Which special stage was the easiest?

General stuff to do with the blue blur! Talk about him, his friends, the TV show, whatever you like!
Warning! This topic is 4 years and 7 months old! Please consider opening a new topic rather that bumping up this very old post.
Post Reply
Triert
Master Chaos Chao
Master Chaos Chao
Posts: 5682
Joined: Fri Jul 10, 2009 1:36 am

Which special stage was the easiest?

Post by Triert »

Between the classic sonic games like 1, 2, 3, and CD which ones would you guys say had the easiest emerald stages?

I'll stick my neck out for 3, which in my opinion and after getting better at it over time is my favorite and the easiest bonus stage. Sonic 2's ring collection felt clumsy and difficult as soon as you got more than one emerald, and 1 was strange.

I haven't played CD as of late to say much on it
User avatar
SwifterTheDragon
Quester Chao
Quester Chao
Posts: 162
Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2016 1:38 am
Contact:

Re: Which special stage was the easiest?

Post by SwifterTheDragon »

Would Blue Spheres count? It IS just a bunch of STH3&K levels. 2 I didn't like too much. 1? It was alright. I feel it would've been better to keep it's scrapped ideas. (Outside of the maps, you can see icons that probably represent lives and zones/acts where you could probably go back or skip a few levels too. 3 was the best. Frustration yet satisfaction with the fact that I could get a perfect and be rewarded for it. Good thing the unused level was scrapped. That is waaay to hard to be in-game.

Does Mania's UFO stages count?
Triert
Master Chaos Chao
Master Chaos Chao
Posts: 5682
Joined: Fri Jul 10, 2009 1:36 am

Re: Which special stage was the easiest?

Post by Triert »

no
Rajikaru
Chaos Chao
Chaos Chao
Posts: 2128
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2012 12:28 am

Re: Which special stage was the easiest?

Post by Rajikaru »

2's was by far the easiest, as well as IMO the most enjoyable. 3's was cool as a concept but would take longer than the actual Sonic 3 levels after the 2nd emerald and were victim to annoying and stilted controlling, it was super easy to **** up because you pressed left or right too early. 1's was also cool and psychadelic but the rotating made it a lot harder than it really had any right to be, it's like if pinball was playing on a constantly rotating board. CD's were cool but eh whatevs little man
Tumblr | Steam | Twitter | Song of the week: Alice Nine - Tsubasa
Triert
Master Chaos Chao
Master Chaos Chao
Posts: 5682
Joined: Fri Jul 10, 2009 1:36 am

Re: Which special stage was the easiest?

Post by Triert »

2 felt horrible because it never felt like you could get all the rings but if it's easy for you i like to think im just bad at it instead of it being piss hard

on the other hand for some reason 3's special stages can't seem to make me screw up too badly
Rajikaru
Chaos Chao
Chaos Chao
Posts: 2128
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2012 12:28 am

Re: Which special stage was the easiest?

Post by Rajikaru »

Triert wrote:2 felt horrible because it never felt like you could get all the rings
The key is to A. Play as Sonic with Tails, to get the maximum amount of rings you can, and B. just get the rings. It's not ridiculously easy, but it definitely isn't as hard (or annoyingly designed) as S3K's special stages.
Tumblr | Steam | Twitter | Song of the week: Alice Nine - Tsubasa
User avatar
Ivogoji
Advanced Chaos Chao
Advanced Chaos Chao
Posts: 3004
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 5:11 am
Motto: Yosh!
Location: Death Egg IV

Re: Which special stage was the easiest?

Post by Ivogoji »

Sonic 3's Special Stages are fun and challenging. I don't think they're especially hard, once I'd gotten good I could do them in my sleep. Its 100% about skill, no luck based elements.

Sonic CD's Special Stages on the other hand feel like luck based missions, the UFOs have to spawn where the player can smash them quickly, if they pop up too far away the player will run out of time. So to me CD's Special Stages are pretty hard since skill only goes so far.

