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Please note that this site is no longer being updated or maintained; as a result, there may be design issues, and links to images and other media may be broken.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.
Nuckles87 has been an editor at Sonic Stadium since 2007, and has been covering events like E3, PAX, and SDCC since 2010. An avid retro gamer, he runs a monthly stream on Twitch where he explores obscure Sonic oddities, and how aspects of the franchise have evolved over the decades.
SEGA’s maraca shaking rhythm game is only a few months away, and its initial tracklist is finally coming into focus. Joining the two Sonic tracks announced last month are 20 new songs, including 17 from various artists and two covers crossing a variety of genres, including Latin and pop. Check out the list of revealed tracks below:
– “Break Free ft. Zedd” by Ariana Grande – “I Really Like You” by Carly Rae Jepsen – “Payback (feat. Icona Pop)” by Cheat Codes – “Let You Go (feat. Kareen Lomax)” by Diplo & TSHA – “I Will Survive (Eric Kupper Mix Extended)“ by Gloria Gaynor – “I Love It” by Icona Pop – “Centerfold’ by J Geils Band – “Bang Bang“ by Jessie J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj – “Sucker” by Jonas Brothers – ”TiK ToK“ by Kesha – “Panama” by Matteo – “Plastic Hearts” by Miley Cyrus – “Celebrate” by Pitbull – “The Cup of Life (La Copa de la Vida)“ by Ricky Martin – “XS” by Rina Sawayama – “Bom Bom” by Sam and the Womp – “Azukita“ by Steve Aoki, Daddy Yankee, Play-N-Skillz & Elvis Crespo – “Macarena (Cover)” – “Fugue (classic)” – “La Bamba (Cover)”
The game is also now available for pre-order from various retailers listed here. The game will feature a total of 40 tracks, with more coming as DLC.
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The Yuji Naka insider trading scandal has taken another turn this week, with Naka reportedly blaming his recent activity whilst at Square Enix on a secretarial mistake.
Naka was arrested late last year for insider trading, and admitted to it in a trial last month. Naka claims that a secretary sent him information he was not meant to see.
According to Gosokkyu, who has been a good source of information over the course of this story, Naka is likely trying to make the case that this was not pre-meditated, in the hopes of getting a lighter sentence.
Whether this defense will help at all, we’ll just have to see.
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144 employees at SEGA of America’s Irving, California office about to form what is will be the largest multi-department games industry union in the United States. They filed an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with a supermajority of support within SEGA of America, meaning the union will almost certainly be certified. The new union, which will be called the “Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA” or “AEGIS,” will partner with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in representing the employees of SEGA of America’s various departments incuding QA, localization, product development, live services, and marketing.
The official logo for AEGIS
According to reporting from The Verge, work on the union began more than a year ago. Torie Winkler, senior community manager, told The Verge that a mutual love of the games they worked on fueled the unionization effort. Communication between departments over games eventually led to discussions of how unionization works. Over the course of the last year, employees haven’t experienced any anti-union sentiments from SEGA management. They’re hopeful that management in SEGA of America and Japan will voluntarily recognize the union once it is certified.
AEGIS explained why they were unionizing in a statement on their new Twitter account, saying “We are unionizing because we love the games that we work on, we love our coworkers, and we love working at SEGA. But unfortunately for many this job is not sustainable. Our goal is to make SEGA someplace where we feel employees can thrive for many years to come.”
The tweet goes into further detail, explaining various issues employees face, including below-industry-average pay, weak benefits, a lack of paths for promotion, and a third of long-time employees lacking full-time status and all the benefits that come with that. The union hopes to correct these issues by attaining a higher base pay, improved and stable benefits (such as healthcare and retirement), increased and clearly outlined opportunities for promotion, balanced workloads and schedules, and ensuring adequately staffed departments to end overwork.
You can read the full statement here. AEGIS also has a petition, where you can show SEGA management you support the union, here. AEGIS also encouraged the tweeting of #UnionizeSEGA and #AEGISAlly as another way of showing your support.
Now it’s up to the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency responsible for enforcing US labor laws, to set a date and ensure the election is appropriately run. Once the election is certified, the union will be official. The Communications Workers of America, which AEGIS will be partnered with, is the largest communications and media labor union in the United States, representing more than 700,000 employees. They will go by the local union number “CWA Local 9510,” which is used to identify a union’s location.
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The third issue in IDW Sonic’s Eggperial City arc is out today in comic shops and on IDW’s website and Comixology! This issue sees Sonic and friends battling Shadow androids while trying to take down Dr. Eggman’s self-repairing & expanding Eggperial City.
Check out the official solicit, cover variants, and preview pages below:
solicit:
“ Androids everywhere! Three teams are trapped in Eggperial City, fighting wave after wave of androids. Sonic is speeding, Amy is smashing, Tails is flying. Shadow is punching, Omega is ripping, Rouge is…looting. But will it be enough? And has anyone seen Tangle?!
