Welcome to the Archive site of The Sonic Stadium (2008-2023)
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Sonic Retro has informed us today that Shade Vortex didn’t speak to SEGA’s Patrick Riley yesterday. The Sonic Retro and SSMB forumer was actually speaking to SEGA’s Ken Balough, as shown in the above video interview with Balough that Shade Vortex has uploaded.
The interview gives us more information about the new Sonic CD port and its importance to Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2. If you don’t have time to watch the whole video interview, Sonic Retro has gathered the main points together in text form. You can read them below.
* It’s commonly understood that Sonic 2, Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles form what is called “The Death Egg Trilogy” because of the overarching story of Eggman’s Death Egg across the titles. Sonic CD was a self-contained adventure that hovered around that area with the most popular belief to be between Sonic 1 and Sonic 2, despite no true concrete evidence.
* Sonic 4 is trying to bridge all of them together more. It’s not trying to give Sonic CD a concrete place in the timeline, just say that “It happened prior to Sonic 4: Episode 1.” It does not mean Sonic CD is immediately before Sonic 4: Episode 1 and after Sonic 3 and Knuckles.
* The events of Sonic CD are important to Episode 2. You can see Metal Sonic in the ending. The idea is you’ll see how Metal Sonic comes back after his destruction in Sonic CD and his return. (Knuckles Chaotix unavailable for comment.)
* Sega is supportive on Christian “The Taxman” Whitehead’s Retro Engine, calling it “a really good piece of technology.”
* “You’ve got to work within the confines of what a publisher is and what a publisher does in order to get all the benefits as well. We as a publisher will get the benefits from working with really talented developers, and developers on the flip side get the benefits of working with a publisher and all the things and all the exposure they get and they can bring to the table, as well as working on really big brands, like Sonic.”
* On Metal Sonic: “He’s appeared in some of these [games], but we’ve never made him so integral to that continuity. We’ve had him back, but no one ever explained how he comes back after CD. He’s just there. So, we’re going make sure that we fill in some of these really nice… I almost think of it like Star Wars, right? We’re going to go back and explain this really cool era that was the Clone Wars? We’re going to go back and explain this really cool era that was the classic experience, and show you guys some really fun stuff.”
* With regards to Sonic 2 Spindash and the “HD Filter”: “Stay tuned.” He doesn’t want to confirm anything until details are more concrete. However, a filter will be present.
* On Sonic CD not being on 3DS, Vita: “We never really intended to release it yet for the Playstation Vita, or the Playstation Go, or the Nintendo 3DS… those were never really on the table. We were always talking about, ‘It was either digital console or mobile devices.’
* He’s unable to comment on why the game isn’t on WiiWare.
* The U.S. Soundtrack will not be included at this time due to licensing issues. However, there’s a couple of more surprises to be revealed later down the road.
* The trailers have nothing to do with the continuity of the games. They’re their own thing designed by Balough. The ‘detour’ talked about previously is Sonic going to the past so players can relive Sonic CD and understand its events and references in Sonic 4: Episode 2.
Thanks to Sonic Retro staffer GeneHF for the heads up!
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In a post at the SEGA Forums, SEGA Brand Manager Ken Balough has cleared up theconfusion regarding where Sonic CD happens in the Sonic timeline and it turns out that SEGA is NOT placing the game between Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, or anywhere else either. Balough explains that while they’re not moving Sonic CD, the game’s events are very important to Sonic the Hedgehog 4, and that’s why they’re giving fans the chance to play it for the first time with this new port.
Hi Everyone!!
Ok so I’m at PAx right now showing off Sonic CD to every lucky person who’s attending the show (by the way if you are here – it’s at the MSFT booth.)
But I have a few minutes and I’ve seen some confusion about Sonic CD being a prequel – and it is!! Just as you imagined it.
which is basically my way of saying – allow me to illuminate the situation.
Remember back during Ep 1, I was saying we had outlined a great story for the Sonic 4 Saga? It all come back to that Cliffhanger at the end – where we brought back Metal Sonic. Sonic CD was never really tied to the numberical Sonics in any significant way back in the 90′s. Sonic 4 is going to change that, and bridge these adventures together in a meaningful way.
