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Don’t get your feathers ruffled Hello Kitty, there’s a new mascot crossing over with Sonic. Continue reading Sonic and B.Duck Join Forces for Hong Kong Clothing Line
The men and women behind the Sonic Boom TV show will be available to answer all your burning questions on Twitter today. They will be live tweeting at 6 p.m. eastern time, during this week’s episode, “Give Bees a Chance,” which was written by Cindy Robinson, the voice actor for Amy Rose. To send them a tweet, just use the hashtag “#AskSonicBoomCrew”. For a countdown timer and links to the twitter profiles of everyone participating, check out Mike Pollock’s website.
Below is a list of everyone who will be participating in the Q&A:
Sonic – Roger Craig Smith
Dr. Eggman – Mike Pollock
Tails – Colleen Villard
Knuckles – Travis Willingham
Episode Writer and Amy Rose – Cindy Robinson
Sticks – Nika Futterman
Orbot – Kirk Thornton
Cubot – Wally Wingert
Exec. Producer, Comedy Chimp & Lady Walrus – Bill Freiberger
Staff Writer and Story Editor Alan Denton
Staff Writer and Story Editor Greg Hahn
Staff Writer and Editor Sam Freiberger
Last month, we brought you an update on what was going on with the Archie Sonic Comic as of February, concerning delays on PreviewsWorld and Sonic being absent from the May solicitations for Archie. There’s been more interesting developments since then, so here’s a roundup of information as of March.
So this thing called SXSW happened, and if you weren’t aware, a LOT of new Sonic news was uncovered during the Sonic The Hedgehog panel fronted by Aaron Webber. Sonic Forces was revealed in all it’s glory and we tackle the discussion on where the direction of Sonic is going. Is it taking Sonic back to his edgy days of guns and kissing women or a fresh take on the brand that can appeal to those who do not feel connected to Mania. There are two very different sides of the coin for this discussion, worth a listen in itself! Before we delve into that hotbed of chat though, we cover the latest news such as Drake sampling His World on his new album, Mania being delayed and Hedgehog Awareness Week. All with the help of special guest Sonic The Cosplayer.
Oh and we find out some DISTURBING truths in today’s game of Learning With Lurker! Did Sonic The Cosplayer secretly dress as Rouge at a gaming con? Did Sega Scourge start smoking at 10 to be cool like Shadow The Hedgehog? Did Jay do extra curricular activities in exchange for Sonic Heroes? We find it in our mad game of truth or lie in “Learning With The Lurker”
This one is a gem, make sure you listen to the end!
Remember if you want to listen to more of the show, head over to our podcast page!
If you thought one of the best things about the Sonic Mania reveal trailer was the 8-bit music, then you’ll love this (assuming you live in the UK) – Nitro Fun, the artist behind those chiptune beats, will be headlining a special gaming-themed party in a couple weeks’ time during London-based show EGX Rezzed. Continue reading Sonic Mania Trailer Music Artist Headlining EGX Party in London
With SEGA’s panel at SXSW this past week, eager attendees got their first extensive look at the finally unveiled Sonic Forces. Sonic Team looks poised to deliver a game that builds upon the foundations of Colours and Generations, and things certainly seem to shape up that way if an early preview of modern Sonic’s gameplay is of any indication.
The panel then shared the instrumental version of the main theme to Sonic Forces, also revealing that the game’s sound direction will be led by Tomoya Ohtani. It didn’t take too long until fans began remixing the energetic (and dare I say, kinda anime opening-esque?) theme song, and while it will still be a while until we hear the official vocalized version, one awesome cover in particular might just help with the long wait.
Have a listen to Sonic Mania composer Tee Lopes’ rendition below, and share your thoughts with us in the comments!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGSA5-SkTGg&ab_channel=TeeLopes
Sonic Forces is scheduled for launch this holiday season for Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
Back in December, The Sonic Stadium attended the launch of the Castle Fine Art Sonic 25th Gallery Exhibition, in which eight artists produced 25 different pieces to commemorate the milestone birthday.
Following the success of the collection, two of the artists, Keith Maiden and Craig Davison, have created more pieces in their signature styles.
Continue reading New Sonic 25th Anniversary Artwork At Castle Galleries
Going by what little we’ve seen of Sonic Forces, the game looks a little grim. But according to IGN, which was one of several major gaming media outlets to be given a more extensive eyes-on of the game, SEGA told them the level we’ve been seeing was “one of the more aesthetically grim parts of the game”. So Sonic Forces may not be as dark and apocalyptic as footage of the game has suggested.
IGN went on to explain the game play on display, saying it clearly shared lineage with Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations. It also featured alternative paths with “verticality”.
Check out the complete preview here.
A lot of different news on Sonic Forces has been dropping these past 24 hours, and now word from Game Informer is that Knuckles, Amy Rose and the Chaotix can be heard communicating to Sonic on the chaos going on near them via radio. This likely puts them as NPC characters rather than playable, but they are in the game in some form. Still, “Forces” usually implies armies of some sort, so it’s possible the game has characters set in groups, but that’s just a theory.
Sonic Forces will be out this holiday season on PC, Switch, Xbox One and PS4
As promised, Sega have uploaded the HQ gameplay of Modern Sonic that was shown last night at SXSW onto YouTube for all to see. Also we have two high-quality screenshots straight from Sega to share as well!
Continue reading HQ Gameplay Video and Screenshots of Sonic Forces Released
If Sonic Forces is leaving you with a bit of a Sonic ’06 vibe, what with it’s burning, apocalyptic cities and all, it shouldn’t surprise you. After all, the producer of Sonic Forces is none other than Shun Nakamura, the director on Sonic ’06 as well as Samba De Amigo, Billy Hatcher and The Giant Egg and the well-reviewed, but often overlooked, Rhythm Thief & The Emperor’s Treasure. Nakamura himself posted his involvement on his Twitter account.
This news comes just shortly after the game’s title reveal as well as the announcement that Tomoya Ohtani will be composing the game’s music. An official gameplay reveal video is expected to arrive sometime tomorrow.
Sonic Forces is due on Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbox One this holiday season.
UPDATE: SEGA has later uploaded the theme via the official Sonic YouTube channel! Original story follows below.
The SXSW Sonic panel ended with a sneak preview of the Sonic Forces theme. The theme was composed by Tomoya Ohtani, who served as Sound Director for Sonic 2006, Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors. While this version of the theme is strictly instrumental, the final version of the theme will have vocals.
Check out the theme song in the embedded video below, courtesy of Blue Paradox:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm7N5__Scm0
Sonic Forces has shown us a sneak peek of its gameplay, showing off an evolved version of the boost gameplay.
Boasting “three unique gameplay styles”, the title has been built on an advanced version of an existing engine exclusively for the new title – which Iizuka titles the Hedgehog Engine 2.
The footage showed Sonic blasting through a city under assault from Eggman’s forces, showing a clear evolution in visual fidelity. Iizuka also confirms Wisps will return, and there’s plenty of platforming to enjoy alongside high speed action.
The gameplay will be uploaded to social media channels tomorrow, which we’ll update our story with when available.
While not 100% confirmed, it was put to the audience at SXSW today by SoA Sonic Community Manager Aaron Webber to whether fans would be interested in owning the Sonic Mania soundtrack on vinyl! At the moment this appears to be a WIP, but we will keep you up to date on whether or not this item makes it to production! Continue reading Sonic Mania OST to be released on vinyl?
Update (7:18PM EST): There was also a skit before the reveal that seemed to indicate the plot of the game. Apparently, it might take place in a world where Sonic has failed, and Eggman has finally won.
Update (6:48PM EST): Logo from here, HQ PNG one soon:
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It was just announced at the panel that the official name for Project Sonic 2017 is now Sonic Forces. More as it happens!
This post will be updated by as it comes in.
We’ll get the official assets and will update here in just over 15 minutes.
Sonic Forces will be released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC as announced before.
