Monthly Archives

February 2013

Game News

Sonic Dash for iOS Spotted on SEGA Hardlight Job Listing

Sonic-Dash-Hardlight-job-postingSonic Stadium noticed on a job listing on LinkedIn for SEGA Hardlight that they are developing a new iOS game titled Sonic Dash. Hardlight has previously worked on Sonic Jump for iOS/Android and the PC version of Viking: Battle for Asgard. The job listing also says that they are working on both new IP and existing SEGA IP (such as Sonic). SEGA has already altered the job listing to remove any mention of Sonic Dash, but Sonic Stadium had screen capped before they removed it.

Going by the name, I think it’s safe to assume that this game will be in the style of endless runners like Canabalt and Temple Run (Which totally copied Sonic and the Secret Rings), or something level-based like Rayman: Jungle Run. Anyway, it seems like the drought of upcoming Sonic games that we know of is finally over!

[Source: Sonic Stadium]

Community, Hacking, Sega Retro

Aliens: Colonial Marines Polished Up By Fans

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When it comes to games involving Sega in some capacity, it almost seems like the game itself isn’t the only thing players are paying for, but a whole new meta-game called, “Let’s improve the game through hacking through the game’s data.”

This new style of gameplay, which from here on we’ll call Tactical Debugging Action/Adventure™, has already drawn some talented programmers to sift through the game’s code on the PC version in an effort to enhance the game graphically and could potentially lead to repairing other issues such as enemy A.I. and other parameters.

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Community, Fan Works, Game News, Music, Sega Retro, Site News

Tuesday Links – “Those Darn Aliens!” Edition

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Okay, even I wasn’t sure of what would happen on the release of Aliens: Colonial Marines when I wrote my initial preview of the game. If you’re a PC user, you could look over some fixes and patches a dedicated community is looking into. A real unfortunate turn out for a game that’s been in development for over six years. Either way, it’s a Monday Tuesday which we put off for a week, but word is still mum in the world of video games, which will change shortly. Until then, here are a few things that are worth your attention.

Retro News

  • User reassembler has ported Yu Suzuki’s classic arcade title Outrun to C++ under the name… [Cannonball]
  • User Hezman introduces a new camera system in Sonic Classic 2. [Youtube]
  • Nicalis has picked up The 90’s Arcade Racer to publish on Wii U. [Computer & Video Games]
  • GeneHF mixes a Transformed/Sonic R mash-up of Back in Time. [Jammin’]
  • David also continues to take you Back in Time…or forward in time to Mobius 25 Years Later with part 16! [Ken Penders]

Colonial Marines & SEGA News

  • A user on Reddit claims to be a tester for the game and gives a lowdown on some of the shadier things to happen during the game’s development. Though at this time, take it with a grain of salt. [VG247]
  • Colonial Marines pays homage to a popular Sega franchise [Youtube]
  • We did tell you the PC version of Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed  is out now, right? [Steam]
  • Well there are a few things broke with it, and Steve Lycett needs your help testing the new fixes. [Steam]
  • Also the Outrun Bay track with Metal Sonic will be available for PC users tomorrow for purchase […oh yeah, Steam]
  • We also told you that the 3DS version of Transformed is out too? [SEGA Blog]
  • SEGA of Japan produces a line of laptops featuring designs based on their console hardware [Joystiq]

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Comics

Mobius: 25 Years Later: The Review, Part 16 – Whatever Happened To Ken Penders?

SonicLiveCoverWhen Ken first wrote the ending to Princess Sally’s Crusade, it’s doubtful that he thought beyond that simple page of a happy ending. A moment where Sonic and Sally were able to find peace, years after their battle with the evil Dr. Robotnik had come to a close. Back when the Saturday morning cartoon still reigned supreme, before Sonic Adventure and the Japanese continuity became commonplace, even before most Americans realized there was another comic book being published in the U.K. that tried to be closer to the games, albeit the Kintobor storyline that no longer is considered canon by anyone who works in the halls of SEGA. It was a just a moment where Ken thought he’d be clever, coming up with an interesting spin on the origins of NICOLE, something the TV show never got the chance to cover.

By the time Sonic the Hedgehog #131 hit newsstands, no longer was the comic book storyline the simple tales of good versus evil. The main story had taken on numerous twists and turns, incorporating elements from other shows, other games, a hodgepodge of Sonic the Hedgehog that didn’t always gel correctly. If Ken were to make a comprehensive future of every single character, of every single possibility, he may have gone mad. Indeed, sometimes it felt like his own mental state was in danger, with all the rumblings of internal strife happening in the halls of Archie Comics. Sometimes, it was a miracle the book was published at all, regardless of the quality.

