Sonic the Hedgehog 4

[Birdie]

I make my once yearly return to this place, make a post and bugger off.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 has got me excited about Sonic again, I'll be plainly honest. I've not felt hype toward a Sonic game since the announcement of Sonic Heroes all those years previous. Tell you what got me really excited for Sonic 4? Simply a continuation of the story arc that Sonic 3/S&K left off with, Sega are extending my childhood, 16 years later. Man I feel so old. :3

[Korama]

I'm one of the biggest haters

You certainly are.

SCNR

[Barry the Nomad]

I make my once yearly return to this place, make a post and bugger off.

Joined March '09 yet you've made 6 posts?? LIES!! Green eyed LIES!!!

I kid, I kid.

Cannot wait to see what unlocks on the official site tomorrow.

[Paul Str337]

Ugh, the UK times for the unlocks are all when I'm at work.

[jeremycarrier]

Holy shit, SEGA showed Sonic running for five seconds? Sonic Rush 3, here we go fffffffffffff-

[Tyranno]

Do you seriously think that's what I'm saying? All I'm saying is that the black eyes are better than the green eyes. You are the ones who are putting words into my mouth, accusing me of saying that that's enough to ruin the game on it's own. It isn't. It is, however, enough to affect one's enjoyment of it. For me, it would be enough to make me want to buy it just so I could see him officially looking right again.

There. THERE Phos. That's where you presume and show arrogance. There's nothing right or wrong about it. The color of Sonic's irises is an aesthetic matter and one doesn't reflect something that's more inherently correct or not.

On the very left, you can see that Sonic has run straight up a wall at near full speed, and has gone around an exterior quarter pipe. Then he went into a corckscrew, and is then approaching a loop. That's a speed gimmick into a speed gimmick into a speed gimmick.

I just watched a run of chemnical plant zone. Sonic launching from speed gimmick into speed gimmick describes multiple parts of that level.

[nUcLeArEnVoY]

On the very left, you can see that Sonic has run straight up a wall at near full speed, and has gone around an exterior quarter pipe. Then he went into a corckscrew, and is then approaching a loop. That's a speed gimmick into a speed gimmick into a speed gimmick. That isn't Yasuhara (AKA, what we want) style. That's barely even Rivals style. For all intents and purposes, this game appears to be Sonic Rush, only with less features, and slowed down just because they think that will make classic fans like the game more. But they included the homing attack, so it won't actually matter. I'm one of the biggest haters of the homing attack around, and I still spam the crap out of it while playing Sonic Rivals 2, a game that this game seems to bear a great resemblance to. Why? Because it takes so long to get anywhere otherwise.

That picture's a little misleading. It's hard to tell if it's a direct vertical ascent because if you watch the video, you can barely catch a glimpse that he's rolling along an incline that leads to the bend. Besides, the old games hosted dozens of segments in the levels where Sonic seamlessly transitions from speed gimmick to speed gimmick.

See this picture from the maniacs at Retro: http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/541/slope.png

Edited February 4, 2010 by nUcLeArEnVoY

[Barry the Nomad]

I believe they're given in hours/minutes/seconds until unlocking, counting down. So no specific time is given.

18 hours to the next unlock.

Edited February 4, 2010 by Doctor Eggman

[Nepenthe]

Yeah but that was more 'Pinball level with a bit of water'. I'm thinking 'Water with a bit of pinball'.

There's a difference in my head, I swear! XD

Ha, I understand what you mean. Although I'm imagining frustration from the risk of drowning being greatly increased because of some bitchy bumpers in the way of the surface. xD Yae for traps.

This is not the game the person you are referring to was presumably talking about. Look around, who doesn't like the way this is looking so far? Older fans. Who would you expect to like this game? Older fans. Obviously, this game is not what it claims to be. I have more. This picture was put together by Sonicandtails, over at Sonic Retro:

On the very left, you can see that Sonic has run straight up a wall at near full speed, and has gone around an exterior quarter pipe. Then he went into a corckscrew, and is then approaching a loop. That's a speed gimmick into a speed gimmick into a speed gimmick. That isn't Yasuhara (AKA, what we want) style. That's barely even Rivals style. For all intents and purposes, this game appears to be Sonic Rush, only with less features, and slowed down just because they think that will make classic fans like the game more. But they included the homing attack, so it won't actually matter. I'm one of the biggest haters of the homing attack around, and I still spam the crap out of it while playing Sonic Rivals 2, a game that this game seems to bear a great resemblance to. Why? Because it takes so long to get anywhere otherwise.

There's also older fans who are also joyous about the game as well because they are not overanalyzing five seconds of footage and extrapoloting what could just as possibly be one speed trap in the very first level-- which, in Sonic games, were never as platform-centric as the later ones-- to build up a picture of what the rest of the 99.999999% of this game will play like.

I can understand having a general feeling about the game from the little we've seen, especially with the name 'Sonic 4' being tacked on. People either excited or disappointed, or maybe even neutral; Fair enough. But using five seconds to determine that this is wholly Sonic Rush 3? Saying that his eye color would even have some level of effect of your enjoyment of the game in the first place, however insignificant it may be? People on Retro bawwing that the game is ruined forever because the tree concept art wasn't unique enough, even though if it had been they would've cried that it was still missing the point of the Classic art style?

Seriously, there's a difference between pessimism and disappointment, and bitching and whining. There is a certain level of unreasonableness to some people's negativity around the community-- Yours included.

Edited February 4, 2010 by Nepenthe

[Rusty Spy]

Oh forgot about the HA being in the game.

Well, since there's a 99.9999999999999% chance that it'll be a standard ability and not a powerup (forgot who mentioned that awesome idea), all I can hope for is that it's like how they handled it in the Rushes, a secondary move that's not too effective, but useful.

I honestly would've preferred if it WASN'T in the game at all, unless as the aforementioned powerup.

Oh, and Sega, see Sonic Megamix? yeah, DON'T TAKE IDEAS FOR THE HOMING ATTACK FROM THAT!

Edited February 4, 2010 by Black Spy

[Djawed]

Im with phos. I agree with him.

Im very dissapointed with the trailer while yesterday I was almost shitting my pants because i was so excited.

This was supposed to be for all the retrofags right? Well.. it's not

Its for modern fans while they added the illusion it's being made for classic. Lol the guys at sonicteam are great

Edited February 4, 2010 by Jaouad

[Stasis]

Pretty close:

In fact, the Unleashed hub world jog reminds me of what we saw in the trailer.

Just saw this post and thought I'd reply since the pages are loading slow. I comment on this on the blog:

Regarding the running animation: Here’s something to try. Go and play a Sonic Unleashed level and try walking, or enter a hub and run . You’ll get the same walking animation as seen in the teaser. Right now they are using the same game mechanics and engine as Unleashed. Sonic is ‘made’ to go slow in the teaser and looks rather uncomfortable doing it. Hopefully they will fix this.

Also, is it me, or does this Sonic look worse than the Unleashed one, even though the look pretty much identical? It must be the angle.

[Guest]

It's so HD the sprites look like models.

It IS a model...

[Indigo Rush]

I just watched a run of chemnical plant zone. Sonic launching from speed gimmick into speed gimmick describes multiple parts of that level.

It''s obvious that the Sonic series stopped being good after Sonic 1. Heavens to Betsey if he ever actually goes fast in a game.

...okay, I think we're done making fun of Phos now.

[Iceman Etika]

You're wrong, all of you. Why haven't we noticed this before.

Take a close look at what you are about to see.

The resemblance is uncanny.

Well my friends, the truth is obvious. From the hard evidence provided, it's easy to see that Sonic 4, will actually be a remake of "Robotniks Mean Bean Machine".

