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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL2aB–sYt8[/youtube]
Just a quicky for you guys here on a chill Sunday. I stumbled upon this Green Hill mash-up earlier and I thought that it sounded like the greatest thing ever. YouTube user, Akuago220, combines the original Green Hill orchestration on the Genesis and lays it over the updated version found in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.
It’s ear sex, man.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoxLxTlD5rw[/youtube]
The latest Sonic remix to hit OCRemix, the popular video game music site, is a funky remix of Hydrocity Zone by Dr. Manhattan. “Down to Hydrocity’s Nightclub” takes the already catchy tune of Sonic 3’s high-speed water level and throws in some killer organ licks, screaming brass, drum fills, and some dirty bass grooves. This remix is one that you want in your playlist.
As Sega’s knockabout racer draws ever closer to release there’s still a vast amount we don’t know. Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue was a real surprise for long time fans and Sega are being extremely coy about revealing other playable characters.
One particuarly high profile character we’ve heard nothing about thus far is Sonic Team’s other game character NiGHTS. The devil-may-care jester featured prominently in the run up to the release of the last gathering of Sega characters; Superstar Tennis. His profile had been raised considerably by the release of Journey of Dreams for the Wii and even rival Reala got in on the action. Fast forward to today and NiGHTS is conspicuous by his absence.
Understandably this has his fans worried. DiGi Valentine of fan site NiGHTS Into Dreams.com sums up the mood perfectly.
“…the inclusion of NiGHTS is secondary to Sonic. He is a secondary mascot behind Sonic the Hedgehog and with all the current evidence shown to me I don’t believe NiGHTS is in AllStars Racing. I don’t think our fanbase should be treated in such a way as to have our favourite character not make the final line-up for whatever reason. We have not built this community up all these years only to have NiGHTS disregarded.”
Because of this DiGi has set up a campaign to make sure Sega don’t forget about NiGHTS. While any call for a character to be included in a game would usually be pointless so close to release this particular campaign has been spawned from rumours of impending DLC.
“I am not a man to act upon weak theories unless I have some form of proof and right now DLC has been mentioned, NiGHTS is no where to be seen. If DLC is being planned then this would be our only chance to make SEGA take notice and get NiGHTS in the game if he’s not already in there. And if NiGHTS is already in the game then all you’ve done is shown support for the character regardless.”
Should you feel passionately enough to help this worthy cause you can find the plan of action in full at the NiGHTS Community Forum. The crux of the campaign is to make Sega themselves aware of the fan outcry for NiGHTS. A previous effort was directed towards Sumo Digital who were entirely sympathetic to the cause but ultimately claimed their hands were tied and couldn’t reveal anything. Even if NiGHTS is in the game this may push Sega over the edge and have them reveal his existence this alleviating. So if you want to make a difference, read the plan carefully and whatever you do, don’t forget NiGHTS.
BlitzChris’ brainchild, Project24 is playing right now on SEGASonic Radio. That’s 24 straight hours of our in-house SSR DJs doing their thing live, all the way until midnight GMT tonight.
If you’re not listening and getting your chat on, WHY NOT?
MK Skillz, the founder of Sonic Relief has just issued a press release regarding Sonic Relief 2010.
Sonic Relief 2010 is on its way and there’s plenty to get excited about!
The campaign will run in a similar fashion to Sonic Relief 2009 – people can make Sonic-related submissions (be it artwork, music, video… anything!) and a certain amount of money will be donated to charity based on how many submissions are made. However, we’re planning on giving away a prize or two for our favourite entries, so that’s an extra incentive to get creating!
That’s not all though. Perhaps you have another idea to raise some money? Well, now you’ll be able to take the fundraising into your own hands! Inspired by some of the suggestions we’ve received from the Suggestions Topic (including a “Day in Blue” and a rather interesting calendar idea), we plan on setting up a system whereby you can come up with your own ways to raise money and then pass on the proceedings to the main Sonic Relief campaign. Alternatively, this system will also allow anyone to just simply make a donation should they wish! We want everyone to be able to get involved in next year’s Sonic Relief!
