Today, SEGA have announced a remastered version of the notorious 2006 game, Sonic the Hedgehog, slated to hold a slew of new features to improve the gameplay experience and story. The title is coming to Playstation 4 and Xbox One consoles, with no specific release date given as of yet – but the 25th Anniversary is highlighted by Takashi Iizuka, head of Sonic Team.
Sonic the Hedgehog: Remastered has been said to provide a tremendous graphical boost for the game, with it running at 4K resolution and a smooth 60fps. Beyond this, there has been several gameplay improvements to all three playable characters in the game, updated voice work, and packs in all the released downloadable content. The remastered version is also said to contain new cutscenes which will “expand the story beyond the original”.
The press release is as follows:
SEGA® ANNOUNCES REMASTERED EDITION OF 2006’S SONIC THE HEDGEHOG™
April 1st 2015 – SEGA® America, Inc. and SEGA® Europe Ltd., today announced details of SONIC THE HEDGEHOG: REMASTERED™, a highly anticipated reworking of SONIC THE HEDGEHOG™ originally for Playstation®3 and Xbox 360®. The title, which debuted almost a decade ago, saw beloved video game icon Sonic the Hedgehog fight to save his newly reimagined world from the threat of Iblis – and of course, his oldest rival, Dr. Eggman. The title also featured the debut of fan favourite character Silver the Hedgehog, and the return of Shadow the Hedgehog, with their own playable campaigns. This reworking contains a huge number of updates to create the ultimate Sonic experience, debuting on Playstation®4 and Xbox One® systems soon.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG: REMASTERED™ will contain a tremendous amount of improvements from the original, taking full advantage of the next generation hardware. An overhauled lighting system and drastically improved textures provide a realistic, immersive adventure – and these advancements to the visual fidelity will run at an incredible 4K resolution and 60fps for the smoothest gameplay experience possible. The remastered edition also contains improvements to the core gameplay of the three playable characters, adjustments to level designs, and will include all released downloadable content from the original – including the “Very Hard Mode”, “Team Attack Amigo”, and “Boss Attack” DLC packs. Fans can also look forward to new cutscenes which expand the story beyond the original, and updated voice work.
“As we approach the 25th anniversary, I see no better way to celebrate by giving fans the ultimate Sonic experience”, said Takashi Iizuka, head of Sonic Team. “With the amazing possibilities the next generation of hardware has given us, we at Sonic Team feel it’s finally the right time to perfect this title and make it the best it can be. I hope everyone can look forward to revisiting Soleanna soon.”
When Dr. Eggman seeks to use the royalty of Soleanna in his latest plans for world domination, it’s up to Sonic and his friends to save Princess Elise (Lacey Chabert) and stop his evil schemes – but there’s more than just Elise’s life at stake here, it’s the whole world. Together with mysterious newcomer Silver, and his old rival Shadow, can Sonic stop the Flames of Disaster?
When the original Sonic the Hedgehog debuted in 2006, it was critically panned for its nonsensical story, consistent bugs and glitches, subpar controls and general performance issues. Many cite its failures on rushed development for the holiday period and to land in time for Sonic’s 15th anniversary.
Take a look at a gallery of screenshots released by SEGA below which compares the newly imagined version to the original below, and let us know – are you excited to see Sonic 06 see the light of day once more?
UPDATE: April Fool! Did you enjoy our awesome trailer? Did it give you nightmares? Or did your heart do backflips of joy? Let us know in the comments below, and thank you all for being such good sports! As a note, this AFD prank was entirely created by The Sonic Stadium, and not SEGA (before you start yelling at them).
“I feel Sonic’s presence in the wind… he’s not dead yet…”
Yes he is.
And so is Sega.
Let’s not start this discussion again… Hell, it doesn’t even have anything to do with the article.
Joke
___________
Your head.
I can’t believe this
No! The canopy!
Not sure if real, or an April Fool’s.
…Well we’re screwed. Another year of laughter at the sonic fandom begins.
I thought that began in January
God damn it I forgot it’s 1th April
I know this is a joke.
This. THIS is why I love this website sometimes.
I wonder if the loafing screens will be remastered too or if they will improve the performance so they are used less 😛
Obviously this is just a really badly made trailer for an obviously dumb joke, but i’d actually love to see this game remastered and shined to be the great game that it could have been with a bit more work put into it.
