Sonic the Hedgehog

[devo]

http://kotaku.com/5463913/project-needlemouse-is-sonic-4-episode-i?skyline=true&s=i

As per usual with new Sonic releases, your options regarding how you react to this news can either be A) Unabashed childlike glee or B) Eye-rolling apathy. Choose wisely!

 

[bps21]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

I'm going with A) Unabashed childlike glee.

Playing the original 2D Sonic games on Xbox Live is still awesome and I enjoy playing Sonic Advance on my phone. This is exactly what the future of the Sonic franchise should be. Downloadable old school style.

 

[fazzle]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

B)

Seriously, B)

It's sonic.

They'll find a way to fuck it up

 

[blade2kxx]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

... I'll go with A and hope I don't end up with B when Episode 2 comes out.

 

[Sabre]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

Throw me down for option A).

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

This is why I hate it when games stop using numbering, then start using them again. It would be like if they released a WiiWare game called "Super Mario Bros. 4" - I don't know about you kids, but that's what we thought Mario World was. So, Sonic and Knuckles wasn't Sonic 4? To me, it was, so this is a fraud.

I want to play it though.

 

[blade2kxx]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

This is why I hate it when games stop using numbering, then start using them again. It would be like if they released a WiiWare game called "Super Mario Bros. 4" - I don't know about you kids, but that's what we thought Mario World was. So, Sonic and Knuckles wasn't Sonic 4? To me, it was, so this is a fraud.

I want to play it though.

Sonic 3 was really only half of Sonic 3. The true Sonic 3, and what I consider the best game in the history of the Genesis, is the combined S3 and S&K. That's your real Sonic 3 right there.

 

[devo]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

Agreed. Sonic 3 and Knuckles is not only one of the best games on the Genesis but one of the greatest titles of its era.

Anyway, I'm leaning towards "eye-rolling apathy" at the moment, since my excitement for every Sonic release since '94 (with slight exceptions for a couple of the GBA and DS versions) has gone unrewarded.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

I agree that Sonic 3 is half a game without Knuckles, but I always thought the ACTUAL Sonic and Knuckles game was Sonic 4. Some wikipedia research shows me that I'm wrong to think this though as the whole thing is considered part of Sonic 3's grand narrative.

On that note, it bums me out that the comp discs released over the years don't have S3+K due to emulation issues.

 

[vivisectvi]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

I can't read the news release at work - is it going to be a 2D throwback?

 

[devo]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

Yeah - 2D gameplay with 3D graphics. It's on the front page of Gamespot if you can access that site.

 

[Smues]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

I agree that Sonic 3 is half a game without Knuckles, but I always thought the ACTUAL Sonic and Knuckles game was Sonic 4. Some wikipedia research shows me that I'm wrong to think this though as the whole thing is considered part of Sonic 3's grand narrative.

On that note, it bums me out that the comp discs released over the years don't have S3+K due to emulation issues.

Which ones don't include S3+k? The Sonic mega collection on the game cube does. And of you buy s3 and s&k on xbox live there's an option to combine as well.

 

[luke-o]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

That makes me fall into coloumn A.

But I will end up in coloumn B soon enough.

 

[vivisectvi]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

Yeah - 2D gameplay with 3D graphics. It's on the front page of Gamespot if you can access that site.

Interesting, so in the vein of SFIV then I guess.. I'll have to remember to check this out from home tonight.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

I agree that Sonic 3 is half a game without Knuckles, but I always thought the ACTUAL Sonic and Knuckles game was Sonic 4. Some wikipedia research shows me that I'm wrong to think this though as the whole thing is considered part of Sonic 3's grand narrative.

On that note, it bums me out that the comp discs released over the years don't have S3+K due to emulation issues.

Which ones don't include S3+k? The Sonic mega collection on the game cube does. And of you buy s3 and s&k on xbox live there's an option to combine as well.

Hmm... maybe I'm wrong. I have the Sonic Collection for the Xbox and I think it's actually on that as an unlockable I never bothered to unlock. I don't believe it's on the PS2 Genesis Collection (which I own) or the Ultimate Genesis Collection for the 360 (which I also own). As I already own about 3 versions of Sonic games, I decided against buying ANOTHER version for XBL.

dubq: I think "like New Super Mario Bros." is the more apt comparison. That's a good thing.

 

[AndrewTS]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

I agree that Sonic 3 is half a game without Knuckles, but I always thought the ACTUAL Sonic and Knuckles game was Sonic 4. Some wikipedia research shows me that I'm wrong to think this though as the whole thing is considered part of Sonic 3's grand narrative.

Flying Battery, Mushroom Valley, and Sandopolis actually appear in the level select screen of the standalone Sonic 3 cartridges.

 

[ChrisMWaters]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

I agree that Sonic 3 is half a game without Knuckles, but I always thought the ACTUAL Sonic and Knuckles game was Sonic 4. Some wikipedia research shows me that I'm wrong to think this though as the whole thing is considered part of Sonic 3's grand narrative.

Flying Battery, Mushroom Valley, and Sandopolis actually appear in the level select screen of the standalone Sonic 3 cartridges.

Are they playable though?

 

[AndrewTS]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

I agree that Sonic 3 is half a game without Knuckles, but I always thought the ACTUAL Sonic and Knuckles game was Sonic 4. Some wikipedia research shows me that I'm wrong to think this though as the whole thing is considered part of Sonic 3's grand narrative.

