Project Needlemouse Concept Art. Sonic Only Character In The Game
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Project Needlemouse Concept Art. Sonic Only Character In The Game

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Author Shadzter
84 Comments

SEGA of America and SEGA Europe have updated their blogs with the final day of the Project Needlemouse Challenge. Some cool concept art of an enemy that looks very similar to the crab badnik in Sonic 2’s Metropolis Zone, RubyEclipse states that this art reveals the spirit and direction of the game. So we could be seeing a return to classic Sonic after all in this game.

Also revealed is that Sonic will be the only playable character and no new character will be making an appearance playable or otherwise. With that said it doesn’t seem to rule Tails and Knuckles out as non playable characters, we’ll have to see how things go in future info/media.

RubyEclipse also gives more confirmation the game is going back to Sonic’s 2D roots in the comments section of the blog entry –

Ilcane – We realize there are many fans out there of other characters – even some for Charmy Bee, as we found out on the first day.

Project Needlemouse is being created for the people who have long asked us for a game with only Sonic that harkens back to his 2D roots. We can’t please everyone, but we feel very strongly that there is a massive group of people out there who have been waiting for a moment like this to finally come. Thank you for your opinion and your feedback though; Sonic is something that many different people feel very strongly about, but know that we are listening!

Posted by RubyEclipse on January 15th, 2010 at 11:44 am

Thanks to Dusk the Fragile Keeper at the SSMB for the heads up on that comment.

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84 Comments

  3. BWAH!! I knew it betches!! xDDD

    20 bucks says that this game will be a straight up reboot of the first game…

  4. …Or maybe the trilogy… Tht woul be interesting wouldn’t it? A new game containing all three first games, maybe Knuckles aswell, for the story?

  6. Well done Sega 🙂 Perfect next step into slowly revealing new Needlemouse info!
    Happy Friday everyone!

  7. Looks like a shell cracker from Metropolis Zone! Very nice! I wondered what they were going to show. It reveals just enough to tantalise without letting out too much.

    Just Sonic is fine by me. Nice one, Sega!

  10. At least this way they can slowly show us what they are doing. Instead of “Accidentally” leaking something, which makes fanboys squeal.

    Its controlled. I see a new, more sophisticated SEGA/Sonic Team. They’re playing it like Square, in that, slowly parts of a game are revealed (and that SEGA’s CGI is on par, if not better that Squares CGI)

  12. it is all about the classics.
    now a video would have been nice.
    so show me what you got sega!!

  13. Sorry about that, something went wrong in the admin controls and wiped my whole post. Had to re-do the whole thing XD

  14. @Chao Just click on the article title after you have opened it 🙂

    WOW!! I have been waiting all day for info and its finally here! It was obvious that Sonic was going to be the only playable character, Sega were trying to fool around with the fanbase, and it worked well! That robot looks so retro like too and awesome!

  15. a little extra maybe:
    on wikipedia stands PN comes out for xbox live, PSN AND Wii ware.
    no clue if this is true.

  18. @Eggman123, in a recent interview at 1up, it was was hinted that Project Needle Mouse might be a downloadable title, i’ll have to see if i can find the podcast but it was only a small mention right near the end of the interview.

    Loving the classic Badniks making a return, so much more creative than Egg pawns or Egg fighters etc
    Well worth the wait =D

  19. This is awesome news! 😀
    Thank you, SEGA, for returning to the badniks (even if you’re only planning it for just this game), and for Sonic being the only playable character, and for not creating a new character.

    That badnik looks like a futuristic version of the crab from Sonic 1.

  20. yay! ^-^ sonic is the only character playable^^ and i think that the move sega did should finally calm down the tensions in the fan community hopefully^^

  23. Those bastards, lol. I’m all for old school…but I really REALLY want Knuckles…and old Tails. Not I sound like an 8 year old Tails.

