The Supreme Topic of 'Other' Knowledge.

It wouldn't be a case of copying Sonic 1 code; that code very likely didn't exist, because it had been turned into Sonic 2 code and was in the process of being turned into Sonic 3 code. (This is a Japanese game developer in the early-mid nineties. They almost certainly didn't use source control or keep backups.) The spike balls need unique collision handling since they disappear when you bump into them in addition to damaging you, so they wrote the code out from scratch and forgot the invulnerability timer again.

 

Following reports of Meta shutting down Sanzaru Games, I found myself checking their website. Surprisingly Sonic Boom Fire and Ice has its own page there.

I... Don't know that I've ever seen this logo?

There's also whatever that is, but it's cropped in.

 

I'm pretty certain that's the Iron Throne from the Game of Thrones TV show. Maybe someone at Sanzaru thought Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice was somehow related to A Song of Ice and Fire?

 

More saying "whatever that is" just to say... What purpose could this serve or context could this possibly have? Idk. Maybe there's an old team member that can clarify somewhere. Maybe we even would have seen that logo in one of the prototype builds we would have go gotten in that big 3ds/DS lot.

It kinda feels like someone just put the page together based on a pitch document or something, and didn't know what stuff to use. Even the text itself is kinda just half-right.

 

I'm guessing they did it as a joke, referencing the Song of Ice and Fire franchise to poke fun at Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice's similar title.

 

This is also supported by the Sky Sanctuary implementation of the Sonic 1 GHZ boss which is cooked up from Sonic 3 code instead of just ported.

 

Not sure if I've flagged this before or not, but I listened to it again today and I'm pretty certain this is a not-so-subtle reference to Sonic. Not only the obvious connections to Sonic Spinball and Casion Night zone, but the opening monologue from Dr. Skull is reminiscent of the lyrics/Robotnik monologue in Metallic Madness.

 

I think the final level order is just fine.

• Green Hills and Sky High are very similar looking with a palette swap, just like Emerald Hill and Hill Top on Genesis. Because Green Hills is finally zone 4, separated by Aqua Lake, you don't notice the similarities too much.
• Green Hills act 3 is very hard and frustrating when you don't know the path. Under Ground act 3 is short and easy. Its boss is not that hard to figure out (especially on SMS). You spend more lives beating Green Hills act 3 than the Under Ground boss (trust me, I still remember). When you reach Green Hills act 3, you have far more experience, more lives, and perhaps some continues to tryhard the path.
• Green Hills acts 1 and 2 are easy. But Under Ground acts 1 and 2 are not that hard, and way shorter. You reach the Under Ground boss quicker than going through the whole Green Hills zone to reach act 3 and waste your lives.

 

Not to mention that they were originally planned to use the exact same tileset in the exact same gray color. There's no way they would've ever put those two zones right next to one another.

Then again, Green Hill and Bridge have pretty much the exact same theme and color palette, and they're right next to one another. Same goes for Gene Gadget and Panic Puppet.

 

Full-screening the video on Sanzaru's website page before playing it (Right-click menu, then Full Screen option in Firefox.) allowed me to take a clean screenshot of that beta logo in much larger size, without the play button over the top.



Big-ups for posting about this, because this logo blows the final logo out of the water fire and ice; way more personality, conveys the theme so much better, rich in texture and light / shade detail, etcetera. By comparison, the final logo looks awfully bland and rushed, with its Fire & Ice text looking like a basic placeholder font. So disappointing that they dropped the older and superior design in favour of a duller logo.

 

I like how the logo looks, but replacing it was a good call in my opinion.

The "FIRE" and "ICE" parts are kind of hard to read.

 

They didn't need to simplify them so much. They could've revised this one and have more contrast between the letters and the bg, such as removing the textures from the letters or change them to be less intense and therefore make them stand out. Like just making the "Fire" use only bright yellow/orange flames and "Ice" only use white frost. Or make it backwards and reduce the clutter of the backgrounds instead.

 

My interview with Sonic Spinball and Treasure Tails programmer Ken Rose is finally up. Enjoy!



Interview
Forum thread

 

Ahhh... Didn't know that was even there. Unfortunately not transparent, but I grabbed it too from more scientific methods.

 

Ah nice, and yeah it's rather a shame that logo has no transparency. Also, I feel like such a retard for not thinking to check the Inspect function.