Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I

Project Needlemouse is a code name for a platform video game in development as part of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It is targeted for release in 2010. The game was first announced through GameSpot by Sega of America on September 8, 2009, the eve of the tenth anniversary of the launch of Sega's Dreamcast video game console and the release of its launch game, Sonic Adventure in North America. The term needlemouse is based on Sonic's original name, Mr. Needlemouse.

The game will be a two-dimensional side-scrolling platformer reminiscent of the original Sonic games, with an emphasis on speed. It will be playable in high definition.

In an interview with Digitalgames.fr, Sega France spokesperson Franck Sebastien hinted that Project Needlemouse may be targeted for the Xbox Live and PlayStation Network platforms(Possibly as a Downloadable only Title). And he also said...

''I think that Sega wanted to settle demands, because there’s a lot a nostalgic gamers out there, and on XBOX Live or PlayStation Network…you have a lot of hardcore gamers. And the old versions of Sonic games are selling very well on these platforms, so there’s a real market for these kinds of products. […] The idea really is to finally please all these hardcore gamers, because we love them at Sega.''

Project Needlemouse Character Countdown


To get fans pumped for Project Needlemouse, SEGA has put together a week long trivia game on the blogs.sega.com web page. Each day until Friday they are going to put a rejected stamp on the characters that won’t be in the game. Friday the full list of characters will be revealed if fan’s can succeed in a challenge. No information is given on wether the characters in the picture are the only potential characters in the game, so other characters like Tails and Knuckles still may or may not be in the game.

Description
1: The Details: Each name on the picture above is a potential playable character in Project Needlemouse. However, not all of them are going to make the cut – and each day this week until Friday, we’re going to update this picture with a rejected stamp over those who will not actually be showing up!

2: The Challenge: Answer our trivia questions about oldschool Sonic games! (Genesis era) We’ll post trivia questions each day on a specific part of our SEGA/Sonic sites, and you all have to work together to figure out the right answers and post them there! Each day we’ll challenge you guys to get a certain number of people to post the correct answers – and if you meet that challenge, we’ll remove more names from the picture in a new blog the following day!


 * About Bonus Points: If you go above and beyond the expected results, the community will earn a bonus point for that day. Earn at least three bonus points and we’ll give you all something special this Friday!

Trivia Questions
Day 1 (Jan. 11 2010)

1: In Sonic 1, how many rings were needed at the end of an act to enter a special stage?

Answer: At least 50 Rings

2: How many emeralds were in the original Sonic 1 for Genesis / Mega Drive?

Answer: 6 Chaos Emeralds

3: What colors were these emeralds?

Answer: 1.Red, 2.Yellow, 3.Green, 4.Blue, 5.Violet, and 6.White

Day 2 (Jan. 12 2010)

Characters Rejected: Charmy Bee and Chip

1: What was the general name for the robot enemies in the early Sonic games?

Answer: Badniks

2: 50 Rings is always nice, but 100 is even nicer – why so?

Answer: An Extra Life

3: In Sonic 2 for the Genesis / Mega Drive, how many lives was a ‘continue’ worth?

Answer: 3 Extra Lifes

Day 3 (Jan. 13 2010)

Characters Rejected: Vector and Tikal

1: How many acts were in each zone of Sonic 1?

Answer: 3 Acts (except Final Zone)

2: What was the first game to feature Super Sonic?

Answer: Sonic The Hedgehog 2

3: The original Sonic the Hedgehog featured special stages with morphing backgrounds – can you name two of the animals seen in that background?

Answer: Birds and Fishes (There were no more animals)

Day 4 (Jan. 14 2010)

Characters Rejected: Shade and Amy

1: If you lock Sonic 3 onto Sonic & Knuckles, what was the largest amount of emeralds you could collect from the special stage?

Answer: 14 Emeralds (7 Chaos Emeralds and 7 Super Emeralds)

2: Yuji Naka is credited for much of Sonic's history, but who is the man that actually designed Sonic?

Answer: Naoto Ōshima

3: During his creation, what was the Japanese name originally give to Sonic?

Answer: Mr. Needlemouse

Day 5(Jan. 15 2010)

Characters Rejected: Shadow, Froggy, Big and "Sonic's new friend Mr. Needlemouse"

Conclusion of Contest
The fans "won" the bonus points contest and was awarded not only on 2 extra characters struck off the list, but a piece of concept art developed for the game (which is very similar to the same badnik in Sonic the Hedgehog 2). A local fan of the Sonic fan community also went through the raw data of the file and discovered that it was scanned to the computer late last spring. The conclusion of the contest indicates that Sonic is the only playable character in this game. It is interesting to note that Tails, Eggman, and Knuckles were left off of this list.

Rumors
Some leaks about the game was sent throughout the internet on 22 January 2010. Currently, SEGA is removing all of these rumors or "leaks" because they do not want to confirm it just yet. The leaks would therefore, would not be written on any website for it may get SEGA angry. All videogame and Sonic websites are not allowed to announce this "information" just yet. These rumors state that Project Needlemouse may not be on the Wii Console, the first zone is called "Slash Hill Zone" and one of them is "E.G.G Base Zone", there are also rumors on the game's story having episodes and there was a video on the story which shouldn't be allowed on the internet because SEGA removed it.

Downloadable
Project Needlemouse is now confirmed to be a downloadable game.

Trailer
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