Quick Look: Freedom Planet

I do like the look of this game.

Game looks like it might be fun to play. I do not like that cringeworthy character design though. It's a bunch of crappy DeviantArt Sonic OCs that look like they are trying way too hard to be unique within the Sonic universe.

16-bit Sonic had a really nice simplicity to it's character design, really a shame they didn't follow that or just not try to make their characters resemble Sonic at all.

Always good to have Peter Brown come over to talk about video games.

I just remembered that Cliffy B and Arjan Brusee are working together again under their new studio, Boss Key Productions. Maybe we'll get a spiritual sequel to Jazz! Regardless, I hope the series gets a re-release on GOG soon.

One of the first games I ever played, loved it at the time. I love how people hound him to make a sequel :P

Drew, you should definitely check out the Jazz Jackrabbit series. It's basically Sonic with guns. The sequel in particular is an overlooked gem; it might even be better than any Sonic.

Cliffy B (of Unreal/Gears fame) was one of the lead game designers on the series.

It really isn't that bad. When I was a kid I couldn't even reliably get to the lava stage, but when I replayed it I beat every difficulty in one day. Extremely fun, but not that hard.

This game looks alright! Also i feel like Peter would be great at doing a bombastica.

Sad you missed Carol's motorbike, it's fantastic.
This game scratches such a great itch for me, i was a backer so i guess i had my eye on it more than most people (it was funded in one night and continued to achieve extra goals), if you love Sonic and are ok with changes to mechanics you must try it.

If you arn't into the cutscenes you can play a mode with all of them removed, but there were quite a few which really made me laugh.

The music is divine work; Peter's right, this is mad Astal.

Keeps supporting my case here.

Shame to waste a perfectly good video feature on such a turd, it wasn't even bad in a funny way, it was just bad.

Well these were his words, not mine. Thinking back I believe more specifically he said the engine he used was a sort of souped up version of the one that was a teaching tool that he learned to program on, made by the same company or something like that. It was real interesting, but a bit over my head.

@emuprime: clickteam fusion isnt a programming teaching tool, its basically game maker except it came first. And plenty of well known indie games have used it. Five Nights at Freddies, Knytt Underground, the AVGN game, Eternal Daughter and Aquaria...

@agentboolen: The maker of this was on a panel about indie dev at PAX South (kinda surprised Drew only mentioned seeing this at East, considering it had a pretty prominent display at South, too). It isn't a team, it's one kid that doesn't look older than 20, tops. He mentioned that the engine he used is a really obscure thing that's intended to function more as a programming teaching tool than something to make full games, which is why there are some performance issues.

Well THX!

It's funny this game is more like Sonic the Hedgehog games then anything Sega had done after the Genesis series.

Sega should buy the team that made this game and get them to bring back the Sonic series. And then maybe they won't just be making cell phone games!!

"Even on its hardest difficulty"

I'm calling bullshit you beat Rocket Knight Adventures on Crazy Hard mode. C'mon, man.

@meatball: this needs to be put up again:

I've played that game so many times that it is remarkably easy now, but only in the "I know this game backwards and forwards" way. As a kid, that game used to destroy me once it gets to Act 5.

One thing that hasn't changed, however, is my opinion that it has one of the best soundtracks of all time, across all systems.

I'm usually up for some Giant Bomb/Gamespot synergy, but this just didn't feel like a Giant Bomb video and was pretty boring. Obviously you guys are limited to who's available, but I'd have much rathered if another person from Giant Bomb were in on this too.

Also, Sonic has always been terrible. *runs*

I had no idea this was out. Looks great! Wishlist'd.

Amen. One of the best games on the Genesis. Found it way too easy when I went back and played it as an adult. Even on its hardest difficulty it wasn't that bad.

Did they cover this game on the site before? Could swear there was already a quick look before and we were gonna have a double up like with Gravity Ghost

What's missing, maybe even lacking, is the way the games from that era look because of the tricks they pulled to look nice on a CRT. Have any indies replicated those techniques?

I want this game on 3ds REALLY BAD!

@noelveiga: fantastic points.

It's also worth noting that Carol (the Wildcat) has one more power. By collecting the gas cans scattered around the levels, Carol can use her Motorcycle to drive on walls, ceilings, and ladders. Yes, the motorcycle can climb up ladders.

