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Please note that this site is no longer being updated or maintained; as a result, there may be design issues, and links to images and other media may be broken.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.
Ever wanted to take your style back to the 90s, but in an extremely ‘preppy’ way that recalls the day of school hallway monitors? Well, you’re in luck because SEGA of America has teamed up with fashion brand Rowing Blazers to release a ‘capsule collection’ of retro-inspired Sonic clothing.
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Netflix and Wildbrain’s Sonic Prime has been incredibly silent since its initial announcement more than a year ago, with nary more than painfully brief Shadow and Big character teasers. However, the official Sonic Twitter and Youtube have finally shared an extended teaser of the show and confirmed its release window as Winter 2022.
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Alongside the latest TGS Trailer for Sonic Frontiers last week, Sonic Team revealed a new animated logo bump. The 5-second clip shows the titular blue streak collecting rings as the trail forms the Sonic Team logo.
The Sonic Team is full of energy and motivation, consisting of veteran team members, who have been here for a long, long time, and newcomers bringing in their own fresh take on things. These talented groups of people are able to come together to make this team even stronger. We want our fans to know that when they see this logo, they are guaranteed to get a good game from Sonic Team.
This follows Sonic Frontiers’ director Morio Kishimoto hoping that the upcoming game bolsters the reputation of the studio. Confidence in Sonic Team has long been shaky within the fan community and especially outside of it. With Kishimoto approaching Frontiers as a generational shift in Sonic games, there is no time more pivotal for the studio to prove that its internal confidence is justified.
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While long-prior tradition once dictated that thou shalt fight the biggest boss at the end of the game as Super Sonic, Sonic Frontiers is once again shaking things up. As we reported last week, the latest TGS trailer teased Titan battles, pitting Sonic against towering bosses. In an interview with IGN Japan, director Morio Kishimoto confirms that these fights do require transforming into Super Sonic.
“Up until now, in Sonic games, Super Sonic would only appear against the last boss. Imagine if the first boss in Sonic Frontiers is as strong as those bosses,”
The TGS trailer shows Sonic scaling the massive enemy in order to take the Chaos Emerald housed on its head, using all seven to transform, and then flying towards the enemy. While no combat is shown, IGN notes that the Super Sonic fights have their own moveset separate from the standard traversal and combat mechanics.
The franchise has taken different approaches to Super Sonic from Sonic Colors onward, some games requiring the seven emeralds to fight a final boss as Super Saiyan Sonic, others using that form as a reward for completing extra challenges, and even Sonic Forces offering him as free DLC. It’s interesting to see Frontiers’ take as adding further variety to the game’s combat encounters, bucking yet further modern Sonic trends.
Thanks to SSF1991 for the tip!
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Sonic Frontiers represents the biggest shake-up of the Sonic the Hedgehog game franchise for over twenty years. So naturally, there has been a lot of apprehension from fans about the project since its announcement – especially as Sonic Team has built up a reputation of switching focus with each of its mainline titles since 2001.
Everybody is desperate to finally get a series of Sonic titles that establish (and maintain) a consistent visual, gameplay and narrative design. Will Sonic Frontiers be the start of a brand new branch/generation of Sonic games? Sonic Team has gone on record to say that is their intention. After playing a brief demo of the game at Gamescom last month, I’m cautiously optimistic enough to agree. With some reservations.
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Sonic Frontiers’ director, Morio Kishimoto, has revealed in a Tokyo Game Show interview a secret goal of Sonic Team’s when developing the game – to restore the studio’s reputation and place it at the top of the gaming development world.
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This strange alter-ego of Sonic the Hedgehog is still pretty much an enigma since his appearance in Sonic and the Secret Rings, but this week Darkspine Sonic will be available as an unlockable playable character for a limited time in SEGA HARDlight’s Sonic Forces: Speed Battle.
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This year’s Tokyo Game Show is finally upon us, and it’s promising to be a fantastic event for Japanese Sonic fans, as SEGA has gone all-out with their public booth. An absolutely HUGE Sonic balloon has taken up the show floor, ready to tackle any Titan balloons that might be hanging around.
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We knew he was going to appear at some point in the game, but SEGA has gone ahead and revealed Super Sonic in this latest Sonic Frontiers trailer. The video was released this morning to coincide with the Tokyo Game Show event in Japan, and features some cool new footage. Check it out below.
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With SAGE in full swing, it’s nice to be able to play an original work from a developer of several Sonic fan games who has gone on to succeed with their own creation. Felipe Daneluz is well known in the Sonic community for his fan game “Sonic Before The Sequel” among others. But his gaming career really took off with 2017’s “Spark the Electric Jester”.
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In the September 13th, 2022 Nintendo Direct, Sonic Frontiers (seemingly the Switch version) made an 8-second appearance… but only in the Japanese version for some reason. I’ve taken the liberty of cropping and uploading the clip by itself onto YouTube for your easy viewing pleasure above.
Also, it was never shared here, but Nintendo actually uploaded some screenshots of the Switch version on their various eShop pages earlier (such as on the NA page). I’ve placed them below:
We also have a comparison between the Switch version (on the left) and the higher-end version (on the right):
How are you finding the Switch version to be turning out so far? Let us know if the comments below.
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SEGA has launched an album on Spotify (and no doubt, other music streaming services) for Sonic Frontiers. At present, only two tracks are available to listen to – a short version of theme track ‘I’m Here’, and a five-minute long track featuring the theme of Starfall Islands. Give it a listen below.
