I used to be big on Retronauts, one of my favorite podcasts that I listened to at every release up until it’s host Jeremy Parish lost interest and eventually wound up as Editor in Chief of 1UP.com. Then writer Bob Mackey would pick the ball back up and relaunch the show as a live podcast to keep the show going despite the hardships that had hit 1UP in recent times. Admittably I don’t listen to it as often, change does become difficult to swallow sometimes, but every now and then comes an episode that strikes all the right chords of what I used to love on Retronauts: Silly non sequiturs overshadowed by rare facts and industry insight, along with uncovering childhood memories of yore, no matter how time-tested or scathing as they may have been.
This particular episode rings true for sure as Retronauts Live, in it’s new iteration, has a bigger emphasis on the hosts talking directly to the developers and figure heads of the industry, with the most recent episode featuring Victor Ireland, co-founder of Working Designs, a company driven to bringing niche Japanese titles to western markets adapted for their tastes and boasting a high quality standard for the games as proudly as possible. While the episode does cover topics regarding the Playstation, there’s still plenty of talk of Vic’s company dealing with Sega, including stories on Vay for Sega CD, the dire development on the last Sega Saturn game in the US, Magic Knight Rayearth, and extensive coverage on the Lunar series. Not to mention Working Design’s position during the brief decision from Sega of America to transform Popful Mail for Sega CD into Sister Sonic. Yes! The Hedgehog! Imagine playing a Falcom game designed around an as-then unnamed female relative, (Not Sonia the Hedgehog,) of Sonic the Hedgehog.
Check out the podcast here complete with shownotes. If you aren’t up for people talking about old video games, now’s a good time as any to shoehorn the opening theme to the Sega CD version of Lunar – The Silver Star (In English!) as they sure don’t make any upbeat video game music like this anymore. Or click here if you prefer it in Japanese…
The American government recently made an attempt to enact rules to regulate protection of intellectual properties and to take down piracy. Thanks to the millions of people who shared their anger for overbearing protection and angry high school kids cheating on their homework, both the SOPA and PIPA bills have been suspended for reconsideration. What great timing for this, and the re-release of Sonic CD for PC platforms via Steam, as it lets us recall an incident as early as 1993 during the US Senate hearings for violent video games.
If you recall the lengthy retrospective on the Sega Mega CD, as well as another one of its landmark titles, Night Trap, the developers put out a short documentary named “Dangerous Games” regarding their perspective during and after the hearings from producers, actors as well as avid ‘gamers.’
So, the wait is finally over. Well, the wait for the wait. Exclusively on Gamespot, Sega PR man Ken Balough has decided to sit down and finally talk about the game we all knew was coming at some point: Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2. Yes, there is a teaser trailer. No, there’s no gameplay footage. But you should watch it anyway, if only to see Ken Balough’s face.
It’s the middle of December, and the rerelease of Sonic the Hedgehog CD is supposed to happen at any moment. No, we don’t have a release date still. But Sega of America seems to realize that, yes, we really want this game. And so instead of telling us when it’ll come out, they’ve given us something amazing. Something that, by all rights, should have been in the documentary Sonic: The Birth of an Icon. Though the interior has been redone by our very own Taxman, the visual style of the game is still definitely that of Kazuyuki Hoshino, who was also the lead character designer of the game. And since he’s still at Sega, someone decided to ask him to talk about the game. And talk he did.
When news originally broke about the forthcoming release of the Sonic Generations Collector’s Edition, I must admit I was a bit jealous. Seeing as I lived in America, it would require money I couldn’t justify, importing a game that I had no idea would even work on my region’s hardware. So I sat and waited, to see just what the contents were. Yes, we all knew what they were supposed to be, but no one knew what songs were to be on the music CD, what the art book contained, or how nice the statues would stand. For me personally, however, it was the documentary that intrigued me the most. A history of Sonic the Hedgehog put together by Sega themselves? They hadn’t done anything like that in years, and definitely never in English. As should be evident by the title, I’m not going to review the entire collector’s edition for one simple reason: I don’t have it. There are plenty of other people who have shown it off and gushed over the limited-edition ring (which I must admit is pretty nice), but because of the wonders of the Internet, anyone can watch the Sega of America-produced documentary. Now with six extra minutes straight from the horses mouth. So the question must be asked…is it any good?
A few days after Gamesutra talked to Takashi Iizuka, GamereactorTV has posted their own interview with the current head of Sonic Team. While most of the interview is the usual PR speak and things we already know, the answer to the last question is the most interesting:
So the final question, how do you see the next twenty years for Sonic?
Sonic started as an action game twenty years ago and we will continue to focus on creating the best possible action game. But we want to reach the widest possible audience. So, you know, we will probably see Sonic going into other genres of games and also seeing Sonic in different media. So we will hopefully be able to have as many people as possible enjoy Sonic.
We have already seen Sonic race in karts, take place in the olympics and play tennis among other things. Next thing you know he’ll have his own Dance Dance Revolution game. Either way, it looks like there won’t be a shortage of spin-offs in the future of the Sonic franchise, both in games and other media. You can watch the full interview here:
Heads up for all you guys: SAGE–the amateur fangame expo that takes place in the Sonic community once a year–is going to have a live interview with Naoto Ohshima, the original creator of the Sonic the Hedgehog character, at 8:45PM EST over the SAGECast radio station! If you’re interested in asking him a question, feel free to join their IRC channel at irc.rizon.net in channel #sagexpo.
If you don’t have an IRC client, simply go the SAGExpo website and click the Chat tab to enter the channel. Alternatively, you can use Mibbit and enter the IRC details to get in. Remember that there will be a translator present on the radio station, so unlike in instances where Ohshima is speaking English himself, responses will be far more clear, concise and in-depth. Think carefully before you ask; not everybody will get a chance to have their questions answered, so time is of the essence.
For more information and discussion, check out the forum thread.
Late last month, a game-testing friend of mine hopped on Twitter and talked about what he was going to be testing on PartnerNET that day. Sonic CD was one of the games and he was disappointed with what was a 4:3, 30 FPS demo with performance issues. Well, that Tweet made its way around and some confusion ensued, especially since the news of Christian Whitehead’s involvement in the port was made known a few days prior. (Fact checking, how does it work?)
While the PAX demo of Sonic CD cleared up some of that confusion, Sonic CD Brand Manager Ken Balough gave me a ring this afternoon, wanting to make everything clear. “The version of Sonic CD developed by Christian Whitehead has never been on PartnetNET. The PAX version that is widescreen and runs at 60 FPS is the version,” said Balough.
SEGA has been susceptible to PartnerNET leaks in the past, but the version of Sonic CD on the service was never meant to be for private testing, let alone known to the public. Balough noted, “The PartnerNET build wasn’t created by Sonic Team. It was something that we were playing around with to see if a port would work. It was never intended to be played by anybody outside of the company. When we were thinking seriously about this project, we started looking at talented developers. That’s where Christian, his Retro-Engine and Sonic Team come in.”
“It’s a non-story at the end of the day.” Words we’ve heard many times. Many, many times.