Welcome to the Archive site of The Sonic Stadium (2008-2023)
Please note that this site is no longer being updated or maintained; as a result, there may be design issues, and links to images and other media may be broken. Links to posts may redirect you to the same article on the current Sonic Stadium website.
Chart-Track has updated today with last weks game sales, week ending 6th March. Last weeks chart update the game had only been on sale for a couple of days but today with a full week on sale in the UK we can now get a better idea of how well the game is doing and its very positive.
Here is the full list of places each version charted in –
All in all the game looks to be quite popular and despite Mario Kart Wii and DS the game has been selling very well on those platforms with the DS making the top spot. We’ll check back with Chart-Track next week to see if the DS version can hold its place at the top of the chart and wether the other versions will be able to hold their high positions or maybe even do better.
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Released just 5 days ago in Europe the EU PAL Wii version of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing has already been hacked by the Wii game hacking community who are giving themselves benefits to use in online races such as abilities to always hold items and which of those items they would like to use at their will among many other things.
I for one found a hacker online earlier today hosting a room who in races would blast off ahead at incredible speeds, wait at the finish line for everyone on the last lap before oddly allowing everyone to cross the line before him/her then in other races simply win as quick as possible.
If more hackers do the rounds in online play this could become a large problem for Wii players searching for a fair game online. The online feature is part of Nintendo’s free service but game fans may well feel shortchanged from their purchase of the title if these hackers ruin the experience. We’ll keep an eye on this issue and update you if things become better or worse.
Note: We dont condone the hacking of games and so we’re not disclosing our source or info about our source.
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Sonic Wrecks have just announced a Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing competition in which you can of course win Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing merchandise but a couple of the prizes arent your average type of merchandise they’re large prints of concept art for Sonic’s car and Big the Cat’s bike.
So how do you enter?
What do you have to do to enter?
What are the rules?
Are there any runner-up prizes?
Here’s the full details from Sonic Wrecks:
THE TASK
Imagine through some ingenious act of blackmail, presumably involving photos and/or inciminating video footage, Sonic Wrecks has procured a spot on the SEGA board and has already made sure there is a Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing II. Yay us! Now being a benelovant and charasmatic despot we’ve seen fit to grace our fans with the chance to participate in choosing new characters to add to the roster – I should point out in this fiction NiGHTS is already in so you’ll need to think of someone else that can be from any point in SEGA’s past. Anyone at all, though maybe you think we might be able to tie up an exclusive character for our Wii2, PS4, XBox 720 or DS2 formats and have a suggestion? Well the suggestions box is OPEN.
We want to know:
•The Character
•The Series
•The Vehicle
•The All-Star Move
•And why they’d make a good addition
“WHAT CAN I WIN, AAUK?”
No you can’t win AAUK silly… but we do have 10 prizes to give away! The best justified suggestions as judged by the Sonic Wrecks staff will be awarded the following prizes.
1st Prize – A large Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing print of the Sonic The Hedgehog car concept art.
2nd Prize – A large Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing print of the Big The Cat bike concept art.
3rd prize – Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing – Double sided A2 poster + door hanger.
7 Runners Up – Receive a Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing door hanger.
HOW TO ENTER
Simply leave the details for your prospective ASR2 entrant in a comment which you can write at the bottom of this page – hey why not sign up for a user account on SW while you’re at it and set your own avatar and other details. Please note: Comments are moderated so will not appear immediately, this does not mean your entry has not been recieved.
THE RULES
•Entries must be received before 12:00 UK Time on March 12th.
•The contest is open Worldwide, yes even Puerto Rico and Quebec.
•One entry per person.
•Entrants must include their email address in the required comment field.
•All decisions are final.
•Abusive comments will not be approved and your entry will be invalidated. Sonic Wrecks retains the right to refuse any entry.
•Winners will be individually contacted by email and asked to supply name and address for postage, refusal to supply or failure to reply to the email will result in the prize not being sent.
Good luck!