Preview pages:
Cover variants:
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If you’ve been wondering what’s going on with that Knuckles show for Paramount+, wonder no more: Sonic Movie director Jeffrey Fowler has confirmed via his Twitter account that filming of the show is officially underway, with him in the director’s seat for the pilot. Whether this marks the official first day of shooting, or if this is just the first day he can talk about it, is currently unknown. The Knuckles series is supposed to debut later this year.
Interestingly, Knuckles’ iconic Sonic OVA hat is in the photo, meaning it is almost certainly going to be worn by him in the series. According to Variety, the series will see Knuckles “agreeing to train Wade as his protege and teach him the ways of the echidna warrior.” Adam Pally (Wade Wipple) will star alongside Idris Elba, who will be reprising his role as Knuckles.
Edi Patterson, Julian Barratt, Scott Mescudi, and Ellie Taylor will features as recurring actors while Tika Sumpter (Maddie Wachowski) will guest star along with Rory McCann. James Marsden (Tom Wachowski) is not currently listed as a returning actor, so it seems like outside of Wade and Knuckles, the series will focus on a newly introduced cast. Additional casting is expected to be announced at a later day.
The series pilot is currently filming in London using a script from Sonic 2 screenplay writer John Whittington, and will serve as head writer. Brian Schacter and James Madejski have also been confirmed for the writing team.
We’re likely to hear more about the Knuckles series in the coming months, so stay tuned! It’s supposed to release some time this year.
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Details on Jakks Pacific’s upcoming line of Sonic Prime toys have been leaked by Entertainment Earth, a toy wholesaler that specializes in selling toys to stores. They posted a listing, which was quickly removed, detailing the nature of the upcoming toy line.
The Sonic Prime action figures will be five inches tall, and the first wave will consist of the following characters:
Sonic
Dr. Eggman
Thorn
Nine
While Earth Entertainment was quick to remove the listing, they weren’t quick enough. The Twitter account Sonic Merch News spotted the listing and tweeted it out.
These aren’t the first Sonic Prime toys to be revealed. PMI announced their own line back in January, and Turkish toy company Dede has pasted the show’s branding on various toddler toys.
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After years of development plus a 24-hour delay due to bad weather, the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (aka JUICE) is just hours away from launching and starting its eight-year journey to Jupiter. JUICE will explore the Jovian system, particularly the icy moons of Ganymede, Callisto and Europa, before eventually settling into an orbit around Ganymede in 2034. If successful, JUICE will be the first spacecraft to orbit a moon other than our own.
And Sonic will be along for the ride!
As we reported back in 2019, Sonic adorns the spacecraft as part of the logo for one of its instruments, the Radio & Plasma Wave detector (RPWI):
SEGA was nice enough to grant the team permission to use Sonic in their logo after the RPWI team leader, Dr. Jan-Erik Wahlund, requested it. According to Dr. Wahlund, Sonic was chosen due to his many adventures in space, as well as Wahlund and his team’s deep affection for the character. That the spacecraft is called “Juice,” a commonly used word by SatAM Sonic and his assumed name during the show’s Blast to the Past two-parter is purely coincidental.
The launch will occur at 8:15 AM EST and will be livestreamed from the ESA’s website here, or on their Youtube channel here.
The Sonic-adorned space craft will be launching from Guiana Space Center using an Ariane 5 rocket. It’ll be going on a little tour of the solar system over the next few years, using Earth, the Moon and Venus for various gravity assist maneuvers, before eventually passing through the asteroid belt (where it may do a fly-by of an asteroid) and reaching the Jovian system in July 2031. In July 2032, it will do a flyby of Europa before settling into a high-inclination orbit around Jupiter in order to study its polar regions and magnetosphere.
In December 2034, it will begin the aforementioned orbit around Ganymede, before crashing into the moon at some point the following year. That final maneuver may be changed if scientists conclude it may contaminate a liquid ocean.
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Blaze the Cat is finally coming to Jakks Pacific’s line of Sonic toys in August. Entertainment Earth recently posted a listing for Jakks Pacific’s 14th wave of their 4” figures, with Blaze the Cat among the line-up. According to the listing, she will come with a sol emerald of unknown color.
Aside from her, the rest of the wave will be reprintings of previous figures, including Modern Sonic, Shadow and Knuckles. The EE listing is meant for stores, not regular consumers, hence the high price. Notably, these figures are being sold to stores in cases of 6, with each case containing only one Blaze. So she may be a bit hard to find.
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We have gotten our first look at early, never-before-seen Sonic Frontiers footage thanks to a video leaked to Twitter from a now-deleted account. The account, @AVtoGAMEnoYAMI, was focused on another game that appeared in the footage, but the Sonic Frontiers stuff is what we’re (mostly) interested in.
The footage shows off some interesting details, including a larger Kronos Island that appears to be linked to the Rhea and Ouranos islands, a different Caterpillar miniboss, and a Super Sonic with a way more showy transformation, complete with loads more yellow energy. The footage appears to be from an internal SEGA meeting from 2021, meaning it was never meant to be seen outside the company.
