Hardware Geeks

Sonic the Hedgehog is debuting in his first role-playing game courtesy of Bioware in their Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, and the Nintendo Power February issue has a 7-page preview on how the game is shaping up and what to expect.  In a surprising move, given how touchy most magazines are about keeping their printed material off of the internet, they have made an Adobe pdf file of the magazine freely available on the official website, available here.  If you’re a longtime Sonic fan who’s been a bit disappointed in sneakered speedster’s recent games, take the time to check out the fine print - this game looks like it has the potential to be the most fulfilling Sonic experience we’ve seen in years.  Keep reading for a few major details if you’re too lazy to check out the article

As this is a role playing game, Sonic will be subject to many of the typical mechanics found in the genre such as party building and turn-based combat.  It has been revealed that Sonic will be able to have up to 3 other characters to accompany him during his journey at any given time, and 11 characters will be available in total.  Series mainstays and relative newcomers will both be included among these 11, including Sonic (duh), Tails, Amy, Knuckles the Echidna, Rouge the Bat, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Big the Cat.  Bioware is attempting to add a bit of life to the random-encounter turn-based combat by 1. making players queue up actions so that they all take place at the end of selection, giving a more complete sense of speed as opposed to individual attacks seen in games like Final Fantasy, and 2. including different Power Moves for the various characters.  Power Moves will be executed in a style familiar to those who played the Ouendan or Elite Beat Agents games, as players must hit a sequence of circles on the touchscreen in time to pull off a move.  Players will also be able to access different combination attacks depending on who they throw into battle and new moves and attacks will be available through character customizations selected as your party members level up.

Outside of battles, players will be able to interact with the game world in assorted ways depending on who they put into their party.  Each party member has a special skill or trait associated with them (ie Tails’s ability to fly or Amy’s giant hammer) that will be used to move past various obstacles throughout the game.  Veterans of the series may be glad to see that Bioware is including and resdesigning some of the classic environments for this game, such as the Green Hill Zone and Emerald City.  The game doesn’t intend to limit itself to being a blast from the past, however, as both new areas and villains will be introduced as the story progresses.  If you’d like to make a small contribution to the development of this game, you can visit this website to cast a vote on what you think the name of the new villainous race should be.  Me?  I chose “The Gravitus.”  

Post Tags: gaming  bioware  nintendo power  nintendo ds  sonic 

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