While this game was probably of some considerable interest two years ago when it was announced, it is now entirely unremarkable. Gameplay is jumpy, the sprites are ancient, the backgrounds are from the Megadrive games... The list goes on. But I still think it's fun to play! :-)
Single Player Engine
SU3's engine supports three playable characters. Sonic doesn't do anything very interesting, Tails flies (badly) and Knuckles glides. All the usual stuff is in here: shields, invicibility, springs etc. Nothing at all to write home about. It
does support in-level bosses, which I haven't seen in any other SFGs - although this doesn't mean it hasn't been done before. Of course, you know all these things already - you've played the
demo... haven't you?
Sonic running through Flying Battery
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Data is saved for each character after every zone, Special Stage and some cutscenes. The cutscene data is used to track where and when Robotnik has appeared, and which characters saw him. The cutscenes change slightly according to this, the number of Emeralds collected by each character and how far through the game each character is. To reach the final boss, all players must beat their last level and all Emeralds must be collected.
Multiplayer Engine
Things get slightly more interesting here. The SU3 multiplayer engine uses the DirectPlay object (MOO is too buggy) to communicate over TCP/IP. The DP object is open source, and I intend to make some modifications, so hopefully we shall be saying goodbye to the dialogue box! Yay! :-)
The only MP mode I've started work on so far is a simple two-player racing game, in which you attempt to be the first to complete a given number of laps of a level. Hopefully, it'll all be done in realtime, but if lag mecomes too much of a problem, level completion times will be used to determine the winner. Switches within the level can be used to open and close bridges and so forth.
Knuckles next to a switch in the multiplayer Emerald Hill Zone
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I may also create a 'Capture the Flag' or 'Find the Chao' mode, but that all depends on what sort of a mood I'm in when the opportunity arises.
Megachao Linkup
Click here to go to the Megachao section of the booth.
Within the single-player game, there are a number of Sonic Emblems (gems in
Magicgrafx's Chaomega) which can be collected. These can be used to buy food for your chao in the Chao Garden. Also, Emeralds that have been collected in the main game can be given to chao, affecting their type and bonuses. There is also a secret Chaos type, but I'm not telling you how to get hold of one of those...
