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U.S. video game retailer Gamestop are offering Sonic Chronicles pre-order customers a character themed 3-pack stylus set . Each stylus is colour matched to the character tag hanging off the top. They come in Sonic, Knuckles and Shade flavours bearing official Sonic Chronicles artwork.
You can pre-order the game here .
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is due for release on Nintendo DS this September.
Some original early artwork from Sonic the Comic, Sonic the Hedgehog(Dic, AKA Satam) and Sonic X has hit eBay. They look VERY nice and pretty legit too. If you are a fan of these shows and comics and have the money then head over there and place your bid now.
Sonic the Comic issue 1 framed original artwork
Sonic X original layout drawings
Auctions originally found by GoNintendo
Sazpaimon, host of CulTNET, is in debt and would like your assistance in keeping the network online. CulTNET hosts many Sonic fan sites, such as Sonic Retro, X-Cult, Hacking Cult, and the Hidden Palace. $150 is due by next week, so if you are a fan or visitor of a site in CulTNET, do not hesitate to donate. Sazpaimon says that you can donate in the following ways:
1. Paypal, easiest method: Sazpaimon@sonic-cult.org is the address.
2. Paypal, yes again. If you don’t have a paypal account, but have a credit/debit card, head over to http://www.sonic-cult.org/index2.php and click the paypal button at the top of the left column. Select to continue without logging in, and enter your info.
3. Snail mail. If you don’t have EITHER, this is your only option. PM me for details on this.
Do you remember the days of pencil toppers? Begging your parents to buy a box of cereal because it came with a cool pencil topper you wanted to show off at school so you didn’t look like a nerd while answering those tough maths problems? Well now when you buy Samba De Amigo Wii you can top off your Wii Remote with your very own maracca topper.
They look exactly like the peripheral maracca’s you got with the Dreamcast game and look to add to the fun of shaking the remotes like them. My only question is: Will they hold? If you remember back to when the Wii was first released there was many news reports, images and video’s across the net and newspapers complaining about people losing grip and hurting people with the Wii remotes. So unless these maracca Wii remote heads come with something to secure them to the Wii remote, people are going to be complaining all over again that they were bopped in the head with the topper and danced a dizzy samba to the floor.
Video Games Live, a concert dedicated to the music of the computer games we play, took place for the first time in Glasgow on June 26th 2008. Richard Jacques was there (as you can see, plotting some evil scheme) as was Tommy Tallarico (Earthworm Jim, Metroid Prime) and many other composers of legend. Two brave souls, JJ4Eva and ForeverSonic, entered the concert as boys and emerged as men. Or something. Here’s their account of the night. Take it away boys.
Report by JJ4Eva
A nice rainy day of June 26th 2008 sees our two travellers James “JJ4eva” Maloney, and Simon “ForeverSonic” Shirley making their way to Glasgow for a big Scottish event. That event is Video Games Live, the first time the musical concert has ever been held in Scotland.
The day started off well, with JJ and ForeverSonic meeting none other than Richard Jacques outside of the concert hall in the late afternoon. Much conversation and laughs were had. We met Sonic, Mario and Ai Ai outside of the Glasgow Royal Concert hall. A lot of pictures were taken with Sonic and co keeping our men happy until they were called away back inside. Continue reading Video Games Live Glasgow: A Scottish Report
Thanks to Dave from Camp Sonic for kicking us awake for this one – the Golden Joystick Awards are gearing up again, and you can vote for your favourite games in many different categories. SEGA’s got a strong showing with Sonic appearing in multiple nominations:
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, which will just not die, is up for three different awards, including The Sun’s Family Game of the Year, Bliss Handheld Game of the Year and Nintendo Game of the Year (ouch, Miyamoto). Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Dash Mobile is lined up for 4Talent’s Mobile Game of the Year, while Sonic Unleashed could win the One to Watch Award (something that, given what we’ve seen so far, is quite justified).
