GameDaily.com got to have an in-depth interview with Sega’s VP of America Marketing Sean Ratcliffe, where one of their topics of Discussion is the Blue Hedgehog himself and his future development in Sega. Here’s one of my favorite quotes from the interview:

We’re taking Sonic in a different direction, slow him down and he transforms into a “Werehog.” And that changes the gameplay again. For fans of Sonic that have been looking for a next-gen experience, this is the game they’ve been waiting for.

Oh really? while the classic 2D view does look amazing, is this “Werehog” gameplay really what we have been waiting for? Let’s hope for the best. To read the full article click here, the Sonic talk is on page 3.

I decided to buy Braid yesterday after watching some gameplay videos, namely the one I covered 2 days ago. For 1,200 MS Points ($15) this game is a steal, despite appearing generic in videos on the Internet I must say the quality of the high-res graphics really came through once I played it in HD. Everything animates fluidly and the “painterly” quality to the hand drawn graphics looks great. Paired with a haunting soundtrack it has top production values.

Initially the game starts off easy enough where you jump around levels Mario style and collect puzzle pieces which you use at the end of a world to piece together a jig-saw puzzle. Not too long into the game though you will find the genius puzzles integrated into the game, but to avoid spoiling the fun of finding them out for yourself I will make no mention to any of them, but trust me they are cool! I am now on the 3rd world and have really enjoyed it so far, the puzzles now have a time reversal element to them where if you move to the right, enemies and objects move normally, but as soon as you move toward the left of the screen everything reverses in time (like rewinding a movie).

Platformer fans will no doubt love the easter eggs thrown in the game making references to others in the genre. This is a no doubt buy for anyone reading this website right now, if you like traditional, beautiful hand drawn platformers with a sense of artistry and puzzles Braid is just your fix. Before you go comparing it to other time altering games, just trust me on this one….Braid does it best and like no other out there. Expect a review of the game once I have completed it.

Gaming news site IGN had a chance to preview the upcoming Wii platformer Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars.

We really like the moody atmosphere of Mushroom Men, and there aren’t enough adventure games on the Wii. If they can handle the waggle controls, players should be getting a pretty unique experience later this year.

Not everything they had to say was positive. To read the full preview click here. Or hit up their gallery for some new images.

If you’re like me, your most anticipated platformer of the year is Cid the Dummy. Wait, never heard of it? Are you kidding me? Don’t worry, most people haven’t.

Cid the Dummy is a forthcoming Wii, PSP, PS2,DS, and PC 3D side-scrolling platformer. Developer Twelve Interactive has this to say:

CID THE DUMMY is a platform game that grabs you straight away with its amusing blend of action and puzzle-filled gameplay. Based around the multiple opportunities for a Crash Impact Dummy to get into mischief, the game blends classic platform elements such as timed jumps, collecting pick-ups, defeating enemies, and challenging boss battles with more cerebral elements such as puzzles, clever weapon use and route finding.

• Interact as only a crash dummy can. Climb walls, swing on ropes, burn obstacles, destroy exploding barrels, use lifters, bounce on springs and with a neat head butt destroy walls all in stunningly realized environments. Game environment interaction is the most important part of the gameplay.
• CID’s world is swarming with a host of fearfully fun enemies like the Dumper, Cursed Dummy and the bizarre Failed Experiment.
• Apart from fighting enemies, the player will enjoy solving puzzles, avoiding traps and using acrobatic skills to get out of dangerous situations!

But between its website having been only a static image for months now, and the developer’s claiming it was a Q1 release this year but it was a no show, the whole three people who knew about the game  were ready to call it vaporware.

Hold the phone! Just when you thought Cid had crashed for good, Twelve Interactive released the box art today, letting us know that Cid is still kicking.

Crash Dummies Never Looked So Good

With just the multiplatform Martial Arts: Capoeira Fighters and Wii-exclusive Party Crashers under developer Take Twelve’s belt, many have now switched from proclaiming this as vaporware to saying it’s shovelware. What do you think? Could this be a surprisingly decent platformer or is it trash?

