Sonic Chronicles — being the first Sonic game I’ve been excited for in years — is looking pretty solid. Bioware CEO Raymond Muzyka and President Greg Zeschuk give us insight into some of the things the team has been thinking about when combining a Sonic game and RPG-style play. The game will hit stores September 30th.
If you’re going to make the move from PC and console epic RPGs to handheld titles, testing the waters with someone else’s property is pretty smart smart way to do it. That’s what BioWare is doing with Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, according to the game’s lead designer Miles Holmes. The Sonic RPG will launch BioWare’s handheld division, which could then explore the possibility of bringing Mass Effect, Jade Empire, and Dragon Age to the handheld. “We have a lot of big plans for Mass Effect. Having a DS version would be an awesome way to keep interest alive and keep it going in addition to the next one [Mass Effect 2] “, said Holmes.
While I myself am partial to their big production numbers, having handheld versions to keep me occupied between their larger efforts is a rather attractive prospect. Plus, the Nintendo DS can only make hot alien sex that much better.
BioWare liebäugelt mit einem Mass Effect für den Nintendo DS [Eurogamer.de via GamesIndustry.biz]
Sega had an early—and we want to stress that “early”—version of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood playable at last week’s Nintendo Media Summit. The Sonic role-playing game from BioWare applies the developer’s well polished formula—branching plotline and dialogue trees, epic story, deep turn-based battle engine—to the Sonic the Hedgehog universe. It’s very charming; charming enough to make one think “Oh yeah, Sonic was charming at one point.” The brief glimpses of witty banter and cute character designs are a welcome change in the face of 3D Sonic platforming.
A Sonic role-playing game may seem like a real head scratcher at first, but with BioWare behind Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood it has to be good. Anything less than a stellar RPG adventure would violate some universal law, we’re sure of it. The only problem? Sonic’s shitty friends, the hangers-on who get way too involved, taking valuable screen time away from Sega’s mascot.
MTV Multiplayer’s Stephen Totilo asked BioWare founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk about the challenge of making, say, Rouge the Bat or Big the Cat tolerable to play.
