Community Is LOL – The Sonic Stadium

It sounds totally cliche for a journalist to start a Sonic-related article in this manner, but Sonic fans like myself have understandably had plenty to moan about in this past decade. I don’t need to make a list, you know the drill. But 2006 was a long time ago. Now it’s 2010, and it seems like the fanbase at large is actively trying to pick a fight every five minutes. The target? Take your pick – Sega for not getting it, Sonic Team for losing it, Bentley Jones for having a life, Dimps for screwing up 2D (despite actually being good)… even fellow fans and fansites. It’s slightly ridiculous.

Continue reading The Spin: The Folly of the Sonic Fan

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xxOLDCommunity News

An Unhealthy Dose of Holiday Fail: Sonic Christmas Carols

11th December 2009

Slingerland

24 Comments

Hit the jump to read the lyrics to some Christmas Carols. These aren’t the songs that you’ve come to know and love, however. These songs were edited… by a Sonic fan and were found at Fanart-Central by Supakitsune of Sonic Retro. I hope you like to sing the words “Sonic” and “Chao.”

Continue reading An Unhealthy Dose of Holiday Fail: Sonic Christmas Carols

xxOLDArticles

The Best and Worst of the Sonic Community 2008

2nd January 20096th November 2009

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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TSSZ In Hot Water Over Community ‘Non-News’

6th October 20086th November 2009

Dreadknux

Now this is news. TSSZ has come under fire from many members of the Sonic online community for misrepresenting and not fact-checking community stories. The website, run by Tristan Oliver, was quite popular in 2004, but went on hiatus in 2005 – since its return this year, Tristan has had much criticism thrown his way for being ‘out of touch’ with his peers.

While the regular, ‘safe’ articles generally get a good reception from readers, fellow members of the Sonic community have been at loggerheads with Tristan since TSSZ’s return – a trend which all began when the website misunderstood The Sonic Stadium’s new approach in design and editorial during the initial reaction to Sonic and the Black Knight.

Perhaps the thing most public about the controversy surrounding TSSZ is the seemingly never-ending feud between Tristan and TSS’ own badass Slingerland. Feathers were ruffled when a news story was written involving Sonic Fan Games HQ (and by extension, Slingerland, in enforcing the rules there) and their irritation towards a non-English speaking member on their forum. Many wondered whether it was news-worthy at all, and the tone of the piece seemed to suggest a veiled attack on Slingerland. Tristan has denied such allegations, saying he wishes to report on the ‘good, bad and ugly’ side of the community. Continue reading TSSZ In Hot Water Over Community ‘Non-News’

xxOLDArticles

Roarey’s RacCOMIC #3: Pessimistic Edition

16th September 20084th March 2009

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.

xxOLDArticles

Roarey’s RacCOMIC: Strip #1!

21st July 20084th March 2009

Slingerland

Hey, “the bad guy,” Slingerland here. Today, TSS is introducing a new feature along side “The Spin.” It’s a comic by SSMB staffer, Roarey Racoon, and its content will be based of the happenings of Sonic and the Sonic online community. It is not something that you will see on a regular basis, but when he makes one, it will be here ready for you to read. Enjoy.

Strip #1: “Too Much Love Will Kill You”

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Sonic and the Black Knight – The “Defend Sonic” Brigade

20th July 20086th November 2009

Dreadknux

A ‘true Sonic fan’, reading The Sonic Stadium yesterday. Like, chill out man. Walk outside for a bit.

Looks like a few people want Sonic to go all ‘Legend of Zelda’ on us after all. Since our (note) not-news-story broke of the new Wii game, we have had a few comments of complaint. It’s nice when people don’t bother to use the ‘Contact’ form to inform us of new Sonic happenings, but it’s used up the wazoo when a BLOG states its opinion on a new title. Guess all people can do is complain.

But we thought we’d address each comment directly, and provide a broad generalisation as to just why we reacted the way we did. So here goes.

dude seriously i dont think you are a sonic fan i mean seriously mario had to travel through space to find a freaking princess its the same story line over and over again, so what if sonic makes a game about sub characters it just adds to the story line, at least sega is trying unlike nintendo, or YOU, they have great ideas, u can take this feed back anyway u want, seriously just let sonic be the way he is, and stop bitching about something new about him,

yous sincerely a true sonic fan

We’re not Sonic fans at all, no. Oh sorry, for a second there I thought we were on the Mario Stadium and not the Sonic Stadium. OK, so Super Mario has to repeat the same basic storyline ad nauseum. But think about it. Do you play a Sonic game for its gripping storyline? If you do, you’re probably better off grabbing an RPG and playing that – recent attempts to add a ‘serious’ tone to the Sonic games have been poor, and it shows it’s just not possible in the realm of Sonic. When you consider we’ve had seven years of poor console Sonic titles you’d think Sonic Team would drop the whole ‘plot’ thing by now.

