Additional info: - As some people have pointed out, the springs DO work in the DC version. I missed this because I thought I already checked for some reason. He's the same otherwise though. - You can jump back into the cannon at the start of Sky Deck and this makes Sonic move so fast the stage becomes unbeatable. ua-cam.com/users/shorts161KcFNPVKg
I'm actually amazed they even tried giving sonic a dynamic ai to run through stages, I always just assumed he was on a scripted path that his model followed
Without having the technical details, I assume it's a series of suggestions. Like, points with radii, where the embedded instruction is "get within _x_ units of 'this' point, and then follow its instructions". With the built-in failsafe of "Freak the fuck out and hope my spastic flailing puts me into a position I can find my way forward from". You see Sonic have to double back on Sky Deck because he missed one such node, @ 12:16. So the path is probably still a line. Just, like, a *very thick* line.
@@Noxedwin To me it looks like it's the same technique Mario Kart uses, just with the cutscene move command possibly being used at certain points so that he can use specific objects As a side note: The cutscene scripting allows them to play back recorded input for when they need things like jumping in a cutscene, so I'm surprised they didn't just use that for these stages
Sonic's goofy AI waiting for Tails and ramming into walls, on top of his cute little "hooray!" and "you made it!" is akin to an older sibling letting their younger sibling win at a video game, which perfectly fits their characters
This ai is surprisingly in character. Purposly losing so hes buddy gets a chance to shine. I'm starting to think sonic might be aware of tails wanting to find himself and such
Sega tends to be WAY ahead of thier time in ideas, even if execution leaves a lot to be desired. XD Gotta love them for always doing things the hard but more dynamic and interesting way.
As a kid, I remember seeing him do those huge emergency jumps in Sky Deck and getting mad that he was cheating. Now I know it's the only way he could play fair.
@@protocetid To be fair, back then I hadn't found the Jet Anklet until I got stuck on Speed Highway. Jet Anklet Tails puts Sonic's rubberbanding to shame.
Hi, hedgehog expert here, you may think it's cute, but hedgehogs actually only emergency jump when they're scared. This hedgehog is terrified, possibly because he's surrounded by unusable springs.
Hi, ring expert here, you may think it's cute but rings only emergency load when they're scared. These rings are terrified, possibly because they're being approached by unstable hedgehogs.
There's something adorable about watching Sonic go braindead in his own game, it's like watching someone whose new at a game playing it for the first time.
YEAH!! just watching sonic jump like that on the same spot ad if asking for advice or helping hand, i know the ai is doing that on program, but this is so funny and cute at times. he is like a goofy dummy, which is just... i dont know, ask my brain why it thinks the way it does, but this is adorably funny and cute.
The way Sonic's AI works is a great example of immersive storytelling through gameplay. Explicitly waiting up for Tails is not only very beginner-friendly, but it also speaks Tails' story. A big part of his narrative is him learning to grow out of relying on Sonic, who is very obviously leaning on the friendly side of the competition in these stages. Tails learning to lean into his own strengths and wits in the story is reflected in gameplay, where you're better off using your flight skills to beat Sonic rather than running the same roads as him. Of course, Sonic's side of these interactions are also narratively strong. He evolves from stopping to let you catch up to going all-in on snagging them emerald as soon as he can (pathing failures notwithstanding, lmao). His words of cheery encouragement (as belittling as they can sound) show that while he is slowly ramping up his interaction to keep it interesting, he's quite a far cry from taking it serious. Of course, he won't let himself be left behind, so the fastest thing alive will warp right back up to speed if you're getting a little too far ahead. After all, he's got a reputation to uphold! I'll put it like this: while Tails is playing Sonic Adventure, AI Sonic is playing Sonic 2 with his little brother. Meanwhile, Eggman is in full gamer-lean. Straight-up flying directly to the goal, irrespective of negotiating the terrain like how Sonic does. This is your final test after all (and the nuke needs to be stopped), there's no time for games! Honest to goodness, this game continues to be my favorite 3D Sonic experience as the years go by.
Sonic Adventure is a very charming game for a lot of reasons, and this is absolutely one of them. Characterizing even the AI used to give them more personality in gameplay is great.
I wasn't ready for "Eggman is in full gamer-lean". An undetonated nuke is in the city, and he's going to tryhard his way right to it. But yeah. Really well put. I get the feeling that, even giving Sonic a ludonarrative reason for being an idiot (he's just doing busywork until Tails shows up, maybe performatively tilting and pressing useless buttons on his controllers to give the illusion of being given a run for his money), he's at least playing fair (at least without regard to the AI failsafes). Eggman just more-or-less going as the crow flies is a tonal shift. And it would be noticeable if his AI was just set to its rubberband value and you could watch him "cheat".
It's honestly super cute stuff, I was always player 2 while playing S2/3&K with my brother, so he'd wait for me to respawn or reappear if we got too far apart, It's one of those things I know probably wasn't the developer intention beyond making it more fair for players, or accounting for certain things not working, but again- Really nice to think about Sonic waiting for Tails, especially with the in story consideration that, even if he was fine- Tails did crash the Tornado, nice to think about Sonic waiting to make sure his bro is alright, and then for the later interactions being him feeling confident enough that Tails'll be there to just go as fast as he can. Mechanically, it might be a race, but they're friends and working towards the same goal character wise. Sonic can already do just fine going it alone, but stuff like him being happy to see Tails caught up after a while is the type of stuff that makes me love these characters. Love talking about stuff like this, and videos like this and Zooms stuff on the Sonic Series makes my brain happy. hell yeah but also, Eggman goal zooming makes sense too, he's gotta be used to doing it after all this time.
I unsubbed from Game Grumps back around the time their titles got clickbaity. I checked in again like three days ago to see if they'd improved. They have not. Arin is just as much in stasis as the Sonic AI.
it's quite sweet that he actually waits for tails instead of just going ahead without him. part of his 'dumb' decisions could also be influenced by him trying to be a halfway decent big brother.
