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Sonic
wreaks havoc on the next gen consoles.
by Vaughn Smith
May
5, 2006 - Officially
unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) in fall 2005,
Sonic will race to the next consoles just in time
for his 15th anniversary. Entitled Sonic The Hedgehog
in homage of the 15th anniversary, creator Yuji Naka
and Sonic Team are looking to reinvent the hog without
losing sight of what him a fan favorite since the
early 90's. Unlike direct competitior Mario, who made
the transition to 3D look effortless, Sonic's foray
into the third dimension has been a bumpy ride. Sonic
The Hedgehog for the PS3 and Xbox 360 is (hopefully)
going to change that.
Utilitizing
the Havoc physics engine, Sonic Team is looking to
make this the most realistic Sonic game ever created.
With the Havoc engine at work, you'll see objects,
enemies, surroundings and even Sonic himself react
to the surroundings with far greater attention paid
to gravity. Items which are heavier will require more
effort to move, enemies can be knocked into each other,
areas that Sonic lands on will react to his weight
etc. And the speed....lest we forget the speed. We're
told that this Sonic will be the fastest Sonic the
gaming world has seen since the Genesis days.
And
it doesn't end there. The original philosophy of the
project was "What if Sonic had to interact with
humans?" and thus this concept became the foundation
to which the direction of the new game was based upon.
Sonic and co. will therefore find themselves in areas
inhabited by humans and gamers can expect to experience
the size differences between a blue hedgehog compared
to a person, car and skyscraper for example. While
walking around the world Sonic will be able to interact
with humans in RPG-lite fashion and talk with them,
finding out important info along the way.
The
new game will take place in the world of Soleanna
where a Princess Elise holds a powerful secret. You'll
never guess who wants to take advantage of that mysterious
secret.... Eggman! Yeah, okay so that was a given.
If you guessed "Eggman" before reading "Eggman"
consider yourself the King of the Obvious. What you
may not be expecting is a grey-colored hedgehog with
supernatural powers that also plays into the overall
picture... Okay, so maybe you were ALSO expecting
that. I mean, how many doppleganger hedgehogs has
this series seen in the last few years? Metal Sonic,
Shadow... it wasn't that big of a stretch to see that
maybe there just be another one. Why keep a good plot
device down?
The
level structure will attempt to capture the essence
of the old 2D games which often yielded numerous pathways.
Sonic Team has suggested the fastest path to the goal
won't become obvious until you've played the level
a few times through. In keeping with the sense of
realism, levels will also feature a day and night
cycle, and gamers can expect to find some surprises
when playing through the same level at varying time
periods.
Stay
tuned for more as we're expecting a lot more delicious
hedgehog sized morsels to be revealed at E3 06.
By
Vaughn Smith
CCC
Site Director
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Sonic is zoom zooming to the next gen consoles - PS3
and X360 - under the direction of original Sonic creators
Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima. They're promising an
unparelled experience of speed (can anyone say Blast
Processing next gen style? - only the real diehard
oldtimers in the crowd will get that one?) and are
planning to reinvent the attitude that made Sonic
such a fan favorite in the first place more than 14
years ago. Okay, we'll bite. We dig the Sonic vibe
around here.
"We
are proud to re-create our famous friend, Sonic, for
a new generation of gamers on PlayStation 3 and Xbox
360," said Yuji Naka, R&D Creative Officer,
SEGA Corporation. "With Sonic The Hedgehog, we
have gone back to our starting point, more than 15
years ago, to reinvent the attitude and speed that
made our hero a legend. The 'rebirth of Sonic' will
offer an unparalleled sense of speed that is only
possible using the processing power afforded by the
new systems."
