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The Games Convention in Leipzig was host to a special day of Yuji Naka signage, as SONIC NEWS reported some days ago. Naka-san used the event to showcase Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Rush and Sonic Gems Collection, but he has also revealed that a next generation Sonic the Hedgehog game is in development.
Nothing else has been mentioned, other than the fact that the title exists. First details will pop up at the upcoming Tokyo Games Show in September. Continue reading ‘Sonic Next’ in development
Today, SEGA Europe announced when the next three Sonic the Hedgehog titles are due for release in our continent.
The gun-toting Shadow the Hedgehog has been given a release date of 25th November, as has the blue blur’s DS debut, Sonic Rush, making for a bit of a Sonic day in Europe. For more information on Shadow the Hedgehog, click here and for all the latest on Sonic Rush simply click here.
As for when you may expect to play Sonic CD and Sonic the Fighters via Sonic Gems Collection, the new compilation will arrive in Europe at a much earlier date of 30th September. Read all about it here.
According to our sources, Sonic Gems Collection was just released today (17th August) in the US, with Shadow the Hedgehog also getting a November release and Sonic Rush a tentative ‘Fall 05’ slate across the pond. Let us know what you think of Gems in the comments.
Everyone’s favourite Ferrari fanatic, Yuji Naka, will be attending a European Games Convention, held in Leipzig, Germany. SEGA-Europe’s German website has revealed details of his special appearance during two days of the event.
August 17th will be a special developer’s-only day which Naka-san will attend, to present the three latest Sonic the Hedgehog titles in the saga (that’s Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Gems Collection and Sonic Rush in case you haven’t been catching up). The event would be perfect for European fans to learn more about the upcoming games (and perhaps on secret projects too) but we assume this pleasure will be reserved for the Tokyo Games Show commencing mid-September instead. Continue reading Yuji Naka in Leipzig
Electronic Gaming Monthly have published in their current September issue, the very first review of Sonic Gems Collection. The EGM staff as expected have not taken much of a liking to the game, understandable though if you keep in mind this compilation was created sheerly with the hardcore fans in mind.
Scoring an average of just above 6/10 EGM describe the compilation as ‘A diamond, two opals and lots of cubic zirconia. (Check the media link for a scan of the review) How well will the game be received by the fans and the rest of the gaming press after a review like this? Stay with SONIC NEWS to find out first.
Sonic Gems Collection will be released on Tuesday the 16th of August in North America for GameCube, and on PS2 and GameCube in Europe before the end of the year.
In what may be yet another blow to US fans Sonic Team’s latest compilation, Sonic Gems Collection, will once again not contain bonus additional MegaDrive/Genesis games, just as it is with the previous modern collections.
The Streets of Rage trilogy which was confirmed to appear in the upcoming title has been revealed to not feature in the US version of the game, as reveled by GameSpy in a preview recently published online. SEGA told GameSpy when questioned:
“While Streets of Rage will ship with Sonic Gems Collection in other markets, the more mature game does not conform to the E-rating of Sonic The Hedgehog games in North America.” Continue reading Disappointing US Sonic Gems Collection Update
Sega of America have recently made some slight changes to their Sonic Gems Collection page, nothing particularly noteworthy other than the following tidbit that caught our eye.
Sonic the Fighters™
Join Sonic and your favorite cast of Sonic characters in this action-filled 3D arcade fighting game. Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Espio, Fang, Bean and Bark battle it out with Dr. Robotnik and the evil Metal Sonic in head-to-head or team battles. Get ready to rumble….Sonic style!
Team battles in Sonic the Fighters, one of the first new enhancements (and hopefully the first of many) to be revealed as an addition to feature in Sonic Gems Collection.
Stay with SONIC NEWS for more Sonic Gems Collection information.
Earlier today IGN published an article disclosing what sources close to them indicate will be the hidden games to be featured as unlockable bonuses. The games rumored to be appearing include the classic Genesis/Mega Drive Streets of Rage series, a port of SEGA’s classic Bonanza Brothers and additional titles undisclosed at this point in time.
Sonic Gems Collection is expected to launch later this year on Playstation 2 and GameCube. At this point in time SEGA have also announced in the US the title will be a GameCube exclusive, however have not yet specified if this also applies to the games PAL release.
