CONCEPT: Sonic Revised

Ahem. Due to sudden RL workload, I haven't been able to find much time to work on reviews and general tl;dr ANGST. So to help bridge the time between now and when I find the time to do anything of such, I thought it'd be nice to copypasta my old unfinished Sonic concept doc from Concept Mobius... which in itself is delayed until opportunity to work on it is presented. If anybody has input to help me improve or complete the doc, either leave me a comment or pester me on one of my local boards - for reference, the original thread is located here: http://tg.technoguild.com//index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=94&topic=808.0

Basic controls
These are control schemes that are generally common between most characters in the whole cast. This is using the X360 control pad as an example.
Left stick: Movement. Tilt the control stick, and your character will move in that direction relative to the camera angle.
Right stick: Camera, lock-on (click). (See below section for specific usage).
A: Jump, Midair action. Pressing the button causes the player to jump into the air, and the longer it is held down, the higher he will jump and the longer he will stay in the air. By tapping the button again in midair, the character performs a unique action to further boost his acrobatics, ranging from double jumps to freeform flight.
X: Primary attacks. The basic moves at a character's disposal. They are typically ordinary and easy to use attacks with little penalty or risk for usage, but on their own are generally ineffective in the long run. Tapping the button repeatedly produces faster, combo based attacks, whereas holding the button down (without releasing, unless otherwise stated) will produce a stronger, directional attack, propelling either the character or the victim in a specified direction.
Y: Secondary attacks. By far the more spectacular attacks to use, not to mention the more effective sort, but much more punishing to use and again, ineffective when used stand-alone. The effects of these moves are much more varied than the Primaries, ranging from area-based attacks to linear charges, counterattacks and even movement assistance. The true flare of each character shows in these moves... especially when combined with Primary attacks.
B: Interaction, Pivot move. Push a button. Grab an item. Chat it up with the locals. Anything else that doesn't entail punching something in the face. This will also trigger a Pivot move when close to an enemy (will be addressed in a future section - for now, let's just say they're similar to a typical grab, but their actual applications spread far beyond that).
Rtrigger: Unique action. A single, gameplay defining action that can easily turn the tides of battle in your favour on its own. This is easily the most varied and valuable technique in a character's arsenal, and mastering it is key to becoming a true master of its trade (to get an idea how important this action is, consider how much Silver used this in Sonic '06).
Ltrigger: Speed move. Another character specific technique, this one more centered on assisting movement or traversal in some manner. Speed boosts or sudden leaps are common, but the effects can vary further between certain characters.
Rbumper: Switch characters. This is used when you have an assisting character tagging along (Eg: Tails with Sonic) to switch places with them and use the assisting character instead. Be wary that tagalong characters have separate statistics and equipment settings from the former lead character, and thus may be required to recollect rings or reorganise held items to the new tagalong character if necessary.
Lbumper: Team action. When nearby an ally or tagalong, use this command to regroup them into a cooperative action. The effects of this action may sometimes vary depending on context or the assisting character, but they are generally useful techniques and often a very effective action where all single-character tactics fail.

In the offchance that a Wii version is developed, the controls would be a little something like this:
Control Stick = Movement
IR = Camera
A = Jump
B = Primary Attack
+ = Secondary attack
Down D-Pad = Interact
Z = Unique Action
C = Speed Move
Left D-Pad = Team Action
Right D-Pad = Switch Characters
- = Camera Lockon
Of course, all of these are completely interchangeable to suit the tastes of the player. As far as button placements go they can be assigned to any button the player wants, and even a few motion controls for those that prefer waggling on the Wii variant.

