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Please note that this site is no longer being updated or maintained; as a result, there may be design issues, and links to images and other media may be broken.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.
Four months ago, Mark “Alvin Earthworm” Haynes announced that he is rebooting Super Mario Bros. Z, his Dragon Ball Z-inspired flash series crossing over fan favourite gaming franchises Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog. After Mobius has been reduced to ashes by the merciless and power-hungry Metallix, it is up to Mario, Luigi, Sonic, Shadow, and Yoshi to search the Mushroom Kingdom for the seven Chaos Emeralds before the mechanical menace finds them first.
Now, the first episode of the reboot—”Fierce Battle Between Fierce Rivals”—has finally launched, and is ready for viewing above!
With the Mushroom Kingdom’s first official Smash Tournament underway, the final round of the melee tourney pits the heroic plumbers Mario and Luigi versus the double-crossing bad boys Wario and Waluigi in an all out brawl for the championship title. That is, until the tyrannical King Bowser Koopa intervenes and begins his latest attempt at Mushroom Kingdom conquest – and the first step of his plan? To destroy Mario!
To those familiar with the original series, “Fierce Battle Between Fierce Rivals” combines the events of the first two episodes into a glorious 30 minute-long presentation. In Mark’s own words, this was how he had originally intended it to be back then, but technological limitations at the time caused it to be split into two episodes.
You can continue to support Mark Haynes and Super Mario Bros. Zvia his Patreon – as a bonus, those who pledge a certain amount can actually watch new episodes three whole days before the public release.
SMBZ’s first run began in 2006 and spawned 8 episodes in all before the series was put on an indefinite hiatus in 2009. In 2013, Mark spoke of a number of alterations he would perform on the overall story before ultimately confirming a series relaunch.
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For the last few years, Sega Sonic Radio has held the odd one or two special broadcasts and events, well this year is no exception on December 31st 2015, they will be doing a special live stream event and fundraiser for Child’s Play.
Full details are as follows.
You thought SSR was dead and gone.
You thought I had forgotten, given up, or just was too busy to do a fifth New Year’s Eve show this year.
You were wrong.
That’s right, boys/girls/etc., New Year’s Fcuking Eve 5.0, our latest iteration of myself streaming video game music over a 24 hour period for the good people at Child’s Play, is now as ready as it will ever be, and will commence on 31 December 2015 at Noon GMT (7AM EST/6AM CST/4AM PST) here on SEGASonic Radio.
In addition to our usual collection of Steam games, I have a few other surprises up my sleeve. What are they you ask? You will just have to wait and see…
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What better way to get into the festive spirit than with Sonic and pals? As part of Balenaproductions’ annual “Christmas with Sonic” series, watch as Sonic and his friends try to spend the festive season with Tails’ family this time around. But as usual, nothing ever goes quite as planned.
“Christmas with Sonic in Paradise” is the fifth installment in the festive series, created by Steven Page. He’s well know in the Sonic fanbase for making animated 3D videos with Sonic, with popular hits such as “Sonic in Jaws”, “Sonic in Scared Stupid” and the parody series “Sonic Zombie” which recently came to a close. You can check out his channel here.
From all of us here at The Sonic Stadium, have a Merry Christmas! How are you spending the festive season? Hopefully better than Sonic and his buddies, if the above video is anything to go by…?
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If you live near the West Coast, this may be something for you.
After taking a hiatus in 2015, the organisers have announced that Sonic Revolution 2016 is a go! See below for the basic details of the event that are very useful to know;
Date: June 12th 2016 (10am – 6pm)
Location: Century Ballroom, Holiday Inn LAX (9901 S La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA)
Each guest will receive a free goodie bag consisting of a postcard, poster and thank you letter. These items can also be gotten as donation tiers through their fundraising page, linked here.
In terms of events, there will be an artist alley and at least one vendor stall present, and it has been confirmed that cosplay and trivia contests will take place as well as various raffle competitions. There are no special guests confirmed as of yet, but the event in 2014 managed to have a guest list including Evan Stanley and drop-in appearances from Aaron Webber and Stephen Frost. Given that the timing of the event is around E3, they’re hoping to get some interesting names down this time. Confirmation of other activities and names will be in the coming weeks and months.
To purchase tickets and/or find more information about what’s included with each pass type, the event’s box office can be found here.
Special thanks to Ogilvie for all of the above information.
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For those who do not know, Zone Runners are a popular music-inspired hip hop trio. All their music takes inspiration from your favourite Sonic levels and is certainly worth a listen.
Despite making three releases since their debut, the group have yet to put any of their music to video. That is of course, until today!
In a special collaboration with The Sonic Show, the Zone Runners finally come to animated life in this original track based upon the 9th anniversary of The Sonic Show’s webshow. Featuring animation from a variety of artists, plus artwork and fan submitted dance moves, this is a neat little package that everyone here is proud of!
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Toby Fox’s UnderTale has pretty much taken the web by storm at this point. Released for PC and Mac through Steam back in September, the EarthBound-inspired title by the one-man dev team was released to widespread acclaim for its game-changing morality mechanic, unconventional combat, quirky characters and even quirkier writing, and stellar soundtrack. The game has already received a handful of nominations for The Game Awards 2015, for the categories of “Best Independent Game”, “Best Role-Playing Game”, and “Games For Change”.
