I don’t smoke. Actually I hate smoking and I can’t wait until the day comes that no one ever smokes again. However I do really like cool lighter designs. There are a lot of eye-catching little gimmicks and I can’t help but play with them when I go on a vacation and see them in a store. Today SEGA made my day when I saw this get posted up. Right now, they’re offering what appears to be two collectible zippo lighters designed after the SEGA Genesis and the SEGA Saturn. Sadly, they’re quite expensive but what do you want for a collectible that will warm you with fire and a nostalgic heart? Get’em while they’re hot!

Source: http://www.net-you.net/sega/

Take this with a grain of salt, but an interesting little document popped up on Sega’s PR site that mentions quite a few details that the two companies are in discussion about. These include:

-PS2 emulator on PS3, the document citing games such as GTA Vice City and an unknown Sonic title.
-Consideration of import titles on PSN, menus translated. Yakuza was brought up as an example of a game.
-Sonic All Star Racing is open to DLC characters to differentiate the PS3 SKU. Not Ratchet and Clank, but others are likely.
-Sonic Anniversary is a proposed project that would put a ton of Sonic games on one blu-ray. SCEA would love exclusive power-ups and different game modes.
-Dreamcast digital title support. While not exclusive to the PSN, the proposal is Sony can pick which titles it wants more, with long exclusivity meaning more marketing support for Sega.

For the full breakdown of the document, hit up the jump.
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The always-fabulous chiptune blog little-scale. has finally solved what has been a confusing issue for some: sound quality between different models of the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. Comparing nine different iterations of the console, author Sebastian Tomczak has given his own commentary on each system and included WAV and MP3 files for you to judge yourself.

The “winners,” by the way, seem to be the original Sega Mega Drive headphone port and Sega Nomad headphone port.

SEGA has come out of left field with an announcement that has rocked the boat among fans of Sonic everywhere–the announcement that a brand new, 2D Sonic game is slated for release at some point in the year 2010 for what is assumedly one of the “modern” gaming platforms of our generation.

Code-named “Project Needlemouse”–a reference to the original name for the Sonic character, Mr. Needlemouse–SEGA aims to please “old-school Sonic fans” who “have long asked to see Sonic return to a more 2D style of gameplay” according to an interview between GameSpot and Sega associate brand manager, Ken Balough. According to Balough, the game is also slated to contain HD graphics, likely in a similar reign to Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix or even our own Sonic the Hedgehog 2 HD project.

The full interview between GameSpot and Balough is available here, while the original GameSpot article–complete with teaser trailer–is available here.

As of yet, very little information has been revealed regarding this release, but we fully expect that SEGA has a lot to live up to, given the expectations of most scrutinous critics of the Sonic franchise as of late. The trailer slates the release of the game for the year 2010, flaunting speed as one of the core points of appeal for the upcoming title.

Will SEGA be able to live up to the hype? Given recent trends, that doesn’t seem likely; it’s always nice to keep an open mind, though!

Discuss this on the forums!

Sonic, along with several other video games series, gets the “Making of Myth” treatment in this month’s issue of French magazine Amusement. Photo illustrations done by the very talented Marc Da Cunha Lopes.

Comic Book and Economics mash-up blog Ecocomics recently decided to turn their attention towards Sonic the Hedgehog, only to deduce that our favorite blue hero is in fact a socialist. By analyzing the plot of the games and characters’ motives, they come to an obvious conclusion:

Sonic the Hedgehog is a socialist hero. Indeed, this might come as a tremendous shock to you. It might be difficult to reconcile what you thought Sonic represented with what he actually stands for. Yet, regardless of your political beliefs, your economic preferences, or your views on class warfare, there is another lesson, perhaps even more important, that we can glean from our years of following Sonic’s adventures. He taught us to stand up for what we believe in, regardless of societal pressures.

And to avoid spikes.

The jury is still out on Sonic’s presumed cannibalism after Sonic Unleashed’s chili-dog eating.