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Please note that this site is no longer being updated or maintained; as a result, there may be design issues, and links to images and other media may be broken.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.
Founder of The Sonic Stadium and creator/co-organiser of the Summer of Sonic convention. Loves talking about Sonic the Hedgehog in his spare time. Likes Sonic Colours a little too much for his own good, apparently.
Just like clockwork, the latest Sonic the Hedgehog title is to get an original soundtrack release in Japan. Called ‘Sonic World Adventure Original Soundtrack: Planetary Pieces’, no doubt it will be a pretty comprehensive collection of tunes from all the stages, bosses and events found in Sonic Unleashed. If you’ve yet to hear the sublime music so far, you can catch a preview at the official Sega website. That Chun-Nan track sure is tight. Those wanting to sit patiently until the release date can file behind T-Bird for the 29th January 2009. Bring some crisps. And 4000 Yen.
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While everyone seems to be jumping up and down about Sonic Unleashed, one thing that seems slightly off is regarding the game’s release date. According to the official Japanese website (the game is called Sonic World Adventure over there), the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions are being held back until Spring 2009. The website states that this is to “improve the game’s quality”, something we’re not exactly against given the known rushings of past Sonic games.
Oddly though, this delay does not affect the Wii version, which is still scheduled for an 18th December launch. This release date confusion follows our report the other day, where we revealed that the European PS3 version won’t be released until December. Reasons were not given for the pushback, but other consoles are as yet unaffected.
AAUK, the Sega Community Manager for Europe, has stressed that the delays in Japan doesn’t mean that the Japanese version will be superior to the others.
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It’s generally understood that you only submit one entry into competitions. The case is no different with our currently ongoing Hallowe’en Competition for some Sonic Chronicles goodies. We can understand that one or two people may send two entries – be it accidentally (dupe-entries) or on purpose just to see if they can push their luck. But this is a bit excessive.
‘datkross412‘ decided that one of the best ways to get our attention is send in a whopping eighteen entries, featuring almost every Sonic character under the sun. The guy even did Sonic twice. I guess the plan was to see whether one of them was our favourite character or something. There was an entry for, in order: Sonic, Chip, Werehog, Tails, Rouge, Blaze, Shadow, Knuckles, Silver, Super Sonic, Eggman, Vector, Espio, Big, Amy, Metal Sonic, Elise, and Sonic again.
So yeah. Obviously, that’s taking the piss. We’re not going to pick the best one for his entry, much less look at them, so ‘datkross412’ here’s your challenge – pick one. Pick the entry you want to enter for this contest. If you don’t, we’ll bin them all and disqualify you. Usual contest email address, just give us the name of the character you want to keep.
And that ends today’s lesson in “Don’t give Svend a headache”. Thanks for playing.
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Now for a trailer that hasn’t been leaked! This video comes courtesy of Sega America and was posted on Hallowe’en of all times – it’s a brief showcase of the jungle-esque stage titled Mazuri. It’s really quite difficult for someone like me to keep a track of all these Zone names when they’re so bizarrely named. Whatever happened to Jungle Leaf Zone, or Tarzanhog Zone, or King of the Swingers Zone? Much easier to remember. What’s also easier to see is that this stage has had vast improvements over the original trailer some months ago, and even retains the classic re-interpretation of the Sonic 1 8-Bit credits theme. Groovy.
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The recent video leak from Taiwanese gaming website Ruliweb has caused big action from Sega Europe, with original Youtube videos being deleted and member accounts being suspended. The news came shortly after we revealed the Opening Cutscene and Apotos videos that were posted, where we had to resort to offering download links from the original source.
Now Youtube members are responding in force, reposting the trailers many times over with various conspicuous titles. One video is named “The Epic opening in the series that is not so falling” and “pessimists beware ice cream will own you” – which is more than sign enough to see that people are very excited about the way Sonic Unleashed is looking at the moment.
It’s not surprising to see Sega curl up into a ball and go out on the Copyright Infringement Attack Force. It’s happened before many times, and it’s only natural to see a publisher defend information that it doesn’t want made public. It will be more interesting to see how Sega continues to respond, particularly given the positive reception the leaked videos have created.