Stay with SONIC NEWS for the newest information on Sonic Gems Collection.
Thanks to Okura from SSMB for the link.
For those concerned as to the rumours regarding Sonic Gems Collection being exclusive for Nintendo Gamecube, well we have some good/bad news. Sonic Gems Collection is exclusive to Nintendo Gamecube. Sort of.
It appears that Ninty caught exclusive rights to the title in the USA, while SEGA’s press release specifies that a PlayStation 2 version is in the works, but only for Europe. We don’t know yet whether the exclusive deal for Gamecube is temporary, like Sonic Mega Collection, but if SEGA doesn’t shift on the issue, gamers looking for that tasty Sonic the Fighters urge will be forced to consider a Gamecube purchase; or a Nintendo Revolution when it appears sometime next year.
Just a small update, the English Sonic Gems Collection logo and an unmarked copy of the artwork featured on the Japanese website has come across our newsdesk and we have decided to share it.
Both images are high resolution and completely free of watermarks or poor compression, enjoy!
Sonic Gems Collection Logo
Sonic/Metal Sonic Artwork
UPDATE:
We’ve since also received a copy of the logo for the upcoming Shadow The Hedgehog.
As new titles have been suddenly revealed at E3, Sonic Team have updated their website to reflect this too. Being E3, this is an unusually large update, unfortunately for English speaking fans close to all of the content is in Japanese and Flash, so Babel Fish cant help this time!
The first of the updates include the long overdue Japanese website for Shadow the Hedgehog. The website contains new movies and a few new screens, whilst confirms the game will be 1-2 player, no release date was specified.
The movie begins with Shadow loading a weapon before using Chaos Control to fly through a cityscape and Chaos Blast to attack some enemies. Some new landscapes were visible in the movie as well as Sonic rendered in the games alternate style.
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.
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:
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.
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.
Earlier today Nintendo Now posted an image from Nintendos E3 display for Sonic Gems Collection for the Nintendo GameCube, which sports the controller layouts for Sonic the Fighters and Sonic CD. Details at the moment are at a bare minimum, although this is definite solid evidence that these two games will indeed be appearing in Sonic Gems Collection and playable at E3.
The photo can be found under the media links. Stay with SONIC NEWS for more E3 2005 updates.
As The Sonic Stadium is to be covering E3 2005 almost from the inside out, SONIC NEWS has made room for a TSS article to collate everything that’s already been said, what’s been confirmed, what’s been rumoured. E3 can be a very confusing and somewhat dangerous place for those who haven’t been catching up, so allow this article to hand you all the current information we have, so you get some background knowledge on what Sonic Team has and might be offering.
First of all, let’s base things on SEGA’s Official E3 Lineup. On the Sonic Team side, you have two titles; Phantasy Star Universe and Shadow the Hedgehog.
Phantasy Star Universe is, as the name suggests, the true sequel to Phantasy Star Online. It’s the “next generation” of PSO games. Sonic Team first revealed ‘PSU’ at E3 2004, but raised more questions than answers.
In a press release sent to us by SEGA, the house of Sonic is fast preparing its offering for the E3 2005 event. Most interesting of note is that two BRAND NEW Sonic the Hedgehog games are set to be announced.
“SEGA is also fully supporting PC, handheld, and current-generation users with AAA titles like Spartan: Total Warrior (PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube), Shadow The Hedgehog, Virtua Tennis: World Tour (PSP portable gaming system), and Phantasy Star Universe (PlayStation 2, PC). And on the first day of E3, SEGA will announce two new additions to the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise.“
Shadow the Hedgehog has already been mentioned on the SEGA Press Release list, so this opens up some doors. We already know that the Nintendo DS Sonic the Hedgehog game is to be revealed in a near final form, so this will no doubt be one of the two ‘new’ games announced.
By using the Search Form on the US Patent Office website, type in “Sonic Gems Collection”. It seems our friends at Sega have trademarked this title on March 7th, there is also a Sonic styled trademark image on that page as well. Though we are unsure if this is a new game, or maybe Sega/Sonic Team are finally gonna give us the games we want in a collection, those being Sonic CD, Sonic The Fighters, and SegaSonic Arcade? We can only dream, as usual.