SEGA’s in a bunch of other categories too, but you can go visit the GJ website (or the Sega Blognik) to see what those are. Be sure to make your vote count and don’t let a two year old game win any awards this time! OK? Cool.
Golden Joystick Awards (Via Sega Blognik – thanks Camp Sonic)
There there, don’t cry little chap. You’re probably not used to TSS changing into something ultra-mega-awesome. Either that, or you’re just wondering where the hell all our old content is. Although we’ve touched base on this before, I’m going to say that all the old content areas will be back very shortly. Takes some adjusting when you radically move from a 20%-complete bespoke system to a brand new blog-esque script.
Because of the change, certain pages will have to re-imagined or even re-written. We’re going to be doing this in particular to the Games Archive – the scans and stuff will still be there, don’t worry, but it will be a bit more informative and stuff. This area (the bloggy type bit) will be where you get your news and features on the games, and the Game Archive pages will be the place you go for the more in-depth information. We’ll be reworking these on a game-by-game basis. As I’m rather enjoying going through Rush Adventure again, that may be my first port of call. Who knows though.
In any road, you can expect the Downloads section back within the next few days. Don’t count on me doing anything though until Wednesday because it’s my birthday on Monday (drunken brouhaha weekend for the win). So basically, don’t worry. This blog thing won’t be the only thing to TSS, promise.
Isn’t it freaky when you find things you never remembered owning? Clearing out the various rooms that I live in the other day earned me this 1992 Sonic the Hedgehog pajama set as a reward. Uh, thanks wardrobe fairy? It’s a great bit of merch from yesteryear so after a bit of a wash I took some pictures. Ah, back when Sonic looked pretty funky (and fat). This was a set you could buy in Marks and Spencer’s and is just one of a billion things you could buy with Sonic’s head on it back in the day.
The top looks pretty sweet, right? You wanna see what the awesome pajama bottoms look like..? Continue reading Saturday Swag: 1992 Pajamas
GoNintendo has released two scans of the Wii version of Sonic Unleashed. The screens are compared side-by-side to the Xbox 360 version of the game and while the graphics of the 360 version is obviously better looking, the Wii version does not seem that far behind. However, the levels in Wii version are considerably…browner. I have no idea as to why there is so much brown, while the 360 version pops with vibrant colors. Check the link below to see for yourself.
Yesterday Nintendo Europe unveiled their release schedule for the rest of the year. Contained in the schedule are a couple of surprise Sega games: check out the Nintendo Europe release schedule there and you’ll notice a DS version of Sonic Unleashed.
Hm. Also listed was a Wii version of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. This confused many a Sega fan, but Sega came to the rescue and stated that they do not have plans to release Sonic Unleashed on DS or Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on Wii. Sort it out Nintendo Europe!
Nintendo mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto has gone on record to tell Wired News that the motivating factor behind the quality control in their games is to avoid the styles of other developers. Namely SEGA’s. Quoth:
I’m always instructing my game designers on the history of the characters and worlds we’ve created. Often we’re in development and I’ll say, ‘Oh, this looks like a Sega game. We need to make it look more like Mario.’
It’s a double edged sword really, I guess he has a point. On the one hand, SEGA have been doing nothing but running their old franchises into the ground lately. On another, it’s good that Nintendo distance their style so much so that no-one else’s name is tied in with Nintendogs or Wii Fit or whatever waggle fad is cool these days. And on a third hand I just created out of plasticine and sticky tape, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games felt MUCH more like a Nintendo game than a SEGA one, and that ended up stealing Nintendo’s own lunch money.
Of course, there’s a 100.1% chance he’s using SEGA as a mere example of avoiding another company’s style and not running the boys in blue into the ground, but of course we’ll wait for the million and one fanboys to start cursing Ninty’s name in the street bearing torches. Give it ten minutes.
