Well actually, it was my kind of Sunday because the Saturday was taken up with a family wedding. As a result, I missed out on Dr. Ashen, CoLD SToRAGE and the busier of the two days. What I didn’t miss was the Super Sonic Sunday programme of events, which sought to celebrate our blue hero as his 20th anniversary year draws to a close. You can see some of these events in the video below:

Of course, that’s only part of the story. Do you want to see pics and things? Of course you do. Click the post break already.

Early mornings are not normally my style, but I needed to go shopping before the Con. You see, I had recently read an article that said “You are not a true professional or a true Scotsman if you take photographs without a tripod. BUY NOW! GET NOW!” and decided that, for completely unrelated reasons, I should obtain a tripod for this event. So I went to Westfield Stratford City, a veritable cathedral of capitalism that attracts a hell of a lot of wallet-worship every day, to buy that damned tripod. This is relevant because I then had way too much stuff with me and had to put down at least 15 bags every time I actually wanted to take a picture, annoying the hell out of all around me. Erm, sorry about that. On the plus side, no shakycam!

Anyhow, I got to the venue a little after 12 and was greeted by the ever-enthusiastic Zonic, who you may have seen in that there video earlier. Getting in was a very non-stressful experience compared to some events I’ve been to in the past, so with badge and conbook (and bags, and bags, and bags, and bags) in hand, I was quickly on my way. There were also t-shirts and con badges available on the front desk, which was nice to see. The first things I saw upon entering the room were the Sonic Wrecks stand, running the Sonic Blindfolded competition, and Hand-Baked Arcade‘s section. They had a number of different retro machines up and running, including sweet things like the Saturn (with Bomberman and 10 pads!) and Mega Drive, as well as an Atari 2600 with Synthcart. These guys do retro gaming set-ups for events and seemed to have a bunch of neat things to choose from, so it’s worth looking at them if you’re ever in that market. After that quick look I sat down to unbox my tripod as the first live act headed to the stage, the enjoyable Nottingham-based “Gaijin rock” outfit Area 11.

Being a massive students’ union bar actually makes the Rocket Complex really good for this type of event. The downstairs main stage wasn’t the biggest in the world but was adequate for this event (even if the poor old keyboard player here had to stay off the stage), hosting Brentalfloss, Sonic Wrecks’ Sonic pub quiz and Zonic’s live performance. The bar was also rather conveniently located in this area, and had plenty of comfortable seating available. The gaming rooms were separate, with the retro area in the back room holding various systems including the Dreamcast, Playstation 2, N64, Playstation, Mega Drive and Amstrad GX4000. Yes, really! It was a good place to catch some Pang and indulge in co-op Streets of Rage. Meanwhile, the modern area had Wii, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 consoles all over the place with games on display including Mario Kart Wii, Super Street Fighter IV, BlazBlue, some Naruto game I couldn’t name if I tried and, of course, Sonic Generations. I did have to resist my temptation to sit down and set some sweet times there, I must admit. Better still was the upstairs area. A massive open hall, the room hosted a variety of dealers selling everything from the usual retro games and accessories to gaming t-shirts, manga and Japanese snacks. A row of tables was reserved for trading card games, which excited me until I discovered that my princess was in another castle (Yu-Gi-Oh players were there, and that ain’t my game). You could also find dozens of consoles running all sorts of fighting games (and Super Smash Bros. games), including some very shiny new things such as King of Fighters XIII and Soul Calibur V. There was also another main stage, this one big enough for two projection screens as well as the performance space, which played host to Whose Game Is It Anyway? and the Sonic vs. Mario Showdown hosted by Dreadknux of The Sonic Stadium, which you can see in the video above.

Of course, the material things at any con pale in comparison to the atmosphere and the stories you take away from it, and London Gaming Con didn’t disappoint. The atmosphere was lively even considering that the Saturday was apparently more heavily attended. Cosplayers milled about the place, including a a fully-outfitted Mario and Luigi pair and GirlGamerNerd in full Sonic gear (see left). The audience was very willing to participate in the various events too, with duelling “Sonic” and “Mario” chants during the showdown, and a very vocal crowd during Brentalfloss’ set – resulting in a mad-lib that contained the words “rectangular” and “spiffy” in addition to the usual memes and profanity.

People were pretty open, too. I came in knowing very few of the other attendees (hey, I was there for coverage) and annoyed tons of people by waving a tripod around, but I left having met some cool people, including some from the wider Sonic scene. I played a best of 3 match against a con-goer on Virtual On for the Saturn, and managed to wrestle the pad controls into some form of workable to win it. I ran deep into Streets of Rage co-op with someone I’d never met before, in a dominant display that only stopped when he had to leave. I even met someone who was marvelling over the “shiny” things at Retro Game Base‘s table, before moving over to buy a boxed pair of Master System 3D Glasses from another, for a wallet-smashing £90.

Perhaps the best stories were obtained from the impossibly awesome Sonic Blindfolded. I met Shadow Dinosaur and Nemain (pictured right) at this stand, and indeed it is Shadow Dinosaur who managed the crazy 0:35 run on the YouTube video. I saw Dreadknux roll up to take his turn on the game and make it through on a very dangerous third attempt at 0:57. I declined to have my own blindfolded run recorded, fearing for my credibility on this very website, then wished I hadn’t as I put in a respectable 0:38. What is crazy is that neither myself not Shadow Dinosaur were good enough to topple the leader’s insane 0:33.

When I said earlier that I liked people, I wasn’t kidding. I like them so much that I went from one job that involved planning and delivering events to another, but that has had some impact on me as a person. See, having spent the past couple of years doing this kind of work, I now often find myself comparing the events I go to against the ones I run. Some places have nicer rooms, others have worse catering, others still are a mismanaged shambles. London Gaming Con was good in that it left me with nothing to complain about on a personal or professional level, in many ways exceeding my expectations. London Gaming Con is a first-time event this year, but it was put together by experienced convention organisers at AnimeLeague and it showed.

I had a great time at London Gaming Con and hopefully, the event will return next year to build on the successes from this year. Hey, maybe some of you tea-filled, crazy Brits could join me out there too?

I mean, you might get to see this sort of thing happen. It doesn’t come around too often!

For those of you that slept in or really had no desire to put up with show tunes, marching bands and pop stars, you too can check out the small bit of time in which Sonic streaked by briskly through the crisp New York skies over 34th Street.

Nothing much to note other than the usual plug for Sonic Generations and some ham-fisted anchorman dialog. The music Sonic floated in with is the Splash Hill Zone remix featured in Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games. And no, the balloon did not come crashing down onto innocent bystanders again.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you Americans out there and a hello, we love you all to the rest of the world. Save us some stuffing!

UPDATE: For those who want Sonic for all time on your hard drive, Retro member Spazz, who put the clear version of the footage you see above on YouTube, has also encoded the Sonic moment for convenient download. Sure, the links are already in the comments, but hey. Why not?

1080: http://goo.gl/6bQFU
720: http://goo.gl/SUzmM

With Sonic CD getting a re-release done by The Taxman next month, SEGA has started a fan-art contest with 50 prizes being given away in North America, Mexico and the United Kingdom each, so that makes 150 winners in total. The five best winners in each territory will get a copy of Sonic CD on XBLA, PSN or Steam and a copy of the Japanese soundtrack signed by Takashi Iizuka, Jun Senoue, Naofumi Hataya and Kazuyuki Hoshino, something any fan would appreciate. All the other winners will get the same except the soundtrack isn’t signed.

There are a few things you need to know before entering the contest: your submission needs to be related to Sonic CD. If it isn’t, your entry will not count and you’ve done all that work for nothing. It needs to be original, created by you and it can’t have appeared anywhere else, so it can’t be something you’ve already put on websites like DeviantArt or on forums, and you can’t show it off before the contest ends. You also need to be 13 years or older to take part in the contest. The deadline is 10:00 AM PT/18:00 GMT November 29th, 2011.

To find out how you can enter the contest and for more information regarding the rules go to the SEGA Blog.

We’ve seen glimpses of the Genesis and Dreamcast Era stages, leaving just one era to explore before Sonic Generations sweeps its way to consoles globally in a few weeks. Tonight, IGN has fired the last shot courtesy of Sega with the debut of the Modern Era trailer.

Set to the new remixes of Sonic 2006‘s Crisis City music, we’re given first glimpses of Crisis City, Unleashed‘s Rooftop Run, and Colours‘ Planet Wisp in full motion. Crisis City doesn’t miss a beat in terms of looks from its original counterpart, although we can only hope it doesn’t bring any stigmas from its origin game. The fire tornado is in its full presence, though it’s hard to tell if the two Sonics will have to avoid flying debris the tornado throws out, including any sort of automobiles.

The other big draw is the reveal of Planet Wisp, now even more crisp and vivid than before on its Wii origin stage. While some fans may be sad to see the level isn’t all green and does include Eggman’s construction sites, the stage still keeps its elegant charm. Even the Rocket and Spikes Wisps make returns with their announcer cues. ROCKET!

Meanwhile, Spagonia hasn’t ever looked so festive with all the hot air balloons, even if one of Dr. Eggman’s flying attack blimps is ready to wreck havoc on the city. Not much else is new here visually, as it’s been the most displayed stage these past months for the modern era. However, there’s still no sign of a Werehog!

And if that didn’t top it all off, we get one last sneak peek at a certain final boss making his grand return, now with a very unusual change to a dragon-esque scale look.

The Sonic Genesis arc of Archie’s comic book series is nearing its close as Sonic and the Freedom Fighters are gunning toward a showdown with Dr. Eggman aboard his Death Egg. For fans of the comic book, this has no doubt been an exciting ride that Ian Flynn has been putting readers through. To make it even more special, those that are attending New York Comic Con can get a special convention exclusive cover for Sonic #229, as well as a Mega Man: Powered Up inspired cover for Mega Man #6.

The exclusive cover, seen below courtesy of IGN Comics, is a line art version of the normal cover featuring Super Sonic. For those interested in attending, New York Comic Con lasts from Oct. 13 to Oct. 17. Who knows, you might be able to make the cover more special by getting the signatures of cover artist Patrick “Spaz” Spaziante and Flynn himself!

Although it should be obvious, this video is chock-full of spoilers. So if you want to stay completely in the dark, you’ll want to avoid the video and everything else below.

For all of the juicy bits explained in text form, Cinossu has also gone ahead and detailed them below. So thank him for this post.

- The overworld is essentially just white with spots for each level, challenge, boss, etc. As you get into each level’s area a special map-version of its music plays.

- Around the levels are what looks like warp rings, for challenges as far as I can gather from the video, as well as the bosses for each. It seems once you get them you can play them at any time.

- Before all of this on the map is the ‘Collection Room’. You have access to sections labelled ‘Movies’, ‘Music’, ‘Art’ and ‘Characters’. A lot appears to be locked out in this, probably meaning it’s what all those points at the end of each level unlock. It plays a mix of Sonic 3‘s File Select / Sonic Jam‘s Museum music and Chaotix‘s Door into Summer here.

- Outside each level is one of Sonic’s ‘friends’ (I assume this only happens after you beat the level or find them)..
* Classic Tails is outside Green Hill
* Modern Amy is outside Chemical Plant
* Modern Knuckles is outside Sky Sanctuary
* Cream is outside Speed Highway
* Rouge is outside City Escape
* Espio is outside Seaside Hill

- Modern Chemical Plant seems to be getting destroyed by Modern Sonic, with it falling apart and catching on fire as the level progresses towards the end.

- Metal Sonic’s battle does happen in Chemical Plant, and has Stardust Speedway‘s Japanese Bad Future music mixed in the Classic Sonic style they have for everything else in Generations.

Oh man that Metal Sonic battle. Be honest, who didn’t want to actually fight Metal while they were racing him? And even he has personality! And who doesn’t love a bit of love for the game Chaotix? Door Into Summer forever, baby.

[Source: Giga.de]

Cinossu EDIT @ 19:33 GMT: Changed the video to a new working one (for now), and fixed a lovely typo in my quote.

Achievements. The little things that pop up with a nice little sound effect that let you know you may or may not have done something really cool in a game and are awarded with Gamerscore or a Trophy. They’re also notorious for leaking some of the story elements of a game just from descriptions alone, causing some headaches for developers when the lists leak out a wee bit early.

It goes without saying that the 360 and PS3 versions of Generations were going to be packing these in some form, giving teasing glimpses at what challenges Sega is chucking at its players. Thanks to Xbox360Achievements, we now have a small peek at some of these and a surprise in that most of the achievements are completely hidden from viewing.

Well, almost completely. Above are the icons for the 27 secret achievements the game is packing, giving little glimpses to certain currently unrevealed bosses and stages. It even packs a small teaser or two regarding the status of two fan-favorite super powered golden hedgehogs.

While those will remain mysterious for now, we do have a small list, found below, of some of the more basic achievements players will be able to challenge.

