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Please note that this site is no longer being updated or maintained; as a result, there may be design issues, and links to images and other media may be broken.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.
I have a question for you all. Did you play Sonic Unleashed and wished that you played as Knuckles during the nighttime stages? Well, according to DeviantArt user, gilau, so did Knuckles. In a blur, Knuckles is seen here beating the shit out of the most awful character in the series. Yes, Big the Cat is better than Sonic the Werehog. Allow me to pause as you pick up the pieces of your blown mind.
…
Anyway, thumbs up on the image concept, gilau. Super-thumbs up on the coloring and the whole “dirty draw” look. I’m not quite sure how you made this one, but whatever, it’s cool.
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Sorry about the lack of “Fanatics” yesterday. I’m not going to lie to you…I was pretty hungover and I, how would you say, “couldn’t be arsed” to do it.
Anyway, as a not-fan of SatBK, you might be questioning why I posted this piece up today. One word: lighting. Ihearrrtme‘s work here on the lighting and shading is incredible and deserves recognition. It has even got that next-gen “bloom effect” to it, which is cool in moderation. Ihearrrtme says:
The Tokyo Game Show trailer of Sonic and the Black Knight was so awesome, it inspired me to make this picture! : )
Rarely do I ever add actual scenery/backgrounds to any of my works, because, well… I’m horrible at drawing them. X[ I tried to make it look like the logo image on Sega of Japan’s SATBK website. Blending a few patterns together and adding some lighting/shading effects, I managed to pull it off for once!! : )
Do it again, Ihm.
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This story’s well-under “old news,” but I was just reminded of it when I walked into a Toys’R’Us today. Everybody knows about the LeapFrog, the gaming system for the Dora the Explorer generation. Did you know that Leapfrog has a Sonic the Hedgehog game? Yeah, I bet that you didn’t. Let me fill you in on the details: it totally sucks. It’s suppose to teach kids how to spell, but that goal is mucked up by how much it sucks. Wow, just wow:
Race through four action-packed classic Sonic zones, collecting rings to free Sonic’s animal friends that were captured by Dr. Eggman!
Teaches Spelling: • Consonant and vowel blends • Compound words • Contractions • Plural words
I know that this game is for kids, but I think that it deserves a better effort than the one that was given. Hit the break for a video of this atrocity, shoddy physics and all.
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The SSMB Forums have brought to light a discussion that has recently taken place on popular imageboard 4chan. In it, an anonymous tipster called “Wentos the Travelling Salesman” has hinted at details that could be included in the next major Sonic title. Click the image on the left there to give it a good read.
Claiming that he knows a few people in the Localisation department of SEGA, it appears he has been privvy to Hashimoto’s desire to create the perfect Sonic game, as he tells captivated posters on the imageboard that the current Sonic Team is built of old school fans fresh out of college. It is suggested that the new team will handle the series for some time yet. “Wentos” also let slip on the conclusion to the reaction of Unleashed;
“The next Sonic will be just Sonic with optional characters in the sense that they were optional back in Sonic 2 and 3; the levels will be in the style of Unleashed daytime levels, though there will be an increased focus on careful platforming to replace what the Werehog strived for.”
Having said that, it was then suggested that an announcement on this project is unlikely to happen for some time. Dubious 4chan readers were challenged to archive the thread and see if the crystal ball-gazing was in fact on the money. “Wentos” then wrote some development information regarding Sonic Unleashed, and how the Wii version was specifically made to recoup the losses of the intentionally superior Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 releases. Continue reading Rumour: 4Chan’s ‘Wentos’ Hints At Future Sonic Team Plans
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SEGA of Japan have put up a mysterious website for a new game produced by Takao Miyoshi, the person from Sonic Team behind Phatasy Star Universe. The site says Coming Soon and has a mushroom on it similar to the mushroom from Super Mario Bros 1 except for the different colours. When you run your mouse over the mushroom it shakes. The web adress has the word ‘pole’ and at the bottom of the page there is a timer which is counting down to the games official unveiling I’m guessing. It currently states 10 days, 6 hours and 17 minutes. No platforms for the game are mentioned.
