Sonic Team

SEGA releases the first Sonic Runners teaser trailer, gameplay details and more

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Sonic Runners is going to be Sonic Team’s big Sonic the Hedgehog mobile developed game and SEGA has finally released the first teaser trailer. You can watch it above. The trailer basically goes through the history of Sonic Team developed Sonic games and starts off with a counter, counting down the years to 2015…

Something to note: The trailer only shows off the retro series and Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (if you count that as part of the retro series). Could this game be more influenced by older retro style Sonic games instead of the recent games?

SEGA also launched a site for the game which revealed that the game will be released in 2015 in Japan for free with premium items available. The game will be available for iPhone 4S and above, iPad 2 or later running iOS 7.0 or above. If you are on Android, you will have to be running OS 2.3 or later (Which means almost any Android phone released can play it.)

The site features an image of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles running through Sonic Lost World‘s Windy Hill with Chao and the Mother Wisp from Sonic Colors DS floating above. Could the classic clips and Sonic 4 indicate that Sonic Team sees Sonic Runners as a successor to the originals, or hint toward a gameplay style? What’s with the Chao and Wisps?

UPDATE: An interview between Iizuka and Famitsu lists a end of February release for the game in Japan. From what we can understand from the interview, characters will run forward on their own and Eggman will make appearances during stages which there appears to be 50 of at first (if we are reading the translation correctly). Tails and Knuckles are also playable, but Sonic is the only character initially available. Famitsu also went hands-on with the game, mentioning a cutscene featuring Sonic, Tails, and Eggman. Jumping appears to vary based on where you tap on the screen, possibly indicating that you tap on enemies to homing attack. The Eggman boss battle appears to have Sonic throwing or knocking back Eggman’s projectiles to defeat him.

What are your thoughts?

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Round Table: What direction should Sonic Adventure 3 have taken?

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Sonic Adventure was the best selling Dreamcast game of all time, so it’s no surprise that we would want to discuss the game on this week’s Round Table. The Sonic Adventure series had two main entries that were both on the SEGA Dreamcast, and both had a very different approach when it came to story and gameplay progression. As the series continued, SEGA took the blue blur in a various directions with titles like Sonic Heroes, Sonic Generations, Sonic Colors and the latest title Sonic Lost World. Despite the long gap between Sonic Adventure 2 and today, a very vocal group of fans still ask SEGA for a third entry in the series. The question we posed to our writers this week was would we want a Sonic Adventure 3? If so, what direction should the third entry take?

Like always you can tell us your own opinion on what direction Sonic Adventure 3 should take in the comment section.

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Sonic Adventure 2 scene recreated on Source Filmmaker

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The Source Filmmaker (SFM) is the movie-making tool created by Valve, it allows users to make movies inside the Source game engine. SFM is available for anyone to use and has powered some really creative short films.

Here is one such film I thought was worth sharing. The film is a recreation of the Sonic Adventure 2 ‘faker’ cut-scene where Sonic faces off against Shadow. It is incredibly well made and a joy to watch for any fan of the Adventure series. Check it out!

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Sonic Team’s upcoming Sonic game to use ‘traditional look and mechanics’ (UPDATE)

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SonicTeam

Update: Turns out that Iizuka didn’t say anything about Sonic Team’s next game in the 4Gamer interview. The quote below was taken from Softpedia’s article about the interview, in which the author likely speculated about their next Sonic game. It has been mentioned in previous interviews that Sonic Boom won’t replace the regular Sonic series, but nothing regarding what Sonic Team’s next game is like nor when it will be revealed. We at SEGAbits apologize for reporting on false info and wasting everyone’s time.

We already knew that Sonic Team was working on their own Sonic the Hedgehog and it was speculated that it would be shown off this year. Guess what? It seems that is correct. Below is from a interview with the Japanese website 4Gamer:

“At the moment, the core Sonic team at SEGA is working on a new title that will use the traditional look and mechanics of the series, which will get more details later during the year.

At the same time, Big Red Button, an entirely new studio, is working on a new version of the entire game universe, called Sonic Boom, which will use an entirely new aesthetic and is designed to accompany the delivery of a new range of toys and a new cartoon series.”

I wonder what Sonic Team considers ‘traditional’ seeing as how Sonic’s gameplay has changed a lot in the last 20 something years. Is two Sonic games this year too much?

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Summer of Sonic 2013 – Takashi Iizuka Interview

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Over the past few years the Sonic series has hit a bit of a renaissance, with Colours and Generations achieving relative success critically as well as commercially. Typically, just as this turnaround is achieved, the newest game shows signs of radical change to the 3D Sonic formula that had finally gained acceptance. Sonic Lost World’s new design is the kind of decision that means it’s always interesting to chat to Takashi Iizuka, the man at the top of Sonic Team today and the public face of the team. He’s always cheery and approachable, but you can never quite predict the answers you’ll get from him. Read on to find out Iizuka’s take on the limitations of Sonic’s previous 3D outings, what inspired the new design of Sonic Lost World and his view of differences between working in the USA and Japan!

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Takashi Iizuka explains why Sonic Lost World is Nintendo exclusive

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There have been a lot of theories flying around online as to why Sonic Lost World is a Nintendo exclusive. Some say that Nintendo came to SEGA, offered them a pay check for exclusivity, and that before then the game was supposed to come out on all platforms. So what does Takashi Iizuka say when asked the question in the Official Nintendo Magazine?

“The Wii U hadn’t been revealed when development began for Sonic Lost World, so we were working on a PC version in order to see what kind of platformer we could make. Then, when we tried to think about which platform would be best for this game, we chose Nintendo.” – Takashi Iizuka, head of Sonic Team

So there you have it, straight from Takashi himself. Though, I assume people with their own theories will brush this off and say it isn’t true. If it is or isn’t true, who cares, Sonic Lost World is coming exclusively to Wii U (and 3DS) this fall. Though, I would really like a PC version to be released, that would mean it’s still ‘console exclusive’.

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Sonic Lost World: 3DS version gets online multiplayer, Wii U does not

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In an interview with Nintendo News Report, Sonic Team’s Takashi Iizuka confirms that Sonic Lost World will have online multiplayer on the 3DS, but not on the Wii U.

“We’ll have different multiplayer modes on both Wii U and 3DS. On the Wii U, there’s booth cooperative and versus multiplayer. In cooperative play, Sonic will be using the Wii U GamePad and someone can be supporting Sonic in co-op with the Wii Remote. In versus mode, one player will be playing on the TV screen and the other player will be racing using the GamePad so you don’t have to have split screen. You both have your own screen and can race each other. The Wii U multiplayer is not on the Internet. It’s basically everyone sitting on the same couch. The 3DS for the first time we’re having 4-player versus racing over Wi-Fi and the Internet.” – Takashi Iizuka

Pretty intersting. What are your guys thoughts on the lack of online multiplayer on the console version? Does this effect your purchase? Do you even care about multiplayer in a Sonic game?

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SEGA says they have exciting plans for Sonic in the near future

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Sometimes people at SEGA just love to tease and those teases sometime excite us. Its almost going to be two years since Sonic Generations came out and that seems like a long time for Sonic games (which used to have almost yearly releases). So Sonic fans ask, where is the next one? VentureBeat spoke to senior director of digital marketing Mike Evans and director of online operations Ethan Einhorn, this is what they teased:

“We’re taking, on the console side, more of a pillar approach. We’re doing some very exciting things with Sonic as a brand in the near future. We’re also very heavily focused on strategy, as you’ve seen with our pickup of [Company of Heroes developer] Relic, as well as what we’re doing with [Total War developer] Creative Assembly. Of course, we’re continuing to do core titles like Aliens: Colonial Marines.”– Ethan Einhorn, Director of Online Operations

Are we shocked that SEGA has big plans for their #1 brand? No, but its exciting to see if this new game will be on a next generation system. If you want to see the full interview head over to VentureBeat.

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Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode 2 footage to be shown April 9th

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We posted last month that SEGA announced the first expansion pack to Phantasy Star Online 2, titled Code Episode 2. Satoshi Sakai stated that they will show footage during their live Nico Nico broadcast on April 9th (which happens to be my birthday, thank you Sakai!).

He also talked about a new update that is hitting the Playstation Vita later this month. This update will allow players to customize the controls in the game and chat adjustments.

So what about us Phantasy Star fans in the west? Well, SEGA’s last update was that it was delayed and didn’t give a release date…

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