Well, toss that on the pile of headlines I never expected to write. Yesterday, SEGA held a special 15-minute livestream called Sonic Central, detailing all manner of exciting new bits and bobs fans can expect from the world of the blue hedgehog. Highlights included a look at the bonus content for the movie sequel’s home media release; 20 seconds of new footage for Sonic Frontiers; a glimpse at a new prologue short starring Knuckles; and a series of updates for Sonic’s mobile endeavours.
Enter Mephiles
For reasons unfathomable, both Sonic Dash and Sonic Forces Speed Battle continue to be maintained and added to, several years after their inception (and long after the latter’s original purpose, to cross-promote 2017’s Sonic Forces, passed its expiry date). New characters pop up in them from time to time, but on this occasion the new arrival is truly baffling: the time-travelling baddie from Sonic 2006, Mephiles the Dark. Yeah. I’m sure folks were just clamouring to play as him.
For those unfamiliar, Mephiles is one half of Solaris, an ancient sun god who forms the backbone of 2006‘s plot. After being separated from his other half, Iblis, by a Soleanna government experiment, Mephiles schemes to use the Chaos Emeralds to warp through time and arrange for Iblis to be released from his corporeal prison.
Said prison just so happens to be Princess Elise, Sonic’s infamous beau from the adventure – and to say stuff gets a bit wacky would be an understatement. With the general backlash to 2006 and a clear effort on SEGA’s part to get away from the negative reception, most fans assumed we wouldn’t see many of its elements ever again (save for Silver, who was a saving grace of the story). This new addition to Speed Battle has shattered that misapprehension entirely.
Sonic Forces x Sonic Dash trailer
Check out the trailer for Mephiles below.
Curiously, the narrator utterly screws up the pronunciation of Mephiles’ name: what should be meh-fill-is becomes ‘muh-Phyllis’. Perhaps the voice director got a call from his wife Phyllis halfway through the recording, and things got a bit muddled.
Also announced in the trailer are the addition of Super Shadow (Shadow’s Chaos Emerald-infused form) and Sonic and the Black Knight‘s Sir Percival (Blaze the Cat’s medieval cosplay) to the games. Again, very curious choices, and ones which perhaps suggest we’re nearing the bottom of the barrel of doom. Time to pack it in at last, eh, mobile devs? At least give some love to the Sonic Boom-themed Dash sequel while you’re at it.
What’s your take on this? Are you glad to see Mephiles? Let us know!
Via, YouTube.
