Capcom’s approach to Mega Man 9 has ignited the hope and imagination of many people involved in gaming, from developers to fans. Konami is soon to release Gradius Rebirth for WiiWare, while Hudson works on a new addition to the long-dormant Adventure Island franchise. Some gamers are hopeful that the next-gen Castlevania may be 2D, while others want SEGA to do Sonic the Hedgehog justice again, and make a Genesis-styled “Sonic the Hedgehog 4.”
Ah, yes. About that last one. It seems that Akinori Nishiyama, General Manager for Sonic Team, has been approached on more than one occasion about such a prospect. Strangely, however, he seems to have had different answers at different times:
“Actually, he has been working on Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush and is very keen on keeping the 2D game. But, having said that, he also thinks 3D Sonic [is good]…And he has been thinking so hard to incorporate those good things from both 3D and 2D. And this is one of the reasons that in Sonic Unleashed we have both 3D and 2D mixed gameplay, kind of switched, going back and forth…Although he thinks that the original 2D game was really good, he doesn’t intend to publish kind of a remake of the original game.” – Akinori Nishiyama, General Manager of Sonic Team, though a translator, via Nintendo Everything
That was posted on October 11th. Skipping forward a day…
Nishiyama: There’s always the possibility. Whether it would be viable remains to be seen, but having a new game – or even a remake of the GBA games, which we now can’t use [thanks to the DSi] – would certainly be possible. If we made one, would you buy it?
Me: [nods]
Nishiyama: Really?
Me: [nods]
Nishiyama: [laughs] Great! One of our ideas has been that on older consoles, you may have had only 16 colours. One thing we could do is make a game like Mega Man 9; do a new Sonic, but in an old style. — Kotaku
Also of interest is that Kotaku notes that apparently, it was SEGA’s insistence that lead to the greater amount of 3D in Sonic Unleashed. I guess they just couldn’t handle all the good feelings that came from people who were happy with what they saw. So God only knows if we ever will see something new in 2D.
