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[UPDATE] Is SEGA Searching For a New Sidekick For a Future Sonic Game?

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Author Shadzter
71 Comments

Sonic's Sidekick artist site

UPDATE: We have learned that while the Sonic page wasn’t archived at Google until April 17th 2014, the images were uploaded to Michael Nagy’s site July 15th 2013. It’s now very likely that this is a scrapped project.

Thanks to Gatestormer at the SSMB for the heads up!

ORIGINAL ARTICLE BELOW:
It appears SEGA may be on the hunt for a sidekick for a new Sonic game they’re working on behind the scenes fronted by a new worldwide campaign titled The Search for Sonic’s Sidekick. In slides discovered by The Sonic Stadium at ad agency DDB Tribal artist Michael Nagy’s website there are images of an online mobile game SEGA will use in a competition to get fans involved in the new campaign. DDB Tribal are responsible for major campaigns for events such as The Queens Diamond Jubilee and advertisements for a variety of big brand companies.

The aforementioned mobile game sees players in twelve cities around the globe create a character and then race their character around their city using Google’s Street View technology. You then log your best time onto the leaderboard and the player with the fastest time at the end of the competition will see their character in the next Sonic game. The competition will run for eleven months and visit a new city every month.

Sonic's Sidekick 3

We have created an online game using Google Street view where you compete to become Sonic’s sidekick. Your online avatar will be in the next game that is produced for Sonic. The competition will run for 11 months and move to a different city every month across the globe. The cities include Tokyo, Hong Kong, Berlin, Paris, London, Cape Town, Toronto, New York, San Francisco, Rio De Janeiro and Sydney.

Sonic's Sidekick 5

The description doesn’t mention whether this is a console or mobile title, but for a campaign this big, it’s likely this could be for the next big console game from Sonic Team after Sonic Boom. We checked on Google and this page was archived just last week on April 17th 2014, so it’s very recent. The website http://www.runthestreets.com isn’t live yet, but the domain does appear to be up for sale and a Whois check doesn’t show any ownership by SEGA or Google just yet.

It’s also worth noting that there is no mention or indication of the new character replacing Tails as Sonic’s sidekick, so don’t panic, Tails fans. This new character could likely be playing a sidekick role similar to Chip in Sonic Unleashed or Yacker in Sonic Colours. Whatever the role, the character will obviously be important to the new game.

The images are currently still live on Michael Nagy’s website, but you can also find all of them in our gallery below.

What do you think of this campaign? Is it a good idea to get fans involved in the creation of a new character?

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71 Comments

  6. Hmm. Seems an odd way to me, who knows, the one who wins might be ugly as heck and then what would they do?

    1. Exactly. So far, in the screens all I see is a monkey and a racoon. I don’t want to see real-life looking animals in a Sonic game. Make them creative in the way Sonic is a hedgehog, and at first glance no one would have guessed.

      2. Yeah. They’re a weird realistic too… Honestly, what’re they thinking here? I’m hoping Tanner’s correct in thinking it will be Sonic’fied.

  8. And why do we have to use those weird templates, can’t we have a contest that actually involves creativity?

  11. Okay, seriously, what in the Ancient Walker’s name is this nightmare fuel!? Seriously!!! Get it out of my face! But I’m so darn curious about what it is!?!?!?!!! UGH!!!

  13. Why can’t they give us creativity and no some real life animals? I want to have a Sonic version of myself as a hedgehog, not a real life one. Jesus Christ Sega give people what they want.

  17. wow i guess sega might have putting this in to our minds but the new character for the next sonic game for the playstation wow i guess sega might have a chance to get sonic a sidekick its like batman and robin and also listen guys sonic has been introduce in his first game and shadow the hedgehog has been introduce in sonic adventure 2 the 10th birthday of sonic in 2001 and silver the hedgehog has been introduce in sonic 06 the 15th birthday of sonic 2006 and finally classic sonic has been reintroduce in sonic generations in 2011 20 birthday of sonic i wonder whats next on the 25th birthday of sonic maybe there might be a new female character or a male character guys with different species how simple is that guys.

    1. Why? Tails is Sonic’s “Robin” and Classic Sonic was just re-intoduced, not a whole new character like Shadow and Silver were. If anything, I’d rather them go back to other characters like Blaze, Knux, or any other that hasn’t been given much spotlight than shoe-horn a crappy un-Sonic like character that’s just the work of some half-ass create-a-character app.

    1. I wouldn’t do that if I were you, … We don’t want to get … The new hedgehog haters… Cough cough, Silver, cough cough.

      1. Oh well….they just aren’t…..mature enough….to handle the idea……of Sonic……not being….the only hedgehog…….in existence.

        Well at any rate…..this may not…..have been….real after all…..but if it was….I would….have had…..to pick…..another favorite…..animal…………….maybe a cat?