Given the nature of this footage, we won’t be posting it. We will be posting some screenshots from it, however, much like we did on Twitter, though these are of a somewhat high quality.
Below are screenshots from the Sonic portion of the video. Please excuse the quality, that’s baked in to the originally uploaded video:
The other two games shown in the video were what appears to be a Persona 3 remake, as well as the oft-rumored new Jet Grind Radio, which may be SEGA’s fabled super game.
It’s pretty interesting seeing footage from earlier in Sonic Frontiers’ development. Hopefully, SEGA will allow us to see more from earlier phase’s of the game’s development, in a legit (and higher quality) way.
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In their effort to preserve and document as much from DiC’s Sonic cartoons as possible, Sonic DiC preservationist Fieryfurnace has found never-before-seen early Tails artwork, likely the earliest ever uncovered. The bulk of the artwork is from Yasushi Yamaguchi, who originally designed Tails. Two pieces are some turnarounds from Moore & Price Design, while the final piece is a sketch from US Sonic game box artist Greg Martin.
Check them out below:
Yasushi Yamaguchi:
Moore & Price Design:
Greg Martin
Notably, Yamaguchi’s Tails artwork is less consistent between pieces, and also features a Tails that is far fluffier and furrier than the final design. He gave more details on Twitter:
“These are the earliest character set-up drawings. Since the development period for Sonic 2 was short, we used these drawings as a base and brushed up the design as we created the game.”
This artwork was found in a box of Sonic SatAM pilot material that Fieryfurnace paid to have scanned, and then posted to Twitter. These were the reference materials SEGA of America sent DiC during the development of the SatAM pilot, likely as far back as April 1992. You can find out more about their efforts to find and preserve various materials from the Sonic DiC cartoons here.
They’ve said they will be uploading all future scanned materials to a drop box, which you can find here.
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An obscure arcade carnival game starring one of Sonic’s animal buddies has recently been uncovered: “Air Circus,” starring the seal Rocky. The machine was discovered in a high quality scan of SEGA’s 1994 Amusement Machine Guide, recently uploaded to Retro CDN. The scan also includes a high quality image of Curling Holiday, another obscure machine starring the penguin Pecky that has been known about since at least last year. Check out images of both machines below:
Air Carnival challenges the player to balance beach balls on an air stream coming out of Rocky’s mouth and getting it to float. “Curling Holiday,” a miniature curling game, had two players competing to toss Pecky-adorned curling stones at a target on the table. It kind of worked a bit like air hockey.
The machine was brought to the attention of the wider Sonic community thanks to a topic on the Sonic Retro forums, which was then disseminated to Twitter by Dave Luty.
In addition to these high quality images, someone in the linked thread also linked to a video showing the machines in action that was posted to Youtube years ago. In addition to footage of the two aforementioned games, it also has rarely footage of the game “Sonic Canball” in action!
You can check out the footage in the embed below, or here.
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It’s that time of the month again! SEGA of Japan’s Sonic Channel has released their April artwork over at Sonic Channel. This month’s art is all about Silver, and you can check out both the regular and mobile versions of it below:
But that’s not all! Silver was also the subject of some artwork from the official Sonic Japanese Twitter account. Their latest art casts Silver in the role of a delivery boy, delivering cookies and other things in Soleanna’s Castle Town. Check it out:
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A unique version of Sonic Adventure, “Sonic Adventure Tournament Disk,” has been uncovered by video game preservationist Comby Laurent. This version of the game was specially made for a Sonic Adventure tournament that ran during “The SEGA Dreamcast Mobile Assault Tour,” a 22 week long American promotion that started on August 23 1999. The Assault Tour was a joint event between SEGA of America and IGN that had two Dreamcast-themed trucks traveling across the US, giving some American gamers their first chance to check out SEGA’s new console.
This version of the game drops players right into Emerald Coast with a fully upgraded Sonic, giving them two minutes to get as many points as possible. Participants could win everything from t-shirts, to Japanese VMUs and Millennium 2000-branded Dreamcast controllers. The top 4 finalists were brought to Las Vegas at the end of the tour, where they could complete for a $15,000 grand prize. The second and third place winners received $5000 and $2500 respectively, while the fourth place winner got some SEGA swag.
While this is mostly notable for being a special version of Sonic Adventure from an obscure part of SEGA’s history, it’s also a very-late prototype build of the game. It’s dated August 10, 1999, just two days before the final build on August 12. As a result, the differences between this build and the final are minor, only lacking music for the DLC and a fully completed European localization.
If you want to read more about this game and the event, or play what those contestants did decades ago, you can find the dump of this unique, once lost piece of history on Laurent’s website, here. You can check out a recording of the game in action in Laurent’s original tweet below:
Tomorrow is the 4th of April. What's on the 4th of every month?
