Note: The Wiire will update this page throughout E3 as further editor impressions are gathered.
Shawn White, The Wiire Senior Editor
Although SEGA has planned a Sonic the Hedgehog game for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Sonic Team decided to craft an exclusive Sonic title for Nintendo's Wii console. The game isn't deep in development (as indicated by the tentative 2007 release date), but what is complete is quite promising.
In Sonic Wild Fire (working title), the blue bur speeds back to some classic roots. Sonic automatically runs forward, so the focus falls upon reflexes and pure speed. This mechanic seems to have taken inspiration from the Chaos Emerald stages from Genesis Sonic titles, but has been revamped into its own game design that works incredible well.
Controlling Sonic requires only the Wii Remote. Players hold the controller sideways, like the NES pad, titling left or right to move Sonic in the needed direction. Subtle hand motions are required, but the sensitivity felt spot-on. The only other button used in the demo is the "2" button (previously the "b" button on the older version of the controller) which when held down slows Sonic down, but when released causes him to jump. The longer the "2" button is held, the higher the jump. During a jump, shaking the controller forward will cause Sonic to perform a forward dash, or in the presence of enemies, a homing attack which can be done repeatedly with subsequent forward shakes of the Wii Remote. Pulling back on the controller causes Sonic to slow down, and when the meter in the lower right-hand corner is filled (through the collection of small energy pellets littering the stage), shaking the controller "violently", as the demo suggested, will see Sonic blazing forward at supersonic speeds, with intense blur effects present on-screen; the adrenaline rush from these hyper dashes is extravagantly intense and satisfying.
Sonic Wild Fire, aside from being one of the most fun titles in Nintendo's booth and one of the few games to only use the Wii Remote for gameplay, was also one of the most visually stunning games present. Sonic's model is closer in design to the Sonic Heroes one rather than the model employed for the other next-generation Sonic game. Level design is elaborate and well thought-out; geometry and textures are crisp, clean and detailed; blur, lighting and particle effects are dazzling.
If there's one quip with Sonic Wild Fire, it can only be that so little of the game was shown. However, the title has numerous months of development left to go, but what was shown proved promising and fulfilling. SEGA gave Sonic a fresh feel and gave Wii a very polished, albeit youthful, title. I can't wait to see more.
Jesse Rifkin, The Wiire Chief Video Producer
I am not what you would call a Sonic fan. In fact, the only experience I've had with Sonic was on my GameGear. It's not that I didn't like it, I just wasn't that into the style of play, and in my mind it didn't hold a candle to more traditional platformers. I really wasn't planning on waiting in line to play Sonic Wild Fire, but after watching some of the other Wiire staff play it, I have to admit, it looked pretty awesome.
As I've already said, I don't know much about Sonic, so I can't really compare it to previous incarnations. However, based solely on its own merits, I have to say that this title really impressed me. The game was fast paced and really intense. Sonic starts out the level automatically running, and you use the wiimote like a steering wheel to direct Sonic into collecting coins and energy orgs. You also jump, and when in the air you can smash into enemies, even killing them in combos. One of the most drool-worthy aspects, though, is when your energy meter is full, you can violently shake the controller, and Sonic will speed through part of the level with a really cool motion-blur/time-stretching effect.
All in all, this is a great game. Sega and Nintendo were able to take a non-Sonic fan like myself and completely immerse me into this game. Thumbs up to Sonic Wild Fire.
Rob Galbreath, The Wiire Managing Editor
Unlike Jesse, I am a huge Sonic fan. I've played close to every Sonic game made from all of the consoles: Sega Genesis, Game Gear, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, GameCube, you name it and I've played it. There's always an incredible exhiliration with Sonic. Even if it's not vital to run through stages at top speed, the replay value to master a zone really shifted this series into sixth gear.
When I heard Sonic: Wild Fire was different from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, I was a bit confused. After playing the games, I can assure you that the controls are uniquely different and target two very different Sonic fans: old-school fans and new-school fans.
Let's take a brief history lesson for players unfamiliar with old-school and new-school Sonic. While Sonic gained a lot of players on Dreamcast's Sonic Adventure with a fully-immersive three-dimensional world, a lot of old-school Sonic fans felt betrayed. Sonic Adventure provided a lot of hidden abilities, places to explore, mini games and other extras. Sonics before the series, however, enjoyed the simple pleasures of fast-paced speed and a simple jump attack to beat enemies. Any Sonic game before Sonic Adventure became known as old-school Sonic players and everything since Sonic Adventure has been deemed new-school Sonic. Now there are some gray areas between the transition, Sonic 3D Blast comes to mind, but let's not care about that for this impression.
