E3: See the Were-Hog in Action!

While everyone else was getting bored watching Nintendo’s boring E3 conference, SEGA have stepped up and released a bunch of their content for upcoming Sonic games, including at last revealing how the Werewolf gameplay will be like. The trailer also shows some new elements to Sonic play, including advancing to upper regions of a stage by successful button presses and a new stage known as ‘China’, complete with looping dragon platforms. The track you’re hearing is called “Endless Possibility”, a theme song involving Jaret Reddick from Bowling for Soup. Ugh.

What is also quite jarring is the gameplay featuring the Werewolf itself, and it’s clear why SEGA kept it all a secret until just now. Quite a world apart from the speedy multiple-route gameplay we’ve all known so far, becoming Were-Sonic involves a slower, more powerful method of play. Imagine going as slow as Silver while beating hordes of enemies ala Shadow. This is pretty much the Werewolf gameplay summed up. Oh, and you have to pick up objects and put them in places to open doors too. Erm… hm.

We’re not sure we like it. We demand a playtest, SEGA. We also demand a high-res video, as we can’t see anything with this one. Stay tuned for the HQ version which we’ll put online soon.

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BlueTube: Sonic Fan Wars

Over on SSMB, a chap has posted a rather interesting vlog about, what one might consider an ‘outsider’s view’ of the Sonic the Hedgehog online fanbase. Truesonicfan, also known as Andrew for those that might whinge about him using an unimaginitive screenname (I know some of you exist out there) notes that everywhere you go there are countless ‘wars’ about various aspects of Sonic. Drummond or Griffith? Classic or Modern? Cool carefree Sonic or bestiality deluxe? All a dude wants to do is chat with some friends online about Sonic and how cool the games are, man!

Andrew’s about as articulate as a bog brush, but to be fair he makes some good points. There are a lot of Sonic fan factions that want to niggle about the voices for no apparent reason. There are groups that argue that modern games have no place, or learning from the Mega Drive days is pointless. Hell, some are even concerned as to how Bioware have set up the bloody world map in Sonic Chronicles (what the hell, who cares?).

We call these groups ‘whiny bitches’, and although they are found mostly within the Sonic fanbase more than any other group of gaming fans, I’d like to think their kind are dying down. At least, relegated to Youtube where they can stick two fingers up at Naka or Iizuka or Griffith or whoever the hell has deserved the ‘retard venom’ these days. Continue reading BlueTube: Sonic Fan Wars

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E3 SEGA Embargo Lifts Later Today

Just a quick announcement; I’ve got a heads up from SEGA that their main E3 announcements are coming real soon. Later today as it happens. The embargo for journalists will be lifted at about 4/5pm today, so we’ll try and get all the latest Sonic news to you whilst trying to keep up with the Nintendo press conference. Multi-tasking, eh? Ain’t it great.

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Sonic News Ticker is Back

If your life has never been the same since TSS changed its new look, there may be a few reasons for that. One might be that you became rather attached to our Sonic News Ticker, which allowed external websites to link through to our news posts so your pages always stayed up to date.

Well fret no more about the ticker’s future, because we’ve brought it back. You can of course use our RSS Feed as an alternative – either click the huge orange button for our general RSS, subscribe to our specific News Feed or subscribe to our Feedburner. But for those who want to simply have that ticker scrolling along their page and have only News posts filtered through it, just copy and paste the following code:

<script type=”text/javascript” language=”Javascript” src=”http://www.sonicstadium.org/ticker.php”></script>

Business as usual. Take it away, Sam.

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Dreams of an Absolution Star to attend Summer of Sonic

Lee Brotherton, the artist-otherwise-known-as Bentley Jones, the remixer-previously-known-as LeeBro, will be attending the Summer of Sonic convention when it takes place on the 9th August. For those who haven’t really been paying attention to this site or Sonic fans in general, LB is the guy behind the aural delight that is ‘Dreams of an Absolution’, Silver’s theme from the eyesore that is Sonic ’06. And people go crazy for his man chest. They like the song a lot too, but no doubt its his chest they all want.