Note: The above info is a quote from Sonic Wrecks where the competition is being held so please dont post your entries in OUR comments box :p
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Did you know ex UK Prime Minister Tony Blair enjoys a bit of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing? Well if you own the DS version you’ll find he is a very competitive player as he is in quite a few of the top 6 leaderboards. Think you can beat his times?
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ArchangelUK at the Sonic City Blognik has posted up a mysterious sketch of a figure playing with a remote controlled car which could be a clue to an Xbox 360 Avatar Marketplace item given the sketched out character clicks its fingers to make the controller and car appear like with alot of Avatar items. Wether this will include costumes or other items too or not we’ll have to wait and see.
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If you were looking to download the PC version of Sonic and Sonic SEGA Sonic All-Sonic Stars Sonic Racing featuring Sonic yesterday, you might have already seen the date change and have gotten miffed at it. The game’s Steam profile changed the release date, with no announcement whatsoever, to March 2nd.
Previously, the release date was changed to yesterday, the 25th, from its original release date of the 23rd. SEGA and Sumo Digital have not acknowledged the delay at this time and many retailers are listing the PC version “out now.”
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Steve Lycett Executive Producer at Sumo Digital has posted over at the SSMB an explanation as to why why All-Star Moves are disabled in online play on Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing(all versions) after forum members questioned the absence, here is what Steve had to say –
There’s no All-Star moves online on any platform. Basically those moves are quite complicated and extremely difficult to network. We did a few of them too, and the latency we were seeing didn’t work very nicely. Rather than put something in that didn’t work to everyones expectations – we thought it better to disable them online for a better play experience.
If you’re seeing someone do All-Star moves online, they’ve hacked the game. Kick them out of the lobby
Steve also confirmed at the SSMB that DLC will be coming very soon rather than later, the DLC will be announced by SEGA instead of Sumo Digital but Steve did say he’s been playing it and in his oppinion its awesome –
You’ll hear more about DLC very soon. I don’t want to steal SEGA’s thunder on this. But you’ll be seeing some sooner than you expect – and it’s AWESOME. I’ve just played it 🙂
Also of note we may be seeing more concept art from the game if SEGA of Japan give the green light –
I’ll see what I can do on this. Traditionally it’s quite hard to release art that’s not been approved by SEGA Japan, as we need to make sure any ‘official’ release of art is consistent with the ‘expected’ looks of their characters.
The Xbox 360 has already received a frame-rate patch but both Xbox 360 and PS3 may be getting a patch when the DLC is released –
There already is on 360. We’re still tweaking with the engine, so you may well see further improvements when we launch the DLC. It’s pretty smooth now though for the final release, don’t expect a jump to 60fps though…!
UPDATE:
A deeper explanation from Steve Lycett regarding no All-Star Moves online at the SEGA Forums –
Right I’m back.
I was down in London for two days, attending a Microsoft Dev conference. Only access I had to the web was my iPhone. Have you tried posting a long and complicated forum post on one of those? Trust me, it’s not easy
Also remember I do this in my free time, I don’t get paid for it, I don’t get thanked for it, and I do have to spend time with my family now and again!
Anyway, on this topic. As with all decisions, don’t think we made this one lightly.
The first point is that all the All-Star moves work differently, so we’d effectively have to code each one with specific network code. With all the differences in characters, that’s 23 different bits of code to write there.
Then lets look at what we have to work with. Whilst most of you have super fast download speed, what you don’t realise if you don’t have superfast upload speed. Our target for game communications is 64 kilobits. Note bits not bytes. In that very small amount of data we have to send everyones current position, projected vector, all weapon fire as well as voice chat. Not everyone is on fiber optic broadband you know!
So we’re already sending lots of data, and the ASM’s mean that we’d have to compress this down even further for extra weapon fire.
Of course a lot of the All-Star moves also include increased speed, so in cases with high latency where we’ve already got to be sure we’re not jumping cars around all over the place, we then would have even more extremes of movement -which under high lag would result in false positives for ASM hits. I.e. you maybe nowhere near Super Sonic – but you get blatted off the track as someone has dropped packets and the dead reckoning *thinks* you might have been hit.