Camera Controls
The camera can be used in one of three ways – each of them differs drastically to the ordinary camera controls you'd expect from a typical 3D Sonic game. These are:
“Speed” camera – the default Camera setup. Camera turns instantly relative to its own facing – if the camera stick is tilted left or right, the camera is instantly rotated 90 degrees, whereas tilting it downwards will quickly turn 180 and face backwards. This makes the camera stick work as a compass of sorts, with Up corresponding to the camera's current direction before the adjustment. Of course, angles between simple Left, Right and Down are more than possible, and allow the player comfortable time to fine-tune the camera angle before releasing the stick back to neutral and thereby setting the new angle. Because of the rapid camera movement involved, the Speed camera is perfectly suited to very demanding situations such as rapid cornering, midair combat, multiple enemies or otherwise fast-paced endeavors.
“Focus” camera – this centers the camera directly behind the player, causing it to control more like a console FPS – simply tilt the camera stick in any direction and the camera will scroll in that direction proportional to the amount of pressure applied to it. To activate the Focus camera, simply click the camera stick inwards without tilting it, and do so again to return to Speed camera. This mode, while nowhere near as fast to react as the Speed camera, is much more precise, and very useful for such feats as moving perfectly straight, aiming projectiles
“Lock-on” camera – this maintains focus on an enemy at all times, regardless of the player's actions. All the camera stick does in this state is deviate somewhat from the current target, so as to catch a glimpse of its immediate surroundings. To activate the Lock-on camera, click the camera stick inwards whilst tilted towards an object of interest to target that particular object. This mode is useful for maintaining focus towards an important object or enemy without having to readjust the camera yourself, or indeed many Zelda-esque situations out there. Worth noting is that the Lock-on camera does not automatically focus attacks, but simply positions the camera so that tilting upwards on the movement stick will guarantee hitting home with your attacks.

Stamina system
To prevent certain moves from being abused too frequently, a limit will be placed in the form of the stamina system, as an additional bar of energy adjoining the ring counter and score display. This stamina system is not nearly as limiting as it appears - it will drain every time the player performs an action, but will usually fill itself back to full the moment the player stops. While this does allow players to continue fighting once they break in between moves, it will in any circumstance enforce a strict limit on the extent of which they can chain moves for the sake of balance. That said, infinite combos, where they might possibly exist, will be literally impossible to perform infinitely, and players will have a definite limit to which they can spam the same attacks to decent effect.

Each action a player performs will consume a different amount of stamina - however, by chaining completely different attacks together, stamina usage will be drastically reduced, rewarding players who can compose unique patterns of attack depending on context.

Rings, Health and staying alive
Unlike previous games, Sonic and co will not lose all of their rings in a single hit. Instead, characters will lose portions of rings per hit, variable to the strength of the attacks they take in. For example, a very light, very constant technique will cause a constant string of single rings to stream out, whereas a heavier attack could remove up to 20 rings at a time. Coupled with this is the fact that the temporary grace period in which a character is invincible several seconds post-impact no longer exists - so if a player is tempted to pick up their own rings after they spill out, they are more likely to be killed in the process of an enemy attacking them in the process of doing so.

But even if a character is out of rings, they will not immediately die. In fact, the rings are merely a first defense against attacks, and characters actually have a secondary health bar underneath their ring count. If they are attacked with no remaining rings, the health bar will decrease instead until that exhausts and they are KO'd.

This does not mean players are free to prance about levels unprotected,however. Unlike ring protection, restoring health bars is a difficult, time consuming process. If a physically injured player manages to restore their protection with rings again, their health meter will slowly recover proportional to how many rings they are carrying. 1-10 rings could take many, many minutes to fully recover a near-empty gauge, whereas upwards of 50 or more could restore it almost instantly. Other methods of recovery exist (character specific healing abilities, health items) but they are generally very few and far between.

Furthermore, to prevent near-infinite potential defenses in this regard, a “Defense cap” is applied which varies depending on the base defensive capabilities of your selected character – for the sake of example, we will assume Sonic has a Defense Cap of 50 rings. The Defense Cap determines how many of your held rings count towards protecting your character, and if said character is carrying more than the Defense Cap limit – in the case of Sonic, more than 50 rings – the character will lose all of the additional rings except for those counted towards Defense Cap. In other words, in the case of Sonic, you will lose all but 50 rings if you're attacked over the Defense Cap limit.

As a guide to how many rings different types of damage will cause you to lose, here is a rough guide of examples -
1 ring – split-second rate attacks, such as miniguns, energy beams, lava pits or otherwise near-constant sources of damage.
5-10 rings – ordinary machine-guns, fast, combo-able melee attacks, or otherwise short bursts of damage.
20-30 rings – average explosions/missiles, heavy melee attacks, high-powered gunshots or otherwise slow, single shot sources.
50-100 – exceedingly rare, normally experienced only in boss fights or ludicrously slow attacks or characters. In a nutshell, the kind of damage that would knock a building down if you used it right. Oversize explosives, scud-size missiles, fully charged special attacks (where applicable) or otherwise mini-WMD equivalents.