  25. Oh, I’m really liking that crab badnik ^^

    It’s reminiscent of both the old genesis + game gear days, plus it also has a hint of Sonic Advance, too. (The badnik art for those games has a similar style and is also more true to the classic badniks than recent titles)

    I’m glad to see that the game will have some interesting and unique enemies. The futuristic robots of 06/Unleashed were starting to wear on me (and I’m indifferent to the Egg Pawns and etc.)

    I’m sure the game will do just fine with a Playable Sonic only, but no playable Tails kinda makes me sad ;_;

  27. I’m kind of disappointed that they did a week’s build up for a piece of concept art of a badnik. I was hoping for some screenshots at least. Even a piece of concept art of Sonic would be worth it, as he’s bound to have some kind of redesign/de-design that would be interesting to see. All they really did was affirm the route everyone was sure the game would take anyway.

  28. Well this is gonna be interesting. A sonic game that shall go down in history along with other great titles.
    Sonic the hedgehog(1991)~It begins with a hedgehog and an egg
    Sonic Allstar Racing~ *drools* I havent played and it osunds good
    Sonic R~ SONIC W-I-N
    Sonci Battle~ WIN
    Sonic Advance Series~ EPIC WIN Meet cream,her mom AND Emerl
    Sonic Chronicles~MORE ECHIDNAS *faints*Shade xD
    Sonic Unleashed~HOOOWWLLL I loved chip and sonic the werehog.EPIC Final ending.
    Sonic Adventure 2~Meet the dark hedgehog Shadow. Meet eggmans old man WTH He has family AND A hot cousin named maria xD (( Nights cameo))
    Sonic Drift~I aint sayn nothin good about that
    Sonic and the black Knight~Epic Music.Cool storybook characters.Betray.HOLLY SHAQ EXCALIBUR SONIC *drools during cutscene*
    Sonic Laberyth~ COOL XD
    Sonic allstars Tennis~It was good xD ((Nights was in the game))
    Sonic the hedgehog 2~Meet tails and super sonic ;D
    Sonic the hedgehog 3~Meet the newest rival, knuckles the echidna and his master emerald AND Super Knuckles and Super Tails AND Super Sonic (and some hyper if u do good enough xD)
    Sonic Rush~Sexiest sonic character ever.Blaze the cat and Final Transformation AND SECRET ENDING
    Sonic CD~Meet Rosy the Rascal and the greatest of the rivals Metal sonic ;D
    Mario and Sonic at the WInter Olympics~ ERROR ERROR It was a type.Heres the real game.Sonic and mario at the winter olymipcs.Much better xD Great dream events.I loved em all.
    Sonic Heroes~Return of Shadow and Metal Sonic OMG AND BIG AND New character Omega *faints*
    Sonic Adventure~HOLLY SHAQ Chaos and the beautiful tikal and a really great story AND OMG BIGS AND FROGGY AND Gamma AND *cries* CHAO and and uh…OH Yea the new rosy the rascal NOW Amy Rose *dramatic music*((Nights cameo))
    Sonic Rivals 2~ Silver GTFO if u aint gonna show us the dang future >:I At least we had metal Sonic 3.0 xD And Shadow and Metal Sonic worked together.Wow that was surprising at the end.Chaos emerald in the chest.Who would have knew.
    Sonic Riders~ Enter Rouges ((Nights s playable))
    Sonic Fighter~Bark and Bean,who the hell are they jk BUT Honey the cat.I know her xD
    Sonic and the Secret Rings~ Epic ending and story. Great characters.Darkspine sonic *faints with drool* EPIC WIN
    Smash Brother Brawl~Sonic saves everyone in the end.Take that mario xD
    Mario and Sonic at the Olympics~ pft.It was great though xD
    Sonic Rush Adenture~Well…Marine is the funniest and most annoying character with cream xD At least eggman worked with his so called descendant…
    Sonic Rider Zero Gravity~Return of the rouges and the awesome gravity rings((Nights is playable))

