WHERE DID THE LAST THREE WEEKS GO?!

Okay, I didn’t do a Something For The Weekend post for them. I kind of felt guilty about just constantly doing music-related posts when this was meant to be a catch-all for ‘fun, weekendy things’ so I held off for a little bit.

However – and it’s a good however – I have actually somehow acquired a half-decent gaming rig and as I showed myself last night, it is completely capable of streaming Sonic Generations while running at 60FPS. So, I had an idea.

Tonight at 8pm BST (12pm PT/3pm ET), I’ll be speeding through some Unleashed Project while slightly under the influence. SUI? Is that a punishable offense? Hopefully not.

You’ll be able to find the stream on my personal channel here, and there may even be a guest appearance.

The post Something For The Weekend: Drunken Friday Night Streaming Edition appeared first on Sonic Retro.

Chances are, if you played Sonic 2 at any point in the last 20 or so years, you already have a good idea of what you’re getting into: 11 zones, seven Chaos Emeralds, two playable characters, and one spike pit of death. But like Sonic 1‘s GigaDrive release, Sonic 2 comes with its own set of enhancements, such as filters to make the game look like it’s running on an old CRT TV, audio modifications to make it sound like it’s on the MegaDrive 1 or MegaDrive 2, and of course the fan-favorite addition of save states.

Because, you know, Metropolis, Wing Fortress and Death Egg usually sends people to the Internet to angrily complain about how cheap the game is.

But maybe this isn’t the case this time. M2 realizes some people have trauma over Death Egg Zone or may find classic Sonic games hard, and have made a new gameplay mode for the game called Ring Keep. Players begin a level with 10 rings free of charge. If you take a hit, you only lose half of your rings instead of all of them.

3D Sonic The Hedgehog 2 also features local co-op play in Sonic 2‘s multiplayer mode. The mode models the original multiplayer, so only three zones and the special stages are available. Two 3DS’ and two copies of the game are required to play, naturally.

It’s a shame SEGA is leaving Sonic 1 and 2 (2013) to rot on mobile, as both are very much the definitive versions of the games, but are more than happy to release a rom in an emulator shell. It’s an old song and dance often griped about, but SEGA of Japan is known for being ignorant of common sense. If president of SEGA Games Co. Haruki Satomi’s words of SEGA wanting to earn back the trust of gamers is true and not just crocodile tears, this may be one place to start.

The game hits the Japanese eShop Jul. 22.

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“On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer.” – Satoru Iwata, GDC 2005

Yes, we know, this has almost nothing to do with Sonic. But Satoru Iwata was one of the most influential people in the game industry, and I don’t think there’s any executive that you could find more lovable than him. And because of how much we admire him and the games that he made possible, it would feel wrong not to honour him somehow. So instead of your irregular Monday Links, we bring you these stories about him. Directly to you.

Iwata Links

• A ton of heartfelt tributes that were made to Iwata [NeoGAF]
• This series of incredibly interesting and entertaining interviews with the people who work at Nintendo is just one of many reasons why we loved him so much. [Iwata Asks]
• This special Game Center CX episode in which Arino chats with Iwata and plays Balloon Fight with him is a must watch [Game Center CX]
• A lengthy discussion between Itoi, Iwata and Miyamoto about the cancellation of Earthbound 64 [Yomuka!]
• Hirokazu Tanaka, the original composer for Balloon Fight, made a remix of the game’s theme as a tribute [Tanaka’s Soundcloud]
• All of the skits the Jim Henson Company made for Nintendo’s Digital Event from last E3 [Eurogamer]
• Instead of firing his staff when things got rough for the company last year, Iwata cut his own pay in half [Polygon]
• The last time Iwata did programming work was on Super Smash Bros. Melee, which he worked for three weeks on to make sure that it’d be released on time [Nintendo Life]
• That time when Iwata and Reggie fought for real but then suddenly stopped and decided to fight in Smash Bros. instead [Eurogamer]
• And last but not least, Iwata’s memorable “Heart of the Gamer” keynote from GDC 2005 [CARSLOCK]

The post Iwata Links: Smiles and Tears Edition appeared first on Sonic Retro.

Today, we lost a great man; and the industry will forever be brighter for his presence.

Satoru Iwata. September 6, 1956 – July 11, 2015.

Thank you for everything.

The post Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo, Passes Away Aged 55 appeared first on Sonic Retro.

