Rail Shooters:

8th September 20147th March 2015

Someone over at Nintendo UK’s FACEBOOK page (whoopsie XD) seems to not be too fond of Pink Hedgehogs, as seen in this screencap of a post of theirs:

Well whatever your views on Amy herself, you should still have a friendly laugh all the same.

Now will whoever posted that receive a… pink slip? :O

Oh and I think it goes without saying, but please, keep it civil. Like Reggie Fils-Aime said; there’s nothing wrong with having a little fun.

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Hero of Legend’s Lookback Part 2: Sonic Unleashed for Wii

10th August 20149th May 2015

Yep, as I hinted in part 1 of my lookback featuring Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, I wanted to do my next one on Sonic Unleashed for the Wii! Have a look at part 1 right here (and comment! I’d really love some more feedback. ).

So now onto the lookback:

Developer: Sonic Team/Dimps/Xeen/O-TWO Release Date: Nov 18th 2008 (NA) Nov 28th 2008 (EU) Nov 27th 2008 (AUS) Dec 18th 2008 (JP)

So this is what everyone considers to be the afterthought version, the side project, the thing to chuck out there for a quick buck… which apparently worked too well as the Wii version was apparently not only the highest selling version, but APPARENTLY outsold both the PS3 and 360 versions combined. Well that’s one reason Wii got Colors exclusively.

So for a long time we always thought it was mainly by Sonic Team with Dimps doing the daytime design work, but after exploring the endless world of the interwebs, I found the websites of Xeen and O-TWO and spotted the Wii version on both sites under games they worked on. As I noted last time, those two indeed worked on Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, and there’s the old interview where a Sega employee (think it was at one E3) where it was said it indeed used the Zero Gravity engine, all signs point to it being correct.

The game runs in 480p, 16:9 widescreen like Zero Gravity and all other Sonic games on Wii, however it runs in 30fps, also like every other Wii Sonic game except for Zero Gravity. Why did a spin-off accomplish what main games wouldn’t do? At least not until Sonic Lost World, and even then Zero Gravity is a locked 60fps where Lost World dips at times…

For those unfamiliar with the latter two teams, Xeen actually was the main dev of Rhythm Thief on 3DS and O-TWO mainly works on various 3DS eShop games like Skater Cat and Cube Tactics, they also helped on the more recent Puyo Pop games.

So here’s another thing to point out and it’s a biggie. The Wii version was basically the darling of most review sites, while the HD versions were slammed and some even rated it lower than Sonic ’06, ouch. I’ve only played the 360 demo in terms of HD version experience and it wasn’t my cup of tea, all the footage I’ve seen so far shows it being NOWHERE near as bad as Sonic ’06, and no, I don’t think Sonic Boom will be either, there was more than just technical issues being why Sonic ’06 was poop.

So what about the Wii game itself you ask? Well I REALLY liked it, it certainly has some glaring issues which of course I’ll dive into, but first let’s talk about the gameplay.

It’s very true the game is pretty one-sided in favor of the Werehog stages, basically for every day stage, you get 3 night stages. Some night levels even take place like 3-5 in a row, yikes. But the daytime stages are purdy fun. One thing I really enjoyed was the limited boost usage where it’s divided into small bursts at a time rather than go hedgehog wild. It allows you to strategize more in when to use it, also I like how after every 30 rings collected, its max amount increases AND fully restores it. I also like that *puts flame shield on* it’s SLOWER! I don’t like boosting like a bajillion miles and hour with little to no control, no sir, I don’t like that. Just give me a sense of going fast but being able to see things around me and being able to control what the hell I’m doing while boosting!

A major bonus on Wii is the medal system, you never have to worry about searching far and wide (I ain’t singing it, get that out of your head!) for medals, instead they’re rewarded depending on your rank in all levels, where as B gets you one, A gets you two, and S gets you all three medal in the level. Much easier. I just encourage you to try and get an S rank in the night levels on the first go if you don’t want to play them again.

Speaking of the night levels, here you focus on using the Wiimote and Nunchuck to fight in a sort of Wii Boxing/Punch Out style, and honestly, once you get the hang of it, it works REALLY well, I never used another control setup, I know, crazy right?

S ranking in the night levels is a bit tricky, you have to collect all the experience (called Force), rings, and beating the stage fast enough. But just be quick and break and collect everything you see and you should be okay. Here’s a tip: instead of punching boxes and whatnot, RUN into them, they break automatically thus saving you a lot of time.

So how about dem graphics? Well it’s no secret it’s not as pretty, and frankly, it’s not even close to the graphics of the Colors team’s output (Secret Rings, Black Knight, and Colors), hell, the game runs in 30fps so to me it’s kind of beneath Zero Gravity. Plus there’s something BIZARRE about the image quality where when the Werehog stages begin, he looks VERY weird with how the jaggies move about, like it’s not polished and… ugh, I can’t put my finger on it! The game could’ve used the useful Deflicker technique where it softens the image to reduce jaggies, like a free fake Anti-Aliasing of sorts. A lot of Sonic games on GC and Wii used it, as most famously Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl. It honestly helps a bit I’ve noticed, but I’m no expert so…

Also need to mention this graphical glitch in the first main daytime Adabat stage where you reach the bottom of a 2D section where you’re on the water, and the water just flickers really badly, but this is the only case of that, but it always does that there.

However, when played in HD on Dolphin, it surprisingly shines! Here is a gallery made by a person named zetabio who made DOZENS of screenshots of it in 1920×1200.

So all-in-all, I really enjoyed the game and I highly recommend it as long as you’re not going to puke as soon as you look at it and don’t mind the Wiimote controls. Actually it supports the GameCube controller (not usable at the moment on Wii U of course) and the Classic Controller if you prefer.

I’d give it an 8.0 out of 10. It’s not my fav Sonic game, but I still really enjoyed it as I said. It’s hard to say if I prefer Zero Gravity over Unleashed, I kinda prefer Zero Gravity due to it’s vastly superior polish.

That’s it for now! Hope you’ve enjoyed the 2nd lookback. Hopefully I’ll do another down the road again, but these two were the most under the radar/underrated of the console games last gen so I felt the warranted lookbacks the most.

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Hero of Legend’s Lookback: Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity for Wii

This will be the first in hopefully a line of lookbacks I will be doing related to our fav Hodgepodge err I mean Hedgehog.

I also plan on hopefully getting some video content down the road for the site, mostly I’m waiting for YouTube to unlock their 60fps setting so you can see classics like Sonic Adventure 2: Battle and the recent Sonic Lost World in glorious 60fps, I’ve done some clever editing of 60fps recordings to blend them to 30fps showing a “fake” 60fps video (which I will show an example of below!).

Also I want to address anyone that’s wondering if a 3rd Big Red Button research post will happen. The answer is actually yes, BUT I will wait for Sonic Boom’s release and compile the credits and then dig into it to get the info on who else worked on it. So for now it’s on hold until then.

But for now, let’s get to the lookback!

Developer: Sonic Team UGA/Xeen/O-TWO Release Date: Jan 8th 2008 (NA) Feb 22nd 2008 (EU) Mar 6th 2008 (AUS) Jan 8th 2008 (JP)

Why are you looking at this? This is crap! You may ask. Well to me, it is NOT! And I will explain hence the point of the lookback.

