Been playing this demo for a while now, and here's my thoughts:
The good:
- Just like the 2014 original, the graphics here look absolutely amazing. In fact, I've even noticed a few minor improvements over the original demo's Sunrise Gate, which I highly appreciate.
- The level design is absolutely brilliant, probably some of the best in Sonic fangame history. The levels feel so open and expansive while still staying true to many of Sonic 1's principles. I was initially skeptical over the combo mechanic, but the ingenious placement of enemies, rings and monitors lets you pull off some extremely satisfying combos.
- The GZ2 bossfight took me completely by surprise, but I absolutely adored it. If the final game will give us even more positive surprises like this, then I am 100% on board.
- I cannot put it into words how much I love the new SGZ1 theme. Enough said.
The bad:
- The game absolutely does have framerate issues. It runs just fine on my mid-range gaming PC, but seriously chugs on my store-bought consumer laptop.
- The physics leave a lot to be desired on some aspects. Those octagons in SGZ just tend to throw you off for no apparent reason sometimes, and while rolling in GZ, you sometimes stick to surfaces that you clearly shouldn't.
- Those title cards are really hard to read against the level backgrounds. There's a reason why the original demo had them over black backgrounds like Sonic 1. And on the topic of title cards, GZ2 was accidentally given SGZ2's title card.
- This is more of a minor thing, but the shield power up's sprite makes it too hard to see Sonic behind it. It's especially bothersome in cutscenes where Sonic is clearly supposed to be expressive.
- I don't really understand the whole "Saturn" thing. The graphics of this game, while absolutely gorgeous, don't really look anything like a 2D platformer on the Saturn would. Games like Astal, Super Tempo and Mega Man X4 are all characterized by really bright colors, large character sprites and wacky graphical effects, whereas Overture has small sprites, dithered colors and 32X-esque effects. The music also fights against the idea of this being a Saturn game, as the tracks are filled to the brim with Mega Drive instrumentation.
The weird:
- Just like in the 2014 demo, the last act of SGZ takes a completely different direction from the earlier acts. I get that it's inspired by Gold World from the Sonic 1 concept art, but several different sources claim that the original Overture team actually split it off into its own separate zone (called "Shining Zone") after the move from 3 acts to 2 per zone was made. I therefore expected this demo to do the same. If that were done, SGZ would feel a lot more coherent over all, and you wouldn't have to use two different level backgrounds in Act 1.
- Is SGZ2's music track a placeholder? It sounds very empty when compared to the joyous and lively Act 1 track, the midi-esque instrumentation is unlike any other track in the game and I don't think that it even shares Act 1's melody?
- For a very brief moment, Sonic's feet are missing in the title screen animation.
- Why do Act 2s end with a signpost after the capsule? That's a very strange and unnecessary design choice in my opinion.
Minor gripes aside, I'm very excited for the future of this project, and extremely grateful that such a wonderful game was brought back from the dead. I am eagerly awaiting for the next demo!