Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1

[Barry the Nomad]

Well, I like both Eggman and Robotnik, but I find it odd that they don't use both nowadays. Especially considering the US/EU fanbase is bigger than the Japan fanbase. It doesn't make much sense as to why they're still catering to the Japanese names. Yeah, I know the game is being developed in Japan, but take a look at the online presence in terms of community hype. The US/UK Sega blogs have been going crazy! Meanwhile the SoJ official site is still under construction.

[fluffymoochicken]

Eggman is his Japanese name, his true name, and his name for the rest of eternity.

[Waffle]

Eggman is his Japanese name, his true name, and his name for the rest of eternity.

If and you ain't the drag queen of all liars!

The Japanese developers seemed find with calling him Robotnik in Sonic Adventure 2, as well as using Shadow's back-story stuff about Robotnik's relative with the same surname.

[MadeManG74]

Robotnik is czech for worker I believe. It was also the name of an underground newspaper published by the Polish Socialist Party.

[ribbitking17]

We have a bad guy. Russia is a bad guy. Lets give him a Russian name.

[George]

We have a bad guy. Russia is a bad guy. Lets give him a Russian name.

Worked for Rockie .

[Waffle]

Robotnik is czech for worker I believe. It was also the name of an underground newspaper published by the Polish Socialist Party.

It is also the name 'Robot' and "Nik' combined into one for a fat cartoon villain.

[Barry the Nomad]

I knew I'd have an excuse to post this one day:

[fluffymoochicken]

All hail Dokutā Egguman! ^___^

[Barry the Nomad]

I think Sega's reason for Sonic 4 being DL only is BS. A full retail release would sell, and I'm positive that once all 3 or 4 episodes are out we'll be seeing a disc version. Most likely, Sega chose to do it episodically so that they could get the game to players faster. Were they to hold off until the game was complete we'd probably not see Sonic 4 until the holidays or next year.

[Aki-at]

It makes little to no sense considering they are releasing four major games in March at full price.

[upsidedown fuji]

I am old fashioned and always prefer a hard copy over a digitial one. But I'll take what I can get. I just hope this game turns out to be fun despite all the weird hate it gets for the past transgressions of post 1999 sonic games.

[Barry the Nomad]

I'm sure Sonic 4 will be fun, and I'm positive it will be better than half of the Sonic library. The only real challenge is matching up to the original games. My guess is that I'll like it more than Sonic 1 (nostalgia aside), as much as Sonic 2 and possibly better than Sonic 3 (based on how good episodes 2 and beyond are).

[Dr. SEGA Monkey]

What I don't get is why does Sonic Team build great engines and then ditch them for horrible ones.

Why not use the Sonic Advance engine for Sonic 4? It's nearly identical to the Genesis games, but instead, it looks like Sonic 4 is using the Unleashed physics, or something entirely new.

Same with Sonic Adventure 2. They had great controls for that game. But in Heroes, they ditched it for the Slip-n-Slide-O-Rama™ engine. And in Sonic 06 with the Backwards Physics™ engine.

It makes no sense. When you have something good, just use it!

[Autosaver]

"Why does Sonic Team ditch their old engines"

Using that statement... don't you want them to reuse the hedgehog engine and crap?