For one thing, this is a pretty damn technically competent game, and what I mean by that is, this game first of all runs in a brisk 60fps not only in gameplay, but in ALL in-game cutscenes, just like in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle and Sonic Heroes. Second, it supports 480p and 16:9 widescreen, so it’s pretty nice even on an HDTV. Now I can’t speak for Sonic ’06 as I’ve (blissfully?) not played it, but I believe it is the ONLY Sonic game of last gen (Wii, 360, PS3) to run in 60fps all the way through and not in either certain parts or very unevenly throughout. Same goes for the cutscenes, Sega’s been pretty happy with always forcing cutscenes nowadays to run in 30fps only (this includes in Sonic Lost World to my disappointment), so this game really does do things later games by the main branch of Sonic Team don’t, think about that.

Now to talk about the gameplay. For me, the gravity mechanic is honestly inferior to the air mechanic in the original, however, the Gravity Dive is pretty satisfying to use, as is the gravity turn technique when you do it right. The items to me don’t really matter much aside from giving you rings and gravity power. The special attacks mean nothing to me as they activate right away and you may not even be able to reach an opponent, also you don’t need it if you’re ahead. You can seemingly use these attacks to access shortcuts specific to a class, but I never get it to work right (likely just me) XD.

Now the part most hate, the controls. To me, they’re JUST FINE! If you’ve played the original on GameCube no prob, then you’ll feel right at home with the GC controller here. On Wii U, you’re forced to use the Wiimote only seemingly (think you can use it on its side or vertically), I tried it on its side Mario Kart Wii/Excite Truck style and I actually had no real issue with it.

Now for other bits, note that this does indeed include the late Deem Bristow’s voice clips from Sonic Adventure 2: Battle for Eggman. Mike Pollock does actually contribute new lines for the gravity moves which work. Also this is NOT the only game of the gen to use the original voice actors! You’re asking “What?! I’ve not heard such a thing, what are you referring to?”, well I’m referring to Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games on DS! That game features reused clips for Omochao and Big from Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Adventure/Sonic Heroes respectively (Omochao just says “Ciao” HA… and Big says, what else, “Froggyyyyyy”).

So what about that video I promised? Why it’s below, footage I recorded of the game in the “fake 60fps” I mentioned. I recommend you download the video in 720p, and watch it in 1/2 the size on your offline player for the cleanest and smoothest viewing experience, in case your internet lags the framerate. Enjoy!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q5hoFsOFFI[/youtube]

So my views overall on the game? I think it’s very much worth playing. By the way, I’ve beaten the whole story. I actually like how the cutscenes feel very Sonic Adventure 2: Battle-esc, in some scenes like one with Jet, the scenes ends abruptly, just like in SA2B, so that made me smile as hey, anything that reminds me of that game is cool in my book.

The story itself is also feels like the Adventure-era, it’s deep, not goofy like in the recent games, and Knuckles even references himself as a treasure hunter, nice touch Sega. The best term I can give it? Sonic Adventure as a racing game with the 4kids cast, seriously, it’s even got the Chao market ala the Chao Garden where you buy the gear WITH YOUR RINGS, come on people! XD

Speaking of 4kids, also consider this is the only full-fledged on the mark sequel to a pre-gen sonic game. I don’t put Sonic 4 in this category, that’s another story, but here the game has the same voice cast, the same structure, virtually the same everything, but it’s on a newer-gen console. And I actually really liked 4kids in this. Also Jason as Jet gets bonus points from me for sounding like Terrosaur from Beast Wars (who was voiced byDoug Parker), greatest show of all-time, you missed out big time if you didn’t watch it.

I also next want to address the PS2 version, and sadly I can’t personally speak for it as I’ve sadly not tried it out. I really want to compare the two. I BELIEVE it lacks 16:9 (the back cover shows 4:3 screens and I don’t recall seeing footage in 16:9) and could also possibly run in 30fps as no footage I’ve seen hints at 60fps. I think I’ve heard it does support 480p, but again, I can’t confirm officially without having played it, gotta put that in my to-do list!

Also I personally think it was a Wii game at heart and then ported down to PS2, consider how the original looked on GameCube (developed by Now Pro), the textures in that had no filtering in the stages so you literally saw the square pixels, aka like a DS game, I was floored at that even way back in 2006. Also I think the environments are more complex in Zero Gravity which would be thanks to more advanced hardware. Also it feels like the PS2 version is a downgrade like they removed things rather added any to the Wii version. Take the water in Aquatic Time, the water has lovely reflections of the stage and I think there’s some bump-mapping

Also, I want to comment on Sonic Free Riders on Xbox 360, again I’ve not played (and I certainly don’t want to other than to see how it runs in person), I can’t believe how obviously low budget it looks, for one thing all cutscenes are in stills instead of in full-3D, also it seems to be more in a mission structure if I recall than purely racing, but it could be foggy memory on my part. Something tells me Sega was prepared due to it being a Xbox 360 Kinect exclusive (personally, I think this was a really strange and bad idea) so they didn’t spend as much as they would’ve like in the previous two games, saving on the cutscene work certainly helped them.

Also, ever notice how first, Rumblebee seemingly was absent in Free Riders, second, he was actually the singer also in Sonic and the Secret Rings, AND was the announcer in all of the Mario & Sonic games? Wow, kinda fond of Nintendo ain’t he?

Also, did you know that the developers Xeen and O-TWO also worked on Sonic Unleashed Wii and PS2? Dimps only did daytime stage design work in that. I heard once the game did use the Zero Gravity engine, this pretty much confirms it! I have more to say, but perhaps I’ll save that for the future wink wink nudge nudge.

Anyway, if I had to give a score, I say it’s at least a solid 8 out of 10, but it’s just my opinion because I love what it accomplished and think it was a really solid game under any rough spots reviewers said of it. If you’re lucky, you can still find it in the $20-$30 range, sadly it’s the ONE Wii standalone Sonic game that isn’t everywhere still, so you might have some trouble findng it at least brand-new.

So there you have it! I hope this was an entertaining read for you all, and I hope to have more for you later on down the road.

Edit @ Aug 11th, 2014 2:53PM EST: I just remembered this little bizarre point. Anyone remember this article at Eurogamer where Sega confirmed in November 2005 that a sequel to Sonic Riders would be released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3? Huh, wonder what happened behind the scenes that caused this unexpected shift that made the game a Wii and PS2 game instead, hell was it even true to begin with? The world may never know…

15th July 201415th July 2014

New Sonic Boom: RoL Details Revealed, Chaos Crystals, Time Travel & More

25th June 201425th June 2014

38 Comments

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVT93XgmRME[/youtube]

An E3 2014 demo and interview with Big Red Button’s Mark Vernon has revealed some new details on Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric for Wii U. The previously seen crystals are called ‘Chaos Crystals’ and there are nine of them to collect through the game’s story. Vernon also goes into more detail about the game’s time travel element and reveals that players will go to the past and the future, seeing areas in both times.

