SEGA of America hosted a special livestream recently, the first Sonic Official stream of this year, where some of their team discussed Sonic-related news. Aaron Webber was there to answer questions from fans in the chat, with one of the most popular ones being why it's been so long since there was a new Sonic game announcement or reveal trailer. Webber's response was that SEGA used to release Sonic titles on a yearly basis, but the company decided that they no longer wanted to rush games out, and made the choice to give each game a longer development cycle. He also says that the team is incredibly excited about what's in store, but they can't say anything more at this time. The last time a mainline 3D console Sonic the Hedgehog game released was Sonic Forces, back in 2017.

Source (response is at 14-minute mark)

 

[64bitmodels]

I wasn't looking for unique aesthetics for ALL Shrines; just maybe give each group of ten a different coat of paint? A different colour, at least.
Anywhere between ten and twenty in each group, maybe. I dunno. Just don't give them all the exact same colour and patterns; gets dull fast.

And being able to swap Hearts and stamina isn't a satisfying fix, in my eyes, since you'll be lacking one or the other each way. No, giving both to the player is much better; they should be feeling powerful, ready to handle whatever challenges may be thrown their way, by the game's end - not feeling fragile from having too few Hearts, or unable to climb or swim or glide as long due to having a short stamina gauge.

Elixrs and Food with status effects exist yknow- you could always use those to climb up faster or gain more stamina, or get better defense, more hearts, faster movement speed, resistance to cold, resistance to heat, more attack power, ya see what i'm saying here??
they're a temporary solution until you've had explored enough shrines to get as much hearts that you want- and they work pretty well IMO. Enough to hold me off until i get better armor or more hearts.

 

[Justinde75]

Lets hope this actually works....

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But I personally think that its the Team not knowing what the hell to do with Sonic. They constantly pad out the game with stupid things to slow down the game. The games themselves are way too short by themselves. But honestly i'd rather have a short Sonic Generations that I can replay than a Sonic Forces with stupid level gimmicks or werehogs. The Yakuza team also released Yakuza 3, 4 and 5 in a short time between each other and every turned out better than the last. So idk why Sega can't get it together and even make something half decent

 

[RichardTheKing]

Lets hope this actually works....

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But I personally think that its the Team not knowing what the hell to do with Sonic. They constantly pad out the game with stupid things to slow down the game. The games themselves are way too short by themselves. But honestly i'd rather have a short Sonic Generations that I can replay than a Sonic Forces with stupid level gimmicks or werehogs. The Yakuza team also released Yakuza 3, 4 and 5 in a short time between each other and every turned out better than the last. So idk why Sega can't get it together and even make something half decent

Well, first I'm going to nitpick and point out that Forces didn't have "werehogs" (which literally means "man-hog", not "wolf-hog", but whatever).
Second, Sonic levels are inherently short due to how they're centred around speed, so not only is a pure-Sonic game inherently short, but all the graphics involved in each level will be wasted since the player will just be zooming by them instead of going slowly to take the graphic designers' work in.
As a result, the devs kinda have to pad out the short Sonic gameplay with something else to make the game last a "reasonable" time, and to make the graphic designers' work worth it - and thus unpopular gimmicks like the werehog (again, not in Forces), the avatar, Wisps, and more are born.

The only way to avoid having to put in gimmicks is to make a pure-2D game, like Mania, since that also cuts down on the graphics design - no third-dimension to model out and texture - but that's not going to happen anytime soon, at least not by the "Sonic Team" (Whitehead's another matter).

Hell, even Adventure and Adventure 2 had alternate play styles and gimmicks to pad them out. Practically inevitable in 3D.

 

[tech3475]

Well, first I'm going to nitpick and point out that Forces didn't have "werehogs" (which literally means "man-hog", not "wolf-hog", but whatever).

Werehog is the common nickname for the transformation from Unleashed, it's not correct but no one really cares.

 

[mightymuffy]

uhh Nights isnt a sonic game

Really? Well I'm glad you're here to tell me these things.....

But yes it is, in all but name: if you think otherwise, then you didn't really play NiGHTS. Or the early Sonic games for that matter..

 

[64bitmodels]

The only way to avoid having to put in gimmicks is to make a pure-2D game, like Mania

... or just rethink the Sonic Formula in 3D. A 3D Sonic game doesn't necessarily have to be this fast. Again- citing utopia as an example, just do a collect-a-thon approach where they give you a vast open world with objectives in them. Utopia didn't have challenges like this in them, but they could spread NPCs around the map to give out said challenges. If they didn't feel like it they could just do the act 1-2 progression method found in the classics with level design similar to Sonic Adventure. The graphics team's efforts don't have to go to waste

 

[RichardTheKing]

... or just rethink the Sonic Formula in 3D. A 3D Sonic game doesn't necessarily have to be this fast. Again- citing utopia as an example, just do a collect-a-thon approach where they give you a vast open world with objectives in them. Utopia didn't have challenges like this in them, but they could spread NPCs around the map to give out said challenges. If they didn't feel like it they could just do the act 1-2 progression method found in the classics with level design similar to Sonic Adventure. The graphics team's efforts don't have to go to waste

I've never been a Sonic fan - hence my earlier post, where I wrote "Who?" - I've just been going off analysis videos.
I've never heard of "Utopia", in this context, so I couldn't use it as an example of what Sonic might be.

