Welcome to the Archive site of The Sonic Stadium (2008-2023)
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A podcaster since 2008, GX originally founded The Spindash podcast, until joining Sonic Stadium's monthly Sonic Talk. He currently co-hosts the show and runs weekly streams on Stadium's Twitch channel at https://www.twitch.tv/sonicstadium
With Sonic Frontiers’ release inching ever closer, SEGA has yet another sampling of the OST, this time highlighting Ares Island, and an interview with the man behind this and many other modern Sonic soundtracks.
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After much anticipation, today marks the release of Sonic Frontiers Prologue: Divergence, a Knuckles-focused animated short announced during the most recent Sonic Central presentation.
The short focuses on Knuckles in an introspective moment as he contemplates his own isolation. With surprising directness, the story ties itself to the events of Sonic Adventure, as well as the precursor civilizations that exist on the fringes of Sonic lore. For Sonic continuity buffs, the short certainly suggest that the tendrils of the Starfall Islands have a very wide, very old reach.
As with Sonic Frontiers proper, the short was written by Ian Flynn with consulting from Evan Stanley, with the animation itself handled once again by Tyson Hesse and Powerhouse Animation Studio. Dave Mitchell returns as Knuckles, though with significantly more nuanced dialog than in his prior performance in Team Sonic Racing. And to round out the veritable who’s who of official Sonic projects, Tee Lopes composed the short’s original music.
Divergence gives a much heartier taste of Sonic Frontiers’ story than Prologue: Convergence and plays into the tone that Frontiers on the whole has established. This isn’t pure goofball Knucklehead, but the short strikes a balance of not being overly serious either. It builds itself upon the existing Sonic world, both classic and modern, while seeding Frontiers’ own mysteries.
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Following on the Sonic 30th Anniversary Symphony last year, the official Sonic YouTube has shared a new performance from Brazil Game Show 2022, featuring a medley of Sonic Frontiers themes.
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How many hedgehogs does it take to maintain a 30-year-old multimedia franchise? At least 1.51 billion according to SEGA Sammy’s latest 2022 Integrated investor report, spread across physical and digital game units and mobile downloads.
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Closing out their pre-release coverage of Frontiers, IGN returns this morning with one additional preview of the game’s PC version, including details on general game progression, the “Memory Tokens” to collect, Cyber Space level motifs, and some fresh footage of the game’s third island.
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.
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.
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.
Sonic Channel has revealed that Wavemaster will be releasing a Sonic Frontiers original soundtrack, titled “Stillness & Motion.” The massive 6-disc set will include 150 songs from the game and a 40-page insert book with commentary. The physical CD was only announced for Japan; however, the digital album will be available internationally on major music services. Both will release December 8 (or December 7 according to the official Japanese Sonic Twitter account).
The blog post notes that the game’s main theme “I’m Here,” composed by series mainstay Tomoya Ohtani and written/performed by Merry Kirk-Holmes (To Octavia), will be included on the album, though the game’s other theme “Vandalize” by ONE OK ROCK was not explicitly mentioned (if it does not make it to the album, it’s otherwise available on the band’s new album “Luxury Disease”). The post estimates the price to launch at 8,000 yen (a little over $55 USD at time of writing).
From what we’ve heard so far, Frontiers’ melancholy tone is backed by subdued and atmospheric overworld music, while cyberspace stages such as Green Hill, Chemical Plant, and Sky Sanctuary invoke a style similar to that of Sonic Forces, complete with vocal elements. Sonic Frontiers is scheduled to release November 8, when we can finally stop relying on off-screen demo audio and enjoy the game’s music properly.
Thanks to Dodger24848 and MyEcho for the news tip!
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As encouragement to get people to sign up for the Sonic Frontiers newsletter, SEGA is offering an unusual treat: Sonic’s grinding shoes from Sonic Adventure 2.
By subscribing to the game’s newsletter by January 31, 2023, you’ll receive an e-mail after the game’s release to redeem for the in-game shoes. Like Forces and Colors: Ultimate, Sonic Frontiers is expected to offer cosmetics for your character, including some as part of the game’s Digital Deluxe Edition, and Japan exclusive promo cosmetics in collaboration with vTuber Inugami Korone.
While fans online have been ecstatic over this announcement, I feel like it was a real missed opportunity to include the OVA outfit, the Mii kigurumi outfits from the Olympic games, or, perhaps the best Sonic cosmetic SEGA has ever released…
Thanks to Dodger24848 for the news tip!
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Netflix and Wildbrain’s Sonic Prime has been incredibly silent since its initial announcement more than a year ago, with nary more than painfully brief Shadow and Big character teasers. However, the official Sonic Twitter and Youtube have finally shared an extended teaser of the show and confirmed its release window as Winter 2022.
