SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 4

[Mister Zero]

News from The Tanooki/GameSpot: http://www.thetanooki.com/2010/02/04/its-official-project-needlemouse-is-now-sonic-4/

Ladies and gentlemen, you’ll never hear the codename Project Needlemouse again. SEGA has announced that the official name of Sonic’s next adventure will be Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1. The game will be downloadable and available on PSN, XBLA and yes, WiiWare. Both the WiiWare and PSN versions will allow for motion controls via the Wii Remote and SIAXIS controllers respectively. As you’ve noticed in the title, the game will be an episodic adventure, with part 1 releasing this summer.

The 2D adventure will likely please fans of old school sonic titles who have pleaded for an HD upgrade, of course without the werehog or medieval theme. Additionally, the site for the game has been created. Although not much is on there now, countdown clocks indicate that news, videos, concept art and more should appear throughout the next few days.

But that’s not all! GameSpot has the first official trailer for the game.(video at site)

[Mister Zero]

Official site: http://www.sega.com/sonic4/us/index.html

Official Sonic 4/Needlemouse Blog: http://blogs.sega.com/usa/category/project-needlemouse/

The GameSpot Article: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6249457.html

And an interview: http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/projectneedlemouse/news.html?sid=6249445&tag=topslot;title;1&mode=previews

Another article with a bit more elaboration: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/project-needlemouse-segas-sonic-the-hedgehog-4-episode-1-trailer-video/

[E-Day]

From the one second of gameplay they actually showed, it looks promising. Finally. Though I am disappinted that they are using the ugly, lanky, green-eyed Sonic model.

Here is hoping they don't use crappy rock music for the levels and stick with the style of music they used in the first 3.5 games.

[gblock]

This year is going to be great for a trip down memory lane: Sonic 4, NBA Jam Wii, NSMBWii....old is new again (just with some updates )

[Thor]

Lame they are releasing it in episodes!

Looks fairly nice but I'm sure by the time it's ready 100% It will really be cool looking. I'm glad they did away with all the crappy STH characters. Sonic is all the game needs. (well that and Doctor Robotnik)

[Data]

I need to see more before I make any opinions. It must not be worthy of releasing in a box on a store shelf if it's downloadable. Sega is testing the water with this game and trying to squeeze as much juice out of their blue furball. Hey at least if it's downloadable it will likely be affordable. I would like to see the characters from Sonic X have a game made but I doubt that will be any better than mediocre as much as I enjoy playing all of the Sonic games.

[Mister Zero]

So far they're taking a lot of fan ideas and concepts and using them in the game. This is evident if you look over some of the Sega blogs and site, where Sega claims they're trying to listen more closely to the fans. It's about time!

I don't like the lanky Sonic as much, either, or the way they have him moving in the preview(mainly the jumping-it looks a little bit choppy). The background in the clip looks pretty nice, but I hope they elaborate the further backgrounds more like in the original games, with lush foliage, mountains, and cities.

I'm glad it's only Sonic, but I will miss Tails if he's not in it. It'd be nice to have a two-player game like Sonic 3 where Tails can help you out when you need to fly, backtrack or reach special areas. This could add a lot of fun and replayability to the game. As far as the others, good riddance. A Knuckles cameo would be great though, possibly even with a two player mode with Sonic/Knuckles. This is all probably asking a bit much as far as reprogramming at this point, but I can dream.

If you notice on the character countdown, Tails and Knuckles don't make an appearance. Hopefully they are in the game!

Before

After

[The Bear]

To say I'm ridiculously stoked for this would be an understatement.

[Mister Zero]

More breaking Sonic 4 news comin' at ya from Sonic Retro: http://www.sonicretro.org/2010/02/sonic-4-intro-story/#more-134

Just to note- I don't know whether to believe this story yet or not, as it's supposedly hacked from the website and is poorly written. It also doesn't really reveal anything new, so take it with a grain of salt. Just trying to keep the topic fresh. - Mr. Zero

The Sonic 4 Story

Thanks to Retro member darkspines35, the Intro story has been found inside the Sonic 4 flash and is as follows:

WARNING: Possible Spoilers.

" 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…"

Also, they've decompiled the Sonic 4 flash website and found a few things possibly of interest: http://www.sonicretro.org/2010/02/additional-material-found-and-removed-from-sonic-4-site/#more-122

[Mister Zero]

Updates: Someone was naughty and leaked a Sonic 4 gameplay video and 1Up.com/SonicRetro got ahold of it. Here ya go!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPp4Eoq57YY

Also, here are a few close-up screen shots:

Title Screen

Splash Hill Zone

Zone Select Showing 4 Zones:

Mad Gear? I thought that belonged to Capcom.

[E-Day]

Looks pretty delicious. I would have preferred if they used classic Sonic instead of gay skinny Sonic. Classic Sonic just seems to animate better when it comes t onot running at top speed.

