Sonic Overture - 2023 Demo

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i completed the second level but i accidently broke the game demo and died three times on the loading screen 

Very fun,  hope to see more some day.

this game was so cool but he have to add some chracter and some abilities this game has to be tested

Needs proper gamepad support with custom bindings

Been playing this demo for a while now, and here's my thoughts:

The good:

• Just like the 2014 original, the graphics here look absolutely amazing. In fact, I've even noticed a few minor improvements over the original demo's Sunrise Gate, which I highly appreciate.
• The level design is absolutely brilliant, probably some of the best in Sonic fangame history. The levels feel so open and expansive while still staying true to many of Sonic 1's principles. I was initially skeptical over the combo mechanic, but the ingenious placement of enemies, rings and monitors lets you pull off some extremely satisfying combos.
• The GZ2 bossfight took me completely by surprise, but I absolutely adored it. If the final game will give us even more positive surprises like this, then I am 100% on board.
• I cannot put it into words how much I love the new SGZ1 theme. Enough said.

The bad:

• The game absolutely does have framerate issues. It runs just fine on my mid-range gaming PC, but seriously chugs on my store-bought consumer laptop.
• The physics leave a lot to be desired on some aspects. Those octagons in SGZ just tend to throw you off for no apparent reason sometimes, and while rolling in GZ, you sometimes stick to surfaces that you clearly shouldn't.
• Those title cards are really hard to read against the level backgrounds. There's a reason why the original demo had them over black backgrounds like Sonic 1. And on the topic of title cards, GZ2 was accidentally given SGZ2's title card.
• This is more of a minor thing, but the shield power up's sprite makes it too hard to see Sonic behind it. It's especially bothersome in cutscenes where Sonic is clearly supposed to be expressive.
• I don't really understand the whole "Saturn" thing. The graphics of this game, while absolutely gorgeous, don't really look anything like a 2D platformer on the Saturn would. Games like Astal, Super Tempo and Mega Man X4 are all characterized by really bright colors, large character sprites and wacky graphical effects, whereas Overture has small sprites, dithered colors and 32X-esque effects. The music also fights against the idea of this being a Saturn game, as the tracks are filled to the brim with Mega Drive instrumentation.

The weird:

• Just like in the 2014 demo, the last act of SGZ takes a completely different direction from the earlier acts. I get that it's inspired by Gold World from the Sonic 1 concept art, but several different sources claim that the original Overture team actually split it off into its own separate zone (called "Shining Zone") after the move from 3 acts to 2 per zone was made. I therefore expected this demo to do the same. If that were done, SGZ would feel a lot more coherent over all, and you wouldn't have to use two different level backgrounds in Act 1.
• Is SGZ2's music track a placeholder? It sounds very empty when compared to the joyous and lively Act 1 track, the midi-esque instrumentation is unlike any other track in the game and I don't think that it even shares Act 1's melody?
• For a very brief moment, Sonic's feet are missing in the title screen animation.
• Why do Act 2s end with a signpost after the capsule? That's a very strange and unnecessary design choice in my opinion.

Minor gripes aside, I'm very excited for the future of this project, and extremely grateful that such a wonderful game was brought back from the dead. I am eagerly awaiting for the next demo!

Hello.

I wrote a little review on this game on my blog, anyone who is interested can check it out here: https://travisbor.blogspot.com/2024/01/sonic-overture-95-review.html

Thank You

Really enjoyed what I played. The visual aesthetic and animations are top tier. The final fight with Eggman looked like it was pulled straight from an actual Saturn game. I do have two asks though:

• Add the Drop Dash from Sonic Mania/Sonic Origins. I keep finding myself trying to charge when I'm in the air, but can't. 
• Incorporate more opportunities for Sonic to hit full speed and then more. Have areas where he completely outruns the camera and flies across the screen. I have only played through once, so it is possible I just didn't take the right path. 

Overall, I am really excited to see this project progress!

This is a very solid demo, I daresay! Haven't played the original back in the day so can't really complain about the musical changes. Regarding to audio, though, I'll agree that the mixing needs some changes. Music too low, SFX slightly too loud, yadda yadda.

The game didn't lag for me on the second level, but, what I have to say about it is that at certain times I couldn't see things right because tangible objects were too similar to untangible ones. That wasn't all the time, though. Just some sections of the level had that problem. It could be just me, though.

Another thing I've noticed is that even small jumps on a slope can make Sonic go reeeally fast. I don't know if that's intended, but, if it isn't... then it's something worth pointing out. Wish y'all the best of luck with this project!

I have 16 gigabytes of ram, a ryzen 7, and an rtx 4090. My computer should not dip frames running a 2d sonic fan game. Yet, it does.

