Freedom Planet - The Sonic SatAM game we never got!

[Wyrdwad]

So this game kind of blindsided me, but in the best possible way. Hot on the heels of my love affair with Shovel Knight, I've found another game that's every bit as good, but in a totally different direction: FREEDOM PLANET.

Apparently, this game began life as a fan-made Sonic the Hedgehog title set in the universe of the 1993 Saturday morning cartoon series (the good one, with Sally Acorn!), but then evolved into its own thing over time... and what it turned into is pretty much the perfect Sonic alternative in every conceivable way.

Like, seriously, I've seen reviews say that this is to 16- and 32-bit Sega titles what Shovel Knight is to 8- and 16-bit Nintendo titles, and it's absolutely true. Every part of this game is so clearly a labor of love, and the end result is just unbelievable.

Here's an early trailer for it:



And a later trailer, but this one comes with a caveat: only watch if you're cool with '90s Saturday morning cartoon-style voice-acting and plotlines!



I really like the voice-acting, story and characters so far, but it's precisely because I really loved Sonic SatAM (as fans call it) back in the '90s, and this game wears its inspiration on its sleeve. If you don't have much tolerance for that very American cartoony style of voice-acting and writing, this release trailer will probably be kind of a turn-off for you.

BUT! You'll still probably enjoy the game, since the developers were smart enough to offer a selectable "classic mode," where the cutscenes are completely stripped out and you just play through each of the stages like you would in a classic Sonic title. Which is a really cool feature, for all y'all haters out there.

If you grew up with these kinds of cartoons, though, DEFINITELY play in story mode, as it seriously feels like you're a kid in your pajamas with a bowl of cereal, watching a really good episode of Sonic SatAM. Everything is just so spot-on, and the sprite animation is simply unmatched -- it's easily among the best sprite animation I've EVER seen in ANY video game to date. Every little nuance is meticulously detailed, especially during cutscenes (where some very complicated things are going down, and every one of them is presented entirely with tiles and sprites).

One of my favorite little touches is when you're running at top speed and grab onto a ladder, your body actually kind of whips past the ladder for a moment, then you slingshot back onto it. (And I don't mean in a "broken physics" sort of way, but rather in a "holy crap they actually created, like, a dozen frames of animation specifically to show this, just to help keep the game as immersive as possible" way.)

I also like that if you happen to pass by a chair, you can just... sit down. For no real reason! But they animated your character sitting, just in case you want to take a load off for a moment.

Good gameplay is key in a game like this, though, and HOLY CRAP is this game fun. It may be blasphemous to say this, but I honestly think I like the way these characters feel MORE than Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic... always felt a little floaty to me. Great for speedy run-throughs, but tricky to control during precise platforming segments. None of the three playable characters in Freedom Planet are like that, though -- they can go fast when they need to, but are really easy to platform with when they don't. And while some have lamented the inability to jump on enemies, I actually kind of like that you have to physically attack them instead -- nothing's more satisfying than punching a robot hornet out of the sky!

The level designs, too, are simply perfect. Like, they're legitimately flawless, as far as I'm concerned -- huge levels with tons to explore, unique and clever platforming elements, environmental hazards, vehicles, etc., but none of it feels extraneous or like an afterthought. It's all deliberate, and it all flows from one landscape to another really beautifully.

And the bosses thus far have been challenging, but not TOO challenging. They're all very creative and feature distinctive patterns, and some of them will attack you on and off over the course of the entire level, giving you ample reason to hate them and want them dead by the time the level ends.

...And then there's the music, which is simply fantastic. A true testament to the Sonic legacy:





All in all, I've only played the game for a couple hours so far, but I am absolutely ADORING it. It couldn't be a much better tribute to early '90s Sega gaming and culture, and really is every bit as polished and well-designed as Shovel Knight. Clearly a labor of love, and a game I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who has ever enjoyed anything Sonic.

And if you don't want to take my word for it, here's a really well-done video review of the beta that pretty much sums it up nicely, and shows some great game footage to boot!



Check it out if you can! It's available on Steam for $15, and also on Humble Bundle.

-Tom

[Pal]

This game is next on my backlog of "Things I need to clear before Trails is released".

I remember this back from the time I lurked Sonic forums and when it was a Sonic fangame but once I stopped lurking I lost track of it and last week I saw it was already on Steam.

IIRC it used MMF2 and a heavily edited Sonic Worlds to make this game. I'm glad it's finally out as the Sonic fangaming scene has a perfectionist habit of not releasing anything and rebooting their games over and over in order to "improve".

[SkyeWelse]

Oh yeah, it's really been great fun so far. I was a backer of the game on Kickstarter. I normally only back games from developers that are reputable or ones I've had previous experience with to ensure a higher chance of the game being of high quality when and if its released. Kickstarter is a bit of a risk after all because there is really no guarantee on anything you are investing in. Freedom Planet stood out to me though and I'm glad I took a chance on them! Been having a blast so far with it!

Thomas

[Pal]

I've finished it with Lilac. I'm... well not sure what to think of this game exactly.

Pros:
+ The game's graphics are fantastic, all sprites are wonderfully animated
+ The music's fantastic. Although I don't have many memorable tracks to mention (Prince Dali's boss theme and Jade Creek 2 are the only ones that come to mind) it's overall just great.
+ Gigantic bosses reminiscent of Alien Soldier or Gunstar Heroes. While not as creative as Treasure's own they're every bit fun to fight against.
+ The combat's really fun. It feels really good to beat up baddies.

