Welcome to the Archive site of The Sonic Stadium (2008-2023)
Please note that this site is no longer being updated or maintained; as a result, there may be design issues, and links to images and other media may be broken.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.
Just over two years ago we brought you news that Sega was opening a new Joypolis theme park in China, along with it were several new Sonic Rides and attractions, whilst a few images were released, some key details were missing, such as what you actually did on the ride and in the case of Sonic Jump Adventure, what you actually watched on the screen.
Since that time; virtually no information about the attractions has surfaced, no video, photos, visitor descriptions of any kind.
Well we can now share with you a few details, Joypolis China has redesigned their website and along with it comes several new photos and descriptions of some of the rides.
Sonic Star Race looks like a bonkers cross between the dodgems section in Twinkle Park and All Stars Racing, but there’s actually a few details here you might miss.
See that screen on the left side? That’s a scoreboard! As you drive around the arena, you get points by driving over the different coloured lights on the floor. Not sure if you get points for using a super horn at other drivers though.
Next up is the most interesting one.The literal translation of this ride was ‘Sonic Jumping Adventure’ but now we finally know it’s actual title ‘Sonic Jumping Tour’. No additional details were given as to what you actually do on this ride, but we do finally get to see part of it and… boy it looks odd. There is a slightly different image available in the gallery, but if you can figure out what’s going on, be sure to let me know in the comments.
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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.
Looks like the rumors are true! Sega has announced on the Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account that Sonic Forces will be arriving on November 7th along with a US price tag of $39.99. On top of that, folks who pre-order the game will receive a controller skin for their system of choice. Along with the controller skin comes five different skins for the avatar based on several Sega/Atlus game properties including Jet Set Radio, Persona, Puyo-Puyo, Super Monkey Ball and NiGHTS. Looks like a great price and bonus for those interested in the upcoming game.
Sonic Forces will be available for Switch, PS4, X-Box One and PC November 7th.
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After a two-week delay, Sonic Mania finally sees its PC release today on Steam. As a reward for their wait, PC gamers can expect a version of the game that includes several bug fixes that are still present in the console versions, in addition to the Super Sonic transformation that can now be activated via a dedicated button (and allowing continued use of the drop dash once the player has collected more than 50 rings with all Chaos emeralds in their possession). Continue reading Sonic Mania Arrives on Steam With Bug Fixes And DRM
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A twitter user by the name of Jojo has discovered that if you open up the Genesis/Mega Drive stand of the Sonic Mania Collector’s Edition statue, there is an actual LED light in the display! (NOTE: Doing so would void any warranty you might have on it.) What’s more, you can make it work! The tiny circuit board for the “SEGAAA!” sound includes two holes marked “LED”. All you need is a bit of copper wiring and a screwdriver. You can check how he did it on Jojo’s Twitter page, but man! What an easy mod! It makes you wonder though. Sega seemed to back out of the LED light working at the last minute. Why?
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You may remember a report we made a couple of years back about a LinkedIn profile we found for Sonic Xtreme’s Lead Artist Ross Harris which stated he designed character models for the game, including Amy Rose. Well, The Sonic Stadium has now found a portfolio website for the artist which features the above models for Amy Rose as well as models for Sonic and some badniks. Continue reading Sonic X-Treme Amy Rose Models Found
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In addition to the three children’s Sonic books found earlier, another interesting entry has been added to Penguin Random House’s catalogue.
It appears SEGA are releasing a colouring book, this time based on SEGA in general as opposed to Sonic. SEGA: The Official Coloring Book isn’t a regular kids’ colouring book, but instead an adult colouring book meant to act as stress relief. To compound this, the illustrator is listed as Patrick Spaziente, who Archie fans may recognise for being a prominent artist on the Sonic the Hedgehog comic back when Archie ran the books.
SEGA: The Official Coloring Book
By PATRICK SPAZIANTE
Adult Coloring Book
Oct 17, 2017 | 96 Pages
ABOUT SEGA: THE OFFICIAL COLORING BOOK
Relive your misspent youth with this classic Sega adult coloring book!
Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, Sonic the Hedgehog, and more—all intricately illustrated in this adult coloring book packed with original Sega art. With stunning pages to color, plus all the best action from the classic gaming system, this retro-themed adult coloring book is perfect for any creative gaming fan. Filled with 96 pages of original designs, it will be like you’re playing Altered Beast for the very first time. Power up!
The book is due to be released on October 17th this year, so it may be ideal as a little Christmas present for someone you know!