To those unknowing, the world of UnderTale is that of a realm of monsters, banished from the surface and sealed away beneath the earth following a terrible war against humans countless years ago. You play as a human child named Frisk who falls through a gap up Mt. Ebott, a mountain from which no one who climbs it ever returns from, and finds themselves trapped underground among the same monsters of legend with no way out, save for a magic barrier at the end of the caverns. Filled with determination, Frisk then travels through the underground, but how they travel is ultimately up to the player.
You can either spare the monsters you come across and move on, adopting the route of the pacifist, or you can kill them and unleash a full-blown genocide onto the denizens of the underground and level-up conventionally. The path you choose will ultimately and entirely affect the rest of your time spent playing UnderTale, to a degree that has yet to be explored in video games up until now.
Now with that short stint of exposition out of the way, why not see out how UnderTale music meshes with classic Sonic tunes? Three of ’em, in fact! Special thanks to my friend Stingybee365, for her support and input on selecting this week’s mash-ups!
For your sakes, I’ll try to keep major spoilers to an absolute minimum where avoidable.
Our first mash-up, courtesy of Lavalamp, is… well, special.
Carnival Night Zone stood out as a stage in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles for the sudden change of tone it provided: after blazing forest fires, wide-spanning and interconnected underwater tunnels, and ruined remains of a long lost civilization (all thematically fitting for a fabled floating island) came a theme park with flashing bright lights and towering machinery, colourful balloons floating about, and that damned barrel that brought many Sonic players to their knees way back before online guides were even a thing.
As wacky as some of UnderTale’s characters and locations can get, none can really compare to the very infamus (VERY!!!!!!!!!) hidden village of the Temmies within the Waterfall region… called Temmie Village. Its citizens? Temmies. Their diet? tem flakes. The save point? Fills you with detemmienation.
So of course, it warrants for both of their abominable songs to be blended together into one unholy union.
celbrating tems new colleg degree, proving tem learnt MANY THINs, “tem go 2 carnivl!!!!!”
awawawawah!!
Now that we’ve said b0i!! to Temmie, we can move on to the nittier and grittier mash-ups and higher standard grammar.
Next one up, called “Genocide Adventure 2”, is by MtH!
Crush 40 need no introduction, but Toby’s “MEGALOVANIA”? Definitely. Played during a particular boss fight exclusive to the game’s dubbed Genocide Route, the tune originally appeared in the EarthBound Halloween ROM Hack back in 2009 (made by the same guy, actually!) for the final boss, and again as Vriska’s theme for one of the official Homestuck Adventures albums.
it’s a beautiful day outside. birds are singing, flowers are blooming… on days like these, kids like you….
S h o u l d b e b u r n i n g i n h e l l.
Take heed should you choose that particular path… because you’re going to have a bad time.
This next one wasn’t one that I’d have ever anticipated, but the end result was definitely a song worth savouring! Why? Of all things, this is a Sonic Rush Adventure mash-up — didn’t see that one coming, did ya?
The sequel to Sonic Rush saw its release on the Nintendo DS back in 2007, starring Sonic and Blaze once again as they chase after the scourge of the seas, Captain Whiskers. The robotic and familiar looking pirate made off with the Jewelled Sceptre: native to Blaze’s world, the sceptre possesses the Power of the Stars, which has the power to alter reality to one’s favour, and dwarves even the Chaos Emeralds and Sol Emeralds in comparison. After Sonic and friends succeed in retrieving the sacred artefact, it is stolen once again under everyone’s noses, this time by the real villainous masterminds behind the game’s events: Doctor Eggman and Doctor Eggman Nega.
The ensuing final battle that takes place in the Deep Core underneath Southern Island was a memorable one indeed, all the more with the music provided by Seirou Okamoto. Sir Spacebar felt it appropriate to combine it with one of UnderTale’s own climactic boss battle tunes, “Finale”. Without further ado, here’s “DeepCoremination”!
Last, but not least, isn’t the kind of mash-up you might be expecting, but nonetheless, I just wanted to share it because it sounds plain friggin’ cool.
Martyn Davies, also known as BlastProcessed, rearranges tunes as though they were being played off of a SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive. His effort is worth noting, seeing he bars himself from ever using MIDI files and simply transplanting them into a different sound font before calling it a day, instead relying on a YM2612 VST alone to get the job done (and going over the actual console’s sound limitations for the plain hell of it). That calls for some serious time, effort, and energy.
That is why I feel the need to cap off this Mash-Up Monday with his take on “ASGORE” from UnderTale, the tragic theme to the King of All Monsters in the Underground!
Found any other interesting Sonic music mashups out there on the web? Maybe you have one of your own you’d like to share? If so, you can reach me via any of the following to see your choice on the next Mash-Up Monday:
Feel free to post your respect and recognition towards Lavalamp, MtH, Sir Spacebar, and BlastProcessed’s mash-ups below in the comments! Nyeh heh heh!
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Thought we’d bring back this fun little weekly feature, because why not? We’ve gone on for too long without the weekly what-the-hecks on The Sonic Stadium!
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If you live in the UK’s capital city of London and fancy drinking to the surprise PC release of Sonic Lost World, then make sure you clear your schedule this Hallowe’en Saturday. SEGA Europe is hosting a community party in the city’s prominent gaming-themed pub, Loading Bar from 2pm.
The event will give the community a chance to see and play the game running on non-Wii U hardware for the first time before it hits Steam on November 2nd. You’ll be able to play for prizes, win goodie bags on the door (if you’re one of the first to turn up) and meet SEGA Europe’s new community manager, Dan Sheridan.
