Welcome to the Archive site of The Sonic Stadium (2008-2023)
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Though Takashi Iizuka focused on who IS making Sonic Superstars in a recent interview with VGC, he also discussed two notable groups who aren’t involved: Christian Whitehead and Headcannon, the developers behind 2017’s Sonic Mania… though not for a lack of trying.
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After Wednesday’s world navigation trailer, today’s new gameplay footage from IGN First shows off Sonic Frontiers’ combat mechanics:
Much like the previous gameplay reveal, the video is entirely show-don’t-tell. Sonic performs homing attack combos on a robot made of several balls, uses his new updraft ability to remove the armor of another baddy before attacking, and shows off a ranged air-kick move that looks right out of anime. Even the sidestep, a move previous Sonic games used to setup quick lane changes in long corridors, has some combat dodging potential here.
The enemy designs have bizarre and varying designs, from bipedal robots that turn into spears, to weird legged stalks with a heavy armor ring around them, to the massive three-armed pillar teased last year. Different enemies are susceptible to specific attacks, and to ascend a titan, Sonic used an updraft around one of its legs to throw it off balance, and needed to wall-run using only blue boost gates and avoiding red ones. Upon reaching the top, Sonic attacks giant spikes on its head to destroy its arms.
While we still have very little context around the game’s upgrade system, rewards for combat, and even its basic premise, today shows off a few new moves added to Sonic’s modern moveset and more variety in combat than previous combat-heavy Sonic games had. Here’s hoping the rest of June brings further revelations on Frontiers mechanics and mysteries.
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This morning, IGN premiered their new Sonic Frontiers footage, noting that the month will see further updates, but for now, we’ve got 6 minutes of edited gameplay footage:
The video shows off Sonic running through the rocky grasslands area we’ve seen, but there’s much more interaction with the environment. In fact, unlike yesterday’s 30 second clip, this one has no combat whatsoever, just world traversal.
Sonic doesn’t have many new moves, but the one that is shown off is the ability to draw circles by running, causing an updraft. Meanwhile, Sonic maintains his standard 3D moveset of running, boosting, grinding, air dashing, air dropping, sidestepping, and wall running for good measure. While Sonic seems to only be able to run (and climb, apparently) on vertical surfaces with a specific glowing texture, he can take rock slopes and ridges with ease by maintaining speed.
If you were worried (as I was) that moving to an open world might mean less actual level design, the video is full of small instances of speed and platforming challenges, be it scaling a tall tower dotted with springs and homing points, or just finding paths made of boost rings and grind rails. There’s even a few simple puzzles thrown into the mix.
Rest assured, we’ll be picking this apart over the next few days, but for now, go enjoy some tranquil vistas at intense speed.
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Wait, what? SEGA dropped the first gameplay video for Sonic Frontiers today, seemingly out of nowhere. The 30-second teaser finally gives us our first glimpse of what an “Open Zone” Sonic looks like and notes more details are coming throughout June on IGN.
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Today, in an announcement that the event will be partnering with IMAX, Summer Game Fest released a brief compilation trailer featuring a number of upcoming and released games. Among them was Sonic Frontiers, but before anybody gets too excited, no, it isn’t new footage:
At this time, we don’t exactly know if this is being shown as a confirmation of some games that will be there or to highlight games previously part of the Game Awards/Summer Game Fest ecosystem, so for the time being, we’re reporting this as rumor until we hear explicitly that it will be present. Other games shown in it include the already-released Elden Ring and Tiny Tina’s Wonderland, as well as the yet-unreleased One Piece Odyssey.
The event is scheduled for Thursday, June 9 at 11 AM PT, 2 PM ET, and 6PM GMT, and will be available streaming and in IMAX theaters in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada.
This is the second time Frontiers has been given a significant spotlight within the broad Keighley-sphere. Late in 2021, The Game Awards premiered a teaser trailer that partially revealed the open world nature of the game alongside a trailer for Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2. SEGA’s remained tight-lipped on the game (despite a handful of leaks), and we’ve yet to see any actual gameplay footage of the Holiday 2022 title. Sonic’s presence at Summer Game Fest should hopefully clear up a few more lingering questions about the title.
Thanks to Dodger24848 for the news tip!
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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.
Well well, looks like we’re ever closer to the official reveal of the new Sonic game Sega teased earlier this year if this trademark is anything to go by.