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TSS is bringing back community interviews (omg more exclusive content)! Aside from speaking with specific individuals, I’ll be talking to the heads of Sonic communities that you may not of heard of in “Know Your Sonic Sites.” Today’s featured community is Sonic Paradox, a Sonic site that specializes in Sonic flash animation. I’ll be interviewing one of its staff members, RGXSuperSonic. Yeah, he’s my flash man for Nexus. I’m playing it safe for the first one and, plus, I never heard of Paradox until he joined the team. Time to feed my curiosity!
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SEGA of America have put out a new blog entry confirming four of their upcoming games that will be playable in their booth at Comic Con which is going to be held at New York City between Feb 6-8. Sonic and the Black Knight for Nintendo Wii will be one of those games and the event will be one of the first times the public will have seen the game.
Other games confirmed to be playable at the event are –
MadWorld(Wii)
The House of the Dead: Overkill(Wii)
The Conduit(Wii)
That’s alot of love for Wii fans.
Is anyone here going who lives in the U.S. or can afford travel to the U.S.? If so we’d love to hear your thoughts on the game.
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I’m on an 8-bit Sonic binge as of late, aren’t I? Wait, who am I kidding? I always am.
A SEGA Master System hack, Sonic 2 LD, a title playing on Retro’s HD Sonic 2 remake, by doc eggfan at Sonic Retro is probably my favorite project at that forum. The project’s goal is to take the Sonic 2 levels for the Genesis and put them in the Sonic 2 Master System ROM. A novel concept, considering that I’ve always wondered why SEGA made different levels for the Master System version (aside from making Aqua Lake Zone, aka “the best zone ever” – ride that shuffle beat).
Doc Eggfan recently released a new screenshot of his work-in-progress, 8-bit Emerald Hill. Hit the break for the screenshot. Warning: Contents May Be Awesome. Continue reading Fanatics: Sonic 2 LD
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Since 2007, Sonic the Hedgehog has become a regular participant in the annual “Free Comic Book Day” event. Once every year, comic book publishers across America send special free issues to participating comic book stores, to be given away for free to anyone who wants them. This year, FCBD will be on May 2nd, so be sure to mark your calenders. This Sonic FCBD issue is meant to recap the entire series as a whole, in “Sonic: Evolution of a Hero”. Like past FCBD Sonic issues, this year’s Sonic comic is a silver level sponsor, meaning not all participating comic book stores will have it, so you may want to call your comic book store before hand. You can use this website to find a comic book store near you, as well as their phone number or e-mail. The cover is posted in a thumbnail below:
According to Sonic the Hedgehog’s headwriter, Ian Flynn, this issue is meant to introduce the book to newcomers and to clarify plot points to veterans. The comic book itself has no storyline, but is instead more akin to Archie’s data files, a biography of the characters and a description of the world’s backstory. The book will also be offering some insight and spoilers for what happens in and after issue #200. Those of you wondering what this Sonic comic is all about might want to consider going to a comic book store to pick it up.
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Dr.Eggman, the evil scientist extroardinaire has built many a contraption to defeat our hero Sonic the Hedgehog. In this edition of Fandemonium we take a look at some of the easiest, the trickiest and most irritating challenges the plump villain has sent the blue speedster’s way.
Most Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy Sneezy Febrezey On Your Kneezy (O_o) Boss
This is a compilation of all bosses from Sonic Pocket Adventure but the easy one is obviously the first one. Eggman is threatening Sonic with a slow hammer no bigger than Amy’s Piko Piko hammer, but how does Sonic defeat it? Simply jump over the hammer and hit him, shouldn’t take long as Eggman moves slow enough and the hammers low enough to give you plenty of air space to jump over the hammer. This is the easiest boss in Sonic history in my opinion – even Emerald Hill Zone’s boss could at least catch you by surprise and shoot that spiky hood ornament.
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The final boss battles of Super Sonic & Knuckles meet in this work by Mit-Man. Dr. Robotnik’s final mech at the Doomsday, the Death Egg, and Hyper Metal Knuckles are being destroyed by our powered-up heroes…in space! The Mit-Miester comments:
[T]he pictures depicts Super/Hyper Sonic and Super/Hyper Knuckles defeating Robotnik’s final robot form and Hyper Mecha Sonic. They didn’t do it at the exact same time like this in the game, nor was Knuckles in space, but hey, it’s a cool effect I think that I incorporated into the picture, that sums up the ending quite well.