In the meantime, enjoy the Sonic Adventure Tournament Disk prototype and don't hesitate to read the interview of one of the organizers of "The Sega Dreamcast Mobile Assault Tour" event👇https://t.co/klrHQdGsuupic.twitter.com/yNjRvT0kZo
— Sega Dreamcast Info (@CombyLaurent1) April 3, 2023
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In a tweet that went up a few hours ago, Headcannon confirmed that they have contributed to the upcoming new content for Sonic Origins Plus, including Amy Rose’s new sprites and Knuckles’ campaign in Sonic CD.
It's coming – Sonic Origins Plus! We're happy to announce that we’ve once again cooperated with SEGA to update this project; you know we can't resist Sonic! Here’s some of what you can look forward to in Origins Plus: [continued in thread] https://t.co/X46RoXPfsD
Headcannon specifically calls out the work of team members Andy A-Start and DashPadSPD for design and data management in the expansion. In addition to the character updates, Headcannon also supplied additional enhancements which were not specified. Closing out the thread, the team thanks SEGA for their openness to the developer’s feedback and suggestions, and they appreciate the level of trust SEGA put in them.
Headcannon was responsible for bringing Sonic 3 & Knuckles to the Retro Engine in Sonic Origins’ initial digital release. While our staff has had very positive experiences with collection, some members of the community and members of Headcannon itself have expressed dissatisfaction with its technical shortcomings.
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Sonic will be appearing in the upcoming Samba de Amigo: Party Central, along with a couple songs and a location from the franchise.
Party Central’s base game will feature the songs Fist Bump and Escape From the City. It will also feature City Escape as a location, where Samba can dance alongside Sonic himself.
Check out a screenshot from the Sonic stage below:
This isn’t the first time the two franchises have crossed over: being a Sonic Team-made IP, Sonic’s got a long history with the series. Sonic music appeared in the original game and it’s expanded Japanese-only expansion, and the Wii version did one better by actually bringing in Sonic and featuring Green Hill as a location.
Given that Party Central will feature DLC, it seems likely that the game will get more Sonic content in the future.
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Sonic Origins Plus, which has been the subject of two increasinglyrevealing leaks, has finally been officially announced. This new, expanded version of Sonic Origins will include playable Amy, add Knuckles to Sonic CD, add emulated versions of Sonic’s 12 Game Gear titles to the museum, and will also include all previously released Digital Deluxe content. It’ll release on June 23, in time for Sonic’s 32nd anniversary, and Sonic Origin’s own 1 year anniversary.
Sonic Origins Plus will release both physically and digitally for $39.99, with the physical edition including reversible box art and a 20 page art book. Current Sonic Origins owners can have all the new DLC for $9.99.
This announcement came via a trailer, which you can watch below:
Here’s a quick look at the physical packing, reversible box art and artbook from the trailer:
Check out screenshots of Amy, Knuckles in Sonic CD, and some of the Game Gear titles below:
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So, Sonic Origins Plus’s announcement is probably coming pretty soon. A rating for the game released last month, and now ComicBook.com appears to have accidentally posted an article announcing the game early. Said article has now been deleted, but remnants of it can still be found via the site’s search engine and through Google caching. The article confirmed the following:
Sonic Origins Plus will release digitally and physically for $39.99 on June 23, owners of the original game can get the DLC for $9.99
All 12 Sonic Game Gear games will be include and playable via the museum.
Amy Rose will be playable across all the 16-bit games.
Knuckles will be playable in Sonic CD
All Digital Deluxe content will be included
Physical Editions will include 20-page artbook & new reversible cover art.
CB isn’t always the most reliable site, especially when it comes to rumors, but what makes this notable is the nature of the article. That it was posted as matter-of-fact news, that it was deleted, all make this notable…as a rumor. Since this isn’t coming directly from SEGA, and we have no way of confirming this ourselves, we’ve labeled it as a rumor, will be reporting it as such, and we encourage our readers to treat it that way.
An announcement is probably imminent…or maybe this was written up to fo up in a week, or a month. We’ll know soon enough!
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We finally have an idea of what Sonic 2’s most infamously named scrapped level, Genocide City (aka Cyber City) would’ve looked like. For the first time ever, some pixel art and the palette from the long lost stage have been released to the public courtesy of video game developer, preservationist and historian Frank Cifaldi. Cifaldi took a photo of documents featuring the art during a meeting with Tom Payne, a Sonic 2 level designer who worked on Genocide City. Take a look:
Cifaldi posted the photo to the discord of Hidden Palace, a game preservation site, and it eventually found its way to Sonic Retro thanks to Sonic Retro user The joebro64. Sonic Retro researcher ICEknight took the palette from the documents and applied it to Metropolis Zone Act 3, known to be a leftover from Genocide City’s development, to give us an idea of what the level might’ve looked like in game. Check out their work below:
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Sonic has a pretty long history with Nintendo. The franchise first went third party on Nintendo platforms, and has stuck close to the company’s hardware ever since. This held true even during the Wii U era (easily Nintendo’s most difficult time in recent memory), giving the dual-screen console and the 3DS a variety of Sonic exclusives, ports and retro titles.
