Welcome to the Archive site of The Sonic Stadium (2008-2023)
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The past few days have been filled with Sonic Superstars news, and we aren’t done yet! The video game journalist group Easy Allies was talking about the game on their Twitch stream while utilizing footage posted earlier today by IGN Japan. Towards the end of their discussion, and where the IGN Japan footage cut out, the footage they were showing instead transitioned to a level select screen.
This level select screen mostly just shows some unnamed zones and acts, but it contains two very interesting details. First, it lists a “time attack” option off to the side, meaning that this game likely has a time attack feature. What’s even more interesting than that, however, is one of the levels it lists: an act of Zone 5 meant specifically for Amy Rose.
What this appears to suggest is that this game will have acts meant for specific characters! Of course, this isn’t a confirmation, and could very well be a cut feature or something meant for DLC, but this has some curious implications nevertheless.
Check out a screenshot of the level select screen below:
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While we’ve uploaded a significant amount of off-screen snippets of Sonic Superstars, IGN Japan has uploaded an HD quality video containing both acts of one of the game’s levels, “Speed Jungle.” You can find the video here, but we’ve decided to take the time to highlight some interesting details from the video below:
The level has a grappling hook gimmick, which can be activated by hitting a yellow switch floating above it. It is then possible to run up it! There are also some badniks that disguise themselves as ring boxes, and fly when you get close.
Later on in the level, we see a few more gameplay elements. There’s a holographic pulley that the player needs to hold onto while a timer counts down to earn rings. There are four pulley, meaning up to four players can use it at once. We also see a spinning blue portal above a checkpoint post, which likely leads to some sort of bonus stage. Finally, there’s a part of the game level where you can see Tails running in the background. In footage our own Jason Berry took of this level, we saw Sonic running in the background at one point while someone played Amy. So maybe these moments are meant to convey other characters participating in the adventure during single player?
Next up, we see the first of those “ginormous creatures” mentioned in the PR materials: a fat flicky! He appears in a cutscene introducing Speed Jungle’s first mini boss, which utilizes a grappling hook similar to what was used in the level earlier. Sonic must spindash up it in order to hit the boss. Afterwards, the flabby flicky celebrates with Sonic at the end of the level.
Act 2 introduces a new gimmick, where Sonic must use a glowing butterfly to illuminate a darkened area of the level. We also get our first look at Sonic’s edge-of-the-platform animation!
Next up, we get to see how physics work on the games grinding vines! Rather than being automated segments with automatic momentum, or something you can fall through if you lose speed, Sonic will instead simply walk when he loses momentum. This is demonstrated when a frog badnik slows Sonic down and he has to regain his speed to grind again.
The final boss attacks Sonic with a extendo arm that goes through the ground, and missiles. Rather than attack the boss directly, Sonic has to avoid the arm until it eventually strikes the boss on its own, and can also damage the boss by knocking blue missiles into it.
Finally, we got a look at an end level cutscene! We got to see this game’s version of an animal capsule, as well as the in-game models of Fang and a mysterious new character (almost certainly the one that was designed by Naoto Ohshima). Fang and the newbie got a humorous little cutscene that also calls back to a trap utilized by Eggman in the first episode of Sonic Mania Adventures!
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There’s no question about it. Green Hill has been in a lot of Sonic games. In fact, it would probably take an entirely new article here on Sonic Stadium just to tell you how many appearances that Green Hill has had in just the past 10 years alone! But, Sonic Superstars is a thing now, and Takashi Iizuka has given fans some reassurance that Green Hill Zone is nowhere to be found here.
Actually, Takashi Iizuka didn’t just confirm the absence of Green Hill to IGN today, but of all reused levels! As IGN bluntly puts it, “no Green Hill, no Chemical Plant, no levels you’ve seen in prior 2D Sonic games”. Every zone in Sonic Superstars will be completely original. Takashi Iizuka said that this is intentional and “have Sonic run around in this new environment. So we wanted to make brand new places for Sonic to go in this new title”.
Of course, the story presentation won’t be any different from what you’re used to either. There won’t be lots of text, and there won’t be much in the way of voiceovers. In fact, it will be similar to Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic Mania, where the story will play out between levels. So far, the only levels we know of are Speed Jungle and Bridge Island, thanks to the Summer Game Fest Play Days demo.
