The "What the HECK Is A 2016 Sonic" Prophecy Thread (two topics from the pre-server wipe in one!)

[Salamander]

I thought the Shadow and Knuckles rumour was debunked as a SEGA rep not really knowing what they were talking about?

 

My first guess would have been a SEGA rep getting their wires crossed with Black Knight, which Shadow and Knuckles were in and which came out only shortly after.  But I decided to try and track down the origins of this claim.  Here is a TSSZ report of a "streaming demo" of Sonic Unleashed, which I believe to have been from E3; they claim that the commentary for said demo confirmed the inclusion of Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow as characters in the game, though not as playable ones.  A corresponding TSS article dated a day later exists here, and to my mind refers to the same circumstance, though here, alternative playable characters are merely neither confirmed nor denied.  Conceivably the demo was streamed by numerous organisations and an accompanying SEGA rep on one occasion made a mistaken statement, quite likely referring to Black Knight, as I suggested above.  If Shadow and Knuckles had ever been planned for Unleashed, especially at a point where SEGA were already getting demos ready, I would be astonished if there was no trace of them whatsoever in the coding; as such, I suspect that they were never planned for the game at all and any such statement to that effect was either mistaken or fabricated.

[PickleBrows]

I'll show you exactly where the Knuckles and Shadow thing came from. I get the feeling I've said this at some other point so apologies in advance. Ken Balough (yes, Sonic 4 Ken) was at E3 2008 providing demo session with Gamespot. 

 

This video is part of the original interview, it's from days gone by so the video quality is completely through the floor. At the 1:55 mark he's asked if any of Sonic's friends are going to show up. His reply is:

 

"We're definitely going to be able to see Tails, Knuckles, Shadow they are part of the story".

 

He stresses that the focus is on Sonic.

 

He's then asked if anyone will be playable other than Sonic and the Werehog to which he says:

 

"Right now, we're not announcing anything on that but definitely stay tuned".

 

The latter isn't worth reading into since he says the same thing about any past Sonic locations being in the game.

 

...Cannot believe I still remember this vividly all these years later.

 

[Blue Blood]

You could have asked. I remember watching the interview live. It's here from GameSpot at E3 2008, somewhere  during the Werehog gameplay IIRC.

 

It was during a live presentation of the game with GameSpot at E3 2008. Ken Balough, aka the guy who said "Sonic 4 as you truly imagined it", was the one being interviewed. If you don't want to watch it, it was just when someone asked which characters would be in the game that he listed Knuckles and Shadow along with Tails and Amy. He clearly just made a made a simple mistake, and I kinda doubt it was due to any confusion with Black Knight (not that it really makes a difference either way). The whole interview, in hindsight, shows just how nervous and unsure of things that Ken Balough was at the time.

 

EDIT: Bugger. Ninja'd.

[Willsy]

I actually wouldn't be surprised if the Werehog stages belonged to Knuckles originally, but was swapped with Wetehog after the whole "Sonic's Shitty Friends" thing came to light. Shadow could have originally been intended to be a cameo but was later cut.

[Blue Blood]

I actually wouldn't be surprised if the Werehog stages belonged to Knuckles originally, but was swapped with Wetehog after the whole "Sonic's Shitty Friends" thing came to light. Shadow could have originally been intended to be a cameo but was later cut.

[Willsy]

The idea started off as a dark/transformation of Sonic as sorts. There's no indication that Knuckles or Shadow were ever in the game or even planned as far back as we know.

[Scar]

I hope its good guys.

 

By that I mean good without a caveat.

[Blue Blood]

I hope its good guys.

We all do.

 

By that I mean good without a caveat.

But this is a very tall order.

[Scar]

And therein lies the problem Blue, therein lies the problem.

[Straw Hat]

Ya get awesome Sonic/Shadow stages to play through.... buuut you have to do some Mech Shooting and Treasure Hunting.

Ya get awesome Sonic stages again with crazy amounts of speed.... buuut you gotta be a Werehog.

Shadow's got his own game.... buuut it's completely shit.

[Tenko]

It makes you wonder why they bother trying to glue on gimmicks when people don't respond well to them usually.

The classic games seemed to do it right. They stuck with what people enjoyed but changed up the basic formula just that little bit for each character, and it worked. Sonic runs fast and had moves that made him go even faster, like the figure eight, while keeping the great gameplay. Tails could fly, which was awesome, but had the same gameplay as Sonic otherwise. Knuckles could glide and climb, that was pretty nifty, but again had the same gameplay as Sonic other than that. The same gameplay across the board but with tiny variations that actually end up creating a positive and almost different experience via the alternate paths and unique abilities each character has.

You take away that basic gameplay that people enjoy and it puts them off it seems. They don't want mech driving, or gem hunting, or slow ass fighting sections. They seem to just want the base Sonic gameplay but to be able to choose their favourite characters with their minor differences to the base gameplay which ends up giving them a whole new way to play through the existing game, much like Sonic 3 & Knuckles, which always seems to be banded about as the "best" game, usually alongside Sonic 2 and Sonic CD.

Tho lately I do agree that Sonic Team really should get what they want to do with Sonic down and perfected first then introduce the others back. Which is what they should be doing with all these Sonic only games...but instead they seem intent to keep changing things up and trying new things before they have even had a successful run of games that mirrors the classics in popularity...its...confusing to say the least.

[azoo]

So, coming back in here to say that since it's passed mid-May, we're probably not getting a Sonic game this year.