While we are not taking away “when CD happened” in relationship to the numerical versions, we can tell you that the events in CD are very important to 4 (as you can imagine from us bringing Metal Sonic back)
So before we take you to Ep 2, we’re gonna give all you fans a chance to experiance CD for the first time in years – and with a terrific presentation in wide screen. And yes the physics are fine!
So as you can see from the Trailer we created – Sonic took a slight detour into “The Past”, and later will be propelled back into the future to resume the Sonic 4 Saga
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Christian Whitehead (aka The Taxman) confirmed to Sonic Retro upon the official unveiling of the Sonic CD port on Thursday that his Retro Engine is powering the game. Whitehead also says the game will feature a proper looping soundtrack and an option to play using the original Sonic CD Spin Dash or one similar to Sonic 2. You can see the Retro Engine running a proof of concept demo of Sonic CD on an iPod Touch in the above video Whitehead recorded back in 2009.
UPDATE: Sonic Retro has informed us that it was actually SEGA’s Ken Balough that was interviewed below, not Patrick Riley.
In other news, SSMB and Sonic Retro forum member Shade Vortex attended PAX 2011 and interviewed SEGA staff member Ken Balough about this new Sonic CD port and got some interesting bits of information. You can read the full details below courtesy of Sonic Retro.
SONIC 2 SPIN DASH AND MUSIC
Regarding the functionality of the Sonic 2 spindash, Riley said that the feature could still be removed from the final game if it is found to cause problems within the game, going on to say that developers shouldn’t talk about features so early on for this reason.
More on that point, when asked about the inclusion of the U.S. soundtrack, Riley stated that it is not currently planned for use in the full release, due to licensing issues in using Spencer Nilsen’s soundtrack. However, Sega is trying to work around that and come up with a solution. Meaning, if an agreement is reached, this may include paid DLC, if the game can support it. For now, the game is International soundtrack only.
DOING THE TIME WARP IN THE TIMELINE
When asked about the curious use of Sonic 4 assets in the reveal trailer for the game, Riley confirmed that Sega has retrofitted Sonic CD‘s place in the timeline as after Sonic 3 and Knuckles but before Sonic 4: Episode 1. The rationale behind this was that Sonic CD’s developers never put any direct mention of Sonic CD‘s place in the timeline.
So how exactly does this work? When Sonic CD is released later this year and Sonic 4: Episode 2 is announced, there will be a trailer where Sonic escapes from his time-travelling detour. In all the Sonic 4 trailers, Sonic is chasing Eggman from the left of the screen to the right. In the Sonic CD trailer, there’s a signpost instead, and when he hits it, he takes a detour and does the story of Sonic CD. Once his CD adventure is over, his detour ends, and he goes onto Sonic 4: Episode 2, coming out sometime next year.
Wait… so Sonic 4: Episode 1 happens, Sonic CD, then Sonic 4: Episode 2? I guess this fits with the whole “after Sonic 3 and Knuckles” thing, but wouldn’t this technically make it a side-sequel to Sonic 4: Episode 1 then? Just hit me with the Hazama cameo. Blast you and your odd time travel logic, Sega!
Opinion injection aside, there’s one more point that was tackled.
SONIC 4: EPISODE 2 RUNNING ON THE RETRO ENGINE?
With The Taxman’s earlier details revealing that Sega now owns a license to his Retro Engine, used to power the popular fan game Retro Sonic Nexus, fan speculation rocketed if Sonic 4: Episode 2 will throw away the criticized physics engine it used in favor for the Retro Engine.
And with the precision of Sonic shooting down one of Eggman’s many airships, Riley responded with a flat “No,” continuing by saying that Sonic 4 “will never” use the Retro Engine because the code base is incompatible with the existing Sonic 4 engine, which they are still using for Episode 2.
Hopefully with quite a few tweaks and lessons learned from Sonic Generations. I know, opinion injection again. My apologies.
Special thanks to Shade Vortex for conducting the interview because some of us couldn’t make it to PAX this year.
What are your thoughts on this information? Let us and others know in the comments section below.