So, are there any other interesting details Takashi Iizuka shared today? Well, yes! We now know, thanks to Iizuka speaking with Gamertag Radio, that Fang is actually a mercenary hired by Dr. Eggman to help him, which explains why Fang is in the game. We also learned that each emerald will grant the characters a new ability, meaning that there will be 7 emerald powers in all. Oh, and that Emerald Power where you summon clones? It’s called “Avatar”, according to Iizuka.
That’s pretty much everything. It’s a busy time for Sonic fans right now, and it’s very likely that Takashi Iizuka will be participating in more interviews this month. If there’s anymore interesting details that Iizuka shares with us, we’ll let you know. In the meantime, stay tuned here at Sonic Stadium as we continue to cover Sonic Superstars up until the game’s release this fall.
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The Sonic Stadium is on the ground at Summer Game Fest 2023, and we’ve been able to capture loads of off-screen clips of the game in action! For anyone curious, we’ve got some gameplay footage of the windmill/seaside stage presented in the trailer. Let’s take a look at some of the gimmicks and interesting things we’ve seen!
There’s a lot to unpack in just a couple of minutes here, so let’s dive in and see what we can see:
First off, classic Badniks are back – but it looks like some of them may come with a few modernised tweaks to catch veteran 2D players off-guard. This Buzzbomber comes complete with a full-fat laser that doesn’t leave any room for Sonic to dodge from.
We also get to see one of the Chaos Emerald powers at play here – this one allows Sonic and friends to ascend through waterfalls. You’ll notice that there’s a meter in the bottom right corner there, which likely tells you how long you have left to use this special ability.
This stage is full of unique gimmicks that throw Sonic upwards into the air and even back and forth into the scenery! In this screenshot, you can see one of the curved silver loops that litter the stage – when Sonic runs into one…
…he shoots in the direction of the curve. Players can seemingly use these broken-loop pieces in clever ways to navigate to higher platforms.
Finally, there’s this little glimpse of a couple of collectables found within the stage. One is a giant blue ring, which looks similar to a Special Stage ring from Sonic 3 & Knuckles/Sonic Mania. The other is a golden Sonic coin. We wonder what these are for and where they take you…?
We’re capturing lots of media from the Summer Game Fest show floor, and we’ll be sharing our hands-on impressions of the game in a day or so’s time as well! Here are some more videos we captured as well, for your entertainment (be careful, some of them may be spoilery):
Knuckles vs Speed Jungle Boss
Amy Enters a Special Stage
Sonic Fights Eggman Boss on Bridge Island
Tails Gameplay from Speed Jungle
Vine Grinding Action
Amy Fights Speed Jungle Badnik Boss
Bridge Island Zone Act 1 Opening Sequence
Water Emerald Power Tutorial and Game Play
Amy Surfs the Vines in Speed Jungle
So stay tuned to the Sonic Stadium and Sonic News for all the latest, and chat about the videos we’ve captured in the comments section below.
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If you’ve been a fan of the prior 2D animation projects in Sonic Mania, Sonic Origins, and others, get excited, because Sonic Superstars has its own sequences! Our man-with-the-camera over on the show floor this week snagged a clip of the start screen, and the full intro cinematic! You can check it out here:
The video includes a number of known aspects, like Fang, the multiplication power, and some weird robot armor dude? Is this our new antagonist?
Beyond that, the intro features plenty of action from the cast as Tails and the Tornado catch Sonic mid-fall while Knuckles and Amy bash Badniks in a carnival.
We’ll continue to share fresh footage throughout our Summer Game Fest coverage, so stay tuned!
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SEGA’s been doing a good job at making sure fans are all signed up to its free email newsletters. First the incentive was free Sonic Frontiers DLC, then it was advance tickets for Sonic Symphony (which ended up arriving too late for many to actually take advantage of, but it’s the thought that counts). Now, Sonic Newsletter subscribers will get themselves a free exclusive DLC for Sonic Superstars, in the form of a ‘Modern’ Amy Rose costume.