Discuss.

-Iceman

[Dreadknux]

Do you seriously think that's what I'm saying? All I'm saying is that the black eyes are better than the green eyes. You are the ones who are putting words into my mouth, accusing me of saying that that's enough to ruin the game on it's own. It isn't.

...To me, making his eyes black would improve my enjoyment of Sonic games.

Sounds like the same thing to me. The eye colour is enough to put you off the game, therefore you are saying the eyes is enough to ruin the game on its own. You do know what you're saying, right?

I couldn't give a rat's arse if you found more enjoyment replacing Sonic with a brown epileptic donkey. Your argument is based on something superficial, something that does not in any way, shape or form affect what is key to a game like Sonic the Hedgehog - gameplay, level design and graphical style.

No, an insignificant thing like eye colour, which would only affect you if you paused the game and stood so close to the TV that your head was on the other side, is not a game-changer. It might be to you, but not to any sane person in the universe. There's a perfectly valid reason why everyone is treating your argument for the complete laughing stock it is.

Look around, who doesn't like the way this is looking so far? Older fans. Who would you expect to like this game? Older fans. Obviously, this game is not what it claims to be.

Excuse me. I'm an old Sonic fan, and I am verging on the positive on this game, thank you very much. I'm sure there are many people who don't take issue with the colour of Sonic's arse that are in the same position as me, who aren't 14 year old Shadow fanboys. It would do you no favours to broadly paint people who aren't going "OMG LAAAAAAMEZOOOOOR" as immature retards yourself.

On the very left, you can see that Sonic has run straight up a wall at near full speed, and has gone around an exterior quarter pipe. Then he went into a corckscrew, and is then approaching a loop. That's a speed gimmick into a speed gimmick into a speed gimmick. That isn't Yasuhara (AKA, what we want) style. That's barely even Rivals style. For all intents and purposes, this game appears to be Sonic Rush, only with less features, and slowed down just because they think that will make classic fans like the game more. But they included the homing attack, so it won't actually matter.

I'll tell you what I see. I see a small segment of a tiny part of one Act of one Zone, selected purely for the purposes of providing 'something' action-based to fill a teaser trailer. I do not see a complete level map. I do not see anything beyond that tiny segment of level design. And I don't see a compelling argument for auto-pessimists that are looking to slit their wrists because something in a three second clip doesn't do the five million things they request it does.

I'm one of the biggest haters of the homing attack around, and I still spam the crap out of it while playing Sonic Rivals 2, a game that this game seems to bear a great resemblance to. Why? Because it takes so long to get anywhere otherwise.

Wrong. You use it because Sonic Rivals 2 is a racing game, and the key element of a racing game is speed. What applies in one genre does not necessarily apply to another. Sonic Rush Adventure featured a homing attack. How many times did you use it?

[SKSpawn]

Really hoping for Tails and Knuckles to appear as playable characters in this, it does seem odd to make the game that continues on from Sonic 3 & Knuckles only have Sonic as a playable character...though given that it's a downloadable title, I guess it'd be too much to ask for a couple of extra characters to be thrown in...Just, as much as I like/miss Classic Sonic, I miss Classic Tails and Knuckles gameplay just as much.

[redmenace]

...

Do you seriously think that's what I'm saying? All I'm saying is that the black eyes are better than the green eyes. You are the ones who are putting words into my mouth, accusing me of saying that that's enough to ruin the game on it's own. It isn't. It is, however, enough to affect one's enjoyment of it. For me, it would be enough to make me want to buy it just so I could see him officially looking right again.

Now, here's where the problem with your argument comes from: To me, making his eyes black would improve my enjoyment of Sonic games. Whenever I voice this belief, what do I get in response? An endless cavalcade of people telling me how stupid that is.