The name of the underwater base level played is ‘Ancient Template’ and in this demonstration we get to see some of the hidden areas of the level. Vernon gives us a look at the collectibles menu and a ‘Freeze Rod’ weapon that, as you guessed, freezes enemies in ice. It’s clarified that while these weapons are obtained from enemies, the enemies can’t actually use them and they are one-time limited use only. You can’t store them.

Vernon also explains that collectibles will earn you upgrades, which aren’t just for making your characters stronger, but also unlock new abilities. When asked about a release date, Vernon says he can’t remember the exact date, but it’ll probably be the first half of November. Finally, merchandise fans will want to stick around until the end to have a close look at some of the upcoming Sonic Boom action figures.

Source: The Family Gaming Team

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SEGA Games for the Sonic Gamer, Part 1

Nuckles87

11 Comments

Like many SEGA fans, I started out as a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog more so then SEGA itself. As I became more invested in SEGA hardware, though, I was encouraged to begin trying out some of SEGA’s other franchises. I’ve since grown to love a variety of SEGA franchises and as part of the #Sonic23on23 celebration, I’d like to share some of my favorites with other Sonic fans on behalf of SEGAbits! All of the titles I’ll be talking about in this series tickle my fancy in the same way Sonic games have for years, that any Sonic fan ought to experience. These titles are not necessarily platformers, or involve cute and furry animals, but they do share at least one key element with Sonic games.

This series will divide the different games into categories and let you know which title you ought to try fist. I hope you’ll try some of these games!

Rail Shooters:

After Burner

Before Sonic, SEGA had another adrenaline inducing game called “After Burner”. Here, players take control of the iconic F-14 Tomcat and blast through stages at sonic speed…literally. The After Burner games are all about memorization and twitch game play. Players have to be fast and at least somewhat familiar with enemy formations in order to succeed. All of the After Burner games produce a great sense of speed that is impressive even these days.

The original After Burner is not the most easy game to pay these days, and the best versions of the game available were made for the SEGA 32X and Saturn. SEGA has released a version of the game for the 3DS, which I do recommend picking up if it ever comes over. More accessible is After Burner Climax, which is currently available on Xbox Live and PSN.

If you want to know more about the game franchise, I recommend heading over to SEGAbits and checking out our content from After Burner Week.

Panzer Dragoon

In Panzer Dragoon, players take flight on top of a big laser breathing dragon. This franchise is slower and more methodical then the After Burner games, but makes up for that slower pace with deeper game play and longer levels. Just like any great rail shooter, Panzer Dragoon is all about twitch game play, as players get constantly attacked on all sides by waves upon waves of enemies as they blast through beautiful, creative levels. Panzer’s world and music also possess an exotic charm that sets the series apart from other rail shooters.

Panzer Dragoon Orta is easily the most accessible game in the series, as it is the most affordable and is playable on both the Xbox and Xbox 360. It is also my personal favorite game in the series and has probably aged the best out of all of them thanks to the Xbox’s capabilities. The original trilogy is currently only available on SEGA’s Saturn. Of those, Panzer Dragoon Zwei is easily the best rail shooter of the bunch, though the original Panzer Dragoon is also pretty good. The franchise’s magnum opus, Panzer Dragoon Saga, is unique and excellent RPG, though is quite expensive and doesn’t really possess the qualities that would lead me to recommend it to Sonic fans.

Sonic Team Games

NiGHTS into Dreams

Kind of obvious, but NiGHTS needs to be included all the same. NiGHTS once had a tendency to pop up often in Sonic games, and with good reason: outside of the Sonic series NiGHTS probably stands as the best thing Sonic Team has ever made. It shares some of Sonic’s qualities: it is simple, yet inventive. Each stage has its own theme and gimmicks that make them stand out and memorable. Many of the stages have unique topography that really do look like they came out of a dream.

NiGHTS isn’t exactly adrenaline inducing, but it’s still a fast game. Many of the game’s best moments come when your quickly zooming through loops and collecting blue chips, racking up huge links and points in the process. NiGHTS is all precision and memorization, perfecting your runs through the game’s stages so that you can improve your scores and A rank all the stages. NiGHTS into Dreams in many ways invokes many of the best elements of Sonic’s best games.

NiGHTS into Dreams HD is available on Xbox Live, PSN and Steam. If you’re feeling up for playing it old school, it’s also available on the Saturn. There was also a sequel released for the Wii version called Journey of Dreams, but that isn’t really as good and shares flaws with many of Sonic Team’s modern Sonic games.

Ristar

Though it doesn’t bear the Sonic Team name, many Sonic Team alumni apparently worked on the game. In fact, this was character designer Yuji Uekawa’s first game. He would soon go on to become the character designer for the Sonic games starting with Sonic R in 1997.

Ristar itself is considerably slower than your standard Sonic game, but features the kind of cute character design, creative level design and unique character abilities Sonic Team was once known for. Ristar is all about swinging and bouncing around stages and adapting to the unique gimmicks each stage throws at you. One musical stage has you carrying around metronomes and bringing them to song birds that, when activated, add their voice to the stage’s background music, which slowly becomes more elaborate over the course of the stage. Another has you springing traps meant for you by throwing miniature Ristar models. Even the boss fights are varied, and can range from a cute little snow ball fight with a small child to an epic confrontation with a giant robotic mole during a freefall.

If you want to know more, you can check out the content I wrote for Ristar Week, which I ran for SEGAbits earlier this year. Ristar itself can be played on the Wii and Wii U through the Wii’s Virtual Console service. It can also be found on numerous compilations including the SEGA Genesis Collection, Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection and Sonic Mega Collection (as an unlockable). The original game can be played on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive.
I’ll be back later with more recommendations, so stay tuned!

10th June 201410th June 2014

Sonic Jump Fever leaping onto iOS and Android soon

7th June 20147th June 2014

7 Comments

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOTIJMs_5hQ[/youtube]

Looks like Sonic Boom won’t be the only game starring everyone’s favourite blue blur at E3 this year! Just revealed via an announcement trailer on SEGA Europe’s YouTube channel, Sonic Jump Fever – a sequel to the original Sonic Jump mobile game – will be bouncing its way onto iOS and Android devices at some point in the near future.

Originally released in Canada earlier this year, the core gameplay in Sonic Jump Fever will be very similar to its predecessor, only this time with more dynamic action, more combos… and of course, more fever! The question is though – will it be a real leap forward? (sorry, I’ll get my coat…)

Little else is known about the game’s release outside Canada beyond that shown off in the trailer, but be sure to stay tuned to TSS for any further updates on the game – and in the meantime, let us know your thoughts on this announcement in the comments!

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Sonic on the Go: Sonic Blast

Nuckles87

4 Comments

This article is the second part of the Sonic on the Go series. You can find the first part here.

If Sonic Triple Trouble was the apex of Sonic’s Game Gear titles, its successor Sonic Blast was arguably the nadir. Aside from a few lousy spin off titles like Sonic Labyrinth and Spinball, no Sonic game on the system failed quite so hard as Sonic Blast did. Don’t get me wrong though, I still think Blast was a fun game personally. For all the hate I’ve seen the game get from retro fans, I don’t really think Blast is all that bad. Still, even if the game isn’t awful it was a huge step back for Sonic’s handheld adventures.

