found a document of Gerald about the Chaos Emeralds. He had much money and Metal left, so he escaped to make a base on South Island and find the Emerlads. He build Scrap Brain Zone and tried to make a second space colony called Death Egg. Then he met Sonic on South Island. Sonic came up with the name Eggman and Eggman remembered how the kids called him Eggman. Sonic defeated Eggman (Sonic 1) but Eggman survived. Then the other games happen. To make kt short Eggman forgot Sage and humanity and over the time he get obsessed with the idea to defeat Sonic.
There’s two sides that I have on the cyberspace levels, on one hand it is incredibly lazy and uninventive that the level designs are mostly reused as well as the themes, however, on the other other hand, it makes sense to introduce new sonic fans to good level design even if it’s just in chunks, so when the next game eventually rolls around, there might be brand new level design that is on par with what generations and unleashed had to offer. In a sense, it’s sort of like a soft reboot.
This is such a good video, thank you for putting these together. I'm less familar with Generations and Unleashed than I am SA2, so I had kind of a funny sensation playing the game and near-instantly recognizing the SA2 levels, and then watching this and just seeing Frontiers levels when I'm watching you play the zones they're referencing 😋
Sure love Sonic Team's excuse for reusing level layouts and Gens' level themes is that it's "Sonic's distorted memories!!!!" when the last couple are primarily brand new, some are ones you played as Shadow in the OG, and the 4th level theme is a brand new city vaguely resembling Speed Highway
For me, I'd take reusing good levels in the past over creating new, but boring and dull levels like Forces did. I just wish it wasn't overpopulated with the first 3 Generations locations, even if I understand why they did it like this.
Sonic Veteran's will handle sonic really good because they are familiar with the layout of the Cyberspace Levels because its been CTRL + C then CTRL + V
I think the funniest thing to happen to me was when I was playing 1-7 and my sister walked in. She's not a huge Sonic fan, yet she looked at me play and said "That's based on City Escape, isn't it?"
The only thing I didn't like about the cyberspace levels is the chance of physics, they should have been the same as the open world. In story it makes sense they'd be build from previous levels and I'm kicking myself for not recognizing them immediately, I did recognize the Generations levels but it hadn't been THAT long ago when I last replayed SA2, I should have recognized them immediately.
I think that reusing the level designs is actually much more clever than simply remaking a level one-for-one. For instance, many of the levels that were "reused" had portions of them taken out and moved to other levels. That would require them to look at the old levels and find a way to recreate the levels in unique ways that didn't just make them 1-to-1 copies. While I do have a few issues with these Cyberspace levels, I wouldn't exactly call them "lazy." P.S. - One thing I noticed is that while Sonic supposedly knows each of the areas he's going through, a few of them (as shown by the video) are ones that only Shadow went through in SA2. I guess they overlooked that part :)
Lazy or not this is a definite love letter to the fans for how they implemented old stages as boost levels. Especially the adventure stages. I swear I felt my inner child remembering the routes despite how different it looked. I applaud them. 👏
I think it'd have been to keep the number of the cyberspace level on the screen while you play the footage as well. Man when you compare the speed and physics of the gens level, it just looks so much worse, like they had to change the curves of the slopes just because they could'nt work.
I remember playing through these particular levels that I would see if I could take the alternate paths from their original games and be giddy knowing the devs were expecting players to do so. When I went through Green Hill Zone Act 2, my first though was "can I still stomp down at the Buzzer bridge to the faster path towards the end?" That's when I knew the level designers paid careful attention to what works for each path (and what helps get S-Rank). Seriously, The moment I recognized the starting layout of Chemical Plant Act 2 I immediately jumped to the left path.
It is refreshing to see sonic levels that are non linear and have multiple paths you can take in 3D. Even if they are just recycled from adventure 2 I’d still take remakes of adventure 2 levels over whatever sonic forces did. I wouldn’t mind seeing more adventure 2 styled levels moving forward since they are fairly fun to run though again. I really hope sonic team did this as an exercise in good level design and how the levels from unleashed and adventure really are
Sonic Team doesn't want to acknowledge Sonic Adventure 1's existance. Sonic Adventure 2's Sonic levels were far more linear than the ones from Sonic Adventure (Speed Highway, Skydeck, Red Mountain...). Sonic Adventure 1's Sonic controls are more fluid than Adventure 2.
