The Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Megathread

The changes will be much more than simply cosmetic. I'll let the final game do the talking, though - just remember I might quote this post months down the road when we've revealed all the specifics.

Also, scartillery, you pretty much nailed it.

 

So are you acknowledging cosmetic changes too, Ruby?

 

It's a shame the last Sonic 4 topic was trashed, as there were some good points that Ruby could have had use for.

 

For me personally I wasn't even going to think about buying sonic 4 in it's original state, this delay however has given me some hope that the game overall will be better then what we have seen via leaks. I'm not asking for pixel perfect sonic 3 physics here but at least some of the more classic and original physics might work correctly, aka rolling down a fucking hill not slowing you down.

 

The most important changes (to me personally) are a lot deeper than something on the surface, though who knows if we might see some other improvements here and there? Only time will tell.

The physics and a couple of the levels are what will be seeing the biggest changes, as was confirmed at E3. That certainly isn't all though, and I was very pleased when I saw the list of the majority of updates and additions. Some of them are minor in the grand scheme of things, but even these can be very important to the final feel of the game. We'll start revealing these updates when the game is nearing completion, but right now the team is still working very hard on it each day.

With regard to expectations, I hope most of the hardcore fans understand the purpose behind the improvements, which was to make the game as high quality as possible. It could be argued that the game would still sell well regardless of the quality, and I think people knew that, but we also knew that in the long term, there's something to be said about maintaining a level of quality that should be standard across all of our games. To that end, making sure that the game was as good as possible is something I think is really important - especially for an episodic series. It's important to start off on a good foot, and to keep improving from there.

I realize that for some no game in existence could live up to the name Sonic 4 without a 20 million dollar budget and only the original dev team on it. Many others just want to play a solid game that doesn't feature a million of Sonic's friends and offers some solid 2D Platforming. There are lots in between here, and many who are just happy to see Sonic returning to 2D on consoles, as I saw firsthand last weekend at SGC. But regardless of where fans sit in the spectrum, I hope to simply hear people say they had fun playing it.

 

I'll just say whatever the case may be, improving the engine, music, etc or not, it'd be nice to see something in the official material that takes place in a zone other than Splash Hill.

One of the reasons I've lost interest in Sonic 4 as time goes on (aside from things like the Donkey Kong fan in me overriding the Sonic fan in me) is that there's only so much excitement I can get out of seeing the same level archetype over and over again.

 

Well, you know what the fanbase wants in Sonic 4. Even though some of their requests are going to be ignored, at least make the game look decent in as much fields as possible.

You worry me at the fact that you've said "a couple of the levels". Of course, you're most likely referring to those two controversal Acts in LLZ and CSZ, but every zone deserves to be looked at. There is no zone in the game which was perfect in the leak, they all had their own flaws. I can understand with the "team working" part, there are deadlines to be met and everybody has had to work on deadlines on something. Nobody will realise the amount of work which was put into Sonic Boom before the deadline of the 2009 Hacking Contest, it was a lot.

Yes, this Episode has to be a of a high quality to make players buy the other parts of this game. The quality of this game when it was leaked wasn't good, in fact if it was released in that state, Sonic 4 would probably be added to the "worst Sonic games" pile where Sonic 06 and Sonic Labyrinth sit in. I addressed a few concerns in a PM that I sent you, and I hope that you'll read it and reply to it. People want to play a good-quality Sonic game, and S4 wasn't one when it was leaked. Will it be good? Time will tell, when it gets released.

 

What I want to know, is the overall number of dash pads going down? Does sonic still get forced into spin mode in the dash panels? What about sonic uncurling all the time, making him vulnerable? Why is the homing attack still there after all of the complaints? How do you expect people to believe you when all we can see is one unchanged zone and promises of "trust me". What exactly has changed? Does the game still play itself 90% of the time? Why is classic sonic still not selectable? Are those game-breaking half circle embankments still there? If the entire purpose of this PR rush was to get everyone's opinion on things, and you have their opinion, why are we being led to believe otherwise? It would be very easy to just delay the game and say changes were made when they really weren't and it would be a very profitable move. How do we know that isn't the case?

 

I just found this hilarious parody, and you all should hear it.

 

You know, it's funny.

Everyone who keeps complaining about the games still buy them anyways.

I look forward to Sonic 4. I'm not concerned about it sizing up with the classics, I just want it to be more fun than the other modern games. As it's been said, if the name wasn't Sonic 4, half of you wouldn't care.

 

Untrue. I can guarantee that most people who were (rightfully) bitching about Black Knight stayed way the hell away from that game.

Also, Sonic 4 will be easily pirated once it comes out.

 

I think the declining sale numbers of Sonic titles show that people really are staying the hell away from a lot of the games.

 

Okay, you've got me there. I didn't buy that because I didn't like the how the Secret Rings turned out.

But, still.

 

I honestly do not have any plans to buy this game at all, SEGA does not deserve a cent of my money. I haven't bought a Sonic game since Rush Adventure anyway.

 

I'm not buying it until my complaints are addressed. They keep saying they're going to fix it but I see no fixing going on. Hell, as far as I know splash hill zone is the only level in the game.

 

I just saw this movie for the first time like a week ago (I know, I'm slow) and I find this hilarious.

Sig'd.

 

I just read that in Doc. and Marty's voices
awesome

 

THe game really is kept in the dark even before now, we had small screenshots on the website, which was updated so slowly that it was kind of a wasted effort from sega, we knew little to nothing about the game and it was going to come out this month? it's like they were hiding the truth and trying to sell the game by name only.

It would be great if they would continue to update the websites with info about what is being adressed, the more entertaining and fun devs out there like bungie studios and valve entertain the community even with a tiny update, why can't sega get someone like ruby to go blog about some important fixes going on? for all I know they are just sitting on the title making us think they are doing shit to it.

Put it this way, devs and publishers out there delay games to move them into a better selling spot, this summer we have xbox live's summer of arcade with games in it which will be advertised by microsoft, sonic 4 would fail to sale among them if it wasn't a summer of arcade release title. This delay might even just be a cover up for shifting the date down the road, and it's hard to not believe that without any updates from sega about the changes and tweaks they are doing.

 

I wouldn't go that far, but it'd probably see itself lumped into the "average" pile with Heroes and so on. Which wouldn't exactly be much of a triumphant return, would it?

 

http://www.destructoid.com/sgc-s-mystery-g...-4-178572.phtml

The game's a secret title playable at this year's ScrewAttck Gaming Convention. The reveal (aside from using Chris Jericho's original countdown sound) sent the crowd into a frenzy.