This demo was so cool! It isn't perfect of course, the physics still need refining and probably other stuff but I can't wait for the full game to release. The creativity is also great like a prequel to Sonic 1 that uses stuff from the 1990 screenshots and scrapped Sonic 1 badniks. That boss with Robotnik at the end caught me off guard but it was visually good. Take as much time as you need for the final product.

this has gotta be one of the highest quality sonic fangames i've seen...

well, ever, really

¿Habrá una versión para dispositivos móviles?

it looks so pretty and plays really well!! that surprise area at the end was great too, very impressive

Really good demo! It's great to see Overture come back after many years. It looks good, and feels good to play.

I'm sure that others may have brought this up, but I did notice a few bugs and quirks.

The wrecking ball in Granite Zone does not contribute to Link chains, The spinning fireballs in Granite Zone Act 2 only seems to have collision sometimes, the title card for Granite Zone Act 2 is incorrect, some slope collisions cause extreme acceleration which is a little jarring but still feels good either way.

The new music for Sunrise Gate isn't bad by any means, but the original soundtrack by Great Lange is a large part of what made the original Demo so iconic for many people, including myself. I have a lot of nostalgia for them. If possible, I'd love to see his tracks incorporated into this game in some way. I did try to reach out to him quite a while ago to see if he had any lossless FLACs of those Sunrise Gate tracks, it seems he may not be easy to get ahold of.

That second boss fight was great by the way.

Hot diggity dog this is good.

I really like the references to the Sonic 1 Prototype, The music is really good, and the extra bossfight genuinely suprised me in the best way possible. The only bug I have to report is that the Act Card for Granite Zone 2 reads "Sunrise Gate Zone 2" instead. But overall, this shows a lot of promise.

Keep me posted, guys. I want to see what happens next.

I will be playing this live, tomorrow 12/29 around 7PM EST =)

I think it's great! I don't really have much to say, to be honest. It's really good so far! I would love to see this become a full game. I just think that the ability to change keybinds/controls/what keys do what, y'know. That's about it.

This feels pretty good so far! There's some odd glitchiness surrounding Granite Act 2--in my first playthrough, I spawned pretty close to the end of the level for some reason, and in the second playthrough, it was called Sunset Gate Act 2 in the title card--but otherwise things seemed to work as intended. Visually Sunset Gate is quite nice, though I think you could play with the palette some more... it's all pretty basic green and brown right now, and this is a PC game, you don't actually need to worry about using a standard sixteen color palette or whatever. It could definitely use more to DO right now, too, especially with the gloriously gimmicky Golden Capital Zone to compare act 2 to. Right now you have cool flower animations and basically nothing else to make the zone interesting. Granite is very good, by contrast.

I never played the first demo but it's cool to see them give credit to the original devs. As a sonic fan, I loved playing it - 

i love this demo. it's so awesome

It makes me quite happy to see this project again after practically 10 years since I saw the post in some forum.

I love the new visual environment, the music, and how it takes prototype elements from before the release of Sonic 1.

Now, I ran into some problems, first is that the music volume is turned up despite having raised it in options. Second, I feel that the invincibility frames are very short compared to the trilogy.

At minute 10:12, which I also attached the video, the toad glitch occurs, which for some reason does not stop playing its attack sound throughout the level and becomes quite uncomfortable.

Keep up the good work Overture Team!

Very impressive Sonic game. I love the visuals and the boss battles.

Decided to make an account just to comment on some grievances I had while playing the game:

First on the topic of sound: while I find the new tunes great, I don't get why the song for Sunrise Gate had to be redone, as I personally find it one of the most catchy and iconic tracks as far as Sonic fangames go. Would it be too much to ask for an option to switch it back?

Then there's also my biggest issue, the mixing is BAD. Sound effects drowning out the music isn't that big of an issue (although proper sliders for both music and SFX instead of a master volume option would be preferable), but some of them are just too loud, namely the spin dash, the fireworks when defeating an enemy, and the waterfalls. Lastly, the wall breaking SFX is both delayed and sounds low quality, like it was taken from an inaccurate Mega Drive emulator.

One more thing I want to add: while it wasn't that big of an issue, the rain in Granite Act 2 lagged my game quite a bit, though I'm unsure if it's because of my own hardware not being powerful enough. That's why I don't want to fault anyone working on the game.

Please don't take any of this as a personal attack on the developers or anyone contributing to this project. The thought of seeing a complete version of Overture, one of my favorite fangames of all time (amazing for a one level demo), fills me with joy. This demo does not disappoint in the slightest. Level design is great and references to old material are on point. Playable Granite? And that boss fight?!? My expectations are high and I place my hopes on all of you to continue delivering on this level of quality!

What happened here? 

This is really cool! Is there any way to quickly restart stages though?

Awesome demo! Love the new gimmicks, Granite Zone and the boss ofc. Though on my first playthrough, when I completed Golden Gate act 1, I spawned at the last checkpoint right before the boss for some reason, not sure what was the issue but it worked fine on the second playthrough.
Also please change the font in the credits I beg you 💀☠💀☠