@@saricubra2867 considering that the Knuckles prequel short and his storyline from Frontiers draws heavily from SA1 (both even have Tikal in) the idea of Sega 'not wanting to acknowledge the existence' of SA1 is pretty laughable. It was also represented in Generations which is only three main series games ago.
A lot of people compare Frontiers to Unleashed and I get why cause of the different collectables, Combat and Boost stages but it also has things from the adventure era like the spamable spin dash and multiple playable characters and They nailed it!
I feel like this perfectly showcases the problem with cyberspace Even though it's the same level there is a visible speed difference between sonic in unleahsed and this game because the camera is slower and alot less dynamic as well as sonic's animations being stiffer and looking weightless
I played the whole game having played Sonic Adventure 2 and generations before multiple times. I did feel that feeling of deja vu, but never guesses the level design was exactly the same. Very interesting what they did.
I know people would call it lazy, but it's just like in the song "LIVE AND LEARN Hanging on the edge of tomorrow LIVE AND LEARN By the works of yesterday" Also it make sense for lore. I don't played it to end, but I think the Cyberspace was created by Eggman's memory. Not the void itself but the layout. Eggman remembered a few things and his memory messed it up a bit.
i always though the adventure formula and boost formula arent THAT different, just adventure is sometimes more "tight" especially in SA1, but SA2 are very hallway levels, thats why it works well with boost... overall boost is just an instant and permanent spindash.... they just nedded better turning when perform it to make it work perfect with SA2 levels... hope this inspired the level designers for a future games, and expand more the level design with new things that surprise us... and just hoping they made the stages a bit longer...
I never understood one fact about two of these levels… all of them are taken FROM SONIC’S MEMORIES, some as the Act 1 and Act 2 from Gens can be explained like they’re saying Classic and Modern Sonic are back to one Sonic again. But Radical Highway and Sky Rail? We know those are SHADOW levels, Sonic wasn’t there before, how does he remember that?
Honestly Sonic is such an adventurer that I can hand wave that away as "He probably went there at some point and we just didn't see it". He does technically go there in the 2 Player mode of SA2, though that's hardly canon lol. I have more of an issue with the classic Sonic stages from Generations, since they've been saying that Classic Sonic is either from an alternative timeline created by the events of Generations or just straight up another Dimension. Sonic having these memories means the Mania timeline still ultimately goes through the exact same modern events in order for Frontiers to work, which also means that Mania Sonic lived through the events of Forces twice. Ugh, Sonic continuity makes my head hurt sometimes, best not to overthink it.
The memories thing is just an excuse to put no effort into the cyberspace levels. They can't even bother remembering that some of these stages weren't played by Sonic.
@@charms7232 Indeed, that is the cold truth behind it. At the same time, I wish they went further with it. Only really using levels from SA2, Unleashed and Generations? Come on. How about some Heroes or Rush levels, or even some 06 levels? Copying stage design sucks, but if you're going to do it you might as well reference more than 3 games.
Plus the highway stages being new make no sense, since it completely defeats the purpose of the context to the story where Cyberspace pulled Sonic’s memories and everything he remembers is played again. Also get rid of Green Hill and Chemical Plant and replace them with Frog Forest and Dragon Road.
I honestly think it’s cool that level layouts throughout the series is sneaked into the cyberspace levels, I don’t see it as lazy or whatever because the feel of the controls is what makes the experience different, yet you still get the familiarity of just how the layout is.
It's insane to me that people are accepting and even praising the blatant and cheap reuse of multiple old level designs... If any other company or franchise did this, they would be laughed out of the room. But because this is sonic, people just accept it...
I looked very carefully, and these levels might seem familiar 1-3 has segments of sweet mountain 2-3 rooftop run act 1 3-4 windmill isle act 3 3-5 Savannah citadel act 2 4-2 could be speed highway or Empire city act 3 4-3 tropical jungle 4-4 new? 4-5 new? 4-7 through 4-9 new?
People call it lazy or dumb to reuse level designs if you’ve recognized them but they already explain why most of them seemed familiar to sonic, despite the way they look. It’s all from his memory so the Cyberspace used that on him.
Seeing all this makes me wonder, could we not have gotten actual new levels instead? Its a crazy thought, I know! But this is one of the big things thats putting me off buying Frontiers, because if I was wanting to play these old stages, I'd just play the actual games they came from. Plus new stages would be better than continuing to perpetuate the idea that Sonic is becoming a nostalgia act to himself, given how often we're seeing the same old levels time and time and time again with Generations and Mania, and now we're taking a walk down memory lane for a third time in 11 years. Surely there must come a time when one must ask, what good is a world where Green Hill goes on forever? That sounds pretty lame.
