I hope everyone is excited for Halloween, I know I am. To help you get into the mood we’ve got some spooky Sonic Unleashed updates in both website and video form. Our US Sonic Unleashed website has seen a small makeover to show off some Halloween flair, I won’t spoil it for you, but do check it out for yourself! Next, we have a special teaser trailer for our upcoming CG movie, Night of the Werehog! The teaser is … well, a teaser. Look for the full movie soon.

Outside of Halloween-y updates, we’ve got two new Sonic Unleashed trailers going up today for Wii and Next Gen systems. The videos feature new footage from Chu-nan and Mazuri levels with both Sonic and the Werehog. Check em out on our Youtube page! (currently uploading, check back shortly!)

Lastly, we’ll have another blog going up today talking about the Hedgehog engine, written by Yoshihisa Hashimoto, the Project Lead for Sonic Unleashed. It’s a great read and we’ve even got some special screenshots showing off the Hedgehog engine in action.

I hope everyone has a great Halloween, be safe and have fun!

Hello to all Sonic fans!
My name is Yoshihisa Hashimoto and I am the project leader of “Sonic Unleashed” in the Sonic Team, Sega’s development studio in Japan. While managing the production of the Sonic Unleashed as a Game Director and Lead Game Designer, I also supervise, as Technical Director, the Hedgehog Engine which is critical in ensuring the high quality graphic images of Sonic Unleashed

In this 2nd issue of the Developer’s Diary, I am going to introduce you to the following topics.
* Sonic Unleashed which made a big advance in Sonic game play
*”Hedgehog Engine” which generates beautiful and impressive graphic images

[New Sonic Concept]
Sonic Unleashed offers many catchy features, and one of the most outstanding is the game play of Sonic the Hedgehog himself. The Art Director Sachiko Kawamura and I have participated in the development of many Sonic games for over 10 years since Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure2. During that time, we’ve seen a lot of Sonic games being developed and released. But we always felt that something was wrong.

I kept asking myself “Is this the Sonic the fans really want to see?” It looked to me that Sonic was tied on a heavy chain, taken away his freedom. I could hear his cry; “I want to run faster! I want to run freely!”

For years to come as I worked steadily to build my career at Sonic Team for Sega, I kept my belief that “The True Sonic the Hedgehog can be a lot better!” Then, in 2005, I was accosted and asked by the Producer, Akinori Nishiyama “Would you like to produce the next Sonic?” This when the new chapter of Sonic has began.

I started straight off to think what is needed to make the real Sonic. And I found the answer pretty quickly. Actually, I already had my answers in my head since I’d been always thinking about what “ideal” Sonic was.

· Sonic is all about speed. Without it, he is not Sonic. So put absolute priority on the sense of speed and let him dash non-stop on the trackless routes.

· Take in and Improve the classic “Side-Scroll Sonic” from Genesis. It will surely attract old Sonic fans.

· However, Do not end up with only an ordinary side-scroll game. Because it will be nothing more than a “Nostalgic Sonic”. We wanted to make a “Ultimate Sonic”.

· Keep the 3D game play that progress towards the back of the screen, which was adapted since Sonic Adventure. 3D is absolutely essential to give the sense of speed and the punchy presence. 3D Sonic can be very entertaining if made right. Rather, we go further into the 3D ( 3rd person ) Sonic direction.

· By comparing 3D/ 2D, 2 completely different game plays take only the good stuffs from both, discarding the demerits. And then we mix those 2 parts seamlessly will result in a stage that changes rapidly and dynamically.
The gameplay that offers all advantages from both 2D and 3D.

· We keep Platformings too: Speed can be appreciated more with the slower-pitched areas.

· *To realize the non-stop-supersonic-running action, revise the control. and prepare (develop) a new speed action mechanism.

· Prepare amazing visual images with rich presence so that the player can sync with Sonic.

· “New Sonic” would be born from the set of these key concepts.

[Unleash Sonic the Hedgehog!]
So we started on the prototype of new Sonic. First, we needed some new control mechanism to realize the “non-stop super sonic running action”. I came up with the following new action mechanism:
・Quick Step
・Ring Energy

Usually, the player moves in a 3D gameplay using the left stick in the, but since it’s analogue, it limits user’s move to linear directions. Sonic dashes at the supersonic speed. So it is difficult to let him to run non-stop within a complicated 3D environment by the left stick alone. We needed a system that allows sonic to move quickly and avoid the obstacles. That is “Quick Step”.

