This game plays like Subway Surfers / Agent Dash with three "tracks" to run between. It's not like Temple Run - there are no tilt mechanics.
OK...extra stuff - It's basically Subway Surfers with a few extra mechanics (roll into enemies, springs where you swipe in the air to get power-ups) - You continuously build up a "dash" bar at the bottom which lets you blast through obstacles when activated - Every time you die you can continue via iAP, which means like TR you can buy a highscore - Spikes don't kill you straight off, but take away your rings. You have to bank your rings by stepping on the correct springs. Rings are obviously used for unlocks. - Amy is $4, Knuckles is about $6, Tails is about $5 - or you can earn their iAP currency at a horribly slow rate (there are two different iAP currencies - stars and coins) I won't be spending to find out if they play any differently. Honestly, I feel ripped off. It's not bad at all, but there's nothing more to it than several free endless runners on the app store. you won't be unlocking any additional characters for free anytime soon, all the power-ups are the same (speedy boots, super jump, ring magnet etc.). (Edit - yes there are extra zones to visit)
You didnt really expect characters unlocking themselves did you? But thanks for the info. Looks like auto-buy for me.
Inb4pricedrop......jk lol. The game looks good but I think the pricing is whack. It's essentially a freemium game, with freemium currency and mechanics but with a premium up front price. If it was free I would probably buy knuckles. I think I will give my 1.99 to Block Fortress.
No, but I expect the possibility of unlocking extra content without paying to be slightly more viable than it is with F2P games. The two seperate currencies is really annoying. You barely ever get stars (there's no way to collect them in-game, you just get rewarded them), and you can't buy characters with rings.
I had a lot of fun with Subway Surfers. I loved the swipe controls in that one, it got blazing fast deep into the game. The purchases for powerups and stuff didn't seem so bad at all.. only unlocking characters seemed to be a bit on the difficult to earn side. This looks like a nice similar game but with the ability to attack enemies and an entry fee to just play the game. As awesome as this looks, I'll wait for it to go free because it just looks like any other freemium runner to me and I'm kind of sick of playing runners.
Aw... now that worries me. Im fine with grinding, and i usually buy doublers if i like the game much to help with grinding and to toss a few bucks to devs. But this... It worries me.
Ok... First 3 games are... AWESOME! Basically it feels like Agent Dash at first, no denying that. Except that this has the bright colors and cheerful setting that the Sonic universe has. It's the same until... THE LOOPS. Looks too manly (well, sonic-manly) running through loops as the cam views zoom out and fly out in different directions. You can still switch lanes while looping. The segments are divided into something similar to Tiny Wings' islands. In between islands, depending on which springs you take to give you a boost to the next island, there are swipe mini games. Do it successfully and you get bonus rings. The only worrying thing is the push for IAP but so far, i dont think i need it. As mentioned by BoneyCork, the only way to earn stars is by completing missions, so im not sure how much they'd give you ingame if you intend to get all the characters unlocked. We'll see. Another thing that bothers me, but to a way lesser extent is that the ring doubler costs $4, and that's on top of the $2 youve already used to purchase the game. havent bought it yet, coz i want to get an idea how grindy the game would get, but im pretty sure i'll eventually get it. So far, i love it. Despite some similarities with other runners, Sonic manages to be different. With a $2 price tag for a runner game with SONIC in it, for me it's pretty damn worth it.
Hmm... To put it bluntly... The more i play it, the more it kinda sucks. Grinding is hard coz if you get hit by enemies during a run, your rings drop to 0. How the hell are you supposed to grind with that in the way? Also, there are TONS of cheap deaths and cheap-placed monsters that'll make you drop all your hard earned rings. Will play more, but it's slowly losing the fun factor the more i play it.
Thanks for your honest assessment! It's starting to sound more and more to heavily modeled on a freemium economic model that has me questioning whether I should even bother buying it at all! I may have to move this to my wait and see wish list rather than buy it tonight, which is fine since there are actually quite a few games I'm grabbing tonight (for a change, thankfully)!
^ Hey no problem. As long as it's a runner game im very willing to TOFTT and post imps. One of the best things in this game is the sense and feel of the Sonic that i knew and loved. But there are things keeping this from being great. It's good, but not great. To be honest, im not sure if i will recommend this right away, coz i smell freemium if this doesnt sell well. Or a drop to a buck at least. But right now, yeah the Sonic franchise is worth at least $2, but the fun factor drops a bit fast. EDIT... Im currently downloading Journey to Hell so i'll be posting imps on those too.
Oh boy, EP's comments have me scratching my beard quite a bit. I've avoided watching Sanuku's video out of anticipation for this, so I've gotta ask: Basically you "bank" your rings after crossing each island? The point of endless runners is to avoid death, right? If this is true to Sonic and you lose your rings when you die, just how do you keep them? >_> Also, does this mean that as long as you've got rings, you can keep playing the same run (provided you don't fall off)?
I've played so many runners in my time (as I'm sure most of us have) and this is the only one I've ever played where obstacle placement sometimes seems completely unfair. Especially with spikes...which conveniently rob you of an iAP currency every time you hit them.
See that's exactly how I'm looking at it. This looks like the first decent sonic game in quite some time (sure some love Sonic Jump, but really Sonic fans are hungry for just about anything remotely decent Sonic that anything at this point that doesn't outright suck is an accomplishment from Sega). This looks like it, looks like right atmosphere, it looks like it has the right kind of doing crazy but from all the description on the area of the in app currency model is making me very apprehensive especially after seeing the gameplay video and seeing first hand what you were describing about obstacles seemingly deliberately placed to cause emanate death (the end of Sanuku's vid emphasizes what you mention. I wanna bite, but I don't want a game that is going to start to feel like work to play, if you catch my meaning!
Well if you watch his video it pretty much shows exactly what EP was describing sadly... My excitement just went from peak to low with this title... I may play the sucker card and still buy it anyway, but I am going to try to be strong and wait a bit and see how this does.