Flying Battery, Mushroom Valley, and Sandopolis actually appear in the level select screen of the standalone Sonic 3 cartridges.

Are they playable though?

No. My point being they were planned for as far back as during Sonic 3's development, but were cut for time.

 

[BUTT]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

Well Sonic 3 and S&K were supposed to be one big game but they ended up splitting them in halves, putting one out in February and the other in October. I think if they had just waited until the fall and released the whole thing as one big game, it would have sold better (from what I remember when the NPD results were more freely available online Sonic 3 sold just over a million and S&K did a little better than 3, but both of them were WAY down from Sonic 2*), helped to not burn the audience out so much on Sonic, and been a more formidable competitor for DKC**, but such a concept likely was foreign to The WCW Of Gaming.

I also think it would have been a wise business move to leverage their back catalog by releasing the Genesis Sonic games, one by one, on GBA***, like Nintendo did with the Mario games, to wrangle some last profits out of them before moving on to the new 2D Sonic games, rather than burning the audience out again on Sonic by releasing Sonic Advance 1, 2, 3 and then Rush for DS in successive years, but that one isn't as big a mistake.

* Yes I know Sonic 2 was bundled so of course its sales were higher. But a million apiece CMON MAN.
** Of course they didn't know Donkey Kong Country was in development when they made the decision to split the games into two but still
*** I mean good ports not the shitty GBA port of Sonic 1

 

[Gary]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

I'm definitely in column B.

I don't know what's sadder-the downward quality in the series as it went on, or the fact that Sonic itself has some of the worst fans in the history of anything.

 

[Adam]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

Can someone explain the download thing? Is it not going to be released as a physical game? Call me old fashioned but I don't like buying a game without actually owning the game on my shelf.

But fuck me do I like the idea of a 2D sonic game in 2010.

 

[bps21]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

It's going to be a Live arcade, PSN...whatever they call their thing, Wii...whatever they call their thing...download like say, Splosion Man or Battlefield 1943 or MegaMan 9 are.

 

[BUTT]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

I don't like episodic gaming in general. All it does is give publishers an excuse to charge more for the combined parts than they would have been able to for a whole game.

 

[Adam]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

I don't like episodic gaming in general. All it does is give publishers an excuse to charge more for the combined parts than they would have been able to for a whole game.

Is it only going to be, like, three levels, for Episode One? And if so, what's the UK price likely to be?

 

[Sabre]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

I reckon £3-5 an episode.

 

[Adam]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

Episode = Level?

 

[Sabre]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

Well the only episodic game that i kept an eye on was the newest MONKEY ISLAND!~!(tm) so id expect a good number of levels for this sonic. Perhaps 3 or 4 worlds an episode with 3-4 chapters per world.

If its the Sonic 2 formula of 2 chapters per world, the game could get slated for mega overpricing.

 

[Master Thrasher]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

Halflife's latest games in the series are episodic and they aren't that short. I am very hopeful that this game will be good because it's hard to screw up a 2D Sonic game.

 

[ChrisMWaters]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

Halflife's latest games in the series are episodic and they aren't that short. I am very hopeful that this game will be good because it's hard to screw up a 2D Sonic game.

Yeah but look how long it's taking them to release Half-Life 2, Episode 3.

 

[AndrewTS]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Coming this Summer

Well Sonic 3 and S&K were supposed to be one big game but they ended up splitting them in halves, putting one out in February and the other in October. I think if they had just waited until the fall and released the whole thing as one big game, it would have sold better (from what I remember when the NPD results were more freely available online Sonic 3 sold just over a million and S&K did a little better than 3, but both of them were WAY down from Sonic 2*), helped to not burn the audience out so much on Sonic, and been a more formidable competitor for DKC**, but such a concept likely was foreign to The WCW Of Gaming.

So you're telling me that the beginning of the end for Sonic was 3 and Knuckles.

Not the shitty 3D Blast...?

Not the delayed and ultimately canceled Sonic X-treme never appearing, meaning the only appearances of Sonic on the Saturn were mediocre spinoffs and one collection of the old games?

Not the only-above-average-when-released Adventure games being followed up with increasingly awful 3D games?

I don't think it was a DKC-specific thing at all, either. I believe '94 also featured a SNES price drop in time for Christmas, and was probably an important factor in Nintendo surging ahead of Sega late in the 16-bit wars. DKC certainly helped, but it was part of a renewed marketing campaign around the same time too (Play it Loud).

and been a more formidable competitor for DKC.

I don't think you remember '94 that well. DKC was an insane phenomenon, both critically and sales-wise. It got better reviews than either component game of S3&Knuckles, and even if they were released as one game, the graphics would have assured DKC would get more attention and praise. I'd say it was astoundingly bad timing, though.

With Sonic, I think Sega just did what they tend to do with everything--fucked up, and it became more important to keep Sonic going as a brand than to make quality games. Plus, Sonic Team lost key members of the staff, the series never found solid footing as a 3D game, and Sonic Team and Sonic's rep went down the crapper.

Halflife's latest games in the series are episodic and they aren't that short.

Apple, meet Orange.

Sonic games don't need to be long. You can complete the first and second Sonic games on Genesis in less than an hour each, maybe two for 3 & Knuckles.