I know he’s literally a hedgehog but I feel like I’m watching a wild animal. This little creature is trying to get through what should be an easy maze but keeps literally running into walls. Despite this I cheer for him when he succeeds over even the smallest obstacles.
Very surprised he has an 'AI'. I assumed it would have been an exact recorded path that is the same everytime. I'm pretty impressed they did this, even though it's pretty buggy
Even then, the main issues seem to be mostly because of object loading. I'm sure if AI Sonic's object distance Was increased to the player's, which they couldn't do back then for, well, obvious reasons, and the springs were replaced with versions that recognized him, Sky Deck would be much better for it.
@MirrorHall_Clay that could likely have been fixed by Sonic's increased spawn radius only loading the collision data for objects instead of the models to save on memory. He doesn't really need to SEE it, just interact with it.
Sega man. Tons of fuck ups and failure, but if there’s one thing they always had going it was experimentation and concepts just outside their limits. Given more time and resources this would have been really impressive
@@malikoniousjoeResearch indicates Sonic Adventure had just 10 months of dev time. Yuji Naka confirmed this on Sega Saturn Magazine #36. The previous attempt at 3D, Sonic 3D Blast had 8 months of dev time. Sega gave 3D Sonic games the same (roughly) 9-month of dev time schedule 2D Genesis Sonic games had during that era
@swisserty "correction, you are" more like thousands of people lol. nobody asked you to stroke your ginormous ego in a youtube comment section, weirdo
So *this* was how fans were able to document Tails' idle dialogue before the days of digging into the files or turning on a mod to activate it at the press of a button!
Love this cus it kinda confirms something I've figured since I played as Tails as a kid: For Tails, he takes the missions super-seriously, considering it a chance to finally prove himself. But for Sonic, he doesn't really care either way, it's just a good time getting to hang out with his lil bro. So he'll stop to check he's close, then throw it at the last minute.
It's interesting how they try to inject Sonic's character into the AI. Waits and looks for his best friend until getting impatient, restricts his speed to make the race fair and attempts a half pipe tricks in icecap.
It’s funny to think all of his friends consider him super cool and a hero who saves the day because he’s tryharding when in public, but when nobody is looking he’s a complete klutz constantly stumbling off of ledges and into walls, and getting stuck in wind turbines
I always wondered what that annoying spin dash sound was in Tails’ stages. Now I know it’s Sonic crying for help. Honestly, I don’t know why they didn’t just give Sonic’s A.I. a bigger render distance for Sky Deck, springs that were coded to work with him, and a path to follow much like Eggman. Would probably fix a lot of these issues but it was… what, almost 25 years ago? Anyway, this was very interesting. Always love seeing your stuff Speeps.
That’s my issue. Why make it an illusion when you could ACTUALLY be racing Sonic? It seems like such a simple thing to do. That being said, the game is old and it probably wasn’t easy to code this stuff back in the day, hence why Sonic behaves the way he does. I’m just being a modern whining child because this ~25 year old game isn’t better to fit my new, modern wants.
@DataDigi151 You have to remember what the target hardware originally was. Draw distances for the player already had to be pretty conservative, now you have to account for another player entity. The Dreamcast was a powerful console for its time, but you're still limited by late 90's tech.
Very fair. I know I have modern issues with a ~25 year old game. The game is still impressive for what was possible back then. Just wish the devs had today’s hindsight but then would SA1 be SA1?
12:40 IM SO SORRY THIS IS ADORABLE, FUNNY, AND JUST... I DONT KNOW THIS IS PEAK EVERYTHING. the AI sonic must be the best sonic, look at the little fella just jumping in confusion like a goofster- HE LITERALLY ACTS LIKE A REAL LIFE HEDGEHOG. bro stands still in confusion before running off somewhere, before then getting stuck like a dummy and asking to be helped. WHY IS THIS THE BEST THING THAG I HAVE SEEN IN A LONG TIME????
I don't think projection-based skyboxes (the kind that seem to move with you, rather than just being a flat canvas you could touch if you moved far enough) were being used very often around this time. It feels kind of ethereal; it really did sell an illusion-of-scale.
Old graphics are cozy. They leave a lot to the imagination and as a kid you look at them and believe that if you get out of bounds the whole rest of the world is there for you to explore. Oof, the nostalgia is stinging haha
@@timurmotigullin579yess with heroes. As a kid I just loved to just look at the skies and backgrounds all around the stages. I would kill to have HD version of bingo highway's or final fortress' scenery to have as my wallpaper
Up until this video I actually thought sonics movement was just one of the devs playing as sonic through the stages and using that sequence of inputs for sonic in tails story
Probably wouldn't have been feasable given how the game culls objects and sonic has a miniscule spawn radius that cant seem to load fast enough at points
@@ryko1478 what reason would they have to expand his spawn radius? As far as most kids were concerned sonic was teleporting whether on dreamcast or gamecube/pc. why fix what isnt noticably broken?
@@PowerPuffBoysZbecause if they had just increased his spawn radius and changed it from an AI to a segmented dev ghost, which waits for a bit at certain breakpoints if Tails isn't keeping up, then the Tail's stages wouldn't feel so easy or buggy, with Sonic often teleporting further ahead when he gets stuck.
So when he says "c'mon tails" its less a taunt and more of a cry for help because everything is centered around tails and he literally can't do anything x3
Man, now i wanna see a mod which fixes the events around Sonic causing him to fail (increased spawn radius, fixed fans/springs, etc) - just to see what the AI was *supposed* to do in those situations!
Never thought Sonic had an actual AI that had so many issues to even play the stages unless he's strictly rubberbanding to you; love to see videos exploring SA1 like this :)
Just, like, whenever he's not being controlled by a player he just defaults to the intelligence and ability of a normal hedgehog if that normal hedgehog knew how to speak english.
