By Rob Bricken in
Video Games
Thursday, Feb. 4 2010 @ 12:12PM
And Sonic can quit his day job at the restaurant too. Sega has announced -- by way of the video above -- Sonic the Hedgehog 4, which is a new Sonic game in 2-D. Well, it's 3-D, obviously, but on a 2-D plane, so it actually recreates the gameplay of the games that made a Sonic a star. No talking to human girls, no black knights, no fucking werewolves -- just running and getting rings. You may have noticed the "Episode 1" subtitle; turns out that this will be an online game on Xbox Live and WiiWare (and assumably PSN at some point). I don't know how many levels players will get in each episode -- surely more than one, and hopefully more than three, or one "World" -- but on the bright side, there's a lot of classic Sonic potentially coming down the pike. Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
40 comments
Comments
Geoff said:
Making this episodic is likely a mistake; the reason Mega Man 9 sold well was because it was a FULL classic-style Mega Man game in one easy download. Sega, as usual, is trying to milk Sonic for every penny they can get out of him without recognising that they need to rebuild the brand first before attempting to make money from it.
Still, no signs of any of the useless fuzzballs. That, at least, is an improvement. Maybe Sega's finally learnt their lesson that not every sidekick can be Luigi.
Deacon Blues replied to Geoff:
Tails and Knuckles weren't so bad. Hell, everyone up to Sonic Adventure were pretty decent. But when they started introducing "ANGSTY SONIC WITH GUNS" and "SQUARGLEFLAT THE PSYCHIC TAPIR MARY SUE", that's when the franchise hit a sharp downhill.
MattK replied to Deacon Blues:
Yeah, Tails and Knuckles are as part of classic Sonic as gold rings and red shoes.
rickicker replied to MattK:
in-DEED! in fact, LUIGI is the useless sidekick one with absolutely no original concept to bring to the table (recent years mods not withstanding).
tails flies. knuckles climbs and smashes walls. luigi...is a pallette swap of mario. FUCK and NO!
Luigi's actually caused me to laugh more than once - the various Mario RPGs, Camelot's games, Smash, etc.. That's certainly more than I can say for the furry bait patrol, who have the personality of a wet noodle.
Insomniac replied to Geoff:
I genuinely don't think this is a case of SEGA milking it, this time. A new, classic style Sonic game is something fans have been requesting for years, over a decade, even, but SEGA have always insisted there simply wasn't a market for it.
I think someone at SEGA has been convinced to give it a chance, but they still aren't sure. The episodic approach is a way to test the water. Instead of sinking development time into what could be another stinker, they'll release an episode, see how it sells and take it from there.
Who knows? If listening to what the fans have been constantly asking you for turns a profit, they might start listening to other suggestions from the fans.
Shenmue 3 anyone?
Hauntlink said:
yea its gonna come out for psn u see the logo at the end of it....and will they have any suddle guest starts like tails and knuckles....gotta have me some knuckles
MattK said:
Hopefully Sega will follow the example set by Telltale Games rather than ValvE in terms of release episodes.
Hey, Half-Life has a whole... two... episodes. In four years.
Telltale are heroes. They've got scheduling episodic content down to a science.
Anonymous replied to Geoff:
Half Life's also got a third episode coming... eventually
Roswellianism replied to Anonymous:
I hope so.
I think I'll probably be married by the time Episode Three comes out.
...and I'm not exactly on the fast track to Marriage Town, though I am making progress with my geeky, RenFaire girlfriend.
Insomniac replied to Anonymous:
Not this year, according to some sources. ¬_¬
Zach said:
The end of the trailer says xbox live arcade, wii, and PSN, so I'm assuming it's coming out on all 3 at the same time.
yamieridani said:
Yay, this makes me happy.
Hauntlink said:
watch sega screw us
next episode it one year
we are stupid shmucks
rickicker said:
hey, if half life fans can take it like men, so can we!
also FUCK and YES!! been WAAAAAAY too long since i got a break from "Issa ME! MA~RIO!", and this is JUST the thing i need. i own a DS, but DAMN if you EVER caught me playing with the annoying goddamn plumber's games on it!!
Arcane replied to rickicker:
I just saved my game in New Super Mario Bros.
Soylent Robot said:
about goddamn time!
spoon-man42 said:
now as excited as i am about this, i can't help but feel a little... i don't know. i would LOVE to play a good Sonic game again, but i feel like it may be too little too late Sega.
