The Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Megathread

I'd say, as a company, Sega as a whole is currently doing much better than they have been in the last... shit, almost a decade. Sonic games be damned, Sega has been putting their names on some really great games lately. They've turned into one of the BEST publishers in the industry, which is shades of their former selves during the genesis years (games like Toejam & Earl for example were only PUBLISHED by sega). Look at their publishing output - you have, obviously, their stuff from platinum games - Bayonetta being the crown jewel (thus far at least, Vanquish looks awesome), along with Infinite Space and MadWorld. Then you have stuff like Alien: Colonial Marines by Gearbox. Sega has also put out risky games like The Conduit, which while uninspired, was still solid. And End of Eternity/Resonance of Fate is one of the best RPGs no one played.

Beyond their publishing, Sega has released some of their best internally developed games ever this generation; Yakuza 3 and 4 are fantastic, and Valkyria Chronicles is honestly the best SRPG this generation. Virtua Fighter 5 is the deepest fighter yet, and Final Showdown looks even better. Then you have their digital download market, which is thriving. We've seen excellent ports of Outrun 2 and Afterburner Climax.

Even outsourced games that bear the sega logo have enjoyed great success. House of the Dead Overkill is probably the leader of the pack in this regard, but you can't ignore the success of the Sonic Rush games.

And sega's output on both the PSP and DS have been STELLAR. One of the strongest lineups for the company ever IMO.

Sonic himself seems to be improving in quality. For all the melodramatics about how it's not exactly what we want, Sonic Colors and Sonic 4 are light years ahead of the shit we saw recently. Step back and look at how poor Sonic 06 and Shadow the Hedgehog were. People are cautiously optimistic about Sonic, which is more than they've been in a long, long time.

Now, this isn't to say Sega doesn't still release duds - every company does. For every Colonial marines, you'll get an AvP (which I actually liked, but I'm in the minority). But even during Sega's glory years, they released duds. Even CapGod isn't exempt from this - did ANYBODY enjoy Dark Void? Did anybody BESIDES ME enjoy Bionic Commando?

What I'm getting at is, even if you don't like what the Sonic Franchise is now, you have to admit, Sega, as a company, has been much better recently than they've been in a long time. And it's reflected in their sales - Sega made money last quarter. A lot of money. In fact, they were one of the ONLY video game companies to do so, including capcom, konami, sony, microsoft, and so forth.

TL;DR: Sega. They're pretty cool ATM.

 

My sentiments exactly. Sega has done some really cool things the past few years, and call me crazy (as some of you undoubtedly will) but I'm looking forward to this game (as well as Colors, but I fawn enough about that game on its thread).

 

You bring up very valid points, CoolJerk, each one that I agree with wholly. I'm gonna be honest here... I didn't play Shadow the Hedgehog or 06 because I had a feeling they were going to be bad. I absolutely enjoyed Sonic Rush as well, which is why I'm sure I'll enjoy Sonic 4. Although it's physics aren't like the originals - actually, they are, just different, very similar to Rush - I'll still enjoy it, and chances are, most of you who are damning it to burn in hell would too.

I implore you, at least download a demo of Sonic 4. If you still don't like it for the same ridiculous and menial reasons, that's your prerogative. Meanwhile, everyone else will be playing it, enjoying it, and wondering "Okay, so this is what all those guys at Sonic Retro were whining about? Something that's barely noticeable unless you actually look for it?"

 

If you're crazy then I'm fucking insane. I'm full aboard Sonic 4, Sonic colors Wii, and Sonic Colors DS.

This is the most excited I've been about multiple Sonic games since Sonic 2sday.

 

This is very true. One of the biggest problems when the levels have already been designed based on early physics from the player.
I have not seen it in Sonic games, but other games.

When you (Sega) announced Project Needlemouse one year ago, did you have a Sonic 4 engine to build your levels, or did you work with Sonic Rush tools? I guess the initial level layout were done with Sonic Rush tools that were already built.

It would be nice to know the timeframe of how long it does to complete one act. And knowing what you could have done during the extended deadline. I guess you don't want to tell that to us.

I do have a request that might be possible to add. It is a way to extend Sonic 4's lifetime. It was done with Sonic CD, and made it interesting for 10 years:
Easter eggs. Make people search for hidden areas in the games, almost where noone expect to find them. And I am not talking about hidden 1-ups monitors. I am talking about information people crave for, like Sonic 3's original music (Michael Jackson), photos or scans of Sonic 3 levels that never made it. Iizuka sure must have alot of stuff that were never released to the public. Sonic 3 is one of the most secretive games out there, and people would do anything to find information. At least give the real names of the Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles music including the composers names. That's one secret I am still after.
Since Sonic 4 already has Sonic 3 stuff in it, it would be awesome to stuff more stuff into it, hidden of course, so that people have to search for it.
I would actually play Sonic 4 alot, as well as buy it, if I knew there were scans and photos of the Sonic 3 development process hidden in it, and possible to find by exploring (not by cheat code). Sonic 4 may not have the same power as Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles have, but it can sure change history!

