Alright, so the title of this article may be admittedly a little misleading, should you be a stickler for details and nuances. However, as someone who just heard of this game upon its release last week, when I first laid eyes on this new platformer my mind couldn’t help but take me back to the awesome days of my childhood circa 1992, playing with my favorite video game character of all time and everybody’s favorite blue hedgehog.
No, Freedom Planet is NOT a Sonic game, but only in the same sense that Mighty No. 9 isn’t a Megaman game. I dare you to watch this trailer and tell me I’m wrong.
The game is created by indie developers Galaxy Trail, headed up by Stephen “Strife” Diduro, a member of the SonicRetro.org forums. The project actually had origins as a Sonic fangame, before growing into it’s own via Kickstarter. Billed as a ‘return to retro mascot platforming’, the game holds much of the core elements and feel of Sonic 2 or 3, while incorporating other mechanics inspired by games such as Rocket Knight, Mario, and Ristar. We’ll have you covered on a full review in the near future, but in the meantime if you’re not sold on the game, GalaxyTrail has released a nice demo that you can use to familiarize yourself with the look and feel of the game (found on their website, located here). The full game is currently available on Steam, for $15.
If you’re a fan of old-school Sonic, or even Genesis/MegaDrive era platformers in general, you may owe it to yourself to check it out!