Sonic – BETA sample moveset
Format: Action name – Button(context)
Machspeed Peelout – L (grounded)After a brief rev-up time, Sonic blasts off at mach speed, running so fast that typical laws of physics don't even apply. Unlike other characters, Sonic can run along walls both horizontally and vertically, rebound from wall to wall on the move, burst straight through most fragile objects and of course, leave enemies far behind in his wake using this Speed Move. Few can match or outdo Sonic's raw speed in this state, but Sonic's Speed Move comes with the added bonus of lesser Stamina drain, making it a very reliable and almost essential method of getting around. Like many other speed moves of this type, Sonic can lure foolish enemies into deadly situations (such as a crash into a solid obstacle) if they attempt to pursue him.

Homing Dash – R (usable anytime)That's right – it's not an attack anymore! Rather than attacking enemies directly, the new Homing Dash merely performs a quick burst of speed, placing you directly in front of the nearest enemy in your line of sight ready to throw off an attack. This can even be used in the air, and in fact can be used to fly gracefully through the air between airborne foes when used right. However, a clever foe can just as easily use this to their own advantage, preparing an attack in advance just as Sonic is HDing towards them... The HD is normally automatically followed up by a Sonic Eagle, but this option can be disabled for people who want more freedom over what they do afterwards. HD's can also play a somewhat psychological game with some enemies, sometimes causing them to freeze with shock when they realize too late that you're right in their face.

Sonic Eagle – A (midair)Sonic performs a flip kick in midair, attacking foes and gaining extra height at the same time. Much like an ordinary jump, the Eagle can be increased in altitude by holding the A button down longer. In any case, the attack itself will jolt an enemy slightly upwards, allowing for more potential hits.

Sonic Falcon(?) - A (moving, midair)Similar to the Eagle, but Sonic performs a frontflip instead of a backflip, covering distance instead of height and knocking enemies downwards instead of upwards. If an enemy is close to the ground when spiked, it may bounce straight back up to Sonic for additional attacks. Again, like the Eage, holding A will increase distance travelled when using the technique.

Combo Attack – rapidly tap X (useable anytime)Sonic performs a flurry of speedy, elaborate kicks to deal constant damage. While the rapid nature of the technique can keep many enemies off-balance, some stronger or more durable enemies may not react to the move at all and thus find it very easy to counteract.

Sonic Flare – hold X (stationary, grounded)Sonic performs a breakdancing maneuverer, blasting back nearby enemies. Whilst the blowback distance isn't as great as other moves of its type, the Flare's wide angle of attack makes for a valuable panic move, albiet with long performance time that enemies can take advantage of from a distance.

Windup Punch – hold X (moving towards enemy, grounded)Sonic winds up for a powerful punch, causing heavier damage and sending enemies flying greater distances. Like all blowback moves, Sonic can pursue the blasted foe with a Speed move to keep up a combo and dish out the hurt. However, the move has a lot of follow-through time if it misses, making it easily punishable.

Backflip Kick – hold X (moving away from enemy, grounded)Sonic somersaults backwards, knocking foes into the air. While it isn't as damaging as similar moves from other characters (and as such, may not work on all enemies), it can immediately be followed up with more attacks afterwards, keeping the enemy off balance.

Dash Kick – hold X (towards an enemy, during Machspeed Peelout)Sonic suddenly changes the direction of his dash, performing a leaping kick towards an enemy. This causes the victim to fly at the same speed as Sonic's machspeed dash, allowing additional hits whilst running.

Sonic Boom – press Y (maintaining movement, during Machspeed Peelout)At the cost of extra stamina, Sonic increases his speed to break the sound barrier for a short period of time, causing shockwaves that will damage and trip up enemies caught in them. Anybody hit by Sonic directly during the attack takes insane damage, and in some cases Sonic even runs a hole straight through them for an instant kill move.

Spindash – hold Y (stationary, grounded)Similar to the Peelout in many ways, but can actually damage the opponent. After a brief spinning charge, Sonic rolls off at high speed, bowling over any enemies he runs into along the way. Unlike the Peelout, the spindash will slow down over time (even moreso on an upward slope), so it serves better purpose as an attack rather than an assistance towards movement. However, inertia can prove to be useful on a downward slope, which will greatly increase Sonic's speed as he rolls downwards...