Funnily enough, if we wanted to bitch about Sonic, we would really be having a go at Sonic Unleashed right now. But we’re not, because 50% of that game is looking absolutely fantastic. There’s this weird perception at the moment that, because a game concept is totally rubbish (Sonic with a sword? Really?) and we say it is, that means we’re automatically ‘bitching’.

You like the idea of Sonic and the Black Knight. Good for you. Seriously. Have a brownie. But don’t tell us where to get off because a lot of other people are facepalming themselves right now. Consider: Sonic Rush Adventure, the Sonic side of Sonic Unleashed. Now consider: Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic 2006. The latter two games sucked – you might love Shadow or Sonic 2006, but no opinion will get around the fact that they are poor, misprogrammed, rubbish-concept games.

What is a ‘true Sonic fan’ anyway?

Continue reading Sonic and the Black Knight – The “Defend Sonic” Brigade

xxOLDCommunity News

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

17th July 20086th November 2009

Dreadknux

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

xxOLDCommunity News

BlueTube: Sonic Fan Wars

15th July 2008

Dreadknux

Over on SSMB, a chap has posted a rather interesting vlog about, what one might consider an ‘outsider’s view’ of the Sonic the Hedgehog online fanbase. Truesonicfan, also known as Andrew for those that might whinge about him using an unimaginitive screenname (I know some of you exist out there) notes that everywhere you go there are countless ‘wars’ about various aspects of Sonic. Drummond or Griffith? Classic or Modern? Cool carefree Sonic or bestiality deluxe? All a dude wants to do is chat with some friends online about Sonic and how cool the games are, man!

Andrew’s about as articulate as a bog brush, but to be fair he makes some good points. There are a lot of Sonic fan factions that want to niggle about the voices for no apparent reason. There are groups that argue that modern games have no place, or learning from the Mega Drive days is pointless. Hell, some are even concerned as to how Bioware have set up the bloody world map in Sonic Chronicles (what the hell, who cares?).

We call these groups ‘whiny bitches’, and although they are found mostly within the Sonic fanbase more than any other group of gaming fans, I’d like to think their kind are dying down. At least, relegated to Youtube where they can stick two fingers up at Naka or Iizuka or Griffith or whoever the hell has deserved the ‘retard venom’ these days. Continue reading BlueTube: Sonic Fan Wars

xxOLDOfficial News

Roundup: What We Missed

17th June 200816th July 2008

Dreadknux

We’ve been away for a while, but now we’re back to kick some butt at Wild Canyon and as much as we’d like to not-believe, there’s been a fair bit of news that has slipped by the Sonic News radar (or Newsdar, or… something) during our reconstruction. FRET NOT, we’ve got it covered. Even though you probably already know all this anyway.

Sonic Blogicles

First off SEGA Europe’s community blog, the Sonic City Blognik, has started posting regular diaries from the desks responsible for Sonic Chronicles. The first entry was written by Bioware Brand Manager Randall Bishop, who discussed at length why the game will rock, in typical Brand Manager fashion. He interestingly pointed out Bioware’s new approach to Chronicles for the fact that this is indeed a kid’s game – I hope Bioware remembers that half the success of a kid’s multimedia product is the viability of it to adults too. Just ask Pixar. Continue reading Roundup: What We Missed

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“Dull, Without Substance”, yet oh so good. TSS.

30th January 20053rd June 2008

Dreadknux

I went into GAME the other day, foolishly thinking it was 4th February (Sonic Mega Collection +‘s release date). But still, I got a free T-Shirt out of pre-ordering there. AND, I got to meet a great gal working there. We were talking about Sonic for ages, and it was great. A shout to to her, BTW. Anyway, there goes my big boycott of GAME, well and truly buggered.

But it’s not all bad news. Apparently, according to some rather misinformed people, the news that OUR Sonic News section provides to TSSZNews is apparently the only thing keeping TSS alive. Also, The Sonic Stadium is dull, without personality, and has no substance or information at all whatsoever . I’m sure you all feel the same right, clicking those links and actually knowing that TSS is the biggest information resource for Sonic the Hedgehog, with the most intellectual and fun-loving community alive. 😉 Still, it doesn’t really matter, those doomsayers keep coming back to TSS all the time to check our information and downloads, so we must be doing something right. Continue reading “Dull, Without Substance”, yet oh so good. TSS.