Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1

[CrazyT]

Actually Iizuka said it was part of the main series. Don't have the source with me right now but i'm sure those who have been watching/reading his interviews would know what i'm talking about.

But as you said, it may have just been marketing talk.

[MadeManG74]

Btw, game is 173.4 MB download

Why the hell did I think it was over GB? Oh well, fuck my shit then! I'll probably give it a shot soonish.

[George]

Its like almost double that on PS3, i'm sure.

Anyway, enjoy.

[Barry the Nomad]

According to the PS3 site, it is 199 mb.

I had thought it was over a GB as well, mainly because every thing I've downloaded the past month has been huge (Vanquish demo, SA1, Comic Jumper)

Actually Iizuka said it was part of the main series. Don't have the source with me right now but i'm sure those who have been watching/reading his interviews would know what i'm talking about.

Yup, it was in one of the many interviews out there (too lazy to search now, but I read it too). It caused quite a commotion at TSS, causing many a Wii fan to thumb their noses at PS360 owners.

Sonic canon is so f'd up that it's best to just ignore it, but since the subject was brought up...

Colors itself is a part of the main Sonic series, in that the series goes: Sonic 1, CD, 2, 3&K, 4, SA, SA2, SH, '06, SU, SC. Shadow the Hedgehog and Chaotix are, in my opinion, side stories that exist within the main series. edit: Add 3D Blast in with the spin-offs as well, as detailed in my next post.

Unleashed and Colors aren't so much a reboot as they are a simplification of the series. All the stuff that occurred in SA1 through to '06 DID occur before Unleashed, but Sonic Team chose to not have the characters refer to those past events in every cut scene. Just because we don't see Knuckles, Shadow, etc. doesn't meant they don't exist.

Stuff such as the Game Gear and Advance series are debatable, but best left to their own little portable storyline. Spinball, Mean Bean, Riders, etc. are all more like the spin-offs Sanus is talking about. Existing in their own little universes apart from the main series. I doubt even Sonic Team acknowledges them in the regular games... at least until the Babylon Rogues pop up in Sonic Anniversary

Stupid Sonic series continuity.

[crackdude]

Yeah the ordercanon Barry said is the one I always thought of as well.

I also love how no one ever mentions Sonic 3D haha.

[Barry the Nomad]

lol, forgot about Sonic 3D Blast!

That's a toughie because it was a Traveller's Tales game, but Sonic Team did have a hand in it as well (with the Saturn version especially). For the most part it follows the rules of the classics. However it adds the flicky collecting and that overhead view makes it seem like the bastard child of a 2D and 3D Sonic game. Despite all that, the game does seem to take place within the main series universe. It expanded greatly on the flicky birds. Without 3D Blast, we would have never seen Gamma's story as it was in Sonic Adventure.

If I personally had to place it, I'd stick it with Shadow and Chaotix as it does take place within the series main storyline but has too many differences (gameplay, dev team) to fall into the main series. Per Wikipedia's (stupid) current sorting of the games, they stick Shadow the Hedgehog in the console main series, but they stick Chaotix and 3D Blast in the spin-off platformers category. I'd edit it myself, but I did that before and somebody reverted it back. Isthere some sort of grand council that I have to appeal to in order to alter how wikipedia sorts the series?

Oh yeah, and while all of this talk is off topic, I personally allow it because (A) we're not fighting over physics and (B) I don't want to see yet another Sonic topic in the SEGA forum.

[fluffymoochicken]

that overhead view makes it seem like the bastard child of a 2D and 3D Sonic game.

It's called isometric projection. >_> Usually, people would refer to this game as an "isometric game" or an "isometric platformer".

Isometric games can be awesome, even though Sonic was never an ideal candidate for it.

[crackdude]

I vote for this topic to lose the "4" in the title.
And I'm not joking lol a single Sonic the Hedgehog general thread is good.

I think it's pretty stupid to consider Shadow the Hedgehog a main Sonic game. You don't even play as Sonic! And the story is pretty poor too. They went way overboard on expanding Sonic Adventure 2's plot.

[Barry the Nomad]

I agree that we should have a general Sonic topic, however I also think that the current games deserve their own topics. Sonic 4 discussion cannot coexist with Free Riders and Colors. Perhaps if other mods are cool with it, I'll create a general Sonic discussion thread so we can cut down on all the smaller Sonic topics that discuss the series as a whole, feature funny youtube videos or simply point to a online poll. Meanwhile 4, Colors and Free Riders will maintain their own thread. Would help keep up the SEGAness of this place and keep the SONICness to a minimum.