He will be at the very first Sonic convention throughout the day, chatting to people like an unimportant person and then popping on stage for a Q&A session like an important person. Those who have registered their interest in the Summer of Sonic event can log into the website now and post in the Comments section of the relevant news item, where you can write any burning questions you have for the remixer-cum-popstar.

Due to his recent health problems (as mentioned on TSS a while ago), it’s unknown yet whether he will be up for a performance on stage following the Q&A session. The organisers (read: me and AAUK) are looking into it, but don’t put a line under anything yet. Last thing we want is someone’s voicebox bursting out of their throat or something. Mind you, that’d be a hell of a headline, huh?

Special Guest: Lee Brotherton – Summer of Sonic

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Simpsons Storyboard Artist to Attempt SatAM Comeback

We’ve all been here before, but someone has designs to pitch an idea to SEGA/DiC/the powers that be to invest in a revival of arguably the greatest Sonic cartoon, SatAM. This ‘someone’ however appears to be a chap called Matthew Sullivan, who has worked on The Simpsons, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and Family Guy, so he at least has some credentials.

Posting the image above in the Fans United for SatAM forums, Matt is preparing a pitch that he hopes will kickstart a new series of the classic Saturday morning show, with the hopeful inclusion of writer Ben Hurst. He makes no guarantee that this pitch will work, but as a fan himself states that he will try his damndest.

We wish you all the best Matt – if you have any questions he’s opened the floor on the FUS forums so give him our regards there.

Day ZERO! Animator X has a present for you! – FUS (via Saturday Morning Sonic – thanks Joanne!)

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Finally, Sonic the Hedgehog 4…

How do you know when you’re getting a good deal? When someone offers an ultra-rare game on eBay! But wait! This isn’t any old rare game – this is Sonic the Hedgehog 4 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In looking for eBay items involving weird Game Boy pirate games of old (Sonic 6, anyone?), I came across this gem, sitting on a veritable sucker collector’s desk in Cheshire.

In an attempt to either fleece a gullible Sonic fan or recoup some hard-earned cash he must have lost in buying this game himself (in being said gullible Sonic fan), the seller of this eBay item is asking for £170. Hm. Let’s weigh it all up. Good thing: You’ll own a real pirate Sonic game. Bad thing: You’ll own a real pirate Sonic game, minus 170 quid. But hey, the guy’s open to alternative offers, so go nuts.

I tried to offer 25p to the guy (three times) and he refused (three times). I guess some people just don’t know the real worth of what they have in their home.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 4 FOR THE SNES (NTSC) VERY RARE – eBay

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Let’s look at Sonic T-Shirts in UNIQLO Japan

We have had a limited availability of these special SEGA Vintage T-Shirts in the UK, but before we were able to grab them (assumedly via online only), this much sought-after range of clothing was available for a long time in Japan. Well, if by a long time you mean a week or so, before the lot was sold out.

Artist and general Australian bloke Elson ‘Darkspeeds’ Wong took a trip to the land of the rising sun back in March to see the sights and invest in a little Virtua Fighter with his homies, and managed to stumble across these magnificent T-Shirts – this is, incidentally, how we got to know about the UNIQLO SEGA range and, because we told you, how you all got to know about them. Continue reading Let’s look at Sonic T-Shirts in UNIQLO Japan

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Rubbish: Sonic Wiki Makes Up Sonic Rush 3, Everything Else

This is possibly proof that, unless your name is Tweaker or Scarred Sun, obtaining a Wiki script is about the worst thing that can happen to your Sonic website. SSMB eagles have noticed fansite “Sonic News Network” create a page dedicated to ‘Sonic Rush 3’. A page in which every single detail has been dreamed or fabricated. The Wiki has since been vandalised – an act that’s not cool no matter what the place (not only that but the vandaliser even gets confused in saying Rush Adventure is a spinoff – since when?) – but here’s what the original page stated:

Sonic Rush 3 (Sonic Rush Heroes) is a new Sonic video game that will be released nearly in 2009. It is a new Sequel of Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventure. It says that Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles “Tails” Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, Blaze the Cat, Marine the Raccoon, and the new character will be playable. Marine was pronounced to fly. Dr. Eggman and Eggman Nega might appear in this game as villians. Sonic Nega and Blaze Nega also appear in the game. 6 characters will split into 2 teams. Like Sonic Heroes, you can change formations. Sonic and Blaze are speed types, Tails and Marine are fly types, and Knuckles and a new character are power type. Shadow the Hedgehog is a supporter for Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, and Mighty the Armadillo is a supporter for Blaze, Marine, and the new character. Amy Rose, Rouge the Bat, and Vector the Crocodile (who only appear in Blaze’s story) are non-voiced characters. No further information available

I am of the belief that not even Takashi Iizuka could invent a game premise this poor. Move along people.

EDIT: Turns out Sonic Rush 3 isn’t the only page that has completely made-up information, including Sonic Rivals 3, Hornz the Fox, Berndette Hedgehog (who is apparently Queen Aleena’s sister but is somehow the mother of Sonic, Manic and Sonia [who is now male] as well) and – the best one – Pokemon & Sonic: Explorers of Time. Want a good laugh this afternoon?

Sonic News Network – via SSMB

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Summer of Sonic – 32 Days To Go

The first ever Sonic the Hedgehog convention is taking place in London on August 9th. I’ve been working hard with AAUK of Sonic Wrecks to make this extreme meetup as awesome as possible, and I can safely say we’ve got some pant-soiling stuff ready for your face. To celebrate the fact that we’ve got lots of shit ready for your inner Sonic child, the Summer of Sonic website will be regularly updated. The SoS Blog has just started and will reveal stuff such as special guests, events and other things (Prizes? Games? CAKE!?), so be sure to keep an eagle eye on it.

If I can pull this off, I’m having the biggest beer afterwards…

The Summer of Sonic Website

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BlueTube: Knuckledusting Animatic Is Awesome

Project Chaos, the fanmade Sonic 3 & Knuckles remix album released in 2006, is awesome. Undeniably, categorically so. There are a few spotty tracks in it though – Dan Baranowsky’s ‘Knuckleduster’ being one of them. So anything that makes the rubbishy songs on an awesome album look or feel closer to awesome is in fact, awesome news (still with us?). Which is why this, an animatic created by artist ‘Thweatted’ to complement the song, is… well… awesome. Does anyone else need further proof that Sonic the Hedgehog should revert back to his classic style?

SSMB Topic

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Smash Bros Brawl Avoids Recolour Disaster

You might have noticed that Super Smash Bros. Brawl is finally out in the UK and Europe. Good for us, eh? It’s about time. Of course, this is the latest in the series where Sonic the Hedgehog is a playable character. Ever since that announcement several months ago of the blue blur’s inclusion, you could hear a mile off all the wonderings of the community. Whether, for instance, their shitty little recolour would inadvertedly be ‘included’ in the game if more than one person selected Sonic in a brawl.

Well fret no more, normal Sonic fan, because Nintendo appears to have been aware of the clusterfuck surrounding ‘creativity’ in the Sonic fanbase and decided not to touch that with a 60 foot pole. When more than one player selects Sonic the Hedgehog, different colours are assigned to the cufflinks on his hands and feet. He gets a slight tonal change too in his spines, but nothing that “~~~Dr_TailsFox2000~~~” can lay copyright claims to.

As for the rest of Sonic in Brawl, he is awesome. Awesomely handled in Subspace Emissary, awesomely handled in combat… for the first time in so many games, the hedgehog has been treated with respect.

Well played Sakurai, well played.

