SEGA
Sonic Forces will be released on November 7, 2017, the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter confirmed.
Sonic Forces arrives Nov. 7! The physical Bonus edition is available now for Pre-Order, and includes a controller skin + SEGA/Atlus outfits!
In addition, you’ll also get a controller skin for the console of your choice and costume DLC based on popular SEGA characters and Persona 5’s protagonist.
Here’s everything you need to know about the game.
1. Sonic Forces Was Announced During the Sonic 25th Anniversary Livestream
Sonic Forces was announced as Project Sonic 2017, during Sonic’s 25th Anniversary Party at San Diego Comic-Con 2016. The reveal trailer showed Sonic facing off against Eggman’s giant robots in a city with the help of his Genesis counterpart, Classic Sonic. The game is being developed by Sonic Team, who have developed the Sonic games since the very beginning in 1991.
Sonic 2017 is now Sonic Forces! Stay tuned tomorrow for the first gameplay footage of Modern Sonic.
In March 2017, Publisher SEGA announced that Project Sonic 2017 was renamed to Sonic Forces.
They also released the first gameplay trailer of the game where Modern Sonic sped through a crumbling city as Eggman attacked just like in the initial debut trailer.
A gameplay trailer showing off Classic Sonic gameplay was released a month afterwards.
2. The Game Stars Your Own Original Character (Do Not Steal)
In addition to playing as Modern and Classic Sonic, players will be able to play as their own customizable character for the first time in the series.
According to Heavy, you’ll choose from a variety of clothing, accessories, gadgets, and even animals to create your own character.
Here’s the effects of each type of animal, courtesy of IGN:
Bear — Blows away enemies with a homing attack
Bird — Flies high with double jump abilities
Cat — Keeps one ring after being hit
Dog — Restarts with five rings after the player dies
Hedgehog — Collects rings when getting damaged
Rabbit — Has longer invincible time after receiving damage
Wolf — Automatically draws in rings when near them
Gadgets known as Wispons grant you additional abilities for combat and traversal. Characters also come standard with a grappling hook. Clothing options will be unlocked as you play through the game and your character will be featured in cutscenes.
As we learned from gameplay from Gamescom 2017, your custom character will also be able to team up with Sonic as a duo in certain stages, combining Sonic’s abilities with yours and even blasting past legions of enemies together with a double boost.
3. You’ll Face Off Against Villains New & Old
In addition to facing off against Eggman, you’ll be fighting his own force of villains made up of Shadow, Metal Sonic, Zavok from Sonic Lost World, and Chaos from Sonic Adventure.
You’ll also be fighting classic bosses from Sonic’s past, such as the ball and chain boss from the original Sonic the Hedgehog and the Egg Dragoon from Sonic Unleashed.
But the big threat this time is a being known as Infinite. No only does he appear to have space time manipulation powers, but he is even faster than Sonic.
Also, anybody know “Fun is Infinite?” Look it up.
4. People are Drawing Parallels between Sonic Forces and Sonic Mania
People are drawing some very interesting connections between Sonic Forces and the recently released Sonic Mania in regards to the game’s true ending, as this Reddit post by User crimsonkyurem points out.
Spoilers for Sonic Mania ahead.
During the true ending of Sonic Mania (accessed by acquiring all seven chaos emeralds and beating the secret final boss), Sonic is transported through a wormhole using the power of the Chaos Emeralds and the large red gem. As he is transported through the wormhole, he strikes the same pose he strikes during Sonic Forces’ announcement trailer. Also, during the Egg Dragoon boss fight, Eggman calls Classic Sonic a meddler from another dimension rather than from the past. The implication here is that the Sonic in Sonic Mania and Classic Sonic in Sonic Forces are the same Sonic.
Infinite appears to be directly connected to the big red gem in Sonic Mania. In Mania, the gem is used to warp to different zones from Sonic’s past. The same appears to be happening in Forces, with Sonic and co finding themselves in Green Hill Zone and having to face off against villains from Sonic’s past. But the most damning bit of evidence is that in the E3 trailer, the same sound effect used in Mania for whenever the gem activates its power is played when Infinite summons the red cubes. All of this suggests that Infinite is using the power of the red gem from Mania.
5. This Is the Latest in the Long Running Sonic the Hedgehog Franchise
Sonic the Hedgehog made his debut on June 23, 1991 on the SEGA Genesis. Since then, he’s been one of the most famous and critically praised (as well as not so critically praised) video game icons in the world.
The gameplay of Sonic Forces takes heavy inspiration from Sonic Generations in 2011, not only with its combination of modern 3D Sonic gameplay and Genesis-era Classic Sonic gameplay but its use of past levels and bosses from Sonic games.
Sonic Mania, a game developed by former Sonic fan game developers, is the latest game in the franchise and was released on August 15, 2017 to great success.