 

And by "probably" I mean "almost definitely".

 

With that in mind, this must mean that they're holding back for the 25th anniversary. Which is a bit silly since they're probably gonna announce it as Sonic's great 25th anniversary even though they just got done with the 20th one two games ago, but I digress.

 

This might mean we'll get a really good, polished game that's had a long development time, which is exciting.

 

This might also mean that it could be a tie-in to the movie that could be either coming next year or the year after, which is not exciting.

 

Everything's up in the air, really. As always.

 

And you know because I said it's not gonna happen, they'll announce a Sonic game this week... right?

[Kuzu]

Its not happening Azoo, its another year without Sonic.

[DarkRula]

Oh God. The horror of what I've just thought of.

 

Mario's 30th and Sonic's 25th at the 120th Olympic Anniversary Games Rio 2016.

[Gabz Girl]

No new Mario & Sonic game, no handheld game and no console game either. Just a little mobile game that hasn't even been officially released yet.

 

Well, let's hope Sonic's 25th will be a good one, with a solid game that has had immense work and effort put into it. I don't want another rush job like Sonic Generations.

[Soniman]

Meh, whatever. Honestly Sonic could afford to go into hibernation for a bit especially if it results in a good game again. So until next year then.

[Kuzu]

Meh, whatever. Honestly Sonic could afford to go into hibernation for a bit especially if it results in a good game again. So until next year then.

[Soniman]

Its gonna be another average game with questionable design decisions and we're all gonna like it like we always do :V

 

 

ACCEPT YOUR FATE.

[Kuzu]

THE PROPHECY HAS BEEN FULFILLED.

[TCB]

No new Mario & Sonic game, no handheld game and no console game either. Just a little mobile game that hasn't even been officially released yet.

 

Well, let's hope Sonic's 25th will be a good one, with a solid game that has had immense work and effort put into it. I don't want another rush job like Sonic Generations.

So I take it 3D Sonic 2 don't count for the handheld Sonic game this year...?

[Sami]

Out of sight, out of mind. I was really itching for new shit the two or three months after I replayed Sonic 3 and SA3 for the first time in a few years but I'm pretty much back to being ambivalent at this point.

Hope the game is good, whatever it happens to be.

Edit - wow I just realized I misspelled "sight" as "site" I'm smart

[FriendBot]

SA3 

 

Please tell me that you're talking about Advance 3 and you didn't made a mistake.....

 

As for me foe the new Sonic game, if it plays well enough and the annoying parts are kept at a minimum with a story that has pretty good moments like in Lost World but also has nice pacing as well, Pontac/Graff better not fuck up this time. Pretty sure that the music and visuals will be great.

 

So yeah, pretty optimistic about it.

[Sami]

Please tell me that you're talking about Advance 3 and you didn't made a mistake.....

 

As for me foe the new Sonic game, if it plays well enough and the annoying parts are kept at a minimum with a story that has pretty good moments like in Lost World but also has nice pacing as well, Pontac/Graff better not fuck up this time. Pretty sure that the music and visuals will be great.

 

So yeah, pretty optimistic about it.

 

FUCK I BROKE NDA

 

SA3 DOESNT EXIST YOU DIDNT HEAR IT FROM ME

[Tenko]

I do think its interesting that there has been some odd movements with people and game studios sourounding E3 in the last few days. That E3 teaser video was interesting too, showed off a few names that you wouldn't imagine being at E3 after the last few lackluster years and recent announcements of people leaving studios and canned games etc so it has me interested. Makes me wonder if Sega will be there but just not in a way we would expect. Tho like others have mentioned, they have been very quiet as far as releases or news since their restructuring announcement.

In a perfect world they would be holding back for the release of a new Sega console with new entries into all their flagship IP's they seem lothe to make money from in recent years. BUT realistically they are huddled up in HQ making a new strategy for bailing water from said sinking ship and trying to do so using as little money as possible but trying to get maximum output which is never a good thing.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Cross posting from the Runners thread.

 

http://4chanarchive.net/threads/v/res/252776382

 

Now before you all go lolz at the source... look at the content.

 

 

 

 

>Sonic Team working on 25th Anniversary game, internal title is just "Sega Sonic 25", but this has recently been changed to "Digital Sonic 25"

 

>Game is a "Celebration of Sega as a whole", which is basically Sonic Generations 2 without the boost stuff and has Sonic going through worlds from Segas past a bit like SASRT

 

>There's a couple of side projects

 

>3/4s of the Lost World team is working on Digital Sonic 25, but the team itself is much larger, taking notes from lots of figureheads from Segas past, there's a number of others working on 2 other projects

 

>"Sonic Runners" is a mobile game with a bit of pay2win in there, I haven't worked on it personally, but from what I've heard they're going for addictive fast paced platforming

 

>There's an exclusive Wii U title that's currently on hold as Sega have shifted the team to working on Digital Sonic 25 as they want it finished by this year to be polished for the anniversary

 

>The exclusive Wii U title is just an extended port of Generations and Colors, billed as "Sonic Colors Generation", with a bunch of extra missions and stuff. The core game is for the most part the same, warts and all

 

Underlined the interesting bit. 

 

Post is dated July 12th(?) 2014.

 

This pre-dates the following.

 

When TSS/SSMB found the Sonic Runners domain names by several months.

 

Not 100% sure on this one, but I think this also pre-dates that guy who leaked all the Boom details and Sonic Runners title.

 

Reminder: It's possible that truth and lies are mixed up with this.