15th Anniversary: Revenge of the Wii (Wired, via Kotaku)
The Sonic Chronicles website launched in the U.S. just recently and it is one flash-heavy beast. While being creative by replicating the gameplay of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood by dragging Sonic along by a “stylus,” the website manages to be a pain in the ass to navigate. Nonetheless, everything you need to know about the game is there and there is more than enough media to tide fans over until the game’s release. Plus, if you collect all the rings on the site, you get a super-duper prize. Eff yeah.
One of the greatest Sonic encyclopedias on the internet has removed its anonymous editing feature following many attacks to some of its articles, mainly in the fangaming section. The attacks consisted of deleting all the content on a given page and replacing it with a gratuitous amount of copy-pasting swear words. The attacks also had a “SOTI RULES” comment smack dab in the middle of the obsenities.
Stupid people would automatically assume that SonicEpsilon (SOTI) did the dirty deed, but us smart people know that it was a blatant frame, spawning from an ongoing “battle” between SOTI and long-time banned member and retard, Blazefire.
As a result, you will have to register an account to contribute to the ever-growing Sonic Retro Wiki.
Creature creating PC game Spore hit stores on Friday and what is the first thing to come to gamers minds? Create a deformed devil damnation of their favourite video game hero. Various Sonic character creations have hit Youtube – the Sonic one above is quite impressive if I do say so myself. Hit the jump for Knuckles and a Chao. Continue reading When Sonic fans met Spore
In one day, I lost the ability to walk on my own power, the opportunity to win $1,500, and missed out on formally debuting my new talk show during Sonic’s 17th Birthday Celebration on SSR. You have all heard the story this past Friday where an emergency hospital visit let an unsupervised puppy chew away at my lone microphone. Roarey thinks it’s funny…I think it sucks.
Now that it is well-established that I will be sidelined from any physical activity for about 3-5 weeks with an injured left hamstring, I guess I can put more time into the community. For one, the Sonic Nexus team is back in full swing and I’ll probably be posting awesome updates sporadically up until this year’s Sonic Amateur Gaming Expo. Secondly, I will be putting my “DJ” title to use with “The One Sided Talk Show,” an open, round-table discussion of all things Sonic. Continue reading Worst Friday ever launches new SSR show this Tuesday
After spending some time in the Wii Flat playing Sonic Chronicles, we did the British thing and sat in a pub drinking our sorrows away. Looking for a beverage with a bit more pizazz than “beer, innit” I noticed a curious bottle calling to me. Playing a song. A ditty that made me think of my childhood years and a promise of long, crisp Summer days.
Picking up the bottle of fruit cider, I proceeded to have a snifter and taste its rather flavoured body. When asked for my opinion of the drink, I responded “This isn’t bad. It’s has a rather well-built texture. Yes, it’s rich”.
It was a Rich Jacques.
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Making regular appearances at the top of many “top downloaded” and “top rated” charts for mobile games, the mobile edition of the original “Sonic the Hedgehog” just recently became more distinguished for selling over 8 million downloads in the United States and the United Kingdom. Linda Chaplin, vice president of SEGA Mobile accredits the game’s success to Sonic’s appeal to the masses by stating, “Sonic the Hedgehog is a title that resonates with a universal audience of gamers who have grown up with the franchise, as well as with a growing audience of casual players.”
Verizon Wireless, the initial provider of the title, is probably the most pleased with the landmark sale, as the game has helped Verizon’s “VCAST” service become increasingly popular, says Todd Murphy, director of Mobile Web, games and applications for Verizon.
The success of, yet another, port of Sonic’s original adventure has sparked SEGA Mobile to port Sonic the Hedgehog 2 & Sonic Spinball to mobile devices. In addition, the company is working on a new iteration of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games for phones.
In made-up news that will eventually happen, SEGA has tentatively announced porting each Sonic Genesis title to the iPhone, Playstation 4’s online store, and the brace keeping my left knee from caving again. Also, potatoes.