Also, a "3D Sonic game not focused on speed"? What is this, Sonic Labyrinth?

 

[64bitmodels]

I've never been a Sonic fan - hence my earlier post, where I wrote "Who?" - I've just been going off analysis videos.
I've never heard of "Utopia", in this context, so I couldn't use it as an example of what Sonic might be.

Also, a "3D Sonic game not focused on speed"? What is this, Sonic Labyrinth?

>not a sonic fan
>knows sonic labyrinth
.-.
also this quite literally is sonic utopia

 

[RichardTheKing]

>not a sonic fan
>knows sonic labyrinth
.-.
also this quite literally is sonic utopia

SomecallmeJohnny.

 

[64bitmodels]

SomecallmeJohnny.

People say he's great and all but for some reason i've never watched anything on his channel
there's just some sort of weird thing about him that just repels me from him. I end up going to the likes of retropolis zone and J's reviews instead

 

[m_babble]

Good.

 

[fout21]

I just want Sonic Mania 2 and I'm happy. I'll even pay the full 60 bucks for that game. Sonic mania is the best Sonic game since Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on the Genesis

 

[Justinde75]

Well, first I'm going to nitpick and point out that Forces didn't have "werehogs" (which literally means "man-hog", not "wolf-hog", but whatever).
Second, Sonic levels are inherently short due to how they're centred around speed, so not only is a pure-Sonic game inherently short, but all the graphics involved in each level will be wasted since the player will just be zooming by them instead of going slowly to take the graphic designers' work in.
As a result, the devs kinda have to pad out the short Sonic gameplay with something else to make the game last a "reasonable" time, and to make the graphic designers' work worth it - and thus unpopular gimmicks like the werehog (again, not in Forces), the avatar, Wisps, and more are born.

The only way to avoid having to put in gimmicks is to make a pure-2D game, like Mania, since that also cuts down on the graphics design - no third-dimension to model out and texture - but that's not going to happen anytime soon, at least not by the "Sonic Team" (Whitehead's another matter).

Hell, even Adventure and Adventure 2 had alternate play styles and gimmicks to pad them out. Practically inevitable in 3D.

I didnt say it has the werehog. Plenty levels from good games are longer. Its not about it being long or amazing looking. I want it to feel good and not just press a button to win. Unleashed had some of the best looking levels and had amazung day stages without forces's boring boost to win. It was still boost but you cant easily win if you literally run in a straight line

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Werehog is the common nickname for the transformation from Unleashed, it's not correct but no one really cares.

If you care about the correct name of a wolf hedgehog there is clearly something wierd with you. Or you are a mega elitist. Its just a nickname.

 

[tech3475]

If you care about the correct name of a wolf hedgehog there is clearly something wierd with you. Or you are a mega elitist. Its just a nickname.

Are you saying I care about the name? Because I don't, my post was aimed at someone who does seem to care.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

It's time to ditch the boost formula and start making levels that don't suck. And in any future Generations style game, don't make classic Sonic super slow and floaty.

 

[Bladexdsl]

the problem is sonic has never worked well in 3D. He shines in 2D that's why mania was so perfect

 

[DiJornios]

the problem is sonic has never worked well in 3D. He shines in 2D that's why mania was so perfect

Clearly not true as Sonic has some great bits in 3D (Unleashed, Colors, Generations, A lot of fan projects ) what is true is that most of 3D games were garbage

 

[Bladexdsl]

Unleashed

you must be joking it's one of the worst 3d sonics ever made! lets not even speak of the werehog levels

and colors and gen they all suffer from the same problem. one track and pretty much speed your way through occasionally jumping and homing in on an enemy now and than virtually no challenge. the 2d sonics have multiple paths, actual platforming and don't always rely on speeding through. the bosses you just lock on to them and spam attack this is what sonic has lost in 3D.

 

[Idaho]

look, hmm
"Development of Sonic Forces began shortly after Sonic Lost World was completed in 2013 under the codename Project Sonic 2017"
2013.. 2017, isn't 4 years enough?

Yeah sadly Forces took some time to come by and was a big turd, I expected it as a kind of sequel to Generations and in some way it was but it was also a piece of shit, development time means nothing if your team is made of uncreative clowns...

 

[Benja81]

Seriously? So if a monkey keeps throwing his poo around long enough, it becomes gold?

Hopefully they figure something better out..