Sonic 2013 Speculation Thread

[crackdude]

Let's all put our 1997 Sonic fanboy faces on and predict the future!


We know a new big Sonic game is coming out, let's try to predict it based on the rumors going around so we can say "see, I told you it would suck" when it comes out.


Some notes I gathered the past few weeks:
   - Sega is keen on making a WiiU Sonic
   - Shadow the Hedgehog 2 is a possibility
   - Hunnid P is making some sweet beats for a new Sonic game


My guess is:
   - Urban feel to the game akin to SA2 (a spiritual successor/new entry to the Adventure series)
   - Hedgehog Engine
   - Sonic, Knux and Shadow as playable characters (each with their gameplay traits, but all have regular A->B stages, no hunting)
   - Chao Garden (online Chao market oh yes)
   - Super Knuckles beats the final boss

[Ben]

I have a feeling that it'll be more of the same of the Colors/Generations style, though likely with some gimmick for the Wii U.


I'm *hoping* though that it's in a larger, more "action/adventure" game-style context similar to Unleashed's hub worlds.

[max_cady]

If the game is somewhere along the lines of Generations then I'm all for it.

If they had the massive hub worlds from Sonic Unleashed, but the stages had to be somewhere along the lines of the ones made in Generations, I'd second that motion.

If nothing else, Sonic Generations 2....

[Barry the Nomad]

I can't see a Wii U exclusive title happening, but I can see a multi-platform Sonic title with Wii U exclusive features (a la All-Stars Racing Transformed). Wii had titles like Colors and the storybook games because it simply wasn't possible to port games like '06, Unleashed and Generations. The History of Sonic book (highly recommended) made it pretty clear that Sonic Team's intent was to have Sonic's games be multi-platform with Wii/360/PS3, but '06 taught them that this wasn't possible which lead to Secret Rings. They tried to do what they planned on doing with '06 with the WiiS2 Unleashed, but I think the PS2/Wii version was just effort that would have been better spent on a Wii exclusive title. I think gamers saw the SD version of Unleashed as a gimped version and so did Sonic Team staff. Thus explaining why they just up and made a brand new title with Colors when Generations was releasing the following year to the HD consoles. I don't think Generations was ever intended to be made for Wii, as Sonic Team already learned their lesson with '06 and Unleashed.

The only time I think we'll see Nintendo exclusive Sonic games is on the 3DS, and Mario & Sonic on the Wii U.

Now they don't have that issue, since Wii U is at the 360/PS3 level. So my prediction is:

• Boxed main series game for 360/PS3/Wii U - Wii U gets features that 360/PS3 doesn't have, and it ends up being the last main series Sonic game for the 360 and PS3. Sonic Team will develop the following main series title for the 720, PS4 and Wii U. 3DS version may or may not happen, given ASRT and possibly Mario & Sonic releasing to 3DS in 2013. Personally I'd like a 3DS platformer that isn't a handheld version of a console title. Rush and Rush Adventure were great, Colors and Generations 3DS were good but don't beat the Advance or Rush series.

• Mario & Sonic 2014 Winter Olympics for Wii U/3DS - not sure if SEGA's olympic contract ran up or not. I could see this either releasing late 2013 (in line with past Olympic titles) or early 2014 (more dev time due to it being a new platform) 

• Sonic 4 Episode 3 - this is 50/50, but I'm leaning towards it happening. SEGA is focusing more on digital, and I think Episode 2 made a profit.

• Sonic rerelease(s) - likely candidates are Chaotix, Sonic R and Sonic Heroes.

I'm *hoping* though that it's in a larger, more "action/adventure" game-style context similar to Unleashed's hub worlds.

I've been playing Sonic Rush Adventure for the first time this past week, and I'd love to see the island system implemented into a game. The island concept of the Sonic series has always been cool to me (South Island, Westside Island, Angel Island) and I'd think it would be cool to have a sandbox style map where you can fly about in the Tornado to reach various islands (each acting as an action stage). They could either have a free flying control, like Just Cause 2 or the GTA games, or a point A->B style mini game like the gummi ship in Kingdom Hearts 2 or the boating stages in Rush Adventure. The key would be to not make these annoying (Unleashed flying stages), too difficult or too long (Unleashed flying stages). I thought the Rush Adventure boating segments were a good length, a few minutes. Perhaps populate the sky with cool power ups and vintage aerial badniks. And of course, once you visit an island, you can jump right to it via a map screen.

[Radrappy]

Some notes I gathered the past few weeks:
   - Sega is keen on making a WiiU Sonic
   - Shadow the Hedgehog 2 is a possibility
   - Hunnid P is making some sweet beats for a new Sonic game

Come again?

[Happy Cat]

Come again?

With Iizuka-san, anything is a possiblity! LOL kinda hard to predict what direction sonic games go in, cause he get these crazy ideas you think would never happen.

Anyways, i mostly agree with barry, I think we'll be seeing a boxed sonic game this year for the 3 HD platforms, but I'm also expecting more digital sonic games, personally.

also crackdude, if you want to add it to the OP, Iizuka-san said at SONIC BOOM that there is no immediate plans for Sonic Adventure 3, but if fans want it, then he will make it. He said that with a big smile. He seemed like he was really pleased to see that fans really want another Adventure game.

Oh, Iizuka-san also said in an interview hes looking forward to next gen, so he can do real time lighting calculations and give sonic "more presence". LOL whatever that means, i think he means more realistic graphics.. but not realistic, lol, he said in the interview he doesn't want photo real, but wants to give sonic more presence.