I like the idea that Sonic in cutscenes and boss fights is this insanely powerful foe, but when it comes to platforming and most travelling, he is the most incompetent hero of all time, just not being able to do basic stuff unless he feels that he is being watched.
5:25 As a kid, I've always wondered why Sonic did a jump that looks like he's charging a spindash (and why I could never do it when I'm Sonic), thank you for explaining that it's because he's "stuck".
Watching that Sonic AI is probably one of the funniest videogame-related things I've ever seen, it's like watching your pet do something dumb over & over & not realize their stupidity in that moment.
Makes me want to see a direct comparison of him sucking far out of view to him running properly when you're toe to toe with him, even when you're close to him it's hard to take a good look at his movement but it's still impressive that you can never actually see him get stuck or die in normal play.
i love the way this video is directed like a nature commentary. the struggles of hedgehog for whom the laws of physics don't work and reality makes no sense... and despite everything, he will still wait for Tails.
poor little hedgehog, he's so cute. few things to add: he is very small and that makes me want to help him. this video is like watching a nature documentary.
idk why but watching sonic run through this while we watch him in 3rd person is sorta fulfilling or whatever word idk like he's just having fun doing this and we watch him he's so content doing this
@@valletas That's what AI does too essentially, they have a neural network they string together themselves based on what data they gather. They operate by "if node_1 increases X, link to node_7 for X tracking"
@@TheEmeraldSword04 same result but different implementation Game ai cant really decide on actions to take everything is scripted with every response already pre programmed I like to think that it is closer to an spreadsheet of possible actions to take then any actual intelligence
@@valletasIt's only truly intelligence if it can learn and adapt to new situations in real time Not just a bunch of pre-decided conditions with dedicated reactions to each
I recently bought SADX myself and noticed this when going for B and A rank on Tails’s levels, Sonic would move extremely slowly until I started taking shortcuts as Tails, where he would suddenly teleport like 50 feet ahead to instantly catch up
Of course, Sonic's just a little guy, messing around enjoying his time so his friend can get better at his own pace. Of course he'd win, he's the fastest thing alive! Though this does makes me wish for a mod where Sonic's AI wouldn't hold anything back, going WR pace to really test you...
This is so endearing? Why is watching this silly little blue hedgehog run and jump around so wholesome He jumps up and down when he's stuck that's so cute and funny because that's almost actual hedgehog behavior This video feels like the Sonic equivalent of a hedgehog sticking it's face in cardboard tube
The emergency "Spin Dash jump" Sonic keeps doing sounds a little...I dunno, ADHD-like. He does oscillate between being impatient and being relaxed, after all.
Goddamn, I never picked up on it as a kid, but Sky Deck constantly dipping into the clouds below with sirens warning of deck visibility and whatnot is so fucking cool for an airship stage
Seeing Sonic move around on his own, bump into things, and get stuck is weirdly endearing and kinda cute. It's like watching a nature documentary or something.
i kinda feel stupid for losing alot of these races when i played this game when i was younger, i feel bad for him not having a singular clue on how to turn at all
Shows how solid the physics in the sonic adventure games were cause without the slopes pushing him towards the right direction in ice cap he would be perpetually stuck lol
7:15 hearing such intense music as sonic flails around and slides backwards trying to get up a hill is one of the funniest things I’ve seen this week Edit: 15:19 “YOU’LL NEVER OUT STUNT ME SONIC”
i love how this reads like a nature documentary “when he gets stuck he starts jumping because he doesn’t know what else to do. fascinating. exuberant creature. marvelous”
So cool to see new technical secrets uncovered and explained so in-depth like this, especially for one of my all-time favourite games. Thank you for the video and keep up the great work!
I think it's fascinating just how little the racing ai actually works. It feels like it would've been less hassle to just make CPU Sonic move along a single fixed path without any consideration for actual realistic physics in the engine - then they wouldn't even have to worry about objects loading in for him.
i honestly like the idea of tails' missions at least when sonic's involved because its not just a "get to end of the level" its more like two best buds having a friendly race and the fact that sonic also waits adds to that
I'm guessing that those really bonkers emergency jumps are like, double-emergency jumps. Like, the former is "help, am stuck, hopefully the "boing" sound will alarm a debugger or nav-mapper", and the latter is *_"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--"_* followed by the engine ungracefully _forcing_ him to go somewhere so he won't be stuck for eternity. It's interesting also that their rubberband game is just "number go up". But that doesn't sound very plausible for Sonic, who spends much of his time getting stuck and doing his emergency jump a bunch. I distinctly remember watching his icon on the race-line *jump forwards.* Not even gradually. What's the story with that?
I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate this channel. So much hard work and dedication and the videos always come out awesome! This is one of my favorite games of all time and the time and effort put into the videos is outstanding. Thanks again!
I like the idea that keeping in line with SA1's alternate perspectives, that this might be how Tails perceives Sonic's erratic behaviour. Sonic himself sees himself as uber-cool and flawlessly handling things in his own story, while Tails sees the outside. Usually he gets blown away and completely left behind, but other times if he keeps pace with Sonic, he sees him trying odd things and failing to pull off plans first try, messing around wasting time to work out how various things operate, acting uncharacteristically cautiously for reasons unknown to Tails (maybe he's trying to be a good role model), and dashing ahead as fast as he can before waiting up to see if Tails is still following. Obviously this isn't the case, but it's a neat idea I think.
Sonic stopping so tails can catch on is kinda on character. He's always trying to help tails build some confidence, also, as he's canonically way faster in this games, i think the whole "race to the objective" thing would just be a way of sonic making tails confident on himself
Additional info:
- As some people have pointed out, the springs DO work in the DC version. I missed this because I thought I already checked for some reason. He's the same otherwise though.
