Sonic the Hedgehog 4

[Frozen Nitrogen]

Another mindscrew from the 1337 h4XX0rz over at Retro (for those of you who don't lurk there anyway):

These are stills from the trailer, where Sonic's doing his walking and jumping and stuff amidst the lightless black before "Splash Hill" cuts in. Look closely. Look VERY closely.

INSIDE Sonic's model you can see a video - a video of the stage thats shown for 5 seconds! What you're seeing there is the gameplay (and bits of the level) before it actually cuts to the full reveal bit!

In the bottom right you'll note that Sonic's riding a pulley system similar to the one in S3 Launch Base Zone. And in the top left (across the spin-dashing Sonic) there's black/yellow hashed markings of the kind that were on the floor in S2's Death Egg.

Mind.

Blown.

[Rusty Spy]

Aquaslash's post has made me realize that there's a way the green eyes in Sonic 4 can be explained, if one feels inclined to do so.

Sonic had green eyes as Super Sonic in the Sonic 3 and SanK, right?

And Sonic 4 takes place right after those games, right?

Maybe after Sonic got the Master Emerald back from Robotnik during the Doomsday Zone level, some residual Chaos Energy caused his eyes to remain green.

Maybe he's Heterochromia, only it spread to both his eyes.

Another mindscrew from the 1337 h4XX0rz over at Retro (for those of you who don't lurk there anyway):

These are stills from the trailer, where Sonic's doing his walking and jumping and stuff amidst the lightless black before "Splash Hill" cuts in. Look closely. Look VERY closely.

INSIDE Sonic's model you can see a video - a video of the stage thats shown for 5 seconds! What you're seeing there is the gameplay (and bits of the level) before it actually cuts to the full reveal bit!

In the bottom right you'll note that Sonic's riding a pulley system similar to the one in S3 Launch Base Zone. And in the top left (across the spin-dashing Sonic) there's black/yellow hashed markings of the kind that were on the floor in S2's Death Egg.

Mind.

Blown.

Sega you FUCKING SNEAKY BASTARDS!

Edited February 5, 2010 by Black Spy

[Diogenes]

His eyes were always green, obviously.

[Dejablue]

Death Egg yay!

[EXshad]

Then they should be creating more original level and enemy designs to begin with, cause right now it looks like Sega is running out of ideas. Remember what the first levels of the first three games looked like? This is basically a more advanced looking version of Green/Emerald Hill Zone.

Oh, good lord....

Thank you for proving my point.

Plus, with all due respect, it seems as though, in the one case of this game, you're kinda missing the point.... I mean, as a throwback to the classics, like New Super Mario Bros, I believe this is the one instance where relying on pure nostalgia is the high selling point of the game. If it were any other game, I'd almost completely agree with ya, but this is THE Sonic 4.

Not to mention, this is a series where the art-style changes big time from game-to-game, so it's nice to see returning themes, IMO.

Edited February 5, 2010 by EXshad

[Frozen Nitrogen]

Death Egg yay!

This has already led me on massive flights of storyfag conjecture that the reason the Zone is called "Splash Hill" isn't because Sonic's splashing about, but because this is where the Death Egg splashed down when it crashed from orbit. So you find bits of wreckage (like the hash markings) strewn about an otherwise naturalistic zone.

DEATH EGG CRASH SITE LEVEL CONFIRMED FOR NOODLEMOUSE!?!?!?!

[ChaosXVI]

The fact that people discover these things is absolutely absurd...But awesome!

[Dejablue]

Oh, good lord....

Thank you for proving my point.

Plus, with all due respect, it seems as though, in the one case of this game, you're kinda missing the point.... I mean, as a throwback to the classics, like New Super Mario Bros, I believe this is the one instance where relying on pure nostalgia is the high selling point of the game.

