Return of Shadow
By JoenickROS
Its been about 3 years since I last released this, now for some of you who have played this before you probably wont feel like much has changed since the last release but there has been quite a few additions and a lot of bug fixes that I will list towards the end of the hack description.
Levels: Bayside Atoll Zone (Act 1), Nightside Atoll Zone (Act 2), Frost Mountain Zone (Act 1), Frost Cavern Zone (Act 2: New), Neon Lights Zone (Act 1), Carnival Street Zone (Act 2), Wacky Workbench Zone (only one act), Dystopia Zone (only one act), Massacre Temple Zone (Act 1), Tidal Tempest Zone (Act 2), Mushroom Cavern Zone (Act 1), Mt. Inferno (Act 2), Forgotten Cave Zone (only one act), Lakeside Garden Zone (Act 1), Sunset Garden Zone (Act 2), Locust Dunes Zone (Act 1), Midngiht Dunes Zone (act 2), Ancient City Zone (only one act)
Player Modes: Sonic and Tails (default option go into the options from the title screen to change it), Sonic (alone), Tails (alone), Knuckles (alone), Knuckles and Tails, Shadow (alone), Tails and Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, Sonic and Knuckles, Knuckles and Sonic.
How to Play: In the past I would have to explain on the release page how to use each character BUT now before you start a new game you will be sent to a screen that teaches you how.
Now on to the additions from last release; to speed up the game the hack now uses the Sonic 3 and Knuckles object manager, every act (besides the first) has a beginning cutscene and every end of act has a cutscene (this is to make the zone changes make a little more sense), every level now has background scrolling, there is a new boss in Massacre Temple (wont say what it is), Tidal Tempest good future is now using the right art instead of a recolored present, Wacky Workbench now has enemies, a cycling palette for the bounching floors and some platforms that bounce on them, super sonic stars load once the time travel timer starts, hyper sonic and super sonic stars now load, Tails has working flickies when hyper, Shadow now has his own special stage sprites, Shadows in game sprites no longer have inconsistencies, his skating animation now doesnt speed up when increasing speed, and some new music and updated music. Now for the bug fixes; the hack has been played will all the characters and does not crash (tested on Regen and Kega) like the previous version, the bubble bounce now bounces Sonic off objects correctly (no longer act like they were deleted), if you get hurt during a bubble bounce it wont crash the game now, FMZ/FCZ Sol now has the ice spike balls using the right colors, the ice block is also using the right colors and palette line, and the breakable floors art is no longer glitched, Yardin in TTZ is no longer glitched, Mt Inferno's earthquake event now working, MDZ's moving platform now using correct art, the orbs in ACZ now loading correctly, some others I have forgotten (there were a lot which I apologize for, from the previous version).. there are three new ones though, in Kega Fusion sidekick will try to keep going to the left, reseting the level, returing from a big ring, or checkpoint will sometimes cause the background to no longer be centered correctly, the first catapult in MCZ can appear glitched but it will fix itself if you go off screen and go back to it.
Credits: Blazer; Massacre Temple art
KCEXE; Dystopia art
Jdpense; character descriptions screen, and boss in Massacre Temple
Markeyjester; FCZ forground loop art
Snkenjoi; Flex 2
Mainmemory; SonLVL, SonPLN
Flamewing; Sound driver
Hitaxas; Sidekick social distancing code, bug testing
Alriightyman; guide for setting up Flamewings sound driver, bug testing
Varion Icaria; bug testing
E-122-Psi; Shadow special stage sprites
Asuharamoon; Shadows new sprites
A couple Notes: The water ripple effect is disabled if you are playing a player mode with a sidekick, having super birds can lag the game pretty badly, and if you get stuck or want to reset the level for any reason pause and press the C (D key) button. The HPZ shrine is incomplete, but you only need to repeat one of the special stages to unlock Hyper.
