2.5D might be one of the best ways to blend new with the old. Scenery, characters, objects, everything in a title can take advantage of modern day hardware while still feeling like the games of yesterday. The Sonic series began to take to 2.5D more and more starting with Sonic Unleashed, with the entire “boost trilogy” doing the brunt of the platforming in the 2.5D sections, with the high speed antics in 3D, almost racing-esque segments.
In 2013, a Retro user by the name of Ell678 began work on his own Sonic fan game, one that would be comprised almost entirely in 2.5D by utilizing SonicGDK. Since that point in time, Sonic Incursion has begun to take shape into the extraordinary title we see here today. A huge fan of the early Genesis games, Ell678 felt he could take what he adored about the level design the two games had and put it into something modern while still maintaining a “classic” presentation.
Daily Archives
June 8, 2016
It’s been a pretty long time since Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice was last shown to the public. After it was delayed there was a bit of a drought with no new footage or info whatsoever. That’s changed now though as SEGA just released a new trailer for E3 2016 and we can finally confirm that, yup, it still looks like a Sonic Boom game.
It does look like there is some added variety with the new bosses and shoot-em-up sections, but aside from that the game looks like more of Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal. Which probably isn’t a good thing seeing how Shattered Crystal wasn’t that great. Still, the game will be playable at E3 next week so we’ll probably be able to see if Sanzaru has tried to make Fire & Ice much of an improvement over its prequel when new gameplay footage from the event gets put up online.
Fire & Ice will be released on September 27th, 2016 exclusively for Nintendo 3DS and will have a special Launch Edition in the US. The special edition will include a DVD with three episodes from the Sonic Boom TV show, which is surprisingly decent and worth taking a look at if you haven’t yet.
Update: The official Sonic Youtube account has uploaded the trailer to Youtube, and mentions in the description that “[a] number of notable improvements are being made to the game, including enhanced level designs built for speed, better functionality, and all-new Fire & Ice gameplay mechanics.”