The control was quite simple: while running, all needed to do was to press either trigger with your right or left index finger.
This enabled Sonic to slide orthogonally to left and right and he could run through in the supersonic speed zipping through the obstacles in the 3D environment.

Next, I focused my attention to the rings, the item traditionally used in the sonic games. With rings, or even with one ring, Sonic can avoid the damages by the enemy. That was a fantastic system for fast action character such as Sonic, but I always felt it is a shame that collecting more than 2 rings makes little difference in the game play.

So I presented a new concept called “Ring Energy” in which collectin many rings is enjoyable and rewarded, marrying the concept of the ring and the speed. As more rings collected, more energy will be accumulated / pooled, and by consuming the rings, it also allowed Sonic to “Sonic Boost”, the fast accelerating feature. “Sonic Boost” also allows him to break the wall and the objects, and run quickly blasting the enemies. “Sonic Boost” is so refreshing and you will be addicted.

And then, the ring became more important in its role. More the rings (collected) , faster the Max speed Sonic can sprint, so Time Attack has really became hot! Moreover by using various actions such as “Sonic Drift”, ”Sliding”, ”Stomping”, ”Wall Jump”, ”Light Speed Dash”, we materialized our concept to “let him dash non-stop supersonic on the trackless route.”

Once the speed mechanism has is there, we moved onto the stage designs. The stage that sonic dashes through is designed to show the change the view rapidly from 3D to 2D every 15 to 30 seconds. On each 3D and 2D area, the course is carefully laid out with various geographical elements such as uphill, downhill, bank, loop, valley, wall, ceiling, floor, grind rail, spring and jump bumper.

In this title the speed in which player travels in game is actually multiplied compared past Sonic titles. Since he’s so fast, each action stage is as long as 10~20Km. Our artists worked so hard to put together these massive geography. And one day we finally saw Sonic running in these courses. Even though the control is pretty simple, Sonic runs around freely in the beautifully elaborate background in his super speed. Camera is looking good and the change between 2D/ 3D is pretty smooth and dynamic.

“Wow! This is so fun! And feels good!” All our staffs are excited too. Sonic is finally freed from the heavy chain and started shine in his true color. This is the moment when finally Sonic is Unleashed.

[Hedgehog Engine and its visual quality]
We also have “stunning visual beauty” as a major theme in Sonic Unleashed. I was not interested in making “average-quality visual” at all. I set the target of the visual quality to that of “pre-rendered CG animation” and wanted to achieve this goal in this title. Now that we have high-end hardwares such as Xbox 360 and PlayStation3, it’s the right time to achieve this goal. at

Back in 2005, I was able to see new games from other studios for Xbox360 and PlayStation3 and I remember always feeling that something was not right. “True, they’re looking better than past-gen games. But I feel something is missing.” “They are doing stuffs with Shadow Map, Normal Map, HDR… shaders and everything. Ok, lighting is richer. But it’s not blended enough. It just looks flat as a whole. I think the users’ expectation is much higher.” So we need graphics with “pre-rendered CG animation” level.

So I started thinking about what is need to achieve this; what does pre-rendered CGs have that game graphics lightings doesn’t? I went on to make it a habit to observe many games, a lot of pre-rendered graphics and real-life sceneries. As a result, I came to the conclusion that “the effect of light reflecting from one object to another” was what was completely lacking in gaming graphics. I realized that this was what I felt was “missing.”. This is a concept called “Global Illumination” in the field of pre-render CG.

After much struggle, we finally developed a Renderer that calculates Global Illumination by our 100% original algorithm. To cover the vast amount of calculation that needs to be processed, we also improvised a system that connects 100 PCs in the team to distribute the work load, which enabled us to complete all the lighting calculations for an action stage which goes as long as 10~20Km in 2,3 days.

At the same time, we developed a technology called Light Field, which used to ensure that the lightings on Sonic, enemies and objects are naturally blended to the background under Global Illumination environment. The result of Global Illumination and Light Field was brilliant. Graphics with the quality which was only a dream just a few years ago start to move before my eyes.
I remember watching the prototype graphics with my artists who worked on background and characters when their eyes started to glisten as they looked at the screen with such intensity. That’s when I became sure of our success.

As you all know, We have Sonic in Sonic Unleashed. The overall taste of graphic is rather cartoonish. Usually people don’t associate high-end visual technologies from these cartoony graphics. But we have set the ground to make the world-leading quality visuals that could be applied to the hardcore FPS or racing games with “real” taste.

