Sonic DS: A Canned Part of the Past or a Sign of the Future?

When Sonic DS (which would later be known to the world as Sonic Rush) was initially unveiled in 2004, it looked to be an entirely different game than what it is now.
Although details were scarce, it looked to be a Sonic Adventure-esque game instead of the classic 2D style that was used for the final release.

Judging by the screen shots, it looked to take full advantage of the DS’s graphical power, and even made use of the touch screen by letting you control everyone’s favorite blue hedgehog by rubbing the stylus against the bottom DS screen.

Although it looked to be a platformer in the vein of Sonic Adventure, in many shots there was a start and finish meter found, so it could have possibly been a racing title like Sonic R (A long-forgotten on-foot racing title initially released for the Sega Saturn and later resurrected on last years’ Sonic compilation Sonic Gems Collection for Nintendo Gamecube).

So what could this all possibly mean? It could be canned, but I doubt Sega would cancel the original release for good. It’s unlikely that all of the Sonic games released for the DS will be 2D titles, so the next Sonic release from Sega could possibly be a re-worked version of what was initially unveiled or perhaps a whole new 3D Sonic game for Nintendo’s quirky handheld. Stay tuned, and when Ross finds out some more info about this intriguing-gaming mystery then you can be sure that you will too…