Trending December 2023 # After Sonic Mania, Sega Needs To Make 2D Sonic Games A Priority # Suggested January 2024 # Top 13 Popular

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After Sonic Mania, Sega needs to make 2D Sonic games a priority

Like many people, I was a bit apprehensive when Sega first revealed Sonic Mania. I was just as excited for a 2D Sonic the Hedgehog title as the next guy, but Sega’s talent for screwing up Sonic games is not an easy thing to forget. Now that it’s been here for around two weeks – except for the PC version, which launches today – it’s clear that I was wrong to be worried. Sonic Mania is a brilliant game, and it shows that Sega needs to commit to regular 2D Sonic releases once and for all.Sonic Mania is unlike any other Sonic game made in the past 23 years. For starters, it’s actually good. To say that might be a little harsh, but while we may be able to point to some relative high points for the Sonic series since it made the jump to 3D (Sonic die-hards will often point to the two Sonic Adventure games as examples), Sonic Mania is better than all of them.Sonic Mania is at least the best game in the series since Sonic and Knuckles, but I might even go so far as to say it’s better than most of those classic Genesis entries, save for maybe Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Where it ranks among the greatest Sonic games is irrelevant to my larger point, though: fans have clearly been craving a true-to-form return of 2D Sonic gameplay, and now that Sega has given us a taste, 3D Sonic simply won’t cut it anymore.

There are many great things about Sonic Mania – the retro graphics, the excellent soundtracks, the well-crafted stages, the fact that none of the characters talk. It’s a far cry from Sonic games we’ve been treated to recently, with Sonic Boom in particular coming to mind. A glitchy mess with broken stages and cringeworthy dialogue at every turn, Sonic Boom is the antithesis to Sonic Mania. Nothing that makes Sonic great is present in Sonic Boom, and in fact, that’s something that can be said for a lot of recent Sonic games. With all of that in mind, why does Sega persist with these awful titles?

I think the answer to that question can be found in who actually developed Sonic Mania. Sonic Team had little to do with Sonic Mania, and instead, it was almost entirely made by Sonic fans. Christian Whitehead, a freelance developer who worked with Sega on the mobile ports of Sonic 1, Sonic 2, and Sonic CD, first pitched Sonic Mania to Sega as Sonic Discovery back in 2023. Series producer Takashi Iizuka greenlit the project, and it wasn’t long before Whitehead was joined by programmer Simon Thomley of Headcannon and the level designer-artist-composer trio of Jared Kasl, Tom Fry, and Tee Lopes from PagodaWest Games.

Sonic Mania is, in essence, a fan game that impressed Sega enough to actually get corporate backing. Iizuka himself said it was a “passion project” from fans who have fond memories of Sonic’s 2D days. Those two words bring up a very important question: if this is what a Sonic game driven by passion looks like, what’s Sega’s excuse for the garbage it’s fed us for the past two decades? It’s clear that Sonic Team has lost its passion for the series, and it took a team of very dedicated and talented fans to remind us all what made Sonic so great in the first place.

It’s time for Sega to make regular 2D Sonic releases a priority. After playing Sonic Mania, I have even less interest in 3D Sonic than I did before, and that’s saying a lot because my already low level of interest is a result of Sonic Team trampling my hopes and expectations for 20 years.

I’m not saying that Sega should stop making 3D Sonic games entirely; I’m saying that instead of working with Whitehead and company on a freelance basis, Sega should put them on the payroll and task them with reviving 2D Sonic in a new series that sees regular releases. Sonic Team is then free to do whatever wacky things it wants with mainline Sonic games, and fans who grew up with Sonic in the ’90s and only want the series to be good again are satisfied. Everyone wins!

Sega has a very obvious opportunity to revive the Sonic everyone knows and loves. It’s time to stop making these 2D appearances a one-off thing or tying them to 3D Sonic in the silly hope that we won’t mention how bad those 3D sequences actually are. Sonic the Hedgehog is one of my most beloved game franchises ever – give me a reason to shower you in money and I’ll do it, but I’m done spending money on 3D Sonic games in the hope that they’ll get better eventually.

