I'm pleasantly surprised if SADX fixed this, but in SA, in Windy Valley you reached a tornado *loading time* then you get through the inside of the tornado *loading time* then appeared in a completely different area with cheesy music.
Now in Sonic06, we see Sonic grab onto an eagle. The eagle flies him a little, then the game is interrupted by a 'now loading' screen. When it's done, Sonic appears in a completely different area, on the ground, with the eagle nowhere in sight. Ugh. But this will be fixed in the final release... right? The gameplay in the demo wasn't finished yet, right? Only which parts are finalized and which arent...
I approve non-Sonic gameplay in the games, but I generally prefer if the characters have some speed, although not as fast as Sonic. But it doesn't really matter. As a fan, I really want character's speeds to be consistent from one game to another, and it would drive me nuts when they make everyone else Sonic clones. (Sonic Advance anyone?) The best non-Sonic stages are the hunting stages starring Knuckles, to me that was a pretty clever and it was addicting.
"Time-attackers are rewarded instead of ignored" Time attackers aren't ignored since you have a time bonus and your best time is recorded. Ultimately, the score which combines time and completion together, is much more interesting, and any good racer is capable of doing well enough to get the highest rank anyway. It only applies to the game's ranking system, and, in terms of replay value, having it based off score is just fine.
Heroes was not the most serious/franchise-defining release. The game was good considering its gimmick, imo. Controlling one character is best, but that doesn't mean we should hold every single Sonic game to that standard.
1. After Sonic spins around in the tornado for a few seconds, the camera changes
to show him inside it, and area 2 appears at the exact time that the camera changes.
The short pause might have something to do with setting up some little details, but I'm not sure.
(It comes about 2 seconds late in Speed Highway.)
When Sonic jumps out of the tornado, it does the same camera change and pause as before,
and Sonic lands in area 3 (The Air),
which happens to have pretty good music (which is actually from Sonic 3D Blast).
Check out any of the DX videos (Windy Valley for example).
2. Okay, that's a little dumb, but at least it's not super embarrassingly glitchy.
That's just like... uh, what game does that, anyway? (I thought there was something.)
3. I don't mind as long as they're actually running. Amy moved at about a human's walking speed in SA,
and then she was suddenly going fairly fast in Sonic Heroes. (still not fast, but more than fast enough for a game to be fun)
Knuckles's stages would have been great if they had been like Sonic's.
Even the hunting wouldn't have been terrible if they had just set 1 position for each Emerald piece.
And then, as if the randomness wasn't bad enough, SA2 brought in some huge stages.
4. The time is recorded, but the ranking system rewards scores alone.
The time bonus isn't nearly enough, especially because restarting (which is almost always necessary
for the fastest times) resets the score to 0. I don't like that the game acts as if I'm no good
just because I set a time record instead of a score record,
and it also bugs me that there are so many missions to play for scores.
(A score-based system wouldn't be so bad if there was only 1 mission, although I still say that
my 1-mission system that rewards times, rings, and scores (with times being most important) is the best.
5. Yeah, I still think of Heroes as a kind of spin-off... like some typical so-so, multiplatform
game with the now-much-too-common gimmick of teamwork.
I'm still waiting for a Sonic Adventure 3, and this new game had better not be it (unless it comes to Revolution later).