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Video Games Live Glasgow: A Scottish Report

Video Games Live, a concert dedicated to the music of the computer games we play, took place for the first time in Glasgow on June 26th 2008. Richard Jacques was there (as you can see, plotting some evil scheme) as was Tommy Tallarico (Earthworm Jim, Metroid Prime) and many other composers of legend. Two brave souls, JJ4Eva and ForeverSonic, entered the concert as boys and emerged as men. Or something. Here’s their account of the night. Take it away boys.

Report by JJ4Eva

A nice rainy day of June 26th 2008 sees our two travellers James “JJ4eva” Maloney, and Simon “ForeverSonic” Shirley making their way to Glasgow for a big Scottish event. That event is Video Games Live, the first time the musical concert has ever been held in Scotland.

The day started off well, with JJ and ForeverSonic meeting none other than Richard Jacques outside of the concert hall in the late afternoon. Much conversation and laughs were had. We met Sonic, Mario and Ai Ai outside of the Glasgow Royal Concert hall. A lot of pictures were taken with Sonic and co keeping our men happy until they were called away back inside. Continue reading Video Games Live Glasgow: A Scottish Report

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Mario & Sonic, Sonic Unleashed up for Golden Joysticks

Thanks to Dave from Camp Sonic for kicking us awake for this one – the Golden Joystick Awards are gearing up again, and you can vote for your favourite games in many different categories. SEGA’s got a strong showing with Sonic appearing in multiple nominations:

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, which will just not die, is up for three different awards, including The Sun’s Family Game of the Year, Bliss Handheld Game of the Year and Nintendo Game of the Year (ouch, Miyamoto). Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Dash Mobile is lined up for 4Talent’s Mobile Game of the Year, while Sonic Unleashed could win the One to Watch Award (something that, given what we’ve seen so far, is quite justified).

SEGA’s in a bunch of other categories too, but you can go visit the GJ website (or the Sega Blognik) to see what those are. Be sure to make your vote count and don’t let a two year old game win any awards this time! OK? Cool.

Golden Joystick Awards (Via Sega Blognik – thanks Camp Sonic)

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Where is TSS’ content?

There there, don’t cry little chap. You’re probably not used to TSS changing into something ultra-mega-awesome. Either that, or you’re just wondering where the hell all our old content is. Although we’ve touched base on this before, I’m going to say that all the old content areas will be back very shortly. Takes some adjusting when you radically move from a 20%-complete bespoke system to a brand new blog-esque script.

Because of the change, certain pages will have to re-imagined or even re-written. We’re going to be doing this in particular to the Games Archive – the scans and stuff will still be there, don’t worry, but it will be a bit more informative and stuff. This area (the bloggy type bit) will be where you get your news and features on the games, and the Game Archive pages will be the place you go for the more in-depth information. We’ll be reworking these on a game-by-game basis. As I’m rather enjoying going through Rush Adventure again, that may be my first port of call. Who knows though.

In any road, you can expect the Downloads section back within the next few days. Don’t count on me doing anything though until Wednesday because it’s my birthday on Monday (drunken brouhaha weekend for the win). So basically, don’t worry. This blog thing won’t be the only thing to TSS, promise.

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Saturday Swag: 1992 Pajamas

Isn’t it freaky when you find things you never remembered owning? Clearing out the various rooms that I live in the other day earned me this 1992 Sonic the Hedgehog pajama set as a reward. Uh, thanks wardrobe fairy? It’s a great bit of merch from yesteryear so after a bit of a wash I took some pictures. Ah, back when Sonic looked pretty funky (and fat). This was a set you could buy in Marks and Spencer’s and is just one of a billion things you could buy with Sonic’s head on it back in the day.

The top looks pretty sweet, right? You wanna see what the awesome pajama bottoms look like..? Continue reading Saturday Swag: 1992 Pajamas

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Miyamoto: ‘Avoid SEGA-style design’

Nintendo mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto has gone on record to tell Wired News that the motivating factor behind the quality control in their games is to avoid the styles of other developers. Namely SEGA’s. Quoth:

I’m always instructing my game designers on the history of the characters and worlds we’ve created. Often we’re in development and I’ll say, ‘Oh, this looks like a Sega game. We need to make it look more like Mario.’