As stated before, when Ken’s final installment of Mobius: 25 Years Later saw print in Sonic #144, that was never the intended ending. Ken had not gone through all that effort to leave the future as a perpetual cliffhanger. There were plans for more, though they never saw fruition. The happy endings for Sonic, Sally, Knuckles, Lara-Su and the rest instead remained only in Ken’s mind, until Ian ushered his own interpretation of the future.

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Comics

Mobius: 25 Years Later: The Review, Part 15 – The All-New Adventures of Lara-Su and Old Rotor

sonic167-coverWhen Ian Flynn took over Sonic the Hedgehog as main writer back in 2006, his first task was to wrap up everything the comic had been doing for years. Strung out plotlines with little resolution had become the norm, and had definitely run its course. Sonic #160 through Sonic #174‘s primary purpose was to bring everything back together and reign it in so #175 could be an easy jumping off point, not just for the reader but for Ian to write his own stories involving the sprawling cast of the comic. Part of that spring cleaning was the initial resolution to Mobius: 25 Years Later, even if it had been two years since the storyline had been an ongoing feature in the book.

Though it is possible that revisiting the future would have been on Ian’s mind eventually, the two-part conclusion was not something he decided to write, but was instead editorially dictated by Mike Pellerito. Wanting to also wrap things up to make things easier for oncoming readers, he instructed Ian to find a way to end Ken’s futuristic epic in 22 pages, spread out across two issues. Not content with just having Ian come up with his own ideas, he demanded the young professional incorporate an element in the narrative that could be seen as coming from out of left field: the arrival of King Shadow.

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Game News, Sega Retro

Some of SEGA’s PSP Games Get Permanent Price Cuts on PSN (US Only)

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SEGA has sliced the prices of some of their old PSP games on PSN permanently. Here’s a list of the games with their original and slashed prices:

Alien Syndrome: $9.99………$4.99
Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars$9.99………$4.99
Crush: $9.99………$6.99
Sonic Rivals$9.99………$6.99
Sonic Rivals 2$9.99………$6.99
Super Monkey Ball Adventure: $9.99………$4.99
Valkyria Chronicles II$19.99………$9.99

These price cuts do not apply to Europe (at least not yet). Because these games are being sold on PSN they can also be played on the Playstation Vita.

[Source: SEGA Blog]

Fan Works, Music

Sunday Jams: Green Hill, Live and In Person

Hey look, it’s Sunday. What do you do on a Sunday? You listen to the twelve billionth remix of the Green Hill Zone. But that’s OK, because this one sounds super nice.

Performed by the YouTube band Tetrimino, their story is a familiar one: four people who have never met each other use the power of the Internet to play music together. Video game music, at that. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The individual members have been bouncing about on the video site for a while, but only recently have decided to team up, this rendition of the Green Hill Zone being only their second track together. Their previous video was a Chrono Trigger medley, which you can listen to here.

So yeah, give it a listen. You can never get enough live music, and those solos? Just proves you can still listen to this song after Generations and not get sick of it.

Well, unless you are.

Comics

Mobius: 25 Years Later: The Review, Part 14 – All Hail King Shadow

sonic166-coverSometimes, long-running serials can become stale. If you’ve been hired to write for a comic book month after month for years, you can reach a point where you just can’t be as good as you used to be. Ideas get regurgitated. Fast paced action is slowed down. All the creativity of those first few years can dwindle, even if the property is yours. There’s a reason creatives are always looking for new valleys to explore – focusing on just one idea, one story, can drive someone mad. It can compromise the overall arc. It can feel like the story should have ended years beforehand, instead of half-heatedly lurching forward into the abyss.

American comic book companies are aware of this to a degree, oftentimes changing the creatives on a book in order not just to improve sales, but to prevent the material from becoming flat. The hope being that if new minds are always bringing in fresh ideas, the 70+ years of Batman adventures won’t continue to repeat themselves. Very rarely in the modern industry do you get someone on a title for more than a handful of years. Extremely rare is the tenure that Ken Penders enjoyed, writing on Sonic the Hedgehog and its related series for nearly 13.

When Ken was unceremoniously dropped from the title back in 2006, he was replaced by newcomer Ian Flynn, his first story seeing print in Sonic the Hedgehog #160. Though relatively unknown, there was a faction who was excited to see what he would bring to the table, him having been a fan himself, writing his own fanfiction about Sonic in the years previous. Even if sales of the title had gotten better when Ken took over from Karl Bollers as head writer, there was a certain stagnant feeling to the stories being provided. If you’d had gone on record saying that, in your mind, the battle between Sonic and Eggman was over and you were solely invested in the future tales of Mobius, what else would one expect?

With Ian at the helm, it didn’t take long for the new writer to revisit one of the longest running, incomplete tales that had taken hold of the comic since its early days. Dictated by management to wrap it up once and for all, Ian set off to finally finish Mobius: 25 Years Later.

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