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Nintendo Wii owners may have noticed that while SEGA’s new port of Sonic CD is coming to many many download platforms, WiiWare isn’t one of them. SEGA has told GamesRadar that the reason for this is that the CD quality sound won’t fit within Nintendo’s strict 40MB file size limit for games on the platform.
In an excuse that carries a whiff of that old “the SNES doesn’t have the technology to render blood” chestnut, Sega has explained that the WiiWare platform lacks the chops necessary to replicate the CD-quality sound of the technologically-mindblowing-circa-1993 original – so, no Sonic CD for Wii owners.
Unfortunate for Wii owners. But at least if you’re not fussed about the new additions or Japanese soundtrack, there is still the option to play the original game on the GameCube title Sonic Gems Collection.
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Four days later and the new port of Sonic CDrevealed on Monday has been made official. The Mega CD/SEGA CD title will be making its way to many platforms this Holiday season, which include Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, PC Download, Windows Phone and Android Phone.
The game is said to feature widescreen graphics, the original Japanese soundtrack, special iOS features, Xbox LIVE Achievements, PSN Trophies, PC Achievements and more. Interestingly, SEGA also says this game is a prequel to Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1. A trailer, press release and artwork have also been released, which we have shared for you here.
Check out the press release below:
METAL SONIC! AMY-ROSE! ROBOTS! IT CAN ONLY BE SONIC CD
LONDON & SAN FRANCISCO — 25th August, 2011 —SEGA® Europe Ltd. and SEGA® of America, Inc. today announced that Sonic CD™ will debut on mobile phones and consoles everywhere. Originally released for the MEGA CD™ system in 1993 and with Metal Sonic and Amy Rose making their introduction, Sonic CD is coming to digital platforms with music from the original Japanese soundtrack. The beloved prequel to Sonic The Hedgehog 4 ™ Episode I is coming to iPhone® and iPod® touch, iPad®, Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation® Network, PC Digital Download, Android and Windows Phone 7 and will be available for download this winter.
“Ask any Sonic fan to name their favourite games, and Sonic CD always ranks near the top of their lists,” said Haruki Satomi, Vice President of Digital Business at SEGA. “Sonic CD marks an important chapter in Sonic’s history, bridging the gap between his oldest adventures and his new digital exploits like Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode I. We’ve made sure the re-mastered edition has everything that Sonic fans want to see with all of the original colourful classic zones.”
Following the classic story of the original, Sonic CD sees Dr Eggman plan to cause chaos and take control of the future by stealing Times Stones from the Little Planet. Sonic must speed through levels and travel through time whilst fending off Eggman’s robots to recover the Time Stones, and save Amy Rose from his mechanical twin, Metal Sonic! This fast-paced game will return with brand new features including enhanced widescreen graphics, iOS features, Xbox LIVE Achievements, PSN Trophies, PC Achievements and more.
Thanks to Jemma in our comments section for the heads up and to Woun for the YouTube upload!
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The Smithsonian American Art Museum is setting up an exhibition focusing on video game artwork – and Sonic the Hedgehog could feature prominently in the upcoming showcase.
Called The Art of Video Games, the event takes a look at iconic games throughout the last 40 years and explores the industry “as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking visual effects, the creative use of new technologies, and the most influential artists and designers.” Better yet, there are 80 slots for games to be featured – and visitors to the museum’s website can vote for the games that they feel best represent ‘video games as art.’
Representing the Sonic the Hedgehog (and related) series in this voting stage are the following:
Sonic CD (Action Game – Sega Genesis)
Sonic Adventure (Action Game – Sega Dreamcast)
NiGHTS into Dreams… (Action Game – Sega Saturn)
Click here to visit the voting page – you’ll need to register an account with the website – and take your time in voting for the games you feel deserve the cut. Certainly, don’t vote for Sonic just because it’s Sonic, but… well, it’s Sonic isn’t it?
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When I first heard the “Hedgehog Day” jingle, I knew right away that it was going to be the title theme into “Project Needlemouse.” I also knew right away that something about it was off. It tried to be a catchy title theme, but it just didn’t sound right. There was an aesthetic to it that was off-putting.
