After coming off the catastrophe that was Sonic ’06, everyone was right to be suspect of Sonic Unleashed. To the world’s surprise, there was half a good game there! The daytime stages proved to strike a chord with even the harshest of critics, and thus the affectionately named “Boost Trilogy” was born. Years later, petitions are popping up to port Sonic Unleashed to PCs, as SEGA has continued to ramp up their efforts in getting more games for Steam users everywhere.
Meanwhile, Sonic Generations continues to receive new mods since its release on PCs everywhere nearly five years ago. The Unleashed Project is one such mod, aiming to replicate every single daytime stage from the original Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 title. The Unleashed Project began with a team headed by DarioFF and was originally released back in March of 2013. Fast forward three years later, and the project is now being maintained by forum user, S0LV0, with the intent of porting over every additional bonus and DLC stage with the exception of Eggmanland (more on that later.) With over 30 new levels on board, the Unleashed Project 2.0 is looking like a massive upgrade for fans to look forward.
Monthly Archives
March 2016
It would be an uneventful year without the time honored tradition of the hacking contest. Despite the delays and complications the Sonic Hacking Contest got 2016’s back for another round of ROM hacks and more! For the time being, there are no entries being accepted as the website will be up later.
You can get your submission ready by viewing the rules here on our forums courtesy of hacking contest judge Spanner. Deadline is Sunday 9th October 2016, so there’s plenty of time before the contest begins. Watch this space or check with the forums when the website goes live.
Remember that you can submit more than just ROM hacks as there are entries for mods as well. Will you make the ultimate mod to Sonic Lost World?
[Source: Sonic Hacking Contest 2016]
Edit: 3/23/2016 You can now watch the full panel courtesy of the SEGAbits channel.
The Sonic 25th Anniversary panel at SXSW will begin just a few hours from when this post is published. And thankfully SXSW will be hosting a live stream of the panel, which you can see above. The Sonic section of the stream will start at at 1:30pm PDT / 3:30pm CDT / 4:30pm EDT / 8:30pm GMT / 9:30pm CET.
The panel will feature Aaron Webber, Austin Keys, Mike Pollock, Roger Craig Smith, Takashi Iizuka and Yuji Naka, and will focus on the history of the franchise. The panel’s description also teases that they’ll “look to the future”, though Sega has already clarified that they don’t plan to announce any new games at the panel. Aside from that, Aaron Webber has teased that the meaning of the numbers on the Game Grumps photo from a couple of months ago will be revealed.
Whatever the panel is going to be about, with that selection of guests it’s sure to at least be something worth watching.
![dymaftu[1]](https://www.sonicretro.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/dymaftu1-300x120.png)
Back in January, the Really Amateur Game Expo made its triumphant return to the internet. Despite a few hiccups, the contest was a rousing success, with over 30 entries under the theme of Sonic Boom. Then that contest ended and we… never quite got a front page post up. But now I’m site staff, so here it is: every game submitted can be downloaded for your gaming pleasure on the RAGE 2016 site, with your runner ups and winner after the jump.
Iron Gut Publishing who specializes in creating limited edition art print collections have announced a run for the 25th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog that will also feature other SEGA properties that’s currently slated only in the UK. Below is their press release.
Iron Gut Publishing, the company that specialises in creating limited edition art collections for global brands have signed a UK license with SEGA® Europe Ltd.
The art collection will feature the iconic video game character Sonic the Hedgehog, as well as a host of other classic brands from the SEGA video game portfolio including Golden Axe™, Streets of Rage™ and Revenge of Shinobi™.
2016 is the 25th anniversary year of Sonic and we will be organising an art event to celebrate this which will showcase the collection to fans. The event will allow us to drive awareness and increase visibility of both the brand and collection available.– Anthony Marks, M.D Iron Gut Publishing.
Framed products will be available from bricks and mortar stores and unframed for mail order and online sales. The range will be available from Q2 2016.
[Source – GoNintendo]
It is an end of an era for Sonic the Hedgehog at the English theme park Alton Towers. The rollercoaster ride Sonic Spinball, which has been in operation under the Sonic branding since February 2010, has been re-themed as Spinball Whizzer. The ride originally opened in 2004 under the Spinball Whizzer name, but was given a Sonic re-theming with a lot of fanfare back in 2010. Not only was there a Sonic themed ride, but there was also a Sonic-themed hotel room as well as Sonic merchandise throughout the park. I’ve heard from fellow fans that the Sonic merch has been slowly drying up, signaling that the Sonic license may be coming to an end, and this recent news all but confirms it. It is unknown if the Sonic-themed hotel room has also been removed or will be removed. The room is best known to fans for being one of the earliest instances of Roger Craig Smith voicing Sonic the Hedgehog, as audio of Sonic would greet guests as they entered the room. Hilariously, due to an audio snafu the voice sounded much lower leading to the infamous “check out the consoles” line and many fans freaking out that the new Sonic sounds a lot older and slower. The audio was soon fixed, but it was funny while it lasted.
Roger spoke about recording for Alton Towers, as well as the audio mistake, in a Swingin’ Report Show podcast interview which can be heard right here. You should also check out the article Overlord did about his trip to the attractions back in 2010.
Note: “Closed” in the above graphic refers to how long the wait times are, not the permanent closure of rides. As the park was closed at the time of this screenshot, all rides are closed as well.
[Via Sonic Stadium]
I have been in contact with Kyle Hebert and it is confirmed, this is going to happen. A battle of wits between BIG the CATS. If you are a gamer who lives near Michigan, please share this…we would love to see all the Sonic fans there!
Posted by Jon St John on Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Next month at Midwest Media Expo, Jon St. John and Kyle Hebert, the former and current voices of Big the Cat respectively, will go take part in an event that’s been dubbed as “Battle of the Bigs.”
From St. John’s Facebook page:
“I have been in contact with Kyle Hebert and it is confirmed, this is going to happen. A battle of wits between BIG the CATS. If you are a gamer who lives near Michigan, please share this…we would love to see all the Sonic fans there!”
Who knows what will happen? One thing is for sure – Michigan will never be the same.
In case you missed it, Nintendo had another Direct today. Among the announcements for a new Kirby and Paper Mario, Mario and Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games was dated for March 18th, 2016 on the Nintendo 3DS, with the Wii U version hitting shelves on June 24th. Alongside the release dates, Nintendo showed off the opening for Mario and Sonic 2016, you can check that out above, as well as the box-art for the Wii U version, along with some new screenshots after the jump.