This piece was submitted for the Black Knight art contest, but was rejected. If this piece was rejected, then the art that was selected better be the fuckin’ bomb, because I’m really happy with Mit’s work.
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Hey, do you not want to be a loser? Then, check this shit out. Indigo Rush tipped us on a sweet Sega Genesis tribute album, called “LOSER,” and I’ve been listening to it for the past few hours. I can officially say that it’s badass and you’ll like it.
The album contains an amazing number of tracks, 39 total, of classic Genesis tunes. A majority of the tracks are Sonic tunes, but Phantasy Star, Ecco, Streets of Rage, Shinobi, Golden Axe, Altered Beast, and more are remixed for your listening pleasure, too. Man, there’s even an awesome Lemmings remix!
There are a few duds on the album that suffer from poor instrumentation, execution, “playing it safe,” or all of the above, but most of the songs are quality remixes. If you want to just skip to the Sonic songs, the second-best Sonic is track #23, Casino Night Live. It’s the classic Casino Night melody played by a small jazz combo with some great solos and improvisation. As indicated by the word “live,” it’s also performed by real instruments, so the lead trumpet doesn’t sound like a bunch of FL Studio turd. The combo is tight, clean, and extremely talented.
While that song is pretty wicked, I did say that it was “second best.” Track 34, simply called “Sonic,” is the best song on the album. This near 8-minute, not safe for work epic features many Sonic songs back-to-back. The catch here is that there are two guys rapping over it and it’s the best thing that you will ever listen to this year. I’m dead serious. I laughed for about an hour, showed it to all my friends, laughed some more, and made this post. If you don’t have time to check out the entire album, do yourself a favor and at least listen to track 34.
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A few weeks ago, SSMB member, Inferno, created a thread to reminise on the joyous feeling we all had when we learned that Sonic was in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The topic came at a time when people wanted to kill each other, because critics were slamming Unleashed. A perfect time for good vibes.
DeviantArt user, musetrigger, had posted this over 14 months ago, but I had just found it yesterday. Notable features of this work that I fancy include Sonic’s overt sense of attitude, the detail on Mario’s beaten face, and the phrase “nothing fan-fiction about it.” Rather appropriate, considering that I said that to my friends upon Sonic’s announcement.
“Now, nobody has to write Mario vs. Sonic fan fiction. People can just play Brawl now, which is 1,000% more entertaining.”
“What about the Olympic Games?”
“That’s only 300% more fun. Still a good margin, though. Wait, who the fuck would make a fan fiction about that?”
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Will we ever run out of Monty Python references before Sonic and the Black Knight is released? Probably not, because it’s so much fun! A Chinese Sonic fansite, SONIC HUB, has managed to discover these latest screenshots, which happen to be the first images of former doppelganger Shadow the Hedgehog. Seems weird that every other character is wearing armour yet Sonic’s quite fine to run about in his birthday suit. I guess he’s too hardcore.
Either way, Sonic Team are clearly having a Black Knight gag here, as the surroundings and Shadow’s mask are clear homages to the classic Holy Grail comedy. But who will win between Sonic and Shadow? My guess is, Shadow will call it a draw.
Update (11th January): SEGA America’s product page, that SONIC HUB links to, appear to have more screenshots on offer, including a few that haven’t been seen before and some special artwork too. We’ve included these after the jump, because we’re too good to you. I’m amazed nobody picked up on these – even myself until now, as they’ve been on SEGA’s page for quite a while. Expect them to circulate the interwebs pretty soon after this. Continue reading SBK: Shadow Screenshots Show No Chopped Off Limbs [Update]
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Hot Topic, the totally cool mall hangout for angsty, faux-punk, American teenagers that smells like parental hate, sells video game t-shirts in one corner of the store. It’s always in one of the window corners, so you can gawk at them without going inside and sacrificing your dignity and musk. The shirts are always so cool looking, but most in the store are absolutely ruined by silly phrases like, “I’m so money” or “Home Schooled”/”Classically Trained.” It’s a good thing that the Sonic shirts that they sell are not like that.
