Welcome to the Archive site of The Sonic Stadium (2008-2023)
Please note that this site is no longer being updated or maintained; as a result, there may be design issues, and links to images and other media may be broken. Links to posts may redirect you to the same article on the current Sonic Stadium website.
In the sixth paragraph of this review, you will find a sentence that will make you smile. It reads:
One thing that must be said about Sonic Chronicles‘ combat was that, at least in the demo, it was shockingly fun.
That is really all I needed to read in this preview, but for the sake of this blog entry, I shall summarize for you tl;dr types. WorthPlaying noted that the battle system, while simple for an RPG, is surprisingly “fast and furious”, because many of your attacks hinge on your speed stat, which is what Sonic is all about. Comparisons with a fabulous DS title, Elite Beat Agents, arose when WorthPlaying got their hands on the game’s POW system, which are special attacks that are executed with slides and taps of the stylus. All of these gameplay elements are topped off with respectable graphics, they mentioned.
The other part of this preview that stuck to me was that Bioware has apparently managed all the damn characters in the Sonic universe and actually put them to good use in the gameplay and story department.
If the above statement is true, then I am one happy man, because the only other use I had for all those characters was to shoot, stab, and hang all of them, but SOMEBODY BEAT ME TO IT. Stupid pre-pubescent wank with Windows Movie Maker and too much time on his ugly hands…
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When SEGA revealed the new, werewolfy Sonic Unleashed trailer earlier today, they probably didn’t expect so many people would take a vested interest in it. So much so that many fans are having trouble downloading it from their US FTP server. If you’re clamouring to get your hands on a copy of the trailer for yourself, we braced ourselves for the stormy bandwidth weather and… downloaded the trailer from the European Press network instead, saving us all the bother.
We’ve taken the ~300MB trailer and cut it down to size, but kept it in a good enough quality for you guys to still get wet over it. Right click, save to your computer and Print Screen all those frames of Super Sonic at your leisure!
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Update: Just in case you’ve been redirected here from another website or something, we thought we’d be nice and let you know that since this post the full version been posted online for download – click here to read more.
Who’s a fan of Bowling For Soup then? Must be pretty psyched that the main guy, Jaret Reddick, has had a hand in creating the new theme song to a Sonic the Hedgehog game, right? Or is it like that time when Zebrahead and Akon did Sonic 06 – big names, nobody cared?
Don’t let a lack of awareness from your peers discourage you though – if you reckon Jun ‘parfact’ Senoue deserves a longer break in his tropical paradise surrounded by exquisite Lolita women and think ‘Endless Possibility’ is a worthy track to bounce to while racing through Sonic Unleashed, then you probably want the song to take home with you. Well, you’re in luck.
SSMB members Sheza (followed by some fine-tuning by Goku…. lots of numbers) have ripped the title track and we have it on here for you to download. Slap it on your music player, support good ol’ Jaret by listening to his stuff and go rock with your cock out. Or something. Just don’t do it in front of the children.
Endless Possibility (TSS Media Portal) – 2.2MB
Right click and select ‘Save As…’
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OK, we dropped the ball a little bit. We didn’t pick up on the new screenshots released by the SEGA Press guys the other day (we may add them to this article later on though), but these are new-new screens, literally fresh from today’s E3 Experience. What you get here is a few shots of a volcano-esque fiery area where you most likely run into Knuckles and Shadow in. There are some screens of Chao being used in battle, and a few character’s special POW moves too.
Finally, you also get to see the GUN Commander in full cartoony form. Hopefully he won’t break down and cry when he sees Shadow or something. Dude’s a soldier man. Ain’t no time to get sappy now.
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SEGA like the Wii a lot for Dreamcast ports it seems. Oh, that was obvious? Sorry. How about something extra then to sweeten the deal a bit? In the upcoming Samba de Amigo port release for Nintendo’s white box, there will be a special guest cameo by Sonic himself. And a stage set in the Green Hill Zone. That’s pretty sweet news and should make for a pretty cool bonus for fans out there. Looks like Sonic’s already getting funked with a show of jazz hands in that screenshot there. Will be fun to see how he moves with the ‘riddim’.
On another note, why is it that everyone else at SEGA seems to know how to design a Sonic themed stage/cameo but it still evades Sonic-bloody-Team? Give us fantasy lands and blue skies dammit! Click the images above to get them in high quality, complete with the Incredible Floating Mii Man.
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Take a gander at all these new screenshots of Sonic Unleashed. High quality and everything. Some are from stages you’ve seen before, some are from the new China level, and some are HQ snaps of the Werewolf action. If nothing else it’s looking both interesting and tasty. Not an awful lot to report on these snaps otherwise besides the massive reach Were-Sonic appears to have to beat down foes, and some rather nice enemy design during the Sonic segments. Like the rather cool looking robot in the image below, which looks like something out of Knuckles’ Chaotix. If they’re called Badniks as well, that would be win. SEGA, make it happen.
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While everyone else was getting bored watching Nintendo’s boring E3 conference, SEGA have stepped up and released a bunch of their content for upcoming Sonic games, including at last revealing how the Werewolf gameplay will be like. The trailer also shows some new elements to Sonic play, including advancing to upper regions of a stage by successful button presses and a new stage known as ‘China’, complete with looping dragon platforms. The track you’re hearing is called “Endless Possibility”, a theme song involving Jaret Reddick from Bowling for Soup. Ugh.
What is also quite jarring is the gameplay featuring the Werewolf itself, and it’s clear why SEGA kept it all a secret until just now. Quite a world apart from the speedy multiple-route gameplay we’ve all known so far, becoming Were-Sonic involves a slower, more powerful method of play. Imagine going as slow as Silver while beating hordes of enemies ala Shadow. This is pretty much the Werewolf gameplay summed up. Oh, and you have to pick up objects and put them in places to open doors too. Erm… hm.
We’re not sure we like it. We demand a playtest, SEGA. We also demand a high-res video, as we can’t see anything with this one. Stay tuned for the HQ version which we’ll put online soon.
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Over on SSMB, a chap has posted a rather interesting vlog about, what one might consider an ‘outsider’s view’ of the Sonic the Hedgehog online fanbase. Truesonicfan, also known as Andrew for those that might whinge about him using an unimaginitive screenname (I know some of you exist out there) notes that everywhere you go there are countless ‘wars’ about various aspects of Sonic. Drummond or Griffith? Classic or Modern? Cool carefree Sonic or bestiality deluxe? All a dude wants to do is chat with some friends online about Sonic and how cool the games are, man!
Andrew’s about as articulate as a bog brush, but to be fair he makes some good points. There are a lot of Sonic fan factions that want to niggle about the voices for no apparent reason. There are groups that argue that modern games have no place, or learning from the Mega Drive days is pointless. Hell, some are even concerned as to how Bioware have set up the bloody world map in Sonic Chronicles (what the hell, who cares?).
We call these groups ‘whiny bitches’, and although they are found mostly within the Sonic fanbase more than any other group of gaming fans, I’d like to think their kind are dying down. At least, relegated to Youtube where they can stick two fingers up at Naka or Iizuka or Griffith or whoever the hell has deserved the ‘retard venom’ these days. Continue reading BlueTube: Sonic Fan Wars
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Just a quick announcement; I’ve got a heads up from SEGA that their main E3 announcements are coming real soon. Later today as it happens. The embargo for journalists will be lifted at about 4/5pm today, so we’ll try and get all the latest Sonic news to you whilst trying to keep up with the Nintendo press conference. Multi-tasking, eh? Ain’t it great.
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DIC Entertainment, owners of the television rights to Sonic the Hedgehog, has been bought out by another US based group, Cookie Jar accoring to playthings.com.