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It is turning into a surprisingly active year for Samba de Amigo. In addition to the brand new game announced last month, the ever-impressive Dreamcast community has released an English conversion for the system’s Japanese-exclusive expanded version, Samba de Amigo Ver. 2000. This conversion was put together and released on Github by dukeblooder. You can find the patch over at Romhacking.net, and find instructions and additional information on the conversion here.
This conversion isn’t a translation, per se. Instead, dukeblooder has simply replaced the Japanese original’s text images with their English equivalents from the US/PAL versions of the 2008 Wii release. This method was able to convert most of the game into English, though it is constrained by some limitations. The internet page is still in Japanese, the results screen for the “Love Love” mini game is still in Japanese, and the Volleyball mini game voiced instructions were removed. Despite that, this game is now fully playable to English speakers for the first time ever. The game is playable on an emulator, and should be playable on Dreamcast hardware, though we haven’t tried that out yet.
CD Romance posted a tweet showing off the patch in action:
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Forget March Madness: the Sonic community’s own utterly inconsequential, completely-for-fun single elimination knockout bracket tournament, “Metallic Madness,” is currently underway over on Twitter. The annual “tournament,” which initially started back in 2016, pits 64 unique entrants across four different categories until only one remains. After going on a one-year hiatus, it was brought back – with last year’s victor being IDW’s Whisper the Wolf, who defeated Agent Stone to become “Queen of the Ring.”
This year’s four categories are: Games, Universe, Comics, and Community. The tournament is set to run until April 3. If you want to vote, head over to Metallic Madness’s Twitter account, here.
This is where the bracket currently stands as of this writing:
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The latest in Just Toy’s line of Craftable Sonic action figures have just popped up on Amazon, with this latest series featuring modern versions of the Sonic cast. Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, Amy and Tails are all available, complete with their own “scenes” that can be combined into one larger scene once all of the characters are collected and assembled.
However, if these interest you, be forewarned: these are sold in blind boxes, meaning you can’t be sure which ones you’ll get when you order them off of Amazon. The characters are sold for $11 a piece, and you can pre-order them here. They are set to ship next week, on March 23.
Check out images of the toys in the gallery below:
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That Tails statue First4Figures revealed last week is now officially up for pre-order, with a special “Early Bird” discount that will run from today through April 16.
The available models, as well as the early bird and regular pricing, are listed below:
The base model without any bells or whistles, priced at $475/$500.
The Exclusive Edition. Gives Tails second hand with a wrench that can be switched out, and the base glows. Priced at $480/$510
The Definitive Edition. Adds three wisps to the exclusive edition version. Priced at $535/$570.
The pre-order pages also have a lot of photos of the Tails statue. You can catch them all at the pre-order link, but we’ve got a gallery with images of all three statues below:
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As a longtime, adult Sonic fan, I am often jealous of the toys kids get these days. Why couldn’t we get the anthropomorphized Sonic truck hauling a chest full of giant medical supplies?! Or the rideable Sonic car?! Or the Sonic-branded Sonic tool set in a rolling suitcase…?
Wait what?
Right, okay, enough with my schtick. So these things exist:
Sonic if he crossed over with Pixar’s Cars, apparentlySonic’s carsona as a baby.I don’t know who asked for a Sonic toolset, but here it is
These appear to be part of a line of officially licensed Sonic Prime toys, though the use of the license doesn’t seem to extend much beyond “slap Sonic Prime renders on various otherwise unrelated kids toys.” The toys are manufactured by Dede, a Turkish toy company, and as such are currently only available on Turkish websites. The site with the widest selection is Dede’s own online store, Fen Toys.
Now, you may be looking at these and thinking, “wait, did they just take some generic toy truck and slap Sonic’s eyes on it?” and…yes! Yes they did! All of these toys are essentially just variations of existing non-licensed toys, with the Sonic medical tools truck being based on this Medical Set Truck toy. Looking around the website, that’s true for all of these, and they’ve also done this for other licensed characters like Spider-man and Mickey Mouse. Nevertheless, this is Sonic merch, and most importantly weird Sonic merch, so we are obliged to cover it.
So here’s a gallery of every single Sonic toy Dede is selling:
Sonic Medical Set TruckSonic Road SetSonic My First CarMy Sonic Doctor Set SuitcaseMy Sonic Repair Kit LuggageSonic Medical BoxSonic Tool BoxSonic Repair Set Truck
Yeah, I am pretty jealous of the Sonic toys today’s kids get. But I also feel kind of bad for Sonic merch collectors, because there’s more of it then ever, and anyone who wants a truly complete collection needs to buy rebranded stuff like this.
Nevertheless, if anyone has ever wanted a Sonic branded set of medical tools in a little plastic rolling suitcase…it is a good time to be alive.
