[UPDATED w/ Scans] NGamer Magazine Preview Confirms Sonic 4 Length, Special Stage
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[UPDATED w/ Scans] NGamer Magazine Preview Confirms Sonic 4 Length, Special Stage

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Author Slingerland
21 Comments

Thanks to DVD Smith for sending us the quotes and the scan (check the update at the bottom).

British gaming magazine, NGamer, just sent out their latest issue in the mail and within its many pages lies a preview of Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1.  Most of what is detailed within the preview was described to us back when a community member playtested the game a month ago.  A lot of people decided to blow off what he said as “fake” or “a bunch of bullshit,” so it wasn’t “truly” confirmed (that’s par for the course when materials are leaked, I guess).  Now, we can say that more details that he described have been verified, including a few new ones, like how many episodes will make up Sonic 4!

Here are a few key points in NGamer’s preview:

“The sound effects are pulled straight from the 16-bit days, and both the loading screen and the extra life icons rip their sprites straight from the heart of the nearest Mega Drive”

“The bonus stages, activated by finishing a level with over 50 rings, resemble the mazes from the very first Sonic the Hedgehog, but with a modern twist. Now, instead of reacting to the spin of the maze, the player controls it by titlting the Wii remote. A Chaos Emerald is still the prize, but now Sonic has to fight for his right to even be in the same room as the gem – doors blocking off access have t be removed by collecting a set number of rings.”

“Sonic 4 will be split into three episodes, each containing four zones of three acts (and a boss) apiece.”

“Act 3 of Splash Hill Zone is the only act to take place at sunset.”

UPDATE: DVD Smith has sent us a low-quality scan of the preview.  Check it below (click for larger size):

UPDATE 2: Sonic Retro member, Wolf Rogers, has better scans of the screenshots included in the preview.  Check out the gallery below:

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Slingerland

Slingerland is a staff writer and editor for both The Sonic Stadium and Sonic Retro. His area of emphasis is the inner-workings of the games and laughing at everything.

21 Comments

  2. This episodic format will also give them a chance to polish the levels/gameplay of the next episode based on feedback. Win-win!

  3. Damn you sega… just give me all three damned epsiodes on a single disc!! IS THAT SO HARD!?!?!?!

  4. SMT Xero: There’s something that’s just occured to me: if Super Sonic is in this game, would that mean that Super Knuckles could be in one of the next ones? Or maybe even Super Tails!

  5. I wonder if what they are aiming here is to recreate in a sense the original trilogy. So far episode one is a mix between Sonic 1 and 2 in terms of its zones, I bet episode 2 will be more like Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 mixed up, and episode 3 could possibly be Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Its a stupid-ass theory, but I just have that feeling now.

    If each episode though is 400msp a piece, I’ll be fine with it. In the end that would come to 1200msp which won’t be bad for 12 zones , totalling to be 36 acts to play through (not including the bosses). Sounds alright to me 😛

  7. $5 a piece? You must be dreaming O_o $10 atleast. Very likely $15.

    Retail release with special, bonus featurettes for $40.

  8. the 5$ were “confirmed” through a pic AND i knew endiri didn’t lie.
    However i still think it’s not like advance 2, well for me at least.
    sega should link the eps so you can all 36 stages with all 3 characters in one Sonic 4
    little question did they like it?

  9. Don’t mean to be picky but perhaps this story’s title needs changing?

    “NGamer Magazine Preview Confirms Game Length, Special Stage”

    What game?

  10. So they used the 2D sprites for the loading screens, but there’s no option to use them in the actual game.

    …why? 🙁 Game looks great, but a little more fanservice don’t hurt ANYBODY. Replacing Sonic with an already existing set of sprites can’t require less effort.

  11. “The sound effects are pulled straight from the 16-bit days, and both the loading screen and the extra life icons rip their sprites straight from the heart of the nearest Mega Drive”

    *looks at the quote*
    *looks at the screenshot*
    *looks at the quote again*

    Bulls***! the extra lives icon is more from the Adventure series than the Mega Drive series.

  14. How would the guy know how many episodes there are????

    from the interview on this site…..

    Why did you decide to make it episodic? – Aki-toriko

    TI: The object of this project was to make a game with a lower price which can be played and downloaded easily from the beginning. We are exploring making each episode volume small and having an increased number of possible episodes.

    Sounds like more than 3 episodes to me……………..

  15. Huh. 12 Zones total then, eh?

    not quite as long as S3&K, but sounds good!

    and I believe the boss is a separate act.

  19. (@ Baking Blue Potatoe) My man S3&K had 2 acts for every zone (except Hidden Palace and The Doomsday Zone) so if Sonic 4 has 3 episodes (4 zones and 3 acts for every zone on each episode) it’s beating S3&K by 10 acts (or 2 and a half zones *excluding boss zones*). I think they’re scheming on making more episodes than that, and probably shorter than 4 zones each judging on the interview…

  20. My bad, Sonic 4 would be beating S3&K by 5 zones by S3&K standards. Idk where I got “2 and a half” from I’m trippin Lol

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