- You can jump back into the cannon at the start of Sky Deck and this makes Sonic move so fast the stage becomes unbeatable. ua-cam.com/users/shorts161KcFNPVKg
DX moment
okay
DX moment²
Oh SADX. I wonder if that's fixed in the mods that make the PC version more like the Dream Cast one.
Common Dreamcast W
"Oh no! You're lagging behind? Well, don't worry, I'll stay here and wait so you can catch up, buddy!"
- a few moments later -
"Fuck this."
That's just Sonic being a cocky bastard 😂
He'll show up eventually, he assumes. I mean, they always meet back up somehow.
Alternatively, "oh no, this doesn't spawn until tails is close enough"
I guess he's used to Tails flying right where he is since Sonic 2
Fair enough but as a result gives him a sense of being stuck
I'm actually amazed they even tried giving sonic a dynamic ai to run through stages, I always just assumed he was on a scripted path that his model followed
Well, he is still technically scripted to move to certain points of the level, but he's mostly on his own.
Incidentally, that's what Eggman is programmed to do in Speed Highway.
I just imagine Sonic looking goofy as he T-pose glides on a track to the goal.
Without having the technical details, I assume it's a series of suggestions. Like, points with radii, where the embedded instruction is "get within _x_ units of 'this' point, and then follow its instructions". With the built-in failsafe of "Freak the fuck out and hope my spastic flailing puts me into a position I can find my way forward from".
You see Sonic have to double back on Sky Deck because he missed one such node, @ 12:16.
So the path is probably still a line. Just, like, a *very thick* line.
@@Noxedwin To me it looks like it's the same technique Mario Kart uses, just with the cutscene move command possibly being used at certain points so that he can use specific objects
As a side note: The cutscene scripting allows them to play back recorded input for when they need things like jumping in a cutscene, so I'm surprised they didn't just use that for these stages
Oh so when Sonic falls off a stage, that's fine, but when I do it I "lose a life" and if I do it too many times I get a "game over"
Lol
Sonic is just built different .
Open your eyes people
Just like how in most Sonic games Tails is “invincible” when you have him as your partner.
This an inverse of the Classic Sonic Invincible Tails situation😂
Now Sonics invincible and Tails is mortal
Sonic's goofy AI waiting for Tails and ramming into walls, on top of his cute little "hooray!" and "you made it!" is akin to an older sibling letting their younger sibling win at a video game, which perfectly fits their characters
99 likes
How nice of Sonic to purposefully throw the match just to give Tails a chance at some self confidence.
Your little bro has the player-two controller. You're _gonna_ make him feel special once in a while.
I know he's always so supporting of his friends, especially Tails
That's explain why Eggman is not giving a fair.
This ai is surprisingly in character. Purposly losing so hes buddy gets a chance to shine.
I'm starting to think sonic might be aware of tails wanting to find himself and such
Yet it's kinda humiliating at the same time...
Tbh I'm just shocked that he actually legitimately runs through the stages
He does like running better XD
@@MrShadic999lol!
Sega tends to be WAY ahead of thier time in ideas, even if execution leaves a lot to be desired. XD Gotta love them for always doing things the hard but more dynamic and interesting way.
@@MarioMastar I am a big fan when they try something new like Black Knight playing as Sonic with a freaking Sword! For starters.
@@destroyermcw626I wish that game was received better. It's my favorite sonic game.
There's something really endearing about an AI being more A than I. It's like watching a roomba helplessly bounce against a table leg.
Lovely Haruko avatar.
Artificial intelligence when artificial stupidity walks in:
@@MinorGooberismNatural Stupidity
As a kid, I remember seeing him do those huge emergency jumps in Sky Deck and getting mad that he was cheating. Now I know it's the only way he could play fair.
Turns out, he kind of needs those.
says the guy playing as a flying fox
@@protocetid To be fair, back then I hadn't found the Jet Anklet until I got stuck on Speed Highway. Jet Anklet Tails puts Sonic's rubberbanding to shame.
It does explain the "Whirr" noise you hear throughout the whole level. I always wondered "Where is he spindashing!? and why so often!?"
Hi, hedgehog expert here, you may think it's cute, but hedgehogs actually only emergency jump when they're scared. This hedgehog is terrified, possibly because he's surrounded by unusable springs.
Eggman expert here. Eggmen only follow a strict path when they're highly stressed.
Fox expert here, foxes only disassociate from their bodies and follow their friends' exploits with freecam when extremely stressed.
Spring expert here. Springs are only unusable when they're highly stressed. Or scared. Or bored. Or happy. Or angry. Or tired.
Hi, ring expert here, you may think it's cute but rings only emergency load when they're scared. These rings are terrified, possibly because they're being approached by unstable hedgehogs.
Every now and then, wonderful things happen in comments sections. Thank you all for this sarcastic bliss
Now I finally understand why he always makes so many damn spindash sounds. His weird "im stuck" jump
There's something adorable about watching Sonic go braindead in his own game, it's like watching someone whose new at a game playing it for the first time.
YEAH!! just watching sonic jump like that on the same spot ad if asking for advice or helping hand, i know the ai is doing that on program, but this is so funny and cute at times. he is like a goofy dummy, which is just... i dont know, ask my brain why it thinks the way it does, but this is adorably funny and cute.
I love watching new players play Pikmin and see over 50 die at once
@@HankMFWimbletonthe dandori issues
@@Subreon lmao
I think we're so used to playing as Sonic that watching an AI play him is adorable. We finally get to see him with a mind of his own.
Love the addition of oh no, he got stuck on the wrong level. Now he's gonna throw a tantrum until he gets what he wants
Same xD
It's funny XD
This is the part which made me laugh. Thanks for leaving this comment, so that I can piggyback offa you.
No problem
So a sassier version of Sonic.