    ((The games in history with one heck of a brain puzzler))
    Sonic Rush~Meet Blaze the Cat *drools* and the sol emerald *drools more* And super sonic and burning blaze *over flow* AND an ending that mad you wonder what did sonic give to blaze *cough*kiss*cough* AND Cream was useful? That truly was a good game.
    Sonic the hedgehog 06~Meet the Silver, future hedgehog.Meet Blaze?WTF She dosent remember sonic.Meet Mephilis ((claps he acually did a good job in the story manipulating ppl for a grand ending)) and Meet Eggman Skinny….OMG THE WORLDS GONNA END xD Meet glitches the fox xD And last but not least meet crisis city.((Major fan of the level)) AND Super Hedgehogs. ;D
    Soic Rush Adventure~ Meet the hyper raccoon Marine, and coconut crew and WTF this is blazes dimension.Eggman Nega…really – .0 Sonic and blaze shakes hand.WEAK xD
    Sonic Rivals~Silver BUM BUM BUM BUM Paradox No memory of meeting sonic. WTH Eggman Nega.AGAIN You fat dolt…WAIT UR EGGMANS DESCENDANT.Who the hell knocked up that egg.And why are u gonna turn the planet into a card.That kind messes up your future as well. xD
    Sonic Rivals 2~Wow.Silvers back and he working with espio.At least it wasnt charmey. xD What else.O YEA Metal Sonic 3.0 Faster than ur dell, fo sho. Uhh new costumes…and the Ifrit who is kinda like repeating STH06 minus the glitches and end of the world.
    ((These games were fun and I kinda came up with a ful theory for all of them but Im not explaining it xD))

    ((My personal favs))
    Sonic Unleashed
    Sonic Rider Zero Gravity
    Sonic and the black Knight
    Sonic the Hedgehog (Both 91 and 06)
    Sonic and the secret rings
    Sonic Adventure (both one and two)
    Sonic Heroes
    All the Sonic Adventures

    Music
    Bentley DUH
    Crush 40 DOUBLE DUH
    and Im getting ready for lunch so bye bye

  29. I don’t know, after Unleashed and Secret Rings, I kind of missed having other characters around.

  31. that’s not surprising.

    I agree with Sonic Toast….but… Black Knight kinda helped a bit.

    I’m kinda disappointed that Shadow isn’t gonna be in it. I don’t mind him not appearing in the story or anything but as a unlockable character to play trail stages, know what I mean? D8 After the concept art….it is beginning to feel like it is a remake of a classic game…. ><

  35. Us sonic fans need to be thankful everyone wanted a classic sonic game with only him no new peeps now finally sega listend and peole our still complaing about tails and knuckles lets make our mind guys

  36. Sonic’s the only PLAYABLE character. Tails and Knuckles might still play some part in the story.

  37. Thank you Sega! Or should we say it’s alter-ego, Captain Obvious, lulz! I was predicting that from the beginning, it would be a 2D Sonic game but with HD graphics and such.

  38. How boring! Just Sonic! It needs more characters ( optional ) with sonic’s levels. dang you Sega!

  40. Okay I’m confused.

    Half of you are saying “Why no more characters?”

    The other half is saying “YAY no more Characters!!”

    ….This explains a LOT.

  41. After seeing that only Sonic is playable and that classic badnik art, it got me thinking about what Sonic’s design will look like… If they make it an HD version of the classic Sonic, I’ll piss myself with glee

  43. Reactions are a bit mixed. I mean, other than Dr. Robotnik and his badniks, it looks like Sonic will be the only character out there. The rest will probably be DLC.

  44. @allstarsonic

    ‘YAY no more characters!!’ essentially means no characters from Sonic Adventure onwards.
    ‘Why no more characters?’ is due to the lack of Tails and Knuckles as playable characters.

  45. YES!!! Now all Sega have to do is get rid of the voice acting and keep the story simple and clean. Then if they don’t F-up the gameplay we’ll have a classic.

  46. Sounds like the majority of people are happy with the decision, I know I am.. then there’s the people that aren’t, that’s okay too.. and then the people who are speculating stuff without anything to back themselves up with.

