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Sonic 4 Episode 1 Delayed to Q4 2010; iPhone Port Confirmed

Today Sega announced that the Episode 1 release of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 has been moved to late 2010, with the extra dev time being spent on “tuning and balancing” the game. Nothing more concrete than this window has been announced.

The press release that was released today officially confirms the iPhone & iPod Touch release of the platform that was discovered from the offcial website’s assets earlier in the year. A video is due to be released after tonight’s episode of GameSpot’s On The Spot feature, which will go up at 10pm UTC/GMT (i.e. just over half an hour from this post).

“SEGA is incredibly happy at the overwhelmingly positive response to Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode I  from both press and fans around the world, and wants to ensure that we’re delivering the best Sonic experience possible,” says the official press release on the Sonic Blognik blog. “With this dedication to quality and the Sonic experience in mind, SEGA has decided to extend the development of the game, and will now release Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode I in the latter half of 2010. The additional time will allow the Development Team to focus on ensuring overall high-quality throughout the game by continuing to tune, balance, and maintain the kind of polish that an important title like this demands, and ultimately providing fans with an unrivalled classic Sonic feel.”

In addition, a new Sonic 4 trailer has been released featuring footage from the first level in the game, Splash Hill Zone:

As you may recall, Retro & Stadium exclusively broke the news of this upcoming announcement 3 days ago. Stick with Sonic Retro for future developments on the Q4 2010 release of Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1.

UPDATE: According to Gamespot’s On the Spot, the iPhone release of Sonic 4 will sport two exclusive levels not present in any of the console releases! No specific details on that yet, but we’ll let you know.

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40 Comments

  • Reply

    Wait… So they got us all worked up over… BAD news?! Also, everyone already knew about the iPhone thing… Oh well…

  • Reply

    World-rocking stuff, Sega.

  • Reply

    Is this actually bad news? I think more dev time is a good thing. They might actually fix things now, such as that spindash/spinning sfx swap. 😛

  • Reply

    I have a distinct feeling that the video will be of the new build of the game. And will show us something that will make us all amazed.

    But then, maybe I’m dreaming.

    Either way, looking forward to On The Spot

  • Reply

    Whats a disappointment, though it was obvious the last platform was the iphone/ipod it was primed and ready to be released on steam. Shame 🙁

  • Reply

    lol… delayed released. lol?
    if the game gets delayed and gets no extra content… like a new level or something…

  • Reply

    Wait a sec…Splash “Hillzone?”

    [sigh]

  • Reply

    This is GREAT NEWS!!! hell you people complain a lot. This means Sega is finally LISTENING!!!!!!!

  • Reply

    @n00neimp0rtant

    It’s just a typo, man. Chill.

  • Reply

    SONIC 4 ANUNCIED FOR I-PHONE !!??? WHATS THE SEGA PROBLEM? every one nows thats news for sonic retro images ans segas dont change NOTING!! ? ONE PORTABLE CONSOLE WHATEVER BUT NOT CHANGE NOTING??
    let´s talk abouit sega.. i´now one sega for genesis megadrive era.. thats sega is blrillant .. heave god market “WELCOME TO THE NEXT LEVEL do yout remenber???” thats segas made sonic & knuckles whith lock on tecnology ! made the first cd games the sega cd or in japán mega cd !! make very especial consoles like genesis and dreamcast.. and i heave thats two consoles!! .. and now !! thats segas idied in 2001!!the of sega the new sega think only in money money money… sorry but hega heave lost your shine fos the last years … if you remember the old sega and see the new sega you say: “- the dream machine heave shot down.. and now sega is like another softhouse”… and my favorite hedgehog.. is died two trying to save the old sega ” rest in peace “

  • Reply

    @Victor

    Take an english class please

  • Reply

    No classic Sonic 🙁 if they changed that ugly logo to look a bit more classic they would get so much more good faith from the fans.

  • Reply

    Don’t worry guys, life’s still good. We still have platformer franchises like Ratchet and Clank, Banjo and Kazooie, and that fat guy with the mustache and a dinosaur sidekick, what are their names again…? 😆

  • Reply

    Ive got nothing against the delay, thats fine if it will make the game better. But to make us wait 3 days anxious to say…”oh the game is delayed” is retarded.

