Nintendo Power Claims Sonic 4: Episode 1 Will Cost 1500 Points

I still don't like the Fact thats, its in Episodes.

For me to want to buy it, it better be Better then Sonic 3

Good Lord. No thanks!

It better be just as good as Sonic 2!

Wait, so if there is going to be an Episode 2 and 3 it will cost 4500 points in total. Just as much as a retail game. _

If it was released on a disc, it'd take a lot longer to come out. So maybe it's better to get them when they're ready?
Then again, it's a lot of money for a file. Would be nice to have a disc; and it would definitely sell.

My money is on a disc release to coincide with the launch of the final episode: a Sonic 4 compendium for probably less than all three WiiWare releases.

I'll be buying this on both WiiWare and XBLA... it's going to be a pricey time :

I'll probably get one episode which is what I intended on doing in the first place. Still, 1500 points is maybe a bit much ($22.50AU) but its not crazy expensive. Its about the price of a bargain bin DS game.

Will definitely wait for reviews though now... would've definitely gotten it if it was 800 or even 1000 points but at 1500 I'd rather look at some reviews first.

I'll wait till all of them are released if that's gonna be the case.

1500 np's!?!?
I'll just wait for a price drop as their are plenty of Wii games I could play while I wait...

Here's how I feel about this price tag: I don't care. Until they fix the shonky physics and get rid of the stupid homing attack, I won't be buying it anyway.

>3< I hope there is a disk release. My internet is too slow for downloads.

@skywave: $22.50 on a downloadable game is crazy expensive as far as I'm concerned... particularly when you consider that you can buy the Sonic PC Collection (containing approximately 8 complete Sonic games) for under $20 in a physical medium.

Big W are selling discontinued 2000 point Wii point cards for $20 (or even less as it's been a few months since I've bought any), so you can save $7.50 if you intend to purchase this.

Wow... when is the Sonic Cycle NOT the Sonic Cycle?

See, this just makes me love Shantae more, lol.

This isn't the first time a Wiiware game was priced at 1500 points.
World of Goo was the same. 15 bucks is a bit expensive but if Sonic 4 delivers it will be worth it. Judging from some videos I've seen it's looking to be pretty awesome! Just check out this example of the first zone. I just love the music in this stage!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXU9I9hWVe8

I think the game will be awesome all I'm hoping for is a fast release for episode 2 and so on.

I don't mind paying 1500 points for a quality WiiWare game, but for just 1 in an episodic series (with an unspecified number of episodes), I'd much rather hold out for a retail disc release. I'm not a particularly great fan of Sonic, and I have plenty of Sonic games on DS and PC to get by until that time comes.

Nah, I'm sure they screwed it up. NP has done that before.

1500 for one episode!? No way.

this is why "episodes" are stupid. you see how many people are unwilling to pay that much because it has "Episode 1" in the title. even if the game is as long as and better than the 16-bit games, and has a full and completed "story" (how much story does a 2D sonic game have anyway?), a lot of people will refuse to get it because it's charging $15 for only part of a game. i guarantee you, if SEGA but changed the name so that it dropped the "Episode 1," and made the later parts "sequels" instead of "episodes," their sales would increase immensely. whatever marketing person is telling all these companies "episodic" games would be a great idea and people will flock to them is an idiot and should be fired. this game is one of the 2 SEGA is pushing to bring their flagship character back into the good graces of the public... for them to title it that way is the stupidest decision they've made since Big the Cat.

as long as this game turns out to be as good as I hope it will, I won't mind paying. 1,500 Points still only equates to around a tenner, so if the game is quality then that's not much to pay at all.

If this rumour is true then It personally doesn't take me by surprise. Think about it, in the UK 2000 points costs £14 direct from Nintendo so this weighs in at £10.50. Similar games on other digital services cost around £10 too. Rocket Knight on xbla and psn for instance is no more than a new version of a classic game but still carries what we may consider a high price tag. Just over a tenner for a game that's easily going to be as big as it's 16-bit forefathers is reasonable imo. Yes it's episodic but if the quality and quantity of level and design is there then price is highly justified.
Saying all this, Nintendo Power have come off a rumour so it may cost less and who knows, may cost more!