Neutral:
* The plot. It's reminiscent of a SatAM cartoon, meaning it's awfully cheesy. I didn't like it and the dialogue was cringe worthy for me but that's cause I don't like my plots THAT cheesy. Those with nostalgia for SatAM cartoons might enjoy it.

Cons/Annoyances/What I didn't like:
- Combat is both the most fun and the most annoying thing in the game. Enemies take multiple hits and the game likes to swarm you with them. After losing half your life trying to defeat them you get some crystal IF you get any. There are little to no rewards to beating enemies that take a long while to kill.
- The Sonic engine it's based on plays against the game. The game tries to focus on platforming and combat and the Sonic engine is NOT appropriate for it. Usually you'll miss a jump cause you didn't pick up speed or miss a platform because the momentum pushed you farther. The game doesn't take a lot of advantage on the 360 degrees movement or springs either, and most of the time you won't be moving fast.
- Shields were pretty much useless. Other than shielding a few hits I couldn't figure what their purpose were (other than the bubble shield allowing you to breathe underwater)
- Health pickups are scarce compared to crystals. Sonic games give you a lot of rings cause they are also your health, in here you're lucky to find a health pickup in later levels and it felt kind of a cheap way of difficulty.
- No recovery frames for projectiles. Some enemies or bosses were harder than they were supposed to be because their projectiles didn't activate any recovery frames on my character taking a good chunk of my life.
- Lilac's special is uncontrollable and mostly useless. Requires your special bar to be full, gives you temporal invincibility and boosts you to full speed but is impossible to control, very few areas make good use of it and those areas that required me to use them took me longer than expected because I couldn't land it well (Pangu Lagoon)
-Slowdowns every now and then. I couldn't tell if they were legit or intentional to emulate the old games but they were annoying since it made controls unresponsive.
-The final boss' final form is kinda cheap. One of it's attacks takes half of your life away and he's super fast and hard to avoid at times.

Final word: I liked the game and enjoyed it a lot, it's a total blast of fun. But it's filled with minor annoyances that make the experience more frustrating than it should be. I think the game is kinda misguided, should it have focused more on combat and fitted the engine to be able to make more precise platforming it would've been better.
I hope there's another game of these with some of my complaints fixed, all the potential is there but I don't think the game design was well thought out.

[Wyrdwad]

It's interesting, as a lot of the items on your negatives list are things that I find to be the exact opposite. I love the way the engine is integrated, and how it's not ENTIRELY a Sonic game, but also an exploration-based platformer -- it's like what a lot of Sonic 1 stages especially were TRYING to be, but it succeeds much better IMHO. I also found the shields pretty useful -- particularly the yellow crystal, which absorbs nearby items -- and have found an absolute abundance of health pickups so far (though I'm only on stage 6).

And Lilac's special has been SUPER-useful for me. Almost every stage has stuff that's just slightly out of reach, but if you use her special to bounce off of walls, you can get to it easily -- that's actually where a lot of hidden health pickups are, as well as hidden unlock cards. It's also really useful for getting out of tight spots -- when enemies swarm you, you can use Lilac's special to get away and regroup (and hit a few of them along the way).

It remains to be seen if my opinions on any of this will change as the game goes on, though.

My only complaint so far is the jumpiness of the plot -- everything held together really well until the whole jailbreak incident, which just kind of... happened. One second, Lilac was like, "Don't worry, we'll find a way out of here!"... and then the next stage immediately began, and I was in a jungle. It was... kind of jarring!

-Tom

[Pal]

Yeah, that plot jump was... weird.

Anyway my complaints about platforming come mostly from later levels, Pangu Lagoon and onwards the levels are more blocky and the bosses require you to use Lilac's special invincibility to evade otherwise unavoidable attacks. If you're like me and use Cyclone to double jump you'll be annoyed that you've used your stamina and can't execute the special move in time to avoid the attack. Also Brevon's soldier enemies that have a crapload of health and need to be defeated TWICE, grrrr.

The game is still boatloads of fun despite my annoyance at those things, I really suggest everyone to try it out.

In other news I've uploaded most tracks to YT if anyone wants to try and listen (I'm only missing cutscene songs and jingles, all stages and boss music is uploaded). My favorites are Jade Creek 2, Final Dreadnought Round 1, Boss 3, Boss 6, Boss 7. I also have a fondness to the game's main theme which you can hear in the title music and the staff roll.

[Wyrdwad]

The soundtrack is up on Bandcamp for purchase now, BTW, and it's toooootally worth it -- 71 tracks, 3 hours of music, $10 minimum to purchase. Includes some arrangements and beta versions of tracks, as well as a handful of unused tracks.

galaxytrail.bandcamp.com/album/freedom-planet-official-soundtrack

Also, I realized part of why I enjoy this soundtrack so much: it reminds me not of Sonic, but of Vortex on the SNES, one of the system's unsung gems of music.

Both soundtracks have driving, syncopated backbeats, repeating phrases driving their tracks forward, heavy techno influences and a really high-quality synth to them -- they seem cut from the same cloth for sure.




Sooooo good, both of these. I love this kind of music so much!

...Also, I did beat the game with Lilac, and I can definitely see what you mean: Final Dreadnaught was honestly not very fun at all. I enjoyed Pangu Lagoon, though, and pretty much everything before it, and I'm enjoying going through the previous stages with Carol and Milla at the moment. I can foresee getting frustrated with Milla in later stages due to her extremely small life bar, but so far, surprisingly, she's been more resilient than either of the other two characters -- she may have less life, but she's also much better at staying out of harm's way. I think she's my favorite to play as.

-Tom