"Pure Nostaliga". Yet no Classic Sonic

DANGIT I promised myself I wouldn't keep talking about this. *begins the bloody proccess of sewing a zipper onto my lips*

[EXshad]

"Pure Nostaliga". Yet no Classic Sonic

DANGIT I promised myself I wouldn't keep talking about this. *begins the bloody proccess of sewing a zipper onto my lips*

lol, it's fine, I think. Idk. Anyhow, pure nostalgia was a bad way of putting it. Nostalgia, yes, as we all well know, there's classic elements everywhere, but it's not so classical that it would alienate most new fans. Once more, new meets old. Sonic and Eggman resemble their post-Unleashed selves (which IMO are pretty classic looking already), while everything else is pratically a perfect blast from the past, with the 3D touch to make them look almost new again. I still hold to my belief that this game looks more classic-styled than New Super Mario Bros does.

Edited February 5, 2010 by EXshad

[Blazey Firekitty]

Hmmm. As good a theory as any I suppose.

I bet the game will generate lots more speculation about storyline elements once it comes out.

Maybe he's Heterochromia, only it spread to both his eyes.

I think it would have been hilarious for one eye to be black and one eye to be green.XD It would have looked like Sega was super desperate to please both sides of the fanbase.XD

His eyes were always green, obviously.

It's possible. Maybe all the eyes were black originally because the developers weren't sure what eye colors they wanted, or otherwise didn't care at the time.

Edited February 5, 2010 by BlazeyBakeneko

[Solid SOAP]

Considering that every opening level to pretty much every Sonic game ever besides a few oddballs like SA2 and Unleashed have been some sort of green hill or beach, I think it was pretty obvious that we were gonna have a "hill zone" level as stage 1 for this game as well, otherwise a different, much larger, group of fans would have bitched. And so far this is honestly much more original than NSMBWii was, reusing exact textures, models, and sprites from NSMB on the DS. There are completely new models etc here and it all looks pretty good to me.

[Patticus]

This has already led me on massive flights of storyfag conjecture that the reason the Zone is called "Splash Hill" isn't because Sonic's splashing about, but because this is where the Death Egg splashed down when it crashed from orbit. So you find bits of wreckage (like the hash markings) strewn about an otherwise naturalistic zone.

DEATH EGG CRASH SITE LEVEL CONFIRMED FOR NOODLEMOUSE!?!?!?!

Wait wait... how do we know that zone's title?

[Iceman Etika]

Another mindscrew from the 1337 h4XX0rz over at Retro (for those of you who don't lurk there anyway):

These are stills from the trailer, where Sonic's doing his walking and jumping and stuff amidst the lightless black before "Splash Hill" cuts in. Look closely. Look VERY closely.

INSIDE Sonic's model you can see a video - a video of the stage thats shown for 5 seconds! What you're seeing there is the gameplay (and bits of the level) before it actually cuts to the full reveal bit!

In the bottom right you'll note that Sonic's riding a pulley system similar to the one in S3 Launch Base Zone. And in the top left (across the spin-dashing Sonic) there's black/yellow hashed markings of the kind that were on the floor in S2's Death Egg.

Mind.

Blown.

Dude. To be able to see that, you must have the eye of a freaking detective. Bravo, bravo. O_O

Nitrogen... I am... impress

-Iceman

[jeremycarrier]

Wait wait... how do we know that zone's title?

We're just going after the original rumor about the game being called Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1. He mentioned the name of the game, two of the levels(Splash Hill Zone and E.G.G.M.A.N. Land), and something else I forgot.

Of course its all just speculation, but the guy's been right so far *shrugs*

Edited February 5, 2010 by jeremycarrier

[BakingBluePotatoe]

I bet the game will generate lots more speculation about storyline elements once it comes out.

I think it would have been hilarious for one eye to be black and one eye to be green.XD It would have looked like Sega was super desperate to please both sides of the fanbase.XD

It's possible. Maybe all the eyes were black originally because the developers weren't sure what eye colors they wanted, or otherwise didn't care at the time.

Agreed.

[Dejablue]

I remember the first trailer for the new Rocket Knight game. It used the exact same format of showing us a brief timeline/levels of the old games. Then fancy flash to the modern look. Nobody liked it. The same can be said here. It's apparently not a good idea to put 3D models against sprites when the 3D models animation isn't up to par. It leaves a bad first impression.

But then the second teaser for Rocket Knight came out and it looks a little better. But we also got more than 2 seconds of gameplay to analyze.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Wait wait... how do we know that zone's title?

I too would like to know this information, who has said what the first zone is called?

[vgmaster]

Oh, good lord....

Thank you for proving my point.

Plus, with all due respect, it seems as though, in the one case of this game, you're kinda missing the point.... I mean, as a throwback to the classics, like New Super Mario Bros, I believe this is the one instance where relying on pure nostalgia is the high selling point of the game. If it were any other game, I'd almost completely agree with ya, but this is THE Sonic 4.

Not to mention, this is a series where the art-style changes big time from game-to-game, so it's nice to see returning themes, IMO.

Well at least Nindendo didn't call NSMB Super Mario Bros 4. To be honest, I'm looking forward to more information on the game and if it has good enough reviews, I'll eventually get it. I'm just so angry that I have been living in this fantasy world for so long hoping to see another 16-bit game.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

EDIT: Whoa, holy crap. 20 pages since I went to sleep? And I just made this after reading the last page I was on.

I guess this is what happens when I keep this forum on while napping.

How did I miss the part? I can tell the difference between a joke and a retort, if it wasn't directed at anyone in particular then why did you quote it directly after I said "Minus points calling him Eggman instead of Robotnik" and you said "Extra points for using Eggman, Robotnik is shite"? Sounds like direction to me.

You weren't the only one here with the whole "Boo Eggman" vibe going on. I could've been directing it to everyone else for all you know.

And even if it was directed to you, the point is that the whole thing was a joke. Hence why I said "I can't believe you took that seriously" right after you commented it. For someone who can tell the difference between a joke and a retort, you're taking it more like a retort than you are with a joke.

Not neccessarily. Try and piece together evry bit of Sonic gaming into a chronolgy, and don't cheat by ruling out ones that you find hard to place as "non-canon". It can't be done because Sonic Team have royally F***ed up the ongoing storyline. Just because this is said to happen after Sonic3&K doesn't neccessarily mean it will be before Sonic Adventure 1. Continuity in the Sonic series is a mess and therefore is subjective to the individual. I like to think the games are all one big story, but I know that that can't be possible due to so many paradoxes.

All that said, I still see no correlation to this and Nack not having a chance in Sonic4???

I just gave you three references in SA1 that easily tells the audience that this game takes place after S3&K. That's pretty easy to peice together how the series organizes itself. Amy remembered being resuced from Sonic with Metal Sonic chasing after them, Sonic gets on Knuckles for Eggman tricking him again, Sonic and Tails meet each other after such a long time.

So if SA1 takes place somewhere after S3&K based off those references I gave you, and Sonic 4 is to contiune right after Sonic 3 & Knuckles, then how in the world can you place Sonic 4 anywhere after SA1? It makes more sense to place Sonic 4 inbetween S3&K and SA1.

And the only storyline Sonic Team have royally F***ed up would be the one on Sonic 06, and given the attributes of that games plot there's no way they can screw up anything else like that unless they were going to have Time Traveling or crossing other dimensions. The way they were handling those two elements was what led to them screwing up the plot in the first place.

So why does Nack have to have been in games ranging from Sonic3 - SA??? What's stopping them from having him in Sonic4?? I don't follow. Why does Nack need the crudentials of being featured somewhere in between those games to be in Sonic 4. This baffles me.

It would make more sense. Why have Nack appear in this game which is set before any of the modern games that came out, and then not have anything that even references him in any of the modern games? Unless something happens to him in this game that explains why he isn't in the other games, Nack not being in any of the other games set afterwards would throw things off.

In fact, I guess that would actually screw things up with the continuity if that were to happen. But do we really want that to happen for this game? Unless Sonic Team would have a good explaination for his long absence in later games, I'm not seeing a good chance of him appearing.

This is a new game set in a classic time period, as Dreadknux said: any character could be a possiblity, hell Sonic 4: Episode 2 could be about Knuckles and have Rouge in it, afterall they seemed to have some history in SA2 yet this was the first we'd seen of her - and Rouge doesn't fit into your category of between Sonic3&K - SA.

SA2 was the first time Knuckles and Rouge met each other. There isn't any kind of evidence that shows any history between them.

And while she may not fit into my category of between S3&K-SA1, it wouldn't be like she would have a such a long leave of absence in this game and then disappear in the many games set after it. I don't see too much of a problem for her appearing in this game and then taking a break during the times of SA1, but I doubt that would even happen with her.

No what you actually said in response to me saying that the Chaotix came back from what you refered to as the "being killed off" was "They thought the Chaotix were scrapped until they returned in Heroes. But they were uninvolved in anything except Knuckles Chaotix, and were practically retconed in Heroes as new characters." Hence why I asked if you meant Nack can't be retconned therefore can't be in Sonic 4, I'm not burdening my argument at all, I'm trying to figure out what the hell you're on about.

I view being "killed off" and being "scrapped" as two different things. If he were killed off, they would appear in the story and be lead to their deaths, if he were scrapped then they decided not to use the character anymore for whatever reason.

When the Chaotix were scrapped, they just weren't used at all. But when they appeared in Heroes, they were retconned as new characters who aren't anything like they were made to be in previous games. Mighty practically disappeared from the group and there isn't any reason as to why and Espio was remade to be a ninja.

What is so different about the Chaotix from Nack? Why couldn't he make a return like they did?

I never said there was anything different about the Chaotix from Nack. What I was saying is that like they did the Chaotix in Heroes, Nack could be retconned in a game that takes place after the current 3D one.

and further still, wouldn't it be the more optimal time, if any, in a classic game to have a classic character's return rather than in a new 3D title?

Not the way I'm looking at it. I see a better chance of him being retconned in a 3D as a character that they haven't seen before.

If he does appear in this game (and I'm not saying I'm 100% sure that he won't), then that would make me wonder where the hell he's been in SA1, SA2, Heroes, Shadow, Sonic 06, Sonic Riders, Sonic Unleashed, etc. That's quite a big disappearance for him to take during those games unless the folks at Sega have a good explanation for it.

I don't see why Nack would need to be "killed off" as you put it in this game just because he doesn't appear in SA and for that to make sense...The Chaotix weren't killed off after not appearing in a game since Shadow.

It's not because he doesn't appear in just SA1, it's because he doesn't appear in any of the games that take place during S3&K to the present. I thought I was clear, but apparently I wasnn't, so my fault for not explaining that part well enough.

So please don't twist my words, and rather make yourself clearer about what you mean.

Nice try. I'll admit to not being clear with what I meant, but I never was twisting your words.

Edited February 5, 2010 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[Bubonic Bunny]

I too would like to know this information, who has said what the first zone is called?

The information comes from the same source that leaked the game would be in episodes and it would be called Sonic 4. Of course we can't say it is true till it is confirmed but I believe this is leaning on the legitimate side of rumors.

[DaBatGuy]

Sonic fans look at your hero. Don't you think enough is enough?

[Saint Nathan]

But they fucking named it Sonic 4.

THEY. FUCKING. NAMED. IT. SONIC 4.

And I thought "SONIC the Hedgehog" was unoriginal.

In other news, the site (lol at first i wrote "shite") is taking a hell of a long time to load, so I can't say athing on trailers.

However, the fact that starposts are back make me a little giddy inside.

[Barry the Nomad]

^I reached my quota of negative votes for the day, but you totally would be getting one^

[Rusty Spy]

Now I'm gonna say some stuff that's most likely been mentioned before but still gonna bring it up for the sake of changing the subject a little.

-In the featured characters section of the site, there's an extra slot next to Sonic. WHO COULD IT BE!!! They only said Sonic was the only PLAYABLE CHARACTER!

-Just looked at the site again, and apparently, the section above "News" in the Game Info section says "Intro" for a few seconds before the timer replaces it. Intro to the game perhaps?!

Edited February 5, 2010 by Black Spy

[Indigo Rush]

I don't know. That picture depresses me.

I'm fine with Sonic the way he is.