>level design is the literal manifestation of the "hold right to win" stereotype regarding sonic levels. there were only 2 times where i had to press something that wasnt the right or jump button
>unnecessary features like the nights combo system that adds NOTHING to the game & is a part of the overall issue of this demo heavily relying on aesthetics rather than enjoyable gameplay
>music is an INSANE downgrade
>doesn't even bother to fix any flaws the original overture demo had & is overall worse
>buggy
>the weird feature with sonic peering ontop of certain objects feels awkward and isnt even used much
>awkward cutscenes that just feel weird
>ball gimmick feels weird and functions horribly
>overall feels devoid of creativity and soul. i dont even think this project should have existed in the first place
there is honestly no soul in this project. it was created out of spite with no passion or love for the original project, which shows.
hold on here, you cant even say one nice thing? do you realize this took more effort than it took you writing this to even complete any of the spiriting? besides this is your first itch.io post, nice way to break in the account buddy, by crying that nothing is to your perfect standards. If you dont have anything nice to say, dont say it. also, do you have any fucking idea what the word demo means? you dont? it means nothing is final, so stop being such a whiny frick bro. go try to code a single sonic game, ill wait.
I honestly think the comment from Joggly Josh this is a valid assesment, after playing the demo, and noticing immediately that both the movment and jump mechanics are not even close to the original, making it feel extremely stiff to play. The Minimum jump height needs to be decreased, additionally you should reference pixel count as the Sonic 3 team did with Sonic 2 is my reccomendation. Mass is too high, acceleration and deceleration is not faithful as well.
The Nights Combo System doesn't even add score to your counter, and there is no use for it, as it stands right now it is wasted development time unless you like serotonin from flashing colors and numbers going up.
The method for Sprite rotation is jarring on render resolusion this small, with no menu in-game. There is no clamping or threshold to rotation so Sonic will jitter on any elevation higher or lower.
Music fades out into silence and does not loop.
Bugs are still present from the original as well.
The level design does not suit the hopping feature sonic has, either there are no spots to actually gain a speed advantage, no combo hopping to making platforming easier, or using it to access multiple routes. In fact it kills momentum completely with a hitbox snap so Sonic clings to it even if you don't want to use it.
No controls menu in game, or option for widescreen despite being a unique engine.
At this state it is not worth checking out, please wait for a update far later in it's development period for maximum enjoyment.
"There is honestly no soul in this project" My brother in Christ someone worked tirelessly to make this demo and you have the audacity to assume that someone's creative work is mute just because you dislike certain quirks in a demo for a fan-made video game? I hope you get help I truly do
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!
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!
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Wow, what terrible way to make something out of pure spite. I mean, you made this without either of the original creators' permission or consent. You literally stole their project. The Lange erasure is purely fucked. The music you added was complete ass, making Sunrise Gate Zone lose all of it's charm due to it's legendary music. Also, the game is extremely glitchy and I lost all control of the entire game during the Marble Zone boss.
He's not wrong about the new Sunrise Gate Zone music being inferior. I do disagree with a lot of his other points tho, as this was DEF not a spite fangame. Also, some of the guys working on this version are from the OG Team.
Obviously things wont be one-to-one with the OG Overture 2014 version as of now. Things will get polished as time passes by. But labeling a game as a Spite Project is such a dumb take, whereas the New Overture 2023 is trying it's best to revive and complete a beloved fangame.
The creator that made the first ost for Sunrise Gate and the third act of Granite Zone, The Great Lange, is there any possibility to bring them back to this project? I prefere how he did the rendition of the Acts. If not thats fine but i would really like for him to finish the last Act 3 of Granite Zone if he might. But other than that amazing demo!!!
You DO NOT want The Great Lange himself back on the project, the guy's an asshole. (I've had the displeasure of getting into a feud with him on Twitter, all for stating my opinion that SatAM/Archie is PEAK Sonic, and he decided to treat my opinion like COMPLETE DIRT.) I do agree at least that his music should 100% come back, whether he likes it or not.
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!
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 💀☠💀☠
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there is honestly no soul in this project. it was created out of spite with no passion or love for the original project, which shows.
hold on here, you cant even say one nice thing? do you realize this took more effort than it took you writing this to even complete any of the spiriting? besides this is your first itch.io post, nice way to break in the account buddy, by crying that nothing is to your perfect standards. If you dont have anything nice to say, dont say it. also, do you have any fucking idea what the word demo means? you dont? it means nothing is final, so stop being such a whiny frick bro. go try to code a single sonic game, ill wait.