Finally, when it comes to network games, you have to be sure that all the systems are deterministic. Basically that if you fire a weapon on one machine, it will fire the same way on another. If this isn’t the case you wind up with synchronisation issues, quite simply what you see on your screen, won’t be what other player see on theres. Not all the ASM are deteministic as they’re all different, the best example is length of use. Depending on where you are in the pack, they last for varying amounts of time. So if we’ve got any latency causing the positions to be out of sync – even for a millisecond – on one machine it may last for 4 seconds, on the other 10. That happens, and oh oh, we’re really out of sync. Cue everyone gets booted back to the lobby.
So with much reluctance, we conceeded that rather than ship it with things that could go wrong down to latency, especially with cross continent play, it would be a better experience to ship it with the ASM disabled during on-line play.
So that is why it’s not available, as we didn’t want to ruin the online experience with All-Star moves that didn’t work consistantly and fairly. I think when you understand this – the decision makes a lot more sense.
Will we add it back in the future? I think it’s unlikely. In the future when everyone has an internet connection that runs at LAN speeds, it’ll be doable, but not for a few years.
—
S0L
—
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Alot of people in Europe will have received their copies of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing in the post today if not tomorrow, those of you who pre-ordered the Xbox 360/PS3 versions with specific retailers e.g. in the UK GAME, Gamestation and Gameplay will have gotten their pre-order gift code to allow you to play as Ryo Hazuki in his forklift truck as his main vehicle.
I’ve received my Xbox 360 version in the post and code by e-mail so I’ve been playing as him for the past couple of hours and after my experience I thought I’d share some notes and warnings.
1. You can play as Ryo Forklift on and offline
2. Ryo forklift is treated as a seperate character so one person can be Ryo-Forklift and another as Ryo-bike, this works on and offline.
3. You’ll be given an hard time online using Ryo Forklift as barely anyone knows about this pre-order gift code, especially those in countries that didnt get this bonus so people will be accusing you of cheating and/or hacking to use your All-Star Move throughout the game but Ryo-F has his own ASM that like the other characters cant be obtained in online play. In most cases people will have a go at you over their headset, leave or cancel the session. Its been happening to me over and over for the past couple of hours, so this gift is best to be played with locally with friends and/or family.
Sorry to be a downer and this isnt me having a public rant, I just thought I should warn people and pass on the the top 2 tib-bits of info. I hope this will enlighten people who have seen Ryo-Forklift on their travels online and thought the person using him was cheating/hacking.
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During Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing’s development we’ve not seen anything of the PC version of the game be it footage or screenshot but with the games release we can now see how it looks thanks to YouTube user RosenGosen who has posted up two videos, one of a Seaside Hill track and the other a Casino Park track.
PC System Requirements are –
Minimum:
OS: Windows XP/Vista. (if running Windows Vista SP1 is recommended)
Processor: 3.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4/Athlon 64 3000+ or equivalent processor
Memory: 1GB RAM (2GB on Vista)
Graphics: DirectX 9.0c compliant video card with 256 MB RAM (NVIDIA 7600 or better, ATI X1300 or better)
DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c
Hard Drive: 6 GB Hard Drive Space
Sound: DirectX Compatible Sound Card
Recommended:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.4Ghz or Athlon 64 X2 4200+ or better
Memory: 1.5GB RAM
Graphics: GeForce 8800 or ATI Radeon HD 3800 series with 512 MB of VRAM or better
Hard Drive: 7 GB Hard Drive Space
Sound: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Sound Card
It will be available on Steam from the 25th Feb and on disc in Europe only from the 26th Feb.
Thanks to TheWax in the comments for the system requirements list.
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
Just a very quick heads up, Gamespot.com have 11 new gameplay videos for Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing showcasing 4 player split screen action, All-Star Moves and more. Plenty to get you excited for the games release on the 23rd U.S. and 26th Europe.
