Sonic the Hedgehog preview article

[Segaholic2]

I think Sonic 3K got it down perfectly. The "cutscenes" between zones are very short, lasting only a few seconds each, but they provide a wonderful sense of progression and transition and just make <i>sense</i>. I miss those.

[Frieza2000]

I'm surprised Dimps didn't pick up on it. I remember thinking, after playing S&K, that they'd be doing logical zone transitions in every game from here on now that they'd discovered they could. It seemed like the most obvious thing.

[Light Speed]

Did Sonic Rush have anything like that? I never played it. I remember cut scenes in either Sonic Advance 1 or 2, but they were pretty much pointless. When you unlocked a character, they talked to each other then went their seperate ways. I think if this new Sonic 2006 tried to use S3&K cut scenes though it would just look weird.

[James McGeachie]

Rush actually has a ton of storyline 'cutscenes', almost as much as the 3D games, although they don't really do a good job of linking together zones or anything. The story definitely has a ton more 'depth' to it than the Advance games though and as a whole I'd call it fairly decent, though I'm sure a lot of people would rather describe it as retarded.

[Tsuyoshi-kun]

I thought you walked around in a Super Mario Bros. 3 / World overhead world type map in Sonic Rush between Zones? That would make more sense to me than any other level progression in the other Sonic games sans the Advneture games and Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

[DackAttac]

Come on. I can't be the only one who looked at those screens and thought "Westopolis".

I'm much less optimistic than I hoped to be. This isn't what I imagined when they promised it would be a return to their roots when Shadow was going out in the opposite direction. This looks like something out of "Sonic the Hedgehog: Shadow the Hedgehog 2".

[James McGeachie]

I thought you walked around in a Super Mario Bros. 3 / World overhead world type map in Sonic Rush between Zones? That would make more sense to me than any other level progression in the other Sonic games sans the Advneture games and Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

It's more a Sonic Advance 2 style map but a bit prettier. What I was meaning though is that there's no flow between zones, the end of one wont hint at the start of the next and what not, which is what I think everyone wants.

[Gaz]

Come on. I can't be the only one who looked at those screens and thought "Westopolis".

I'm much less optimistic than I hoped to be. This isn't what I imagined when they promised it would be a return to their roots when Shadow was going out in the opposite direction. This looks like something out of "Sonic the Hedgehog: Shadow the Hedgehog 2".

That's sums up pretty much how I feel. I want to be optimistic about this game but that city looks more like something I'd expect in a post-apocalyptic FPS of some sort rather than a Sonic game. It seems like with every new bit of info my hopes for this game decline. It is difficult to judge a game from screenshots and maybe seeing this level being played at E3 will change my mind but I doubt it.

[DackAttac]

It is difficult to judge a game from screenshots and maybe seeing this level being played at E3 will change my mind but I doubt it.

Which is why I wanted to avoid all media from this game after I saw the opening movie. But then my friend told me that there was a city level. And I thought, "City Escape/Station Square!" and then rushed to see the specifics. And was let down. And so I posted.

Of course, after doing so, my mental gears got churning, and produced a series of contexts and ways the level played out that could work. So I'll reserve final judgement, but will maintain that while I still hope with all my dear life that this gets the series back on track, and think it's possible, this wasn't a good sign. Even if the game is a gosh damn fucking masterpiece, this was not the level to show. It's like pushing "Revolution 9" as a lead single. Just not smart.

[Professor Machenstein]

My thoughts were the same about this Westopolis looking level when I first saw it, but upon closer inspection everything looks all rusted and decayed and it reminded me of the "Ancient Relics" from that Sonic movie, only engulfed in flames and under attack by robots. So instead of Westopolis II, I will call it... I suppose the Ancient Relics will also do. =3

[(...)]

Anyone else noticed how low-key this all is? There are hardly any screenshots on the Internet, and the only available recent Sonic next-gen media/info is in blurry magazine scans. Where's the IGN hands-on? Where's the Gamespot image gallery? Why aren't these scans on the Sega site? Why did a no-name mag like GamePro get the exclusive?