As you probably expected, Amy Rose’s default look in Sonic Superstars is of the Classic variety. But, if you head over to the Sonic Superstars official website, and sign up for their email newsletter before January 31st 2024, you’ll get a code for a “classic, redefined look”. Which is to say, you can “don modern Amy’s outfit on classic Amy”. The wording is a bit confusing, but I think you got the gist of it.
What do you think about the Classic and the Modern merging in such an unholy manner? Should someone please think about the children? Let us know in the comments section below!
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It’s fair to say we’re super-excited about tonight’s reveal of Sonic Superstars – it’s already looking like a promising like a true return to form for the colourful and attitude-heavy series! SEGA has just released some official screenshots of the game in action, and we thought you’d might like to take a look for yourself.
As you can see, Sonic and the game world just look absolutely gorgeous, with eye-popping colours and vibrant environments throughout. Hopefully we’ll see some original takes on some classic gameplay tropes.
One of the big features about this particular game is the inclusion of up to four-player local co-op, which means that for the first time Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy can all go around kicking Dr. Eggman’s mechanical Badniks in unison! We’re hoping that this will open the door for some creative co-op play and routes only accessible by using certain characters’ moves.
It seems like, for all its Classic Sonic approach to gameplay, Sonic Superstars does pick up a few things from the more Modern Sonic titles. Such as this set-piece which sees Sonic being chased by a massive…. robot fish thing.
Amy Rose is playable for only the second time in the Sonic series (after her gameplay debut in the upcoming Sonic Origins Plus, of course). Here she is running around with her Piko Piko Hammer – possibly deadly for any robots standing in her way.
As reports have revealed, there are special abilities that can be unlocked using retrieved Chaos Emeralds in the game. This could be one of those powers in action.
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Well strike us down if the hits just don’t keep on coming with Sonic Superstars! Your eyes don’t deceive you – after a many-year hiatus, everyone’s favourite Wolf/Gerboa is back as an antagonist in the upcoming 2D Classic Sonic game. And this time, it sounds like he has a friend; designed by none other than the original designer of Sonic himself!
Fang the Sniper (or Nack the Weasel, as the character was known in the West during the 1990s) was a sneaky gun-toting foe of Sonic’s that originally appeared in the Game Gear classic, Sonic Triple Trouble. Besides a brief stint in spinoff game Sonic the Fighters, however, the character has not been seen or recognised in the franchise since. So for big Fang fans (like me!), his return as an enemy in Sonic Superstars is super exciting!
But if you’re quick you can also spot him sneaking about at the very start of the trailer too!
What’s more, is that a press release for the game has revealed that original Sonic designer Naoto Ohshima is on board with SEGA and Sonic Team to create a brand new character that Sonic and his friends will have to face. We are taking this to mean that whoever this mysterious new foe is will be teaming up with Fang in some way as well (after all, the Weasel does like to have a contingency plan in place!).
We’ll share more details about Sonic Superstars as we get it!
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SEGA have today announced a brand new 2D Sonic the Hedgehog title, Sonic Superstars, which will hit consoles later in the year.
According to the press release:
Sonic Superstars™, an all-new Sonic the Hedgehog game bringing a new standard of play to classic high-speed 2D Sonic platforming. In Sonic Superstars, Sonic and his friends’ journey starts on the beautiful North Star Islands, a mystical place offering never-before-seen environments, as well as a mysterious story waiting to unfold.
— Sonic the Hedgehog (@sonic_hedgehog) June 8, 2023
Here’s everything you need to know about the game!
1. Ohshima is Back!
That’s right, our favourite Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator is back at the helm on this new Sonic title! Who could be better than Sonic’s dad to be at the helm?
Ohshima-san is overseeing the fresh new 3D look of this platformer.
2. Fang the Sniper is also back!
We were a bit giddy at this news (especially Adam – Fang is his fave!), but the purple peril will be armed with his cork-gun and undoubtedly causing trouble for our heroes!
You’ll have to wait until the end of the trailer to see him (unless you really have eagle-eyes!) but it is well worth it – he even arrives in his own vehicle, the Marvellous Queen!
