It’s New Years Eve people. Well, it is for us British folk right now. Antipodean chums like Hawkz and Elson might have had it already because they like to gatecrash a party early (I’ve heard about Andrew’s stories…), but by and large… New Years Eve, OK? And that means 2008 is right around the corner. Also means for me, that I reflect on the last 12 months and reckon where it is I’ve gone wrong. I’d be lying if I said that 2007 has been good – it’s been bloody fantastic, all things considered.
The Sonic Stadium has played host to many great meetups involving growing numbers of Sonic fans. In May Elson ‘Darkspeeds’ Wong took a trip around the world and landed in London, planning to meet up with myself and Adam along the way. Somehow more people invited themselves along and it became what was known as ‘Wrecksfest’. It couldn’t have been a better turn of events though, as a group of 12 or so guys and gals waltzed the city, went to the pub for several hours and had dinner at Pizza Hut. We also arranged another meetup later that year which was dubbed ‘BirdCon’ for Adam’s apparent move to Japan (which never happened due to certain issues with the company involved). TSS was also there for Video Games Live 2007 in November and a special trip to SEGA Europe to play Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games weeks before the UK release. It’s ironic that not one meetup has been named after us yet, really.
Speaking of which, Sonic Cage Dome’s Zizou is heading to London in a few days time, an event to which I am invited to, so I’ll be out to see the Cage Dome guys round about then. If you fancy tagging along, see this website for more details. We’ll have more meetups in 2008 though, and when I can be bothered to fix one up you guys will be the first to know. It’ll probably be sometime in the holidays so as many people as possible can make the trip.
We’ve also been to Japan! Aw yeah. TSS was able to sneak into the Tokyo Game Show and take sordid pictures of a guy in the best Sonic costume ever created. We also played the new NiGHTS before the whole world and got a taste of manic Japanese gaming action. It was an experience to be sure, and we’re currently pulling the video we made so we can show you some of the stuff we took at the event too.
Games-wise, it’s been a mixed bag. The good news is that we haven’t had any real horrors the likes of which we’ve only seen in Sonic 06 (I tried to play that again the other day, almost threw my controller around in a rage), but on the flipside we’ve not had a proper canon Sonic game this year. To be honest, I don’t care as long as when it does come around, it’s as polished as possible. I want 2007 to be the year SEGA realises that they have to go back to basics on some level with the franchise – evident when America bossman Simon Jeffery spoke exclusively to TSS in October.
It wasn’t all mildly amusing spinoffs though, especially not on the handheld front. Sonic Rush Adventure has been a standout game, slapping everything else Sonic flat in the face and being the first TSS 10/10 in aeons. It could be argued that the game only got top marks by comparing it to recent Sonic games. Not so; there are elements in Rush Adventure that could rival the Mega Drive classics and that is a pretty big feat for SEGA – especially the SEGA of this day and age – to pull off.
We’ve had our fair share of competitions too. Sonic Rush Adventure in particular had a cool Treasure Hunt contest to win awesome branded gear, and this Christmas in particular has had a crapload of free goodies that’s asking for your collection. I’m posting the entries sent into me to the moderators later today and we’ll be judging those over the next few days, so hang tight for that!
In terms of TSS and progress and things, it’s been a bit of a less impressive year. The site’s not been so active lately and 2007 has been more of a transitional period for us than anything else. Next year we’ll see some things come together properly, like the re-organisation of the TSS site, the completion of the new Sonic Show website (that’ll be first thing on our list of ‘to-do’s) and plenty more besides. I’ll be pursuing my journalism career much more than before, and with this I’ll be a little bit more set on sorting the site and everything else out. 2008 is going to be a pretty good year, let’s hope we can make it even better than this one just gone!
Make some new years resolutions that you’ll probably break later, be sure to go out and get completely wasted, and I’ll see you on the other side. Before I go, a massive thank you to a few people who without them couldn’t have made this year possible – Adam Tuff for his Sonic madness, the TSSNET and SSMB staff (every one of you) for your extraordinary efforts this year, B’man for his sexy codingness, Kevin Eva for his continued work in the links between community and SEGA in which I started in 2005, Roarey for just being totally awesome and having the time to dedicate to stuff no matter what the issue, and of course you guys – the members and visitors, who have stuck with us no matter what kind of bullshit we’ve had in the past.
Here’s to you. Go 2008!