Sonic 1's Secret Zones are fairly easy once you get the hang of them, the only hard part is actually getting to the Giant Rings at the end of the Zones, Sonic 1's difficulty spike makes collecting the later Emeralds much tougher than in other games because getting to the end of a Zone with 50 rings is harder.

I don't like Sonic 2's Special Stages are about skill too, and all it takes is practice to master them. But, Sonic 2 has no save function, which means you must redo every Special Stage every time you play the game, and you have very few opportunities to practice beyond the third Special Stage. This makes Sonic 2's Emerald hunt extremely difficult compared to Sonic 3.

Sonic 3's Special Stages are easy to access, since all you have to do is memorize the Giant Ring locations, and they're easy to practice, since you can save your progress in the game. This makes them the easiest by far.
http://i53.tinypic.com/10xar6o.png
NachoThePikachu wrote:I WILL BE AN ADMINISTRATOR, RULING OVER CHAO ISLAND
except it WON'T BE CHAO ISLAND ANYMORE
IT'LL BE BANANA ISLAnD
User avatar
Sable
Expert Chaos Chao
Expert Chaos Chao
Posts: 4071
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2008 1:20 pm
Location: Sumter
Contact:

Re: Which special stage was the easiest?

Post by Sable »

CD's, and sonic 2's are far and away the hardest. every game that uses the half-pipe is ****ing cursed except for saturn 3D blast
Ivogoji wrote:Sonic CD's Special Stages on the other hand feel like luck based missions, the UFOs have to spawn where the player can smash them quickly, if they pop up too far away the player will run out of time. So to me CD's Special Stages are pretty hard since skill only goes so far.
untrue, UFO spawns are entirely consistent. you also get indefinite extra time as long as you can make it back to the center for the blue UFO
User avatar
chaoadventures
Veteran Chao
Veteran Chao
Posts: 1381
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 2:30 am
Motto: "you wanna play with gabario?"
Location: heck (still)
Contact:

Re: Which special stage was the easiest?

Post by chaoadventures »

3 is the easiest due to actually good design and memory making them easier. Rectangles are simple regardless.

2 is the hardest because of their inability to compensate for horrible draw distance.

1 is whatever.

CD, Chaotix, and Mania are good design + difficulty.
Image


- - -
Rajikaru wrote:You're clinically insane.
User avatar
Ivogoji
Advanced Chaos Chao
Advanced Chaos Chao
Posts: 3004
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 5:11 am
Motto: Yosh!
Location: Death Egg IV

Re: Which special stage was the easiest?

Post by Ivogoji »

Sable wrote:
Ivogoji wrote:Sonic CD's Special Stages on the other hand feel like luck based missions, the UFOs have to spawn where the player can smash them quickly, if they pop up too far away the player will run out of time. So to me CD's Special Stages are pretty hard since skill only goes so far.
untrue, UFO spawns are entirely consistent. you also get indefinite extra time as long as you can make it back to the center for the blue UFO
Can't believe I never noticed that before. I guess was getting "lucky" when Sonic happened to be standing right where the UFO spawned and "unlucky" when I had Sonic in the wrong spot.
http://i53.tinypic.com/10xar6o.png
NachoThePikachu wrote:I WILL BE AN ADMINISTRATOR, RULING OVER CHAO ISLAND
except it WON'T BE CHAO ISLAND ANYMORE
IT'LL BE BANANA ISLAnD
User avatar
chaoadventures
Veteran Chao
Veteran Chao
Posts: 1381
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 2:30 am
Motto: "you wanna play with gabario?"
Location: heck (still)
Contact:

Re: Which special stage was the easiest?

Post by chaoadventures »

It's implied that you don't know this so I'm gonna say it.

The UFOs don't just spawn either, they actually move around in a easily traceable (but hard to catch) pattern.
Image


- - -
Rajikaru wrote:You're clinically insane.
User avatar
Jeffery Mewtamer
Advanced Chaos Chao
Advanced Chaos Chao
Posts: 3234
Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2011 3:59 pm
Motto: Sightless Scholar
Contact:

Re: Which special stage was the easiest?

