Hello there, I am Sonik, but you know that by now. It’s that time again. The Sonic Amateur Gaming Expo or SAGE, for short. Where Sonic game devs or indie game devs show off their skills by making a game for SAGE.
As the Title says, I will be looking at Sonic ages and give my thoughts on it and what it did right, wrong and such.
So Sonic Ages, a Sonic fan game made in Unity engine and it does offer Xbox360 / controller support. Be warned, the game will be loud when you open it.
The game opens up with a beautiful Tutorial stage that is based on a pencil and paper theme, with Sonic being a sketch for this scene. It’s a short stage, though, it is meant to help you get used to the controls.
After completing the tutorial stage, we are off to “Seabed” zone. Our water level for this demo.
The seabed is your primary Linear stage. While there are routes you can go to, and even go on different paths of the scene, the level layout is ok, for what it does, it’s playable. You have the basics, falling platforms, Platforms, moving platforms, Enemy spawners, enemies, spikes and springs, and rings.
And, not to forget, this Sonic has the move set from Sonic 3, Sonic controls well, although he does carry momentum, this is a good and bad thing. You can gain speed at this stage, but this scene is built for platforming, not speed.
The seabed is an ok stage, but it gets the job done to give you a simple, of what is to come in the next release. This game has promise, but it needs work, a lot of work for this game to shine through.
And before I forget, the animation for sonic is nice, Though, at times it seems it would need more frames of animation to make it look smooth, not choppy. Sonic has a nice idle animation, and the running at full speed animation also seems nice.
I can tell that a lot of time went into the animations, and it shows. They are not perfect, they need a bit more work. But well done, some animations are still rough and unfinished, but this will change over time.
I guess I will talk about the bad and things I did not like about this game. I know the game will be rough but in SAGE, games need these type of reviews to give game devs an idea of what to fix, change, or improve on.
Seabed’s enemy placement often feels unfair and cheap, enemies can attack the player off-screen or they are placed in areas when the player has no time to react, which can result in potshots or cheap deaths. Below, is a good idea of what I mean.
Sonic I-frames, where after getting hit, the player is safe from taking more damage. But they are short, Like very short, this is a problem. With short I-frames, you can take hits from enemies that can result in cruel death, based on the enemy placement.
Should you get hit onto a spring, your controls are lock in place and, in some cases, your momentum will carry you off into a pit, which is an unfair death.
Overall, this game left me with mixed feelings. There are things I like, things I disliked, and things that left me a bit confused. Sonic Ages is a fan game that reminds me of the classic era of Sonic. Sonic 2 and Sonic 3, though, Sonic 3 is what they are going for, I assume, it gives me those vibes.
While the game has its flaws, I can’t be too harsh, as this is only a SAGE Build of the game and just so much could be done, It’s a fun demo, which has two zones for you to play.
I am no SAGE judge, but I wanted to give my thoughts on this game, or in this case, demo. I think I said what I wanted to say.
If you want to play Sonic Ages, go here. https://sonicfangameshq.com/forums/showcase/sonic-ages-sage-2017-alpha.43/
Sonic Ages does remind me of another Sonic fan game, that is based off the Sonic OVA. Titled “Sonic Freedom” While as far as I know, Sonic Freedom is still a proof of concept
Ony's chaos realm 