The game is slow and kind of ugly. Though the technically impressive pre-rendered sprites look pretty good, the levels themselves are almost completely devoid of charm or color. The level lay out is simplistic and dull, lacking multiple hidden paths and areas that made the stages in Triple Trouble so fun to explore. Finally, the game just moves too slowly, even for an 8-bit Sonic game.

Triple Trouble managed to blow this game out of the water in almost every way imaginable, which a huge disappointment given that this game was Sonic’s swan song on the system. It’s a shame that developer Aspect threw away everything they had learned about Sonic game design and the Game Gear’s limitations to create was is effectively a tech demo.

To Blast’s credit, though, it is an impressive tech demo. As the Game Gear counterpart to the Genesis’ technically impressive Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic Blast was tasked with accomplishing something similarly impressive on SEGA’s aging 8-bit hardware. In this regard Aspect was reasonably successful, creating the one and only Game Gear game that utilized pre-rendered sprites by pushing the Game Gear’s color capabilities to their max. Unfortunately this game at the expense of the game design, but it’s still nice to see the Game Gear was capable of such a feat.

Blast also gave Knuckles his first handheld adventure. As a major fan of the character at the time, Knuckles’ inclusion instantly made Blast one of the most played games on my system. This game doesn’t disappoint either: Knuckles plays exactly as he should, complete with his gliding and climbing abilities. The bland level design does hold Knuckles back somewhat, but he does play well at least, and he’s a heck of a lot better than Sonic, who has lost his cool power ups from Triple Trouble and only got a double jump in return. After Triple Trouble constantly enticed me with the character’s presence, it was nice to finally play as Knuckles in the car in Sonic Blast.

In hindsight, I do have to acknowledge that Sonic Blast wasn’t all that good, but it doesn’t negate all the fun I’ve had with it over the years. So if you’ve got the money to spare and want another Sonic game to play, I think you should check out Sonic Blast. On the Game Gear it’s an interesting tech demo that demonstrates abilities no one thought the system had. On the 3DS it’s a mediocre Sonic game that can help kill an afternoon. Sonic has definitely done worse, both on and off the Game Gear. Even in terms of portable games, Sonic Blast would be followed up by what is arguably the worst Sonic game ever made: Sonic Jam on the Tiger Game.com.

xxOLDNews

Music: Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed OST Cruises In

24th May 201425th May 2014

VizardJeffhog

8 Comments

Are you tired of the same old boring routine of “just” driving around with that gosh darn newfangled hip-pop, and kids with their ol’ timey Top 25 Songs of the Week that you’ve been hearing week after week before? Do you need something new to spice up your time behind the wheel? Well, strap in your seatbelt and hit the pedal to the metal, because we’ve got just the thing!

An official soundtrack release for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Sumo Digital’s multiplatform racing game with transformable vehicles, racers and race tracks commemorating SEGA’s history and numerous franchises, and a killer OST arranged by the one and only Richard Jacques, has gone live on iTunes and Amazon. The sound collection has been split into two albums with 34 tracks in each, one volume priced at the reasonable 9.99$/£7.99/8,99 €/¥1,600 online.

“But Vizard! That means there are only 68 songs total, right? Doesn’t Transformed have more tunes in-game in comparison? Who should we mark as Missing on the sides of milk cartons?!”

For those curious, the only missing tracks from the actual game are the All-Star themes to guest characters Wreck-It Ralph and Danica Patrick, and those of the PC exclusive, Xbox Avatar, and Nintendo Mii characters, as well as certain jingles, but, save for that, the complete soundtrack to the core experience is all there, present and accounted for, for you to enjoy! Boost your acceleration with Ocean View, drift along to Burning Depths, speed past other drivers with Race of Ages, headbang along to Adder’s Lair, and so on!

On a serious note, however, don’t actually do any of those things. Except buying the soundtrack. Yes. That’s okay. Listening to it while driving is okay too. Remember, eyes on the road, be courteous to your fellow drivers, and obey the speed limit! This isn’t a video game, this is real life, baby!

Volume 1 – iTunes – Amazon MP3
Volume 2 – iTunes – Amazon MP3
Physical CD – Amazon – CDJapan – HMV Japan

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Sonic Boom 2014 Event Details Announced

22nd May 201422nd May 2014

13th May 201413th May 2014

7 Comments

SEGA of America has today announced Sonic Boom (the event, not the show and game with the blue armed hedgehog and buff echidna) will return this year. This time round the event is headed to New York City and more precisely the Great Ballroom at the Manhattan Centre. SEGA has set a date of Saturday, October 4th, 2014, and while there’s no solid time slot yet, the event will be held during the evening as usual.

Full details are below:
Sonic Boom 2014
Saturday, October 4th, 2014 (evening)
Grand Ballroom at the Manhattan Center
311 W. 34th Street (next to Penn Station)
New York City, NY

SEGA promises information about tickets, talent and more will be revealed in the coming months and we’ll relay the details here for you as they’re released.

Source: SEGA

xxOLDNews

Stephen Frost speaks about why things have been quiet regarding Sonic Boom

9th May 20143rd January 2020

73 Comments

Stephen Frost kindly paid our forum a visit today to elaborate on why Sonic Boom hasn’t been booming over the past few months since the unveiling. Here’s his whole post:

I’ve been asked to chime in a bit here so I’ll do what I can to share some info with you all. I’ve said it a few times in the past, but there were key reasons why we announced the Sonic Boom initiative when we did. Along with that, there are a lot of partners involved with Sonic Boom so we have to be mindful of their timelines and requirements for their respective fields. It’s not just about a game anymore… This is a large group effort so any announcements and information shared publically needs to really be planned and organized carefully. We need to make sure that things we reveal don’t impact other parts and vice versa.

I completely appreciate the fact that you fans are hungry for info specific to the games, I really do. And that’s why we all work these endless late nights and weekends… It’s to get all the pieces in place for when the campaign does really kick off. We still have a ways until the cartoon and game launch, as well as the new toy line, so we need to pace all the info appropriately. And it all starts as we head into E3. You’ll learn more, for sure, but not everything. And the reveal of new assets and info should be more frequent from that point on. But trust me when I say there is no lack of effort by anyone involved with Sonic Boom. This is, by far, the biggest united effort I have personally ever seen Sega be involved in. We want to share everything with everyone because we are so excited… We just can’t… Yet.

So, please be a bit more patient. I’m working on screens and commenting on releases so stuff is coming. We will even have a bit of a surprise in there for you, as well as the first info and assets for the 3DS version. There is quite a bit of cool stuff ahead so hang in there.

So there you have it, it shouldn’t be much longer. I can’t wait to see what Sega brings to the table at E3!