@@Tritnew optional or not, it doesn't change the fact its still in the game as Sega continue to cling to nostalgia like an addict with this, again, being third time of doing this in 11 years. When what they could have done instead is make more combat focused levels, like the Werehog stages from Unleashed, where you would fight more than one enemy type at once, so to properly take advantage of the cool combat system and allow for more stylish play. I really don't get why when fighting regular enemies they aren't allowed socialize, as you're only stuck to the one type, and only that one type at once. Meanwhile Devil May Cry doesn't do this, Bayonetta doesn't do this and (Sonic) Unleashed certainly do this, and that was 14 years ago. And when I say like the Werehog stages, I don't mean copy and pasted Unleashed ones, I mean new stages for the new game. Also, the time spent making Cyberspace could have better spent fleshing out the open world, and maybe making it fully 3D, rather having those forced 2D sections here and there. Because whatever happened to 3D Sonic games that were actually fully 3D?
Or at the very least replace Green Hill and Chemical Plant with Frog Forest and Dragon Road, since Sonic Team will never stop taking a break from nostalgia.
Thanks to Forces, we know the level designers at Sonic Team aren't good. Them very blatantly copying level designs was probably the best thing they could've done.
I gotta say, for all the reused level aesthetics being Green Hills, Chemical Plants, Sky Sanctuaries, and random cities, they did a good job mapping each theme to each layout's original stage. Only ones I'm iffy about are Green Forest (hills and forests are pretty different themes lmao) and especially Savannah Citadel (part of me thinks using the Forces Green Hill would've worked better if they had to pull from A Green Hill at all since the sand would've looked like barren land). I do wish they had more level themes at all, though. They're reusing City Escape's layout from SA2 when Generations, where they clearly pulled most of the other themes, literally has City Escape as well, so what was stopping them from pulling that one? Could've even pulled in Seaside Hill for Windmill Isle (and maybe Dragon Road?) to avoid being too Green Hill y. Also it makes no sense lore-wise for modern Sonic to go through Gens' Classic Sonic's stages. Or Shadow's SA2 stages, for that matter.
Classic Sonic is Modern Sonic from the past Sonic went through Radical Highway in Generations 3DS Sonic was going to go through Sky Rail originally in SA2, so who’s to say he never visited?
@@UltraSTH Classic Sonic was Modern Sonic until Generations itself happened, meaning Modern still never visited the actual Classic layouts of the stages themselves. (Remember: the events of Generations themselves felt weird to the Classic crew as well according to Classic Tails, meaning they aren't part of the existing past of Modern, as otherwise Modern Sonic AND Modern Tails would've remembered these events) The canonicity of Gens's 3DS port is already questionable as is. And if we never KNOW he actually visited, then it's safe to say he hasn't.
Replace Green Hill and Chemical Plant with Marble and Emerald Hill, add in Hill Top, Grand Metropolis, Casino Park, Windmill Isle, Savannah Citadel, and Cool Edge, and just name the city levels Skyscraper Scamper since they look identical to it.
@@calebproductions1264 Honestly, if they add the ressources to model them, yea I'd have taken that lineup. Most of them would need an upscale at the very least, if not brand new models (Marble [the only existing ones are Minecraft and Lego], Emerald Hill and Hill Top [I highly doubt they're taking these ones from Roblox of all places], Grand Metropolis [hasn't been seen since the GameCube]). With minor tweaks, the city levels could easily pass as Skyscraper Scamper (if they weren't already). Only one that could be done easily is Casino Park, thanks to Team Sonic Racing, of all things.
one thing i dont understand,these cyberspace levels are inspired in old levels,because in the lore,they are based in Sonic's memory. THEN WHY ARE SHADOW'S STAGES HERE?
You know, I was right there with everyone else talking about how this game reusing level design was bad, but after playing the game, it made for a surprisingly fun experience to try and guess which came from where. That might just be because this is my first time picking up a Sonic game in about a decade, so I've had time to forget a lot of stuff. I can see why long time Sonic fans would not get as much enjoyment out of it as me.
