I Can't Get Excited About Sonic 4.

Project Needlemouse finally has been revealed as Sonic the Hedgehog 4(shocking, I know). This coupled with the announcement that Sonic would be the only main character has people proclaiming the glorious return of Sonic the Hedgehog. I should be excited about this, I adore Sonic games. I'm writing a retrospective in which I am going to be playing almost every single game in the series. Yet, I'm not interested in Sonic 4 at all. It's not that I'm anticipating it to be really bad; it's that I just can't get interested in the game.

There is nothing right now to suggest that Sonic 4 will be anything but classic Sonic with fancy new graphics, the awesome new game that we've been awaiting for years. I want Sonic 4 to be really good and prove that SEGA can still do things right, but I don't expect it. Two generations straight of SEGA failing has ruined the faith I had in them. I had a sliver left, but Sonic Unleashed and actually playing Sonic 2006 completely killed that, leaving only bitterness.

On the bright side, the cycle has been broken, at least in part; Sonic is the only playable character. Or at least, so we thought, that was until the website for Sonic 4 went up today and I noticed this:

That is what you see if you click the featured button underneath the characters tab. Now, this could be something perfectly acceptable like Tails or Knuckles, or the cycle could be repeating.

The one other part that has me worried is the fact that this is going to be episodic. Think of episodic content that went well with a regular release schedule. I can't think of anything besides TellTale's various adventure games. Honestly, I really cannot picture SEGA of all companies to succeed in an area everyone else is failing in. With luck, these episodes will be reasonably priced and of decent length. Personally, I want each episode to be the length of a full game and this is just their way of not having to make up to Sonic 7 if it succeeds.



Despite the fact that the game will likely be, at the very least, good, I'm not excited. I think the constant letdowns and SEGA being SEGA have just kept me from getting my hopes up. I will likely buy it when it comes out, but I just can't get that excited about it.


In other words...

BITTER NERD RAGE