"Sonic Chronicles" trademarked by Sega

[j-man]

Huh, I guess you guys don't say that over there. It's when you're... you know. Half mast.

[FlashTHD]

You know, I love the art direction so much right now. It looks super cool. One might go so far as to say I am stoked. I just can't help feeling I'd appreciate it more if Sega just forgot Sonic existed for a couple of years and let all the bad publicity cool down. I feel like there's five Sonic games flying at me from all directions at any given time, and they're all shite. I remember getting excited about Sonic Adventure 2, because there was nothing else around to lessen the impact. Hell, I remember getting excited about Sonic Heroes! Now, I just groan at every spinoff and every minigame collection because even though they could be quality titles, the sheer quantity alone diminishes the excitement.

You go, man. You go.

Just maybe, this has been a slightly better year for Sonic than I give it credit for - I reluctantly gave Rush Adventure a 20 minute spin in an emulator and had a better time than I expected - but with so much brand whoring happening so fast I can't help but back off and sigh. We're at least coming toward the tail end of this (for now), but there's no end in sight of Sega trying too hard to ape EA. Again, I just hope they go broke enough soon that it forces them to make some decisions for the better.

[j-man]

Bitch, I'll slap your name out of the phone book.

[Locit]

Huh, I guess you guys don't say that over there. It's when you're... you know. Half mast.

I was right! Over here it is slang for something else.

[Isuka]

Maybe he meant both... OH MAH GAWD!

[Yami CJMErl]

A boner the size of a tractor trailer?

[Senbei]

At half mast.

[Crazy Penguin]

Is Shade the first female animal cast member to not have a circle shaped head? That bodes well for the character design on this game.

[Segaholic2]

Blaze's head isn't a circle.

[The Ghost Of Ember]

Blaze's head isn't a circle.

I beg to differ.

To be fair, her head is more oval in the Sonic 360 renders. Also: our only picture of Shade is at a weird angle, she may just be as circle headed as the rest from the front or side.

[Locit]

Because the sides of her head aren't part of her... head?

You can do the same thing with Sonic, but you probably wouldn't want to argue that his head is a simple circle, what with the spikes and all. What I think CP was referring to was the new Amy/Cream/Rouge/Probably some other character largely featureless circle shape with ears pasted on design. Blaze doesn't fit that mold, so 'Holic is right.

[The Ghost Of Ember]

You can do the same thing with Sonic, but you probably wouldn't want to argue that his head is a simple circle, what with the spikes and all. What I think CP was referring to was the new Amy/Cream/Rouge/Probably some other character largely featureless circle shape with ears pasted on design. Blaze doesn't fit that mold, so 'Holic is right.

True, but try doing the same thing Tails or Knuckles and it won't work, why? Because the original casts heads are each individually shaped. Tails has something a little more squarish and Knuckles has, well, Knuckles head is rather malformed when you think about it. Yes, Blaze has those two tufts of hair, but Amy Rose has dreadlocks/hair in roughly the same location that also break her 'perfect' circle. Why should they be considered any less part of her head? Blaze is one of the more original of the new designs, I agree, but she's still based off the 'Sonic Template.'

[Esrever]

I guess what we're really talking about here is skulls, sort of. And what frightening-looking skulls they'd be, at that!

Sonic's features are all built on top of a spherical frame, and so are most of the other cast members. Although even without the hair tufts, I think Blaze's noggin is a bit more like a slightly horizontally-elongated oval that a circle.

It's the characters with the structurally unique heads and/or bodies -- Tails, Knuckles, Fang, Big the Cat, Vector -- that I think are the most memorable and iconic. Characters like Cream and Marine just all kind of blur together for me... like they just took Ray the Squirrel and glued various wingdings onto him.

[Ngangbius]

Odd thing is Blaze seems to be more standard spherical in her Sonic 2K6 model than her M&S Olymipic one.

[DBurraki]

And her face never changes.

[big_smile]

SOA have put up a "coming soon" page for the game:
http://www.sega.com/gamesite/sonicchronicles/

The logo seems to suggests that this is the first in a series of games.

[MiraiTails]

Making it part of a series could be a good move on Sega's part (Assuming DB turns out as good as people think/hope it will.)

Ewww, Sonic. Oh, wait, it's part of Sonic Chronicles. Those games are good. *buys*

[Shadow Hog]

That is quite possibly the MOST basic placeholder page I've ever seen a professional company put out. Still, being a placeholder page and not the actual site, I guess the lack of effort is forgivable, or at least understandable.

Also, nothing on there implies this is part of a series. Nothing. It's a title with a subtitle.

[DackAttac]

The contrast is hilarity. The effort BioWare seems to have poured into it, versus Sega's lazy-ass placeholder page.

[Isuka]

It'd have been really better if they put the placeholder a month ago, it may have confused people a little and help build expectation. Or something.

Now, it's pretty useless.

[big_smile]

Also, nothing on there implies this is part of a series. Nothing. It's a title with a subtitle.

The logo that is displayed is unlikely to be the final version, as it lacks that gradients and outlines that make-up most Sonic logos. As a pre-production piece, it is interesting that the word "Chronicles" contrasts so greatly with the sub-title. It is almost as if the developers view Chronicles as a new brand, with its own identity.

If the developers were definitely not entertaining the idea of a sequel, then one would expect to see more visual similarity between the title and sub-title.

^_^

[MiraiTails]

Bioware has posted a placeholder site of sorts. You can sign up for a newsletter.

Edit: grammar; if anyone hasn't noticed the Sega game site mentioned earlier has had a very minor update. (It's still a single page placeholder with little info.)

[EspioKaos]

Also of note, an interview with Mark Darrah, the game's producer, has been posted (along with 20 new screens) over at IGN DS.

[DackAttac]

Alternate dimensions really need to die. I can only hope that since they're keeping a tight lid on that portion in particular, though, that it's something really kind of twisted.

[FlashTHD]

Developer BioWare pulls back the curtain on its epic Sonic-themed DS RPG.

...Sonic-themed.

Sonic-themed.

You can just taste the enthusiasm.

GN: How exactly do you play the game?

Mark Darrah The game will be controlled using the stylus really allowing for a sense of speed that is key to Sonic series.

IGN: Please detail the intricacies of the control system. For example, how do you move Sonic and friends about the environment and interact with objects and characters?

Mark Darrah The game has full stylus controls. In exploration, the stylus is used to guide Sonic around. In other GUI screens, the stylus is used to pick individual components on the GUI to interact with.

Interacting with elements in the environment is done through an icon system. So if you want to talk to an NPC, a speech bubble will appear over the NPC's head. To fly Tails across a chasm, the player will click on a flying icon.

Once again, ghey. -Please- button controls, Bioware. Also suspicious about where this icon system is going...it'd suck if all the exploration you can do is scripted to a T.