Also keep in mind that summer means the season and it doesn't end "when kids go back to school". Summer does not end until Fall starts in the Northern hemisphere, September 22nd. So September 4th could be a real date ignoring the fact that PS4 games release on Tuesdays not Monday. July or August would be nice, but September is probably likely.
Say what you will about seasons officially starting on certain dates, I always take the more casual and regularly approach; winter is December to February, spring is March to May, summer is June to August and autumn is September to November. I think that, for the sake of simplicity, these are the definitions that publishers usually abide by when releasing new games and things. Regardless of that though, it's never really worth taking any of the release dates from retailers as reliable. They're very often just complete ass-pull guesses that can't even be called reasonable placeholders. I'd just wait for SEGA's own word on this, or at least wait until various retailers start giving the same date. For what it's worth, a physical Switch version has been popping up on various websites for a while. The latest is Game.co.uk, who are limiting it to one copy per customer. Limited edition release incoming? It's also on Grainger Games and some retailers in other countries too. (Sorry for the lack of links. I'm on mobile)
I just had a thought. You know how in Sonic 3, the data select music would bug after about 45 minutes and one of the instruments was suddenly louder for a loop? What do you think the odds are that Tee Lopes has put a reference to that somewhere in the game? And in case he hasn't - quick, someone Tweet at him! Edit: Now that I have a proper internet connection and can watch the stream... I noticed three distinct issues from the initial GHZ2 reveal footage. A) The boss didn't award any points when defeated, B) the timer didn't stop when the act was cleared, and C) the score and lives counters reset along with rings/time at the start of Act 2. In the streamed footage, issue "B" is fixed (timer stops when the boss is defeated) but "A" and "C" are still present. This confuses me, because given the lack of Act 2 music, bonus stage entrances and a comment from Aaron, this is the same build as has been used since the Mirage Saloon reveal in October. Maybe the timer thing was just a bug that happened to show up in the GHZ reveal footage? Incidentally, that "zipline going through the terrain" that we first saw in January? That's still present, unchanged, in the Japanese stream (with the Act 2 music and bonus stages). Don't take this as a "oh god the game is full of bugs and the devs aren't making any progress it's doomed to be terrible halp" kind of post. I'm just noting my observations.
There are different definitions. But arguing about it would be dumb, to say the least. I'm not going to be up in arms if the game gets released in September. We've only ever been given broad releases windows for the game anyway. When it was announced that Mania was delayed until the summer, SEGA still weren't committing to a certain date. It'll be done when it's done.
This has been pointed out before. It's very likely they're using a now ancient build of this game, which is why some of us have been saying there should be a new preview build to show off, but ya you can tell it's not finished (Knuckles 1 up box icon is his life icon from Sonic 3 for example). For what its worth, Sega of Japan was playing a newer build that contained act 2 music and active star posts. It still had that zip line strangeness though.
My Steam version is showing the following: It's funny to me how the placeholder dates vary depending on platform.
And it hasn't been in development for that long either, only about a year before the announcement. A two-year turnaround in a video game is extremely fast.
Sonic 2 was developed in about 18 months. Granted, we all know of how much content was cut. It would be a full 2 year turnaround until we had the 'complete' Sonic 3 (AKA S3&K) Edit: Man, when you think about it, the full true peak of the classic era fit in only 3 and a half years. Post S&K was nearly all spinoffs until Adventure (which was post classic era). Such a short era for a 25 year old franchise.
To clear up confusion, Japanese <-> English machine translations are often very wrong even for simple cases. The website doesn't say what order Mirage Saloon appears in Sonic Mania; It actually just says that in Sonic Mania, Mirage Saloon makes its debut(first appearance). The original Japanese text: Grammar is the hardest to explain(Japanese grammar is nearly reverse compared to English), but from word choice alone it's still clear that the website just means 'this is a new stage appearing for the first time' ?? ? In this work, ? ?? ? first appearance of ?? (the) new ???? stage So the website says: In this title (Sonic Mania), the new stage(Mirage Saloon) makes its first appearance. (We could really use some more bilingual Japanese + English speakers on these forums to help out with translations like this :P )
If I recall correctly, the development period for the first game was a mere eight months. Do we know how soon after the completion of 1 and 2 the development of their respective sequels began? If work on Sonic 2 didn't begin until 1992, it would've been made in under a year. This is the main reason I feel downright insulted by SEGA's complete mismanagement of the Sonic franchise over the last twenty years. They had a spectacularly successful series that redefined a genre and single-handedly reversed the state of the console wars, and almost immediately abandoned it in favour of half-assed, rushed attempts to sell the series in 3D. There was a reason so many people loved the classic games, and it wasn't just a product of "gotta go fast" marketing. They're not perfect games by any means, but the fantastic physics engine makes the characters responsive and enjoyable to control, and THAT is the foundation of everything else. It blows my fucking mind that it took 23 years for a true S3&K successor to be made. It's as if SEGA were afraid of recognising the most successful 'era' of the series, to the point of doing everything wrong in the form of Sonic 4: Episode I. It wasn't until Sonic's reputation was in the gutter that they dared to give the classic style another chance - with a dev team and engine that had been handed to them on a fucking platter. Did they seriously think back in 2010 that a proper classic game was a bigger risk than the Sonic 4 we ended up getting? /rant
Sonic 4 felt off on so many levels. Sonic felt, for the lack of a better word, "floaty", the music was garbage, a good portion of the levels were clear Genesis rehashes but without any of the charm... Episode II was better because they brought Tails back and the new levels were more fun and original but things still felt off. Sonic Mania probably will be the true Sonic 4 if it turns out to be as good as it currently looks.
Sonic 4 was the first game where I felt a sense of resentment and spite in the design. It had all the classic visuals, but the actual gameplay was horribly off. It was like the developers were saying "You want a classic game? Here's you stinkin' classic game. Now choke on it!" Although to be fair, it was just supposed to be a mobile game that was reworked into Sonic 4 as a result of SOA meddling. I think if it had been released as a mobile-only game under a different name, it probably would have been much better received. Things like the limited paths and dodgy physics would be more forgivable on mobile (especially as without the Sonic 4 branding, they could have probably left in things like boost).
Another thing: There were games to be made after S&K, but people often forget that there were tons of bad business decisions and mismanagement by SoJ and SoA in the mid/late 90s.
And Sonic 4 is far easier to play on Mobile than the remasters from Taxman because of the lack of precision of the virtual d-pad.
