Sonic Project 06 and the Importance of Game Flow

2006's Sonic the Hedgehog is notorious for its numerous bugs and glitches interesting storyline and awful controls what was initially intended to be a major release for Sega in the early sixth generation consoles turned out to be a disaster and would forever damage the brand of Sonic the Hedgehog development of this game is pretty well documented as it's known that Sonic team was being crushed by deadlines that were completely unrealistic and were forced to create Sonic in the Secret Ring simultaneously for the Wii and the results speak for themselves although you'll find that the game has a lot more effort and passion put into it than most games of its caliber the extensive and detailed environments and the vast variety of characters and play Styles definitely stands out compared to other notorious releases such as Superman 64 with just flying through Rings or Duke Nukem Forever in its really outdated shooting mechanics the team behind Sonic 06 very clearly intended for the game to be a significant release yet was unable to execute that vision due to their circumstances the full vision of the game was buried underneath the mess of the actual release so the game was mercilessly ripped to shreds online and considered worthless and the lowest point in the franchise's history a mistake that other franchises would do well to learn from however some people did see the unrealized potential of the game enter chaos X Creator and director of Sonic project 06 the unity made Recreation of Sonic 06 for the ground dub for PC trying to finally realize the vision that was placed forward by Sonic Team all those years ago project 06 has received near Universal Acclaim from fans online even having its own Wikipedia page of all things it's been a real success for the Sonic fan game scene and has propelled chaos X into being a fairly respected indie game developer in his own right not just within the Sonic community and despite the foundations of each game being the exact same such as the level design stages character models everything has come together in Project 06 in a way that was never possible in the original release I've watched a lot of overviews and reviews talk about the fact that this game works in a way that the original didn't but not a lot more deliberation than that today I thought I would break down how I believe that project 06 Works in Sonic 2006 does not and it all comes down to game Flow game Flow is a relatively loose term that's thrown around a lot in reviews and can mean a variety of things such as immersion or guiding the player through level design but in this specific instance I'm talking about the type of flow that Gamers tend to associate with Sonic the Hedgehog ever since the original 2D titles Sonic gameplay is at its peak when the player is familiar enough with the stage and its hazards that you're able to just flow through a stage whizzing past enemies traps and feeling legitimately awesome with all that blast processing going on o6 while serving as a soft reboot for the series for newcomers also very much pays respects to the stuff that came before it by incorporating plot threads and characters from the games that preceded it sadly most of the characters featured in the game are complete downgrades of what came before stiff controls stiff jumps the moves don't flow into each other the way they did in the original games it in every way feels like a step back from what came before whenever you enter Sonic 06's predetermined Pathways and dash pads and loop to Loops only then does it seem to have even a little bit of flow and speed to it despite the game practically playing itself when actually platforming your moves interrupt your momentum you get thrown all over the place you hover an error when you're not supposed to none of it feels smooth to use and none of it is intuitive for the player to interact with their environment I believe that this more than anything else in Sonic project 06 has been the biggest and most important Improvement made by chaos X and the rest of the team the reworks they've done to everyone's movements and making it so that you're actually able to interact with the stages through the character's moveset makes it fun to do things that you would have never been able to do in the original game and makes a lot of the existing content that much more fun to experience it's easy to say that more time devoted to something would obviously have oversights handled such as Shadows combat being spamming only the a button for minutes on end to clear a room however chaos X wisely takes that base and adds in the chaos snap so now you're flying around the stage clearing entire rooms of enemies in mere moments chaos X not just fixes the moves but makes it so that they feel natural to use and complement the level design and environments of o6 for instance each of the three hedgehogs have their own two sidekicks that you will play as occasionally in each of their levels Sidekicks only appear in specific places and levels to break up the pace and switch up gameplay temporarily however when you're working with a game where Sonic wasn't even finished properly the rest of the cast has far more issues that make switching to someone else a nightmare when you're playing the original you start a level as silver who already doesn't control very well and then you're handed off to Amy who many believe to be the worst character in the game yeah it can sour the experience a little bit but in Project 06 when you're playing Dusty desert and switch