Anywho, I digress. This game blows. Every time I see new images of it, the game seems to look worse and worse. Seriously, look at the E3 trailer, then look at the TGS gameplay videos on IGN, then look at the scans on the previous page. The E3 video looked like a pre-render from Sonic Heroes. The TGS/GamePro images had high-res characters, normal mapping, self-shadowing on the characters (!), environment mapping, bloom on the robots (maybe HDRI?), and some seriously cool-looking motion blur.
Then look at the city level in the scans. The detail is gone from the characters, the robots aren't shiny anymore, the textures are all low-res and Dreamcast-like (especially that road surface), the level looks EXACTLY like the first level of Shadow the Hedgehog, and the game doesn't even look hi-def anymore (this might be to do with how blown-up the screenshots have been for print-resolution, but who knows)!

btw, that breakdance-fighting move in the scan is just the slide-attack from SA1/Heroes/Adv1 shot from a different angle.

[Professor Machenstein]

Do you all want the game to fail that much? Well piss your pants with joy if it does for all I care. Find whatever reason you can to dismiss this game. If none of you want the series back to its former glory, then what is the point? There are no new characters in sight, no treasure hunting, fishing, robot walkers, teams, weapondry or any other obvious gimmick, no Sonic Heroes engine, no Egg Pawns, no Shadow, and yet you all manage to dismiss this title. What would make you feel better? Checkered hill-sides? Those were in Sonic Heroes and you all sure loved that game. Naoto Ohshima's character design back? Cell-shaded graphics? I know, you want good level design and no bottomless pits, but what is there to determine from what little we have seen? There will be bottomless pits though. I only hope they will not be as prevalent as they were Sonic Heroes and after. I would not expect them to be completely out of the picture since, unfortunately, they have been a custom to platformers as much as, per se, collecting items.

I look forward to SONIC the Hedgehog, even though the humanoid robots do look generic and that there will be bottomless pits. I am not too fond of the Westopolis theme myself. Whatever. As long as the overall product is well-designed, or just fun at the least.

[Owen Axel]

It's cool to be surly.

[Protodude]

I actually think the city level looks cool, it's about time they show more than just that grass/hill level over and over again.

[Light Speed]

Do you all want the game to fail that much? Well piss your pants with joy if it does for all I care. Find whatever reason you can to dismiss this game. If none of you want the series back to its former glory, then what is the point? There are no new characters in sight, no treasure hunting, fishing, robot walkers, teams, weapondry or any other obvious gimmick, no Sonic Heroes engine, no Egg Pawns, no Shadow, and yet you all manage to dismiss this title. What would make you feel better? Checkered hill-sides? Those were in Sonic Heroes and you all sure loved that game. Naoto Ohshima's character design back? Cell-shaded graphics? I know, you want good level design and no bottomless pits, but what is there to determine from what little we have seen? There will be bottomless pits though. I only hope they will not be as prevalent as they were Sonic Heroes and after. I would not expect them to be completely out of the picture since, unfortunately, they have been a custom to platformers as much as, per se, collecting items.

I look forward to SONIC the Hedgehog, even though the humanoid robots do look generic and that there will be bottomless pits. I am not too fond of the Westopolis theme myself. Whatever. As long as the overall product is well-designed, or just fun at the least.

We all want it to be good, but it is hard not to be cynical considering how much crap has been put out in the last few years. However there really hasn't been enough material to judge the game at all. I really haven't been keeping track either.

[DackAttac]

Do you all want the game to fail that much? ... I look forward to SONIC the Hedgehog, even though the humanoid robots do look generic and that there will be bottomless pits. I am not too fond of the Westopolis theme myself. Whatever. As long as the overall product is well-designed, or just fun at the least.

...I'd have to agree. ...ever get the impression we may be taking our fun too seriously?

[Professor Machenstein]

We all want it to be good, but it is hard not to be cynical considering how much crap has been put out in the last few years. However there really hasn't been enough material to judge the game at all. I really haven't been keeping track either.