3. A Whole New World
Sonic and his friends will be travelling to the new environment of North Star Islands, a “mystical place offering never-before-seen environments, as well as a mysterious story waiting to unfold”.
4. The Number of Characters!
That’s right! FOUR CHARACTERS in the initial roster. From the teaser trailer, it looks like players will be able to take control of Amy Rose, alongside our regular trio.
In addition to this, it looks like as a first for a 2D Sonic title, you can play as all characters simultaneously! Awesome (but I still get to be Sonic, you can be Tails).
5. New Abilities Ahoy!
Sonic and pals will be making full use of some pseudo-3D features, such as wall running and waterfall climbing in this new installment. Undoubtedly each character looks to have some unique abilities – such as an ability to clone!
6. Special Stages on Steroids
We get a brief glimpse at the new Special Stages in Sonic Superstars, that look to take notes from some of the original rotating zones from the original title.
In addition to that, it looks as though there will also be 3D environments in some special stages through which the player must navigate dangers.
7. Pac Man Fever
While the new game will make use of 3D models and assets, the game will also give nods back to the classic 16-bit look as well.
Oddly, we also see our heroes transform into jellyfish characters, vaguely reminiscent of the ghosts from Pac Man. Why do they transform? We are yet to find out!
8. Let’s Get Physical
The game will be released both digitally and Physically across all major platforms for the RRP of $59.99, so those of you looking to invest in a hard copy won’t have to wait for, say, Sonic Superstars Plus!
Are you folks excited? We certainly are!
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SEGA has surprise-announced a brand new 2D Sonic game at Summer Game Fest 2023, called Sonic Superstars!
Featuring 3D models and environments and focusing entirely on Classic Sonic gameplay, Sonic Superstars will see Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy Rose go on a new adventure as they tackle Dr. Eggman in a scenario reminiscent of the 16-bit days… only this time, Eggman has help in the form of returning classic bad guy, Fang the Sniper!
According to IGN, the game will take place in a new location called the North Star Islands, which look like it’s going to be home to a whole lot of new gimmicks such as vines that shoot Sonic upwards, trees that the blue blur can grind along and chutes that work in a similar way to those found in Stardust Speedway.
Apparently the Chaos Emeralds are also back, and can be seen to unlock specific powers for Sonic and friends. We can see in one instance where the player makes clones of themselves, and another where the player travels up a waterfall using another Chaos Emerald power.
— Sonic the Hedgehog (@sonic_hedgehog) June 8, 2023
Sonic Superstars will be coming to PlayStation 5, PS4, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC later in Fall 2023.
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SEGA HARDlight has announced the next wave of new characters for Sonic Forces Mobile, and for Silver and Sonic Prime fans there is a lot to be happy about. Super Silver will be joining the race for the first time, as well as Shatterverse protagonists Knuckles the Dread and Thorn Rose. And for Super Silver, we’re treated to an incredible CG render that harks back to some classic Sonic Channel Yuji Uekawa artwork. Check out the images below.
The images come from Sonic Forces Mobile superfan SonicWindBlue, with the details and dates pulled from SEGA HARDlight’s Discord server – Knuckles the Dread will be the first character available to unlock during this season, with his event running from 15 June – 22nd June. Then, Super Silver will be bogarting Sonic’s birthday by having his event run from 22nd June – 29th June. And then, Thorn Rose will be unlockable from 13th July – 20th July.
We will add all of these events to the Sonic Stadium Events Calendar soon, so you can keep track.
In addition to all this multiverse multi-character madness, the Sonic Forces Mobile app in general was updated to version 4.18 today, here’s a list of changes made to the game with this new patch (via HARDlight’s Discord channel):
Fixed an issue where Babylon Rogue characters could get stuck in their jumping animation after slamming onto grind rails
Fixed an issue where the text for ‘Special’ rarity would go onto two lines when language set to Russian
Fixed an issue where the text for ‘Challenger’ rarity would go onto two lines when language set to German or Russian
Fixed an issue with the visual effect of second dash pad (on triple dashpad boost)
Removed the incorrect free chest reward info displayed in tiers section
Fixed an issue with the party match ticket icon that sometimes appears in Lightning Deals
Fixed an issue where suspending the app when activating Super Form could prevent ring drain
The new update now comes with an awesome-looking new splash screen featuring Super Silver (via SWB):
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If you’re tempted to get a physical copy of Sonic Origins Plus when it releases in a couple weeks’ time, then you may want to check in with European limited editions specialist Pix’n Love Games, which has announced that it is working with SEGA and PLAION to release a ‘Collectors Edition’ of the compilation.
