Last week there were a couple of comments on a Sonic Stadium article that claimed the Sonic Facebook page accidentally revealed that Sonic Lost World will be unveiled on May 29th and that the game would feature six guardians of the Lost World who may or may not be evil. There was no proof that this Facebook post was actually made so we automatically assumed it was fake…
Turns out that rumors that can’t be backed up can actually be true sometimes. SEGA made a Facebook post confirming that the rumor along with this teaser image showing the silhouettes of the six cartoony alien guardians who may be evil. Of course, because Takashi Iizuka is working on this game and he worked on Sonic games that featured evil aliens, these aliens can definitely be nothing else but very evil.
Do you live in Tokyo and want to see Sonic’s ass in front of you while you run on a treadmill? Well soon you can in a new arcade game called Sonic Athletics. In this game you will need to run as fast as possible on a treadmill to get the highest score. While you do this you will also see a Sonic character run on a screen in front of you. The faster you run, the faster Sonic or a different character runs as well. This game can be played with up to eight players, each as a different character. The playable characters are Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Metal Sonic, Silver and Blaze.
This glorified treadmill will be open for all starting from April 25th at SEGA’s Joypolis in Tokyo and will cost 500 yen per game. It also seems like this will be the only place where it can be played, everywhere else people will probably have to stick to boring ordinary treadmills.
[Source: The Sonic Stadium]
Android Police reports that Taxman and Stealth’s remastering of Sonic the Hedgehog will be released on Android and presumably iOS as well later this month for $2.99. Those who have already bought Sonic 1 on iOS will get this release as a free update. The site also released some gameplay footage of the Android version, which confirms that this is indeed Sonic 1 in widescreen running nice and smooth.
Also it has shows that Sonic can indeed use the spindash in this new version. The music isn’t present in this video, presumably because they aren’t done making the tracks sound nicer yet. The menu isn’t present either, as they probably aren’t allowed to share the neat new features. Also no zone title cards for some reason.
Sumo Digital has shown more support for the PC version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed today by releasing a 370 MB update on Steam. This update addresses some big issues certain players had with the game. It includes an alternative INTZ Render for old cards that don’t support INTZ, bug and exploit fixes and VAC support. There’s a downside to this update as well though: because of the exploit fixes the leaderboards have now been wiped to get rid of suspicious times. You can read the full details about this update here.
An update for the console versions was also released last week, which fixed a bunch of stuff like a tuned down difficulty of Traffic Attack, Ring Race and certain Race events, exploit and bug fixes etc. A change log for that can be read here.
Turns out Pocket Gamer France was right about Sonic Dash releasing on Thursday. Hardlight said on Twitter (before removing the tweets) that the game will be released at midnight for $1.99/£1.49. Unless you live in New Zealand, then the game is already out for you.
Touch Gameplay has recorded some gameplay footage, which can be viewed above. It shows that you’ll be able to unlock Tails, Knuckles and Amy as playable characters and that it is indeed a Temple Run-style game. Though instead of having to tilt the device to move, you swipe with your finger left and right to let Sonic do a quick step. Graphically it looks pretty good, it seems to be using the Sonic Generations models for Sonic and some of the enemies. Also, microtransactions, because that’s a thing you can earn money with on iOS.
[Source: SEGADriven]
SEGA has officially announced Sonic Dash for iOS. According to their press release the game will be a 3D endless runner, probably in the style of Temple Run and the like. The stage nobody at SEGA can seemingly get enough of, Seaside Hill, will be present in this game. When Pocket Gamer France reported on the game last Thursday they said that the scenery will change as you get further, so it could be that more than one zone will be represented. There will also be leaderboards that show your friends’ best times.
Pocket Gamer France also reported that the game will be released this Thursday, March 7th. It’s not unusual for an iOS game to be released shortly after its announcement. For example, Hardlight’s previous game Sonic Jump was released two weeks after it’s announcement. Sonic Dash will be released on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.
[Source: SEGA Blog and Pocket Gamer France]
Sonic Stadium noticed on a job listing on LinkedIn for SEGA Hardlight that they are developing a new iOS game titled Sonic Dash. Hardlight has previously worked on Sonic Jump for iOS/Android and the PC version of Viking: Battle for Asgard. The job listing also says that they are working on both new IP and existing SEGA IP (such as Sonic). SEGA has already altered the job listing to remove any mention of Sonic Dash, but Sonic Stadium had screen capped before they removed it.
Going by the name, I think it’s safe to assume that this game will be in the style of endless runners like Canabalt and Temple Run (Which totally copied Sonic and the Secret Rings), or something level-based like Rayman: Jungle Run. Anyway, it seems like the drought of upcoming Sonic games that we know of is finally over!
[Source: Sonic Stadium]
SEGA has sliced the prices of some of their old PSP games on PSN permanently. Here’s a list of the games with their original and slashed prices:
Alien Syndrome:
$9.99………$4.99
Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars:$9.99………$4.99
Crush:$9.99………$6.99
Sonic Rivals:$9.99………$6.99
Sonic Rivals 2:$9.99………$6.99
Super Monkey Ball Adventure:$9.99………$4.99
Valkyria Chronicles II:$19.99………$9.99
These price cuts do not apply to Europe (at least not yet). Because these games are being sold on PSN they can also be played on the Playstation Vita.
[Source: SEGA Blog]