Digi, I think you may have hit on something there you know. It is weird how that flash game suddenly appeared at this late stage, and how its emulates pretty closely stylus control on the DS. Infact, didn't Sega treat Sonic Rush Adventure to a similar flash game recently where you hovered your cursor over a representation of a DS stylus and controlled sonic in one of the games' boating sections? In many ways it could be a lot of fun on the DS, especially any 3D segments. I'm thinking mainly of the original Sonic Rush now with the 3d Special stages; the controls felt really tight and they were a lot of fun. I suppose we'll find out soon enough anyway.

This is happening too fast. If this is true they should wait a few years and then release the game. Games that usually come out too quickly aren't always successful. I would hope they delay the title to all hell in order to make sure it's perfect before they release it though.

They won't.

Most of this looks OK now, apart from the unrendered cut scenes with amateurish voice acting. Honestly they're just hideous too look at and a real let down.

God damn it Famitsu. Those aren't even cons. The controls are "a little TOO unique" you say? What does that even mean? Oh, you have to restart the stage if you die? Just like in the first game? Just like in all games?

Seriously, what is this bullcrap? Those aren't even major cons. So, what, you can't skip cut-scenes, even though they are probably thirty seconds long. That's still not a game breaking con. I can understand the "distracting" human missions and all, but that's still no excuse to mark the game down and cause a giant meltdown at NeoGAF.

I really shouldn't expect any better from NeoGAF either. They will cause an entire meltdown over the simplest things. First thing they idolize the developer of their choice, then one thing goes wrong, and OH SNAP, now they throw whatever random expletive they can at said developer. I bet they didn't even read the pros and so-called "cons" and, instead, just looked at the pretty little numbers and threw a little fit like a little toddler. "GRR SEGA CAN'T DO ANYTHING RIGHT!" my ass.

SEGA worked hard bringing this sequel to life and polishing it with the extra time they had. They worked hard to make sure the game retains the feel and atmosphere the original did with the controls working just as well (with added control options no less). They even hired the same music artist from the first game to compose the music for this game. Most importantly, the game looks fun. And you can't even bother to read the pros and cons from some shitty Japanese review outlet. Not that I should expect any better; you're too busy jacking off to Super Mario Galaxy to care about anything else right now.

You can't do anything right NeoGAF. You can't. You too Famitsu.

That's a pretty fanboyish post you just made there. You haven't played the game, they have. Those scores don't seem too bad to me anyway.

He seemed puzzled we were all so giddy with that news. DiGi was like 'You see, the fans have been worried that-" he had to cut himself off because he was about to say they were worried it would look like crap if it was realsed right now *snortlaugh*

What held DiGi back?

There's certain areas and missions within the game that require the use of these Persona Masks. Dragon NiGHTS can withstand strong winds, acessing new areas. Dolphin NiGHTS is more agile and faster underwater. Rocket NiGHTS is faster than regular NiGHTS and can outfly... things.. or something.

From what I seen, dolphin NiGHTS doen't look any faster underwater than regular NiGHTS has in other videos I've seen, but I'll assume you're right. Rewatching this video though, the rocket does speed up towards the end, although it still looks awkward to control/ugly as hell.

This game continues to impress me with how beautiful and artistic some of the level designs are, but I'm just not "getting" some of the gameplay styles. Those persona masks don't seem to serve much purpose at all, and franky some of them look clunkier to operate that NiGHTS itself, and also pretty ugly. So what's the point in them? Am I missing something here? If so, please feel free to correct me.

This reminds me of the time the Republican party blocked anyone outside the USA seeing their website during the 2004 elections, except this isn't quite as retarded. Anyway someone make it so we Brits/Europeans can view the damn thing!

Please don't say they're playing ping-pong (I know you're kidding). Well, this doesn't effect me much at all, but I really wanted to see pics of ReeRee. ..... And DANGNABBIT I HOPE TO GOD THEY SCHEDULE A RAIN-CHECK FOR DIGI AND TRIPPY!!!! >( Seriously, they fly all the way over to play NiGHTS only to find out they can't because it's being DELAYED?!! --' They could've told them this before they flew over, but I guess it must've been a last-minute decision... or I sure hope that's the case, because if they just forgot about DiGi and TRiPPY, I'm gonna have to proverbially bite Sega's head off. D<

I think you've misinterpreted everything here. Of course they'll have played NiGHTS, they wouldnt make Digi and Trippy book a plane flight to the continent and book a hotel to play a game they don't care about. Mario and Sonic will just be one of the other games they played.

Wow Sega are finally listening. Well done on the delay. You know another Sonic the Hedgehog is neither in your or our best interests.

