The GHZ Forum

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 2:16 am**

First details have emerged. Another new rival for Sonic has been confirmed, this time a white hedgehog? Perhaps this is the fourth rival in Sonic Rivals for PSP.

A couple of the more interesting tidbits:

IGN wrote:Sonic is no longer the stubby, kid-like bullet of blue spiky fur. While retaining his general form -- smirky smile, giant blue head spikes, and classic white and red outfit, replete with white gloves -- SEGA has grown Sonic into an adult by means of a few simple techniques. The team has basically stretched his legs and arms to relatively human proportions. Thus, Sonic still looks just like always did, but now he's about 5'10". In fact, all of the characters we saw, Dr. Robotnik (Eggman) and <b>Sonic's new nemesis, a white hedgehog</b>, retained a relatively human-sized height. The effect is a little alarming at first. Sonic looks like a skinny dude in a Sonic suit now, at least when he's standing still. Once he starts running, it's all different. But still, you'll need to take second and third glance to get accustomed to his new look.

Due on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this fall, Sonic's new game follows a simple narrative premise. In a pristine kingdom holding a royal family, a certain Princess Elise retains a chaos emerald -- and a deep secret. In an inevitable turn of events, Dr. Robotnik learns of the emerald and kidnaps the princess, and thus the emerald, and Sonic is compelled to retrieve her and the precious stone. The new rival, basically a cream-colored furry that looks remarkably like Sonic, appears in the following cutscene, looking down from an overlooking hill into a village, and proclaims, "I've finally found it, the Iblis Trigger." The Iblis Trigger we're told is Sonic, and this new rival is going to cause him great pain due to vaguely revealed supernatural powers. <b>You'll also be able to play as the new character.</b>

IGN wrote:Sonic's new game is split into two types of gamelay [sic]: action and town stages.

Check out the full article and some new screenshots at the link below.

Source: http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/704/704896p1.html

Let the bitching commence.

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 2:20 am**

You forgot to bold Princess Elise

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 2:22 am**

Is that better?

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 2:28 am**

--A Princess

--A new Sonic rival that looks like Sonic only he's white and you can play as him

--human proportions

--Iblis Trigger--Sonic's past possibly revealed?

...boy this game will be something..er...memorable.

The screen caps also doesn't look that great compared to some of the shots of other games on X360/PS3.

On the plus side, at least there will be adventure fields.

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 2:38 am**

Did you really have to bold that part?

Anywho. Another hedgehog. A princess. Some kingdom. Really strange and cryptic stuff. Town and action stages. Very strange things. No Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Station Square or South Island? What happened to the continuity? Did it reboot as I once theorized? Interesting. Deep story too, just as promised. No need to touch the Genesis story, make a new one. These new characters, for all we know, may not be new to this continuity... considering my theory was correct, that is. Enough of my continuity jibber jabber, let us talk other matters. I am quivering a lot right now, so please be easy on me.

Iblis Trigger? That is weird. What does it refer to? Sonic? The village? A Chaos Emerald? The environments look pretty cool, despite blurry textures and grit here and there. I do like the inclusion of "town stages" or adventure fields as we called it back in the days of Sonic Adventure.

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 3:13 am**

OMG. It's Sonic X-Treme, but for the X-box! Now with Shadow Jr.!

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 3:21 am**

At least 2 new characters already, fantastic. I see Sonic's shoes are still ridiculously shiny after all too, what a relief, for a second it seemed like they'd got rid of that. Throw in this superb sounding deep storyline and I couldn't possibly be happier, looks like they're definitely speeding down the right path with their "Re-invention'.

Sonic is dead

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 3:31 am**

Well, whatever hope I had for this game has almost completely diminished now. I'll wait for the E3 showing before I pass final judgement but it still sounds like they really don't have a fucking clue what they're doing. Another Sonic clone who's also playable? Great just what I wanted!

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 3:37 am**

Hurrah for Generic Evil Twin #8

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 3:51 am**

The whole, "LOL EGGMAN KIDNAPS THE PRINCESS" thing is such a poor fucking homage. I bet whoever works for Sonicteam felt really smug when they came up with that one.

"Get it? He kidnaps the Princess! It's classic!"

And a white hedgehog? Couldn't they have just re-used Shadow? Used properly, I enjoy Shadow as a character, and adding another "LOL RIVAL" to the mix brings the count of Anti-Sonics up to 3; 4 if you count the Archie Comic's "Evil Sonic/Scourge the Hedgehog".

The whole concept suddenly sounds very generic and trite.

Gameplay sounds like it could be on the right track, though. This makes me pop a hundred boners. That's the kind of level design I've been screaming for in a 3D Sonic title.

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 3:59 am**

With all the dissapointment today, The best thing to come out of today was this topic over at the GAF:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=98115

Not Sonic related, but I haven't laughed this hard in a LONG time :D

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 5:10 am**

You know what would be funny? If the White Hedgehog was the opposite of Shadow. Instead of trying to be a mysterious, violent, badass, he's a wussy, good-two shoes stick in the mud hippie. Runs around throwing flowers everywhere and talking about huggles and snuggles and woogle love doveyness. Essentially, a Sonic CareBear.