I honestly think the comment from Joggly Josh this is a valid assesment, after playing the demo, and noticing immediately that both the movment and jump mechanics are not even close to the original, making it feel extremely stiff to play. The Minimum jump height needs to be decreased, additionally you should reference pixel count as the Sonic 3 team did with Sonic 2 is my reccomendation. Mass is too high, acceleration and deceleration is not faithful as well.
The Nights Combo System doesn't even add score to your counter, and there is no use for it, as it stands right now it is wasted development time unless you like serotonin from flashing colors and numbers going up.
The method for Sprite rotation is jarring on render resolusion this small, with no menu in-game. There is no clamping or threshold to rotation so Sonic will jitter on any elevation higher or lower.
Music fades out into silence and does not loop.
Bugs are still present from the original as well.
The level design does not suit the hopping feature sonic has, either there are no spots to actually gain a speed advantage, no combo hopping to making platforming easier, or using it to access multiple routes. In fact it kills momentum completely with a hitbox snap so Sonic clings to it even if you don't want to use it.
No controls menu in game, or option for widescreen despite being a unique engine.
At this state it is not worth checking out, please wait for a update far later in it's development period for maximum enjoyment.
edit: auto correct inconsistencies
"There is honestly no soul in this project" My brother in Christ someone worked tirelessly to make this demo and you have the audacity to assume that someone's creative work is mute just because you dislike certain quirks in a demo for a fan-made video game? I hope you get help I truly do
👍
yeah, but do i care??????????????? no.
wow bait used to be believable
you are right joggly josh!
So does getting a high combo do anything? I couldn't figure it out when I played
Fantastic game, can't wait for more! Super interesting mechanics and a great change to the classic formula.
soo many glitches!
Just finished my playthrough and didn't encounter even ONE glitch. Stop being a jealous baby and dev some better games :)
hey arent you the guy who uses ai for thumbnails?
only once
finish this NOW
Man.. this looks fantastic so far. Great new build on the Overture project. I hope you get to see it through, good luck!
Looking forward to seeing the fruits of more work put into this in the future, that would be awesome.
I added voicelines in Sonic Legends as a mod!
https://kdsealock.itch.io/sonic-legends-voices-mod
Linux Build?...
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
Great to see Sonic Overture make a comeback last year in time for Christmas! I hope to see more of it in the future! :)
Needs proper gamepad support with custom bindings
Been playing this demo for a while now, and here's my thoughts:
The good:
The bad:
The weird:
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
advertiser lo
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:
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.
your pc might be running the game using the integrated graphics of your cpu. this happens sometimes.
can someone tell me which key should i press on my keyboard to click the start game??
idk
😭
Z! : )
thank u sm!!!
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?
PLEASE release the soundtrack somewhere, the new sunrise gate act 1 theme is a banger
thank you!! I’ll let folks know when it’s released somewhere.. probably on soundcloud or YouTube first !
edit: https://soundcloud.com/fatherplaystation/sunrise-gate-zone-act-1-sonic-overture-...
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!
Wow, what terrible way to make something out of pure spite. I mean, you made this without either of the original creators' permission or consent. You literally stole their project. The Lange erasure is purely fucked. The music you added was complete ass, making Sunrise Gate Zone lose all of it's charm due to it's legendary music. Also, the game is extremely glitchy and I lost all control of the entire game during the Marble Zone boss.
Seethe and Cope,
Mald even
He's not wrong about the new Sunrise Gate Zone music being inferior. I do disagree with a lot of his other points tho, as this was DEF not a spite fangame. Also, some of the guys working on this version are from the OG Team.
Obviously things wont be one-to-one with the OG Overture 2014 version as of now. Things will get polished as time passes by. But labeling a game as a Spite Project is such a dumb take, whereas the New Overture 2023 is trying it's best to revive and complete a beloved fangame.
Very impressive Sonic game. I love the visuals and the boss battles.
The creator that made the first ost for Sunrise Gate and the third act of Granite Zone, The Great Lange, is there any possibility to bring them back to this project? I prefere how he did the rendition of the Acts. If not thats fine but i would really like for him to finish the last Act 3 of Granite Zone if he might. But other than that amazing demo!!!
You DO NOT want The Great Lange himself back on the project, the guy's an asshole. (I've had the displeasure of getting into a feud with him on Twitter, all for stating my opinion that SatAM/Archie is PEAK Sonic, and he decided to treat my opinion like COMPLETE DIRT.) I do agree at least that his music should 100% come back, whether he likes it or not.
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 💀☠💀☠