The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions feel a lot like the new-school Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast. The Dreamcast provided free-roaming areas that allowed players to really explore new areas and find secrets in a lot of the stages, as well as providing an in-depth plot with character development. I have always welcomed the arguments our staff has had over the series, but I personally feel the Sonic Adventure series really had a player's adrenaline rushing in some ways the old-school Sonic could not.
On the other side of the same coin, there have always been two major problems with Sonic Adventure: camera angles and areas of lacking speed. The first, camera angles, felt really bizarre in both of the Sonic Adventures. Sometimes, the camera's view could kill a player if it wasn't adjusted properly. Some would argue that the angles were even worse with the second Sonic Adventure game than the first. The other issue was areas of lacking speed, when Sonic would have to jump from one platform to the next and knocking out a horde of irritating enemies in the way. This prevented Sonic from reaching the top speeds found in past games.
The Sonic: Wild Fire demonstration removed both of these issues quite nicely by restructuring how Sonic moves. There is no longer a need for an analog stick, no need for exploration, and no need at all for wasted game time. In other words, there was no free-roaming environment in the demonstration.
Sonic moves on a fixed rail automatically, so there's no need to press any buttons to make Sonic run. Sonic will always be running, all the time, unless he is sliding against a wall or automatically changing directions. In fact, other than jump, there's no need to press any buttons at all. The Wii controller is held upright, similar to Excite Trucks, and tilted left and right in order to have Sonic dodge fire blasters, spiked pits, and flying tridents difficult to see with the blinding sun behind them. Button 2 has Sonic slow down and jump, and pulling the controller towards you slows Sonic down.
A quick push of the entire controller forward has Sonic hit the enemies in front of him, and another technique similar to that allows Sonic to move into a warp speed that dashes through a small portion of the stage using the wild fire element collected around the stage like rings.
The controls fix all camera angle problems found in free-roaming environments. With the game on a rail, the angle will always be adjusted to fit Sonic's movements just as Sega wants them to be. There's no need to waste time on larger, insignificant environments beyond what is necessary. There are pros and cons to not being able to explore like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 titles, but it provides a fresh, new approach to the Sonic franchise.
Sonic: Wild Fire will attract hardcore, old-school Sonic fans. Sonic Adventure fans may have a hard time adjusting without an analog stick, but the game still feels very smooth and fast. Wild Fire still feels like a Sonic game, and I was able to catch on to the gameplay fairly quickly. Still, missing the free-roaming opportunities had a new-school Sonic fan like myself felt somewhat bizarre, though I still really enjoyed it. A great game on its own, no doubt, but I miss being able to search an environment for the latest special move upgrade.
Overall, I'm still excited about the game. I think its an excellent supplement to the other Sonic coming out around the same time. Old-school players will really appreciate how simple the Wii version is and new-school players will have something to enjoy if looking for something beyond the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 title. Both supplement each other very well and really opens up new opportunities in the Sonic franchise. If you haven't been excited about a Sonic game in a long time, welcome back.
James King, The Wiire Editor and IT Project Manager
I'll be straight with you and say I didn't like the "Adventure" series at all. I'm what Rob may refer to as an old-school Sonic fan. I loved blasting through stages, smashing through enemies, and getting top scores for clearing the stage.
Now, I know what you're thinking - "On rails? Fixed camera? No free-roaming? Sounds lame!". However, let me assure you that it is not. Sonic Wild Fire retains everything that made the 2D games fun and wraps it up in a shiny new 3D package.
I won't bother going over the controls and such as the others have done a great job of that already. What I will tell you though, is that you probably won't understand this game until you get your hands on it. The best way I can describe it is to imagine playing Sonic 2 on Genesis. Now imagine that you're viewing Sonic from behind in 3D rather from the side in 2D. This is pretty much exactly how Sonic Wild Fire plays.
I see a lot of potential for this game based on the limited demo we played at E3. I can see the possibility for many different branching paths, cleverly hidden areas to access, chaos emeralds to be found, and when I start to imagine what boss battles in this game may be like, a giant grin appears across my face.
The bottom line is that Sonic Wild Fire is a blast to play. It boils the series down to its pure essence and delivers the 3D Sonic experience I've been waiting for since the dissapointing Sonic 3D Blast. If Sega can polish up the slightly confusing jump mechanic and fleshes out a series of action-packed stages, we could very possibly have the best Sonic game to hit consoles in over a decade.