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As bad as Sonic 2006 ended up being, I still have fond memories of the lead-up to the game’s release. Among them, I remember sitting at my desktop computer, watching a poor quality video of a “real time day night system” from the game’s TGS 2005 tech demo, recorded off-screen by the now-defunct game website Kikizo. While the feature wouldn’t make it into the final game, seventeen years later we’ve finally been afforded a better look at the game’s alpha footage.
Kikizo founder Adam Doree uploaded the footage, as part of a wider effort to release the website’s footage at a level of quality the internet wasn’t capable of in 2005. The footage give us our best look yet at Sonic 2006’s 2005 build, including the epic E3 2005 trailer.
Unfortunately, as noted earlier, this footage is still offscreen, but this is likely the best we’ll get until the TGS footage is either leaked to the internet or released officially by SEGA.
You can find the footage for Sonic 2006, and for the “SEGA the Future” presentation it was a part of, at Adam Doree’s channel here, or embedded below:
In addition to the Sonic 2006 footage, he also has footage for Fifth Phantom Saga, a canceled Sonic Team first person shooter. We reported on that here.
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The mid-2000s were a wild time for games. Technology was advancing at an amazing pace, developers were playing with unprecedented HD visuals and motion controls, and the idea of Sonic Team making a first person shooter wasn’t absurd, but simple reality. Said FPS, “Fifth Phantom Saga,” was initially shown at Sony’s big PS3 reveal at E3 2005, before eventually getting a more in-depth showing later that year at the Tokyo Game Show.
The game would never see the light of day, and very little media from it has ever been released. That is what makes today’s piece of news so cool: high quality off-screen footage of the game’s TGS trailer and Yuji Naka-presented tech demo has been uploaded by Adam Doree, founder of the now-defunct video game website Kikizo. The footage, which was recorded by Kikizo, has only ever been available in low quality until now, due to the limitations of the internet at the time.
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A few months ago, we reported Sonic toys suddenly arriving in Burger Kings in Spain. At the time the full scope of this promotion was unknown, but we now know this won’t just be confined to Europe: these toys are now available in the US!
Twitter user @TheSpeedSpirit broke the news revealing that he picked up two toys, including an Amy-themed puzzle cube and a miniature Sonic basketball game with Sonic & Knuckles hoops.
The other is more unique, I thought it was frisbee lol 😂 Instead, you flip Sonic over and it’s a game of basketball. You shake the toy to drop the ball (a Chaos Emerald) into a Sonic or Knuckles themed hoop. Gonna keep my eye out for the others (and any promos) pic.twitter.com/2JFbEDbriS
A total of six toys are available. In addition to what SpeedSpirit posted, there’s also an Eggman fidget spinner, and other toys themed around Sonic, Tails and Shadow. Check out an image featuring all of them below:
There’s no telling how long these toys will be available, so if you want them you might want to swing by a Burger King at some point in the next few weeks.
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Morio Kishimoto, the director for Sonic Frontiers, has been prettytalkative on Twitter lately. In his latest surprise Twitter revelation, he appears to have confirmed that there will be more side-scrolling Sonic games at some point. Eventually. This came from a discussion between Kishimoto and Twitter user @RealJellyLord.
Many (including a few TSS staff members) took this to be a confirmation that a 2D Sonic game was in active development. But RealJellyLord quickly clarified this to not be the case. Of course, we already know that that more Sonic things are coming this year. Whether a 2D game will be among those things remains to be seen, but we’ll know soon enough.
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A new Nintendo Direct is hitting in just a few hours, but we already have a leak from it, and it’s from a franchise longtime Sonic Team fans should be familiar with: Samba de Amigo! The series is back with a brand new game for Switch, Samba de Amigo: Party Central. The game will release for the Nintendo Switch on June 30 for $39.99 USD. It is unknown if the game will hit other platforms.
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An official Sonic-themed cookbook will be coming later this year, according to a leaked listing from Amazon. The book, which will feature writing from PixelatedVika and Ian Flynn, will feature such recipes as chili dogs and Dr. Eggman’s “evil cookies.” The book will release on October 17, 2023 and will be published by Insight Editions.
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The long-in-development gothic Sonic hack, Hellfire Saga, has finally completed development! The hack, developed by Red Miso Studio, creates a brand new Sonic game by hacking Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It utilizes significantly reworked sprites from a variety of games including multiple Castlevania & Ghost n’ Goblins titles, Splatterhouse 2, and Demon’s Crest among others.
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Sonic Colors Ultimate has hit Steam, and it seems SEGA is celebrating the occasion with sales of Sonic games on both the Steam Store & New Egg. The sales on both stores are a bit different, with different prices and titles available, so we’ve compiled both here.