Hot Topic is offering up four styles of Sonic shirts for us to eat up. A blue hooded sweatshirt with the iconic, finger-waving pose, two off-yellow tees with Sonic posing or laughing, and a red shirt with Sonic running. They are all quality, retro, and awesome. They can also be shipped worldwide!
Buy some damn shirts and wear ’em to Summer of Sonic ’09 already! (Thanks, Rio!)
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If you remember the sad news about fellow Sonic fansite Sonic Yoda closing down, then this will certainly brighten up your day. Lewis, aka Hairyman/Sonic Yoda, has decided to do away with the Sonic side of things and focus on the whole of SEGA, with new website SEGADriven.
The emphasis with the new site, as is the same with The Sonic Stadium, is to look at the great things SEGA has accomplished and positively report on upcoming news on the latest titles. There will also be features on classic consoles, merchandise and company history, with plenty of writers already on board – including yours truly.
I’ll be writing a few pieces for the SEGA site, as I’ve always dreamed of running a SEGA fansite alongside TSS. SEGA have provided us with a truckload of entertainment, from the 1990s to the present day with Yakuza and Valkyria Chronicles. I’ll make my mark on the site itself tomorrow, when I discuss the PlayStation 3 tactical RPG in more detail. Because it sure does deserve more love.
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Merchandise time! These are Sonic the Hedgehog cufflinks that you can now buy from UK fashion shop NEXT. And as you can see, they’re not exactly of the highest manufacturing quality. But that’s what makes them so great.
Costing £12, you’d expect them to probably be painted by someone whose experience isn’t just Colour By Numbers. Of course, it was most likely coloured by machine, but it still doesn’t really excuse that Sonic looks like he’s thrown up on himself, or painted half his muzzle blue. A sign of the blue blur’s deteriorating mental health in his old age, I guess.
Retro stuff is insanely popular in Blighty, and various games shops have recently caught on by selling ‘retro Sonic merchandise’ such as plushies and bags. We’ve covered these before in past articles. NEXT has been getting into the act with T-Shirts, but this probably marks a concerted effort to sell/market even more Sonic merchandise in the future.
As far as I know, if you want to get your hands on this awesome-but-terrible collectable, it might be wise to snoop through the NEXT Catalogue or via their website, as they didn’t appear to sell these in their stores. If anyone’s seen these in NEXT shops, do let us know.
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If you’re desperate to see the box artwork of Sonic and the Black Knight for European audiences, then you’re in luck. In what must be about the only activity in the Sonic games world this month, Amazon.co.uk appear to have a final render of what will adorn Wii boxes come Spring. SEGA have not officially released this via their press channels, but retailers are usually pretty accurate when it comes to box artwork. It’d have to be, when they keep changing release dates all the time.
It’s pretty close to the North American box artwork, recently posted by Sonic Retro, with the exception of the ‘Sonic Storybook’ corner and the ‘Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection’ logo. Wonder what the deal is with the Wi-Fi anyway? Mind you, a few Sonic games have advertised Wi-Fi before release and then dropped it (Sonic Chronicles, for example), so I wouldn’t get too excited about that just yet.
Click the image to the left to see it in full size.
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Do you love Sonic the Fighters (Sonic Championship)? If not, HOW DARE YOU. There was a hotel on a hockey trip that had a Championship machine and I would waste so many quarters on smacking Amy’s head as flat as a pancake. I’ve since gotten to relive that novelty over and over, thanks to Sonic Gems Collection. The game still holds a special place in my all-time favorites, despite being a shallow fighter, as it has an art style and charm that most fighters lack. I absolutely melted when I went over to DeviantArt and found this picture at left by darkburraki. She comments:
I now await for this deviation to get a bajillion favorites just because it has Sonic on it.
Hell, darkburraki, I think you should get a bajillion favorites for including Honey, a character not even included in the game. As usual, click the thumbnail for a larger image.
EDIT: Whoops! We accidentally called DarkBurraki a guy. She is, obviously, a She. Which, given that she’s not a guy, would narrow down her gender a bit. Sorry about that, and thanks for letting us know about that blip, best-buddy “Leedz”.
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All too often, the extreme side of the Sonic fandom is perpetuated as childish and annoying. But every now and again, a story crops up that shows that not all Sonic fanatics are as bad as they are often made out to be. As is the case with Judson King, an eleven year old resident of Lawerance, Kansas.