The way Sonic's AI works is a great example of immersive storytelling through gameplay. Explicitly waiting up for Tails is not only very beginner-friendly, but it also speaks Tails' story. A big part of his narrative is him learning to grow out of relying on Sonic, who is very obviously leaning on the friendly side of the competition in these stages. Tails learning to lean into his own strengths and wits in the story is reflected in gameplay, where you're better off using your flight skills to beat Sonic rather than running the same roads as him.
Of course, Sonic's side of these interactions are also narratively strong. He evolves from stopping to let you catch up to going all-in on snagging them emerald as soon as he can (pathing failures notwithstanding, lmao). His words of cheery encouragement (as belittling as they can sound) show that while he is slowly ramping up his interaction to keep it interesting, he's quite a far cry from taking it serious. Of course, he won't let himself be left behind, so the fastest thing alive will warp right back up to speed if you're getting a little too far ahead. After all, he's got a reputation to uphold! I'll put it like this: while Tails is playing Sonic Adventure, AI Sonic is playing Sonic 2 with his little brother.
Meanwhile, Eggman is in full gamer-lean. Straight-up flying directly to the goal, irrespective of negotiating the terrain like how Sonic does. This is your final test after all (and the nuke needs to be stopped), there's no time for games!
Honest to goodness, this game continues to be my favorite 3D Sonic experience as the years go by.
Sonic Adventure is a very charming game for a lot of reasons, and this is absolutely one of them. Characterizing even the AI used to give them more personality in gameplay is great.
I wasn't ready for "Eggman is in full gamer-lean". An undetonated nuke is in the city, and he's going to tryhard his way right to it.
But yeah. Really well put. I get the feeling that, even giving Sonic a ludonarrative reason for being an idiot (he's just doing busywork until Tails shows up, maybe performatively tilting and pressing useless buttons on his controllers to give the illusion of being given a run for his money), he's at least playing fair (at least without regard to the AI failsafes). Eggman just more-or-less going as the crow flies is a tonal shift. And it would be noticeable if his AI was just set to its rubberband value and you could watch him "cheat".
It's honestly super cute stuff, I was always player 2 while playing S2/3&K with my brother, so he'd wait for me to respawn or reappear if we got too far apart, It's one of those things I know probably wasn't the developer intention beyond making it more fair for players, or accounting for certain things not working, but again- Really nice to think about Sonic waiting for Tails, especially with the in story consideration that, even if he was fine- Tails did crash the Tornado, nice to think about Sonic waiting to make sure his bro is alright, and then for the later interactions being him feeling confident enough that Tails'll be there to just go as fast as he can.
Mechanically, it might be a race, but they're friends and working towards the same goal character wise. Sonic can already do just fine going it alone, but stuff like him being happy to see Tails caught up after a while is the type of stuff that makes me love these characters. Love talking about stuff like this, and videos like this and Zooms stuff on the Sonic Series makes my brain happy. hell yeah
but also, Eggman goal zooming makes sense too, he's gotta be used to doing it after all this time.
All I read was *lean.*
@@Angel101_16 real
Damn, its impressive that Sega were able to perfectly replicate Arin Hansons intelligence on a Dreamcast in 1998.
I doubt this Erin lady is that smart.
Ha! Nice
I unsubbed from Game Grumps back around the time their titles got clickbaity. I checked in again like three days ago to see if they'd improved.
They have not. Arin is just as much in stasis as the Sonic AI.
One of the best comments I've ever seen in any UA-cam section
Factually correct
Imo, Sonic desperately doing little spin jumps whenever he doesn't know what to do sounds like an adorable headcanon.
oh god yes
A headcanon isn't very common for me but you just made it slightly more common.
I was just thinking that too, it's so cute !
I now imagine this is what he was doing for 6 months in forces
And when the video man said “He can’t use the spring!” I wanted to cry it was so adorable. Poor baby. ;v;
it's quite sweet that he actually waits for tails instead of just going ahead without him. part of his 'dumb' decisions could also be influenced by him trying to be a halfway decent big brother.
Sonic really cares for his friends! He’s the best friend you could ever have! I love him! :)
*Sonic helplessly jumping around*
"Hey uh... what's he doing?"
"His best."
Was that a LEGO Island 2 reference?!
@@BinglesP
"Pepper! What are you doing?"
"..................................................................My best!"
ew
@@kaistemino ❌
@@DaRealAppelManSunny incoherent ass response. hand off the Ipad..
Now I know why Sonic keeps repeatedly doing that ear piercing spin dash noise in Casinopolis.
What literally no one heard in this game:
" _I Got iiiiiiiit_ "
........Y-yeah! Noooobody! Definitely not me...
@@dan_man3087 Icecap?
@@somisimons *sigh* Icecap.
@@dan_man3087 Same.
I remember as a kid, I purposely lost just to hear Sonic say that, even when I was literally at the goal.
I know he’s literally a hedgehog but I feel like I’m watching a wild animal. This little creature is trying to get through what should be an easy maze but keeps literally running into walls. Despite this I cheer for him when he succeeds over even the smallest obstacles.
Very surprised he has an 'AI'. I assumed it would have been an exact recorded path that is the same everytime. I'm pretty impressed they did this, even though it's pretty buggy
Even then, the main issues seem to be mostly because of object loading. I'm sure if AI Sonic's object distance Was increased to the player's, which they couldn't do back then for, well, obvious reasons, and the springs were replaced with versions that recognized him, Sky Deck would be much better for it.
@MirrorHall_Clay that could likely have been fixed by Sonic's increased spawn radius only loading the collision data for objects instead of the models to save on memory. He doesn't really need to SEE it, just interact with it.
Sega man. Tons of fuck ups and failure, but if there’s one thing they always had going it was experimentation and concepts just outside their limits. Given more time and resources this would have been really impressive
@@malikoniousjoeResearch indicates Sonic Adventure had just 10 months of dev time. Yuji Naka confirmed this on Sega Saturn Magazine #36.
