With how fast things were moving in that Sonic Unleashed gameplay footage unveiled by IGN a few days ago, it was pretty easy to miss interesting elements shown in the video. There were a few things that caught the eyes of our fans (including the clock tower’s stunning resemblance to Big Ben in London), but one of the things that really slipped by a lot of our viewers were the balloons.
Yes, the Balloons… I’m no nut… I know I saw them.
To prove it, I’ve taken the time to take screenshots of the 12 I managed to count in the video (you can see them after the jump). As to what there function will be in Unleashed, it’s hard to say for sure, but they do appear to give Sonic a boost when he hits them. Whether they will be used to help guide the player in the right direction, or lead Sonic to secret, otherwise unaccessible areas is anyone’s guess at this point.
Anyways, I wanted to get everyone’s thoughts on how you see them being used. Also, point out anything else you may have noticed that the rest of us missed on our first… or thirty-first viewing.
Looks like you can lock onto the balloons!
This one was hiding from me… but I found it.
A path to an otherwise inaccessible path?
we all also consider you as a...
IM GOIN BACK TO BB! >.>
Balloons??? Thats a new twist! They probably just po when you hit them, but boost you up. I dont know how that will work but hopefully SEGA can work this out…
@AAA: From what it sounds like, IGN got to see a few demo levels from Sonic Unleashed. By the tone of their writing (Saying “and, of course, you lose rings by crashing into enemies”) they make it sound like it’s just like what we would expect from previous Sonic titles.
So, I’d assume, if you crash into an enemy or spike, you’ll lose your rings, and most likely all your energy in the dash meter.
@admin: Usually you lose all your rings when you hit an enemy. Does this mean that if you hit an enemy your dash meter is back to zero or you lose only a specific amount of rings this time around?
@Link451: They’re clearly referring to this tidbit on IGN:
“Energy is maintained by collecting rings and lost when you lose rings — and, of course, you lose rings by crashing into enemies and spikes, among other things.”
Whoever inserted into Wikipedia should have done a better job paraphrasing. I think they are just trying to say, like in the old Sonic games, you lose rings by crashing into enemies/spikes/etc.
these baloons could be the way of accessing special stages. By speculation, my guess is you either use a homing attack to ride the path of ballons or, better yet, be similar to sonic advance 2 where you must pop all the ballons in the level to gain access to the special stage.
The latter makes more sense to me though ^_^
@admin: Possibly, they have something to do with advancing in the level, or have some kind of unlockable bonus
that remember me the carnibal night zone
@admin:
what? thats ridiculous!!! Camp Sonic is the most accurate and reliable source of Sonic unleashed, they are just making acusations without a reason. anyways…yay my comment was shown in the news!! lol yeah the balloons definetely makes you go to inaccesible areas (the part where you have to press B to slide is the most obvious)
I tried looking a bit as well ,but the pause and play button of the player on the site are not the same,making it impossible to really dig into the video at times.
@admin: Speaking of which, I noticed on wikipedia that it says your dash meter decreases when you run into enemies or obstacles. Is there anything you can say on that?
Hm, I think they may be collectable items like in Sonic R. And if you get them all in each level, you unlock something. Maybe. If not, they may be just things you use to access other parts of the level.
@admin: I fully understand your frustration. I mean, the reputation of the website is at stake and I don’t think people should be toying with such things so carelessly. I discovered this website on the day of the High Europe trailer launch and have visited it daily ever since. The updates are great and all credible so I was surprised by that accusation.
One other thing I have to admit is that I tried to look at the video frame by frame as well. However, since I didn’t have it downloaded, the best I could do was pause and play at every possible moment. I wouldn’t say it’s pathetic because I think it’s just excitement and wanting to know more. OK, maybe it’s because I want to believe that I’m not completely obsessed with this game.
@blah…okay: No, I watched it full speed. The ones that were a dead giveaway for me were the two that appeared before Sonic slides under the building, and the one that bursts when Sonic launches into it from the fountain. If you play and pause at moments it’s easy to notice the balloons. At first I thought they were orbs, though.
@blah…okay: Haha… funny story actually. I’ve watched it basically frame by frame to find everything I possibly could about the video we didn’t notice on the surface.
Not funny I guess, but pathetic…
@AAA: You’re probably right, I guess it just rubbed me the wrong way when I saw that at first since it’s clearly wrong. No sense in arguing this one out I suppose.
How exactly did you guys notice the balloons when watching the video at full speed? Did you watch it in slow motion?
I wouldn’t worry about the “unreliable” issue. If people see this comment, I believe that they would want to check out this site anyways, to see what kind of “rumours” there are on it. Once they see for themselves that everything, is in fact, cited, they would realize that the accusations are false.
reminds me of the level in Sonic 3, the Carnival level where Balloons were used to reach different levels. fun stuff
@dragonite: Yea I think you’re right. I still wish there was more to it than that though. Maybe there is but until there’s a new video or until the game ships, I don’t think we’ll find out.
Hopefully there’s a new video soon…
I believe it is simply sonic boost,because it also appear by breakable walls.
I have to admit I am getting slightly sick of that video by now:P
But I still watch it often.