Sonic 4 - Oppose Ungrateful Fans!

Dear SEGA,

The design of your most iconic character, Sonic the Hedgehog, has changed for the better over the years. The new Sonic – slim, green-eyed and with long quills - is a far cry from the old, chubby, black-eyed Sonic of days gone by. This is of course the nature of character evolution, and we accept and applaud this.

We welcome and greatly appreciate the recent announcement that, after 16 years, Sonic 3 & Knuckles (arguably the pinnacle of the Sonic the Hedgehog series) is to get a sequel in the form of the downloadable game, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode I. We are happy to see Sonic returning to his roots, but unfortunately, some people feel the need to nit-pick one silly detail in this retro revival, and this is something that we cannot agree with – people complaining about the use of Sonic’s new design.

We accept the modern mechanics of the game such as the homing attack – one could argue this is natural progression, with each 2D Sonic game of the past introducing a new ability for Sonic, which is a pattern we want to see continued (but without going over-the-top).

However, if this game truly is to be the sequel to Sonic 3 & Knuckles, we feel that it is absolutely necessary that Sonic's modern design must STAY, as this reflects the natural progression and evolution of the Sonic series. Sonic 4 should not feature the same Sonic design as was featured in Sonic 3 and its predecessors, as this would be a step backwards in terms of character development. We believe that the addition of the modern Sonic design makes absolute sense in terms of the continuity, because it shows a sleeker, improved design which shows how far Sonic has come over the years – it would be illogical to change the design of the main character just because some ungrateful fans are clinging to nostalgia and to give in to some nit-picking whiners over something so small would be completely absurd. We believe that it is a very good idea to make a retro Sonic game, but without the old design, because by using the modern design in a retro-style game, it combines the old and the new, and this is a positive thing.