Sonic 4: Super Sonic Fully Playable

[Blue Blood]

They better have you transform as you did in Sonic 3 and not like in Sonic 2.

Or better yet, not map the transformation to the same button combo as anything else. SA2, Heroes, 06 and Shadow were all a mess in that regard.

[Solly]

They better have you transform as you did in Sonic 3 and not like in Sonic 2.

They should map it to the Y/Δ buttons so it doesn't interrupt any other moves. No forcing you to jump, or Homing Attack or anything.

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

Super Sonic fully playable in Sonic 4

This game is now a guaranteed Day 1 purchase regardless of actual quality.

[Marcello]

Well, thats cool. Expected, but cool..

I hope they take the SA2 Super Sonic design (Or at least one that looks similar). I don't like the one from 06 and Unleashed..

[Djawed]

Nice addition, but not something I was really waiting for. I would be cool without it.

[Marcello]

Thinking about it, makes me doubt that E.G.G. Station is a Super Sonic battle. The achievement say not to tae damage in it, and Super Sonic is invincible :/. I'm thinking it'll be something like Final Zone.. So, just a boss fight. But I guess this means there will be rings in it, if you can take damge but not die..

Edited March 6, 2010 by MarcelloF

[Blue Blood]

In the Advance titles you can be damaged during the super fights, so you lose a bunch of rings as well as have your count diminish slowly. And then in Unleashed you have both a life bar and ring count.

[Marcello]

Ah, really? I forgot about that in Unleashed and Advance 1. I never played Advance 2 and 3 super battles.. Isn't it kind of odd, though? I mean isn't he sopposed to be invincible? :/ I can only remember getting knocked backwards in SS battles..

[Frozen Nitrogen]

This is how I see it going down -

4 revealed acts. 2 unrevealed acts. 1 final zone. That's the magic formula from Sonic 1.

Also. I don't think the third act and boss are separate, the boss is on the menu for convenience.

That means seven emeralds don't really fit in four zones. You strike out twice and Super Sonic is done.

So, 6 regular zones. 1 final zone. That's 12 chances to get those emeralds.

How does that follow? We know the Zones are 4 acts long (3 regular + 1 boss), so by your logic we'd have 6x3=18, not 12 chances for Emeralds? And even then, you're probably wrong, as I'll get to momentarily.

Because it's actually better than you think. Playable Super Sonic essentially confirms that there are seven Zones, and that's probably 7 zones EXCLUDING Egg Station. Let me walk you through the logic:

I don't know if it's a point of information which has been largely disseminated on SSMB, but the eagle-eyes of Retro, in their pouring over the leaked gameplay footage, spotted something siginficant in the Sunset Hill Act Select screen. Next to the Act 3 bar there was a greyed out Chaos Emerald, as if to say "You can get an Emerald here, but you haven't yet". The implication is that Special Stages can't be hopped into whenever you like in the style of S2 starposts, but rather that they're extras in specific levels, and (in the style of Sonic Advance 1) there's only one Special Stage available per Zone. Not per Act. Per ZONE.

And now if we have playable Super Sonic in Ep1, this implies that you can collect all 7 Emeralds in Ep1. One special stage per Zone thus requires there to be 7 Zones. But if EGG Station Zone is just a 1-act Final Zone you're not gonna be collecting any there, which brings us up to 7 special stages + 1 Final Zone = 8 Zones total.

Things are looking up.

[Blue Blood]

How does that follow? We know the Zones are 4 acts long (3 regular + 1 boss), so by your logic we'd have 6x3=18, not 12 chances for Emeralds? And even then, you're probably wrong, as I'll get to momentarily.

Because it's actually better than you think. Playable Super Sonic essentially confirms that there are seven Zones, and that's probably 7 zones EXCLUDING Egg Station. Let me walk you through the logic:

I don't know if it's a point of information which has been largely disseminated on SSMB, but the eagle-eyes of Retro, in their pouring over the leaked gameplay footage, spotted something siginficant in the Sunset Hill Act Select screen. Next to the Act 3 bar there was a greyed out Chaos Emerald, as if to say "You can get an Emerald here, but you haven't yet". The implication is that Special Stages can't be hopped into whenever you like in the style of S2 starposts, but rather that they're extras in specific levels, and (in the style of Sonic Advance 1) there's only one Special Stage available per Zone. Not per Act. Per ZONE.

And now if we have playable Super Sonic in Ep1, this implies that you can collect all 7 Emeralds in Ep1. One special stage per Zone thus requires there to be 7 Zones. But if EGG Station Zone is just a 1-act Final Zone you're not gonna be collecting any there, which brings us up to 7 special stages + 1 Final Zone = 8 Zones total.

Things are looking up.

Or...

Splash Hill Act 1: No emerald

Splash Hill Act 2: No emerald

Splash Hill Act 3: Emerald

Casino Street Act 1: Emerald

Casino Street Act 2: No emerald

Casino Street Act 3: Emerald

Lost Labyrinth Act 1: Emerald

Lost Labyrinth Act 2: Emerald

Lost Labyrinth Act 3: No emerald

Mad Gear Act 1: No emerald

Mad Gear Act 2: Emerald

Mad Gear Act 3: Emerald.

[SuperLink]

Or maybe you can get an Emerald per stage, or even per Star Post/etc. In Sonic 3 you could be on the third zone with all Emeralds...

