Joy

They did say that there's story purpose behind Sonic and Co. actually being back in old levels so they're at least acknowledging that this Green Hill is indeed the Green Hill compared to something like Splash Hill Zone insisting that it's its own thing. Any levels from Sonic 3&K should logically be quite different than when we first set foot in them (I can't quite buy that whole thing that everything was seemingly restored to health by the start of Knuckles' playthrough). Angel Island is still badly burnt, Hydrocity could have its water now filthy and murky after just being left to linger and Ice Cap could be melting away so that there's now more water and maybe even some of the land has now just become rock with the snow on top having melted away. The Sonic 1 & 2 levels would need a little more creative thinking since they don't really change but I could picture something like Casino Night having become bankrupt and abandoned since we last saw it. Lights now flicker on and off with the last bits of power they've got left and pinball flippers simply fall apart when used now. Electricity could be the key environmental obstacle here with bits and pieces short circuiting and blasting off electric projectiles. The slot machines could maybe just outright shutdown after you've had a go in them or maybe the slots have been tampered with or graffiti ed over which now affects the machine's payout. This would be a nice way to be able to implement new potential outcomes from the machine while still justifying it within the context of the world. Maybe you could get a shield from the machine now. Or maybe, going back to the whole bankruptcy theme, doing very badly in the machine could actually send your rings into the negatives. The negative rings would only be a possibility in Casino Night Zone, maybe even just one act, but it'd offer a bit of humour by surprising the player and offers a new challenge where they're going to need to get more rings than usual in order to get back to being able to take a hit without dying.

Just order it like you would anything else. It goes down as a pre-order since it obviously isn't out yet and all pre-orders on Amazon stay uncharged for until they actually ship your order. Looks like I misunderstood the question the question. My bad!

Wound up pre-ordering my own copy anyway. The price actually wasn't awful, even considering the shipping fees to the UK (Here's hoping it's enough to keep customs happy) and in any case, there's no harm sitting on it even if I change my mind before the release.

May 31st is technically the last official day before summer so it's just a placeholder date to cover the entirety of the spring season until they announce the real date.

Welp, I won't be able to get this either then but hey, can't win them all. Just as a heads up to the Americans though, Amazon won't charge you until they ship your order so you won't be paying until March at the earliest (Spring release and all) so if you want one of these, just order it now and you can always cancel it later!

The price might not actually be too bad depending on how good that statue is. If it really is 12 inches tall then that'd put it at just about the same size as the original F4F Classic Sonic statue which I think sold for a higher price when it was released compared to this Collector's edition where the statue is just one part. It's a shame that there's no physical disc here (assuming this photo is the finalised product) but I'm very excited for this and I'll definitely be putting a pre-order in if it'll be available on UK sites!