A new feature here at Platformer Update will be the Poll of the Week, where each week you will see a new poll, like this one, for readers to vote on to see what other fellow platformer fans are thinking of upcoming games and such. So be sure to vote! This weeks poll asks the question of what your most anticipated platformer coming up in 2008 is. Of course what systems you own will play a huge part in your vote, but let it be known either way. If your most anticipated game is not listed be sure to comment and let us know which one and why!

After watching that video all I can say is…wow. Fez is a forthcoming platformer developed by an independent software developer called Kokoromi. It currently has no release date and is only scheduled to come out on the PC. If you want to be surprised by it’s gameplay I suggest watching the video first, if not read on. You manipulate the game world by rotating it and then “collapsing” it back togehter to create new paths, which is most similar to the PSP game “Crush” and even a bit of “Super Paper Mario for Wii, though Fez has been in development long before those games were ever put into production.

The overall style screams “8-bit” from the “Engrish” text to the techno computer music, Fez really looks like a mind bending experience with a great sense of humor and style. Fez was awarded the “Excellence in Visual Art” and “Design Innovation”award at the 2008 Independent Games Festival, and based on this video I am sure nobody is willing to argue against that.

This Wednesday the Xbox Live Arcade is treated to a unique puzzle-platformer called ‘Braid’. The game has been in development for over 3 years now by ‘Number None Inc’ and it incorporates familiar gameplay coupled with a new unique twist on the genre. Each game world presents you with a unique way to manipulate time from something as easy as rewinding time to parallel worlds. This is what creates the unique puzzles found throughout the game. The kicker is that you actually never die, as you have free usage of your time abilities, as the game is more about the accomplishment of finishing puzzles and levels than trying over and over after falling to your death. The games art is all hand drawn along with a rich symphonic music score which all fits together to create a truly unique experience.

Be sure to check out the above gameplay video to get a taste for just one of the puzzles in the game. Braid will be available on August 6th for 1,200 (yes 1,200) Microsoft Points exclusively on the XBLA. For more info on the game check out the official Xbox.com Braid page

I must admit, we here at Platformer Update had very high hopes for Eternity’s Child. I myself was glued to the very first screenshots released of the game as they looked very original and beautiful for a platformer, let alone a traditional 2D platformer. Well the game is available on the Steam program on the PC and users get to play it before the WiiWare version is released with a date currently unknown. The good news is we finally get to see the game in motion, but the bad news is the game is near broken and unplayable, atleast according to Destructoid.com

Destructoid reviewed the game and gave it a abysmal 1/10, by both reviewers. They say the game looks great in screenshots, and god awful in motion including stiff animations. The controls are broken stating jumping only works 2 out of 3 times, and just terrible level and enemy mechanics, “one of the worst games in years”, Ouch. Keep in mind this is for the PC version of the game so we can only hope the WiiWare version gets a good brush up, but reportedly the patch for the PC version still did not fix any problems. All hope is not lost though, some looking around you will find many Steam users reportedly enjoying the game, though they do admit the controls could use some work.

I have hope that Eternity’s Child gets delayed and worked on some more before coming to WiiWare, but something tells me that just won’t happen.

Today the Virtual Console gets the Sega Master System version of Sonic the Hedgehog. You would be suprised by how many people do not even know this game exists. Sure they know about the 16-bit Genesis version, but this 8-bit version even includes new levels, bosses, music, overworld map, as well as finding the Chaos Emeralds in the levels themselves. The US version of Sonic on SMS was the last SMS game released in the States, and is one of the rarest Sega games available. The only difference from the European version (which is only a few bucks) is a sticker on the packaging. Hit the break for a video of one of the “new” levels in the SMS version, as well as a really cool Robotnik boss fight.

More news for you Virtual Console fiends out there, the ESRB rating board just gave ratings to Mega Man 1 & 2 for the NES. Most likely these will be releasing very soon in an attempt to capitalize on the Mega Man 9 hype. Second up we have Earthworm Jim 2, which follows suite of Earthworm Jim 1 which has already previously been rated by the ESRB. For those wondering, both will be from the Genesis version. I suspect an official announcement happening for Earthworm Jim 3 probably by the end of the year or early next year