Features

Sonic The Hedgehog 4 wishlist

Make him fast. Shut him up

Sonic The Hedgehog 4 wishlist

Our wishes came true last week, as the iPhone and iPad were revealed as the mystery platforms for upcoming series revitalisation Sonic the Hedgehog 4.

Coined (or should that be ringed?) as the sequel to 1994's Mega Drive hit Sonic 3, this new multiplatform release has a lot to live up to.

Sonic fanatics will be hoping for SEGA to finally give them a 'real' Sonic game - none of this 3D tomfoolery with half a dozen ridiculously-named creatures slowing our speed fiend down, oh no.

Mike Rose and Richard Brown, two of Pocket Gamer's Sonic buffs, discussed what they'd like to see - and what they'd like to see less of - in Sonic's rebirth.

Bring back the rush Mike: Remember the first time you played Green Hill Zone in the original Sonic The Hedgehog, and you ran so fast that the screen couldn't keep up with the spiny one?

He'd disappear off the right-hand side, and by the time it caught up with him, he'd already past the finishing board.

Since the Mega Drive days, Sonic has never really been that fast. I want to see him pounding along, taking those loops in a split-second and watching all the scenery go whizzing by. After all, it was the whole concept behind Sonic in the first place - his name says it all!

Richard: It's safe to say that both the iPhone and iPad pack enough grunt under the hood to keep up with a turbo-charged Sonic. Anyone who's caught a glimpse of Need for Speed: Shift or Real Racing running on an iPod touch can testify to its framerate chops. The catchy jingles Mike: Songs from the old Sonic games still stick with me today - if you whistled a specific level to me, I'd probably know it straight away.

The soundtracks were always incredibly catchy and became a huge part of the experience. Lots of musicians still remix Sonic songs and put their work on YouTube now. The music has really stood the test of time.

Obviously it would be naive to hope that SEGA would fill the latest outing with MIDI tracks and 16-bit wonders, but it's essential that a huge amount of effort is put into making the tracks for each level sublime.

Richard: Well, Mike, your dreams may just come true. The composer of the original Sonic ditties, Masato Nakamura, is still very definitely in the music biz.

In fact, his band has recently released a new single. Its title: Godspeed!

Power-ups Mike: Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles both featured a few really interesting power-ups that melded well with the Sonic universe.

Two examples are the bubble, which allowed Sonic to breathe underwater and bounce to great heights, and the electricity shield, affording Sonic a double jump and electric sparks which could take out nearby enemies.

There's no doubt that SEGA will throw some power-ups into the fray, but my hope is that they'll look back through the old titles, figure out which worked and which didn't, and use that as a basis for the new ideas.

Richard: Quite possibly. My all-time fave power-up was Super Sonic.

Introduced in Sonic 2 and activated by collecting all of the Chaos Emeralds (more on that below) + 50 in-game rings, Sonic could be transformed into a near invincible, blue-spiked version of Usain Bolt.

Lightning, in other words.

Bonus stages

Mike: The emerald-grabbing bonus stages have always been a highlight of each Sonic game - the rotating maze of Sonic 1, Sonic 2's half-pipe run and the gumball machine of Sonic 3 were all great fun.

Sonic and Knuckles's 3D ball maze was a little fiddly, but it still worked as a distraction to break up the main flow of play.

There's no denying that each bonus game had a very unique concept. If SEGA wants to succeed in bringing the series back to its former glory, the inclusion of a clever new bonus level is a must.

Richard: Much like oil and water, mine carts and jet-heeled mammals simply do not mix. Take heed, Sonic Team, and ditch this leaked motion sickness-inducing bonus level a.s.a.p.

Whilst it's rumoured that at least one of the two stages exclusive to the iPhone OS will involve some tilting and whirling of your handset, please refrain from plonking our lovable 'hog into any such cart. Ever.

No story, no talking

Mike: The moment Sonic opened his mouth, he was doomed. Not only was his voice in the 3D highjinks incredibly grating on the ears, it also completely ruined Sonic's mysterious side.

Talking meant that the hedgehog and his pals needed something to discuss - and this meant adding a storyline. Certain games need a tale to back-up the action. Sonic is not one of these games.

Sonic is out to crush Robotnik and his Badniks, and that's all the story he needs. So please, SEGA, zip his mouth and let us just run around jumping on bad guys without explanation.

Richard: The less said, the better. Cheat codes Mike: Up C Down C Left C Right C A+Start, anyone? Each Sonic game on the Mega Drive had cheat codes that everyone knew off by heart.

They were either combinations of buttons you had to hammer into the title screen, or numbers to be picked in order on the Sound Effects Test menu. Cheats included level select screens, instant Super Sonic, and creating your own level.

The days of cheat codes are pretty much over now - so it's up to Sonic to revive them once again. It wouldn't be a classic Sonic game without cheats, after all.

Richard: Here's a quick tip for Sonic 1 on iPhone - at the main menu press up, down, left, right, and then select new game. Even though the onscreen D-pad is faded, the button presses still register.

Et voila! Your pick of any of the levels. Don't say Pocket Gamer isn't good to you.

Robotnik, not Eggman Mike: Possibly the most important point on this list. When Robotnik's name was changed to Eggman for Sonic Adventure, I felt a little part of me die inside.

What kind of name is Eggman? What was wrong with Robotnik? Yes, we get he's quite egg shaped, but come on now - sticking the word 'man' on the end of 'egg' is not clever.

If SEGA renames Sonic's nemesis back to Robotnik, my faith will once again be restored. He was called Robotnik in Sonic 1, 2 and 3, so it only makes sense that he'd keep his name for number 4, too.

Mike Rose
Mike Rose
An expert in the indie games scene, Mike comes to Pocket Gamer as our handheld gaming correspondent. He is the author of 250 Indie Games You Must Play.