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Alongside the latest TGS Trailer for Sonic Frontiers last week, Sonic Team revealed a new animated logo bump. The 5-second clip shows the titular blue streak collecting rings as the trail forms the Sonic Team logo.
The Sonic Team is full of energy and motivation, consisting of veteran team members, who have been here for a long, long time, and newcomers bringing in their own fresh take on things. These talented groups of people are able to come together to make this team even stronger. We want our fans to know that when they see this logo, they are guaranteed to get a good game from Sonic Team.
This follows Sonic Frontiers’ director Morio Kishimoto hoping that the upcoming game bolsters the reputation of the studio. Confidence in Sonic Team has long been shaky within the fan community and especially outside of it. With Kishimoto approaching Frontiers as a generational shift in Sonic games, there is no time more pivotal for the studio to prove that its internal confidence is justified.
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While long-prior tradition once dictated that thou shalt fight the biggest boss at the end of the game as Super Sonic, Sonic Frontiers is once again shaking things up. As we reported last week, the latest TGS trailer teased Titan battles, pitting Sonic against towering bosses. In an interview with IGN Japan, director Morio Kishimoto confirms that these fights do require transforming into Super Sonic.
“Up until now, in Sonic games, Super Sonic would only appear against the last boss. Imagine if the first boss in Sonic Frontiers is as strong as those bosses,”
The TGS trailer shows Sonic scaling the massive enemy in order to take the Chaos Emerald housed on its head, using all seven to transform, and then flying towards the enemy. While no combat is shown, IGN notes that the Super Sonic fights have their own moveset separate from the standard traversal and combat mechanics.
The franchise has taken different approaches to Super Sonic from Sonic Colors onward, some games requiring the seven emeralds to fight a final boss as Super Saiyan Sonic, others using that form as a reward for completing extra challenges, and even Sonic Forces offering him as free DLC. It’s interesting to see Frontiers’ take as adding further variety to the game’s combat encounters, bucking yet further modern Sonic trends.
Thanks to SSF1991 for the tip!
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While not quite headlining the Gamescom Opening Night Live presentation, Sonic was promised and delivered. The game is set to release on November 8 to all major platforms, and while we’ll put together a full breakdown of details, features, and speculation later, you can catch the trailer now:
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I’m not a keyboard hobbyist. My day-to-day workhorse is a straightforward wireless Logitech board that I use until it stops working. So when keyboard maker Higround provided us with a sample of their Sonic the Hedgehog line of USB wired keyboards and accessories, I was curious (and a bit skeptical) of what using a higher end keyboard would be like. For me, the shift hasn’t revolutionized how I think about keyboards, nor will it supplant my current keyboard for daily use, but Higround’s design is undeniably quite functional and a beautiful, compact art object.
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Mediatonic’s ever popular (and now free-to-play) bumbling bean platforming-royale now has new Sonic cosmetics and level challenges. Previously, the game offered limited time events for the Knuckles and Sonic costumes. Both suits have returned to the game’s store, alongside costumes for Tails, Dr. Robotnik, and Super Sonic, and a “You’re Too Slow” toe tapping emote.
The surprisingly brief event will run until August 15th, so if you’re after these cosmetics and levels, you’ll need to sprint! It is not clear at this point if the costumes, emote, or levels will remain available and in rotation after the August 15 event deadline.
(Thanks to ZeBladeGunner for the video link)
The official trailer shows off the the new costumes as well as the emote and Green Hill styled level challenges, where players are collecting rings while passing through gates and bouncing on springs.
Promotional (free) missions will let the player collect gems to unlock smaller Sonic rewards, such as a name plate, a checkerboard and ring player skin, and Sonic’s iconic shoes.
In paid content, each new character costume is 800 Show-Bucks for each individually or 1,200 for two-character packs, including a Sonic/Knuckles pack and a Tails/Eggman pack. The “You’re Too Slow” emote is 400 Show-Bucks.
(Note: The prices for the “Dynamic Duo” pack appears lower than the expected price in the screenshot due to us having the Knuckles costume unlocked during a previous event.)
As a reminder, Show-Bucks can be purchased (the most cost-efficient all-Sonic-content purchase being $19.99 + 7.99 USD for 3800 Show-Bucks total at time of writing) or earned through the paid Season Pass (which costs 950 Show-Bucks, but offers up to 1,500 Show-Bucks across the entire season).
If you don’t already follow our YouTube or Twitch channels, be on the lookout for upcoming streams of the new content before it dashes off into the sunset!
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UPDATE: The full patch notes have been added to the bottom of this article.
While we love Sonic Origins here at Stadium, there’s no denying that bits of that collection released rough. Sometimes palette change animations would freeze, sometimes the game would forget that you’ve collected all the Super Emeralds, and sometimes Tails’ AI in Sonic 2 would fail to despawn him when he’s too far away, causing him to run into a wall and jump. And jump. And jump. And jump. Until you relive the PTSD of your 5-year-old sibling taking the second controller back in 1992.
We finally have our first major patch for the game, and it sounds like it addresses at least one (if not more) of the game’s major issues. MP1st (who in turn grabbed the info from PS4 update history), lists the brief patch notes that are vague in some areas, and very specific in others:
Added features to the “Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles” sound test – Fixed track mismatches in the Museum for certain music tracks included in the Classic Music Pack – Corrected an issue in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 where Tails goes off-screen and is unable to rejoin – Additional bug fixes
Track mismatches refers to a handful of mislabeled tracks included in the Classic Music DLC, such as the track names being swapped for Sonic Spinball’s bonus stage and boss fight music, or the Credits/Menu/Invincible themes in 3D Blast. And while we don’t yet have a sense of what “Additional bug fixes” encompasses, it’s a relief to know I can safely traverse Metropolis Zone without Miles mashing his distant immortal face into a wall for five straight minutes.
The patch has not propagated to every platform at time of writing, but keep an eye out over the next few days.
Comments that make the joke “but did they patch out the bad music” will not be approved, because I saw that coming a mile away, and thus it is not as clever as you think it is. Those comments should be directed at YouTube and Twitter, where they will join the 4000 people also making that joke.
Thanks to DauntlessMonk for the news tip.
UPDATE: Thanks to a commenter going by the handle “Update Name,” we were directed to SEGA Asia’s official Origins site for the full list of updates. It seems like a lot (hence us putting it at the end), but it’s fairly normal to group so many very contextual changes into a larger patch to reduce the number of patches sent out. For convenience, we’ve sorted the list by game:
Overall Fixes
Fixed a bug that was causing some songs from the Classic Music Pack to have incorrect titles displayed in the Museum.
Fixed a typo in the credits.
Removed an extra space from “PlayStation™Store” in the Simplified Chinese text. (PlayStation®5 / PlayStation®4)
Fixed a bug where exiting while connected to Xbox Live and syncing data would cause the game to crash. (Xbox Series X|S)
Fixed a bug where having multiple autosaves in a short period of time would result in them not saving correctly. (PlayStation®5 / PlayStation®4)
Fixed a bug that was causing save file contents to be different when manually saving the game. (Xbox One / Xbox Series X|S)
Fixed a bug that caused the game to freeze for about 10 seconds when going to offline mode after launching the game in online mode. (Xbox One / Xbox Series X|S)
Fixed a bug where launching the game while connected to a network, disconnecting from that network after reaching the Main Menu, playing a sound in the Museum, and then returning to the Main Menu would result in a crash after 15 seconds. (Xbox One / Xbox Series X|S)
Fixed a bug that was causing lower-performance GPUs to be automatically selected in multiple-GPU systems. (Steam / Epic Games)
Mission Mode
Fixed a bug in the “Fireball Dash” mission where it was possible to move outside of the mission area, and clearing the mission would result in the player becoming stuck.
Fixed a bug in the “Animal Rescue” mission where players would stand on top of clouds instead of bouncing or falling off them.
Fixed a bug in the “Bounce House” mission where characters would become inoperable if they collided with a Bounce Pad from the bottom when time expired.
Fixed a bug in the “Extreme! Super Sonic Finish” mission where falling off the platform shortly after reaching the goal would cause the camera to lock and prevent the player from progressing.
Fixed a bug in the “Aerial Attack” mission where players would get stuck on blocks and be unable to move.
Fixed a bug in the “Slippery Swim” mission that was causing invisible blocks to appear in areas they aren’t supposed to appear in.
Sonic the Hedgehog
Fixed a bug where retrying a stage in Classic Mode from My Data and getting a Game Over would make players get stuck at the Title Screen.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Fixed a bug where Tails would not return from outside the screen and a sound effect would continually play.
Fixed a bug that caused the sound effect for collecting Rings to be interrupted when collecting them in quick succession.
Fixed a bug that caused Tails’ flight sound effect to continually play after moving to the next stage if you were flying with Tails during the transition.
Fixed a bug in 2 Player VS mode where the time would never expire if it reached 0 during a player mistake.
Story Mode: Fixed a bug where the transition time from Mystic Cave Zone Act 2 to Hidden Palace 2 would be added to the player’s Best Time.
Fixed a bug that was causing crashes due to incorrect object calculations.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles
Added a function to Sound Test.
Adjusted Competition Mode on the Nintendo Switch™ so that it can be played without registering two Joy-Cons™ / Pro controllers. *Made registration for two Joy-Cons™ / Pro controllers in Time Attack unnecessary, and made it possible to cancel controller registration in other modes.
