Sonic 4: Episode 1 official

Sedako

Sedako

Chuck Steak
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Yes, episode one. Sidescrolling perspective with 3D visuals, only playable character is Sonic, and it is download only on PSN, Xbox live, and Wiiware.

Gamespot Q&A

High Res Trailer

Does the running animation seem kind of subdued to anyone else?
 
I thought you were making a joke when you said "Episode I" D:

And yeah, it doesn't look like he's running as fast as he used to.
 
Big, fat meh.

I really loved these games as a kid, but I can't get much enjoyment out of the old 2D ones any more. I guess holding right doesn't hold the same appeal it once did. :V
 
Less talk, more running.
 
Holy smokes I got nostalgia from the SEGAAA title! :bounce: This actually looks good for a change.
 
*ríomhaire loads up ultimate flash sonic*
 
With each Sonic game released the more I realize that Sonic 'fans' will never be happy. They are, more than any other game-centric fanbase, the pickiest, finickiest, whiniest, loudest, most nostalgia-absorbed sky-is-falling group of gamers to ever been born of this hobby.

Post Dreamcast era, so-called fans of the franchise have become so bitter and disillusioned with Sonic that they have reached a state where absolutely nothing pleases them. Each new mechanic, each new friend, each time the franchise has strayed from the classic formula has created a yearning for the Sonic of the Genesis era. So much so, in fact, that even the slightest division between the games of then and the games of today is enough to set these fans off. Regardless of whether a Sonic game is enjoyable or not, if it is different, it is automatically cause for ridicule and vehement, outspoken hatred. Where there was once enjoyment there is now derision; in place of fun, scorn.

And this is mainly because these people have wrapped themselves up in a blanket of nostalgia, a warm, comforting ideal that conjures images of times past as children and young adults playing a masterful platform game. They have placed Sonic 1, 2, 3&K, and CD on an unreachable pedestal, an untouchable place where every new attempt falls short of the perceived perfection of the originals. This has given rise to the perpetuation of the "Sonic cycle," that famous image lampooning the 'gullibility' of the Sonic fan. It fails to mention that the reason said fans continue to 'fall for the cycle' is because that in looking for Sonic's "triumphant return," they are really looking for a return to their childhoods, the spark to rekindle that long lost spirit--something that is, ultimately, unattainable, due to the mind's perception of the games being utterly without flaw, needing to conform to the strictest of parameters in order to have the same magic.

And in that, any Sonic game that is not a 100% faithful reproduction of the originals is automatically labeled as shit. And while games of the past few years have had their admitted flaws, there is much enjoyment to still be had from them if one takes the time to look with an open mind. Yet because these games are different graphically and in formula they are often scoffed at as Sonic games that cater to an underage and/or furry crowd. (Despite the fact that most gamers who played classic Sonic were themselves underage at the time)

So it was with great anticipation that these nostalgic fans of the Sonic franchise were looking forward to Project Needlemouse. Even up until midnight last night, people were clamoring with excitement for a new 2D Sonic game, a return to roots, something that promised to give these diehard, outspoken fans what they've been wanting. No friends! 2D gameplay! Oldschool level design! Yes, this was classic Sonic. So sure was Sega that they named it Sonic 4, hoping to give fans who'd lambasted the series in recent years that old nostalgic feeling they'd been after for so long.

And when the trailer dropped, what happened?

What fucking happened?

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWW 3D GRAPHICS

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWW SONIC'S PROPORTIONS AREN'T HIS OLD PROPORTIONS

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWW HE HAS GREEN EYES

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWW HIS RUN ANIMATION LOOKS OFF

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWW HOMING ATTACK

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWW THEY'RE STILL CALLING ROBOTNIK EGGMAN

Five seconds of gameplay and these motherfuckers instantly set to work bitching about everything under the sun. He doesn't look exactly like old Sonic. He has the green eyes and lanky proportions that 'panders to furfags.' His run animation looks weird; EVEN IN THIS VERY THREAD people are complaining about the goddamn run animation. "He doesn't look as fast," "I miss the spinning legs," yet the funny thing is, get this, one of people's main complaints about DC-era Sonic games? "Oh, you're too fast, Sonic was never about speed. It's a platforming game."

Fuck, nobody, NOBODY in the Sonic fandom knows how to be happy anymore. There's always something to whine about. Something to bitch about. Goddamn nostalgiafags are so entrenched in their own shit they can swim in it. Shit goes down for meters. We've gotten a five second teaser and already there's bitching about something. You know what? Nothing is ever good enough for these Sonic fans. They will pine for their lost childhoods for eternity.

Maybe for the rest of us who aren't so hung up on the past, we can find some entertainment in this game for a few hours.
 
