Eh, I bet if the entire Portal 2 gameplay was leaked a lot of Portal fans would watch it.

They can leak all they want. I wont really know until I play it.

I don't really see the harm. It's not like there's a surprise ending. It's a Sonic game. You run to the right, you jump on the boss, that's it. I think you might be blowing this a little out of proportion. Watching gameplay and listening to the soundtrack of a simple sidescroller like Sonic isn't the same as, say, watching all the cutscenes and listening to the soundtrack of Final Fantasy XIII, where the cutscenes are the game, and the music is crafted soley to enhance the moment.

Sonic is some peppy techno and holding right while you tap jump. They're just excited to see more of the game.

Because it looks like complete shit? Jim, you're on denial stage already, it's only a matter of time until you realize that this Sonic game will also suck balls.

I think folks watched the videos because they are cautious cats. Sega has raked the Sonic IP over the coals for years, and some simply don't have faith that the company can repeat the successes of yesteryear.

And after watching that mine cart level, I think they have an argument.

You are a brilliant master of reverse trolling, sir.

@Clarke - god damn it. Thanks. Now I won't be buying this. You just ruined the story for me.

@Jim Sterling
what pisses me off about the leaks is how fucking awful the person playing is. Jesus, you'd think they'd never picked up a Sonic game before. Running into the fucking enemies like a moron. I seriously stopped watching because of that.

The thing I found most hilarious was within hours, people had already made remixes of the new songs that sounded better than the originals.
I mean, fair enough, the new music is good, but very samey.
That said, I've only watched video footage of the first level, and don't really intend on watching the rest.

I do agree Jim, and yes, I, as a Sonic fan, do agree that the franchise is turning into shite.

Here's a quote that I saw on Sonic Retro that explains nothing more than the truth:

"I've seen ignorance all across the board lately. I didn't think this would need to be said since a little research would do you good, but so many people are jumping to conclusions to stuff this deserves it's own topic methinks.

So see these Sonic 4 screens recently, hear the game is up on Xbox Live? Well guess what buckos, it's all true. Welcome to the wonderful world of PartnerNET! Known by many developers as a non-private hell hole. You see, PartnerNET is a system on the Xbox 360 which can be reached from Developer Consoles of the 360, given mainly to Game Developers and Journalist. This accesses a private section of Xbox Live that is cut away from the publicly sold Xbox 360. The difference is you make an account, whatever you like, and you have access to it. Simple, right? PartnerNET is a completely open system which all Xbox developers who want online content, from everything from trailers, to demos, to downloadable content, to themes, all of it, need to use. It is required. If you want anything up for download, it needs to go through PartnerNET first. PartnerNET is basically a beta testing ground. They can put up games in development, games near completion, anything on it. It has a certain convenience because lets say you needed people to beta test a game? Well what easier way than to make it open to PartnerNET so that people can test it from their own home! In fact, lots of developers do this. It's fast and easy. It allows them to distribute it for testing and beta purposes. However, there is one major flaw Microsoft made with this system: On PartnerNET, there are no secrets.

EVERYTHING put up on PartnerNET (which ironically with the rules is required to be everything that is going to be put up for download on Xbox Live) is viewable and downloadable by ANYONE else on PartnerNET. To make matters worse, Microsoft requires them to use the exact games title when putting content up, since that reserves a space and title, so only the title of the actual game can be used instead of a codename. However, it's all good, because PartnerNET has strict rules that no one, and I mean NO ONE is allowed to speak about what's on PartnerNET. It's a deal where anything and everything has to go up there, anyone can get what's up there, just no one is allowed to tell the public what actually is up there. There's laws against it.