Shawn White, The Wiire Senior Editor
Although SEGA has planned a Sonic the Hedgehog game for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Sonic Team decided to craft an exclusive Sonic title for Nintendo's Wii console. The game isn't deep in development (as indicated by the tentative 2007 release date), but what is complete is quite promising.
In Sonic Wild Fire (working title), the blue bur speeds back to some classic roots. Sonic automatically runs forward, so the focus falls upon reflexes and pure speed. This mechanic seems to have taken inspiration from the Chaos Emerald stages from Genesis Sonic titles, but has been revamped into its own game design that works incredible well.
Controlling Sonic requires only the Wii Remote. Players hold the controller sideways, like the NES pad, titling left or right to move Sonic in the needed direction. Subtle hand motions are required, but the sensitivity felt spot-on. The only other button used in the demo is the "2" button (previously the "b" button on the older version of the controller) which when held down slows Sonic down, but when released causes him to jump. The longer the "2" button is held, the higher the jump. During a jump, shaking the controller forward will cause Sonic to perform a forward dash, or in the presence of enemies, a homing attack which can be done repeatedly with subsequent forward shakes of the Wii Remote. Pulling back on the controller causes Sonic to slow down, and when the meter in the lower right-hand corner is filled (through the collection of small energy pellets littering the stage), shaking the controller "violently", as the demo suggested, will see Sonic blazing forward at supersonic speeds, with intense blur effects present on-screen; the adrenaline rush from these hyper dashes is extravagantly intense and satisfying.
Sonic Wild Fire, aside from being one of the most fun titles in Nintendo's booth and one of the few games to only use the Wii Remote for gameplay, was also one of the most visually stunning games present. Sonic's model is closer in design to the Sonic Heroes one rather than the model employed for the other next-generation Sonic game. Level design is elaborate and well thought-out; geometry and textures are crisp, clean and detailed; blur, lighting and particle effects are dazzling.
If there's one quip with Sonic Wild Fire, it can only be that so little of the game was shown. However, the title has numerous months of development left to go, but what was shown proved promising and fulfilling. SEGA gave Sonic a fresh feel and gave Wii a very polished, albeit youthful, title. I can't wait to see more.
Jesse Rifkin, The Wiire Chief Video Producer
I am not what you would call a Sonic fan. In fact, the only experience I've had with Sonic was on my GameGear. It's not that I didn't like it, I just wasn't that into the style of play, and in my mind it didn't hold a candle to more traditional platformers. I really wasn't planning on waiting in line to play Sonic Wild Fire, but after watching some of the other Wiire staff play it, I have to admit, it looked pretty awesome.
As I've already said, I don't know much about Sonic, so I can't really compare it to previous incarnations. However, based solely on its own merits, I have to say that this title really impressed me. The game was fast paced and really intense. Sonic starts out the level automatically running, and you use the wiimote like a steering wheel to direct Sonic into collecting coins and energy orgs. You also jump, and when in the air you can smash into enemies, even killing them in combos. One of the most drool-worthy aspects, though, is when your energy meter is full, you can violently shake the controller, and Sonic will speed through part of the level with a really cool motion-blur/time-stretching effect.
All in all, this is a great game. Sega and Nintendo were able to take a non-Sonic fan like myself and completely immerse me into this game. Thumbs up to Sonic Wild Fire.
Rob Galbreath, The Wiire Managing Editor
Unlike Jesse, I am a huge Sonic fan. I've played close to every Sonic game made from all of the consoles: Sega Genesis, Game Gear, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, GameCube, you name it and I've played it. There's always an incredible exhiliration with Sonic. Even if it's not vital to run through stages at top speed, the replay value to master a zone really shifted this series into sixth gear.
When I heard Sonic: Wild Fire was different from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, I was a bit confused. After playing the games, I can assure you that the controls are uniquely different and target two very different Sonic fans: old-school fans and new-school fans.
Let's take a brief history lesson for players unfamiliar with old-school and new-school Sonic. While Sonic gained a lot of players on Dreamcast's Sonic Adventure with a fully-immersive three-dimensional world, a lot of old-school Sonic fans felt betrayed. Sonic Adventure provided a lot of hidden abilities, places to explore, mini games and other extras. Sonics before the series, however, enjoyed the simple pleasures of fast-paced speed and a simple jump attack to beat enemies. Any Sonic game before Sonic Adventure became known as old-school Sonic players and everything since Sonic Adventure has been deemed new-school Sonic. Now there are some gray areas between the transition, Sonic 3D Blast comes to mind, but let's not care about that for this impression.