We made no compromise in visual quality and/ or game mechanism. This is Sonic Unleashed.

[Back to Origin?]
I’ve been asked a lot of times if “Sonic is back to its origin” in interviews. My answer is always “No.” Sonic Unleashed has essence from Genesis, which is his origin. But it’s only one part of many charms of Sonic Unleashed. We are “learning from” “taking good bits of” origin but we are not “going back” at all. Actually, I wanted to “go beyond” the origin.

I’m confident that this one is so good that everyone will say “Sonic is back!”. This title has the best of SEGA, the passion of Sonic Team. I can’t wait the to have everyone see and play this newly unleashed Sonic. Stay tuned!

There will be more of the developer’s diary. So look forward to the next one, too!

Zombies, Brains, and Halloween – three great tastes that go great together… (If you’re one of the undead, anyway.)

This Halloween, we’ve got a special treat for all you House of the Dead Fans – a brand new video for House of the Dead: Overkill has just gone live at GameTrailers! Check it out and add a little fright to your day here!

Happy Halloween everyone! (And especially to you, Agent. G.)

Mark O’Connell and Kieran Brigden from Creative Assembly were in town last week to preview some gameplay from Empire: Total War. After seeing the release of the new campaign mode trailer, we watched a demonstration of a naval battle between the American and French fleets, with Keiran discussing the physics, tactics, and AI of the new Total War naval combat.

We got a chance to watch the virtual ships manuver to take advantage of wind and trap their targets, watched cannon balls rip through sails hull and crew, and saw the effects of morale as panic caused crews to dive off their burning ships in the futile hope that they might survive the open sea (spoiler: in Empire, all sailors die after they abandon ship).

Land combat was also demonstrated with a North African desert battle between the French and Turkish armies, which highlighted the flexibility of the AI general. As Mark’s Turkish forces maneuvered into a U-shape and tried to lure the french in a trap, the french cavalry was able to outflank and tie up the turks best troops and routed Mark’s army.

While we will be bringing you more details about Empire: Total War  game play soon, the real battle tactics demonstration took place out on the bay, as we split up to crew two 18th century tall ships, full size reproductions of the revolutionary war privateer the Lady Washington and a trading ship the Hawaiian Chieftain, and participated in a game of mock combat to learn more about naval combat.

Sailing out onto the San Francisco bay under perfect weather, we were pressed into service to man the lines and get the ship up to speed. We watched other ships clearing the area as the coast guard circled round to make sure our upcoming battle went undisturbed. As we reached the combat zone, the Hawaiian Chieftain kept it’s distance, and the captain of the Lady Washington explained the game they were playing.

Lesson 1: Wind

Both Keiran during his game demo, and the Captain of the Lady W. while maneuvering his ship on the bay, described position relative to the wind as equivalent to the effects of elevation in land combat. The more maneuverable Chieftain stayed far upwind and held the high ground, and the Lady W. had to wait downwind for the lighter ship to make it’s move. One advantage the Lady W. had was that it was a more “weatherly” ship and could sail harder into the wind if needed. When the Chieftain made it’s attack run and the two ships skirmished, this allowed the Lady W. to take the high ground and hold it until the end of the game.

Lesson 2: Cannon

Cannons are loud. Even the small 3 pound cannons and stern mounted swivel guns were deafening up close, and the shots (blanks) echoed for leagues over the bay. We learned that ships are weakest at the bow and stern, as a cannon ball will do a lot of damage if it crosses the length of a ship, so crossing closely in front or behind another ship allows you to do the most damage.

Lesson 3: Crew

Empire: Total War will have a crew experience system, and reward players who can keep their crews intact over a long campaign. The dueling on the water was all in good fun, but we did discuss their crew training.  We got to know a bit about the crew of the Lady Washington and the incredible “Two Weeks Before The Mast” program that turned many of them into sailors.

The crew were very diverse, and the main duties, other then keeping a tight ship, are to educate and entertain the public. The ships are run by the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport Authority of Washington State, a not-for-profit historical preservation and education group.

“Two Weeks Before The Mast” is their intense volunteer training program. Although a smelly and sweaty two weeks on a tall ship is not for everyone, hundred of volunteers have gone through the program, and many stay on afterward as crew.  While volunteers have to pay for their two week expenses, this is still an incredible opportunity to learn about sailing and a good word from the program director can get you on crews sailing all over the world.

Check out the rest of our battle sail photos and keep an eye out for more news on Empire: Total War, as the game reaches it’s final stages we hope to bring you a lot more specifics about the nations, units and campaigns!