Tickets are free, but are most likely limited in number, so make sure you grab yourself one at the Eventbrite page. You’ll need to be able to get to Loading Bar (97 Stoke Newington Rd London, London N16 8BX, United Kingdom) on Saturday 31st October 2015 and be 18 years old and over (they serve alcohol there). The party starts at 14:00 and ends at 20:00.
We’re planning to make an appearance there too, so be sure to say hello to Dreadknux & Hogfather on the day too!
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This is part of an ongoing series of features that looks back on the history of The Sonic Stadium, written by Dreadknux. You can find out more about how this website changed the Sonic community, what it looked like back in the day, and even special images and update notes from the archive.
Sonic Stadium News Group
TSS’ 2002 can largely be summed up by the launch (and subsequent un-launch) of the Sonic Stadium News Group. SSNG was a merger of the Sonic Stadium and another fansite, Sonic News. The idea was, that I would provide the information pages and web design and Sonic_Hedgehogs (Sonic News’ owner) would provide the rolling daily updates and news.
We went through a number of designs before we landed on the right one – the home page in particular would undergo a couple of format alterations, as you can see below. For SSNG, we wanted to give our merged site its own colourful-yet-atmospheric feel. The Sonic Stadium would end up hosting the project, with a lot of content from Sonic News moved across. The SSMB Forums also got design and name changes, which were not well received from long-time users.
The site was launched close to Sonic the Hedgehog’s 11th Anniversary, in June – and lasted approximately two weeks before the entire thing was shut down and thrown in the proverbial bin. One of the major reasons for this involved allegations of plagiarism from users of another Sonic fansite, Sonic HQ. It turned out that the source of some of the Sonic News material had been called into question. It didn’t help that many of the pages on SSNG used backgrounds that were already being used by, or were created by, Sonic HQ as well – a design snafu on my part.
On top of this, Sonic_Hedgehogs had been absent throughout the ordeal, and updates were not as frequent as originally planned. Having dealt with the fallout almost on my own, there was little that I could do to salvage the project other than kill it entirely. I took a short break due to the exhaustion, and later decided to revive The Sonic Stadium instead of letting the story end on such a low note. I changed the SSNG design slightly, making sure to remove all the offending content, before starting work on a proper reboot of the site.
Jan 2002
Jul 2002
The Sonic Stadium Reboot
Before the launch of SSNG, The Sonic Stadium saw another design change, with a rounded content area and navy-blue corners and a three-column design on the homepage. The second image above is what TSS looked like during the aftermath of SSNG, with various hijacked elements of the merged site design and a removal of various other things.
But, things started picking up after SSNG’s demise which led to a reboot and complete design refresh in October. Zifei, the founder of Sonic HQ, offered to host the reborn TSS on his personal server, telling me that he believed in my vision for this site to become the best resource for Sonic the Hedgehog online. That’s some high praise indeed. After officially quitting and retiring Sonic News, Sonic_Hedgehogs came back and offered to write for the new Sonic Stadium, and I found a renewed focus to make the best site I possibly could.
Below was the result.
This was the point where I started to build a team to work on the site, to assist me in creating content – although I would still end up doing the editorial content, the Sonic Fan Club segment got some assistance in the form of Fastfeet (Fan Games reporter) and Biafra Republic (Fan Art maintainer). With Sonic_Hedgehogs on news, the presence of the team allowed me to broaden the site and cover other high profile Sonic Team games, as well as go full pelt on Sonic Advance 2 and Sonic Mega Collection coverage.
Ultimately, the redesign did the trick – TSS’ reputation went up massively upon the relaunch and with a steady stream of content, there was a huge surge in visits and popularity from November onwards.
Unofficial SEGA Magazine
This year saw the introduction of the Unofficial SEGA Magazine, which was a digital fanzine created by SonicVerse Team. It was originally exclusive to the fansite Sonic News, but since the launch of SSNG became a part of The Sonic Stadium. It was a valiant attempt at re-igniting the fire of SEGA fans, but due to the huge task of building each issue with limited resources the project only last for three (and a half) issues.
Sonic Battle Stadium
The SSMB Forums saw the start of a brand new interactive game, called the Sonic Battle Stadium. I created a basic ruleset for a text-based battle adventure, where forum users could create characters and pick an ‘element’ (similar to Pokemon) as well as a set of moves that they could assign damage points to. Battles would be manually moderated, with referees taking hit points away based on the various conditions that affected play throughout the topic.
Ultimately, players would fight one another and obtain points, with the ultimate goal being the ability to challenge ‘Grandmaster Dreadknux’ at the end of the Season and become the true winner by defeating him. Awards were given out to the overall winner and runner-ups. The Sonic Battle Stadium ran for two years/seasons, with the second season introducing changes to the gameplay in order to make moderating easier – these changes weren’t well received and the lack of activity brought the game to an eventual and early close.
Other Notable Developments
We may have ended up discovering something new in Sonic 2 – some remnants of Wood Zone that can be found on any retail cartridge.
It was the year of fan creations for sure: TSS was the official home of coverage for the Sonic Amateur Games Expo (which led to our first ever contest), as well as the Sonic Comic Con in late 2002; the Sonic Hoaxers Club brought about many doctored images of classic Sonic games; we went big on fan game reviews and previews; and there were even fan animations in New Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Fight 4 Freedom to talk about.
The SSMB Forums moved away from its old ezBoard home and onto a specialist forum software. It was initially moved to YaBB, before making a permanent home with Invision Power Board.
The Sonic Site Awards returned for a second year following the success of the 2001 online event. More awards were on offer and the reception was even greater.
