Please note that this site is no longer being updated or maintained; as a result, there may be design issues, and links to images and other media may be broken. Links to posts may redirect you to the same article on the current Sonic Stadium website.
Sonic Team’s Puyo Puyo Fever website has been updated with new pictures and release info as it’ll be released on the 4th of February next year in Japan.
Belows article explains all your questions about Sonic Battles release, which will be January 2004 in North America. Also, the third Sonic Advance will be released sometime in 2004.
CALABASAS, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dec. 1, 2003–THQ Inc. and Sega Corporation today announced a co-publishing agreement through which the companies will release two new Nintendo(R) Game Boy Advance adventures based on one of the biggest videogame icons of all time, Sonic the Hedgehog(R). The games are scheduled to ship in North, Central and South America in the first half of 2004. The companies previously released two other Sonic-branded games for the Game Boy Advance that boast combined sales of approximately a million units.
Sonic Battle, the first title planned for release under the agreement, is scheduled to release in North America in January 2004. Coinciding with Sega’s new Sonic Heroes console release, Sonic Battle will benefit from Sega’s multi-million dollar Sonic Heroes marketing campaign. The companies are also scheduled to release Sonic Advance 3 in 2004.
“Sega’s uncompromising approach to design innovation and game quality have captivated audiences of all ages across every viable gaming platform since Sonic debuted on the SEGA Genesis(TM) in 1991,” said Brian Farrell, President and CEO, THQ. “We look forward to delivering two compelling new Sonic adventures to handheld gamers in 2004.”
“With THQ’s handheld publishing expertise, we have had tremendous success leveraging the Sonic brand on the Game Boy Advance platform,” said Hide Irie, President and COO, Sega of America, SEGA Corporation. “Sonic Battle and Sonic Advance 3 are poised to be strong performers in the expanding Game Boy Advance marketplace.”
The Sonic The Hedgehog series began in 1991 with the release of “Sonic The Hedgehog(R)” on SEGA Genesis(TM). The game quickly became a global hit. Over the years, Sonic The Hedgehog has been featured in more than 11 games on multiple SEGA gaming platforms including SEGA Genesis, SEGA Game Gear(TM), Pico(TM), SEGA Saturn(TM) and SEGA Dreamcast(TM). Most recently, the series continued with “Sonic Adventure 2 Battle” for Nintendo GameCube and “Sonic Advance” for GameBoy Advance, the first titles to utilize the Nintendo GameCube/GameBoy Advance Link Cable. In just over 10 years, Sonic The Hedgehog has become one of the most beloved and recognized video game characters of all time and the series has sold over 32 million units worldwide.
Planet GameCube has new Sonic Battle Screens, go check em out.
Spike TV is having a Video Game awards, Sonic has been nominated. Sonic Advance 2 has been dominated for best handheld game, the awards starts on December 4th so go check it out on the main part of the site.
Kikizo.com reports that Sega’s 45% increased net profit is not because of the games but because of the UFO Catcher 7 Amusement machine, which allows players to win Sega merchandise, including a ton of Sonic stuff. Read the article to learn more.
What more could a Sonic fan ask for than a whole town dedicated to Sonic? Profits from both Sonic games and UFO Catchers have helped Sega as they plan to launch a town dedicated to the Sonic series. The town will be like a amusement park and feature popular Sonic and Sega merchandise in Sonic themed stores and more. The most sad part is it will likely only be in Japan, but if its a hit, who knows what could happen.
The Sonic Town will feature news on Sonic games and sonic X.
The best part is it will feature themed areas for each character including the Tails area (Based for younger kids) and the Amy area (photo and printing-themed attractions), and there’ll also be a Sonic Motorcycle.
Check out Sega Japan and Watch Impress have info on the town.
Celebrate Tails with Sonic Teams latest update to the Sonic Battle page, they’ve added a Tails wallpaper and cursor icons. Thanks to Benji for the heads up.
EBgames has their Sonic Heroes Prima Strategy Guide ordering page up which states it’ll ship on 12/28/2003. Thanks to our friend SHADOW90 for the head up.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #134, ships 3/3, 32-page, full color comic, $2.19 US
“Home, Epilogue: Say You Will” : The poignant aftermath to this epic tale’s climactic finale. With the present crisis abated last issue, Sonic finally has the chance to catch up to those near and dear to him, especially one Princess Sally Acorn. SCRIPT: Karl Bollers. ART: Jon Gray (pencils) and Michael Higgins (inks). ALSO: “In Transit”: the “Mobius, 25 Years Later” series continues as lord Rotor returns to the Kingdom of Knothole, while Knuckles consults with the Brotherhood of Guardians at Haven II. SCRIPT: Ken Penders. ART: Steven Butler (pencils) and Ken Penders (inks).
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #135, ships 3/31, 32-page, full color comic, $2.19 US.
Three titanic tales in one issue! “Anonymous”: Dr. Robotnik has a new enemy to contend with, and it isn’t Sonic. This enemy has left a special present for Robotnik and signed it… you guessed it… “Anonymous”! SCRIPT: Romy Chacon. ART: Art Mawhinney (pencils) and Jim Amash (inks). “Agent from K.N.O.T.H.O.L.E.”: Sonic receives a mysterious message prompting him to travel incognito to meet someone in the middle of the Eggman Empire… someone who should be dead! Can this be a trap? SCRIPT: Romy Chacon. ART: Ron Lim (pencils) and Nelson Ribeiro (inks). “Dealing With the Devil”: The next exciting installment of our popular series of tales depicting “Mobius: 25 Years Later” continues! SCRIPT: Ken Penders. ART: Steven Butler (pencils) and Ken Penders (inks).
If you look up at #134 you’ll see the name “Jon Gray”. Jon just joined the Archie Sonic team recently and goes by the name of WB in the community. You can read the WB interview I had with him a few years back to find out more about him.
This info comes from sander kaalverink, he explains the Memory Card will be released on the same day as the game but hes unsure of if it’ll be in America though too, or if there’ll be memory cards for the other system. I’ll keep you updated.
Shadow of a Hedgehog recently did a interview with Mike Pollock, the voice of Dr. Eggman for the 4Kids dub version, go check it out.
Sonic Team has added many new updates to their official Sonic Battle game site, including a download section, box art, profiles, and sprite icons.
Sega of Japan adds their own site to CR Sonic…Sega of Japan has added a CR Sonic event page with information and images from the event.
Yuji Naka and co.
France gets a cool game pack that contains Game Boy Advance’s Sonic Advance and a Sonic Advance 2 wallet. It’ll be on sale soon for any of you French Sonic fans, from Amazon France.
SEGA of Japan has launched a brand new Sonic Battle commercial, below are both high and low versions of the commercial. Also in other news Sega Europe and UK Channel Nickelodeon are currently running a Billy Hatcher promotion in the UK, also Japanese TV channel ‘Sky Perfect TV!’ have teamed with Sonic Team to promote both Sonic Cafe and Sonic Battle.
A new Sonic game has been announced, though not for any game system. Its called CR Sonic and will be a new pachinko machine. Sammy will be developing this, and has stated that it will capture the speed of the original Mega Drive (Genesis) series.
SEGA has added a few more features to Sonic Central, they’re also looking for Sonic Heroes Fan Art to add to the site so go check it out. Thanks to Sonicoman and Knucklesdude for the heads up.
Jeux France has added 14 New Sonic Heroes Screens, and also has alot of the old ones and some videos, so go check it out! Thanks to Knucklesdude for the heads up.
Planet Gamecube is currently reporting that the U.S. release date for Sonic Heroes is now January 6th, 2004.
In other news, SEGA has pushed the Japanese release date back from December 12 to December 30th, i’ll keep you updated so stay tuned to Sonic News.
Though some of these screens might be from the last Screen report, theres even more in Gamespots 41 New Sonic Heroes Screen update, thanks to Hyper_Sonic_V for the link.
“Quick, alert the media!”, Matt_TY
SEGA’s FTP press site has added a few new movies of Sonic Heroes, including the Grand Metropolis Level, thanks to Killemoff for the heads up.
No one drools on Sonic Heroes content more then Sonic News visitors, so heres some more! Kikizo has a Article up with tons of brand new screens of some levels we havent seen yet, the levels include a jungle level, a eggman air base level, A castle like level and a futuristic city level. Go check it out.
Sonic Team has put up their Sonic Adventure DX PC section earlier. The section has several pages with screens and such including the latest news and info on the Gamecube to PC port. The game will come with 640 X 480 and 1280 X 1024 Screen resolutions and will also have everything the Nintendo Gamecube version had including bonus brand new PC desktop accessories. The game is due out on DEcember 18th in Japan, same day as the Sonic Heroes release date and it will include 2 CD’s. Thanks to Knucklesdude for the link.