Bounce attack – press/hold Y (stationary, midair)Sonic descends rapidly towards the ground in spinball form, slamming down enemies he hits along the way. Normally when the move is executed, Sonic will spring straight back upwards when he hits the ground, allowing him to repeat up to three times for additional attacks and extra height. However, if the Y button is still held down when Sonic hits the ground, the spring is canceled and instead replaced with a Spindash!

Copter kick - tap Y (moving, midair)Sonic performs a quick double kick by spinning horizontally in the air, leg extended. This serves not only as an impromptu combo addon in midair but also as a subtle raise in height where the Sonic Eagle fails.

Pivot tactics
What is a “pivot”? A pivot is another move that comes as standard across most (if not all) characters, which entails grabbing, hijacking, or otherwise, interacting with an enemy in a manner not possible with ordinary moves. To initiate a Pivot move, simply press the B button when facing an enemy, and your character will grab the enemy in his own way to start the move.
When a Pivot is successfully initiated, the character can execute a special contextual move to finish it. This can serve many useful tactics – from fooling enemies into shooting their allies, springing between them like stepping stones, physically throwing them, or brutally finishing them with a powerful finishing attack. To help demonstrate the potential these moves have, here are some examples, featuring the original Team Sonic.

Sonic – Stands on top of an enemy as a pivot. This alone is a useful tactic, as not only does this make it much more difficult to break the pivot, enemies nearby may try to attack you anyway, catching their ally in the crossfire. By tilting the control stick and pressing the Jump button, Sonic kicks off the enemy and leaps ahead, not only damaging it but also giving him a useful boost in speed and distance. Combined with a Homing Dash, this allows him to bypass enemies VERY quickly, and even traverse over hazardous areas and through the skies.

Tails – Traps the enemy with a gadget. Tails can simply leave the enemy be and move on to other things if he wishes, leaving it unable to move for some time. But, if he wishes, he can hack into mechanical enemies during this time, yielding effects ranging from reduced effectiveness, to complete shutdown or self-destruct, or even turning it into an ally. In some cases, he can even turn the enemy into a ride or a weapon and use it to help him further. When used in mid-flight, however, they are universally deadly and fearsome – he can either kick the enemy away as a living projectile, or holding it down and divebombing the unfortunate victim into the ground. Tails can even carry the victim around in the air if need be, or access the flying grab simply by jumping out of a ground Pivot.

Knuckles – Grabs the enemy with one hand, readying the other for a punch. This pivot has the potential to do insane damage, but is offset by the fact that it can easily be broken and countered by opponents. Knux can either rapidly jab the captive opponent with his free hand, or charge up for a lethal Hollow Punch, literally creating a hole straight through some enemies (robots only, of course). Finally, jumping out of the Pivot causes an uppercut attack, jolting the enemy upwards and setting up for a combo attack.

Thus, while pivots are commonplace among most characters, they all achieve vastly different effects, all working towards the overall gameplay prospect of the respective character. Whereas Knuckles sets up for high damage and expanse combos, Tails is a much more technical and tactical sort, and Sonic works towards a fast, moving pace with a combination of his usual smartass ego.

Ranking System
As per any recent Sonic game, this one will have a ranking system that determines how well the player performed when gameplay ends. The specific rankings are:

A – Near flawless.
B – Close, but made some mistakes along the way.
C – Somewhat average, what you'd expect from a recreational run.
D – Died at least once, but not without small merit.
E – Died repeatedly, had major trouble finishing.
F – Didn't even finish at all... or so close to it it doesn't make a difference.

To determine the rank that the player achieves overall, the following factors are taken into consideration – depending on the character used, some fields may be stricter than others (eg: Sonic on completion times)

Completion time – the faster the level is finished, the greater the ranking.
Ring/Item collection – rewards the player for grabbing plenty of goods along the way
Enemy annihilation – takes into consideration the damage and destruction caused to enemies during the level. Even partly damaged enemies still give a fraction of their score.
Damage / lives lost – penalizes the player for taking damage or outright dying during play.
Route taken – if the player completes a puzzle, traverses a dangerous area, uses a tagalong or otherwise use an unconventional method to take a different route through the level, bonus points are rewarded.

When the level is completed, these statistics appear as filled bars on the screen, as percentages of maximum totals possible (Par time for completion speed). These bars then empty into a new “rank” bar, which increases your overall rank for every time the rank bar overlaps and starts over. For dramatic effect, the countdown slows and a drumroll starts after a “B” rank is reached, adding intense anticipation as to whether or not the player achieves the elusive A rank.

