"Sonic Chronicles" trademarked by Sega

[K2J]

New pics from Sega's Press Site. Courtesy of SSUK again.

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... roth-4.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... nicAmy.jpg

I'm not liking this art at all. Brown arms, large outlines...

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... WMoves.jpg

Yeah, like that whirlwind art? Total MS Paint. It looks like each POW Move has three levels (a la Bros. Moves) and the icons indicate which characters are needed for the combos (the last one is Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy, for instance).

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... _Rouge.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/k2jman/_Map.jpg

Looks like someone forgot to tell Bioware about South Island.

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... ChaoEN.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... otherh.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... roth-1.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... roth-3.jpg

Chao Garden. Pink one is in Spanish, roughly "Regenerates the HP of the members of the team at the start of every round of combat."

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... roth-5.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... roth-2.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... roth-6.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... roth-7.jpg

I like how the "maximum fighting edge" gets you just +1 Attack. Note the "Not usable by robots" line - more than just E123?

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... roth-8.jpg

Much more fleshed-out battle screen, though the Sonic X art is still up there.

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... roth-9.jpg

...and Sonic Advance life icons.

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... oth-10.jpg

Don't believe we've seen loops in this area before.

[P.P.A.]

Suddenly, gigantic white outlines!

[DackAttac]

Now with 100% less anti-aliasing!

[Ngangbius]

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... nicAmy.jpg

^This seems to be an improvement from this. The Chao and item artwork is also good, Sonic X/Advance art recycling aside.

[Radrappy]

WHY DOES THIS GAME LOOK SO FUCKING BAD??????

[j-man]

Because it's a hand held system, and because games always look better in motion. Always. Cheer up. And I'm pre-empting any comments about the PSP when I say: this is not on the PSP.

You know, SEGA probably forced BioWare to use Sonic X artwork as a poor attempt to "tie it in" with the only mainstream Sonic-related thing that the kiddies of today are aware of? It's the only thing that makes sense, after their delicious concept art.

[Rob-Bert]

You gotta admit, the artwork shown in this new batch is still lightyears better than what we last saw.

[FlashTHD]

You gotta admit, the artwork shown in this new batch is still lightyears better than what we last saw.

Are you the jackass who wrote those Hummer ads that celebrate "better" gas mileage, or this logic-defying new "miles per tank" measurement?

[Radrappy]

You gotta admit, the artwork shown in this new batch is still lightyears better than what we last saw.

Lightyears better? They look the damn same. barely anything has improved since the first batch of screens. instead of an awkward pink border to the traced sonic X artwork we now have a chunky white one. Great.

[Frieza2000]

Sonic spinballs to deliver a powerful double kick to a single foe.

I'm hoping their intention was to invent a new verb and not that they don't know the names of Sonic's two or three attacks.

[BlazeHedgehog]

You gotta admit, the artwork shown in this new batch is still lightyears better than what we last saw.

Lightyears better? They look the damn same. barely anything has improved since the first batch of screens. instead of an awkward pink border to the traced sonic X artwork we now have a chunky white one. Great.

The interface is tighter, cleaner, the art is better (less clipart, more original artwork).

Still ranks pretty low on the "interest-o-meter", though.

[Shadow Hog]

Yeah, this is probably the first time in a long time when I've genuinely had no interest in any of the Sonic titles Sega's put forth. Polar opposite of Heroes, for which I was majorly stoked (and got SOME satisfaction out of, despite it being more broken than the bones of a man who just leapt off the Empire State Building).

[Ngangbius]

I'm a bit more interested in this game than Unleashed, but considering my feelings about the franchise in its current state that isn't saying much.

Though, I wouldn't purchase Sonic Chronicles for the asking price of $35.

[K2J]

I forgot this one:

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... cTails.jpg

And here's a bunch of others:

http://www.sonicstadium.org/news/e3-36- ... es-screens

[Dasher]

I think the high use of Sonic X art and lack or no use of original artwork as seen in Nintendo Power cover killed it.

[Ngangbius]

^Er, there are illustrations of the characters that are original in these new sets of screens, and not derivative from the Sonic X design.

The 3D character work is horrid as the characters look ghastly. They should have stuck with sprites.

[Ngangbius]

E3 Stage demo of the game in action: http://www.gamespot.com/video/941521/61 ... 008_videos

Plus Cream is confirmed as a playable character.

[K2J]

I'm liking the 25+ hour thing. I guess this is more fleshed out than I thought. Optional characters, too.

[Ritz]

I'm not so sure about that. The guy was pretty explicit in stating that there were 10 playable characters, and if Shade is playable like I've heard from wherever, then we've basically seen all of them already. Do you suppose he means that we've got 10 main playable characters plus optional characters, or that some of the characters we've already seen are themselves optional?

Because, you know, I maintain that if Vector isn't playable, I won't buy this. But I'd still be pretty pissed if Cream played a bigger role than him.

[Delphine]

Knuckles is missing!

p.s. How does Sonic type with boxing gloves on his hands?

[Zeta]

I've heard 11 main characters pretty consistently unless they changed their tune. It might be 10 main characters and one optional one. So it's Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Rouge, Omega, Big, Cream, Shade, and blank (another new one or Silver/Blaze probably), I think

[Ngangbius]

^or Eggman.

...well it happened in Super Mario RPG and Super Paper Mario.

[Locit]

Man the E3 demonstration for this game was totally awful. Like, really, really awful. Like, I have no interest in this game anymore awful.

[Dasher]

Note that the music playing on the snow world of this game is Diamond Dust Zone.

[K2J]

E3 Show Floor Gameplay

The battle system's looking nice. I could see this as a release build if it wasn't populated by stock art. This video also shows us some of the POW moves of the other characters:

Shadow's Moves:

- Chaos Spear
- Chaos Rift
- Chaos Blast
- Chaos Atomic Strike (with Sonic)

Knuckles' Moves:
- Uppercut
- Quake Punch
- Revolver Slam (With Sonic?)
- Knuckles Express (With Shadow?)

Cream's Moves:
- Refresh
- Demoralize
- Revive
- Heal

I guess that makes Cream the healer. It looks like Cheese is an equippable Chao, as its hovering behind Cream in the same fashion as the others.

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... ckList.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/ ... WMoves.jpg

It looks like each character has at least six POW moves, though the video shows only five spaces...