Fans Vs. Sonic Team: Trailer Showdown!

Fans Vs. Sonic Team: Trailer Showdown!
by Davis Emmanuel

Sonic fans are a hard bunch to please. This year we have multiple new Sonic games on the way, but we’ve gone to step 2 and 3 on the Sonic Cycle. The nostalgia-destroying HD-upscaled re-release of Sonic Adventure has even further sullied the blue blur reputation amongst the gaming faithful. But fortunately, even if by some disastrous coincidence all 3 Sonic games (Sonic Colors is a completely different game on Wii and DS) are colossal disappointments, we still have the fans. Below the break are trailers galore for the new, real Sonic games, fan-made games, and even just fan-made concepts.

First is the supposed grand return to Sonic’s platforming roots, Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1. This is a 2.5D sidescroller and to be honest, until I saw this trailer, I had my doubts. Will had a chance to play it, and he seemed okay with it. Sonic 4 has a staggered release, with iOS on October 7, Wiiware on the 11th, PSN on the 12th, and XBLA the 13th.

Next up is the exclusive-to-Nintendo game Sonic Colors. Of all the projects on this page, this is the one I want most. I’m an unusual Sonic fan: I’ve played most of the games and hate the vast majority of them. I know that seems typical, but my disliked titles include Sonic Adventure. This most looks like it’s continuing Sonic in a direction most suitable for a 3D game. Sonic Colors comes out for DS and Wii on November 16.

This next one is a fangame and it gets 2 trailers. The long trailer for some reason has a color imbalance as well as some sound deterioration, so I put the short trailer so you can see what it’s supposed to look like. , this is Sonic Fan Remix, created by pelikan13x.

Pulling on those nostalgialicious heart strings, the Sonic 2 HD project is a collaborative effort over at Sonic Retro. They’ve been at it for a number of years, with a few playable demos and trailers in between. The work they’re doing is really quite amazing.

Now, I’ll make you feel bad: You will never get to play this. I know, I’m sad too. Put together by the always-brilliant Jan3D, this is a neat look at the Sonic game Sega will never make.

The last trailer is one you may have seen before, but it’s worth the repost. Made by BlobVanDam, this is a Sonic game I don’t think Sega is even capable of making. As the creator put it this has “…more views than any Sonic 4 related video on Youtube after only 4 days (including those on the official Sega channel)”. So, are you still interested in Sonic? And did I miss anything?

Sonic 4 and Sonic Colors both look great, but the fan-made projects seem even more visually impressive.

^DrAgOn^

I wouldn’t call you an unusual Sonic fan, I thought most older gamers just like the 2d variety of Sonic?
http://chatcast.podbean.com Dee Sawyer

I like Sonic Adventure 2, but I don’t like Sonic Adventure. That’s opposite almost everyone I’ve met.
inkblot

1. Making games that pretty takes a lot of time and money. If Sega had either right now, Sonic Colors wouldn’t be a Wii exclusive. Note the second fan video and “They’ve been at it for a number of years”.

2. The first fan trailer requires a large screen and the third requires all of that scenery to be rendered in real time. Sega would have to sacrifice the Wii and iPhone ports of Sonic 4.

3. Sega is intentionally designing Sonic 4 to look like the Genesis games in an attempt to shut the retro fans up. A photorealistic style would clash with that.

4. Sega took the time to tweak the game in order to make the gameplay look more polished. If they tried to go for the look shown in those trailers, they’d have to abandon that in favor of making the game look nice. Yet again.

Yes, those fan trailers look nice. But you can’t look at them and call Sonic Team/Dimps lazy.
http://chatcast.podbean.com Dee Sawyer

One small thing: Wii can do widescreen with component cables. But I agree with your points.
DLTabor

I’m not a huge fan of Sonic, but this stuff is just fragmented tech demos. The first one looks pretty good, but it’s a graphically enhanced remake of one level of Sonic 2. The second one is suppose to be another version of Sonic 2, that they’ve spent years? building to look just like Genesis era graphics that have been upscaled for HD. Maybe the embedded video doesn’t do it justice. The best looking one (the last one) isn’t even a game it’s pre-rendered animation over a play through video of Sonic and Knuckles, not real time in game graphics. These videos certainly show how well these guys can emulate Sega’s original game design and physics, but I don’t see how they compete with Sega’s release of a new game with new content.

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