Sonic 4 Episode 2 Logo Revealed

When the Nvidia CES press conference was nearing, SEGA of America’s community team was pointing Sonic fans towards the live stream, hinting that something would be shown. After watching an hour of the show, there was absolutely nothing Sonic related to be found. Fans, myself included, felt like they just wasted an hour. Thankfully, the SEGA community team was quick to apologize for the time spent, stating that “there was a last minute switch up during the press conference”, and uploaded the official Sonic 4 Episode 2 logo to the SEGA Blog! I gotta say, it looks exactly like what I expected! Even some fan creations came pretty close. Good on SoA for remedying the situation!

S WYvAPnZ e SPUKXlYAvTbmdsin

The Weekly Five: The Games of 2012

Last week we shared our favorite games of 2011, and while we didn’t officially announce winners or give out some award for SEGA to stick on their box art (I’d imagine we’d award a gold Opa Opa statue nicknamed “the bitty”), the “winners” deserve another mention. Sonic Generations and Yakuza 4 were the top picks, while Guardian Heroes was picked as an excellent download release. Shinobi for the 3DS also earned a spot on the list. Other notable games included Shogun 2, Sonic CD, Daytona USA, Virtua Tennis 4 and Football Manager 2012. Overall, 2011 was a great year! Being only a week into it, 2012 is still young. However, SEGA has a number of great looking releases on the horizon. In this week’s Weekly Five we’ll look at five of those hotly anticipated titles. Could any of these become our favorites of 2012? Probably.

hdecK G

How the rumors crumble…


So I might have posted a rumor that turned out to not be so correct during the start of the week. It seems that the rumor was a complete fabrication and for this I’m sorry. I have been getting emails (some to my personal account, you angry people sure know how to use Google) as to why I posted this rumor and long letters as to why I shouldn’t post every rumor that comes along.

First of all, I would like to just say that we get a ton of rumors. Anywhere from Shenmue 3 coming to Wii U (obviously fake) to this. Some of the rumors we don’t pick up usually end up on other sites a month or so later, most of those turn out to be true. When this one came along I decided to take a risk and took the wrong type of risk, for that I’m sorry to our staff and readers. So why did I post it? It seemed true. Though, I ignored some rules I usually stick by: “Don’t post unless there is evidence that it is correct or you personally know the person.”

From now on I’ll treat rumors like a newborn baby, with informative respect and if I don’t like the way it looks; i’ll ignore it.

Rumor: Sonic 4: Episode 2 to feature Tails and Metal Sonic?

According to the original rumor, the last bit of info confirms that Tails will be playable. Not only that, Metal Sonic would be the main villain. I guess there was something to that marketing for Sonic CD. Reading the info that the source gave, it seems the version he got was pretty early and sections of it weren’t completed yet.

You can select either Sonic or Tails before loading the first stage, but selecting Tails simply grants you playing as Sonic with a Tails life icon and ‘Tails got through Act X’ messages.
The level design consists of many bottomless pit areas and failing to avoid Metal Sonic after he teleports usually results in death.

I’ll be publishing the full e-mail later tonight for the interested. This seems like a given, at least to me. After Sonic CD coming out ‘before’ they announced this? I pretty much knew it was going to have Metal Sonic. Tails was a given because he was introduced in Sonic 2, so introducing him in Episode 2 makes sense. Like you can assume that Knuckles will be in 3.

Sonic 4: Episode 2 gets South Korean rating

So a South Korean rating board has now leaked the rating for Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2. What does this mean? It means that it is coming very soon. You can see a picture of the rating here.

It seems that SEGA’s Ken Balough is also teasing the game. Saying they will talk about it more once Sonic CD is released. Come on SEGA, don’t just drop digital titles, do some online promotion through your community team and other sites to promote it. Hey, we are a site that would love to get some hands on with the next Sonic 4 episode (wink, wink).

Mike Hayes: Sonic 4 Episode 1 Sold Over 1 Million, Episode 2 Info Coming Soon

From vg247.com comes information from SEGA CEO Mike Hayes concerning Sonic the Hedgehog 4. Remember that game? Regarding information on Episode 2:

Information on Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 will arrive “very soon,” Sega West CEO Mike Hayes has told VG247. Hayes couldn’t comment further when asked how far out “soon” was, adding that we should “look out for that one.”

My guess is once Sonic Generations arrives, after November 1st, or perhaps on September 9th? Remember, that was when the first Sonic 4 episode was announced as “Project Needlemouse”. Speaking of the first episode, Hayes shares a great bit of news for SEGA fans who like it when the company makes big money:

“It did very well and it continues to do well,” Hayes told us in a phone interview this afternoon.

“Particularly when it gets a little shot in the arm with some promotion or some price activity, sales are quite phenomenal. Its downloaded clearly over a million units, so its sold particularly well and continues to sell.”

Over a million is pretty impressive, though I have to wonder how many “copies” the game sold when it initially launched before the first sales began. Regardless, Sonic 4 Episode 1 looks like quite a financial success. Here’s hoping Episode 2 fixes the problems found in the first episode and sells another million and more!

[Source: vg247]

Takashi Iizuka confirms Sonic 4: Episode 2

The guys over at Siliconera had a chance to ask Iizuka if Sonic Team is planning a follow up to Sonic 4: Episode 1, in which he responded:

“We named Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, so there will be an episode 2. Since this year is the 20th anniversary of Sonic we wanted to focus on Sonic Generations. We don’t have a release date or anything.But, we can tell you it will be in the near future.”” – Takashi Iizuka

Near future? Iizuka and his love for time traveling plots. In all seriousness, it seems that Sonic Generations is getting the physics for cassic Sonic right. Would be interested if the physics being used in Generations will be used in Episode 2.

SEGA promises Sonic trailer tomorrow on Sonic’s facebook

OK, so we posted that on the 7th there was going to be a big update. Well SEGA has said it’s going to be a trailer, but for what? We will have to wait till tomorrow to find out. Here is what they teased via twitter:

SEGA: BRAND NEW TRAILER COMING TOMORROW ONLY ON SONIC’S FACEBOOK! Be sure to come back tomorrow to check it out! http://www.facebook.com/sonic”

OK SEGA, you win. Color me excited. What do you guys think this trailer will be? Sonic Generations or Sonic 4 Episode 2? How about if its for something totally unrelated to the game? Then I will be disappointed… Unless it’s for boxers that say “To be this good takes Ages.”