Box Art:
A mix of the old Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic 2 Special Stages with a hot air balloon Chao, thats what Sonic Heroes’ Special Stages look to be so far. Click Here to check out the screens at GamingCharts.com.
Below is from Game Informer:
Nintendo announced today that those who preorder their upcoming game Mario Kart: Double Dash!! will receive a bonus preview disc chock full of demos and other extra goodies.
The disc will contain:
5 mini-games from Mario Party 5
A playable demo of F-Zero
Fire Emblem content that contains unlockable weapons, items, and new music
A playable demo of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Playable Hoth level from Star Wars: Rogue Squadron: Rebel Strike III
A playable demo of Sonic Heroes, featuring two levels and three characters
New movies of 1080°: Avalanche, Kirby Air Ride, Pokémon Colosseum, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Search For Bikini Bottom, Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup, and NBA Live 2004
Thanks to Tonykewv1for the heads up.
Kikizo has a new Sonic Heroes Movie that features mostly FMV sequances, check it out.
SonicTeam.com have reported that Famitsu graded Billy Hatcher 8/10 in all 4 catagories which puts it in Famitsu’s hall of fame.
New Sonic Heroes Screens have been posted on The Magic Box.
Nintendo Dreams, popular Japanese magazine is giving out a free PSO III CD called Let the Winds Blow. It will also feature a Billy Hatcher bonus track. It’ll be released with the 100th issue on Monday, october 6th.
Sonic Central, SEGA of America’s official Sonic site has recently been updated with new wallpapers and fan art.
In other news, Sega’s recent restructure has prompted their developers to launch new websites, Sonicteam.com’s new design and version will be up shortly.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #131
Two titanic stories in one action-packed issue! “Home-The Gathering” Part Two (of Four): Continuing the saga of the four-part epic begun last issue. The threat of nuclear annihilation by Dr. Robotnik and his new minions looms large, so Sonic and the citizens of the Kingdome of Acorn AND Station Square must ready themselves to strike the Eggman Empire before its too late! With stakes this eye, everyone joins the battle lines. Don’t miss this nail-biting installment-it could be the last!
SCRIPT: Karl Bollers. ART: Ron Lim (pencils) and Andrew Pepoy (inks). Continue reading Archie: Sonic #131 Preview
Check out Sonic Team TGS “Report” page as they have posted tons of exclusive on the scene pictures of the event.
Like, totally gnarly dude…
Below comes from C21media.net, an international entertainment news website.
“DIC polishes Sonic for Mipcom”
DIC Entertainment will bring new digitally-enhanced episodes and a ‘directors cut’ version of animated series Sonic The Hedgehog to Mipcom to coincide with the launch of a new Sega video game. (Sonic Heroes)
Totally Sonic is a 91 half-hour series which features a private collection of new episodes and enhanced versions of the originals, including a new director’s cut Secret Sonic episode.
The release of Totally Sonic! coincides with the launch of the new Sonic The Hedgehog videogame from Sega.
Check out the new screenshots of Sonic Heroes that Game Spy has added, theres also a few old ones too.
IGN has reviewed Sonic Heroes at TGS 2003. From IGN:
Sonic and heroes made their Sonic Heroes debut in Japan earlier today as the Tokyo Game Show kicked off just outside of Tokyo. Sonic Team’s latest take on the Sonic franchise was first shown at this year’s E3 through a demo of a single level that showed off the game’s cooperative play mechanics. The Tokyo Game Show version of the game featured the same level and its team of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, but also had another level featuring Shadow, Rouge and E-102.
We first tried out Sonic, Tails and Knuckles level and were very much impressed. The level moves fast, has lots of sections to show off the series’ trademark blazing speed, and offers up good chances to make use of each character’s abilities. We honestly can’t think of a single complaint about this level, aside from a few times where controlling the characters can become difficult. Camerawork, in particular, seems to be superb, with the occasional difficulties from E3 having apparently been cleared up. If the entire game ends up being like this level, we’ll be in Sonic heaven later this year. Continue reading IGN Playtests Sonic Heroes
Sega has put up a Sega TGS Movies page that has a Sonic Battle and Sonic Heroes’ movies that reveal new things to drool over!
Also, Hyper_Sonic_V linked me to another new Sonic Battle movie, click here to check it out.
