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Sonic Classic Heroes

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{{Hack |title=Sonic Classic Heroes |screen=Sonicclassicheroes.png |version=0.10 |date=2013-08-08 |status=in progress |visualmods=yes |advenginemods=yes |system=Sega Mega Drive / Genesis |originalgame=Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit) |credits=flamewing, ColinC10, various others. I made a mistake, please revert it. Sonic Classic Heroes is a ROM hack for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis that is the result of a collaboration between flamewing and ColinC10, combining their respective hacks Sonic 2 Heroes and Sonic 1 and 2. It therefore is a single ROM that offers the entire campaigns of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, either alone or together; and enables the player to play as many characters such as Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. The hack is named due to the ability to control a team of characters, which is reminiscent of the more recent 3D game Sonic Heroes.

The hack is built on Sonic 2’s engine, which has been enhanced by both flamewing and ColinC10 to have new features. These include: multiple gameplay elements from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, such as element shields and character-specific abilities; the ability to save progress, scores, etc. to SRAM (something rarely implemented in Sonic 2, with the other notable example being Esrael’s Sonic 2 Delta); various bug-fixes and improvements to the mechanics of the original games; and many more features, both implemented and planned.

History

Background

Beginning
Sonic Retro
almost immediately
after the initial release of the first version of this project, Sonic 2 Heroes, posters to its official thread on the Sonic Retro forums suggested (with varying degrees of jocularity and seriousness) that flamewing and Sonic 1 and 2 author ColinC10 combine their two hacks, with the result that the hack would cover not only the levels of Sonic 2 but also those of Sonic 1. Reminded of this suggestion several months later, flamewing
Sonic Retro
posted
expressed interest and an intention to ask ColinC10. The two agreed to collaborate. flamewing took most programming responsibility to integrate the source code of the two hacks and only
Sonic Retro
announced
the existence of the project once it was well underway, on 19 December 2011.

First release

On 20 July 2012, flamewing
Sonic Retro
announced
the first public release of Sonic Classic Heroes. This was the same version that he submitted to that year's Sonic the Hedgehog Hacking Contest. Although the new title of Sonic Classic Heroes now replaced that of Sonic 2 Heroes, the existing numbering scheme was maintained, making this version 0.07 beta. Several revisions fixing bugs and/or improving features have since been released, bringing the current version to
Sonic Retro
version 0.07 final, revision 3
.

Version 0.10

New features such as Knuckles Chaotix characters and physics were included in the August 8th 2013 release. The ability to have players attatched via magical bond is present, similar to the gameplay of Knuckles Chaotix.

In multiplayer mode, the second and third player can "kill" their character by pressing C while the game is paused. Useful if the player gets stuck in Chaotix magical bond mode.

Details on further changes can be found here.

Features

Although this is by no means an exhaustive list, here are some of the things that are, or in the future have been planned to be, included in Sonic Classic Heroes. Until this page is updated more thoroughly, please see the forum post linked in the above paragraph for an extensive changelog.

Characters

Players can choose to use one, two, or three characters. When using more than one character, the first player controls the character who is leading the group. The leading character can be changed at any time, using the additional buttons on the six-button Control Pad.

  • The cpu-controlled partner characters will often match certain attributes of the lead character in order to keep up. For example, Knuckles' lower jump height will instead match the standard jump height while not in the lead, Super Tails and Super Knuckles will match Super Sonic's extreme jump height and speed while Super Sonic is in the lead, and Charmy will gain a jump, spin attack, spin-dash, etc. while not in the lead.
  • Up to three players can play co-operatively, via the Team Player multi-tap. Special Stages will be playable in this way, too. Moreover, the player will be able to choose how many of their characters appear in Special Stages; currently, all characters appear in the Special Stage, but in the future this will be optional, thus satisfying players who don’t like CPU-controlled characters losing their rings.

Team Sonic

The classic trio of Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, and Knuckles the Echidna star as this game’s default team.

  • Sonic can use the Insta-Shield and Super Peel-Out, and he has a higher top speed than either of the other two player characters.
  • Tails can fly, swim, and carry Sonic or Knuckles – or both!
  • Knuckles can glide and climb, and will also be able to carry his friends.

Team Chaotix

This team consists of Espio the Chameleon, Vector the Crocodile, and Charmy the Bee. Their movesets are similar to their Knuckles Chaotix moveset.

  • Espio can run on walls and ceilings.
  • Vector can climb and use the Power Boost to blast through the air in a short burst.
  • Charmy doesn't jump or spin dash. Instead he flies using the Buzz-Dash to dart through the air or along the ground in any direction. He can also carry his team mates while flying.

Future Characters

These characters may be included in future revisions.

Items

  • Power-ups are awarded collectively to all of the player’s characters when a monitor is broken. However, shields are lost individually: if a character is hit, only they will lose their shield, whereas the other character(s) will retain their individual shields until they are hit.
  • Elemental shields from Sonic 3 have been added. The standard blue shield from Sonic 2 remains and has been upgraded so that, like the elemental shields, it deflects projectiles and it awards Sonic a power while he has it: in this case, the Homing Attack.

Menus

  • Version 0.07f added the new ability to save progress to SRAM, accessible from a new combined options and saving menu that is shown after pressing Start on the title-screen. Here, the player can choose to save/load their progress in any one of twelve separate slots. Each saved game allows, prior to its loading, choices of: character order and number, game mode (Sonic 1 and 2, either game alone, or an “Emeralds run”), a level select, and options regarding the AI. The menu also offers a sound test, and various colour schemes for itself.

Downloads

Download.svg Download Sonic Classic Heroes
File: SonicClassicHeroes-v0.10.7z (1.11 MB) (info)
Current version: 0.10

Previous versions

External links

Sonic Retro
Announcement of project
in the hack's dedicated thread (formerly titled Sonic 2 Heroes) on the Sonic Retro Message Board