The ball is in your court, Sega. Are you going to drive it home for the win or are you going to blow it?

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Soocas Neos Electric Toothbrush Review: Sonic Brush + Water Jet

Pros

Clever design

Leaves teeth feeling clean

Good for travelling

Long battery life

Cons

Heavy

Messy in use

No pressure sensor

Our Verdict

This cleverly designed electric toothbrush and water jet cleans teeth well and is a great option for travel. However, its weight and size make it less easy to recommend as an everyday brush.

It’s rare to see something totally new where electric toothbrushes are concerned. Most newly launched electric toothbrushes are refinements of existing models, with improved features, or more features, or more brushing feedback packed into their frames.

But the Soocas Neos is the first brush of its kind that I’ve seen. It’s a sonic electric toothbrush that also cleans your teeth with a water jet. It has an inbuilt water reservoir, so you don’t need a connected water tank. This makes it a great option for people who like water jet flossing – especially if you want a brush you can take away with you.

Soocas is an oral and personal care company that, in its own words, focuses on research and development. It has a number of electric toothbrushes, water flossers and electric razors available on its website. The Neos not yet available to buy but we’ll update this article with links once it is. You can sign up to find out more on the Soocas website.

Design and build

Much larger than a standard electric toothbrush

Weighs more than a can of Coke when the tank is full

USB charging

As you might expect, given its unusual water jet feature, the Neos is much longer at 29cm/ 11.4in and wider than your average electric toothbrush, with an almost 14cm/ 5.5in circumference.

It’s chunky but not impossible to hold, and there’s a textured grip on its back, which helps. Still, its size means you may not be able to store it with your other brushes. It’s too tall to fit in my bathroom cabinet unless I remove the brush head.

It weighs much more as well. The Neos is 274g/ 9.7oz, compared to the Oral-B iO4’s 135g/ 4.8oz. If you put them side by side, you’ll see just how massive the Neos is.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

At the back is a flip-open water reservoir with a 100ml/ 3.3 fl oz capacity. It’s easy to fill from a tap but once filled with water, it weighs 361g/ 12.7oz – which is more than a can of Coke.

It has three large buttons that operate it and it’s in no way immediately obvious what they do. But all have a different tactile design, which should – in theory – help when it comes to using it. Beneath the buttons is a column of indicator lights that are equally mystifying at the start. Below that is a handy battery indicator light.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

You can remove the cap at the base of the brush to give the reservoir a proper clean and the set comes with a long brush, designed just for this purpose.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Soocas claims that the Neos has a whopping 30-day battery life. I didn’t manage to drain it during testing.

Performance

Water reservoir lasts around 40 seconds

Three brushing intensities

No pressure sensor

When testing a new product, I always like to see how intuitive it is to use, before referring to the manual. In the case of the Neos, it didn’t come with a manual, so I just started using it.

Long story short – I couldn’t figure out the buttons, water was spraying everywhere and I resorted to the Soocas website.

As it turns out, rather than being function buttons, the top two buttons are for different programmes. I’d guessed that one was for sonic cleaning and one for the water jet. I was wrong. The larger top button is for a complete cleaning programme of sonic brushing, followed by brushing and water flossing.

The smaller second button delivers a shorter (around 30-50 seconds) complete cleaning mode, with both sonic vibrations and water. The length of time depends on how long the water in the reservoir lasts, which will vary based on water jet intensity.

Once filled with water, it weighs 361g/ 12.7oz – which is more than a can of Coke

You can adjust the intensity of the sonic vibrations and water pressure by toggling the yellow key at the base. There are three intensity settings of sonic vibrations and three for water jet intensity.

It’s extremely simple once you know, I thought, while wiping toothpaste and water out of my eyes.

When you use the long programme, the initial dentist-recommended two-minute brushing period is broken up by a change in vibration every thirty seconds, to let you to know to move on to the next quadrant of your mouth.

After two minutes, there’s a longer and louder alert, to let you know that the water jet is preparing. You’ll then get around 30-50 seconds of jet flossing before the reservoir is emptied.

It would be useful to have a brushing only mode. Although you can stop it before the water jet starts up, or brush with an empty reservoir, sooner or later, you’re going to get sprayed.

That’s because using the water jet is a fairly chaotic process. It’s messier than ordinary brushing and most likely, either yourself or your floor will end up catching a bit of spray. It’s not the sort of brush you’d want to use when you’re all dressed up to give your teeth a quick polish before heading out. This means that you’ll also need a second toothbrush for those occasions.

It’s also far too easy to accidentally press one of the buttons when you’re grappling with its chunky size while brushing. This then means moving the brush out of your mouth to see what you’ve pressed, which is inevitably when you’ll get a water jet in the face.

After using the brush, your teeth will feel very clean. It’s also an easy way to incorporate flossing into your regular dental routine

Still, it’s IPX8 water resistance rated, so you could use it in the shower, although we’d suggest you don’t use it in the bath in case you drop it. It should survive a dunk or two but it won’t if it happens regularly.

The water jet comes from a raised aperture in the middle of the toothbrush bristles. In some respects, this is a perfect design, as it means you can just brush your teeth as usual and the jet will always be pointing in the right direction.

However, the Neos doesn’t have a pressure sensor, so if you press too hard when you brush, the only way you’re likely to find out is by scratching your teeth with the hard plastic of the jet nozzle. It only protrudes a short way – about half the length of the bristles – but for some people, that will be too much.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

After using the brush, your teeth will feel very clean. It’s also an easy way to incorporate flossing into your regular dental routine. But the brush is much heavier and more unwieldy than an ordinary electric toothbrush, so you might find that you don’t always reach for it when you should.

Verdict

The Soocas Neos represents a great idea and I liked using it. I feel that it’s an effective brush and the water jet action is good for cleaning between teeth. However, because it’s heavy and messy to use, I often found myself picking up another toothbrush instead.

Buy it if you want a water flossing brush for travel, or a second brush to encourage you to floss regularly, but don’t throw away your day-to-day brush just yet.

For more electric toothbrush options and to see our recommendations, have a look at our round-ups of the best electric toothbrushes we’ve tested, the best cheap electric toothbrushes and the best Oral-B electric toothbrushes.

Sega Takes After Burner Climax To The Skies On Ios

Originally released as an arcade machine way back in 1987, Sega’s high-adrenaline jet fighter action, After Burner Climax, has made a jump to the iPhone and iPad (it’s also coming soon to Android). The game puts you in the cockpit of the F-14D Super Tomcat, F-15E Strike Eagle or F/A-18E Super Hornet, each customizable with four paint jobs (standard paint, camouflage, special paint and low visibility).

Load your aircraft with a bunch of high-tech weapons, take off into the skies and barrel through twenty different landscapes – like volcanoes, jungles, ice caps and more. Of course, the game’s really just an excuse for a bunch of orange explosions and total mayhem.

Nevertheless, fans of some heart-pounding action (gee, I sound like a PR bunny) should consider giving After Burner Climax a try…

As a nice bonus, you can enjoy Retina action on a big screen TV as After Burner Climax supports both HDMI and AirPlay video.

The blurb:

The classic arcade game After Burner has now returned for a new generation of gamers. After Burner Climax is fast and frantic action, putting you in the cockpit of the world’s fastest fighter plane. Dodge planes, rockets and bullets while trying to target multiple on-screen enemy aircraft.

Built for all skill levels, everyone will be able to take to the air and blaze through a branching storyline and over 20 stages. Unlock achievements along the way to unlock exclusive Avatar Awards using your experience and expertise.