In fact, these two movies have largely been decision-changers in most people, between a pass to a day-one purchase. The question is, will Sega now react positively to the reactions from fans and gamers alike, or will they pursue the retraction of material to the end, causing no end of headaches for them in an open space like the Internet and simultaneously endangering the new consumers the videos appear to have generated? Watch this space, kids.
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This is quite something – Sega haven’t put this much pump into a Sonic game in a long time. There’s even proper merchandise to be had, with this eBay auction popping up for a Sonic the Werehog action figure. Sold at Toys R’ Us in America for a period of time, these are very hard to find according to the seller. They’re apparently different from the Australian pre-order figures, but we won’t know for sure unless someone does a comparison or two (that’s your challenge, Aussie readers! Get in touch!).
We don’t know if these will ever come to Britain (AAUK has responded with a stinging ‘no’), or anywhere outside of America in fact. At this time there are two separate auctions for about $40. So if you’ve got bottomless pockets and can’t wait for a bit of early Unleashed action, then what better to do then invest in a pristine Werehog?
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UPDATE: The spoilsports at Sega seem to have caught wind of the Youtube escapade, as the videos that were featured in this story were taken off shortly after. If you’re looking for a way to view the videos but can handle waiting a million years, Ruliweb have downloadable versions on their website. The last two links in either the HD or SD segment of the page lead to the Sonic Unleashed videos, the other links are other games, we imagine.
It appears someone’s got their hands on review code of Sonic Unleashed early, because there’s a few gameplay videos popping up over Youtube courtesy of “Ruliweb”. The first video, above, shows a cutscene between Sonic and Chip in the Apotos stage, whilst showcasing what the ‘hub’ worlds will look like and even a little bit of main stage action. Chip does sound rather irritating with his sundae fetish, but maybe that’s the point. It’s altogether a pretty charming cutscene, and overall a pretty cool display of Sonic’s character. In the hub world you can talk to various non-playable characters about this and that. You get the option for multiple-choice responses, but as the video quality is pretty poor we can’t tell whether you’ll get any sidequests or anything for doing this.
The Sonic levels still look awesomely impressive. Calls of ‘on-rails’ gameplay may be justified, but if it’s fun and entertaining (and above all, satisfying to play) then does it really matter? It’s no throwback to what made the classics great, but it at least taps the relative success and win that the Sonic Rush series is made of. Basically, it looks like a bowl full of funchips. Also, no loading! We just hope that the ‘EXP’ system doesn’t make the game a chore to play until you level up like in Sonic and the Secret Rings.
There’s more though – Ruliweb kindly captured the introduction cutscene for the game too, which you can download using the link provided above. Trust us though – this opening cutscene is made of a trophy built from the rarest awesome, dug from the farmost mines of win.
Thanks to PeTePoPsS on the SSMB for finding the videos and sharing them!
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Thanks to Sega Europe, we have a few Sonic Chronicles goodies to give away on The Sonic Stadium. Just in time for Hallowe’en too! See that photo up there? The Chronicles tin and stylus pack? There are five of those to give away. You could win a set of them, you could. There’s also a super-secret squirrel Grand Prize goody bag, which will be sent your way should you impress us the most.
Impress us, you say? Well yes. I don’t expect you to just come along and take this stuff. I want you to work for your meal. And what better way to prove your worth than on Hallowe’en? Here’s what you have to do to be in a chance of winning:
Pick any Sonic the Hedgehog character, and describe to us how they would Trick or Treat someone.
It’s as simple as that. Imagine a Sonic character of your choice, knocking on a house door. What does that character do when that door opens to get as much candy as possible? Funny, scary, or downright weird entries are all acceptable, so do your worst (on all accounts)!
Send your entires to dreadknux@gmail.com with your name, email address and what your chosen character does. Closing date for entries is the 7th November 2008. Good luck!
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One of the things that The Sonic Stadium is known for, beyond our eight-year history, is our bizarre sense of humour. This humour is usually implemented in our banner adverts, which we’ve had rolling for several years now. Although the banner advertisement service allows for other Sonic sites to get noticed via visiting TSS, sometimes we got bored and made our own stuff to put up on the rotation. These varied from adverts for articles and specific updates to the site itself to random ways of advertising the advert service itself.
