Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I

Sonic the Hedgehog 4, codenamed Project Needlemouse, is an episodic video game in development as part of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. The first episode is targeted for release in July of 2010. The game was first announced on 8 September 2009, and its real name was revealed on 4 February 2010.

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. The game will be released on PSN, XBLA, WiiWare, and the iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad.

Story
Story thus far:

Our hedgehog's tale begins as Sonic's animal friends start disappearing from South Island. Soon after, Sonic discovers that the evil scientist Dr. Eggman has been kidnapping them and turning them into robots - all as part of a plot to collect a legendary treasure known as the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic decides it's up to him to save them, and embarks on a quest to free his friends. As Sonic and Eggman clash throughout many different zones, Sonic eventually pursues Eggman to the Final Zone, where the first in many epic battles between them begins. In the end, Sonic is victorious, and Eggman's mecha flies away badly damaged. A happy ending secured, Sonic returns to Green Hill Zone and reunites with his friends.

Their reunion is short lived, however, as Eggman resurfaces and begins kidnapping Sonic's friends again, now in an effort to create more workers to finish the new plans for his ultimate weapon - the Death Egg! This time, Sonic has help in the form of a two-tailed fox named Miles "Tails" Prower, who dreams of one day going as fast as Sonic. Together, the two embark on a new mission through West Side Island in an effort to free their friends and ensure Eggman does not obtain the seven Chaos Emeralds to fuel the Death Egg.

Once the West Side Island is freed, Sonic and Tails board the Tornado, take to the skies, and assault the Death Egg itself. After destroying Mecha Sonic, Eggman flees and enters his final trump card - a huge robot modeled after Eggman himself! After a heated battle, Sonic defeats Eggman one-on-one, and the Death Egg begins to explode.

Saved from his fall down to the planet by Tails, the two fly down and come across a mysterious island called Angel Island. Originally, the island was floating through the power of a very precious stone called the Master Emerald, but the Death Egg's impact with the island itself sent it plummeting into the water. Sonic transforms into Super Sonic and begins to explore, but is suddenly attacked by a red Echidna named Knuckles - the guardian of the island, and of the Master Emerald itself.

Knuckles, tricked by Eggman into thinking that Sonic and Tails are the evil-doers out to steal the Master Emerald, pulls a cheap shot and steals the Chaos Emeralds from Sonic. While Sonic and Tails are entangled by Knuckles, Eggman repairs the Death Egg and preps it for launch.

Back on the ground, Dr. Eggman has not given up yet and begins to proceed with rebuilding the Death Egg. Feeling Knuckles has served his purpose, he sends EggRobo to eliminate this potential threat. EggRobo finds Knuckles relaxing in Mushroom Hill Zone - and attempts to eliminate him with a bomb - but Knuckles, whether through luck or toughness, survives the attack. Enraged, the wild Echidna sets off to defeat EggRobo. Meanwhile, Sonic and Tails explore the island to find traces of the Death Egg and discover Eggman's fate. After an epic showdown between Sonic and Knuckles, Eggman uses the opportunity to finally steal the Master Emerald and re-launch the Death Egg. With the power of the emeralds, Sonic goes after Eggman, who has now taken the Master Emerald into space.

As Knuckles finishes his showdown with Mecha Sonic, the real hedgehog chases Eggman through space, ultimately destroying his doomsday plans - with it, the Death Egg saga comes to a close.

Sonic and Tails secure the Master Emerald and return it to Knuckles on Angel Island. With its power restored, Angel Island lifts off into the sky as Sonic and Tails fly off into the sunset.

But this humiliating defeat only serves to further Eggman's rage, and he has determined once and for all to rid himself of Sonic. Eggman revisits - and improves - the very best of his creations to defeat our spiked hero.

And so a new Adventure begins...

The story takes place following the destruction of the Death Egg, with Angel Island back in the sky (following the end of Sonic & Knuckles). Sonic heads off to explore a new territory on his own. Doctor Eggman also survived, and has taken measures to defeat Sonic.

Characters

 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Dr. Eggman

Playable

 * Sonic the Hedgehog

Non-Playable

 * Dr. Eggman

Badniks

 * Motobug
 * Shellcracker
 * Chopper
 * Batbot (seen in the trailer)
 * Newtron
 * Bubbles
 * Buzzer
 * A few more were seen in leaks, however, this is not final.
 * A Hermit-like Badnik

Zones

 * Splash Hill Zone
 * Lost Labyrinth Zone
 * Casino Street Zone
 * Mad Gear Zone
 * Special Stage

Key Items

 * Chaos Emeralds
 * Rings
 * Sign Post(Goal)

Monitor Boxes

 * Super Ring (Holds ten rings)
 * 1-UP (Extra Life)
 * Speed Sneakers (Makes you run faster for a limted time)
 * Invurability (Makes you invincable for a limted time)

Development
The game is being developed by Dimps, as well as members of Sonic Team, including the original senior level designer for Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The game will be released as a digital download for WiiWare, PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Arcade services and an as of yet unannounced platform.

An interview with Takashi Izuka states that "Fans will be very pleased with the cast in episode 2", meaning that there might be playable characters he said that Episode 1 is a prologue and there will be a new move for Sonic but it's yet unknown. And this is what he said on the Homing Attack:

"I wanted the user to enjoy an easy-to-play feeling by the attack sequence that this [homing attack] allows, and find the fun routes in the air."

He also said that the classic special stages will make a return.

Marketing
The game was first announced through GameSpot by Sega of America on 8 September 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. At the time, it was referred to as "Project Needlemouse", in reference to the name "Mr Needlemouse", which was the prototype code name of Sonic the Hedgehog when he was being pitched as a new mascot for Sega.

The initial accouncement was accompanied by a brief teaser trailer, which included sound effects from Sega Mega Drive-era Sonic games, as well as an interview with Sega's associate brand manager, Ken Balough, who acknowledged that "old-school Sonic fans have long asked to see Sonic return to a more 2D style of gameplay", and that "Needlemouse is that critical first step that brings Sonic back to his 2D roots".

Project Needlemouse Character Countdown


To get fans pumped for Project Needlemouse, SEGA 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 whether 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.

Concept Art Challenge
On January 27, 2010, Sega updated their blog[7] with a second (and final) challenge, and another piece of concept art (Motobug, the first badnik encountered in Sonic 1). The challenge was in response to a fan-made illustration of another badnik from Sonic 2 (designed to resemble the official art), which apparently staff liked a lot. To this end, Sega stated that they wished to see more: the new challenge was for fans to submit over 100 pieces of their own art of classic badniks (from Sonic 1-3 and Knuckles, and any other game from that era) to SEGA by the following Monday, to show them which enemies they wished to feature in Project Needlemouse. Sega stated that if this number was met, on Thursday 4 February, 2010 they have revealed the game's real name, concept art from the first zone, and "a very cool extra bonus".

Trivia

 * This is the first 2D games to have the Homing Attack.

Trailer
lxwdVwtbnHM&feature=fvw thumb|300px|The new trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 4.