Categories xxOLDArticles

Sonic Relief 2010

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Author Shadzter
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Press Release by MK Skillz Founder of Sonic Relief:

Sonic Relief is back with a bang! Following the unexpected success of last year’s campaign, Sonic Relief 2010 aims to be bigger, better, and more successful!

This year’s campaign aims to raise money for the biennial Sport Relief charity event from Comic Relief, which brings together the worlds of sport and entertainment to raise money to help vulnerable people in both the UK and the world’s poorest countries. You can find out more about Sport Relief by visiting http://www.sportrelief.com/

HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?
FAN SUBMISSIONS
The basic premise of the campaign is still the same as last year – do something Sonic for money! Whether you want to draw a picture, sing a song, make a video… literally ANYTHING… then we want to see it! The possibilities are endless!

This year’s theme is “something sporty” to coincide with the charity we are raising money for, but that’s not to say you can’t make it humorous too – as long as your submissions still have some relevance to Sport Relief.

There is one fundamental change to this year though – due to the good ol’ recession, Shadzter and myself won’t be able to do what we did last year whereby a certain amount of money was donated for every submission. Instead, this time we ask if the people submitting could make a small donation along with their submission (only £1 or so will do!). It may seem a bit cheeky, but it’s for a good cause – and there’s something in it for you, too! Each paid submission will be entered into the contest for Best Sonic Relief Submission 2010, and our favourite will win a prize!
*It should be noted that donations are not compulsory, but you will not be entered into the contest if you do not donate*

JUSTGIVING DONATIONS
Sonic Relief 2010 will also utilise JustGiving, a system which allows anyone to make a donation (of however much they wish) to our cause – and the money will go straight to Sport Relief! This enables you to do whatever you like to raise money for Sonic Relief – make a calendar, have a ‘Day in Blue’, participate in a fun run… anything! Raise some cash and then pass it on to us via JustGiving!

Alternatively you can just simply pledge some money via JustGiving. Whether you want to make a set donation no matter what or you want to follow a similar system to last year whereby a certain amount is donated based on how many submissions we receive… well, that’s up to you! We’re giving you every possible option you could ever want to raise money this year!

*You will need a credit or debit card to donate via JustGiving*

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Submissions wishing to be entered into the contest should be sent to shadzter@sonicstadium.org as an attachment or a link (depending on what your submission is), along with some form of proof that you have made a donation to Sonic Relief 2010 (be it a name so that we can check you have donated on our JustGiving page or a print screen of your donation).

Submissions not wishing to be entered into the contest should be posted as normal in the SSMB topic, the same as with last year’s campaign, so that everyone can see them and be inspired by them. Submissions wishing to be entered into the contest can also be posted in the SSMB topic so that we can keep a total of how many submissions have been made to the campaign (in case anyone is planning to donate using a similar system to last year).

The closing date for submissions and donations will be midnight (GMT) on Sunday 21st March 2010 to coincide with the end of the Sport Relief Weekend.

If you have any queries regarding this year’s campaign, do not hesitate to contact either myself or Shadzter and we will do our best to respond.

Contact MK Skillz at SSMB
E-mail Shadzter: shadzter@sonicstadium.org

Thanks for all your support so far and stay tuned for more Sonic Relief announcements coming soon!

[Sonic Relief Facebook Group] [@SonicReliefUK on Twitter] [Sonic Relief JustGiving Page]

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.
Categories xxOLDArticles, xxOLDInterviews

Community Interview: Hazard the Porgoyle

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Author Slingerland
8 Comments

Remember when Dreadknux said that you could “get in touch” with us here at TSS?  Well, a visitor of ours did.  He has been featured here before and wanted to showcase his improvement for all of you.  I said, “Well, hey, your improvement is so great and your art has always been awesome.  Why not do an interview?”  And here we are… about to sit down with “Hazard the Porgoyle,” a guy who “lives to recreate Sonic boss battles.”

Brad Flick: Welcome back to the front page, Haz.  It’s great to finally talk to you.  I’m a big fan of your boss battle art.

Hazard the Porgoyle: Thanks… and thanks for featuring me here at TSS again.

Brad Flick: No problem.  So, what inspired you to start recreating boss battles from Sonic?

Hazard the Porgoyle: When I joined deviantART in 2005, all I had to present were a couple of Sonic Adventure Egg Carrier clay figures and some fancharacter drawings. I did obtain a Sonic Adventure 2 Battle strategy guide prior to that, and in it was a render of the Biolizard. I figured, “Why not recreate that model on paper, then insert the background around it?” So, for a couple of years I carried around a (rather shoddy) hand drawing of just that.  When I drifted away from hand drawing and delved into Macromedia Flash 7, I thought, “While I’m trying to learn this program, I might as well see what that old picture looks like when redrawn in Flash.” I posted the result, and (even regarding its quality) it was a hit. (Nowadays, and after a load of edits, that picture looks a little something like this http://hazard-the-porgoyle.deviantart.com/art/The-Prototype-The-Biolizard-87732400 ) From there, I began to think, what other seldom drawn scenes from the Sonic series can I put a new perspective on?  Such is my motto today.

BF: Cool.  You were featured a year ago in the “Fanatics” series when we were in the blog format last January.  The series only ran for a few months, so not a whole lot of artists were highlighted here How did that make you feel to be featured?

HP: At the time, (and even today) it couldn’t have felt better. It was such a pleasant surprise, (surprise is an understatement – I nearly jumped out of my skin) and I will certainly cherish the memory of that January morning forever. It started so normally, except that I had 48 messages out of nowhere, and continuing my morning routine by visiting my favorite Sonic Fan Site I found, well, you know.  Alas, after a time I was troubled – I saw how my skills were growing, and how by comparison, quite a few of my pictures had an off model Sonic and completely unrealistic shading.

BF: You thought that you had unrealistic shading then?  You certainly look like you’ve gotten better at it.  Do you think that you’ve improved a lot in the last year?

HP: It would seem that risks make all the difference. As time has passed, I not only improved my shading (switching from slapping radial gradients on everything to Photoshop 7’s Burn and Dodge tools) and accuracy, but also started playing with even more dynamic perspectives. My accuracy standards have also driven me to never leave any stone unturned. (Action Replay float codes anyone?) Details I thought were “good enough” in the past… not so much nowadays. If I had to bullet point it all, it’d look something like:

– Started drawing Sonic correctly.

– Vastly improved efficiency.  Pictures that may take others a week to do can be completed in a day or two by me.

– Learned how lighting works in the real world, and have applied that to my shading techniques.

– Starting expanding the cast found in my pictures.

– Started to truly understand Geometry and Perspective, leading to more dynamic scenes.

BF: It shows.  Your DeviantArt profile is full of your boss images.  What have you accomplished since starting your DA profile?

HP: Now I’m starting to wish I left one badly drawn picture for comparison, but hey, that in itself is an accomplishment. As I have improved and expanded my skills, I’ve extensively overhauled my Sonic Boss gallery to make sure every moment of the Sonic Series has equal representation through my hands. Specifically, my greatest accomplishments have to be my large animation projects. “To End a King’s Reign” and “For the Fallen Land’s Fate…” both take all of the same elements found in any still picture, and sets them into motion. But no, this doesn’t mean they’re perfect, (they are quite repetitive) but what I have learned form those projects can and will lead to bigger and better things. Oh, and nearly quadrupling my Boss gallery in a single year ain’t too shabby, neither.

BF: It also is amazing that you’ve managed to touch base with almost every game, including Sonic Labyrinth! What do you hope to do with your boss battle art, if anything?

HP: I don’t plan on things changing too much – I draw solely for the people of the Sonic community, just to see their reactions to finding that “Hey, someone does remember that boss.”  I’m learning what I hope are skills that will better my chances of working in the field that I hope to enter, but other than that, these pictures are for the fans.

BF: What are your other works of art that you are proud of?

HP: Outside of Sonic bosses, I may not do much, but when I put my skills towards other projects, I make it count. Case in point, in Spring ’09, Chicago held its Farmers Markets Reusable Bag Design Contest. No prizes for guessing who won that and got their picture taken with the mayor.   Closing statements: People of the Sonic Community, it’s only because of you that I have improved at all. Without feedback, I’d still be stuck in yesteryear’s patterns. Comments are always valued, and I hope to build my knowledge for the production of even greater pictures and animations. Brad, I cannot express my gratitude for you taking time out of your schedule to create this article, and I hope it marks the beginning of a productive and fulfilling year.

BF: And just for fun… which Sonic games are your favorite?

HP: There can never be a clear cut winner (I seem to go through phases with this sort of thing), but it boils down to Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, and Sonic Rush Adventure. The rich level design of S3&K keeps it from getting stale, the replay value of the hunters’ stages and Chao in SA2B keeps it fresh, and Rush Adventure’s fast and frantic boss battles are always a joy to experience.