So how much levels do these Episodes have? >_>

Episode 1 is suppose to have 16 stages, and depending on how many episodes there r if each one has at least that amount of stages, I wont complain

Oh, was about to say if it only had like...3 then I would definitely not buy this. xD

That's a bit ridiculously priced. Still, might be worth it if it's good enough.

Frak. Hope it's cheaper for the iPad.

From what I seen, Sonic 4:Episode 1 is going to be just as long as one of the Genesis Sonic games, so the price is reasonable to me as long as it's good.

Ill be buying this on both XBLA and Wii. It seems worth it to me. I mean it has 4 zones with 3 acts per zone and a boss act per zone. That makes 12 levels which is the same amount as Sonic 3 alone. That does mean its only 4 bosses though which makes it fall a bit short there but still id still say that that isnt bad. The levels are what I care about mostly. Besides there is supposed to be a hidden 5th zone aswell. Wether its just a Super Sonic boss or a full fledged zone like the rest is unknown but if it is the latter that makes 15 levels and 5 bosses. Thats a dollar a level and the bosses for free. Doesnt sound too bad to me lol.

Ha! "I don't think so, Starfox!"
_{Plus, I barely like Sonic to begin with.}

I too would be more willing for a retail disc release then this.
The next Wii Console should also be able to let us play current disc games.

I doubt the WiiWare will transfer so don't want to waste that much money on something that is stuck on my current system only.

Wow. 1,500 is a lot of points. I don't think I've ever seen a game cost that much on the Wii shopping channel. However, I have heard the many anticipations about this game, so it's worth it, I suppose.

Really? I starting to think I should just wait till the game comes out on retail. Since it's episodic and if they have at least 5 games like Telltale, then it will cost $75 for the whole series. (5x1500=7500)

For an episodes game? LOLOLOLOL. I thought it would be $8 or $10.

I don't mind paying 1500 points for a game and I don't mind episodic games but 1500 points for one episode? I hope they've got it wrong because that's too expensive.

If it's as long as they claim it is, and if reviews are good i'll get it.

If it's as long as a Genesis game, it would be worth it. I doubt there'll be a disc compilation, even though it would be a good idea on Wii where so few people are connected to the internet. I wouldn't be surprised if you saw all of the episodes on sale together on PSN/XBLA at some point with no price drop ever on the Wii (though Sega has put VC games on sale before, so it may be possible).

James, do you know how much this will cost on XBLA and/or PSN? If it's the same price, it's somewhat of a ripoff for Wii owners anyway, given the graphical upgrade.

This is something else I'll probably hold off on until Wii2 (hopefully they'll have a sensible online/transfer system implemented for the next console going forward).

I can see this total adding up with the other episodes that will probably happen going up to 6000 points, or $60, which is the recent price of big release new games. The difference is you can wait a month or two with those and the prices will go down, these will stay for a considerable time longer, if not forever.

I refuse to buy this game unless the majority of the reviews say "It's well worth the money" and even then only after all the episodes have been released

You out of your freaking mind Sega? 1500 for each episode? That's insane when Sonic's been on a roller coaster of bad games the last decade.

1000 maximum please. And make it a good game too.

15 Euro for a 2D plat-former seems kinda harsh.
But given that it does have Trophies on the PS3/360 I shall buy it for that price.

I mean hell I've completed Sonic 1,2, and S&K so many times that I know them 100% and I paid like 30 Pound for them back in the day. If you guys understand what I am getting at. If this Sonic 4 is atleast good I will play it the same amount times I've done with the past sonic games so to me it is worth 15 Euro.

That is a tad expensive for a WiiWare game. I'm just going to stick to the Xbox 360 version.

1500 points per episode?! Screw that! First Super Meat Boy and now this. Well, I am definitely not buying it at that price. I'll just get it on either XBLA or PSN when it goes on sale.

That's a bit too expensive. 1000 would have been the better price point because it's just Episode 1.

