Sega's Back-To-Roots Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Delayed

Sega on Thursday delayed the first installment of Sonic the Hedgehog 4, a side-scrolling downloadable episodic series that takes the mascot back to his roots. A blog post on Sega Europe's site said the company is delaying the game from summer to the latter half of 2010, as it "wants to ensure that we’re delivering the best Sonic experience possible." "The additional time will allow the development team to focus on ensuring overall high-quality throughout the game by continuing to tune, balance, and maintain the kind of polish that an important title like this demands," the post added. Sega revealed Sonic 4 in February this year, saying that the game would be styled as a side-scrolling 2D game with 3D graphics, with heavy inspiration from the Genesis classics. The downloadable title will be episodic -- the first release will be the first episode kicking off "a much larger adventure," Sega associate brand manager Ken Balough said earlier this year. Sonic 4 is in development at Osaka-based Street Fighter IV co-developer Dimps. The game is slated for release on Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, WiiWare and -- as widely known but now confirmed -- on Apple's App Store.