Sonic Fan Project Gives Sonic 4 a Run for its Money

[Johnny Cain]

Dreading the C&D. If Sega are wise they will either let this slide or actually hire these guys.

The quality and dedication behind their fan project is phenomenal. Far more than I ever personally expected for a Sonic game. It's nice to see people still care about the classic Hedgehog games.

 

[dochmbi]

This is most likely going to get hit with a Cease and Desist real quick. The second a fan project looks as good, or better than an actual product its days become numbered.

I don't understand why a company would shut down a fan project, it seems to me that the better business decision (i.e. makes more money for Sega) is to work out a deal with the people making it or simply hire them.

 

[Digikid]

It was okay...nothing really amazing.

Good to see devoted fans fighting for what they believe in.......until the Cease and Desist order that is. LOL!!!

 

[Mako SOLDIER]

While I'm still going to buy Sonic 4, this looks WAAAAY better. Sega should hire Pelikan and Mercury, make them joint head of Sonic Team, and let them take control of the Sonic franchise. If they did that, then I have no doubt whatsoever that we would see a return to Sonic's (and maybe even SEGA's) glory days.

Get these guys to develop a launch title for the rumoured Dreamcast 2 and it'll have a chance.

 

[twm1709]

Lawsuit coming in 3...2...1...

 

[BlueHighwind]

Cease and Desist letter incoming...

This. Right here. Remember what happened to Chrono Resurrection [http://www.opcoder.com/projects/chrono/]? If there's anything small developers like this should learn about remake projects, it's that if you're going to make something this cool, don't bloody tell anyone about it until it's done.

That said, the video was really cool.

If Sega were smart they'd hire them guys and have them finish the entire game, then release it on Wii Virtual Console or Xbox Live or something. That's what Square Enix should have done. However, nobody ever said that SE or Sega were ever smart.

 

[Visulth]

This is most likely going to get hit with a Cease and Desist real quick. The second a fan project looks as good, or better than an actual product its days become numbered.

I don't understand why a company would shut down a fan project, it seems to me that the better business decision (i.e. makes more money for Sega) is to work out a deal with the people making it or simply hire them.

I hope they hire them, but the reason why they would shut them down is because of competition. Now Sega's product has to compete with Sonic Remix. Imagine your friend buys Sonic 4, then plays Sonic Remix and tells you Remix is "waaaaaaaay better!". This might perpetuate, and soon people aren't buying Sonic 4 but are downloading Sonic Remix for free.

 

[rsvp42]

I don't get it. This is what Sonic fans have been "clamoring" for? An old game with decades-old design mentality? Don't get me wrong, I loved the Sonic games too. I didn't play enough to be considered a fan, but I liked them and I understand the appeal. What I don't understand is why this is what people supposedly want. I thought what fans wanted was a game with fun level design and a story that wasn't over-dramatic crap. What we need is a design team that knows how to make a 3D Sonic adventure fun again. We don't need to be clinging to all the old games.

Take Mario Galaxy for example. In my opinion, that's a great next step in the Mario franchise. I sure hope they don't milk it too much, but the point is that its possible to advance an old franchise in a fun way without having to give up and just make fancy versions of old games.

 

[Kinichie]

"Guys! This could potentially be better than the entirety of our studio. We need to shut this down now... because... it's our intellectual property"

"Yeah... and we sure know how to appropriately deal with those who do that. I mean, it's not like they are making any money out of it... and they sure know how to make a better game than us, but we won't admit that part."

 

[dochmbi]

Imagine your friend buys Sonic 4, then plays Sonic Remix and tells you Remix is "waaaaaaaay better!". This might perpetuate, and soon people aren't buying Sonic 4 but are downloading Sonic Remix for free.

Yes, I can see that. But what harm could it do Sega if they were to hire these guys to develop Sonic Remix and then sell it, sure it would compete with their existing products but so what, overall it would end up making them more money.

 

[Gindil]

...

I seriously need to change my pants. This is just too awesome for words.

 

[ProjectTrinity]

Oh look, some of the speed is back and all of the great music! The biggest concern with Sonic '4' is that they *still* are choosing to nerf the speed.

The original Sonics were slow! Gah, I hate this argument. Sonic 2 was easily the worst of the three (and I remember the reviews at the time, it WAS the worst reviewed one when it came out) because of the whole "Sonic is so fast he outruns the screen" bits. They reined in the speed in 3 out of fan backlash. But even then, 2 was still a platformer, not the "hold right to win" affair other Sonic games became after the 16 bit era.

4 so far looks like it goes just as fast as 1, 3 and CD. That's a good thing in my book.

Sonic 2 was my 2nd least favorite. Anyways, not as slow as 4. Sonic 4 has Sonic appearing 'floaty', especially when he jumps. Floaty slows him down, unless somehow it makes him the same speed as the earlier installments when he jump quickly. Anyways, please do Youtube the "hold right to win" for Sonic 3's Carnival Night. That sounds fun. lol

From the videos I've seen, he seems to jump at roughly the same speed and angle as before. Sonic was floaty in 1-3 if he was jumping from a standing position, he only got speed in jumps when jumping while running (as his horizontal momentum translates to the jump), which was a nice trick to make you want to run fast even without a tight timer going. Either way, I am not prepared to make a call on this based on, what? A total of maybe five minutes of video? I know that jumping ahead of the Sonic cycle a crying foul as early as possible is cool and all, but I'm giving this the benefit of the doubt until I play a demo.

Oh, and for the record, the "hold right to win" bit referred more to post-CD stuff, including the PSP and DS games and, of course, all the 3D ones.

Well sure, if he's not floaty when the actual game comes out, I'm more than willing to admit an error. I know protecting a Sonic game as early as possible is just as cool, but I'll go with what I see until I play it myself~ [/There's a point to that]

As for the 2nd part, I once again have to ask that you do this in Sonic Adventure 2's Sky Rail. One of my personal favorite levels to the last Sonic game I really enjoyed.