This is not the game the person you are referring to was presumably talking about. Look around, who doesn't like the way this is looking so far? Older fans. Who would you expect to like this game? Older fans. Obviously, this game is not what it claims to be. I have more. This picture was put together by Sonicandtails, over at Sonic Retro:

On the very left, you can see that Sonic has run straight up a wall at near full speed, and has gone around an exterior quarter pipe. Then he went into a corckscrew, and is then approaching a loop. That's a speed gimmick into a speed gimmick into a speed gimmick. That isn't Yasuhara (AKA, what we want) style. That's barely even Rivals style. For all intents and purposes, this game appears to be Sonic Rush, only with less features, and slowed down just because they think that will make classic fans like the game more. But they included the homing attack, so it won't actually matter. I'm one of the biggest haters of the homing attack around, and I still spam the crap out of it while playing Sonic Rivals 2, a game that this game seems to bear a great resemblance to. Why? Because it takes so long to get anywhere otherwise.

I see the point in bitching about this. I quite see it and I don't like him going up that ramp with no difficulty at the beginning either. About the speed gimmick, speed gimmick, speed gimmick, I was also worried since I saw it on the trailer. Then I went through the emerald hill maps (they were designed by Yasuhara as well, or am I very wrong?) looking for examples of the corkscrew to prove your point and was a bit surprised.

Two speed gimmicks

FOUR of them packed together. This one even has corkscrew and loop like in the Sonic 4 video, in a close straight line.

This is the most laughable of them all. Straight line :psyduck:

Three of them goes straight down for Sonic to have momentum. But your point was it was very speed oriented instead of clever level design (which EHZ has as well, no issues raised over this) was it not? And the slopes just add to that speed. Then I remembered it's the first zone. it's supposed to be more speed based than heavy platform (probably why I don't like them much D:). Maybe we're judging those 4 seconds unfairly comparing to the whole zone, though as a teaser trailer IT IS EXPECTED to be to the objective of the game. So you might be right on the game focusing on speed but from this kind of made me a bit skepticall on the whole... eh... Rush 3 thing. I hate Rush by the way.

I'm still with you on fearing the ramp with no difficulty at the beginning and the homing attack. The bumpy path (at a lack of a better word), which is so characteristic of the outdoor levels (which can be seen in what I linked) of the classics is missing as well, which I fear as well. It didn't do much at a certain speed, but it added charm. I suppose that's what's missing, charm and subtle details. It feels uninspired.

And look at the bottom of the corckskrew, there's a gap, it MUST be a bottomless pit! This game appears to be Heroes but in 2D and no partners! FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU-

And OH NOES! 3 SPEED GIMMICKS IN A ROW!!!! THIS IS MADNESS!

Oh and:

THAT'S 4 SPEED GIMMICKS!!!! WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!!!!!!!

SONIC 2 IS SECRETLY SONIC RUSH!!!!!! *mega-gasp* *faints*

HEYYYYYYY YOU STOLE MY POST! Should've known to post with only one example.

Edited February 4, 2010 by redmenace

[Barry the Nomad]

Just saw this post and thought I'd reply since the pages are loading slow. I comment on this on the blog:

Regarding the running animation: Here’s something to try. Go and play a Sonic Unleashed level and try walking, or enter a hub and run . You’ll get the same walking animation as seen in the teaser. Right now they are using the same game mechanics and engine as Unleashed. Sonic is ‘made’ to go slow in the teaser and looks rather uncomfortable doing it. Hopefully they will fix this.

Also, is it me, or does this Sonic look worse than the Unleashed one, even though the look pretty much identical? It must be the angle.

I'm assuming they slowed Sonic down in the trailer so that the 3 seconds of gameplay weren't 1.5 seconds.

I think it's the lack of environment, the pose and missing mouth that makes the Sonic 4 model look "worse". At least, in that one instance on the site.

[brobotnik]

THAT'S 4 SPEED GIMMICKS!!!! WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!!!!!!!