It’s a double edged sword really, I guess he has a point. On the one hand, SEGA have been doing nothing but running their old franchises into the ground lately. On another, it’s good that Nintendo distance their style so much so that no-one else’s name is tied in with Nintendogs or Wii Fit or whatever waggle fad is cool these days. And on a third hand I just created out of plasticine and sticky tape, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games felt MUCH more like a Nintendo game than a SEGA one, and that ended up stealing Nintendo’s own lunch money.

Of course, there’s a 100.1% chance he’s using SEGA as a mere example of avoiding another company’s style and not running the boys in blue into the ground, but of course we’ll wait for the million and one fanboys to start cursing Ninty’s name in the street bearing torches. Give it ten minutes.

15th Anniversary: Revenge of the Wii (Wired, via Kotaku)

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Jacques Spotted in London Pub

After spending some time in the Wii Flat playing Sonic Chronicles, we did the British thing and sat in a pub drinking our sorrows away. Looking for a beverage with a bit more pizazz than “beer, innit” I noticed a curious bottle calling to me. Playing a song. A ditty that made me think of my childhood years and a promise of long, crisp Summer days.

Picking up the bottle of fruit cider, I proceeded to have a snifter and taste its rather flavoured body. When asked for my opinion of the drink, I responded “This isn’t bad. It’s has a rather well-built texture. Yes, it’s rich”.

It was a Rich Jacques.

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Sonic Chronicles: The First Chapters

When SEGA announced they were to take the storyline of Sonic the Hedgehog and expand upon it by means of a Role Playing Game, fans the world over went quiet. Could even the pedigree of BioWare, famed for their work on Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect, really take a series known for its rather light base storyline (controversially expanded upon and, yes, clusterfucked ever since Sonic Adventure 2) and make something interesting and engaging out of it? More to the point, could this be a game both younger Sonic fans and older fans enjoy?

At the Sonic Chronicles Community Day we had a chance to sit down with an advanced build of the game, play through many of the features and discover whether this is really shaping up to be something for the fans or just a glorified fan fiction. Continue reading Sonic Chronicles: The First Chapters

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The Chronicles Community Day

Roareye from Sonic Showcase Network has made a post on the SSMB Forums about the Community Day we all shared yesterday. Click the link below to see his rather unique take on the event, and why Mike Taylor should stop nibbling on other people’s hair. As he mentions, we all saw the High Europe Sonic Unleashed video again at the Wii Flat in a decent resolution, a video of our reactions will be coming soon. Stay tuned for TSS’ Sonic Chronicles Preview.

Sonic Chronicles Community Day (SSMB, Sonic Showcase Network)

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The Day We Played Sonic Chronicles

The Sonic Stadium was invited to a special Community Day yesterday in London to have a sneak preview of Sonic Chronicles. Today we’re going to spend some time showing you just what happens when a bunch of oddball Sonic fans get together, as well as what we thought about the upcoming BioWare RPG. AAUK, the SEGA rep who was hosting the shindig, also let us have a quick go on Samba de Amigo for the Wii. And then afterwards, we all went to the pub. Just like Brits do. It’s our thing.

B’man, myself (in the black Sonic shirt there) and Sonic_Freak/Shadzter came representing TSS, while the usual suspects T-Bird, Roareye Black (SSN), Lewis (Sonic Yoda), Vger (Emerald Coast), Fastfeet (Media), Urtheart (SSN), Mike Taylor (Sonic Cage Dome), SegaMark (RadioSega), Dan Dyer (Fastfeet Media) and Diogo all turned up to see the game in action too. Violet was late and missed the whole thing, but she did have a drink with us later, so all was well.

Roareye will be writing about the Community Day itself, while Shadzter will be telling you all how Samba Wii is shaping up. Expect the Sonic fan’s definitive preview of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood later today as well, along with other videos and odd bits and bobs we might slap up here for the hell of it. Keep coming back to The Sonic Stadium for the latest! Or subscribe to our feed if you’re a lazy git.

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Now YOU Can Own This Lovely Sonic Unleashed Trailer

Hey you! Yeah, you, there. That new Sonic Unleashed trailer was pretty nifty, no? Well, nifty isn’t the word, we all browned ourselves at the prospect of a Sonic game being good this year. SEGA have released the trailer to download, which we now have for you to grab. So when all of us start praising this as the second coming (give it a month) you can ignore all that shit and remember this lovely footage for eternity, no matter how good or bad the game actually ends up. Enjoy!

Download High Europe Trailer (TSS Media Portal) – 67.9MB
Right-click and select “Save As…”

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Rejoice, Sonic X Airing Again In America

Americans have it pretty good with Sonic comic and cartoon media right now. DVD boxsets of SatAM, AoStH and… erm… Underground, and plenty of new Archies to wet the dream of many a comic connoisseur. 4Kids want to get in on the action and start airing Sonic X again! Remember that one? The one with the 4Kids.

Yes, the adventures of Sonic, Chris, Tails, Chris, Cream and Chris will start appearing on 4Kids TV every Saturday starting this weekend, at 10am (ET/PT, because we know that bit’s important to you). Sonic X can also be watched on demand via an array of digital channels including Comcast. Not only that, but there’ll be a new DVD release, including the Chaos and Shadow Sagas (eps 27-38) coming 2nd September 2008. Now Americans have it very good, surely!

… anyone?

Sonic X Returns to 4Kids TV, New DVD (TSSZ News)

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Site Pulls E3 List Out Of Arse, Finds ‘Sonic Attitude’

Someone’s been dreaming on the Internets again. According to an apparent lineup at PlayStation Beyond, SEGA America are set to show a game called ‘Sonic Attitude’ at E3 2008 in a few weeks time. Set as a “Rumour” (probably to save their skin when people realise it’s likely just a wishlist for said website – we’d all like an F-Zero for Wii and a NSMB2 for DS), this Sonic game we’ve never heard of will apparently be on the Nintendo DS and is 100% more important than Sonic Chronicles, which isn’t set to make an appearance at all.

No sources are given, and E3 doesn’t seem to have an official list of attendees, at least right now. And unless Dimps really enjoy overworking, pain and suffering (the team is currently responsible for the PS2 and Wii versions of Sonic Unleashed) they won’t be undertaking a new Sonic project either. This is either Sonic Chronicles in sheep’s clothing or I’m eating someone’s clean, plush hat.

PlayStation Beyond (Via GoNintendo) – Cheers SSMB

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Sonic’s Birthday: SEGASonic Radio Celebrations


17th Anniversary logo created by Professor-J from The Sonic Show

Because we’re cool like that, SEGASonic Radio is having a special weekend dedicated to Sonic the Hedgehog in honour of his 17th Birthday on the 23rd. Sounds a bit silly having that sort of dedication on a radio station already dedicated to the blue hog, but don’t kill the moment eh?

There will be several two-hour slots every evening from 5pm GMT starting Friday 20th (that’s tomorrow) to Sunday 22nd, with a special joint LiVECAST with Roarey_Raccoon, Urtheart and SpeedKnux on Monday 23rd (Sonic’s big day) at 8pm GMT. Be sure to listen to SSR and hit up the IRC Chatroom (links at the top of the page) when the fun begins. Hit the link below for full details.

Continue reading Sonic’s Birthday: SEGASonic Radio Celebrations

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Lee Brotherton out of Hospital, Recovering

Dreams of an Absolution star Lee Brotherton has just come out of hospital following surgery on his back. According to his official blog, the singer says that he discovered a lump which ended up being a tumour – which was rather quickly removed. But even now he’s out and about he won’t sit down – word has it that even though ‘LB’ is taking it slow, he’s still preparing for an assault on the Japanese market (as in breaking into the J-Pop charts, not an actual attack on some fishmonger or anything).

We wish him all the best and a swift recovery. Those who are keeping an eye on his lavish pop persona, Bentley Jones, will find some footage of him recording in bandages on youtube soon. He’s such a trooper, that boy.

Bentley Jones’ Official Website

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Sonic Appears On Japanese Mega CD 2, Seems Abused

Those too-cool-for-school purveyors of video game research, X-Cult, have obtained a dump of the boot up system for the Japanese Mega CD 2 (ver 2.00). Hardly great shakes you think, until you realise that up until now nobody has actually managed (or been bothered) to dump the thing in the first place. Thanks to Spinel from the X-Cult community, you can now download and experience just how different the Japanese Mega CD 2’s were. Which doesn’t seem a lot, but interesting nonetheless – it includes Sonic doing his finger-waving pose that you’ll recognise from loading up an actual game on the CD add-on. Although here it kinda looks like someone’s taken a mallet to his head. Good find boys!

Mega CD 2.00 jap bios (X-Cult)

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BlueTube: When Your Mind Can’t Comprehend A Place Or A Time

Roareye from the Sonic Showcase Network was sent this video by Sasso Studios – it’s an attempt at turning a real life movie out of Sonic the Hedgehog. Le sigh. To be fair to the chap, this is a pretty well produced effort for an amateur endeavour, and his heart’s in the right place. And at least they were bold in making Knuckles a gurning white guy.

I guess it just shows that no matter how hard you try, you can never ever create a project like this without it looking completely and totally cheesy. And we’re not even talking Keith Chegwin cheesy, we’re talking Dale Winton’s Special Brand. “SON OF A GUNS!” Classic.

There are several parts to this production already on youtube, and it’s a valiant effort so worth the watch. Beats all those Shadow music videos anyway. Some of the acting is legend (I want to buy the bald guy a pint) and you could cut the sexual tension in the last 30 seconds with a chainsaw (the music when getting into the car is the icing on the cake). Oscar winning material.

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FastFeet Media Returning

Seems like this week is a good one for community returns, as after a year of hiatus the download portal FastFeet Media will be returning this Sunday at 7pm. FFM used to be hosted on our TSS Network before they ended up having loads of ‘studios’ and wanted to do their own thing, so it’s good to see them finally come back. We missed the redness.

There’ll be forums and the return of their FTP Hub along with other cool stuff like a new Public Access section, so give their new site a gander when it relaunches just before Sonic’s 17th Birthday.

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Unleashed: High Europe is High

That initial Sonic Unleashed trailer was really nice and all, but didn’t you wish you saw more of the gameplay? Like, a whole two minutes worth? IGN felt your pain and showed a second trailer of the next major Sonic title. Apparently this is from the ‘High Europe’ stage, which doesn’t sound like a very cool name if you want my opinion but hey – it opens doors for a MECHA High Europe Zone in Sonic Unleashed 2, surely?

This video shows off some rather cool stuff, including QTEs (Quick Timed Events) to shift Sonic to the left and right, Sonic going in and out of the screen like a blue-arsed banshee and a lot of grinding and crashing through boxes.

Looks tight, but is it just me or does the blue bugger not stop at all during this sequence? Not even for a split second. If this isn’t another on-rails game like Secret Rings, SEGA’s not doing a very good job of showing it.

IGN Video (360 Version)

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Roundup: What We Missed

We’ve been away for a while, but now we’re back to kick some butt at Wild Canyon and as much as we’d like to not-believe, there’s been a fair bit of news that has slipped by the Sonic News radar (or Newsdar, or… something) during our reconstruction. FRET NOT, we’ve got it covered. Even though you probably already know all this anyway.