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Check out the Sonic Mania panel at 2017 to get all the details we couldn’t cover! Join host Aaron Webber with guests, Takashi Iizuka, Christian Whitehead, Tee Lopes, Tom Fry, and Simon Thomley as we get more details on what went into this game.Get the full scoop on the game, check out some wacky glitches and the fan Q&A it’s all here! Continue reading Sonic Mania: Behind the Scenes Panel from San Diego Comic Con
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SEGA and IDW Publishing have today announced a partnership to continue Sonic the Hedgehog comics in a new series in 2018. The news comes a day after SEGA officially announced the end of a 24-year partnership with Archie Comics.
According to SEGA, creative teams are still being formed at IDW, with more news to come later. The news shot also hints that the writers and artists are involved in the news comics, stating they are in talks with “Sonic fan-favourite creators and new creators alike”.
SEGA and IDW are thrilled to announce a partnership to bring Sonic Comics to fans new and old. The new series arrives 2018! pic.twitter.com/neT3oAMNUE
— Sonic the Hedgehog (@sonic_hedgehog) July 21, 2017
As always, TSS will keep you up to date as news comes!
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Away from the actual gaming area, Sega has set up a rather large photo booth in which you can have your photo taken in front of a giant green screen, this will then be digitally imposed onto Sonic Forces/Sonic Mania (we’re unsure which) so you can take away a memento of yourself appearing inside a Sega game. Continue reading Sega’s E3 Photo Booth is Incredible “It Has a Trampoline!”
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Receiving news about a delay for a video game is a bittersweet occasion. On one hand, it means having to wait all the longer for a game’s already highly anticipated release as its launch is pushed further ahead, but on the other hand, one can’t really complain about extra polish to ensure greater quality from the final product. Continue reading Sonic Mania is Now ESRB-Certified for All Platforms Except Nintendo Switch
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The Sonic Stadium has discovered even more Sonic Boom concept art, but this time for last year’s Nintendo 3DS release Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice. The images were found on the portfolio of Casey Holtz a contract designer who worked on the game’s level and system design.
Responsibilities:
Level layout on 12 Race levels
Level layout on4 Adventure levels
Boss battle design, tuning, scripting
General systems tuning and support.
The concept art gives us a look at early stage and boss level sketches. In the original image files we can see they date back between November 2014 and early 2015 telling us the game was still in the very early stages not long before it was announced in June 2015, so it’s no wonder the game was delayed until September last year.
Check out the images in our gallery below and share your thoughts in the comments.
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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.
The Sonic Stadium has discovered a proof of concept for a Sonic the Hedgehog virtual reality project. The concept was developed for SEGA by Big Sky VR a Los Angeles based studio who worked on Coachella Explorer the first-ever mobile 3D simulation of the Coachella Music Festival. Big Sky describes their Sonic concept as a puzzle game in which our blue hero takes the user on an adventure through typical Sonic environments, though they fail to elaborate on any puzzle elements.
Big Sky developed a proof of concept for Sega to help them bring their icon Sonic the Hedgehog to the world of Virtual Reality. In this puzzle game experience Sonic escorts our user along an adventure that takes him across land sea under volcanos and above the clouds thats true to Sonic form.
Big Sky’s Greg Edwards has shared a video of the demo on his Vimeo account two months ago indicating that this is a very recent project. Whether anything more will come of this further down the line is unclear, but it’s interesting to know SEGA is looking at bringing Sonic to the world of virtual reality.
Would you like to see a Sonic the Hedgehog virtual reality game? Let us know in the comments.
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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.
As promised, Sega have uploaded the HQ gameplay of Modern Sonic that was shown last night at SXSW onto YouTube for all to see. Also we have two high-quality screenshots straight from Sega to share as well!
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A reprint of a critically-acclaimed art book covering the history of the Sega Mega Drive is being crowdfunded on Kickstarter. Read Only Memory’s ‘Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works’ was originally released in 2014 and included interviews with Sonic creators Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima, along with illustrations and concept drawings of the 16-bit console’s best titles. Continue reading Sega Mega Drive: Collected Works Art Book Guns for Second Print Run
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In the last few years there has been a small explosion in Sonic Style guides hitting the internet, if you don’t know what a style guide is, give this article a read.
Sometimes we get lucky and a full guide lands in our laps, but this is a very rare event, however we do sometimes get the odd one or two scans of style guides which give us an insight into not only how Sega see’s Sonic and would like retailers, manufacturers and designers to see Sonic, but also how they see us as fans.
