E3 06: Sonic starting Wild Fire on Wii in 2007

LOS ANGELES--Last year, Sega announced it was working on a Sonic game for two next-generation consoles--the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. This morning, at the stroke of midnight, the publisher revealed that its emblematic blue hedgehog will be rolling onto the last of the three new consoles--the Nintendo Wii. "Sega is excited to lead the gameplay revolution through its support of Wii with a Sonic release built exclusively for this new system," said Scott Steinberg, Sega of America's vice president.

The Wii-only title in question is Sonic Wild Fire, an adventure game inspired by the classic fairy tales of the Arabian Nights. Unsurprisingly, the game will take advantage of the Wii's motion-sensing controller. Players will hold the controller horizontally, tilting it forward quickly to "dash-attack" foes. Sonic's movement will also be controlled by tilting the controller left or right, much like a steering wheel.

Besides the main campaign, Sonic Wild Fire will also have an assortment of minigames, all of which focus on the Wii's motion-sensing controller. While still unrated, the game does have a broad release window--the year 2007. GameSpot will have more details as soon as they become available.