"I don't think Sonic will ever become photo-real," Iizuka said. "I think Sonic will always remain stylised and will have that bright, colourful world. What the high hardware spec will allow us to do is make that more convincing.

"For example, for Sonic Generations, in the Hedgehog Engine, we used Global Illumination - GI technology - for the lighting system. But increasing the hardware spec will allow us to have real-time lighting calculations, so dynamically changing lighting happening. That's just one example of where the hardware is limiting us in doing what we really could do. So by having higher end hardware spec, we'll be able to do, for example, the real-time lighting calculations. That will give more presence to Sonic.

"We're not after realism. We're after making it more convincing. So we're still going for that stylised, bright and colourful Sonic look. We're not going for photo-real."

oh and another tidbit

"Sonic over its past 20 years has evolved a lot," he told Eurogamer. "In that, there are two distinct, different play styles. There's the 2D side-scrolling platform action Sonic, and the forward view 3D action platform action Sonic. With the Sonic 4 series we've created that side-scrolling 2D platform action.

"But I'm also interested in the challenge of doing something completely new with the 3D Sonic's forward view platform action, and bring something new to the table with that as well."

[MadeManG74]

I should give Sonic Generations another shot, I only played it for about 15 minutes, but it seemed alright. The game seems like fun, I just didn't like the way they selected levels or the levels they ended up choosing either.

Also my first reaction when I saw a giant time eating monster in the opening cut scene was *Abort! Abort!*, but I'll just skip the cut scenes I think.

But yeah, back on topic, I dunno. I guess some successor to Sonic Gens in that there won't be any gimmick characters like the werewolf. Maybe just a game with Sonic and Knuckles or something, two different gameplay styles across 2D and 3D levels.

[Happy Cat]

OOOOH!!!!

Remember that stuff Iizuka said about making a new standard modern Sonic. XD I wonder if we will see any of that.

[crackdude]

OOOOH!!!!

Remember that stuff Iizuka said about making a new standard modern Sonic. XD I wonder if we will see any of that.

I remember this as well! I hope it doesn't turn out to be something in the lines of 06's terrible character design (longer spikes cause sonic is older wtf)


The island thing Barry was imagining would be pretty cool.


Doesn't anyone else want to see the chaos gardens make a return?

[Radrappy]

Doesn't anyone else want to see the chaos gardens make a return?

The problem with chao gardens is that while diverting, they don't affect the core game at all.  I wouldn't want them wasting time/effort on them until the franchise finds its feet a bit more. 

As for what I would like to see, I'm hoping for a spiritual successor to Colors for all three hd platforms. 

More than anything though, I want them to work on making sonic more of a joy to control in 3d space.  I enjoyed colors/generations but sonic was still an absolute nightmare to control at slow speeds.  We need a sonic that is able to successfully platform in 3d space without the aid of the homing attack, something we've never seen done successfully before in the franchise.

This might be controversial but in order to achieve this, they need to SLOW THE GAME THE FUCK DOWN and sacrifice some of that speed for control.  I think Yoshi with the chili pepper power up from Galaxy2 is a good example of balanced speed and control.  It will make the games 10x more fun, if less of a visual spectacle.  This would also let them make levels with more actual hazards as opposed to long empty tracks that you're expected to boost through. 

[MadeManG74]

^Agreed on slowing the game down. The Sonic genesis games weren't a case of just moving fast as fuck through railroads with those speed boosters everywhere. Although they did change that a bit since unleashed didn't they?

As for my dream, they would make it 2D. But that won't happen.

[Barry the Nomad]

Chao gardens only existed because of the VMU. SEGA had a flagship title launching with the Dreamcast, and they needed it to take full advantage of the console's features. Once the Dreamcast games ended, so did (appropriately) the Chao gardens.

I totally get that there are some fans who loved the Chao gardens and want them to return (not referring to anybody here, just talking about the fandom in general) but I'd hope that those people would understand why they were in the games to begin with. Sonic 2's addition of the spin dash was an evolution on the 2D gameplay formula, the Chao gardens were a Dreamcast gimmick. Really, if people are playing Sonic games for virtual pets, I don't know why they don't just move on to other games that are virtual pets first and foremost.

---

At best, SEGA could have an iOS/Android/Windows Phone Chao game that integrated with a console Sonic game, but its really not a must for the series and frankly would be wasted dev time. I'd rather they perfect the Sonic gameplay and not focus on stuff like Chaos and Werehogs.

[crackdude]

@MademanYes, it's not as fast as Unleashed.
I think Sonic controlled smoothly at low speeds in Sonic Adventure. If there was a way to have sections like the SA1 ample levels with nice platforming instead of the dumb 2D ones it would be great.
GOTTA GO FAST zones intertwined by smooth multipath gameplay

[Barry the Nomad]

Generations Seaside Hill stage was, for me, the perfect marriage of ZOMG Unleashed speed and Sonic Adventure gameplay. It was just such a joy to play, there was 3D exploration, quick gimmicks, fun 2D sections and some speedy boost bits that were really well implemented. Like the water running and zooming around corners.

[crackdude]

On the chaos Barry,
I disagree

The chao garden is something that was already in place in Nights into Dreams (waay before VMUs). Albeit way simplified.
But when you get down to it, all the chao evolution, breeding and racing aspects would be pointless if the main focus was the VMU (the experience on the VMU was mostly the same regardless of chao used).

Not only that, the chao garden is a MAJOR easy replay value boost. Gotta get dem animals and drives.
And that iOS idea thing seems nice.

Anyway, it's not a central aspect of the game or gameplay at all. But it has a huge cult following. Me included of course.


On the Seaside Hill, you may be right.