Hit the jump for a gallery of past banners, used at some stage during The Sonic Stadium’s life. Not all of the banners have been saved unfortunately, but here’s what we have salvaged. Enjoy. Continue reading TSS History: The Banners
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To get you into the spirit of things, SEGA have made this awesome Hallowe’en trailer for Sonic Unleashed. But it’s not a trailer for the game. Nope, it’s a trailer for a special animated film that SEGA are producing, to tie in with the game. So it’s Sonic the Hedgehog’s “Thriller” then.
It’s done in a classic horror movie style, and features Sonic and new character Chip heading into a haunted house, with the blue blur unable to contain his dark secret when the full moon comes out… Almost reminded me of the intro to Luigi’s Mansion until Were-Sonic started beating the snot out of some Looney Tunes-esque bull.
Give it a watch, it’s ghoulishly good. Ahem. The full animated short will be available in November.
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Hey you. Excited about Halloween? Good. Got a pumpkin? Good. Want to make a Sonic pumpkin? You’re in luck my friend, as The Sonic Stadium has a set of pumpkin stensils that you can use to make your favourite character glow viciously in the twilight. These designs were submitted by Rally the Cheetah, who created all but the Amy pumpkin (which was created by ‘The Lioness’), but feel free to print any of these onto an A4 sheet of paper and go nuts.
You’ve got a choice of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Silver and Blaze. Click here for the stencils, along with a special tutorial made by Rally in case you’re unsure as to how to create your own Sonic Pumpkin.
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We thought we’d share this cool little gift we got from Simon, also known as ‘ForeverSonic’, at the Video Games Live concert on Friday. It’s a little card wishing the site a happy 8th birthday, along with a little present. And you know how the best presents are always homemade (unless they’re from Sega or us, of course). A lot of time and effort must have gone into making this fluffy Sonic head, although now we’re worried if there’s a fluffy Sonic body wandering the earth looking for it. It is Halloween this week after all.
There was also an awesome Tails head made as well. You can see that above too. Happy birthday TSS – our blasts from the past continue tomorrow!
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Despite no efforts to the contrary, we are still able to obtain access to Sonic Retro, including their forum. It was there that a photo was discovered that featured a disc titled ‘Sonic Proof’. To put it into some context, this disc was apparently found in a room at Sega’s Headquarters which contains almost all of their work, including Dreamcast, Saturn and Mega Drive titles. The photo above shows (an obvious CD-R based) Sonic Proof wedged between some retail games.
But what does it all mean? Is it the working title for an old Sonic the Hedgehog engine? Is it a concept of another unreleased Sonic title altogether? Is it something unrelated to Sonic and even Sega (the ‘Sega room’ contained games from other publishers on PS2 as well)? Is it a massive hoax or a plant (although given the original photo is pretty legit, it might not be the case)? Who the heck knows? Not many at the moment, with speculation at a dead end pretty much.
We’re slapping this up as a rumour for now; Sonic Retro are pretty cool with getting information on old stuff, but until it’s verified it could well be a wild goose chase.
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Whilst the TSS crew were at Video Games Live last night watching things rock out, we were surprised that the set contained no Sonic the Hedgehog medley this year. We didn’t mind though, as someone on stage let slip that co-creator and presenter, Tommy Tallarico, is to be working on the music to Sonic and the Black Knight.
The reveal came during the evening show when the editor for the Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition, Keith Pullin, took the stage to award Tommy with for his contribution to video game music (some 200-odd games he’s composed for, from Earthworm Jim to Disney’s Alladin to Metroid Prime). Pullin stated that Tallarico is working on a Sonic the Hedgehog game, whilst the presenter turned to the audience and shhh’d everyone down. Even ArchAngelUK, Sega Europe’s community manager, was surprised of the detail. Continue reading Tallarico, Jacques Working on Sonic and the Black Knight
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The Sonic Stadium is eight years old today (and it was Cephrien’s birthday a few days ago too, so happy birthday to you too). It’s hard to imagine that this little site of mine would be so involved in an international community like this, but we’re here today amongst other awesome websites like Sonic Retro and Sonic Fan Games HQ, and man is it all good.