Fixed a bug where leaving many Item Boxes in front of the sub-boss of Hydrocity Zone Act 1 would cause the game to crash when defeating the sub-boss and moving on to the next Act.
Fixed a bug that was causing players to get stuck when playing a Special Stage from the level select menu after playing Time Attack Mode.
Fixed a bug in Competition mode that caused players to go back a lap when they took damage or fell out of the stage.
Fixed a bug in Angel Island Zone Act 1 that teleported players when the island is set on fire.
Fixed a bug in Carnival Night Zone Act 2 where the boss would leave the area if hit by a mid-air attack while entering.
Fixed a bug that caused a sound effect to continually play when the player transitioned stages after defeating the boss of Death Egg Zone Act 1.
Fixed a bug in Flying Battery Zone Act 1 that caused a sound effect to continually play if a player transitioned stages when close to a magnetic object.
Fixed a bug in Competition Mirror Mode that was causing the courses to not be mirrored.
Fixed a bug that caused Sonic and Tails to get stuck on a burning rope in the middle of Angel Island Zone Act 2, which made it impossible to progress.
When starting in Classic Mode with a save file where the game has been cleared, entering and exiting a Special Stage without touching a checkpoint would cause the game time to incorrectly start at 9:59.
When starting the game as Sonic with a cleared-game save data file, performing certain actions in Angel Island Zone Act 1 would cause the player to be incorrectly moved to Knuckles’ boss area route.
Fixed a bug in Classic Mode where performing certain actions in the boss fight of Lava Reef Zone Act 2 would make the camera shift, and the character would fall out of the stage.
Fixed a bug in Angel Island Zone Act 1 where performing certain actions after the stage is set on fire caused the player to lose a life.
Fixed a bug in Lava Reef Zone Act 2 that allowed players to avoid the falling boulder that moves them to the boss stage.
Fixed a bug in the boss battle of Hydrocity Zone Act 2 that caused an invisible ceiling to appear, which prevented players from jumping higher.
Fixed a bug where immediately opening the pause menu when entering the first Special Ring in Mushroom Hill Zone Act 1 and selecting “Restart” would cause players to start the stage from an unnatural position.
Starting the game in Classic Mode using saved data with a recorded Time Over in Angel Island Zone Act 1, and then getting a Game Over would cause players to immediately lose a life upon reaching the sub-boss.
Fixed a bug where opening the pause menu just before entering a Special Stage and then selecting “Restart” would move the player to a different Act.
Fixed a bug where coins would be increased in debug mode.
Fixed a bug where the BGM in Special Stages would slow down after collecting 50 Rings.
When starting the game in Classic Mode on a save file with a recorded Time Over, the Time would not reset from 9:59 upon clearing a stage.
Fixed a bug in Classic Mode of Death Egg Zone Act 2 where opening the pause menu and selecting “Restart” after transitioning to the boss stage would cause the player restart the boss fight with 0:10 Time.
Fixed a bug in Mushroom Hill Zone Act 2 that caused textures of objects to not display correctly. (Nintendo Switch™)
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It’s still San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, and while the guy in the Sonic mascot suit couldn’t make it to the IDW Sonic panel, our own Shigs could, and he brought back a few tidbits from upcoming issues and the series Q&A.
Representing IDW were Daniel Barnes (writer), Adam Bryce Thomas (artist), Michael Cisneros (licensing), Gigi Dutreix (artist/writer), and David Mariotte (editor/writer). The crew thanked fans for helping them make it to the landmark Issue 50, and teased that the next several issues will deal with the fallout from the events of 50, starting with the cast escaping Eggman’s city. Introducing the upcoming Scrapnik Island series, the panel offered concept art for the battered bots Mecha Knuckles and Sigma. The slightly diminutive Mecha Knuckles acts as “Guardian” of the island (like his fuzzy counterpart). He wields a mace, Adventure 1 and 2’s shovel claw, and Knuckles’ three-star hat from the anime OVA. Sigma was introduced as a green E-Series robot in the style of Gamma and his “brothers.” Worse for wear with an Eggbot arm and flat caster for his right foot, he still towers at his full height over both Sonic and Dr. Eggman.
The panelists also gave a reminder that the Tails 30th Anniversary special is in the works, and includes some villains from Tails’ classic game history (previously revealed to include Wendy Witchcart from Tails Sky Patrol). They showed off some of the previously shared cover art for this special, the upcoming 2022 annual, and issues 51 and 52:
The Q&A focused on a handful of topics, and unsurprisingly, the series’ original characters were on everyone’s mind. Whisper will be returning in the next series arc, and they’re continuing to discuss story plans for her and Tangle next year. Surge and Kit, the fakers we found in Imposter Syndrome and Issue 50, were originally planned for early in the series, but SEGA preferred not to introduce that many new characters that quickly, which ultimately gave Dr. Starline more time to develop as a character. Instead, the panel noted that the Metal Virus Arc gave them an opportunity to see exactly how far they could push the core Sonic cast emotionally, something that really endeared Cream with Barnes.
For those curious about the effort needed to put together an IDW issues (and why we get more “we have notes” situations than other previous Sonic comics), the panel explained that all issues have to go through Sonic Team, meaning that they also have to be translated into Japanese as well. It’s roughly a three month process for each issue. Prior to Q&A, Cisneros also noted that the direction of the comic is intended to be welcoming to new fans “at any time without 30 years of canon to go through.”
Finally, outside of the panel, the Comic art team worked on putting together a sweet Sonic mural featuring members of the game and comic cast:
— Sonic Stadium ✪ Sonic News & Community (@sonicstadium) July 24, 2022
While this panel didn’t quite give us a vision of the comic’s future after the big 50 milestone, it’s exciting to see more unique ways for the games’ extended cast to work back into stories. The 2022 annual is expected to launch next month, with Scrapnik Island to follow in October.
Once again, thanks to Shigs for his great coverage of the show!
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Site writer Shigs live tweeted the Jakks Pacific panel at San Diego Comic-Con this year, and while there isn’t a whole lot we haven’t seen through retailer leaks and prior reveals, consider this a round up of what they’ll be offering this year, and where they might be exclusive to.
These Funko Pop masks won’t hit Walmart until November, but I think we can agree that they’re truly frightening at any time of the year. They’re listed as “half mask,” so expect business in the front, and absolutely no party in the back.
This Fall will feature several new “Deluxe” costumes for Sonic 2’s Knuckles, Tails, and Dr. Robotnik, and hey, even Baby Sonic! Your entire face is their muzzle for the true 4-eye effect! Dual-tails have been attached to the full back of the costume to prevent accidental flight.
The Egg Mobile battle set was previously revealed during the most recent Sonic Central presentation. The set includes accessories to transform into a variety of boss vehicles from Sonic 1 and 2, from the classic ball-and-chain from Green Hill, to the double-drill machine from Mystic Cave.
Exclusive to Target will be this Flying Battery Zone playset, featuring spinning propellers, rotating flames, a sprite art Technosqueek, and two, TWO spike traps! Can you push those spikes for secrets? Who’s to say! Expect the set this Fall.
Jakks did highlight a few items that are currently available, such as their 6″ solar-powered Sonic figure with tapping toe and moving eyelids. But at least we get to enjoy a big MS Word explosion star shape with tiny lettering. And that’s worth something, right?
They also showed off their Modern Sonic Collectors Edition figure with a Tropical Resort base (6″ tall, to go alongside their Classic Sonic Collectors Edition figure on a Studiopolis base). Like his classic counterpart, Modern Sonic comes with a number of facial expressions, hands, and a Cyan Wisp buddy to complete the scene. The figure is currently… available, but is also out of stock at most online retailers.
Finally, Jakks wrapped up with their small figure sets. The next wave of 2.5″ figures includes modern Tails and Shadow, and classic Sonic, Knuckles, and Eggman. At 4″ are an additional wave of Sonic 2 movie figures of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Super Sonic with accessories, and a Walmart exclusive Skateboard Sonic with additional articulation and thick black lines to imitate a hand drawn style.
We’ll continue to cover any major SDCC news through the convention, but be sure to follow us on Twitter for immediate updates! And of course big thanks to Shigs for his live reporting from the convention.
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If you’re looking for some October spookytimes, IDW will be introducing a new Sonic 4-issue mini-series from Daniel Barnes, Jack Lawrence, and Nathalie Fourdraine. As reported by ComicBook.com, Scrapnik Island is set to “tell a really creepy and atmospheric story with a vibe that Sonic fans aren’t normally used to,” describes Barnes.
Among the classic enemies Sonic and Tails will scrap with is Mecha Knuckles, the silver, hex-eyed doppelganger from Sonic Advance, this time sporting Knuckles’ iconic treasure hunting hat.
Meanwhile, classic Tails and a truly classic baddie return (as do Ian Flynn, Aaron Hammerstrom, and Reggie Graham) for Tails’ 30th Anniversary Special this November. The special will pit Tails against the forces of Wendy Witchcart, the main boss of the Japanese Game Gear’s Tails’ Sky Patrol. An obscure character indeed, but not the first time she’s shown up in comics (she had a brief place in late-era Archie). The placeholder cover art seems to suggest the adventure will take Tails and his far less relevant buddy back to Flicky Island (which isn’t an especially Tails-heavy game, but I’m all in favor of revisionist history).
Thanks to Josiahblaze for the tip over on Discord!
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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.
Somewhere among the many farming games, the 3000 hours of Persona games, and revisionist history PAC-MAN, we got a few more details on Sonic Frontiers:
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Sonic Origins is out, and we’ve got a packed day of showing it off! If you’re not busy playing it yourself, if you’ve got any specific questions about the game, or if you just want to hang out and chat about it, join us on Twitch or YouTube as we take requests and experience a bit of Sonic Origins together!
8 AM PT / 11 AM ET / 3 PM UTC (about 60-90 minutes long)
We’ll be checking out all the core features of the game, answering your questions, and taking your requests as we JUST check out the games, settings, and bonuses in the collection! If you plan on getting the game later and don’t want to get spoiled on the new animated sequences, this stream is for you.
Extended Story Mode Gameplay
10 AM PT / 1 PM ET / 5 PM UTC (until ???)
If you want to check out the game’s story mode including cutscenes, we’ll be playing as much of it as we reasonably can! No guarantee that we’ll complete all three games, but rest assured we’ll at least be rushing through a bunch.
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Continuing in IGN First’s coverage of Sonic Frontiers, prolific Sonic writer Ian Flynn spoke to IGN regarding his experience writing an entirely new Sonic game for the first time.
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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.
A number of outlets seem to have additional gameplay footage following Sonic Frontiers’ appearance and hands-on impressions at Summer Game Fest. The footage itself looks to be samples for use with video impressions (such as NintendoEverything’s Hands-On), but the clean five minutes of footage has also surfaced (via SEGABits):
Among new views of the opening area, Sonic deals with a few more significant combat encounters that vary quite a bit. Sonic performs homing-attacks on a bipedal blade-wielding enemy, and counters its defensive move with some sort of rapid swing to get behind it.
In the following encounter, Sonic fights a towering drill enemy, breaking its lower segments and avoiding a spinning ring the enemy uses like a hammer. In both scenarios, a little white line (like some sort of spider-sense) appears to show Sonic when an enemy is about to unleash an attack. Further, both victories earn Sonic a “gear” that we’ve come to understand help unlock the more traditional stages in the game. A mysterious voice (not Amy) states “Use the gear as you have done before.”
A later encounter with a smaller enemy shows a distinct counter move, where after fighting a red ring-shaped enemy, it begins spinning like a top before Sonic deals a finishing blow with a cinematic kick.
Previously unseen world elements include platforms that elevate when you hit them with homing attack and a field full of monolith-style upright tablets. We previously saw changes in time of day and weather, but those features of the world are really highlighted here, with Sonic approaching the blade enemy as rain pools in the arena. Later, Sonic navigates floating platforms as the sun sets in the background. We’re also reintroduced to the large tower that Sonic scaled in the first IGN footage, but this time, Sonic runs further up one of the spires at the top to show off the scope of the land past distant cliffs.
Sonic Frontiers is still months away from release, and while this drip feed of info about this new play style has been frustrating, this new footage has a few small bits to be optimistic about if you’re looking for more involved combat and bizarre places to explore. Keep an eye out here on Sonic Stadium, as we’ll be rounding up the many hands-on impressions coming out of Summer Game Fest soon.
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Today’s Sonic Official on YouTube confirmed a long-standing concern about Sonic 3’s soundtrack in Sonic Origins. During the stream, Katie Chrzanowski, social media manager for SEGA, notes that the game will not have all the game’s original tracks. Instead, the game will have new original-hardware adaptations of the songs composed by Jun Senoue.
I know one question that we’ve seen over and over is, what is the situation on the music in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. So, while unfortunately we can’t use all of the original sounds from the SEGA Genesis version of the game, Jun Senoue’s been working really hard to adapt the original music that was composed in 1993 for Sonic Origins, and he’s been going so far as reproducing it with the same soundchip as the SEGA Genesis and using is own digital audio tape collection to make this, like, as faithful to the originals as possible.
Katie Chrzanowski, Sonic Official, Season 6 Episode 3, about 36:00
Sonic 3 has long had issues with re-releases due to music contributed by Michael Jackson and Brad Buxer. This includes Carnival Night Zone, Ice Cap Zone, Launch Base Zone, the Multiplayer menu, the Sonic 3 Act 1 boss music, and the Staff Roll. Unreleased beta versions of Sonic 3, as well as the 1997 Windows PC version of the game, used significantly different compositions in place of the tracks.
While it’s a shame that we won’t be hearing the iconic sounds of Ice Cap once again, it’s definitely encouraging that we’ll be getting new versions of the alternate songs from Senoue, who contributed to the original soundtracks of both Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. Though if you’re really itching for those original sounds… probably a good idea to keep an eye out on the modding scene after it launches.
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One of the highlight’s of today’s Sonic Central was merchandise partnerships currently available and through this fall.
Following last year’s Eggman Robot set, this year’s big Jakks Pacific set is Eggman’s hovercraft with accessories to recreate multiple boss fights.
Razer will be releasing a Sonic themed Xbox series controller with matching charging stand.
EXG Pro, makers of weird statues that hold your phone, will add modern Sonic to their collection. A collection that currently includes Classic Sonic, Classic Tails, Classic Amy Rose, Classic Super Sonic, and two other variants of Classic Sonic.
First 4 Figures will be releasing a duo of character statues, featuring modern Amy and Tails. No details have been stated regarding the scale or price of these statues.
On the much, MUCH more affordable side of merch, Pez has already released a trio of classic Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles dispensers. At time of writing, Knuckles is already sold out on their online store.
Clothing brand Hype released a line of Sonic clothing that is… basically already sold out. You can look at it if you want but the size scale on this line aims at 16 and younger.
Moor Art Gallery will be adding several more poster designs to their… you guessed it, largely sold out collection. They’re nice (and pricey) posters, but be prepared to grab them as soon as they’re in stock.
Neamedia Icons, a resin figure group, currently has available resin 5″ classic Sonic figures on their official store, and (checks notes) they are apparently in stock at time of writing! If you want a monochromatic Sonic for some reason, seems like now’s your time!
Pre-orders for Japanese figure maker Bellfine’s 12″ soft vinyl Sonic figure are available among many online toy stores. Despite the “Available Now,” Bellfine’s website lists the release date as November, and international sellers don’t expect to get stock until early next year.
…No, not again. I can’t handle this again.
At any rate, I think we can all agree, that Eggman hovercraft toy looks really cool, and may have been the highlight of the entire Sonic Central. Look forward to it and maybe some of these other licensed Sonic collectables throughout 2022 and beyond. But not too beyond. The patterns here indicate that things seem to be selling out rather quickly.
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The IGN coverage thus far has left a lot of unanswered questions. Unsurprisingly, ten minutes of lightly edited gameplay footage without narration or context hasn’t proven itself to be a great way to premiere this game for the first time. We’ve seen a bit of the combat, we’ve seen a little world traversal, and we’ve seen more sky grinding than Final Rush and Rail Canyon’s unholy lovechild. But there’s some BIG aspects we still don’t know about. Big aspects like what the game is.
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After Wednesday’s world navigation trailer, today’s new gameplay footage from IGN First shows off Sonic Frontiers’ combat mechanics:
Much like the previous gameplay reveal, the video is entirely show-don’t-tell. Sonic performs homing attack combos on a robot made of several balls, uses his new updraft ability to remove the armor of another baddy before attacking, and shows off a ranged air-kick move that looks right out of anime. Even the sidestep, a move previous Sonic games used to setup quick lane changes in long corridors, has some combat dodging potential here.
The enemy designs have bizarre and varying designs, from bipedal robots that turn into spears, to weird legged stalks with a heavy armor ring around them, to the massive three-armed pillar teased last year. Different enemies are susceptible to specific attacks, and to ascend a titan, Sonic used an updraft around one of its legs to throw it off balance, and needed to wall-run using only blue boost gates and avoiding red ones. Upon reaching the top, Sonic attacks giant spikes on its head to destroy its arms.
While we still have very little context around the game’s upgrade system, rewards for combat, and even its basic premise, today shows off a few new moves added to Sonic’s modern moveset and more variety in combat than previous combat-heavy Sonic games had. Here’s hoping the rest of June brings further revelations on Frontiers mechanics and mysteries.
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This morning, IGN premiered their new Sonic Frontiers footage, noting that the month will see further updates, but for now, we’ve got 6 minutes of edited gameplay footage:
The video shows off Sonic running through the rocky grasslands area we’ve seen, but there’s much more interaction with the environment. In fact, unlike yesterday’s 30 second clip, this one has no combat whatsoever, just world traversal.
Sonic doesn’t have many new moves, but the one that is shown off is the ability to draw circles by running, causing an updraft. Meanwhile, Sonic maintains his standard 3D moveset of running, boosting, grinding, air dashing, air dropping, sidestepping, and wall running for good measure. While Sonic seems to only be able to run (and climb, apparently) on vertical surfaces with a specific glowing texture, he can take rock slopes and ridges with ease by maintaining speed.
If you were worried (as I was) that moving to an open world might mean less actual level design, the video is full of small instances of speed and platforming challenges, be it scaling a tall tower dotted with springs and homing points, or just finding paths made of boost rings and grind rails. There’s even a few simple puzzles thrown into the mix.
Rest assured, we’ll be picking this apart over the next few days, but for now, go enjoy some tranquil vistas at intense speed.
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Wait, what? SEGA dropped the first gameplay video for Sonic Frontiers today, seemingly out of nowhere. The 30-second teaser finally gives us our first glimpse of what an “Open Zone” Sonic looks like and notes more details are coming throughout June on IGN.
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And sure, that’s all well and good, but if you’re like me, these releases aren’t about the movies, they’re about the special features, and according to the iTunes listing (when viewed within iTunes), there are some solid bonuses here, including deleted scenes, a behind the scenes featurette, Q&A with Sonic’s voice actor Ben Schwartz, and most significantly, a new animated short!
UPDATE: A brief clip from Entertainment Tonight shows off quality animation, and a non-Elba voice voice swap for Knuckles:
A small part of the Sonic Movie 2 shorts was revealed. The animation quality for this is honestly incredible! I seriously hope the Knuckles show is up to this quality! The voices for Tails and Knuckles are different, but nothing too distracting. pic.twitter.com/5kj0rutHtD
— Sam Procrastinates (@SamsProStation) May 23, 2022
No word yet on if these will hit Paramount+ or the disc release (it probably will, but we don’t have confirmation), so keep an eye out, and once again enjoy that one scene where Knuckles misinterprets a lighthearted thing in a deathly serious manner.
Thanks to tailsBOOM! for the news tip and Shigs for the video link!
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While many were happy that Sonic Mania developer Headcannon was involved in Sonic Origins, it seems that their contribution was in the Sonic 3 & Knuckles remaster work itself and not the overall package. In fact, their part in remaking the game appears to have been contracted entirely separately from the context of Sonic Origins. In a thread, the studio’s official Twitter clarifies:
To address a misunderstanding regarding Headcannon's involvement in #SonicOrigins– We DID NOT work on Origins itself, nor did we do any additional work on Sonic 1, 2, or CD. We were contracted to build a Retro Engine version of S3&K as a separate project from Sega's Sonic Origins
But as was previously announced, Origins has features beyond the original Retro Engine remakes, such as its story mode, the coin system, mirror mode, the Museum, and… whatever classic mode is (be it the emulated originals or just letterboxed). Even Mission Mode, which features scenarios outside of the original games (like modified level designs and Knuckles in S3K Death Egg Zone), was developed by a team in SEGA as Headcannon further explains:
To further clarify, as it's been asked, yes, this includes Mission Mode. Sega's team developed the missions, as well as Boss Rush, Mirror Mode, etc internally. The only distinct mode that Headcannon created was Blue Spheres, and its implementation into Origins was handled by Sega
There are a couple of consequences to this separation of development. It does imply that SEGA has a team that has done work within the Retro Engine, developing small level and gameplay modifications, as well as hooks from these modifications to the external launcher (I.E. replacing lives with spendable coins). It also suggest that the versions of the games are otherwise the same Retro Engine versions previously released (hence no Knuckles in Sonic CD).
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UPDATE: We now have confirmation that this video is 100% official, and was posted on the official Korean Sonic the Hedgehog Facebook page.
While we don’t quite know this video’s origin, we do know this Korean language version gameplay video shows off some significant features in Sonic Origins the reveal trailer didn’t share:
We are marking this as rumor purely because it isn’t through official or confirmable sources at this time, but every other aspect of this looks pretty authentic. Treat this as we have high confidence but not 100% confidence in this. The button layout in the videos use ABXY, so the footage itself was taken from a Switch, an Xbox, or a PC.
While those who have played the other Retro/Star Engine ports will be quite familiar with some of these features, this gives a very brief overview of ones not present in the original 16-bit releases, including the Drop Dash and Super Sonic in Sonic 1, Tails as Knuckles’ sidekick in Sonic 2, and the prototype Hidden Palace stage connected to Mystic Cave.
Further, the video shows off a bit of the game’s interface, including Missions. In one, the player has to collect 50 rings in 50 seconds as Tails in Palmtree Panic, and another puts Super Sonic in Metropolis with a similar goal (but with the challenge of your rings being slowly depleted). In both cases, the stages are modified from their original 16-bit versions, changing formations of platforms, rings, and blocks. The rank letter in the top corner (shown in previous official screenshots) updates in real time, letting you know how well you’re performing.
If those bonus missions or getting to team Knuckles with Tails on a console platform gets you excited, Sonic Origins releases June 23 with these and many other announced features.
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![You Can Stop Jumping Now, Tails, Sonic Origins Has a Patch [UPDATE: Full 1.04 Patch Notes]](https://archive.sonicstadium.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Sonic-Origins-Tails-Jump-895x375.jpg)