Hopefully the other episodes will be cheper! I'm looking forward to this hitting wii-ware hopefully before Christmas......

Hm...not sure what to think about this, because I really was looking forward to the game. 1,500 pts is too much for one episode, but if I end up getting it, I might just buy it on the PS3, since it's got better visuals; at least get a little more bang for my buck...

I'm going to hold out for a disc release of all chapters - I can wait, I have plenty to play for the time being.

how much content is in an episode? a few levels? whether or not its worth it really depends on how much content is being delivered for 1500 points.

probably won'tt be getting it for a while, then

Yeah, see... let's say "Sonic 4" is 4 episodes in it's entirety (I dunno if it's officially been announced or not); that's $60 bucks... $10 more than a "typical" Wii disc release. The Sonic fan in me will likely sucker up and pay the $15 a pop, but rather, I think I will wait for the WHOLE episodic series to come first... maybe by then, they WILL release it on disc for hopefully a more resonable pricepoint. C'mon SEGA, is 1000 Wii pts. asking too much?

I'd rather pay 1500 points for a single game that I do like and will play than 1500 points for two games that I don't like or won't play much. A 1500 point game doesn't mean its bad value if there is a decent amount of content included. Even with the extra episodes, as long as each episode has enough content in each of them then where's the problem? Better several 1500 point good games than the equal amount of points worth of crap games, right? Why do people dislike the thought of several potentially good games coming out close together if they are part of the same series? It also may be cheaper on other consoles.

Woot! I think holding "right" for a few hours is worth 15 bucks multiple times. Sign me up!

What hurts is that we don't know how many episodes will be in all. I don't actually have a prob with one being worth 1500, but how many times will I have to plop that down? Over how many episodes? Let's say each episode has 8 zones... that's worth the price of admission and I have no problem with that... but where will it end? 2? 3? 4, God forbid 5 or more? Quality or not, that surpasses what could've been a quality "disc" game for $50 bucks, that's my point. I can't justify the price point until I know de facto how many episodes there will be, so I'll wait.

MeloMan, what would you spend your WiiPoints on otherwise? Crappy games you won't play much? Lets say that there are five games, each costing 1500 points but they each score 9/10 on Nintendo Life. Sure its a lot of points but surely its better than the likes of Lawn Darts and Astro Bugz (both cost 700 points but I doubt either would score highly). I know how to spend my points wisely given the choice of shovelware we keep getting and multiple Sonic the Hedgehog games.

Has that Nintendo Power come yet? Anyway, not getting this. If I do, it will ensure that I buy the next, and the next, and the next, and the next, until my family goes bankrupt and we have to live in a refrigerator box.

Hope there is enough content.

I'll be buying this no matter what, I've been extreemly excited for this ever since it was announced. I have a points card ready just to buy this game.

I just don't understand why they're not making it a disc release. It's been something that's been bothering me since day one, and with this price point it only makes sense.

But I'm a sucker so I'll get it anyway

@ Bass X0
Good point-- I would rather pay for quality as well. I don't really buy crap titles, but there's another preference that I have as a gamer, and that's that once I've run a game, I'm highly unlikely to run it again save for a few extras I might go for (high scores, hidden secrets, etc). I can't say too much about Sonic 4 because we'll have to wait for impressions and the review, but what are the basics we expect from this Sonic title? Speedy stages? Check. Neo-retro graphics that are from the past and beautified for the modern day? Check. Sonic soundtrack of hummable and/or memorable songs? Check. Getting S ranks, which is where the replay value comes in? Check... but what else will Sonic 4 have once the typical has been done? Once I conquer said things, I'm done, simple as that, and if I run this Sonic game, like I have the 2D ones in the past, in an afternoon, then I haven't justified the $15. On said point, there are WiiWare games that were an afternoon long and they were $10 or less is my point. Not saying it's not worth it, but just short of Sonic 4 making toast, if I can get matching quality for less that's saying something about overpricing... I'm a consumer and have a right not like a price, quality be damned. But time will tell, we both will just have to see how the review stands up.

Just for the record I'm a Sonic fan, but I know SEGA all to well when it comes to their decision making across the board, is all.