SONIC 2 IS SECRETLY SONIC RUSH!!!!!! *mega-gasp* *faints*

I was about to point out the hill-to-loop-to-loop-to-hollowed-out-tree from Angel Island in Sonic 3, myself.

Seriously, speed gimmicks are nothing NEW. They were even WORSE in Adventure/Adv2/Heroes, etc. Nothing quite like the sensation of plodding along slowly, touching a boost pad, ROCKETING through a loop or a set piece that suddenly rips control away from you, and then getting dumped back out into an area where you just plod along again.

Always hated that. And I'm ecstatic that we're moving away from it for a while.

[psikeout]

I suppose that's what's missing, charm and subtle details. It feels uninspired.

I know this sounds like a broken record, but I think it honestly bears repeating:

We've only seen five seconds of what is presumably beta footage.

[brobotnik]

Note that Sonic is running, it MUST be Shadow the Hedgehog's Westopolis but without Shadow.

DON'T YOU EVEN JOKE

D:

KEEP IT AWAY, KEEP IT AWAY

[Nepenthe]

Would it be wrong if I reiterated that we don't know anything about the level design before or after what we were shown in the trailer, thus being "afraid" of how easily Sonic makes it up the ramp is a bit silly? xP

EDIT: I guess it would be wrong. I was late. xD

Edited February 4, 2010 by Nepenthe

[nUcLeArEnVoY]

I see the point in bitching about this. I quite see it and I don't like him going up that ramp with no difficulty at the beginning either. About the speed gimmick, speed gimmick, speed gimmick, I was also worried since I saw it on the trailer. Then I went through the emerald hill maps (they were designed by Yasuhara as well, or am I very wrong?) looking for examples of the corkscrew to prove your point and was a bit surprised.

Two speed gimmicks

FOUR of them packed together. This one even has corkscrew and loop like in the Sonic 4 video, in a close straight line.

This is the most laughable of them all. Straight line :psyduck:

Three of them goes straight down for Sonic to have momentum. But your point was it was very speed oriented instead of clever level design (which EHZ has as well, no issues raised over this) was it not? And the slopes just add to that speed. Then I remembered it's the first zone. it's supposed to be more speed based than heavy platform (probably why I don't like them much D:). Maybe we're judging those 4 seconds unfairly comparing to the whole zone, though as a teaser trailer IT IS EXPECTED to be to the objective of the game. So you might be right on the game focusing on speed but from this kind of made me a bit skepticall on the whole... eh... Rush 3 thing. I hate Rush by the way.

I'm still with you on fearing the ramp with no difficulty at the beginning and the homing attack. The bumpy path (at a lack of a better word), which is so characteristic of the outdoor levels (which can be seen in what I linked) of the classics is missing as well, which I fear as well. It didn't do much at a certain speed, but it added charm. I suppose that's what's missing, charm and subtle details. It feels uninspired.

And the epiglottis is the small slab of membrane that protects the larynx from any obstructions that could accidentally enter it.

I think you're over analyzing the 3 seconds of development footage. I hate to side with this game but meh, I'm going to try keeping my reservations and hope for the best. Hell, that might not even be the final running animation.

Edited February 4, 2010 by nUcLeArEnVoY

[Teoleulbogo]

Tell you what got me really excited for Sonic 4? Simply a continuation of the story arc that Sonic 3/S&K left off with, Sega are extending my childhood, 16 years later. Man I feel so old. :3

Same here S&K being my favorite game hearing it would be a direct continuation just put the icing on the cake. Speaking of story, while I will get this game and enjoy it with, or without this,I'm starting to wonder just how much of a story this game will have. I mean the whole 2D and direct continuation stuff is starting to make me think it'll be like the Genesis games with very little story development,which I was fine with back then when story wasn't that big in games, but nowadays games have become less about gaming and more about story. I'm not asking for fully rendered cutscenes or anything, but a few stills and maby some voice acting(maby something similar to Black Knight)would be nice.