  • Reply

    to @Edge heheh i now ! but fow now i dont heave time .. final works of design high school “monograpy” is finishing my time !!i recognise ! my english is terrible ! =) maybe in 2011 ! =)

  • Reply

    God you fanboys are whiney bitches, Sonic 06 was rushed for a christmass release, it had patential to bring us back to the adventure days, but it was rushed and once again, it sucked. Mario games take 1 year to finalize controls, thats why there actually good. So now that sega is trying to make a quality game you complain? Oh well fanboys will be fanboys… well my thoughts on the game, while the game looks good, I am realy impressed with the homeing attack, I would just like to see stages more original, I meen we’ve been playing the same damn forest level all the time, say what you want about unleashed, the china stage was new, and the advance games had a few original levels as well. It is a tradition to start at a forest level so I’ll give them that, but it looks a lot like the advance levels, were the first 3 games all had a distinkt look. Well its just a stikler thing, and theres still more levels to see. So stop bitching and think positivley for once!

  • Reply

    I’m glad they are doing more work on it, but it better be MUCH BETTER by the time November/December come around.

  • Reply

    Now THIS, looks like a proper sonic game.

  • Reply

    To everyone complaining.  You DO realize the significance of this decision right?  SEGA putting a an emphasis on quality over the quick buck?  

    Thats a HUGE corporate milestone for them. 

  • Reply

    Glad they’re finally listening to us. Nice going, Sega! Can’t wait to play a great Sonic game.

  • Reply

    Bull-motherfucking shit. The confirmation of the “?” platform which we already had a strong guess of, a montage of one stage when the whole game was leaked, news that the iPhone/Touch is going to have more levels than my console, and to top it all of, it’s delayed to the Q4. Fuck that shit.

  • Reply

    why is the iPhone getting exclusive levels? who thought that shit would be funny?

  • Reply

    I can’t keep silent anymore…My first post on any forum ever (this will appear on the other main sites too.)I was born in 1980 & was 11 when I first played Sonic 1 (the year of its release) all thanks to my brother and his Mega Drive. I fell in love with that game & my anticipation for Sonic 2 was what really got me hooked on games & my addiction to games magazines.Sonic 3 & S&K shaped my favourite year of my life, 1994 (the year I was 14) & S3&K was truly amazing for its time with the lock-on cartridge. For many years I waited for Sonic 4. I played S3D: Flicky’s Island, the Saturn came along & I played Sonic Jam & Sonic R. I cursed Sega for cancelling Sonic X-Treme. Then came the dreamcast & I played Sonic Adventure, Sonic Shuffle, Sonic Adventure 2.In 2001 when I was 21, Sega started making games for other consoles. I felt so disheartened when I first walked into a games shop & saw Sonic Adventure 2: Battle on the Gamecube. Sonic on a Nintendo console seemed so surreal back then. But I understood that the company needed to make money & that this was the way for them to do it.On my Fiancée’s Wii (A girl who owns a games console! How times have changed! Though admittedly, I did buy it for her ;D) I’ve played Sonic Unleashed, Sonic & the Secret Rings & both the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic games games.Plus I’ve played everything in between from Sonic Spinball to Master System & Game Gear Sonic games. Here’s what I know to be true: Sonic game’s only work as 2D side scrolling platformers. No Sonic game that wasn’t a 2D side scrolling platformer on the Mega Drive has ever been any good. Not Ever.I’ve got boxes & boxes of sonic merchandise in my home from when I was a kid. Most of the thing’s in those boxes I’ve not even been able to find on the internet. I often had my artwork printed in Sonic the Comic & won various Sonic contests. I still have my Sonic t-shirts I won from both times I went on the Sega Bus (great memories.) I was & still am a Sonic fan.I’m now approaching 30 & have 2 beautiful daughters. Gaming has taken a backseat in my life, though I still play games, they don’t have the same impact they did when I was a kid.Earlier this year when Sonic 4 was announced I felt like a kid all over again. Finally, the game I thought I’d never see is finally a reality! It brought back all the memories of my childhood when I’d sit in my bedroom for hours ripping the original platformers apart.So I’ve followed its progress all these months later. I’ve seen all the leaks (& no it doesn’t ruin the game for me. I bought every games mag back in the day watched plenty of footage from TV shows, free VHS tapes ect, but it still didn’t ruin playing the actual game for myself.)Let’s be honest here, the physics should’ve matched the originals from the start, without the need to now delay the game further. This has only been realised now because of what? The leaks?  Kind of ironic don’t you think?The game doesn’t progress the series like the originals did (which culminated in S&K’s lock-on cart.) It is basically a great looking fan game.The mine cart level is a Game Gear/Master System gimmick that doesn’t fit in with the Mega Drive series. The rest we’ve all seen before.What Sega should’ve done for Sonics 20th anniversary was to remake all the classics in HD with the missing levels/idea’s that were lost in time & supplemented that with a retrospective documentary DVD. Then they should’ve moved onto Sonic 4.The team that created the originals are long gone & no one will be able to get the band back together.The team responsible for Sonic 4 should’ve been made up of people who knew what they were doing from the start. People like me who grew up with this franchise & others selected from various web sites & others who dedicate their time to this once beloved character.For month we’ve been listening to Aaron “Rubyeclipse” Webber reassuring us that the people making  Sonic 4 are listening to us. Only for it to transpire that Aaron Webber is 21 years old & was 2 when Sonic 1 was released. What does this guy know about how a Sonic game should be made? Not a lot I guess considering it’s now being delayed for ‘improvement’.The press release was a joke, full of false hope that really revealed nothing that we didn’t already know. Well here’s something else we already know: Sega can’t make good Sonic games anymore & don’t know what their fans really want. Sonic 4 will not be a direct sequel so S&K. It will disappoint, no matter how long it’s delayed.See ya.