Unlike other games, however, this ranking system is also available in multiplayer matches as a gauge of how well they played through the match. In most multiplayer modes, however, the ranking follows a very different set of factors to gauge the rank. These include:

Kill/Death spread: Number of KO's accumulated against other players as a percentage of the maximum KO limit (when one is used – otherwise, this figure is a percentage of the highest scoring player's KO limit instead) minus the amount of times they were KO'd themselves.
Combos: Players will rank higher for keeping up a constant string of attacks uncontested. However, a player who breaks a combo midway through and reverses it will also score extra.
Stamina usage: A player will be penalized for exhausting all of their stamina, or spamming stale attacks to create the same effect.
Special feats: Achievements such as multi-KO's, sprees, long distance KO's, objective completion, team assistance and more, will be rewarded with extra rank.

When the match is finished, an accompanying rank is placed next to the player's name on the scoreboard for all to see. Who knows, if you play right you may even A rank on the list without winning!

Items
Over the course of their journey, Sonic and co will find many different kinds of items to assist them. These are often found in the form of capsules, monitors, balloons, crates, or otherwise usual encapsulating objects, and range from temporary powerups to ring bonuses, and some things in between. However, items don't always come free off the ground – sometimes, they may come in the form of vending machines, which require you to pay a ring toll before you can use them. Fortunately, when they do happen to require payment they tend to be in a very convenient position, optimal for their stored items.

To use an item or vending machine, simply interact with or attack its encapsulation and it will be activated automatically. Some examples of items include:

Ring bonus (not buyable): Instantly increases the player's ring count by an amount specified on the box. Typically these are 5-10 ring increments, but rarer versions exist that give 25 or even 50 at a time.
Magnet (30 rings): A magnet appears on the player, temporarily attracting nearby rings as they approach. While the magnet is active, the player can also walk along metallic surfaces regardless of gravity or other interferences.
Aqualung (35 rings): Gives the player a breathing apparatus that is activated automatically once he enters water. This gives him an extra breath supply, allowing him to breath underwater until the air supply runs out.
Hoverboard (30 rings): The box releases an Extreme Gear hoverboard which the player can ride. It is reasonably fast – just enough so to give slower characters a necessary boost in speed. However, the main quirk of the board is that it handles very sharply given its speed, and it hovers above any harmful surface until the player is knocked off, destroying the Gear.
Shield (20 rings): Absorbs a small amount of damage, grants immunity to certain types of damage, and gives access to shield-specific moves (see section: Shields)
Explosive (not buyable): Explodes violently when attacked, hurting anybody in its blast radius – including the player. Interacting with it, however, sets the explosive on a short timer, allowing time to escape to a safe distance.
Stamina Overcharge (50 rings): Grants infinite stamina for a short period of time.
Invincibility (50 rings): The player cannot be harmed for a brief period of time.

Shields
Yes, the bubble shields of old finally make a return. While they have similar function to their decade-old counterparts, they can now do things that originally weren't possible with them – and now there are additional types to come across. Generally, most shields will grant an immunity to certain types of damage whilst active, and absorb a small amount of other damage before they disappear again.

Shields will replace secondary attacks with a special move or two of their own. You can even throw the shield with the B button, much like an item as a projectile, for varying effect.
Examples of shield types include:
Fire shield – grants immunity to fire-type attacks and hazards, and allows diving into swimming-depth of lava. Special attack rockets the player forwards with a quick speed boost, damaging anybody nearby along the way, or causing a radial flamethrower-like effect around the player to damage nearby enemies. Throwing the shield causes a large, fiery explosion for heavy damage.
Water shield – grants immunity to many slower-moving projectiles, and increases the amount of breath you will have underwater. Projectiles will ricochet off the shield like rubber, and exchanges durability for breath underwater – this causes the shield to shrink or possibly even disappear over time, but can still be restored by returning to the surface. Special attack bounces off the ground underneath, attacking grounded enemies and gaining extra height, or causing a wave of water to sweep nearby enemies off their feet. Throwing the shield causes it to bounce between things like a pinball, damaging anything it bounces off along the way.
Lightning shield – grants immunity to lightning based attacks, and in fact attracts them like a lightning rod for various tactical uses. Other enemies are still damaged by the attracted lightning, so try positioning yourself so that they get caught in the path of it. Special attacks include bursting upwards into the air, zapping enemies along the way, or simply zapping them stationary in an area-of-effect move. Throwing the shield causes it to stick to a surface, reaching out with lightning bolts and zapping nearby enemies while it lasts.
Plasma (“normal”) shield: This shield does not grant any immunities or special moves, but unlike other shields it can withstand a much, much heavier amount of damage before disappearing. Throwing the shield hits a singular enemy like a boulder, causing just as much damage to them.
Ice shield: Grants immunity to cold attacks, and allows the user to walk on water. Just by being nearby, the shield freezes the surface of water, turning it into a traversable platform. Special attacks include creating an icy boulder around yourself to roll enemies over (like the spindash, you're at the mercy of gravity and inertia for this one) and freezing nearby enemies solid. The shield cannot be thrown conventionally, but attempting to simply leaves the shield behind as an ice boulder which can be pushed around – or by some characters, even picked up and thrown.

