Monthly Archives

May 2011

Community, Site News

Get Your Sonic Boom Pregame On with Sonic Retro

If you’re headed out to Los Angeles for Sonic Boom next week, you’ve got your event tickets, your flight lined up, your travel copy of Sonic Colo(u)rs stowed away in your bag, but one question remains: how are you going to put up with being in one area with a ton of rabid Sonic fans?

The answer, of course, is cool people and booze.

Sonic Retro will be hosting a pre-Sonic Boom party at Blipsy Barcade, located in LA’s Korea Town about 10 minutes north of Club Nokia, where Sonic Boom is. The venue is 21+ only (sorry, underage folks) and features a variety of classic arcade cabinets mixed with a full bar—essentially, the perfect place for a Retro party. We’ll be meeting up at 4 p.m. to discuss the pressing subjects on the minds of Sonic fans: Generations, bad cosplayers, 100P lyrics (“you’re damn right, Knuckles!”), and the under-appreciation of 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. You know, the important things in life. Afterwards, we’ll head down to Club Nokia to attend Boom. Besides, as a Retro UK Barcade veteran, we Americans need to show the Brits how it’s done.

Blispy is located at:

369 N Western Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90004

Hope to see you there!

Game News

First Look and Details for Sonic Generations 3DS

Don your scuba masks, because here comes one hell of a flood.

Earlier, we reported that Nintendo Power confirmed Sonic Generations on 3DS. Now, thanks to forum member Effexor, we have delicious gigantic scans of the article and images of the 3DS version for your consumption.

But for those of you who don’t want to sift through all the text to find whatever tasty morsels of information are in there, just hit the jump for the key details. You can also find the scans down below.

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Game News

Nintendo Power Confirms Sonic Generations, Shinobi for 3DS

Finally, we can put this rumor to rest.

After much teasing from Nintendo Power of an announcement in their July issue and the usual slip of the hand by Sega through a financial report, the tale of two Sonics is headed toward Nintendo’s depth-delivering handheld.

No screens have been shown on the game, so it’s unknown if this will mirror its console counterpart or follow its own beat akin to Sonic Colors on the DS.

While this confirms a 3DS release for the game, there’s no mention of the PC version also listed on that financial report, but at the moment, it’s safe to say that it’s looking good.

The issue also confirms that another classic Sega franchise is getting a new lease on life in the form of Shinobi. The franchise had a revival attempt back in 2002 on the Xbox and PlayStation 2 and was met with fair reception.

Check out an intenral production trailer for Shinobi with no audio after the jump.

[Via CVG]

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Humor

Fuck Yeah Sonic the Comic: Fucking Great

If I had to make a short list of things from the Internet I love, it would probably look something like this:

So you can only imagine how ridiculously excited I was to find out Gagaman has recently taken his talents to Tumblr, celebrating Fleetway’s Sonic the Comic with Fuck Yeah Sonic the Comic. The blog plans to scrounge up the best bits of the series, with random panels from the comics, adverts, graphic zone art and other oddities contained within. So far, things look to be off to a great start—fans of Fleetway and random Sonic artifacts should keep an eye on this.

For the record, I also think the Game Gear case, shown right, is pretty awesome. Too bad it isn’t the waffle maker I assumed it was at first glance.

 

Comics

The Countdown to “Genesis” Is Almost Complete

Even though the focus of this site has been, first and foremost, the Sonic game franchise, it wouldn’t be fair to completely gloss over the other aspects of the world of Sonic the Hedgehog, especially one corner that has been continuously printed since 1993. Of course, I’m talking about the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series from Archie, which has been in production since 1993 and whose 225th issue is just around the corner. Coming out May 25th, the anniversary issue signals the end of the “Countdown to Genesis” arc, with Dr. Eggman finally making his big move after going crazy back in issue 200 and subsequently regaining his sanity only to go into hiding. With last issue showing the launch of the newly-rebuilt Death Egg, much speculation has gone on about how this will lead into the nostalgia-fueled “Genesis” arc. Though some spoilers have leaked in their respective corners of the Internet, issues #226-230 are more then certainly going to shake things up in the comic, if the hype can be believed.

Pop culture news site IGN has an exclusive five-page preview of the issue, so if you want to avoid any and all spoilers, it might be best to not click here and read them. Otherwise, go ahead and have a blast.

If you just can’t wait until the 25th for your monthly dose of Sonic the Hedgehog, tomorrow does mark the release of Sonic Universe #28, the final issue in the “Silver Saga” arc. Sure, maybe Silver the Hedgehog is not the most compelling character ever created, and the tale might be using elements from one of Ken Penders‘ unfulfilled plot devices, but…well, it’s not all that bad.

Both Sonic the Hedgehog #225 and Sonic Universe #28 are written by Ian Flynn and drawn by Tracy Yardley.

Game News

Sega Report Hints Sonic Generations for 3DS, PC

[Update: It’s been brought to my attention that PC may not mean Personal Computer, but may stand for Nintendo’s new system codename “Project Cafe.” Stay tuned…]

Sonic’s 20th anniversary flagship title may soon be coming to a 3DS and PC near you.

An earnings report from Sega of Japan certainly claims as much and supports the rumors of a Generations 3DS release as seen on a GameStop pre-order list leaked to the Internet.

Of course, there’s a small chance this could be a simple typo (they happen), but very unlikely.

Much like Sonic Colo(u)rs, the console version was paired with a portable release, though it handled differently from its console counterpart in that instead of focusing on Unleashed-style 2D/3D gameplay, it stuck to the more tried and true Sonic Rush formula on the Nintendo DS. It remains to be seen if a 3DS release would also follow this path.

A PC version would no doubt be extremely appreciated by the modding community, which is making strides in other Sonic games like the old Sonic and Knuckles Collection or the more recent Sonic Adventure DX. But as in the past, the PC version could also fall quietly into the night, as much was the case for the PC port of Sonic The Hedgehog 2006.

A shame, that one. It would have been nice to see fans attempt to clean up that mess.

[Via Andriasang]

Game News, Music

Sonic 2006 TGS 2005 Theme Discovered

As a research site on the good (and bad) of the Sonic series, we couldn’t possibly let this one slip past us.

Russian Sonic site Sonic Scene posted what appears to be the music used in the very first trailer of the later ill-regarded Sonic The Hedgehog (2006). What’s special about all of this is the track was never used in game or, more over, released in any sort of auditory form aside from a trailer with off-mic noise.

But thanks to the efforts of Russian Sonic fan Mefiresu, he found a song that is strikingly similar to the audio used in the video. You can grab the near-five minute clip and listen for yourself right here.