The Insta-Shield is a pretty good forgotten mechanic in my opinion. It’s only been in a couple of games, but that feeling when you perfectly time an A-press and get a hit on a spiked enemy is amazing.
I like to think there's a timeline out there where the Sonic Adventure team used the insta-shield's bigger hitbox to relieve the difficulty of landing on enemies in 3D space instead of the homing attack. I don't dislike the homing attack but I just wish it wasn't such a prevalent source of automation for the series. C'est la vie
Imagine if they brought it back but kept the homing attack, but slowed down the homing attack and made instashirld the faster option that lets you keep more speed Basically a risk/reward option and it keeps the homing attack being viable as an option for movement in air and if you want to be a little more careful around enemies
The summersault kills your momentum because it was intended as a cancel. I used it a lot growing up, especially on levels like Sky Rail (although that was technically Shadow, but same moveset), and have always been surprised by how many people DIDN'T do this. I believe it served the same purpose in Advance, but I also forgot about that game until you brought it up so I can't be sure. That said, you're 100% right it shouldn't have been on the same button as the ring dash.
That, and you can do a backflip out of the somersault-slide transition to get to a higher path that you missed or dodge an enemy attack while it's active. This can only be done in Advance 1 though since in 2 and 3 the Slide activates almost instantly.
Badnik Bouncing is a forgotten mechanic last seen in Sonic Colors and the Classic games. It was dominant in speedruns and I would like to see it return.
@@aqilbinhamzah but what if you’re trying to jump over an enemy, and aim assists changes your trajectory towards the enemy? Idk, that could cause problems
I actually really like how they did the grind rail jumping mechanic in Shadow the Hedgehog. There was a risk involved because it would make you move *really* fast.
It's technically not a lost mechanic, but the minor variation with how the jump dash was handled in the Advance/Rush games is my favourite move that Sonic has ever had. It's effectively the perfect offensive and speed technique, where the lack of a delay (and the shoulder button placement in the case of Rush) makes Sonic intuitive and easy to maneuver while still demanding some challenge to master. The three small hops/jump dashes required to reach max speed are so much fun to execute, and the lack of a visual stimuli when using the dash as a homing attack requires you to play the game with a clear idea of where you want Sonic to go.
Talking about the sweep kick and it's potential as a combat move, look no further than Shadow's sweep kick in his campaign in P06. That sweep kick is what it should have been in terms of range and usability (although, I would make it's range much more smaller as an AoE attack for Sonic, since he's a more Speed focused character) Edit: Btw, nice Doom sound effects there!
One mechanic I would like to see brought back for a Sonic game is Time Travel like in Sonic CD. I feel like it could allow for some new storytelling and gameplay opportunities to be explored that they couldn’t do back then, especially within the open world.
The move in Lost World isn't really the somersault, its the Roll. Rather than an attack, the Roll is a mobility option designed to handle terrain like sticky goop and ice. The Roll's controls and speed will remain consistent regardless of the terrain, which helps get through the goop in particular. For the ice though, just walking is fine. It also doesn't have a limited period of time, you can keep rolling around for as long as you want. On account of having entirely different functionality, it probably deserves to be a separate ability. It definitely does work for what its intended for, even if that intention is extremely difficult to parse, and it isn't an active detriment like the somersault is in hindering one's ability to spindash. So, probably like, C or B? Its reliant on mobility restraining terrain for it to have any use case, which isn't a very fun mechanic in general, so I'd probably lean more to C
I'd like to add three more: First, the Midair Spin Attack from Triple Trouble. Pressing jump in midair after bouncing off a spring or walking off a ledge causes him to curl into a ball briefly to attack enemies. I'd put this under A tier because while it can save you from a lot of cheap shots, it's not as versatile as Advance's trick system. Super Peel-Out from CD. It's just the modern Spin Dash, just without the spin. Granted, the fact that Sonic runs instead of rolls means that he actually has traction, and if you need to attack you can just tap down, but I'd put this under C tier. Finally, the Strike Dash from Triple Trouble. Imagine the Super Peel-Out, but with momentary invincibility at the start of the dash, doubling this as an attack. I can see how this would've been useful for the screen crunch of the Game Gear, but otherwise it's just a better Peel-Out with a less exciting animation. Putting this at C tier.