#Games, News

Sonic Lost World Shipped 710,000 Copies Worldwide

32 Comments

It’s that time again – sales talk! SEGA just released their newest sales data as of March 31st 2014, and with it comes updated numbers for Wii U exclusive adventure Sonic Lost World. Let’s see how well it’s done! Continue reading Sonic Lost World Shipped 710,000 Copies Worldwide

(Europe) Buy and register Mario Kart 8 on Club Nintendo and you can choose to get Sonic Lost World or Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games for FREE digitally on Wii U

1st May 20141st May 2014

30 Comments

Long title is long. Anyway, during the big unload of Mario Kart 8 information via the surprise Mario Kart 8 Direct and outside of it, Nintendo unveiled a promotion where if you purchase Mario Kart 8, either by buying it at retail, buying it digitally on the eShop, or buying the copy that comes with the special Wii U Mario Kart 8 Bundle (aka, you buy it new, you get this), and register the code that comes in the box on Club Nintendo (buying digitally does this automatically), you get to choose from one of 10 Wii U games to download from the eShop for FREE, among of which being the Wii U version of Sonic Lost World and Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

This however is only for our European fans, because for North America, folks there instead get to choose from four games instead (all four are choices in Europe), they also say for people in Australia to check the Nintendo of Australia website in the coming days for more info.

Nintendo’s full message on their website:

Mario Kart 8 hits Wii U on May 30th, bringing the series into a new dimension with antigravity racing, exhilarating online play, and the ability to share your race highlights with the world.

Thanks to our special Mario Kart 8 Bonus Game Promotion, if you register the PIN code for Mario Kart 8 in Club Nintendo between 10am (UK time) on May 30th and 11:59pm (UK time) on July 31st, you could claim a free download code for one of a selection of great Wii U games!

Please read the Terms & Conditions for more information.

Users in Australia, please check the Nintendo Australia website in the coming days for more information.

The full list for reach region are as follows:

Europe:

Sonic Lost World

Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games

New Super Mario Bros. U

Pikmin 3

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

The Wonderful 101

Game & Wario

Wii Party U

Nintendoland

Monster Hunter 3: Ultimate

North America:

New Super Mario Bros. U

Pikmin 3

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

Wii Party U

Which game are you choosing? Let us know in the comments!

25th April 201425th April 2014

New trailer for Sega’s 3DS RPG Hero Bank features a remix of a familiar Sonic song

15 Comments

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hku-2o5nqx4

Sega just yesterday put out a new trailer for Hero Bank, Sega’s new RPG for the 3DS which just came out in Japan on March 20, 2014. At the very beginning of the trailer, you can hear the remix of a certain song, instantly familiar to those who played Sonic Adventure.

Give up? It’s Twinkle Park! We don’t know exactly who the composer is (hell we have little info on what folks were behind the game or if it was even outsourced to an external company), all we know if that it was produced by Toshihiro Nagoshi, the man behind Yakuza and Super Monkey Ball.

Thanks to AceZX in our forum for the find!

24th April 201425th April 2014

Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed now FREE on iOS and Android

5 Comments

Sorry, Peppy Hare took a wrong turn at albuquerue and couldn’t be here today.

Yep, the Sega and Sonic the Hedgehog twitter accounts just announced the Android version of the game is now free to download, note that it’s a big file, it’s 789MB (on Android at least)! Download the game on iOS via the App Store here and on Android via Google Play here!

22nd April 201422nd April 2014

[UPDATE] Is SEGA Searching For a New Sidekick For a Future Sonic Game?

71 Comments

UPDATE: We have learned that while the Sonic page wasn’t archived at Google until April 17th 2014, the images were uploaded to Michael Nagy’s site July 15th 2013. It’s now very likely that this is a scrapped project.

Thanks to Gatestormer at the SSMB for the heads up!

ORIGINAL ARTICLE BELOW:
It appears SEGA may be on the hunt for a sidekick for a new Sonic game they’re working on behind the scenes fronted by a new worldwide campaign titled The Search for Sonic’s Sidekick. In slides discovered by The Sonic Stadium at ad agency DDB Tribal artist Michael Nagy’s website there are images of an online mobile game SEGA will use in a competition to get fans involved in the new campaign. DDB Tribal are responsible for major campaigns for events such as The Queens Diamond Jubilee and advertisements for a variety of big brand companies.

The aforementioned mobile game sees players in twelve cities around the globe create a character and then race their character around their city using Google’s Street View technology. You then log your best time onto the leaderboard and the player with the fastest time at the end of the competition will see their character in the next Sonic game. The competition will run for eleven months and visit a new city every month.

We have created an online game using Google Street view where you compete to become Sonic’s sidekick. Your online avatar will be in the next game that is produced for Sonic. The competition will run for 11 months and move to a different city every month across the globe. The cities include Tokyo, Hong Kong, Berlin, Paris, London, Cape Town, Toronto, New York, San Francisco, Rio De Janeiro and Sydney.

The description doesn’t mention whether this is a console or mobile title, but for a campaign this big, it’s likely this could be for the next big console game from Sonic Team after Sonic Boom. We checked on Google and this page was archived just last week on April 17th 2014, so it’s very recent. The website http://www.runthestreets.com isn’t live yet, but the domain does appear to be up for sale and a Whois check doesn’t show any ownership by SEGA or Google just yet.

It’s also worth noting that there is no mention or indication of the new character replacing Tails as Sonic’s sidekick, so don’t panic, Tails fans. This new character could likely be playing a sidekick role similar to Chip in Sonic Unleashed or Yacker in Sonic Colours. Whatever the role, the character will obviously be important to the new game.

The images are currently still live on Michael Nagy’s website, but you can also find all of them in our gallery below.

What do you think of this campaign? Is it a good idea to get fans involved in the creation of a new character?

19th April 201421st April 2014

Very high-res off-screen development pic of Sonic Boom Wii U reveals HUD

11th April 20144th January 2020

52 Comments

So what you see above is an in-development pic of Sonic Boom on Wii U, please keep in mind that anything you see in the debug data on the upper right is in no way an indication of the final product (so don’t panic over the 15FPS bit). Heck many bits aren’t even textured. I personally think it will be a night and day difference when we see the final version of the area. For now, we can have a look at the potential HUD, the general camera angle, and the layout of an area we’ll likely explore in the final game.

This was originally posted in a smaller resolution at AP, but was removed, due to the appearance of a Wii U dev kit. We’ve decided to only share the main attraction, the actual screen and not the entire pic, we don’t want the Nintendo Ninjas to come after us next!

The large pic you see above was discovered by the user Finn from the Spindash.de forum (it’s best if we don’t link to it as it has the unaltered image), the exact origin of the pic however isn’t clear.

EDIT @ 3:20PM EST: Nevermind, it’s been decided we can link to the Spindash.de post, we just can’t put up the pic ourselves.

Here you go!

#SEGA, News

SEGA Europe hit with layoffs under department reconstruction

Symbotic

31 Comments

Ouch. Bad news for employees of the European branch of SEGA, as its been revealed that the company has confirmed multiple redundancies in the effort to reconstruct its departments. Continue reading SEGA Europe hit with layoffs under department reconstruction

xxOLDArticles, xxOLDColumns, xxOLDNews

Who’s at Big Red Button? Part 2 – SuperBots are invading, we need reinforcements!

25th March 20149th April 2014

12th March 201413th March 2014

24 Comments

For Part 1, look here!

It’s that time again! I’ve been busy doing more research on who’s at Big Red Button and working on the Wii U version of Sonic Boom.

Well my findings sort of come in almost two categories; the most common is the mass amount of former SuperBot Entertainment folks, the team behind PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, aka, Sony Smash Bros. Which by the way while it was never going to dethrone Smash, it looked like a very polished game from what I’ve seen, and Metacritic is pretty kind to it (only one reviewer gave it a horrendous 20/100 as the only score below 50, the game clearly is not shit).