Okay, okay, I admit, I overreacted on my part, but can you blame me? This game is suppose to be the last chance for the series. It cannot fail. If it does, I have no idea what will happen nor do I want to know.

[FlashTHD]

Okay, okay, I admit, I overreacted on my part

No, you nailed it. I'm sick of seeing people whine and piss about the series and taking every opportunity to smite the game for any silly reason they can cherrypick out of every preview article. We all know too little about it to justify that.

"WTF's he doing in a realistic city/ruin/whatever environment?! SACRILEGE!"

Jesus, Station Square looked halfway realistic and so did several other places in SA1, but none of you raise an eyebrow over that. Don't play the "they were more creative" card either, because I don't care. So the city looks like a warzone. As long as it's a well-designed and fun warzone to blast through, I have little reason to complain about the realism or originality of the landscape. See, you can apply that logic to any city stage that's been in a Sonic game in the last 7 years and get varying results depending on how well they built the level. The creativity argument? Not so much, and even less if you care about that the most.

"This isn't a reinvention! Naka's LYING!"

Yes, well, any hype that comes out of Naka's mouth is meaningless to me. In addition to the fact that he's a natural born attention whore, he's been in the limited position of Producer for every major game in this series for years. He gives the okay on whatever the team wants to incorporate into the game, but it's the Director's vision that drvies the project. Not the hypings of the guy whose task is to look over people's shoulders. In other words, give an ear to whatever Shun Nakamura says about it, at least whatever he has to say has a better chance of meaning anything.

"This is the last chance or I QUIT!"

I suppose it boils down to personal taste and how much you thought the more recent games have sucked. Yeah, without question there has been a quality decline compared to the classics, but I don't believe any of the more recent titles have given reason for anybody to consider this series in the red yet. The Sonic Advances, maybe, but those were the product of another no-name studio. (And Akinori Nishiyama too, who deserves to take just as much blame for those three mishaps.) Heroes was well-intentioned but just fell apart in the development process for some reason and was the victim of negligent bug testing and questionable level design. Shadow, I think, doesn't deserve some of the beatings it's been getting from the press, despite having a terrible story structure and 4 of the worst 3D Sonic levels ever.

I think the series has at least maintained a relatively respectable status quo over the years, and unless several absolutely horrible and definite unforgivable mistakes are made with Sonic Next (and I don't see that happening), i'm not worried about the future prognosis. I also think some of you are only calling this the "most important Sonic game in years" is because it's the first one in a while to look like a full-on Sonic game, and because you're apparently despereate to cling to your fan following. (Don't take that last bit seriously.)

Well, I tell it like I see it, anyway.

[(...)]

Do you all want the game to fail that much? Well piss your pants with joy if it does for all I care. Find whatever reason you can to dismiss this game. If none of you want the series back to its former glory, then what is the point? There are no new characters in sight, no treasure hunting, fishing, robot walkers, teams, weapondry or any other obvious gimmick, no Sonic Heroes engine, no Egg Pawns, no Shadow, and yet you all manage to dismiss this title. What would make you feel better? Checkered hill-sides? Those were in Sonic Heroes and you all sure loved that game. Naoto Ohshima's character design back? Cell-shaded graphics? I know, you want good level design and no bottomless pits, but what is there to determine from what little we have seen? There will be bottomless pits though. I only hope they will not be as prevalent as they were Sonic Heroes and after. I would not expect them to be completely out of the picture since, unfortunately, they have been a custom to platformers as much as, per se, collecting items.

I look forward to SONIC the Hedgehog, even though the humanoid robots do look generic and that there will be bottomless pits. I am not too fond of the Westopolis theme myself. Whatever. As long as the overall product is well-designed, or just fun at the least.

Honestly, I don't want the game to fail at all. Hell, I didn't even realise the series was hanging on by a thread until I joined this forum.

You're right that there's no gimmicks in the next-gen game, but the word "gimmick" is just a buzz-word used by people on this board as a way of describing gameplay features that they don't like.