BF: Thanks for the interview, Haz.  It was great to hear about your improvement as an artist.

HP: No, thank you.  Being featured here is an honor.

BF: Before you go… tell me… what the hell is a “porgoyle?”

HP: I knew this wasn’t going to conclude without that loose end being tied up. Porcupine Gargoyle, my friend. I was only about 11 or 12 when I made that really awkward concept up.

BF: That’s… really ridiculous.  Oh, fancharacters…

Visit Hazard’s DeviantArt Gallery of Sonic Boss Battles!


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What Up With That?: The Needlemouse Trailer

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Author Slingerland
28 Comments

Ooooooooooo weeeeeeee… what up with that?

Did you hear some “news” that Integrated Alchemy (IA), not SEGA, produced the Needlemouse trailer?  Did you get mad when IA revealed that they hadn’t seen nor heard anything about the game?  Have you abandoned all hope for Project Needlemouse for no good reason?  Well, don’t worry, because today on “What Up With That?,” we’re going to clear up all of the questions floating around.

SEGA outsourced the trailer to another company.  What up with that?

That happens… fairly regularly.  There are whole production houses devoted to creating trailers all over the world.  Integrated Alchemy is no different.  Look at their website and watch their sizzle reel.  They make trailers for a multitude of gaming companies.  Shock.

It’s also not the first time that SEGA has handed over their hype to someone else.  If the Mazuri video didn’t leak, we would have seen this werehog/ring smash teaser first.

There’s no gameplay footage, images, or artwork.  What up with that?

That’s why it’s called a teaser.  You can build hype for a game without showing any media whatsoever.  That’s how hype works.  Remember those Halo 3 “action figure” commercials (these were also outsourced to another company)?  You know nothing about the game, but you know that you want it after having seen the teaser:

 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjhSp7xGsMc[/youtube]

SEGA told Integrated Alchemy nothing.  What up with that?

SEGA is famous for copious amounts of leaks, mostly through their FTP or the Australian ratings board.  Maybe they finally want to keep everything under wraps for once.  Isn’t that great?

Or, hey, maybe you’re one who thinks that they didn’t have anything at the time.  If you are, the next section is for you…

SEGA deceived us all by not having anything upon commissioning the trailer.  Needlemouse is full of lies.  What up with that?

This one is my favorite.  There are a few people out there who still don’t understand “teaser trailers” (please scroll up and read again if you still don’t).  These special few are of the belief that SEGA will not deliver on the promises in the teaser, since they didn’t make it themselves and did not show/tell Integrated Alchemy anything aside from “we’re making a new retro, 2D Sonic game.”  Well, let’s stop right there and make those people look stupid.

Do you remember when the trailer was released alongside a Q&A at GameSpot?  Ken Ballough reaffirmed that we would be getting everything that (literally) flew at us in the teaser.  Also, if SEGA didn’t entirely agree with the trailer’s content, then they would have axed it.  IA might have developed the trailer, but there is no way in blue hell that they would also release it.  When you’re being outsourced/commissioned to do something, you’re going to give the paying customer (in this case, SEGA) what they want.  In short, everything that you see and hear in this trailer will be in the final product.

Besides, SEGA wouldn’t want some company that makes trailers and motion graphics to dig a hole that they can’t fill.  SEGA already has a hard enough time filling the holes that they dig themselves.

Integrated Alchemy started this whole mess with their video’s description.  What up with that?

It’s obvious: they’re dumbasses.  Really good with After Effects… but dumbasses nonetheless.

I care a lot about whatever we’re talking about.  What up with that?

Go ride a bike.  It’s not a big deal… at all.

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Decade Moment: Visiting SEGA’s London HQ

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Author Paul Street
13 Comments

What is a “Decade Moment?”  It is a moment from the past ten years that us here at TSS remember vividly to this day.  A game announcement, completing a tough level, or acquiring some slick merchandise… everything memorable and certifiably Sonic counts.
Being a life long Sonic fan has been difficult at times, being a lifelong SEGA fan even more so. When I was growing up you were in one of two groups; either a SEGA fan or a Nintendo fan. This division separated playgrounds around the country with kids either boasting about their new Mega Drive or SNES games. Harsh words were spoken, sometimes fights even broke out but supporting your chosen brand meant everything and meant it for life. At least, it did for me.

Believe it or not SEGA were actually the more popular company in the UK while I know Nintendo ruled the US. Unfortunately this didn’t last for very long. With the botched launches of the SEGA CD and 32X SEGA’s popularity waned and by the time the Saturn rolled around hardcore SEGA fans were few and far between, taunted by the legion of videogame players who’d turned to the PlayStation or N64. While they enjoyed the likes of Final Fantasy VII and Mario 64 I happily played NiGHTS, revelled in Sonic R & Sonic Jam and waited patiently for the next real Sonic game.

I felt I was rewarded for my loyalty when I won a Dreamcast around its launch from the old SEGA Europe website in 1999. To say I was happy would be a gross understatement. I remember screaming and doing laps round my house, pumping my fists in the air. Everyone knows how the Dreamcast’s commercial failure spelled the end of SEGA’s console manufacturing days but it was good just to be part of what’s now being called the world’s most underrated console.

If you’ve read up to here you must be thinking what all of this has to do with my moment of the decade. The problem is without a back story my moment won’t seem that significant and hopefully now you’ve got a small insight into my mindset when it comes to all things SEGA.
As these things tend to happen with people so passionate about the pastimes they love I ended up writing about SEGA related things and because of said writing I was invited to SEGA’s HQ in London to preview Sonic Unleashed two weeks before its release in 2008. The trip on the train from Leeds to London was nerve-wracking and navigating London’s Tube system a nightmare. Despite all the best written directions I had I was sure I was going to get lost but after taking the exit from a station I saw it from a distance; those four blue letters adorned on the top of a building; SEGA. I took a picture.

Allow me to elaborate on how much of a near religious moment this was for me. Since the age of six I’d asked for and bought all things SEGA so finally visiting the Mecca that is Sega’s London HQ was astounding. Add to the fact that I got to play a new ‘proper’ Sonic game two weeks before the majority of the population, be one of the first people to see Night Of The Werehog, take home some SEGA merch and a Sonic advent calendar and I was absolutely ecstatic. That’s not all, I also got to meet the awesome AAUK, Svend, T-Bird, Shadzter, Vger, Flyoy Fox, Violet and more (If I’ve forgotten your names play hell with me in the comment section of this post) and chat to them after the event. I’ll never forget how knackered poor AAUK was in the pub after, too tired to even contemplate my offer of a pint. Talk turned to how the intro to Unleashed was probably the best Sonic intro ever and hopes for it to be truly special.

The jury is out on how special the game turned out but at least its rated rather highly by TSS staff. What was special beyond a shadow of a doubt was that day, visiting SEGA HQ and meeting some fantastic new faces. No wonder I ended up writing here.

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Decade Moment: The “MarioKart: Double Dash!!” Demo Disc

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Author Slingerland
17 Comments

What is a “Decade Moment?”  It is a moment from the past ten years that us here at TSS remember vividly to this day.  A game announcement, completing a tough level, or acquiring some slick merchandise… everything memorable and certifiably Sonic counts.

In the last ten years of running Sonic forums, playing Sonic games, and just simply being a fan, there is one moment that trumps all… and it’s from the least likely of places: a pre-order bonus for a Mario game.  In October of 2003, Nintendo announced that the long-awaited entry in the MarioKart series would be giving away demo discs with a pre-order.  I could care less for demo discs and the crap that they try to push on people.  Even today, with Nintendo’s DS Download Service, they rarely have anything worth checking out.  This demo disc was different though… it was stacked.

Check out this line-up: Mario Party 5, F-Zero GX, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike.

About three games out of those four ended up being any good (and in F-Zero and Rogue Squadron’s case… fantastic).  You would think that this list would have me hooked right then and there.  I was surprisingly not sold, however, until I got to the bottom of the list and read “Sonic Heroes.”

Flashback to a few weeks ago.  A trailer had just come out for Sonic Heroes that was SEGA’s trailer of the decade.  It gave me goosebumps to watch words fly at you, Sonic and company blazing past bright and colorful levels reminscent of the Genesis days, and to hear a movie trailer voice-over narrate it all.  But nothing… nothing prepared you for the fangasm that was “The Return of Metal Sonic:”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqMoXT3VJEk[/youtube]

Needless to say, I was a happy as a sophomore in high school could be.  My childhood icon was calling back to his 90s glory.  I knew that I was going to get Double Dash!! but this demo alone sweetened the deal.  Once the option was available, I immediately went to put a pre-order down at GameStop so that I could get my hands on “the return of a legend.”  Luckily, the store is not too far away from my house.  I was only a permit-carrying driver at the time, so with my parents at work, I was breaking the law.  I couldn’t contain myself though… I needed this demo disc.

I put $5 down and got back home safe and sound.  The only thing that wasn’t safe was my grades, because I’m pretty sure I gave a big “fuck that” to my homework that night.

There were only two levels: Seaside Hill with Team Sonic and Bullet Station with Team Dark.  Those two levels turned into hours of entertainment and eventually became days of satiating my desire to play the full version.  I had to keep myself occupied until January 5th.

Sonic Heroes fulfilled the insane amount of hype that I had running through me once I purchased it with my two Best Buy gift cards on that fateful day in January.  I played it for months until I got all A-ranks.  Still, the memories of playing Sonic Heroes until completion have faded and standing strong today six years later… is a demo disc for a Mario game.

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2000 – 2009: The Decade At TSS

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Author Dreadknux
15 Comments

We’re not ones to blow our own trumpet, despite the somewhat laid back approach we have to writing about Sonic the Hedgehog and just generally being fans of the series. Hey, we like a laugh, and we’re just here to have a laugh with you. But since its opening on the 24th October 2000, I think this little website has accomplished quite a lot, given its rags-to-riches story. We will be celebrating our tenth anniversary starting tomorrow, but first let’s take a quick look back at some of the things we’ve created for the community, for better or for worse. Continue reading 2000 – 2009: The Decade At TSS

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Categories xxOLDArticles, xxOLDReviews

The Sonic Stadium Soundtrack Squad Review: Crush 40 – Super Sonic Songs

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Author Adam Tuff
10 Comments

Dec 09 Title

The SSSS (that’s the Sonic Stadium Soundtrack Squad) launch their regular soundtrack review program; to kick off we take a look at the recent Crush 40 Best of album, Super Sonic Songs…

Continue reading The Sonic Stadium Soundtrack Squad Review: Crush 40 – Super Sonic Songs

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Sonic Music Artist Roundtable On True Colours Album

Posted on
Author Adam Tuff
3 Comments

pic_01

I think one of my all time top ten fantasies (after the one where I’m trapped in an elevator with Tia Carerre) would be to sit around a table with some of the musical geniuses who have worked on Sonic music past and present. Well, to commemorate the launch of the second best of Sonic the Hedgehog album “True Colours”, The big names in the Sonic music Universe, namely Tomoya Ohtani, Hataya Hisashi, Jun Senoue and Kenichi Tokoi gathered to reflect on some of their masterpieces from the past….

Continue reading Sonic Music Artist Roundtable On True Colours Album

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Gamespot Check Out SEGA Tokyo HQ

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Author Shadzter
9 Comments

SEGA Japan 6

You may remember last week when we informed you that Gamespot were after user questions for their visit to SEGA’s Tokyo HQ, well they have returned and shared some photo’s from SEGA’s foyer.
Continue reading Gamespot Check Out SEGA Tokyo HQ

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Bentley Jones’ ASR Theme “So Much More” to be released as EP in 2010!

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Author Adam Tuff
12 Comments

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faorrs29Pc8&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Bentley Jones fans rejoice! Mr. Brotherton  has been an extremely busy beaver (except when I seem to phone him, then he’s always figureskating with Silver), and has made several important announcements…

Continue reading Bentley Jones’ ASR Theme “So Much More” to be released as EP in 2010!

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What Up With That?: Sonic Classic Collection

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Author Slingerland
16 Comments

Ooooooooooo weeeeeeee… what up with that?

It’s official… Sonic Classic Collection is coming to the Nintendo DS (I’m surprised that SEGA has not run out of names for their Sonic compilations).  The Genesis games have been whored-out onto every console and gadget, including my grandfather’s pacemaker and the Atari 2600.  It was inevitable  that Nintendo’s best-selling handheld would get in on the action.

Today on “What Up With That?,” we’re not going to ask why SEGA keeps repackaging the Genesis Sonic games (because it has been made perfectly clear that they love to make money through exerting minimal effort), but looking at these screenshots that they have put out with their press release.  Questions have been floating around many a Sonic forum over the past day or two, so hit the break to recap all the weirdness: Continue reading What Up With That?: Sonic Classic Collection

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SEGA’s guide to destroying rare Sonic merchandise: Part one

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Author Adam Tuff
18 Comments

While on my own merch expedition through the darkest depths of the interwebs, I stumbled across these rare jewels of advertisement from the Sonic Adventure era. I cry at the thought that these plushes were thrown out of planes and down waterfalls, even if the dialogue is hillarious.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch93SSm2r9Y[/youtube]

It’s true what they say you know…every time you feed a rare plush to a crocodile, a Sonic merch collector drops dead…

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Win A Christmas Cards from Sonic Team? Japan Only Please!

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Author Adam Tuff
11 Comments

NOFAIR

I think at one time or another we’ve all complained that our friends across the Atlantic or Pacific really do get a much better deal than ourselves when it comes to getting Sonic stuff. Well, this season the Japanese have really beaten everyone on the scale of awesomeness…

Continue reading Win A Christmas Cards from Sonic Team? Japan Only Please!

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9/9/09: What Sonic Adventure Still Means To Us

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Author Dreadknux
30 Comments

01

Ten years ago, Sega made their last stand in the gaming hardware market and launched the Dreamcast to a furore of positive media and rabid impulse sales. Released day and date with the console was the big comeback of the company’s blue, cool mascot – a game that was the last true product of the Sonic Team Old Guard. Sonic Adventure’s release on 9/9/99 was important, not only to sustain any sort of success for the Dreamcast, but because of the positive revitalisation of the franchise that it introduced too. Even today, it remains the best example of a Sonic the Hedgehog game in a true 3D space.

In terms of storyline, it was the perfect balance between the somewhat non-committal plotlines of the original Mega Drive classics and cutscene-heavy stories that slowly plagued the Sonic game series after SA1’s release. There were plenty of scenes to sit through, yeah, but they were largely inoffensive affairs. An event happens, Sonic goes to investigate, turns out Eggman/Robotnik’s behind it all, get the Chaos Emeralds before he does. That’s about the depth of Sonic Adventure, and that’s how deep it really should be. Keep the fight to a continuous struggle between a wannabe dictator bent on polluting the world and a small group of larger-than-life woodland creatures.

pre_004Of course, there’s the history of the Echidna race and the origins of Chaos that start to drag on after a while, but the game’s design and approach was charming enough to let you sit through it. Many Sonic titles since have taken the story-based play too heavily, throwing a cutscene after every stage, boss or event that follows almost the exact same traits of SA1. Right down to the ‘ultimate doomsday monster’ in the Final chapter that threatens the world beyond Robotnik. Even Sonic Unleashed, which had a relatively light-hearted approach, chose to bog the player down in tedious scenes and pointless dialogue.

So Sonic Adventure stands the test of time in terms of storyline, but what about design? The truth is, the blue hog’s first outing on the 128-bit console stands to be the most creative in the last ten years. Iconic level themes were reborn into 3D, with colours and graphical effects that really made you feel you were inside a Sonic the Hedgehog game. Emerald Coast gave us luscious sandy beaches, bright blue seas and fantastic loops to play around in. Windy Valley’s final segment was a fabulous rush of speed, wherein gliding around twisty corners and bends felt so natural on the Dreamcast’s analogue stick. Final Egg is still one of the best examples of a final zone yet, 3D or otherwise, and nothing needs to be said about how awesome Twinkle Park and Speed Highway are.

It was the eclectic mix of fabulous imaginative architecture, bounding robotic animals (alas, Sonic Adventure was the last Sonic title to have true ‘badniks’ that were both unique and relevant to their respective environment) and excellent level design that truly made Sonic Adventure a step ahead of the platforming game when it was released in 1999. And today, the feel of these levels more than rival anything played on a Sonic game since.

The design of the Action Stages were in fact rather clever – rather than giving players a true sense of freedom with branching pathways and different routes, SA1 was more linear than gamers realised. What Sonic Team did instead was become more aware of the space being given to users; many stages looped around themselves or had you double-backing (despite you technically always heading forwards to your goal), several optional platforms around the same area would make themselves available if you were going fast enough or achieving a certain condition (such as running up the building walls in Speed Highway), and a lot of platform negotiation was required besides your speed.

pre_007In fact, this last point is perhaps one of the key elements to Sonic Adventure’s success. Sonic the Hedgehog, as a character and in his nature, is exceptionally fast. Too fast, naturally, for the player to handle. Sonic Unleashed was proof of this. But as a game concept from a developer’s point of view, Sonic the Hedgehog has always been a physics based platformer. Speed is but a symptom of the ‘rolling ball’ physics, not an overriding factor. Sonic Team understood this, all the way until Sonic Adventure where it was perhaps the last game in the franchise to focus just as much as platforming and inertia as it was about going hella fast.

Wrapping up the package for eager Sonic fans on the 9th September was the awesome score, headed by Jun Senoue and featuring jazz rock, slap bass and a hearty amount of keyboard synth pop. Hearing all of the instruments come together to produce a sound as endearing as “Windy and Ripply” brings a sense of contentment when playing the game, and that’s not to mention the sheer heart-filling sensation you get when you listen to these tracks on their own with headphones on. Soaking in the audio masterpieces made in this game is a truly great thing to experience.

So many other things helped make Sonic Adventure the fantastic game that it still is today, like online challenges, Chao raising (which, despite it being a bit more rudimentary, felt a lot more approachable and less pressured than in Sonic Adventure 2) and optional challenges. About the only black spot you could probably put against the game was the required completion of all characters to truly unlock the final story, and the fact that the story progression allowed itself to be replicated in future Sonic games ad nauseum (but that’s more down to Sonic Team’s lack of ideas since 2002 rather than a bad mark against SA1 itself).

With the Dreamcast’s North American 10th Anniversary taking place today, consider this article as a love letter to the little white box that could, but ultimately didn’t. With a truckload of games that easily gave the Dreamcast its own unique identity (Shenmue, Jet Set Radio, Virtua Fighter), for Sonic fans it will always be Sonic Adventure that defined the console, from the starting blocks to the finish line. And with news today that Sega are going back to the 2D drawing board, it’s worth noting of Sonic Team’s troubles in creating a truly successful and engrossing Sonic title in a 3D space. All we have to say is, guys, you had it closest the very first time.

Happy 10th Anniversary, Sega Dreamcast. Celebrate with us and break out that old copy of Sonic Adventure, and experience a fantastic run through Windy Valley with us all over again.

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Watch Sonic Paradox: Knuckles Briefs on the Sonic Show!

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Author Adam Tuff
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sonicshorts

The guys over at Sonic Paradox are really pulling out all the stops at the moment to bring us a Summer of Sonic special set of Sonic Briefs: Knuckles Shorts! Feast your eyes on yet another side-splitting host of hillarious flash animations over at the Sonic Show!

So what are you waiting for! Get over there and watch it!  Just try not to get stuck on the loading screen punching Sonic on the toilet over and over and over…

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On the Go: The Best Mobile Sonic Titles

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Author Slingerland
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header_sonicWith SEGA’s ever-growing presence in the mobile gaming industry comes more and more Sonic the Hedgehog-themed affairs to drop a few bucks on.  Sonic has been jumping, golfing, and karting on the go for a few years now, but which of these outings are worth your spare time and money?

Since I’ve been playing all of them lately on the bus, in-between classes and, uh, in classes, I can let you know what’s legit.  If you haven’t caught the pattern by now, SEGA is of the belief that people who love Sonic will follow him into any game genre.  Not all are winners, so if you like killing short amounts of time on your phone, like I do, then pay attention to which games have actual effort put behind them.

I will only be touching base with the original titles.  The ports of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 have been discussed on The Sonic Stadium before and are guaranteed winners.

Sonic Jump/Sonic Jump 2

Sonic-jump-2-01Eggman’s out to destroy the world and the only way to go is up.

While most assholes will complain about the game lacking “that trademark Sonic speed,” both Sonic Jump games are accessible, mildly amusing mobile games that happen to feature Sonic the Hedgehog.  Both games play exactly the same and involve moving Sonic left and right, bouncing on platforms to reach the top of the stage.  You are always bouncing upwards and the wrong move could send you crashing to the ground, costing you a life.

The controls are as straightforward as the game looks.  Move left and right, with the center button initiating a “super jump” that allows Sonic to extend the vertical distance of his regular jump.  The controls are not an issue, but the game’s difficulty can get on your nerves in the later levels.  You are going to die… a lot.  Later levels, especially, require many replays to memorize where platforms are going to appear as you ascend.  The blue booster rings (as seen in the picture above) allow you to skip chunks of the levels, but when their boost runs out, it can be tricky to get your bearings and find the next platform.

If you only have enough money for one, go with the sequel.  The graphics are much better.  Those of you with high-end phones will especially enjoy the level art and catchy-as-all-hell music.  In North America, however, I’ve noticed that we only are able to download Sonic Jump, but in reality, it’s Sonic Jump 2.  Be aware of that confusion.

Video of Sonic Jump 2.

Sonic Golf

sonic_the_hedgehog_golf_176x208_4255_ss3At first glance, this looks like a game where SEGA’s “slap Sonic on everything” strategy gets a little crazy.  Get your eyes checked, because this game is the shit.

Easily being the Sonic mobile game that I’ve played the most, given that it can be played with one hand, Sonic Golf takes you through the oh-so-whored-out stages of the Genesis games as you try to whack your balls (+10 if you giggled) to the signpost.  For a golf game, it is rather unique in its side-scrolling presentation, as most revert to a top down view to illustrate where the ball is heading.  Adding Sonic’s trademark monitor power-ups and hazards and you have a golf game like no other.

There is little to no learning curve on the controls, as it’s your standard golf affair of adjusting your spin, aim, and power.  Plus, there are many difficulty settings to keep you coming back for more outings.  Sonic Golf is a fantastic golf game that keeps true to the Sonic spirit.

Sonic Unleashed Mobile

Hooollllyyyyy shiiiiiit.  The only, original, traditional Sonic game for mobile phones is the mobile version of Sonic Unleashed. I enjoyed it more than the console version.  The Werehog, in spite of this praise, still chugs dongs.

When people discuss this game, the graphics is usually brought up first, and for good reason.  The graphics are original throughout and are gorgeous.  I’m surprised that this game hasn’t been considered for ports to a console download service or DSiWare yet, because it looks the part.

Gameloft, the game’s publisher, nailed the breakneck gameplay of the daytime stages of Sonic Unleashed, even if there are a few hiccups when you tear through the levels.  There are alternate routes, secret areas, and excellent level designs to be found here!  Gameloft also managed to perfectly translate the Werehog’s gameplay to the second-dimension.  By “perfect,” I mean that they captured that essence of suck and button-mashing boredom from the console version and replicated it for mobile phones.  Button-mashing does not work for mobile games, as it will destroy the buttons.  I have to use that “5” key to dial Jenny, damnit!  The spin dash during the daytime stages did away with button-mashing when powering it up for that reason, so that’s a few more days that I’ll have my “5” key in-tact.

In short, Sonic Unleashed Mobile is one-half incredible, one-half “Sorry you had to follow SEGA’s game design, Gameloft.”  It’s still worth your money, though, for the the former half.

Trailer of Sonic Unleashed Mobile from Gameloft

Competent Games With “Sonic” In the Title

This category is for the half-dozen or so games that are just like every other mobile version of some activity, but this time, Sonic is on the title screen.  These aren’t bad games, but they lack the creativity that Sonic Golf showcases.  Take, for instance, Sonic Darts:

sonicdarts_2_1117253807_640w

Not very Sonic-y, right?  Still, the game isn’t horrible for this reason alone.  It just feels like a lack of initiative on the developer’s part to take advantage of the Sonic license.  Though, I don’t know what direction you could take a game like darts or billiards, but that doesn’t excuse the developers from not trying at all.

Above average representations of everyday games with “Sonic” in the title include: Sonic Darts, Sonic Billiards, Sonic Hearts, Sonic Bowling, and Sonic Casino Poker.

—

Well, that’s it.  If you know of a mobile Sonic game that wasn’t mentioned above, it’s because I could not play it on my phone or that I did play it and thought it sucked.  I’m looking at you Sonic At the Olympic Games, you boring tap-fest you.

If you’re angry, because I took another verbal dump on the werehog, I divert your attention to Daniel.  Your comments will be deleted if you want to be a tool and complain about how I don’t like Unleashed.  If you haven’t noticed, since the commenters here are so intelligent, I do not care for your opinions as much as you care about mine.

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Happy 20th, SEGA Genesis!

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Author Slingerland
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Twenty years ago, on August 14th, 1989, SEGA’s most successful console debuted in North America to challenge Nintendo for dominance in the fourth-generation of console gaming.  Without the console’s success, we wouldn’t be here right now talking about motherfuckin’ blue hedgehogs.

While the SEGA Master System was superior to the Nintendo Entertainment System with better graphics and sound, the console failed to establish a library of games to rival the NES’ stellar collection in anywhere but Europe.  So, in 1989, two years before the launch of the Super Nintendo, SEGA debuted the Genesis with mild success.  Shipping only 400,000 units in its first year, SoA CEO Michael Katz introduced his two part solution to boost sales.  The famous “Genesis Does What Nintendon’t” slogan and, my personal favorite, the use of celebrities in games, like Arnold Palmer Golf and Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker.

It wasn’t until 1991 when Sonic the Hedgehog changed the gaming landscape forever.  Originally, the awful Altered Beast was the pack-in game with the console, but a bold move by SEGA CEO Hayao Nakayama put Sonic the Hedgehog in the box instead.  With critics claiming that the ‘hog was starring in the best game made thus far, people waiting for the Super Nintendo were convinced and bought a Genesis.  Genesis took a 55% market share over Nintendo soon after.

However, the success was short lived as SEGA drove their biggest success into the ground with the SEGA CD and 32X add-ons.  These disasters failed to establish a solid library of games and were too expensive.  With five consoles actively on the market with the Saturn’s launch (Game Gear, Genesis, Saturn, Pico, and the Master System in South America), SEGA discontinued the production of the Genesis.  With the Genesis outselling the Saturn in North America, the results were disastrous as Nintendo took total control of the 16-bit generation.  The rest is history and now we have Mario and Sonic running triatholons together.

My older brother got the Genesis with Sonic the Hedgehog for his birthday.  I was only three years old when this happened, so my first Genesis memory that I can recall is playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and getting trapped in Casino Night Zone.  Those were some fun times.

If you have any Genesis/16-bit Sonic memories of your own, please share them with us in the comment box below to celebrate the Genesis’ 20th birthday.

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Merchzilla: Sonic Stuff Up For Grabs In Japan

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Author Adam Tuff
22 Comments

bigmerch

I return! Before I delve into the fruitful world of merch once more, I’d like to say a big thanks to Paul Street and the TSS gang for holding the fort while we were roaming Japan; nice one guys and gals!

So anyway, to answer my question in one word…yes. There is most certainly Sonic merchandise to be had in Japan, some particularly nice stuff at that. The long answer, however, is that you really have to look for the stuff…and in some cases, you really need to look hard.

The COSPA brand are currently selling a range of high quality Sonic shirts and apparel, including a nifty selection of stylish shirts, a bandana and a tote bag. There’s even a reversible Sonic World Adventure shirt – so you can have Sonic on your sunny days and crack out the Werehog at night…just turn it inside out! The selection is not cheap though; you can expect to pay about ¥3000 (£22/$32) for a shirt, and ¥4200 for the reversible shirt. There’s even a Sonic Zippo lighter…but don’t expect to get it cheap! If you want something a bit more affordable, UNIQLO (another Japanese brand who produced a couple of Sonic UT print shirts last year) also have a Sonic shirt in their current Video game shirt line-up…and for a meagre ¥1500 it’s a bargain!

Considering JOYPOLIS is SEGA’s Mecca for state-of-the-art arcade games, there’s surprisingly little in the way of Sonic related goodies to pick up. The gift shop inside the complex is still selling boxes of its trademark Sonic Chocolate cake and sweets, as well as a set of mini plush toys of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy – each setting you back between £5-£7; a steal for nice little additions to a collection. You can also pick yourself up an odd little friendship bracelet set; very girly!

Having said that Sonic stuff is hard to find in general, Sonic soundtracks are not. Walk into any HMV or Tower Records in Tokyo, and not only do they have an extensive selection of game and anime soundtracks, you can grab the two recently released Black Knight Soundtracks as well as the Sonic World Adventure OSTs. It’s also not unusual to see earlier OSTs too…or a certain debut album by a Mr. Bentley Jones! We also spotted Charles Hamilton‘s CD going in Manhattan Records too – these guys get everywhere!!!

If retro gear is what you crave, then Akihabara really is the place you want to be! The main street is dotted with stores that stock immaculately kept copies of games and consoles of yesteryear. A copy of Chaotix on ebay can easily fetch £50 upwards; we managed to pick up a pristine copy for less than half that, as well as a copy of Tails Sky Patrol, complete with box, for a tenner. If you’re looking for any old magazines or references – put aside a few hours to rummage through shelves of “good as new” copies of magazines from well over fifteen years ago!

If you want to check out the COSPA range you can do so on their website, and if you’re interested in checking out some retro stores in Akihabara, my first recommendation is a store called Super Potato.

Good to be back TSS – continue to keep your eyes peeled for more Sonic stuff Merch Hogs!

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Mascot-Branded Winter Olympiad Needs Hockey

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Author Slingerland
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sonichockey

Mini-game collections.  Does the Wii need more of them?  Absolutely not.  Every developer out there has shelled out game parties, carnivals, and sporting events in an attempt to cash in on the motion-fad and the wallets of unsuspecting parents.  The strategy works, especially when two of the most iconic video game mascots went head to head in one last year in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.  Many scoffed at SEGA’s corporate director, Masanao Maeda, when he predicted that the game would sell 4 million copies on both Wii & DS combined.  Those folks were silenced when the game ended up selling more than 5 million units across both systems.  As a result, we’re looking at a sequel in Vancouver this winter.

My rental time with the Beijing title was brought on by curiosity, as I wanted to see how well both franchises were incorporated.  I had no desire to play another Olympic game.  They have been made since the NES days with Konami’s Track & Field.  While you could stomp around like an idiot on the Power Pad to compete in the track events, the game’s core mechanic remained the same: quick, alternating (sometimes timed) button presses that absolutely destroyed your controllers.  Every Olympic game that followed did the same.  In the case of Mario & Sonic, the Wii controllers were spared thanks to their motion control, leaving players to flail around like Margikarp and earning a wanker’s cramp alongside their virtual gold medals.  The DS was not immune to physical damage, though, as unprotected touch screens were totally annihilated due to back-and-forth rubbing.  Our wrists and touch screens need a break to play a something more than just a mini-game.  The Winter Olympiad only has one sport that doesn’t warrant a bunch of rubbing, waving, or leaning.  That sport is hockey.

I don’t have to even mention how important the sport of hockey is to the country of Canada.  The two are synonymous with one another.  Not including hockey on a Winter Olympics game in Vancouver sounds odd to me.  Hockey also would play out like a stand-alone game, instead a series of button presses or waggles.  It would be the deepest aspect of M&S at the Winter Olympics and would be enticing to people like me, who desire a bit more from their Olympic games after living through them year after year.

Hockey has never been seen on a winter olympics title due to licensing issues, as the National Hockey League players participate in the winter olympics, representing their home countries.  The Olympic teams can be found in modern day hockey games by EA and 2K Sports as a concession.  With Mario & Sonic, there are no country designations and, obviously, no NHL players.  Reaching a licensing agreement with the NHL Players Association can be bypassed altogether.

Speaking of EA and 2K Sports, their hockey titles have been consistently the best sports games on the market.  With EA’s NHL ’09, which garnered almost all “2008 Sports Game of the Year” awards across various gaming sites, the sport became an experience that rivaled, and in some ways bettered, Madden when it game to gameplay depth and replay value.  It’s a picture perfect emulation of the sport that still managed to be improved with each yearly release.  The Wii does not have a hockey game that is close to decent.  NHL 2k9 for the Wii was a colossal disappointment for hockey game fans, who were frustrated by complicated motion controls and graphics that were comparable to the Nintendo 64.

However, if hockey were to happen, I wouldn’t recommend the simulation route and more along the lines of an accessible arcade style of hockey that was perfected by Midway’s NHL Hitz series, before Midway made the jump to “pro,” then three jumps back by becoming overly racy.  Arcade hockey features 3-on-3 gameplay and no rules, a la Super Mario Strikers (which was a violent game, compared to other Mario sports titles, that featured bodychecking into an electric fence that surrounded the playing field).  Icing, offsides, roughing, and all other penalities are thrown out the window.  Hit who you want (as long as it’s not the goalie), when you want.  Wind up for some wild, super-powered slap-shots and rickle the mesh.  Yeah, a contact sport sounds like a fun time for Mario & Sonic.  I recommend finding NHL Hitz 20-03 for XBOX, GameCube, or PS2 (it costs about $10 or less at used game stores) and giving it a play.  My friends who hate hockey play this game with me, so that is a testiment to how enjoyable arcade hockey is to some.

What do you think?  Should a sport that is much deeper than a series of button pushes be included in the upcoming Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics? Would you be more interested in the overall package?  Let me know.

Watch hockey.

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Editorial: Paging True Sonic Fans

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Author Slingerland
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tsfWhy do people in the Sonic community take such offense to low review scores?  Anything 69% and lower is like a kick to the nuts to some.  I’ve seen people react like the reviewer had just murdered their parents.  While video games are an expensive endeavor, cashing in at $50 or $60, that doesn’t seem to be the point of contention with the “true Sonic fan,” which, by the way, is a derogatory term to the lot of us here.  The “TSFs” are more concerned with the reputation of their furry, blue idol than whether or not it’s worth a purchase, rental, or pass.  They probably have already bought the game and have beaten it three times over before the review is out, so they could care less for a recommendation.

