Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 Spin Dashes On To Consoles This Summer

Sega, perhaps inspired by the success of Mega Man 9 and New Super Mario Bros., is taking Sonic back to his roots. For real this time. No werehogs, race cars or fiery felines are in this game. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 picks up where Sonic & Knuckles left off and is a back to basics 2.5D side-scroller. Sonic has all of his old moves plus the homing attack introduced in the 3D Sonic games. Start practicing with the old games because Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 has online leaderboards.

While there is “episode” in the title, it doesn’t sound like Sega is going to release monthly installments onf Sonic. Ken Balough, Associate Brand Manager at Sega, compared the episodes to Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles where both games were linked on the same timeline.

Episode 2 is in the works for sure, but before Sega gets to that Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 has to come out first. It’s slated for release this summer on WiiWare, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live Arcade. The WiiWare and PSN versions have some kind of motion control feature using the Wii remote and Sixaxis controller, respectively.