In an interview with USgamer, SEGA producer Omar Woodley spoke about the future of the Sonic franchise. Woodley indicated that there are plans for both modern Sonic and legacy Sonic (Boom and the other side handled by the Sonic Team).
He said:
“Sonic Boom is meant to branch away from the classic/legacy Sonic. Our plan is to go forward with both the modern Sonic and the legacy Sonic, but the Sonic Team will handle the legacy side of things in Japan. For us, the Western initiatives will tie into the toys, merchandizing, animation – movies potentially even. We’re branching out into the more upbeat adventure style theme for Sonic Boom.”
“Our main target audience is 7-11, but what we saw when we released the first game is that Sonic fans picked it up. That’s a challenge: you’ve got your older audience and younger audience, but the older fans had a harder time getting into it, because it they’re so used to classic and legacy Sonic, and that’s what they thought Shattered Crystal was going to be.”
“It can be tricky sometimes. You’re developing a game that is for an intended audience, but we have a legacy group of people that played the Genesis and Megadrive games. Then you have the audience that played the Dreamcast and GameCube era games. Then you have the modern, younger audience. Each of these three groups is looking for something slightly different. Our challenge is how do you make a game that appeals to everybody. That everyone can play and say, “I like this.” That’s the challenge we’re working with.”
“We have all the Sonic Boom stuff, but we also do classic lines of stuff. There’s all sorts of merchandizing that’s designed to appeal to the older audience and the younger audience. When we first announced the Sonic Boom initiative, the fans were all, “why is Knuckles so big, and why does Sonic have a scarf”. All these little things. But we said, “don’t worry, we’re not taking the old Sonic and getting rid of him.” The original Sonic design is still here and he’s here to stay. They’re just two separate universes that are running parallel to one another.”
“We’re thinking bigger than just the video game. We want to branch out into the Western market a bit more and update Sonic’s look and appeal to a younger age group – the new gamers. And so we wanted to do something exploration-based. We didn’t want to just reboot the classic series. We wanted to do something new – and not alienate the classic players.”
Woodley also commented on issues that were present in the first Sonic Boom, which were presumably directed towards the Shattered Crystal on 3DS.
“I think we went a bit too far with the exploration in the last game. There were a lot of speed runs and rhythm play sections, but they were so spread out you lost that speed aspect of the game. That was one of the big things that people complained about – “if you slow down Sonic, it doesn’t feel like Sonic.” Now we’re trying to fix that. We want to keep what’s going on in the animated series, the adventure and exploration, but we also want to keep the feel of classic Sonic. So now we’ve made the levels smaller, and cut a linear path through them, and plugged in all the classic Sonic pieces, and now the game feels more like the classic game.”
USgamer published a new article with a whole bunch of details about the just-announced Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice. You can find the information rounded up below, and the full piece here.
– Game is being tightened up compared to last year’s release
Sega producer Omar Woodley:
“We launched Sonic Boom as a new franchise last year with Shattered Crystal, at the same time as a new animated series that airs on Cartoon Network. Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice is the next episode in conjunction with the animated series.”
“We’re developing the game with Sanzaru Games, who also did Shattered Crystal. We think that they grasp the concept of Sonic, and what makes him unique. They also got on board with Sonic being more exploratory and having more adventure instead of that classic arcadey feel of gameplay. That’s not to say we distance ourselves from that – there is quite a bit of speed in the new game, and quite a bit of the same nostalgia that’s familiar, but new. But in a nutshell, this is a new franchise.”
“A lot of the characters are shared between the series and the game. Sticks is the new character – she’s a jungle badger. She’s a bit of a hermit, but she befriends Sonic and Amy, and they help to bring her out of her shell. She’s very shy and a bit neurotic, and thinks everyone is out to kill her. But she’s a cool character who’s very different to the other Sonic characters.”
– 2.5D platformer
– Exploration toned down
– More speed compared to the last game on 3DS
– Cut back on the length and size of levels
– There is now a linear path
“So we’ve dialed down the length and the size of the levels and cut a linear path through the middle. The exploration now happens above and below it. So now you can have that classic experience of running through the level at high speed if you want, but now you can also explore too.”
– Lots of collectibles
– These are tied up in the exploration aspect
– Collectibles unlock things like characters and bonuses
– 7 islands
– 6 are exploration-based and feature 4 levels plus 2 bonus stages
– Seventh island is Thunder Island
– Thunder Island is a 2-player local-play option that is based on a race between Eggman’s bots
“Basically, Eggman has found a new element called Ragnium, which he melts down and combusts as fuel. These bots, which are henchmen in the animated series, have been brought into this game as rival racers. Eggman’s goal is to humiliate Sonic by making bots that are faster than him. Of course that whole plot fails… but to do that you need to beat all the bots in the game to prove Eggman is wrong – there’s one on each island. As you progress, you unlock character bots that can then be used to race your friends in local play on the crazy courses we’ve designed.”
“The main story follows a henchman called Defect. He’s been designed by Eggman to find Ragnium and mine it. He has these eco magnets that are supposed to enable him to raise it out of the ground. However, when Eggman turns him on, it totally fails – which is why he’s called Defect. However, it turns out that he can magnetize everything other than Ragnium, so he begins to use his powers to build himself up so he can beat Sonic. Also, part of the storyline is that as Eggman collects Ragnium, he’s polluting the environment. So part of the game is restoring the environment – which is an homage to the original Sonic games.”
Activision has officially said that Call of Duty: Black Ops III won’t be on Wii U. Although the game is now confirmed to be for both last-gen and current-gen hardware, Nintendo’s console won’t be included as one of the platforms receiving the new shooter.
A notice on Activision’s blog states: “it should be noted that there’s no version of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 for Nintendo Wii U planned.”
Even though there was some small talk about the possibility of Call of Duty: Black Ops III coming to Wii U, I suppose we shouldn’t be shocked by this. Advanced Warfare didn’t land on the console, so I suppose Activision is setting a new precedent.
Before Smash Bros. Wii U and 3DS hit store shelves, Nintendo said that all characters in the game would be seeing their own amiibo. So it comes as no surprise that retailer GAME has put up tentative listings for both Mewtwo and Lucas. They’re DLC, but still characters in the game, so this was ultimately expected. Maybe Nintendo will have something to say about this at E3 next week.
SEGA has released the first handful of screenshots from Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice. Check them out below.
Warner Bros. Interactive released the first trailer for LEGO Marvel’s Avengers. View it below.
Activision has announced one of its games set to appear at this year’s E3. Thus far, we know that Guitar Hero Live will be playable.
Jamie Jackson, Creative Director and Co-Head of FreeStyleGames, said in a statement:
“We’ve been working super hard on Guitar Hero Live for years, so we’re so stoked to show people more of the game every chance we get and to give fans a chance to play it themselves – that’s why we’re bringing Guitar Hero Live to E3 and letting you get hands on. Five years is a long time. Not only has technology changed, but we’ve had years to think about what makes Guitar Hero so much fun to play and also to talk to fans about what they loved most about the original game. We’ve developed an awesome new experience built from the ground up and we are integrating new technology and techniques that just weren’t possible back then. GHTV is a huge part of that and comes with a bunch of new songs, of which we’ll announce more next week. See you at E3!”
E3 2015 runs from June 16 to June 18.
Source: Activision PR
Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice is in development for 3DS, SEGA has announced.
Here’s the official overview:
Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice, featuring the triumphant return of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Sticks, will be available exclusively on Nintendo 3DS later this year.
Developed by Sanzaru Games Inc., Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice is a single player game with collaborative gameplay components that shares key characters, events, and lore of the Sonic Boom universe. Players will see Sonic and his friends in familiar settings as they embark on a brand new adventure to battle Dr. Eggman as well as an all-new super villain, D-Fekt. The team’s adventures will bring them to locations both familiar and new as they explore, race and protect their world.
To create an entirely new experience, Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice will infuse fire and ice elements throughout gameplay, enabling new abilities to play out in special character moves and interactions with environments. The new title also delivers gameplay that enables players to run through the game at top speed, or take their time with deeper exploration and puzzle play.
New to the title is the introduction of Bot Racing, a supplemental game tied to the single player story with multiplayer gameplay. The new Bot Racing feature is an extension of Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice that is purely about racing and speed, where a user will unlock character themed Bots to challenge friends on fast courses or tracks.
Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice is due out this holiday in North America. Europe is getting the game this winter, where Nintendo will handle sales, marketing and distribution.
Watch the debut trailer below.
The ESRB rating for Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town has been updated with an additional platform.
Unsurprisingly, that system is Wii U.
Natsume has a whole bunch of GBA games lined up for the Wii U Virtual Console, and Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town should be one of them. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this was one of the Virtual Console titles in North America this week.
Last night, Nintendo issued a new update for Wii U. The system’s firmware was brought up to version 5.4.0 in all regions.
Regarding the latest update, Nintendo said that it was intended to improve the user experience and stability as a whole. A few more details about what it actually does have since surfaced. In the end, the changes are pretty minor.
One change is specifically for European regions. The Nintendo TVii icon has been removed, which makes sense given that Nintendo announced a few months ago that it has no plans for the service.
The only other changes worth mentioning pertain to the Internet browser. The webkit has been updated, those who have Google set as their default search engine are redirected to this page, and users can post comments on the YouTube website.
Here’s a full listing of items that were modified in the new update:
00050010-10040100 Wii U Menu
00050010-10041100 “Version.bin” file with the current system version
00050010-10047100 System Settings
0005001B-10051000 ErrEula
0005001B-10059100 Wii U Electronic Manual
0005001b-10068000 some list with IDs and codenames for them
00050030-1001010A HOME Menu
00050030-1001210A Internet Browser
00050030-1001a10a AOC Overlay App
That’s about it!