As you may be aware, I’ve been chronicling the years of TSS, from beginning to end (we’re at 2001 at this moment in time, but over the course of the next week you’ll learn more about the last few years too) in celebration of what this website has achieved in its lifetime. Needless to say that (trumpet blowing time) the impact The Sonic Stadium has made on the Sonic the Hedgehog community is nothing to be scoffed at.
The Sonic Site Awards gave smaller Sonic sites (including TSS at the time) a chance to be seen amongst the big boys. The approach I made to Sega Europe in 2005 has led to the publisher gaining an interest in their target audience, which led to the creation of their Community department, the Sonic City website and the arrival of everyone’s favourite neighbourhood Sega-man, AAUK, to take pole position of what’s going on worldwide. The TSS Network helped raise the profiles of numerous fellow sites, including FastFeet Media and Sonic Cage Dome.
And then of course, you have my latest creation. Something that I am probably the most proud of besides TSS itself. The Summer of Sonic, which can essentially be called two creations under one name. Originally a website, it was born out of a concept I had waaaay back in 2001; that there should be a Sonic fansite where every single prominent webmaster should contribute to. At the time, the idea was to have a Community website that involved myself, Tristan from TSSZ (who was a lot less controversial than he is now arguably), Sonic HQ, The Sonic Foundation, Shadow of a Hedgehog… it would be a site where the whole community got involved and contributed to. Continue reading Happy Birthday TSS! PLUS BONUS ANNOUNCEMENT!
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This is part of an ongoing series of features that looks back on the history of The Sonic Stadium. You can find out more about how this website changed the Sonic community, what it looked like back in the day, and even special images and update notes from the archive.
She’s Got The Look
The launch of The Sonic Stadium had a very good initial response – some thirty people or so were regularly visitng the website in just a few weeks since it’s opening, which is pretty admirable considering that it did so with no fanfare or anything. The first few months in 2001 would prove to be much tougher, as beginner’s luck would set in and the casually interested visitors would drop off and head to more interesting sites like The Sonic Foundation and Sonic HQ.
To combat this, towards the end of 2000 I began work on a new site design. One with a dark background, two sidebars and room for a lot of links to different pages. Still feeling my way around web design, I took a free template and fiddled with that to get the look I wanted. It wasn’t a very good idea at the time because I missed several updates because of this, but it taught me a lot about how to achieve certain things in a webpage.
While I was preparing this new design, I realised I needed more space than Angelfire’s 50Meg service provided. As a result of weeks of searching, The Sonic Stadium was moved onto a supposedly limitless, free host called Stas.net which included no ad-banners whatsoever. This became my undoing, as the bursting bubble of the dot com boom meant places like Stas ended up disappearing without so much as a ‘We’re closing down, bye’ message. There aren’t many images and backups of this design, as the only copies were on Stas. This meant I had to start from practically scratch. Even worse was I had my GCSE exams this year, so the revival would have to wait until several months later… Continue reading TSS Timeline: The Year 2001
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What’s Sonic got to be happy about in that picture? The reason he looks so happy (yet malnourished) is that he’s topped a poll of the UK’s best loved computer game characters ever. Yes, he’s even beaten Super Mario. The blue hog commanded 24 per cent of the overall vote aimed at gamers in the country (or set of four countries, whatever). Mario had to settle for second with 21 per cent.
It’s not altogether surprising, considering Sega’s consoles always had such a great reception in Europe during the 1990s, and given that Sonic the Hedgehog titles tend to be some of the biggest selling games on the Nintendo Wii. PS3 and Xbox 360 not so much (Sonic 06? Chortle), but Sonic Unleashed may be the game to change the mascot’s fortunes on the high definition consoles.
In the interests of fairness, we’d let you know that Mario beat Sonic at the ‘Greatest Computer Game Ever’ with Super Mario Bros, but we’re so awash with retro feeling that that good old mascot fanboy rivalry’s seeping through again. So we’ll just stick our thumbs up at Nintendo fans instead, ignorant in the knowledge that the Mega Drive Sonic the Hedgehog title reached #5. If all else fails, blame Cornwall. Because it’s cool to do.
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
This is the first in a series of features that looks back on the history of The Sonic Stadium. You can find out more about how this website changed the Sonic community, what it looked like back in the day, and even special images and update notes from the archive.
Prelude
I’ve always been a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog, ever since I saw the Mega Drive game that my friend owned (which resulted in me accidently getting a Master System in my childhood ways). Every bit of my pocket money would go on the games, and any other merchandise I could fit in too. As time went on though, the Sony PlayStation became more popular and that (along with adolescence) made my interest in Sega and Sonic wane throughout the late 1990s.
My interest was to be reignited during my last year of school. Sometime in 1999, we had a new computer centre built, which brought Internet to the masses of kids attending there. Soon enough, every kid had a floppy disk with Genecyst and a Sonic 2 ROM that they would play during lunch break whenever the admins weren’t looking. Seeing the game being enjoyed again (and playing it a heavy amount myself) kick-started my love for the games all over again.
I eventually came across a website called The Moogle Cavern (now dead). It appeared during a random Yahoo search for ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’, not expecting to find as many fan sites as I did. In its prime, the ‘MC’ was known for its mish-mash of Mario, Sonic, Squaresoft and other assorted franchise information. I quickly joined the forums and became a solid part of their community. Continue reading TSS Timeline: The Year 2000
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We’re a bit late to the party with this one, but during the Tokyo Game Show a few weeks ago Sonic and the Black Knight got its first proper showing. As you could probably tell with all the trailers and mp3s flying around. Now you get some screenshots of the game in action, courtesy of SEGA Europe. They don’t really show anything new, but it’s nice to have a good look at what we’ve already seen, right?
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Showgoers to the Tokyo Game Show this year were treated to a special performance from Crush 40 members Jun Senoue and Johnny Giolei. Adam broke news of the legendary concert on TSS a while ago – and you can trust our ardent readers to find a way to grab that music for themselves. Regular contributor TMS was kind enough to send us mp3 versions of all seven tracks played live. So now you don’t have to hit Youtube to memorise those lyrics to Knight of the Wind. You can download them straight from TSS’ Media Portal; link’s below. Hop to it, soldiers.
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Be still my beating heart! Be still dammit! Kotaku went to the Tokyo Game Show recently and spoke to Akinori Nishiyama from Sonic Team. Asked if any of the classic games could be remade in HD – or if in fact, a new 2D Sonic title could be done on XBLA or PSN, the Sonic Unleashed producer said this;
There’s always the possibility. Whether it would be viable remains to be seen, but having a new game – or even a remake of the GBA games, which we now can’t use [thanks to the DSi] – would certainly be possible… One of our ideas has been that on older consoles, you may have had only 16 colours. One thing we could do is make a game like Mega Man 9; do a new Sonic, but in an old style.
Looks like someone’s been keeping an eye on TSS lately. One thing we would have to note though – a stipulation if you will – would be that such a project would really have to take on board all the classic mechanics of the Mega Drive originals (level design, physics based stages, epic-but-not-lame storylines, Sonic-Tails-Knuckles, Robotnik) to truly be something worth getting excited over. I mean, there was no point doing Mega Man 9 if it was just going to be Battle Network in NES graphics. If Sonic Team want to be serious about this, shit has to be taken back to the drawing board. Specifically, 1990’s drawing board.
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No sooner did those Sonic and the Black Knight videos hit the Internet, that people just had to rip the theme songs and offer them for download. Who are we to say no? TMS has done a good job of ripping both the instrumental theme heard in the video we posted earlier, and the full theme in the Japanese trailer featuring vocals.
We’re quite sure that’s Johnny and Jun back in the saddle for this theme, making it a Crush 40, super-cheesy rock extravaganza. Is it just us, or are C40 really trying to be more “80’s children’s cartoon rock” with each passing Sonic title? Although, that never hurt the Transformers.
Give Sonic fans ten minutes to learn it and we’ll be seeing everyone sing it like they did ‘Endless Possibility’ at Summer of Sonic. Thanks for the rip, TMS!
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Sega decided to show a trailer of Sonic and the Black Knight at the Tokyo Game Show this year, which is quite an unprecedented move given that we still have no firm release date for the next Wii adventure. It expands a little bit on the three-second teaser that was contained in the Wii showcase we posted a few days ago, and much like Secret Rings, involves Sonic going into storyland to beat an evil force. It’s his destiny, apparently. It still looks like Sonic-on-rails to me, so the jury’s still out here.