On Steam, all Sonic games are on sale for as much as 75% off, including:
Sonic Frontiers: $41.99
Sonic Frontiers – Digital Deluxe: $48.99
Sonic Colors Ultimate: $27.99
Sonic Colors Ultimate – Digital Deluxe: $31.49
Sonic Origins: $19.99
Sonic Origins – Digital Deluxe: $22.49
Sonic Mania: $9.99
Sonic Mania Encore DLC: $2.49
Sonic Adventure 2: $2.49
Sonic Adventure 2 Battle DLC: $0.74
Sonic Adventure DX: $1.99
Sonic Generations: $4.99
Sonic Forces: $9.99
Sonic Lost World: $7.49
Team Sonic Racing: $9.99
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed: $4.99
Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing: $2.49
Sonic 3D Blast:$1.24
Sonic 4 Episode I: $2.49
Sonic 4 Episode II: $2.49
Meanwhile, New Egg is having a more discounted sale for Sonic games with Steam codes. The selection isn’t quite as big, but the discounts are steeper. You can find the sale here. Check below for the prices:
Sonic Frontiers: $39.99
Sonic Frontiers – Digital Deluxe: $43.99
Sonic Origins: $15.99
Sonic Origins – Digital Deluxe: $19.99
Sonic Mania: $7.99
Sonic Mania Encore DLC: $1.99
Sonic Adventure 2: $1.99
Sonic Adventure 2 Battle DLC: $0.59
Sonic Adventure DX: $1.59
Sonic Generations: $3.99
Sonic Forces: $7.99
Sonic Lost World: $5.99
Team Sonic Racing: $7.99
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed: $3.99
Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing: $1.99
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Every year, Famitsu published brief interviews with various video game developers on their hopes and plans for the coming year. This year, Sonic Team’s Takashi Iizuka was among the 141 devs interviewed, who hinted at what would be in store for Sonic in 2023:
“This past year was the biggest year in Sonic history, including the release of the movie sequel, new titles Sonic Origins and Sonic Frontiers, and the Netflix animation Sonic Prime. We are preparing a second wave to keep the fans happy and maintain that momentum going into 2023. We already announced additional content for Sonic Frontiers, but there is a lot more outside of that, so please look forward to it.”
So it sounds like there is a lot of unannounced Sonic stuff planned for 2023! We already know about a mobile Sonic game currently in development over at SEGA Hardlight. If anything else is coming this year, we’ll know soon enough.
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Sonic Prime’s road to release has been excessively weird for me to experience as a Sonic Stadium writer, with an exceptionally strange advertising campaign. Yet I never for a moment thought that this show would make me watch its first episode inside a semi-official Sonic game built within a game making app. But it did, so I might as well talk about it! And my verdict on that episode?
It’s good!
The first episode, titled “Shattered,” sets up a character-driven adventure, that’s full of extremely well-animated action and is easily the most game-accurate version of the blue blur’s world ever put to screen. The writing, which is handled by Man of Action Studios, has plenty of heart, and while the humor isn’t usually laugh out loud funny, it’s also never painful. There’s solid drama and character moments to be had here, giving even non-Sonic fans something to get invested in. Ultimately, Sonic Prime reminds me of some of MoA’s better shows, more along the lines of Ben 10: Alien Force then Ultimate Spider-man.
What I find most interesting about the episode is that it pretty explicitly sets up an arc for Sonic. Here, Sonic is arrogant and cocky, and clearly takes his friends for granted. In essence, Sonic has notable character flaws now! I’m sure some Sonic fans will take issue with this change, especially given that this is supposed to be canon to the games, but if Sonic Prime is going to work as a story focused on drama and character, it needs a way for its main character to develop!
Prime gives this version of Sonic a way to positively grow and change as a person, without changing him so fundamentally that he doesn’t feel like Sonic anymore. And really, he does still feel like Sonic. Plenty of media in both the west and Japan has portrayed Sonic with a cocky attitude, but even now he is still incredibly confident in his abilities. Prime Sonic also still loves his friends and adventure, and has a great time kicking Eggman’s butt. Prime Sonic is still Sonic, just maybe…a little less mature. Or maybe he’s grown overconfident after years of effortlessly besting Eggman. I don’t know, my personal head canon doesn’t have much issue linking Sonic Prime with the existing games & comics canon. This doesn’t feel like whole new version of Sonic, but more like a version of game/IDW Sonic who is in a different place in his life.
Aside from Sonic himself, Tails is the clear focus of Shattered, and he is great. In fact, this is probably my favorite version of Tails ever put to screen. Prime Tails feels absolutely dead-on to his game counterpart, a fine mix of brother-in-arms and boy genius sidekick. Once we get to the dystopian universe, Tails’ counterpart “Nine” takes center stage, giving us a look at a tragic version of the character who didn’t have Sonic around to help him growing up. The juxtaposition between Tails and Nine is interesting to see, and the revelation of what happened to Nine without Sonic, and Sonic’s reaction to it, is truly heartbreaking. Tails and Sonic’s brotherly bond is the heart of this episode, and if this is how Sonic Prime will be treating Sonic’s interactions with his other friends, we are in for some truly great stuff once the full show launches tomorrow.
