Sonic 4: Casino Street Zone Trailer, Screens & Preview
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Sonic 4: Casino Street Zone Trailer, Screens & Preview

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Author Shadzter
40 Comments

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsqcsz2sSH4&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Joystiq has revealed a new trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1‘s Casino Street Zone. The trailer shows new sections that see Sonic platforming across playing cards and also running across paths of them that appear in front of him one by one. These sections are presumably from Act 2 and replace the old build’s version of the Act, which was solely about score attacking on a pinball table, something that a lot of fans who saw the leaked build didn’t react well to.

Joystiq also released a preview of the zone along with the trailer. In the preview, Joystiq’s David Hinkle explains that this stage won’t be accomplished by just charging straight through the zone, there is more involved than that.

Sure, there are some Badniks sprinkled throughout, but navigating through the neon-lit gambler’s paradise poses several threats to Sonic. Not every situation can be conquered through brute force; it’s navigating the terrain and calculating the next step on the fly that got me through all three acts.

SEGA’s Ken Balough was also on hand to introduce the zone and spoke to Joystiq about balancing the number of enemies with the traps already set throughout the stage.

“When it came to each of these levels, we toyed with the idea of how many enemies would be overwhelming to the player. The enemies that we do have in it work really well for the Zone — like the enemies with the shields that Sonic kinda pings off of. Considering that there are a lot of other traps in the environment, those kind of things can really set the player off and kill them, but the fact that you might be running incredibly fast and hit one of the Badniks with the shields and it springs you back, it may end up throwing you back into a trap that you thought you had escaped from. So those ideas, we definitely wanted to toy with, but we wanted to achieve a balance, where the environmental mechanics stood out as much as the enemies so I think we struck a good equilibrium here, but, obviously, it’s up to the players to tell us what they think.”

Hinkle also talks about the cannons, which return from Sonic 3 and explains how the new playing card gimmick works and the bonuses it offers:

The aforementioned cannons play the biggest role in Casino Streets Zone and are gradually introduced throughout the prior Acts. It’s simple: Sonic hops into a cannon; you aim the cannon; and Sonic is blasted out. Rings indicate the best trajectories, but later on the game leaves it to you to make that call.

The benefit to finding these alternate pathways is obviously collecting more stuff, but throughout the level there are cards that Sonic can touch and flip around. The quicker you flip them, and the more of them you flip, gives Sonic a chance to match up cards. Get three Sonic heads and you’ve got yourself another life, for example. It’s only a matter of finding these pockets of cards and touching them.

Five screenshots of the zone were released too, which you can check out below:

Thanks to Woun at the SSMB for the heads-up and YouTube conversion!

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40 Comments

  3. omg the music is so good. weird how the old leg spinning animation is used in beginning (and end) while the gameplay itself has the newer version.

  5. Seems Woun has removed the video for some reason. I’ve put a link to Joystiq’s video in until it’s YouTube’d again.

  10. not only does it look like the most visually entertaining sonic game in years, but if that music track is in the game its gonna make me very satisfied indeed

  11. Woun has re-uploaded the trailer now, so I’ve added it to the article. I’ve also added the most interesting segments from the preview.

  16. Seems to have a slight mix of Carnival Night Zone in there as well. It’s not immediately apparent, but it’s there.

  19. This is like a great mix of Spring Yard, Casino and Carnival Nights. But regardless of what the article says, they without a doubt had Casino Night in mind when they designed the graphics.
    From the screenshots it looks as if bouncing off those badniks might sometimes lead to secret areas. Nice!

  21. wow, sonics a high roller now! i think segas getting on the right path, only the final build will tell, i cant wait for episode 2 already! i wonder what the release date succession will be like… most of the episodic games have been putting an episode out every month but with all the physics adjustmentsi dont see how thats feasable…

  22. BLACKJACK!

    Heh, love the look of the new Casino Street.

    And I will be VERY happy if this is the new music. The old leaked Casino Street wasn’t very good in my opinion…

  23. So the old Act 2 has been ditched? Thank you sweet merciful god! That idea was the worst thing I’ve ever seen in a Sonic game. And please tell me this is the new music track for the level, the old one was atrocious. I’m thanking Sega more and more for delaying this game now.

  26. Excellent stuff here looks like this stage might give ya a lot of 1-up’s if your skillful enough 😛

  28. Oh come on people you can’t seriously think SOMEHOW that this trailer has music from the game. It’s just like the last 2 videos. It’s just trailer music.

  29. The level looks amazing, Casino Night was always my fave from Sonic 2, so I’m eager to see what this stage will be like 😀

  33. @Haru
    I was just saying it sounded like it. There are so many sonic songs a few are bound to sound similar.

  35. I don’t mind the fact that they’re “remaking” old zones, but for episode two, I’d like to see some fresh designs.

  37. I don’t get it…I mean this game looks good. I’m definitely going to have time to place this on my ps3. But what I don’t understand is why do people criticize the fact that sonic levels are inspired by old levels? It’s like Mario games: every past level will make a return or some sort of inspiration will appear being a past success. I’ve seen some people complain and state retarded comments about sonic about how its original Sonic in HD. That’s like complaining New Super Mario Bros wii is rehashed since it has 8 worlds, all the same: snow lava, sky etc and koopas being in every level. I’ve even read comment stated by some ass saying bubbles being in every level is retarded. That’s like complaining goomabs ans koopas being being in every Mario level. I don’t understand what goes on behind the sonic fanbase but I wonder how come people complain while Nintendo doesn’t have this problem.

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