The official Valkyria website was updated yesterday with a sweet batch of new Character wallpapers and avatars for download – check them out and grab your favorites here on the site!

Another awesome bit of news – The first reviews for Valkyria have begun to surface, and the word is great – IGN has given the game a 9/10, and you can read their full review here.

Lastly, in case anyone hasn’t heard yet – the demo is now free for all PSN users, regardless of where you live! Check it out and get your feet wet -  the full game will be here in a matter of days: Valkyria officially ships on November 4th, which is next Tuesday!

Limited Edition Art Book copies have also been going out for gamestop pre-orders – has anyone picked theirs up yet? (Or, if not – what would you do for a limited edition Valkyria Art Book?)

Finish your plans and prepare your troops – the fight for Gallia is about to begin.

We’ve updated PlaySEGA with some Halloween costumes just in time for the 31st.  The costumes are available for both Male and Female avatars and can be found in the Body Section, under Costumes.  Most costumes have a hat or hair component, so be sure to look at the available options!  Enjoy the new additions and have a happy Halloween!

Big news today for Sonic Unleashed and House of the Dead: Overkill, our two teams are headed over to Gamespot to talk about the games and show off some gameplay! The segment starts at 4:00pm PST and will both games will appear sometime during the segment.

http://www.gamespot.com/shows/on-the-spot/

If you can’t make the show, don’t worry, Gamespot runs a viewable version after the show has been run live!

As chronicled in a post from a few months ago, the new Sega building here in San Francisco houses a Games Archive of truly stupendous depth and, if you grew up with Sega games, raw emotional power—something like walking into a cathedral, only with more Sonic games. When Clumsyorchid asked me if I was interested in digging into these archives and doing a series of blog posts on classic Sega games, I believe my answer was something in the order of um, yes please, I think I can manage that, whilst trying to disguise a nearly unwholesome hunger that was no doubt gleaming in my eyes.

Since I couldn’t find any SG-1000 units in the archives (maybe there were some hidden under a secret floor panel?), I decided to start with the Sega Master System. My early gamer cred comes from having owned one of these back when all my friends owned Nintendos, and I still have very fond memories of this system. I also still have my original system:

Note the “pause” button that is right next to the “reset” button. Of all the many times back in the day that I lunged from my chair to slap the pause button, I can only recall accidentally hitting “reset” once. I think it was while I was playing After Burner, and I think it made me very angry. Details at this point are fuzzy. I did always love the design of the original Sega controller, though, which had an easy-to-use octo-directional pad. I think the Master System was actually a truly lovely piece of hardware; the games typically had terrific colors and crisp graphics, and music to rival the great stuff that Nintendo was doing at the time.

So, there were plenty of Master System games to choose from, and I may have been intoxicated by so many classic games in one location, but I did manage to pull out a few for this first post—two fairly classic choices, and a wildcard:

One thing that’s important to keep in mind about Sega, especially if you’re dipping into the archives, is the incredibly deep arcade heritage the company has. Sega’s history actually goes back to 1940 (not a misprint), when they were an American company called Standard Games, making coin-operated game machines for servicemen overseas (in 1952 the company, by then relocated to Japan, was renamed as “SErvice GAmes”—get it?). So it seemed worthwhile to pick a few titles with strong arcade flavor.

Golden Axe was an easy choice, and not just because of the recently released Beast Rider game. The original Golden Axe was a terrific arcade game and what’s striking is that, 20 years later, the graphics of the Master System port actually look quite excellent:

These are ad hoc digital camera shots of a widescreen television, meaning there’s some quality loss in these posted images, but the colors are pretty brilliant and the character models and environments were quite detailed. Erring on the side of great graphics means the Master System’s 8 bits were taxed to the limit, so the game definitely had some framerate issues. I found I got used to them, and the combat is still fun to hack-and-slash your way through. Also, what’s true in Beast Rider was true in the original—nothing says “I have mad skills” like the ability to beat up gnomes and take their potions:

Moving on: So, before there was Sonic, there was . . . Alex Kidd? Yes—a half-monkey / half-boy with giant ears and a powerful punch who was, in the 1980s, Sega’s unofficial mascot character (the official mascot, pre-Sonic, was a critter called Opa Opa from a game called Fantasy Zone). Alex Kidd starred in a series of action-adventure games starting, with Alex Kidd in Miracle World, in 1986.