Judson King is a pretty big Sonic fan. So big, in fact, that he wanted to OWN a hedgehog. Unfortunately, it turned out that hedgehogs where, for whatever reason, prohibited by Lawerance’s animal code. This set Judson off on a three year crusade to get the little spiky guys legalized. He collected all sorts of hedgehog facts, learned about city law and how to change it, and after over two years of research, he sent a letter to the city commission in support of the hedgehogs. Eleven months later, he found himself dressed up in a suit in front of the city commission, with a hedgehog primer prepared for each individual commissioner, complete with hedgehog facts and pictures.
Apparently, the city commisioners had no idea why hedgehogs where banned in the first place, although if you ask me, I suspected an angry Mario fan. They removed the law, and Judson King got his hedgehog. In case your wondering, no, he didn’t name it Sonic. The little guy’s name is “Little Luke”.
This just goes to show you what a little activism and research can do. Judson King is a Sonic fan who has quite a future ahead of him. Maybe in politics or law?
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Just a quick’un guys – remember we just released a new look for TSS? Well, it’s awesome and all, but not for Internet Explorer. Sorry about that. I’ll get it sorted soon as possible. Until then, er, use Firefox! I’m away from the TSS Tower right now so can’t really do anything about it for a few hours.
UPDATE: This is a quick fix for now, forcing the design to Narrow Hedgehog with a shoehorned design. I’ll fix it properly a bit later. Sorry guys! Least you can read stuff now 🙂
UPDATE 2: Everything’s working peachy now, so enjoy widescreen Sonic reading in Internet Explorer. Even if it does suck is the most popular browser.
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January 8th’s 9th’s featured player is my main man, Amesuki, and his glorious return to the fangaming scene. He has returned to shed some light on new details of his fangame, Sonic Chase, formerly known as Sonic Mayhem 2. Sonic Chase is an 8-bit, Game Gear adventure, something that is rarely seen in the fangaming scene. Did I mention that there’s a demo?
Amesuki is planning on making a staggering 25 zones for Sonic Chase. A number that is down from his originally planned 35, but it’s still a feat nonetheless. He is also trucking along in order to finish this game in time for SAGE 2009. He might be the only person there with a finished game!
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Sonic Retro member, SeanieB is looking to make another great resource in the Sonic community in the form of a comprehensive and active Sonic music archive. SB comments:
I’ve seen several pages stuffed into the side of less than awesome Sonic sites, collecting the music for the games, but generally unorganized, without album art/information or any real discussion of it at all.
Thus I came up with the idea to start a Sonic music archive, the go to place for Sonic tunes.
A place dedicated to the archival and discussion of Sonic tunes? Sign me up.
SeanieB is looking to launch the site within the coming months and needs the community’s support in filling the database as far as it can get. He is interested in MIDIs, VGMs, MP3s, and remixes. Check out the thread here to see what he is currently looking for.
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Next month, the Sonic the Hedgehog Archie comic will do something it has not done since the last terrible Sonic Super Special released November 2000: it will launch a spin off comic based off of the main book. That spin off title is called Sonic Universe. Here is the cover:
Sonic Universe will be replacing Archie’s successful Sonic X series, and released monthly alongside the Sonic the Hedgehog book. Instead of focusing on Sonic the Hedgehog, SU will focus on the various characters that populate his multiverse, most notably Knuckles and Shadow.
In addition to taking place in the same universe as the main Sonic book, Sonic Universe will occasionally dive into other universes as well. Headwriter Ian Flynn has not ruled out returning to the Sonic X universe sometime in the future.
The first issue of Sonic Universe continues where Sonic X #40 left off. After Shadow and Metal Sonic where transported through time and space into the Sonic X universe in Sonic the Hedgehog #196, Shadow now finds himself in a new world and a new comic book series. The official solicitation is after the jump.
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Hey, let’s all grill out, celebrate “No Drama ’09,” and watch the live performance of “Sweet Sweet Sweet” (or “Sweet Dreams,” whichever you prefer) by Dreams Come True. This song should be familiar to all of you, as it’s the instrumental and vocal version of the Sonic 2 epilogue music.
