1998 was a dull year in terms of Sonic games. This was the year though, that Sega’s new fangled ‘Dreamcast’ hit Japanese stores, and man, did it go off with a bang! This year also sees Sega getting mucho money, although they were still in debt. The world goes crazy after the Dreamcast launch in the Land of the Rising Sun, and many US and UK gamers were just left drooling for the 128-Bit console until 1999…
1998: The Year of Tacky Handheld Remakes
June: Sonic Jam (Tiger Game.com)
Sonic Jam was recreated for the new handheld console, Tiger Game.com. Seriously, was this some kind of sick joke? o_O This ended up looking nothing like the Sega Saturn version. You wouldn’t expect the movies or elaborate features in such a small cartridge, sure, but not even half of the Mega Drive games were correctly ported over. The OFFICIAL screenshots on the back of the box do it no justice – they are fake.
December: Sonic Adventure Promotions (Japan)
During the Japanese Sonic Adventure launch, some with a keen eye would notice a certain blue hedgehog adorning Coca Cola banners – the two photos above are from the Coca Cola building in Japan (last time we checked :P)
International / Other Releases
- January 21st: Sonic R Soundtrack (Japan)
- August 22nd: Sonic Adventure on Sega Dreamcast Announced (Japan)
- November 6th: Sonic Team Powerplay CD Release
- November 11th: Sonic R (PC – USA, Europe)
- December 2nd: Sonic Adventure: Songs With Attitude CD (Japan)
- December 16th: Sonic Adventure REMIX CD (Japan)
- December 23rd: Sonic Adventure (Japan)