Man if thats the price I'm going to skip but then again how many times has Nintendo been right?

1500 Wii points wasn't unexpected and it's not price gouging. As for the episodic content-I'm not a fan, but it didn't stop anyone from buying Final Fantasy the After Years or SBCGFAP, and it won't stop them this time. Don't hold your breath for a Wii disc release because it isn't coming. If there was a $50 disc version everyone would buy it used or on clearance but a WiiWare price is set in stone. That's good business.

for 15 bucks it better be in hd, will not buy on wiiware

It better be awesome at that price. I am buying it for WiiWare even though I also own a 360 and PS3. I want to give my money to Nintendo's system for the so-called core titles.

This price might be high, but other WiiWare greats like Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King and World of Goo costed 1,500 Points. This game looks fantastic, so I'll gladly fork over my dough.

15 bucks? No thanks.

Poor Americans... 15 dollars... In Europe our pricetag is 23dollars. Stop crying for the love of god.

The episodic thing sounds nasty unless they make each episode like an entire game. But I think they call it episodic for a reason.

hell to the NO

Okay, let me put this in bold for people to see. THEY'VE SCREWED UP PRICES BEFORE. THIS MIGHT NOT BE THE FINAL PRICE!!!!!!!!

If enough people keep on complaining about the price we may expect a price drop. It worked for Rage of the Gladitor so who knows it just might work.

I don't understand why everyone is complaining about the price of this when of that DSiWare game from WayForward is $12. Like spending $3 more on a console game that has a chance at being a great game is really going to kill you.

I'll still buy it

Hey guys...SEPTEMBER FOOLS!

That wasn't as funny as I'd hoped.

I wouldn't buy this for 500 points, so the price doesn't matter to me.

Price point is reasonable (and falls in line with XBLA's trend of marking most new releases at the $15 price point to condition users to buying at that price), but if it were 1000, it would have been an instabuy for me. Instead, now i'll wait, as i'm sure many others will do, which may end up hurting Sega in the long run.

Do all the episodes have to cost the same? How knows, the first one may cost $15 but the second could cost only $10. Either way, I might just get this on PSN instead since it could possibly be cheaper.

And to the people who are saying this game better be as good as Sonic 2 or 3. It wont. You should just save youself the dissapointment and accept that. It doesn't really matter what Sega does, Sonic 4 will not be as good as the Genesis titles. Thats not to say it will suck. I think Sonic 4 will turn out pretty good, just not Genesis good.

I was pretty hesitant when I heard episodes, and now this seals the deal. Sorry Sega, not paying $15 for your average game.

NeoShinobi made a good point...Chances are (especially given the overpricing) it'll end up either as a package deal or on sale through PSN or XBLA. Nintendo, however, never has sales, so it's looking like the Wiiware release is the wrong way to go for multiple reasons.

Regardless, I'm still buying the PSN version. The question is will the PSN and XBLA versions' prices be the same as the WiiWare version, or different? Hopefully, Sega will spill the beans soon.

I'm sure that this game will rock!!!

Considering that this game is a multi-platform title, chances are that it will be $15 on all platforms. If you have a PS3 or an Xbox 360, your best option would be just to wait for it to go on sale or wait and see if they release this game on a disc later on. The $15 price for downloadable games is becoming the new standard as of late on XBLA and PSN. It was only a matter of time before it started showing up on WiiWare too. I don't mind paying $12 for a game like Shantae because it is actually the entire game but $15 for just one episode is simply ridiculous. It is most likely that each episode will cost $15 as well. In other words, it costs this much because Sega knows that people would be willing to pay for it.

@WolfRamHeart: Last I knew Shantae was gonna be multi-ep too?

Anyway, I'm none too much a Sonic fan, but I was looking forward to this slightly. It's a shame the price is high, & higher still for other countries. I'm not gonna support high priced dlc. Mega Man 9/10 was as far as I go, & even then it was 8-10$ worth of dlc, not the basic game itself.