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 6:06 am**

Wow. That sank fast.

And I still haven't seen an open field or anything that isn't a one way path or floating platform yet. It's not a prettier SA1, it's more like SA2 (or even Heroes), with these town stages no doubt thrown in to placate SA1 fans.

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 7:31 am**

I think this game definitely has the potential to kill any remaining interest I have in the series. There hasn't been a real Sonic game since his 10th anniversery and it looks like they are on the verge of blowing it again.

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 7:50 am**

I think it's bizarre how this situation is a complete inversion of the Sonic Heroes announcement, whereby everyone was getting really excited except me. Am I the only guy who still thinks that this game looks rather good? I am exercising an extremely cautious optimism here, but I think graphically it looks very appealing-- I actually really like the art design, and I like the look of the city, although I haven't played Shadow so I don't know about the supposed connection to it. The story sounds like garbage to me, but Sonic stories have pretty much always been garbage. I sighed at the introduction of yet another alternate-coloured Sonic Alter-Ego, though.

It doesn't look amazing. But it looks like it might be a solid and slick platformer, which is a lot better than anything else we've had in five years, Sonic-wise.

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 10:03 am**

You're not alone, Popcorn, if my opinion counts for anything. Much as I may bitch about the character proportions and new character, the graphics are nice and the gameplay sounds ideal. I even like the story concept because it sounds like they're dropping the endless depths of their cast in the process of encorporating this kingdom environment. Much as I love Tails, I'm getting sick of him, and a damsel-in-distress character is more than welcome (Sonic CD, anyone?).

That white hedgehog can suck my balls, though. Here's hoping the Eggwalker blows him up or something.

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 10:59 am**

I'm not totally repulsed by it, but it doesn't sound good. I like the screen shots, and at least the enemies look pretty cool (no more EggPawns or GUN "box" robots). I'm still as concerned as I was before about it, it's not like having a story and some cool backgrounds will change the fact that they still seem to be emphasizing all the wrong things, at least as far as I'm concerned.

Someone at Gamiko said Sonic on the Wii will also be at e3. (god, it rhymes...) I don't know if it actually will show up or not, but I'm saving all my excitement for that.

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 12:03 pm**

G.Silver wrote:Someone at Gamiko said Sonic on the Wii will also be at e3.

I will NEVER play a game called "Sonic Wii"

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 12:09 pm**

That's still a better title than Sonic Heroes or Sonic Rivals. I predict the next Nintendo DS Sonic game will be called "Sonic RUN!".

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 12:46 pm**

<strike>1UP.com has a <a href="http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3 ... preview</a> up that covers quite a few things. It seems levels will be divided between "action stages," which are all about speed, and "exploration stages," where secrets can be sought. However, they make it sound like the exploration stages can be completed straightforwardly if the player chooses, so there probably won't be any pace-breaking Emerald-hunting.

There's also some talk of the story, which mentions no existing characters except Sonic and Eggman. Newcomers are Princess Elise and a mystery character who will be playable.</strike>

Foiled again. Anyway, I'm with Popcorn.

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 12:57 pm**

A lot of what is being said about this game encourages me. The only thing that sounds outright bad is the story, and that's mainly because I want to vomit every time I hear about another game where a princess gets kidnapped.

I don't know... it just kind of bothers me that they're planning on encorporating royalty into this game. I liked the way that Sonic has always managed to dodge that bullet. I liked the way that they tried to make the games feel, you know... modern. If this turns into some dreck about kings and daggers and mystical chosen ones I am going to cry.

Other than that it looks nice!

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 2:11 pm**

I am slightly let down, but I think this could be a good game.

I mean, once you're at the bottom, the only place to go is up, right?

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 2:32 pm**

Baba O'Reily wrote: I mean, once you're at the bottom, the only place to go is up, right?

Sonic Team are constantly expanding the definition of "the bottom", who knows if we've even scaped the surface of how deep it truly goes.

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 2:42 pm**

I'm still looking forward to this game, to be honest. Sure, the story sounds like crap, but it sure sounds a hell of a lot better than Shadow the Hedgehog's story. Also, a new playable character doesn't sound to appealing to me, especially since I get the impression he's going to be nothing more than a Sonic clone

Posted: **Thu May 04, 2006 3:00 pm**

It's now fairly obvious that Sonic Team draws it's inspiration from fandom RP boards. Wouldn't it be a bitch if they finally decided to do some background research on what exactly the fans want, and that just happened to be the first thing they saw?

It's more likely than you'd think; recently, a kid I know asked me weither or not I liked Shadow. After giving him my answer, he said something to the effect of "Well, you probably wouldn't like SSD, then." Turns out he was referring to a fancharacter, and had come into contact with the internets for a prolonged period of time. I laughed, I wept for humanity's folly.

Storyline aside, the game still looks and sounds good to me.

The GHZ Forum

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