Sonic 4: Episode 2 will come with new graphics engine and physics; Tails will be playable

DSOGaming writes: "Great news for Sonic fans as our beloved blue hedgehog will return in 2012 with the second episode of Sonic 4. Now we know that some of you were disappointed with its first episode, however, Episode 2 promises to fix all those issues that plagued its predecessor. Therefore, it will come with a new graphics and physics engine, Tails will be playable and Metal Sonic will make a return. Sounds promising, right?"

[dedicatedtogamers]

Okay, er, great news, SEGA, but will the new engine be any good?

I mean, how hard is this to figure out? I can pop in any of the SEGA Genesis Sonic games and they still play flawlessly to this day. Maybe you should ditch the obsession with the 3D engines and just do it with spritework. Ain't too hard. SNK Playmore just did King of Fighters 13 all in sprites (awesome game, btw). Surely, SEGA with its significantly larger teams and budget can manage to pull off a 2D Sonic.

[strange1986]

Yeah I much prefer nice sprites over that 2.5d stuff. I just wish more developers felt the same way.

[dark-hollow]

its not about being 3d or not.
they lost their way long time ago!

mario transition to 3d worked very will so did:
legend of zelda
metroid
megaman (megaman legends)

[dedicatedtogamers]

While I agree that other franchises have successfully transitioned into 3D, let's consider a few things:

First of all, the core gameplay in LoZ and Metroid changed when it went 3D. Second, Sonic has always been about speed yet all four examples you give are fairly "slow" games. You aren't zooming across the screen in any of those games.

IMO, 2D better facilitates speed and clarity in these sort of games.

[Baka-akaB]

wich is way i'm not fond of the 3d sonic , even if some are still fairly good .

Something , a feeling of uber speed was lost with the Adventures Dc games imo .

But here the representation is still in 2d (2.5d then) , so they shouldnt have that much trouble getting it right .
Too "many" far more demanding games are handling 2.5d animation and physic engine just fine (look at capcom and sf4 among other things) .

The question is more did they even care ? They didnt with ep1 and were more focused upon crapping it on iphones and everywhere else .

[NewZealander]

yeah and why even bother sega? we have rayman now, the engine for that game already poops over anything they could possibly create, and we havnt even seen what else its going to be used for yet.

[john2]

Well, it could turn out to be decent. Sonic Generations was great so here is hoping that Episode 2 will be even better

[dirthurts]

This game really needs to run at 60fps to be good in my opinion. The game is just toooo fast for 30fps with frame drops.
To me that's the biggest thing they need. The current games are a blurry jerky mess at speed.

[Megaman_nerd]

I don't think that there has ever been a 30 frames Sonic game, all of them run at 60 frames.

Another thing is, what was wrong with Sonic 4? I played it and I liked it a lot.

[dirthurts]

My tv says generations runs at 30fps.
Sonic 4, episode 1 ran at 60 though...
according to my tv. My eyes confirm.

[john2]

Physics for one were worse, especially when you compare them to the Sonic 2D Genesis versions

[Redempteur]

generation run at 30fps but can go at 60fps

It is 60fps on Pc and 2*30fps on consoles with 3d activated

[Enigma_2099]

Who's doing it? Because if the people behind Sonic Generations ain't involved, to h*** with it.

[trenso1]

How long has it been since episode 1 came out? I just want sa3 sonic isn't as good as he used to be

[WhiteLightning]

They should just scrap the whole episode ideas and start from scratch

Make Sonic 4 episode 1 on the new engine and make a full retail game out of it.

[contra157]

Sounds good, can't wait to try it. Sonic 4better has potential