IGN XBOX360’s website has given the world first details of a brand new 3D Sonic the Hedgehog title, which confirms that a new game is in the works, and that it is an XBOX360 project.
The event occurred during a special play of SEGA’s upcoming titles – brand new games for next generation include new game ‘Chrome Hounds’, a brand new Virtua Fighter (which is said to rival the graphical of Dead or Alive 4 even in early video form), a reprise of Afterburner and House of the Dead. And the best was saved for last, as a clip of Sonic “moving through a realistic version of the Green Hill Zone” started running. IGN’s commentary on the clip is below:
“A SEGA montage wouldn’t be complete without everyone’s favorite blue mascot. The final segment of the video displayed Sonic the Hedgehog running at full speed down a grassy path. The foliage surrounding Sonic was clearly next-gen material, but it was hard to tell at times because he was moving at an incredible rate. I’d like to imagine that Sonic was moving through a realistic version of Green Hill Zone.
Sonic reached the edge of a cliff and performed a swan dive down hundreds of feet into a canyon. Sonic entered a large open cavern with flowing water at the bottom. Sonic began tossing ring bubbles into the environment and golden rings bounced around the huge room. At this point the announcer restated that everything shown was in real-time and sonic hit a series of springs and shot into the sky. The camera then switched back to sonic running and as he blasted across a flat plateau, a massive airship appeared above him and dropped down a fleet of robots. The robots formed a circle around him and pummeled our hero with machine gun fire. Sonic fell to the ground, only to spring back up into the air, surrounded by emeralds and transformed into the all-powerful golden sonic. He performed a charged air attack that turned the bots into a pile of rubble.
SONIC NEWS and TSS are desperately attempting to obtain a copy of this video for your viewing pleasure, so we can see for ourselves just how good this looks. The announcer mentioned “real time”, so the graphics are probably more than impressive. We hope this marks a return to form for the Sonic 3D series – perhaps a new direction for the 3D game. Sonic Team’s experimental ‘Sonic Heroes’ left a sour taste in the mouths of many, despite it’s incredible success.
The Sonic Stadium also has First Impressions of Sonic Rush and Sonic Gems Collection as well, including information regarding storyline and characters for Sonic Rush. Be sure to check out the Game Pages for those, and keep up to date with our up-to-date E3 coverage.