    • Reply

      @Truesonicfan1980
      HEAR HEAR ! I hear you cries and feel your pain. For your information, I was born in 1985 and played all four Sonic games till… Sonic Adventure killed it all. They called it Sonic 4, but in my eyes it isn’t a sequel to S&K or Sonic 3 at all. Please Sega proof me wrong!

      I’m on some other forums as well and had this discussion over and over again, “new” Sonic fans, just don’t get “old” Sonic fans. I really don’t know why this is. Sadly there are more younger fans who adore the 3D sonic games, for that reason they will make more money for Sega then we do. At the end of the road it ‘ll be a matter of $$$$ and not what they “old” fans want.

    • Reply

      @Truesonicfan1980:
      I’m not as big a Sonic fan as you (I didn’t do artwork or take the Sega bus), but I was also born in 1980 and am 29 years old.  And I remember many of the things that you noted in your comment.  It has now (and by now, I mean for the better part of a decade) become apparent that there will never be a true classic Sonic made, the likes of Sonic 1, 2, and CD (I must admit that I thought that S3&K was somewhat disappointing, because of the horrible 3D opening screen, Sonic’s new “cute” look, and the fact that in the opening of Sonic 3, an unknown Echidna, is able to knock Super Sonic’s ass flat on the ground – his chaos emeralds bursting forth – just by standing there. He can also glide and climb walls, and Sonic gets the “insta-shield”…Wow!).

      But you know what, I must say that Sonic 4 seems like it will be at least the best Sonic since the classic Genesis series.  (I know that’s not saying much, but still.)  At this point, if we’re looking for a true hand-drawn HD classic, we might as well give up.  It’s like looking through contemporary architecture magazines each month, hoping to find that someone’s working on a new St. Peter’s Basilica, oozing with hand-carved ornamentation, Greco-Roman columns, and a massive classical dome.  You’ll just disappoint yourself.  So, in lieu of that, you can take solace in the fact that Sonic 4 will probably be the greatest Sonic game for well over 15 years.  That’s what I’m doing.

  • Reply

    iPhone…

    Man, that was a HUGE letdown…

    I and several friends at the game design university, tried taking guesses of what would be the fourth system, we had great ideas, bad ideas… but NOONE EVER suggested iAnything… Plainly because it would SUCK.

    Seriously, a twitchy platformer game without buttons? Wazzup with Sega? The guy that decided to make the iPhone port must be the same guy that had the Werehog idea, and the kissing human idea… It must be…

    Seriously, I was expecting Steam…

  • Reply

    Take your time, sega. Not everyone here is whining ’cause he can’t play the game this summer. I actually prefer playin later but with a proper sonic title. Keep working! 🙂

  • Reply

    Sega have lost the plot, the delays is fine, most games are delayed, but to release for the ipod and iphone? AND give that platform extra levels to boot? What a load of c**p. Should be on Steam, by far the most logical 4th platform. What a waste.

  • Reply

    “Perspective”. I like that word.

    I like that word because it’s an increasingly rare one in the Sonic fanbase.

    So is “evolution”.

    People, unfortunately, base their expectations on nostalgic reminiscence, and lose their perspective in the reality of what those games were and did and changed. They were wonderful games. I know – I played them all as a kid, as they came out. Well, I didn’t play Sonic 1 on Mega Drive when that came out. I didn’t have a Mega Drive at the time. That would have to wait for the next year.

    I was excited with the progress being made on Sonic the Hedgehog 4.
    I am happy that the time is being taken to fine-tune this game.
    I will not succumb to the sort of obsessive nitpicking that would’ve doomed Sonics 2 and 3 and &K on their respective releases.
    I am already not disappointed.

  • Reply

    Hmmmm i think i’ll wait for Sonic Nexus to surface, at least i will be able to play it…cruddy app store. Why? Waste. Unimpressed.

