Misleading Dot-Com had Avant-Garde Green Hill Imagery
Several people had written in to our News Tips system telling us of the existence of Needlemouse.com.
The website contained some pretty trippy photos of what appeared to be from a Green Hill Zone like environment. The renders were trippy enough to convince a large portion of the Sonic community that they were a part of the next Sonic, announced yesterday as Project Needlemouse.
TSSZ News has since confirmed first with a representative from Sega of America that Needlemouse.com has no relation whatsoever to the upcoming Sonic project. Several outlets, including a few major ones, have pointed to the cryptic dot-com as a teaser.
“That site is not connected to our Project Needlemouse,” Kellie Parker of the Sega of America community blog told TSSZ News, responding to our request for comment.
Some in Sonic fandom were hot on the trail before the confirmation came down. A search of the WHOIS entry for Needlemouse.com revealed somewhat convenient timing–the domain was registered on August 21st–but its registrar was not Sega, but rather Dreamhost.com.
So, who placed the artwork online? Some detective work by other fans have indicate a trace to Jono M. Forbes, an Albany, New York based 3D graphic designer. Inquiries are in to him as to his role in all of this. Hope can still be had that Mr. Forbes contributed concept art in some form to Project Needlemouse, but at this point, that appears remote. It’s unclear whether action will be taken by Sega on this matter, either on Mr. Forbes or on someone else. We’ll update you on that component as details become available.
In the end, we are back where we started with Project Needlemouse–with not much, outside of a trailer. TSSZ News will bring you the latest on the project as new details become available. We also appreciate all the readers who wrote in with the web address, which prompted this query.
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Thank fucking Christ for that!
Awesome! Thanks for clarifying.
thank god! I mean really..its good to know that shit was fake. It looked absolutely atrocious..not retro at all.
Yesssss!
Wow. They traced him down to his name and location.
The internet is a scary place.
Ever heard of whois?
it’s good and bad at the same time
Wow, Umm… SEGA confirmed this themselves on twitter.
It fricken real ya losers.
Oh thank god that art was terrible.
Xero: The project itself is real. This purported teaser site we’ve linked to above is not.
-T
The stuff on Needlemouse.com looked cool, but a little too weird for SEGA; it was like Sonic meets Dr. Seuss.
Telling you guys about the site was the first time using the tip system for me, and even though I’m disappointed that it was fake, I’m glad to see that I was a part of it
.
There’s not much “action” SEGA can take on this.
I hope Sega sue the bitch tits off him.
Good, that was some God awful design.
let’s hope the add a (New trailer) with gameplay. like unleashed when it was leaked and the next day there was a trailer
People Be confident SEGA is going pull something AWSOME!!! mutch better than that
I’m very confident about that game, it’s going to be the best ever you’ll see! 
SEEEGAAAAAAAAAAAA 
So we know that the screen shot was fake….but what about the trailer?
i just hope its on disc and 2.5D/3D if you know what i mean
lol.
please sega!!! give us more info!!!!
PS: that concept on that web was pretty nice! hope thats what the game sorta looks like! cus if this game is going to be FULL boring 2D sprites like crap (Sonc 1, 2, 3 etc) then i may not buy…. espescally if its online! sigh.
PEOPLE!!! Can i remind you of someone……. WHOM mentiond a “new just Sonic Daylevels game” before????
ladies and gentalmen…… WENTOS.
thats right! SU got leaked buy a guy, now this game is by Wentos back then! its all true beleave me! so the next time a “spammer” metionds news on a sonic game… i may beleave him/her as this is the 2nd time its happend! ^_^
thank you for your time
lol.
The graphics were kinda interesting, but I’m glad it was a fake. I wouldn’t mind a GHZ remake in the game, but I wasn’t so sure about the design pictures on needlemouse.com…
Well thank GOD that’s out of the way. Green Hill is supposed to be colorful and cubicle, not Tim Burton-esque. That was just plain…. creepy?
come on sonic fans vote for sonic here
http://www.gamespot.com/greatest-video-game-hero/vote/index.html?battle_id=41
he can’t lose to Bub & Bob
Okay… I don’t really care… yeah… old green hill zone!
Werehog: Nah, not me either.
Hi, this is Jono Forbes, Art Director of Needlemouse: The Emerald Hill, at Needlemouse.com — thanks for helping us clear this up!
We just put out a press release on Needlemouse.com, declaring our involvement — none — with Sega’s project. Feedback from our little teaser image so far has been mostly positive, so hopefully some of you will still be interested in following our progress on Needlemouse.com, even though we’re not Sega. Our forums will go public this evening, so you can join the discussion if you’re interested in what we’re doing.
Again, thanks for helping clear the confusion, this has been a huge surprise and quite a lot to respond to!
OMG, if you all had just read the site description it crealy says it is a completely separate fan-project! does nobody know how to scroll down?
Hope they make the 2D/3D (2.5d) transitions as in the day stages of sonic unleashed and interesting camera perspectives. Pure 2D scrolling will mess this up.
This is NOT fake. Loser.
The DEFO characters – Sonic obv XD
Characters I HOPE for
– Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Cream, Cheese, Rouge, Shadow, Blaze, Silver, Eggman, Metal Sonic, Black Doom, Omega, Big, Vanilla, Jet, Wave and Storm =]
Tails – Best friend and companion of Sonic – Certain he’ll appear.
Amy – Main girl, Sonic’s secret love – Certain she’ll appear
Knuckles – A Rival of Sonic – Certain he’ll appear
Cream and Cheese – Amy’s best friends – Likely to appear
Rouge – Shadow’s best friend – Likely to appear
Shadow – Arch-Rival of Sonic – Certain He’ll appear
Blaze – Sonic’s friend – Likely to appear
Silver – A Sonic friend and rival – Likely to appear
Eggman – MAIN VILLAIN – Certain he’ll appear
Metal Sonic – Eggman robot – Likely to appear
Black Doom – Shadow’s biogical father – Un-Likely to appear
Omega – A Friend of Shadow and Rouge – Likely to appear
Big – Amy and Cream are his friends – Un-Likely to appear
Vanilla – Cream’s mother – Un-Likely to appear
Babylon Rogues – Extreme gear racers – Un-Likely
So, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Shadow and Eggman I’M sure they’ll appear absolutely certain
Cream, Cheese, Rouge, Silver, Blaze, Metal Sonic and Omega are most-likely to appear
Black Doom, Big, Vanilla and the Babylons are un-likely to appear over lack of games
SonAmy – 4EVER
TaiCream – 4EVER
KnuOuge – 4EVER
ShaOuge – 4EVER
ShadAmy – Not really :l
Oh, thank Christ. I just about had a heart attack when I saw that concept art.