EDIT: Ugh, never mind, I haven't been paying attention.

I still don't think we're getting more than 4 zones. It's not that bad since it's only the first episode. I think Blue Blood is probably right.

Edited March 6, 2010 by Lyra

[Semi-colon e]

Meh.

It'll be fine if it's not like in Sonic 2 where jumping triggers it automatically. But I assume it'll be more like Sonic 3's.

[Doctor MK]

We can play as Super Sonic in normal levels again?!

This is officially some of the best news so far. Plus the confirmation of E.G.G. Station Zone means we're getting at least five zones (though seven would be lovely, of course ).

The summer can't come soon enough now.

And if we can get all 7 Chaos Emeralds and Super Sonic in Episode 1... could it be possible that we could get some Super Emeralds and Hyper Sonic in future episodes too (assuming they "lock-on" to one another)...?

[Agent York]

Personally I don't get why you guys all think there's only 4 zones in the game, especially at this phase. It is more than evident that stage select screen from the alpha was not complete, it only had one special stage playable (and why even have them playable on the level select?) and had no mention of the E.G.G. Station Zone anywhere, and was an alpha build. It's as much final product information as Sonic 2 Beta was a reflection of the final product, which ironically ALSO only had 4 Zones.

Edited March 6, 2010 by Dusk the Biohazard Keeper

[Eternal_Dreamer]

I hope they take the SA2 Super Sonic design (Or at least one that looks similar). I don't like the one from 06 and Unleashed..

I really find Super Sonic's Adventure look and current look to really be the same. Also, Shadow's hairstyle was made to look overly similar so making it different makes sense.

[Marcello]

look different to me. I like how the quills looked in SA2 more...

[Shaddix Leto Croft]

look different to me. I like how the quills looked in SA2 more...

those quills on super sonic on SA2 looked too much like shadow's there tho i feel that ssbb super sonic looked quite good

Edited March 6, 2010 by Crash And Burn Like 1976

[Marcello]

Thats true, but its still my favorite Super Sonic design . It always made me think of Super Sayains..

Edit: I like how he looks in that pic. I always thought he had his 06/Unleashed design in SSBB, because of the trophy..

Edited March 6, 2010 by MarcelloF

[Shaddix Leto Croft]

Thats true, but its still my favorite Super Sonic design . It always made me think of Super Sayains..

Edit: I like how he looks in that pic. I always thought he had his 06/Unleashed design in SSBB, because of the trophy..

it looks almost like his Sonic 3 design but in 3D i think and the Super Saiyans to super sonic is like a homage to DBZ cause i heard that Yuji naka was a big DBZ fan back in the day so he based super sonic off Super Saiyans

[Gamerguy21]

Now that you mention it, I really like the way SSBB pulled off the Super Sonic design. When he was standing still his quills looked like the 06/Unleashed design, but when he was moving, the speed caused his quills to move and look like the Adventure design.

[Frozen Nitrogen]

Or...

Splash Hill Act 1: No emerald

Splash Hill Act 2: No emerald

Splash Hill Act 3: Emerald

Casino Street Act 1: Emerald

Casino Street Act 2: No emerald

Casino Street Act 3: Emerald

Lost Labyrinth Act 1: Emerald

Lost Labyrinth Act 2: Emerald

Lost Labyrinth Act 3: No emerald

Mad Gear Act 1: No emerald

Mad Gear Act 2: Emerald

Mad Gear Act 3: Emerald.

And people thought my pessimism was contrived...

Edited March 6, 2010 by Frozen Nitrogen

[Octarine]

And people thought my pessimism was contrived...

Humm now. That might make sense if we were talking about S3&K-style hidden rings... y'know, to make it more of a treasure hunt. It looks like we're getting Sonic 1's end-of-level rings, though, so that'd just be strange. I mean, would it tell you beforehand that you couldn't access the special stage in that particular level, or would it just laugh at you once you reached the end? Would you be able to access a bonus stage or something instead?

Anyway, put me down for Super Sonic's '06/Unleashed design. Yellow Shadow is icky.

[Badnik Zero]

How does that follow? We know the Zones are 4 acts long (3 regular + 1 boss), so by your logic we'd have 6x3=18, not 12 chances for Emeralds? And even then, you're probably wrong, as I'll get to momentarily.

Oh okay. I was thinking along the lines of Sonic 1 - act 1 signpost, act 2 signpost, act 3 boss with no signpost. But it looks like act 3 is a full act after all, which totally wrecks my theory. I was counting on giant rings as a means of entry also. I think three full acts is a dumb idea. I was hoping that wasn't the case, but whatever. Maybe making the third act your special stage entry will keep things interesting. I can't think of a reason why the emerald would be there if it's not an act specific thing. So this makes it kind of like Rush then? You'd probably be getting the emeralds on later playthroughs. But that means Blue Blood could be right.

[JaidynReiman]

I think its more likely to be the case that you can get the Chaos Emerald in any act of the zone, but you can only get one emerald per zone.

Anyway, nice find. Not that I'm too surprised about it.

[Lux Klonoa]

Yeah, SA-styled Super Sonic, while it was originally how I became a fan of Super Sonic (and Sonic as a whole) in the first place, looks way too much like Shadow... I prefer the Super Saiyan look, really, as it was how he was meant to be a homage to them in the first place, anyway.

I'm with Aquaslash on this, btw. It's about damn time! =D