As you will have seen in other recent posts, Sega Europe invited The Sonic Stadium to the Wii Flat in London to preview Sonic Chronicles. We were puzzled as to why we were previewing a DS game at the Wii Flat (well I was anyway) but we found out why in a shock surprise by Kevin (AAUK) that we would also be playing an early version of Samba De Amigo for Wii. First to volunteer was Dan Dyer followed by an eager-to-party me.
Having never played Samba De Amigo on the Dreamcast or arcades I didn’t know what to expect but I would soon be finding out when Kevin set up a multiplayer game and handed us each a Wii Remote and Nunchuk. We were shown the song list and given a track called Samba De Janeiro which Samba fans will recognise from the Dreamcast version and Sega Superstars Tennis. Continue reading Preview: Our Samba with Amigo
When SEGA announced they were to take the storyline of Sonic the Hedgehog and expand upon it by means of a Role Playing Game, fans the world over went quiet. Could even the pedigree of BioWare, famed for their work on Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect, really take a series known for its rather light base storyline (controversially expanded upon and, yes, clusterfucked ever since Sonic Adventure 2) and make something interesting and engaging out of it? More to the point, could this be a game both younger Sonic fans and older fans enjoy?
At the Sonic Chronicles Community Day we had a chance to sit down with an advanced build of the game, play through many of the features and discover whether this is really shaping up to be something for the fans or just a glorified fan fiction. Continue reading Sonic Chronicles: The First Chapters
Roareye from Sonic Showcase Network has made a post on the SSMB Forums about the Community Day we all shared yesterday. Click the link below to see his rather unique take on the event, and why Mike Taylor should stop nibbling on other people’s hair. As he mentions, we all saw the High Europe Sonic Unleashed video again at the Wii Flat in a decent resolution, a video of our reactions will be coming soon. Stay tuned for TSS’ Sonic Chronicles Preview.
Sonic Chronicles Community Day (SSMB, Sonic Showcase Network)
The Sonic Stadium was invited to a special Community Day yesterday in London to have a sneak preview of Sonic Chronicles. Today we’re going to spend some time showing you just what happens when a bunch of oddball Sonic fans get together, as well as what we thought about the upcoming BioWare RPG. AAUK, the SEGA rep who was hosting the shindig, also let us have a quick go on Samba de Amigo for the Wii. And then afterwards, we all went to the pub. Just like Brits do. It’s our thing.
B’man, myself (in the black Sonic shirt there) and Sonic_Freak/Shadzter came representing TSS, while the usual suspects T-Bird, Roareye Black (SSN), Lewis (Sonic Yoda), Vger (Emerald Coast), Fastfeet (Media), Urtheart (SSN), Mike Taylor (Sonic Cage Dome), SegaMark (RadioSega), Dan Dyer (Fastfeet Media) and Diogo all turned up to see the game in action too. Violet was late and missed the whole thing, but she did have a drink with us later, so all was well.
Roareye will be writing about the Community Day itself, while Shadzter will be telling you all how Samba Wii is shaping up. Expect the Sonic fan’s definitive preview of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood later today as well, along with other videos and odd bits and bobs we might slap up here for the hell of it. Keep coming back to The Sonic Stadium for the latest! Or subscribe to our feed if you’re a lazy git.
Hey you! Yeah, you, there. That new Sonic Unleashed trailer was pretty nifty, no? Well, nifty isn’t the word, we all browned ourselves at the prospect of a Sonic game being good this year. SEGA have released the trailer to download, which we now have for you to grab. So when all of us start praising this as the second coming (give it a month) you can ignore all that shit and remember this lovely footage for eternity, no matter how good or bad the game actually ends up. Enjoy!
Download High Europe Trailer (TSS Media Portal) – 67.9MB
Right-click and select “Save As…”
Americans have it pretty good with Sonic comic and cartoon media right now. DVD boxsets of SatAM, AoStH and… erm… Underground, and plenty of new Archies to wet the dream of many a comic connoisseur. 4Kids want to get in on the action and start airing Sonic X again! Remember that one? The one with the 4Kids.
