Super Smash Bros. 4 is slowly starting to take shape, as Nintendo continues to update the official website for the game, but Nintendo decided to take advantage of the Nintendo Direct held on Oct. 1 to announce Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog will be a playable character in the game for the Wii U and 3DS.
Sonic the Hedgehog was one of the major additions to the previous entry in the series, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and was one of the first characters to appear in the series to belong to a company other than Nintendo. While there was some question if the character would be left out of the game due to Sega's ownership of Sonic, this news confirms that the popular character will get another shot at taking down Nintendo All Stars such as Mario, Luigi, Samus and Pikachu.
This announcement also seems to confirm a new stage for the game as well. In some of the photos and video Nintendo released with the news of Sonic the Hedgehog's inclusion, it looks as though Sonic is in the Green Hill Zone. The Green Hill Zone is one of the most popular areas in the Sonic universe, and had appeared in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, so it would make sense to have a stage set in that area. However, Nintendo has not officially confirmed the Green Hill Zone stage yet.
With this announcement, Super Smash Bros. 4 has 17 confirmed characters on the roster. After announcing 12 characters for the game at E3 in June, Nintendo has declared the return of Olimar, Luigi, Peach, Toon Link and now Sonic. All five of these post-E3 characters are returning characters, and only three brand new characters (Wii Fit Trainer, Animal Crossing Villager and Capcom's Mega Man) have been announced for the game.
Currently, Nintendo has not announced when Super Smash Bros. 4 will be released either on the Wii U or 3DS, but the company has stated that the game is slated for release sometime in 2014. The Wii U and 3DS versions of the games will have some differences, most notably each version will have specialized stages that will reflect the platform a user chooses. In addition, the 3DS version of the game will outline the characters in the game with a black line to make them stand out, though players have the option to remove this feature.