And your full features list:

Select your aircraft from the F-14D Super Tomcat by Northrop Grumman to the F-15E Strike Eagle and F/A-18E Super Hornet by Boeing. Personalize your plane with a selection of 4 different paint jobs including: standard paint, camouflage, special paint and Low Visibility

Play through each stage at blazing speed with your personalized fighter aircraft.

Keep your head under pressure with limited time to make adrenaline-fuelled decisions, and experience different paths through the game based on

Build up your skill in Training Mode and then take flight in Arcade mode. Play through Score Attack to see how you rank on the Online Leaderboards.

Enjoy the exhilarating flight in overwhelmingly superior condition and take down multiple enemies at a time.

When your Climax Gauge is full, time will slow down and your lock-on cursor will expand. This is your chance to lock on to enemies en masse and take them all down at once!

Blast away close range enemies with the gun with access to unlimited ammo. Shoot missiles that lock on to enemy aircraft.

Your skills will be tested to unlock exclusive Avatar Awards that are made available to the expert player.

And a screenie.

If you don’t mind pretty basic and simple controls, raw arcade feel and the asking price of three bucks, we’ll forgive you for killing time with a mindless shooter that blazes fast.

Yes, it’s a universal binary supporting all form factor iDevices natively.

While it’s been a long time since I played a quality jet fighter shooter, I’m gonna stick with Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy.

As you might have figured out, I’m not a big fan of the 1980-style arcade shooters.

The Best Video Games To Play After Your Kids Go To Sleep

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As people who were kids at the time of the Nintendo Entertainment System’s release age up, a new league of gamers emerges, one that—thanks to the recent arrival of offspring—is made up of people unable to devote time to playing except for late in the evening, when the little ones are (hopefully) asleep.

But the problem with being a so-called midnight dad is that you just don’t have the time to dedicate to some open-world “experience” or some massive online multi-player slaughterhouse that requires you to coordinate with your buddies at set times for hours on end. You need something to satiate your game lust quickly, in and out. Something you can play at the end of the long day to unwind and work those thumbs out. Here are some fast, easy games that scratch that itch.

You can’t beat a classic, right? Sure, Pac-Man isn’t exactly Call of Duty, but this iteration of the granddaddy of old school arcade games comes with enough varied gameplay and style (not to mention nostalgia-fueled classics Galaga and Dig Dug) to suck you in for a bit. They’re also not the kind of games you mind pausing or dropping out of midway if you hear wailing through the baby monitor.

Whatever we say here pretty much holds true for any sports games, from Madden to NBA Live, but for now let’s focus on the newest iteration of the NHL series. Sports games are inherently tightly structured around time and results. You can strap in, play one game that has a definitive ending, and call it a night. You’re not constantly chasing vague rewards or upgrades—those elements have become more and more a part of these games, for sure, especially with some of the modes in the NHL series like the causal outdoor pond games—and you can feel satisfied when the final buzzer sounds after one intense match.

What’s great about Star Wars Battlefront II is that it offers the usual online multiplayer blasting free-for-alls, but it also has cool customizable “arcade mode” games where you can set exact parameters and get all the excitement of virtual warfare without having to commit too much time or energy. The settings are fairly deep, too, allowing you to set number of opponents, time limits, set objectives, and choose worlds. You can easily adjust it all to suit how much or how little time you have to spare.

You really can’t ever, ever go wrong with Mario Kart. Ever. Not only is it insanely fun and easy to pick up and bang around casually without much mental or emotional effort, but it’s also the kind of game you don’t mind having around for when the kids are old enough to start joining you in your gaming. Rather than having to worry about them developing PTSD from accidentally walking in during one of your insane Rainbow Six excursions, you can let them join in the fun secure in the knowledge that they’ll only be developing PTSD from Luigi and his turtle shells.

Fourteen Mobile Games To Make Your Quarantine More Fun

Shira Chess is associate professor of Entertainment and Media Studies at the University of Georgia and author of Ready Player Two and Play Like a Feminist, coming this fall. This story originally featured on MIT Press Reader.

