Revision as of 12:41, 15 April 2018
- Back to: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Simon Wai prototype)/Comparisons.
Metropolis is noticeably unfinished in the Simon Wai prototype. While the layout is mostly there, the zone has no rings and is filled with navigational glitches, making turning on debug a must.
The zone has a busier background than the final game, making some sections tough to see.
Act 1
While the stage looks promising, it doesn't take long to find a problem. These metal crushers (which exist here instead of a rotating net) cannot crush Sonic and Tails by pushing them into the ceiling - they only kill you if you go underneath.
These pistons don't throw you very high, which means you'll get stuck at this spot without debug.
Some 3D rotating nets don't work. You'll fall right through this one.
But this one further down the level works fine.
Sonic just can't seem to die.
The nut keeps going up.
Make the wrong move at one point and you'll fall down this pit. This highlights one of the zone's biggest omissions - it doesn't loop indefinitely on the vertical axis. In the final game, pits cannot exist.
Some time later, the act abruptly ends. The length of the level doesn't fall far short of the final, but there's a huge empty void suggesting more was planned.
At the very edge of the level, a platform exists. There's nothing to see here, though.
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Simon Wai prototype
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Final game
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Act 2
Act 2 introduces lava. It doesn't work.
Stand on a platform and you can be completely submerged without taking damage.
Once again the level doesn't loop vertically, and a 3D mesh is replaced with a metal tube. This one has no entrance from the left-hand side, so it doesn't work properly. In fact, act 2 has no 3D mesh objects at all - the level is designed more around platforming on cogs.
Conveyor belts work in Metropolis, unlike Wood Zone and Casino Night Zone.
Like act 1, the stage stops after a while and presents us with a void.
But again, a platform exists on the far right of the stage. Metropolis is already a long zone - was it really meant to be longer?
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Simon Wai prototype
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Final game
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Act 3
Act 3 has the strangest objects in Metropolis Zone - these diagonal lifts. They go up, down, left and right, and follow a specified pattern. The collision surrounding these sections is wonky however, so it's very easy for Sonic and Tails to jump through walls and be crushed.
Only two of these squashing machines exist in the final game, and they're tucked away in the bottom left of the third act. In the Simon Wai prototype, there are a few more dotted around.
While all three acts have their fare share of layout differences, act 3 saw the most radical changes from this point foward. Never in the final game will you see cogs arranged like this.
Act 3 also has a large gap to cross, but this time it gives us a platform. In the final this would take us to the boss, but here it just keeps going until you die.
Though if you debug your way up, you'll find yet another end-of-act platform.
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Simon Wai prototype
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Final game
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References