The Sonic Stadium announced a ‘partnership’ with fellow fansite and creative portal SonicVerse Team this year. SVT’s upcoming online event Sonic Comic Con would be covered by TSS, and we would also have the exclusive on publishing new pages from flagship comic Sonic Shadows.
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Yes, on this day fifteen years ago The Sonic Stadium opened its virtual doors to the World Wide Web (that’s what we called the Internet that back in 2000). And over the years, I and a trusty team of awesome Sonic fans have done our best to entertain, inform and excite with news, features, columns, podcasts and videos of anything involved with everyone’s favourite hedgehog.
We started life as a simple fansite, formed of a collection of HTML pages. After several failed attempts, we added a successful forum in the SSMB. We grew to build a streaming radio station (which later introduced Sonic-themed podcasts), an annual awards ceremony, a fangame development team, a massive video/music depository and a network that included a fan showcase, video podcasts and competitive Sonic gaming. We also kick-started a series of events in the Summer of Sonic that led to the establishment of a number of fellow fan-run conventions.
We’ve accomplished an awful lot, and yet none of it would be possible without the insane amount of contribution of TSS Network staff, past and present. So to celebrate The Sonic Stadium’s 15th Anniversary, I reached out to a number of our old and current staff and asked them to reminisce and talk about their favourite memories and moments of TSS history. Continue reading HAPPY 15TH TSS! Legendary TSS Staff Share Their Fondest Memories
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Strange Scary, isn’t it? In just four days, this little website about Sonic the Hedgehog will be a decade and a half old. I personally would have spent half my entire existence keeping this thing alive (actually, let’s not think about that bit). It was on that day, 24th October 2000, that The Sonic Stadium was introduced to the world via the wonder of Angelfire‘s then-generous 20MB hosting solutions.
I’m working on a few things to celebrate the week in style, largely involving heady walks down memory lane. Timeline updates, discussions with staff old and new about their favourite memories of the site, hopefully a contest… and a special project that, as you’d expect if you know me by now, is top secret right now (that might not be ready this week though, but definitely soon). It’ll be worth it, I promise.
No, it’s not Sonic Smash Cards.
I’ll be decorating the site soon enough to get everyone into the mood. While you’re here, if you’ve been visiting TSS for a while, feel free to share your memories of this place – favourite features on the site, SSMB threads, SegaSonic Radio podcasts, anything (and if you want to do that on SSMB, you can do it here).
And as always, we’re only here because of you guys. So from the bottom of my heart, on behalf of the TSS team (past and present) thank you so much for your support and for making us your home to talk utter bollocks about a cartoon blue hedgehog for so long. It’s humbling, and I hope to keep this place alive for as long as you guys want it around.
We’ve got some plans for you all. We hope to keep you entertained and informed for many more years to come.
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A resounding celebration of the creative talent within the Sonic Community, the annual Sonic Hacking Contest returns for its 2015 edition! Hosted by Sonic Retro and the Sonic Stuff Research Group, the contest boasts over fifty entries this year – and is ready to receive your votes.
Conceived in 2002 to promote friendly competition among hackers, the SHC boasts everything from complete game overalls, to visual makeovers, new boss designs and more. Spanning across multiple Sonic base titles from the original Sonic the Hedgehog to the recent Sonic Generations, SHC provides a little something for everyone when looking for exciting, new and original Sonic experiences.
This year boasts over 50 hacks which are now available for you to download and try out. If downloading isn’t your style, SHC has also partnered with several streamers such as Youtuber SomecallmeJohnny to help show off this year’s entries, so you don’t have to miss out! Make sure you try to see everything you can, and vote for your favourites!
All entries are available over on the official SHC2015 website, where you can also cast your votes. Once all is said and done, hacks with this most votes for each applicable category will receive special awards to celebrate artistic achievement, originality, best in show, and more.
Will you be playing games from SHC2015? Let us know your favourite entries this year in the comments below.
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 the Hedgehog 2 introduced a number of staples in the Sonic series since it first launched in 1992: the Spin Dash ability, a seventh Chaos Emerald and subsequent Super transformation, the two-tailed fox Miles “Tails” Prower as the Blue Blur. Aside from its prequel, Sonic 2 was the highest selling game on the Mega Drive/Genesis, having sold over 6 million copies on its initial run, and cementing SEGA’s status as a successful and legitimate threat to Nintendo and their plumber mascot.
Like Sonic 1, the sequel title was scored by Dreams Come True musician, Masato Nakamura, and a number of the game’s most memorable songs still resound with fans to this day.
Smooth McGroove, renowned on YouTube for his faithful a-capella covers of video game music, uploaded his mesmerizing rendition of the introductory stage of Sonic 2, Emerald Hill Zone.
No Mash-Up Monday this week, but if you have any Sonic music mash-up suggestions for next week, you can either share your suggestions in the comments section below, or you can reach me via any of the following to see your choice next Monday:
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.
As though Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball hasn’t garnered enough success during its initial run in print and on television the world over, the famed manga and anime series is having quite the revival period in recent years.
Sequel films Battle of Gods and Resurrection: F have since contributed to the series mythos with the introduction of the Super Saiyan God, and a new sequel anime series – Dragon Ball Super – continues to add to Goku’s many adventures, following the defeat of the alien warlord Frieza, Doctor Gero’s Androids and his ultimate creation in Cell, and Bibbidi’s evil, planet-levelling monster of eons past, Majin Bū.
