During Gamescom, fans shared footage of the Cyberspace levels in Sonic Frontiers that featured similarities to levels from previous Sonic titles, such as the Windmill Isle in Sonic Unleashed. Now, Takashi Iizuka, head of Sonic Team, has confirmed that the similarities between Cyberspace and those classic levels are intentional.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Iizuka said that the Cyberspace levels are “digital expressions of the worlds in the memories of Sonic the Hedgehog.” In other words, they’re recreations of the memories of places that Sonic visited throughout his 30-year history, such as Green Hill Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog, Sky Sanctuary in Sonic 3, and even Radical Highway from Sonic Adventure 2. He even noted that some of those levels may get mixed together, as the Green Hill Zone Cyberspace level has the same level design as the Windmill Isle tutorial level from Unleashed.
it's the exact same level design#SonicFrontiers pic.twitter.com/3dwsGPmzrG
— Mikester (@mikesterp1) August 24, 2022
“We kind of want to reuse those memories — like the memories we have as well, because we played the games with Sonic — but the team is doing it intentionally, to kind of poke at those little points that players are going to pick up on immediately. Like, ‘I remember this exactly!'” Iizuka said. “And we are making levels that maybe look different, but feel the same as other things you have experienced. There’s going to be a mix of those very intentionally nostalgic or familiar areas, but there will also be some brand new things nobody’s ever seen before.”
Iizuka’s description of the Cyberspace levels is reminiscent of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. In the Game Boy Advanced game and the PS2 remaster, every floor in Castle Oblivion is transformed into a different world featured in the first game using a World Card created from Sora’s memories. Basically, the Cyberspace levels take inspiration from Chain of Memories, but instead of each level looking exactly like the same place they’re based on, they’re mixed with other worlds not only for the sake of nostalgia, but also as a representation of how lost and confused Sonic is as he travels across Starfall Islands.
Sonic Frontiers will release on November 8.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.