Sega is rounding off the year by giving fans something to look forward to in 2012, announcing Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II for release sometime next year. The teaser is light on information, but confirms that long-term partner Tails will return alongside antagonist Metal Sonic. The sequel to 2010's 2D Sonic revival is coming to PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, iOS, Windows Phone, and Android, with the latter version having enhancements baked in for Tegra 3 devices like the Asus Transformer Prime. If you noticed something missing from the list of platforms, you're not alone — despite Episode I hitting the Wii, Nintendo fans seem to be out of luck this time.

Episode I met with a fairly muted response, but following the excellent release of Sonic CD (review in our forums) on various platforms earlier this month Sega has hopefully taken some of the criticism on board. For its part, the company says that Episode II features a "completely reworked" physics engine and new character animations. We'd hope so — at a pace of two years an episode, Sega certainly should have had enough time to respond to fan feedback.