Camp Sonic

Today, SEGA America and Europe OFFICIALLY announced the development of Sonic Unleashed, the next installment of the Sonic series for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, and Playstation 2!

SAN FRANCISCO (April 3, 2008) - SEGA® of America and SEGA of Europe, Ltd. today announced that everyone’s favorite hedgehog is once again breaking new ground in the upcoming title, Sonic Unleashed™…

…Fans will be treated to an array of new, exciting and unique next generation features to heighten their experience. Sonic Unleashed is currently under development for the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Wii™ home video game system from Nintendo and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system.

So it looks like Gamestop was spot on with their assumption that the game was being released on all 4 consoles. In the official press release, we get an glimpse inside the upcoming story line of Sonic Unleashed:

Having been broken apart by the evil Dr. Eggman, it’s up to Sonic to put the pieces of the world back together again by retrieving the power of the chaos emeralds! In doing so, Sonic will find himself in a race against time and faced with an unusual situation that will challenge him in ways never before seen. Both day and night play different, yet important, roles in Sonic’s newest quest… as the sun sets, a new adventure awakens. By completing a wide variety of action-packed stages, spanning the seven broken continents of the world, gamers will need to unleash Sonic’s amazing abilities to save the world, and himself!

From the sounds of it, this confirms the likes of Sonic transforming into the beast we saw pictured in the cover art posted the other day. It also sounds like Dr. Eggman (Robotnik) will be playing the role of the main antagonist in the story once again as SEGA reinvents Sonic the Hedgehog.

Players will have an opportunity to engage in ways never before done with the Sonic franchise, so in addition to running at high speeds, which will be highlighted in four new speed mechanics, combat fighting now becomes possible. New combat, movement, functional abilities and platforming will be introduced to offer increased depth and variety.

Four Speed mechanics? That sounds interesting. As for the combat and other abilities, I suppose we’ll have to wait for now until we get more information from SEGA!