Sonic
Project Mettrix is another fan game programmed in C++. It plays similar to Sonic and
Knuckles, except
Knuckles zones are much different.
First off you start with a rather odd character select with Wood Zone graphics and tiles.
Each character
is standing on a switch that you jump on to select who you wanna be. It's easy enough
except wwhen you choose your character, you have to jump over
the characters you don't want, and good luck. You usually end up hitting a different
switch and chosing someone you didn't mean to. Then you walk over to a confusing bunch of
switches and springs... there's also a block you move for 2 player mode or 1 player and I
don't think 2 player is availible yet. So just jump into the giant ring.
-GamePlay-
Sonic/Tails - Their first level is the most fun I think. It's reminds me a lot of Green
Hill Zone and Emerald Hill.
It has working loops, and hidden giant rings, which lead to special stages, and things
like that. It's pretty cool, except some of the enemies are really annoying. There's
one in every game though.
Knuckles - They tried to copy Knuckles SA and SA2 levels by making a tracking system at
the bottom of the screen and you have to find the 3 golden robots and smash them. Of
course, there's no way of knowing that's what the goal is, but it's easy to figure out.
This kind of idea doesn't really work in a 2D game. I just end up
getting lost, and the worst part is, if you die, you have to start all over reguardless of
where you left off.
Once the 3 robots are smashed, you have to work your way to the end tunnel, which can be
difficult, for
there are many tunnels that lead to dead ends. I wish Knuckles levels were more like
Sonic's because right
now, they're not doing the game justice.
Special Stages - I'm sure these are far from complete so I won't even comment on them.
Well.. maybe a little,
right now they're just horrible and Sonic has one frame for animation, and you always end
up being Sonic even if you enter a ring with Knuckles. I think when complete, they will be
much better and able to understand.
Extra stuff - Sonic, Tails and Knuckles moves are the same as in Sonic 3 or Sonic and
Knuckles, but, I dunno
if I haven't played my genesis in a while or if it's a problem in the game, but I don't
think the control is
as well. Like when I told Knuckles to land on a small level, he just kept going even
though I wasn't telling
him too. *tsk tsk* bad Knuckles! The Shields have the same effects and all that good
stuff, but good luck
keeping one. Also, when you get a shield, it appears at the bottom of the screen, not sure
what Sonic
game that's from, but I know I've seen it.
-Graphics-
Okay, from now on, no one complain about the Graphics in Sonic Epoch. At least the
sprites, tiles and backgrounds in Sonic Epoch match one another. This game uses Genesis
sprites, Genesis backgrounds with some hand/computer rendered objects in them, and most of
the tiles are obviously not done by someone with
very much computer rendering skills. So when all of these are put together, it really
doesn't look that
great. In fact it looks pretty bad. I think it'd be better if they used their own sprites
at least.
-Sound/Music-
Rather than use MIDIs like most Sonic fan games, Mettrix uses low quality wav files for
music, which sound fuzzy on many computers, even ones with high quality sound cards. They
or whoever made the wavs needs to fine tune their SoundBlaster drive or use MIDIs. Because
the music is made of wav files, the file size is the game is rather large, for the small
amount you get. The sounds are just like the were in Sonic and Knuckles,
and fit quite well.
-Lastibility-
There really isn't a whole lot. At least not from my stand point. There wasn't really any
plot, as far as I know,
Knuckles levels get old fast, and that boss at the end of Shining Island or whatever is
just horrible. I don't
even really know how to beat it. I think I'm supposed to hit it on top, but it's near
impossible without
a fire sheild or absolute perfect timing. No boss in any Sonic game should take that long
to beat, it's
rediculous.
-Final-
My final comments are, it's nice to see other programmers out there, but just because the
game is programed in C++, doesn't mean it's perfect. This game is far from perfect and
needs some definate improvements. Overall I'd give the game a C at best, and that's mostly
for the effort put forth by
the programmers.
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