LOS ANGELES and TORONTO—Cookie Jar Group is purchasing licensor DIC Entertainment and its related businesses for $31.5 million, the two companies announced this morning.
Under the terms of the agreement, Cookie Jar will purchase all of the issued and outstanding equity in DIC in a transaction valued at approximately US $87.6 million. Upon closing, DIC will continue as a subsidiary of Cookie Jar, which will remain a private company.
The deal will give Cookie Jar access to the merchandising and licensing rights to such brands as American Greetings’ Strawberry Shortcake; Mommy & Me, the parent-oriented, direct-to-retail product line featured at Wal-Mart; as well as Inspector Gadget, Horseland, Cake, Madeline and Eloise, among others. Its programming library includes nearly 3,000 half hours of children’s programming with series such as Sabrina, Liberty’s Kids, Sonic The Hedgehog and Care Bears.
The purchase also includes DIC’s European subsidiary, Copyright Promotions, and DIC’s one-third interest in KidsCo, an international children’s television channel created in partnership with NBC-Universal and Corus Entertainment.
Doubtful that Cookie Jar will do anything with the license, but I guess its newsworthy. News has been slow lately. :-/
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Sega has released a new Sonic Unleashed trailer that teases us again about the whole Werehog thing. The trailer is set in a city at night showcasing mysterious sightings of blue hair and silhouttes “swinging from lamp post to lamp post”. The trailer first appeared at G4TV but has now shown up at Gametrailers.com with the title – “E3 2008: Mysterious Sightings Trailer”, so could we be seeing some proper gameplay or footage of Sonic’s vicious transformation at E3?
A screencap from the trailer of the Werehog has been posted at the SSMB by member Diogenes –
Very vicious indeedy! A lot of commentators on other sites have been quick to tear this trailer apart because of the fact ‘humans are in it’ and all that other garbage, but that’s like saying Sonic Advance had humans in it because of this commercial. Get a grip, ladies.
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If your life has never been the same since TSS changed its new look, there may be a few reasons for that. One might be that you became rather attached to our Sonic News Ticker, which allowed external websites to link through to our news posts so your pages always stayed up to date.
Well fret no more about the ticker’s future, because we’ve brought it back. You can of course use our RSS Feed as an alternative – either click the huge orange button for our general RSS, subscribe to our specific News Feed or subscribe to our Feedburner. But for those who want to simply have that ticker scrolling along their page and have only News posts filtered through it, just copy and paste the following code:
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
Lee Brotherton, the artist-otherwise-known-as Bentley Jones, the remixer-previously-known-as LeeBro, will be attending the Summer of Sonic convention when it takes place on the 9th August. For those who haven’t really been paying attention to this site or Sonic fans in general, LB is the guy behind the aural delight that is ‘Dreams of an Absolution’, Silver’s theme from the eyesore that is Sonic ’06. And people go crazy for his man chest. They like the song a lot too, but no doubt its his chest they all want.
He will be at the very first Sonic convention throughout the day, chatting to people like an unimportant person and then popping on stage for a Q&A session like an important person. Those who have registered their interest in the Summer of Sonic event can log into the website now and post in the Comments section of the relevant news item, where you can write any burning questions you have for the remixer-cum-popstar.
Due to his recent health problems (as mentioned on TSS a while ago), it’s unknown yet whether he will be up for a performance on stage following the Q&A session. The organisers (read: me and AAUK) are looking into it, but don’t put a line under anything yet. Last thing we want is someone’s voicebox bursting out of their throat or something. Mind you, that’d be a hell of a headline, huh?
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We’ve all been here before, but someone has designs to pitch an idea to SEGA/DiC/the powers that be to invest in a revival of arguably the greatest Sonic cartoon, SatAM. This ‘someone’ however appears to be a chap called Matthew Sullivan, who has worked on The Simpsons, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and Family Guy, so he at least has some credentials.
