Sonic 4: Episode II details

Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode II will address many of the fan criticisms of the first instalment in the blue hedgehog’s episodic adventures, SEGA product manager Ken Balough has revealed.

Responding to questions on the game’s official forum – reported by The Sonic Stadium – Balough revealed that we should expect an all-round better experience from the second downloadable game.

“SEGA America and SEGA Europe are both giving feedback and input on Episode II,” said Balough. “Episode I did very well for SEGA commercially, and thanks to everyone’s support, we definitely have a lot of traction going into Episode II.”

He added: “This usually means better budgets, etc. That said – I see a lot of really great ideas going into the next instalment.”

“I certainly cannot deny there were some elements that could have been done better – and I could say that about most games I’ve worked on.”

The good news for Sonic fans is SEGA plans to fix many of these problems.

“That’s why Episode II gives us that opportunity to address them (or as much as possible),” said Balough.

As for when we’re likely to see the second episode – the first hit download channels in October 2010 – Balough said that fans “definitely wont have to wait years and years a la Duke Nukem Forever”.

Sonic 4 Episode 1 felt like a missed opportunity to take Sonic back to his roots, but there was enough good about the game that we’re willing to believe that the next chapter will deliver the experience we wanted first time around.

Given that four months have already passed since the release of Episode I, we’d hope to hear something concrete fairly soon.