UPDATE: We’ve just been given the following info via the comments section from long time ONM subscriber and Sonic Relief founder MK –
MK says:
2 June, 2010 at 11:29 pm (Edit)@Shadzter: Hate to break it to you, but this is a preview from an old issue that they’ve only just now put online. So everything you read is at least a month or two out of date.
So the removal of motion controlled act’s may still be rumour for now.
/UPDATE END
Official Nintendo Magazine UK have posted a new preview for Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 on their website together with a bunch of screenshots of Splash Hill Zone in the WiiWare version. Most interesting is the part about the Special Stages and motion control aspects where ONM confirm rumours going around the Sonic community that the two motion controlled Act’s have been removed from the console versions of the game.
A Special Surprise
The Special Stage is a fantastic update of the spinny, psychedelic one from the first Sonic game. In the original, you had to guide Sonic through a maze of coloured stones to reach a Chaos Emerald. It’s exactly the same here, with the same lovely sound effect going off every time Sonic bumps into one of the colour-changing gems, and the same familiar chime when he picks up the Emerald at the end of the stage.
There are a couple of additions this time though. There are also ring gates that you can’t get past unless you’ve collected enough rings, so if you haven’t managed it you need to go back and get more. What’s more, the Special Stages also have motion control, so you’ll be tilting Sonic left and right with the Remote.
I Second That Motion
This is the only time you’ll be tilting the Remote in the game, and it works. The Special Stages look superb and the addition of tilting controls doesn’t seem to detract from the experience whatsoever. And yes, the rest of the main game is very much the traditional D-pad and buttons setup from previous Sonic games.
Overall the preview is very positive, ONM continually throughout express their love for the games classic Mega Drive controls, feel and design especially the momentum required to build up your speed from the classic Sonic games. You can check out the preview for yourself in full with screenshots over at ONM’s website.
As long as its a basic left to right vice versa motion, the controls should work fine.
How about a demo to keep us occupied during summer Sega? 🙂
Minekart, you’re FIRED!
Thanks for the info Shadzter.
Reading the preview now.
@ Eggman123
You’re welcome 😉
Wow…
After reading this preview I really just smiled.
Gaining momentum is back and I can’t freaking wait till E3 to see the new build.
God it’s SO tedious to read a preview or review where the writer relentlessly picks apart absolutely everything that the series has provided since Sonic & Knuckles, and complain about anything and everything that had the misfortune simply to not be in the original Mega Drive games, no matter what it is or how well received it was in its own right. Some things are worth criticising, yes, but I get the impression that if this guy had his way, every Sonic game for the last 16 years would have been like Sonic 4 is now. That, to me, would be very tedious and I don’t think Sonic would still be around now had that been the case.
That said, it is pleasing that Sonic 4 is at least really hitting it off with the critics, if not the most purist fans. Can’t complain too much I suppose.
I’ll definitely consider it. When the demo comes out, I’m downloading immediately!
I guess the reason they delayed the game was to get rid of the minecar level and make an entirely new one.
Smart move.
@Shadzter: Hate to break it to you, but this is a preview from an old issue that they’ve only just now put online. So everything you read is at least a month or two out of date.
@ MK
Oh ok, I should have checked with you first seeing as you subscribe to the mag XD Thanks for the heads up!
@LiQuidShade I agree wholeheartedly
I hope that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 becomes a hit, because I am sick of people complaining about recent Sonic games on how they think they suck, or how they think they’re nothing like the classics. Whenever SEGA makes a mistake, they learn many times, and they fix it (and these words are coming from someone who enjoyed Sonic 2006). Sonic 4 has now returned to old-skool gameplay, yet the idiotic fanbase still complains about Sonic’s character design, which doesn’t make any sense to me (because characters and their designs CHANGE through time, and that’s just the way it is). Their complaints are starting to become irritating very quickly. If there is a problem with Sonic, then blame the fans from fanfiction.net and sites like that. Not the games.
@ LiQuidShade : Do what I do, avoid reviews until you’ve gone through the game and have decided how it is.
@ Vulpine : People get more and more skeptical with each Sonic game, it can’t be helped.. but you’re right, Sega have taken the appropriate steps and the game is looking fantastic, even if all this mentioned above is old news.
@ Everyone else : It looks great! Old news or not! Plus we’ll eventually get episodes 2 and perhaps 3 🙂
MK:
Which raises the question: is it ONM that’s out of date, or the PartnerNET build we’re all basing our impressions off? One assumes being a Nintendo magazine they were working from the WiiWare version, which may well have had the ever-so-terrible-horrible-nasty-evil minecart removed before porting/remaking.
Personally, I suspected this as soon as it was stated the iPhone version would have “two extra stages”.
@Matt: I suppose it’s a possibility that the WiiWare version was different from the start, but I think the more likely possibility is that at the time of the preview ONM were only shown Splash Hill Zone and the Special Stages, and so from their brief experience with the game they only time they would have used motion controls is in the Special Stages (and they probably assumed all of the other stages would be traditional Sonic side-scrolling levels without motion controls).
