It's a rich old time for fans of classic side-scrolling platformers: Super Mario Bros. celebrated its 25th anniversary recently, and next year ââ¬â June 23rd, to be precise ââ¬â is the 20th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog. With Nintendo having pushed the boat out to commemorate its iconic hero's 25th ââ¬â a red Wii for Europe, Super Mario All-Stars for Europe and, er, a website for North America ââ¬â Sega obviously wants to make a big noise about the blue one's birthday, with rumours pointing to a new Sonic Anniversary Collection that's perhaps not what you'd expect.
According to Spanish website Sonic Paradise, a Sega representative confirmed the pack during a discussion at this year's Gamesfest 2010. Rather than offering yet another compilation of Sonic's 16-bit glory days, the pack will apparently offer classic 'hog levels "updated for modern consoles", which could mean anything from a 3D reimagining (a la Sonic Adventure 2's secret Green Hill Zone) to a lot of graphical sprucing. Apparently the representative affirmed the pack would be on the way to Wii, DS and PlayStation 3 next year.
That's not all: the same representative also claimed a new entry in the Mario & Sonic series was inbound for 2012, presumably to coincide with the London Olympics, although the game's genre was not confirmed, leaving that long-awaited platformer tantalisingly close.
Remember, these are rumours until Sega officially announces either title, but we'll do some investigating and see what turns up.
