Sonic Vania (2025 Demo)
By JvneTh
Sonic Vania is an SCE based rom hack which aims to build a metroidvania with an open world with Sonic's engine.
This new hack takes into account all critiques from Giant Jungle to make something more polished.
This version is the 2025 Linear Demo, and lasts about 7 minutes. It only contains Lost Lab, which will work as the tutorial zone in the final game and sets the tone of the hack (It is NOT representative of the level design in future zones which will be more open), and a little teaser of the true first zone of the hack, Moon Mount (which includes a day-night cycle but it isn't relevant for this version).
In Lost Lab each section is designed to show the player the new moveset, which makes Sonic more agile. I found it necessary to guide the player in this first zone as much as posible because the most basic stuff has been altered but exploration is still rewarded. This are the main changes:
- A Button: Jumping and using the shield ability
- B Button: Holding on objects (levers, iron bars, wires, etc). You can just hold it.
- C Button: Air Jump (cancels your Y speed) and using the power up ability
- L/R in the D-Pad next to a wall + A: Wall Jump (you can just hold A)
- A/B/C while paused: Use Items (This one is quite unintuitive)
There are also obtainable abilities after beating the Boss. They are not requiered but they are useful and they will take a more important role in future versions. Currently you can obtain:
- Light Speed Dash: Sonic follows RED rings
- B near a red ring
In the menu you have the option to play a new game, to change the settings and to load the save/a password. The settings are turning off flashing lights and changing between two abailable OSTs (In the final version, most of the songs will be changed in favour of a cohesive OST that uses leitmotifs).
You can load any password you want, all passwords do something. The game is designed so there's backwards compatibility between versions, a password from this version will load correctly in later builds.
- The passwords are barely used in this version, but you can play with them to get stuff (They will be used in later versions). Some passwords you might enjoy are:
- XX0000000000 - These give you the upgrades (non, boost, light speed dash, both, etc)
- 00XX00000000 - Upgrades your ring count
- 00000XXX0000 - These give you unused powerups (The only one with abilities is the shockwave potion, B)
- X between 1-6 gives you the unused shields (They're mostly finished)
- My favourite password is FFFF01350500: It turns Sonic into an undefeatable beast
Finally, I challenge you to get to the boss room without turning on the lights ;)
All art from other games was modified
- Super Metroid - Some level art
- Sonic CD - Some enemy art
- Sonic 2 - Some level art
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE TESTERS:
Seriously, without them the hack would be much worse
- Omicronano
- Matt
- Starleaf (pichu)
- TSH
File Type: rom/mega-drive
File Size: 3.72 MB
I found the controls rather difficult to get used to, especially playing on a controller. It is also incredibly vague what you need to do around the hack's ending. I had thought it just abruptly ended in a weird looking room.
Technically though, I find the hack very impressive. Love the attempt at the rope physics, even if it's difficult to understand how to use it.
Last modified by MDTravis @ 2025-10-04 18:09:24
I'll have to rewrite many parts of the hack, like those ropes, and I'll add stuff like a map or being able to map the controls manually if they feel uncomfortable. Thanks for the critiques, they're really useful
I love this project, but I hate the controls... It would be great to change the buttons. I hate using the A button to jump
...and using items during pause...
Maybe it would be better to add support for 6 buttons and use XYZ for items, as the game Comix Zone does.
Good luck anyway :)
The controls kill the experience for me, sorry. And it's not the layout, but how they respond, and what to do next.
First you arrive into a room, then... jump? Into a unescapable pit. You thought wall jump would save you out of this, but nope, it doesn't.
And once you manage to reach the section with the rope, dealing with it becomes a mess of unresponsive controls and weird physics.
At least the art and music is not bad, but... so far, there is nothing to look for here yet.
While a very cool idea in concept, the current showcase is sorely lacking in fun, and the jumping mechanics are REALLY janky and could use in-game instructions. (And more than anything, wall jumps are REALLY counterintuitive; Metroid games typically have you pressing the opposite direction of the wall, this makes these wall jumps really odd to pull off, not to mention requiring wall jumps isn't typically good design for a Metroidvania.)
Overall, I think the framework be improved upon and reused later, but for now, it just wasn't fun, and maybe shouldn't have been a Judged entry imo.
My playthrough/review (Incomplete!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V-M0Rd_aCs
I wasn't able to finish this because I went up a tube into a room that had a barrier (happens at the top of the level, a little bit after that weird cutscene), leaving me with nowhere to go. Am I missing something?
I went up into a tube and there was a door that wouldn't open and I couldn't go anywhere so I guess thats the end of the demo.
I was really looking foward to playing this to be completely letdown...firstly, the visuals and technical prestentation was outstanding along with a great amostphere! However, the controls and mechanics are what ruined the exprience for me. It's really annoying to preform a wall jump and be able to grab on to the ropes since Sonic instantly slips off them.
Last modified by Jdpense @ 2025-10-07 10:52:18
I also got softlocked several times in the boss arena, since the boss for whatever reason wouldn't spawn. I was able to get it to spawn eventually somehow. After beating the boss, I was at the section where the lava chases you but then there was this section of spikes where you needed to use the ropes and honestly I just couldn't be bothered to beat it.
This hack was overall a huge dissappointment, which is a shame really as it was the one I was looking most foward to...
I already encountered some of those softlocks people mention but they happened to me so rarely I couldn't even begin to fix them, I really didn't expect for so many people to be affected by them. I'm already working on applying people critiques in hope of making a version worth playing, thanks for giving it a chance
So I decide to give this another go, and I was able to have a better time with it. I was using the joystick instead of dpad and it gave me a better use of the ropes. As for the boss arena, I was able to bypass the softlock by jumping through the tubes before the sound effects ended.
I was also finally eventually able to beat the lava chase section after I got a better at using the ropes. Overall, I had a better time, but I still do think the controls can be finetuned a bit. I wish you the best for this project, and I look forward to seeing where you go with it!
Thats sick, although i never played Metroidvania.