Posted on the company’s social media channels earlier today, Pix’n Love Games called for all “die hard Sonic fans” to simply stay tuned for more details. No details have so far been revealed as to what such a Collector’s Edition might include, but Pix’n Love is no stranger to working with SEGA on special game releases, so chances are there may be some additional things here that would be worth your time.
It appears that the tweet from Pix’n Love announcing the Sonic Origins Plus Collector’s Edition from yesterday (as reported above) has been deleted. The only reference to anything Sonic-related is a tweet from 7 June asking fans to “see you tomorrow”. We’ve reached out to Pix’n Love for an update and we’ll share if we get an answer.
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Those of you who like all your gaming bits and bytes on a physical medium may be in for a little disappointment with the upcoming Sonic Origins Plus release this month. According to information on the game’s box, the additional ‘Plus’ content – playable Amy Rose, Knuckles in Sonic CD the Game Gear titles and more – will only be served to players in the form of a downloadable code.
The information came from eagle-eyed Sonic fan SnazzySonic, who saw a bunch of promotional Sonic Origins Plus boxes on his local GameStop store shelf. “I almost had a heart attack when I thought my GameStop was selling Sonic Origins Plus early,” Snazzy said. But for other fans, the heart attack would be had after looking at the back of the box.
As you can see on the blurb there, the physical edition of Sonic Origins Plus comes complete with all of the bonus content DLC originally released for the base game last year (which actually IS present on the disc/cartridge), as well as the new playable characters and Game Gear titles. But there is a line underneath the Plus-specific content that reads, “Downloadable via included code.”
For many, this won’t be too much of a problem, but there are plenty of people out there that are passionate about game preservation who will feel that the lack of the additional content on disc risks Amy, Knuckles in CD and the GG games being lost media in the far future. You might even wonder why there’s a physical edition in the first place if you’re not getting all of the content on the media. So you can see why this is a bit of an issue.
Still, at least the GameStop had a rad looking Sonic Origins Plus poster to show off at least. So you know, the day wasn’t a total loss, right?
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
After nearly 10 months of work, Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit has received its final update, as well as its long-awaited Android and Mac ports, marking the end of a fan project that began more than a half-decade ago. In a video on his Youtube channel, STT16 director and programmer Noah Copeland revealed everything that the final update would add, before revealing the it and the ports were all being shadowdropped today.
The final update makes some notable changes: it adds a new special stage, a new boss for Knuckles’ campaign, additional cutscene material for the Sonic campaign’s true ending, speed gates for speed runners, and various quality of life improvements.
The new special stage was cut from the initial release, and has the player launching their character into the air in order to collect blue rings while bouncing off black spheres and avoiding the canons that will launch you out of the stage. Collecting 100 blue rings will net the player a life.
Eggman and Metal Sonic become a part of Knuckles’ end game boss rush, with a boss battle specifically built around his climbing and gliding abilities.
The “speed gates” are a new togglable feature that opens special hidden shortcuts in each Act 2. They were specifically added for speed runners, and need to be reached within a certain amount of time or else they’ll close.
Quality of life improvements include the ability to shorten or skip the snowboard mini game, skip the credits and vs mode cutscenes, four checkpoints during Atomic Destroyer’s elevator ride, and an option for continuous play in the Free Play mode.
Copeland also confirmed that Android mobile players will have both touchscreen controls and external controls as options. It is not possible to move the placement of the touchscreen controls, but it’s at least possible to move the placement of the life counter.
Finally, the game’s stellar soundtrack has finally been given an official release! You can download it at the game’s website, which has also received a big update, here. You can download the final update and the ports from the game’s Game Jolt page here.
Copeland also alluded to his future plans: a brand new original game! Be sure to stay tuned to his Youtube channel and Twitter for more news on that project.
