Need for Sonic Underground Rivals (PSP)

[Rlan]

<b>SEGA UNVEILS SONIC RIVALS DASHING ONTO THE PSPâ„¢ SYSTEM

Original Sonic Game Offers Lively Head-to-Head Competition

SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON</b> (May 3, 2006) -- SEGA® of America, Inc. and SEGA® Europe Ltd. today announced the development of Sonic Rivals exclusively for the PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable) system. Sonic Rivals is a head-to-head competition between Sonic and his top rivals, where the gloves are off and winner takes all! Built from the ground-up, the engine allows gamers to rip through tracks in some high-spirited single player and wireless multiplayer action against friends as Sonic returns in a whole new racing-platformer with classic 2D gameplay in true 3D environments for gamers on the go.

What starts as a friendly competition between Sonic and Knuckles quickly intensifies as Shadow and other rivals jump into the action. Sonic Rivals allows gamers to utilize boost moves and power-ups to trip, shove, and vault over each other while hurtling towards the finish line at breakneck speeds. Players will negotiate wildly twisting 3D tracks while avoiding the insidious Dr. Eggman and his myriad of hazardous traps and contraptions.

"Sonic Rivals brings back the classic 2D platform gameplay that started it all, and douses it with vibrant three-dimensional environments," said Scott A. Steinberg, Vice President of Marketing, SEGA of America, Inc. "In this heated rivalry, gamers are tested to prove not only who's the fastest but who has the best head-to-head gameplay strategy."

In Sonic Rivals, gamers can play as one of four different characters from the Sonic Universe, each with separate fast and winding storylines. In addition, the extensive rewards system, which is based on collecting trading cards, allows players to customize their favorite characters. Connect via wireless to race against a friend, and put trading cards on the line for even more multiplayer challenges.

Debuting on the SEGA Genesis in 1991, Sonic The Hedgehog is one of the world's best-selling and most recognizable video game franchises and character. More than 44 million units later, the beloved blue hedgehog celebrates his 15th anniversary this year.

Sonic Rivals is slated for release in Fall 2006 and developed by the Vancouver-based studio of Backbone Entertainment, a division of Foundation 9 Entertainment. For more information on SEGA's Road to E3, please visit http://www.sega.com/e3. For screenshots and artwork, please visit the SEGA FTP site at: http://segapr.segaamerica.com.




About SEGA® of America, Inc.
SEGA® of America, Inc. is the American Publishing arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA® Corporation, a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The SEGA® of America, Inc. Web site is located at http://www.SEGA.com.


About SEGA® Europe Ltd.
SEGA® Europe Ltd. is the European Publishing arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA® Corporation, and a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. The SEGA® Europe Ltd. Web site is located at http://www.sega-europe.com.


Backbone Entertainment
Part of Foundation 9 Entertainment (http://www.F9E.com), the largest independent game developer in North America, Backbone specializes in developing original and licensed IP for all platforms and creating merchandising opportunities in diversified entertainment genres. Backbone is based in Emeryville, CA, Vancouver, BC, and Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and can be found on the web at: http://www.backboneentertainment.com. Backbone, along with The Collective, Pipeworks, ImaginEngine, and Digital Eclipse make up Foundation 9 Entertainment. The company's studios have developed more than 300 titles, including more than 40 in 2005 alone. Foundation 9 Entertainment employs more than 350 employees, and has offices in Newport Beach, Emeryville, Vancouver, Boston, Eugene, Charlottetown and Honolulu. For more information on Foundation 9 Entertainment, please visit: http://www.F9E.com.

Looks pretty lame :|

[Gaz]

Looks a bit rubbish to me but whatever. I don't have a PSP nor do I intend to buy one so I really couldn't care less about this game.

[Segaholic2]

I think it looks like the best thing ever, to be honest.

[big_smile]

I’m slightly hopeful. I’ve always felt that adopting the format of the 2P racing games in SA2:B was the best approach for making a Sonic racing game.

The Mega Drive style environments make it look like a 'real' Sonic game (something that can’t be said of the more recent titles), although, in the screens shown, they lack the imagination and freshness of the original zones.

Like most PSP games, the graphics are slightly blocky looking but this will probably be less noticeable on the system’s small screen.

Backbone were previously responsible for PSP title Death Jr. I haven’t played it myself, but I have heard good things about it.

It does look like yet another cash-in, but at least the concept appears to be slightly more promising than some of the ones we have had recently.

^_^

[Crazy Penguin]

I like the colourful look of the environments. Disappointed to see that those Sonid Heroes enemy robots are still being used though. I'm curious as to how this concept is going to fill out a whole game though, it sounds more like a two-player or competition mode in a proper Sonic game, and there doesn't look to be much in the way of hazards and items in the screenshots.

[Gaz]

There's a bit of promo artwork for Sonic Rivals at Sonic Stadium. Nothing much just the logo and a render of Sonic, Knuckles and Shadow. I do wonder who the fourth playable character will be. Given the emphasis on rivals Metal Sonic and Jet seem like the main possibilities.

[Professor Machenstein]

Hmm... I am a little mixed on this announcement. I like the colorful look. 2D gameplay works most of the time, especially when it comes to two player racing (See Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic Rush). Even though I am not too fond of the inclusion of Shadow, the game could make him cool again (Yes, I once thought he was cool, shut up). Seeing the game highlights Sonic's rivals, as the title says, we could see more of Metal Sonic some time. Hey, if the game fails, it would not do any particular damage to the series anyway. On of burnt side of this announcement, Egg Pawns. Yuck. The story seems pretty lame too, but I regress. SONICTEAM has yet another project distracting them from SONIC the Hedgehog. C'mon, Sonic Riders 2 not enough?

[CM August]

I'm a bit vexed about this, since the stuff I could actually enjoy is diluted by the crap we've been seeing for the past several years. I won't be getting it.