I have a laundry list of things that I would like to see in this new game which I'm going to copy from Sonic Stadium, so here's my 2 pence on the matter:

- 3 main "good guys" only, Sonic Tails and Knuckles, only Sonic Playable.
- Dr Ivo Robotnik, none of this "Eggman" Japanese nonsense, thank you very much.
- A title screen with thought behind it again, they can help set the tone for the game. Frankly the recent ones have been ugly and depressing to look at.
- No convoluted multidimensional plot. No convoluted plot of any kind for that matter. Keep it simple like the original trilogy.
- No voice acting. It's never done right and can be really painful at times. Little written dialogue too, it slows the games down. Tell more of the story through the visuals like in the original games.
- Orchestrated soundtrack if the mood of the game warrants it, but definately melodies you can hum like in the original games.
- 2.5d visuals. This hasn't been done yet in the Sonic series and would make the new game feel like the older ones and yet original at the same time. Occasional full-on 3D sections too.
- Hidden sections to levels like before, with secret item rooms.
- LESS SPEED. People assume the reason Sonic games are so fun is all down to speed. The older games has slower platforming sections which made them fun too. Speed needs to be used more sparsely.
- Fewer bottomless pits, and where they are used, you should know that they are there, and not fall to your death unwittingly.
- Do away with the Sonic Adventure era art-work. It's grown pretty old pretty fast.
- A return to "cheats", i.e Up Down Left Right A + Start, simply because it used to feel so cool using them. Level Select is obviously standard now but other cheats could follow the old formula.
- The entire game polished debugged and properly tested before release. And furthermore, alloted an adequate development time.
- New gameplay features that don't interfere with the core gameplay or feel gimmicky. I felt Rush Adventure's levels sea levels strayed into both areas here.
- New level themes, not just a rehash of old. The rainbow theme hasn't been used in a Sonic game yet. I imagine a level in the clouds grinding along Rainbows in some capacity, especially in 3D segments could look pretty good if implemented correctly. An Ice Forest Level too perhaps? This hasn't been done yet. A glass-type level making use of mirrors, reflections and transparency effects? I've always had this idea for the "Final Zone" actually where Sonic is running in 3D into white, blank nothingness with only a few black lines/shapes indicating the pathway, done in a similar style to the computer room setting from the Matrix Reloaded where the people who manage the entry gates for Zion are based, and these blacklines would open out before him with an almost non-existant draw distance, so you can’t see what’s coming up so everything looks completely white and empty. The level would be on rails so you could go at full speed and not worry about falling off because you don’t know where you’re going. Infact the whole thing would be a bit like the last level in Secret Rings come to think of it, but with simply a white background and black outlines to guide your way.

Incidentally I agree with everything you've said in this thread Digi, and you're one of the first people I've seen to agree with me to say that Sonic Adventure was the only 3D game with the right atmosphere and "feel", despite it's technical shortcomings. SA2:B is pretty poor in this regard, and Heroes comes close to getting it right, namely in areas like Frog Forest, Hang Castle, Mystic Mansion and Egg Escape (or whatever), but things like Team Blast let the side down, and also situations with poor controls.

The game won't be getting delayed again. The fact the release is now December 18th shows that Sega are desperate to release this into the holiday rush, even if the game is unfinished on a technical level and/or in terms of gloss. Helen's stages look wrong in many different areas, and it's a shame because I don't mind the idea of platforming sections per se. To begin with, Helen's character animation looks really bad, the way she moves looks plain wrong and awkward. Then there's the controls, which although seem somewhat better in this clip than in others, are still unpolished and Helen can be seen to jerk suddenly left or right on many occasions. The lack of water interaction is my favourite though, no ripples or splash or anything when she falls into it or moves in it. Hell, there's not even a slight splash SFX to indicate its water. This game need a polish for at least another month I think, and unfortunately they don't have the time anymore as the game will have to go gold in the next week or so if it's to make the shelves for its release date. Trippy and Digi, you should make representations about the release when you head over to Sega next week, even though it won't achieve anything, because at the very least we'll get to hear what is said about the matter, especially if 'off the record'.

Those ground sections look really buggy and awkward. The controls look as bad as Shadow the Hedgehog, if you look closely Helen cannot move in a straight line without jerking violently left or right. Hopefully the "polish" will sort this out, although I doubt the controls will receive ANY polish somehow as it's the same team doing this that made Shadow the Hedgehog. I hope to be proven wrong, though.

With Sega, any sort of "quality control" is usually wishful thinking these days. It could still be a good game though, I'm not going to be too pessemistic about it yet.

I'm a little underwhelmed by this trailer to be honest. The new level, as much as I love it's art direction, still looks pretty bare for the most part. Also, the frame rate is still choppy in many places, I hope this is sorted out. It's a similar story for the fish boss too. As cool as it looks, its also really glitchy and choppy. Hopefully, everything will be nicely polished come release day, I know it's early days. One last thing, I hope NiGHTS' lack of speed is simply a beta thing, like with Sonic's slow speed in the Sonic Adventure beta, because he seems really slow in every trailer right now, and it doesn't look right somehow.

http://gonintendo.com/?p=24872

New trailer coming later tonight.

What's the deal with the release date then? Still Winter 2007 for Japan? An old video?

Excellent news, Sega are on the road to redemption if they keep showing more concern in game quality like this.

I wish someone would ask Iizuka about the supposed 5 months he wasted developing the game for the Xbox 360, and whether or not it will turn this game into a 1 year rush job. It's my major concern right now, because I'm sick and tired of Sega management rushing out games before they're complete, especially properties of this magnitude.