There you have it then, that’s the basic premise for Sonic Relief 2010. You can expect the campaign to be kicking off in early January and running up until March to coincide with the UK Sport Relief campaign.
So, be sure to put your thinking caps on and get your creative juices flowing in readiness for what will hopefully be a bigger and better Sonic Relief!
In the meantime, you can get yourself prepared for the campaign by following @SonicReliefUK on Twitter or joining the official Sonic Relief Facebook group.
If you have any questions regarding Sonic Relief, please do not hesitate to contact us –
PM MK Skillz at SSMB
E-mail: shadzter@sonicstadium.org
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lVCV1LGHiA[/youtube]
A team of hackers known as “Team Typhoon” have apparently enabled homebrew on the new PSPgo. The video above showcases a Genesis emulator running Sonic CD, which is super cool. Even if you were one of the few who purchased the new handheld, however, Team Typhoon will never be releasing their custom firmware. In a silly disclaimer, Team Typhoon says:
This video is for bragging rights ONLY (since it’s very cool nowadays) and shows our Proof of Concept 6.10 Custom Firmware running on the PSPgo. This will never be released to the general public or anyone else at all whether you are a dev or not, this is Team Typhoon internal material, we have no reason whatsoever to waste a perfectly good exploit.
What douchebags.
Sega Europe Community Manager ArchangelUK apparently loves to tease people. For example, I present to you the official Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games branded Snowboard he showcased earlier today.
It looks great doesn’t it? In fact it looks even better if you go here to see them full size. So how about an opportunity to get your hands on this fabulous merchandise? Alas, you can’t buy this thing in the shops but it can be won in the UK Mario & Sonic Sweepstakes. I’d hurry though, the competition is only open until November 17th so you need to be as fast as Sonic himself to enter before the deadline. Terms and conditions for the competition can be found here and should you not be the lucky winner don’t fret, AAUK has also teased that there may be other opportunities to grab one. TSS will endeavour to keep you posted.
Holy shit… yes. Just in time for the Needlemouse hype (and Christmas), nerd-clothing outlet, Shark Robot, has put up a listing for a “Sonic Sprite Symbol” t-shirt. This black shirt features Sonic’s head, completely made up of frames in Sonic’s run animation from the Genesis games.
The shirts runs at an affordable $17.95 plus shipping.
For $114, you can make smoking cool twice over with these SEGA-themed Zippo lighters. Recently, Zippo has been manufacturing lighters featuring other companies, like Namco, but now SEGA gets love. I’ve never seen so much detail put into a lighter.
You can totally afford them, right? I mean, you just have to skip this week’s trip to the grocery store or hold off on drinking for about four Saturdays in a row. 😉
Remember the Summer of Sonic convention this year? Loads of people singing their hearts out to Live & Learn, Open Your Heart and, erm, The Palace That Was Found. Singing was even more apparent at last year’s event. But now the convention’s over, how are you going to express your Sonical singing skills to the community? Good job AAUK’s Wrecks Factor is at hand, otherwise you might explode from all the contained musical feeling within.
Hosted by Sonic Wrecks, the Wrecks Factor allows anyone and everyone to choose a Sonic song and do some karaoke. There’s usually a contest for All-Comers, and a contest for All-Stars (senior community members). Each year a theme is attached – in 2008 it was duets, this time AAUK’s enforcing the ‘Darkspeeds Rule’. Write your own lyrics to a Sonic song and sing them proud and well!
Sound like a challenge you’d like to take up? You can head to the Wrecks Factor page here and inform AAUK of your interest. Get your entries to the man by the 19th December 2009, with judging taking place February 2010. Just ignore the fact that I lost two years in a row. The judges back then just didn’t understand sardonic quality. 😉
Rubix Cube artist, John Quigley, recently created a Flickr profile last month, posting all of his amazing Rubix Cube pixel art. Of the many creations using the popular 1980s puzzle-toy, one of them was Sonic the Hedgehog. Take a look at this 784-cube masterpiece:
Check out the rest of John’s gallery at Flickr, featuring Rubix Cube pixel art of Mario, Pac-Man, himself, his friends, and an epic 2,622-cube rendering of Barack Obama.