The Opening Act – 10
Race through the first stage.

All Stages Cleared! – 50
Clear Sonic Generations.

Greased Lightning – 10
Clear GREEN HILL Act 1 within one minute.

Bright Star – 15
Get Rank S in an Act.

Shooting Star – 20
Get Rank S in three Acts.

Blazing Meteor – 30
Get Rank S in seven Acts.

Blue Comet – 40
Get Rank S in twelve Acts.

Big Bang – 50
Get Rank S in all Acts.

Trickstar – 10
Pull off a seven or more trick combo or six trick combo ending in a finishing trick.

Eradicator – 15
Defeat 100 enemies.

Ring King – 15
Reach the goal without dropping any of the rings you collected in GREEN HILL Act 1.

Action Hero – 10
Perform all of Sonic’s moves in Act 2.

Bonds of Friendship – 10
Complete all Challenge Acts featuring Sonic’s friends.

Walkie Talkie – 10
Chat with each of Sonic’s friends you have saved.

Join the Ranks – 20
Join the rankings.

A 30-Second Test – 20
Participate in a 30 Second Trial.

Mad Skillz – 30
Get all Skills.

(Hedge)Hogging It All Up! – 50
Get all collectibles.

Time Attacker – 30
Play Ranking Attack on all stages.

Red Ring Collector – 30
Get all Red Star Rings.

Halfway Point – 30
Clear half the Challenge Acts.

Mission Accomplished! – 30
Clear all the Challenge Acts.

With a supposed embargo on Generations information lifting today, we have the first trickle of information in the form of a three and a half minute video from German site GamePro showcasing some of the currently known stages from the console version of the game.

Those worried about Sky Sanctuary lacking the signature elements of the original stage, like bubbly bouncing clouds and the ominous launch of Death Egg through the clouds can breathe a sigh of relief. Although still a different take from the original stage with a more heavenly tropical feel, the soul of the original Sky Sanctuary is still there as Sonic bounds on the clouds. Check out all those alternate paths in the Classic version of the stage!

The video also features looks at Green Hill, Chemical Plant and City Escape. Green Hill now features collectible red rings, Omochao hint bubbles, and additional prompts on screen when Modern Sonic is performing tricks. We also get a view of the Chemical Plant “hub world”, featuring Modern Amy.

First seen in Sonic & Knuckles back in 1994, the original version of Sky Sanctuary was the turning point of the entire Death Egg Saga. Knuckles had finally learned of Dr. Eggman’s intentions. The Death Egg had launched once more. Angel Island remained in peril, and the only force that could stop Eggman from succeeding were none other than Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles “Tails” Prower. So it only makes sense that, if any level were to be revisited in glorious 3D, it would be this saga-defining moment. And that sweeping soundtrack…that’s something not easily duplicated. You know something is going down. The remix just reinforces that fact, even if the trailer only lasts for a minute. How can anyone wait for that whole song to be played in full? Man, that soundtrack can not come out soon enough

With Eggrobos galore and even a hint of the Death Egg in the background, the Classic Era of the game is sure to be a crowd pleaser. Heck, the whole game looks to be shaping up that way, with so much effort in making sure this is the one entry in the series that can please old and new fans alike. Since Generations is only a couple months away, it won’t be long before every level is teased in some way, the Dreamcast and Modern eras of Sonic surely looking for their moment in the spotlight as well. Speaking of teases…yes, the ending of the trailer has Metal Sonic in full motion. The only downside is that we don’t get to see more…but I’m sure that will happen in due time.

Now all we have to hope is that somewhere in the level, Knuckles pops up but only if Sonic crouches between a certain pair of pillars.

[Source: IGN]

Someone flipped the switch a little too soon again.

Some users are reporting quite a few new shots of Sonic Generations appearing on Xbox Live that probably shouldn’t have gone live yet. Yet others are reporting seeing the usual shots of Green Hill Zone. Either way, you all win. Aside from the above of Modern Sonic death racing Shadow on an unknown stage–the ARK?–echoing Classic Sonic death racing Metal Sonic, we also get to see the Death Egg Robot fight Classic Sonic will take part in, showing a newer spin on the boss.

Planet Wisp is also shown, looking just a tad crisper than how it appeared in last year’s Wii title Sonic Colours and a shot of Modern Sonic and Classic Sonic interacting in the timeless “mirrored reflection” pantomime.