Numerous parallels exist between Dragon Ball and Sonic the Hedgehog – a set of seven magical artifacts said to grant miracles, Super transformations, time-travelling heroes sent back to the present to save their future, just to name a few – but there’s only one such parallel we explore here on Mash-Up Monday (or would a “Fusion Friday” have worked better for this one?), and that’s music!
Our first mash-up – “Dragon Spring” – was submitted to us by TrueBlueFuse, combining the opening to Dragon Ball Z Kai with one of my favourite tracks from the mobile endless runner, Sonic Runners! Takayoshi Tanimoto’s “Dragon Soul” fuses with Tomoya Ohtani’s “Spring Emotions” below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb7Cy5z1EZI
Thanks for sending it in, TBF!
On the other hand, Dragon Ball fans in the West are likely to have grown up to Bruce Faulconer’s score, so perhaps the next mash-up, “Knight of the Power” by Hyper-Shan, might suit your fancy!
Faulconer’s “Gohan Powers Up”, first played during the Z Warriors’ climactic battle with Cell (heck, some of you might even recognize this tune from Chakra-X’s Sonic: Nazo Unleashed animated fan film!), combines with Crush 40’s “Knight of the Wind”, from Sonic and the Black Knight, and the end result makes for a rather mystical take on an otherwise rock-heavy track. On one hand, it’s easier on the ears, but on the other, it sounds otherworldly!
Found any other interesting Sonic music mashups out there on the web? Maybe you have one of your own you’d like to share? If so, you can either share your suggestions in the comments section below (as well as your thoughts on TrueBlueFuse and Hyper-Shan’s mash-ups above!), or you can reach me via any of the following to see your choice next Monday:
Also, if you could all keep the “Sonic vs. Goku” debates outside of the comments section, that’d be greeeeeaaaaat–––
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.
Following the disastrous 2006 release of the next-gen Sonic the Hedgehog on Xbox 360 and PS3, early demos and trailers of the next instalment in the main series helped manage to generate a ton of positive press for SEGA and the Blue Blur, as they hinted at a return to the high speed platforming fans and critics have come to know and love over the years. Sonic Unleashed was soon unleashed onto the gaming world, and the end reception the game had received is mixed, split right down the middle – like night and day!
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.
Conceived by Hirohiko Araki back in 1986 and acting as one of the forefathers of modern shōnen, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is an ongoing Japanese manga series that tells the tragic tale of the Joestar family, whose members possessing unique latent powers are forever bound by destiny to battle against supernatural forces. JJBA spans across multiple story arcs following the preluding battles between Jonathan Joestar and Dio Brando, each part with their own starring JoJo, and is currently well into its eighth part almost 30 whole years later, dubbed JoJolion.
After a handful of OVAs and a number of video games over the past few decades, JoJo has finally received a stellar anime adaptation for its first three arcs so far – Part 1: Phantom Blood, Part 2: Battle Tendency, and Part 3: Stardust Crusaders. However, one of the unspoken rules of a good anime is that it needs a really good opening sequence, and thankfully, the JJBA anime has had four incredible ones as of now!
Why all the JoJo exposition on a Sonic fan-site, you say? Context for this week’s mash-ups, of course! No need for alarm either: I can assure you that none of these are the work of an enemy「Stand」.
First up is mash-up artist BotanicSage‘s concoction, which brings the opening tune “Bloody Stream” for Battle Tendency and Hideki Naganuma’s “Vela-Nova” from Sonic Rush together into an even funkier jam combined. I suppose you could say that the end result is a real match…「Made in Heaven」! Eh?
Eh?
…get it?
…
. . . . . .
Yare yare daze, you’re no fun at all.
Anyway, here’s “Bloody Nova”!
We’re switching gears from jazz to rock now as we turn to our next JoJo/Sonic mash-up, this one by guilhox!
When some people think of a memorable Sonic theme, chances are they’re going to think of the iconic “Live and Learn” by Crush 40. When it comes to JoJo, understandably, a lot of folks will point to Jin Hashimoto’s “Stand Proud”, the opening track for the first half of Stardust Crusaders, the arc that formally introduces the ethereal spiritual projections known as “Stands” into the JoJo universe. Rock out to the fused “Live and Stand” below!
Albeit this is a Jet Set Radio mashup rather than a Sonic-themed one, we might as well feature this final gem for the week! Richard Jacques’ “Everybody Jump Around” from the SEGA Dreamcast classic is mixed together with “A Fine Fellow Arrives” by Yugo Kanno, the latter straight from the original soundtrack for Stardust Crusaders. Courtesy of Swordy, here is “Jet Set JoJo”!
Found any other interesting Sonic music mashups out there on the web? Maybe you have one of your own you’d like to share? If so, then you can post some in the comments below (as well as your thoughts on BotanicSage, guilhox, and Swordy’s mash-ups above!), or you can reach me via any of the following to see your choice next Monday:
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Hiroyuki Sawano is a brilliant composer, there’s no two cents (or pence?) about it. Without you knowing, you might’ve already listened to some of his work if you’re an avid anime watcher: Blue Exorcist, Attack on Titan, and Kill la Kill are among a number of shows he had scored. Recently, he has even lent his talents for a little Monolith Soft-developed game called Xenoblade Chronicles X, which is hitting the West in early December!
However, to one man, he felt that Sawano’s music was missing something, some sort of spark… say, a dash of blue.
So he went and combined some Sonic music with it and called it a day!
All kidding aside, Triple-Q has done an amazing job in combining the vocal track “Till I Die” from Kill la Kill, composition by Sawano with lyrics by cAnON and vocals by CASG, with a small selection of Sonic music from recent games. From Sonic Colours comes the Area and Act 1 themes of Planet Wisp, by Mariko Nanba and Kenichi Tokoi respectively, with a later transition into Tomoya Ohtani’s “Sea Bottom Segue” from Sonic Lost World.
The end result is absolutely nothing short of spectacular, because “Till Our Planet Dies” sounds like pure magic to the ears. Give it a listen yourself!
Found any other interesting Sonic music mashups out there on the web? Maybe you have one of your own you’d like to share? If so, then you can post some in the comments below (as well as your thoughts on Triple-Q’s mash-up above!), or you can reach me over the following to see your choice next Monday:
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Super Mario Bros. Z was a massive fan undertaking by one Mark Haynes, also known as Alvin Earthworm, that began way back on Newgrounds in 2006, acting as a crossover between the Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog games with gorgeous Dragon Ball Z-inspired fighting sequences layered on top.
With the seven Chaos Emeralds warped away from a Mobius reduced to ashes, it was up to Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Sonic, and Shadow to gather the mystical gems and keep them from the tyrannical Mecha Sonic’s clutches, all while dealing with Bowser’s latest attempt at conquering the Mushroom Kingdom.
The animated webseries earned aphenomenal following in its heyday, until production ultimately ceased following the eighth episode, “The Great Doomship Defensive”, in 2009. Due to a busier life offline and waning investment (which is, all in all, completely understandable), Mark withdrew from the Super Mario Bros. Z scene and laid the series to rest, as SMBZ then became an object of nostalgia for many of the web’s denizens while time marched on.
The inaugural battle between Mario and Metal Bowser, the brawls between Team Mario, the Koopa Bros, and the revived Axem Rangers X, the destruction of Yoshi’s Island, the 8bit battles that rocked the fabled Minus World, the introduction of Fire Sonic, that Mecha Mario tease… Needless to say, SMBZ had a lot of memorable high points.
The last that was heard from the series was a rather bizarre 2010 April Fools’ short and an upload of what would’ve been the intro from Episode 9…
…until Mark spontaneously released an animation test back in October 2013 – a remake of SMBZ’s very first scene. He advised fans not to get too excited, or to take it as confirmation that he would be working on the series again, but spoke of a number of alterations he would perform to the story, some of the fight scenes, and dialogue if he went ahead with rebuilding the series from the ground up.
Well folks, get ready to party like it’s 2006, because it is happening. Attributing the introduction of Flash-to-HD Video software Swivel as a major plus, the returned Alvin Earthworm has formally announced that Super Mario Bros. Z is being revived, and that the first episode is indeed on the way!
And, to build up hype for fans old and new, Mark has even gone and redone the opening sequence for the series to kick things off. Compare with the old opening on Newgrounds! Revisit and marathon the old series (NG / YT)! Get in touch with your old Internet friends from way back when and spread the word! Don a banana suit and shout “I LOVE CEREAL!” to the heavens before spontaneously com–––okay, okay, don’t do that, but hey, you get the idea! GET EXCITED!
Super Mario Bros. Z is BACK!
Mark Haynes, Alvin Earthworm, all the best to you, and glad to have you back!
Were you around during the first run of SMBZ? What were some of your favourite moments, or your most favourite battles from the show? Is this the first time you’ve heard of the series as it is? Let us know below!
And if I may add anything else… might I just say that this really takes me back to the old VGLan days.
…wow, I feel old.
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Every Monday, we upload a new video to our “Sonic Reacts” series. Members of the community sit and watch some weird and wonderful things and share their reaction with you the audience. We don’t usually post about these, but today’s is a very special edition.
Yep, it has been ten glorious years since the inception of Sonic Paradox, so for today’s episode we (and two members of Sonic Paradox) watch back some of the best content to come from the Paradox team.
The Sonic Show have always been big fans of the S.P group. We debuted the “Knuckles Briefs” collection in 2009. And worked with a variety of their animators, including PiggyBank and The Wax. Not to mention Donnie. Never forget “The Don™”.
So here is to 10 more insane years of comedy and creativity from Sonic Paradox! Keep it up guys!
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Ever wanted to play the games that SEGA never got around to finishing for the Dreamcast? Well now, finally, we all can!
Sonic Dreams Collection was released today by Arcane Kids, a studio that is known for putting together “unique” little projects together, such as the return of Bubsy3D.
The concept in this new collection is that after years of lurking in the depths of development hell, a leak has caused these prototypes of the 90s to rise back to the surface. This unique group of games will see you creating your own original character, playing an MMO and not to mention the most interesting look into the world of fan fiction. Oh, did we mention things get weird very quickly?
If you’re so inclined, the “leak” can be found here with the password “grandpa”. If you aren’t in the mood for torturing your mind, and would rather watch someone else who’s brain was burnt along time ago, enjoy the videos below![youtube]https://youtu.be/qfKeWrvO57o?list=PL4T2Dd-NV0aZ8OGb03op34Ork4QAw5oQX[/youtube][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8jmFkAUYjE[/youtube][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT8jKmKD1Jg[/youtube]
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Weston Super Sonic, the Sonic Convention that debuted two years ago in Weston Super-Mare, England is returning once again for a brand spanking new convention in 2016.
After a brilliant event earlier this year, the convention only needs £1000 to get the event up and running, and is already promising a guest, numerous traders and competitions.