As for Shadow's plot: LOL

[Sega Uranus]

Shadow's game is part of the main overall plot, but not the main series. Chaotix I cannot be certain of, but I am pretty sure Sonic Team does not consider this game as part of the franchise anymore. They will just ignore it, like the Pico games.

I agree it is stupid to even mention this kind of stuff, but it is just something I was wondering as to how they would continue the franchise. The world design is a good indication of this.

Sonic Colors is not part of the main series though. The main series is the one with humans, this is pretty much a continuation of stuff like the Game Boy Advance stuff. Again, if they make it seem like part of the main series it is just for marketing purposes.

[Barry the Nomad]

Chaotix is an odd beast. Wikipedia and SEGA/Sonic Retro list the dev as Sonic Team, while Giant Bomb lists SEGA as the dev. The game itself makes no mention of Sonic Team, however Chaotix has quite a few staff who had worked on previous Sonic games, particularly Kenichi Ono, Mamoru Shigeta, Takumi Miyake and Masato Nishimura. Funny thing is, Sonic CD shares much of those mentioned staff members and it too makes no mention of Sonic Team (from what I can tell), however Chaotix is still shoved aside to spin-off status.

Still can't agree that Colors is not main series though, considering how the producer and PR guys say otherwise. Also, the return of Orbot is a rather big link with Unleashed which exists in the human world you're talking about. Sort of like how the James Bond series from Sean Connery through to Roger Moore were one storyline with a number of soft reboots by way of actor and decade change. Despite the changes to the actor and time setting, all the movies in this time period dealt with a continuing plot of Bond getting even with Blofeld. Anyway, gotta go! Hope there was some of or sense there, no time to reread it!

[Sega Uranus]

Chaotix was made by different groups developing other 32X games. SEGA Technical Institute made the core game while RED (Tempo, Bonk, Sakura Taisen) worked on some background designs... Which can mean art or paralax scrolling, the Ecco team in Novotrade did some technical stuff (just like in Vectorman) and AM2 made the special stages, which is why they are the best part of the game.

Sonic Team did help with it (maybe with sprites and character art?), but the majority did not have a hand in it.

Sonic CD was all Sonic Team as far as I know, just by a different set of people than 1 and 3. I also think some other teams helped them make it too, but I cannot be certain of this.

Sonic Colors' version of Orbot is different. I am not sure how this is any kind of proof. Blaze is in Sonic Rush and Sonic 06, but she has two completely different origins in them.

It is all just PR to make it sound like it is a more important release than it is. SEGA was surprised at the reaction the game got and are trying to make it seem more important. This is why I would not be surprised if that HD release of Sonic Colors is real.

[crackdude]

Still, there is no reason at all for it not to be in the main series. It has more to do with usual Sonic games than Sonic 06 for example, which made no fucking sense.

And the game takes place in space. Why can't it still be the same Earth as Unleashed, with humans?

[Sega Uranus]

Still, there is no reason at all for it not to be in the main series. It has more to do with usual Sonic games than Sonic 06 for example, which made no fucking sense.

And the game takes place in space. Why can't it still be the same Earth as Unleashed, with humans?

How does Colors have more to do with Sonic games than Sonic 06? Sonic 06 used design concepts from the Adventure games, Heroes, Shadow and some other stuff. Colors is pretty much just Unleashed (which was pretty much like nothing else in the series at the time) with new gimmicks.

Iizuka also said Colors is part of the series without humans and that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is part of the one with humans.

Not sure how people are not understanding this... Just because it is a spinoff does not mean it is instantly worse or anything, if that is what you think I am getting to.

[Barry the Nomad]

i think something was lost in translation with what iizuka said. i think he meant that some games we see the humans and other times we wont. Eggman is human, so how is it impossible for humans to exist in the Sonicverse? crackdude makes an excellent point. the game is in space over the same planet as seen in Unleashed. We dont see humans as they are down on Earth and Sonic is up in space. Would colors be more of a sonic game if it shoehorned in references to SA2, featured Shadow backstory and had Emerald Coast return? this is a main series game in the same series as SA through to Unleashed, plain and simple.