Momentum

[Fluffal Kyurem]

One of the most obnoxious things in the Classic Sonic games is just the way the momentum system works. It takes a while to build your speed up, and they ways you can get your speed up quickly (Drop Dash, Spin Dash, Peel Out) aren't really all that useful and require you to slow down for a moment to use them. If you don't have enough momentum to get up a slope than you're going BACK DOWN THAT F*****. Aerial presence is also rather limited without a shield power-up on Sonic or one of the relativly slow (and vulnerable) flight abilities of another character. Sonic Rush + Sonic Rush Adventure solved some of this with the ability to boost and use aerial tricks at some points, but we haven't seen another Sonic Rush game in over a decade.


Freedom Planet deals with all of this and more some with it's physics engine and character abilities. the smallest amount of momentum will allow you to get up walls and even cellings with ease. Burst movement is readly at your command with every character (Jump Dash/Accelerate, Dragon Boost, Super Shield Bash). I really enjoy being able to move around so fluently without much loss of speed. This is why enjoy playing as Carol the most as she has the ability to wall jump as much as she wants, or just drive on walls/ ceillings with her motorcycle. Everyone even has greater aerials momentum with easy jumps that either have hitboxes or you can act out of them with an attack/ability. Combat is also more fluent with a dedicated attack button without having to jump on everything like Mario "Jumpman" Mario.

An important thing to give the player when designing a video game is to fulfill a "power fantasy", while still making a truly competent difficulty system. Many games try and fail at this. Sonic games rely too much on memorization and punsh the player unfairly. You don't have all the potent abilities that Freedom Planet gives you. FP2 even expands this by giving you a dedicated dodge button to increase your defensive abilities!

I found this incredible video that easily explains the way that Sonic and Freedom Planet handle their heath differently:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AEKbBF3URE

Sonic uses regenerative heath with it's Ring system and Freedom Planet uses a non-regenerative heath system with Flower Petals.

[R.Heart]

The momentum does feel really good.

But it's not just that, everything this game does right are things that Sonic can only dream of. Speed sections, platform sections, even brawling sections, all attempted by Sega, all failed spectacularly for one reason or another-- well, maybe not all, but it seems like 'most.' They too often range from 'near miss' to 'total dumpster fire,' all the way down to having not 1 but 2 games considered among the worst triple-A releases in the history of video games. Super shameful for such a high profile gaming icon. You could even argue that the 'edginess' attempted by Shadow was delivered better by someone like Spade. Intentional or not, I feel like his bloop reel at the beginning of Fortune Night is a meme about Shadow (down+special during dialogue). "It's just hard to be cool and suave while also being informative at the same time. God d*** my coolness."

KingK does a retrospective video on Mario Sunshine, in which he describes 'immersion' not just by high def graphics and gripping narrative, but by the simple act of how well a character moves within the world they are placed. How it feels to move said character around. In that context, the immersion of Freedom Planet is second to none. Everything flows. Everything feels fluid. Everything is paced appropriately. The experience of playing this game is virtually seamless. And FP2 is only looking better.

I don't know about "power fantasy," this game doesn't really do that, I think. Sims or Superhero games maybe, but not this one. This is more like being on a rollercoaster with a blend of old beat'em ups. It's simple joy, there's nothing really complicated or 'Freudian' going on.