UPDATE: It would appear that, Mr Fuhrmann who originally had the listing on his website has now removed all traces of the job/Sonic Mach 2 from his work history page.
Come to your own conclusions, share them in the comments.
ORIGINAL STORY: Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka may have confirmed that the rumoured upcoming “Sonic Mach2” is not developed by them, which leaves plenty of questions as to what the title could possibly be, and the legitimacy of its existence.
A few days ago a thread appeared on our forum, the SSMB, indicating that a new Sonic title could be in the works. A find on the website of Orbot’s German voice actor, Romanus Fuhrman, listed he had lended his voice for an upcoming 2015 video game named simply “Sonic Mach2”.
While initial discussion considered the fact it could just be related to Sonic Boom, it’s important to note that Orbot did not appear in either Sonic Boom video games, both have already released in Germany fully dubbed, and the title is listed under “video game”.
Here’s where the rumour finds some legitimacy however – a friends of a member of the SSMB sent a message to Takashi Iizuka’s Facebook to see if he could find some answers. The outcome is very interesting:
Following this, our very own Shadzter decided to message Iizuka also. The reply this time, however, is slightly more cryptic:
Which now begs the question for all of us – what is “Sonic Mach2”? We’d love to hear your speculations in the comments. Could this be another mobile developed title from Hardlight (who previously gave us Sonic Dash, Sonic Jump Fever) or could we be seeing some of those free to play Boom titles we heard of previously? Sound off below and lets get some discussion going.
Special thanks to Spindash.de for the inital finding and Blue Paradox on the SSMB for the screencap. You can see Romanus’ website here, where the title is still currently credited to him.
So Iizuka says that he isn’t developing it. GOOD!
Iizuka helped develop Sonic Generations, Sonic colors, Lost World and Sonic Runners.
Our last non-Iizuka game, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric.
So Iizuka NOT developing a Sonic game is bad.
Still though, as long as it isn’t Big Red Button!
I hated Lost World, and Colours was a horribly boring game (for me). Each one of these titles mentioned are literary black holes….aside from gameplay elements, they’re boring because the stories are shallow garbage.
Even if the other games were polished and played better, I find Sonic Boom to be the more interesting game. It had the most potential….it just came upon a series of very unfortunate events which led to it being a hot mess.
Why would story be the biggest factor? Gameplay’s what really counts.
Story is a big factor in games for a lot of people. You can’t be black and white about it, a developer CAN make a game with good gameplay and a good story.
If I want a fun game with no story, there’s mobile games for that. But if I’m going to sit down and play a console game, I want it to at least stir some spark of emotion in me considering I’m investing the time to sit my ass down and play it. If it’s going to be devoid of personality or any kind of character or sense of progression, which is what writing evokes, I’m going to lose interest.
I am older now, I’m 25, well past the age range of kids that SEGA is trying to appeal to. And if SEGA doesn’t think they need a plot-driven narrative anymore, and that all people want is “Sunig go the fast, hit robot, Eggsmun mad”, then they’re going to lose me a source of their profits.
There’s TONNES of other games out there with fun gameplay and a good story to tell. I don’t need Sonic to be happy, and they’re honestly not doing a very good job of keeping me invested in the video game character I played since I was four years old. If they think Sonic has no good stories worth telling, then so be it. I think the potential is there, and like with the past handful of games, it’s being squandered.
no dude its not gonna happen next year because SEGA is still working on a new sonic game for next year and by the way do i ever tell you guys that the game will be develop in other companys
@Thro So you’d rather play something with repetitive, tedious gameplay that feels like a chore to play through as long as there’s a good story?
I’m sorry, but no. The single most important aspect of any game, no matter what genre or franchise, is gameplay. A game NEEDS good gameplay to keep a player going.
Story is really nothing more than a tool to explain why a character is doing what they’re doing. A game doesn’t require a good story to be playable. Sure, in some cases, we get a brilliant blend of both, such as Kid Icarus Uprising, or Xenoblade Chronicles, but it isn’t always necessary. How do you think the Super Mario series has done consistently well after more than 30 years with a bare-bones story at most?
And how does this relate to Sonic? Well, allow me to share a revelation I had recently with you.