The previous attempt at 3D, Sonic 3D Blast had 8 months of dev time. Sega gave 3D Sonic games the same (roughly) 9-month of dev time schedule 2D Genesis Sonic games had during that era
@@seriesx9508 you're proving his point
It’s so cool that we’re still finding out interesting stuff about old sonic games
Yeah, better late than never 😉
Correction, you are. I knew this and everything about everything years ago close to 1998 actually so speak to yourself 3 dude.
@@swisserty🤓
@@aspiringartistmichael2065 aspriging 🤡 artist 🤡 Michael 🤡 2025 🤡 Twank me down little rodeo buddy.
@swisserty
"correction, you are" more like thousands of people lol. nobody asked you to stroke your ginormous ego in a youtube comment section, weirdo
So *this* was how fans were able to document Tails' idle dialogue before the days of digging into the files or turning on a mod to activate it at the press of a button!
Love this cus it kinda confirms something I've figured since I played as Tails as a kid:
For Tails, he takes the missions super-seriously, considering it a chance to finally prove himself.
But for Sonic, he doesn't really care either way, it's just a good time getting to hang out with his lil bro.
So he'll stop to check he's close, then throw it at the last minute.
I loved watching Eggman casually cruise through Speed Highway listening to cool tunes. Man looks like he's living his best life.
It's interesting how they try to inject Sonic's character into the AI. Waits and looks for his best friend until getting impatient, restricts his speed to make the race fair and attempts a half pipe tricks in icecap.
You're being very charitable about the icecap thing
It’s funny to think all of his friends consider him super cool and a hero who saves the day because he’s tryharding when in public, but when nobody is looking he’s a complete klutz constantly stumbling off of ledges and into walls, and getting stuck in wind turbines
And doing the hello neighbor ai jumps 💀💀💀💀
This feels more like you're talking about me playing this game 😭
Now I'm just imagining Sonic being way more hurt after a leisurely stroll through Green Hill Zone compared to anything Eggman's ever done to him
I always wondered what that annoying spin dash sound was in Tails’ stages. Now I know it’s Sonic crying for help. Honestly, I don’t know why they didn’t just give Sonic’s A.I. a bigger render distance for Sky Deck, springs that were coded to work with him, and a path to follow much like Eggman. Would probably fix a lot of these issues but it was… what, almost 25 years ago? Anyway, this was very interesting. Always love seeing your stuff Speeps.
Because it's just an illusion to make it look like you're racing against sonic while the game makes it easy for you and tails
That’s my issue. Why make it an illusion when you could ACTUALLY be racing Sonic? It seems like such a simple thing to do. That being said, the game is old and it probably wasn’t easy to code this stuff back in the day, hence why Sonic behaves the way he does. I’m just being a modern whining child because this ~25 year old game isn’t better to fit my new, modern wants.
@DataDigi151 You have to remember what the target hardware originally was. Draw distances for the player already had to be pretty conservative, now you have to account for another player entity. The Dreamcast was a powerful console for its time, but you're still limited by late 90's tech.
Very fair. I know I have modern issues with a ~25 year old game. The game is still impressive for what was possible back then. Just wish the devs had today’s hindsight but then would SA1 be SA1?
@DataDigi151 Probably not, but with Iizuka frequently mentioning lately how he wants to revisit Adventure maybe we won't have to speculate.
I can feel the absolute pain of the developers that had to test this, lol
One of my friends said Sonics emergency jumps look like jumping in Italics and now I can't unsee it.
12:40 "time to throw a tantrum until he gets what he wants"
sonic. you are 15. please stop
12:40 IM SO SORRY THIS IS ADORABLE, FUNNY, AND JUST... I DONT KNOW THIS IS PEAK EVERYTHING. the AI sonic must be the best sonic, look at the little fella just jumping in confusion like a goofster- HE LITERALLY ACTS LIKE A REAL LIFE HEDGEHOG. bro stands still in confusion before running off somewhere, before then getting stuck like a dummy and asking to be helped. WHY IS THIS THE BEST THING THAG I HAVE SEEN IN A LONG TIME????
As strange as this sounds, I always found the sky boxes to be mesmerizing in this game. Even though it's clearly just a stretched image.
I don't think projection-based skyboxes (the kind that seem to move with you, rather than just being a flat canvas you could touch if you moved far enough) were being used very often around this time. It feels kind of ethereal; it really did sell an illusion-of-scale.
Old graphics are cozy. They leave a lot to the imagination and as a kid you look at them and believe that if you get out of bounds the whole rest of the world is there for you to explore. Oof, the nostalgia is stinging haha
Same goes for most other Sonic games for me as well, like Heroes, Riders and etc.
@@timurmotigullin579yess with heroes. As a kid I just loved to just look at the skies and backgrounds all around the stages. I would kill to have HD version of bingo highway's or final fortress' scenery to have as my wallpaper
@@joobtheboob
My favorite was Rail Canyon/Bullet Station
Up until this video I actually thought sonics movement was just one of the devs playing as sonic through the stages and using that sequence of inputs for sonic in tails story
Probably wouldn't have been feasable given how the game culls objects and sonic has a miniscule spawn radius that cant seem to load fast enough at points
@@PowerPuffBoysZthat's justifiable in the original but in DX they should've made the radius bigger
@@ryko1478 what reason would they have to expand his spawn radius? As far as most kids were concerned sonic was teleporting whether on dreamcast or gamecube/pc. why fix what isnt noticably broken?
@@PowerPuffBoysZ I mean it would have been if they just increased that radius
@@PowerPuffBoysZbecause if they had just increased his spawn radius and changed it from an AI to a segmented dev ghost, which waits for a bit at certain breakpoints if Tails isn't keeping up, then the Tail's stages wouldn't feel so easy or buggy, with Sonic often teleporting further ahead when he gets stuck.