Please note the above underwater image. Side-Scrolling Action Game Rule No. 2 states, “There is always an underwater stage”. Always. There is also usually a factory stage (with saw blades), a forest stage (with bats), and a cavern stage (with lava pits, and more bats). That’s just how worlds were made back then. Also of note: pausing Alex Kidd takes you to a menu where you can select any items you might have for use, so I had to take that above underwater shot from the hip, as it were. The fish there murdered me about a half second after this was taken, so I hope you all appreciate the sacrifices I’m making for you.

This is a fun game, and while it clearly has Mario in mind it also moves at a much brisker pace, meaning you can zoom through the colorful levels at a nice clip, while jumping around punching bad guys and collecting loot. It has all the elements of the golden age of side-scrolling games, with some great added features like shops with in-game items for sale (including motorcycles!) and, um, some mind-bending games of rock-paper-scissors:

The last game I looked at (for now) was a complete unknown to me. SpellCaster is actually a pretty terrific game though, maybe my favorite of the ones I looked at, and it reminds me a lot of Lord of the Sword—it’s a 2D side-scrolling action game with a medieval/fantasy setting and some really cool RPG elements sewn in. SpellCaster takes the unique (cough) gaming plot of having you take control of a young man who must seek out the evil forces who attacked his village:

The game is divided between side-scrolling levels where you blast demons and other bad guys with magic, and more RPG-ish stages in towns, where you can interact with things from a sort of first-person perspective, and hit up townsfolk for information and goodies. For example, a “spaghetti man” (presumably a Westernized translation of “noodle vendor”?) will tell you the next town you have to go to . . . but only after you talk to him and buy some of his delicious, delicious spaghetti.

There’s also the titular Spell Casting: your basic attack is a kind of energy shot that you can charge up, but if you go to the pause menu you get a bunch of additional spells you can choose from, which do cool things like clear the screen of enemies, provide you with a magic shield, or allow you to fly. They even incorporate the games password-save feature as a “spell” that gives you a password to continue with.

Lastly, here’s a slightly out of focus shot of me ducking while a bad guy endlessly shoots arrows over my head:

It was pretty cool to get to play through these games a bit. I also hauled out some of my own old, old games, and it’s interesting to have your muscle memory for a game you last played 20 years ago come back without a hitch.

I’m going to be writing more posts in this series, possibly doing some more on the Sega Master System (since I have such great affection for it), and then moving on down the line, hitting up the Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, and whatever else I can get my hands on in the Games Archive.

I’m not sure what form all of this will take, but for this blog, what I’d really like, is to hear from classic gaming fans who might be reading this—what games are people interested in seeing? I can’t make any promises, but if there’s something you’d like to see, or haven’t seen in years, post a comment below and let me know! It would be easy to just do all my own favorites, but this is about shared nostalgia, so I would love to hear from Sega fans out there. Anything by Sega is fair game, although we will be doing this chronologically, so if there’s Master System era stuff you’re especially interested in, let me know!

SEGA has grabbed the publishing rights to one of the best looking Wii games we’ve ever seen – The Conduit. If you haven’t heard of this game, then look no further than YouTube for some gameplay videos and developer walkthroughs to see the game in action. The Conduit looks to shake things up on the Wii by delivering some great looking visuals, tight controls, and great gameplay.

There really is a great amount of material out there to look at and read about, which makes an announcement of this type pretty great. The Conduit speaks for itself, it has a great look and it’s been publicly available for view since E3. I’m an avid First Person Shooter player and I’ve got a few things that have me juiced about getting my hands on an early build.

The Tech
Developed by High Voltage Software, The Conduit is a futuristic First Person Shooter with a healthy amount of Next Gen tech thrown in to make it look fantastic on the Wii. The game features a number of features not normally viewed on the console, such as Bump Mapping and Real Time Reflections. That’s the pitch, and really, after viewing the game online and in meetings, I can say without a doubt it delivers. I’m personally excited about the weapon and environment animations, which I’ve always felt make a great game look and feel truly great.

Controls
Of course a First Person Shooter game can look amazing, but without controls the game won’t be worth playing. Thankfully, Voltage Software has done a great job in crafting a system that will rival the current Wii standard of Metroid Prime. Additionally, the Conduit will leverage full support for the recently announced Wii Motion Plus, which gives the Wii controller a new level of accuracy.

Multiplayer
I’m a multiplayer fan through and through, so having great controls and tech is only great if I can reach out and frag someone. Unfortunately, the multplayer info is a bit light, but we do know it will feature the new Wii Speak peripheral. Hopefully this means we’ll see some coordination in online matches and maybe something more than the typical deathmatch and capture the flag modes.