This game was criminally overlooked from what I'm seeing. A nice love letter to some of the best Genesis games: Sonic, Gunstar Heroes, and Rocket Knight Adventures. It's just a nice SEGA tribute and I might pick it up on Steam.

Sweet. Ty for the heads up guys :).

I said to myself "reminds me of Astal" a split second before Peter did. I haven't met a non-Japanese game that tries to imitate that style that I liked, but this one so far seems to do the most decent job of it. Maybe I'll check it out during a sale.

The demo was cool, so I'll pick this up when it hits Vita or consoles.

You can get it at IndieGala.com right now (and for 3 or 4 more days) in a bundle with like 5 other games (including a really great shooter/shmup, Crimzon Clover) for as low as $3. Steam keys and everything for all of them.

@xshinobi said:

It's currently part of an IndieGala bundle for only $2.99. Freedom Planet and Crimzon Clover make it more than worth the price:

https://www.indiegala.com/monday

YES! Loved this game, had so much fun playing as Lilac. The last levels are friggin' great.

I hope it gets some respect through the years, I always felt it got easily dismissed for being a Sonic clone.

Looks cool and the music is pretty kickass. I will pick it up on a Steam sale.

Wow, this really is Sonic, the animation, the level layout. Nuts.

Excited about someone talking about Astal on Giant Bomb and also at the same time FUCK THAT GAME.

Man, Sonic games are so misunderstood. Between fans that think "going fast" is the point and the haters that claim they've never been good it's no wonder nobody seems to understand what made them great enough to reproduce it.

I don't even think they need more complexity like Drew says. Sonic 1 is all but perfect. It's a speedrunning game before speedrunning was a thing. It's not Mario, it's N+. The thing is, the speedrunning is not about running fast, it's about optimizing paths and skipping cycles. Go look at an early Sonic level. A bunch of times it's just a slow platforming sequence that you can either skip or do fast by keeping momentum, damage boosting or finding a way to do a multi-cycle moving platform section without waiting for a reset.

The new games are all about those sequences where the camera takes over or Sonic spins around loops, but those are the game's equivalent of cutscenes, they're the portions when you catch your breath.

Anyway, all of this is a disservice to poor Freedom Planet, that got dismissed as a Sonic clone despite not being one. It looks fan-fictiony, which is a shame, because maybe it would have made a bigger splash if it was either a little bit more authentic to its sources or a little bit less so.

I'm actually really interested in this! While it's sonic as hell, it looks like it shakes things up enough to be a bit deeper. Love the allusions to other Mega Drive games, too.

@chillicothe: Boy I enjoy load times when casting a spell. How fun.

Looks competently made, but yea, not liking the style much.

Generations is fantastic. It shows that sonic can and does work in 3D, along with the nostalgia levels. I can't help feeling that a lot of what Drew wants from Sonic was in Colours on the Wii.

Also, more Peter Brown & Drew Quick Looks.

You skipped the gas can powerup. I guarantee you'd 180 on Carol after seeing that.

Team Carol

Never played Sonic games growing up or ever, so yep. I appreciate and recognize the look, but that's it.

Music's nice too.

Much like Majora's Mask 3D is to the original, I think this game is how Sonic fans remember old Sonic games. And Rocket Knight? Please. That was a VOLTECCER! ;)

Oh man I was hoping Drew would get a QL of this up! I too always hope the next Sonic game will be great, to be ever sad

I really liked the first Sonic game on the Genesis, and haven't really gotten into the rest as much. What I played of Generations seemed cool, but I think merely because it brings us back to the original gameplay.

Kids are in love with the Sonic characters though. It really doesn't matter if the game plays well or not, but it would certainly help make the series "classic" again.

Sonic games are sometimes all right still, Drew! Peter Brown was right about those Advance games, they are fun, and I heard sonic rush on the DS was pretty good too. Different people have appreciated Colors and Generations, too. It's just never gonna be this big mainstream thing like it was.

Freedom Planet, it turns out, is nostalgia I didn't know I had from playing sonic games at friends' houses. I need to play this, love what I see. I'm a bit surprised, though. I think I actually saw a short trailer a loong time ago that had Carol using a bike, did they drop that?

Thanks for doing a quick look finally, anyway. I had no idea this was out.

I'm just here to say hooray to a mention of Rocket Knight Adventures.