We’re living in a strange moment in history. In the face of COVID-19 many of us are withdrawing into our homes. Some of us suddenly have a surplus of time. While leisure might have once seemed like an unachievable goal, it now has an unsettling, tenuous quality: Rather than being born out of a desire for relaxation, it is the result of a slow-down that was forced upon us. Around the country and around the world, many of us are in a position where we are sequestered and desperately seeking new kinds of distraction.

In my forthcoming book, Play Like a Feminist, I argue that playing more games (in every way imaginable) is of import to feminists: It’s an issue of equality and quality of life, and one essential to restructuring the flawed nature of the video game industry. To that end, I argue that feminists need to find time and space to play more, and to create more opportunities for play for those around them. While my book could not possibly have anticipated the strange crisis of our current moment, I would like to suggest that some of you can use this opportunity to find ways to deliberately play more and do it on devices that you already own.

The problem is finding the right place to start. As a woman who has researched video games for more than a decade, I get many requests for recommendations from unlikely players. Most of the people who ask are not “hardcore gamers”—they are people who might be called “game curious” (a term that I have borrowed from movements based out of Toronto and Montreal). But, while the game curious might want to experiment with digital leisure, they don’t always know where to start: The Apple Store can be daunting and online lists work under the assumption that players understand the terminology, play styles, and the lineage of past games.

The following suggestions are for excellent games, meant for those who don’t play a lot. Some of them are artful and literary. Some of them are weird. Many are sweet and thoughtful. Most of them are engaging and might, perhaps, help to distract you in ways that will help you survive the next month (or longer). At the same time, I hope, many of the games I’m listing here might convince you that video games are important, and that playing and promoting play is an activist concern.

The following list is broken up by price points, for those who want to invest nothing, a little, or a bit more in your playful distractions.

Free-to-play mobile games

While people are often dismissive of free-to-play (F2P) mobile games, they can be quite satisfying: not just as ways to “waste time” but as ways to meditate. Match-3 and puzzle games help to control our focus and relax us. At the same time, the organizational mechanics can be satisfying and give us a sense of control over the world around us.

Dash Adventures

The latest in the Diner Dash franchise is fast paced, funny, and cute. The player is a waitress managing customers, which is more fun than you might think. A good game for those of you looking to feel productive in this unproductive moment.

Dots & Co.

The games in the Dots franchise are a calmer, less visually stimulating version of the Match-3 style of game. The design is minimalist, the colors and animations are not visually overwhelming, and the game is a relaxing way to meditate while you play.

Hungry Babies Mania

A match-3 game with some excellent twists, and more levels than you could ever dream of. While you match fruits in a line, you can simultaneously feed grateful, cute, baby animals.

Polar Pop Mania

An excellent bubble shooter game that is light on narrative and has excellent physics. By tossing balls into the air you save cute baby seals on behalf of a mother seal; breaking them free gives a nice satisfying rush.

Mobile games under $5

There are a lot of independent, smaller mobile games that are artful, literary, and satisfying. Here are a few to consider.

Donut County

A weird and hilarious game where you play as a hole in the ground, sucking up everything around you; an apt metaphor for the current zeitgeist. Swallowing up the world into giant holes is the best possible way to spend a few weeks, and the game is still fun on replay.

Gorogoa

A gorgeous silent puzzle game that involves rearranging hand-drawn squares as it tells you a story. It takes a while to get a hang of how to play, but once you get into it, the puzzles are absorbing and visually stunning. If you are going to stare at a screen, this is one of the best ways to do it.

Hexologic

A cool number logic game that would appeal to fans of Sudoku. The game is quiet and relaxing and thoughtful, and it is easy to get lost in. The surrounding art is calming and minimalist, and the logic puzzles are increasingly challenging.

Monument Valley (1 & 2)

The Monument Valley games are breathtakingly beautiful puzzles that have the player navigate through Escher-esque castles and landscapes. Looking at the structures and spaces differently yields answers, making it a game that helps us remember to keep perspective.