That’s my take on this big release, if you want to read more about the game and read the more official text, head over to our Product Page or read the full press release. And if you want to talk about it, head to our forums!

I’m happy to report that we’ve been given access to some regular blog content from the team working on Sonic Unleashed. The first blog entry features Patrick Riley, who works right here in our SEGA offices. Take a read of the article and be sure to head over to our Flickr page to view all of the screenshots.

Be on the lookout for the next blog article, which we’ll be adding very shortly.

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Hi there, my name is Patrick Riley and I am the producer of Sonic Unleashed here at Sega of America. My job is to work closely with the development team out in Japan and work on the game from our US office.

The team in Japan is a fantastic team to work with and all of you will see in the next little while what incredible work they have done to bring this new Sonic game to life. Filled with incredible Sonic speed-based gameplay, stunning international-inspired environments, and your favorite blue Hedgehog, Sonic Unleashed is the game we know Sonic fans have been waiting for!

Just to give you a little background, the team has been working on the Hedgehog Engine since 2005, and on the game itself since 2006. Their goal was both to take Sonic in an interesting new direction while returning Sonic to his roots by incorporating many of the classic elements that fans loved best. So they knew that lots of speed would be key in this game being successful. To add a new flavor, they decided to invite the Werehog. I’m not going to talk about him quite yet, but stay tuned for some Werehog updates in the next couple of weeks.

The story itself is based on an alternate world similar to our own in many ways. The game starts in the middle of the action, just like a Bond film. Dr. Eggman has once again caused serious amounts of trouble – as he so loves to do – and Sonic has finally cornered him and looks on the brink of finally winning their epic struggle. But it is all a ploy and Dr. Eggman uses that moment to steal the seven Chaos Emeralds and use them to break apart the earth and wake Dark Gaia – a frighteningly huge monster. It is at that same moment that Sonic is exposed to the dark energy of those Chaos Emeralds and a beastly change takes place. Sonic is blown out of an airlock by Dr. Eggman, but survives the fall to Earth through the intervention of a strange energy source. Sonic is then left to figure out both how to bring the world back together and what this unbelievable change means for him.

Sonic’s adventure begins here. He travels the world to put together the pieces of the fragmented planet as well as those of his own life now that so much has changed. He explores beautiful environments inspired by China, Greece, Africa and speeds through them in both 3D and 2.5D gameplay.

The team faced a lot of challenges in accomplishing their vision. First and foremost, we targeted multiple platforms – PS3, 360, Wii, and PS2 – so a big challenge was making sure that the game worked well on all platforms. For example, making sure that the Wii version really took advantage of the unique control system and the next-gen versions really took advantage of the power of the systems to make the game look amazing. Also, narrowing down the locations – in a world like our where there are so many interesting places to visit, how do we choose just a few? There are just too many amazing sights in the world! Narrowing it down was quite the challenge.

Finally, making sure that we gave fans the Sonic game they were really looking for was truly number one on our mind. The team is made up of people who love Sonic, who have worked on many Sonic titles, and who felt passionate about the experience they believed Sonic could offer on any system. Creating that perfect game was something we spent a lot of time discussing- all the pros and cons of what could and couldn’t work – what fans loved and what fans hated – what we loved and hated. In the end, it came down to us. We had to ask ourselves what we felt Sonic was missing up until now and what we would want in a Sonic game. Fortunately, as Sonic fans we are extremely excited about the game you guys will be seeing soon and as the PD team, extremely proud of the game we made.

In the next few weeks, we’ll be drafting up some dev diaries for you check out to get a better ides of the Werehog and all his skills and what inspired us on that front. We’ll talk more about the background of the team itself and their role in the creation of the game. We’ll introduce you to some of the places you will visit over the course of the game. Lastly, we’ll give you a taste of some of the new moves Sonic has been given in this game and some of the control specifics we implemented for the Wii version to ensure that Wii fans were really taking advantage of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk.

I hope, by the time I’m done writing this – you guys will be a happy with the game as we are proud. But in the meantime, start training your thumbs for some serous speeding action! Stay tuned for more developer updates and introductions to the team in Japan who worked so hard to bring you this game. In the upcoming weeks we will tell you more about the new features – including the Hedgehog Engine created by the Sonic team – as well as the stunning environments, Sonic’s new moves and of course, the Werehog himself. Keep reading!

Thanks

Patrick