[360]

Sonic 4 Episode 2 release date for 2012

Quote

The second episode of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 won't be launching until 2012 - well over a year after the first installment of SEGA's episodic series launched in 2010.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4, as its name suggests, was slated as a return to Sonic's 2D roots. Its first episode proved successful, bagging a coveted Eurogamer 9 in October last year. "In short, this is the game SEGA should have made 15 years ago" said Ellie of the game (360 Edit: WTF Eurogamer?).

With Sonic busy stuffing his face with cake while he celebrates his 20th anniversary this year - and while he also busies himself with the promising looking Generations, a medley of the SEGA mascot's finest moments - the next episode is set to release sometime next year.

"This year, 2011, is the anniversary, so we're focusing on the celebration title" Sonic Team's Takashi Iikuza told Eurogamer. "But moving forward to 2012, Sonic will still be going, so I'd hope to provide Episode 2 then."

Going the episodic route is normally an indication that there'll be a quicker turnaround than there is in a normal sequel cycle - so was it always the intention to have such an extended hiatus for Sonic 4?

"It was always the plan" said Iizuka. "We knew about the anniversary year and Generations was planned way in advance. It was always our plan to release Episode 2 after Generations."

Valve found itself in a similar situation when it opted for an episodic route for its Half Life 2 successors - and it looks as if the chances of a third Sonic the Hedgehog 4 episode are as slim as seeing an imminent return from Gordon Freeman.

"We can't say if there's going to be Episode 3 or not." Iizuka said when asked if there would be such a long wait between the second and third takes on Sonic the Hedgehog 4.

SEGA was unable to comment on when the new episode would be released, or whether it would be the last we'd see of Sonic 4.

Source: http://www.eurogamer...or-2012-article

I feel this amplifies and validates the idea (I had in another thread) that Sega should have just focused on one single game as opposed to going Episodic. I suppose this is disheartening news for some though it does illustrate the herculean (and resource consuming) effort that's going into Generations. I guess Episode 2's primarily happening because of Episode 1's (one million plus) sales. I'm going to make an educated guess here and say that Sega are waiting on Episode 2's sales before they give the green light for another sequel.

Thoughts?

This post has been edited by 360: 23 August 2011 - 05:49 PM

[Sparks]

I really can't say much until more is announced. I'm not quite sure what to expect though after what we've seen from Generations. It interests me to know if SEGA will want Ep 2 to be on the same tier level [as Generations] or end up not investing as much towards its development [thus giving us an Ep 1 repeat].

This post has been edited by Sparks: 23 August 2011 - 05:51 PM

[TimmiT]

No surprise that Episode 2 will release in 2012, seeing how they haven't even revealed it yet.

[jasonchrist]

If we want a truly classic game, we're gonna have to starve this beast and let it die. Let's not encourage them to make more of this shit.

For the sake of continuity, I can't see episode 2 being drastically different to 1 (seeing as they actually think it's good) so fuck it all! I've seen Generations 3DS and Dimps are still obviously not up to the task. Even if episode 2 is the perfect classic we've always dreamed of, I have major OCD, so the knowledge that episode 1 exists will still piss me off.

Start fresh, Sega! Stop proclaiming E1 as being "well received" and "successful". Stop sugar coating it, apologize for it, learn from it, and move the fuck on! And then if you still can't get it right on the next attempt, just give up on the idea of making classics altogether for the sake of us all.

This post has been edited by jasonchrist: 23 August 2011 - 06:05 PM

[Cooljerk]

jasonchrist, on 23 August 2011 - 06:04 PM, said:

Start fresh, Sega! Stop proclaiming E1 as being "well received" and "successful". Stop sugar coating it, apologize for it, learn from it, and move the fuck on! And then if you still can't get it right on the next attempt, just give up on the idea of making classics altogether for the sake of us all.

Episode 1 was well received and successful. Sega has said that sales were very good, and episode 1 drew mass critical praise, which, until the release of Sonic Colors a few months later, made it the best received Sonic game since Sonic Adventure 2.

[360]

TimmiT, on 23 August 2011 - 05:56 PM, said:

No surprise that Episode 2 will release in 2012, seeing how they haven't even revealed it yet.

True. I wanted to be the one to post the Sonic CD XBLA news but you torpedoed me by about four hours. Also what struck me most about this article was the idiocy of this comment:

Quote

Its first episode proved successful bagging a coveted Eurogamer 9 in October last year. "In short, this is the game SEGA should have made 15 years ago" said Ellie of the game.

