Shenmue Dojo

This past weekend I was able to watch a couple of demonstrations on Sonic Team's upcoming Sonic The Hedgehog game, currently titled "Sonic Excursion." In all they had two levels to show off which all four of the playable characters the story will focus on were able to play through, but do not worry as they all play similarly to Sonic with minor differences, probably to keep up the pacing of the game as that's been an issue with multiple characters in the past.

The demonstration started with the demo's title screen which was accompanied with a song by Ted Poley about exploring together (no hidden innuendos, perverts). The title of the game itself isn't set in stone, but the current one looked similar to Sonic Unleashed's Japanese "Sonic World Adventure" logo. From the title screen, it goes directly to a black screen where you can select between Sonic or Tails using a ball made of falling sparkles, and we were informed that the game starts with both characters unlocked. Every level in the game will be playable with every character, and for almost every level you will be able to select which character you play as before it begins if the story has them currently in your "party."

They selected Sonic and the screen's graphics either re-arranged themselves or left the screen to be replaced by others until it resulted in a zone title screen similar to the ones in Sonic The Hedgehog 3. The first level is called "Shattered Heights" and is similar to the Sonic Generations incarnation of Speed Highway. Very New York themed. We were told the level was five minutes long, but they spent about fifteen minutes showing us parts of the stage's design, focusing on the lighting and shadows and how lighting was one of the main focuses for this game's design. Shattered Heights, for example, started at dawn and by the level's end the entire stage's lighting had changed to more reflect the mid afternoon. Most of the level consists of Sonic and Tails actually breaking through the windows of buildings several stories high and running through apartment hallways, office buildings, and hotel suites with Pixar-like humans gasping and shouting in surprise.

Sonic and Tails communicate throughout the level with each other similarly to the conversations in Sonic Heroes, both commenting on their surroundings and giving you advice on how to play the game. They would often stop at areas in the level to tell us how if we were playing as Tails instead of Sonic, we would be able to fly and reach different paths that Sonic could not access, but most alternate paths were entirely optional and not forced like they were in Sonic Adventure or Sonic The Hedgehog for the Xbox 360. They really wanted to make a Sonic Generations title that played more similarly to the Genesis titles where different characters could play the same levels with the only difference being their personal abilities.

There’s A Third Nintendo-Exclusive Sonic the Hedgehog Game, Too

“Sega have chosen to exclusively partner with Nintendo to distribute or publish the next three Sonic the Hedgehog titles throughout Europe and Australia,” Jurgen Post, COO of Sega Europe, confirmed