*Sonic after 10 minutes of experiencing the horrors of falling into the void* "I GOT IT!!!!"
So when he says "c'mon tails" its less a taunt and more of a cry for help because everything is centered around tails and he literally can't do anything x3
Sonic on the snowboard be like “You sure this isn’t Sonic 06?”
I always wondered what Sonic was doing to trigger that weird spindash sound. It's literally the sound of a stuck Sonic. Fascinating.
Man, now i wanna see a mod which fixes the events around Sonic causing him to fail (increased spawn radius, fixed fans/springs, etc) - just to see what the AI was *supposed* to do in those situations!
The springs work in the DC version
Also, as the video title mentions, the spawn radius isn't a problem when the actual player is nearby
Speeps is a modder.
And also giving him the best ai to every shortcuts and slight brief waits 💀
Never thought Sonic had an actual AI that had so many issues to even play the stages unless he's strictly rubberbanding to you; love to see videos exploring SA1 like this :)
"Time to throw a tantrum until he gets what he wants" killed me- 😭
was this video supposed to be this adorable?
this is so funny to me i like to imagine this is his canonical level of ability. like he's just like this y'know.
Just, like, whenever he's not being controlled by a player he just defaults to the intelligence and ability of a normal hedgehog if that normal hedgehog knew how to speak english.
I find it adorable and wholesome that Sonic actually waits for his buddy to catch up from time to time.
Wholesome uneternet moment !! 🤪 yeah I’m shivering and about to take all the pills I have on me now!! Thanks friendly stranger, I just hodooted
@@swissertyh. huh???
@@mizukittyakinyama corn wheeled frantankerum!! Get bedazzled with or without my scepter
@@swisserty ???
@@mizukittyakinyama dang gang banger star reveal your monstrous compendium
I like the idea that Sonic in cutscenes and boss fights is this insanely powerful foe, but when it comes to platforming and most travelling, he is the most incompetent hero of all time, just not being able to do basic stuff unless he feels that he is being watched.
Poor Sonic, he just wants his little buddy to succeed
5:25 As a kid, I've always wondered why Sonic did a jump that looks like he's charging a spindash (and why I could never do it when I'm Sonic), thank you for explaining that it's because he's "stuck".
Watching that Sonic AI is probably one of the funniest videogame-related things I've ever seen, it's like watching your pet do something dumb over & over & not realize their stupidity in that moment.
"Let's move Tails over there to free him."
Sonic immediately goes ALRIGHT TAILS!!!1!11!
Right?
(Also Duo pfp, nice)
Bro is really just trying his best for his little buddy lmao
Makes me want to see a direct comparison of him sucking far out of view to him running properly when you're toe to toe with him, even when you're close to him it's hard to take a good look at his movement but it's still impressive that you can never actually see him get stuck or die in normal play.
i love the way this video is directed like a nature commentary. the struggles of hedgehog for whom the laws of physics don't work and reality makes no sense... and despite everything, he will still wait for Tails.
Sonic: *wants to progress*
Unusable Spring: No I dont think so.
Him being so slow at 5:19 made me realise that there's gaps in the spikes, I thought they went horizontally in a full line across the ground!
poor little hedgehog, he's so cute.
few things to add: he is very small and that makes me want to help him. this video is like watching a nature documentary.
idk why but watching sonic run through this while we watch him in 3rd person is sorta fulfilling or whatever word idk
like he's just having fun doing this and we watch him he's so content doing this
After seeing this I'm sure we all feel a little less threatened by the prospect of an AI takeover
I mean, it's AI from a game released in 1998 on the Dreamcast. It gotta better-ish since.
This isnt really an AI in the usual sense
Videogame ai just works as "if X happens do Y"
@@valletas That's what AI does too essentially, they have a neural network they string together themselves based on what data they gather.
They operate by "if node_1 increases X, link to node_7 for X tracking"
@@TheEmeraldSword04 same result but different implementation
Game ai cant really decide on actions to take everything is scripted with every response already pre programmed
I like to think that it is closer to an spreadsheet of possible actions to take then any actual intelligence
@@valletasIt's only truly intelligence if it can learn and adapt to new situations in real time
Not just a bunch of pre-decided conditions with dedicated reactions to each
The idea of Sonic having an emergency jump makes me laugh for some reason.
why do i find this kind of adorable
I recently bought SADX myself and noticed this when going for B and A rank on Tails’s levels, Sonic would move extremely slowly until I started taking shortcuts as Tails, where he would suddenly teleport like 50 feet ahead to instantly catch up
Cool on Xbox 360 I got that in 2017 and then 100% it but it was tricky but I got Metal Sonic
Lore accurate Sonic
Damn,looks like Sonic's AI is based on Arin Hanson
What refusing to read tutorials does to a mf
Spot on though, even throws a tantrum in Sky Deck and all.
Peak Grumps
But Sonic’s at least able to complete the stage at some point, issues aside
@@malikoniousjoe yeahhhh, looking back I feel bad for comparing the AI to the Game Grumps
@@malikoniousjoe Yeah y'know what, fair enough.
Of course, Sonic's just a little guy, messing around enjoying his time so his friend can get better at his own pace. Of course he'd win, he's the fastest thing alive!
Though this does makes me wish for a mod where Sonic's AI wouldn't hold anything back, going WR pace to really test you...
That’d be awesome lol
Sonic just says “alright my turn” and beats the stage in like 30 seconds
this feels like a documentary of an actual animal
This is so endearing? Why is watching this silly little blue hedgehog run and jump around so wholesome
He jumps up and down when he's stuck that's so cute and funny because that's almost actual hedgehog behavior
This video feels like the Sonic equivalent of a hedgehog sticking it's face in cardboard tube
13:37 "Right now he thinks he's falling on the cylinder at this spot."