Christ man. To start with the original Sonic games ran on Genesis (that's Megadrive to you Ellie) hardware which means it would have been impossible for Sega to make Sonic 4 fifteen years ago. The Genesis Sonics maxed out the hardware (blast processing!) and HD didn't even exist back then. Furthermore Sonic 4 is vastly inferior to (I would argue) all of the Genesis Sonics for about a million reasons; most of all because they were complete games as opposed to Sonic "this practically a forty minute minigame" 4.

Here's some trivia for you. I tried to get hired by Eurogamer back in my games journalism days when I was located in Brighton. Their response? "Yeah we all kind of love that we get paid over a grand a month to basically sit here and play games all day so no-one has quit in about five years. No vacant positions dude. Probably won't be ever. Keep reading Eurogamer!"

To be fair to them working in Brighton basically equals call centre so the staff over at Eurogamer probably feel like superstars. Plus writing about games online is much easier than in print (no monthly crunch time as they approach issue deadlines) so I suppose they just drink their coffee and hit a quota of articles each day.

Actually I'm derailing here so back on topic.

This post has been edited by 360: 23 August 2011 - 06:21 PM

[Cooljerk]

HD did indeed exist back then. Hi-Ten bomberman on the PC Engine FX outputted in a high-resolution mode, and could only be played on high resolution computer monitors.

Further more, outside of resolution, I really don't see why Sonic 4 could not have been done on the Sega Saturn. The wii outputs, what, 15-bpp color? Same as the saturn?

[jasonchrist]

Cooljerk, on 23 August 2011 - 06:18 PM, said:

jasonchrist, on 23 August 2011 - 06:04 PM, said:

Start fresh, Sega! Stop proclaiming E1 as being "well received" and "successful". Stop sugar coating it, apologize for it, learn from it, and move the fuck on! And then if you still can't get it right on the next attempt, just give up on the idea of making classics altogether for the sake of us all.

Episode 1 was well received and successful. Sega has said that sales were very good, and episode 1 drew mass critical praise, which, until the release of Sonic Colors a few months later, made it the best received Sonic game since Sonic Adventure 2.

Well received by fucking idiot reviewers and other clueless morons, and successful with sycophants who bought 3 copies so they could suck Ruby and Ken's cocks to get their names read out.

[Cooljerk]

jasonchrist, on 23 August 2011 - 06:25 PM, said:

Cooljerk, on 23 August 2011 - 06:18 PM, said:

jasonchrist, on 23 August 2011 - 06:04 PM, said:

Start fresh, Sega! Stop proclaiming E1 as being "well received" and "successful". Stop sugar coating it, apologize for it, learn from it, and move the fuck on! And then if you still can't get it right on the next attempt, just give up on the idea of making classics altogether for the sake of us all.

Episode 1 was well received and successful. Sega has said that sales were very good, and episode 1 drew mass critical praise, which, until the release of Sonic Colors a few months later, made it the best received Sonic game since Sonic Adventure 2.

Well received by fucking idiot reviewers and other clueless morons, and successful with sycophants who bought 3 copies so they could suck Ruby and Ken's cocks to get their names read out.

"Everybody but me is stupid" is a childish attitude to take.

And it has made me not want to discuss this any further with you. I don't value your opinion.

[Friend of Sonic]

It was fun for a downloadable title. It should not have been called Sonic 4. Otherwise it was decent once I got used to its fucked up physics.

I don't get the need to spit venom at the game. It wasn't bad

[jasonchrist]

Friend of Sonic, on 23 August 2011 - 06:36 PM, said:

It was fun for a downloadable title. It should not have been called Sonic 4. Otherwise it was decent once I got used to its fucked up physics.

I don't get the need to spit venom at the game. It wasn't bad

When I played this game, it was like having venom spat at me. It felt like the most personal of insults. It was like watching the taxman fucking your wife, while your house burns down.

I'm far more appreciative of Generations, even though it isn't good enough, the effort, love and attention to detail is definitely there so I can't really hate them for their shortcomings. Sonic 4 though was nothing but a (seemingly deliberate) insult.

This post has been edited by jasonchrist: 23 August 2011 - 06:48 PM

[corneliab]

jasonchrist, on 23 August 2011 - 06:47 PM, said:

When I played this game, it was like having venom spat at me. It felt like the most personal of insults. It was like watching the taxman fucking your wife, while your house burns down.

No, a personal insult would be calling someone fucking retarded. Which I'm doing right now.

You're fucking retarded.

[360]

jasonchrist, on 23 August 2011 - 06:47 PM, said:

When I played this game, it was like having venom spat at me. It felt like the most personal of insults. It was like watching the taxman fucking your wife, while your house burns down.

I'm far more appreciative of Generations, even though it isn't good enough, the effort, love and attention to detail is definitely there so I can't really hate them for their shortcomings. Sonic 4 though was nothing but a (seemingly deliberate) insult.

