Internet Explorer Bodge-Up [Update]

Just a quick’un guys – remember we just released a new look for TSS? Well, it’s awesome and all, but not for Internet Explorer. Sorry about that. I’ll get it sorted soon as possible. Until then, er, use Firefox! I’m away from the TSS Tower right now so can’t really do anything about it for a few hours.

UPDATE: This is a quick fix for now, forcing the design to Narrow Hedgehog with a shoehorned design. I’ll fix it properly a bit later. Sorry guys! Least you can read stuff now 🙂

UPDATE 2: Everything’s working peachy now, so enjoy widescreen Sonic reading in Internet Explorer. Even if it does suck is the most popular browser.

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Australian McDonald’s Are Too Slow

With Sonic Unleashed just round the corner, it’s more than enough time to start promoting the blue blur with just about anything and everything you can create, right? Well, McDonald restaurants in Australia are being a bit more… economical with their promotion of Sonic the Hedgehog, by offering Sonic X Happy Meal toys. The same ones we saw in Britain about a year or so ago. Still, a collectible is a collectible, and according to our Antipodean tipster this is the first time the Launcher toy series has been seen in the land of Oz.

So if you’re Australian and want to get fat, roll yourselves down to your nearest Maccy’s and catch ’em all! Or, if you’d rather not indulge in their food, see if you can buy the toys separately. I know some places will let you have the toys for a dollar or something.

Thanks for the tip, BlitzChris!

UPDATE: We’re being told by Aussie members of the SSMB that these toys have been around before, something like six months ago. So maybe McDonald’s aren’t as slow as we thought, but it was strange to hear that they had brought them back again in that case. As of today (18th November) it doesn’t look like Sonic is part of the Happy Meal parade anymore, according to our Australian fast-food goers. Still, there’s always eBay or something.

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The Trouble With Trailers: The Sonic Unleashed Debacle

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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Happy Birthday TSS! PLUS BONUS ANNOUNCEMENT!

The Sonic Stadium is eight years old today (and it was Cephrien’s birthday a few days ago too, so happy birthday to you too). It’s hard to imagine that this little site of mine would be so involved in an international community like this, but we’re here today amongst other awesome websites like Sonic Retro and Sonic Fan Games HQ, and man is it all good.

As you may be aware, I’ve been chronicling the years of TSS, from beginning to end (we’re at 2001 at this moment in time, but over the course of the next week you’ll learn more about the last few years too) in celebration of what this website has achieved in its lifetime. Needless to say that (trumpet blowing time) the impact The Sonic Stadium has made on the Sonic the Hedgehog community is nothing to be scoffed at.

The Sonic Site Awards gave smaller Sonic sites (including TSS at the time) a chance to be seen amongst the big boys. The approach I made to Sega Europe in 2005 has led to the publisher gaining an interest in their target audience, which led to the creation of their Community department, the Sonic City website and the arrival of everyone’s favourite neighbourhood Sega-man, AAUK, to take pole position of what’s going on worldwide. The TSS Network helped raise the profiles of numerous fellow sites, including FastFeet Media and Sonic Cage Dome.

And then of course, you have my latest creation. Something that I am probably the most proud of besides TSS itself. The Summer of Sonic, which can essentially be called two creations under one name. Originally a website, it was born out of a concept I had waaaay back in 2001; that there should be a Sonic fansite where every single prominent webmaster should contribute to. At the time, the idea was to have a Community website that involved myself, Tristan from TSSZ (who was a lot less controversial than he is now arguably), Sonic HQ, The Sonic Foundation, Shadow of a Hedgehog… it would be a site where the whole community got involved and contributed to. Continue reading Happy Birthday TSS! PLUS BONUS ANNOUNCEMENT!

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Who Wants A New Master System?

Apparently Brazil are STILL crazy for old tech. Sega’s distributor and licensee for games in the South America region, Tectoy, are back with a vengeance and have announced a brand new Master System model. Imaginitively titled the ‘Master System 3’, the console will resemble something of a cross between a Mega Drive and a 3DO, with two six-button pads, 131 built-in MS games and a picture of Sonic the Hedgehog painted on the top.

There’s no cartridge slot for inserting old games, so you’ll have to make do with the ones already pre-loaded – all said to be G-rated games. Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Drift 2 (a Game Gear-only release outside of Brazil – Tectoy were famous for porting GG games over to the Master System) are among the Sonic games you can access on the console, with other titles including the Alex Kidd series, Enduro Racer, New Zealand Story and Cyber Shinobi. Cyber Shinobi!!!

It actually looks quite funky. Collector’s item for the Sonic fan? You (or T-Bird) decide. Probably not worth it’s asking price though – equivalent of £72.

Oddities: Brazil Keeping Mega Drive Dream Alive! – Kotaku

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Oddities: Sonic Unleashed Renamed In Japan

Probably because they’d pronounce it “Un-reashed” and that would just be silly, SEGA Japan has taken it upon itself to rename Sonic’s latest outing for Asian territories.

There were massive rumours that the game had suffered a name change – heavily debunked by SEGA Europe, with the explanation that World Adventure was merely a work-in-progress title. Turns out nobody keeps each other informed in the land of SEGA, and now we have semi-confirmation (semi because it is Japan only after all) in the form of a new official website.

There’s really not a lot else going on with the website, so don’t expect waves of information. But if you’d like an updated Sonic Un… World Adventure experience check it out. The website does look very nice though.

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SatAM Fansite: “2007 Sonic Movie Pitch Was In Fact Real”

Quexinos/Sonique, former administrator of the Fans United for SatAM website, has buried the hatchet with almost-Sonic-film-producer Richard Kuta over claims that a Sonic the Hedgehog movie pitch he made 18 months ago never happened.

Way back in January 2007, Richard Kuta had pitched his fan film project to studios such as Universal in order to produce a brand new Sonic the Hedgehog film. The Sonic Stadium originally reported it here while progress was still young – Richard had then boasted that SEGA had actually “green-lighted” such a project – claims that ended up being false.

While SEGA had not in fact given the go ahead, Richard’s intentions and ambitions were quite real, and were evidenced as such with discussions involving PR spokespeople from various studios. Quexinos made claims that Kuta was not in fact a filmmaker and called into question the validity of the project to The Sonic Stadium some days after the original news story, which you can read here.

Since that time, Kuta and Quexinos have been at loggerheads as the former insisted his project was real and the latter constantly debunked the claims. Quexinos wrote a post in the FUS forums today, reneging on the claims she made in 2007:

Rich did a lot of stupid and dumb things okay? But one thing he did right, was he somehow got Universal and DiC to back him up. Now I know what you’re thinking, “But he’s bullshitting…” well I found out he wasn’t. I talked to someone at Universal who at least remembered who he was (yeah I went there >.>) It was like I was talking to Rich and he said “Go ahead and call them” and so I did. So there I said it.

Richard’s movie pitch eventually fell flat in Decembet 2006, before all this mess began, when SEGA told him they were making a Sonic film internally. Since that time, Richard has been constantly contacting websites in an attempt to convince people such a project is still in production.

Unfortunately, we can say with certainty that, although The Sonic Stadium supported Richard in his original pitch, he is incorrect in believing a communication from early 2007 is proof SEGA is making a Sonic film. Had this been the case, we would have all heard about it by now. You can chalk up the ‘internal movie’ response as a polite form of rejecting Richard’s original pitch and nothing more.

Still, at least a year-long drama between a website and a budding film maker has come to an end at last, hasn’t it? Now, let’s never hear of any of this again. Ever ever ever ever again.

SatAM’s best chance for a comeback is now – FUS

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Simpsons Storyboard Artist to Attempt SatAM Comeback

We’ve all been here before, but someone has designs to pitch an idea to SEGA/DiC/the powers that be to invest in a revival of arguably the greatest Sonic cartoon, SatAM. This ‘someone’ however appears to be a chap called Matthew Sullivan, who has worked on The Simpsons, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and Family Guy, so he at least has some credentials.

Posting the image above in the Fans United for SatAM forums, Matt is preparing a pitch that he hopes will kickstart a new series of the classic Saturday morning show, with the hopeful inclusion of writer Ben Hurst. He makes no guarantee that this pitch will work, but as a fan himself states that he will try his damndest.

We wish you all the best Matt – if you have any questions he’s opened the floor on the FUS forums so give him our regards there.

Day ZERO! Animator X has a present for you! – FUS (via Saturday Morning Sonic – thanks Joanne!)

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Site Pulls E3 List Out Of Arse, Finds ‘Sonic Attitude’

Someone’s been dreaming on the Internets again. According to an apparent lineup at PlayStation Beyond, SEGA America are set to show a game called ‘Sonic Attitude’ at E3 2008 in a few weeks time. Set as a “Rumour” (probably to save their skin when people realise it’s likely just a wishlist for said website – we’d all like an F-Zero for Wii and a NSMB2 for DS), this Sonic game we’ve never heard of will apparently be on the Nintendo DS and is 100% more important than Sonic Chronicles, which isn’t set to make an appearance at all.

No sources are given, and E3 doesn’t seem to have an official list of attendees, at least right now. And unless Dimps really enjoy overworking, pain and suffering (the team is currently responsible for the PS2 and Wii versions of Sonic Unleashed) they won’t be undertaking a new Sonic project either. This is either Sonic Chronicles in sheep’s clothing or I’m eating someone’s clean, plush hat.

PlayStation Beyond (Via GoNintendo) – Cheers SSMB

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BlueTube: When Your Mind Can’t Comprehend A Place Or A Time

Roareye from the Sonic Showcase Network was sent this video by Sasso Studios – it’s an attempt at turning a real life movie out of Sonic the Hedgehog. Le sigh. To be fair to the chap, this is a pretty well produced effort for an amateur endeavour, and his heart’s in the right place. And at least they were bold in making Knuckles a gurning white guy.

I guess it just shows that no matter how hard you try, you can never ever create a project like this without it looking completely and totally cheesy. And we’re not even talking Keith Chegwin cheesy, we’re talking Dale Winton’s Special Brand. “SON OF A GUNS!” Classic.

There are several parts to this production already on youtube, and it’s a valiant effort so worth the watch. Beats all those Shadow music videos anyway. Some of the acting is legend (I want to buy the bald guy a pint) and you could cut the sexual tension in the last 30 seconds with a chainsaw (the music when getting into the car is the icing on the cake). Oscar winning material.

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First details on Sonic Unleashed!

EDIT: Due to many people misinterpreting simple English, here’s a clarification. Sonic Unleashed has not been confirmed to follow directly from Sonic 06’s story. It is simply to be considered the next ‘real’ Sonic game in the series, after Sonic 06 – which was the next canon game after Sonic Heroes. There is clearly a big dark creature that reminds us of Iblis in Sonic Unleashed, much like there was a dark evil Iblis-esque creature in Sonic and the Secret Rings regarding the Ifrit. This suggests – but not confirms – that SEGA are once again being influenced by a similar ‘dark’ storyline to tie up the game. Thank you for misunderstanding. If English is not your native language however we’ll let you off.

Further, The Sonic Stadium has obtained this information via its own sources and the only information that lies under ‘speculation’ is the information that immediately follows the word ‘speculation’. END EDIT.

Sonic Team has a funny way of making games these days. This morning The Sonic Stadium broke news of a forum post leaking images pertaining to be from Sonic Unleashed. We can now confirm that these images are real. This will be the next Sonic game.

And yet, we don’t know quite how to take the news. On the one hand, we’re excited with the promise of gorgeous levels and a Sonic that we actually want to associate ourselves with. On the other hand… well, read on. Continue reading First details on Sonic Unleashed!

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Sonic Chronicles enemy race named!

It’s been two weeks since SEGA opened up the final voting stage for the race to name a Sonic Chronicles enemy race and the finalised name has now been announced.

SEGA Nerds triumphantly succeeded over the rest with their very own name, The Zoah. The Zoah was up against such other names as Gravitus by T-Bird, Dusk by Blackarms, Psykore by Dreadknux and the in-famous Darknood.

SEGA announced the winner on their official Sonic City Blog located here while SSMB goer Urtheart was quick on the ball posting the link on the forums for all to see.

Congratulations to SEGA Nerds for winning the poll and well done to everyone else who made it into the Final round. Continue reading Sonic Chronicles enemy race named!

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The Simpsons References Sonic

Oh Sonic, I do! Woohoo!
This picture was provided by Penpen2nd of the Bumbleking “This Side of Mobius” forum.

The Simpsons, America’s longest running comedy, has spoofed and referenced everything from James Bond to Furbies. Even the red plumber himself, Mario, recieved a cameo appearance during a barrel throwing gag done in the vein of the classic Donkey Kong. So I ask you…WHERE is my Sonic the Hedgehog spoof? Surely Matt Groening and his cohorts are more then mere Nintendo fanboys?

Well, for the three of us who’ve been waiting for the Simpsons to do SOMETHING with Sonic, the wait is finally, sort of, over. In the latest episode, Sonic the Hedgehog and Amy Rose make a brief appearance on a billboard, which says “Sonic the Hedgehog Says: Wait Until Marriage”, showing Sonic presenting Amy with a ring. Continue reading The Simpsons References Sonic

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Sonic Underground back on DVD

Wired are reporting that a new Sonic Underground DVD volume 1 is now available containing the first 20 episodes and with new extra’s like a Greatest Hits cd, a music video jukebox and concept art.

A search on Amazon.com finds a Sonic Underground DVD released Dec 18th 2007, no specific releated info to the article is there though but with the release date it’s most likely the one.

Amazon.co.uk finds nothing new.

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Sonic 1 returns! Makes debut on the Apple iPod

SEGA announced this morning that the original ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ title will be once again ported to a newer gaming system MP3 player.

Released in the iTunes store for $4.99, the 1991 classic will see Sonic speeding round loops and collecting up rings through 6 exciting zones in hope to put an end to the evil Dr. Robotniks schemes.

The game has apparently been ‘redesigned’ for the iPod, though still remains an exact port of the original game. There’s no news of a definite release date, apart from that it will hit American iTune stores ‘just in time for the holidays.’

You can read up on the announcement here.

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1up Reviews Sonic 3 and Sonic 3D Blast on VC…

Gaming website 1up.com has caught up on a large backlog of Virtual Console reviews. Among these are reviews for Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic the Hedgehog 3. As for 3D Blast, we could all care less, but Sonic 3 gets…

… A THUMBS DOWN?!

Citing “messy level designs”, “dull and forgettable enemies”, and a “tepid soundtrack”, among other complaints, the blasphemous esteemed writers at 1up apparently don’t feel that the Genesis/Mega Drive classic is worth the Wii Points.

Now, I’m not advocating a mass protest… yet… but I think 1up should be made aware of exactly what we think of this game that they describe as “decent”. To arms! To arms!

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NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams delayed again!

It has been reported by one of the “NiNJAS” at NiGHTSintoDreams.com that NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams has been delayed over a month. It now has a January/February release, with only a few days seperating the release of the game in America and Europe.

Whilst this hasn’t been “officially” confirmed, this source has been spot on accurate in the past. NiGHTS is now a 2008 title, completely missing the Christmas holiday rush, and giving the game an extra month of much needed polish. Continue reading NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams delayed again!

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Sonic Rivals 2 release delayed again!?

Last month we saw Sega Europe change the release date of Sonic Rivals from 02/11/07 to 30/11/07 but now they have again changed it on their site to Winter 2007. This is the first Sonic game in a long time to have been given so much delays, could they have big plans for the game or do they simply want to perfect the game? As long as it makes the game better I’m all for it.

In other news Sega Europe have finally changed the release date for the Wii version of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games on their site from Winter 2007 to 23/11/07, so it’s officially official now.

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SEGA: Sonic RPG Still In Production? [UPDATE]

Short news piece today: SEGA have responded to The Sonic Stadium explaining that the Sonic RPG won’t be affected by the acquisition of BioWare by publishing giant Electronic Arts.

There was some concern over the title, as EA and SEGA are effectively bitter rivals in the publishing industry. This confirmation from SEGA is a good sign that Sonic RPG is still in the works.

[UPDATE] It appears SEGA are once again confused on its own information, as the Online Services sector tell us (via Sonic Wrecks) that the future of Sonic RPG isn’t as concrete as the PR department apparently made out recently. When one department says the game isn’t affected and yet another says otherwise, where does that leave the Sonic fan? A bit confused, we say.

Stay tuned to TSS for more details as we get it.

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Even retailers want Sonic to Brawl

Before commenting, please read the article thoroughly, as there have been some misunderstandings.

It has long been speculated that Sonic might be in Nintendo’s upcoming fighter Super Smash Bros Brawl. Now, two of North America’s biggest game related retailers, Best Buy and GameStop, haven added even more fuel to the fire, by apparrently including Sonic in their own SSBB ads. Keep in mind that these ads where made by their respective retail companies, and are by NO MEANS a confirmation of Sonic being in the game. This stuff isn’t from Nintendo or SEGA. These ads are very simple cop y and paste affairs using pre-exisiting CGI promotional images from SEGA and Nintendo. Such practices are very common among retailers that make their own ads, and the Wii logo in the ad used below is very commonly used in makeshift (fake) box shots in GameStop ads. Continue reading Even retailers want Sonic to Brawl

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SEGA suing humour website over AoStH gag


“Of course you know this means war!”

SEGA Europe has sensationally filed a lawsuit against humour website YTMND (You’re The Man Now Dog!) over jokes it contains involving Sonic the Hedgehog.

YTMND, for the uninitiated, is a website where users can create their own webpage consisting of only an image for a background and a voice clip as background music. Many trends are built on the back of this, where Star Trek’s ‘Epic Manoeuvres’ and Star Fox’s ‘Do A Barrel Roll’ being gags that has spawned countless YTMND joke pages.

The most popular of the Sonic jokes, a mickey take on the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon motto “That’s NO Good!”, involves editing the voice clip to include various random quotes from films and other cult references. Many different versions of this Sonic gag suggest furry rape or sex or some other kind of ‘NO Good!’ activity, which is likely the reason that SEGA have kicked off in such a way. Continue reading SEGA suing humour website over AoStH gag

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US: SONIC the Hedgehog Bombs At Retail

According to the latest monthly report from NPD Funworld, the well known video game sales tracking company, Sonic the Hedgehog was a huge bomb last month at US retail, selling a total 38,000 units throughout it’s first two weeks.

For the unlearned, these numbers are very, very bad for a series like Sonic, which can often garner anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 in it’s launch month.

Despite the ad blitz Sega put behind the game, it seems ultimately, the games poor reception from the press and gamers alike was it’s downfall. Only time will tell if it’s sales will shape up.

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Sonic in Desperate Need of Redesign

IGN recently name their top ten video game franchises in need of a re-redesign, with the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise taking out the top spot. Other legendary franchises were not spared either by IGN, with Sonic The Hedgehog beating them all.