I can't tell why exactly this phrase sounds just too funny.
The emergency "Spin Dash jump" Sonic keeps doing sounds a little...I dunno, ADHD-like. He does oscillate between being impatient and being relaxed, after all.
sonic is very. well.. adhd-like. so it makes sense
You know,it kinda feels like a drop dash cuz he is spining so fast in the air you can listen it but of course no speed when he touches the floor
I thought you could do those spin dash jumps as a kid
I wonder how far they were into splitscreen multiplayer before delaying it to Sonic Adventure 2. It was already baked into the game engine.
Goddamn, I never picked up on it as a kid, but Sky Deck constantly dipping into the clouds below with sirens warning of deck visibility and whatnot is so fucking cool for an airship stage
Sonic clearly didnt read the warnings
Sounds about right
Sonic stopping to give Tails a chance to catch up works so well as a way to make the levels less difficult while still being in character for Sonic.
Sonic POV: Yes I'm riding down an mountain during an avalanche!!!!!!!
Tails POV: sonic falls off mountain multiple times
I love playing “Where’s Sonic”
I always wondered what Sonic looked like off-screen. Glad to see you uploading again!
Seeing Sonic move around on his own, bump into things, and get stuck is weirdly endearing and kinda cute. It's like watching a nature documentary or something.
i kinda feel stupid for losing alot of these races when i played this game when i was younger, i feel bad for him not having a singular clue on how to turn at all
Eggman’s IQ is really at 300. Even his Dreamcast ai is smart enough to not bother with the janky levels and just float over everything.
He actually doesn’t have any a.i., since he follows a predetermined path
@@jackhumphries1087 That’s the joke
3:54 "Alright Tails you unstuck me! See you later Tails!" LMAO
This was actually pretty impressive for 1999 tech.
Also, this helped me realize how incredible this game's OST is.
Considering this, still weird how when I was 4, I was very bad at winning the race, especially on Sky Deck.
I think it's because the pressure to win the race makes you play worse, and the rubberbanding gives you less breathing room than what you see here.
You probably had difficulty playing videogames with 3D controls at the time. Alot at 4 cannot pass the first level
A lot of these problems happen when the player is very far away from Sonic, wich doesn't normally happen
I mean, for 4 years old, the fact you got to Sky Deck is impressive.
How did you get so far???
Shows how solid the physics in the sonic adventure games were cause without the slopes pushing him towards the right direction in ice cap he would be perpetually stuck lol
I wonder how different Sonic's AI is in the SA1 prototypes, if it's any different at all
Does the AutoDemo proto have playable Tails stages? Speaking of AI, nobody really analayzed the proto’s Chao Garden data.
@@protocetidice cap is the only one
3:27 I like to think he just waits in this spot to see if Tails gets hit by the spike ball
i love how u treat sonic like a poor boy in this. excellent video
7:15 hearing such intense music as sonic flails around and slides backwards trying to get up a hill is one of the funniest things I’ve seen this week
Edit: 15:19 “YOU’LL NEVER OUT STUNT ME SONIC”
i love how this reads like a nature documentary
“when he gets stuck he starts jumping because he doesn’t know what else to do. fascinating. exuberant creature. marvelous”
14:22
I want this taken out of context, it looks funny
"Eggman has no issues."
As he drives down the highway
So cool to see new technical secrets uncovered and explained so in-depth like this, especially for one of my all-time favourite games. Thank you for the video and keep up the great work!
I always wondered what that weird spindash sound Sonic kept making off screen meant, this is really interesting to learn
I think it's fascinating just how little the racing ai actually works. It feels like it would've been less hassle to just make CPU Sonic move along a single fixed path without any consideration for actual realistic physics in the engine - then they wouldn't even have to worry about objects loading in for him.
i honestly like the idea of tails' missions at least when sonic's involved because its not just a "get to end of the level" its more like two best buds having a friendly race and the fact that sonic also waits adds to that
I'm guessing that those really bonkers emergency jumps are like, double-emergency jumps. Like, the former is "help, am stuck, hopefully the "boing" sound will alarm a debugger or nav-mapper", and the latter is *_"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--"_* followed by the engine ungracefully _forcing_ him to go somewhere so he won't be stuck for eternity.
It's interesting also that their rubberband game is just "number go up". But that doesn't sound very plausible for Sonic, who spends much of his time getting stuck and doing his emergency jump a bunch.
I distinctly remember watching his icon on the race-line *jump forwards.* Not even gradually. What's the story with that?
I wonder how this may work if all the levels actually loads first.
This blue brotha just loves to wait in place for his homie tails.
I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate this channel. So much hard work and dedication and the videos always come out awesome! This is one of my favorite games of all time and the time and effort put into the videos is outstanding. Thanks again!
6:26 - Looks like Sonic was always affected by the Sonic 06 snowboarding physics!
I like the idea that keeping in line with SA1's alternate perspectives, that this might be how Tails perceives Sonic's erratic behaviour. Sonic himself sees himself as uber-cool and flawlessly handling things in his own story, while Tails sees the outside. Usually he gets blown away and completely left behind, but other times if he keeps pace with Sonic, he sees him trying odd things and failing to pull off plans first try, messing around wasting time to work out how various things operate, acting uncharacteristically cautiously for reasons unknown to Tails (maybe he's trying to be a good role model), and dashing ahead as fast as he can before waiting up to see if Tails is still following.
Obviously this isn't the case, but it's a neat idea I think.
I want somebody to make a mod of this game that fixes the bugs, and see a full playthrough of the game done by Sonic AI.
3:54 "All right Tails" lol.
Somehow this stupid AI version of Sonic kinda has his own personality, I like him
Sonic stopping so tails can catch on is kinda on character. He's always trying to help tails build some confidence, also, as he's canonically way faster in this games, i think the whole "race to the objective" thing would just be a way of sonic making tails confident on himself