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What seemed to be an eternity of waiting since its announcement on March 17th, 2015 has finally passed on October 20th, 2016, as Nintendo had at long last lifted the curtain on the “NX,” or should I say the Nintendo Switch. Even before that day, Sega officially announced that Sonic would indeed be making an appearance on the system. It won’t be just any game, but the even longer-awaited next main game from Sonic Team called Project Sonic 2017, provided the Switch version is the same as the PS4/XBO/PC versions. Continue reading HoL’s Musings: Sonic’s Future and Potential on the Nintendo Switch
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There’s almost no argument against Sonic the Hedgehog social media being among the most—if not outright being the most—notorious of all media outlets with its high quality memes and humorous posts. That said, fans should also be keeping an eye on the official Sonic YouTube for occasional skits, such as the recent Sonic the Hedgedog videos, as well as a new miniseries premiering today called Sonic Whiteboard Adventures.
Some might remember Sonic’s simpler “Sketchhog” apperance, as he reprises it once again at the start of the video in an adorable fashion, at least before switching with his most recent Sonic Mania design from then on. Sonic must reach the end of Whiteboard Blast Zone Act 1 to fight a mysterious foe! Give it a watch below.
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Reader beware, you’re in for a scare – a scary t-shirt, that is!
Last month, SEGA got into the 25th anniversary spirit with a limited edition pair of official Sonic Mania tees, and with Halloween around the corner, a spooky new t-shirt is now up for grabs on Amazon US. The new piece of apparel features Sonic as he faces off against a thematically dapper Eggman on his Eggmobile with surrounding Bat-Brains.
The new tee has yet to surface on Amazon UK, but those in the States can nab a navy or asphalt-coloured shirt for $19.99 today.
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Twenty-five years ago, a blue speedster ran his first loop-de-loop on South Island and captured our hearts. Sonic the Hedgehog made a ton of friends and foes, and has travelled through a great many locales and environments since then, ranging from the colourful and fantastic to the familiar and lifelike.
To celebrate his silver anniversary, SEGA and art dealership Cook & Becker will be releasing a commemorative art book. The book will encompass the expansive history of the franchise and include a variety of design sketches, official character illustrations, in-game art, pixel art, rare promotional art and game box art, all on top of never-before-seen art and interviews with key artists and designers who worked on the franchise over the years.
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SEGA showed off a very tongue-in-cheek infomercial two weeks ago for the Collector’s Edition of Sonic Mania, which starred familiar faces such as Aaron Webber and Kazuyuki Hoshino. Fans of old loved the nostalgic infomercial parody advert for parodying the original Sonic 2 commercial… which was also a parody of infomercials in itself. The rabbit hole gets so much more nauseating from there…
If you were interested in the filming process behind the Mania infomercial, then have no fear: Sonic’s got you covered. Check out the behind-the-scenes below!
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The Xbox One has a growing list of backwards compatible games from the previous generation, be it from a retail release on the Xbox 360 or a digital title via the old Live Arcade. From it also comes a steady stream of Sonic games, with the classic games, Sonic the Fighters, and both episodes of Sonic 4 having been rereleased onto Microsoft’s modern console.
Earlier today, Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb announced that three more games are relaunching on Xbox One Backwards Compatibility today, including Sumo Digital’s Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. The second All-Stars racing game originally launched in November 2012 across several platforms to a positive critical reception.
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Title: Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice Platform: Nintendo 3DS (played on 3DS XL model)
Developer: Sanzaru Games Release Date: September 27th, 2016 (NA), September 30th, 2016 (EU), October 1st, 2016 (AUS), October 27th, 2016 (JP)
Review copy provided by Sega
Here we are at last. It’s been almost two years after the Sonic Boom branch of the series launched with the TV show and the accompanying Wii U and 3DS games. We now have the second main Sonic Boom game (depending if you view Rise of Lyric on Wii U and Shattered Crystal on 3DS as a sibling pair of games), and this time it’s only on 3DS. Like Shattered Chrystal before it, Fire & Ice is once again developed by Sanzaru Games, who is also known for the Sly Cooper HD trilogy remaster and the fourth Sly game a few years back on PS3 and Vita. While Big Red Button’s Rise of Lyric launched in a poor and buggy state on Wii U, Shattered Crystal on 3DS was considered to be at least decent, though it had issues of its own. The question is, how does Fire & Ice fare?
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It’s been two years in the making, but Sanzaru Games’ Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice for the Nintendo 3DS is finally upon us. Having launched for the Americas just yesterday, the third installment of the spinoff series will be arriving in Europe this Friday while Japanese hopefuls will have to wait another month. Promises were made about the game shaping up to be better and faster-paced than the preceding Shattered Crystal, and according to most critics, Sanzaru certainly delivered.