IGN’s full list is as follows.
10. Gauntlet
9. Secret of Mana
8. Donkey Kong
7. Contra
6. Mega Man
5. Mario Kart
4. Star Fox
3. Castlevania
2. Bomberman
1. Sonic The Hedgehog
Continue reading Sonic in Desperate Need of Redesign

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Sonic the Hedgehog suffers another delay

Just as fans of Sonic the Hedgehog had eagerly awaited the launch of Sonic’s newest high definition outing for the XBox 360, they are awaiting the Playstation 3 version in hope that SEGA has patched the coding errors in the game that managed to lessen the gameplay experience on Microsoft’s next generation console. But is the wait really that short? Online journalism website Gamespot seems to disagree.

As a rather ‘last-minute’ update to their Sonic the Hedgehog section for Playstation 3, they have changed the debut date for the Blue Blur’s Sony outing to January 30th, 2007.

Quite a kick in the bollocks for those fans whom camped out for days waiting for Sony’s newest console, however all is not lost – you could always hoard your console with videos to pass away the time. You’ve done most of the deed, now it’s time for the waiting game.

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SAGE 2005 Opens!

The Sonic Amateur Games Expo (http://www.sagexpo.org/) has kicked off once again, but is currently recovering from a server problem that occured during the first day.

SAGE had a big awareness level attached to it, through support from sites such as The Sonic Stadium and Sonic HQ. Fans United for SatAM and organiser “PerfectChaos0” organised a chatroom event featuring Ben Hurst, writer for the SatAM cartoon series. Continue reading SAGE 2005 Opens!

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And… that was SAGE 9. Apparently.

Not that I’m one to complain about such things, but was it me or was SAGE 9 extremely short? Even shorter than it used to be back in the days of SAGE 4/5? I do believe this event ran for a grand marathon of about 3 or 4 days maximum. Although it was a success in such a short time, I’m sure many fangame developers would be rather choked that their creations were given a three day limit to be seen – especially considering that there are so many people out there who hasn’t even heard of a fangame. ShadowTeam was a sufferer in that we didn’t find time to add our stuff for that three day window, so we’ll be announcing our stuff over the coming weeks instead.

As for the coverage, I’m going to begin after I’ve had my lunch. But considering the number of booths that appeared this time, and the lack of time to see it in, it’s a shame I’m using the “aftermath” time to actually cover these fangames. A suggestion for SAGE 10 – especially since the SAGE event is to be a once-yearly event after SAGE 9: make it about 2 or even three weeks. Especially seeings as it’ll only be happening once a year now, a lot of people will be looking forward to it. And it also gives people like myself time to cover, report and actually play these games at leisure.

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Woo! And we evolve, finally…

Welcome to The Sonic Stadium. Yes, it is the same website, but uber-vamp style. This is the fabled ‘TSS Ultimate’ layout – the last and best layout for The Sonic Stadium, based on your comments and suggestions. We’re all set, but we’re still tweaking bits – scripts to use for the main page and that (at the moment it’s still hard HTML code). But meh – tour! This page has changed – see latest release dates and BIG update above, see announcements here – announcements will no longer pertain to updates, as a quick list of what has been updated can be found to the side, as the latest Sonic News headlines and soon SSMB topics and a site poll. Every page has accustomed to the new layout – best way to see is to explore yourself. 🙂 And remember to send us stuff – we’re going to be set on updating much now, since the staff’s to come back soon and all. So, whoppee. Hope you like!

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Sonic Pocket Adventure Re-Released

SNK discontinued their Neo Geo Pocket Color handheld a while back and had quite a bit unopened consoles and games in warehouses, so instead of letting them go to waste, they’re re-releasing them in bundles. Below are the bundles, the second one includes Sonic Pocket Adventure.

First Bundle: console and six games (Pac-man, Turf Masters, King of Fighters R2, Samurai Showdown 2, Metal Slug First Mission, and Fatal Fury F-Contact) for $79.99.

Second Bundle: Sonic Pocket Adventure and Puzzle Bobble, SNK vs. Capcom with Last Blade for $39.99. 

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.