Welcome to the Archive site of The Sonic Stadium (2008-2023)
Please note that this site is no longer being updated or maintained; as a result, there may be design issues, and links to images and other media may be broken. Links to posts may redirect you to the same article on the current Sonic Stadium website.
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.
AAUK has provided TSS with the link to more Sonic Classic Collection images. This time, however, the images are not mocked onto a DS. You can see them in their full 2D glory.
The bottom screen’s purpose is outlined much better in this batch of screenshots as well. It looks like it will be the home of saving/loading, pausing and a small description on each game. Check out our gallery below:
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Subtitled “reasons to get your hopes up and reasons to get them down again,” IGN takes a crack at what most of us have been doing for the past week and a half. The catch here is that it is a well-written, down-the-middle article with no bias (be surprised).
IGN breaks down the game in the style, gameplay, music, and design department. Also, they talk about the benefits and detractors of listening to us, the fans. Here’s an except regarding “Speed:”
ONE UP: When I was 10 years old, I would boot up the Master System version of the very first Sonic game and play as far as the third stage of Green Hill Zone. This was where you would fight Eggman after climbing a couple of hills. At the top, however, I would avoid the fight. Instead, I would tip Sonic back down the incline, roll him into a ball, and look on in awe as the screen blew by with increasing speed.
As such, it’s pretty obvious that speed is something of a hallmark for Sonic, and the initial Needlemouse trailer’s claim that ‘speed returns’ seems to confirm that Sega’s marketing department is aware of this. There’s promise here: for some, there are few gaming pleasures that rank with the thrill of keeping a perfectly streamlined run alive as Sonic spins, flips, and bounces towards the end of a stage.
ONE DOWN: But there is cause for concern. There is something very important from my childhood play that keeps on getting overlooked: momentum. Even on the Master System version of the game – a version that was, at best, a mere shadow of its Mega Drive sibling – there was a palpable sense of gravity. Sonic would gain speed when tumbling down slopes, and he would likewise lose it when climbing them. Overlooking the importance of the physics engine in the classic Sonic games is arguably the greatest misstep that this franchise has made.
The reason for this is actually pretty simple: the pleasure of the speed in these games came from the flow of maintaining the blue critter’s momentum; not in simply pressing a button to blast through the stages before you can even take in the scenery you’ve just left ten screens behind you. Most of the newer Sonic games are actually faster than the… well… the good ones. The pleasure in the speed came from earning it, and for this to work the game needs to slow down just enough to allow for twitch reflexes to actually be rewarded.
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French Sonic fansite Eversonic has uploaded 26 high resolution photos of the upcoming Sonic compilation (UPDATED – now we have the high res greatness). It looks like the top screen shows the game and the bottom screen has a “load/save” feature with some fun facts.
Also, the game’s boxart says “4 games in 1,” featuring Sonic 1 thorough Sonic 3 & Knuckles, but there is a screenshot of Sonic 2 & Knuckles. Lock-on play is coming to this collection! Check out our gallery below:
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The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
You’ve seen the pictures from Dread’s first stay at the Sonic Suite at Alton Towers. From what you’ve seen and heard about the room, how badly do you want to stay in it?
Oh so badly: I need to have my honeymoon here.
Badly: I need to stay here before I croak.
All right: I won’t lose sleep over not staying there, but it’d be a nice treat to go.
Not really: It is really expensive and I’m not that interested
NO. Can you say “chick deflector?”
I have no damn money and I don’t live in England. FML.
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Dreadknux, the founder of TSS, is also a games journalist, writing for SPOnG.com. Because of this, he was able to visit Alton Towers and earn the distinction of being the very first person to sleep in the Sonic Suite. He has written his impressions of both the Sonic Spinball ride and the £300-a-night hotel room at Sonic Spinball Opens At Alton Towers – Pix! on SPOnG.com. The picture above is from the article – click to see the rest of them.
Note the wall decor… it’s more Sonic 4 art! Looks like speed boosters are returning. For those of you rabid for more Sonic 4 media, wallpaper is a rather odd place to find it, yeah?