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We are leaving DeviantArt territory for January 7th and are now hitting up OCRemix for some Sonic tunage! Jose the Bronx Rican, a key remixer on the Stree Fighter II: HD Remix soundtrack by the OCRemix community, tackles Sandopolis and succeeds in creating a smooth, jazzy, Middle-Eastern piece. Jose comments:
“After varying degrees of success working on HD Remix and “Freshly Baked,” I learned enough about my soft studio to gain confidence in creating decent tunes in far less time than usual (though still looking for better sounds on the cheap). This is the result. The bare-bones WIP Dave heard way back at Baltimore Meet ’07 was finally worked on again, and, a month later, it’s finished.
I’ve been dying to do another Sonic tune. “Sand in My Shoe” is unapologetically 80’s: an R&B sound inspired by England trio Loose Ends, specifically their 1986 hit “Stay a Little While, Child.” I emulated that song’s style of production. Its middle-Eastern influences, “Lawrence of Arabia” vibe and irresistably incessant 808 drum loop I thought were perfect for an arrangement of Sonic & Knuckles’ “Sandopolis” BGM. Every little thing programmed and mixed in FL Studio.”
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You might have woken up this morning and found your favourite Sonic the Hedgehog website to be looking a little different. We’ve decided to do some early Spring cleaning for the New Year, which means a more streamlined browsing experience for you, discerning reader. This new design allows for fullsize viewing, so if you have a massive monitor you don’t have to worry about trying to get info out of a narrow box. The background in the header will set itself to classic Sonic the Hedgehog stages – as it’s still Winter (and bloody cold) we thought Ice Cap was a good choice this season. Click the Sonic Head in the navigation bar (next to the RSS button) to listen to SEGASonic Radio as you surf – wouldn’t it be cool to hear Ice Cap as you’re reading this now?
If all this change is too much for you, then fret not. You can switch back to the old design by using the nifty new Theme Switcher in the right hand sidebar. It’s a little dropdown underneath the ‘Searcharoo’ box. It’s now called ‘Narrow Hedgehog’ – we’ve spruced up that design a bit too, so whatever you’re using to view TSS know that it’s fresh, B-Boy.
Expect more revamps over the course of the month – I’m currently responsible for redesigning Sonic Showcase Network (with a brand new Gallery in tow), the new SEGASonic Radio website, SSMB (once the new IPB software gets released, that is) and the 2009 edition of the Summer of Sonic website. Not to mention a secret project of mine… mwaha. Anyway, enjoy TSS in widescreen, or continue to enjoy in narrowscreen, if you like.
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Visitors of Sonic Retro might have noticed frequent downtime in the past couple of weeks. Well, to remedy that, Scarred Sun, one of the admins at Retro, has a plan: give her money. Give her some damn money. She’s good for it, trust me.
The donations will move Retro off of CulTNET, thus keeping other CulTNET sites online if Retro happens to go down again in the future and could possibly make the site faster. If you like Retro and/or CulTNET, you’d be a fool to not donate to one of the most important communities in this dark, dark corner of the internet dedicated to a blue hedgehog.
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January 6th belongs to Hazard the Porgoyle (What in the blue hell is a “porgoyle?” Fan characters just get weirder and weirder.), because he absolutely dominates at Sonic art. The two pieces that I’d like to display here are absolute gems, giving moments in Sonic history a new perspective, literally. The top one at right here is a rendition of a boss in Death Egg, act 2. You all recall this encounter, I’m sure. Use gravity to make the spike tanks hit the giant egg ball, rinse repeat, get owned by the giant Egg Mech. It’s a wonderfully drawn scene from the game that someone could mistake for an HD remake of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Hazard comments:
Sonic doesn’t seem too concerned about Eggman’s new devious machine as he checks his glove cuff. Well, he’s done this stuff enough, right?
The second piece follows a similar style, but of a bit more esoteric moment. Sure, most people can recall that boss fight from Death Egg, but how many of your friends owned Game Gears and experienced Sonic: Triple Trouble? I know that most of us at TSS and SSMB have. The photo at right is a scene from Sunset Park’s famous train boss. I can hear the song now…
Check out Hazard’s DeviantArt profile for awesome renditions of moments from Sonic games, including boss fights from the Adventure and Advance series!