I’ve found that the story of a Sonic game is very often in contrast with its overall quality.
Whenever the series has tried a dark, serious, or large scale story, the game itself often suffers as a result. 06 and Shadow are prime examples, with Black Knight, Chronicles, and Rise of Lyric in the spinoff section. Even the Adventure games had major problems. But so many people choose to simply ignore them purely because of their nostalgic memories.
But on the lighter side of things? We have Generations and Colours, both games with great gameplay, and levels that are just damn fun to race through. We also have the Advance series, and Heroes and Lost World, two games I feel to be severely underrated. All of these have little story, but they’re a blast to play through.
Sega seems to be doing the right thing with their mainstream console games at the moment. They’re focusing less on making some big, epic story that probably won’t work anyway, to focusing on making the game itself fun to play.
To me, the gameplay will always be the single most important factor in deciding whether or not a game is worth purchasing. The story is simply an added bonus at most.
He’s saying he wants good gameplay AND a good story. So your rant about how he’d be accepting of a game that was tedious so long as it had a good story was really unnecessary. There’s a such thing as wanting all the elements to be good and not just the most important aspect that ANY developer worth their salt should be able to get right. They don’t get a gold star for making sure their game functions. That’s why I’m not a huge fan of Colors either.
I think ThatHumbleFellow was referring to priorities. A good story is nice, but it is nowhere near on the level of importance of gameplay. A game with good gameplay and bad story is more enjoyable than a game with bad gameplay and good story. If they were on equal levels, it wouldn’t matter which was bad since it would ruin the game equally.
Thro, your mentality is going to cause you to miss out on a lot of good games, because you write them off the moment you decide to dislike the story. Already you’ve ignored what Colors did accomplish — good graphics on a Wii, bringing Eggman back as a formidable force as opposed to that guy who always got overshadowed by the monster of the week, giving fans hope and making them happy about Sonic for once, and gameplay that isn’t just functional, but fun and a major improvement over Unleashed — in favor of putting it down for having a bad story. There are other important aspects of a game that you have failed to bring up, namely graphics and music. And what you’ve said about Sonic stories indicates that you don’t understand them much in the first place — NONE of them fit the “Sunig go fast” plotline that you’ve generalized them as having. Sonic Colors was about taking down Eggman’s evil amusement park and saving little aliens, Generations was about Sonic and friends being trapped in a time void and trying to escape and restore their world, and LW was about taking down an evil group of aliens while working alongside Eggman. There’s plenty of criticism to be made about these games’ story, but if you’re going to complain, please complain about things the games’ stories are actually doing instead of using a baseless generalization.
The trouble with these discussions is that we talk about “story…. yes or no” at the expense of methods of storytelling. Stories can be told in a myriad of ways in interactive media. We tend to think of Final Fantasy style cutscenes to advance the plot, but is that really the only way to tell a story in video games? Is it always the best way? I tend to prefer minimal story elements that don’t slow down the pace of play. I know a host of y’all will be rolling your eyes when I say this, but I think Sonic 3 & Knuckles is some of the best storytelling. So little is said…. cutscenes take a few seconds….. but you completely get the story of Sonic trying to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds, Knuckles being manipulated, Robotnik pulling the strings. We see the famous, brilliant ancient mural featuring Sonic battling Knuckles. So much is said with so little…. and to me this is the thing to shoot for. Say what you can through game mechanics along, and what you can’t, keep minimal. Others like those long cutscenes, so there’s clearly aq place for that too. But the takeaway of the point I’m trying to make is this: there are many types of storytelling in games. What type makes for the best experience in a given game might change.
Christa, you are spot on. The story activists don’t generally bring up Sonic 3 (despite it being the best in the franchise and all that). Its story wasn’t philosophically deep, or trying to redefine how I thought of blue hedgehogs, but it still managed to be action-packed and heartwarming at the same time. 3 has the ideal platformer story, actually– simple, to the point, yet effective. Its one that I’d be happy with if it was presented in a Sonic game, anyway.
Anyway, it makes sense for Sonic not to pursue these big, dark tales, because as ThatHumbleFellow figured out, the Sonic games with the biggest stories tend also to be the most flawed.