Roswellianism said:
You know what?
This looks awesome as hell.
And hearing that classic singsong "SAAAYYGAAAAAA!" brought a gigantic smile to this tired gamer's face and warmed my heart.
I think this is possibly the best move Sega could make. All those sequels after S&K were pretty much shit. Getting back to basics is exactly what Sonic needs to do.
...or possibly just retire altogether. He needs to get out of that TGI Friday's.
neuronin said:
Too bad Sonic appears to now stumble drunkenly at high speed instead of run.
Jeremy said:
Meddler said:
I have over 100 Sonic comic books. I have the (good) series on DVD. I have a Sonic plush doll, a Sonic piggy bank, and a box full of Sonic toys culled from McDonald's.
Sega...I f*cking need this to be good.
Arcane replied to Meddler:
There was a good Sonic series? I only saw some dumb shit with Jaleel White where he was a freedom fighter dealing with robots I never seen in the games.
cgaussie said:
I got goosebumps while memories of my childhood flashed before my eyes. All those hours grabbing rings and using childish swears each time I ran into something pointy.
I'm excited. And a little hopeful.
Manwards said:
This is a very ballsy move, and one that will either restore Sonic to his former prominence, or put the final nail in his coffin.
The original Sonic "trilogy" were a huge part of my childhood, and I remain a fan of Sonic himself to this day, but the games have become progressively misguided and uninspired. This - "this" being a return to the original model, where momentum was more important than speed, and where challenging platforming was the main focus - is what I've been wanting to see for years.
I just hope they don't mess it up. My love for the original games isn't nostalgia; I played through Sonic & Knuckles just last week, on a whim, and it remains a fantastically crafted game. There's something new around every corner and a perfect level of challenge. That's what Sonic 4 needs. They can't just slap together a 2D game and expect it to be perfect. It's all in the level design, the challenge, the balance.
Still, the brief snippet of gameplay in the trailer looks lovely, and I'm going into this with an open mind. Toot toot, Sonic Warrior.
Arcane replied to Manwards:
I always thought Sonic was ass for a concept. So many of the levels required you to hop on springs or some kind of accelerating device that it just railed the game and took any kind of gameplay out of your hands. Or that the game focused on speed while it punished you severely for taking a hit from unkillable hazards that were off-screen .5 seconds ago. I never thought he was so damn fast in the first place, at least Mario can walk up a damn incline and probably keep pace at that.
Skemono said:
I like how it jumps from 1994 to 2010. I guess their pitch for this is "Please forget everything we've done with this character for the past 16 years".
Aaron said:
There's something both awesome and sad about this.
Necronomic Forecast said:
Hot balls, I'm having this!
Though I ain't playing it online. X-box live is for sweary 14 years olds.
Jeff Manley said:
Their video didn't even have any love for Sonic CD, my fav of the classics.
Catherine said:
De-ja-vu! Seriously, I remember this happening exactly the same, right down to the pomegranate juice I'm drinking. Strange....anyway, that aside, hopefully as long as nothing extra is added as a gimmick at the last minute then it should be a great game.
toryoom said:
Is it just me, or was Sonic looking a little lethargic in his 2010 incarnation --especially in comparison to the prior examples juxtaposed against it? ...There's no doubt that this is a good thing, but I just hope this game doesn't suffer from that 'too many animation frames' look that all those latter-day 3d motion cap games had. Sonic is about speed, after all, and one of the [only] good things brought to the table by all of the mediocre 3D Sonic titles was a major adrenaline-boost of speed in some of their 3D-visuals-on-2D-plane levels. It'd be nice to see that married with old school Sonic game sensibilities.
moonbunnychan said:
Took them long enough. I always felt like Sega always had their fingers in their ears going LA LA LA LA LA when it came to fans. That or were so delussioned they thought they were doing awesome work...which I feel was genuinely the case with that game simply titled Sonic the Hedgehog a couple years back.
Still though...episodes? No thank you.
It's like they HAVE to screw up a good thing SOMEHOW.
Xenos said:
That is so ring grabbingly good. Awesome. Just that episode 1 thing worries me. At least Mega Man gave us a full game. Then again that was 8-bit level graphics and this is 16+ (with BLAST PROCESSING!). So maybe file size is an issue with downloading. Still, hope it's not too expensive and they don't milk it.
Preeeemo said:
fuck all the haters, sonic back!