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Mecha Madness, a well-off Sonic fangame by Streak Thunderstorm, has a new demo for everybody to play. Check out the bitchin’ gameplay in a video that Streak has provided for TSS above.
Mecha Madness differentiated itself from the pack with its “metal” (like the music) feel, widescreen presentation, emphasis on fighting with a combo system, and stunning backgrounds. This new demo presents improved framerate (for some computers), new visual effects, a new boss AI engine for multiple movement routines, and the release of the full combo level. The full combo level’s release will allow players to try out the extended combo system, making Sonic more destructive than he was in the past demo.
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YouTube user, sphereballs, takes the January 5th spotlight today for his Sonic remixes. His remixes are not like the ones you would here on OCRemix, though. These two songs that he made take all 7 tracks from both the Japanese and American soundtracks of Sonic CD and mix them all into epic song. The zones that he has done thus far are Wacky Workbench and Tidal Tempest. Be warned, they are awesome. Tidal Tempest is above, hit the jump for Wacky Workbench. Continue reading Fanatics: The Best of Both Soundtracks
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In response to Slingerland’s opening message of his first re-named Fanatics article, I agree that there has been gaps lately in articles published on this here front page. I’m normally known for posting loads of news here but news has been slow. So, I’m going to take a page out of Slingerland’s book and make a new on-going front page read called Fandemonium. Fandemonium will focus on all thing’s that make Sonic games and what makes them work, be it stages, characters, items, gameplay and design.
The topic can only be about Sonic games and can be anything from past, present and future Sonic games. I’ll be posting articles on all details and information regarding the topic at hand together with my own oppinion and experience. A topic will be made at the SSMB where you the fans can post your own oppinions on the topic at hand and suggest a topic for the next article, best posts will be mentioned on the front page in the Fandemonium Round-Up that will be featured with the next article where, as the title suggests I’ll give a round-up of fan oppinions on the last Fandemonium topic.
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Things change a little bit for episode five of The Sonic Show as we take you through a commentary of Sonic Adventure DX. NTom64 and Fastest Thing Alive of ‘Hellfire Comms’ fame are your tour guides of one of most popular 3D Sonic games of all time.
WE STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU DOWNLOAD THIS VIDEO RATHER THAN STREAM AS THE VIDEO PLAYER ABOVE IS CRAP QUALITY FOR THIS PARTICUALY EPISODE!!! (Download link found below)
Sonic Adventure DX
Sonic Adventure was a game by the folks at Sonic Team and was released on December 23, 1998 in Japan for th Dreamcast. The version Hellfire take you through today is the Directors Cut version, which was released on the Gamecube many years later. The game was released as an enhanced port of the original Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast, with several additional features added. Sonic Adventure DX includes a mission mode, which included 60 missions to complete throughout the adventure fields and action stages. It also contains a minigame collection, which is comprised of twelve Game Gear games featuring Sonic and friends. However today these two guys will be commenting on just Sonic’s story in this classic game.
Who are Hellfire Commentaries?
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HellfireComms are a hugely popular team found on youtube who cover a wide range of video game featurettes. They are most well known for their commentaries of videogames, especially Sonic ones as this makes up the largest amount of their portfolio. HellfireComms is made of a large team but the most notable two are NTom64 and Fastest Thing Alive. With subscribers and 1,634,414 channel views in less than a year, it is fair to say that this team are making a big impact on the Sonic community.
To watch the rest of the Sonic Adventure DX playthrough as Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Gamma, Big and Super Sonic or to watch one of their other entertaining videos, please head over to
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I noticed something on this here front page. There are some days were there are just no stories whatsoever, leaving you feeling empty inside. To rectify this void, the “Fan Spotlight” is now renamed “Fanatics” and will be a daily community feature now. There are so many fans and so many works of art, so I think showing off an artist/fangamer/ROM hacker/remixer a day is the right move to make.
January 4th’s spotlight shines on DeviantArt user ThePepster. His piece, simply called “My Best Flash Sonic Drawing,” showcases a classic Sonic figure dashing at the speed of sound past a group of rings.
The Pepster describes his process: “I was fooling around with Flash and I’ve had quite some experience now. But getting used to the Wacom tablet is a pain in the ass! So I decided to do what I do best, draw Sonic on paper. But I then decided to scan it and trace over it by using the line tool in Flash. And from there, I went crazy with gradients and all that fun stuff. Then, I used Fireworks for the motion blur.”
His choice to use the “American” Sonic, with the single set of spines, is something that I do not see often, so I like this piece because of it.
(Click the image for a bigger view.)
Ah, that’s more like it. After a few weeks of Unleashed drama, it’s nice to get back to why I still hang around this community. In fact, I should just go back to community reporting altogether. The crusading and potshots are getting old. You should feel that way by now, too.
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Without sounding too much like TSSZ, ArchAngelUK of Sonic Wrecks (and awesomely enough, the Community Manager at SEGA Europe) has talked about his future regarding his involvement in his personal comic website. Apparently, things are going pretty well at his job, and the prospects could be further Community involvement with Sonic Team themselves.
I’m very much aware as I slowly inch my way up the totem pole and come into contact with more and more senior Sonic/SEGA peeps that my role in SW may have to end or I’ll have to take a “less prominent” role lets say as it may end up being a bit of a conflict of interest. I’m kinda tollerated atm, because I’m not that well known and kinda kept at arms length from Japan – I would scare them franky – but if things like my reports back to Sonic Team (I fed back on Unleashed in a major way both personally and your general feelings and it was definately looked at and noted by the team) are successful I’m gonna get more and more shall we say ‘noticed’.
Pretty awesome news for our pal Kevin, eh? If things get super-serious though, his ownership of Sonic Wrecks (which has always been a good source of comical entertainment for me… because of the comics, not that… never mind, I’ve done it now. Coming soon on another fansite – “Svend Joscelyne calls Sonic Wrecks a joke”, sigh) could be in jeopardy. It seems that if it ever comes to that, AAUK will pass the torch in some way to Echo Hawk, which would make sense really by all accounts.
We’ll keep an eye on this with baited breath – we heart Sonic Wrecks and the Kevster, and it’d be a shame to have another community website go down. We need our anti-TSS! We co-exist! This cannot come to pass.
In other news regarding this, sounds like Sonic Team are being a bit more open minded with comments from the community. It may be a by-product of the young, new development staff that actually want to embrace the fans. We all know that Hashimoto-san is desperate to make a Sonic game everyone can enjoy, and I sincerely hope that he can be successful in making one from learning from Sonic Unleashed. Although let’s just hope the community comments sent his way were more in the form of TSS’ recent review rather than Youtube.
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Happy New Year! And since we’re well on our way into 2009 already, it’s time to look back on the past 12 months and reflect on the good that has come out of the Sonic the Hedgehog community in 2008. There have been simply loads of good times and plenty of bad times, and each of them as memorable as the last. But what have been the reigning moments of the year? We’ve whittled all the good times to one single event, and of course because we would be wrong if we didn’t cover the bad elements of the Sonic fanbase too, we’ve pointed out the single worst event in the Sonic Community as well. Read on and reminisce in The Year That Was. Continue reading The Best and Worst of the Sonic Community 2008
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I have a question for you all. Did you play Sonic Unleashed and wished that you played as Knuckles during the nighttime stages? Well, according to DeviantArt user, gilau, so did Knuckles. In a blur, Knuckles is seen here beating the shit out of the most awful character in the series. Yes, Big the Cat is better than Sonic the Werehog. Allow me to pause as you pick up the pieces of your blown mind.
This story’s well-under “old news,” but I was just reminded of it when I walked into a Toys’R’Us today. Everybody knows about the LeapFrog, the gaming system for the Dora the Explorer generation. Did you know that Leapfrog has a Sonic the Hedgehog game? Yeah, I bet that you didn’t. Let me fill you in on the details: it totally sucks. It’s suppose to teach kids how to spell, but that goal is mucked up by how much it sucks. Wow, just wow:
I’m on an 8-bit Sonic binge as of late, aren’t I? Wait, who am I kidding? I always am.
Hey, do you not want to be a loser? Then, check this shit out. Indigo Rush tipped us on a sweet Sega Genesis tribute album, called “LOSER,” and I’ve been listening to it for the past few hours. I can officially say that it’s badass and you’ll like it.
Sonic Retro member, SeanieB is looking to make another great resource in the Sonic community in the form of a comprehensive and active Sonic music archive. SB comments:
