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Cut down before his (next episode of) prime.
Continue reading SEGA Releases Playable April Fools Game, “The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog”Yes, Sonic had a great 2022. That said, although the Sonic franchise played a large part of SEGA’s 2022, it wasn’t the only one. Remember, SEGA is more than just Sonic. The SEGA Genesis Mini 2 launched, for example. There were also games released for Total War, Football Manager, and Hatsune Miku. Meanwhile, Two-Point Campus also released. It’s a lot of games, and yet, SEGA did so well that Metacritic even acknowledged them as the 7th best publisher of the year!
Continue reading SEGA Is Metacritic’s 7th Best Publisher Of 2022In a tweet that went up a few hours ago, Headcannon confirmed that they have contributed to the upcoming new content for Sonic Origins Plus, including Amy Rose’s new sprites and Knuckles’ campaign in Sonic CD.
Headcannon specifically calls out the work of team members Andy A-Start and DashPadSPD for design and data management in the expansion. In addition to the character updates, Headcannon also supplied additional enhancements which were not specified. Closing out the thread, the team thanks SEGA for their openness to the developer’s feedback and suggestions, and they appreciate the level of trust SEGA put in them.
Headcannon was responsible for bringing Sonic 3 & Knuckles to the Retro Engine in Sonic Origins’ initial digital release. While our staff has had very positive experiences with collection, some members of the community and members of Headcannon itself have expressed dissatisfaction with its technical shortcomings.
Following several other major publishers, IGN is reporting that SEGA too will not be exhibiting at E3 this year. It has been a trying year for the ESA and partner ReedPop as the two attempt to revitalize E3 following several years of cancelled and online-only shows. With this announcement, all three console platform holders, as well as Ubisoft and Tencent, have bowed out of the expo. With so few companies willing or able to commit to the event, it’s unclear if the show has a present, much less a future.
While SEGA may not be at E3, there is still the possibility for other announcements this Summer. Both SEGA and Atlus have previously been a part of Summer Games Fest, and there are already a number of known SEGA and Atlus projects looking to launch this year and beyond: Hyenas, Endless Dungeon, Samba de Amigo, and Like a Dragon Gaiden (plus multiple updates to existing Sonic games).
Wait, is she standing on Omega in that second one?
Continue reading First 4 Figures Shows Concept Art of Rouge Statue to Gauge InterestAs the art indicates, this is an action game for 1-2 players.
Continue reading Sonic Origins Plus Includes Mega Drive Box Art and a Coaster in JapanSonic will be appearing in the upcoming Samba de Amigo: Party Central, along with a couple songs and a location from the franchise.
Party Central’s base game will feature the songs Fist Bump and Escape From the City. It will also feature City Escape as a location, where Samba can dance alongside Sonic himself.
Check out a screenshot from the Sonic stage below:
This isn’t the first time the two franchises have crossed over: being a Sonic Team-made IP, Sonic’s got a long history with the series. Sonic music appeared in the original game and it’s expanded Japanese-only expansion, and the Wii version did one better by actually bringing in Sonic and featuring Green Hill as a location.
Given that Party Central will feature DLC, it seems likely that the game will get more Sonic content in the future.
Team Sonic Racing, Sonic Mania Plus and Sonic Colors Ultimate ripe for the streaming.
Continue reading Amazon Luna Launches in UK with Trio of Sonic TitlesIs it for a new game, or a social media activity? Nobody seems to know!
Continue reading Confusion in Korea as Hoshino Appears to Tease New Sonic Project During Fan MeetingShoot Shoot Sonic Warrior!
Continue reading SEGA Loot-Shooter Hyenas Introduces A Sonic-Cosplaying CharacterThe ‘Queen of Ice’ gets a skating lesson from Silver.
Continue reading Sonic Channel Reveals First Ever 2D Visual of Elise With New Calendar ArtworkIDW’s Multilingual Expansion Continues.
Continue reading Sonic IDW Trade Paperbacks Now Available in MexicoWell that didn’t take long.
Sonic Origins Plus, which has been the subject of two increasingly revealing leaks, has finally been officially announced. This new, expanded version of Sonic Origins will include playable Amy, add Knuckles to Sonic CD, add emulated versions of Sonic’s 12 Game Gear titles to the museum, and will also include all previously released Digital Deluxe content. It’ll release on June 23, in time for Sonic’s 32nd anniversary, and Sonic Origin’s own 1 year anniversary.
Sonic Origins Plus will release both physically and digitally for $39.99, with the physical edition including reversible box art and a 20 page art book. Current Sonic Origins owners can have all the new DLC for $9.99.
This announcement came via a trailer, which you can watch below:
Here’s a quick look at the physical packing, reversible box art and artbook from the trailer:
Check out screenshots of Amy, Knuckles in Sonic CD, and some of the Game Gear titles below:
So, Sonic Origins Plus’s announcement is probably coming pretty soon. A rating for the game released last month, and now ComicBook.com appears to have accidentally posted an article announcing the game early. Said article has now been deleted, but remnants of it can still be found via the site’s search engine and through Google caching. The article confirmed the following:
CB isn’t always the most reliable site, especially when it comes to rumors, but what makes this notable is the nature of the article. That it was posted as matter-of-fact news, that it was deleted, all make this notable…as a rumor. Since this isn’t coming directly from SEGA, and we have no way of confirming this ourselves, we’ve labeled it as a rumor, will be reporting it as such, and we encourage our readers to treat it that way.
An announcement is probably imminent…or maybe this was written up to fo up in a week, or a month. We’ll know soon enough!
We finally have an idea of what Sonic 2’s most infamously named scrapped level, Genocide City (aka Cyber City) would’ve looked like. For the first time ever, some pixel art and the palette from the long lost stage have been released to the public courtesy of video game developer, preservationist and historian Frank Cifaldi. Cifaldi took a photo of documents featuring the art during a meeting with Tom Payne, a Sonic 2 level designer who worked on Genocide City. Take a look:
Cifaldi posted the photo to the discord of Hidden Palace, a game preservation site, and it eventually found its way to Sonic Retro thanks to Sonic Retro user The joebro64. Sonic Retro researcher ICEknight took the palette from the documents and applied it to Metropolis Zone Act 3, known to be a leftover from Genocide City’s development, to give us an idea of what the level might’ve looked like in game. Check out their work below:
Sonic has a pretty long history with Nintendo. The franchise first went third party on Nintendo platforms, and has stuck close to the company’s hardware ever since. This held true even during the Wii U era (easily Nintendo’s most difficult time in recent memory), giving the dual-screen console and the 3DS a variety of Sonic exclusives, ports and retro titles.
Continue reading Sonic on the eShop: What Will Be Lost on March 27SEGA has today announced that Sonic Frontiers has now sold more than three million copies worldwide, making it one of the fastest-selling Sonic the Hedgehog titles since the 1990s. Just in time for the first DLC content update to drop later tonight!
The company shared the news on its official Japanese Sonic Twitter account, pointing to the game’s recent accolades with the “Japan Game Awards 2022 Future Category Winner” and “Famitsu Dengeki Game Awards 2022 Best Action Adventure” award wins.
At last count, the game sold 2.9 million copies globally by early February – so it has in effect sold an additional 100k units in the last month or so. Which is an incremental boost for sure, but it still gets the open zone adventure up to that 3 million milestone!
We crunched some numbers and calculated that Frontiers is just 400k units away from surpassing Sonic Heroes to become one of the best-selling 3D Sonic the Hedgehog games ever. That’s very exciting!
Congratulations to Sonic Team and SEGA for the continued success of Sonic Frontiers! If you want to celebrate the DLC release with the rest of the Sonic Community, take a look at the special Achievements you can earn until the end of the month!
Did you know that spinoff Mega Drive title Sonic Spinball is going to be 30 years old this November? Well you probably did actually, because you’re a huge Sonic fan just like us. It seems that Sonic Team in Japan has remembered this fact, as they are focusing on an iconic scene in the pinball action game for its latest art piece.
Posted on the official Japanese Sonic Channel Twitter account, the new artwork features the blue blur chilling out in a handy drum barrel as he paddles his way through the game’s first stage, Toxic Caves. He seems rather embarrassed to be there – probably because whoever is controlling him can’t keep him on the pinball table. Still, it beats swimming in all that green gunge, doesn’t it Sonic?
Weirdly, the Twitter post accompanying this art piece mentions that this is a “commemorative illustration of “Sonic Spinball” celebrating its 30th anniversary this month” (via machine translation – emphasis ours). Sonic Spinball’s original release date in the West was actually November 1993, and in Japan it was the following month in December – so unless Sonic’s been using some leftover Time Stones that we’re not aware of, Sonic Channel might be getting a bit excited ahead of time here.
Still, it’s really nice to see some Spinball representation from the Japanese ‘Team, and we’re all here for it.
It ain’t easy rowing in green.
Continue reading Sonic Spinball’s 30th Anniversary Highlighted in New Sonic Channel ArtworkSpring is almost here, and with the promise of a new season comes some brand new Sonic the Hedgehog content to enjoy! As we reported earlier this week, Sonic Frontiers is set to get its first free content update for 2023 in just over a day’s time. So we thought we’d do something to celebrate the occasion!
That’s right, we’re introducing some new Limited Edition Achievements for the Sonic Community! These will all be Sonic Frontiers-themed, and available to all users who play the new DLC pack (and contribute to the Sonic Stadium forums) until the end of the month.
Each Badge will relate to one of the new modes or features found in the upcoming Sights, Sounds and Speed DLC pack. To earn these Badges, you will need to play or complete the relevant mode, take a screenshot of your handiwork and post it on the Sonic Stadium Forums to share with the rest of the Sonic Community.
We have created a new Topic in the ‘Sonic Chat’ forum which will be used for your Achievement hunting and screenshot sharing – check it out here for details on each Achievement Badge and how to unlock it!
Speaking of Achievements, we know that since we launched the new system in mid-2022 there have been a lot of questions about how it works, what kind of badges you can earn, and a lot more besides. So we’ve taken the time to create a Site Guide on the Sonic Database that fully introduces the Achievements System and all you need to know about it. You can find it here:
https://board.sonicstadium.org/database/community/stadium/help/achievements/
That Database record will also contain links to other records that list special Badges you can earn, as well as legacy SSMB Awards from yesteryear (if you’re curious)! If there are any more questions about how the system works, please feel free to let me know and I can update the Suite Guide to account for any missing information.
You might have noticed on the SSMB that the Calendar section has had a bit of a facelift. That’s part of a recent site software update that changes the focus of the section from less of a ‘calendar’ and more of an ‘Events’ portal. The front page of the Events section will now show an at-a-glance view of all upcoming occasions, but if you like you can switch it back to a traditional Calendar view too.
We also took the opportunity to tart up the Events widget, found in the sidebar on the Forum homepage and elsewhere. You can better see what’s coming up in the month ahead, and we’re always adding new Events so that it doesn’t get stale and empty. We encourage the Community to also create Events to help populate the Calendar with us – you get Achievement Points and Badges for contributing, and you also get a warm glow of satisfaction for helping your fellow Sonic fan know when the next major game anniversary will be. Give it a try!
A quick update on the Personal Discussion forum – in our last update post we announced that this forum would be closed down at a nearby date. Due to certain events that have taken place this week, the moderation team has decided that the closure of the forum is long overdue. So if you no longer see the forum where you would expect it to be… that will be why. It’s kaput.
Why has it been shut down? To recap, the site staff spent some time re-assessing the kind of discussion and content that we would like to see and encourage on the Sonic Stadium and its forums, and we found that topics of a deeply personal nature – many of which veered very closely to sensitive and borderline subjects – are themes that we no longer have an appetite for hosting on our community. We want to be a positive, encouraging space for people to come together and talk about their favourite things, but at the same time we can not be a destination where community members end up therapising one another.
Sad topics (a significant person’s passing, or a newsworthy tragedy, for example) will of course continue to be allowed in the General Discussion forum. But topics of a deeply personal nature, of the kind previously fit for the Personal Discussion forum, will no longer be permitted. For various reasons, we also cannot move certain topics from the Personal Discussion forum into a new ‘allowed’ destination. Thanks for your understanding on this.
I have to say, I’m enjoying finding the time to post site updates on here once again. This is starting to become a monthly thing, isn’t it!? Maybe we can make a habit of this. Anyway, I wanted to round things off with a notice that I’m still working on a number of further updates to the site, including slight design tweaks to make the user experience a little cleaner, and some new features that I hope you’ll love.
But the headline here is all about the Achievements, and I want to get into the habit of offering more seasonal/exclusive Badges to encourage community discussion and connection. Stay tuned for more in the coming month/s!
The first free content update for Sonic Frontiers will arrive on Thursday March 23, according to a reveal made via SEGA’s official Sonic the Hedgehog newsletter bulletin.
Originally announced in December to promote a slate of upcoming content for 2023, the “Sights, Sounds and Speed” update will include some bonus quality-of-life features for players dashing around the Starfall Islands – including a Jukebox feature, Photo Mode and some additional challenges.
Later in the year, Sonic Frontiers players will be able to enjoy even beefier updates, including a birthday celebration and additional Story chapters involving new playable characters.
Are you looking forward to the imminent update? Let us know in the comments below!
It is turning into a surprisingly active year for Samba de Amigo. In addition to the brand new game announced last month, the ever-impressive Dreamcast community has released an English conversion for the system’s Japanese-exclusive expanded version, Samba de Amigo Ver. 2000. This conversion was put together and released on Github by dukeblooder. You can find the patch over at Romhacking.net, and find instructions and additional information on the conversion here.
This conversion isn’t a translation, per se. Instead, dukeblooder has simply replaced the Japanese original’s text images with their English equivalents from the US/PAL versions of the 2008 Wii release. This method was able to convert most of the game into English, though it is constrained by some limitations. The internet page is still in Japanese, the results screen for the “Love Love” mini game is still in Japanese, and the Volleyball mini game voiced instructions were removed. Despite that, this game is now fully playable to English speakers for the first time ever. The game is playable on an emulator, and should be playable on Dreamcast hardware, though we haven’t tried that out yet.
CD Romance posted a tweet showing off the patch in action:
Check out some images from the conversion below:
Forget March Madness: the Sonic community’s own utterly inconsequential, completely-for-fun single elimination knockout bracket tournament, “Metallic Madness,” is currently underway over on Twitter. The annual “tournament,” which initially started back in 2016, pits 64 unique entrants across four different categories until only one remains. After going on a one-year hiatus, it was brought back – with last year’s victor being IDW’s Whisper the Wolf, who defeated Agent Stone to become “Queen of the Ring.”
This year’s four categories are: Games, Universe, Comics, and Community. The tournament is set to run until April 3. If you want to vote, head over to Metallic Madness’s Twitter account, here.
This is where the bracket currently stands as of this writing:
This week: The latest TailsTube, First4 Tails Preorders, and some very strange Sonic Prime toys.
Continue reading TailsTube Lore & Weird Toys – HedgeLines Mar. 11, 2023 – Sonic News UpdateNot to be confused with “Best Action Game” and “Best Adventure Game.”
Continue reading Sonic Frontiers Wins “Best Action-Adventure Game” from Famitsu Dengeki 2022 Game AwardsThe latest in Just Toy’s line of Craftable Sonic action figures have just popped up on Amazon, with this latest series featuring modern versions of the Sonic cast. Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, Amy and Tails are all available, complete with their own “scenes” that can be combined into one larger scene once all of the characters are collected and assembled.
However, if these interest you, be forewarned: these are sold in blind boxes, meaning you can’t be sure which ones you’ll get when you order them off of Amazon. The characters are sold for $11 a piece, and you can pre-order them here. They are set to ship next week, on March 23.
Check out images of the toys in the gallery below:
Every hedgehog everywhere all at once.
Continue reading Where Does Sonic Live? The Sonic Multiverse? TailsTube Returns for More LoreAmerican football is about to get super-charged courtesy of Sonic and Knuckles this summer, as SEGA has announced a new partnership with sports equipment brand Phenom Elite to release a set of branded kickabout gear.
‘Kicking’ things off with a set of cleats, mouthguards and gloves at launch, the partnership is said to expand beyond these products with compression wear and more accessories to come. Other Sonic series characters are set to feature as well, including Tails.
According to the press release, this set of sports equipment will “unlock athletes’ potential to ‘Go Fast’ across the gridiron,” and will “give athletes the extra encouragement to score big.” Of course.
The list of products that will go on sale in June include:
Full press release can be found below.
BURBANK, Calif., – March 15th, 2023 – Today, SEGA of America, Inc. and Phenom Elite, the groundbreaking sports equipment brand, have announced a partnership bringing Sonic the Hedgehog to a trendy line of sports equipment. The Sonic the Hedgehog collection for Phenom Elite will span a variety of sports equipment products including American football cleats, gloves, mouthguards, compression wear, and various other accessories featuring some of the beloved franchise’s most iconic characters including Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and more.
“At SEGA, we’re proud to work with partners who align with the core principals of Sonic, and Phenom Elite is exactly that,” said Maida Chan, Licensing Specialist at SEGA of America. “Phenom Elite is a cutting-edge operation in sports equipment that enables athletes to perform their best, and we hope that the Sonic the Hedgehog collection inspires them to succeed.”
Similar to Sonic speeding through Green Hill Zone, these Sonic-branded equipment items will unlock athletes’ potential to “Go Fast” across the gridiron. The Sonic the Hedgehog collection for Phenom Elite marks the brand’s third major pop culture licensing deal following collaborations with Warner Brothers and Activision. Through the collaboration, Sonic and friends will give athletes the extra encouragement to score big with some of Phenom Elite’s high-quality equipment, including:
- Sonic the Hedgehog Football Cleats – $124.00
- Knuckles the Echidna Football Cleats – $124.00
- Sonic the Hedgehog Football Gloves – $49.00
- Knuckles the Echidna Football Gloves – $49.00
- Sonic the Hedgehog Mouthguard – $19.00
- Knuckles the Echidna Mouthguard – $19.00
“Sonic has always embodied endurance, speed, and perseverance, much like the athletes who sport Phenom Elite, and we’re thrilled to be partnering with SEGA to bring this pop culture icon to our equipment,” said Nathan Dorton, CEO & Founder at Phenom Elite.
Set to release in June, Sonic fans will be able to purchase the Sonic the Hedgehog collection for Phenom Elite from retailers such as Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Sport Services Inc., and PhenomElite.com. For more information about this supersonic collaboration, head to www.phenomelite.com.
That Tails statue First4Figures revealed last week is now officially up for pre-order, with a special “Early Bird” discount that will run from today through April 16.
The available models, as well as the early bird and regular pricing, are listed below:
The base model without any bells or whistles, priced at $475/$500.
The Exclusive Edition. Gives Tails second hand with a wrench that can be switched out, and the base glows. Priced at $480/$510
The Definitive Edition. Adds three wisps to the exclusive edition version. Priced at $535/$570.
The statues can be pre-ordered here.
The pre-order pages also have a lot of photos of the Tails statue. You can catch them all at the pre-order link, but we’ve got a gallery with images of all three statues below:
As a longtime, adult Sonic fan, I am often jealous of the toys kids get these days. Why couldn’t we get the anthropomorphized Sonic truck hauling a chest full of giant medical supplies?! Or the rideable Sonic car?! Or the Sonic-branded Sonic tool set in a rolling suitcase…?
Wait what?
Right, okay, enough with my schtick. So these things exist:
These appear to be part of a line of officially licensed Sonic Prime toys, though the use of the license doesn’t seem to extend much beyond “slap Sonic Prime renders on various otherwise unrelated kids toys.” The toys are manufactured by Dede, a Turkish toy company, and as such are currently only available on Turkish websites. The site with the widest selection is Dede’s own online store, Fen Toys.
Now, you may be looking at these and thinking, “wait, did they just take some generic toy truck and slap Sonic’s eyes on it?” and…yes! Yes they did! All of these toys are essentially just variations of existing non-licensed toys, with the Sonic medical tools truck being based on this Medical Set Truck toy. Looking around the website, that’s true for all of these, and they’ve also done this for other licensed characters like Spider-man and Mickey Mouse. Nevertheless, this is Sonic merch, and most importantly weird Sonic merch, so we are obliged to cover it.
