With the Sonic series recently celebrating its 25th anniversary, Sega hosted a panel at SXSW today where it talked about two upcoming games: Sonic Mania and what has previously been known as Project Sonic 2017.
Sonic Mania was revealed to have been delayed from spring to summer. A more specific release date has not been shared yet. However, Sega did tease new enemies, preorder bonuses, a collector’s edition vinyl album, and the return of the Flying Battery Zone.
Sonic 2017 is now officially called Sonic Forces. The game runs on a brand new engine called The Hedgehog Engine 2 and is still on track for a release later this year. The name is a reference to the battle between the forces of good and evil that is the central theme of the game. A concept art piece for the game is shown above.
Sega also showed off a brief clip of the first gameplay from Sonic Forces. It revealed some fast-paced, third-person gmeplay of Sonic moving through the city seen in last year’s reveal trailer. This will be published online for everyone to watch tomorrow, March 17th. There will be multiple paths through levels and two other styles of gameplay, one which centers around the classic-style Sonic seen in the aforementioned trailer.
Both of these games are set to arrive for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.