Sonic Blogicles

First off SEGA Europe’s community blog, the Sonic City Blognik, has started posting regular diaries from the desks responsible for Sonic Chronicles. The first entry was written by Bioware Brand Manager Randall Bishop, who discussed at length why the game will rock, in typical Brand Manager fashion. He interestingly pointed out Bioware’s new approach to Chronicles for the fact that this is indeed a kid’s game – I hope Bioware remembers that half the success of a kid’s multimedia product is the viability of it to adults too. Just ask Pixar. Continue reading Roundup: What We Missed

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TSS: A Whole New Approach

Welcome to The Sonic Stadium. Place looks a bit different doesn’t it? Yes, this is what we’ve been up to for the last couple of weeks – updating your favourite Sonic site to be a bit more ‘hip’ and ‘happening’. Whatever that means these days. Kids, tsch.

So why the change? Put simply, for the last two years, TSS has been a floundering Sonic ship – while we certainly worked hard to become one of the most popular fansites online, my university and other commitments over the years had put something of a hold on adding updates of any real worth to the site (having said that, we have been lucky in getting stuff like interviews with Yojiro Ogawa, Simon Jeffery and Lee Brotherton so we haven’t been sitting on our thumbs the whole time). There have also been many things I’ve wanted to post about Sonic but pretty much couldn’t due to the way the site was designed and how the front page was dealt and all that jazz.

We did have a new TSS code base in the making – you’ll probably have heard me going on about it for the last two years. That was a system B’man and I started working on from the ground up, but again, other commitments meant the thing was going nowhere, and as a result TSS suffered. A few months back I thought it was time to can the bespoke script we were making and just make do with a pre-packaged one and add our own bells and whistles to them. Continue reading TSS: A Whole New Approach

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Sonic Chronicles team start fortnightly blog entries

ArchangelUK over at the Sega Europe blogs has announced The Chronicles Diaries, a fortnightly blog feature where a guest from the Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood team will write a blog entry explaining their role in the games development, what its like to work on the game and give some details about the game itself.

ArchangelUK says the guest bloggers will range from people at BioWare, SEGA Europe, America and even maybe Japan from testers to producers and from top to bottom. The first guest blogger is Randall Bishop from Bioware who gives his 5 reasons why working on Sonic Chronicles is fun.

The fortnightly blog entries will continue until the games release so check back every fortnight.

Thanks to markwiinut over at the SSMB for the heads-up!

Sonic City Blognik, First Guest

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Sega re-designs its website

Sega have released a brand spanking new UK website. The website has a glossy white look to it and changes backgrounds to suit the game your currently looking at. The site is also alot simpler and easy to use than the old European site. Best of all the website loads quicker.

Sonic City, the European official Sonic site which has been completely down for a while has now updated with a maintennance message so that may be up again soon. The Sega Blogs, including the Sonic Blognik, are also down at the moment. Could this be something Sega are going to officially unveil at their gamer day?

You can check out the new Sega UK website at www.sega.co.uk

UPDATE: Sega have also released a new version of the U.S. site aswell as other regions sites too that look’s the same as the new UK one. Thanks to Dr. SEGA Monkey at the SSMB for the tip.

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New Classic Sonic 12″ figure available for Pre-order

You may remember in February Sonic News reported that the company ‘First4Figures’ were producing three unique Sonic related statues. Today, all three figures are available for pre-order over the well known ‘Play-Asia’ import website along with a brand new 12″ Sonic statue.

12 inches in height, the Classic themed Sonic the Hedgehog statue sports one of Sonic’s classic poses from the 1990’s along with a classy Green Hill themed base. Continue reading New Classic Sonic 12″ figure available for Pre-order

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SEGA UT Uniqlo T-Shirts hit the UK!

EDIT: Some sizes and colours are already sold out! If you want one, I suggest you get one soon!
EDIT 2 (3rd May, 16:30pm): The Sonic designs are now COMPLETELY SOLD OUT. Hope you got yours in time!

Japanese SEGA fans were recently treated to a selection of SEGA shirts produced by the highly fashionable designer clothing chain Uniqlo. Many fans (including myself) have tried to get their hands on these shirts, but to little avail; the Japanese stocks are now almost depleted (the Sonic designs are now sold out on the Tokyo site). Continue reading SEGA UT Uniqlo T-Shirts hit the UK!

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