Damn it Sedako, you beat me to it. I was all prepared to make a thread about this.

Sega's decision to go episodic might work out well, because they can add new features and other things into each new episode. This is going to be great.
 
Never really liked Sonic - the first one was alright, and the [Japan only] isometric arcade game was pretty sweet - actually, I hate all games where you collect thousands of things strewn about. "Pick that up". **** YOU.

Not only that, but I almost always hate platform games. And console games.
 
Darkside55 said:
words
Click to expand...
Whatever Darkside. I've never played a 3D Sonic game (except for Sonic 3D and Battle) and really have no interest in them. I have been following the 2D Sonic games on the other hand and they're pretty damn fun the most part. Sonic Advance 1, 2 and 3 had their ups and downs (2 probably being the best even if unlocking the bonus level was impossible). I really, really liked Sonic Rush and intend on getting around to Rush Adventure one day. And this looks awesome.
 
"Sonic fans" are utterly irrelevant. The games review direly anyway.

As for the 3D look... I'm just disappointed because making your 2D game 3D rendered is lazy, it's what anyone else would do with a videogame character post-Pixar (or what everyone did post Donkey Kong Country). The envelope on 2D visuals in the HD era hasn't even been nudged lightly, and Sonic, with his Disney-brand mouth and the game's loony-toon gadgetry always seemed to me to be a series born out of a 2D animation boom that coincidentally became mediocre the second it chased the same bandwagon everyone else believed they had to be on to stay on top.

Sure, a 3D rendered 2D Sonic game has every chance of being a great game that a 2D illustrated one would, but it will never be as spectacular. Then again, the Sonic pedigree has never been solid. 2D Sonic games are responsible for most of the shit people sling at the newer titles and there was never a five-star Sonic title to begin with.
 
riom said:
Whatever Darkside.
Click to expand...

"Whatever" nothing. I don't even know why you're addressing me if you think this looks awesome. Clearly I'm not speaking about YOU. I'm speaking about the hundreds of people online right now bitching about five seconds of a trailer because it's not the same thing they remember as children.

But, the fact that you have no interest in the 3D games, eh, your loss.

Kupo said:
Sure, a 3D rendered 2D Sonic game has every chance of being a great game that a 2D illustrated one would, but it will never be as spectacular.
Click to expand...
it will never be as spectacular
Click to expand...
because 3D instead of 2D
Click to expand...
GRAPHICS MAKE GAMEPLAY ARGUMENT ALERT

WE GOT A GRAPHICS MAKE GAMEPLAY GUY OVER HERE
 
Your quote sniping is always cute Darkside, but it only illustrates your inability to read complete sentences. Try again.

Where the hell have you ever heard 'spectacular' used to describe gameplay anyway? That makes no sense. Spectacles are something you watch, not something you interact with.
 
Im not a sonic fan, and I dont like the animation either. Its too slow for how fast hes moving across the ground.

kupocake said:
Your quote sniping is always cute Darkside, but it only illustrates your inability to read complete sentences. Try again.

Where the hell have you ever heard 'spectacular' used to describe gameplay anyway? That makes no sense. Spectacles are something you watch, not something you interact with.
Click to expand...

When one refers to a game as "spectacular" its generally assumed that its meant in more ways than just the graphical sense.
 
Krynn72 said:
When one refers to a game as "spectacular" its generally assumed that its meant in more ways than just the graphical sense.
Click to expand...
Then the English Language is in decline Sirrah, and I wish it to be known that I claim no part in its degradation.
 
Darkside55 said:
His run animation looks weird; EVEN IN THIS VERY THREAD people are complaining about the goddamn run animation.
Click to expand...

I wasn't complaining, it was merely an observation. I'm looking forward to this, but in no way am I a typical Sonic fan. The last Sonic game I played was Sonic & Knuckles. You're the only one doing any sort of bitching in this thread.

Krynn72 said:
Im not a sonic fan, and I dont like the animation either. Its too slow for how fast hes moving across the ground.
Click to expand...

It actually looks better when they show the brief in-game shot at around 0:25.
 
Spectacular can be used to describe gameplay. Colloquially it isn't just meant to describe how something looks, but rather the quality of a thing; "the gameplay is spectacular." Synonymous with striking, or sensational.

In any case your argument is basically what I'm talking about in my initial post. "Oh, rendering a character in 3D is just lazy," "2D is better," "3D is a bandwagon." You realize that the only reason Sonic was ever in two dimensions is because at the time people weren't working in three, correct? Sonic came out in direct competition with Mario, hence the 2D drawn aspect; had it been in competition with, say, Donkey Kong Country, it would've been rendered that way to begin with.

