well it's gonna be the retro future soon...

so in the upcoming months, two of my childhood favorites will be returning to gaming via XBLA. both will also be returning in 2.5d. for those unfamiliar, the idea is to have a 2d side-scroller, but with addition of 3d graphics.

the obvious game to mention here is Sonic the Hedgehog Episode 1. the game that may breathe some life back into a series that needs it more than any other. much like every other StH fans, i have grown weary of the "upgrades" that the Sonic Team has made since it hit next gen 3d way back in 1999. the addition of characters that caused the game-play to become stagnant and in some cases downright unplayable. the plot devices developed which made less and less sense, as Sonic Universe became more and more disconnected from any sort of coherent or traceable storyline. the overtly plagiarized Mario titles using Sonic and Sega characters in place of thought, and original game development. so also like other StH fans, i am warily awaiting the release of the upcoming title. hoping that maybe this time, yet again, Sega and Sonic Team will actually live up to their promise of returning Sonic to his original platformy goodness.

i will note, however, that there are two avatar awards for the upcoming titles release:
Sonic The Hedgehog Mask
How to obtain: Buy the game and start it
Sonic The Hedgehog Suit
How to obtain: Successfully complete the Game
of course, the only benefit i can see to this is that the following/remaining episodes may have avatar awards as well. although, i would hope they are also costumes upgrades as well. i could easily think of three other characters that would deserve the honor: Tails, Knuckles, and (of course) Dr. Robotnik/Eggman.

the second title may be not as well known, but for those of us who did know it, it is no less spectacular. Rocket Knight! this 2d side-scroller followed the adventures of an armor wearing, sword wielding, rocket packing opossum by the name of Sparkster. it was pretty much your typical, good vs. evil, damsel in distress, traitor in the kingdom type of story. the one thing that made it unique, other than being an opossum who battled pigs, was the use of the rocket pack. you could zip around the screen, ricochet off of things in the environment and ram into enemies at full speed with the use of this handy little device. you could also hang from trees by you prehensile tail, but i don't recall if there was actually a use for that or not. needless to say, i was almost too excited to hear the announcement that it would finally be returning to an HDtv near me.

i think the common thing betwixt the two titles that inspired me to write today were the achievement listings over at Xbox 360 Achievements. from what i can tell from the listed goals, the games will have a lot in common with the predecessors from the days of yore. of course i am going to try the demos out first. suffice it to say, it will take very little persuasion to get me to buy either title, because for once, i am liking what i am seeing.