Fans of the Blue Blur are in for a treat. It looks like you'll be able to play as Sonic the Hedgehog in the upcoming Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD.
This news comes via a list of leaked Xbox One Achievements for the game (presumably these will also correspond to PlayStation trophies). Among the usual stuff - clear all the worlds, clear time attack mode, obtain secret bananas - is an achievement called "Way Past Cool". The achievement is worth 80 Gamerscore and asks players to "clear a stage as Sonic the Hedgehog". That's pretty definitive proof right there.
Of course, we're not yet sure in what form Sonic will appear. Clearly, he will be playable, but whether he'll just be inside a sphere like the monkeys in the game or whether he'll be free to run around isn't known. We also don't know if he'll have his own stages. There's a second achievement in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD called "Monkey Business". This achievement asks players to "change the costumes of all characters except Sonic". Looks like he won't have his own costumes then. Shame.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD is a remake of the 2006 Wii launch title Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz. It was originally announced back in July. New features include from-the-ground-up reworked visuals, optimized controls for each current-gen platform, online leaderboards, and a new minigame Decathlon mode. The minigame count is down from 50 in the Wii version to just 10 this time around. The Decathlon allows you to compete in each one in sequence. Otherwise, it's the same old tilt-tastic Super Monkey Ball action we all know and love.
If you want to pick up Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD, you can do so for $39.99 on October 29th. The game will launch for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.