File Type: rom/mega-drive
File Size: 1.62 MB
THE BEST MOD OF THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay note from the hacker here, if you do make it to the HPZ shrine I goffed and beating one of the special stages does not unlock hyper and a crash or soft lock can occur when returning from the ring, forgot to clear the flag used to play a cutscene, when returning from the HPZ shrine.
I beat wacky workbench in the present as Sonic & Tails. Then the game softlocked me in wacky workbench, but when I died due to time over and beat the boss again, it progressed properly to Dystopia Zone. What could have caused that?
Last modified by TargetToad @ 2020-10-28 15:39:22
Softlock how?
When I beat the stage, the game took me to wacky workbench past, rather than progressing me to Dystopia zone.
Something similar happened with after beating Mt. Inferno as Shadow. I beat the stage, then the automatic cutscene got stuck with shadow being unable to use that loop in said cutscene, softlocking the game.
Okay thanks for notifying me.
I remembered playing this back in 2015, and I don't really recall much from playing it aside from the slowdown and bugs, though I will say that this verison is a lot less buggy and laggy from previous verisons. I liked the level design for the most part, but I honestly felt there were some gimmicks that didn't really serve too much of a purpose, for instance the Time Travel gimmick. I also loved the smps ports, but I'm not too surprised since I already know you are an expert at music =P
No offense to you personally, but this was an absolute NIGHTMARE to play through from start to finish. Every zone of the game caused me immense amounts of suffering due to the rampant bugs and glitches that plagued my game. The game is so unoptimised and broken, I'm stunned that they allowed it to be entered into the contest.
I have so much more to say, but the character limit will not let me say more, so I will let this image to speak what I want to say in full:
https://imgur.com/a/eStuoBV
You are a cruel, rude little boy!
Do you have a glimpse of a thought on what an enourmous work should be made to release any simple romhack? It assumes great knowledge, talant, little bit of luck and trial and errors for ages! Don't you rememmber 100+ cool hacks that was done for 9% of what they had promised to get and never come back!? Features we've got here I was begging to have for 15 years already. I'm happier person now that I was this morning!
Romhacking is a just another sort of art. Autors make them not for money, not for glory and definitelly not for a single yourself! That is digital artistical soulful art in sake of nostalgia
Any mature internet user knows such a place like pastebin.com
Shame on you
this is so cool thanks for the good time !
i tried this before this is a imporvement because the last bulid had a game breaking bug where you get stuck
The level select works the same way as Sonic 2, just with 4 different number:
Go to options and play (press B) on these song numbers: 10 , 01 , 04 , 06 You should hear a sound play. Select your character and press START to go to title screen. Highlight PLAYER 1, hold A and press START.
Looking at game code FTW!
That is unbelieavable!!! Dude! You need to find a couple of folks that will redraw the entire graphics and we would have the best romhack ever!
Stumbled on a couple of bugs. That's funny, on the Mednafen emulator the game is FUBAR! On player selection menu we have Sonic and Miles as the first option, theeeen a couple of variants later we have Sonic and Tails! Which is Knucles I suppose) and digging for some time hanging to debug screen and so on. Take a look.
amazing this hack let's wait for the full version that i thought was cool
At the hidden palace zone, you have to do all of the 7 special stages again? It seems like that's the case, but after I complete on of the special stages, the super emerald doesn't gain it's colour back, and it's also possible to do one special stage more than once If you keep going on top of the same super emerald each time you go to the shrine.
And it would feel nice if super sonic had his own sprites
These sound test songs need to be uploaded somewhere cause DAMN, they're amazing.
hey, I'd like to report this error, I achieved this error in the Wacky Workbench Zone. this was at the beginning of the stage of the future. i had broke one of the things from Sonic CD.
hi, zane here again even tho this is 4 years later...
i kinda miss the 2015 neon lights track. it has such a vibe. was that one in particular a remix of another song or is it original? asking this same question about track 16, also.
Amazing!!