Many gamers were excited last year when Sega announced the first sequel to the classic Genesis Sonic games in over 15 years. When it was finally released, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 failed to capture the hearts of old school Sonic fans. The culprit – Sonic moved way too slowly.

Sega, always willing to improve and proving they could with last year’s excellent Sonic Generations, is back at it with Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2. The trailer released today showcases some of the ideas at play in the new game.

The biggest change is the addition of Miles “Tails” Prower to the game. It seems that these episodes are following a similar format to the original games on the Genesis, so we can assume that Episode 3 will feature Knuckles.

Besides Tails coming back as an original character, the levels themselves seem to have received some major improvements to aesthetics and interactivity. It doesn’t hurt that the levels appear to be more varied this time unlike in the first episode.

While the first episode of Sonic 4 failed to really capture my interest, it looks like Sega has really improved just going by this trailer. Of course, there is always the dreaded Sonic cycle that may have been broken after the last few quality releases, but it’s still out there lurking in the shadows.

In all honesty, if the second episode fixes Sonic’s movement and velocity, then it will be a success in my book. I have faith that Sega will fix the problems that were inherent to the first episode.

Check out the trailer and tell us what you think: