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SEGASonic Radio will see the return of its flagship LiVECAST very soon! The Sonic Hour has been a weekly comedy podcast that covers the week’s events in Sonic the Hedgehog, with the presenters (Dreadknux and Roareye Black) generally getting off topic and talking about random things in the process.
The plan was to bring back TSH in time for Sonic the Hedgehog’s 18th birthday (which, given the show regularly broadcasts on a Sunday evening, would have made that tomorrow night) but there’s another birthday sitting in the way of proceedings. Svend’s very own one!
So while Dread celebrates his 24th birthday, you can relive classic episodes of The Sonic Hour with the brand new podcast feed! Click here to find the feed, or you can find the listing on iTunes (due to a technical hitch we have had to change the iTunes feed URL, so you may still be getting a 404 error if you subscribe that way. Should be fixed in a while).
TSH has been going for as long as SEGASonic Radio’s been doing live broadcasts, so we’re periodically adding episodes over the next week. You can already catch the entirety of Series 1 and 3, with Series 4 being populated and the elusive, rare Series 2 coming very soon. The SSR website will also be getting updated soon with a page dedicated to TSH and all it stands for – keep an eye on SSR’s website for details.
Series 5 will begin on SEGASonic Radio, on Sunday 12th July 2009 at 6pm BST (11am US Pacific time). Make sure you keep the date booked for listening to our live feed, and visit our live IRC chatroom at irc.surrealchat.net to chat while we relaunch the LiVECAST! See you then!
I DIDN’T FORGET SONIC’S birthday ok! Stop emailing me. Watch the video and all will be explained. Also, I answer some of your questions again.
PLEASE COMMENT 
, ask more questions!
Beautiful Sound Produce Team Unite!
Fans of Jun Senoue and Johnny Gioeli’s rock band Crush 40 will be delighted to hear that, confirming hints Senoue made on his website, there will two new records hitting Japan this Autumn.
An interview with Famitsu online has revealed the nature of the two CDs – one will be a sequel to their self-titled album with new non-Sonic material, while another will be a 10th Anniversary compilation of modern Sonic themes.
Additionally, Senoue has hinted that the Anniversary CD release may be released on multiple discs – although Deviantart user manaita translated the Japanese interview and suggests that there will be multiple releases over the course of three months, which leaves the possibility of a two-disc collection being sold in ‘parts’.
Jun Senoue has been trying to release his domestic works to the Western market, but so far success has been limited. If you’re after a copy of these CDs when they hit Japan, your best bet as always is to import.
Cheers to Snatcher2047 for the heads up!
Source: Famitsu Jun Senoue Interview
Oh yeah. It’s that time of year again folks – get your tuxedos ready for the Sonic Site Awards 2009! We were going to launch this yesterday, but site problems prevented us from doing so. Things suck like that. PHASE ONE is the Nominations Round, and you’re able to take part by telling us what sites you think qualify for each award! Visit the Sonic Site Awards page and submit your entries today!
For those who don’t know what the SSA’s are, it’s an annual awards ceremony that The Sonic Stadium holds to encourage new and up-and-coming Sonic fansites to be seen out there. I started the event in 2001, back when it was difficult for TSS (yeah, this site was quite small back then) to catch a break among places such as Sonic HQ and Shadow of a Hedgehog. I figured I’d make an event to give fellow small sites like mine an even break.
A lot has changed in eight years, particularly with how large The Sonic Stadium now is – the difficulty is that we are now the ‘large site that gets in the way of new small fansites’. But I’ve always tried to make sure I don’t heavyweight anyone out of getting popular – continuing the Sonic Site Awards is my way of giving smaller sites the attention they deserve while pushing large sites like mine and Sonic Retro out of the picture.
We didn’t actually hold an SSA in 2008 – largely because I was too busy with organising the very first Summer of Sonic convention, and over the last few years the event had become way too bloated and somewhere, I felt that the SSAs had lost its focus. This year I’ve brought it back in a more streamlined fashion and have a clear direction on what kind of site to focus on, so only the unestablished sites get a look in.
I hope this year’s event will show us some truly unique sites and communities – it sometimes feels that there’s a distinct lack of active Sonic fansites these days. If nothing else, I want the SSAs to show a more visible collection of fansites. Do your bit by taking part!
By 1997, young Sonic fans had gotten to hear Sonic speak in Sonic CD and on several cartoon shows. So imagine their delight when a talking Sonic the Hedgehog plush was released! Sonic talking in your home, right in front of you! Would have been exciting to hear Sonic say a cool phrase to you huh? So, squeeze his belly and what does he say?
“SEGA!” Oh Sonic, you silly guy. Let’s squeeze again.
“SEGA!” Ok… let’s try again.
“SEGA!”
*10 times later* “SEGA!”
Don’t get me wrong, I love SEGA. And advertising does bring more money, certainly. But surely a talking Sonic plush should say something a bit cooler and with attitude like his various lines from the TV shows? If the word ‘SEGA’ had to be there then OK, but the creators could have put a few more words/lines in there. That’s my rant over, what do you guys in the Sonic community think? Is this what the 1997 Sonic crowd wanted in their talking Sonic plush toys? Let us know in the comments.
If you guys are interested in this plush you can now get one on eBay. There is currently a boxed one on eBay.com and a loose one on eBay.co.uk. You guys in the U.S. have just over 2 days to bid and at the moment there are no bids and you guys in the UK had better be quick as the item is a Buy It Now listing for £19.99 or you can pitch an offer to the seller.
So I was bored. And you guys ask me a lot for my thoughts on things plus general questions about the show. So maybe I should do this on a regular basis? Who knows, it’s pretty rubbish lol. I talk about Sonic in a car, fan games plus I open my latest ebay purchase.
Also, IM 21, why do I sound like a 12 year old boy D:
If you want to ask my a question, then comment below? I dunno XD
Happy 18th Birthday Sonic!So, our favourite Blue Spikey Spine-Rat turns 18 today, and the community is certainly finding exciting ways to celebrate the occasion!
Head over to SEGA’s Sonic facebook page during today and you can have a go at adding your comments to a number of different “What if” questions…the best replies have an opportunity to win themselves some very nice bits of Sonic merchandise!
There are also similar things going on over at Sonic’s Twitter page, so if you’re on both, you’ve got double chances of nabbing yourself something nice indeed – including signed goodies! If you want to check out what’s still up for grabs, full listings of the prizes are over on the SEGA blognik – AAUK sure has pulled out all the stops for this one!!! You need to hurry though – both contests are only lasting for the duration of today, so get your skates…er power sneakers on!
Even more deliciously (or annoyingly!), Japanese fans have their chance to nab themselves some VERY rare gear on their current prize campaign over on the Sonic Channel Website – I really want that signed Sonic drawing too! Prizes there go back to pre-Sonic Adventure games, so there are some very unique pieces to be won indeed!
So, how are you celebrating Sonic’s 18th Birthday? Running around the office in red shoes? Bouncing off desks in the class room? Defeating evil scientists? Lets us know what you have been up to here or over in the SSMB, and leave your birthday messages too!
If you’re one of these cool kids who updates their status on facebook every five minutes, then this is a competition for you!
SEGA’s Sonic the Hedgehog facebook page is giving fans a chance to nab themselves a free code for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on XBox Live Arcade! All you need to do is to be online and about at 8PM GMT (Noon PDT), and grab the code off the status update on Sonic’s site.
The catch? You’ve got to race the rest of the people online waiting for the code!!! The code is only good for one download, so you’re going to need ultra-fast lightning skills to get yourself a free download! There will be a new code online every day this week at the aformentioned time, so if you don’t have any luck today, you’ve got four more chances later on in the week!
While you’re there, you can also vote in the poll for your favourite Sonic Zones…which resulted in a rediculous number of comments being left on my facebook page; I don’t know why, we all know Stardust Speedway is the best stage in Sonic CD…right guys?
For those of you who simply havent had their fill of Metal Sonic this week with the announcement of the Jazwares’ Metal Sonic chibi figure, then fear not, as it looks like we have more shiny goodness on it’s way!
Pick up August’s copy of Toyfare magazine and you’ll find a nice feature on Jazware’s currently lined-up selection of Sonic toys, which not only includes a super-articulated Knuckles figure to join the host of others on the market, but that there is also a 10″ Metal Sonic action figure in the works too.
The figure looks to be in it’s prototype stages, but hopefully this high level of detail will be retained in the product – if so it’ll join the list of must-have items for hardcore fans to own. The other good news is it doesn’t look to be a San Diego Comic Con exclusive (unlike the JUVI chibi version), so you hopefully won’t have to pay collector’s exclusive prices for it! However it looks like it will be another Toys R’ Us exclusive, so us Brits will probably be forking out a fortune on shipping and handling from US ebay sellers once again.
You can check out the full article scan here.
Hats off to KururuSouchou on the SSMB for spotting this and scanning in articles!
So what do you think to these new action figures? Join the debate in the SSMB!
You might have noticed me going on about a Twitter account that I use every now and again. I’ve been dabbling with the thing for a while now, for personal use and all that. But then it hit me that I could use it to update you guys on site happenings and what-have you outside of TSS. If that makes any sense. The bonus is, I can send news posts and everything onto my Twitter for you to be updated with, and I can ticker it – as a result, it has replaced the News Feed ticker, which was proving to be a headache/drain on site resources as it is.
I was going to make a new account for this, but I figure it’ll be more colourful and interesting to use my current account instead. So if you want to follow my antics and keep up to date on when TSS is maintained then click the links in the scrolling ticker there and be my friend. 🙂 I like friends.
Oh, I’m aware that the SSR (and to an extent, the SoS) site borks in Internet Explorer. Sigh. I’m going to get right on that today — and Sega very kindly sent me a copy of Let’s Tap. Is Naka-san back? I’ll review it for you guys soon enough.
The wait is over for many fans waiting for the location of the second ever Sonic the Hedgehog convention – the Summer of Sonic 2009 is to take place in the Boiler House, at the Truman Brewery venue in London’s Brick Lane. The location makes it easy to get to for those traveling to the capital.
SOS 2009’s official website broke the news just now, with some information on the venue – the room holds 500 people, includes an outdoor area for extra space and fresh air, and has a distinctive chimney slap bang in the middle. We don’t think it works though, so toasting marshmallows (or cooking chili dogs) doesn’t look like an option, unfortunately.
The organisers have also dropped some hints to the happenings on the day – entry will be free, name registration will be required once again (although this time for legal obligations, not like 2008 where registrations were taken to prevent overcrowding) and Richard Jacques and TJ Davis could well attend a second time. The duo have been pencilled in for an appearance, but nothing has been set in stone, the website stresses.
More details are said to trickle in on a regular basis, so check out the Summer of Sonic website and The Sonic Stadium for the latest!
WHERE: The Boiler House, Truman Brewery (Summer of Sonic 2009)
Metal Sonic is probably one of the most famous and endeering badniks Sonic has ever had to face. As a long time fan favorite, it was only a matter of time until he finally got some merchandise.
On June 17th, Toys “R” Us will be selling a Metal Sonic vinyl blow up toy for $17. The toy will also be at next month’s Comic-Con.
Frankly, I think this is the single coolest piece of Sonic kit to come out in awhile. The toy is being made byJazwares as part of their JUVI line up. Jazwares has made other Sonic related merchandises that have also been sold at Toys ‘R’ Us exclusively, mostly recently a werehog figure and a Sonic and the Black Knight figure.
Source: Sega Nerds
An expert at putting his foot in his mouth and insulting his company’s biggest fanbase, SEGA of America President and Co-Owner, Simon Jeffery, has packed his bags at SEGA. Jeffery will become an executive at iPhone developer and publisher “ngmoco,” a company founded last year by a former EA executive, Neil Young.
Jeffery has made it well known that he loves the iPhone. While the move might seem idiotic on the surface for a president of SEGA to move into another role at a smaller company, the move is likely a simple pursuit of interests. Whatever might have sparked Jeffery’s departure from SEGA, I know that some people are having a party regardless.
Jeffery will lead ngmoco’s Plus+ (redundant, much?) publishing group, “which integrates social networking and cross-promotional options into games.”
[via Kotaku]
UPDATE (June 16th): SEGA of Europe president, Mike Hayes, will now be overseeing SoA. Read the full story at MCV.
A double dose of simplicity hits the Wii today in North America with the retail and download releases of Prope’s “Let’s Tap” and “Let’s Catch.” “Let’s Tap” is going at a $29.99 price tag, while “Catch” is worth 1,000 Nintendo Points on WiiWare. A European release date has yet to be announced for either title, as many outlets list it as “Summer 2009” or “To Be Announced.” Check out some video of the two titles below:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR4dQxQEaIo[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO7XmN8On_4[/youtube]
Are you interested in picking up either of Naka’s new projects? Let us know in the comments below.
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With Sonic 1’s arrival on the iPhone, popular handheld gaming website, Pocket Gamer UK, released a short, two-part retrospective on the hedgehog’s adventures on mobile devices. From the Game Gear, Game Boy Advance, and mobile phones, Pocket Gamer touches base with all the hits and misses with a brief synopsis and review.
It’s a fun read and a quick trip down memory lane. Oh, Sonic Labyrinth, we all love you thiiiiiis much.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8ohom-du94[/youtube]
Lady and gentlemen, Jason Griffith wears a condom. You should, too.
SEGA of America must be feeling generous as the new Adventure Pack released on Xbox Live today has hit the U.S. Playstation Store today too aswell as the Japanese Playstation Store. The European Playstation Store also updated today but hasn’t received this pack or its long awaited Mazuri Adventure Pack.
If you U.S. PS3 Unleashed owners are interested in this new Adventure Pack it’s another double pack like the Apotos and Shamar Adventure Pack, costs just $2.99 and consists of 5 daytime stages and 4 nighttime stages. SEGA have revealed in the packs description on Xbox Live at least(don’t know if its the same on the Playstation Store description) that this will be the last piece of downloadable content –
Download all-new Empire City & Adabat adventures! For the final downloadable pack, play five daytime & four nighttime stages that range from a high-rise metropolis to an exotic jungle strewn with ancient ruins.
That’s Xbox Live, U.S. and Japan PSN wrapped up but we’ll keep you posted on if and when the European Playstation Store get’s its two missing Adventure Packs.
SEGA have today released the Empire City & Adabat Adventure Pack on Xbox Live Marketplace. Like the Apotos & Shamar Adventure Pack this is a double pack for the same 250 MS Points consisting of 5 daytime stages and 4 nighttime stages. The description for the pack reveals that this new pack is the final downloadable pack.
Download all-new Empire City & Adabat adventures! For the final downloadable pack, play five daytime & four nighttime stages that range from a high-rise metropolis to an exotic jungle strewn with ancient ruins.
The Japanese Playstation Store has oddly not received this new pack today but we’ll be checking the European and U.S. Playstation Store’s when they update later today and let you know if we see any new Sonic Unleashed downloadable content there.
Some more new screenshots of both the Wii and DS versions of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games have appeared from E3 on Sonic fansite Planete Sonic. The most interesting of the screens is the above screenshot(click to go large) of Tails skiing in what looks like one of the Dream Events but what is so interesting you ask? Eagle eyed SSMB Member speedfreak has pointed out a Silver The Hedgehog icon flag among the other character icon flags in the background confirming him to be a playable character in this game.
Silver was discovered to be a playable character in the Wii version of the last game at one point in development when leftover data was discovered in the final game so it’s no surprise they would add him in to this title. We’ll keep an eye open for any further media/info on this game as it happens.
SEGASonic Radio was about the third Sonic the Hedgehog-themed radio station to hit the ‘Zone Radio Network so many years ago, but it easily became the world’s best-loved. With the recent server wipes and whatnot, progress on SSR has been slow, but I can happily announce that the new website is back online, and resident DJs are currently populating the pages on the site with details on their shows. I’m working on guiding them through on-site podcast publishing too, so you’ll be able to subscribe to a specific LiVECAST to listen to whenever you want. Check out the new SSR site now!
Related to that, it’s been a while since Roareye Black and myself have done an episode of The Sonic Hour, hasn’t it? Well, the wait for Series 5 is almost over, as I can tell you that The Sonic Hour will be returning to SEGASonic Radio on Sunday 28th June, 6pm BST! Save the date in your calendar, kiddies. We’ll probably have breadsticks to commemorate the occasion.
Now, the other big news this Summer is the return of the real-life fan convention known as the Summer of Sonic. Yes, it’s still happening, and yes it’ll still be on August 29th, 2009 in London, UK. We’re very close to finalising the venue, and we’ll be able to announce loads soon (in the meantime, I may tease some bits on my Twitter account!) – in the meantime, check out the new Summer of Sonic 2009 website! Click here to visit SOS 09!
All good stuff, yes? Yeaaaah it is. I have one or two more announcements left to give you guys, but I’ll wait a few days before I let loose on details there. 🙂 Enjoy listening to SSR, check out the IRC Chatroom and get psyched for the return of The Sonic Hour, and get doubly-excited for the Summer of Sonic 2009!
SEGA have released Mega Drive classic Sonic 3 among a few other titles onto Xbox Live Arcade today as part of its SEGA Vintage Collection. Developed by Backbone Entertainment the port supports online multiplayer in Competition Mode aswell as online leaderboards and for anyone wondering, they have kept Competition Mode’s Time Attack in there. The download weighs in at 19.23 MB in size and costs just 400 MS Points. The game also of course has 12 new Achievements for you to rack up and show off. Sonic & Knuckles will be released later this month and will incorporate the lock-on feature with Sonic 2 and 3 but will it lock-on with Sonic 1 for the Blue Sphere game? We’ll have to find out.
You can download Sonic 3 from Xbox.com or from your Xbox 360.
One of the more surprising announcements to come out of E3 for Sonic fans, perhaps swamped by all the news of motion controllers and revamped handhelds, was the announcement of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. I think a lot of people were wondering, after a few attempts at tacking the hedgehog onto a racing game, when exactly SEGA were going to try and go for Mario Kart’s crown as multiplayer king. It certainly seems to have some quirks to it, when you watch the gameplay videos that have gone online. It could well be the manic, fun and non-super-hyper-realistic-epic racing game that Sonic Riders never really was.
As much as I’m dying to get my hands on the gameplay to make a final judgement, I’m most impressed with the design of the game. A lot has been borrowed from Sonic’s past, including the Green Hill/Seaside Hill fusion that brilliantly has some loops and other crazy things involved. But a lot has been spent towards other ‘Superstars’ in SEGA’s lineup too, including a Bill Hatcher stage which I heart. Because Billy Hatcher is awesome. It just seems like, while games such as Sonic 06 and Sonic Riders had a premise which didn’t fit Sonic’s style whatsoever, this racing game just gels with the character of Sonic perfectly.
SEGA put up a load of high-res screenshots recently, so we’ve taken the liberty of putting them on TSS for you to download. They’re from the 360/PS3 versions of the game, and they’re quite large. Use them as a wallpaper or something. That’s what I’m doing with that gorgeous Green/Seaside Hill track screenshot there.
Sonic Adventure 2 was a big deal back in 2001. Hype was at fever pitch among the Sega faithful, the game had very positive reviews (remember when that happened?) and countless merchandise was released for the game that was to coincide with Sonic’s 10th Anniversary. There were limited edition statues, glass cubes, CD soundtracks and booklets… we even discovered goblets most recently! One of the biggest and most sought after of the bunch though, was an ultra-rare blue Sega Dreamcast in Sonic’s name. Signed by Yuji Naka, the only one actually seen in the wild was on an episode of Thumb Bandits, given away as part of a contest.
Now, you can obtain that very console for your collection. If you have a spare grand and a half.
On everyone’s favourite backyard sale, a chap is letting go of this very rare item – which includes a white and blue Sonic themed controller, a copy of Sonic Adventure 2, the usual bits that came with a Dreamcast and of course the blue console with a Sonic imprint and Naka signature – for £1,500. What recession?