Flying Battery is the second returning zone coming to Sonic Mania, as confirmed at the SXSW 2017 panel. A snippet of footage was shown of the zone, which we will update with shortly when available. Continue reading Flying Battery Zone confirmed for Sonic Mania, trailer revealed
Sonic Mania’s box art has just been revealed at the SXSW panel. The Tails Channel Twitter @SonicNewsNow posted the above image.
This just in from the SXSW Sonic panel: Sonic Mania has been delayed from Spring 2017 to Summer 2017! Still no exact date revealed. According to the panel, the devs need more time to make sure the game is as good as it can be.
They said SEGA doesn’t want to disappoint its fans, and is making sure it is taking the time needed to make a high quality game. “Quality is our number one priority.”
SXSW revealed yesterday that they would not be livestreaming their panels tomorrow, including their Sonic panel. Luckily, Tails Channel is streaming it! You can watch it in the embedded video below: Continue reading SXSW not streaming Sonic panel. Here’s how you can watch it!
According to a new interview with Sonic Community Manager Aaron Webber, no platforms will be getting any preferential treatment from Sonic Mania when it finally hits. According to the interview, conducted by Nintendo World Report, the game will be hitting the Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC at the same time and at the same price, although no further details were given on what the release date and price will be. Continue reading Sonic Mania will will launch same day across all platforms, at the same price
https://audioboom.com/posts/5708434-opinion-zone-60-is-archie-sonic-dead-special-guest-lisa-medin
In todays episode, Comic Artist Lisa Medin joins us to discuss the future of Archie Comic’s long running Sonic comic as we dissect a recent article by Jason Berry.
Is the future at risk? And what is to blame for the downfall of the long running licensed comic? Skip our news discussion (including someone going to court for using a hedgehog as a weapon) and listen to us chat all things Archie at 36:00! Let us know what you think in the comments.
We also get to learning with David The Lurker as we find out if one of our hosts use to visit Sonic Passion!
The official Sonic twitter account has shown off another teaser image, depicting the giant robots seen in the original trailer of Project Sonic 2017. The image was accompanied by the simple tease of “See you at @SXSWGaming!”.
Continue reading Official Sonic Twitter Teases More Project 2017 Info To Be Revealed At SXSW
Following the launch at San Diego Comic Con last year, beauty products company GLAMGLOW have brought their Sonic the Hedgehog-themed GRAVITYMUD product to UK shores!
The GRAVITYMUD firming treatment, in an exclusive SONIC BLUE, is available from the UK site for the sum of £39, making it significantly cheaper to obtain than importing from the USA.
You can watch our friend Jay over at the Sonic Show try out the product below:
Follow the link to purchase Sonic Blue GLAMGOW GRAVITYMUD
Thanks to Sarah over at the Sonic Merch facebook group for the tip!
The Sonic the Hedgehog social media pages have revealed the origin of yesterday’s teaser image of a leg, with the owner of the appendage being a new Badnik on the Block, named Heavy Gunner. HG is part of the Hard Boiled Heavies, who while no further detail was given, will no doubt be antogonists of Sonic and friends in the new game. Continue reading New Enemy Character and Green Hill Zone 2 Revealed for Sonic Mania
From the Sonic twitter account…
Tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/aV4RVswJxe
— Sonic the Hedgehog (@sonic_hedgehog) March 9, 2017
Yup, that’s definitely a leg. And maybe a foot. It might belong to Metal Sonic, but it’s hard to tell.
And something about Tomorrow.
And that is all there is to say about this, no really, there is nothing else to say. Unless anything else happens. As usual we’ll let you know.
See you tomorrow. Feel free to speculate what this means in the comments.
Actually… lets have some fun… you can only pick one.
#TeamFoot
#TeamThigh.
Let us know if you follow the foot or obey the thigh in the comments.
