Sonic 4

I care very much! I LOVE the fact they’re tying it in with the Mega Drive games, but that little montage of all the Sonic designs at the start just made obvious the fact that this new character model is a bit weak. The running animation especially is pants.

I’m pretty sure this will still be awesome, though.

This is brilliant!!!

I’m enjoying the sporadic release of new information on their website.

http://www.sonicthehedgehog4.com

Didn’t know they were tying it into the Megadrive games. Ace.

After years of shit Sonic games, this actually looks very promising. Back to his roots. Huzzah.

Well, they’ve always been making 2D games, but they seem to have finally realised that there are a LOT of Sonic fans for whom Sonic & Knuckles was the last Sonic game they actually liked, so are now catering for them. I approve.

But, dear God, that Sonic model.

The fact that it’s got classic-looking Badniks, and everything… this looks great. Not sure I like the “Episode 1” idea, but… yeah. Awesome.

Argh! Awesome news! Hopefully they’ll get this right and not end up with another disappointment.

I’m crossing my fingers, slightly sad that Sonic is the only playable character though, can’t wait!

The run cycle looks like the same one they used for Sonic Rush on the DS, only with a higher-quality model. It looks poor.

That said, I’m a sucker for 2D Sonic games, and I will probably end up buying this at least once.

YES! SO many happy years in the early 90s were spent playing Sonic 1, 2, 3 and Sonic & Knuckles with my little brother. Very glad they’re going back to the popular stuff and ditching the crappy characters. I mean, Big the Cat for fucks sake? Srsly?

I echo Cappsy’s comments though, his running is very odd looking…

It’s looking a lot more promising than any Sonic game has since… well, since the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog was announced with a trailer that likewise gave the impression it was back to basics with just the original character, and we all know how that turned out.

Still, at the risk of being taken in by The Sonic Cycle once more (confession: I say “once more”, but other than a brief go on a Heroes demo pod, I haven’t actually played a new Sonic game since Adventure 2…), I’m hopeful. Those few seconds don’t show us much, but I like the way the 2D games’ parallax scrolling has been recreated!

Unrelated to this new game, I found these videos quite funny. The Labyrinth Zone one is the best:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIseg6zeBA0

> Unrelated to this new game, I found these videos quite funny. The Labyrinth Zone one is the best:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIseg6zeBA0

Brilliant! ‘(You emerald-taking dreadlocked prick)’

>I mean, Big the Cat for fucks sake? Srsly?

That’s no way to talk about Cappsy!

> That’s no way to talk about Cappsy!

Never! I love Cappsy

Although maybe he should change his doppelganger profile pic on FB once more…

The sung SEGA gives me the chills. I don’t even mind the Sonic model. But yeah, no talking please. Sonic’s a cunt when he talks.

Pity Sega didn’t think about this *before* New Super Mario Bros DS/Wii. They could have reclaimed the 2D platformer for themselves, rather than appearing to be hanging onto Nintendo’s coattails.

I wish they’d just scale up the pixel art they used for the Sonic Advance series. And by “scale up” I mean… well, use that character model and animate an all-new run cycle. Mario looks awesome in 2.5D. Sonic does not.

Pity Sega didn’t think about this *before* New Super Mario Bros DS/Wii. They could have reclaimed the 2D platformer for themselves, rather than appearing to be hanging onto Nintendo’s coattails.

Mega Man 9.

It would look better pixelated though. Or 2D cel shading.

Don’t know if this is of interest now, but there’s been some footage of the game that has leaked onto the internet.

Looks really good actually, I’m buying a PS3 soon so hopefully i’ll be able to get it.

http://www.totalgamingnetwork.com/showthread.php?238737-Leaked-Footage-f...

>I’m buying a PS3 soon…

Oh Danny, for shame :(

Actually. I have one now. I am enjoying it, I got the proper Amiga ports of Pinball Dreams and Pinball Fantasies for it though, if that makes you feel any better, Mick.

The ‘proper Amiga ports’ would require you to have the original software and be playing them on an Amiga.

