My original addendum got deleted because I made a rude comment about Arzest and Sonic Team, so I'll omit that and just cut straight to the point:
Trip Mode is an utter travesty that only magnifies this game's problems.
While compared to the character-specific levels that are in the main story, the levels do use far more of Trip's moveset, this is countered by the fact that these levels are so haphazardly designed in ways that are incredibly dickish with no other purpose. The levels in Trip mode actively relish in bullshit, like springs that send you straight into instant death or having you fly into an enemy you couldn't see, which results in these levels feeling more prolonged than they already are.
While using Trip and the increase in obstacles does result in more usage of powers like Slowdown or the Beanstalk, these are still made situational because if you got all the Chaos Emeralds in the main story (which you likely would have given the game gives you ample opportunity to do so), you will have access to Trip's Super Form, which allows you to fly infinitely, taking the piss out of everything.
If it were just this, I would likely have kept my rating the same as I did initially, but the bosses are where Trip's Story truly falls apart. They're more prolonged and still have all of the problems that made them miserable in the first place. In my previous review, I had a comment that said that me saying "waiting in a Sonic game" is terrible. Still, my argument here is when the bosses are designed in a way that actively disregards your time and forces you to have to take an inactive role in damaging the boss, what else am I supposed to think other than that it's a waste of my time? Some of these bosses have downtimes where you can't damage them that range from 5-15 seconds and sometimes upwards to 25 seconds. On the Carnival Zone Act 3 boss, I spent 20 seconds in Trip's super form on top of the boss, unable to damage it. That's not good boss design, especially not in a franchise like Sonic, where in previous Classic entries, it was a viable strategy to try and multi-hit the boss to end it as quickly as possible.
The worst offender of all is Fang the Sniper, who, through some miserable circumstances, has been given the worst boss fight I've seen in a Classic Sonic game. The first fight with him isn't good by any means and has active sections just centered on wasting your time, but the second fight with him in Trip's Story is just one of the dullest, obnoxiously designed fights I've seen in this series, and I am not ashamed to say I haven't beaten it.
It is nothing but instant kill attacks and time-wasting. It is so utterly dull that I wonder what the developers were thinking, making such an atrocious waste of time. Not to mention, it's two phases for no real discernable reason. This brings me to my complaint about unlimited lives: They don't help.
The fact that I get no downtime between boss attempts serves to be more infuriating than helpful, and to top it off; it's fucking redundant in a game that HAS A HUBWORLD WHERE YOU CAN JUST WALK AND START THE STAGE AGAIN. It gives the devs an excuse to keep plopping out these miserably designed stages and fights that serve nothing but to infuriate and agitate.
I'm not finishing Trip mode; I've decided that, ultimately, it isn't worth it. Super Mario Wonder comes out today, and while I got fucked by the shipping, so I'm not getting the game for an extra day, I know that it will be far more worth my time and effort to play.
I have always been a Sonic fan since I was a three-year-old boy playing Sonic 2 for the first time. But if this is how Classic Sonic will be treated from now on, with this level of hollowness and utterly unpleasant design choices, then I firmly believe it should have died after Mania.
If this is the road we're going down, I hope I never see another Classic Sonic game as long as I live.
Trip Mode is an utter travesty that only magnifies this game's problems.
While compared to the character-specific levels that are in the main story, the levels do use far more of Trip's moveset, this is countered by the fact that these levels are so haphazardly designed in ways that are incredibly dickish with no other purpose. The levels in Trip mode actively relish in bullshit, like springs that send you straight into instant death or having you fly into an enemy you couldn't see, which results in these levels feeling more prolonged than they already are.
While using Trip and the increase in obstacles does result in more usage of powers like Slowdown or the Beanstalk, these are still made situational because if you got all the Chaos Emeralds in the main story (which you likely would have given the game gives you ample opportunity to do so), you will have access to Trip's Super Form, which allows you to fly infinitely, taking the piss out of everything.
If it were just this, I would likely have kept my rating the same as I did initially, but the bosses are where Trip's Story truly falls apart. They're more prolonged and still have all of the problems that made them miserable in the first place. In my previous review, I had a comment that said that me saying "waiting in a Sonic game" is terrible. Still, my argument here is when the bosses are designed in a way that actively disregards your time and forces you to have to take an inactive role in damaging the boss, what else am I supposed to think other than that it's a waste of my time? Some of these bosses have downtimes where you can't damage them that range from 5-15 seconds and sometimes upwards to 25 seconds. On the Carnival Zone Act 3 boss, I spent 20 seconds in Trip's super form on top of the boss, unable to damage it. That's not good boss design, especially not in a franchise like Sonic, where in previous Classic entries, it was a viable strategy to try and multi-hit the boss to end it as quickly as possible.
The worst offender of all is Fang the Sniper, who, through some miserable circumstances, has been given the worst boss fight I've seen in a Classic Sonic game. The first fight with him isn't good by any means and has active sections just centered on wasting your time, but the second fight with him in Trip's Story is just one of the dullest, obnoxiously designed fights I've seen in this series, and I am not ashamed to say I haven't beaten it.
It is nothing but instant kill attacks and time-wasting. It is so utterly dull that I wonder what the developers were thinking, making such an atrocious waste of time. Not to mention, it's two phases for no real discernable reason. This brings me to my complaint about unlimited lives: They don't help.
The fact that I get no downtime between boss attempts serves to be more infuriating than helpful, and to top it off; it's fucking redundant in a game that HAS A HUBWORLD WHERE YOU CAN JUST WALK AND START THE STAGE AGAIN. It gives the devs an excuse to keep plopping out these miserably designed stages and fights that serve nothing but to infuriate and agitate.
I'm not finishing Trip mode; I've decided that, ultimately, it isn't worth it. Super Mario Wonder comes out today, and while I got fucked by the shipping, so I'm not getting the game for an extra day, I know that it will be far more worth my time and effort to play.
I have always been a Sonic fan since I was a three-year-old boy playing Sonic 2 for the first time. But if this is how Classic Sonic will be treated from now on, with this level of hollowness and utterly unpleasant design choices, then I firmly believe it should have died after Mania.
If this is the road we're going down, I hope I never see another Classic Sonic game as long as I live.
Weatherby
4 months ago