The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions feel a lot like the new-school Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast. The Dreamcast provided free-roaming areas that allowed players to really explore new areas and find secrets in a lot of the stages, as well as providing an in-depth plot with character development. I have always welcomed the arguments our staff has had over the series, but I personally feel the Sonic Adventure series really had a player's adrenaline rushing in some ways the old-school Sonic could not.
On the other side of the same coin, there have always been two major problems with Sonic Adventure: camera angles and areas of lacking speed. The first, camera angles, felt really bizarre in both of the Sonic Adventures. Sometimes, the camera's view could kill a player if it wasn't adjusted properly. Some would argue that the angles were even worse with the second Sonic Adventure game than the first. The other issue was areas of lacking speed, when Sonic would have to jump from one platform to the next and knocking out a horde of irritating enemies in the way. This prevented Sonic from reaching the top speeds found in past games.
The Sonic: Wild Fire demonstration removed both of these issues quite nicely by restructuring how Sonic moves. There is no longer a need for an analog stick, no need for exploration, and no need at all for wasted game time. In other words, there was no free-roaming environment in the demonstration.
Sonic moves on a fixed rail automatically, so there's no need to press any buttons to make Sonic run. Sonic will always be running, all the time, unless he is sliding against a wall or automatically changing directions. In fact, other than jump, there's no need to press any buttons at all. The Wii controller is held upright, similar to Excite Trucks, and tilted left and right in order to have Sonic dodge fire blasters, spiked pits, and flying tridents difficult to see with the blinding sun behind them. Button 2 has Sonic slow down and jump, and pulling the controller towards you slows Sonic down.
A quick push of the entire controller forward has Sonic hit the enemies in front of him, and another technique similar to that allows Sonic to move into a warp speed that dashes through a small portion of the stage using the wild fire element collected around the stage like rings.
The controls fix all camera angle problems found in free-roaming environments. With the game on a rail, the angle will always be adjusted to fit Sonic's movements just as Sega wants them to be. There's no need to waste time on larger, insignificant environments beyond what is necessary. There are pros and cons to not being able to explore like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 titles, but it provides a fresh, new approach to the Sonic franchise.
Sonic: Wild Fire will attract hardcore, old-school Sonic fans. Sonic Adventure fans may have a hard time adjusting without an analog stick, but the game still feels very smooth and fast. Wild Fire still feels like a Sonic game, and I was able to catch on to the gameplay fairly quickly. Still, missing the free-roaming opportunities had a new-school Sonic fan like myself felt somewhat bizarre, though I still really enjoyed it. A great game on its own, no doubt, but I miss being able to search an environment for the latest special move upgrade.
Overall, I'm still excited about the game. I think its an excellent supplement to the other Sonic coming out around the same time. Old-school players will really appreciate how simple the Wii version is and new-school players will have something to enjoy if looking for something beyond the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 title. Both supplement each other very well and really opens up new opportunities in the Sonic franchise. If you haven't been excited about a Sonic game in a long time, welcome back.
James King, The Wiire Editor and IT Project Manager
I'll be straight with you and say I didn't like the "Adventure" series at all. I'm what Rob may refer to as an old-school Sonic fan. I loved blasting through stages, smashing through enemies, and getting top scores for clearing the stage.
Now, I know what you're thinking - "On rails? Fixed camera? No free-roaming? Sounds lame!". However, let me assure you that it is not. Sonic Wild Fire retains everything that made the 2D games fun and wraps it up in a shiny new 3D package.
I won't bother going over the controls and such as the others have done a great job of that already. What I will tell you though, is that you probably won't understand this game until you get your hands on it. The best way I can describe it is to imagine playing Sonic 2 on Genesis. Now imagine that you're viewing Sonic from behind in 3D rather from the side in 2D. This is pretty much exactly how Sonic Wild Fire plays.
I see a lot of potential for this game based on the limited demo we played at E3. I can see the possibility for many different branching paths, cleverly hidden areas to access, chaos emeralds to be found, and when I start to imagine what boss battles in this game may be like, a giant grin appears across my face.
The bottom line is that Sonic Wild Fire is a blast to play. It boils the series down to its pure essence and delivers the 3D Sonic experience I've been waiting for since the dissapointing Sonic 3D Blast. If Sega can polish up the slightly confusing jump mechanic and fleshes out a series of action-packed stages, we could very possibly have the best Sonic game to hit consoles in over a decade.