        1. Or what about having every single character be a hedgehog brings no variety to the species that are in Sonic’s world.

          Look at Vector, Espio, Blaze, Knuckles, and Rouge. Wouldn’t their designs look so boring and mundane if they were just a constant stream of hedgehogs?

          Sure, there can be other hedgehogs in Sonic, but when you make that the only species you use for your main characters, it’s gonna get boring. We have enough hedgehogs as it is, we don’t need another just trying to hog (no pun intended) the spotlight from characters that deserve it far more and that have been in this series far more than some fan-char that was made by a 10 year old on a cookie cutter animal character creator app.

      2. People don’t hate Silver because he’s another hedgehog.

        They hate him because of his terrible gameplay and him being a horrible character story-wise in all of his game appearances.

        Oh, and some because of his dumb looking design, but that’s subjective. (Forehead leaf hair? Really Sega/Sonic Team?)

  25. Those characters frighten me. But otherwise, this seems like a fun idea, I’ve always wanted to play a game in Google Maps like this (Pokémon doesn’t count).

    1. BLAAARRRRGGGGGHHH!!!!

      Change is bad!!!!

      Go back to the way it used to be!!!!

      No more testing boundaries and exploring new possibilities!!!!

      Only old stuff is always good, new stuff always sucks, neyaah!!! >:P

      1. Even if it means going against things that are established about Sonic’s character for ages such as Tails being Sonic’s sidekick? There’s experimenting and then there’s completely going against what Sonic is.

  28. can’t believe I’m saying this, but this actually looks fun. Come on, they wont pick a terrible design, will they? XD

  30. This is fucking bullshit. I call it. Seriously, Shadzter? Who the fuck could even fall for this? I mean what in the fuck. That picture of the iPhone 2-3 (ya know, the one from like 5 fucking years ago) with that ancient Youtube player layout on the inside. That weirdly unprofessional abstract website. That “Download for Android” logo that people stopped using in favor of “Available for Google Play” a long, long time ago. The way the fucking Rings look. The use of that random generic red on-screen joystick instead of Tilting or Swiping. And the “Sidekicks”, dear god. Fuckin’ tattoos on a mustached dressed like a hipster doll with no pupils?
    I call fucking bullshit.

  32. The new game could possibly be a sequel to Sonic Unleashed, or maybe a new Sonic Adventure game.

    2. It’s not that I would have totally rejected the idea, but how would it even have worked? Given the description, it doesn’t sound like they’re that clear about what we’re supposed to do. If there was a contest to get my fan character as a background character, I’d do that in a heartbeat, but this….I’m not sure what I would have made of it if it turned out to be real.

  35. This concept was probably part of the initial reboot plans. I can see why it was scrapped. Going by the comments, Sega probably realised that the fans would respond very negatively (or more so than they usually do) to this. Thank fuck for Boom

  36. Instead of wasting everyone’s time Sega, why don’t you give us what we want, and let Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and more be playable with the same gameplay as Sonic. Sonic Boom looks like a decent game, so I wish Sonic Team would take inspiration from that, and make a Sonic Adventure like sequel with multiple, and optional characters with their own unique abilities, but with the same level goals as Sonic.

  37. wow i guess sega might have putting this in to our minds but the new character for the next sonic game for the playstation wow i guess sega might have a chance to get sonic a sidekick its like batman and robin and also listen guys sonic has been introduce in his first game and shadow the hedgehog has been introduce in sonic adventure 2 the 10th birthday of sonic in 2001 and silver the hedgehog has been introduce in sonic 06 the 15th birthday of sonic 2006 and finally classic sonic has been reintroduce in sonic generations in 2011 20th birthday of sonic i wonder whats next on the 25th birthday of sonic maybe there might be a new female character or a male character guys with different species how simple is that guys.

  38. I wish there were more games with the whole cast in, it just seems a waste when they don’t appear for afew years… I’m not saying that I hate having to play as Sonic, I just would like a game with plenty of choice, so it fits everyone’s opinion. Adding another character would just be silly because some characters could be re-used, I wouldn’t hate on the new character though, I would just accept them into the Sonic gang like anyone else. I just think it would be a good idea for Sega to re-use the characters that aren’t appearing as often (Chaotix, Silver, Shadow, Blaze, Cream, Rouge ect.) I hope that they consider it…

  39. Glad this is scrapped. realistic animals, no thanks…
    id rather have a artist compitition where designs are submitted along with breif personalities.

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    1. I’m going to be blatantly honest- If you don’t know how to make a comment in English, don’t try to.

  44. I’m looking forward to the experience of this new game, do you have any idea ho many ideas on games and cartoons I can come up with?

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