It was sad news for SEGA last week when the publisher announced layoffs and canceling an unknown amount of games. One of the franchises SEGA left intact was Sonic and for good reason, the blue hedgehog’s games always tend to do well. To that end, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 2 is still on track for a spring release.

SEGA released a new trailer for Sonic 4 that details Miles “Tails” Prower’s contributions to the gameplay. If you remember Sonic 2, and coincidentally every 2D Sonic game after, Tails was always just kind of there. Unless you were playing the co-op mode, Tails was just the poor sucker who always ended up getting killed by spikes, drowning and everything else.

The new trailer for Sonic 4, however, shows a Tails that is there to help out Sonic through the many sections of the game that will require his unique flying capabilities.Tails will also help Sonic through swim through the water using his twin-tails as a propeller. The most interesting team mechanic, however, comes from the new spin dash maneuver. It sees Sonic and Tails locking hands and feet to form a ball of destruction the likes of which the Sonic universe has never seen.

As far as the rest of the trailer goes, it’s still old school Sonic goodness. It’s obvious the team learned from the weaknesses in the first Sonic 4. The new game looks faster, more fluid and has more of a focus on what made Sonic great in the first place – meticulous platforming accompanied by a sense of speed.

The game will be out at an unspecified time this spring for XBLA, PSN, iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

Check out the trailer below and tell us what you think:

[h/t: DSOGaming]

UPDATE: Well, that was fast. GameSpot, during their On the Spot show, has confirmed that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 2 will launch on PSN on May 15, XBLA on 16, an unspecified date in May for iOS and PC and an unspecified date in June for Android and Windows Phone.