Tweaker, Sonic Retro admin and author of the Sonic Megamix ROM hack, agreed. Him and I were up pretty early this morning after some badass sleep. I decided to voice our opinions of the game in the “What’s In A Name” article (which had been flying around the #retro chat room since the announcement), while he decided to make the “Sonic 4” theme worthy of its title.
So, what happens when you combine the “Sonic 4” theme with the Japanese Sonic CD theme? Something that gets the melody stuck in my head, a key aspect that the official theme could not do. He let me put it on TSS to share with you guys.
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Sonic Team legend and Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator, Naoto Ohshima, spoke to Gamasutra about some of his past work, including his time directing Sonic CD and the inspiration for the blue blur’s sneakers.
After discussing NiGHTS Into Dreams, attention turned to Ohshima’s Mega CD project and the reason behind time travel – a theme he has since revisited with Blinx: The Time Sweeper on the Xbox. “I wanted a Sonic where the levels changed on you — where Sonic would go really fast, like in Back to the Future, and bang, wind up in a different place.”
Ohshima also spoke of the time-travelling cutscene, displayed whenever Sonic reaches a speed in Sonic CD that sends him to the Past or Future. The original plan was to have an instant change, following a sonic boom, but apparently it was not technically possible so the loading cutscene stuck.
Ohshima: What I really wanted to do was just have this sonic boom, with a flash, and have the level change on you instantly. We just couldn’t manage it on the hardware, though, so instead there’s that sequence that plays while it’s loading. (laughs) I kept fighting and fighting with the programmers, but they said it just wasn’t possible.
Gamasutra: I bet they probably could have done it.
Ohshima: I know! (laughs) If Naka was doing the programming, I think it could’ve been done.
Speaking of Yuji Naka, the designer also spoke of how his team worked in Japan on Sonic CD in tandem with Naka’s SEGA Technical Institute in the U.S. on Sonic 2.
We exchanged information, of course, talking about the sort of game design each of us was aiming for. But Sonic CD wasn’t Sonic 2; it was really meant to be more of a CD version of the original Sonic. I can’t help but wonder, therefore, if we had more fun making CD than they did making Sonic 2 [because we didn’t have the pressure of making a “numbered sequel”].
Sonic the Hedgehog’s original design came up again, with discussion of how the character was created for the American market leading to questions of Sonic’s iconic blue, red and white colours. Ohshima said that, as we know, the blue was to symbolise SEGA, but what was more interesting was yet another tenuous link between Michael Jackson and the blue blur. Apparently Sonic’s shoes are directly inspired by Jackson’s Bad album cover. “I also thought that red went well for a character who can run really fast, when his legs are spinning.”
Naoto Ohshima left SEGA many years ago to lead Artoon, but now has management duties at sister development studio Cavia, which recently finished Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles and is working on Square Enix’s Nier. But with this change in approach to more Western, adult-oriented games, does Oshima still have time in his life to go back to the mascot platforming gig?
Ah, well, I’m making a game like that right now. (laughs) I can’t quite talk about that yet, though. In more general terms, the game needs to be something that anyone is able to play, and it needs to have one thing or element that is brand new, that hasn’t been done before.
Shine on, you legend. Shine on.
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A team of hackers known as “Team Typhoon” have apparently enabled homebrew on the new PSPgo. The video above showcases a Genesis emulator running Sonic CD, which is super cool. Even if you were one of the few who purchased the new handheld, however, Team Typhoon will never be releasing their custom firmware. In a silly disclaimer, Team Typhoon says:
This video is for bragging rights ONLY (since it’s very cool nowadays) and shows our Proof of Concept 6.10 Custom Firmware running on the PSPgo. This will never be released to the general public or anyone else at all whether you are a dev or not, this is Team Typhoon internal material, we have no reason whatsoever to waste a perfectly good exploit.
What douchebags.
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The Taxman, like Stealth, is very good at dropping bombs. I have watched Taxman for days as he held back this news from the Sonic community. Now that he has revealed it on Sonic Fan Games HQ, it’s time for everybody to know and shit a brick.