Multiplayer Modes
Freeform – Can be played free-for-all or in teams. Players play by either a time or KO limit and compete to obtain more KO's than each other.
Grand Prix – Free for all only. A number of checkpoints are scattered through the arena (usually in a full loop) and players complete to pass all of them in order before their opponents do. Infinite stamina may be enabled as a special condition to the gametype so players can use Speed Moves without penalty. Additionally, some extra checkpoint layouts may be available to specialise with different sets of characters (eg: flight routes, point-to-point, speed focus etc)
Super Duel – Free for all only. A set of Chaos Emeralds are scattered throughout the map. Players who collect more Chaos Emeralds gain not only a stat advantage but a point multiplier as well, but become a more obvious target for others as Emeralds are always visible no matter where they are – even through walls. If a defeated player was carrying more than one Emerald, all but one of those Emeralds will scatter across the map for the sake of fairness.
Capture the Chao – Teamplay only. Two Chao gardens are placed on opposite sides of the map, one for each team. To score points, players must take Chao's from each other's garden and add it to their own. Players can pick up their own Chao if needed, whether to recover stolen Chao or to temporarily hide them outside the garden where you'd normally expect them, but if left alone Chao will make their way back to their home garden on their own. Likewise, Chao can act differently depending on who they're confronted with – they will stay near an allied player on the way back to their home garden, and hide behind or even ON said player in the face of a threat, whereas an enemy player will cause the Chao to run faster away from the player, and even in their grasp will attempt to resist and escape.
Metamorph battle – Can be played in either free for all or team play. This mode plays much like the Freeform mode, but apon achieving a certain adjustable condition (by default, apon KOing another player), the player is transformed into another of the cast of player characters at random. This gives the gametype a very unpredictable WarioWare-ish style, and likewise can sometimes leave you only seconds to re-adapt each time.
Ring hoarding – Team play only. Opposing teams start in separate bases much like Capture the Chao, but do not start with any rings. Players must trek out into the level, collect rings scattered about the place and bring them back to their own base to add to their team's cumulative ring count – or in other words, score points for their team. To disencourage cowardly spawn-camping tactics, players will have their rings constantly drained when within an enemy base's area of influence, but receive a significant base health boost when within an allied base.

Unique Character System
Through extended play of Revised, characters gradually gain experience from their gameplay and, as such, are capable of improving their form and acquiring all-new techniques as they go. Whilst there are some abilities that are given to the character automatically (and thus, are often essential or at least very helpful in completing later levels), more often than not a player is given a choice of assisting abilities to help conform to the player's style of playing as well as add to the character's growing arsenal of attacks.
These new abilities don't come free, however – or even cheap, for that matter. To acquire new skills, or improve apon existing ones or stats, the player must first find sources of power for the character. Once acquired, these power sources act as a currency of its own, with which the player can “purchase” abilities for the character that gathered them. Players can do this anytime they are not in the middle of a stage – in other words, between stages, in the main menu or in hub areas.
What is a source of power, and where are they found? Generally, they are found wherever a skillful feat is performed. By defeating enemies, completing puzzles, unleashing combos, finishing levels or other such accomplishments, these sources can materialize and guide themselves straight towards the performing player – and generally, the greater the feat, the bigger and more numerous they come. They come in many forms, such as Chaos Drives, Light Cores, or depending on the feat or level theme, may come in more bizarre forms such as batteries or sentient blobs.
While their forms may differ, they all share a common standard of given power, dictated by the colour of the object. For example, the full range could be:
Black: Just above normal (1 point)
Blue: Small feat (3 points)
Purple: Not bad (5 points)
Red: Respectable (10 points)
White: Incredible (20 points)
Power sources add to the overall “level” of the character, dictating the specific amount of extra abilities and stat changes they can acquire at that point in time. Whilst abilities are not fixed and can be swapped at will, they can only use as many at a time as their overall Power Sources can handle, and some cannot be acquired at all until you have achieved certain lifetime amounts of power (unaffected by actual used power).