[Tsuyoshi-kun]

You know what I just realized? This will be the first Sonic game made in North America in 13 years. That alone should make the game interesting..after all, Sonic is more popular here and in Europe than he is in Japan.

As for the game itself..I dunno. That camera looks pretty funky, like those bonus stages in Crash Bandicoot. It could still be fun, but it won't save Sonic from the lameness of his recent games, that much I'm sure of.

[James McGeachie]

Oh fucking no, this is the worst case nightmare scenario to me, I've never had any reason to get a PSP and now one of the ultimate possible reasons has been thrown in my face, a true 3d sidescrolling Sonic. I can only pray this turns out bullshit so I don't have to buy a system for it.

[Popcorn]

You know what I just realized? This will be the first Sonic game made in North America in 13 years. That alone should make the game interesting..after all, Sonic is more popular here and in Europe than he is in Japan.

Actually, Sonic Adventure 2 was developed in San Francisco by Sonic Team USA. I think Sonic Heroes was, too, and probably heaps of other garbage on the side.

[Tsuyoshi-kun]

Oh yeah; Sonic Team USA. I'm stupid. I meant to say that it Sonic Rivals will be the first Sonic game in 9 years that will be developed by non-Japanese video game developers. Most of the staff of Sonic Team USA are Japanese, am I right?

[Rlan]

I'm going to have a whinge.

I think this game is looking pretty terrible at this point, it may change when we know more about it, but for the moment, here are my problems with it:

Graphically, it looks a hell of a lot worse than it should be. This is a game that should be up to near-PS2 level in graphics, yet we can see a whole lot of problems with it. For starters, the character models are FAR too simple. Just look at them: Sonic's spines are set up in a VERY simple way. It actually does look a lot like the model in Sonic Rush, but because it's not stylized with cell shading [plus the camera is zoomed in a lot more on it], it looks worse.

Though this probably isn't the fault of Backbone: Sonic character models have been in shit creek since Sonic Heroes.

Secondly, FOG! You can see it EVERYWHERE in these images. It's a simple path with minimal backgrounds, SURELY they could do better than THAT.

What about this texture?:



Textures are very blotchy, especially that "tree' you go past. I'll also whinge that they're still using the "Eggman's Robots" from Heroes, Shadow and Rush. Can nobody design a new Animal-Based Robot anymore?

Just LOOK at how much better Klonoa 2 looks:



This should look close to that.

Now onto the gameplay. Obviously, I haven't played it yet, however, the idea behind it seemed very flawed. Two player back on Sonic 2 & 3 was loads a fun, because you were playing against your friend. AI opponents on a 2D plane racing game really can't delve from the path their given.

I suppose it's a little like the Metal Sonic chase from Sonic CD, but having something like this seems incredibly lame. The AI opponent will very rarely [if at all] delve from it's path, and you most likely won't either. Having the opponent to face will [probably] mean their won't be a very big exploration element to it other than "shortcuts". Card upgrading of your character? no please.

Hell, the idea of a 2D racing game with Sonic in it reminds me of a lot of the horrible Sonic Fan Games [which I used to cater for, now done by others] that we'd see with the same idea, but were complete trash. This will be better, but I can only see this as being really limited, even moreso because they want a "Race" element to it.

[Delphine]

Are they actually Japanese, or do they just have Japanese names? I can't be bothered to look it up.

[Tsuyoshi-kun]

Depends on how stead-fast Naka continued to stay on the "only Japanese people can make Sonic games at Sonic Team" thing he started with Sonic 3. I assume they're all Japanse, though, given the occasional vague Japanese culture reference in the Sonic games of late. Perhaps Green Gibbon! knows..?

[James McGeachie]

http://games.ign.com/objects/670/670000.html

Seems the guys behind this game don't exactly have much on their resume, unless some of these titles are actually amazing and I'm just unaware of it.

[Rlan]

Apparently Backbons is set up of 3 teams, and the team working on this one are the guys who've done Death Jr. [which was a medicore platformer] and Charlie & The Cholocate factory [no explanation].

Age of Empires DS is apparently excellent though. Might rub off onto them.

[Kishi]

I agree that the graphics are pretty dismal. The PSP can do much better than this. I also don't like the idea of every level being a race against anything other than a ten-minute time limit. I'd rather have the option of being able to stop and explore the environment.

[Green Gibbon!]

Sonic Team USA made Sonic Adventure 2, Heroes, and Shadow. The development staff is (or was, at least) entirely Japanese except, I think, for the CG movie team.

The only Sonic game up to this point that's been made by an American studio with American staff is Spinball. (3D Blast and Sonic R were British, but alot of the Japanese staff was involved with those.)

[(....)]

AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!

It's quite possibly the best concept for a Sonic game I've heard in ten years (the original game, but in 3D. Why didn't they do that from the beginning?), and they're letting the team behind Death Jnr develop it! Those guys couldn't code their way out of a paper bag! :(

[Frieza2000]

We all know what this is. It's yet another yank at the teat of the franchise, licensed to some no-name company. They're going to do a half assed job, sell 250,000 units, and never speak of it again. It's Sonic Pinball Party.

[Baba O'Reily]

I am not looking forward to this game and I feel its very presence will shame the Sonic community as a whole.

On a side note, why is this the first I've heard of Klonoa 2? I am so behind the times...

[Arcade]

Well it can be a good game, but it wont cause you suck Naka!.

PS: Because Klonoa is not that popular outside Japan...

[Protodude]

Despite the checkered hills, this fails to interest me mainly because it seems like a boring gimmick with no thought put into it. Also, Klonoa 2 came out in 2002, so yes, you are indeed behind the times.

[Arcade]

May I ask for what console it came out? japanese Gamecube?