sum up sunday – The Sonic Stadium

Features

News concerning all things fast and blue over the past few weeks has started to pick up quite a bit, and since a lot has transpired following the release of Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice, I think it’s fair to say that a quick recap of recent events is in order!

Read on below for the full breakdown of our Sonic coverage since the Fire & Ice launch:

Continue reading Sum-Up Sunday: Bricks, Booms, and Mania, Oh My!

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Sum-Up Sunday: The Week That Was E3 2014

15th June 201416th June 2014

Symbotic

19 Comments

E3 2014 has come to a close, and what a week it was for our blue hedgehog. In case you missed anything, Sum-Up Sunday is here to catch you up on all the big headlines that you might have missed. Tons of new footage from Sonic Boom, plenty of interviews, a trio of new trailers, and even a movie announcement. Check it all out below:

Monday

Over five minutes of promotional footage provided by SEGA for Sonic Boom was uploaded, giving us full quality and sound. Hear the little snippets of dialogue between the characters as they rush through speedy areas and fight off enemies.
Take a look at the Sonic Boom banner that was displayed proudly at the E3 convention centre. Hopefully it helped to drum up a little more interest for people to go try out the upcoming title.

Tuesday

Sonic Jump Fever, a sequel to the original Sonic Jump title, is coming soon to iOS and Android devices. It will feature a more dynamic action and combos, and doesn’t yet have a release date for any region… what? What do you mean it’s already out in Canada?
A trio of E3 trailers came out for the three areas of Sonic Boom. First is Rise of Lyric with some epic movie style narration, second came Shattered Crystal showing off the gameplay and character’s unique abilities, and finally the TV show which gives us an idea of the type of ham Eggman eats.
Some new concept art showed up for Sonic Boom for both Rise of Lyric and Shattered Crystal, giving a look at some of the environments – like sprawlingly tall trees in a jungle/forest, and some enemy designs.
And the big one – Sony Pictures confirmed that they were making a live action/CGI mix Sonic the Hedgehog movie! It won’t just be one though. It’ll be the beginning of an annual release movie franchise.

Wednesday

TSS begin their coverage of E3 with our hands-on preview of Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, thanks to our own Jason Berry. Give it a read, it’s a good one that goes into plentiful of gameplay details and more.
Also, get a good look at the giant range of toys launching alongside the Sonic Boom franchise. Plushes, action figures, and Sonic figures with articulated joints to make them look like they’re from The Exorcist.
Is that Metal Sonic in Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal? Eagle eye viewers brought to our attention that he’s most certainly there, clear as day; is it a random cameo, or is it something more? He’s had no design changes seemingly…

Thursday

Gamespot had a preview of Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, and re-uploaded their footage clean. You can see a few more of the cutscenes, where you can see Sonic and Knuckles’ rivalry has been re-ignited, and Amy has become quite the confident member for the team.
Take a look at the Sonic Boom blackboard at E3. The video gives a look at the whole thing which Tails makes notes upon, which also includes the team’s individual little cameos made in their own respective colours.
We also got a hands on preview of Sonic Jump Fever. It’s definitely looking like a notable improvement on the original and it feels significantly less “empty” than it did before.

Friday

As E3 draws to close, TSS has another hands on preview – this time, with the 3DS version of Sonic Boom. This one is far more akin to a traditional Sonic experience than it’s big brother on the Wii U, with exploration also being a key element.

Saturday

Finally, we have an interview with Sonic Boom producer Stephen Frost. Stephen goes into a lot of neat details about the game in our 16 minute interview, so sit down and enjoy it with a nice hot drink. I normally go for tea.

And that’s all for this week – so much stuff happened! Phew. Tell us what you thought was the most exciting development of the week in the comments, and what you’re looking forward to most now you’ve seen more from Sonic Boom – the Wii U version, the 3DS version, or the TV show. Until next year and a new Sonic title, E3!

xxOLDArticles, xxOLDOfficial News

Sum Up Sunday, On a Monday 2: Chocolate Bunny & Super Cute Animals Edition

9th April 2012

Dave Luty

5 Comments

It’s Easter ~~Sunday!~~ Monday! Hope you’ve had a cracking weekend and not too full on chocolate. Well it started nice and calm last week didn’t it? The usual trickle of news… and then we got to Thursday… Don’t know what happened? Read on!

Continue reading Sum Up Sunday, On a Monday 2: Chocolate Bunny & Super Cute Animals Edition

xxOLDOfficial News

Sum Up Sunday, On a Monday: The Cosmic Fool Edition!

2nd April 20122nd April 2012

Dave Luty

6 Comments

*Dances in wearing a jesters outfit*

WELL! Good day to you TSS! Good day to you! How are you!? It’s April Fools Day! …What do you mean it’s over? Oh very well, here’s the news of the last week.

Continue reading Sum Up Sunday, On a Monday: The Cosmic Fool Edition!

xxOLDOfficial News

Sum Up Sunday: The Bottom Of The Barrel Edition

25th March 201225th March 2012

Dave Luty

21 Comments

It’s been a busy start to 2012 hasn’t it? Sonic 4 Episode 2 is on the way! SOS & Sonic Boom have been announced! Rumors of ASR 2 are all over the place! So this week’s sum up Sunday is likely to be one of the best yet! With that in mind here is a roundup of the week’s news at TSS.

Monday

Sonic Boom tickets went on sale, prompting many Sonic fans to yell “I got my tickets!” and many more to yell “Why can’t they host it at my house!?”

And finally!

And finally we have… oh, it would appear we didn’t cover anything else at TSS… right… Well in that case, here is a picture of a baby hedgehog.

See you next week. With any luck something might happen between now and then.

xxOLDOfficial News

Sum-Up… Tuesday?: “We We We So Excited” Edition

2nd November 20113rd November 2011

Ian

27 Comments

Yeah, I totally forgot about Sum-Up Sunday this week, and judging by the title I don’t even know what day it is today (although if you’re in the UK, it makes perfect sense)! But that won’t stop us from rounding up last week’s news, just a little later than normal.

Sonic Generations

And we begin with the news that a number of Best Buy stores in the US started selling Generations soon as they got it, causing much ~~mayhem, droppin’ drama~~ excitement among the US fanbase.
A German game site was the first to review the game, giving it 85%, and crazy Sonic fans got angry. IGN followed suit, giving it 8.5, and crazy Sonic fans didn’t get angry. Guess there’s something to this 10-point scale after all…
Likely contributing to those pretty cool scores is the revelation that the original Sonic on Megadrive is an unlockable in the game.
Plenty of previews, as you’d expect from the week before a major release. We got footage of a Green Hill race against Knuckles (which actually shows Knux for about… half a second?), a Jp showing of the Collection Room, and a load of rival battle screens.
Meanwhile, IGN went as far as streaming their live gameplay of the game… at least before they assumedly realised what they were doing, and abruptly shut the stream down.
On the 3DS, we found out how the StreetPass function is used for its mission mode, but didn’t really get much else. Then again, we still got a whole month before this version sees the light of day.
In the week Sega announced that Generations is the most pre-ordered Sonic game ever, an employee at the UK’s biggest retailer Game Group reveals why they weren’t particularly interested in the shit-hot Collector’s Edition. We at TSS had no such qualms however, posting our buyer’s guide ~~in a feeble attempt to make money~~.
And to close with the subject of Sonic after Generations, we hear that Classic Sonic won’t be seeing a return in later games. Hopefully that doesn’t mean Sonic will peak with Generations and then slide back into mediocrity…

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games didn’t see much news… apart from a new trailer showing footage of some of the new events.

The Other Stuff

Remember that skateboard event we reported that Sega were sponsoring? Brad and a few guys decided to head up there and see what’s what.
Over the pond in France, Sega’s teamed up with French restaurant chain Flunch to promote Generations.
Our sister site The Sonic Show celebrated getting 1000 subscribers on Youtube, by doing… well, what any Sonic fan in the 90s probably wanted to do.
And in one of the weirdest linkups I’ve seen for a while, artificial crooner Hatsune Miku will be “singing” Sega songs including Live and Learn in a new CD.