@TheHumbleFellow
Honestly, I found Lost World to be a monumental piece of shit. I have never been so angry with a game in my life. At no point did I ever feel it was worth my money. Same with Colours. Just bland. Colorful (haw), but bland.
Why would story involve the development? Directors and storyboard would be really big on that, right? And Sonic is not an RPG game, this is a speed platformer. Most people aren’t looking for too much story in a platformer.
Well, apparently Thro is. :/
Considering my favorite (modern) Sonic titles are the ones which delved into the lore of Sonic’s world, such as Adventure, Adventure 2, and Heroes (to an extent), then I am in fact looking for a bit more substance. And those games, for the most part, had good gameplay as well. It’s not asking too much for a game to have both, honestly.
Thro, you’re actually asking quite a bit of the developers. Programming and writing in general are already difficult tasks as both require a lot of expertise on the subject. But video games are a whole ‘nother beast. To save a long paragraph, I’ll link you to this video explaining how writing for video games work and how it tends to go wrong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG1ziCvLkJ0 The video isn’t about any particular genre, but it still makes some relevant points in regard to your argument.
Of course, as the video points out, good narratives aren’t impossible to write with the right mindset. And they don’t have to be big or deep– the video creator cites both Katamari Damacy and Silent Hill as games that have accomplished good narratives, even though one is a quirky, colorful game where you roll up objects with a ball and the other is a survival psychological horror game. He doesn’t bring up platformers, but I’ll add on that platformers traditionally do establish their narratives through gameplay and don’t use big plots. As Christa pointed out, Sonic 3 does this exceptionally well. There is no need for Sonic games to have these big SA2-style plots. Furthermore, Sonic Team proved with the games made from 2004-2007 that it couldn’t follow up on that style of plot, or perhaps the Adventure style in general, anyway. Its time to move on from those games. Onward and upward, right?
I’m with you. Generations was a fun game to play, but otherwise all his titles were yawn-inducing.
I dunno Iizuka’s been kinda… eh, he’s seen better days.
I mean, people seemed to think he did alright with Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Sonic Adventure and for some Sonic Adventure 2.
Then again he was also responsible for Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog, as well as looking over on level design for Sonic Unleashed (day or night stages I couldn’t tell you).
Then there’s Sonic Rivals and the Mario and Sonic games.
Of course all that was said before too.
He seemed to have at least some gusto in his earlier days, but that looks to have petered out.
I thought that rivals and mario and sonic
Did pretty well and were enjoyable
I get the felling it’s a mobile game 🙁
But it is weird if they put orbot voice in a simply mobile game.
I said it on TSSZ and I’ll pretty much just copy & paste it here since I clearly have nothing better to do
If it’s not by Sonic Team, I’m hoping it’s by Dimps (I feel a lot of hate coming at me for saying that) They’re actually really talented devs
It’s been a while since they’ve actually been allowed to make an original title and not have it restricted to being a low budget tie-in game… or Sonic 4.
I never thought of it being a Dimps game! Totally agree with you; Dimps has proven to make some great Sonic games with the Advance and Rush series. It seems like anytime their games aren’t too great, is when they’re forced to do a handheld ver. of a console game (Generations, Lost World), or with Sonic 4 (where Sega really didn’t set them up to succeed).
Keeping my fingers crossed…but worried it’s just another “pay-to-win” mobile game by hardlight…
why?
I bet it’s a squeal to sonic and all starts racing transformed, Which is developed by Digital sumo. There for that’s not sonic team is it?!
The sonic mach2 is a motor be it not a powerful one, and what did we use to call cars when we were little? Motor Cars! Probably just reading to much into this 😛
Oh my god. Oh my god. SONIC MACH2! I don’t care about the strange name, I don’t care about the late announcement, because a new Sonic game! *stops hopping around and crying in joy* Hopefully it will be good. Hopefully.
I really hope this is a console edition, “Generations” style game. The site needs it!
Let me join you in you’re excitement! 😀
He’s excitement? Hello excitement!
Ack! First mistake in a while. That’s one for the history books! 😛 … … … …Thanks for pointing that out.
from what iv seen floating around and what i could assume…
i would be happy with:
– generations style game.
– Boom! mobile game.
– Sega All-stars Transformed sequel.
– Standard mobile game.
