SEGAAAAAA!!!!
So SEGA have recently announced that a new Sonic game is currently in development and is due for release during the summer. Nothing new there as Sonic has been hoarded out to all kinds of tat over the last number of years and seems to mess up any triumphant return with badly created games and poorly thought gimmicks (featuring in racing games was the oddest choice since why would Sonic need either a go-kart, hoverboard or any other kind of transport when he can easily run faster then any of them is beyond me!)
But anyway, what makes this announcement unique is that the game in development is a direct sequel to the Mega Drive/Genesis games Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. The development team promise to bring the series back to its roots by making it a 2D game and featuring the blue hedgehog and ONLY the blue hedgehog that will both please and delight fans.
This announcement is mostly a good thing, Sonic hasn’t been in a good game in years and is really a 2D character desperately trying to keep up with those who successfully adapted to 3D. Running around freely in a 2D plain is his natural habitat and the games are at their best when there’s a perfect fusion of speed and control as well as good level design, which has been sadly missed by his more recent games which tend jacked up the speed through springs and accelerators which meant you spend the rest of the level holding down the right D-pad and feeling like you were just playing a slightly interactive cut scene. Also, by making the game about Sonic and him alone means that the quality has no reason to become diluted thanks to his woodland chums who really do nothing but add pointless gimmick after pointless gimmick (although I’ll make an exception for Tails and if I’m in a good mood, Knuckles since they were around while the series was, ya know, good).
With that said, there are parts that strike me as odd. Firstly considering that it’s a 2D game, where exactly is the need for a homing attack. It made sense to put them into the 3D games as it’s harder to successfully jump on top of something when it can move in more directions than forward or back. New players will probably Secondly, the game aims to bring back the Mega Drive/Genesis era with levels inspired by those games which sounds more like they’re just going to rerelease Sonic 1 again but this time with updated graphics, especially since they’re reintroducing the exact same robots found in Sonic 1. Speaking of graphics, this is a petty gripe but looking at the second of gameplay footage, sonic runs and looks odd, like he’s a claymation doll in an episode of Robot Chicken. They could have easily made the game with the same graphics as Sonic 3 and gave the game a more retro feel like what Mega Man 9 has done
However, the parts that worries me the most is what’s underneath the Sonic 4 logo if you go to the website, the part that says Episode I. To be honest I’m not really sure what the game can gain by breaking it up into smaller segments but I’m hoping that they’ll not just an attempt to boost profits and that they’re priced reasonably so that you can actually afford the cost of completing the game. My other major concern is that the game is being created for the fans which has very rarely been a good idea. Hankering back to a nostalgic era is all well and good but if you just throw in features and qualities solely to appease some people on a internet forum, you’ll only appeal to those people and even then they’ll probably complain that the game isn’t different enough and doesn’t do anything to update the series.
Since the game is still in development, it’s too early to make any major assumptions about its quality but apparently Dimps and not Sonic Team are developing the game. Dimps created Sonic Rush on the DS which was actually good and looking at Sonic Team’s recent track record suggests that this could be a good so the game could be a return to form but we’ll only know for certain when summer arrives.
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 is expected to be released for Summer 2010 and will be available for Playstation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and WiiWare.
Woohoo! I shall start saving my pennies right away. Nostalgia is way up there on my game buying reasons.
Will there be no 3D at all in it? They could do the Super Paper Mario thing of flipping back and forth. The episode thing is surprising but did you ever play Sam and Max? The released it in episodes over a year or so then brought out the whole series for the shops. It was like an interactive sitcom. Sonic was never that big on plot or characterisation so i’m not sure it will work as well.
I pretty sure it’s going to be a straightforward 2D affair but I think that’s a good thing. If you’ve ever played a 3D sonic game, the fusion of speed and control tend to be incredibly unbalanced in comparison to the earlier games.
I’m curious to see how the episodic elements will work out but in the case of Sam and Max, their episode had self contained stories meaning that completing it depended on how many episodes you want whereas this game could use the episodic card to release say 3 or 4 levels at a time which I can’t imagine will last as long as an episode of Sam and Max and could leave gamers feeling a little shortchanged.