For a look at the update, check out Copeland’s announcement video embedded 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.
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.
Take this with an extremely huge vat of salt, but an image purporting to be an official banner image of a new upcoming Sonic x Minecraft crossover DLC pack has begun circulating around the internet.
The above image, according to a number of social media gossip accounts, was apparently pulled from the Marketplace API from within Minecraft itself. As you can see, it illustrates a new set of Sonic the Hedgehog-themed textures for the block-building sandbox game, allowing the ability for players to create accurate depictions of various characters and Badniks from the Sonic game universe.
While we’d be careful of fully believing this until something is officially announced, the image does look pretty authentic, and it wouldn’t be beyond the realm of possibility for additional Minecraft DLC to become a reality soon. With the original Sonic DLC released back in 2021, SEGA and Microsoft have since worked together to launch updated packs, with the most recent appearing last year.
Regardless of whether it’s true or not, do you want to see more Minecraft Sonic DLC? Let us know in the comments section below!
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Sonic Frontiers has seemingly become the fastest-selling mainline 3D Sonic the Hedgehog game ever, as SEGA casually announced yesterday that its latest open-zone adventure has sold 3.5 million units. This puts it above the last officially-released sales data for Sonic Heroes (in 2007), which previously held the title with around 3.4 million units.
The new milestone means that Sonic Frontiers has sold an additional 300,000 units since the start of April 2023, and puts it on a course to be one of the franchise’s best-selling titles. SEGA confirmed that they will be seeking to keep the momentum of the game’s sales going by continuing its strategy to develop cross-media products, merchandising and a regular game release cadence.
Things were interesting on that front as well, with a slide and mention that plans were in place to establish cross-media collaborations between a number of SEGA and Rovio IPs. While the company stopped short of outright announcing a Sonic x Angry Birds crossover, you can see from the slide image above that the publisher is undoubtedly looking at ways to further expand fanbases of both brands in similar ways.
We’ll wait to see what happens on that front. For now, it seems like there’s enough celebrating to do with Sonic Frontiers’ newly-found title as fastest-selling 3D Sonic game! Congratulations SEGA and Sonic Team.
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What do you do when you start to run out of alt characters for your mobile game? Make alts of the alts, of course! SEGA HARDlight is getting creative with this latest tease of a new Sonic Forces: Speed Battle runner. Meet ‘Dragon Hunter Lancelot’!
The above image was shared on the mobile developer’s Discord server, with more information published on Sonic Forces Mobile’s news feed. We’re assuming the design is a Shadow-based take on the Monster Hunter crossover designs that we recently saw in Sonic Frontiers, only using Sonic and the Black Knight’s Lancelot character as a base.
As you can see, this new alt character’s stats are a little different to the regular Lancelot – you can see the skills that you can use once you unlock this character in the image above too.
If Dragon Hunter Lancelot tickles your fancy, you should be able to unlock him during a new upcoming event called ‘Dragon Slayer’, which will run from 18th May until 25th May.
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.
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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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Sonic’s differing US and Japanese design throughout the 1990s is well-documented, but Yasushi Yamaguchi appears to have inadvertently added a new piece of trivia into the history books. The original designer of Miles ‘Tails’ Prower recently revealed that, of all the issues SEGA Japan had with SEGA America’s take on the company’s mascot design, one of the most persistent was over Sonic’s little American crooked legs.
But after being shown photos of SEGA America marketing vehicles and materials featuring a brown Tails based on the old design, Yamauguchi decided to let it be known that SEGA Japan was often annoyed that the US office would ignore the Sonic Team’s design notes.
I have no knowledge of the [above] pictures or figures in the photos. At the time, Sega of America ignored the opinions of the development staff. They did not listen to our requests for the number of fingers on Sonic in the package art, or our request to fix his legs to be straight.
SEGA of America’s maverick approach to marketing and game development in the 1990s is well-documented – and it’s no secret that during the 16-bit console gaming era, the US and Japanese SEGA offices often did not see eye to eye, with the former often ignoring style, design and product guidelines from the latter headquarters.
