[Concept] Sonic Overdrive

[grahamf]

What is the one thing Sonic is truly known for? Not lumbering around, not puzzling, but going fast.


Let's return to this.

Sonic Overdrive will be a 3D game where the purpose is to get to the goal as fast as possible (and maybe collect one or two rewards along the way). Every run will be a speedrun with continual acceleration throughout the game. It requires a good memory of all the obstacles and paths ahead, along with hair-trigger reaction times to pull it off. 60fps+ would be almost a necessity for more experienced gamers to be able to even see where they are going, with every split-second decision counting. Less experienced players will still be able to play it, but they will be at the best of their abilities trying to keep up despite not accelerating as quickly.

There will be zero time spent exploring. Keys and other tricks can unlock shortcuts or boosts, but they will never require backtraking to get to. If you are unable to unlock a gate or whatever, you will not be forced to backtrack or stop but immediately be bounced to a different path and continue on. There will be no walking or stopping in this game, let alone going any direction but forward.

There will also be a bonus round where you are being chased by your own ghost run, and unless you are always ahead of your previous run you will die and fail the run.


Thoughts?

 

[Segata]

Isn't that just kinda Sonic Dash? Sonic was not created to be about speed. The Genesis games play with momentum in mind with branching paths. You have 2-3 different paths you can take and avoid obstacles and the better you do more momentum you get until you get speed. That is what Sonic should get back to. Lost World opening level had that idea as well. We have a million Sonic games just going fast and that's what has made it tired.

 

[grahamf]

So go faster. Make it more bullet hell. We already have enough lumbering platformers.

 

[Segata]

No..that's what helped kill the series is going faster as it's not good game play. It's lazy game design. Making Sonic less like Sonic is the problem.

 

[Jack Lovejoy]

That kind of design is fucking horrible. A platformer should have exploratory elements, which is what made Sonic him in the first place. Level design that is incredibly linear makes the game feel like a cheap interactive movie. Sonic Unleashed is an example of this. Daytime stages were exactly like what you said.