over to Amy her revamped moveset and physics make her small gameplay segment really fun as the level design itself complements the moves that have been added by chaos X such as holding the x button to launch in the air with her hammer and then going into a double jump to keep that momentum going allows you to fly through her segment once you know how to use her it encourages the player to figure out and master a character's movement in attacks so that you're able to get through a stage as effectively as possible the game's dedicated speedrunning following is proof of that each aspect of project 06 as a game flows into the next perfectly and this flow has been what's achieved through the release of Silver's demo which each of the three main campaigns completed there's a balance between each campaign for the type of characters you use each campaign has a primary speed type a flight type a power type and silver with his Third campaign and his expanded move set complements the other two campaigns by being a little bit slower and a bit more methodical than either Sonic or Shadow by making you use the environment to fight your enemies a character that initially just exists as a tech demo to show off the Havoc physics engine actually can have a really fun gameplay Loop once you you know have actual working physics in the game and I think that this makes your reward for mastering silver so gratifying as once you have all the upgrades he can acquire he goes straight through enemies environments just as fast as Sonic or Shadow speaking of which Shadow has a unique moveset compared to previous entries with him that allows him to dominate combat and rip through waves of enemies like it's nothing the chaos snap the chaos Spear and the chaos blast all being examples of it and Sonic has his move set that's a fusion of his existing move set from Sonic 06 and moves from Sonic Adventure 1 and 2. you're able to spam and chain together spin dashes like in Sonic Adventure or you're able to use the bounce bracelet from Sonic Adventure 2 not just as a meme to get through shortcuts but also as an attack to kill tougher enemies you the player are able to mix around with each of the characters abilities and create your own shortcuts and paths through levels and honestly the level design is pretty clever in how it funnels the player into linear speed sections while also giving you the freedom on how you choose to explore it usually giving you a branching path or two or something a little bit more stylish like a chain of enemies to attack being able to choose what path you want to take and when makes the players experience far more engaging than almost anything in the original game even something as simple as adding in spin dash momentum makes levels like flame core flow incredibly well and make them very enjoyable to blast through and the work that went into characters doesn't just stop at the main three chaos X even went and added the moves from older games to the sidekicks to make it feel more like a proper follow-up to what came before Omega having a three-hit combo like in Sonic Heroes had me screaming especially when his representation in the original game is him T posing and Blasting lasers at monsters for minutes on end Rouge has her kicks from Adventure 2 and can use a series of bombs that shred through tougher enemies really quickly Tails has a spin Tech from Adventure 1 and Knuckles has the ability to dive and lock onto enemies with his screwdriver attack Blaze who already felt good to control in the original is a an absolute joy to use in levels that feature her the options you have for movement in combat are very Broad and it gives you a lot of ways to experience a level as a whole Sonic 06 has a lot of moments that feel like it's wasting the player's time forcing you to do something that you don't really want to do whether it be the terrible side missions in the Overworld or actually traversing the Overworld itself with your capped movement speed and very long load times with this project being focused exclusively on the action levels and just connecting them with a simple menu while adding narrative and cutscenes within those levels it feels like a much more focused and streamlined experience than what came before in fact project 06 has major differences with the original release and the way that it plays and presents content to the players which to some may seem like it's not really Sonic 06 anymore since its chaos X's Vision on top of Sonic team's Vision however I think that it more than earns its own Merit by actually feeling like an extension and completion of that initial Vision that was presented if the game performed like this and had this much time and effort put into how its own characters controlled and moved through the levels I think this game could have been a defining release on the early 6th gen consoles and would have propelled Sonic as a franchise into new cinematic Heights in fact this project seems to have nothing but reverence for that idea in and of itself it still uses the high octane pre-rendered CG cut scenes at the beginning of each demo and Chaos X continues to release Dynamic and high quality character renders that focus on making them look awesome in these levels I do it just goes to show how much he actually cares about the characters and the situations they find themselves in project 06 even has tons of little details and Easter eggs to reward you for exploring and looking through the levels I was able to find chaos zero in a part of Kingdom Valley and if you shoot at him with the