The second category is held by one person, and it’s actually most deserving to be the highlight, more on that in a bit. 😉

Let’s start with a brief look at SuperBot. The team was formed in 2009 by a former Sony Santa Monica person (creators of God of War), and they were in fact, a 1st-Party developer of Sony, just as Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, Sony Santa Monica, etc, are.

Well that changed, after All-Stars didn’t sell well (I don’t remember the numbers), Sony cut ties with them, and they were hit HARD, many thought they had closed but they confirmed in April 2013 that they were still active.

Well it seems a lot of them went to Big Red Button, now let’s see who’s there!

Let’s start with Niles Tucker, who was an Environment Artist at SuperBot, is now the same at Big Red Button.

Next is Kevin Hsu, who was a Senior Level Designer at SuperBot, is now a Combat Designer at Big Red Button.

Then we have Johnathan Nielsen, who was a UI (User Interface) Programmer at SuperBot, is now a Programmer at Big Red Button.

Fourth is Carl-Henrik Skårstedt, who was Lead Software Engineer at, you guessed it, SuperBot, is now a Senior Programmer at, right again, Big Red Button!

Yet again, we have Daniel Ramirez, who was a Senior Character Artist at SuperBot, is now a Lead Character Artist at Big Red Button.

Here we have Mark Vernon, Combat AI Designer at SuperBot, is now Combat Designer at Big Red Button.

Next is Lisa Kapitsas, who was a Producer at SuperBot. Now she’s a Producer at Big Red Button.

What’s that? No more? Wow, I thought this wouldn’t end! XD Seven SuperBot folks, holy cow. This is looking more like a SuperBot-based company than a Naughty Dog or Insomniac one don’t it?

There are a few extras before we get to the big bit, they are the following:

First is Greg Prior, who worked at Sony Santa Monica as a Junior Environment Artist, specifically on God of War: Ascension. He’s now an Environment Artist at Big Red Button.

Second is Dannie Carlone, who also worked at Sony Santa Monica, this time as an Environment Artist, again on God of War: Ascension, is now also an Environment Artist at Big Red Button.

Next is Ben Strickland, this time having been a Junior Designer at High Impact Games (I covered a few HIG folks in the first part), is now a Game Designer at Big Red Button.

Finally we have David Nam, who was an Animator at High Impact Games (but only for a few months, he actually was an Animator for a few years at Wayforward, who makes Shantae, Mighty Switch Force, etc), is now Junior Animator at Big Red Button.

But wait, this person also worked at Disney, as he says specifically:

Created hand drawn animations under the mentorship of Anthony DeRosa, and animated on several scenes for “Winnie the Pooh”

This is leading up to my favorite of the pack, saving the best for last, allow me to introduce Todd Ammons, this guys’ resume will blow your mind. He worked at Disney for many years during the 90’s and early 2000’s as Assistant Animator on MANY Disney Renaissance Era films like Beauty and the Beast, Hercules, Tarzan, Hunchback of Notre Dame, etc as he shows on his site! He also worked on animating in the film Barnyard, and actually worked at Insomniac for a year and a half as Senior Animator, animating in Ratchet Deadlocked and Resistance: Fall of Man. He worked on numerous games at Heavy Iron Studios including Ratatouille, Wall-E, and Spongebob: Truth or Square.

And he has an animation demo!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE1–ka5_BE

Here you’ll find clips of Ratchet, Barnyard, Ratatouille, Spongebob (oh my god this is my fav bit), a tiny clip of Home on the Range with Alameda Slim (the villain), among others.Guys, I think we’re in for a TREAT! He’s now Senior Animator at Big Red Button, and here’s his description of the position:

Responsible for development of Cinematic,Character,Camera and Game Animation for the main actors and enemies. Influential in creating a Combat style and adding personality to the heros

That wraps it up. I hope you enjoyed this, as I certainly have!

xxOLDGames, xxOLDOfficial News

Very high-res capture of Sonic Boom concept art surfaces

3rd March 20143rd March 2014

56 Comments

The following is a ginormous pic of Bob Rafei and the board full of concept art from Sonic Boom as seen in an earlier video, but this capture might be a proper photograph as it is way too high resolution to be a snippet from a video. At the moment we have no true source of the picture. But nevertheless, it’s here and for you all to see!

Click the image for the full 3000×2000 version!

One of the most interesting characters shown is what appears to be Marine from Sonic Rush Adventure making her comeback.

My boomerang’s a little Ty’d up at the moment…

Not only do the colors and the patterns match up, but she is also stereotypically carrying a boomerang and she did speak in an Australian accent before.

Another character, is what appears to be a robot that looks to have very similar features to Emerl, last (and only seen) in Sonic Battle (not counting Gemerl’s appearance in Sonic Advance 3).

God dammit Mad Doctor, we didn’t need to turn Emerl into a Beetleworx!

While we don’t have a definite source for the image, we have Eitarou and A Real Human Bean to thanks in our forum for finding (Eitarou) and posting the full image (A Real Human Bean). We also have an adjusted (albeit smaller) shot of the pic by Storme Prince so you don’t have to strain your eyes as much.

We had to cut corners to bring you this piece, we apologize.

So there you have it! Enjoy! 😀

xxOLDArticles, xxOLDInterviews, xxOLDNews

SEGA Nerds interview with Stephen Frost

6 Comments

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joufovUM598[/youtube]

SEGA Nerds have put up a video webcam interview with Stephen Frost that explores more about Sonic Boom. There’s some more insight on the 3DS version, as well as more talk about the beginnings, the show, and what not.

There are also code giveaways in the video itself (Stephen shows them on a piece of paper) for 3D Classics Sonic the Hedgehog for 3DS, but I think it’s safe to say they’ve been long taken by now. 😛

25th February 201425th February 2014

Sonic Boom Behind the Scenes: English VAs, Orbot & Cubot Confirmed

24th February 201424th February 2014

57 Comments

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK6uQyteDOU[/youtube]

SEGA have just posted a brand new video to their blog, taking us on a comprehensive behind the scenes look at the upcoming Sonic Boom videogame and TV series. The video includes interviews with many of the crew working on this alternate branch of the Sonic franchise, as well as showing off concept art and work-in-progress gameplay footage. It is reiterated that the game will have a strong emphasis on story and teamwork, as we have heard in other recent interviews.

A look into the voice recordings for the TV series confirms an episode including an alternate-dimension Knuckles, as well giving a feel for the comedic angle the cartoon will be taking. Knuckles sounds like a fortune cookie, but he doesn’t taste like one!

In addition, the English voice cast for Sonic Boom has been revealed. Roger Craig Smith, Mike Pollock, Travis Willingham and Cindy Robinson reprise their roles as Sonic, Eggman, Knuckles and Amy respectively, with Tails getting a new voice actor in the form of Colleen Villard. Interestingly, Orbot and Cubot have also been revealed as part of the cast, voiced by Kirk Thornton and Wally Wingert.

What do you make of all this new info about Sonic Boom? Are you any more or less excited for the game or TV show? Let us know in the comments!