He’s back! After leaving SEGA of America in 2014, Aaron Webber has returned as the PR & Social Media Manager for the Sonic the Hedgehog brand. Since returning, Aaron has been making waves on the Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts, catching both fan and media attention with his sly wit and deep knowledge of the franchise.

Aaron was kind enough to sit down with us over at the virtual SEGAbits recording studio for his first interview since returning to SEGA to talk about his new role, SEGA’s move to LA, his approach to interacting with fans, Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice, his favorite Sonic games, and answers to some burning canon questions!

[Download] [RSS] [iTunes] [Archive]

The post SEGAbits Swingin’ Report Show: Interview with Aaron Webber, Sonic the Hedgehog PR & Social Media Manager appeared first on Sonic Retro.

We only just got an official worldwide release to Sonic Runners, and SEGA and Hardlight Studios aren’t wasting any time on the next free-to-play entry.

Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom was spotted yesterday on the Google Play Store. As the name suggests, Sonic Dash 2 uses the Sonic Boom variants of all the characters and Sticks. The game also offers new tilt mechanics for the energy rope segments, and includes a three-character team gameplay mode that requires you to switch between characters to adapt to the track based on the situation presented.

Currently, it looks like not many (if any) devices are able to download the game, but if for some reason you’re one of the 100 million downloaders of Sonic Dash, and if you’re itching for even more endless runners/Sonic Runners has disappointed you, SEGA has you covered.

Of course, it should go without saying that an iOS version will be released, but hasn’t been spotted on the App Store at the moment.

[You must pay $2,99 or view this ad to view the rest of the post]

[Source: GameMob]

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Originally, I was just going to throw up a clip of The Critics’ Jay Sherman just saying his trademark line of “It stinks!” but that would be simply broadside-ing with an elephant gun what at its core is a good game wrapped up in layers of garbage, like one of those Babushka figurines.

So, let’s talk Sonic Runners. Even though Sonic Dash is still very much a thing and is celebrating 100 million downloads by shoe-horning in a brand it has no business even associating with in Angry Birds, Sonic Team decided it wanted to take a stab at this crazy bizarre world known as mobile freemium development.

Enter Runners. Simple enough premise: Sonic and friends run to the right and collect gems and rings through an obstacle gauntlet of spikes, enemies, dash rings, pits, loops–you name it. At the end of each segment, Sonic encounters Eggman hauling a stash of goodies and is tasked with smacking that old greedy capitalist of all his money for your own purposes. Then the level speeds up and repeats with a more difficult layout. Rinse and repeat two more times to max speed until you eventually die.

Throughout this, you’re treated to very simple stories of Team Sonic helping out Animal friends, lost Chao, and even scared groups of Wisps in their battle to stop Dr. Eggman from whatever anti-environmental/furry critter plot he’s hatching for that chapter. It may sound like I’m complaining or ready to just eviscerate the game, but this isn’t the case.

I really like all of this. The game here is elegant in its simplicity and it’s pretty amusing, especially in little short bursts during the work commute, while waiting for someone, or if you just have nothing better to do and want to kill a little time. The gameplay is sound and the story goes back to simple roots seen in the Genesis titles (Eggman’s doing something bad with the environment, go kick his ass.)

Really, at its core, Sonic Runners is actually an example on how to properly adapt a classic franchise into the mobile space. It certainly worked out for Rayman: Jungle Run, except Ubisoft decided to charge $2.99 for that game. I even like the simple design of the characters and art style. This is basically what SEGA and Sonic Team should have been aiming for when making Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1. This is basically *it.*

But in true Sonic Team fashion, you know that the team in charge of the team that made this game has to find a way to absolutely spoil the soup; And they do so in spectacular fashion.

It’s clear that Sonic Runners is a game made to be a mobile “freemium” title developed and operated by a publisher that have never made such a game before. The game is loaded to the brim with almost every pay gimmick imaginable: pay for red rings, limited lives, THREE separate roulette wheels for unlockables using an in-game currency that doesn’t come in ample supply but you can totally spend real money to earn gobs of. As I write this, the game has a Classic Sonic playable character players are able to unlock, but only on the six percent chance that the roulette wheel (worth 50 red rings or 10 boss kills to spin once) lands on it.

