Yesterday, I got the chance to sit down for tea and biscuits with Akinori Nishiyama, producer on Sega's upcoming Sonic reboot Sonic Unleashed. When you get a chance to ask someone high up at Sega why they, uh, don't make good Sonic games anymore, you don't pass that chance up. So I asked him, in light of the company's insistence on including 3D elements in Unleashed, whether Sega would be taking a leaf out of Capcom's book and putting out a 2D, HD Sonic remake (or even a new game) on XBLA or PSN?
Nishiyama: There's always the possibility. Whether it would be viable remains to be seen, but having a new game - or even a remake of the GBA games, which we now can't use [thanks to the DSi] - would certainly be possible. If we made one, would you buy it? Me: [nods] Nishiyama: Really? Me: [nods] Nishiyama: [laughs] Great! One of our ideas has been that on older consoles, you may have had only 16 colours. One thing we could do is make a game like Mega Man 9; do a new Sonic, but in an old style.
Encouraging words, but let's not jump the gun. This is Sega we're talking about, after all.