Sega made history this morning when the company revealed its future publishing plans for 2001 and beyond (see our news story below) – the company is slowly leaving the system business and transmogrifying into one of the biggest third-party publishers for the Game Boy Advance, Gamecube, XBox, and PlayStation 2. The company announced that it has three Game Boy Advance games currently in the works, Chu Chu Rocket, Puyo Puyo and:
Sonic The Hedgehog Advance. The game is reported to be along the lines of the Genesis 2D sidescroller, with brand new levels unique to the Nintendo system. The game is currently scheduled for a worldwide release with the US system this July. Blast Processing not needed — just look how well the NeoGeo Pocket Color version measured up.
Whats important about this is that it will not only be a Game Boy Advance launch title (**@_____________@**) but it will be the first Segasonic videogame on a system that is NOT fully Sega supported AND the first Sonic game on a major Nintendo system.
Sonic Pocket Adventure, The SNK-published game for the Neo Geo Pocket Color, was a decent game and took Sonic through a 2D world filled with rings, bursts of speed and graphic splendor. But the game did have some flaws, most of which will be now non-existent on the Game Boy Advance. For example, one complaint from some: “There’s no parallax scrolling.” The GBA — the 32-bit RISC processor will be able to handle parallax and depth with little to no problem. And although the Neo Geo game was very similar to the Genesis versions of the platformer, it’s almost certain that the GBA Sonic will be superior to the older games, especially since the little handheld has just as much power as the older Sega system.
We’re not completely sure whether the game will really work like the Neo Geo game, or if it will be a completely different style of gameplay. (Rumor has it that the game and levels will be all new and not remakes of older boards designed differently) Either way – It will likely be Sega’s flagship product on Nintendo’s new handheld, and it will doubtless have incredibly high production values and endless amounts of fun.
So here goes Sonic’s next step…The Game Boy Advance…
Source: IGN Pocket