Of course, some people have PartnerNET through ways other than being developers or journalist. Some people don't know what PartnerNET is even for. Whoever is making these Sonic 4 leaks is not only in major legal danger, but they have no idea the terms of PartnerNET. Endri, the guy who decided to use PartnerNET as like some toy anyone can screw around with, has no idea what he's talking about. Sonic 4 doesn't need to be near completed to be on PartnerNET. Developers can choose to put up WHATEVER they want on PartnerNET as long as it aligns with their game. They were likely beta testing, putting the game up for people to beta test and get feedback from their testers to improve the game. SEGA is even split into different parts of the world, they could have put it up so people from SEGA of Europe and Japan could see how the game is coming along. They shouldn't need to fear putting it up because PartnerNET is a private Microsoft system used by developers and journalist to test things, and beta testing over the network or games in development get put up all the time. So do complete games and downloadable content. It's all for beta testing, at whatever stage the developer uploads it on. No one is allowed to talk about it. At least, that's how it should be.

Whoever posted these screens, Endri talking about the game... These are all illegal acts. More so, Endri jumping to conclusions the game is almost complete are complete hogwash. It could be near complete, but that's just as likely as it is that it's not even close to being complete. It's a BETA testing engine. It's for people to TEST things, whatever they need to test. SEGA more than likely put it up to let some testers or other people at SEGA test the game in it's development. It's not like SEGA put it up for anyone to look at, this is supposed to be a mature working environment and if they want to test something on Xbox Live, they NEED to do it on PartnerNET, it is required.

All these leaks are illegal. Sonic 4 being up on PartnerNET does NOT make it complete. In fact, it is more than likely put up for what exactly what the network was made for; BETA TESTING. Screen taker and Endri are violating the terms of agreement and laws for talking about it being up there, but more so LEAVING IMPRESSIONS and FUCKING SCREENSHOTS. They could very well loose their access to PartnerNET at the least, sued lots of money at the most. What they did was illegal, they directly violated terms of agreement, and are treating a workplace for beta testing in games like a place children can fetch free candy from and play whatever little games they desire.

NO this does not mean this is the final version of Sonic 4. NO what they did was not right. NO PartnerNET is not open to the public. Everyone just stop being ignorant and doing all I've seen so many do for weeks on end; Jump to conclusions. If the fanbase would read up some on what PartnerNET actually is or had a brain to think something about all of this isn't right, then all of this ignorance and people thinking the final game is moonjumping glitchy Sonic for some reason months in advance from a version of the game played on a BETA TESTING network, then we would be a lot better off."

Don't you agree?

Oh cool, DWEATDROP. That sure is a thing.

i dont see how any person is a "fucking idiot" for wanting to hear the music from a game that hasnt arrived yet. sonic games are known for having sweet music, whats the big deal.

also, why assume the people that cry "omg spoilerz" are the same ones watching entire levels? i know it sounds good in a rant, but its not really legitimate is it. call me crazy, but its more likely that theyre two distinct groups of people.

Soundtracks I can understand but watching the entire being played makes no sense to me. I mean, there's no great revelation to be had by listening to game music so it's not like a spoiler or anything. However watching the game being played in it's entirety just seems silly and even worse boring.

Kinda harsh Jim don't you think? I mean, just because people don't care weather they "spoil" a gaming experience makes them a fucking idiot. Really who cares! Its up to them, if you don't want to spoil it, then avoid it as best you can.

Disregard this comment if you were being sarcastic or disregard it all together if you where not, I don't care.

There's no such thing as being too hard on Sonic fanboys. They whine that they want oldschool Sonic, they whine when Sega delivers something as clearly great as Sonic 4. They say they don't want to give Sega money, then their "boycott" includes buying older Sonic games. They're idiots and don't deserve any respect. As for the rest of us, we can simply sit back and look forward to what looks like some old-school Sonic side-scroller goodness.

How dare fans of a series want to soak up all the information they can about it. They must be retarded to want to learn more about the return of Sonic in 2D.

Spoilers... in a sonic game?

What are you talking about? Might be time to get off the hate train. Or at least just report the news story without 12 grams of CONDESETION. Get it?