The game is also poorly optimized, something which players who have been catching on through the .apk leaks have said is newer. I played the game on both my Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 2013 with all non-essential background processes turned off and there were many times the framerate would chug which resulted in the game not reading an input tap and sending me to my death. The game would then say, “Hey, you got no more retries. Either buy more or go away.”

Considering the game only grants you three rechargeable lives and each life takes 30 minutes to recharge, this makes participating in events or even progression through the game a bit of a chore, especially in later stages where you need lots of points to progress the mini-stories. Each level attempt is worth one “retry”, so you only get three shots at a level unless you purchase more (fortunately, with rings.)

The game, like any other free-to-play title, is also chock full of advertisements. These video ads can be viewed for a free life, which isn’t unreasonable all things considered. It only gets jarring when they pop up in between levels, or when you quit the game and they throw up an ad. Some of these run for 10 seconds, others can be skipped after five seconds. I ran into some that run for a full 30-45 and did not offer the opportunity to skip or close the ad. These are rare, but the fact they’re allowed through is awful. Having them go up between levels is also a strange choice. It’s like playing Sonic Adventure and having an ad show up for Hydro Thunder after clearing Emerald Coast.

But the biggest complaint I have on the game is easily required online. Why developers force this as an attempt to prevent cheating is beyond me, as it just extremely limits when the game can be played. I’m not blessed with a great data plan, and playing during the commute is basically impossible without risking overage charges or losing signal if I’m taking the subway. Others will come sympathize with this too, and there may be people with slow or wonky internet connections for whatever reason. While this solution may work for the tightly packed metropolitan areas in Japan, it’s pointless through out the rest of the world.

It also does not help that the game dangles Amy Rose as a playable character over your head like holding a strip of bacon over a dog, but only if you spam your Facebook friends with invites to play the game and then 10 of those sign up. Why even resort to this kind of tactic unless you’re that deathly afraid your game will fail, especially when it’s associated to one of the few platformer brands to survive the ’90s and still have some sort of recognition?

New players, now that the launch is officially global, are also forced to compete against players that have been playing the game for months and have much better gear. This isn’t a huge complaint, but it’s more that there have already been several events to unlock other playable characters or earn more in-game items. It’s likely they will return later in the year, but new players are left out in the cold. These characters come with their own bonuses that make them more ideal to play if you want to get higher scores (required to increase your ranking for better prizes.)

The game would be INSTANTLY improved just by removing forced online and removing the life limit. As it stands now, Runners is a good core game buried under so much garbage that it chokes the experience.  You’re almost better off spending the $2.99 for Rayman Jungle Run and its sequel since it does what Runners here tries to do without any of the stupid overhead. You can even play it without being connected to the Internet! What a concept!

I don’t know why I’m so disappointed with the game. It could just be frustration of the usual Sonic Team mantra of “one step forward, three steps back” that makes being a fan of the series really frustrating, especially considering this is the “big” Sonic game of the year. If you can get through the layers of garbage Sonic Team piled on the game, you may find yourself hanging around, but it becomes an exercise of patience as, unlike Sonic Dash, spending real money does not make the advertisements go away.

So, until SEGA and Sonic Team can get their head straight, limit down the amount of “freemium” gimmicks, optimize the game so it doesn’t chug, and focus on the strong gameplay they have, I can’t give it anymore than a resounding Jay Sherman…

The post Sonic Runners: The Retro Review appeared first on Sonic Retro.

I was honestly tempted to run this as ‘Something For The Weekend’. Oh crap, I guess this is a comment technically. Oh well.

Original article.

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Here it is again, folks – after skipping out last week (how irresponsible of me!), I return again with a project that I think deserves a bit of time in the spotlight of our front page.

This short film was animated by Sonicpox along with several other names within the community, all of which can be seen in the credits at the end of the piece. It’s particularly well-done for something made in SFM and the first part of it really gives a more ‘real’ sense of how Sonic must have felt floating in space after the destruction of the Death Egg at the end of Sonic 2. It is of course a fully-realised, animated version of the pre-credits ending sequence from that game and while similar things have been done before, this is done extremely well and really holds up.

Hell, even the official Sonic YouTube account decided to comment on it! (I wonder who could have been responsible for that…)

I know it’s not a remix album or something along those lines, but I felt that in keeping with the promotion of creative talent in these collumns, this was deserving of a mention. As usual, enjoy your weekend whatever you’re doing and I don’t know, maybe come hang out in IRC or something.

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