It begs the question: Why do the TSFs care so dearly about other people’s opinions, especially the dissenting ones?

The TSFs have played the game and absolutely love it, so what does it matter to them that everybody else hates it?  If I could capture one of these creatures, put on a lab coat and study its ticks, then I would know the answer.  Sadly, it remains a mystery why these embarassments of Sonic fandom do what they do.  We can only assess from the asinine things that they post in forums and comment boxes.

A recent trend in the community is this obsession with whether or not a reviewer finished the game or not.  While I agree that a reviewer should play the game thoroughly, the need to 100% complete a game is asking too much.  How many review sites finished Grand Theft Auto IV before reviewing it?  I doubt that any of them did.  Most times, if you’ve seen first half of a game, the second half is bound to be similar.  Does IGN’s Matt Casamassina have to play the final moments of Black Knight?  Would the game’s true ending redeem all of the game’s shortcomings?  I highly doubt it.

A much more prominent argument of the TSF is the necessity to call people out on their preference to the classic titles, going as far as stating that the Genesis Sonic titles “suck.”  It’s always amusing to read that comment, as it lacks any context whatsoever.  Without Sonic’s successful Genesis days, which were popular for their innovations to platform gaming and contrasting attitude to Mario, the new-generation Sonic wouldn’t exist.  By referring to those games as “absolute crap,” one basically erases Sonic’s current lineage of games.  Sonic would be lost in the 16-bit generation, like Bubsy, Sparkster, and other attitudinal, platforming mascots.

What’s funny about the TSF’s cries for respect to the new-generation is that us editorial folk have to love every Sonic game.  When the TSFs preach that to us and follow up with “the Genesis games suck,” they’re contradicting themselves.

The “classic backlash” from the TSFs could also be attributed to the perspective of the authors of the Sonic-related articles and reviews.  The people who are articulate enough to write for these “important” websites are in their late teens and beyond.  Most of us are in our twenties.  As a result, we grew up with this character.  It’s something that has to be understood by the chronic complainers.  When they’ve reached a point in their life when they’re old enough to have a firm grasp on their respective languages, they can write articles about how Sonic Unleashed was a triumph of this generation for TSS, IGN, or some other video game website.  Secondly, the “too old for Sonic” argument doesn’t really work.  The charm of the character is supposed to appeal to everyone, regardless if you’re 12 or 40 or whether or not the game is “designed for kids.”

Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion.  If IGN does not like the game, that’s their prerogative.  If you like the game, then that’s your prerogative.  Telling a site how to do its business is an exercise in futility.

Not everybody is going to be happy with Sonic all the time.  One cannot coarse a fanbase so large to think uniformily.  So, if you like Black Knight, then good for you.  Don’t go looking to pick fights with the opposite viewpoint, because nobody wants to see that.

Better yet, nobody cares.

Brad wrote this review not in defense for IGN or review sites, but for the sake of peace and sanity.  Picture credit goes to “Sonic-Fan-Rater” at DeviantArt.

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A Guide to Sonic Merchandise Part 4: Finding the Faker

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Author Adam Tuff
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So, I think by this point in the series of articles of Sonic merchandise I’ve hopefully proven a point: there is a helluva lot of Sonic stuff floating around out there. This is especially the case now that we live in a day and age where we can buy and import goods from across the globe fairly easily thanks to internet shopping and the likes of good old ebay. Unfortunately, as much as this opens a door for sellers as well, it also gives the forgeries and bootleg market a whole new audience to rip-off. Even I, one of the mighty hoarders of stuff, have fallen victim to some of this fraudulent activity.

If you type in Sonic on ebay these days, you will be absolutely inundated, and I mean swamped, with bootleg T-shirts, transfers, stickers, wall charts, chocolates(!?)…the list goes on. Not only does this drown out all the decent Sonic stuff, it also presents a potential merch mine-field, as a lot of this stuff is home-made. The trick with T-shirts is usually simple; if it’s not a photo of an ACTUAL shirt, i.e. it’s just a picture of the design, be cautious. Sometimes the seller may even offer you a variety of sizes (although sometimes sellers may have bought in ex-warehouse stocks etc) – usually if the seller has got a genuine article, they only have one, and in one size. Sometimes a good indicator of a genuine T-Shirt is a usual design that goes onto a sleeve (like the SEGA logo or a Sonic title), or a front and a back print – these are more expensive to reproduce.

Sometimes you get something really kooky like in the thumbnail…Sonic the gangsta? With the buck-teeth, dread-lock hair and enough bling-bling to sink the Epson Valdez, this is probably an easy fake T-Shirt to spot, but even so, there must have been some effort went into making this!

Plush toys are another branch of merch in which it is really easy to produce a lot of knock-off goods to sell on at seemingly bargain prices. In particular Sonic X plushies seem to have taken the brunt of this in recent years; I for one have seen a large number of these in claw machines and UFO catchers at theme parks and amusement arcades. The Shadow plush is the real indicator here – if he doesn’t have his white patch of manly chest hair – avoid! The other real tell-tale sign is the tag. Even if they have a Sonic brand tag on them – check for the glorious SEGA logo. If it’s not there, beware!

Remember the rather awesome Sonic Adventure figures with the E-102 Gamma action figure? Well, it looks like someone in the Far-East managed to get hold of some of the moulds for these figures, as they are now all over the place. It seems that all the series 2 figures : Gamma, Amy, Big and the rather curious Sonic with Skis (what, no snowboard?) have now been pirate-produced in mass. Easy way to check up? Well, if the figures are loose and don’t have any accessories, you’ve either got a very clumsy owner, or more likely, they’re shoddy reproductions. Check out the paint jobs in the picture too – they won’t be up to the usual Resaurus standard.

I think the most difficult bootlegs to tell apart are music CDs and soundtracks. I’ve been caught out a few times with these too. There are a few naughtly little companies over in Taiwan who are in the business of producing very convincing bootleg CDs. They’ve bootlegged the Several Wills Vocal album, the True Blue best of album, and the Sonic Adventure 2: Multi-dimensional albums. Apart from general design, which unless you know exactly what you’re looking for, the quality is so good that you can’t differentiate between the these and the official stuff. There are ways though! The real giveaway with these is the spine cards – look for the record label, which should be Wave Master Entertainment (WME) for the more recent Sonic albums (it’s sometimes on the back of the album cover too).

Finally, here are a few last tips on buying merchandise off ebay:

Always look for an official SEGA stamp or brand – don’t be fooled by fake tags or bootleg companies!

  • See if you can find the item elsewhere on the net if you’re unsure – it’s useful to check to see if there are any good pictures of the item you’re wanting to buy either on the producer’s website, so you can check for differences.
  • Be wary of companies on ebay shipping from Hong Kong, China or Taiwan! Not only are you going to pay a lot for postage, you’ll be even more upset if it’s a bootleg, and a lot of them come from here.
  • ASK! Be cunning; if you’re unsure about an item, ask questions such as “Could you please tell me the name of the record label on the album?” or “Could you send me a photo of the plush’s tag?”. Try not to be rude by asking things like “Is this a bootleg item?” as it may cause offense – even the seller might not know if it is genuine or not.

So, happy merch hunting kids, and remember to shop safe!

Had any bad experiences? Let us know! More merch-madness next week!

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Guide to Sonic Merch Part 3: Gear From Across the Globe

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Author Adam Tuff
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Continuing my season of features on Sonic Merchandise, I thought I’d change tactics slightly. We’ve seen a few examples of rare and wonderful goodies…but my emphasis is on a few. There is simply so much stuff out there now, that to catalogue the almost continuous stream of goodies and nick-nacks would be an almost impossible task. There’s an almost continuous stream of retro-style goodies being produced presently, along with the spate of Sonic X gear that still loiters; that’s on top of nearly 18 years of paraphernalia from around the World! But one site dares to do that…

So many early Japanese Plushes!
So many early Japanese Plushes!

AzureBlaze, the curator of SonicGear.org, told us at TSS how the idea for the site started: “When I couldn’t collect the Sonic stuff I wanted, I started collecting the photos; Sonic Gear at first was based only on the photos I’d collected over my years on the internet. I made up the site in the hope that other Sonic fans could see the things they wanted, learn how to get them, and I could provide tips to others on how to get them; I wanted fans to see the Sonic stuff that is released and no one gets told about it.”