Taxman has been working hard the past few months to port Sonic CD to the iPhone using his famous “Retro-Engine Software Development Kit,” formerly known as the “Retro-Sonic Engine.” The engine is famously used in the Sonic Nexus and Retro-Sonic XG projects. The project uses none of the game’s original programming and is built from the ground up in Taxman’s “RSDK.” It only took him a few weeks to port Palmtree Panic and all of its time periods to the iPhone. Also, the game runs at a perfect frame rate.
Recently, Taxman sent an e-mail to SEGA Europe about his iPhone port. He has yet to receive return contact from them. On Monday, July 27th, SEGA of America’s blog asked the fans which classic SEGA game that they’d like to see ported to the iPhone/iPod Touch. With that announcement, Taxman decided to reveal to all of you his amazing project and he wants you to answer one question:
The question is, do YOU want it? Let SEGA know. This is more than just one of their crappy emulator ports, we’re talking iPhone exclusive enhancements and features (I’ve got some cool plans)
You heard the man! Get to that blog post and tell them what you want!
Please, get SEGA to pick up this port of Sonic CD. It’s flawless. Given the history of SEGA’s iPhone ports, with the Streets of Rage one being exceptionally horrible, we need an amazing game like this one to hit our mobile devices.
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At 2 PM EST this Thursday, July 30th, visitors of the SAGE 2009 chat room will have the opportunity to talk to esteemed video game and movie composer Spencer Nilsen.
Spencer is famous for his SEGA CD soundtracks for Jurassic Park and Batman Returns, but most noted for his work on the US version of the Sonic CD soundtrack.
Join the SAGE chat room with the client provided on the site. Alternatively, you can use a chat client and join “irc.rizon.net #sagexpo.”
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Wacky Workbench might be one of the more annoying, if not incredibly unique, stages of the Genesis-era Sonics, but it has reasons to keep coming back. For me, it is the catchy music (both soundtracks, mind you), but now, it’s this secret that I found in a video yesterday. I revisited the ol’ bouncin’ factory to find this secret room for myself.
Basically, all you have to do is use the level select code (up, down, down, left, right, A/Space) and go to either the past or bad future of Wacky Workbench. Then, make your way to the bottom path immediately to find a hidden room within the wall of a quarter pipe.
The room in the past has an angel statue. If you jump onto her, she spouts out an endless supply of rings. In the bad future, there’s an AWESOME Robotnik statue that you can blow up. However, once you do so, spike bombs will plummet from the ceiling and make you go “ouch.” If you’ve discovered this secret already, good for you. I haven’t, so deal.
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More awesome Sonic CD art. This piece is by liquidshade and it’s a beauty. He actually talks at length on his process, so I’m going to be lazy and copy-paste:
The characters took ages to get right, then I had to outline them, then I had to re-outlight them because I wanted the lines alot thicker, but in the end I’m satisfied with that thick black outline and cel-shaded look. I was gonna try soft shading, which probably would have gone better with the un-cel-shaded background, but that just looked a bit tacky. When I used to buy the British Sonic the Comic as a kid, they always did Amy with her spikes up, like I’ve drawn them here, but on more recent investigation into official pics, old-school Amy’s spikes are actually more like Sonic’s, and are only up in one particular pic, where she’s with Sonic. The poses in that pic are similar to how Metal Sonic is holding her though, so I figured they’d be better like that anyway. Speaking of Metal Sonic, that’s probably the best pic of him I’ve ever done, and all his awkward shapes and limbs ain’t easy to draw. I’m not 100% happy with Sonic’s pose, but I suppose it’ll do. The background only took the last 2 days to do, and even though that rough look and technique isn’t normally me, I think in the end it came out rather well. I used screenshots to get those Palmtree Panic cliffs just right.
The only critique that I have for it is that the color of Sonic’s mouth and belly region look sickly. Otherwise, it’s bitchin’.