Note: You have to click ‘most recent’ to make them appear.
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According to Toys ‘R’ Us’ weekly newspaper ad, if you purchase the DS version of Sonic & Sonic SEGA Sonic All-Sonic-Stars Sonic Racing featuring Sonic, you’ll get a free Sonic toy (valued at a whopping $4.99).
The deal only lasts through February 27th until 5 PM.
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GAME’s Spanish website has revealed a new wheel bundle for Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing only its not for the Wii but for the PS3 version instead. The wheel is an officially licensed product made by 4Gamers which you may recognise from the recent PS3 trailer where those actors are utilizing it to showcase the PS3 controllers Six-Axis motion control.
The wheel bundle costs 12 more Euros than the game on its own so like the Wii Wheel bundle its not a freebie. This isnt the first SEGA racing game to use Six-Axis, SEGA Rally(SEGA Rally Revo to you guys in the U.S.) fans may recall that game supported the feature to add optional motion steering which worked well in my experience.
At the moment we only know of Spain getting this bundle but if we find more retailers selling it we’ll let you know.
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UPDATE 2: ArchangelUK has revealed another music track in this post at the SEGA Forums –
I’ll tell you one track thats on there that I’ve not actually revealed yet, thats Crank The Heat Up from Sonic Adventure – that really works racing. Was a really good choice by SUMO.
UPDATE 2 END
UPDATE: ArchangelUK has kindly given us some more information via the SSMB, many thanks 😉
SSMB EXCLUSIVE~!
The Sonic CD track is indeed Palmtree Panic (Present) – Japanese/Euro version.
As I corrected myself earlier on Wrecks, Wrapped In Black does appear but only the Wrapped In Black end of level jingle.
The instrumental version of E.G.G.M.A.N is also purchasable.
One of the multiplayer modes, Grab, consists of you battling for control of the seven chaos emeralds… VERY addictive.
There are three arenas – the Curien Mansion graveyard, “Seaside Square” and a monkey ball level arena with ramps and a bridge.
UPDATE END
After his revelation yesterday regarding 2 pieces of Sonic R music, SEGA Europe community manager ArchangelUK has revealed via his Sonic Wrecks website some juicy new information about Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing he’s discovered in the Xbox 360 version through time spent with the game over the weekend.
Here is a list of 10 of his findings –
•The music also contains a piece from Sonic CD and Sonic Rush tracks also feature… but Wrapped In Black doesn’t. BOOOO!
•Fish Hits plays when Big does his All-Star move.
•Switching difficulty to “Off” removes the AI from a multiplayer game.
•Race distances can be set between one and nine laps in length.
•There IS a reference to Ryo and sailors in the game. You can officially rejoice.
•There is at least one line of dialogue from the announcer when talking about Big that…well… it made me choke on my drink.
•Amigo’s boost is probably the most powerful in the game. It certainly seems to be from off the line.
•There is a very clever way of getting the “no collisions” achievement.
•It is entirely possible to legitimately do the “Wonder Boy” (winning by reversing over the line) achievement.
•You will definitely need to master drift for later Super Monkey Ball levels as they mirror the games a lot. This means lots of 90 and 180 degree turns
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UPDATE: All retailers that were selling the solo Wii version cheap then sold out have removed the listing. /UPDATE END
You may remember a few days ago we reported on many UK retailers listing ridiculously low price drops for the Wii & DS versions of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing well you can guess what has happened, they are now sold out for the Wii version at least but we expect the DS version will soon follow the same path so if you want that version jump in now.
Sold out status would normally be somewhat good news but selling out at those crazy prices you have to wonder if its at a loss to the retailers. To the consumer though a price drop makes a saving on the wallet, so if you want the DS version jump in now. Those retailers who sold the Wii version cheap still have stock but only of the Wii wheel bundle and its not as cheap as the solo version was listed at.