Definitely style points from adventure 2 and 06. Rewarding combo chains, taking harder routes that might not necessarily be faster, going out of your way to do tricky jumps like in pyramid cave. It greatly adds to the variety of getting ranks in stages beyond simply beating it with a specific time.
With that thumbnail I thought you were gonna talk about actual mechanics, as in their profession😂. Came here expecting some in-depth analysis of Tekno the Canary, OG Cliff from Rise of Lyric, Rotor etc, how dare you bait me like that I won't be able to recover from this!!!!!
If I had to get ANY mechanic back, I'd want the Jump Dash from Adventure to Shadow the Hedgehog back, or maybe make the Air Boost like the Jump Dash. Seeing it used in Speedruns (Especially P-06's ability to refresh the jump dash with other moves), I would honestly want something like that, or a means to refresh your Air Boost in a way that makes it enticing to master in order to give skill ceilings to the games again. Another one I'd wanna see back is the Triangle Jump, but mix it with the Parkour of Lost World to give some interesting timing-based risk/reward platforming.
The super peel-out is....a mechanic too in the hit game sonic CD I think it can be pretty cool to have a move that gives you maximum speed especially in an open zone-styled game.Maybe it can be changed to were it's charged WHILE walking/running so you don't have to stop everytime you wanna do it and if you hit ANYTHING you loose all of your rings that would be kinda interesting
Outside of all the moves in games like Sonic Battle. One mechanic I’m surprised I haven’t see mentioned at all is the Sonic Wind/Tornado since it was an ability he had stuck with from the Adventure era up to Sonic Rush.
A mechanic I haven't seen come back that I would love to see back in a new sonic title would be the Super-peel-out-figure-8-infinity-sign-dash that I've only seen the fan games do in 3D and Mania do in 2D, It could be a big time saver and a cool way to gain maximum speed quickly in a 3d environment like frontiers, as long as you don't get hit that is.
the sweep from unleashed is mainly meant for hub worlds, which is why generations removed it and crawling is for passing slide obstacles faster if you don't make them, since backing up and running for a slide is tedious, and sliding from a standstill takes just as long
I wonder how Grindrail balancing would feel like in a modern Sonic game also wouldn’t Sonic Lost World’s parkour system be considered forgotten as well?
I feel like the somersault slide, the crawl and the sweep slide all try solve the same problem, but with a lot less regard for conserving momentum. Getting through a crawl space and conserving momentum, and a quick momentum change from a slow speed or movement cancel maybe shouldn't be tied to the same action. taking a page from quake 3 might help, the crouch would let you keep the momentum you've built up in a slide, but can let you get out of it fairly quickly again to build your speed back up.
Triangle Jumps in Heroes felt pretty neat, specially once you realize they were inspired by CD's intro, that version of the wall jump wouldn't return until Sonic Lost World, big fan of how it feels like an improvement in the 3DS version (it was also in Shadow the Hedgehog, but that version felt nerfed, even if technically less limited)
In regards to rail balancing, I do like being able to boost to go faster, so I think it'd be the most fun if you were required to balance in order to stay on the rail, but you could still choose to boost, making it faster but harder to balance. Like when you turn a corner with speed in a car.
Sonic Adventure 2's Magic Gloves for sonic. I always found them unless since you can only get them after getting the flame bracelet. Oh and to add to the summersault, after pressing the actions button twice to do the summersault, hitting jump at the right time makes sonic/shadow jump back a bit.
I remember two forgotten mechanics from Sonic games that I really miss one is from SA2 the doble jump, and in Generations when Sonic used to break dance at the end of each level
Of course, one would need only tap an action button for the insta Shield, hold it without directional input for the drop dash, and hold it with directional input for something called an aero dash, which one sufficiently charged up can be released in any direction facing somewhat forwards for a ludicrous airborne burst of speed in that given direction.