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YouTube user, sphereballs, takes the January 5th spotlight today for his Sonic remixes. His remixes are not like the ones you would here on OCRemix, though. These two songs that he made take all 7 tracks from both the Japanese and American soundtracks of Sonic CD and mix them all into epic song. The zones that he has done thus far are Wacky Workbench and Tidal Tempest. Be warned, they are awesome. Tidal Tempest is above, hit the jump for Wacky Workbench. Continue reading Fanatics: The Best of Both Soundtracks
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Naoto Oshima deserves far more credit for the Sonic the Hedgehog series than he ever got during his employment at SEGA Enterprises. The creator of the Sonic character, he has also directed many games and headed projects at Sonic Team, including NiGHTS Into Dreams with Yuji Naka and Sonic CD. He left SEGA shortly after Sonic Adventure, and his lack of presence showed even in Sonic Adventure 2. Forming Artoon though has been a rocky ride for the guy who wants to be the “Walt Disney” of video games, with the amicable Blinx his first non-SEGA creation following the lacklustre Pinobee and questionable sequels to Yoshi’s Island. It’s been an undeserved fall from grace for the poor guy.
Nintendo Power have an interview with the game designer/creator, and about his history in the video game industry. It’s a real interesting read, and Oshima comes across as a really humble guy, taking on all sorts of roles to get a feel for every aspect of game design. One of the ‘original three’ that most fans really count in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise – the other two being programmer Yuji Naka and level designer Hirokazu Yasuhara – he says that he feels best when he’s designing stuff for games. This is in parallel to Naka’s admission to fancying more of a ‘hands on’ approach to making games, shortly before he left Sonic Team to form his own studio.
Other interesting nuggets include his role in Sonic Spinball – he designed the pinball maps for the game, which regardless of your opinion of the spinoff Mega Drive game are pretty decent maps – his entrusting of Sonic’s modern design to Yuji Uekawa from Sonic Adventure onwards (“I think he did a great job”) and lends more credibility to the theory that Sonic CD and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 are practically two odds to the same project (“Naka [was sent] to America [to work on] the Genesis version, which… left me to develop the CD version in Japan”).
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Legend in the Sonic research community drx has managed to get his hands on 5 new Sonic game prototypes including a Sonic CD beta.
List of games are –
* Sonic CD – Prototype 806
* Sonic Adventure 1 (E3 Trial)
* Sonic Adventure 1 LE (dumped from a GD-R)
* Sonic Adventure 2 (Mar 18, 2001 prototype)
* Sonic Adventure 2 (Nov 28, 2000 preview prototype)
So far a member at Sonic Retro has discovered there is a level select in the Sonic CD beta that has Collision Chaos missing from the levels. Expect more developments soon.
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Earlier today SEGA’s Japanese page for the upcoming Sonic Gems Collection was launched providing a host of new information about the game, all of which can finally be set in concrete thanks to it coming directly from an official source.
The site, which is laced with some beautiful new-classic styled artwork provides us with the following. The game will be released in August this year on Playstation 2 and GameCube. Finally, what everyone has been waiting for, the list of games to be included in this compilation.
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Well, with all the rumours being banded about well in advance of E3 2005, the announcement of Sonic Gems Collection was no real surprise, although it was a pleasing addition to the roster of upcoming Sonic titles. ‘Gems’ was first fired up for rumour when SEGA filed a patent for the name of the game, along with a logotype. Many suspected, due to hints being dropped by Yuji Naka and the similar namesake to Mega Collection, Gems would be a compilation of the hard-to-seek Sonic games. One of the bugbears of SMC was the omission of Sonic CD, which Sonic Team would seem want to address.
The demo pod for Sonic Gems Collection was discovered at Nintendo’s E3 booth, which added fuel to the rumours of Gamecube exclusivity. We have a feeling that the game is headed for the PlayStation 2, according to our sources. No word on XBOX, but assuming Mega Collection got the multi-format treatment, it would seem odd that Microsoft would be left out of the Sonic love.