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Since Sonic Frontiers’ first public demo at Gamescom, fans on the show floor have been able to share and capture a lot more than anyone could have expected. Despite SEGA’s time-limited preview, one cunning player managed to reveal a gameplay feature tied to Big the Cat’s appearance in the game.
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If you have fond memories of playing Chao Adventure on your little Dreamcast Visual Memory Unit while on the go, then you might be interested in a little product that’s being crowdfunded right now – a modern-day VMU system with microSD support, a sharper screen and multi-memory card capabilities.
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Even though he’s way more popular in the West, Sonic the Hedgehog games continue to see exclusive special editions in SEGA’s home country, Japan. Sonic Frontiers will be no different, with a limited release of the upcoming game coming complete with an art book and a Koco charm toy.
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Our friends over at Sonic Merch News have spotted two new action figures being added to the JAKKS Pacific Sonic line up, with a decidedly Sonic Adventure theme!
BREAKING: First look at Big The Cat & Chaos 0 from Wave 11 of the Sonic The Hedgehog JAKKS Pacific 4” line.
The listings were spotted on the Smyths Toys website in the UK, with a release date (at least in this country) of March 2023; US stores will likely see these figures stocked even earlier.
Since the launch of the game in 1998, this will be the first time Chaos Version 0 has seen an action figure incarnation. The figure also appears to be transluscent, to emulate the liquid composition of the character.
Stay tuned for more JAKKS Pacific toy news as it comes!
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Hey. It’s been a rough week, hasn’t it? If you fancy a Sonic-themed pick-me-up to brighten your day and get that Friday Feeling, you could do far worse than this cover of Green Hill Zone by UK guitarist Miles Meakin. And he performs it all on a custom Sonic the Hedgehog-designed axe inspired by the ones used by Jun Senoue.
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If you’re reading this, chances are you know that Sonic has a long, storied history in fan games. So much so, that the Sonic community has managed to keep an online event devoted to them – the Sonic Amateur Game Expo, or “SAGE” – going for more than two decades. That event, which is currently ongoing as of this review’s publication, has played host to some absolute bangers over the decades.
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It’s that time of year again! Pop culture statue manufacturer First4Figures has teased a brand new Sonic the Hedgehog product due for release in 2023. But, unlike previous ‘diorama’ and standard character releases, this latest statue goes a little retro in offering a PVC rendition of the classic Sonic Adventure cover art pose.
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Just a day after SEGA revealed the ending theme to Sonic Frontiers (performed by the popular J-Rock band One Ok Rock), we now have news of the upcoming game’s main theme too.
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Well, if you like those TUBBZ collectible rubber duckies from Numskull, I’ve got some good news: they’re making more!
Both Shadow and Amy are being brought into the TUBBZ-verse, with Shadow holding a chaos emerald and Amy wielding her trusty hammer.
Check out images of both below:
Both hedgeducks (duckhogs?) are being listed for $29.99 over at Fun.com, with a release date of December 15, 2022. Though its possible either of these could be placeholders.
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Music has famously always been a high point for Sonic, with even the worst games often having solid soundtracks. As more of Sonic Frontiers has been revealed, SEGA has been stingy with the music, often even removing it from game play videos, leaving fans with only the odd taste from a trailer or clip. That is, until today.
SEGA has finally revealed a full track from the game, ”Vandalize” by the Japanese rock band One Ok Rock. While SEGA only posted a one-minute tease on the Sonic twitter, One Ok Rock has posted both the Japanese and English versions of the song on Youtube.
Some have already noted that the Japanese version of the song drops an f-bomb. This appears to have been replaced with ”freaking” in the English version. So no, this doesn’t mean Sonic Frontiers is going to get a T or M rating or anything.
Check out both versions of the song below:
The band also did an interview, which as translated into English by SEGA Asia. Nothing newsworthy is said, but you can still check it out below:
https://youtu.be/8LJi4mjc7Nc
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Ever since SEGA Japan announced the Mega Drive Mini II, we have been eagerly awaiting news of a Western version of the new microconsole. The US got theirs – the Genesis Mini II – and now finally fans in Europe can get their nostalgia fix with a region-specific branded version of the console that just… reminds us of simpler days, you know?
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SAGE 2022, Sonic Fan Game HQ’s long running Sonic fan game expo, starts today! You can check out all of this year’s games, including non-Sonic fan games and original indie games, at SAGE’s website.
We will be doing SAGE coverage all week, including hands-on previews/reviews, YouTube videos, and streams on our Twitch channel. Be sure to check our Twitter for streaming announcements!!
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Sonic Frontiers is unlike any journey Sonic's been on before. Check out what you can expect when you embark to the Starfall Islands! pic.twitter.com/HuyTqOL5y9
Included in this video are a multitude of facts such as:
Sonic is separated from his friends Amy and Tails in Cyberspace, and must find them by solving the mystery of Starfall Islands
The first Starfall Island is called Kronos
Game can be played “in order that matches your gameplay style”
Portal gears, which allow access to Cyber Space levels, are collected by defeating bosses
Vault keys achieved through completion of Cyber Space level challenges allow the player to collect the Chaos emeralds
The attack which creates a trail around enemies is named the “Cyloop”
With a little over two months until the release of Sonic Frontiers, we are likely to see more tidbits about the game emerge. Stay tuned for more information as it comes!
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