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Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is further proof, beyond Sonic Spinball and Sonic Riders, that the classic hedgehog formula can be applied to just about any old genre SEGA sees fit (not always successfully, mind). The idea for this game apparently came about during a discussion with Bioware’s managing directors and SEGA America’s President Simon Jeffery. Obviously the concept and challenge of putting Sonic the Hedgehog in untested waters was just too good an opportunity to pass up, but also came with a worrying premise for gamers. Because we’d all been there with Shadow the Hedgehog.
With the standard Sonic games not doing so hot, was a spinoff – which happen to be extremely hit and miss in the history of the franchise – really the best way to go about repairing the damaged reputation the blue blur has? Would the franchise be in good hands with Bioware, an excellent developer known for their more mature RPG projects? Read on and find out, in TSS’ definitive review.
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The Sonic and the Black Knight Artwork contest has come to a close, and community art pieces from around the world have been judged by SEGA for inclusion in the upcoming Wii title. TSSZ has reported on several winners residing in Sonic Retro – and it turns out from the European side, some of our own SSMB Forum members have won too!
ArchAngelUK has been emailing the 20 European winners throughout the last day or so, but the full list has not been publically released, leaving us a waiting game to see who will pipe up in sheer joy and euphoria. Among the winners that have publically claimed WinRar is Violet who is a regular at our UK Sonic Meetups and was one of the main contributors to the Summer of Sonic convention this year. Word has it that TSS Merch Hog T-Bird has also won a place in the game. UK fans Mahzes, ENVY16, Sock-fox and Adamis from Belgium were also rocking winning pictures yesterday.
Other community members that voiced joy at the Sonic Retro forums was well-known community artist Purity; other namedrops include G. Silver, known best at the Green Hill Zone forums; Radrappy and DeviantArt member Aedelthryd.
The annoying thing? None of the winning entries are allowed to be shown until the game’s release next year. Bummer, I’m sure all the winners will want to show their piece to every man, woman and child right now. Congratulations to all the winners all over the world!
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Now this is news. TSSZ has come under fire from many members of the Sonic online community for misrepresenting and not fact-checking community stories. The website, run by Tristan Oliver, was quite popular in 2004, but went on hiatus in 2005 – since its return this year, Tristan has had much criticism thrown his way for being ‘out of touch’ with his peers.
While the regular, ‘safe’ articles generally get a good reception from readers, fellow members of the Sonic community have been at loggerheads with Tristan since TSSZ’s return – a trend which all began when the website misunderstood The Sonic Stadium’s new approach in design and editorial during the initial reaction to Sonic and the Black Knight.
Perhaps the thing most public about the controversy surrounding TSSZ is the seemingly never-ending feud between Tristan and TSS’ own badass Slingerland. Feathers were ruffled when a news story was written involving Sonic Fan Games HQ (and by extension, Slingerland, in enforcing the rules there) and their irritation towards a non-English speaking member on their forum. Many wondered whether it was news-worthy at all, and the tone of the piece seemed to suggest a veiled attack on Slingerland. Tristan has denied such allegations, saying he wishes to report on the ‘good, bad and ugly’ side of the community. Continue reading TSSZ In Hot Water Over Community ‘Non-News’
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I’ve been busy beavering away at a little project for the site. Basically, I’m trying to get the Information and Downloads sections back online in some form or another. Ahead of a release of our Music Downloads section (which is basically an HTML version of what we offer on our FTP Portal, for those that like nice looking webpages), we’ve grabbed the Game Rip for Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, and you’re all invited to download it for yourselves. And because it’s from TSS, we’ve tagged the files properly and everything. So enjoy – I can rock hard to that Battle Theme 3 music all day. Cheers to Golden Hedgy for leading us to audio glory.
You can expect me to update you on various things regarding the Information and Download sections over the coming weeks. I don’t know how long this will take me, but there’s cause for celebration on the 24th October regardless…
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The other day, Nintendo Japan held a conference and showed the world that they did care somewhat for their core gamers, announcing a heap of games for Wii and DS that are likely to satisfy a few people at least. What interested us however, was the inclusion of the first ever footage of upcoming game Sonic and the Black Knight. You can see the three-or-so second clip towards the end of the video, above, round about 3:45.