Sega Dreamcast Sonic the Hedgehog 10th Anniversary Rare – eBay (ta, Jemnezmy)
SEGA have unveiled some new screenshots via GameWatch for upcoming Wii and DS title Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. Included are some skiing and hockey screens for Wii, some bobsledding, skiing and snowboarding screens for DS together with a couple of screens of the DS’s exclusive Adventure Mode. One of the Adventure Mode screenshots displays the new character interaction with Toad talking to Sonic while the other shows some top down style gameplay with a typical RPG type HUD. It looks like you can switch between playing as Mario and Sonic by tapping the X button.
We’ll keep an eye out for any future media and info released for the game, in the meantime check out Mario & Sonic showing off at this years E3
Those crazy guys
You may have seen our article we published last Sunday regarding SEGA changing the formats list on their sites for upcoming game Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing. On Thursday 28th May SEGA announced the game to be coming to Xbox 360, Wii, PS3, DS and PC but a few days later SEGA edited the PS3 version on their sites from PLAYSTATION®3 to Playstation® Network indicating the game was going to be download only on that format which made some PS3 owners a bit annoyed.
SEGA also added the PC version to its U.S. site as PC Download indicating a download only version on that format too despite the PC DVD logo in the trailer. No PC version listing was anywhere to be found on the European site.
Now SEGA have updated the formats list again on both the U.S. and European sites. On both the U.S. and European sites the PS3 version has been changed from Playstation® Network to PLAYSTATION®3, the European site has now finally added the PC version as simply PC but the U.S. site still lists it as PC Download.
So, PS3 version now on Blu-Ray, Europe PC version on disc and U.S. PC version download only. What do you guys think of these confusing developments? Let us know in the comments.
U.S. PS3 Sonic Unleashed owners can now finally download the Apotos & Shamar Adventure Pack from the Playstation Store for $2.99. If you didn’t catch our last two news stories on the European PS3 release or the Xbox Live release of the content then here are the contents of the pack yet again:
Shamar consists of
Sonic:
Act 1-2: Get to the goal in time!
Act 3: Find the Chao!
Werehog:
Act 2: Head for the goal
Act 3: Head for the goal!
Apotos consists of
Sonic:
Act 1-2: Head for the goal!
Act 2-2: Head for the goal!
Act 4: Head for the goal!
Werehog:
Act 1-2: Head for the goal!
Act 1-3 Head for the goal!
U.S. Official Playstation Blog: Playstation Store Update 4th June
The European Playstation Store hasn’t received any Sonic Unleashed DLC this week so it looks like you EU PS3 guys and gals will be waiting even longer for your missing Mazuri Adventure Pack.
SEGA have unveiled five new screenshots and a trailer for the upcoming mobile phone release of Sonic Unleashed. The game is being brought to you by Gameloft, a well known developer on the mobile phone gaming circuit. The game is purely 2D and looks to have some similarities to popular Sonic side-scroller games Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventure for Nintendo DS. The levels look finely detailed and Sonic even has new sprites compared to past mobile games using his Sonic Advance sprites.
You can check the games appearance yourself by checking the rest of the screenshots and trailer out over at IGN. SEGA and Gameloft have yet to reveal a release date for the game but we’ll let you know as soon as one is revealed.
SEGA have updated the official site for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. Among the new updates you can find the E3 ’09 trailer that reveals Donkey Kong and Metal Sonic as playable characters aswell as Tails cheating on the ski jump.
You can also find new screens for both Wii and DS formats, character artwork, info on events and character stats for 10 of the characters which oddly reveal Donkey Kong to have higher speed than both Sonic and Metal Sonic.
The site promises More coming soon’ and now displays a release month of October 2009.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6dnK_SbGj4[/youtube]
Watch this video, or else you’re a poophead.
Big props to FlameStream on YouTube. I am really impressed with this animation and I thought that I would share it with you all.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhIAJmwuPXQ[/youtube]
Things to note:
Enjoy this video of Sonic and Sega All-SonicStars Sonic Racing featuring Sonic.
… EPIC WIN ETC, E3 trailer ahoy!