Even after a few moments on the site, it’s clear to see just how much in the way of photo graphic references have been collected, including merchandise from around the globe, with particular emphasis on pieces released in Japan, America and the UK. From clothing to plushes, this site pretty much covers it all. There are some smashing photos of the near-impossible-to-find Sonic the Fighters plushes (see last week’s merchandise article!), as well as snaps of the fabled Sonic Store that existed in Japan for a small time during the Sonic Adventure era. Not only that, there is a massive archive to a whole host of Sonic clothing lines, including the new American-released Top Heavy designs; AzureBlaze tells us “I’m tired of seeing Sonic on the sidelines of fringe collecting where fans have to scramble to auctions and put up with jacked up prices on ebay to get the goods.”

So, what Sonical Stuff is the expert of all things merch looking for to add to his own collection? “The things in the Super Sonic Gear section of my site. The soap-shoes plush, the crystal cube, and the silver ring are right up there on my list of things to find. The Sonic Adventure2 Battle Shadow plush as well. I tend to go for the things that unique AND have the best design.” As well as the Super Sonic Gear section of the site showcasing some of the pieces of gold produced through the years, the site also includes a rather hilarious “Mutant Gear” section with some of the worst pieces of merchandise produced; I’m sad to say I own a few pieces showcased!

Sonic Gear is constantly updating its pages with photos of the new and old, and is keen for you to get involved too! So if you’ve got something you can’t see on their pages, drop them a line and donate some snaps! And hey, if you’re feeling extra generous, you can even donate spare merchandise if you really want!

Cheers to AzureBlaze for the interview – More next week kids!

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A Guide to Sonic Merchandise Part 2: The Fighters Franchise

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Author Adam Tuff
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The Fighters Plush Range.
The Fighters Plush Range.

Although the West seems to be getting its fair share of merchandise nowadays, it wasn’t always that way. Sure, in the early 90’s us Americans and Brits were treated to a whole load of Sonic and Tails plushes, a couple of different comic series and the odd figurine now and again, but once we hit 1995, the widespread interest in Sonic seemed to die off. The West was pushed into Sonic-merch limbo until 1999 when Sonic Adventure came around. This was not the case over in Japan…

Continue reading A Guide to Sonic Merchandise Part 2: The Fighters Franchise

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A Guide to Sonic Merchandise Part 1: Anniversary Edition

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Author Adam Tuff
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The 10th Anniversary statue and Sterling silver ring
The Sonic 10th Anniversary statue and Sterling silver ring

Sonic the Hedgehog related merchandise seems to permeate everything these days; it wasn’t too long ago that you couldn’t get moved for the overwhelming amount of very mediocre Sonic X gear that was lying around to pick up for next to nothing. There are however some absolute gems out there – the joy of collecting Sonic stuff is that you also collect a little piece of Hedgehog history along with them. I think a lot of the collectors amongst the Sonic community would be agreed that some pieces are truly works of art.

Over the next few weeks I’d like to focus on some of the best bits of nearly 18 years of collecting, from generally going about finding yourself a nice addition to your Sonic the Hedgehog merchandise collection, to some of the more elusive and exclusive things that have been produced in the past.

This first article takes a look at some of the most desirable items that there are going; the 10th and 15th Anniversary Merchandise. A lot of the community will remember the 10th birthday of Sonic, as it was the launch date of Sonic Adventure 2, which is still held in high regards amongst the 3D Sonic titles. If you were a resident in Europe Japan or the US, and fast enough off the mark, you had a chance to grab yourself a box set with the pre-order of the game, which contained a rather nifty CD of some of the best Sonic tunes, along with a Gold coin and a booklet full of interesting Sonic facts, pictures, and a rather odd little story. These were however produced in rather large numbers, so aren’t as collectible as initially intended; on the plus side, you can easily pick one up on ebay for £25 ($35USD)! Those lucky enough to attend E3 that year would have also had a chance to scoop up a 10th anniversary badge, which do occasionally appear for purchase.

The SEGA Direct version of the 15th anniversary figurine
The SEGA Direct version of the 15th anniversary figurine

The main contenders for collector’s money thesedays are the trio of anniversary gifts produced by the Sonic Factory (Which closed soon after), being the 10th Anniversary statue, the Crystal Cube, and the Sterling silver ring. Each object was made to extremely high standards; the statue (on an engraved marble base!) was hand-painted, and the crystal cubes were carefully laser-etched to create a wire frame Sonic inside the glass. Each item was limited to 500 units worldwide; some where given away as prizes at a SEGA sports event in Japan, with the remainder being quickly snapped up from the Sonic Factory. In the highly unlikely case you see one on sale online, you’d better get your cheque book ready and phone your bank manager – you are most likely going to be in a bidding war that will go into hundreds of dollars!

Fast forwarding 5 years, the 15th anniversary churned out a number of nice little items. We were treated to two different statues, one was again on sale through SEGA Direct, but was later released as a freebie in the US with the pre-order of Sonic the Hedgehog on the Xbox and PS3. The other statue was produced in a limited run of 2,500 pieces – each  was stamped on the base and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. A number of T-Shirts were also produced to commemorate the occasion, two of which depicted a running sonic in his pixelated form á la Sonic 1, with the 15th birthday logo on the back. Again, E3 goers in 2006 were treated to a nice distressed shirt, the number ‘91 (the year of Sonic’s launch) emblazoned on the back. The keen-eyed ebayer can still pick the odd one of these items up on ebay, albeit at a slightly higher price.

So, did you manage to get any of these items? Which are your favourite? Are there any items you managed to pick up that we’ve missed off our list? Let us know, and keep an eye out for the next feature!

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Fandemonium: Boss Battles

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Author Shadzter
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Dr.Eggman, the evil scientist extroardinaire has built many a contraption to defeat our hero Sonic the Hedgehog. In this edition of Fandemonium we take a look at some of the easiest, the trickiest and most irritating challenges the plump villain has sent the blue speedster’s way.

Most Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy Sneezy Febrezey On Your Kneezy (O_o) Boss

This is a compilation of all bosses from Sonic Pocket Adventure but the easy one is obviously the first one. Eggman is threatening Sonic with a slow hammer no bigger than Amy’s Piko Piko hammer, but how does Sonic defeat it? Simply jump over the hammer and hit him, shouldn’t take long as Eggman moves slow enough and the hammers low enough to give you plenty of air space to jump over the hammer. This is the easiest boss in Sonic history in my opinion – even Emerald Hill Zone’s boss could at least catch you by surprise and shoot that spiky hood ornament.

Deadly Rating: 1/5 Continue reading Fandemonium: Boss Battles

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Fandemonium: Stages

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Author Shadzter

In response to Slingerland’s opening message of his first re-named Fanatics article, I agree that there has been gaps lately in articles published on this here front page. I’m normally known for posting loads of news here but news has been slow. So, I’m going to take a page out of Slingerland’s book and make a new on-going front page read called Fandemonium. Fandemonium will focus on all thing’s that make Sonic games and what makes them work, be it stages, characters, items, gameplay and design.

The topic can only be about Sonic games and can be anything from past, present and future Sonic games. I’ll be posting articles on all details and information regarding the topic at hand together with my own oppinion and experience. A topic will be made at the SSMB where you the fans can post your own oppinions on the topic at hand and suggest a topic for the next article, best posts will be mentioned on the front page in the Fandemonium Round-Up that will be featured with the next article where, as the title suggests I’ll give a round-up of fan oppinions on the last Fandemonium topic.

Todays topic is: Stages Continue reading Fandemonium: Stages

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The Best and Worst of the Sonic Community 2008

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Author Dreadknux

Happy New Year! And since we’re well on our way into 2009 already, it’s time to look back on the past 12 months and reflect on the good that has come out of the Sonic the Hedgehog community in 2008. There have been simply loads of good times and plenty of bad times, and each of them as memorable as the last. But what have been the reigning moments of the year? We’ve whittled all the good times to one single event, and of course because we would be wrong if we didn’t cover the bad elements of the Sonic fanbase too, we’ve pointed out the single worst event in the Sonic Community as well. Read on and reminisce in The Year That Was. Continue reading The Best and Worst of the Sonic Community 2008

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The Crossfire: Take A Break, Sonic

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Author Slingerland

Happy New Year, Happy New Crossfire. I finally have something to talk about that is not a repeat of 100 threads on the first page of the Sonic the Hedgehog forum on the SSMB. Let’s get on with it.

GiantBomb.com, a site founded by former GameSpot employees, were handing out “Game of the Year” awards this past week, as so many gaming websites do. To differentiate themselves from the thousands of wanks telling people what their favorite games were, Giant Bomb added some entertaining joke awards and dubious honors. One such dubious honor was the “Take A Break” award, where a particular franchise should lay low for a while for it being over-saturated, of poor quality, or all of the above. Well, Sonic is once again the butt of everybody’s joke:

2008 continued the trend of Sega producing bad Sonic the Hedgehog games. It’s a trend that’s been ongoing since, well, depending on your perspective, you could claim it went all the way back to the Genesis. Personally, we pin Sonic’s continuing failure to please on polygons, and the gameplay’s failure to stay true to the series’ high-speed roots. There’s only one problem: Sonic Unleashed has moments that attempt to stick to what Sonic does best–running too fast for you to do anything other than watch–and it’s totally boring.

