The GHZ Forum

The latest issue of Gamepro contains an exclusive preview of Sonic the Hedgehog. (Addition from Popcorn: It's worth noting that this preview does contain new screenshots.)

The new game certainly will be a visual reinvention. As the recent trailer showed, Sonic Team is lavishing an incredible level of detail on the graphics. Sonic’s character model in particular makes use of over 1 million polygons, which is a dramatic increase from the current count of 1, 500 that is used existing titles. New effects, such as motion blur, will be used through out.

Given the problems that have plagued recent Sonic titles, it is disappointing that little information is provided as to how Sonic Team plan to reinvent the gameplay. In fact, the article mentions that the team are finding it challenging to fill the expansive environments with interesting set pieces, which suggests that their gameplay ideas have yet to be finalised.

The article does, however, confirm that Shun Nakamura will be serving as director, which suggests that Takashi Iizuka may not be involved with this title, at least not at a senior level.

Download the scans here. Thanks to Sonic009 for the link.

I got all excited when one page ended with: "As game director Shun Nakamura puts it, 'While past Sonic the Hedgehog games have been all about going fast, this title will be...'"

... but then sort of cried a little bit when it continued on the next page: "... even faster."

NAKAMUROWNED

Yeah. This is more or less the worst article I've read since Del published her infamous "Beating Off a Dead Horse" piece in Fetish Underground. I still say the game at least looks good, though.

Oh, and it's good to see the GHZ getting ripped off again...

Shut up, that was the best article I've ever written.

I uploaded it to my server for those of use who don't feel like dealing with "omg buy a premium account lololol". <a href="http://www.dontfeedthewriter.com/11t/Ga ... p">Here</a>. I'll leave it up as long as is doesn't destroy my bandwidth, which will probably never happen as my site is pretty much just a placeholder at this point.

Well, it's GamePro. That magazine was a joke since even before all the other magazines were also jokes.

If my own museum pages are to be trusted, Nakamura was the director of Samba de Amigo and a field designer (I guess that's Japanese for level designer) in Sonic Adventure 1.

GamePro wrote:While Sonic and his enemies will look better than ever, you can't create a game simply based on eye candy. To keep the rest of the visuals on par with the character models, players will find themselves immersed in a world incredibly more expansive than anything they've seen in the past.

So does this mean out with the linearity that has plagued Sonic games post Sonic Adventure 2, and finally in with the exploration again? I found the exploration parts the best in the first Sonic Adventure. When Sonic Adventure came out in America back in 1999, my friends and I spent a lot of time looking for new areas and possible easter eggs. That is why I found "Speed Highway: At Dawn" to be the most enjoyable part of the entire game. It was just so much fun hoping from building to building. It was such a wide city. If the quoted passage does imply that there will be exploration in Sonic games again, that would make me more than happy.

As with everything else in the scans, there is not enough information aside from the game is pretty, and another guy is directing the game. Come now. We need more than that. While I would not mind a prettier Sonic Adventure 1, we need to know how the game will play, what will the controls do, and etcetera. Sigh, I guess I'll just wait for more info. Geez.

Professor Machenstein wrote:

GamePro wrote:While Sonic and his enemies will look better than ever, you can't create a game simply based on eye candy. To keep the rest of the visuals on par with the character models, players will find themselves immersed in a world incredibly more expansive than anything they've seen in the past.

So does this mean out with the linearity that has plagued Sonic games post Sonic Adventure 2, and finally in with the exploration again?

No, it means they got fed some new screenshots and some new PR bullshit that at some point included the words "... with bigger levels than ever before..." and had to turn it into a four-page article.

Seems like IGN were right about "Nakamura" directing the game then, sort of a pity it's not <i>that</i> one though, that could've made things interesting, although he probably has no experience in game design.

I can't help but notice Sonic's shadow is horribly pixelated in the grinding screenshot. Perhaps not a big deal but I sort of thought we'd be well past the point of things like that next gen, I hope and assume it'll be cleaned up before the game's release. Other than that this is showing some promise I guess.

The best part about the article though is the Sonic 1 ms/gg levels down the bottom. MS scrap brain features one of my favourite Sonic backgrounds.

You know, I still remember how people used to say Heroes was going to be awesome before even playing the Demo, so meh

Wow. His shadow is pixellated. Sure, it's better than those black circles used in Shadow the Hedgehog, but hopefully we will not notice the pixellated shadows in the final version of this one. Blah.

A thought just occured to me. StH 2006 is an alleged rebirth of the series, not unlike the original Sonic Adventure, right? Sonic Adventure is where Iizuka took the reigns of the series. So... According to the GamePro scans, Shun Nakamura is directing StH 2006. The question of the matter is, could Nakamura be another of the line of Sonic directors to dictate the course of the series? I mean, we came from Hirokazu Yasuhara, to Takashi Iizuka, and soon possibly... Well, you get the picture.

Sonic's too freaking tall. His legs come up to his neck, practically.

I wonder, if this game turns out to be fantastic, will it be followed up with even more fantastic Sonic games, or will they start coasting it again like they did immediately after the successful Sonic Adventure?

The game has to turn out fantastic first.

There better be getting new catchy tunes. I'm getting sick of all these green hill remixes.

Muh?

Light Speed wrote:The game has to turn out fantastic first.

Good point

"Fantastic?" It has to turn out remotely decent before we go any further.

I don't think it's physically possible now for it to be worse than Shadow anyway, no matter where it goes from here, unless of course only the beginning is played as Sonic and the rest of the game is essentially Shadow 2, MGS2 style. They did mention some big "twists" in the article after all.

That would be dumb. Like, really amazingly dumb.

That would be so dumb that I would abandon both this board and anything directly related to Sonic. I'd sell off my massive Sonic Team collection, I'd have to sell off SSBM, I'd probably ditch my Dreamcast on principle...

And this is a promise. In the event that this game turns into a Shadow the Hedgehog game at any point and remains that way until the end of the game, ban me, because I will have become far to disillusioned to remain on this board.

Why would you have to sell SSBM?

Sonic and Tails cameo.

No they don't.

It was planned to happen, at least.

Baba O'Reily wrote:And this is a promise. In the event that this game turns into a Shadow the Hedgehog game at any point and remains that way until the end of the game, ban me, because I will have become far to disillusioned to remain on this board.

So if there's 2 or 3 zones where Sonic drives a pimped out Ferrari and kills aliens with an assault rifle to a tune by 50 Cent but it ends with a remake of Scrap Brain it'll be less mortifying?