It basically looks exactly like Sonic and the Secret Rings, with a sword. And more grey. And an assumption of much more flailing about. There was an open green field though, so that will sort of make up for… something. Interesting reveal nonetheless. Thanks to Brent and Christian who pointed this out to us.
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A couple of Sonic fans have taken the time to draw artwork on their own dream Sonic the Hedgehog game. Called ‘Sonic Beyond’, it’s not really a fangame at all as it’s not even in development, but rather a showcase of concept art that details what such a game would be like. It’s rather nice to look at, and the different zones are all quite inspiring. We like the idea of characters earning abilities from side-characters, saves the whole playing-as-them deal. And we don’t know about you, but we reckon Egg Hoover is a great boss name. You can see high resolution pics of their artwork here. Well done Maximiliano (legendary name, by the way) and Leonardo Martinez.
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Germany tried all sorts of ways to get Sonic to turn his talent to the music industry in the 1990s. We all know about They Call Me Sonic, and the mental scars it brings. And we don’t talk about Sonic & Tails. But check this out – discovered by keen TSS’er BlitzChris, this was a compilation pop record farmed out by BMG Germany to get those crazy kids to buy Bobby Brown’s Humpin’ Around. Released in 1992, it features 17 tracks from various artists, and the only link we have is that Super Sonic Dance Attack features in the tracklist. Now you can build tenuous links between Right Said Fred and Sonic the Hedgehog before Wonderman was ever concieved.
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It’s never cool when a fellow Sonic webmaster gets hit with the trials and tribulations that real life brings, and it looks like the latest casualty is Aussie comedy corner and hoax resource Sonic Vegemite. Before The Sonic Stadium changed radically into a blog-powered resource, I was pretty much in the same boat. Shit just wasn’t getting done, and the will and desire to update simply wasn’t there anymore.
While the problem with Matt Newman’s site isn’t so much a lack of interest on his part (although it is mentioned in a recent update post) it appears people just keep sending the guy too much stuff. “We’ve gotta be one of the only Sonic websites I know where [we close because] the webmaster simply gets too much submitted.”
It must have been troublesome to keep juggling all those “What Cheeses Me Off” entries with RL concerns. Anyone who’s had to maintain an HTML-powered site and manually add contributions will feel that pain. The lack of time to update is the reason why many Sonic fansites either fizzle out or get watered down greatly once the webmaster leaves university (although I’m still here for some reason), and it’s a sad fact of life really.
So another long-standing (the site’s been open for over five years, and Matt’s been a regular in the Sonic community since my old Moogle Cavern haunt days in 1999) website and community figure steps down. However, it doesn’t look like it’ll be the last we see of the Vegemite fanatic – apparently the plan is to start updates going again and continue until the backlog is rid.
Until then, I didn’t want Sonic Vegemite to go out with a whimper, so it’s here that I wish Matt and his site all the best, and hopefully he can return so I can talk about how superior Marmite is.
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Looks like loads of people are eager to play Sonic Chronicles after all. Following the news on SSMB that Australian game stores have broken the official street date for the title’s release, it was only a matter of time before the illegal ROM dump started appearing on the Interwebs. Thanks to some eagle eyed members on Sonic Retro and X-Cult, the dump didn’t seem to take that long to arrive at all.
Those with an R4 Nintendo DS cart (which are totally used for homebrew and nothing else, honest) have been having some problems getting the ROM to run properly on their handhelds, but some workarounds have done the trick – apparently the solution involves an ARM7 patch file.
The Sonic Stadium was able to play the game at length some months ago, and we have to agree that it is a pretty damn good game, with a good mixture of action and RPG fused with classic Sonic banter. Let’s just hope that any positive opinions gleaned from playing the ROM will translate into bona fide sales for SEGA. After all, it only makes sense to support the company when they finally get something right.
The game is on track for a European release this Friday. We’ve just received our copy for review, so you can expect us all to chime in and give the non-‘Knockoff Nigel’s a definitive assessment.