The room isn’t the only Sonic-related happening at the theme park. The rollercoaster, Sonic’s Spinball, is opening this weekend as well.
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Those crazy, ASR-playing kids are back (at least they’re not talking). This trailer provides a minute of PS3 footage and showcases how much fun you’re going to have.
But wait… what are those wheels those kids are holding? This game isn’t for the Wii. Is the PS3 getting some wireless wheel action? HEY, S0L. You know what’s up with that? Please, do tell.
EDIT: I’m a big ol’ dummy. I really need to educate myself on PS3 stuff. Thanks to commenters below, they have enlightened me. Haha…
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When I was the director of the 2007 Sonic Amateur Gaming Expo, I had a lot of objectives to meet. The year prior, the show was a bust. The layout was the same as it was in 2005 and only a couple games garnered the attention of everybody, one of them including the debut demo of my fangame, Sonic Nexus.
I had to attract a new audience and fangame creators to return the show to prominence. I went balls out on advertising, found every fangame creator at SFGHQ, Sonic Cage Dome, and YouTube, and told them to get their ass in the show.
With that ready, I needed a layout. I went with a simple idea that changed every day. It would be “Sonics From Around the World.” Sonic would change costumes on the site to suit the worldly theme of the day. I found them while cleaning out my huge “My Documents” folder and I wanted to bring them back and share them with everybody.
The art was drawn by Steven M and colored by Phoenix Gamma.
Caesar Sonic started the show, representing the Mediterranean.Sherlock Sonic, hailing from England. His theme was adorned with the Union Jack and Big Ben.Red Baron Sonic. Tails' Tornado got a redesign as it flew through the German skies.Pharoah Sonic rules over his Sandopolis in Egypt.Speed Racer Sonic represented Japan. It was a sumo wrestler at first, but I thought Speed Racer was more appropriate.Matador Sonic is my favorite. The best bullfighter that you've ever seen!And representing the U.S. is Colbert Sonic. His truthiness knows no bounds.
Seven worldly Sonics for seven days of community fun. Memories…
I hope you enjoyed these, everybody. I’ll leave you with an alternate Caesar Sonic. Et tu Shadow?!
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Today was filled with more broken countdown clocks on the Sonic 4 website. Hopefully, everybody has come to realize that despite the longer wait, the payoff isn’t going to be that great regardless (see: motobug). SEGA of America really needs to fix that site. It’s a real mess.
I digress. The “concept art” (note the quotes) is of a badnik from Sonic 2‘s Emerald Hill Zone. It looks like Masher will be hoppin’ up some waterfalls to bite your blue balls as you cross wooden bridges in Sonic 4. CHOMP.
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For years, I’ve heard the relationship between Sonic’s rabid fans and the gradually disappointing blue hedgehog himself compared to a real life case of domestic abuse. Never did I imagine that somebody would run with that idea and make a network news parody out of it. I had a good laugh at this video.
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We told you the day of the Sonic 4 site launch that snooping around revealed the fourth console that the game would be coming to. While the iPhone was the original find, another image has been found thanks to Sonic Retro member Compsense. Here was the original image, coupled with the iPhone image:
Here’s the new image that was found:
What is the “N2?” The N2 is an NVIDIA developed arcade platform running on the GeForce graphics card. Since it’s PC based, N2 games are easily ported to PC. Only three games in existence have used the N2 platform.
Is Sonic 4 really coming to the N2 or is SEGA screwing with the community for snooping around? Is the iPhone still the fourth platform? I don’t even know anymore. My guess is that this “N2” jive is fake. I mean, wouldn’t they put a picture in the square for the “reveal” image? Why is it still locked?
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Not only is Spain getting different boxart (here’s the U.S. version), it’s also getting a special edition! The special edition of Sonic Classic Collection will come in a tin case. In addition to the game, players will receive 5 illustrations (boxart for Sonic 3, Sonic Chaos and a pair of Sonic Screen Saver images) and a classic Sonic figurine. If only the Sonic on the boxart could follow suit.
Will this super cool package come to the rest of Europe and/or the U.S.? Who knows.
