Sega Busts Out With New Sonic on PS3

By William Barker

Sonic the Hedgehog is an interesting character. For one, he's cool. For two, he's quick. But even such mind-numbing attributes such as these can do little to stymie the onslaught of videogame characters who would usurp the once indomitable icon.

People like Lara Croft with her soft skin and long plaits is one of them, Banjo Kazooie with his drug-fuelled adventures/hallucinations in the land of colourful cuddliness is another. And though Tamagotchi isn't the powerhouse it once used to be, it still represents a formidable ally for the Sega's spiky mascot, who has amassed more than 44 million videogame sales in his life.

In order to bring attention back to Sonic the Hedgehog, who has been spun-off into various animated television series and numerous comic books since his arrival on the videogame scene some 15 years ago (1991) on the Sega Master System, Genesis/Megadrive and Game Gear handheld systems, the Japanese developer is working on a new next gen version of the game for the Playstation 3 (PS3) and Xbox360, simply called Sonic the Hedgehog.

The story goes something like this: The city is Soleanna, a delightful city of water and place of serene tranquility. Being a bit of a ladies' hog, Sonic befriends Princess Elise (who said you can't sleep your way to the top?) who is one day kidnapped by the evil Dr. Eggman and his imperiously portly belly. Sonic vows to rescue the Lotus Elise race car [he means Princess - Ed] and comes across the mysteriously bearded Silver on his travels, who looks strangely like an aged version of Sonic. Hm... Shadow will also return as a playable character, which should add variety thanks to his new moves.

And having played the game, it's easy to see that there's plenty of life left in Sonic yet and with Yuji Naka at the helm of this latest game, the clever chappy who helped create the spiny seafood-loving mascot in the first place, Sonic the Hedgehog is expected to be a true next generation effort that Sega believes will give both long-time fans and newcomers the most intense sensation of speed ever.

Having played an early build of the game, and as well as offering up classic Sonic action - only bigger, bolder and much, much faster - the game also adds new characters and even some vehicle-based blasting sections that do nothing to conceal their Halo 2 inspiration. Indeed, this is classic Sonic, with an added hit of modern warfare.

But the most intense sensation of speed ever? That's a big call, and I'm not convinced. It moves very quickly and like all good Sonic games has a vibrant colour palette, and is more than quick enough to induce the most violent of photosensitive seizures, but it's not the quickest sensation of speed ever. At the same time, I'm judging a pre-release version of the game, rather than the finalised code, so there's still room for the coding to be made water tight and graphics engine to be tweaked for maximum ocular pain.

Visually, the game looks awesome on an LCD television set in HD mode, and thanks to the Xbox 360's more powerful CPU and more copious RAM stacks, the levels are bigger than any before it, and deliver a palpable sense of depth and scope. The huge scale of the levels in which you can charge through at Mach 3 or thereabouts are truly wondrous, offering up huge environmental obstacles, such as whirlwinds and the like, which made my eyes bulge in their sockets (and almost exploded, which would have showered sticky ocular fluid/jelly all over the screen). It really does look very swish and runs at a steady 30 frames per second, and sometimes faster, though it could still use a little tweaking at times.

I will admit that the light bloom graphic effects combined with the updated environmental motion-blur effects look very spiffy in action and do contribute to the sense of speed.

The handful of levels I toyed with involved a number of traditional Sonic features, such as spring-loaded bounce pads, go-fast conveyor belt strips and all the usual bits and pieces that propel Sonic to his idiosyncratically giddy speeds. Whenever the action speeds up - and often the game can go from old-fashioned platform jumping to flat out high speed spinning at the drop of a steaming turd - it increases the intensity of the gameplay, as the camera tracks doggedly behind sonic (it's a 3rd person perspective) at warp speed. 

Like the original Sonic games, you're always on the hunt for golden rings as you explore through the fantasy-laden levels, which can reward players with an extra life, and also give you a second chance when hit by an enemy combatant (usually one of Dr. Eggman's consorts). 

Sonic has always been about awesome level design, and the next generation game for PS3 and Xbox 360 doesn't disappoint. Though the hedge-dwelling freak is one of the fastest mammalian reptiles on the planet, the game is made all the more pleasing by the lay of the land, and this time around there are the expected corkscrewing and loop-de-looping sections, as well as a number of cool new high-speed modes of travel, including rail grinding (Sonic's footwear is made in the molten streams of Mount Doom) and he can even ride water streams, which is a bit scary at first. "What if I fall through the water?" 

Answer: "Sonic is too cool - he will dominate every element known to Hedge-kind! Including fire and water."

This time around the Sonic franchise is split into two different gameplay themes - 'town' stages and 'action' stages. We didn't get to play the town stages, where you can wander around, play minigames (gambling!!! yes!) and complete sub-missions, where the action stages are the tried-and-true Sonic levels, where you scream around massive levels in about 50 seconds flat, trying outdo your previous times.

As well as the added bonus of Halo-like vehicular combat, the game also includes the many and varied characters from the previous games that you'll meet and possibly kill/love, but there'll also be a new character in this instalment, called Silver. This fella kind of looks like a silver sonic, but is actually from the future, and though he aims to put an end to Sonic's deeds, he is not the enemy per se, as Sega alludes. Here's my take on the Silver character: I get the feeling that Sonic will be doing what he thinks is right (killing Dr. Eggman and his coterie of evil hatchlings) but Silver comes from the future to warn Sonic that without Dr. Eggman, the cure for the terminal illness he contracted while on a romantic cruise ship will be lost forever. 

In the final game, Silver will be a playable character, and is not a robot like some of the characters in previous games. So, this Silver character is from the future right? Yep, just like Guru Josh. Naturally, this means his abilities are far superior to any hedge-dwelling monotreme and he can fly/hover and throw objects using the power of his magic filled brain. Sega calls it 'psychokinetic' power - I call it brain boon. Either way, it's quite cool. Silver is a new character and may even bring some time-travelling to the game, which could be a good way to extend the single player game.

There will be a multiplayer aspect to Sonic The Hedgehog on Xbox 360 and PS3, and it will be up to four players says Sega, but that's where the flow of information ends. Hopefully there'll be some old-school co-op missions (anyone remember Sonic and Tails cruising through the same levels together? Brotherhood is bliss...) and perhaps a handful of online or system link modes that employ the cool vehicular combat. 

Either way, this game is going to be quite a sight, though whether the gameplay stands up to the test of time will be something that we'll explore in the review. The game is slated for a release in America before Christmas on the PS3 and Xbox 360, and currently has a November release date in Australia, and it will also give us a good idea of the difference in processing power between the two consoles -- methinks the PS3 will dominate, but you never know.

Game: Sonic The Hedgehog
System: Xbox 360
Players: 1-4
Online: Yes
Developer: Sega Studios Japan