Sonic the Hedgehog was regularly in the crossfire, with package art and various multi-media projects featuring artwork that differed from the original Japanese design. Most infamously, an entirely new backstory to Sonic’s origin was created by SEGA of America, seemingly without the knowledge of Sonic Team or SEGA Japan at the time. This had been made apparent in recent years with former Sonic Team alumni such as Yuji Naka expressing confusion at hearing stories about ‘Dr Ovi Kintobor’ at the Summer of Sonic convention.
Yamaguchi later added that SEGA Japan actually did not have the adequate resources to fully manage the company’s characters until after the release of Sonic CD, which might explain why there was suddenly a lot more cohesion between the East and West markets after in the late 16-bit era.
Despite all this hubbub in the 90s, it turned out that, according to the SatAM Historian, Sonic co-creator Naoto Oshima was apparently a big fan of the bow-legged American rendition of the hero! So, swings and roundabouts, I guess.
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The director of Sonic Frontiers has confirmed that contributing writer (and IDW Sonic universe author) Ian Flynn will return to work on the upcoming story-based DLC for the game.
Morio Kishimoto responded to fan questions on his social media accounts about the content of the third expansion pack, which will come later in 2023 following Sonic’s birthday-themed DLC in the summer. “Of course, Ian Flynn will write it,” Kishimoto wrote in Japanese (English provided by machine translation).
“Although Sonic Frontier has a huge amount of settings, there are many episodes that could not be told,” the Sonic Team director added. “Now that we’ve decided which episode to go with, I’m sure we’ll be able to meet everyone’s expectations!”
The long-awaited story DLC for Sonic Frontiers will include new playable characters beyond Sonic for the first time in the game – heavily rumoured to be Tails, Knuckles and potentially Amy. It is assumed that the additional content will add much-needed context to many of the base game’s remaining mysteries and storytelling snafus, such as the meaning behind the familiar glyph symbol as well as questions raised by the ending (and post-credits) sequence.
“When I became director, the content of the game was changed to something completely different, but the development code name remained the same, so Rangers ended up being something completely unrelated to the content of the game.”
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An early sprite design for Miles ‘Tails’ Prower has been unearthed in a fresh set of 1990s SEGA and DiC design documents. The reference artwork comes from SEGA of America and was sent to DiC circa 1992, to brief the animation studio on how to illustrate Sonic’s foxy friend in the ‘SatAM’ and ‘Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog’ TV series.
Also, it shows Tails as brown. Very brown.
The discovery follows the reveal of early Tails artwork designed by several sources, including original Tails designer Yasushi Yamaguchi and Greg Martin. These sprites come from this same SatAM Sonic artwork depository, a resource that community archivist @Fieryfurnace obtained recently.
[The assets folder] also included the only colour reference DiC was sent which I’ve found so far (again, I’m assuming this would be late April 1992 based on the dates for the other Tails sheets and DiC’s character design timeline). It’s an early (perhaps the earliest?) sprite sheet of Tails for Sonic 2. This Tails is burnt orange/brown with a peach snout, chest fur, and inner ears. The tips of his tails are white, the same colour as his gloves.
Sonic fans with long memories may recall a version of Tails represented in various merchandise and other media with a peach-coloured muzzle (as opposed to the white colour we are now used to). This was no accident – Fieryfurnace posits that all of that was an accurate depiction of the character as referenced in the above reference document. You can see an image of this below, courtesy of Fieryfurnace:
While there is evidence of an artist – possibly at DiC – taking a stab at recolouring Tails, it was not until Yamaguchi’s final design came in that a standardised look for Tails was set across all media (and even then, there were divergences across territories, such as on Sonic 2’s Mega Drive box artwork). Fieryfurnace tracks the “origins of DiC’s colour schemes for Tails” in the image below:
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After casually announcing it without much fanfare, SEGA HARDlight has shadow-dropped the dates for its newest Sonic Forces and Sonic Dash characters, Popstar Amy and Rockstar Rouge. And what’s more, you can start working towards unlocking one of these new players right now!
Tucked away in its community Discord channel, SEGA HARDlight revealed via its Events Calendar that the first event in the ‘World Tour’ series has begun today. Popstar Amy has arrived in Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, and if you want to keep her as an active competitor you must collect a number of character tokens in order to have her on the roster.