This same system is also available in multiplayer gameplay, albeit somewhat more restricted. Players can still swap abilities in and out of their favourite characters as they choose (and save said layouts as templates if they find the settings suit them), they are almost always set to a fixed amount of power sources, for the sake of balance between other players. There may be some exceptions to this rule – such as a gametype option which suits it, or when the match creator enables power source alteration for the sake of handicapping or plain having fun (whilst this can be kept within a certain area of usage, this is still generally not recommended for serious competitive matches).

Tension Gauge / Dynamic Music
What is the Tension gauge? The Tension gauge is a bar of energy not unlike the Stamina meter, but with another purpose in mind. Whereas the Stamina meter is restored in boosts given from active involvement in the game, the Tension restoration is a slower, much more gradual process that relies more on the situation as a whole rather than small tasks within. When the Tension Gauge is full, the player can unleash a devastating, game-wrecking attack by pressing the left and right triggers simultaneously at the cost of the full Tension gauge – for the sake of Sonic Battle similarities, we will call this attack the Ichikoro for now.

To fill the Tension gauge is to throw yourself in harm's way, and survive. And generally, the more challenging or desperate the situation, the quicker the Ichikoro charges. Some factors that can influence Tension regeneration include:

- Fast movement (rapid cornering and turning adds extra)
- Enemy presence (an outnumbering or generally stronger force adds extra)
- Combat (again, multi-combat for extra)
- Defenses (ring-less and low health can add a LOT of extra)
- Hazards (the more the better, plus non-static hazards and player movement)

As the action cools down and the player gets in obvious control of the situation, the Tension gauge will quickly DEgenerate over time down to a level fitting the current situation. To fill the gauge to full and thus, earn a chance at unleashing an Ichikoro, the player must stay in constant danger with the fewest amount of breaks possible. By utilizing this tension system cleverly, it's possible to overcome otherwise suicidal tasks just by being present long enough – and of course, surviving the whole ordeal at the same time.

The same situations that affect the Tension gauge, however, will also change various parts of the music to fit. While this is purely cosmetic and does not affect gameplay, it adds to dramatic effect in ways a static track can never achieve.

Of course, without an audiable example at the time of writing, this is rather difficult to demonstrate. But at any one time, the BGM playing during gameplay does not consist of just one song, but multiple patterns layered on top of each other to achieve the same effect. As the level of activity fluctuates, the game enables and disables various patterns of such so as to reflect the situation. Examples of music patterns and their applications could include:

- Percussion: Changes in intensity depending on action-heavy sequences, such as intense fighting, movement speed and pursuit and so forth. Without any of these, percussion does not play at all, whereas beats step up gradually on the level of activity, eventually building to Breakbeat levels with a heavy combination of said factors.-

Theme: Changes of instruments and tempo depending on the character being used. For example, Sonic could get faster rock-ish guitar leads in the main level theme, whereas a slower or more technical character like Silver would have a slower, Trance-based synth lead. It all depends on the feel of the character.
- Strings: builds up on the level of health/rings of a character, adding to a generally intense and epic feel in the midst of a particularly close fight. In some situations, namely boss fights and some multilayer skirmishes, the health of the enemy also causes this field to build, and at a stretch can even be used as an indicator of your foe's well-being.

Stage Layout Editor / Eggman Empire mode
To further add to replay value and online interaction in Revised, an in-built level editor is included to allow players to create their own unique challenges by changing the layout of objects in the level, including items, enemies, hazards and even just plain decor. This isn't even specifically limited to one type of map, either – you can edit single player levels, multiplayer maps and anything in between. In fact, it's even possible for players to transform one type of level into its exact opposite – single player levels can be changed into multiplayer maps, and vice versa.