Retailers listing the DS version ridiculously cheap are : ASDA: £17.91
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Thanks to Doctor Eggman at the SSMB for the hilarious video.
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The guys over at SEGA Nerds have recently visited SEGA and got some hands-on time with the full Xbox 360 version of Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing. While there they got some pics of every characters stats, vehicle names and All-Star Moves but as the Xbox 360 edition was the only available version they couldnt get the info for the Wii versions Mii’s.
With this info in mind you can now get a better idea of how your favourite characters will play before you hit the track and start your offensive in local or online multiplayer. The pics also show Sumo Digital have done their homework with some of the vehicle names, Doctor Eggman at the SSMB has noticed the following in response to Beat and Ryo’s vehicle names:
– “DE LA CUSTOM GGs?? Way to stick a reference to the obscure Japanese JSR 2.0 “De La Jet Set Radio” ”
– “Very awesome that you didn’t forget Naoyuki!”
So, do you like the All-Star moves, vehicle names and stats? Speak out in the comments.
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Do you like fan service? Do you like the music in the SEGA Saturn and PC game Sonic R? Planning on picking up Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing? Well you’ll be glad to hear that two songs from Sonic R are in your new racing game. Composed by TJ Davis(the singer) and Richard Jacques(the music) the songs that will feature are Super Sonic Racing and Can You Feel The Sunshine, two songs that are still loved by the Sonic fan base to this very day.
What do you guys think about this new development? Let us know in the comments.
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SEGA Europe have just released this new DS trailer for Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing giving you a better look at what alot of the tracks, characters and All-Star Moves will look like in the palms of your hands.
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The Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing DS demo the U.S. got a few days ago has finally hit the UK Wii Nintendo Channel, the demo lets you play as Sonic in Seaside Hill and contains Easy, Medium and Hard difficulty levels. Go grab it now and let us know what you think of it in the comments.
Thanks to knuxtaben over at the SSMB for the heads up.
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UPDATE: It turns out MANY UK retailers are listing both the Wii and DS versions at very cheap prices, we can now assume this isnt a pricing error. We’ve edited the original story below to reflect this update. /UPDATE END
Many UK retailer sites are listing very crazy cheap prices for the DS and non-wheel bundle Wii version of Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing. As of the time of this article’s publication retailers are listing both versions anywhere between £17.73 and £17.99. This could be a pricing error as the Wii version was originally listed at around £29.99 and DS at around £22.99 but its hard to believe all of these retailers would list the same error. As usual alot of the sites offer Free Delivery too to put the icing on this bargain cake. If you want the PC version cheap, HMV and Gameplay have got you covered at £12.99.
I for one have cancelled my £22.95 DS pre-order with Zavvi and re-ordered at the cheaper price, I’ll let you know if anything changes but if you want the game cheap now would be a good time to jump in and place an order.
Here is a list of all retailers selling the game at crazy prices –
ASDA : Wii – £17.91 DS £17.91
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I dont know how this slipped by us but SEGA of America have taken a page out of SEGA Europe’s book as they will be holding a Community Day at their San Francisco base today allowing anyone interested in attending to get some hands-on time with the PS3 and Xbox 360 editions of Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing. If you are interested in attending let SOA know by posting in the comments section of the events blog entry.
The event will run from 12pm to 3pm PST, anyone worried about hunger fear not as SEGA of America will be providing food to fill up your tummies. Attendees will also get to meet Dan (the game’s brand manager) and Omar (the game’s producer) who will be answering all of your questions. Wether this is the final code or the very near final code of the game we at TSS recently tried out at Alton Towers is unknown.
Will any of you be attending? Let us know in the comments.
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTe5XO28O-c[/youtube]
Thanks to sonicfan293 for converting the video to YouTube format.
Just a quick heads up, Official Nintendo Magazine UK have posted a new gameplay video of the Wii version of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing at their site. The track being showcased is the Seaside Hill Ocean Ruins track, a track we’ve seen little of until now. In the video you get a better look at the undersea tube and the huge jump that follows it making for one awe inspiring track.
Like the look of Ocean Ruins? Let us know in the comments
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ArchangelUK of Sonic Wrecks/SEGA Europe has posted the above photo of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing themed wobblers at Sonic Wrecks today, the sort that you see the kids easily amused with in the shops. The wobblers also confirm the games tag line mentioned in the recent PS3 trailer “Winning has never been so sweet”, pretty cool though I wonder if they could come up with a tagline for those sore losers you’ll meet up with playing online. Any ideas?
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iawAKqO0FBk&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Thanks to Kamicciolo at the SSMB for the video.
UPDATE: Both the EU & U.S.demo have now hit the PlayStation Store weighing in at 827MB, playable characters are Sonic and Doctor Eggman. PS3 users get a Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg track to test out, named Blizzard Castle: Rampart Road. The Yakuza 3 demo is also out now. /UPDATE END
Mike Kebby of SCEE’s PlayStation Store Team has just posted on the European PlayStation Blog a list of items hitting the store later today. PS3 owners patiently waiting for a Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing demo will be happy to hear its coming today, SEGA fans will also be getting a Yakuza 3 demo to try out too. No details about what the demo’s contain are revealed but we’ll let you know once they’ve gone live. SCEA have yet to post todays update contents but we’ll update here when the list is posted.
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You may remember SEGA Memories comic strip we posted explaining why Sonic is in a car in Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing, well if that didn’t convince you bro-botnik at the SSMB has made the above comic strip to further knock some sense into people who still dont understand.
Thanks to bro-botnik for the hilarious comic strip!
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The OutRun2 and Virtua Tennis 3 cabinets at Sumo Digital.
Steve “S0L” Lycett, the producer of Sonic and Sonic SEGA All Sonic Stars Sonic Racing featuring Sonic, has been filling us in on the game’s development every step of the way through forum posts and a diary. The fourth entry in his Developer Diary talks about the painstaking amount of work that the art team has had to endure and the capabilities of the game’s “Sunshine Engine.” The work involved when creating the game for each console is discussed as well.
While detailing all of the intricacies of the game, Steve takes us on a tour of the Sumo Digital building. Interesting, to say the least. I really want that Virtua Tennis 3 cabinet.
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SEGA of America are giving away the above new Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing Limited Edition Ryo Hazuki figurine via a sweepstakes event open to U.S. and Canadian residents aged 13+ with a SEGA Pass account. The figurine is very limited as only 1,000 have been made with 49 of them secured at SEGA Europe for a future competition which we’ll have to wait patiently to find out info of how to win one, we’ll inform you when the details are revealed. For more info regaridng the SEGA of America give away check out the SEGA of America Sweepstakes Page.
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jDhY7oYZ30[/youtube]
UPDATE 2: Footage on Easy difficulty now available thanks to YouTube user shigamodo. Thanks to BlueHedgehog 92 at the SSMB for the heads up. /UPDATE END
UPDATE: We’ve just checked the UK Nintendo Channel and its not there and Pearl over at the SSMB has just informed us that its on the U.S. Nintendo Channel. /UPDATE END
We’ve just got word in from a couple of members at the SSMB that the Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing DS demo Steve Lycett of Sumo Digital said was coming has now arrived on the Nintendo Channel for you to download now. We dont know in which regions this has been released to yet but we’ll do our best to find out and update as soon as possible. If you can confirm its arrived in your region we’d be very grateful if you can let us know in the comments.
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If any of you have been waiting feverishly for new information on the figures based on Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing then today is your lucky day. Thanks to Toy Fair 2010 in New York we have a slew of new pictures for you and details of what else to expect from Jazwares in the coming months.
Firstly, we have the ASR figures; 5 Inch vehicles with figure and 3″ Mini Racing Figures, inside and outside the box. Next in the gallery blow you should be able to spot the new 6 Inch Knuckles Super Poser. Finally, last but not least is a second Sonic Comic 3″ Double pack, this time featuring Archie’s Sonic issue 207 and three inch figures of Sonic and Metal Sonic! Thats right, the metal one is getting another figure. You wait years for one then three come at once. According to ToyNewsi Jazwares aren’t planning on releasing good ‘ol Metal by himself just yet but it may be in the pipeline later on.
But thats not all the Sonic figure news we have, oh no. Expect to see wave two of the mini ASR figures expand to include Knuckles, Eggman and Tails with wave three being the first to contain none Sonic characters in the guise of Ai Ai, Amigo and Beat. If you’re not into Sonic and cars then you have a Tails 6″ Super Poser to look forward to as well as the Knuckles one and Jazwares also has a mass of plush characters waiting in the wings. Sonic, Shadow and The Werehog are already features on Jazwares webpage but new to the series will be Tails, Knuckles and Silver. Finally it appears Amy will finally get her claws on Sonic as they will be released together in a future comic double pack.
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As you may have already read, I was the first person to sleep in the brand-new Sonic the Hedgehog themed hotel Suite at UK leisure resort, Alton Towers. My stay was earned by winning a quiz on the coach to the theme park on Friday; a coach that contained a bunch of community luminaries, bloggers and press (with myself in the unique position of both press and community). Except T-Bird, who is still in Japan. I missed his hat.
The special trip to Alton Towers was arranged by Sega, to celebrate the opening of the new Sonic Spinball rollercoaster (and of course, the Sonic Suite). After a three-hour coach journey, we all huddled around the ride entrance where Sega representatives and ‘Sonic’ officially cut the celebratory ribbon. We were then free to stumble in curiosity towards the rollercoaster itself. It was the day before Alton Towers opened for the new season, and so we were the very first people to try this attraction out.
Sonic Spinball may well be an older ride with a new lick of paint, but the nature of the rollercoaster seemed like a perfect fit for the blue blur. Four-seater pods periodically pass through the track, which start rotating as the ride begins and you turn the first corner. Then you meet the initial climb upwards, which was really quite fast, giving you barely any time to soak in the impending drops, twists and turns that lie ahead.
The following events involve high-speed belting around tight corners, V-shaped curves which force you to face the drop as you go down, and a zig-zag of highs and lows sporting a camera at the end. In the free hour given, we must have jumped on the ride six or seven times each, with free unlimited photo prints to keep those high-octane memories forever. To the side of the photo booth were two UFO catchers with Sonic plushies up for grabs – so our time was adequately split between riding the Spinball and attempting to win a Tails doll.
It had to end at some point though, so we all caught a coach back to the hotel where we all stayed; as everyone else took a tour of the special Sonic Suite, I was at reception signing out all of the gear that goes in it – two PS3 controllers, two Xbox 360 controllers, two Wii Remotes, one Wii Nunchuk and a bunch of Sonic games. These included Sonic Unleashed (PS3), Sega Superstars Tennis (360), Sonic 06 (PS3), Sonic and the Black Knight (Wii), Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii) and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Wii).
Once everybody else had taken their Sonic Suite tour and saved all their photos, it was mine and Jemnezmy’s turn to step in and soak in the room that we would be sleeping for the night. And despite it’s rather pokey size, it’s a rather impressive room for the big-time Sonic fan. Opening the door activates a sound clip that welcomes you to the room – ‘Sonic’ (in a rather trying American accent) introduces the Suite with different phrases each time the front door is opened, including “Hey-Hey! Have you tried Sonic Spinball yet?” and “Watch out for Dr. Eggman! Let’s Go!” alongside boost and spring sound effects.
The wallpaper is a colourful print which takes its design from the recent Sonic the Hedgehog 4 trailer, although there are new elements that you have probably noticed already. Extra platforms, springs and Sonic 2-esque dash pads all feature on the Sonic Suite walls, but none of them look like in-game segments of the game – rather like higher-quality images that have been imposed on top of the landscape seen in the three-second gameplay clip.