I agree! I'm not a sonic fan but spoiling a game for one's self by watching at leaked footage at will is something stupid! Why don't wouldn't anyone want to get surprised by a game level or music at the moment of actually playing it!? Letting all the game unfold at your eyes as you play it!! I just don't get it, it doesn't matter if sonic has a great story or not, what matters is if you want to be surprised by a game and have fun!!!!

I remember when shadow of the colossus came out, all of my friends were telling how awesome the game was!! I wanted to play that game so bad but I didn't search for videos or any info on the game because I wanted to experiment it to its fullest while playing it!

So yeah, I can't understand why some gamers want to spoil the actual gaming experience at their own will. I just can't.

Did anyone here ever consider that Sega might have leaked this stuff themselves? No sign of Sega reps with scything comments is suspicious, like an inside job.

And if some dude did make a hack of some kind, while such a dude can get in trouble, is this really any different than watching something on Gametrailers etc? I watch plenty of game videos via such services, and more times than not, it sells many games to me that way. Us core gamers are but a fraction of the potential sales, that might sample this leaked stuff. Casuals won't care to view it, and if they did, will see this as another game they can play easily, or leave their kids alone with.

If this is illegal doing, and while I don't condone it, I seriously doubt that its going to impact sales of Sonic 4, across all formats (most of which is via DLC). Do remember, its due for release in the summer time of 2010, and that's only a few weeks away (and timed nicely to hit E3 and the new iPhone/touch/Pad launch in June). We had also sampled some of the music before hand too.

Leak or not, its still nice advertising for Sega. They'll still clean house with Sonic 4 (whether we like it or not), like many games that get leaked online in playable form, let lone some video and music. If playable code was out there, then Sega would naturally crack down, with harsh statements, threatened legal action and the like. As for the music, that's only something that core gamers (and Sega would care enough about, not casual gamers.

Will I buy it? Probably for 360, yeah.

I don't know. Have you ever really wanted something and had the chance to experience it early? It is like the character roster for a new Smash Brothers game. Sure it would be nice to be surprised, but I doubt people could resist the allure.

I'm too busy to watch it. Not that big of a Sonic fan anyway, so I'm not going to bother, but I may pick it up at a later date.

Some people like seeing what's in the game before they play it, others like a surprise. I'm half and half usually. I'll watch gameplay of a game I'm thinking of getting and see what I should expect and such. It's complicated, but anyway...

I'm in the Hammer right now, so I'm gonna get back to that.

Soundtracks are cool. Shitty editors are not. Another Sterling piece of shit. Or shite, however you like.

Well, as someone who has seen some of those leaked videos, they did one thing for me:

They threw away any doubts I had that this wouldn't be a fun title. Shame other retarded fans are using it more as a pedestal to bitch more.

We've not developed methods to remotely make computers explode yet, have we?

@ Jim Sterling: Maybe, but if you recall the first video leak you guys posted, there was one steep area where Sonic was supposed to ascend into a dash then go into a loop and so on. The player in the video must have tried at least three times to do that, but it looked like Sonic got "caught" on something that didn't allow him to dash upwards into a loop.
It's been a while, might have to check again, but that part stuck out like a soar thumb to me.

Anyway, if it's out there, people are gonna get to it. Doesn't matter if they are fans or not.
I'd think the hardcore Sonic fans actually would want to see it that badly since they're the ones that are gonna bash/praise this game nonstop. I heard negative reviews already... :(

I work with a guy who constantly spoils games for himself (and me) by watching YouTube walkthroughs of all the games he's thinking about buying. He then proceeds to talk about it as if he's played it himself. I learn all plot twists, game tricks and inventory content before I've even bought the game.

Perhaps I should have mentioned I despise this guy at work.

On topic, people can't help themselves. I don't know if they do it because they are crap at games so they want a "headstart" or because they just can't wait. Whtever the reason they are monster tards.

Some people actually enjoy watching the videos and then playing the game. It's all some kind of hype trip. It's not much different than watching trailers, other than the fact that you see the entire game.