But if a voice actor is confirmed then maybe it is something bigger than a mobile game… you dont see many voice acted mobile games besides characters that grunt, say a catch phrase or list of a bunch of combos.
but then maybe thats all it is / ~ \
at the end of the day something fast, features orbot and cubot, is good.
There being voice acting certainly does make it interesting.
Oho! Good findings, good findings. I’d say it’s definitely a real thing now.. but what is it?
I doubt that it’s going to be a Sonic Boom mobile game considering that the title (even if a codename) doesn’t relate to Sonic Boom… although there is a bit of a chance, seeing as how Orbot will be in the game, or at least his German VA. Perhaps this guy could even be voicing a new character!
A Modern Sonic mobile game seems a bit more likely, given the title and SEGA’s push in the mobile market. I am kind of hoping this isn’t the case, though, as we don’t even have Sonic Runners legitimately outside of Canada and Japan… Why give us another?
And lastly… a main game. This is obviously the option I’d like most, albeit with a different title. While I don’t entirely believe Iizuka when he says “it’s not developed by us (Sonic Team)”, it begs the question… could Dimps be developing it? If it’s a main game, I’ll be pretty happy.. and since it’s listed for 2015, we must be getting an announcement soon, yes? Of course, it could be delayed to 2016 (which isn’t a problem at all), so we never know.. but the possibilities are never-ending. I see it. I see it now.
It’s all within my reach.
Oopsie! Did I say Orbot? I meant Cubot. My bad.
2,000,000,000 points for the Endless Possibilities reference. 😉
Lol, thank you. XD
You’re welcome.
IT’S OVER 9000!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think it might be Sonic Generations 2. The 25th anniversary is coming.
Really dude? Stop lying to yourself man, it’s unhealthy!
Though it’s likely not a mobile phone game, the possibility of it being a Dimps game is certainly up there. I am kind of in the mood for a new Rush game, but handheld Sonic games have very little voice acting, unless it’s a cutscene ripped from a console version of a game. Also putting the consideration that Cubot as such minor character would have no voiced dialogue in handheld games outside of the aforementioned console cutscenes, something like a Rush game seems unlikely as well. Oh well. Time will tell what this ends up becoming, and there’s nothing we can do but wait.
Wait… the TSSZ says it’s Orbot’s voice actor…
You guys fixed it. Thanks.
Personally I got a massive vibe it might be sonic unleashed 2, I mean I have no backing on it but like…..kinda makes sense to me some how
I’m actually pretty fine with a second Sonic Unleashed.
As long as they make an actually good reason as to how the Werehog comes back.
And if they make him a tad bit faster in his walking speed. Like a sprint or something.
Yeah, I’d be cool with that. As long as they also make him a proper werehog(wolf) somehow this time (werehog levels as just rampages or werehog as a transformation you can do when the gauge is full and go on a rampage with?)
After the debacle with BRB, I think that anything not made by Sonic Team at this point would probably be small scale, more in line with a mobile or portable game. SEGA doesn’t exactly have the money to be throwing at other developers to make a AAA Sonic game, that’d just be economically disadvantageous. Then again, it may actually be a code-name for a new All Stars racing game, which would fit too, being that All Stars Racing is made by Sumo Digital.
That actually sounds pretty accurate. I’d be totally down for SEGA All-Stars Racing 3… or in this case, SEGA All-Stars Racing Mach 2.
Isn’t Mach 2 the speed you achieve once you break the sound barrier? You know, when you actually make a Sonic Boom? If that’s the case, then maybe this is going to be a mobile Boom title. If that’s what it is, then I guess they aren’t done with it quite yet.
No. Mach 2 is actually 2x the speed of sound. Sonic has never been mentions to go that fast in the games so I’m thinking unleashed or boosting returning in some way. Or some other mechanic that focuses on speed.
Sonic Science!
Sonic mentions in the Olympic Games that he is, “Faster than the speed of sound!” whenever you select him so that must mean he can normally run at least Mach 1.1 right?
Rolling Around At The Speed Of Sound!
-Sonic Adventure 2
Yes, but I mentioned he runs FASTER than the speed of sound, not AT the speed of sound! 😛
I understand the point you were trying to make though. The whole speed of sound gimmick was used way before the Olympic Games.