UPDATE: Polygons Nick Robinson apparently knows what it is, so if the press know then it might be something worth keeping an eye out for.
when i saw the full piece for the first time i said out loud "GOD that is perfect"
— Nick Robinson (@Babylonian) March 9, 2017
As you most probably heard from yesterdays article, Dan Sheridan has now left SEGA Europe. At just over a year in the role of Europe’s Community Manager, it is quite impressive what he achieved in such a relatively small time frame. Having spent a trip with him in San Diego after winning last years contest to find Europe’s biggest Sonic fan, it only makes sense that todays opinion revolves around the man and his Sonic hat. (Skip to roughly 37 minutes in if you wish to skip the news and head straight to our Sheridan discussion)
This is also the start of a new season of The Opinion Zone, which brings a whole new range of segments for your enjoyment. In fact, we are looking for you guys to help us with a future show piece! If you think you have quite an interesting Sonic/Sega related fact or anecdote about yourself or something you once did (can be light hearted, dark, funny, strange, really anything!) then send us an email to thesonicshowchannel (at) gmail (dot) com. You must be happy to talk to us on the podcast to be applicable,
So… I felt it was necessary to write this because I think it’s important to praise a great job and after AAUK left Sega Europe as their main community man, European fans of Sega went through a bit of an ‘urm… ahhh… urm…’ with regards to outreach and connection with Sega and community. We’re not going to talk about that period today, instead we’re going to talk about someone who did a lot of good for Sega in Europe.
In September of 2015, Dan Sheridan or “Action Dan” as he’s also known as joined the company as the new community manager, now quite often when a company gets a new CM, they don’t really do too much other than put out the very heavily scripted tweet or reblog a trailer for a game. In terms of community relations that is, I know there’s a ton of more admin related stuff which goes on internally…
Anyway…
With regards to community engagement… This is just a small sample of what Dan did, or at least was the main front man of in terms of community within his first month of being in the role.
However… one of the best things I ever saw him do was at the Sonic Lost World party, there was a fan there who was very shy, so for a large part of the day, Dan sat with this person and just talked to them, what about? Just… anything. Just sat and talked and made them feel welcome and I think it probably did help with them feeling more relaxed as they seemed to ‘warm up’ as the event went on.
But it didn’t end there, he also gave this person one of the red Sonic Christmas Jumpers which at the time hadn’t been released.
I’m pretty sure that someone who was at this even nominated him for a community manager award because they were so impressed with how he made this fan more at ease and to ensure that they had a good time and didn’t feel alone at this event.
Then there was other amazing moments too, such as the day before Western Super Sonic, a rather large box from Dan turns up, when we opened it up, it was full of free items for giveaways at the event.
Free stuff is always nice, but I wanted to write this not just for his brilliant work with the fans face to face (as illustrated by the Lost World party note earlier), Dan has been quite brave in the stuff he’s had to do. Practically being the face of Sega Central, coming to it after many fans hated the show and turning it around as he did could not have been easy. Yet on every occasion he puts in a lot of energy for someone who was clearly nervous in his first few episodes. He clearly researches and cares about the material he’s talking about, and that’s the key point, he clearly cared because we the fans, be it of Sonic, Football Manager, Alien Isolation, Yakuza, Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax or even Aliens GodDam Marines, also cared about the things we love to play.
And even though I’m still bitter over not winning the Alien Isolation robot USB storage device in the first giveaway… He’s done a very good job of which he should be very proud of, I only hope that whoever takes over is just as good and just as engaging with the community as he was.
Best of luck in the future. I hope they let you keep the hat.
“Woo!”
P.S. Whoever takes over the role as EU community manager, can we have another community party with an open bar… and cake!
We’ve been down this road last year. Delays, rumors of cancellations, ACTUAL cancellations (Mega Man, Sonic Boom) and a publisher that seems to be doing everything it possibly can to stay relevant while rumors of fighting and inner turmoil are going on within it’s offices. With a ton of characters that can no longer be used, a world that was reset but not fully rebooted and with Archie no longer allowing subscriptions to either Sonic books, we may be seeing the end of an era. But the question is….could this be a good thing? Is it time for the Sonic franchise to leave Archie and be refreshed with a new publisher?