Finally, some kid called Svend put his green echidna sprite on a webpage for the first time eleven years ago. To celebrate, he decided to talk about what happened this year, instead! Silly boi.

So that’s it for what happened last week. Let us know what you thought of the week’s news, and the Sum-Up will be back this Sunday. Promise…

xxOLDOfficial News

Sum-Up Sunday: “We Love Sonic” Edition

23rd October 201124th October 2011

Ian

20 Comments

As Generations creeps ever closer, here’s what we’ve been reporting on at TSS in the last week.

Sonic Generations (PS3/360)

Top story is, of course, the release of the second Generations demo on Xbox 360 and PSN in Europe.
Following on from the announcement of the PC version, Steam has listed the game for preorders, while the retail version is on sale for as little as £15.
Meanwhile, over in Spain, Sega have revealed details of a Megadrive box-themed Generations t-shirt package.
In the US, Six Flags visitors will be able to play Generations early.
Finally, on the previews front, Sega of France have shown off Rooftop Run and the hub worlds, and Sega of Japan published a load of screens from the opening cutscene.

Sonic Generations (3DS)

Sega in Europe and the US have confirmed the 3DS version’s release date as November the 25th and 22nd, respectively.
Previews-wise, NintendoWorldReport has shown a whole nine minutes(!) of footage, and Official Nintendo Mag have previewed the game.

Now let’s mop up the rest…

Sonic CD must have felt a bit forgotten, because Sega have released another trailer for the redeveloped port. They’re still pushing that Sonic 4 link though…
Masato Nakamura’s Sonic 1&2 Soundtrack has seen a Japan release, featuring his never before heard demo tracks.
Sonic deservedly received the Outstanding Contribution award at GamesMaster’s Golden Joysticks Awards in London.
France will be joining the fun, showing an exclusive documentary on Sonic over the last 20 years.

So what’s been getting you guys excited over the last seven days? Let us know in the comments and we’ll be back for more next Sunday.

xxOLDOfficial News

Sum-Up Sunday: “Let’s Announce Stuff” Edition

16th October 201117th October 2011

Ian

17 Comments

With Sonic Generations’ release creeping ever closer, this week’s been a busy one for Sega, and they certainly haven’t been sitting down either. Here’s what made the news here on TSS over the last seven days.

Sonic Generations

Sega finally caved in and told us what we’ve known for months: Generations will be seeing a PC release in addition to the 360, PS3 and 3DS offerings. It’ll also get a disc-based version after the initial release on Steam.
A new demo will hit XBLA and PSN this Wednesday, Sega France revealed at a recent game show.
Sega published the anticipated Boss trailer, featuring Shadow, Silver, Metal Sonic and Perfect Chaos.
Cnet and Gaming Clerks posted video previews, showing new footage of Seaside Hill, Sky Sanctuary and the Death Egg boss.
The 3DS version didn’t see much activity, but there is a set of new screens featuring Emerald Coast, Casino Night, Mushroom Hill and Radical Highway.

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games

Sega revealed a trailer for M&S 2012’s Party mode showing off the city-based free roaming party games.
Nintendo are throwing their usual support behind M&S, announcing a new blue Wii bundle for the game.

Merchandise and Shopping

Sega show no signs of stopping their 20th Anniversary milk-fest – they’ve announced yet another audio CD in Japan. This time it’s a “best-of” album spanning the whole of the game series.
First4Figures have released their new Classic Knuckles statue, which in F4F’s typical style looks like a mighty fine bit of material.
The XBLA and PSN versions of Sonic 4 Episode 1 have seen a permanent price drop to about £6.50. To be honest, it’s about time in my opinion.
With the huge demand for it, another couple of European retailers have joined the Sonic Generations Collector’s Edition party.

But the fun doesn’t end there…

Sega’s Hype-O-Matic seems to be working on reaching a level not seen since the 90s, with them announcing sponsorship of the televised “Sonic Generations of Skate” half-pipe event.
Meanwhile, out in the ‘hood, volunteers from Sega will be helping build a Sonic-themed playground in California.
Finally, The Sonic Show asks which 3D Sonic fangame engine, based on Blitz Sonic, is better?

Keep an eye on the skies. I’ll see you next week.