I think I read somewhere that 1.4 is breaking sound barrier so he can at least do that. We can assume that’s normal for sonic. This mach 2 could suggest his new normal is twice as fast as before. A super sayian 2 if you will.
Seems Legit.
Omega said he will surpass light in Colors 3DS. Sonic said that was too slow, and that was 5 years ago. He can most likely go past light now.
I believe in something different. I think this “Mach 2” title is a reference to “Mark 2”, as like, say…..an upgraded model of something. Putting it on this scope, then Sonic Mach 2 could be a remake/reboot of the original game, as a mean to attract a new audience to the original 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog for the SEGA Genesis. Basically, it would adapt the story of the original game to a new generation of gamers.
But you know what? I think SEGA should do what the índie developers are doing: put a Sonic game on Kickstarter to be crowdfunded. Only then they would know the true faithfulness of the Sonic/SEGA fans. I’d really like to see a Sonic game getting funded this way. What do you think?
I hope not. I really do. They already tried that with Sonic 4 and look how that turned out.
A little reminder, everyone. Non disclosure agreements are a thing that exists, and as such leave any devs unable to confirm any sort of Sonic game by project name or otherwise. Asking devs and voice actors is ultimately pointless because they’ll lose their jobs if they tell anyone.
May be related to the Boom franchise (sonic boom, mach speed -> Sonic Mach2 = Sonic Boom 2?). Hope not, as that shit is horrible, but knowing how much time and money Sega spent on it…
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_number
I don’t know whether to be excited or concerned
Bolth!
you know guys i guess this might be another mobile game because i can tell i want this to be a console version of this game but instead they have to put on mobile and also i see alot of people making rumors about mario games and sonic games.
What Ever the game is…
IT HAS A TOTALLY AWESOME NAME!
Sonic Mach2!
dude i guess is not gonna be a console game dude trust me its not gonna be its just gonna be another mobile game you know i was hoping for another sonic racing game this year because sense this is the 5th anniversary of sonic all stars racing series i was thinking they can put it on in every console like Wii U Xbox ONE and PS4 so that way people and kids can have fun with it i bet they are developing sonic mach2 by now because i guess its too late for SEGA to change there minds about putting on consoles you know if SEGA could at least make a better sonic racing game then i would enjoy it more then everything.
and also if people starting to complain about Sonic 06 is bad then i bet they will complain about this game as well. :/
But ’06 genuinely is bad. It’s not just opinion, it’s riddled with MAJOR, game breaking flaws…
you know guys i guess this might be another mobile game because i can tell i want this to be a console version of this game but instead they have to put on mobile and also i see alot of people making rumors about mario games and sonic games.
Well, this sure seems interesting. It wouldn’t surprise me if this was Dimps or some mobile game, but a big Sonic game would be nice.
Fuhrmann took the ‘credit’ down.
Really? If so, I suppose we have an interesting case on our hands.
Hmmm… Either he made a mistake or his bosses made him take it down so the info wouldn’t spread. Hopefully its the latter– we finally have a lead on what the next Sonic game will be and it would be a shame to have it get deconfirmed.
So it was probably a prototype title for an already released game that he forgot to remove. Figured it was nothing to get hyped over.
That isn’t possible.
Mind elaborating, since I clearly didn’t realise this fact?
This means that this guy has gone onto his website, manually made an inclusion into the 2015 section for work he has done in 2015, stated the job was for Sega and a videogame.
Regardless as to if it was a code name or not, Sega hasn’t released anything in 2015 yet except for Runners. Which doesn’t use this guys vocals in any way.
So even if it were an earlier game, the listing would have been moved into an earlier year with either a new or amended title. Something which hasn’t occurred.
It couldn’t have been a codename for Boom?
Came out in 2014.
I don’t think it would be another mobile game, we already have runner, jump, and dash. Sonic Mach 2 is probably a console, pretty sure they aren’t going to miss out on PS4 and Xbone. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mighty appears, he was on one of the missing posters on generations (it is the last game to have Sonic go all WOOT). So, this would also be that kind of game (cross fingers). Plus, if its on PS4 and Xbone, the PC port probably won’t be half asssed like Generations (again! cross fingers!).