Archie’s primary focus right now is on the Archie brand itself. The reboot of the Archie series using a more modern comic art style and shifting away from the classic look (outside of digests) has actually been fairly successful for them. Archie, Jughead and other books are now outselling Sonic rather than the other way around and their profits are up. Not only that, but they’re heavily focused on promoting the new CW show “Riverdale” based on the Archie characters which had a soft, but decent debut in the ratings, but has been slowly dropping since. Because of this, it seems like Sonic is taking a back seat to their top brand.
Without naming very obvious names, Archie comics can’t use a large amount of past Sonic characters because of legal issues. This is main reason for the soft reboot of the series three years ago. In some cases, I believe those creators to be in the wrong. While in other cases, I feel them to be very much in the right. Let’s be honest, Archie hasn’t exactly done right by a lot of former creators, including the one they took their classic art style from. And just when you think everything’s been all settled and done, another creator comes in, staking a claim. Then there’s Archie offering reprints of old issues featuring creator-owned characters online which has caused even more controversy. At this point, it may be better for Archie to let Sonic go and avoid the hassle.
Now, this is just my personal opinion (and I know I’m gonna get a ton of comments on this one). When the first Mega Man/Sonic crossover was done, Archie did a soft reboot of Sonic with a long, long, too friggin’ long story known as “The World Adventure”, based off of the game “Sonic Unleashed”. For three full years, from September of 2013 up to October of 2016, we have been going through one very long story line with branching arcs along the way to build up a new world with new lands and new characters.
And at times, it was starting to bore me.
Here’s the thing: when I first heard about the soft reboot, I was elated! Finally, a chance to get rid of all the excess baggage and back story that has dragged down the book over time. We could focus on the main SegaSonic cast and build up their own back stories while slowly showing some new lands in this new world. While we were introduced to new worlds, we were also introduced to a lot of new characters with their own back stories. Suddenly, the world was cluttered again. SegaSonic already has a ton of characters, did we really need to have a bunch of new ones? I love some of the new arcs (“Champions” was fantastic) and some of the new characters like Thunderbolt and Relic, but after twenty years of Sonic traveling the globe to keep the Acorn kingdom safe, this was the opportunity to take the series in a bold new direction and instead, it does its best to fill the void of old characters as quickly as possible while telling an over-arching story that takes three…..years to finish. It may be new, but it doesn’t feel very fresh. This is no fault of writer Ian Flynn or the very talented artists, it just feels to me like it’s been going in circles for a long, long time.
So if rumors hold up and Archie lets go of the Sonic license, where should Sonic go? There only two real choices Sega should take IMO.
Boom has not only done some of their own kid-friendly indie titles like the Lumberjanes, but Cartoon Network’s biggest properties like Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Over the Garden Wall, Regular Show and classic Sunday funnies franchises like Garfield and Peanuts. While I don’t know how well Sonic would do here, I could see Sega splitting the franchises and adding Sonic Boom with the Cartoon Network lineup. That said, I think there’s only one true place for Sonic after Archie and that’s…
Home of: Godzilla (okay, not kid-friendly but I love Godzilla), Skylanders, My Little Pony, Star Trek, G.I. Joe, Transformers, Disney Comics, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and more, IDW has some of the biggest franchises under the sun with some of the best talent working in comics today! This right here is where I’d like to see the Sonic franchise head with a new take and a fresh perspective, Both Boom and IDW tend to sell better in direct markets than Archie nowadays and think of the possible crossovers! Just surfing the forums alone, I know there’s probably a ton of people out there that would love to see a Sonic/My Little Pony Crossover. Heck, how about Sonic and crew visiting Spyro and the world of Skylanders?
The Sonic comic franchise had been around for over twenty years and deserves better than to be constantly delayed, have subscriptions halted and be tied up in lawsuits. In my opinion, it’s time for Sonic to break free of Archie and run a blazing trail on fresh, new ground.
This is a bit of sad news if you’ve been collecting the character plush toys that GE Animation have been putting out; they have confirmed that as of April 2017 they will no longer have the Sonic licence, therefore they will not be producing any new plushes.
Continue reading GE Entertainment’s Sonic Toy Licence To End Next Month