The actual editing process takes place via a generic Eggman drone with a permanent fly/hover ability. It controls much like a typical playable character, albiet with some different button mappings:

Control sticks: Horizontal movement and camera, as per normal. Camera movement is locked in “focus” mode for the sake of precision.
A: Vertical movement. Hold A and up or down on the movement stick to ascend or descend with appropriate speed, specified by the amount of force applied.
X: Spawns an object onto the nearest surface that the player is aiming towards.
Y: Grab/release an object, similar to Silver's Telekinetic grab. Tapping Y whilst holding an object causes it to drop to the ground, but holding it for a second causes it to levitate on its own without the player's intervention.
B: Delete the currently focused object.
LB/RB: Cycle between objects to drop.
LT/RT: Cycle between object categories (items, badniks, scenery, level goals and sequences etc)

From thereon, it's up to the player to design a level layout as they see fit. Unfortunately, total freedom of creation is impossible, and thus there are limits to the amount of objects players can place in a level, each guaged by their maximum possible processor load (for example, a breakable box would be valued not by its initial processor load, but the amount of strain that its many individual fragments cause after it's broken by force). Otherwise, it's up to the player what they create.

Additionally, the level editor has an unlockable, surprisingly deep sub-game buried within – the Eggman Empire mode. Initially it controls in much the same way as the aformentioned Layout Editor, but subtle tweaks and mechanics work to transform it into a very RTS-like experience between two or more players.

To help demonstrate how such a game would play out in a layout editor, here is an example of how things could progress:

 First, the player starts out with nothing but a Layout bot (the earlier mentioned generic eggbot that does the layout editing) and a specialized badnik factory that produces said Layout bots. To start off, everything in the game needs resources in an RTS, and this is no exception. To add more capacity to create new objects and structures for their base, the player must scatter rings all about the level – the more they place, the bigger their maximum army and structure capacity. Using rings in particular manners – such as creating long strings, circles or compacted stockpiles – give additional capacity benefits.
 Now that the player has scattered enough rings to create a sizable force to their own section of the level, the player can use the Layout bot to create objects that benefit their own cause – badniks, vending machines, turrets, obstacles and whatnot. All of the objects that the player creates are tinted a particular colour to individualize it from enemy objects. Some objects – including badniks and some items – can be grouped to a single “commander” object or badnik, and while this method costs less ring dispersal, destroying the commanding object simultaneously destroys all objects linked to it and thus makes it a much riskier approach. Finally, the player must determine their defeat goal to give an advantage against attackers. There are a wide range of defeat goals available, and the more trustworthy they are, the more they cost. By default, the defeat goal is a mere goal marker that would usually occur at the end of a standard level, but more indepth goals include:

 A locked goal: Requires destroying a commanding badnik (cheaper) or a group of badniks guarding it (more expensive) to uncover the goal.
 Stealthed goal: The goal is transparent and thus difficult to see unless the player is nearby it. Objective goal: Scatter several keys to the defeat goal across the map, which the enemy will need to collect before accessing the goal. Number of keys can range from 1 to 10, and again more keys means more expenses. Objective goals are assisted by giving the enemy a Treasure Hunt style sonar to help track goals down.
 Boss goal: The goal is contained within a large, difficult-to-defeat badnik, and requires the enemy to destroy the boss before accessing the goal.

 Lastly, when the player is satisfied that his makeshift base will hold up against enemy attacks, they can shift into a character of choice (which is selected before the beginning of the match) at the expense of rings to take on enemy bases and thus, attempt to win the match by reaching the enemy's defeat goal. The badniks that the player created will react automatically to threats as they usually would in the middle of an ordinary single player game, and attempt to defeat incoming enemy players to prevent them from reaching the defeat goal themselves.
And that's just the basic gameplay, because like any RTS game there is a thick layer of strategic placement of items that can help secure victory. For example, a player could scatter numerous keys for an Objective Goal as far from each other as possible, then place turrets or badniks around each of them to hinder players that attempt to acquire them. Or, a player could create a simple Locked goal... then link it to a horde of stealthed, non-attacking badniks to make them difficult to find and thus, harder to unlock the goal.

And even at the basic level, it's all about knowing when to shift into character to attack the enemy base. Too early, and you could leave your base defenseless against a counter attack. Too late, and you may find an enemy impossible to overcome. At a basic level, it's all about knowing when to attack head on, but there are many tactics that can come through clever utilization of defeat goals, badnik combinations and formations, and overall hard-pointed structures to aid a player in motion.