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A hawk-eyed TSS reader has informed us about “Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection” (highlighted), which is listed in Gamestop’s latest release schedule. Priced at $29.99 for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and due for release on the 10th February 2009, it appears SEGA haven’t yet given up on providing all of Sonic’s classics to current consumers. It makes sense – with half the community bitching about how much better the Mega Drive games were (which I can’t say doesn’t hold merit) it seems wise to let new gamers experience the hedgehog’s glory days. For fans, it opens up a whole new world of speculation — will SEGA provide loads of meaty bonus content ala Sonic Jam this time? Will players actually be able to play Chaotix without locating a 32X? What the heck does that mean for those that purchased Sonic 1 and 2 from Xbox Live Arcade?
Before we all go jumping the gun though, it’s important to note that SEGA haven’t officially announced such a title. Having said that, retailer’s secret schedules are regularly a source for getting to know of new projects ahead of time. Jot this down in your Sonic filofaxes as a ‘rumour’ for now. Many thanks to our anonymous tipster who sent this in – top stuff.
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With the epic Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood game just around the corner, we thought we’d provide more of an opportunity to salivate over it just a little more. SEGA Europe have just sent us this wallpaper, which is exclusive to The Sonic Stadium. Download it, slap on your desktop and be proud. SEGA Nerds also has their own wallpaper, but those with a fetish for Tails and HOT WRENCH ACTION can probably make do with this one. I’ve got it on my desktop now. Those blue, alluring eyes…. looking right at me… as if I was — (Runs off to write a fanfiction)
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It’s a very old video, yes we’ve seen it before, but did we have a cool regular feature to show it off with back then? No, we didn’t, and that’s why Chris Phyffer’s Sonic 2 CG Ending is in today’s edition of BlueTube. If you’ve seen it already, watch it again and remind yourself just why it’s so awesome – if you haven’t, watch it anyway because it’s… awesome. Captures a magic that hasn’t really been present in any 3D Sonic cutscene we can think of. Maybe it’s because Sonic doesn’t go into a goofy tirade about ‘smiling’ or ‘power of teamwork. Or generally because his flap doesn’t open at all. Good times.
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At the CEDEC Conference Sonic Team showed off the latest build of their Hedgehog Engine to an engaged audience. Thanks to reader ‘Brent’, we were able to grab some clips from their presentation that showcases various aspects of the ins and outs of the code. If you’re a budding game engineer (and can read Japanese) then this will be of particular interest. For the rest of us, it’s still pretty nifty to see images of Sonic Unleashed in a debug state. Gallery after the jump. Continue reading See How The Hedgehog Engine Works
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While everyone seems to be jumping up and down about Sonic Unleashed, one thing that seems slightly off is regarding the game’s release date. According to the official Japanese website (the game is called Sonic World Adventure over there), the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions are being held back until Spring 2009. The website states that this is to “improve the game’s quality”, something we’re not exactly against given the known rushings of past Sonic games.
Be still my beating heart! Be still dammit! Kotaku went to the Tokyo Game Show recently and spoke to Akinori Nishiyama from Sonic Team. Asked if any of the classic games could be remade in HD – or if in fact, a new 2D Sonic title could be done on XBLA or PSN, the Sonic Unleashed producer said this;
No sooner did those Sonic and the Black Knight videos hit the Internet, that people just had to rip the theme songs and offer them for download. Who are we to say no? TMS has done a good job of ripping both the instrumental theme heard in the video we posted earlier, and the full theme in the Japanese trailer featuring vocals.
The Sonic and the Black Knight Artwork contest has come to a close, and community art pieces from around the world have been judged by SEGA for inclusion in the upcoming Wii title. TSSZ has reported on several winners residing in Sonic Retro – and it turns out from the European side, some of our own SSMB Forum members have won too!
I’ve been busy beavering away at a little project for the site. Basically, I’m trying to get the Information and Downloads sections back online in some form or another. Ahead of a release of our Music Downloads section (which is basically an HTML version of what we offer on our FTP Portal, for those that like nice looking webpages), we’ve grabbed the Game Rip for Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, and you’re all invited to download it for yourselves. And because it’s from TSS, we’ve tagged the files properly and everything. So enjoy – I can rock hard to that Battle Theme 3 music all day. Cheers to Golden Hedgy for leading us to audio glory.
It’s never cool when a fellow Sonic webmaster gets hit with the trials and tribulations that real life brings, and it looks like the latest casualty is Aussie comedy corner and hoax resource 
