After about a year and a half of absence, the Retrocast returns with monthly installments! In this month’s episode, discussion over Sonic 4: Episode 2 and Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed takes place.
Although our classy friends over in Europe have been able to enjoy having a one-stop online shop to buy all sorts of goods with Sonic’s face plastered all over for some time now, those of us in the United States and Canada will soon have the same convenience.
Quietly buried in a tweet on the site’s official Twitter account, the site is now accepting those interested in the impending North American launch of the site to register for updates and exclusive benefits for when the site goes live. One such benefit includes a Reward Point system where every 100 points earned allows registered customers to save money on future purchases, a benefit enjoyed by European members currently.
To give a good idea of what you can expect the store to carry, the Great Britain counterpart allows fans to purchase Sonic-themed clothes, school supplies, iPhone cases, DVDs, and toys.
After much fan demand, Sega has begun releasing several of their Sonic series soundtracks on to Apple’s iTunes service. Most of these albums, though recently released, aren’t too easy to track down and import for those looking to legally own the music, never mind worrying about bootlegs.
The albums now available are the 20th Anniversary editions of Sonic CD, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes, as well as “The Best of Crush 40: Super Sonic Songs”, “The Works” (Jun Senoue‘s standalone album featuring several original songs and some Sonic music), and Sonic Colors ViViD SOUND × HYBRiD COLORS, the last one lovingly divided into three volumes for all three discs (Disc 2 and Disc 3 can be found at those links.) Sega further states that the soundtrack to Sonic The Hedgehog 4‘s episodes will also be touching down on iTunes in the future.
It should be noted that the 20th Anniversary album for the two Adventure titles aren’t as all encompassing as their original releases, which may turn some fans off. However, this is the best chance short of importing to show support for the musicians that worked hard to keep series’ reputation for good music alive and well.
[EDIT: And as quick as it came, the offer is already gone. Impressive!]
Looking to grab Sonic Generations’ True Blue album in a more tangible way than slapping a random download onto your media player? Lead Sonic music honcho and Crush 40 guitarist Jun Senoue is selling copies of the album at his official website for $55 with the added incentive that he’ll autograph the case for you.
On top of that, the first few orders also get a Sonic themed black guitar pick, something that might go well for those very few of you that dropped some serious ring for a replica of Senoue’s Sonic-themed ESP guitar.
Supplies may be limited, so for those wanting to get their hands on the CD, head on over to JunSenoue.com’s store and get it before it’s gone.
On the ninth day of Christmas, Retro gave to me…
…a look at Christmas swag you can’t buy anymore.
We’re hitting the home stretch here. Christmas is only in a few short days, so its quite possible that you’re reading this article on the go, looking for a gift for that special someone. Each store you enter is covered in Christmas, shelves strewn about with an ever-shrinking stock.
One thing that always confused me even as a child, however, was the amount of Christmas-themed gifts. If you’re a kid on Christmas day opening up presents, the last thing I’d think you’d want is something that has Santa Claus on it. Sure, you can use it the day you get it, but what are you going to do afterwards? Are you going to wear a Christmas sweater come July? I don’t think so.
But I guess it’d be forgivable if Sonic was involved.
SEGA of Japan’s official Sonic Generations website has updated with a mini site for the Sonic Generations Original Sound Track, which is set to release on January 11 of 2012. The Soundtrack, titled “Blue Blur”, spans three discs and has over 75 tracks. The track listing is as follows:
On the third day of Christmas, Retro gave to me…
…a huge poster scan of Sonic the Hedgehog.
Now, we’ve all seen the cover to the Sonic the Hedgehog promotional comic that came out back in 1991 in the United States. Drawn in that very familiar American artstyle…well, you can argue the pros and cons of how he ended up looking. Either way, you can’t dismiss the fact the image is iconic. But since the most common scan of that cover has a very large crease in the middle, and the fact that it’s a comic book cover so it automatically has all sorts of text and icons scattered about, there hasn’t been any super huge awesome clean scan of it.
Courtesy of Sonic Retro member jlmcr87, this has all changed. Possessing the poster version of the image (which means no text save the Sonic the Hedgehog and Sega logos), you can now download it at the extreme resolution of 4905 x 6956. That’s suitable for framing! If you have the means, you can make a print and hang it in your house, just in time for your most recent Christmas party. Imagine how your guests will swoon over your wall! It could very well be the best Christmas ever. Just go ahead and click on the image above to get the extreme version. Just be wary of the file size. Might not be such a good idea for you to try and view it on your iPhone.
Today Good Smile Company announced a Sonic Nendoroid figure. If you don’t know what Nendoroids are, they are figures usually based on anime or manga characters (Sonic being an exception) made in a style with a huge head and small body. They are about 10 cm or 4 inch in height and are adjustable, meaning you can put them in various poses or give them different facial expressions.
The Sonic figure is based on the modern iteration, meaning it basicly looks like classic Sonic with green eyes (heh) and a thinner body. It comes with the item box, chaos emerald and checkpoint items shown in the pictures and will be released in April 2012 for ¥3,500, which is about $45 according to Google.
[Via Andriasang]