UPDATE 2: AAUK has confirmed at the Sonic City Blognik that this limited edition of Sonic Classic Collection will ONLY be for Spain and Australia.
Why those two countries? I don’t know. It is what it is.
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Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing producer Steve Lycett (“S0L”) fielded some questions in the game’s thread in the SSMB today, one of them involving the prospect of DLC. Member PSI Wind FTW asked:
Hey S0L, is it possible for DLC to be on all 3 console versions and even the PC version?
Steve’s reply:
Chances are DLC will be limited to 360/PS3.
Whilst it’s entirely possible to do it elsewhere, the big stumbling block is how you actually make it available.
On Wii there’s no DLC store as such – so you have to write some form of in-game store, that also safely handles transactions and deals with downloads that may get paused or corrupted. Then you’ve got the limited storage space, unlike an unlock key or music track, game assets here are pretty big. You’re looking at over a 100Mb for something like an extra track and character. Which would soon fill the Wii’s internal memory, meaning you then have write SD card support – which has it’s own set of problems…!
Plus you can’t update games on Wii (not so far as I know) unless the DLC is supported by shipped code, you can’t add anything once the game is done.
It’s not undoable of course, but all the effort has to be paid for.
PC is a similar story, whilst the game will likely be made available via Steam, and you can offer DLC via the same method – what about disk owners? Again you’d have to write some method or store, then there is the whole security issue too, it’d have to made pretty difficult to extract back out – else people will just share it about for free.
Again, this can be overcome, but again, it bumps up your cost.
That’s before you consider the cost to test assets over multiple platforms to boot
If the cost for implementing the content and getting it working exceeds the money you’ll make for doing it…
So whilst I can never say never, I think outside of 360/PS3 it’s not likely to be something that will happen.
There you have it. Wii DLC? Ain’t gon’ happen.
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The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
SEGA of America, continuing their c-c-c-combo of disappointing cockteases, unveiled the “badniks” section of the site today after hours of people staring at a broken countdown clock. The only thing within the new section currently is a 19-year old badnik, the motobug. The entry includes a short description and its full animation.
What badniks will be coming up in the near future? Judging from the badnik art contest, it’ll probably be ones… we’ve already seen.
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Has the Xbox 360 demo of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing been kicking your ass? Well, apparently, the default difficulty settings on the demo are set to “Advanced.” If you’re getting rocked hard, then you should go and change the settings, according to ArchangelUK at the Sonic City Blognik:
Hey guys, if you find you’re struggling to achieve victory on the demo there might be a reason for it. Apparently the 360 demo has gone out with the settings set on Advanced, no idea why but apparently you might find that is the case.
So if you’ve been blindsided by a KO Boxing Glove on the final bend and are feeling a bit irked, nip into the Game Settings and set it to Basic.
AAUK also addressed the desire for a demo on other platforms, which is a definite possibility. With other demos comes the removal of Banjo-Kazooie, but another character would be taking their place on the other platforms:
Naturally the question I’ve been asked the most is “Is there going to be a PS3 demo coming out?” well as I said in the blog yesterday there will be more opportunities to play test the game coming. *HINT**HINT*
Oh and no, other platform demos wouldn’t just have Sonic playable there would be a second character .
The Xbox 360 demo of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing will be made available to Silver Xbox Live members next week. Currently, it is only available for gold.
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Was Big the Cat confirmed already? I can’t remember. Oh well… here’s a sweet picture of every playable character in the game. Yes, this image is official.
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The man behind SEGA’s Needlemouse contests and announcements was asked to weigh in on the on-going “classic vs. modern” debate on the official SEGA forums. His opinion sways in neither direction, as he makes a case for both, but he ultimately assures us that the final verdict will come down to gameplay and not the design of the character.
First, he talked about the image and memories that classic Sonic evokes:
To many fans, Classic Sonic represents a golden era for both Sonic and for SEGA. He symbolizes quality games and memories that, even though slightly rose tinted with age, were still times many of us can look back fondly on.
Modern Sonic, with green eyes, is more largely associated with Sonic Adventure and the games following. To fans of purely Classic Sonic, green eyes represent the advent of Big the Cat and other characters, gameplay that differed from the norm, etc.