Aside from a few handheld outings, the franchise has been a mess since Sonic & Knuckles. Perhaps instead of continuing to bash their head against the hedgehog year in and year out, the folks at Sega should take a few huge steps back, take a break, and figure out a new direction. Because it’s become pretty obvious that what they’re doing now isn’t working.

With that said, would a break actually help the franchise or does it really matter how much time there is between games? Can a break put an end to THE ALL-KNOWING CYCLE?! Bring on my personal viewpoints already… Continue reading The Crossfire: Take A Break, Sonic

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Roarey’s Raccomic: Double Feature!

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Author Slingerland

In the past week, Roarey made two comics that were stemming from the same subject: the Sonic Unleashed reviews.  I forgot to put issue #4 up when he finished it, so now it’s grouped with #5 for super-awesome-double-feature-madness time.

Issue #4 deals with all you assholes in the community who pushed the mods at TSS so far that discussing the reviews in such a manner warrants a 7 day ban.  Issue #5 deals with the comment boxes at TSSZ, which are, easily, producing a hell of a lot of controversy within the community. Reading the comments after each and every Tristan-spun (aka “Trispin”) story on negative reviews made me take a much needed Internet vacation over the past week. Do we really need a story for each review, picking it apart its every word?  Heeeeelllll, no.

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The Crossfire: Cutscene Chaos

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Author Slingerland

Guest Crossfire with SSMB member, Dan Hibiki.  Check it…
—
I’m a writer. I write fanfics, of course. Mainly crossovers. The folder containing (most of) my works has so many files with individual chapters that my brother told me he was astounded that I could actually write them all. I’m also the story lead for the 3D Sonic fan-game lead by Chris Senn, Project S (yes, THAT one, it’s still alive and kicking, no worries). What the hell does this have to do with anything, you ask? Well, it helps when I look a discussion involving stories, characters and whatever the hell goes into why Sonic is kicking Eggman’s rounded butt again. What I’m really here for is to write about something fairly simple – deep plot, or simple? Epic cutscenes with full voice-acting, or simple player-controlled scenes with no dialogue whatsoever, ala Sonic 3&K? What an interesting dilemma. Let’s start with…

(Also, I’ll occasionally throw in Tropes with links.)
Continue reading The Crossfire: Cutscene Chaos

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The Trouble With Trailers: The Sonic Unleashed Debacle

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Author Dreadknux

The recent video leak from Taiwanese gaming website Ruliweb has caused big action from Sega Europe, with original Youtube videos being deleted and member accounts being suspended. The news came shortly after we revealed the Opening Cutscene and Apotos videos that were posted, where we had to resort to offering download links from the original source.

Now Youtube members are responding in force, reposting the trailers many times over with various conspicuous titles. One video is named “The Epic opening in the series that is not so falling” and “pessimists beware ice cream will own you” – which is more than sign enough to see that people are very excited about the way Sonic Unleashed is looking at the moment.

It’s not surprising to see Sega curl up into a ball and go out on the Copyright Infringement Attack Force. It’s happened before many times, and it’s only natural to see a publisher defend information that it doesn’t want made public. It will be more interesting to see how Sega continues to respond, particularly given the positive reception the leaked videos have created.

In fact, these two movies have largely been decision-changers in most people, between a pass to a day-one purchase. The question is, will Sega now react positively to the reactions from fans and gamers alike, or will they pursue the retraction of material to the end, causing no end of headaches for them in an open space like the Internet and simultaneously endangering the new consumers the videos appear to have generated? Watch this space, kids.

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TSS History: The Banners

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Author Dreadknux

One of the things that The Sonic Stadium is known for, beyond our eight-year history, is our bizarre sense of humour. This humour is usually implemented in our banner adverts, which we’ve had rolling for several years now. Although the banner advertisement service allows for other Sonic sites to get noticed via visiting TSS, sometimes we got bored and made our own stuff to put up on the rotation. These varied from adverts for articles and specific updates to the site itself to random ways of advertising the advert service itself.

Hit the jump for a gallery of past banners, used at some stage during The Sonic Stadium’s life. Not all of the banners have been saved unfortunately, but here’s what we have salvaged. Enjoy. Continue reading TSS History: The Banners

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TSS Timeline: The Year 2001

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Author Dreadknux

This is part of an ongoing series of features that looks back on the history of The Sonic Stadium. 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.

She’s Got The Look

The launch of The Sonic Stadium had a very good initial response – some thirty people or so were regularly visitng the website in just a few weeks since it’s opening, which is pretty admirable considering that it did so with no fanfare or anything. The first few months in 2001 would prove to be much tougher, as beginner’s luck would set in and the casually interested visitors would drop off and head to more interesting sites like The Sonic Foundation and Sonic HQ.

To combat this, towards the end of 2000 I began work on a new site design. One with a dark background, two sidebars and room for a lot of links to different pages. Still feeling my way around web design, I took a free template and fiddled with that to get the look I wanted. It wasn’t a very good idea at the time because I missed several updates because of this, but it taught me a lot about how to achieve certain things in a webpage.

While I was preparing this new design, I realised I needed more space than Angelfire’s 50Meg service provided. As a result of weeks of searching, The Sonic Stadium was moved onto a supposedly limitless, free host called Stas.net which included no ad-banners whatsoever. This became my undoing, as the bursting bubble of the dot com boom meant places like Stas ended up disappearing without so much as a ‘We’re closing down, bye’ message. There aren’t many images and backups of this design, as the only copies were on Stas. This meant I had to start from practically scratch. Even worse was I had my GCSE exams this year, so the revival would have to wait until several months later… Continue reading TSS Timeline: The Year 2001

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TSS Timeline: The Year 2000

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Author Dreadknux

This is the first in a series of features that looks back on the history of The Sonic Stadium. 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.

Prelude

I’ve always been a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog, ever since I saw the Mega Drive game that my friend owned (which resulted in me accidently getting a Master System in my childhood ways). Every bit of my pocket money would go on the games, and any other merchandise I could fit in too. As time went on though, the Sony PlayStation became more popular and that (along with adolescence) made my interest in Sega and Sonic wane throughout the late 1990s.

My interest was to be reignited during my last year of school. Sometime in 1999, we had a new computer centre built, which brought Internet to the masses of kids attending there. Soon enough, every kid had a floppy disk with Genecyst and a Sonic 2 ROM that they would play during lunch break whenever the admins weren’t looking. Seeing the game being enjoyed again (and playing it a heavy amount myself) kick-started my love for the games all over again.

I eventually came across a website called The Moogle Cavern (now dead). It appeared during a random Yahoo search for ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’, not expecting to find as many fan sites as I did. In its prime, the ‘MC’ was known for its mish-mash of Mario, Sonic, Squaresoft and other assorted franchise information. I quickly joined the forums and became a solid part of their community. Continue reading TSS Timeline: The Year 2000

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The Crossfire: Retro Rebooting

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Author Slingerland

Guess who has been busy? Me! Sorry for you Crossfire fans who have had to wait an entire month, but them’s the brakes. With college kicked into full gear, in addition to more Sonic Nexus development after the surge of popularity, I never usually get time to myself. Working on the project, with it being a classic Sonic title and given the positive response that it has received everywhere, got me thinking about something…

In the past week, I have played the absolute hell out of Mega Man 9, Capcom’s return to the original Mega Man series and 8-bit gameplay and presentation. I am enjoying every minute of it, because I am not just riding a wave of nostalgia, but I am also impressed with the refined gameplay. The fact that a game straight out of 1988 can be successful in 2008 is downright admirable and eye-opening. It makes me wonder, as a Sonic fan, if a retro reboot is in order for another blue hero: Sonic. Would a 16-bit foray treading new ground be a commerical success or another step towards irrelevancy? Today, we take a look at whether or not SEGA has the potential to make some magic, akin to Capcom and Nintendo, and if looking backward has the potential to push forward.

Continue reading The Crossfire: Retro Rebooting

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Roarey’s RacCOMIC #3: Pessimistic Edition

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Author Slingerland

Hey, kids, it has been a while, but the Roarey’s comics are back with the third iteration.  Feel like I’m misrepresenting the community with my overt pessimism?  Well, you are full of shit, because a good deal of us feel the same way.

If anything, the other bloggers are representing the optimistic crowd rather well, so don’t get all bent out of shape about it.  It’s Sonic the Hedgehog for crying out loud.

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