Ticket to Ride

The digital version of the popular board game has an excellent online version; you can multiplayer online with friends asynchronously. I always have at least two versions of the game playing in my everyday life, and you can play with bots if your friends aren’t available. When you get bored of the US map, alternate ones are available for purchase.

Rusty Lake Paradise (or any of the Rusty Lake games)

Mobile games $5-$15

If you are willing to spend a little bit more money, you can have some truly excellent experiences on your mobile device. Here are a few suggestions.

Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is the darling of independent games. It’s a deeply involved farming game that involves magical realism and romance. If you’re looking to get sucked into an easy, adorable game world for the next month, this is the best thing money can buy you.

Oxenfree

Broken Age

Professor Layton: Curious Village

A story game where you play a detective, solving a larger puzzle in a small town by figuring out the solutions to short riddles. Some of the riddles might be familiar, others are new but the overlay of the cute villagers offering brainteasers is just the right level of fun. There are several other games in this franchise.

In addition, it is also worth mentioning that iOS has Apple Arcade that is $5 a month for unlimited games—there are some excellent options available, such as Sayonara Wild Hearts, Patterned, Jenny LeClue, and Sneaky Sasquatch.

Regardless of what you choose, remember that there are things to do on our screens beyond refreshing the news and scrolling social media. Video games are not all just violent, gun-filled explosions. Try a few experiences, expand your world, and escape for a while.

How To Create Unity 2D Platform

Overview of Unity 2D

3D animation, modelling, simulation, game development & others

Introduction to Unity 2D

Unity 2D games are part of Unity software, which means Unity game is not just famous for 3D games, but we can also create 2D games in it. When we start creating games in Unity, it offers us to create our games in 2D or 3D mode. In 2D games, Sprites are simple objects that deal with graphical images, and while working on 2D games in Unity, we must have a 2D interface selected. We can manage several things in Unity to develop our 2D games, such as making graphical objects as box colloidal, making objects rigid bodies for animating them, and so on.

If you are in the Game interface, you will not be able to see the camera.

And if the 2D interface is disabled then it will change into a 3D mode which will create problems for you in creating a 2D game so make sure you are in 2D mode.

I will name this folder Level.

Same as you can create more folders for better asset management of your 2D game.

Once we choose it, a player of this chosen square will come into the Hierarchy section. Now I will name it Player.

You can also see your external graphics here. So to have a graphical asset for this, I will choose this image from its saved folder. You can use your desired image for this purpose.

Now you can assign your imported image to the Player object.

If it is not visible to you, zoom the area to see your object.

You can scale it as per requirement by the scale options in the Transform section of the selected object. Such as, if I change its X value, then it will change like this.

If you want, you can check how your selected object will look in your created game scene by going to the Game tab of this software.

Now I will go to the Hierarchy section and select the Player layer, then press Ctrl + D to make a copy of it and name it as Floor.

Here I will scale it in the X direction to make this type of floor area for the player.

To add a 2D variable to the object, follow these steps:

Select the object.

Go to the Inspector section.

Search for “Box Collider 2D” in the component search bar.

Now do the same for the Floor object in the same way.

For adding animation to our player object, search for Rigidbody 2d in the same Add Component button after selecting the Player layer.

Unity 2D Platform

Now let me tell you about what a 2D platform is in Unity. First, there is an asset store offered by Unity to make our 2D game development easy. Through Asset Store, we can import many pre-designed assets of 2D games.

Once you choose this option, Asset Store will open like this. In the search box, you can search for your desired assets, such as for 2D platform assets; search here for 2D platform in the s

Once it gets added, you can go with the Open in Unity or Go to My Assets option and work with it.

These were some important facts about 2d games creation and development in Unity software.

Conclusion

After going through this article, you have good information about 2d Unity games and an idea about how you can create 2d games in it. You can go with the Asset store for having a preset of a 2d game platform to make your 2d game development easy. There is a free 2d platform, so you can try it for free before going for a paid one.