Hahahaha! I totally read that as this guy: http://info.sonicretro.org/The_Taxman If that's who you meant that's fucking hilarious. Email what you wrote to Sega and see what they say. Post their response here.

[David The Lurker]

Cooljerk, on 23 August 2011 - 06:27 PM, said:

jasonchrist, on 23 August 2011 - 06:25 PM, said:

Cooljerk, on 23 August 2011 - 06:18 PM, said:

Episode 1 was well received and successful. Sega has said that sales were very good, and episode 1 drew mass critical praise, which, until the release of Sonic Colors a few months later, made it the best received Sonic game since Sonic Adventure 2.

Well received by fucking idiot reviewers and other clueless morons, and successful with sycophants who bought 3 copies so they could suck Ruby and Ken's cocks to get their names read out.

"Everybody but me is stupid" is a childish attitude to take.

And it has made me not want to discuss this any further with you. I don't value your opinion.

Hello hi yes. I would like to expand on a point that was trying to be made but may have fallen through the cracks in an attempt to be dramatic.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 was not a well received title.

When you look at metacritic, you see that every single version of the game has wildly different review scores, even though that doesn't make much sense (aside from the iPhone version). The Wii version has an 81, and yes, you could say that is well received. But the exact same game on PS3 and Xbox 360? 74 and 72. Those are not well received scores. Those are mediocre scores. Those are the scores of a game that tried to be something but faltered about and ultimately failed. And the iPhone version, which is basically what the game was meant to be before it was leaked and everyone threw a fit...that received a 70.

Reading reviews, those who praised it seemed to be those who were, at best, casual fans of Sonic the Hedgehog that hadn't played a title since the Genesis days. They would cite that the game played the same, even though it's been proven it doesn't. People seemed more excited to see levels that reminded them of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, because they had vague memories of what the game was when they were a kid. People were willing to give it a pass based on nostalgia alone, and even then they weren't giving it the best marks or anything else. It was just because it reminded them they used to play Sonic before they got a Playstation.

But the game wasn't marketed as something casual. It wasn't marketed as yet another attempt by DIMPS to make a game. It was marketed as a return to form, and people who reviewed it on that basis...some gave it passing marks, other gave the game scalding reviews. And as for a Sonic game selling...even 2006 sold.

[Cooljerk]

David The Lurker, on 23 August 2011 - 07:53 PM, said:

Cooljerk, on 23 August 2011 - 06:27 PM, said:

jasonchrist, on 23 August 2011 - 06:25 PM, said:

Cooljerk, on 23 August 2011 - 06:18 PM, said:

Episode 1 was well received and successful. Sega has said that sales were very good, and episode 1 drew mass critical praise, which, until the release of Sonic Colors a few months later, made it the best received Sonic game since Sonic Adventure 2.

Well received by fucking idiot reviewers and other clueless morons, and successful with sycophants who bought 3 copies so they could suck Ruby and Ken's cocks to get their names read out.

"Everybody but me is stupid" is a childish attitude to take.

And it has made me not want to discuss this any further with you. I don't value your opinion.

Hello hi yes. I would like to expand on a point that was trying to be made but may have fallen through the cracks in an attempt to be dramatic.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 was not a well received title.

When you look at metacritic, you see that every single version of the game has wildly different review scores, even though that doesn't make much sense (aside from the iPhone version). The Wii version has an 81, and yes, you could say that is well received. But the exact same game on PS3 and Xbox 360? 74 and 72. Those are not well received scores. Those are mediocre scores. Those are the scores of a game that tried to be something but faltered about and ultimately failed. And the iPhone version, which is basically what the game was meant to be before it was leaked and everyone threw a fit...that received a 70.

Reading reviews, those who praised it seemed to be those who were, at best, casual fans of Sonic the Hedgehog that hadn't played a title since the Genesis days. They would cite that the game played the same, even though it's been proven it doesn't. People seemed more excited to see levels that reminded them of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, because they had vague memories of what the game was when they were a kid. People were willing to give it a pass based on nostalgia alone, and even then they weren't giving it the best marks or anything else. It was just because it reminded them they used to play Sonic before they got a Playstation.

But the game wasn't marketed as something casual. It wasn't marketed as yet another attempt by DIMPS to make a game. It was marketed as a return to form, and people who reviewed it on that basis...some gave it passing marks, other gave the game scalding reviews. And as for a Sonic game selling...even 2006 sold.

Sonic 4 is only 1 point behind Sonic Adventure 2 on metacritic.

The point is that the biggest sites usually gave glowing reviews, and that the meta critic scores are weighed down by lesser known sites. The critical reception to Sonic 4 was overwhelmingly positive by basically every major review outlet.