Even though their Aesthetics were gutted, I think Green Forest and Metal Harbor both were represented pretty well all things considered City Escape though... Yikes what a faceplant
While I may have some problems with the cyberspace stages, I will give Sega/Sonic Team credit for making stages that, should the player have the skills to do so, are able to be sped through with little to no stopping required, without the stages themselves being so brain dead in terms of player input.
What interests me is that there's a slide mechanic but to my knowledge, even after beating the game, not once even in these stages where it could be used is that mechanic ever needed or used...
man... After this I have such a weird feeling... I almost wonder if it was harder to reconstruct them rather than just reuse some of them. And honestly I dislike the aesthetic aswell so it feels like whatever effort there was in remaking atleast some of the more recent boost levels was wasted... The greenhill act 2 comparison really does put it into perspective. They both have the greenhill zone aesthetic but look at how much more there is going on for the original. The grass feels so vibrant and colorful. The terrain feels less standardized and is just rough and course and feels like it's part of nature. Just look at the loop de loop at 2:19 there's patches of the road kinda making there way into the grass. The checkboard pattern on the sides also seem to sit higher and kinda feel like it's holding the dirt in like it's a brick wall kinda keeping it contained. The cave aesthetic being gone and being an open view to the cyberspace level during the rail section also just really put's it into perspective how the same concept with a difference in execution can really change something. There's a part of me that hopes that a modder will be able to pull something where you can like replace the cyberspace levels with their originals to some extent? I think the idea of cyberspace is good and I kinda like the concept of going down memory lane... But I feel like generation pulls off that idea waaaaaaay better and add's so much polish where as the cyberspace levels feel lacking? They just don't have any of the pizzaz the original had even when they aesthetics line up. I get that you could even argue that's the point of this aesthetic where everything is copy and pasted from his memmory and cyberspace is building a rough outline with hacked up and chopped of assets so to speak to potentially save on power... But it just feels like it lacks the energy the originals had and I just can't bring myself to enjoy it as much.
So about 1/3 of cyberspace is original level design. Of the remaining two thirds, half of them are taken from either Adventure 2 or the Classic Sonic stages in Generations. I'd say those reused level designs aren't somewhat justified since they're taking level designs that didn't originally have the boost gameplay. It is still a bit lazy, but the difference in gameplay does make them feel a little bit fresh. They should have leaned more on that if they were going to reuse level designs Why limit yourself to just Adventure 2 and Generations Classic levels? Heroes level designs would fit in brilliantly with the boost. Adventure 1 and Lost World levels could have been fun to see in that style as well.
Well at least there was a story reason for this. And since Sonic has been to Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary and City areas the most, those areas are engraved in his brain.
I feel like the fact there isnt more than 4 lvl themes is because of how small the team was for the game only being 60 i think the next game if they do have these kinda lvls we hopefully will have more themes to go with
Naw 60 employees working on this game isn’t the problem, it’s that they could’ve just simply not reuse Green Hill and Chemical Plant for the millionth time and replace them with 2 other old stages we haven’t had yet, not wasting their time making garbage like tsr, colors ultimate, and origins, and simply not become lazy and fix a lot of shit in this game.
Why do Sonic Team keep finding excuses for making Green Hill the first level of every game since Generations? Nobody wants to see it again at this point. If they really had to work with past level themes, why not ones that haven't made any reappearances, like Marble zone, Quartz Quadrant zone, Twinkle Park, Eggman Land.
I mean cyberspace is supposed to be taking the layout from Sonics memory, so it kinda makes sense that the levels are laid out similarly to older places he’s visited. The only issue with that is that some of the levels copy Shadow’s stages and not Sonic’s
Yes the aesthetics are lazy but the actual level designs? In casw it wasn’t noticeable, they had to go out of their way to alter these levels whether it was moving up a specific set piece, rearranging things out of order, or completely cutting a chunk out and merge what’s left together. That’s not laziness. That took actual effort to do.
I kinda thought there was some budget issue seeing as only 4 Bases were used as level backgrounds or they seemed more concentrated on exploring and battle than level design i think it's an okay game but hopefully some positive feedback and sales from this game is enough to get a more in development game next time
I dont know how anyone can defend this. Reusing levels is lazy, I dont care how much yall like SA2 levels. If I wanted to play City Escape, I'd just go play SA2, and not a cheap knockoff version of it in Frontiers.
The Adventure levels should stay separate from boost formula in my opinion. It doesn’t work at all with a stiff turning circle and constant automation. Seeing Adventure levels recycled but not playing the same made me just wish even more that they’d ditch the boost and go back to great control.