Source: SEGA Blog

xxOLDNews

Johnny Gioeli Interview: New Crush 40 Material Lined Up for 2014

Adam Tuff

7 Comments

Crush40-fanclub.de founder Angie Fabian had a chance to catch up with Crush 40 superstar Johnny Gioeli while he was out on the Axel Rudi Pell last week. In amongst many Johnny-oriented queries, Johnny fields questions on Crush 40, including their future direction, and hints that 2014 will yield new Crush 40 material.

Johnny also answers questions about his favourite films, his artists, how much Chinese chicken was consumed during the recording of the Crush 40 album and his favourite ice cream (also my favourite!) Want to know the answers? Check out the video of the interview below!

(Warning! Some swears and lewd material…but it is Johnny!)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuI86DoVnYM[/youtube]

xxOLDArticles, xxOLDColumns, xxOLDNews

Who is at Big Red Button? What is their long quiet history? Let’s have a look and see…

24th February 201425th March 2014

18 Comments

So as my first own created post where I don’t just post big news, I decided to make it about the results of my research about the developer of the Wii U version of Sonic Boom; Big Red Button Entertainment.

Most may have never heard of them before, and you’d be right to not have, because they were formed in 2008, and have not put out a SINGLE title under their name, Sonic Boom will be their first. What on Earth was going on for the last 6 years you ask?

I have some answers, which is why I made this post. 😉 As you may know from the recent interviews, Big Red Button was co-formed by Bob Rafei, who was a AAA veteran from Naughty Dog, so much so he was actually their first employee, how about that?

He joined NDI in early ’95 as its first employee while in the visual development stage of Crash Bandicoot. He played a key role in establishing the look of this series; touching on all aspects of production, from back ground modeling, lighting, texturing, to character rigging and animation.

He worked on all of their Crash Bandicoot games, all of their Jak & Daxter games, and the original Uncharted (that’s where Sonic got his new scarf from you know).

He is also seemingly credited for the art design of Daxter himself:

He was part of the team who earned Best New Character of the Year for his art design of Daxter in the Jak series.

So that’s enough about Bob Rafei, he isn’t the only pebble on the beach. 😉 So who else is there?

Well E. Daniel Arey was the other founder of the company, and he was ALSO a Naughty Dog member. I am having trouble at the moment finding his exact positions in the company. He’s credited with scripts and cutscenes for Daxter on PSP, Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier on PSP and PS2, and the original Uncharted. IN FACT, he and Bob worked on The Lost Frontier as part of Big Red Button.

Remember I said Sonic Boom is their first proper game? That’s still true, because The Lost Frontier actually was developed by High Impact Games who earlier worked on Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters on PSP and PS2 and Secret Agent Clank for PSP (Sazaru Games who’s behind Sonic Boom 3DS actually ported Secret Agent Clank to PS2 later on). Big Red Button only have two sneaked in credits through the involvement of the two founders alone.

Where’s E. Daniel Arey now? Well he’s now Senior World Designer II at Blizzard Entertainment.

Next on the employee list is a 3rd Naughty Dog veteran, named Eric Iwasaki, who began with Crash 2 and ended at Uncharted 2. He is more of a tech person, working on models and engines. At Big Red Button as the Lead Technical Artist, he’s tasked with getting CryEngine 3 just right for Sonic Boom on Wii U:

Currently lighting, creating FX, authoring tools, and customizing CryEngine 3’s shaders and rendering tech for SEGA’s Sonic Boom™

Next, we’ll move on to an Insomniac person; Victor Murillo, who was an Environment Artist there, but again worked more on realizing 2D concepts into 3D. He began on Ratchet 2/Going Commando and ended at Resistance 3. Now he’s Senior Environment Artist at Big Red Button.

Now we’ll move on to a group of folks while they weren’t at Naughty Dog or Insomniac, they worked at their “Junior” versions so to speak, most specifically High Impact Games (that one’s most known from Insomniac), the three are Justin Rasch, who’s a Lead Animator, Adam Yeager, an Environment Artist, and Shiva Adloori, an Animator. All three worked on at least one of the Ratchet and Jak spin-offs at High Impact (the 3rd person just on Lost Frontier). MobyGames claims Justin was a stunt person in Uncharted 2, but it doesn’t fit with his other work so I’m curious if it’s a different person or not. Hey, could always have been the same person.

Finally as far as employees are concerned, is neither a Naughty Dog, nor an Insomniac veteran, but someone most of the Sonic fandom know very well.

That person is Chris Senn, who many know was basically the man behind Sonic X-Treme. Well he’s now at Big Red Button as Lead Level Implementer. He actually did work on one game that key Insomniac folks worked on previous but it’s questionable how much of his influence remained since this was way before it was even unveiled; Spyborgs for Wii as Design Director. Spyborgs was developed by Bionic Games, which was really a different label for High Impact Games, since most ended up working under High Impact Games on their output afterwards such as Phineas & Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension for Wii and PS3.

So you’re asking “great, we know the names, what the hell did they do for 6 years? Tap their fingers?”, NO! The following as an astounding find by a talented research group who apparently is part of Kotaku called Superannuation. Superannuation ran their own website and they’d uncover stuff you wouldn’t believe, from canned games to who’s at where, etc. The site closed years ago and now mostly run their twitter account. They were a common source for neat finds. Shame they sort of stopped or at least went low.

So about what they found, well back a year ago Superannuation at Kotaku posted this fascinating article about various finds, including what on Earth Big Red Button was up to, and the bold reveals some juicy tidbits:

Big Red Button Entertainment is something of a rarity: a studio that has existed for five years and operated under the radar without having shipped a single game.

Founded in early 2008 by two Naughty Dog veterans—art director Bob Rafei and creative director E. Daniel Arey—Big Red Button had ambitions to become “the United Artists of games.” The duo wanted to use Big Red Button as a vehicle to AAA games that were genuinely accessible and solve the one of the major issues of contemporary games: players not necessarily completing the games they buy.

Arey seems to have left the company several years back to join Blizzard, and he currently appears nowhere on the studio’s list of employees. Curiously, a since-removed page of “Advisors & Consultants” listed him as a “Creative Consultant” alongside Doug Church, who apparently served as a “Creative Advisor” to Big Red Button prior to joining Valve.

Big Red Button spent the first few years of its existence creating a portfolio of original IP, and secured an alternative financing arrangement contingent on the signing of a publisher or similar partner. They briefly worked with the now-defunct Jerry Bruckheimer Games on an IP called “Ten Minute Man.” (The relationship between the two companies actually led a Jerry Bruckheimer Games production assistant to jump ship to Big Red Button.)

As of mid-2010, Big Red Button was pitching IP “to publishers such as Sony, Konami, and Activision.” By spring of the following year, Big Red Button landed an “unannounced major project with third-party publisher,” which seems to be the title they are presently working on.

Big Red Button’s recruitment copy describes the project as a “next-gen landmark AAA console project,” and job openings hint at a cross-generation “character driven, 3rd person action” title with co-op gameplay and some sort of mobile integration. The Big Red Button copy also mentions the company is keen on “delivering authentic gaming experiences that are as fun to watch as they are to play,” so perhaps the game is not too far removed from a cinematic action-adventure title like Uncharted?