Problem with this is, there are no new gameplay features, gimmicks or otherwise. Look at the screenshots. Look at the TGS videos. There are LOTS of bottomless bits in there, light dash is still in there, so is the slide attack, so is the homing attack, so is the wall-run from Shadow's game. What else have they got? There's nothing new gameplay-wise in there, and what is in there is a load of 3D-era gameplay features that never really worked.

Also, the graphics suck. They started great, but they look like they have optimised to hell already. I mean, I can forgive the shoddy graphics from the current-gen titles, but THIS IS A FRICKING NEXT GEN GAME! It should look at least as good as Tomb Raider Legend, or Kong 360 (I picked those two examples because of their outdoor "tree" levels).

But who knows? I want to be wrong. I want to download the inevitable Sonic next-gen demo from Xbox Live during E3 and discover that it's the best game ever.

[Frieza2000]

You're right that there's no gimmicks in the next-gen game, but the word "gimmick" is just a buzz-word used by people on this board as a way of describing gameplay features that they don't like.

I've been meaning to bring this up. When I use the word gimmick with a negative connotation, I mean that it's a device meant to distract from the fact that the game has nothing else of merit or, at first glance, to trick the buyer into believing that there is. I think we all do. For Sonic Next, the gimmick is its new graphics style. If the game turns out good then we probably won't use the word gimmick to describe it, but you can't deny that it's being presented as its main selling feature.

[Guest]

When I use the word gimmick with a negative connotation, I mean that it's a device meant to distract from the fact that the game has nothing else of merit or, at first glance, to trick the buyer into believing that there is. I think we all do. For Sonic Next, the gimmick is its new graphics style.

lol That's the first time I've seen a game criticised for having improved graphics.

But seriously, "a device meant to distract from the fact that the game has nothing else of merit". That's pretty much all a feature is. Usually, games only have one defining change in the gameplay that makes them different from their predecessors, and nothing else of merit. If this one gameplay change doesn't work, then the game fails, but it's certainly not a gimmick. Sonic CD's only single new feature was its time-travelling, Sonic 2's only feature was having Tails trail behind you, but neither of these could really be contrued as gimmicks.

[(...)]

Sorry that last post was mine. I just forgot to log in.

[Frieza2000]

The difference is that Sonic 2 and Sonic CD <i>do</i> have merits beyond the new features added to them such as level design, background art, and music. A game like Sonic Heroes, on the other hand, is devoid of all three of these and anything else even modestly entertaining or praiseworthy. The teamplay gimmick is its sole memorable characteristic.

[SegaSonic]

That city looked rusty..could it be that that city shown is the same city that got soaked with water in SA1?

[Professor Machenstein]

There are LOTS of bottomless bits in there, light dash is still in there, so is the slide attack, so is the homing attack, so is the wall-run from Shadow's game. What else have they got? There's nothing new gameplay-wise in there, and what is in there is a load of 3D-era gameplay features that never really worked.

How do you know the slide attack, Light Dash and Shadow the Hedgehog's wall-run are in the game? From those PSM screenshots? Sonic could be doing anything in those screenshots. Sonic could be skidding in the screenshot that looks like he's doing the slide attack. There is no blue aura around him that I can see. Sonic could be wall running in the same manner he did in that one section in City Escape right after you meet the Omochao. I have no idea where you got the Light Dash from.

Also, the graphics suck. They started great, but they look like they have optimised to hell already. I mean, I can forgive the shoddy graphics from the current-gen titles, but THIS IS A FRICKING NEXT GEN GAME! It should look at least as good as Tomb Raider Legend, or Kong 360 (I picked those two examples because of their outdoor "tree" levels).

You are the first person I have seen who has ever said anything bad about the graphics. I admit they are jaggedy in the PSM screenshots, but I determine graphical quality from videos -- you know -- in motion. Here, how about this, we disregard our first impressions of the game and pretend the first time we will see it will be at E3 2006. Deal?