Joystiq – The Sonic Stadium

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsqcsz2sSH4&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Joystiq has revealed a new trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1‘s Casino Street Zone. The trailer shows new sections that see Sonic platforming across playing cards and also running across paths of them that appear in front of him one by one. These sections are presumably from Act 2 and replace the old build’s version of the Act, which was solely about score attacking on a pinball table, something that a lot of fans who saw the leaked build didn’t react well to.

Joystiq also released a preview of the zone along with the trailer. In the preview, Joystiq’s David Hinkle explains that this stage won’t be accomplished by just charging straight through the zone, there is more involved than that.

Sure, there are some Badniks sprinkled throughout, but navigating through the neon-lit gambler’s paradise poses several threats to Sonic. Not every situation can be conquered through brute force; it’s navigating the terrain and calculating the next step on the fly that got me through all three acts.

SEGA’s Ken Balough was also on hand to introduce the zone and spoke to Joystiq about balancing the number of enemies with the traps already set throughout the stage.

“When it came to each of these levels, we toyed with the idea of how many enemies would be overwhelming to the player. The enemies that we do have in it work really well for the Zone — like the enemies with the shields that Sonic kinda pings off of. Considering that there are a lot of other traps in the environment, those kind of things can really set the player off and kill them, but the fact that you might be running incredibly fast and hit one of the Badniks with the shields and it springs you back, it may end up throwing you back into a trap that you thought you had escaped from. So those ideas, we definitely wanted to toy with, but we wanted to achieve a balance, where the environmental mechanics stood out as much as the enemies so I think we struck a good equilibrium here, but, obviously, it’s up to the players to tell us what they think.”

Hinkle also talks about the cannons, which return from Sonic 3 and explains how the new playing card gimmick works and the bonuses it offers:

The aforementioned cannons play the biggest role in Casino Streets Zone and are gradually introduced throughout the prior Acts. It’s simple: Sonic hops into a cannon; you aim the cannon; and Sonic is blasted out. Rings indicate the best trajectories, but later on the game leaves it to you to make that call.

The benefit to finding these alternate pathways is obviously collecting more stuff, but throughout the level there are cards that Sonic can touch and flip around. The quicker you flip them, and the more of them you flip, gives Sonic a chance to match up cards. Get three Sonic heads and you’ve got yourself another life, for example. It’s only a matter of finding these pockets of cards and touching them.

Five screenshots of the zone were released too, which you can check out below:

Thanks to Woun at the SSMB for the heads-up and YouTube conversion!

After CVG revealed 5 new Wii screenshots SEGA have released more screens of both versions of Sonic Colours via their Flickr account aswell as some hi-res pieces of artwork. From the new Wii screens we learn that Wisps will be contained in capsules much like the ones we’ve seen items be held within in pretty much every game since Sonic Adventure. In the DS screenshots we can see how Sonic Rush inspired the game is with the boost returning and the bright 2D stages but with both Rush games so well received that can’t be a bad thing can it? Check out all of the screens and artwork at the bottom of this article.

Joystiq have posted up their impressions of the E3 demo of the Wii version which sounds pretty positive, here are some of their main points –

•Sonic doesn’t talk. There are no conversations or text screens — just Sonic running around a lot, very quickly. The game was described to me by a developer as, “Sonic Unleashed minus everything but the running,” and that seemed an apt description, as Sonic races over huge walkways, bounces off of springs, and homes in on enemies, combo-ing them them in groups if timed exactly right.

•The cast is kept to a minimum. Well, the “colors” could be counted as friends, I guess, but they’re really just power-ups, activated by waggling the Wiimote. In the part I played, Sonic hit a yellow color creature, and waving the remote turned him into a drill that had him digging in any direction across a 2D plane, seeking out secret stashes of rings in the giant environment. A green color creature creates a laser that will aim Sonic and then launch him back out into the level.

•It’s fast. Sonic Adventure fast. The levels I played were bright and colorful, one long sprint of dodging and jumping and Sonic doing what he does best.

•I was told that there wasn’t a hub world, but there was definitely a map screen, showing off a series of planets in space from which Sonic could visit and access levels. In fact, my first reaction to seeing the game was: “Sonic Galaxy.” That’s not a bad thing, right?

Full Joystiq preview
Thanks to Mr.S at the SSMB for the heads up on the preview!

SEGA’s Sonic Colours Flickr set

Wii screens: