Gotta go fast; gotta go faster.

My previous post had mentioned how items are pivotal to game play within certain games and how the acquisition of items changes game-play to varying degrees. What I didn't stress as heavily is how acquiring certain items can drastically change a players approach to the game. In Super Mario World, when you get a cape, do you continue to just run on the ground? No - you jump and fly and use the capes power. Although this is usually intended for the game, there are certain exploits that develop from certain items. For example, in Metriod Prime, there are two items that can allow the player to skip large sections of the game, including certain items, bosses, areas, etc. These would be the Bomb and the Space Jump. Space Jump allows the player to perform a double jump. The Bomb power up allows Samus to drop bombs when in Morph Ball mode. While it is an element of the game that is worked into game-play (e.g. you need to perform this trick to progress to certain areas/acquire certain items ) this also led to things like being able to infinitely bounce. The two powers together are equally as deadly, leading to more useful tricks. The item I designed this time around is focused on creating to quickly traverse the map while also requiring skill and focus to utilize.

As you can see, this trick has been around for a long time.

Above image taken from http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/vb8eTUKVvD8/mqdefault.jpg

We'll be looking at the game Sonic Adventure 2 - one of my favourite Gamecube games. It already has the element of speed in it since Sonic and the gang run pretty fast, but getting to top speed can be a chore at times. The item would be used on Sonic/Shadow and would also be a sort of attack combo upgrade. It would be called the Cammy Boots and would be an additional add-on for their sneakers. Acquiring the item would allow the player to perform a dive kick move (when in the air) that could be chained into a forward dash. That dash momentum could then be used in a jump, which allows for the player to repeat the process - making for a speedy way of traversing levels. However, the whole goal of playing as Sonic/Shadow in Sonic Adventure is to see how fast you can beat a level - this means the item would need a really tight frame window in which the player is allowed to execute the movement. The whole combination should feel rewarding; each dash should be earned. At an extremely technical level, lets say that Sonic/Shadow jumps with A, presses down and A+B to dash downward, has to press L RIGHT before hitting the ground and the press forward and B to dash forward (let's say there would also be a sort of aura that surrounds Sonic/Shadow, similar to the Air Dash).

Like this.

Above image taken from http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120226010635/sonic/images/4/47/Shjumpdash.jpg

Right as the aura ends, there should be a slight burst that signals its time to press A to jump again and get the most from the dash. This would then be repeated as needed. I absolutely love the ability to increase my speed through timed button inputs - and this love was initially sparked by Super Mario 64. Within that game, you could chain long jumps together in order to max out your speed. (Although you start with the ability to perform long jumps; you don't need to unlock them). Ever since then, I've looked for similar techniques in other games - in Ocarina of Time, I found that using the side dash over and over when Z-Locked is faster than rolling forward. I would use this technique to cross Hyrule Field at fast speeds during the Young Link sections. I think bringing a speed technique to a Sonic game (which is already all about speed) would be really cool - although this is the closest thing we'll probably get.