Here’s a bunch of new Sonic The Hedgehog 4 screens courtesy of an update the Sonic 4 website. The screens show of the Splash Hills Zone. The site is also offering an MP3 download of the Splash Hll Zone theme. We’ve also learned a few more interesting facts on Dr. Eggman:

“After losing the Master Emerald during his last encounter with Sonic, Eggman regroups with a new objective; to revisit and refine the best of his creations in an effort to finally rid himself of Sonic!”

Check the site out and download the Splash Hills Theme. It’s not exactly Green Hill Zone, but it’s still good all the same.

It’s true. Sega are not developing the new Sonic 4 Episodic games, instead the game is being developed by Dimps, the Osaka based group who have most recently worked on everything from Dragonball Z to Street Fighter IV. But, however, those of you who know your Sonic will know that Dimps were behind both Sonic Rush and Sonic Advance of Nintendo DS and Gameboy Advance respectively. Considering that these two portable titles were 2D affairs, maybe this could be the greatest decision Sega could have ever made with Sonic 4, especially since Rush and the Advance titles are probably some of the better contemporary Sonic games. What do you think? Is Sega right to hand the development over to someone else? Or is Sonic 4 doomed to disappoint fans the world over?

Uh-oh!!! Sega won’t like this one bit. It looks like an anonymous cheeky chappy has managed to get his hands on a bunch of Sonic 4 screenshots as well as what looks like a short internal video of the game. 1UP have since loaded them up online and as we can imagine there everywhere now. The screens reveal Episode 1′s first four stages Splash Hill Zone, Lost Labyrinth Zone, Casino Street Zone, Mad Gear Zone and a “Special Stage”. The video footage is fairly low quality, looks like it was recorded in a hurry but it gives you an initial glimpse of the game’s menu, loading screen and of Splash Hill Zone itself. We’ll reserve judgement on it until we see something in HD from Sega. In the mean time, check out these screens and a rather shaky video until Sega makes the world wide web take it down.

Sega have released with the help of Gamespot the trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 4, originally dubbed “Project Needlemouse”. The trailer shows off some beautiful 3d graphics

It looks like the Cat could well be out of the bag, or should I say Hedgehog! We all know Sega is working on a new Sonic game under the working title ‘Project Needlemouse’. Sega has suggested that they may reveal the game’s actual name this week but it looks like the name may have already leaked out. Dutch site NextGamer is reporting that Sega has registered the address www.sonicthehedgehog4.com. Could this be ‘Project Needlemouse’? Hopefully we can confirm or deny this over the next few days.