hovercraft he leaves it's so cool that they thought to throw that in there the amount of care and quality of life improvements that have been put into this project is simply astounding not even just for the Easter eggs but down to the options there's all sorts of options and additions that honor the beta of Sonic 06 and what was originally intended for it if you're a purist that wants the game to look as much like its original demo at the TGs show go for it or if you want the game to be more like a proper follow-up to the adventure games and have the old jump ball and curved homing attack go for it it's in there in the options for you the amount of customization far outclasses even something like Sonic Frontiers and its movement sliders the player is truly allowed to make your own Sonic experience that gives a shine to the passion and creativity behind this project they know that different people like playing sonic different ways and the fact that there's all of these options to account for that and a huge test stage to test them out in the Sonic Community is so lucky to get something like this project 06 honestly has some more actual replay value than most official Sonic games as it gives you significant rewards for going through and getting s ranks on every single stage each character gets their own special reward for doing so Sonic gets the supersonic transformation Shadow is able to take off his inhibitor rings and enter a state of invulnerability and silver is able to do an AOE attack and automatically catch anything that comes close to him upgrades like this are only available if you S rank every single stage in their respective campaign and because of that I went back and played every stage over and over again until I could get the highest rank I could in doing so I got more comfortable with the mechanics and gameplay and got faster times and higher scores now I'm able to run through a level and get an S rank with my eyes closed and that's definitely not how it started the game encourages you to get better at it and I would say that that aspect further captures and emphasizes the amount of good game Flow that project 06 has it rewards you for doing well and encourages you to do well so that you the player want to go back and try that level one more time just to see if you can get that S rank s ranks and Sonic games are usually something I don't care about at all but because of the rewards you get and the fact that playing through the levels and getting those ranks was inherently fun I did it on every single demo I could it's an insanely rewarding experience playing Silver's campaign at the beginning and then again with all the upgrades I achieved felt completely different as the way I interact with the stage and groups of enemies is completely different between the bass move set and the upgraded move set that you're able to unlock by playing his levels project 06 has completely redefined the flow from the original and has shown that improving that aspect of a game can make all the difference because of that I think Sonic project 06 stands not just as a Triumph in the fan game Community not just a Triumph in the Sonic Community but as a standout in the Sonic series as a package something a newcomer can jump into and have a ton of fun with and something that a veteran Sonic player will be able to sink their teeth into and have a blast with experimenting and getting through levels as quickly as possible it isn't without its technical faults the camera especially gets stuck on things all the time and can mess with a few jumps hilariously some enemy corpses will freak out upon killing them and your partners will run around the stage at Mock speed sometimes trying to catch up to you leading to some hilarious visuals but honestly the game's flaws are so incredibly minor at this point that they just add to the charm of the experience and serve as a reminder that this was made by a handful of people that care a whole lot about a project that wasn't given nearly enough love by the higher-ups that ordered it after fully completing the latest demo it teases that the final story is coming but chaos X has also stated that he's planning to step away from the project for a while and honestly I think either way the Sonic Community will be in very good hands especially given the uh interesting title alluded to in the game's EXE I'm sure that chaos X has plenty to show the community still and I'll be watching his future with great interest I wish him and the rest of the team nothing but the best and oh my goodness that silver animation though oh my gosh hey if you made it through to the end thanks a ton for sticking around this is the first video on this channel and I'm hoping to upload a lot more especially about things in the fan game scene that's a real big passion of mine fan games indie horror all that so if that interests you why don't you go ahead and hit that subscribe button there'll be a lot more coming real soon and I can't wait to show it to you guys thank you for watching and have a good one

Channel: FallenEcho

Views: 35,360

Keywords: Sonic, Fangame, Fan game, Gaming, Games, Game essay, Video Essay, Sonic 06, Sonic P06, P-06, Project 06, FallenEcho, Shadow, Shadow the Hedgehog, Blaze the Cat, Tails, Knuckles, Game review, Sonic review, Project 06 review, Game flow, Game design, Game design essay, new channel, Sonic channel, Sonic fan game, Sonic fan game channel, Sonic fangame channel, Fangame review, Fan game review

Id: 87RThfNhC8c

Length: 16min 55sec (1015 seconds)

Published: Mon May 01 2023