That was my issue upon seeing the modern Sonic design (like, I don’t give a damn about the green eyes… just everything else). Most people, including myself, saw modern Sonic and associated it with the last decade of gameplay that strayed away from Sonic and introduced a slew of new characters in some unfavorable games. It has the ability to give off what the final product of “Sonic 4” might be like, regardless of the “3 seconds of footage” counter-argument. Again, it’ s just a knee-jerk reaction that happens when you’ve been waiting for “Sonic 4” for 16 years.
Ruby also commented on the “anti-green eyes” movement that one-half of the fanbase is standing behind. He mentions that it’s not the color of the eyes that we remember, but the well-aged gameplay of the originals:
The color of Sonic’s eyes may be important, especially to some, but far more important to me is the gameplay itself.
We don’t remember the old games as classics because Sonic’s eyes were black and he happened to be a little chubbier. We remember them because they were good games, first and foremost. That’s the truth for me, at least.
With his neutral stance on his preference and indifference for eye color, he makes a point that this game’s legacy will be cemented on gameplay and not design. While he fails to mention the other differing aspects between the two Sonic designs that probably irk most classic Sonic supporters more than eye color (track-star design, huge quills), his statement still holds true and was correct even before articles, forum posts, and blog rants came about a few days ago.
Another post by forum member “Catboy” brought up a “cigarette mentality” that the classic crowd is going through. One that I can say that I am feeling:
To put it simply, if a fan abhors the look of a character of which they’re forced to use, that inherent hate can bog down the general enjoyment of a game.
It’s like a cigarette + state of mind.
RubyEclipse responded to this comment and asked fans on both sides of the fence to keep voicing their opinions. He acknowledged that SEGA is doing a better job of reading into their fans on their forums and fansites such as this one:
Yep, I totally hear you Catboy.
Know that we are still listening. The feedback that fans have – be it for classic or modern – is something we will continue to compile and send upwards internally.
So, whichever type of Sonic you prefer – or even if you really don’t care – make sure to post at least once, somewhere, about it. You may not see the results immediately, but then again, you rarely will with things that matter most.
While RubyEclipse does not work on the project himself, he is a go between for the fans. Both the want for classic and modern Sonic is being taken into account and he will send it to the “Sonic 4” team.
What the ultimate point of this community blog post is a matter of respect. RubyEclipse, a SEGA employee, came out and participated in a discussion that has been the hot topic of every Sonic website since the trailers launch. While company participation in fan issues is important due to its rarity within this fanbase, his respect for both sides of the debate should be noticed and taken with everybody as they weigh in on message boards and comment walls.
He didn’t come out and brush off anybody’s opinion, name-call, or harass just because somebody’s opinion was different than his own. It was something that I saw few and far between in each of our articles that we posted a few days ago (Dread’s was slanted positively; mine was the obvious negative… we disagree, but we’re still best buds aka “broniks”). The same thing occurred when reviews came out for games like Sonic Unleashed and Sonic & the Black Knight.
Reviews and articles that slammed those games (or Sonic 4 in this instance) were just outright ignored by hot-heads and authors were being called things like “biased,” “idiots,” “babies,” “unpleaseable” (which isn’t a word) and “complete fucking morons who aren’t intelligent at all.” Some people didn’t even choose to read the whole thing. Dread and I didn’t cut each other or any reader of a different opinion down and yet, people were going off.
Why does that have to happen? Nobody’s going to think or feel the same way. This wild difference in opinion isn’t exclusive to the Sonic fandom either. It’s everywhere in the world.
I might have read too far into RubyEclipse’s posts, but that’s okay. By doing so, I felt better about the situation unfolding across the blue-hedgehog-forum universe. So, complaining about complainers or cut others down? It doesn’t help. It makes everything worse (complaining about complaining is still complaining). As RubyEclipse said, those that voice against you have a right to their opinion, too, and it might even be taken into consideration by those in charge.
Unless that opinion is whether a scientifically-proven illness is “real” or “fake.” Then, you can just get the hell out. 😉
Hey, here’s a bonus. How about a fun “compromise?” Aaaayyyyy?