Posting the image above in the Fans United for SatAM forums, Matt is preparing a pitch that he hopes will kickstart a new series of the classic Saturday morning show, with the hopeful inclusion of writer Ben Hurst. He makes no guarantee that this pitch will work, but as a fan himself states that he will try his damndest.
We wish you all the best Matt – if you have any questions he’s opened the floor on the FUS forums so give him our regards there.
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
How do you know when you’re getting a good deal? When someone offers an ultra-rare game on eBay! But wait! This isn’t any old rare game – this is Sonic the Hedgehog 4 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In looking for eBay items involving weird Game Boy pirate games of old (Sonic 6, anyone?), I came across this gem, sitting on a veritable sucker collector’s desk in Cheshire.
In an attempt to either fleece a gullible Sonic fan or recoup some hard-earned cash he must have lost in buying this game himself (in being said gullible Sonic fan), the seller of this eBay item is asking for £170. Hm. Let’s weigh it all up. Good thing: You’ll own a real pirate Sonic game. Bad thing: You’ll own a real pirate Sonic game, minus 170 quid. But hey, the guy’s open to alternative offers, so go nuts.
I tried to offer 25p to the guy (three times) and he refused (three times). I guess some people just don’t know the real worth of what they have in their home.
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We have had a limited availability of these special SEGA Vintage T-Shirts in the UK, but before we were able to grab them (assumedly via online only), this much sought-after range of clothing was available for a long time in Japan. Well, if by a long time you mean a week or so, before the lot was sold out.
Artist and general Australian bloke Elson ‘Darkspeeds’ Wong took a trip to the land of the rising sun back in March to see the sights and invest in a little Virtua Fighter with his homies, and managed to stumble across these magnificent T-Shirts – this is, incidentally, how we got to know about the UNIQLO SEGA range and, because we told you, how you all got to know about them. Continue reading Let’s look at Sonic T-Shirts in UNIQLO Japan
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This is possibly proof that, unless your name is Tweaker or Scarred Sun, obtaining a Wiki script is about the worst thing that can happen to your Sonic website. SSMB eagles have noticed fansite “Sonic News Network” create a page dedicated to ‘Sonic Rush 3’. A page in which every single detail has been dreamed or fabricated. The Wiki has since been vandalised – an act that’s not cool no matter what the place (not only that but the vandaliser even gets confused in saying Rush Adventure is a spinoff – since when?) – but here’s what the original page stated:
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The first ever Sonic the Hedgehog convention is taking place in London on August 9th. I’ve been working hard with AAUK of Sonic Wrecks to make this extreme meetup as awesome as possible, and I can safely say we’ve got some pant-soiling stuff ready for your face. To celebrate the fact that we’ve got lots of shit ready for your inner Sonic child, the Summer of Sonic website will be regularly updated. The SoS Blog has just started and will reveal stuff such as special guests, events and other things (Prizes? Games? CAKE!?), so be sure to keep an eagle eye on it.
If I can pull this off, I’m having the biggest beer afterwards…
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Sega Europe have now opened the official microsite to upcoming game Samba De Amigo for Wii. You know it’s a Samba De Amigo site when your greeted with the upbeat sound of Samba De Janeiro. The site reveals there will be over 40 songs from the past game aswell as new ones and confirms the Dual Wii Remote option for untethered freedom if you find the Wii Remote and Nunchuk play a little whip-cracking painful. Other features included in the game will be:
Online leaderboards
Friends lists where you can post and compare scores
Career, single player, multiplayer(co-op or vs) and training modes
Records
Special modes such as quick play, classic, battle, survival, hustle and mini-games.
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
Project Chaos, the fanmade Sonic 3 & Knuckles remix album released in 2006, is awesome. Undeniably, categorically so. There are a few spotty tracks in it though – Dan Baranowsky’s ‘Knuckleduster’ being one of them. So anything that makes the rubbishy songs on an awesome album look or feel closer to awesome is in fact, awesome news (still with us?). Which is why this, an animatic created by artist ‘Thweatted’ to complement the song, is… well… awesome. Does anyone else need further proof that Sonic the Hedgehog should revert back to his classic style?
