Article:
The Nerd Zone: Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (Act 3)

Hopefully by now you have a more complete understanding of the character of Sonic and what it was that eventually broke him. The failure to be able to use his incredible speed in 3D games, the overlong and bloated cast list, the need to constantly update and change to appeal to another new audience… it all adds up into a crippling pressure. To make matters worse, Sega constantly announce each new game by claiming that it’ll be the one to bring Sonic back to his roots. Each time they are wrong.

Happily, this time they could be right. This is the part of the article that will examine the four seconds of footage unveiled in the trailer and pick it apart until we know more. This, friends, is… the Nerd Zone.

ACT III: THE UNFORSEEABLE FUTURE

The official trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 4 gets across one point extremely early on: this is a continuation of the original trilogy. Seeing as how Sonic 3 & Knuckles took place immediately after Sonic 2 finished, this makes sense. It must also mean that the Death Egg will remain destroyed after the gang took care of it. Logically, the Master Emeralds and Knuckles must have returned to the Floating Island. So where does this leave Sonic?

Well, so far, the only information Sega has revealed is that Sonic is the only playable character. Whether or not this means that he’ll happen to pass or interact with the others remains to be seen – that fact is that this is a good step in the right direction, something that even the great 2D handheld entries couldn’t manage.

From what we can gather of the trailer, both Sonic, the enemies, and the levels are all modelled in 3D, meaning that the surroundings look gorgeous in spite of the 2D gameplay. It will also feature the original abilities, the Spin Dash, Rolling Attack and Sonic’s speed, as well as the Homing Attack from the 3D instalments.

As for the levels themselves, the trailer showed a beautiful new location that bears more than a passing resemblance to the original Green Hill Zone. A leaked video confirmed the existence of other levels, titled Splash Hill Zone, Lost Labyrinth Zone, Casino Street Zone and Mad Gear Zone. All sound like good, proper 16-bit levels in the vein of classic Sonic.