  • Reply

    Good for you SEGA! I don’t mind the wait as long as you guys keep working to make Sonic 4 even better! I’m proud that you’re finally listening to your fans. 🙂

  • Reply

    I´ve played Sonic games for more than 15 years. I loved the classics. I´ve loved some of the new ones. SA1 was genious for that time, SA2 was OK, Sonic Unleashed was actually a funny game. It ´s true Sega made many things wrong but I believe many people here are exagerating with those insults. I am a classic fan but I don´t hate the new things. I want to suggest more original ideas, and not a game based on what we seen before.

    Take your time Sega, and please, make more original enemies bosses! WE DON´T WANT THE SAME THING!!

  • Reply

    …I’ll say that as a modern fan in the sense of not liking Sonic 1 and liking Sonic Rush Adventure, I’ll have to check the fine-tuning. If it seems more like Sonic 1 than S3+K, I will probably not buy, if it seems more like S3+K than S1, I will buy it because it’s cheap.

    And if Sega really DOES go hardcore and gives the fans and physics a tweak, and it STILL sells horridly despite every classic fan who bought it loving it…I will lol so hard.

    And if it turns out it sells amazingly and Sonic Unleashed 2 (oh come on we know it will happen) gets budget cuts…I will feel more royally screwed than half of you about Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Advance 2, Sonic Adventure 1, or for the gruntiest ones of all Sonic 2 itself, respectively.

    Ah well, at least it isn’t leaked that Sega’s listening or not listening either way. Guess we will find out which half of the base gets screwed over when the inevitable E3 footage comes out. ^_^

    Along with SU2. Admit it. ADMIT IT.

    And everyone…people can dislike the classics. Nostalgia is not a reason to say a game sucks, its gameplay does.

  • Reply

    Although I am somewhat disappointed by the delay as I have been eagerly awaiting this game, I can understand the reasoning. I’d rather wait longer to play a game that handles better than play a rushed game that acts buggy. I’m also not surprised by the iPhone / iPod release. The only nitpicks I have about the game so far are the use of homing attack and speed boosts (are they REALLY needed in a 2d classic-esque game?), but as long as the levels are fun when I actually play the game (and not hold-right-to-win) I’ll be happy.

  • Reply

    Wow, SEGA! I’m impressed you delayed the game. This is actually good news for me because the stuff I’ve seen really needed more work and the fact that SEGA (“The” SEGA that always makes half-assed, rushed decisions) has took the darn to delay a game and perfect it makes me happy because this may mean a change of politics in the company. I’m proud of you guys..

  • Reply

    I am glad that Sega is delaying the release date and listening to their fans! I doubt they’ll change Sonic’s modern sprite with his classic one sadly, (but who knows?) but hopefully they can fix the physics. The music is fine, I don’t get why everyone is bitching about it seriously. You can listen to your own music on the 360/PS3 and you can mute the t.v. if you are playing the Wii version. And lastly, I think the gimmick levels look cool, and I am a bit disappointed that there is going to be a iPhone port that may only include those levels, I am not getting one just for this game. (As much as I love Sonic…) Tl;dr I am happy that the game is getting delayed and disappointed that they announced something that was already obvious.

  • Reply

    I honestly don’t know why they feel they have to change it. I have the leaked beta on my JTAG Xbox 360 and its fantastic, I am on the last zone now. Better than sonic 3, possibly as good as sonic 2. It feels complete, however it is very hard after zone 2. Especially eggmans lab.

    Fans wanting a completely new game may be disappointed as nearly every level and boss in the game is based off a previous game. That’s not a bad thing though, the rotating bonus stages are back and they’ve even remade the mine kart level from the master system. The gameplay has improved, feels exactly like sonic 2 but with some added features like targeting etc from the 3d games which is a nice feature.

    The only thing i’d change about the beta is the difficulty as it is very hard, the achievements are very hard to get too e.g complete e.g.g station zone without getting hit and complete all bonus levels (which get very hard after the 4th) Reviewing the beta i’d give it a 9/10, if it was slightly easier i’d give it a 10. You guys are in for a treat 🙂

    • Reply

      It’s probably not that hard. Your probably just no good at it. I also can’t see how the game I saw in the leaks could be anywhere near as good as Sonic 2, and it’s CERTAINLY NOT better than Sonic 3 & K, probably the best, and most underrated, Sonic game.

      • Reply

        If you haven’t played it how do you know? It’s much harder than any of the Sonic games released. I personally think Sonic 2 is the best Sonic game there is but that’s just me

    • Reply

      Oh, so YOU’RE that kid that leaked the first Splash Hill footage, I take it? Because if you are, then that explains why you think it’s “sooo harrrrd.” Question, Stezo2k: you got any proof that you have the beta, hm? You gonna upload pictures/videos of you playing it? If not, then you’re nothing more than a kid just saying you have the beta to get attention on the internet to me.

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