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The Portuguese magazine Maxi Consolas, has recently revealed new information regarding Sonic Unleashed in their latest preview. The magazine has confirmed that:
Unleashed will have level up system, in which you can enhance and improve Sonic’s abilities, much like an RPG.
There will be other playable characters besides Sonic, however they will only be playable via mini games, reserving most of the game for Sonic. Tails has been the only confirmed character as of yet. There where no details regarding how the mini games would play.
In addition to the African, Greek, and “High Europe” stages, there will also be levels that take place in China and New York City.
Levels alternate between the 3D and 2D perspectives every thirty seconds or so. Camera work is impressive.
Good impressions overall. They only complain about the frame rate.
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
You might have noticed that Super Smash Bros. Brawl is finally out in the UK and Europe. Good for us, eh? It’s about time. Of course, this is the latest in the series where Sonic the Hedgehog is a playable character. Ever since that announcement several months ago of the blue blur’s inclusion, you could hear a mile off all the wonderings of the community. Whether, for instance, their shitty little recolour would inadvertedly be ‘included’ in the game if more than one person selected Sonic in a brawl.
Well fret no more, normal Sonic fan, because Nintendo appears to have been aware of the clusterfuck surrounding ‘creativity’ in the Sonic fanbase and decided not to touch that with a 60 foot pole. When more than one player selects Sonic the Hedgehog, different colours are assigned to the cufflinks on his hands and feet. He gets a slight tonal change too in his spines, but nothing that “~~~Dr_TailsFox2000~~~” can lay copyright claims to.
As for the rest of Sonic in Brawl, he is awesome. Awesomely handled in Subspace Emissary, awesomely handled in combat… for the first time in so many games, the hedgehog has been treated with respect.
Well played Sakurai, well played.
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The OLFC, the Australian equivalent of the ESRB, has rated a game titled “Sonic the Hedgehog.” There is no indication of which “Sonic the Hedgehog” it will be, since they’re are three games out there with the title “Sonic the Hedgehog:” the abysmal XBOX360/PS3 game, the Master System version, and the Game Gear version.
Since the Master System is already out on the Wii’s Virtual Console service, I’m going to assume that the MS version of Sonic 1 will be making its way to the Shop Channel in the near future. I doubt they’d port the Game Gear version (again) or that garbage from 2006.
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
Gamekyo (formerly known as JeuxFrance.com) has put up two more magazine scans, in addition to the two that were revealed last week, for the Wii version of Sonic Unleashed. All I can really say is…”wow.” For magazine scans, that’s just “wow” in my book. However, judging from the above screenshot, it looks like the homing attack is back, a feature that I am not too fond of. Check the link below for all four screens that have been released thus far.
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
In the sixth paragraph of this review, you will find a sentence that will make you smile. It reads:
Update: Just in case you’ve been redirected here from another website or something, we thought we’d be nice and let you know that since this post the full version been posted online for download – 
OK, we dropped the ball a little bit. We didn’t pick up on the new screenshots released by the SEGA Press guys the other day (we may add them to this article later on though), but these are new-new screens, literally fresh from today’s E3 Experience. What you get here is a few shots of a volcano-esque fiery area where you most likely run into Knuckles and Shadow in. There are some screens of Chao being used in battle, and a few character’s special POW moves too.
DIC Entertainment, owners of the television rights to Sonic the Hedgehog, has been bought out by another US based group, Cookie Jar accoring to 
How do you know when you’re getting a good deal? When someone offers an ultra-rare game on eBay! But wait! This isn’t any old rare game – this is Sonic the Hedgehog 4 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In looking for eBay items involving weird Game Boy pirate games of old (Sonic 6, anyone?), I came across this gem, sitting on a veritable 