    Are we at Stage 2/5 : “confirmed excitement” ?

  50. I’m having mixed reactions. First off, I’m happy that Sega has decided to concentrate on Sonic as the only playable character in Project Needleouse, and I can’t wait to see how the game turns out. So that concept drawing of Crabmeat is from Sonic Team Japan (Kanipanchi!).

    I’m also agreeing with “why no more characters?”. I hope Sega brings back Tails (since he’s Sonic’s sidekick) and Knuckles, to a lesser extent (since he’s supposed to be guarding his Master Emerald and the island). Unless the story plot involves heavily of other characters, they should not be playable in the main game, which may break up the flow of speed and platform oriented gameplay. Even if they should appear giving out information or helping our spiky hero, it’s only for a guest star or cameo appearance. If requested by fans to be playable, they should be available as DLC characters with stages suited or designed for them (see Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Knuckles in Sonic 2 for some original or much harder gameplay).

  52. According to Sonic Retro, this will be a downloadable only game…
    They got that info from 1up.com

  56. This is almost like a Haruhi stunt. But way better.

    The name of that enemy seems to be pronounced ‘Kanipanch’? Or something like that..

  57. a retro sonic wasn’t exactely my first choice, i mean on a portable gaming device i wouldnt mind, but i was kind of hoping for something like SA2, but, whatever, it sounds like it will be good nonetheless

  59. I’m really glad to see crabmeat, makes me feel warm inside. Sounds like it’ll be really good, though I really can’t say anything as we still don’t know much yet. Boy I wonder what it would be like to be a developer working on this game…

    But I do wish the people griping about Project Needlemouse would shut up, they’ve wanted it for years, they get it, and what do they do? COMPLAIN. Oh well, can’t fix stupid(and I don’t mean everyone who is stating their opinion is complaining, I just mean the people who are just flat out stupid in the way that they go about complaining and spam internet speak while doing so).

  60. NSBMWii’s sales (A game that caters to old school Mario fans mind you) have shot through the roof. Sega, you’d be fools not to bring Project Needlemouse to Wii. It even outsold Wii Sports Resort.

  62. I dont have anything against Tails or Knuckles, I think they’re very well done unique characters.. but Sonic needs to do this alone to prove once and for all whether or not he still has what it takes. I swear, if it’s not ” there are too many characters” it’s ” there aren’t enough characters ”

    Anywho.. what else is going on 🙂

  63. I told you guys… SEGA is VERY predictable….

    They thought this was “new” in Sonic ASR, but it’s not.

    I’m not gonna be happy until I hold this game in my hands, and see how it is for myself.

    nice crab though…

  64. I don’t mind Tails and Knuckles, but Sega need to prove a lot with this game, so I’m happy it’s just Sonic. Awesome badnik concept too; I hope there are some new enemy designs in that style though too.

    As for the digital download thing, that’s an as yet unconfirmed rumour. If that’s the same 1Up interview with Hanztopolous, it’s already old news too. That and the chap doesn’t really say anything about Needlemouse, just that DD titles that are also retro have worked out well. Needlemouse may very well be DD, but let’s not jump to any silly conclusions.

  65. I’ve got a good feeling about this game.
    I am hoping it won’t use Sonic advance 2/3 and/or Sonic rush graphics, I wasn’t keen on those at all. D: . Sonic advance was good though. But if they made it similar to the Megadrive/Genesis games, then all will be well in my opinion. =D .

  67. That happens to be the badnik ‘ Shellcracker ‘ which used the larger claw as a tethered projectile whenever you got near. Exciting that we finally have badniks back in force as opposed to those G.U.N bots and E-series robots.

  70. @Sonic4K6: It isn’t. But if I have to wait longer for this game than I originally thought, then that’s fine. Take as long as you want with this, SEGA. Make it COUNT, for Christ’s sake.