Backers can also get their hands on numerous rewards for backing the event including entry to the event, T-shirts, pin badges and an entry into a raffle for a 20th Anniversary Sonic statue, courtesy of Sonic Merchandise.
Stretch goals are also in place, allowing attendees to get new gift bags for attending, as well as the ability to have more guests attend.
At the time of writing, the project is already nearly quarter of the way there! Pledge your support, and help the convention to put on another awesome show!
Were any of you fortunate enough to join in the festivities of 2015’s event? Let us know!
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If you want to make something better, Just Add Knuckles™. That’s particularly true when you’re talking about pop music, and one particular fan has taken the trouble of inserting the new porcupine on the block with the buff chest as the latest member of the Black Eyed Peas. Continue reading Mash-Up Monday: Knuckles Gets It Started
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A person with the name of FlutterTreeMuffin on YouTube teamed up with Ryan himself to bring you the above video featuring Sonic and Tails. It’s a really sweet gesture and a wonderful treat to hear Ryan behind the mic as Sonic even if it’s unofficially again after so long (he did play as Sonic on camera in an interview not that long ago).
For reference, Ryan voiced Sonic starting from Sonic Adventure on DC in 1999, and ending with Sonic Advance 3 on GBA in 2004.
Thanks Flutter and Ryan for the video! 🙂
What did you think of it? Let us know in the comments!
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Original Article: Nintendo today announced a neat new promotion that goes like this; 9 Indie titles on Wii U will get a special demo, and downloading said demo between now and the 22nd, allows you to get that game for 15% off for the first month after the game has been released!
One of those is the Sonic-like Freedom Planet, already announced to be Wii U-bound back in March.
Here’s a new Wii U-specific trailer just released:
Have you downloaded the Freedom Planet demo yet? What are your thoughts on it? Let us know in the comments!
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In a move which confirms what many suspected, the Summer of Sonic Team have released a statement on their official Facebook page confirming that there will not be an event for this year. However, they do not rule out a return in the future.
Statement is as follows.
We’ve had a lot of questions and lovely messages from fans about this, and so we don’t want to give the wrong impression by not saying anything. So just to clear up what you might have heard, there are no plans for a Summer of Sonic event this year.
The whole team would love to host a show for you again soon, and if the stars align in the future we will shout it from the rooftops.
Thanks again for all of your wonderful support.
So, sad news, but they don’t rule out that it won’t ever be back, so who knows, the future may still hold an event. Anyone got a time stone so we can go right now?
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This came out of nowhere didn’t it? A user on our forums posted this a short while ago and I have to admit, this one really surprised me in terms of how good it is.
So, I should say right now, given how this film ends, I was a little hesitant to news it, on reflection whilst it held my interest and I was impressed with the product, I do not think the film ended well, even though I can see what the directors were trying to do, some people are going to be affected by how the film ends. So I would advise caution if you decide to watch this, certainly don’t watch it if you’re feeling down.
However, I decided to news it because aside from being Sonic related, it’s actually very well made, the cinematography and storytelling are really high quality and some of the visuals are clever, it’s a film that makes you think as you watch it.
So what’s it about? Well, to quote the film itself.
A lone boy wanders the open landscape of a suburban park. Dressed as his favourite video game hero, he daydreams for adventure but the reality of his uneventful world disappoints him. He follows a strangely familiar man to an old house where he stumbles upon a peculiar truth to his lonely existence.
I’ve watched it, I was pretty impressed. It’s really good short film in terms of cinematography and storytelling. There is no dialogue in the film, the story is told completely through visuals, such as the expressions and gestures of the characters, the use of the cinematography, the music, lighting.
I also liked how the films creators handled elements of the fictional video game world and blended them into the real life world, though… that ending is little… depending how you interpret it, you might not like it.
The film was created by directing duo Chris Lee and Paul Storrie, the film has also been nominated for the British Council best short award.
Personally, I would definitely give this film a watch, if you’ve got any interest in film and storytelling, it’s well worth it, but the ending is going to make you depressed.
Edit: After reflection, I will most likely be doing an instalment of ‘The Spin’ on this film because a lot needs to be said.
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Today was the day of the London Marathon, each year runners from all over the world pound the streets of London, some do it for fun, some do it to raise money and some do it to challenge themselves.
Well one runner, a Mr Neil Light decided that this year he would dress as Sonic the Hedgehog during his race, however he also had a second goal. He would not only run as Sonic, but also attempt to break the world record for the fastest time to cross the line by a runner dressed as a video game character. That means he has to run the full 26 miles in full costume, he must cross the line with the whole costume intact, if any part of it drops off, the record is void.
Well… he’s done it!
According to multiple sources, Neil has not only succeeded in completing the marathon, but he’s also broken the world record, setting a time of 3:09:28! Who previously held that record..? Mario & Luigi, yup that’s right, the previous record was held by Mario & Luigi who crossed the line as a pair to set a time of 3 hours, 29 minutes. Neil has smashed that record.
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Sonic the Hedgehog is now on trains. I’m really not sure what else can be said apart from ‘We gots ourselves a new Hype Train to catch’ whenever the next Sonic game ends up being announced.
This very cute 1/10 scale railcar is running at the brand new SEGA Lalaport in Fujimi, Japan. The attraction known as the ‘Sega Sonic Railway’ allows visitors to ride in the Sonic themed engine seen above on a miniature railway. I’m not afraid to say that I want a ticket. Badly.