It all boils down to, "Oh, it looks different from the Sonic I remember, therefore it will never be as good." It won't LOOK as good, in your opinion. Not as spectacular. 3D is lazy. Jesus, don't you see? It's the point that no matter what people get when it comes to Sonic they'll never be happy.

Sonic 4 could've been completely hand-drawn in HD and people would have still bitched because "Why couldn't they have just used the oldschool sprites?" "Megaman 9 used 8-bit, why didn't Sega go with 16-bit?" (Which, by the way, is an actual argument I've seen)

Seriously, nobody's happy with anything. There's always something to nitpick about. And the point in my previous post still stands as well; to you, the game will never be as good as if it were in 2D. Despite how the game plays, it won't LOOK right to you. That was the meaning behind that post.

3D is lazy...god. Sega gives people what they want and there's still always SOMETHING to bitch about.
 
Darkside55 said:
to you, the game will never be as good as if it were in 2D.
Click to expand...
kupocake said:
a 3D rendered 2D Sonic game has every chance of being a great game that a 2D illustrated one would
Click to expand...
THE ENGLISHES THEY HURT MY HEAD.

All I have said is that a 2D game would be more striking. Striking isn't better. Jesus. I sometimes wonder if it wouldn't be better to just post a thumbs up or down emoticon.
 
This thread has too many words in it.

I think it'll be interesting but the animation and movement does look off. IMO they should have just used blur instead of trying to render every single bit of movement. I mean that's how it's worked in the past. Maybe they just had him moving slower fo the video though so I can't say.

Honestly though... Sonic belongs in the 2D just like Megaman. Mario made it out but only by the grace of Mario 64's miracles. Sonic is just designed to be this superfast mindspank and superfast 3D things are scary.
 
Kupo said:
All I have said is that a 2D game would be more striking. Striking isn't better.
Click to expand...


Ok, we're losing something in comprehension here, because the fact that you're saying, "Oh, the game would've been more striking in 2D," means that you think the game would be better if it was in 2D, right? You've already said that 3D is lazy and you're "starting to feel half the Sonic cycle"; so obviously if the game were in 2D you would like it more, wouldn't you? Liking something more means that in your opinion it'd be...BETTER, wouldn't it?

You're over here making all these comments toward how the game looks, deriding the use of 3D graphics, and then you're like, "You don't understand, I didn't say it'd be better if it was in 2D."
 
Sonic needs to be chucked into the trash compactor.
 
Darkside55 said:
You're over here making all these comments toward how the game looks, deriding the use of 3D graphics, and then you're like, "You don't understand, I didn't say it'd be better if it was in 2D."
Click to expand...
You're the one who doesn't believe that graphics have any bearing on gameplay whatsoever? So why is no one else afforded the same immunity?

'Discussions' like this are pathetic, because people just can't except for a second that what someone says they believe is actually what they believe. If there's one phrase I hate it's 'oh, but you're arguing semantics', because it's an utter bullshit evasive phrase. But really, that's what you're doing. You're arguing about your interpretation of words I disinterestedly wrote into a keyboard whilst I was eating lunch, because like most words, if you look hard enough you can be irrationally offended by them.

But seeing as we're being petty, why is it that you started out attacking 'Sonic fans', when the only person here who has expressed more than a partial investment in the series, who is willing to defend the series to the hilt with diatribes that rip the word-count a new hole is yourself? Face it. You are unequipped to deal with criticism about these games maturely, even if any of us were even half bothered about discussing them. If we reply to this thread, we better be prepared to defend what we've said to the point where you have to throw up your hands and say 'oh shit, you're right. That thing I meant to say, I can't have meant that at all'.

Have a cup of tea and think about leaving the house.
 
kupocake said:
You're the one who doesn't believe that graphics have any bearing on gameplay whatsoever? So why is no one else afforded the same immunity?

'Discussions' like this are pathetic, because people just can't except for a second that what someone says they believe is actually what they believe. If there's one phrase I hate it's 'oh, but you're arguing semantics', because it's an utter bullshit evasive phrase. But really, that's what you're doing.
Click to expand...
I've already conceded that you weren't talking about the graphics in relation to the gameplay. We've moved on from that. What I'm discussing now is the fact that you think the game would be more striking if it was in 2D.

If 3D is lazy, and 2D requires more effort, then 2D would obviously be better to you, wouldn't it? Lazy is always a derogatory term. Nobody uses lazy in a positive light. We're not talking gameplay anymore, just graphics. So if 2D was more striking to you, you would be more captivated by a hand-drawn game...therefore you'd be more inclined to enjoy the game if it were hand-drawn, right?

