If you’re old (like us) or have been living under a rock (like us), you’re probably unaware of the latest streaming craze that’s swept the internet – ‘VTubers’. And this week, the internet has been going gaga over one particular hyper-popular virtual icon who’s on a quest to play all of the classic Sonic the Hedgehog games for the very first time.
The female Japanese virtual YouTube star known as Inugami Korone (or Korone, for short), hooked up an old Sega Mega Drive to her streaming setup and ran through Sonic 1 from beginning to end. Because this was seemingly Koro-san’s first time playing the game, she runs into all kinds of mishap.
From the dreaded ‘spike glitch’ to the momentum-based terrain, the online celebrity responded to her trials in her trademark screams and infectious cackles. It’s quite a sight to behold – and an eye-opening playthrough for veteran Sonic fans who might not be aware that the classic 16-bit games aren’t quite as simple as we all remember them.
Her fanbase, of course, went wild over the stream, which took place earlier this week. Dozens of fan art and comments from Japanese and English admirers flooded Twitter as Korone played live. Even Sonic Creative Director, Kazuyuki Hoshino, weighed in on the stream.
It looks like this won’t be the last time Korone streams Sonic, either – she announced that Sonic 2 will be her next target, streaming a little later today. Check out her YouTube channel to see her tackle some Blast Processing!
Eye opening indeed, though in my case, more of a reminder of when I first played the game oh so long ago… I fell victim to my first game over in the game, and the series as a whole in 1991, at the exact same obstacle she did. It’s a lot more intimidating looking than it actually is, but still. I was about to say she’s doing well for her first time, since I know none of us ever made it to the credits the first time we turned the game on ourselves all those years ago. Then I realized she used the level select cheat in order to skip to the levels she had a game over on. Not that I can blame her, if you’ve got the tools, you might as well use them.
I mean, Sonic is really popular so we shouldn’t go crazy about a V-Tuber streaming some sonic games tbh
I have very little knowledge, and interest, of todays famous streamers, much less Japanese Youtubers, so I have no idea who this is. But it seems like she had somewhat a good time so I’m happy for her.
Yup I’m old, I can’t stand watching a cartoon (or an idiot) squealing for more than 5 min before finding it unbearable instead of funny.
Huge agree.
I’m only half way through the video but loving it so far. I’ve played these games so much I’ve internalised the physics and struggle with 2D platformers that don’t have Sonic’s momentum. Its fascinating watching someone learn all this from scratch and fall for almost all the traps, slowly learning from repetition.
I’m old but I’ve watched some of the newer English speaking vtubers to see what all the fuss was about. Korone’s finished Sonic 2 now and both videos have done reasonably well so hopefully she liked what she played and there’s more Sonic to come!