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A “GT Original,” GameTrailers is the first to get up some HD footage (or any footage that matter) of the Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing X360 demo released yesterday. There are two videos, both featuring single-player and multiplayer. Each video highlights the playable characters in the demo, Sonic and Banjo-Kazooie, and show of their all-star moves. Handy for those who do not have Xbox 360s!
Also… an announcer. A link to each video is below:
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The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
With the “Sonic 4” announcement sending people into hype-induced comas or making “modern vs. classic Sonic” the next “Drummond vs. Griffith” (whoops), I’ve forgotten that there’s a racing game coming out with people from SEGA games. Initial reviews have been positive and media has been coming out moreandmore now that we are in the month of its release.
That being said, what do you think about Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing?
It’s going to be bomb-dot-com. Mario Kart killer!
It’ll be good, but not up to Mario Kart standards.
It’ll be good in its own right. Nothing spectacular, but it’ll have a certain appeal.
Shit sucks. More “Sonic 4,” please.
What’s an “All-Stars racing?”
I’m hovering between 1 and 3, personally.
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This news has been bouncing around from site to site and more speculation has been running wild.
The Wiire is reporting that “Vash” from Game-Hackers.com has decompiled the flash website of Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 and looking at the code, you can make many guesses as to what it all means.
Here’s the first bit of code that looked weird:
preorderBtn1 = new preorderBtn();
Pre-order? Like, as in, a retail release? The next line of code that catches my eye is “bronik.” It is my new word (until I find one that exceeds it in cool):
<broniks text=”BADNIKS” />
One of the big questions revolves around the length of an “episode.” The code leads us to believe that there will be 4.
zone1Btn
zone2Btn
zone3Btn
zone4Btn
zonesBtn
The final thing found within the site is a series of buttons within some mystery image that is currently not in use:
Could this represent the 4 zones of “Episode 1?” Could it be 4 characters (who would be the green one)? Are Sonic and Tails teaming up with Mario and Luigi (lol)? Do the buttons represent the four platforms that this game will release on (Wii, 360, PS3, and iPhone)? Your guess is as good as mine.
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Jim Sterling of Destructoid is a funny man. His video series, “The Videogame Show What I’ve Done,” is the perfect parody of bad YouTube video game reviews, right down to the Windows Movie Maker titles. In this episode, Sonic stops by to take a look at his past games.
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When I first heard the “Hedgehog Day” jingle, I knew right away that it was going to be the title theme into “Project Needlemouse.” I also knew right away that something about it was off. It tried to be a catchy title theme, but it just didn’t sound right. There was an aesthetic to it that was off-putting.
Tweaker, Sonic Retro admin and author of the Sonic Megamix ROM hack, agreed. Him and I were up pretty early this morning after some badass sleep. I decided to voice our opinions of the game in the “What’s In A Name” article (which had been flying around the #retro chat room since the announcement), while he decided to make the “Sonic 4” theme worthy of its title.
So, what happens when you combine the “Sonic 4” theme with the Japanese Sonic CD theme? Something that gets the melody stuck in my head, a key aspect that the official theme could not do. He let me put it on TSS to share with you guys.
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UPDATE: Retro member Chimp has fixed the giant hand.
The hot topics of “Sonic 4” so far have been the running animation and the use of modern Sonic. SEGA has addressed the former. One fan has fixed the latter (at least in the head department).
Imagine the sheer amount of additional hype if this Sonic appeared in the trailer. This image has made my day.
With the Sonic community, myself included, in a tizzy over 3-seconds of footage, the use of “modern” Sonic has been a point of contention amongst fans. Why, look at that… there’s already a petition to get classic Sonic in the game. Online petitions don’t work, silly kids, but I like where your head is at.
SEGA, please take notice.
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Nintendo World Report managed to get an early build of the n-teenth Sonic compilation and has a few impressions to share.
Among the comments that previewer Jared Rosenberg makes, one of them involves lag during his run of Sonic 2 and Sonic 3. Otherwise, the music is the way it should be and there is a save feature that will put you at the beginning of each act, as Rosenberg noted that it does not act as a “save state.”