Finally, a producer at the studio says the project has a “$19.9 million budget” with an estimated “34-month” production cycle and a present studio headcount of 28 people. Also, the domains itsasnowday.com and monstersurgeon.com—both registered in fall 2011—redirect to Big Red Button’s site, though neither of those quite sounds like a name of a AAA action title

So there you have it, we might know what the budget potentially was for Sonic Boom (granted said info could certainly have changed) and Sonic Boom may have been a cross-gen (meaning released on PS360 as well as Wii U, PS4, and Xbox One for instance), plus it was confirmed the game was multi-platform at one point.

And that’s that! For now. I may create a Part 2 if I find any more information about who may be at the company, there’s still so much to do, so much to see! Thank you very much for reading, hope you enjoyed it. 🙂

Nintendo UK Store offers Mario & Sonic Wii U Bundle

19th February 2014

6 Comments

The Mario & Sonic series is no stranger to being a part of console bundles – the London 2012 entry even came with its very own blue Wii system – so this latest announcement comes as no real surprise. No doubt in a bid to cash in on the ongoing Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games as well as to shift a few extra Wii U consoles, Nintendo UK has revealed a brand new bundle featuring the latest entry in the series, exclusive to its online store.

Simply dubbed the “Mario and Sonic Winter Olympics Bundle”, you get a black Premium Wii U console in addition to (of course) Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, NintendoLand, and one of those swanky Mario Wii Remote Plus controllers released towards the end of last year. What’s more, you can get it all for just £299.99, which means a saving of over £75 on the RRP of the individual products.

If you’re swept away by Winter Olympic fever at the moment or are just waiting for the right deal to come along to entice you to join the Wii U brigade… this might be the bundle for you!

Source: Nintendo UK Online Store

6th February 20146th February 2014

Mario & Sonic 2014: 30% off on EU eShop until Sunday

5 Comments

Heads up European Wii U owners! To coincide with the start of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Russia this weekend, Nintendo have announced plans to reduce the price of the latest Mario & Sonic game by 30% if you buy it from the Wii U eShop or through the Nintendo UK Online Store.

The offer will run from tomorrow (7th February) to 23:59 on Sunday, 9th February. If you’ve yet to pick up the game or have been itching for a discount on the digital version, now might be the time to take the plunge. If you’re still on the fence about whether or not to spend your money, check out our TSS review of the game to help you make your mind up.

This offer is currently only announced for Europe, but we will update you if it becomes available for any other regions.

Source: Twitter

16th January 201416th January 2014

SLW’s Deadly Six Edition Now Er… Dead in Europe

8 Comments

It appears the Deadly Six Edition of Sonic Lost World for Wii U has run its course in Europe. According to new listings on Amazon UK and Amazon France, the standard edition of the game is now available to buy. This edition was quietly released on January 7th and both sites have now run out of the Deadly Six Edition themselves. However, you can still purchase it via other sellers on their sites (UK, France), but it’ll cost you more of your hard-earned cash. GAME UK has also now replaced the Deadly Six Edition with the standard edition of the game.

The Deadly Six Edition still seems to be available as normal in the US, for the time being at least.

xxOLDNews

S&ASRT Joins Xbox 360 Classics Range in Europe

12th December 2013

7th December 20132nd January 2020

3 Comments

The Xbox 360 version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed has quietly become a best seller in Europe and joined the Xbox 360 Classics range. According to Sainsbury’s Entertainment, the Classics edition was released October 10th of this year.

The official Xbox website features the following description for the Classics range:

Some games are born great, but only the best become classics.

That’s what the Xbox Classics range is all about; legendary titles, the toughest heroes and heroines, the best online experience with Xbox Live – and all for an amazing price.

At the time of publication, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is available at Sainsbury’s Entertainment for just £12.99. Bargain!

Source: Sainsbury’s Entertainment

#TV/Film, News

Sony Pictures Have Registered 3 Sonic the Hedgehog Movie Domains

Dave Luty

66 Comments

Well I wasn’t expecting to see this today… Sony Pictures have registered 3 Sonic the Hedgehog movie domains. Continue reading Sony Pictures Have Registered 3 Sonic the Hedgehog Movie Domains

xxOLDMerchandise, xxOLDMusic, xxOLDOfficial News

Sonic Lost World OST out now on iTunes

2nd December 20132nd December 2013

2nd December 20131st August 2017

9 Comments

“Without Boundaries”, the original soundtrack for Sonic Lost World, was released in Japan as a physical 3 CD set last week. However, in a surprising move for those of us in other regions, SEGA has revealed via their blog that the soundtrack can also now be downloaded via iTunes and Amazon MP3.

You can download all 93 tracks digitally, one disc at a time. Each disc, or ‘volume’, will set you back £7.99 (meaning the total cost of the OST comes to £23.97) or you can purchase individual tracks for 79p apiece.

Will you be downloading the Sonic Lost World soundtrack? Let us know in the comments!

Source: SEGA Blog

#Games

3D Sonic the Hedgehog hits 3DS eShop this week

11 Comments

The original Sonic the Hedgehog game is racing onto the Nintendo 3DS eShop in Europe and the US this Thursday, 5th December – but it’s already been ported to seemingly every gaming system under the sun, so what makes this one noteworthy? Well, this isn’t just your straightforward port, it’s a part of SEGA’s 3D Classics series for the 3DS, enhancing some of their classic games with fancy new stereoscopic visuals. It’s a whole new way to experience the blue blur’s first ever adventure!

3D Sonic the Hedgehog also contains an option to toggle the spin dash on and off, for those wanting either a newer or a more traditional method of play.

The game will cost £4.99 in Europe and $5.99 in the US. Will you be downloading this enhanced version of Sonic’s debut? Let us know in the comments!

26th November 201326th November 2013

Sonic Dashes Onto Android Phones At Last

VizardJeffhog

49 Comments

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tXXBYGvvlw

Negative Nancies and Debbie Downers need not speak ill of the lack of Sonic Dash on Android devices as of today, for SEGA and Hardlight Studios have finally released the endless runner onto the Google Play store for free!

The app’s surprise release follows the tease SEGA had spread from its social media networks just yesterday, and players will be pleased to know that they won’t be missing out on certain events that went down on the iOS version of the game any longer, such as the ongoing Zazz boss battle event tying in with the recent Wii U/3DS release of Sonic Lost World.

If you are reading this from your Android phone, I think you know what you have to do!

Continue reading SEGA Tease Sonic Dash for Android

SEGA Tease Sonic Dash for Android

25th November 2013

Swiss

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The SEGA and Sonic the Hedgehog Facebook pages have just posted this image, but what could it mean? Hit the jump to find out!

#Games, Features

TSS Review: Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games (Wii U)

21st November 20138th November 2017

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The Mario & Sonic series is one that I personally have a lot of history with. I remember almost exploding with excitement when the first title was announced – my two favourite videogame characters, together at last! Sure, it wasn’t the ideal crossover scenario everyone wanted and the game itself wasn’t anything that special, but I lapped it up for sheer novelty value alone, alternating between the Team Mario and Team Sonic t-shirts that came as pre-order bonuses while I shook my Wii Remote around in glee. Continue reading TSS Review: Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games (Wii U)