A lot more work*… But yeah, you have a point.
ROFL! Oh, thank you, SEGA. *wipes away tear* I needed that.
April joke. The dreamcast logo….
My favorite tss aprol 1st joke was the one with the script for the sonic movie
I want this to happen. Please make this happen, it’s a genuinely terrible idea and I want it.
You never trust anything on the Internet posted on April 1st
April Fools. If it was real, I’d play it on one condition, that they would get rid of the long loading times.
Sega this better not be a April fools joke, there’s a lot of people who would like to see you fixed your past mistakes.I would definitely buy this game, into let the Mario fan’s know, I’m not a crazy sonic fan. Also the main reason I like sonic games is because they not afraid of making different games every year.
Jesus Christ, I almost forgot what day it was.
It’s an April Fool’s joke. Shame too, this would really correct a bunch of SEGA’s mistakes.
I am sad for the same reason 🙁 if they made all the cutscenes and gameplay look animated like Sonic Unleashed with amazing quality in the beginning and ending cutscenes i’d buy it if I could. aww..I hate april fools day.
OMG THEY ARE GONNA DO IT. I LOVE YOU SEGA. DO IT PLEASE
HOLY SHIT, I WAS WRONG, GUYS THIS IS REAL! SEGA just contacted me and gave me a code to play the game for a bit and show everyone!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gy0sHpOOPs
Clearly your capture card couldn’t deal with all that 4K goodness!
Soz, man, even the latest capture tech is too weak to fully capture the new 06! They really went above and beyond. I actually just found in the options that there’s voice packs for all the Sonic voice actors! Including Jaleel White!
Wow, really love that visual flair the new version shows off. Not sure how you got hold of it early though, will have to alert SEGA sadly…
D:
I have a confession to make, Tha-That video I linked was fake.
And please don’t let this be a joke sonic stadium or else
Sorry.
How come you can cover this but not the real sonic3remastered.com?
Lol! Thanks alot sega for the worlds worst Sonic game being remastered? Well i hope it´s alot better than before! (i can tell its a apirl fools or not)
You got me. Good one Sonic Stadium. This is obviously a joke. You can even see the dreamcast listed as a playable device at the end. Kudos
Did literally no one notice the “Dreamcast” logo?
I love how the word “Remastered” is trademarked in the logo.
Interesting… This game was a steaming piece of shit, but mostly because the game felt about 25% finished. If they release it properly finished this time it would be interesting to see if there’s a good game among all that muck.
And now I realise the date… My views still stand though! 😛
LMAO I forgot what today is.
It’s AMAZING how many people are falling for this. XD
Great one.
This had me going for a moment. Nice April Fools joke.
But now I’m a bit depressed…
I knew it was an April fool’s joke the second I read: “the debut of fan favourite character Silver the Hedgehog”.
HAH, this is such a cruel joke!! I totally fell for it, too!!
Uh… It IS a joke, right? RIIIIGHT????? XD
stillnotsurelol
It’s as real as you want it to be.
April Fools! But honestly, I would love to see this game done right, or released on PC, so fans can mod it to be more playable.
LOL, I love how it said it would be for Dreamcast at the end.
Is it bad that I want this to be real?
Not at all, the game had great concepts, but it’s rushed release dragged it down a lot. The game had great graphics (at least the early screenshots and videos did), the sound track was very epic, the level designs were pretty neat, and it had a great selection of playable characters (too bad most of them were scrapped as unlockable players though, and were instead used as small sections in the story modes…
Yes and no. On the one hand it’d be interesting to see what Sega would do given a second chance with 06′. Maybe they could turn it into the game it was originally imagined to be. BUT! Even if you do raise the frame rate, get rid of the glitches, and add additional content I still think you’d end up with a God-awful Sonic game.
Ahh this brings back memories of when I first saw the 06 trailer, you almost had me Sonic Stadium. Good one.
It a good or bad nobody know, it better be fix all the glitches (I still hated princess elise, no wait everyone hated princess elise)
“if one feel bord match this via my playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOoPESytKx2amLcTNCcw3k_pajTnCYbM-” 😀
April Fools. If this WAS real, I hope they cut out all the beastility scenes.
this better be a joke because I’m still wondering if sega’s stupid enough to pull this shit, if I’m gonna have a remastered sonic game adventure would be the best option the cutscenes and animation have seriously aged and the gameplay style is closest to what the classic series would be like in 3D.