So, WHAT are we getting? Well, first of all, as hinted in the first paragraph, you will be getting Sonic CD and Sonic the Fighters in the compilation, and what journo’s will be playing at the demo pod. This morning, Sonic Team launched an official Gems Collection website, and confirmed a (potentially tentative) game list, below:
Sonic CD
Sonic the Fighters
Sonic R
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (GG)
Sonic Spinball (GG)
Sonic & Tails 2 (GG)
Sonic Drift 2 (GG)
Tails Sky Patrol (GG)
Tails Adventure (GG)
Some may think that Sonic CD, Sonic the Fighters and Sonic R is enough for the compilation, regardless of the conservative choice of adding some Game Gear games. And that’s fair enough. We can clearly see why Sonic Team chose this selection of GG games too – these were the titles that were mercilessly missing from Sonic Mega Collection + on XBOX and PS2 – furthering the idea that this could be heading for consoles other than Gamecube. All the Game Gear games were present in Sonic Adventure: DX however, which makes the selection here rather dubious on Nintendo’s platform.
Despite the appeal of Sonic CD and ‘Fighters, we hope there’s room for some unlockables, akin to the original Mega Collection. Our “Sonic Collectioning” would be complete with at least Chaotix and SEGASonic the Hedgehog in the mix. As mentioned before, it would be slightly odd to have half the offering on a new Gamecube collection being something you could just get elsewhere (SA:DX). The screenshots and common elements seen in Sonic CD and Sonic R show PC versions – which means Gems must be using some kind of PC emulation to run these versions of games. Which is fine by us, as long as we don’t get Windows XP runtime errors booting up Sonic CD.
The extra offerings are what makes a retro compilation from Sonic Team so good. Sonic Jam still remains the ultimate king, with a 3D explorable world full of Sonic history, artwork and exclusive Japanese movies up the wazoo. Sonic Mega Collection managed a timid smattering of Archie cover scans, a yawnsome full scan of their tiresome “Firsts”, and some movies of little interest. Sonic Mega Collection + took things better (or worse) when the only movies they had involved Sonic Heroes in-development scenes (of which half were just the finished movies anyway). Special extras have turned out to be nothing but a crock as of late.
Let’s hope this changes somewhat – the images above, taken from the official website, shows a new section called “Sonic Museum”. According to the Japanese site, there will be many secrets including movies, character profiles and artwork. So far, so good, Sonic Team. So far, so good.
Now we’re all up to scratch on what Sonic Gems Collection is all about, it’s only a matter of time before we get more details. Hopefully, if we can get extras on the scale of Sonic Jam-style quality (even if we can’t have many of the quality Japanese adverts or movies, just having some will suffice) and squeeze SEGASonic the Hedgehog and Chaotix in there, this collection will surely live up to its name.
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Woo, this is the calm before the storm. The E3 event’s yet to start (Wednesday), but the major companies are spewing forth their latest consoles and it’s exciting to see! SEGA have been on form though for next gen, and SONICTEAM’s creativity certainly lives on! We’ve just seen a trailer for a new Yuji Project, called Fifth Phantom Saga. Check SONIC NEWS for the first info, and check out the new TSS Game Page for the title. AND, Sonic Gems Collection IS A REALITY. We’ve only seen a Gamecube stand for it though, which fires up the rumours that Gems will be a Nintendo exclusive. SONIC THE FIGHTERS and SONIC CD are the only titles known to be on the Gems Collection at this point. Yuji does love us.
It’s only been a day and all this has spewed forth – remember, only at The Sonic Stadium and SONIC NEWS can you catch the SONICTEAM E3 information and media first. We’re not the #1 Sonic Resource for nowt you know. 😉 Nintendo’s conference is later on, and more SEGA surprises are apparently in store, so we’ll let you know on any breaking details.
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Sonic Mega Collection looks like an interesting package of retro titles, focusing on the blue blur’s original adventures on Sega Mega Drive. But according to Sonic Team head Yuji Naka, the plan was to also include Mega CD add-on platformer, Sonic CD.
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This game was the first Sonic game to use Time travel – they scrapped the idea on Mega Drive. Bookended with fab Sonic anime intro and outro sequences, Sonic CD’s story sees you rescuing Amy Rose from the clutches of Metal Sonic, Eggman’s newest creation built to eradicate Sonic and the world.Continue reading TSS REVIEW: Sonic CD
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Sonic Team legend and Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator, Naoto Ohshima, 