You can check out the launch trailer above, as well as a review roundup below!
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We’re less than two weeks away until Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice launches on the Nintendo 3DS, and new information and footage from the game is dropping nearly by the day. That said, there is still an air of uncertainty and apprehension surrounding the new Sonic Boom-branded game, despite its one year-delay and SEGA’s promise to uphold a higher standard of quality in all of their games.
This scrutiny isn’t without grounds and neither is it be unexpected, considering the disastrous launch of Big Red Button’s Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric on Wii U, which was received poorly by critics, and Sanzaru Games’ Shattered Crystal on 3DS, which didn’t live up to fans’ expectations for a 2D Sonic game. With Sanzaru once again at the helm, however, the team aimed to improve on Fire & Ice where Shattered Crystal went wrong, as the game’s creative director Mat Kraemer explains in an interview with GameSpot.
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Sonic Maniakeeps looking better the more we see from it, and all the more so with every little bit of footage sprinkling forward towards its Spring 2017 release. With that in mind, what if we looked better the more Sonic Mania we have on ourselves? Your dreams can come true today, as SEGA is selling a pair of official Mania T-shirts through Amazon – a Studiopolis Zone-based shirt and a “Triple Theat” tee starring icons of the game’s three playable characters.
However, this promotion is running for this month only, up until September 30th, and at the moment is only available through Amazon US. The Studiopolis tee, as well as a Triple Threat design with the Sonic Mania logo printed on it, were previously available on Amazon UK, though their listings appear to have vanished.
Have a closer look at the shirts themselves in the gallery below!
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There’s not much time before the launch of Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice for the Nintendo 3DS. Come the end of September, Sonic fans in the West can get their hands on the third playable instalment of the Sonic Boom series, helmed by Shattered Crystal developer Sanzaru Games as the studio aims to improve where the previous game went wrong – with SEGA going so far as to delay it by a whole year as part of their pledge to aim for a higher standard of quality for all of their games from here on out.
SEGA of Japan recently hosted a near-two hour long livestream showing off several of their upcoming games, including the latest Yakuza, the recently revealed Puyo Chronicle, and Atlus’ highly anticipated Persona 5, but not without kicking things off with a sneak peek at the localized Sonic Toon: Fire & Ice. Gameplay featuring Sonic, Knuckles, and Sticks was shown off in the segment, as well as another look at the Sonic Rivals-esque Bot-Racing. You can check out the interview in full, or watch just the gameplay with footage spliced together by BlueParadox, after the cut!
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Sonic Mania is the return to form classic fans have sought after for years, and expectations are high since its debut appearance at the 25th anniversary party in San Diego, revealing a remixed Green Hill Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog as well as a brand new stage with Studiopolis Zone. With this year’s PAX West winding down, more footage from the game has surfaced, all direct feed and featuring both Zones on full display!
Check out GameXplain and Polygon’s differing playthroughs of these levels after the jump, and be sure to leave us your thoughts in the comments.
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Just like the first two before it, Sega have announced via the Japanese magazine Famitsu that they will release a 3rd retail compilation of the 3D Classics games on 3DS. So far we only know of five games (all of which are already on the eShop) and will only be released in Japan at the moment. See the list of games below.
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Just recently, Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima spoke with the Japanese magazine Famitsu, and commented on the origins of the Mario & Sonic series, as well as Sonic joining Super Smash Bros. Brawl. But Yuji Naka also said that he wishes to give another presentation to Sonic Team’s Takashi Iizuka about a potential Mario & Sonic action game. See the quote below.
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Mario and Sonic was always the topic at the Copa. With the Olympics just weeks around the corner, Mario and Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games for the Wii U is finally out on the shelves. Promising more characters, better graphics, 14 Olympic events and an array of content, will this game have you partying like you’re in Maracanã, or will you be left thinking of it as Barren da Tijuca?
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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.
A number of detective Sonic fans have discovered an old job advert for an video game company, whose name isn’t disclosed. However the description of the advert has some very strong hints that the company is Sega and that the job advert is for work on a new Sonic game. Continue reading Japanese Job Advert Hints at New PS4/Xbox One Sonic Game?
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.
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.
The literal translation of this ride was ‘Sonic Jumping Adventure’ but now we finally know it’s actual title ‘Sonic Jumping Tour’. No additional details were given as to what you actually do on this ride, but we do finally get to see part of it and… boy it looks odd. There is a slightly different image available in the gallery, but if you can figure out what’s going on, be sure to let me know in the comments.