This is fake, all they did was increase the brightness on the footage, and added a filter to it. There is no trailer on SEGA’s channel, only on the Sonic Stadium Channel! FAKE!!!!
It’s good that you noticed that… after we revealed that it was an April Fool’s joke. 😛
I didn’t see the notice when I posted this…
I found out in the morning though… before you revealed the truth, I just didn’t post until later…
Awww, I wanted to see if the gameplay of it can be fixed and done better!
Ohh by away guys there’s new Sonic 4 game is Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode 3 for Xbox 360 Xbox One PS4 & Wii U PS3 or PC leaked trailer coming in Summer 2015 by Kaiser88 X his YouTube Channel upload by Sonic Channel on YouTube Channel. But I hope Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode 3 is real or not probably on April Fools.
Thanks a lot you guys. You got my hopes up for NOTHING!!
Shame it’s not true… the one Sonic game I never got round to playing… would be great to play it unbroken and looking so great!
I almost, ALMOST, want this to be real. But, they would have to redo the crappy story and overall stupidity to make it even decent.
Nothing about 06 was passable except the music. Going back and playing that game after Boom reminded me just how bad it truly was. I still think it’s worse then Rise of Lyric. Definitely.
Have to admit, you guys got me! I was actually excited too, the game would be awesome with they toyed with it a bit
I can’t believe you punks tricked us. I was so looking forward to it. I’m starting to offically hate Sonic Stadium. What butthurt dirt bags
I know right. God forbid we put an April Fools post up on April Fools day. Seriously dude, chill.
I’m too busy laughing to care.
I almost bought it till it said 4K resolution and 60fps. I remembered the President of Sony’s Worldwide Studios for Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Shuhei Yoshida saying PS4 won’t play 4K games but maybe 4K movies hence why it almost got me. It was another joke for another year, good one. Everyone needs a good laugh now and then. 🙂
I thought they stop putting sonic games on the consoles for a while but it was a April fool joke God Damn it
I screamed With Joy!
I did a few jumps around the room an them I rememberd that it’s April fools day…
GOD DANG IT! I
I gotta admit part of me wouldn’t mind seeing Sonic 2006 reworked and fixed. There was potential for a true successor to Sonic Adventure 2 hidden in that mess of bad story, glitchy gameplay, tedious town missions, never ending load screens and bad controls but it would take ALOT of work to fix it basically making the entire game over from scratch. Just a couple of things to fix aside from the obvious bugs and glitches:
Remake the whole game with the hedgehog engine, replace those horrible uncanny valley people with the more Pixar-esque ones from Unleashed and maybe throw in some more animal residents to make the hub more exotic. Throw in Cream, Big and the Chaotix as NPCs to give you the little side missions.
Make all the town missions optional. Those who just want to progress from one stage to another should be able to without having to halt to “guess the captain.”
Give Silver someway to run faster than a jog. Sonic Rivals figured that out.
Replace Elise with a anthropomorphic character just to remove the creepy bestiality vibes.
I could go into further detail and there’s way more that would need fixed like the horrible snowboarding and ball puzzle.
“replace those horrible uncanny valley people with the more Pixar-esque ones from Unleashed”
NO. Just NO. The Pixar esque characters made me cringe so hard. SA2 and Shadow got the human designs right, neither too cartoony nor too realistic. They should have kept them like that in later games.
agreed
this angers me
Lol
This could have been amazing
I’m sorry, but this “trailer” is complete garbage. I know it’s supposed to be an April Fools’ joke, but this trailer wasn’t even convincing in the slightest. It basically looked as if someone took an old trailer and slightly tuned it up a bit with special effects. IGN’s Optimus Prime Titanfall DLC was VERY convincing, this not even a little. May as well had post a trailer to the original game, not that there’s much of a difference. Put some work into it next year, fellas. The real joke here is the Sonic Stadium, lol.
“looked as if someone took an old trailer and slightly tuned it up a bit with special effects”
Wow, and it only took you 9 days to figure this out, congratulations.
So which part of IGN did you come out of the cave from?