[Mister Zero]

Yeah, the Sonic model they used definitely has some crippling animation problems. I hope they can work that out. I mainly don't like how he takes off or his jumping animation/transitions.

[Thor]

:( Video is down already. That didn't take long.

[Mister Zero]

It's a secret to everyone.

[Thor]

Mr. Zero I liked the reference.

You know I really don't like the way Sonic is animated. I think Sonic Team could have done better. But I'll still get it.

[Mister Zero]

I've been complaining about it all over their message boards(where they claim they're listening to ideas) and in the info panel when I had the YouTube video up.. hopefully they get the message.

[E-Day]

Mr. Zero I liked the reference.

You know I really don't like the way Sonic is animated. I think Sonic Team could have done better. But I'll still get it.

Sonic Team isn't developing this game. Dimps is.

[Thor]

I was going to say "Well then there is your problem", but then I thought about it. Maybe that is why this game looks so good, it's not been tainted by what Sonic Team has gotten used to.

[E-Day]

I was going to say "Well then there is your problem", but then I thought about it. Maybe that is why this game looks so good, it's not been tainted by what Sonic Team has gotten used to.

Lots of people are saying that the game looks so good because it's not Sonic Team developing it. So either Sega decided not to let Sonic Team screw it up because they know Sonic Team makes sub par Sonic games, or Sonic Team is busy working on another Sonic game, sadly.

It would have actually been great if Sonic gave the development to Prope, Yuji Naka's development company, since he co-created Sonic and was responsible for how great the original games were.

[Thor]

No I agree it would have been nice to let Sonic Team take care of it. I find it rather odd that they didn't. But if they can bring Sonic back from the 3D death that he has been in for so many years then great. The last Sonic game that I enjoyed was Sonic Adventure. Even then I think that was only because it was a new thing I actually can't even play it now, it makes me motion sick. Before that Sonic 2 was the other good game. I did enjoy Sonic and Knuckles but it was not near as fun as the original Sonic and I'm sorry nothing will top the original.

[Mister Zero]

Sonic Team's name is on it, for whatever reason, even though it's not developed by them. I just hope they're consulting Naka and the other original designers(especially level designers).

I just don't want to see a blown up HD Sonic Rush, which is what it kind of looks like right now as far as Sonic's sprite. Sonic Rush was a decent game, but it still didn't feel like a canon Sonic game.

I'm a huge fan of the original Sonic game, but I have to say Sonic 3 & Knuckles is amazing. I just played through all three games the other night to kind of freshen up on everything Sonic, and that one still stands out. Not to say I don't love the other 2(and CD game) but S3&K is a masterpiece. I'd like to see them top it.

The thing I especially loved about Sonic 3 was the storyline. When things were happening in the story, you didn't see text bubbles or generic animation segments- the sprites on-screen played it out. Things like Knuckles chuckling and hopping on a button, messing with Sonic and Tails throughout the levels, and then the final few times we see Knuckles at Launch Base and Hidden Palace Zone where the big one-on-one showdown between him and Sonic happens are all great parts of the game. It really shows the characters' personality without having to give them annoying voices or cheesy one-liners.

The music was also great in that game, as it was in all of the original Sonic games. I'd like to hear some modern tunes on par with those and if possible they should bring in music industry names like they used to. I hope they don't do the whole music re-hash thing that seems to be popular right now.

I could go on forever, I'm just a huge Sonic fan, but I'll just stop here.

[E-Day]

They promised us a game with the same gameplay as the Genesis games (and not the GBA/DS games), so they'd better deliver. It's hard to tell anything about the gameplay based on that short gameplay/bug test video, so I will still give them the benefit of the doubt. And the fact that someone other than Sonic Team is developing it also gives me hope.

[RetroMan]

im looking forward to this

i still play sonic1 on my dsLL

now sonic4 on ps3 this should rock

hopfully alex kidd, wonderboy, be up

next?

[E-Day]

I doubt we'll see Wonder Boy or Alex Kidd. Sega has the rights to the names and characters from the Wonder Boy games, but the developer had the rights to evertyhing else, and they licesened the game to Hudson Soft who created Adventure Island. So I'm not sure Sega will ever create a new Wonder Boy title.

And they only seem to give Alex Kidd cameos All-Star games like Tennis and Racing. They make the old fans happy without putting time, effort and money into a dedicated Alex Kidd game that wouldn't be guaranteed to sell.

I'd love to see new games in both those series, but this is Sega we are talking about. They pretty much abandoned all the 8-bit franchises they had except to re-release them time and time again.

[Thor]

I think Alex Kidd needs to stay right where he is at. I loved Alex Kidd but I don't think I would like to see him resurected, I don't think it would be done properly. Besides they really messed with Kidd too much with stuff like Hightech World or Shinobi World. Those games were just retarded. As for Wonderboy this is all your going to see