Yes, the adventures of Sonic, Chris, Tails, Chris, Cream and Chris will start appearing on 4Kids TV every Saturday starting this weekend, at 10am (ET/PT, because we know that bit’s important to you). Sonic X can also be watched on demand via an array of digital channels including Comcast. Not only that, but there’ll be a new DVD release, including the Chaos and Shadow Sagas (eps 27-38) coming 2nd September 2008. Now Americans have it very good, surely!
… anyone?
Sonic X Returns to 4Kids TV, New DVD (TSSZ News)
Someone’s been dreaming on the Internets again. According to an apparent lineup at PlayStation Beyond, SEGA America are set to show a game called ‘Sonic Attitude’ at E3 2008 in a few weeks time. Set as a “Rumour” (probably to save their skin when people realise it’s likely just a wishlist for said website – we’d all like an F-Zero for Wii and a NSMB2 for DS), this Sonic game we’ve never heard of will apparently be on the Nintendo DS and is 100% more important than Sonic Chronicles, which isn’t set to make an appearance at all.
No sources are given, and E3 doesn’t seem to have an official list of attendees, at least right now. And unless Dimps really enjoy overworking, pain and suffering (the team is currently responsible for the PS2 and Wii versions of Sonic Unleashed) they won’t be undertaking a new Sonic project either. This is either Sonic Chronicles in sheep’s clothing or I’m eating someone’s clean, plush hat.
PlayStation Beyond (Via GoNintendo) – Cheers SSMB
17th Anniversary logo created by Professor-J from The Sonic Show
Because we’re cool like that, SEGASonic Radio is having a special weekend dedicated to Sonic the Hedgehog in honour of his 17th Birthday on the 23rd. Sounds a bit silly having that sort of dedication on a radio station already dedicated to the blue hog, but don’t kill the moment eh?
There will be several two-hour slots every evening from 5pm GMT starting Friday 20th (that’s tomorrow) to Sunday 22nd, with a special joint LiVECAST with Roarey_Raccoon, Urtheart and SpeedKnux on Monday 23rd (Sonic’s big day) at 8pm GMT. Be sure to listen to SSR and hit up the IRC Chatroom (links at the top of the page) when the fun begins. Hit the link below for full details.
Continue reading Sonic’s Birthday: SEGASonic Radio Celebrations
Dreams of an Absolution star Lee Brotherton has just come out of hospital following surgery on his back. According to his official blog, the singer says that he discovered a lump which ended up being a tumour – which was rather quickly removed. But even now he’s out and about he won’t sit down – word has it that even though ‘LB’ is taking it slow, he’s still preparing for an assault on the Japanese market (as in breaking into the J-Pop charts, not an actual attack on some fishmonger or anything).
We wish him all the best and a swift recovery. Those who are keeping an eye on his lavish pop persona, Bentley Jones, will find some footage of him recording in bandages on youtube soon. He’s such a trooper, that boy.
Those too-cool-for-school purveyors of video game research, X-Cult, have obtained a dump of the boot up system for the Japanese Mega CD 2 (ver 2.00). Hardly great shakes you think, until you realise that up until now nobody has actually managed (or been bothered) to dump the thing in the first place. Thanks to Spinel from the X-Cult community, you can now download and experience just how different the Japanese Mega CD 2’s were. Which doesn’t seem a lot, but interesting nonetheless – it includes Sonic doing his finger-waving pose that you’ll recognise from loading up an actual game on the CD add-on. Although here it kinda looks like someone’s taken a mallet to his head. Good find boys!
Mega CD 2.00 jap bios (X-Cult)
Roareye from the Sonic Showcase Network was sent this video by Sasso Studios – it’s an attempt at turning a real life movie out of Sonic the Hedgehog. Le sigh. To be fair to the chap, this is a pretty well produced effort for an amateur endeavour, and his heart’s in the right place. And at least they were bold in making Knuckles a gurning white guy.