Storage shouldn't be a problem with compressed textures. Quality shouldn't be a problem either.

Two examples of Sonic CD secrets that took me at least 8 years to find by myself:

1. Sonic gives up and kills himself after 3 minutes of waiting.
2. Time attack average level low times will unlock a menu called Little Planet where the names of the songs playing in the levels are named!
3. In one level, you can find a secret room with an Eggman statue (and it changes between time zones).


Adding secret rooms to levels shouldn't take too long, unless the original level data got lost somehow. Then it is just to export the altered levels.
Adding menus and other things are not THAT time consuming, and it should probalby be done before the release anyway.

Iizuka would fire Sega first. No matter who presses the red button first, everything will be destroyed.

 

Really? Eight years?

Now, the about 3., I indeed only found out after 8 years. =P And Wacky Workbench is easily my favorite level.

Too bad the only secret Sonic 4 currently have is the E level, and we (you) already figured it out that it's the end-of-game level.

 

I don't think Sonic 4 looks like a necessarily BAD game, it just was no where near worth the amount of hype that PR tried to sell it for. It looks okay, if I play it I'll probably be able to walk around the sloppy physics and I really don't mind the music or visuals even if fans have done better and there is so much better on XBLA/PSN/WiiWare right now, but it's really going to be a shame playing it and knowing that it could have been so much better if SEGA/Dimps put in much more effort and dedication than they are now. I'm going to try the demo upon release and if I like it, I'll buy the game. If not, somewhere down the line I'll probably wind up buying it at some point because I truly am Sonic's bitch, but it won't be for a while.

 

Speaking of testing stuff (too late on this) why test almost every combination like a retard when they could make a debug mode in this game? Or even better, a built in bot that can do all the stuff the testers are doing. Like, a demo mode.

Also, is there even a demo mode in this game?

 

So, what you are basically saying is that Sonic 4 is NOT a bad game, but IS a bad Sonic game. Sounds fair to me.

No. If you leave the game in the title screen(?), Sonic keeps waggling his finger forever and nothing ever happpens.

 

That's more of less how I feel too. I don't even think Rush is a bad game, it's S4 that's a bad classic Sonic game. It's still going to be fun to some degree.

First official iPhone screens are on the Flickr, including this:

I still want to try that stage you know.

 

I actually can't wait for the iPod version. Having Sonic 1, 2 and 4 (and I'm guessing number 3 + K will soon follow) is just awesome. I'm getting a bit bored of Sonic 1 & 2 on my iPod now. I've beaten them a billion times anyway, and at least 15 times more on my iPod. I just want that multiplayer update on Sonic 2 now.

 

The iPhone version is a waste of development time and it looks so squished. It'll probably be horrible to control too.
Unfortunately, I don't think that the mine cart stage would be as fun to play as opposed to the PartnerNet leak where it was fucking hilarious.

 

What I can't understand for the life of me is why companies are still giving the iPhone preferential treatment. In the US, one of the biggest markets, you can only get the iPhone if you have AT&T. Meanwhile, Android is totally destroying the iPhone in terms of sales simply because there's like 50 different phones on every single carrier that you can get.

How does it make any sense to give iPhone preferential treatment still? This isn't 2005 people! At least Justin.TV has the right idea, their Android app is out now and the iPhone app is still on the way. This is how it should be, not the other way around.

 

I don't know about America, but in Britain, and also a lot of EU countries, the iPod/iPhone is smashing competition. Honestly, and literally, every other person I see has got one or the other, and when you travel to London-one of the busiest capitals in the world- and see that, it really has an impact.

 

Yeah it's pretty big in NA and EU, but I don't think it's made a dent in Asia really.

I used to see iPhones everywhere in Seattle but lately all I see is droids and mytouches.

Anyway, back on topic cannon

 

I don't know about the virtual d-pad, but the "tilt mode" itself seems almost as hilariously terrible as the infamous minecart level.

 

Yet their market share is still nothing compared to blackberry. When you're talking smart phones, blackberry owns well over half the market. Well well over half the market.

Anywho, the reason they're making this for the iphone is because they specifically sell versions of said phone without the phone part. You can play Sonic 4 on the ipad or the ipod touch as well as the iphone.

 

*Imagining someone coming to Starbucks and playing Sonic 4 on their iPad*

 

Fuck, that'd be awesome.

Come to think of it, Sonic 4 would probably be great on the iPad due to it being fuckhuge and actually making a virtual D-Pad viable for people with oversized hands. I wish I had an iPad now if only to try that out.