So if effort > laziness
and striking graphics > graphics that are dull, mediocre, or "easy" like 3D
then you do think that a 2D Sonic game would be > than a 3D Sonic game, don't you? Just answer me that, based on nothing else. You think that a 2D Sonic game would look better than a 3D Sonic game, gameplay notwithstanding.

why is it that you started out attacking 'Sonic fans', when the only person here who has expressed more than a partial investment in the series, who is willing to defend the series to the hilt with diatribes that rip the word-count a new hole is yourself? Face it. You are unequipped to deal with criticism about these games maturely, even if any of us were even half bothered about discussing them.
Click to expand...
Actually, guy, the reason I started out attacking Sonic fans was because I just felt it necessary to comment on what's going on surrounding this game. It wasn't motivated by anyone's comments in here, but rather the collective feelings of the internet at large about Sonic 4. Being that this is the forum I hang out most on and throw out my lengthy rants on, I figured I'd put down my thoughts on the situation.

And how am I "unequipped to deal with criticism maturely?" If you're going to whip that about the same can be applied to you, Mr. ENGLISHES HURT MY HEAD. Besides, it seems like you're getting more upset over this discussion than I am. Nice "leave the house" comment. Very mature. :thumbs:
 
Darkside55 said:
But, the fact that you have no interest in the 3D games, eh, your loss.
Click to expand...
Well you see I have never had much of a disposable income. I have to choose which games to buy wisely. Rarely do I guy a game for more than twenty bucks and when I do I want to be damn sure I'll love it. I also never had a Dreamcast or Gamecube either, so I've been excluded from 3D Sonics up until Heroes came out and I've barely heard two good words about it.

If you want to convince me to try them now is a good time. I am half interested in Unleashed, seeing as Ristar is awesome and I had been looking at Black Knight but everyone seems to hate that even more than the others :\

I know as you said Sonic fans will piss and moan over everything but I've seen too many comments about bad controls, terrible camera and being incredibly difficult through sheer fiddlyless not to take this into consideration and the original point of Sonic was speed and fluidity. I just wonder has it lost those qualities in 3D like everyone seems to say.
 
Black Knight is bad. If you're looking to get a Wii one, Secret Rings is OK. If you're thinking about Unleashed on Wii...eh, you miss out on some things. There's a split between people who think that the Wii/PS2 version is better than the 360/PS3 version, and vice versa. Wii version you do miss out on Empire City and Mazuri, though. Plus, hub worlds, chili dogs, and flying on the Tornado.

As for the controls, the game's pretty unforgiving. Keep in mind you're moving ridiculously fast, so while the controls are responsive you might feel as if they're finicky. Doesn't make them bad, it's just that you have to be good. I've never had a problem with the camera so I don't know about that. Some people might find some of the angles troublesome, I suppose. I think that's relative.

Anyway just rent it. Cheaper than buying it and if you don't like it, at least you didn't purchase it and you can return it. Also there are demos out.
 
Well I was all ready to come into this thread and say how excited I was about this direct continuation of my childhood, but now I've seen two pages of pointless bitching and moaning I really don't see the point any more. The internet kills everything, man.
 
Something is wrong I am actually excited for this :O

I'm excited for a sonic game, something has gone wrong!!

*rocks back and forth giggling hysterically*
 
I stopped caring about Sonic after Sonic CD, that was an awesome game.
 
I hope they go back to the classic style music. The old Sonic games had some catchy and memorable tunes which i really miss whilst the new ones are some generic rock/pop shit. Also what's the deal with Homing attack in a 2D Sonic game? Is it really necessary? Get rid of it it makes the game far to easy. Oh and whist i'm at it i hope for the love of god Sega don't voice them or put some really shit story in it, keep it simple like the classics. Robotnix up to no good got to stop him whist also looking for the Chaos Emeralds, simple.

Overall i'm very exited for this as this finally does look like a Sonic game for the people like myself who grew up with the classics. But i do worry that Sega are setting themselves up for a fall. Giving it the title of Sonic 4 carrys alot of weight something i don't think the modern Sonic Team can deliver on.
 
They literally should copy and paste sonic 3, change something like they did before (addition of spin dash, insta-shield, I guess it would be homing attack here), change the graphics EVER SO SLIGHTLY, different levels, different bosses. But seeing how the only thing I miss so far is really the graphics, I'm waiting till the game comes out to judge. Also **** episodes.

I remember hearing about the old Sonic 4 rumors...man that would've been awesome if that ever had come to fruition.

sonic4.gif
 
Perhaps deep down in my subconscious I'm hoping this will be the single greatest Sonic game and will redeem SEGA to their former glory, but realistically this will never happen.
 
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