  71. This is awesome, though I hope Tails and Knux will at least be playable via DLC. Don’t let us down, Sega. Or else.

    And for those who complain about the lack of shitty friends, let me remind you that you have almost a decade’s worth of Sonic games and comics with all the shitty friends you’ll ever need. So please, quit your bitching. I’m sure Big the Cat’s Tax Filing mini-game will be in the next game to qualm your complaints.

  73. Notice the lack of Tails & Knuckles. I say Sega might pull another Capcom adding these players as DLC. That’s just my own thought on this subject.

    @Munchy:
    Lol, Big filing taxes. The thought of it is funny.

  74. Great. JUST great. ANOTHER Sonic only title.

    Booooriiing. >_> *is now officially more interested in ASR*

  75. @Wave Kusanagi

    How close minded…..

    I hope you miss out on the game if it’s actually worth playing. 😛

  76. Sure, I’m close-minded because I’m not trying to take out everything except the bare basic stuff.

    Secret Rings, Unleashed and practically Black Knight since you could only use the others in 4 levels. It’s about time we got to play as characters BESIDES Sonic. I can play as Sonic in a 2D game any day by grabbing the old Genesis games or playing the Advance and Rush series. I’d like to play as some of the characters who haven’t been in the 2D series yet, Battle aside. >_>

  78. What some people seem to be missing is that Sonic is the only playable character. At no point did they say he was the only character in the whole game.

    And anyway, how different is it playing as another character anyway? I know that in both the Mega Drive original and the Advance series, I preferred playing as Sonic. The only 2D games I don’t prefer playing as Sonic in are Rush and Rush Adventure, and that’s quite clearly because Blaze kicks a supreme amount of ass. The many subtle differences she has to Sonic just make her the far superior choice in my opinion.

    But apart from her, almost every other playable character in a 2D Sonic has pretty much had rubbish differences that don’t change the gameplay that much at all. So I really don’t see the big deal here.

  79. @Reevys

    That’s an easy one. We LIKE the other characters and want to play as them, regardless of gameplay experience.

    Come on, it’s a 2D game. Of COURSE there’s not going to be any difference in gameplay. XD The 2D ones are always about the same in every game with every character (except Blaze and Cream). We don’t care about that and don’t expect anything of it, we just want the other characters.

    To hell with gameplay differences, just gives us character differences.

  80. @Reevys

    Oh, and one more thing. You don’t seriously think that people will be satisfied knowing that their favorite character appears in the game, but isn’t playable in any way possible, do you?

  81. @Wave

    Not everyone will be pleased and not everyone can be pleased. Whatever decisions are made with characters won’t really affect the game’s possible success. They’ll just be some whiny fans that won’t get the game or get the game, like it, and still whine that the character they want isn’t in there and “the game would be so much better/enjoyable if it was”. Life goes on.

  82. Sonic going solo and a classic badnik preview, things are looking good for the majority that wanted Sonic back to the way he started.. and why not? It’s not like newer ideas or more than 2 playable characters in a game have done any good in recent years..

    Thank you for listening Sega / Sonic Team, may Sonic’s return grace our screens in 2010!

  83. lool it was kinda obvious that from that list, Sonic’s the only playable one. They picked the most ridiculus characters that would support him to eliminate from the list XD

  84. I know that a good number of sonic fans was not pleased with Sonic Unleashed, but if you are one that is complaining about Project Needlemouse not have more playable characters and you happened to like Sonic Unleashed, then you need to think for a second. Tails was the only original character to appear in Sonic Unleashed and he was not playable (Tornado Mini-Game does not count). My beloved Knuckles wasn’t even in the game and Amy is not an original character. This does not take away from the quality of the game, however. Of all the 3D Sonic games not related to Dreamcast, this is probably the best one ever made. I am saying this not having played “Sonic 2006” or “Sonic and the Seven Rings” and I doubt that my choice will change afterwards. So if Sonic is the only playable character in Project Needlemouse then sobeit. If Sonic is not accompanied in the adventure, again sobeit. It should be a fun game to play whenever they release it.

    Hopefully 2010 will be the year Sonic regains the prestige he once had in the past. Good luck Sega.

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