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The following is the opinion of a man who is conflicted and about a company that chose the wrong name. If you don’t want to read any negativity about Sonic 4 (or you don’t like to read), turn back now. If you’re going to read on, you’re going to read parts that you might agree with and parts that you might not agree with. So is the nature of opinion.
My first Sonic forum was Sonic Fan Games HQ and it is where I rose to the community status that I have today. My first administration job was there and it is also where I met a lot of people to get me in the position that I’m in today. SFGHQ is where I began development on Sonic Nexus, a project that I began because I did not think SEGA would provide another classic romp ever again. When college allows me to work on it, Nexus is my only gateway to an “all-new adventure.”
SFGHQ is also the home of many “Sonic 4” fangames that have come and gone over the years. People have always dreamed of making the direct sequel to Sonic 3 & Knuckles and have either given up, lost interest, or have changed the name of their game to rid themselves of the high expectations that they have set for themselves.
SEGA is now guilty of setting their own bar too high.
I kid you not, there is a Sonic Retro wiki article for every pixel of this screenshot.
Before you stop reading the article to comment on how 3-seconds of gameplay cannot justify an opinion as critical as mine, I’ll remind you that classic Sonic fans only need a little to break down anything and everything within a single frame. Sites like Sonic Retro, SFGHQ, and Zone:0 exist for a reason. We have perfected analyzing every pixel, color, and motion in the classic Sonic games. If anybody’s going to not fall prey to the hype monster… it’s us.
You might say that we’re ungrateful for not being completely sold or hating what we have seen thus far of a project that Ken Ballough, SEGA’s brand manager, said is finally intended for us. In reality, are we really unappreciative for dogging on it?
The game is called Sonic the Hedgehog 4, a direct sequel to a trilogy made famous on perfection. We do not have ridiculously high expectations. When you name the game Sonic 4, it has to be perfection. If it’s not, you might as well piss all over my Genesis. SEGA PR giving reasons as to why I’m not pleased is making excuses for something undeserving of a title that they gave it. It’s not us… it’s them.
Isn't "concept art" supposed to help conceive new ideas? I saw this spinning flower 19 years ago.
The original games are also built on creativity. Where one game came up short, the other expanded upon and surprised you with more. Sonic 2 introduced a spindash, another character, and Super Sonic. Sonic 3 had a “tropical green trope” zone to begin the game, but broke precedent andset it on firealmost immediately. Sonic & Knuckles introduced a playable Knuckles and lock-on technology, which even breathed new life into Sonic 2. The bar was raised whether you were prepared for it or not. With 3-seconds of a Green Hill rip-off and an Emerald Hill corkscrew, along with old badniks, Green Hill palmtrees and flowers, Sonic 4 currently does not surprise or rise above the three games before it.
The blatant rehashing of old materials is fangame quality at best. Even the story admits that this game will be bringing back “Eggman’s finest creations.”
Yes, “official fangame” is an oxymoron, but that’s what Sonic 4 looks like thus far: an average bit of fan-service that ultimately does not live up to its choice of name. Aside from the aforementioned “fangame n00b mistake” of a name, the game is rehashing old stuff and updating their looks to make it all seem “new.” For most of fangame creators, that is all we really do to make level art and badniks, since we lack the skill to sprite original things ourselves. Observe:
The art style of the classics is there in the trailer, but we saw Green Hill nearly two decades ago.
With the talk of art style also comes Sonic’s appearance and where the train really comes off the tracks. The pudgy, short-spined, black-eyed original doesn’t return. What a sequel to the Genesis gamesgets is the lanky, floppy-spined wannabe that has been romping around King Arthur’s court as a werehog with Shadow, Cream, Marine, Silver and the ruffles. I do not care about confusing the children and being consistent with Sonic’s modern design. The Sonic I knew has a spirit attached to him that no other character can match. Even a re-design of Sonic would have sufficed because, hey, we are rebooting, right? If the game was called something else, modern Sonic wouldn’t be an issue. However, the game is called “Sonic 4.”
The face of failure... or someone who just farted.