Indeed, Sega has trademarked Sonic Frontiers both in English and Japanese back on October 22nd (you’re getting slow, fandom!), and this has happened a few times before. In the past, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors and Sonic Lost World for example had their trademarks registered and “leaked” not long before each were announced back in the day.
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There is perhaps nobody more eager or proud to be wishing Sonic the Hedgehog a happy 30th birthday than Takashi Iizuka. Having been deeply involved with the franchise since Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the Sonic Team leader’s hands have touched every single era of the blue blur’s legacy. From designing stages for the Mega Drive classics, to directing fan favourites like Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, to producing the fine-tuned boost-era titles Sonic Colours and Sonic Generations – he’s seen it all.
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Takashi Iizuka has revealed that his goal with the 2022 Sonic game is to create a landmark title in the franchise that will lay the foundation for future titles – much like Sonic Adventure did 20 years before it.
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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.
Ever since it got revealed at the end of the Sonic Central broadcast, the mysterious 3D Sonic title has made a lot of people curious. And now a rumor involving a user’s account of the game is also getting people excited.
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As we suspected, SEGA took the time at the very end of the Sonic Central livestream to tease the very next mainline title in the Sonic the Hedgehog series.
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Finally. We’ve all waited nearly six months for a morsel of information on what SEGA may be planning to celebrate Sonic the Hedgehog’s 30th Anniversary. For a character best known for his lightning-fast speed, updates have been almost-controversially slow. But yesterday, SEGA revealed a special livestream taking place on May 27th focusing on Sonic announcements and news. So, what could they have lined up?
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A number of detective Sonic fans have discovered an old job advert for an video game company, whose name isn’t disclosed. However the description of the advert has some very strong hints that the company is Sega and that the job advert is for work on a new Sonic game. Continue reading Japanese Job Advert Hints at New PS4/Xbox One Sonic Game?
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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.
It’s hard not to pay attention to SEGA’s official Sonic the Hedgehog social media channels when it looks like the poor bloke running it is having a meltdown every day. In today’s episode of Meme Watch, we see the Sonic Tumblr account drop some crazy clues regarding a game that SEGA may (or may not) be making. Continue reading Meme Watch: Sega is Making a Game, Probably About Sonic
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Well… many suspected that there might be more to Mr Iizuka’s trip to the US than just the SXSW panel, and it seems you were right. The head of Sonic Team Takashi Iizuka is in Sega of America right now, and according to Gamasutra, he’s there overseeing development on new Sonic games. Continue reading Takashi Iizuka Is In The U.S. To Oversee New Sonic Games
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In an interview with SEGA Europe’s marketing director Jon Rooke, we may have a hint as to what the future of Sonic may hold – and that’s going back to what put the lovable blue scamp on the map in the first place. Continue reading SEGA Hints At “Heyday” Inspired Sonic Future
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What’s this? What’s this? It seems like SEGA Europe has let slip a detail about the next Sonic the Hedgehog game in a leaked release listing. Among a number of planned SEGA releases – many as-yet unannounced – there is mention of a game called ‘Sonic Hero’ for Gamecube in ‘November’.
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Yuji Naka announced at a Sonic X press conference today that two new, unannounced Sonic games will be showcased at the upcoming E3 games expo in May. With this news, and the anime about to hit Japanese TVs, Naka-san exclaimed that he sees the Sonic franchise’s main rival as not Super Mario, but Pokémon.
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It begins. After a spell of developing games exclusively for Nintendo’s Gamecube, Yuji Naka has reportedly confirmed that Sonic Team is working on a new project for rival Sony console, the PlayStation 2. What could it be?
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Here we go again – another rumour about Sonic Adventure 3. We’ve had a couple of these now, but this time we’ve caught wind of a listing for the game at the upcoming Tokyo Game Show 2002. Interestingly, the game is listed for ‘multiple platforms’ as well. So not Gamecube exclusive, if this rumour is to be believed…
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Sonic Team leader and co-creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, Yuji Naka, has revealed that the Sonic Adventure series is currently on hold as the studio looks to “do something different” for the next mainline game in the Sonic franchise. Continue reading Yuji Naka: We’re Stopping The ‘Sonic Adventure’ Series
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New Sonic game alert! According to a fresh rumour in this month’s gaming magazines, Sonic Team in Japan is hard at work on the next mainline Sonic the Hedgehog project – and it spells the end of treasure hunting and shooting in favour of the traditional platforming action that Sonic is best known for. Continue reading Rumour: Next Sonic Game In Development, Will Be A ‘Return to Roots’
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