I guess it just shows that no matter how hard you try, you can never ever create a project like this without it looking completely and totally cheesy. And we’re not even talking Keith Chegwin cheesy, we’re talking Dale Winton’s Special Brand. “SON OF A GUNS!” Classic.
There are several parts to this production already on youtube, and it’s a valiant effort so worth the watch. Beats all those Shadow music videos anyway. Some of the acting is legend (I want to buy the bald guy a pint) and you could cut the sexual tension in the last 30 seconds with a chainsaw (the music when getting into the car is the icing on the cake). Oscar winning material.
Seems like this week is a good one for community returns, as after a year of hiatus the download portal FastFeet Media will be returning this Sunday at 7pm. FFM used to be hosted on our TSS Network before they ended up having loads of ‘studios’ and wanted to do their own thing, so it’s good to see them finally come back. We missed the redness.
There’ll be forums and the return of their FTP Hub along with other cool stuff like a new Public Access section, so give their new site a gander when it relaunches just before Sonic’s 17th Birthday.
That initial Sonic Unleashed trailer was really nice and all, but didn’t you wish you saw more of the gameplay? Like, a whole two minutes worth? IGN felt your pain and showed a second trailer of the next major Sonic title. Apparently this is from the ‘High Europe’ stage, which doesn’t sound like a very cool name if you want my opinion but hey – it opens doors for a MECHA High Europe Zone in Sonic Unleashed 2, surely?
This video shows off some rather cool stuff, including QTEs (Quick Timed Events) to shift Sonic to the left and right, Sonic going in and out of the screen like a blue-arsed banshee and a lot of grinding and crashing through boxes.
Looks tight, but is it just me or does the blue bugger not stop at all during this sequence? Not even for a split second. If this isn’t another on-rails game like Secret Rings, SEGA’s not doing a very good job of showing it.
IGN Video (360 Version)
We’ve been away for a while, but now we’re back to kick some butt at Wild Canyon and as much as we’d like to not-believe, there’s been a fair bit of news that has slipped by the Sonic News radar (or Newsdar, or… something) during our reconstruction. FRET NOT, we’ve got it covered. Even though you probably already know all this anyway.
Sonic Blogicles
First off SEGA Europe’s community blog, the Sonic City Blognik, has started posting regular diaries from the desks responsible for Sonic Chronicles. The first entry was written by Bioware Brand Manager Randall Bishop, who discussed at length why the game will rock, in typical Brand Manager fashion. He interestingly pointed out Bioware’s new approach to Chronicles for the fact that this is indeed a kid’s game – I hope Bioware remembers that half the success of a kid’s multimedia product is the viability of it to adults too. Just ask Pixar. Continue reading Roundup: What We Missed
Welcome to The Sonic Stadium. Place looks a bit different doesn’t it? Yes, this is what we’ve been up to for the last couple of weeks – updating your favourite Sonic site to be a bit more ‘hip’ and ‘happening’. Whatever that means these days. Kids, tsch.
So why the change? Put simply, for the last two years, TSS has been a floundering Sonic ship – while we certainly worked hard to become one of the most popular fansites online, my university and other commitments over the years had put something of a hold on adding updates of any real worth to the site (having said that, we have been lucky in getting stuff like interviews with Yojiro Ogawa, Simon Jeffery and Lee Brotherton so we haven’t been sitting on our thumbs the whole time). There have also been many things I’ve wanted to post about Sonic but pretty much couldn’t due to the way the site was designed and how the front page was dealt and all that jazz.
We did have a new TSS code base in the making – you’ll probably have heard me going on about it for the last two years. That was a system B’man and I started working on from the ground up, but again, other commitments meant the thing was going nowhere, and as a result TSS suffered. A few months back I thought it was time to can the bespoke script we were making and just make do with a pre-packaged one and add our own bells and whistles to them. Continue reading TSS: A Whole New Approach