We don’t see much of Sonic’s other friends and enemies, but they also seem to be pretty accurate to their game counterparts, though Knuckles’ guardianship of the Master Emerald is left ambiguous. The show treats Knuckles just like Sonic’s other friends: a protector of Green Hill. Hopefully, his lore won’t be ignored once the show turns its focus to him. Dr. Eggman’s great, and anyone who was disappointed by how much more subdued he was in Frontiers will love how consistently over-the-top he is in Prime.
Shattered’s got peak mad scientist Eggman, complete with his usual “messing with powers he does not understand” schtick. And “The Council” of Eggmen we get in the dystopian universe, while not especially interesting as foils to Eggman, is at least fun. Amy and Rouge are also solid, though aside from the superb performances from their voice actors, we don’t get much.
Speaking of voice acting, this may very well be the most consistent cast we’ve ever gotten in a Sonic property since at least the days of Sonic SatAM. Devin Mack is an excellent Sonic, practically a middle ground between Roger Craig Smith and Ben Schwarz. He’s got great emotive range, which is key to some of the best moments in this show. Really, in terms of the quality of their performances, this goes for just about everybody. Ashleigh Ball’s Tails and Shannon Chan-Kent’s Amy Rose are both great, and Kazumi Evan’s Rouge may very well be the best the character has ever sounded. Vincent Tong’s Knuckles is solid, though his voice does sound a little…too deep, though I suspect I’ll get used to it as the show goes on. Top all this off with Brian Drummond’s wonderfully bombastic performance, and Sonic Prime truly feels like it has an all-star cast.
Finally…we have the animation. Wildbrain has bragged about using Sonic Prime to refine their CG animation to movie quality and…yeah, I can tell. Even through Roblox’s weird compression and color issues, this show looks great. It is a genuine shame I had to experience it for the first time this way, because a Sonic show has never looked this good before. The models are gorgeous, and the sheer fluidity of the movement of everything in this is simply superb. The body language, the expressions, the action, it all animates so beautifully in a way that we rarely see in CG animation made for TV. While it is possible that the other episodes won’t look this good, Shattered leaves a heck of a first impression.
So, I’ve had a lot of positive things to say about Sonic Prime’s first episode so far…but I do have some issues. In addition to the humor not always landing, the story makes one very odd choice: it chooses to center everything around Green Hill. Sonic doesn’t protect the world, he protects Green Hill. Eggman isn’t seeking to conquer the world, but transform Green Hill into a technological dystopia. Sonic opens the show talking about how great Green Hill is. When Sonic is transported to the dystopian universe, he realizes this by recognizing multiple Green Hill locations. Green Hill is pretty clearly the primary location where all these characters operate, which is strange considering even in the first game Sonic traveled across an entire island of locations, of which Green Hill was just one.
It seems pretty clear that Sonic Prime is trying to simplify aspects of the lore to ease in non-Sonic fans, much like the first Sonic movie did. Even so, obsessing over Green Hill as the location simply feels like an odd choice. It seems the show is trying to utilize Sonic’s emotional investment in the location to more effectively invest viewers, but that simply doesn’t seem necessary when Sonic’s friends being changed and transported into a dystopia is enough on its own.
Ultimately though, this one complaint of mine isn’t likely to ruin the show, especially given that we will still be seeing loads of different locations, pirate universe included. Honestly, it’s genuinely nice seeing Green Hill in a Sonic cartoon for the first time, and even though the lore feels simplified, this still manages to feel like an adventure straight out of the games, which is something I’ve never been able to say about a Sonic show before!
On the whole, Sonic Prime has left a very good first impression on me. I’ve watched every Sonic show to ever release since I was a kid in the 90s, but I’ve only ever enjoyed two of them: Sonic SatAM & Sonic Boom. Sonic Prime not only seems set to join that shortlist, it at least feels like it has the potential to be at the top of it. I eagerly await the first batch of episodes!
Sonic Prime’s first 8 episodes will release tomorrow, on December 15. We will have a proper review of all 8 episodes at a later date.
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SEGA has confirmed that Sonic Frontiers has sold over 2.5 million units worldwide since its release on November 8, making it the best selling Sonic game in more then a decade, despite only being out a month. In fact, Frontiers has already managed to sell 43% of what Sonic games as a whole managed to sell during the entirety of SEGA’s previous fiscal year. What’s more impressive, Frontiers is also among the fastest selling mainline Sonic games of all time.
While old sales data can be difficult to find, it appears Sonic Frontiers is the second-fastest selling Sonic game ever, only sitting behind Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which sold 3.2 million cartridges in two weeks. At the very least, it’s up there.
With numbers like these, Sonic Frontiers is an inarguable success. The next question is whether or not the game will have legs.
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Sonic Prime has certainly had an…interesting media cycle since Netflix accidentally announced it early nearly two years ago. That seems set to continue with how its first episode will debut: within the Sonic Roblox game, Sonic Simulator.
The episode will premiere within the game at 10AM EST/7AM PST on December 10, in what’s been coined a “Global Virtual Premiere Event.” This announcement came via Netflix’s Twitter account.
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