We also know the cadence of the rest of the ‘World Tour’ events, too. Once Popstar Amy ends on 20 April, Rockstar Rouge will be available for a limited time in Sonic Forces until 27 April. Then the two characters move on to Sonic Dash, with Popstar Amy available between 20 – 26 April and Rockstar Rouge taking the stage from 27 April until 02 May.
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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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This week, Sonic Speed Simulator developer Gamefam has reached a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board regarding an early 2023 complaint. GamesIndustry.biz reports Gamefam put developer Joshua DeBoer on leave after DeBoer discussed the studio’s salaries with other employees to identify if Gamefam payed below industry expectations for the duties involved.
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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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Andy Collins, an artist who has contributed to the Sonic 3 & Knuckles remaster in Sonic Origins, has published a statement that confirms the presence of fan-made sprites from the ROM hack ‘Sonic 3 Complete’ within the final release of Origins.
“It has come to my attention that several sprites of Super Sonic from Sonic 3 Complete ended up being used in Sonic Origins,” Collins, also known as A+Start, wrote on his Twitter page. “This was an honest mistake on my part. They were used as reference [images] during production and due to my way of working, went unnoticed amongst already completed sprites. I believed they were sprites I’d already started, and kept working them until I thought they were complete.”
“Obviously, this isn’t ideal and doesn’t reflect my work,” the statement continues. “I can only apologise and hope this doesn’t incite any ill will towards myself or Headcannon [the developer of the Sonic 3 & Knuckles remaster within Sonic Origins].”
Collins is a well-known artist within the community, and his sprite and pixel skills are showcased well in the Sonic Origins compilation package – most notably for us, within the intro sequence for the New Blue Spheres game mode, which features an impressive 3D Sonic leaping towards the screen.
The artist published the above statement on April 1, leading some to believe this may have been an April Fools prank. But with no follow-up message and many commentators corroborating Collins’ words about lifted Super Sonic sprites, it seems like this is a genuine notice addressing a genuine mistake.
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SEGA’s April Fools Day video game, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, has become anything but a joke – with over one million players downloading the title since it launched on Steam on March 31. We feel like that has to be some kind of record, right? Well, if it isn’t, it’s still super impressive!
The news was announced by Sonic Social Media Manager Katie Chrzanowski, who also executive produced the light-hearted detective thriller. Chrzanowski also revealed that the game has been highly rated by those who have played it too, with ‘Murder’ currently sitting at #61 on highest-rated games on Steam of all time.
It’s an incredible milestone for a comical spinoff game made entirely by the US-based Sonic social media team. Of course, while the fact the game is free could go some way to explain its explosive popularity, it doesn’t discount the huge positive reception from all players who have tried it. It’s been warmly embraced by everyone who has taken the time to play it – it’s a great little detective story!
So it has been a great weekend for the Sonic social team – and all it took was killing off their company’s mascot! Congratulations, SEGA!
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SEGA HARDlight recently teased some new incoming characters for avid players of its mobile Sonic games, with the below image shared on its social media accounts last week. Now, following a server maintenance update we know more about the two musical racers about to hit Sonic Forces Mobile and Sonic Dash.
Promising “sweet melodies and electrifying guitar solos”, Popstar Amy and Rockstar Rouge will soon take centre stage in an upcoming in-game event, likely to be formally announced next week once HARDlight’s Spring-themed catch-up event ends.
Both new characters will come with an exhilarating 10/10 Speed stat when they arrive in Sonic Forces Mobile, but Popstar Amy will be built more for Acceleration (7/10), with a Strength stat of 6/10. Meanwhile, Rockstar Rouge goes all out on Strength (8/10) at a cost to Accel (6/10).
Popstar Amy will be equipped with Wind Boost and Tornado, along with new skill Solo Hit that constantly drops stun hazards ahead of your rivals as long as it’s active. Rockstar Rouge hits the track with Electro Boost and Storm Cloud, on top of a skill called Hard Rock – this will silence any nearby rivals and also fire off multi-lane projectiles at further-away enemies!
The introduction of these two new characters should spice up the action on the circuit, no doubt! We can’t wait for the in-game event to begin.
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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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