A roughly translated transcript of the accompanying post is as follows:
Today ‘ Sega et lalaport fujimi “and Sega Sonic train ‘ et et lalaport fujimi ‘ in the new open! Sonic design 1/10 sizeminitrain both adults and children can drive yourself!http://sega.eng.mg/68edfhttp://sega.eng.mg/64914
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French composer Yoann Turpin has recently released a new album dedicated to our very own Sonic the Hedgehog, titled Hedgehog Orchestral Suite.
Described as a “tribute to the great Masato Nakamura”, the Bandcamp released album contains a total of eleven tracks based off music heard in the Mega Drive titles Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The album contains beautiful orchestral reimagining of various zones, include Mystic Cave Zone, Oil Ocean Zone and Spring Yard Zone.
You can enjoy and purchase the digital album on Bandcamp here. Congratulations to Yoann on crafting such a lovely tribute! You can also follow his work on his Facebook and SoundCloud.
Be sure to give it a listen, and sound off with your thoughts on the album in our comments below.
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Galaxy Trail games founder Stephen DiDuro Recently posted this image on Twitter. Freedom Planet, the high speed, action platformer will be making it’s way to the Wii U E-Shop in the near future. So why bring this up on a Sonic fansite? In case you didn’t know, Freedom Planet originally started it’s life as a Sonic fan game and was featured at SAGE several times. Price and date have yet to be announced.
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Earlier this week, The Sonic Stadium’s server decided to go kaput, leaving the entire site – including the SSMB forums and affiliates such as SegaDriven – out of action for a couple of days. It was not a malicious attack of any kind – the server simply burned out and the facility we had been using to make regular backups had failed us in a separate incident. We are working to bring the site back to its previous state, but there are likely to be a few hiccups along the way.
First of all, and this is immediately apparent, is that the site currently looks insanely out of date. We have a full backup from August, and a cache dating as recently as February 2015. We’re working from the cache to get the more recent posts live, but as a result we will have lost comments on the posts we are manually rebuilding. Apologies! We have restored as many articles as possible (one or two news posts appear to have been lost forever) and will now begin restoring images for posts dating from July 2014-Feb 2015. This will take some time, so apologies in advance. We will try to bring back a bunch of comments from the most popular articles, but we cannot recover them all. Sorry!
Second of all, the SSMB forums will be out of action for around a week. This is so we can get the old server hard drive delivered to us and see if we can scrape a most recent backup of the forum’s activity. If we can’t get anything off of it, we’ll revert to an August backup. We’ll have an update on this next week.
Thanks for your patience – this whole thing hasn’t been very convenient, given that we were actually preparing to migrate to a new server very soon anyway. We’ll be back and fully operational shortly.
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The guys who brought us their debut self titled album, Zone Runners back in October of last year are back with more tunes to spindash.
The Zone Runners, a collaboration between OCRemix Alumni DiGi Valentine, Halc and Sir J, have released their second record. It features a collaboration with J-ME.exe, another community artist.
This 9 song album continues the story of the titular runners and has remixes of many classic Sonic songs including Emerald Hill, Casino Night and Oil Ocean. It’s also available as a bundle with their previous album and single on https://loudr.fm/release/triple-troublemakers/GyEpm. Spread the good word of good music!
Note: Some of this music is slightly NSFW due to energetic language.
Art by KetrinDarkDragon
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One of the biggest games of 2014, and the most creepy fan art subjects in the word come to reality. Oh dear.
And now, a message from Tanner trying to defend himself.
“Hi there. Tanner here. Video maker, guy who screams like a little girl. You know, I never knew how truly scary atmosphere can be until I played this. See, watching it now? Heck, editing it? Hilarious.
But sitting there in the dark, earbuds in, music cranked… it’s really unsettling. Yes, the graphics are laughable, but it’s not the graphics that are scaring me. It’s everything else from FNaF. Thank you.
– Tanner”
Download it for yourself to here and see what you think!
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The final couple of events for Weston Super Sonic have been announced. The events include a panel from the team behind Sonic the Comic, and a special charity auction.
Sonic the Comic Panel
The crew gets back together! Join the creative team whose collective works helped to bring one of the coolest comics of the 90s to the shelves! Join Richard, Nigel, Ferran, Carl and Deborah in this talk about behind the scenes at the comic!
Got a few questions of my own to ask!
Burnham Area Rescue Boat Charity Auction
In addition, there is also a charity auction taking place in aid for the Burnham Area Rescue Boat. A local rescue group who are instrumental to providing rescue services and relief to the local area, and its dangerous mudflats.
So what’s up for auction exactly? A very special Sonic the Comic something indeed. StC fans will want to bring their pockets!
With that, this will probably be the last update we post on Weston Super Sonic until the event itself tomorrow. Keep your eyes to our Twitter or watch the action live via The Sonic Show’s live stream, narrated by none other than Sonic Paradox’s very own Donnie!
Have fun guys!
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Next up on the Weston Super Sonic agenda: The Mystery Merch Announcement!
NEW EVENT!
MYSTERY MERCH ANNOUNCEMENT
Whatever could it be..? That would be telling, wouldn’t it! Get an exclusive first look as we announce a brand new piece of official Sonic the Hedgehog merchandise! Anybody serious about their merch will LOVE this… We certainly do!
This short little announcement is sure to get all the merch collectors out there excited!
If only you knew. Oh if only you kne… hmm? What is it?
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Today was the day of the London Marathon, each year runners from all over the world pound the streets of London, some do it for fun, some do it to raise money and some do it to challenge themselves.
