If you thought yesterday's announcement of an upcoming Sonic game was underwhelming, then these allegedly leaked details should give you some insight into what it's all about.
Data from a leaked 4K version of the teaser trailer has files which suggest the game will be called Sonic Rangers. The name is said to come up 260 times within the files, and while it could be a simple codename, another supposed leak from a few months ago adds credence to the whole thing.
One user on 4chan posted details of a Sonic game they were testing back in January. While we would usually take this with a pinch of salt, the user actually referenced the game as being called Sonic Rangers. More interestingly, they claimed it was an open-world game, filled with puzzles, small enemies, and platforming.
There are also said to be some RPG elements, as completing objectives in the world unlocks EXP to spend within a skill tree. Bosses roam the world and by defeating them, they grant orbs which unlock levels to dive into. Despite how cool this all sounds, the user did state it was in a very rough state at the time, with combat being very button-mashy and exploration being relatively boring. If the leak is true, it is important to note this is an early build.
The trailer for Sonic's next outing in 2022 did give a feel that this may be an open-world affair. While brief, it featured Sonic rushing through an expansive forest. Eurogamer also claimed to receive a press release which referenced Sonic Rangers as the game's title, which allegedly reads: "Announcing new console experiences, Sonic Colors: Ultimate and Sonic Rangers, further details on Netflix's Sonic Prime, mobile news, musical events and much more!"
However, the publication claimed that a further email was sent to say that the press release received was an older version and there's no further information on Sonic Rangers right now. It seems like someone at SEGA may have spilled the beans too early. Adding all this together, we say it's pretty likely to believe that at the very least, the game will be called Sonic Rangers. As for the other information, it seems like too much of a huge coincidence to dismiss it, but we suppose anything is possible.
What do you think about the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog game? Let us know in the comments below.
[source twitter.com, via twitter.com, eurogamer.net]
Comments 9
It sounds like an open-world adventure with light RPG elements a la Breath of the Wild that was clearly inspired by Assassin's Creed and Monster Hunter. Acceleration and speed is tricky in this kind of games, looking at you, motorbike in Breath of the Wild. Anyway, because it's a brand new game I'm sure that they will find a balanced formula. Let's hope that they do it right.
Well, they did experiment a bit with large open level designs in games here or there - most notably in Sonic Adventure, but also in Sonic Lost World (the sadly forgotten Hyrule Field stage, though short, is a great blueprint for how to more open spaces in Sonic games). Plus, there are many, many, MANY open world fan games out there that are just mind-blowingly good nowadays - from Sonic GT to Sonic Utopia to Sonic World. Heck, even Sonic VR, iirc, has open designs. Honestly Sonic needs to go open world now - they did a bang-up job with the more track-based level designs in games like Unleashed, Colors, and Generations so it's time for a refresh. So I hope they're making the effort and I hope it turns out pretty good.
Not a fan of hearing about that Skill Tree stuff though. That's one of the things that hurt Sonic and the Secret Rings; they absolutely struggled to balance everything when the player was constantly upgrading and changing Sonic's acceleration or top speed, and as a result, a whole lot of things tended to break down. Things that triggered normally (in front of Sonic when you were approaching them) as you ran through a stage early on in that game became things that triggered as you were running past (often times hitting you) in the middle of the game, and then finally becoming things that triggered AFTER you ran past them, thus making them useless. Sonic and upgradeable skills... ehhhhhhh..... I'm sure there's a way to do it right, so I just hope Sonic Team learns from prior mistakes.
Still, I'm just hopeful the rumors are true. It seems like a positive direction to move Sonic into finally, officially, so they should take a shot at realizing an open world Sonic. We're just gonna have to wait and see...
@Vinsanity I agree with you about The Lost Rings. I liked the game back in the day quite much because it is good-looking and if you got the upgrades right, it was relatively easy to play but the inaccurate controls and, mostly, the upgrades themselves, broke the game. That was a game that should not have any equipment at all as the balance was very hard to optimise for each mission and difficult to deal with at the same time because you had to get used to any change you made at light speed. Sonic Generations and The Lost World fixed many of those problems so I hope they do Sonic Rangers right.
If true then this will be a sonic game il play
Calling it already, after a ton of bad 3D Sonic games:
This will be absolute sh*t.
An open world Sonic game sounds amazing..
Cool, sounds terrible.
Yeah it's the usual leak with very questionable credibility but damn, that's just very discouraging. At least i won't be surprised by much if the actual game flopped.
Q) What do you think about the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog game?
A) So far, nothing has particularly grabbed me or got my interested. I suppose I've been believing too much in the speculation of a Sonic Adventure remake/3, so the outcome here (which doesn't look like either of those possibilities) seems a bit disappointing.
Also, mentioning open-world tends to do a good job of killing my enthusiasm. I'll keep an open mind but I'll need to learn a lot more about this 2022 Sonic game before I'd become interested in it.
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