What are the chances of a classic Sonic title similar to Mega Man 9?

Update: Speaking to Kotaku, Mr. Akinori seemed to change his mind a bit…

“One of our ideas has been that on older consoles, you may have had only 16 colours. One thing we could do is make a game like Mega Man 9; do a new Sonic, but in an old style.”

“Actually, he has been working on Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush and is very keen on keeping the 2D game. But, having said that, he also thinks 3D Sonic [is good]…And he has been thinking so hard to incorporate those good things from both 3D and 2D. And this is one of the reasons that in Sonic Unleashed we have both 3D and 2D mixed gameplay, kind of switched, going back and forth…Although he thinks that the original 2D game was really good, he doesn’t intend to publish kind of a remake of the original game.” – Akinori Nishiyama, General Manager of Sonic Team, though a translator

Sonic Rush is somewhat similar to the hedgehog’s Genesis days, but it doesn’t look like we’ll be seeing a completely classic Sonic game anytime soon. However, if upcoming 3D Sonic titles such as Unleashed are at least half-way decent, perhaps it’ll give fans some hope that a Sonic title can work well in the third dimension.

• Sonic Unleashed to use same engine as Sonic Rush titles?
Published on: March 26, 2008
• Classic Sonic collectable statues coming from First 4 Figures
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• Official: Sonic Unleashed coming to Wii
Published on: April 3, 2008
• Sonic Unleashed could see a name change
Published on: June 10, 2008
• Sega release dates confirms Sonic Chronicles for September, Sonic Unleashed for November
Published on: June 6, 2008