There’s currently a great idea brewing on the SSMB that I just felt the need to share. For one reason or another it’s having trouble gathering momentum but hopefully this will draw more attention towards it. SSMB member MK Skillz is the man with the plan and he’s sent me the following message to relay to everyone:
“Some of you may remember the Sonic Relief 2009 campaign that was run earlier this year which was an unexpected success and raised over £100 for UK charity Comic Relief. Well the two people behind the campaign – MK Skillz and Shadzter – want to bring Sonic Relief back. But before we do so, we want to hear some ideas from you.
Suggestions are wanted from you guys regarding what changes or improvements you would make to Sonic Relief. This doesn’t necessarily mean suggestions for activities for a future Sonic Relief (though by all means share your ideas!), it primarily means suggestions on how to change the Sonic Relief formula itself in terms of donations and submissions, etc. After all, it’d be you guys who’d be participating in the campaign, so we want to make it as workable as possible for you.
Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the Suggestions Topic on SSMB!
In other news, Twitter users can now follow @SonicReliefUK to share their ideas and keep up to date with all the latest Sonic Relief news. MK Skillz and Shadzter thank you in advance for your suggestions.”
I realise everywhere is feeling the pinch of recession at the moment but this is a great opportunity to have the community pull together and make something truly special. So get your thinking caps on and send in your ideas. You can aso get a feel for what kinds of things went down earlier this year by taking a look at the Sonic Relief 2009 topic on the SSMB
The dudes over at Emerald Coast have a review up of the latest Sonic merchandise from Impact Innovations, “The Super Sonic Racing System.” Impact Innovations’ products have been featured on this site before, as they have been responsible for some sweet backpacks and plushes over the past year. Is “FOUR FOOT OF ACTION” enough for your £10? Emerald Coast says “not really.”
Once the nostalgia of the classic figures wears off, this slot car set is pretty unremarkable due to its short track length, slow speed, and technical issues (such as Sonic’s car always flying off the track). Emerald Coast strictly recommends this set to be for the kids and the hardcore collectors.
[via Emerald Coast]
Those of you with nothing better to watch on TV tonight (let’s face it, it’s all pretty crap this year) can do worse than watch some live Internet TV, courtesy of our video brethren The Sonic Show. The event? Jay (aka DiscoPonies) is painting his room, all Sonical like. You can even comment on the uStream page that it resides on and try and convince him not to draw a huge penis on that Buzzbomber he’s already painted up there.
Seriously, as I write this progress is pretty good in Jay’s room – the characters are starting to look really awesome in white outlines. Hm. I’m starting to think that we’ve hit Big Brother territory for some reason, what with writing about what someone’s doing in their own house and all. But hey, Jay’s publicising himself, he’s asking for the attention!
Watch the painting – complete with more dancing and gurning, no doubt – here.
So there I was, innocently adding the new Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games Artwork page (with transparent, clean PNG character art and all), when I came across these monstrosities. These images are part of SEGA’s “lifestyle” advertising campaign for the new Mario and Sonic sports mashup, and… well, they’re quite terrible, aren’t they?
I’ve not seen any of these being used in ‘lifestyle’ print or magazines (although having said that, I don’t make it a point to collect issues of Grazia or whatever), it makes you wonder whether SEGA, Nintendo et al just do these photo shoots for a laugh one day, never to be used for fear of irritating readers with these guys’ faces. Some of these faces are hilarious though, but deep down it really kinda wants you lose the will to live.
Gallery full of 20-odd lifestyle promotional M&S images after the jump. Best captions win Awesome Points™.
Continue reading Let The Olympic Winter Memes Begin!