Just noticed that the latest PS3 software update has disabled multi OS boot too, so no lovely linux anymore, good old Sony.

Just noticed that the latest PS3 software update has disabled multi OS boot too, so no lovely linux anymore, good old Sony.

You can blame this guy for that.

Anyway, Sonic 4! It’s not looking good:

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/2885/4042.mp4
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/5511/1111.mp4
http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/58/622.mp4

The core physics of the way Sonic handles seem quite off, something that, if anything, should be more important than the level design. (The fan-made Sonic: Project Mettrix engine seems a more accurate recreation of the way Sonic 3 felt to play.) Also, they’ve gone for the Sonic Adventure 2 system of having Sonic uncurl in midair, meaning he becomes vulnerable so you need to use the homing attack on further enemies instead of just landing on them. Nothing against that system in principle, but it does kinda go against their stated intention of going back to the series’ 16-bit roots.

Then there’s this: a whole act based on racking up a high score in a tiny little pinball table. Unless this video clip is of an optional “challenge” mode, it doesn’t look a very fun section to play:
http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/955/25547673.mp4

But worst of all, there’s this mine cart level. It sounds an interesting idea at first glance, but looks really awkward (in this player’s hands, at least):
http://tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=4AtXI6JI7G%2Fu9zpA5xz3d4h4l5k2TGxc

Called it.

Oh my God, that mine cart level looks shocking. Not my idea of fun.

This is how you do a mine cart level… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAHZBY4AWD4&feature=related

Hmmm. Potentially good, but adding dimensions always ruins old games. I mean… Sonic Adventure 2 drove me crazy because of the changing camera angles (what I call 3D fail, common in many games) - ie you start to jump up and in one direction, then the camera switches position when you’re mid-air, and so you’re suddenly jumping in the wrong way… grr!!!! So… this could be fun… but the mine cart thing looks kinda infuriating…

The worst 2D-to-3D transition in videogames? Either “Bubsy 3D”, or “Simon the Sorcerer 3D’. or possibly “Lemmings 3D”, but I never played that one.

It’s strange how Sonic can stand perfectly fine on some vertical walls. I really hope they do a lot more work on this game before it’s released. I don’t think i can take any more Sonic disappointment. The stages certainly look right but the game play looks awkward.

Sonic the Hedgehog is a cartoon mascot who has long outlived his prime. Personally I’d feel better if they just retired him, at least for a few years.

This is the first video game “return to roots” project that I’ve not been even a little excited about.

Probably because I have absolutely no faith in Sega whatsoever at this point. NSMB was great because it went back to the classic formula, but kept a few excellent little tidbits from more recent games, and made sure that whatever new functions they added were excellent as well. They took their time, and it shows. It wasn’t a lack of new effort that produced NSMB…it was a wealth of smart effort.

Megaman 9 was great in a whole other way. Capcom shrugged and said, “We haven’t made a good Megaman game in 15 years. Fuck it; we’ll start again.” And that’s fine, because the original classic series got so caught up in trying to outdo itself that it never really did. Stripping it back to basics and LEAVING IT there may not be the most creative idea, but it was an exercise in restraint that gave us maybe the second best game in the whole damn series.

Sonic 4 just seems like Sega realizing that other 2D rebirths are doing so well, and deciding to do the same not because they have any great ideas, but because it’s what everyone else is doing and it probably won’t cost them much money. I can’t put my finger on it, but this feels much more like a cash-in than the other two games I’ve mentioned. Maybe it’s the “Fuck the fans” attitude of keeping the model in line with their idea of what Sonic should be, rather than the one that fans actually fell in love with. Maybe it’s the money-grubbing episodic approach their taking. Or maybe it’s totally ill-founded and I’ll play the game and realize I had nothing to worry about and it was all in my mind.

It won’t be the third option. It would be nice, but it won’t be that. Bitches.

(Oh, also, the Castlevania Rebirth thing on Wiiware is fucking ace too.)

That mine cart level isn’t exactly the kind of thing i was expecting from this game but it has to be said…the person controlling it was an absolute n00b :P

Still hoping this is gonna be good but i get a bit more worried about it every week.