The widescreen TV is pretty snazzy, alongside the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles that are all hooked up to the unit. A drawer underneath the consoles reveals a couple of Sonic plushies, chocolate coins and a Priority Pass for up to 6 people to ride on Sonic Spinball. Yes, we totally cleaned that drawer out.
Awesome Sonic references are everywhere in this room. The lampshades are Chaos Emeralds, the bed’s headboard is a giant ring, and there’s the most awesome palm tree in the corner that I tried to steal the next day. People would have probably noticed it under my arm, though.
Other festivities that took place outside of the Sonic room included dinner in Alton Towers’ beach resort room (complete with steel drum band and playtests of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing), an open bar until 2am, giant Connect 4, and a day’s VIP pass at the theme park on Saturday. It was truly a delicious day, and I met several people who attended Summer of Sonic last year who came especially to ride Sonic Spinball. No doubt they all had as much of an awesome time as I did on the ride.
Head to the Alton Towers website to find out more about the theme park and Sonic Spinball ride, and to learn more about booking the Sonic Suite for yourself. You’ll have an awesome time, trust me. Gallery of all images below, go take a look.
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UPDATE: ArchangelUK has informed via Sonic Wrecks and the Sonic city Blognik that bol.com/nl/ (Benelaux) and JB Hi-Fi(Australia) are getting the Ryo-Forklift pre-order DLC code though JB Hi-Fi arent listing it yet. If you’re in Spain and missed our earlier report, GAME are also offering the code – PS3 & Xbox 360.
bol.com/nl/ : Xbox 360(Netherlands) PS3
You may remember when we informed you that Gameplay.co.uk will be offering the Ryo-Forklift DLC pre-order bonus, well now you have another retailer choice as GAME UK have updated the product pages for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Sonic & SEGA All Star Racing with a notice about the pre-order bonus code Ryu spelling error and all.
GAME UK still arent offering the game as cheap as Gameplay though –
Gameplay: Xbox 360 £30.99 PS3 £28.99
Wether GAME will be offering the pre-order DLC code in-store is unknown at present but we’ll try to find out as soon as possible and let you know.
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
The Sonic Stadium may link to retailers and earn a small commission on purchases made from users who click those links. These links will only appear in articles related to the product, in an unobtrusive manner, and do not influence our editorial decisions in any way.
Those crazy, ASR-playing kids are back (at least they’re not talking). This trailer provides a minute of PS3 footage and showcases how much fun you’re going to have.
But wait… what are those wheels those kids are holding? This game isn’t for the Wii. Is the PS3 getting some wireless wheel action? HEY, S0L. You know what’s up with that? Please, do tell.
EDIT: I’m a big ol’ dummy. I really need to educate myself on PS3 stuff. Thanks to commenters below, they have enlightened me. Haha…
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Those of you who came to Summer of Sonic last year and/or have visited SEGA Memories will recognise this comic strip made by SEGA Memories own Aaron. Aaron had correctly guessed that Sumo Digital staff Steve and Travis would constantly get the question “Why is Sonic in a car?” and so gave them the above comic to answer the annoying query. The comic worked wonders and gave many people a laugh so those who still have this query, take a look at the comic and put your mind to rest.
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If you live in the UK turn on your Xbox 360 and get it connected to Xbox Live because a new interview has hit Inside Xbox with Sumo Digitals Executive Producer Steve Lycett and Lead Artist Dave Blewett. In the interview Steve Lycett speaks about all of the various modes in the game and reveals two new multiplayer modes called Capture the Chao and Knockout, Capture the Chao is like any first-person shooters Capture the Flag and Knockout is like a survivor mode with the person in last place given just 15 seconds to get back in the pack or else they get kicked out.
Dave Blewett discusses how Avatar support and Banjo-Kazooie came to be and bringing very old SEGA characters up to todays 3D graphical standard.
There is also some new gameplay footage from a wide variety of the tracks too, it’s a very interesting interview so switch on your Xbox 360 and give it a watch.
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