“Modern” Sonic’s appearance hit me the hardest. SEGA had lied to us.
They invoked the winged ring back on 9.9.09. They made a whole forum skin around the Genesis sprites. The “Hedgehog Day” flash ditty was classic Sonic coming out of a hole. Classic Sonic was coming back. Even the trailer had a classic Sonic retrospective! My hopes were dashed when the face of an underwhelming decade faded up at the end of the trailer. SEGA’s commitment to finally pleasing its original fanbase after sixteen years was a front.
Ken Ballough said it himself: Sonic 4 is our game. When a new Sonic game came out with 10 new characters and laser guns, we clamored for a return to form and SEGA has finally obliged. The kids have had their games and they were mediocre at best, most being the butt of jokes across gaming websites.
If Capcom can commit to classic Mega Man to the point of fully embracing its past by making awesomely bad box-art, then so can you, SEGA.
Here's a fan's altered "Sonic 4" model. Looks like a winner to me.
Last week, I had chastised a few people at SFGHQ for an absurd amount of complaining over the Needlemouse contests and the eventual recycling of old badniks. My posts were along the lines of, “Shut up, you guys. Classic Sonic is returning. This is what we want! Can’t you be happy?”
Unfortunately, now I’m the one doing the complaining. What Sonic 4 appears to be isn’t what I want.
SEGA, you owe it to your legions of 20-something and older fans to make a change. Our commitment to you when we were still wetting beds in tacky windbreakers is why you are still around today. We defended you on the playground against those Mario-loving, Super Nintendo owning sons of bitches. We followed you to consoles that were completefailures.
Either change the name and respect what are still Sonic’s best games or fix what I saw in that trailer. I will not settle for anything less than perfection. We’ve been settling for a decade now. Provide throwbacks while expanding and innovating.
The time is now. The choice is yours, SEGA.
You might think I’m overreacting (hell, I think I am, too), but that is just how close the name “Sonic 4” is to me. Again, if the name wasn’t “Sonic 4,” I would be completely sunshine smiles right now, but that’s not the case. There is a weight so heavy tied to “Sonic 4” that I doubt anybody will ever be able to pick it up.
I’m prepared for the flaming below. Let me have it, fellas. I’m aware that this is probably not the time nor place for such an article, but with a subject so close to me, I had to get my two cents out there. You’re entitled to your own opinion, too.
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If you head on over to the Japanese Sonic 4 website, you can listen to the jingle you heard on Hedgehog Day, but this time it’s a bit longer.
Aaaaaand… that’s all there is to that story. There’s nothing else to see there besides some sweet clouds.
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Sonic Retro has been on point lately with digging up information within the Sonic the Hedgehog 4 website. Retro member darkspines35 found the intro story inside the website and handed it off to Retro admin Scarred Sun to share to the world. Read it below (spoilers and what not):
Story thus far:
It began as Sonic’s animal friends begin disappearing from South Island. Soon Sonic discovers that evil scientist Dr. Eggman has been kidnapping them and turning them into robots to collect the legendary treasure – The Chaos Emeralds. Sonic decides it’s up to him to save them and embarks on a quest to free his animal friends. Sonic battles Eggman through many different zones. Sonic eventually pursues Eggman to Final Zone where the first in many epic battles between them begins. In the end Sonic is victorious and Eggman’s Mecha fly’s away badly damaged. Sonic returns to Green Hill Zone and re-unites with his friends.
Their reunion is short lived however, as Eggman resurfaces and begins kidnapping Sonic friends again, in an effort to create more workers to finish his ultimate Weapon – The Death Egg! Teaming up with the newly met, Miles ‘Tails’ Prower, Sonic embarks on a new mission through West Side Island in an effort to free his friends and ensure Eggman does not obtain the 7 Chaos emeralds to fuel the Death Egg.
Once the West Side Island is freed, Sonic and Tails eventually board the Tornado and assault the Death Egg itself. After destroying Mecha Sonic, Eggman flees and enters his new Eggman Robot attacking Sonic! After a heated battle Sonic destroys the Eggman Robot and the Death Egg begins to explode.
