This video was taken at ScrewAttack’s Game Convention during their Iron Man Tournament. The last game was a surprise and was revealed to be Sonic 4. What’s more surprising to me is the huge crowd reaction.  I’m glad to see such a positive reaction for this game.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A86KjhpN9zo[/youtube]

Most of you probably don’t know this, but I’m the Editor in Chief at a little up and coming Sonic web comic site called “Emerald Coast Comics“. We’re probably best known for our Sonic Eggs weekly strip, if we’re known for anything at all, but we do other things too. This is a comic we’ve been working on for the better part of two years, from early script drafting to the final upload today!

This comic was written by new, and fully penciled, from the cover to the final page, by Jetstreamx. We’ve got a load of people on inks and colors, which you can see from the credits page. We REALLY hope you guys enjoy this birthday present from us, and whether you do or not, all of us from ECC would really appreciate some feedback.

Near the beginning of E3 on Thursday, me and Alex went to the Nintendo booth to play Zelda, Unfortunately, the lines for the game are 90 minutes long!! Luckily, Metroid other M was not as bad. Alex played that for awhile, so I headed over to play Donkey Kong Country Returns. A game opened up and I grabbed a Wiimote and Nunchuck. Another gentleman picked up the second controller. It was Takashi Iizuka. The head of Sonic Team whom I just interviewed days before. Though I doubt he recognized me now. I didn’t gush or talk Sonic with him. I just played the game with him.

The game starts in DK and Diddy Kongs house. You shake the Wiimote and Nunchuck like crazy to bust open the house and make your way down. Iizuka was Donkey Kong. I was Diddy. We made our way down the jungle area stomping on bird enemies when I found a cool new maneuver where Diddy can hop up on Donkey Kong and become one fighting team together. When Iizuka jumped, I could use Diddy’s hover rockets to slow DK’s decent making it easier to land. Also, shaking the Wiimote lets Diddy shoot bannas from his bananna gun while still riding on top of DK. “Oh, you’re on me?” Said Iizuka. “Ummm…yea.” I said as I figured out how to get off of him before it got to be a little bit awkward.

At one point, Iizuka’s DK died and I had to help smash him out of a barrel. Another trademark from the older games. The backgrounds are beautiful and ended up being totally interactive. Both me and Iizuka stupidly pass by a stomping area and jump off a cliff to the left. He almost did it again, but I realized our mistake. “This way.” I tell Iizuka and he follows me to a gold area you need to stomp on to bring up a new area up in the background. You do this by constantly shaking the Wiimote and Nunchuck to smash the ground. Then, we both took a barrel and got shot over into the background to fight some more enemies. Soon after, we reached the end, and I told him “Thank you.”

The game was great and a lot of fun. I can’t wait to play more of it this holiday season. Still though, I wonder if Iizuka will get any ideas from this for his next Sonic game? A Sonic/Tails co-op adventure perhaps?

This was my very first E3, and now will certainly not be the last. When I was young I often heard about how E3 was an “unbelievable experience”, and that most certainly held true this year. This year saw the debut of a lot of great things, both in software, and hardware. We got to meet all sorts of celebrities, from gaming legends like Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka, to internet celebrities like Ryan Cassidy (GoNintendo’s RMC) and Angry Joe, to renowned wrestlers. The people at the SEGA booth where great, welcoming us in a fun but proffesional manner, helping us get content and info that we could then deliver to you guys.
Almost as important as the people, however, where the games, and this year was unbelievable, even by my buddy Jason’s standards. And he’s been to a LOT of E3s. For one, this is the year we finally saw the grand return of Nintendo. After years of giving us underwhelming E3s and pandering to the casual market, Nintendo finally delivered in full force, from Zelda to Kirby, and debuted an absolutely spectacularly looking new handheld that drove me to buy new stock in the company. Not only was this the year of Nintendo, but also the year of the platformer. Beyond Sonic, Epic Mickey, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Bonk, and Lost in Shadow all left impressions on us. The platformer genre, a genre that our blue friend is a part of, has long been neglected, but this E3 the genre has come back in full force, and it was a wonderful thing to see.

But, more then all of this, this year has also marked the return of our little blue pal, Sonic the Hedgehog. This year we got to play not one, not two, but FOUR Sonic games, all of which where impressive, but stuck to the roots. Sonic Adventure, the release of Sonic’s first critically acclaimed 3D title, has been tightened and improved, with many of it’s niggling bugs removed. Sonic 4, while it still has some issues that keep it from being just like the classics, is a far cry from the “Sonic Rush 3” many screamed it was going to be, and is looking to be a very fun, physics driven platformer. Perhaps the biggest impression was left by the newest game, Sonic Colors, which looks to put the whole “Sonic can’t do 3D” nonsense to bed once and for all. Not to mention, it’s producing a very different, but equally as fun DS version.

When Jason can say he played Donkey Kong Country Returns with Takashi Iizuka, you should get an idea of just how much fun E3 was this year. I encourage you all to check out SEGAbits for our impressions on the SEGA side of things. We’re not quite done with E3 on TSS either. We’ve got some more write ups to do, which hold some exclusive (I think) info on a few games. So stay tuned ;).

Question: How do you top off a great E3 which was the biggest year for Sonic yet? On these 3 days of glorious gaming, how to you top it? Put the cherry on the Sunday?

Left: Yuji Naka Middle: Me and Sonic Right:Takashi Iizuka

That’s how folks. Me with two of the biggest Sonic creatives in the biz.

Best. E3. Ever.

Greetings, Sonic fans! Thought you guys might like to know that Ian Flynn, the current head writer of the stellar Sonic comics, is now taking questions from his fans. This isn’t the first time he’s done this. “Ask Ian” has long been a stable of the Bumbleking forums, the forum Ian uses to interact with his fanbase. He’s had discontinue it for most of the last year due to a very busy schedule. As of Sunday, however, Flynn has decided to bring the feature back, and in audio format no less!

I skipped over advertising this feature in the past, because it was not particularly practical to copy and paste the often gigantic question and answer sessions. However, with Ian now answering his questions via audio, it will now be possible for TSS to bring these often enlightening question and answer sessions to all of you!

However, there are some rules which you must follow, which I will paste below:

#1 – ONE question per person per answer session. This is in the interest of making it easier for me to keep up and less work for the fine volunteer force.

#2 – I reserve the right to skip your question. That sounds mean and heartless, I know, but sometimes it must be done. There are some question that I just can’t answer for whatever reason, so I’ll leave them be. Just know it’s not personal.

Please note that since this thread is for the questions only, there’s a talkback thread for discussion. You may find that the answer to your question is already available, so check it out.

In addition to these rules, you also cannot ask a question on the behalf of another. You must sign up to the forum in order to participate. And, of course, please respect Flynn and follow the forum’s rules. With luck, your question be will be answered when Ian posts the audio questions.

To ask Ian your question, go to this thread.