So here’s a gallery of every single Sonic toy Dede is selling:
Yeah, I am pretty jealous of the Sonic toys today’s kids get. But I also feel kind of bad for Sonic merch collectors, because there’s more of it then ever, and anyone who wants a truly complete collection needs to buy rebranded stuff like this.
Nevertheless, if anyone has ever wanted a Sonic branded set of medical tools in a little plastic rolling suitcase…it is a good time to be alive.
May 2023 marks 30 years since the launch of the UK-based Sonic the Comic, and to celebrate this milestone, the Sonic the Comic Online team are crowdfunding to host an event in York, UK.
The Kickstarter has already surpassed more than 200% of it’s original goal, and is set to include a host of events including art classes and tutorials, competions, Q&A sessions with US artists from the IDW comic such as Tracey Yardley and Reggie Graham. There is also an opportunity to meet some of the original team behind the comic such as Nigel Kitching, Richard Elson, Ferran Rodriguez, Debra Tate, Lew Stringer, and Richard Burton. In addition to this, a special convention issue of the comic will be produced as a commemorative item.
To find out more about how to help fund the event or how to attend in person, check out the Sonic the Comic Con 2023 Kickstarter page.
As bad as Sonic 2006 ended up being, I still have fond memories of the lead-up to the game’s release. Among them, I remember sitting at my desktop computer, watching a poor quality video of a “real time day night system” from the game’s TGS 2005 tech demo, recorded off-screen by the now-defunct game website Kikizo. While the feature wouldn’t make it into the final game, seventeen years later we’ve finally been afforded a better look at the game’s alpha footage.
Kikizo founder Adam Doree uploaded the footage, as part of a wider effort to release the website’s footage at a level of quality the internet wasn’t capable of in 2005. The footage give us our best look yet at Sonic 2006’s 2005 build, including the epic E3 2005 trailer.
Unfortunately, as noted earlier, this footage is still offscreen, but this is likely the best we’ll get until the TGS footage is either leaked to the internet or released officially by SEGA.
You can find the footage for Sonic 2006, and for the “SEGA the Future” presentation it was a part of, at Adam Doree’s channel here, or embedded below:
In addition to the Sonic 2006 footage, he also has footage for Fifth Phantom Saga, a canceled Sonic Team first person shooter. We reported on that here.
The mid-2000s were a wild time for games. Technology was advancing at an amazing pace, developers were playing with unprecedented HD visuals and motion controls, and the idea of Sonic Team making a first person shooter wasn’t absurd, but simple reality. Said FPS, “Fifth Phantom Saga,” was initially shown at Sony’s big PS3 reveal at E3 2005, before eventually getting a more in-depth showing later that year at the Tokyo Game Show.
The game would never see the light of day, and very little media from it has ever been released. That is what makes today’s piece of news so cool: high quality off-screen footage of the game’s TGS trailer and Yuji Naka-presented tech demo has been uploaded by Adam Doree, founder of the now-defunct video game website Kikizo. The footage, which was recorded by Kikizo, has only ever been available in low quality until now, due to the limitations of the internet at the time.
You can check out the footage over at Adam Doree’s Youtube channel, or in the embed below:
A few months ago, we reported Sonic toys suddenly arriving in Burger Kings in Spain. At the time the full scope of this promotion was unknown, but we now know this won’t just be confined to Europe: these toys are now available in the US!
Twitter user @TheSpeedSpirit broke the news revealing that he picked up two toys, including an Amy-themed puzzle cube and a miniature Sonic basketball game with Sonic & Knuckles hoops.
A total of six toys are available. In addition to what SpeedSpirit posted, there’s also an Eggman fidget spinner, and other toys themed around Sonic, Tails and Shadow. Check out an image featuring all of them below:
There’s no telling how long these toys will be available, so if you want them you might want to swing by a Burger King at some point in the next few weeks.
This week in HedgeLines: Kids Choice Awards, First4Figures, and Shadow in IDW.
Need to catch up on Sonic news in just a few minutes? Jump into HedgeLines, our rapid recap of this week in news!
He’s back, in shirt form.
Continue reading Shirt Alert! “No Longer Missing!” and “No Way? No Way!” Available Today on The Yetee