Sonic and Tails fly down and come across mysterious island called Angel Island. This island is floating by the power of the precious stone called Master Emerald, but now this mysterious island are dropping down to the ocean surface because the Death Egg had been falling on this island. Sonic and Tails are attacked by a Red Echidna named Knuckles the guardian of the island.
Knuckles steals the Chaos emeralds from Sonic, being tricked by Eggman that he is an enemy come to take the Master Emerald.While Sonic and Tails are entangled by Knuckles, Eggman repairs the Death Egg and preps it for launch.
Sonic manages to jump on Death Egg just as it’s flying off. After confronting Eggman on the Death Egg, Sonic defeats Eggman once more and the Death Egg plummets back to Angel Island.
Back on the ground Dr. Eggman begins the repairing Death Egg again. Feeling Knuckles has served his purpose, he sends EggRobo to eliminate this potential threat. EggRobo finds Knuckles relaxing in Mushroom Zone and drops a bomb on him but Knuckles manages to survive. Enraged, the Wild Echidna sets off to defeat EggRobo. Meanwhile Sonic and Tails explore the island to find traces of the Death Egg and find out Eggman’s fate. After and Epic showdown between Sonic and Knuckles, Eggman uses the opportunity to finally steal the Master Emerald and re-launches the Death Egg. With the power of the emeralds, Sonic goes after Eggman, who has taken the Master Emerald into space.
Sonic and Tails secure the Master Emerald and return it to Knuckles on Angel Island. With it’s power restored, the Angel Island lifts off into the sky as Sonic and Tails fly off into the sunset.
But this humiliating defeat only serves to further Eggman’s rage, and he has determined once and for all to rid himself of Sonic. Eggman revisits – and improves – the very best of his creations to defeat our spiked hero.
And so a new Adventure begins…
Eggman’s best creations, eh? That explains all the rehashing of badniks. Although, I wouldn’t call the motobug one of “Eggman’s Finest.”
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Our friends at SegaOnline have sent us clean, high-definition gameplay images from the trailer. Check them out in the gallery below.
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Finally, here’s Sonic running animation. Click it for a larger view:
It’s a fuckin’ party at Sonic Stadium. I’ll keep updating this post when more stuff gets leaked.
UPDATE: The assets folder is still alive, but it has been locked down. Fun’s over.
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Watch the trailer over and over at this point. Look at the video that’s coming through the squares here. You can see the famous “rotating maze” special stage from the original Sonic the Hedgehog, but with a “Sonic 4” twist!
Brilliant? Or lazy? You be the judge.
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We have found an image within the Sonic 4 website. The “mystery console” that’s locked out at the bottom of the game’s website will be the iPhone. “Episode 1,” which had a vague “summer 2010” release, will be out in July.
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I think that you’ll agree with me that the Needlemouse reveal will be the biggest announcement that SEGA has made in nearly a decade. It is huge. Site stats have tripled, servers are crashing from traffic, and excitement has reached a fever pitch. In just under 8 hours, GameSpot and SEGA will reveal what exactly “Project Needlemouse” is.
Let’s have a fuckin’ party! Post links to images, music, YouTube videos, or just your pure excitement in the comments! Celebrate with your fellow Sonic fans!
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CollegeHumor’s newest video game short centers around Mario and Sonic meeting up at a restaurant, but not in the way that you’d think. Sonic is the waiter and a conversation ensues about the hedgehog’s mediocre-to-terrible track record since the fall of the Dreamcast. Sometimes, the truth hurts… and is hilarious.
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People have been sending us “Sonic 4” images on occasion to try and get us to post a SUPER AWESOME BULLETIN IN-DEPTH EXPOSE EXCLUSIVE or call some “friends” of ours to figure it out for us because we’re too stupid to see that it’s fake ourselves. Well, we haven’t been doing that. But, since we’re in the Hedgehog Week festivities… I might as well post two of the better “Sonic 4” hoaxes that we’ve received.
This image was sent to us a few times but it was never sent by its author, Luis Tejeda.
No idea what the hell this image in and who sent it in. Still cool to look at, I guess.
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