Man, I got pretty disappointed WHEN YOU DIDN'T POINT OUT SONIC RUSH HAVING THE TRICKS why Sonic Rush so underrated 😞 Really though, I think tricks were more important in Rush since that's how Blaze could keep with Sonic at times. While Sonic was faster, Blaze had this end of trick dash that shot her in a pretty far distance. If I knew this when I was younger, I would've destroyed a cousin of mine that wouldn't pick anyone but Sonic cause his excuse was "It's my game and I want to play Sonic."
With grind rail balancing it was so forgotten that the developers didn't even think to test it in Battle, causing Battle's implementation to be extremely sensitive to even the slightest nudge of the analog stick
I like the sweep in sonic unleashed because I really like the idea of useless moves that serve no other purpose other than making sonic look cool while blasting through the level. like that rail hop that sonic can do for no reason at all. Also I wish they brought back the rail balance thing. but fixed the way it works so it feels much tighter.
I have no clue what you'd call this but in Sonic Rush's boss stages there was a mechanic where the more hits you took from the boss the farther and quicker your rings would scatter, it was a pretty smart way to lower the cheapness of the "one ring rule" in boss encounters where you could just tank as much damage as possible with no consequence. As far as I can tell this was abandoned after the Rush games, unfortunate too because most of Rush's bosses were pretty lame ngl.
Sonic’s slowed down time before but what if he had a bullet time/ultra instinct kinda thing? He’d sneeze like he does in lore and for a brief moment, all the chaos around him slows to a crawl while he still moves in normal time.
Not a Sonic mechanic but while playing as Knuckles with certain partner combinations in Sonic Advance 3 you could cling to a wall and spindash up it. Perfect, no changes, bring back Knuckles and his wall spindash please.
I hope in the next game, sega brings back the Unleashed style qte's. I'm surprised u didn't bring it up during the section when you talked about air tricks to keep momentum and reaching faster routes. The Unleashed qte's always felt satisfying to pull off, and I think it would be a great, fun mechanic to bring back.
The sweep is a shorter slide. To get out of the slide, you need to jump, while the sweep finishes on it's own and allows you to continue maintaining speed
Frontiers was intended to have freeform drifting, but 1: They couldn't get it to control right by release (you can tell in that drift Cyberspace mission that it feels like garbage) and 2: It had very few real use cases in the game.
Ngl summersault and slide shouldn’t exist point blank period. Sonic’s whole design is that he’s an animal that CURLS INTO A BALL-the spindash already does this as an attack and has helped him get into tight spaces so why they felt the need to complicate/slow down things is beyond me
The somersault can heck off, but personally, I think the slide could still be implemented, specifically as a braking mechanic for the spin dash/rolling. Extend the foot, slow down the roll; maybe have a little more control with the same amount of power!
The parkour system from Lost World. While it wasn't the best thing in the world it's pretty fun when it worked. And I feel Sega missed a huge opportunity by not implementing the parkour system into Frontiers. Just imagine instead of having to use grind rails and bumpers in order to get anywhere on the islands you could run/climb on the walls like you can in other games like Spiderman or Prototype.
Idk if this is a forgotten mechanic but the one thing I like brought back is mach speed from 06 since it really feels more of a evolution than the boost from previous games since at best speed is shown as a gimmick from previous games and the skill from mach speed is more for maintaining that speed from those split second decisions and the mach speed sections are more spectacle than the boost
I would put the ledge garb in A, because when ever I tried to just jump while touching the wall, Sonic almost always does a ledge grab and completely killed the speed
11:14 That's why I don't like the fangames that never utilise thier 27 Sonic-Only abilities in favour of Boost/Hold Right -to-Win . You can do so much with even something like the Sweep Mechanic .
I'd argue that Heroes has amazing rail grinding, right up there with SA2; Heroes's grind rails actually slow you down if you don't maintain balance, so there's actually about the same amount of skill involved as SA2's rail grinding Edit: Okay bro, quite meatriding adventure 2, you got the point across 60 seconds in
The sweep was very useful for me when there's many enemies close which happens a lot in DLC or with super small enemies like the Combot hands :T As enemies there are more violent than any Sonic Game and comes right at you even if you can Homing Attack or Stomp over them
somersault is only useful for breaking boxes obstructing your path that are too close to bottomless pits or something and you really do not want the extra speed of spin dash to break those boxes.
