You may remember when we first posted about LEVEL Magazine back in June, simply stating that more details would be revealed on the 22nd of July. Well, reader and friend, Jonas Eldin, has been on the lookout for the campers, and picked up an issue earlier today, which he promptly sent our direction soon afterwards, complete with scans, and selected excerpts translated.
The GHOST OF SONIC
Sega is doing a lot of great things right now, they no matter what they do, it doesn’t seem that they will ever be able to re-establish Sonic as we remember him from the mid 90’s. LEVEL has met the man who will prove us wrong.
[Editor Note: The first part was deemed unrelated, and was not translated.]
The next generation of Sonic-games will be created by people that feel like you and me. At the front stands Yoshihisa Hashimoto, a young programmer who has worked backstage with the series since the late 90’s. He has made mental notes of all bad steps taken under the projects, and has dreamed about getting a chance to make everything right one day. Now he finally has that chance.
NEW NAKA
Hashimoto is, just like Yuji Naka, a perfectionist. They both have a background as programmers, but that is the only thing they have in common. Naka always saw the technical aspects first in his games, like screen movements and how Sonics feet’s moved on unequal ground. Hashimoto sees that as a second part. His focus is tempo.
- It is really important that the player always faces a balanced experience, explains a really engaged Hashimoto to LEVEL when we saw him in Tokyo. We are always jumping between 2D and 3D in Sonic Unleashed, without ever staying in any one perspective for more then 4 minutes. When passing the 4 minutes time line the player starts to drop his/her interest, and that is when we change the perspective.
The development of Sonic Unleashed started with the working title Sonic Adventure 3, which also points us in the direction they are heading with this game. In many interviews Hashimoto seems to take distance from games such as Sonic and the Secret Rings, which is pretty special for a Japanese game producer within a big company.
Under the demonstration, a self confident Hashimoto stands and curiously observes the first spectators. It is obvious that he is proud of his game, which gets even more clear when he greets old, new and hesitant fans.
-I think this will be the Sonic-game everyone has waited for, he says with a smile. We have successfully managed to add new gaming elements, and at the same time as we have been going back to the roots.
The roots follow the 2D parts of the game, but the new parts have not been presented to us yet. They seem to be built like a role playing game system for upgrades between the levels. Sonic walks around in a city, talks to different characters and buys access to more moves, like higher jumps, better acceleration or the ability to drift - a beautiful and unexpected move that is showed in the first trailer sequences.
After a couple of slow Sonic-games it is easy to think bad about another city with elevator music and long dialogs, but Hashimoto claims that this is an important part in the minute time based balance.
- If we had cut from one 4 minute level directly to another, the result would have been tiresome for the player and it would have been all too short. Getting back to the city becomes a little place to breath for the player.
WORLDS FASTEST ROLE-PLAYING GAME
[Editor Note: We've skipped through part of the text, as it's all Sonic Chronicles related vs. Sonic Unleashed.]
Hashimoto says that he looks forward to his Canadensis colleagues game, but it is obvious that he has his own vision of the series future, and that does not include stylus-pens or turn based battles.
In his world, Sonic’s success shall be reduced to four perfect minutes at a time.
Huge thanks to Jonas for his contribution! You can check out the updated LEVEL Magazine Scans below.
i bet if it was Sonic Adventure 3 th game woulg have Chaos >=[
Alright. It’s sounding better by the second. I’m really anticipating this game now….but first….I’ll settle for the demo.
@SonicFanr.1: That’s because they keep on coming up with unoriginal hedgehog OCs who inevitably come into a relationship with any of the main characters.
There’s a very big gap in originality for some fans. ’sides, nobody ever said that Hashimoto HIMSELF came up with the idea for the werehog.
Hm, it does sound quite interesting, although I never thought that the town stages had…elevator music. >___>;; I personally would like to see more shots of the town stages, although…the Wii screenshots of the game would do…
This…. was….. going to…. be…. SA3?? *twitch* *twitch* WHY NOT!!!
Wow, so theres going to be 3 different versions of Sonic Unleashed?
wii and ps2 are having different versions becouse on the Wii they are going to make exclusive levels to use the wiimote and nunchuck and that kind of stuff so i think the ps2 version is going to be made by another group
@KuroBit: Well I remember reading somewere that they had one group working on the ps3 and 360 version and another group working on wii and ps2 so that theyre both good or something so im guessing that they are the same
no they are not and by the way.
if Sonic Team is making PS3/360 version and Dimps is making
Wii version who is making the PS2 version of the game?
@Total chaos VII:
I thought the Wii and PS2 versions where the same, they aren’t?
to be honest i don’t really care about the ps2 version but i hope they release some new wii footage
@Slimpy a animal:
I’m worried too, it seems weird that they don’t want to show any info on the Wii and PS2 versions… I really hope they don’t release an unfinished attempt to copy the PS3 and 360 versions…
“Naka always saw the technical aspects first in his games, like screen movements and how Sonics feet’s moved on unequal ground. Hashimoto sees that as a second part. His focus is tempo.”
So thats why Sonics feet flap around while hes running XD (I’m a perfectionist too if you couldn’t tell >_>)
Well… I really hope this game turns out good, and I hope Sonics levels aren’t too linear…
I’m also worried because I do not have a ps3 (too expensive)
and they seem like they don’t want to “spill” any information about the ps2 version
So.. basicaly I’m worried If someone agrees with me please let me know
From what I’ve seen from the scans the wii version seems to be shaping up nicely
Come on guys they are properly working really hard on making the wii version as good as possibly can,don’t loose faith, i haven’t
So, this new director is entirely sure that this game will be a success… he claims himself to be a sonic fan himself… i have trouble about understanding that… since i don’t think alot of sonic fans would come up with the concept of sonic turning into a werehog…
but whatever.. i really want this game to be awesome, we’ll just have to see.
Im beginning to lose faith in the Wii version.
It’s like they are avoiding talking about it like the plague.
Maybe we will see some info on it later on.
I like what I’m seeing so far on the 360/PS3 version though.
when are we going to be able to see HD wii screenshots?
@BanoX93: Nope, probably won’t see anything strictly Wii related unless it comes officially from SEGA, or from a source that covers Nintendo only. The showcase version seems to be built for the 360 and PS3, which utilize the Hedgehog Engine.
Still no Wii -.-