And by ‘Bad’ we mean good (and Michael Jackson’s album of course). The link between Sonic 3 and Michael Jackson (R.I.P) has been documented many times in the community, so it’s always nice to see some fans make use of that and try to merge the two together. This recent remix, by Yuzoboy, mashes up MJ’s Smooth Criminal with Sonic 3’s Ice Cap Zone (Acts 1 and 2) together to make an awesome whole. Apparently Yuzoboy’s remix is a new take on an already-existing Smooth Criminal/Ice Cap mashup by MixerProductions too. Fantastic mixing here.
Note the video includes a sneaky bit of Sonic MegaMix as well. Very nice. And there’s more where that came from if you click here too. Thanks to Rio for the spot!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdpaR4cgP3U[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLl1H4UyEe0[/youtube]
One of the few ads on television that actually makes me crack a smile. Bonus points to the commercial’s director for the ring loss noise. Watch it, knuckleheads.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLbt31SfOdk[/youtube]
You’ve seen countless Genesis and Advance-styled Sonic fangames, but there is only one project out there that is channeling the look and feel of the 8-bit adventures. I’ve talked about Sonic Mayhem before and I have been always one to praise the project. Over the weekend, the project’s lead, Amesuki, has released a short demo, pictures of the new zones, and a gameplay video.
The brief demo (download here) runs for about a minute and, to me, is a picture perfect re-creation of the 8-bit Sonic games. The music, the graphics, and the physics all feel correct. I just wish it were longer!
Check the video for gameplay of one of the best fangames around and hit the break for screenshots of other levels.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faooJKvpxY4[/youtube]
YouTube user, n00neimp0rtant, has uploaded an incredible mash-up of Sonic music to the site that incorporates Sonic music from the Genesis-era all the way to today’s games. This labor of Sonic love, which took him a week and a half to complete, is really cool. Listen to it, knuckleheads.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zFvjxAje0E[/youtube]
daneboe from Gag Films who created last months classic Contra vs Duck Hunt video has outdone himself with the above Sonic vs Pac-Man video. Sonic clears the maze faster than you can say “Pac-Man has an eating disorder”. Keep the mix-ups coming danboe!
Ever wondered what a modern day animated SatAM themed Sonic movie might look like when done right? Well check out this awesome Fan Movie Trailer by ‘A Knothole Resident’. Great job! –
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWYCqLp4BhY[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ21hY85pc0[/youtube]
If you love Sonic and laughter, there is no excuse for you not to watch “Sonic Abridged: Episode 1.”
The series aims to take episodes from Sonic X and make them shorter and funnier. Most importantly, “Sonic Abridged” turns the entire episode on its head with hilarious voice acting, a random array of sound effects, and a bevy of obscure internet references. If it’s one thing I like more than watching Sonic X, it’s making fun of it.
Highlights include: Cheese, Knuckles’ indifference, and “wouldn’t it be weird if I mutated into a giant, butt-ugly werewolf thing?”
Plus, Psyguy is the main man behind it all, so you know that it’s quality. Watch it, foo’.
For those of you old enough to remember, it’s ten years to the day since SEGA launched their Dreamcast console on the 9th of September 1999, and to celebrate AAUK and Sonic Wrecks is giving away ten fantastic prizes to those who are floating around on Twitter at 09:09:09am GMT! All you need to do is follow SonicWrecks on Twitter and be around to ReTweet (RT) a specific phrase – ten lucky hedgehogs will snag themselves one of these goody bags, which include some rare items like a Sonic Unleashed hoodie and the Megadrive Ultimate Collection Vinyl.
If that wasn’t enough, each winner gets themselves one of the exclusive artbooks that were given away at Summer of Sonic! One VERY lucky hedgehog will win themselves a signed Sonic and the Secret Rings poster signed by Yojiro Ogawa and the SatSR gang.
For more details, Terms & Conditions, as well as the full prize breakdown, head over to Sonic Wrecks.
You guys are certainly getting your fix of prizes at the moment!
So I’ve just returned from my 5 day holiday with my wife at Weston Super Mare which was awesome by the way but before returning to the news hunting I thought you guys our devoted readers might be interested in a few Sonic findings we came across.
First we have your bog standard game shop use of him in their banner together with Mario on the other side which I kinda cut out of the pic(no offence Mario fans). The store was pretty cool, plenty of DVD’s, games and music. Like an indepent HMV except these guys are cool enough to sell cool stuff in their cabinets and even loose Game Boy, DS and PSP games.
Second we have a ride I have dubbed ‘Sonic Chaos 2: The Revenge’ since the ride is called ‘Chaos’, Sonic is pictured on it and the ride looks like something Eggman could come up with to terrorise all those screaming people I often heard riding it.
Last we have an awesome Sonic spray paint job me, the wife and the always awesome Flyboy Fox who we met up with there there on Thursday found while trekking through the town. I almost didn’t see it as it’s been painted on the bottom corner of one of those big green/black electricity boxes. The artist ‘enza’ must be an hardcore fan to use Sonic’s movie artwork all but having him hold a spray paint can instead of the normal peace symbol.
Weston Super Mare, we salute your Sonic love.
This video could possibly be the funniest thing that I have ever seen. Watch as this kid shakes, grooves, and mugs the camera to the Sonic 3 & Knuckles boss music. And no, it’s not actually Tweaker, but it makes it all the funnier that the site says it. Damnit, why is this video so awesome?!
An old Italian Sonic advert from 1992 has been dug up, offering European hedgehog fans the chance to grab a “Sonic Baydge” whose eyes light up when you press a button on the back. Unfortunately, this is coupled with an animation that would surely give children of the 1990s nightmares.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViOn4dmuKn0[/youtube]
Good spot by Casanova!
Even though Discoponies is on holiday at a secret location he still has time to post some fantastic things over at the Sonic Show. Today he’s posted something a little unique. Jim Sass, the guy who runs Sasso Studios has put together along with a cast of family and friends, a full-length Sonic fan-movie…
Continue reading Sonic Show Presents A Fan-Made Sonic Live Action Movie!
Sonic Robo Blast 2 has been in development for 11 years. To think that we’d be playing a “version 2.0” makes me feel old, despite me only recently turning 22 years old. A day before the 2009 Sonic Amateur Games Expo opens, Sonic Team Jr., the game’s developers, have released this new version, three years after the last demo.
Version 2.0 has a completable, polished, yet unfinished single player campaign. The team’s leader, AJ Freda, has assured that there are so many improvements to the game that “to list them would be exhausting.” With this release, however, AJ will be leaving the team and turning over control to his other members. He is expecting a child soon, so we in the community wish him well on fatherhood and his future endeavors. It certainly is the end of an era.
In amongst all of our rushing around to sort out Summer of Sonic, AAUK didn’t notice until yesterday that someone had left a rather curious looking suitcase lying around his office…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afa4REQENrk[/youtube]
I think that it’s hilarious that somebody tried to sell Sonic 3D Blast on a Tiger LCD handheld. That fact is funnier than the commercial itself. Not to mention all the false hope the ad provides. Compare how many times you see the Genesis version of 3D Blast to the Tiger handheld version and laugh.
Above is a screenshot of a game coming to SAGE ’09 in 2 weeks, called Sonic Attitude by SFGHQer Endri Lauson. The game is a 2D sidescroller in full 3D. LOOK AT THE PRETTY. LOOK AT IT.
Endri originally designed Attitude for the Nintendo DS, but the recent screenshots that have been coming in have been for the PC version. Endri built the PC version from the ground up in his own custom software development kit:
One thing that I would like to note is that I redefined the engine for the PC version. The PC version will now feature a brand new engine entirely customized by me myself. I like to call it, “Attitude Engine”. It’s an entire SDK for developing Sonic games for PC. In fact, you can you it to develop other types games but Sonic games, but the main sources included are for Sonic in general. The main features in the engine I belive is SSAO and almost-with-no-pre-calculations-at-all Global Illumination.
To play the 2008 tech demo of Sonic Attitude, check out Endri’s website (translated from Portuguese) and follow the progress Endri makes on the game at the official thread at Sonic Fan Games HQ.
Sonic: Time Twisted has been a mainstay at SAGE since 2006 and, if you remember my review of it on the Stadium front page last summer, I was let down by how little of it had changed over the years and how the awkward design choices ruined the experience. Well, it looks like Overbound, the game’s creator, has addressed all the issues with his project and is looking to deliver at SAGE 2009. Below is a video of the new hotness:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK0bkBilQ2M[/youtube]
The 2009 Sonic Amateur Games Expo runs July 25th through the 31st at “http://sagexpo.org.” It is the biggest online community event that showcases the best Sonic fan projects around.
UPDATE: Since people decided to be silly and troll the comments box with “NEW SKOOL RULZ,” Overbound has now made sure to cater to your audience. You can thank him later:
A costume design company in Shangai, China who sell many of their costumes on eBay ranging from Beijing 2008 mascots to weird advertising things like OMO(whatever that is) are selling a New condition Super Sonic costume that actually looks very well made, especially compared to the other crap Sonic costumes on eBay. The costume has the light orangey colour we saw from Sonic 2006’s Super Sonic, the spikes curving up, the red eyes and the more serious mouth so they’ve done their research. At the moment there are no bids which start at $0.99(approximately £0.62) with the end date being 17 Jul. Postage is worldwide but make sure you have a spare $84.00 to cover it on you.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSpTNHqgTQI[/youtube]
Games featured include Sonic Robo Blast 2, Sonic Rebirth, Project Mettrix, Sonic Emerald Hunt, and Sonic Nexus. Games that were not in the video include Sonic: Time Attacked and Sonic: Mecha Madness.
In other SAGE news, let me put a damper on many people’s hopes by informing you all that Retro-Sonic XG will not be anywhere close to the show this year. There were never plans for a demo to surface in 2008 or this year’s show.
YouTube user, AfriqueDeluxe, has worked some magic and released a pair of fantastic remixes that utilize the vocals from pop music and the melodies of classic Sonic tunes. He is planning to release a “Sonic Remix” album later this year. His first remix takes Fergie’s “Glamorous” and throws Green Hill behind it to make the song actually enjoyable:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQG5zguNt9Y[/youtube]
The second combines Casino Night’s 2-player theme and Michael Jackson’s “They Don’t Care About Us.”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aNP5GdAZEA[/youtube]
Awesome. I look forward to more Sonic remixes from AfriqueDeluxe.
By 1997, young Sonic fans had gotten to hear Sonic speak in Sonic CD and on several cartoon shows. So imagine their delight when a talking Sonic the Hedgehog plush was released! Sonic talking in your home, right in front of you! Would have been exciting to hear Sonic say a cool phrase to you huh? So, squeeze his belly and what does he say?
“SEGA!” Oh Sonic, you silly guy. Let’s squeeze again.
“SEGA!” Ok… let’s try again.
“SEGA!”
*10 times later* “SEGA!”
Don’t get me wrong, I love SEGA. And advertising does bring more money, certainly. But surely a talking Sonic plush should say something a bit cooler and with attitude like his various lines from the TV shows? If the word ‘SEGA’ had to be there then OK, but the creators could have put a few more words/lines in there. That’s my rant over, what do you guys in the Sonic community think? Is this what the 1997 Sonic crowd wanted in their talking Sonic plush toys? Let us know in the comments.
If you guys are interested in this plush you can now get one on eBay. There is currently a boxed one on eBay.com and a loose one on eBay.co.uk. You guys in the U.S. have just over 2 days to bid and at the moment there are no bids and you guys in the UK had better be quick as the item is a Buy It Now listing for £19.99 or you can pitch an offer to the seller.