I was also slightly interested in this game. But when a so called "episode" costs 1000 Points or more, I'll leave it to the absolute die-hard Sonic fans to give their last money for some downloadable files. - I'd rather buy Sonic 2 & 3 for the VC instead since I do not know them already and they're are complete games.

@65 Who says the game is getting an HD upgrade on the other consoles? It could get that, but I haven't heard anything about it.

@70 Not counting the boss Acts (as they don't get their own acts in the Genesis games), Episode I has 12 Acts. By comparison, Sonic 2 has 20 Acts, Sonic 3 has 12, and Sonic & Knuckles has 13. We're pretty much getting an entire game in each episode.

@79 Just because the NP reviewer said it's not quite as good as the Genesis games (while still admitting it's very close), who says that will be the general consensus? After all, two S3&K veterans have important roles in this project.

Anyway, I think 1000 Points would be more appropriate, but this is still a Day 1 download for me.

@87 It will run in FULL 1080p HD on xbox360 and ps3 , it has been confirmed.

Time will tell if it's worth it, 1500 points is not too much money after all.

It's official. NO EFFING WAY am I getting this game now. I was BARELY considering it for 1000 points, but seeing how it doesn't do anything new, and all the bosses are just crappy rehashes of old bosses, I'm just gonna get La Mulana and an awesome VC game, thank you.

All I know is FFIV:TAY was about $35 when all was said and done despite it being episodic, and episodes were between 8 and 5 a pop with the beginning and end being the 8's, VERY reasonable, and came out to about the price of your average DS RPG. Hopefully, as someone mentioned, Sonic 4 would see less for subsequent episodes but it's highly unlikely given the structure of Sonic games (only an example: ep. 1, 1500, 9 stages... ep. 2, 500, 5 stages, this is a little better to swallow). That's only hypothetical though... now if each game is 8-10 stages @ 1500, that may be a little more justified cause each game is like a COMPLETE Sonic game, THAT makes sense to me. Like I said, that gap that needs filling is we need to know what we get for 1 episode, and how much for subsequent episodes, and until we see impressions or reviews, we all need to just relax. Either way, Imma sucker up and pay it as a Sonic fan, but I still don't have to like it. Smart business? Yeah for business, I'm a customer, so that's not my prob.

Personally, I think that they should have made each episode 1000 points but offered less content so that it would seem more reasonable but the remaining content of the full game be optional DLC. You're still paying the same as you would do now if you want the full episode but you're given the option for a cheaper version if you want. People put off by a 1500 point tag may be swayed by a 1000 point tag. But then they'll likely complain about the optional 500 point DLC.

It's going to be worth it.

Official confirmation http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/112/1123849p1.html

I see... unknown on number of episodes. Well, I'm already sold on Episode I, I plan to play this barring an unforeseen "it sucks" happening to it, lol. Can't wait for impressions.

Ouch. Any word on what it will cost on iOS? $15 on the consoles, but what about the iPhone? If it's $15 there it will tank for sure. Or at least the price will drop rapidly.

It's offical check ign.com sonic will be out on oct 11 for wiiware oct 12 for psn & xbox live all priced at $15

If this is just one zone, I'm gonna get UPSET.

I'm hoping for no Shadow, Rouge, Blaze, Silver, Cream, Big, etc...
Instead, just Sonic, Tails, Dr. Robotnik, and ten-thousand annoying animals in robots.

Comment 100 to say - this game could make or break my year.

@James There's still Sonic Colors!

...in a word...Sega is "robbing" us...

@James_Newton
Can't a comment be flagged for doing that?

DANG IT!!! Why did you all have to bring this up again, I've tried my hardest in the past to settle people down about prices, but still I gotta hear you complain again, wow your some fan if you wont pay $15 for the product and a pretty big tightwad, once again is $5 extra gonna break you bank? Most likely not, so if you do like the series pay $15 for it, I promise it won't kill you.

If you don't want to hear the complaining, close the tab and move on. $15 is a lot for one episode of a WiiWare game in my own opinion as well; even if i were a gung-ho Sonic fan i'd still be a bit put off (at least at first) by that kind of price-tag.