Post by Jeffery Mewtamer »

Considering S3K is the only classic game I actually 100%, I'd give it the award for easiest special stages. Then again, that might just be because its the easiest to access special stages in and the special stages are accessible from level select, so practice is easy.

Sonic 1's special stages are the next easiest, and S2 are the hardest.

Not sure I've every played the special stages in CD.
eblu
Chaos Chao
Chaos Chao
Posts: 2284
Joined: Sun May 03, 2009 7:28 pm

Re: Which special stage was the easiest?

Post by eblu »

rush/colors are my favorite imo, the halfpipe transfers well to the DS and it felt like the logical evolution of the ones from 2
easiest would have to be 3D blast. those are a joke

edit: what kinda classic trilogy crap is this triert
Last edited by eblu on Sat Sep 16, 2017 10:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
chaoadventures
Veteran Chao
Veteran Chao
Posts: 1381
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 2:30 am
Motto: "you wanna play with gabario?"
Location: heck (still)
Contact:

Re: Which special stage was the easiest?

Post by chaoadventures »

but eblu none of those were part of triert's actual question in his post

Also Sonic Rush's Special Stages belong in the trash. Colors was fun though.
Image


- - -
Rajikaru wrote:You're clinically insane.
User avatar
CanSteam
Evolved Chao
Evolved Chao
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2016 8:04 am
Motto: canpaw but with my own email
Location: Roonoo Noovoodoo
Contact:

Re: Which special stage was the easiest?

Post by CanSteam »

Sonic 1: Haven't played much of it, but they're okay aside from the fact that you can just fall into GOAL circles without knowing what's below you
Sonic 2: I hate em. They take your rings and are really easily to fail, and the controls are really delayed.
Sonic 3: I love em. Special rings are usually pretty easy to find, and the stages are usually a breeze after you know what to do. Plus, you can get 50 rings for a continue, which is easily attainable in most Blue Sphere stages. The delay on movement is a little annoying though.
Sonic CD: They're okay. The depth perception and constant movement things on the control are hard to keep track of. I still can actually get time stones though, unlike Chaos Emeralds in 2.
I like Blue Sphere the most
is the pikmin in my avatar on something or...
User avatar
Cinimodder
Newborn Chao
Newborn Chao
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2018 2:23 am
Motto: hey
Location: Disappointment Island (real place, look it up)

Re: Which special stage was the easiest?

Post by Cinimodder »

Rajikaru wrote: Tue Aug 29, 2017 4:50 pmjust get the rings.
r/wowthanksimcured
ImageImage
ImageImage
Image
User avatar
ChillyChao
Proficient Chao
Proficient Chao
Posts: 347
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2018 2:14 pm
Motto: help shawty my son is emo
Location: saw bathroom trap
Contact:

Re: Which special stage was the easiest?

Post by ChillyChao »

I've not played that much Sonic games with Special Stages (I don't have Heroes or any of those old 3D games and my Advance copies are ROMS and i've never found a special stage on them) but i'd say Sonic 1.
im just saying if the glass was gone in the glass coffin scene hoffman and strahm would have been kissing
User avatar
AugustChao
Adult Chao
Adult Chao
Posts: 119
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2018 3:35 am
Location: The Neutral Garden
Contact:

Re: Which special stage was the easiest?

Post by AugustChao »

The Sonic 1 Special Stages are kinda hard to get used to which makes them hard for me, mostly because I feel you don't actually get enough opportunities to play them to get used to them, so I'd say they'd probably be the hardest for me personally. At least they look pretty!

Sonic 2's special stages are definently a little janky when it comes to picking up all the rings, but it's still okay in terms of movement and is probably the easiest to get to.

Sonic 3's Blue Sphere minigame, although I've gotten progressively better at over the years (mainly because of Mania), it still gives me a panic sometimes whenever it goes really fast and I lose control, so that's fun.

Sonic CD probably has my favorite special stage out of these games, because although I do agree that it has a lot of luck when it comes to where Sonic and UFOs spawn, I think the movement and gameplay of them were pretty fun. Also, both the Japanese and US versions of them have really good music, and that's all that matters to me in the end :3
Image
Post Reply