“There are a couple of additions this time though. There are also ring gates that you can’t get past unless you’ve collected enough rings, so if you haven’t managed it you need to go back and get more. What’s more, the Special Stages also have motion control, so you’ll be tilting Sonic left and right with the Remote.”
more like the extra gaia gates in unleashed wii … which were actually pretty cool to try to collect every thing from their 🙂
I wouldn’t actually be mad if its the beta version of the game
if dimps is made those stages then Awesome by me other wise still awesome 🙂
It’s fine to get excited but let’s remember that this is a preview and is not the finished code, so the final review could be very differnet. So no whinning if it doesn’t get what you hope.
Where’s all of the lovely anti-aliasing gone? ;_;
@Vulpine so true !
@ Vulpine: I second that too its time for Sonic to break new wind for everyone because quite frankly I’m sick and tired of seeing people talking about the “Sonic Cycle”
I remember the “Sonic Cycle”. God, don’t get me started on that. People are so darn whiny these days.
@Vulpine I don’t think it is possible to actually shut up the entire fanbase. But with this game, we can hope..
Yes, we can all hope.
@SpeedBlue
“its time for Sonic to break new wind for everyone”
lolwut?
How dare they diss the bird run….. D:
I’d quite like to get the term “Sonic Cycle” banned forever.
@myself: And do you know why?? Because some of the newer Sonic games are actually quite good. There is NO SUCH THING: If anything it’s the Whining Bitch Cycle: it only takes place in the minds of people who decide to have unrealistic expectations based on what Sonic games used to be like, can’t accept that times change, instead of just judging each game on it’s own merits. When a game comes out, it is what it is.
The exception being of course, ’06. That game really was awful.
@Jim-x
Hey, I liked Sonic 2006. That game was not awful and it had a lot of potential. The only reason why it suffered from glitches and negative criticism is because the game was rushed or unfinished. If SEGA took more time making it, then it would be greater then it already was. I know you don’t have to like it but don’t criticize anyone who do. People hate it for the dumbest reasons why, and that is why they made this pointless thing called “The Sonic Cycle”. They can’t accept the changes in character design and so on that they keep whining and complaining and throwing immature tantrums which is getting out of hand, and I’m tired of seeing all that mess. I still wish people would respect each others’ opinions and be more open-minded for a change.
@Vulpine:
Oh no, I think you misunderstood me slightly… to be fair, I don’t think I made it clear enough…
The actual GAME, from a purely technical point of view, is a unfinished glitchy mess… that’s pretty much irrefutable. But I agree, had it spent that little bit longer in development I would definitely love it a lot more. I really like what it COULD HAVE been. I even got the same rush of excitement playing that first Sonic level for the first time, and the intro to Shadow’s story was just awesome!
I like the waterfall.
@ Vulpine
My friend has Sonic 06, and I’ve played enough to figure out what fans mean by unfinished. Once, i was playing the part of the train level where you have to run really fast, FOUR TIMES I jumped and glitchily fell to my doom. One of those times, Sonic hit the wall, bounced to the other side, then fell! If I hadn’t pulled myself back, being it wasn’t my Xbox, I would have chunked the controller at the screen.
Aside from the game being really glithy and unfinished, I personally think the REAL reason fans flamed the game to it’s burn-in-hell death is the kiss from Elise in the final chapter. I almost threw up just seeing this horrid sight. I’m just glad:
1: Sonic was unconscious during this.
2: These events(gamewise) were erased from Sonic history.
Sonic and Amy haven’t even kissed yet, and now that that has happened, fans probably won’t want to see it anymore, except for sonamy fans.
@Inferno the Fox
But that does not stop people (like myself) from liking the game. The story may be erased from Sonic history but the game is still official and not some cruddy fanfiction, and there is still a chance that SEGA may want to remake this game on a next-generation system in the future (fixing the glitches, and actually finishing it).
I don’t think Sonic kissing Elise caused any problems because human/anthro couples have been common in games and anime before. And besides, it was only a kiss to awake Sonic from his supposed “death”, he wasn’t doing anything nasty or anything, so why would anyone complain? I think the reason people hated Elise is because she was a damsel-in-distress, and you know how much they think that archetype is cliched.
One thing that I liked about Sonic 2006 is Shadow and Rouge together (I’m a huge Shadow/Rouge fan). They may not have flirted in this game but they were the closest to being together then they were in any other game (maybe with the exception of Sonic Battle where Rouge calls Shadow a prince and he was dreaming of her when she carried him to her place). People can argue all they want about how SEGA said Rouge has a crush on Knuckles and not Shadow, but consider the characters’ feelings: Knuckles does not even like Rouge (I think he likes Julie-Su from the comics and Shade from Sonic Chronicles) and he only teamed up with her in Sonic Rivals 2 just to get his Master Emerald back. Also, SEGA hasn’t updated the English-speaking version of their Sonic site yet (Sonic Central) because it lacks the biographies of the newer-introduced characters (i.e. Blaze). Then again, SEGA said somewhere that none of the Sonic couples are canon. Even Sonic/Amy (the most hinted couple) is unlikely because someone there said that “Amy will just continue chasing Sonic”. I hope Shadow flirts with Rouge in the next Sonic game, because I am so tired of people thinking that Shadow is better off as some ice-hearted killer or something, and I think he would get more character development as Rouge’s lover then anything else.
Now, back on topic. I hope Sonic the Hedgehog 4 does well, and stops people from writing endless rants or complaints for once.
@Vulpine Thank you. Why can’t more fans be more open minded like you??
@BlueChaos
Fortunately, not everyone feels that way 🙁 But we can only hope.