Monthly Archives

April 2017

Comics, Humor

How Fleetway Played The Games, Part 10: Of Prosecutors and Goodbyes

Can you really believe it’s been six whole years since I started this Fleetway thing back in part 1? How time flies when you’re having fun… or are too lazy to keep writing really long pieces without year-long gaps!
Anyway… last time a lot of things happened. Amongst other things there was a new foe, a tragedy, a crisis of confidence, some time travel shenanigans, and on the tail end of that we’d just discovered a Drakon Prosecutor back in the distant past of the Floating Island. You can read all of that in part 9 though: let’s dive in and get back to where we were, shall we? Hit the jump for the second half of StC’s adaptation of Sonic Adventure – and remember, LARGE spoilers for the end of Sonic the Comic lie beyond, as this part covers the very end of the comic’s run of original material.
Continue Reading

Game News

First Full Look At Classic Sonic in Sonic Forces


After getting a sneak peek during a Nintendo Direct earlier this month, we now have our first full look at some Classic Sonic gameplay in Sonic Forces. And yes, it’s Green Hill Zone again. Though now it’s no longer much of a tropical island and more a grassy field in a desert. Also it has all new music rather than another Green Hill remix, so that’s something.
Forces will also feature Modern Sonic, who’ll play similarly to how he played in Sonic Generations. Plus there will be a third gameplay style featuring the new character that was teased earlier this month.

Fan Works, Music

“Zoned,” A Sonic the Hedgehog Tribute Album

A little late, but better than never!

Back at the end of 2016, Opus Science Collective released their album “Zoned,” which debuted on RadioSEGA. Taken from the Bandcamp page for the album:

Zoned – a nostalgic trip (at the speed of sound) down Sonic The Hedgehog’s memory lane. Zoned aims to pay homage to the creativity and impact of Sonic The Hedgehog’s legacy by reimagining a selection of OSC’s favourite compositions from the golden age of 90s Sonic The Hedgehog games. The musical style is OSC’s signature blend of Electro-Funk and Retrowave with sprinklings of Chiptune. Included on this album are tracks from both 8 and 16 bit versions of Sonic The Hedgehog 1 and 2, Sonic The Hedgehog 3 and Sonic Chaos. Also interweaved into this album are soundbites from the games themselves, excerpts from 90s SEGA TV commercials, and dialogue from various video game documentaries that discuss both the significance of SEGA and Sonic The Hedgehog in the history and develop of video games and video game music.

If you’d like to grab a download of the album and throw some support their way, check out the bandcamp page @ https://opussciencecollective.bandcamp.com/album/zoned

Community, Game News

Sonic Time Twisted Released After 12 Years of Development


It’s rare that a Sonic fan game gets fully released. Many are often cancelled or often stay in development hell after releasing one or two demos. But for once one of those games managed to get out of said development hell and be released as a full fledged game.
Sonic Time Twisted, created by Overbound Game Studio, has finally been released after being twelve years in development. The fan game features 28 acts across 8 zones, time travel, new special stages, and a soundtrack that’s headed up by Hinchy.
The full game can be downloaded on Overbound’s site, and the soundtrack can be found here. You can also find the game’s previous demo releases on our wiki.

Game News, Site News

Big’s Big Fishing Adventure 3 – Dr. Eggman Trailer


We can finally show the first trailer of Big’s Big Fishing Adventure 3, featuring the voice of Mike Pollock! This trailer, inspired by Sonic Adventure‘s Japanese commercials, teases Dr. Eggman’s role in the game. It also shows the Big-Hazard Battle mini-game in action for the first time. This is the first in a series of trailers that will showcase the game’s various characters.
Big’s Big Fishing Adventure 3 is a fan-made visual novel starring Big the Cat featuring various mini-games. It will show what the purple feline was up to during the events of Sonic Adventure 2, revealing why he was hanging around in the game’s stages. It is also partially being developed by Sonic Retro staff.
For more news and updates on the game you can follow the game on Twitter.

Community, Interview

Retro Spotlight – Freedom Planet 2

Going on three years now, Freedom Planet launched on Steam after a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2012. For the uninitiated, Freedom Planet drew heavy inspiration from Sonic the Hedgehog, while also adding a huge emphasis on combat and exploration. Fast forward to now, and we’re highly anticipating the release of the sequel, Freedom Planet 2. Sporting a fresh look, new engine, and so much more, GalaxyTrail is looking to up their game significantly. We sat down with Strife, a very active member of the Retro forums, to discuss the sequel, transitioning tools, and much more.
Community, Site News

Spark the Electric Jester Releases on Steam


With the pagies in cagies and Umbra Witches returning from slumber, today’s releases on Steam includes a platformer from the development team behind Sonic fan games such as Sonic After the Sequel.
After a successful kickstarter campaign and given the green light on Steam, Spark the Electric Jester comes out on Steam reliving the glory days of 16-bit platformers fusing together gameplay elements of Sonic the Hedgehog and the Kirby series. Spark comes with dozens of Steam features including trading cards, achievements and Steam cloud support.

Spark the electric jester is an action/platformer video game heavily based on best classics from the 16-bit era from both sides of the aisle.
You play as Spark, an electric jester frustrated by the loss of his job! On one beautiful day, robots decided to take over the world. Seeing as Spark’s job was taken by a robot, he decided this was the perfect opportunity for his revenge! Spark will have to travel through the world and be engulfed in high-speed thrills and tons of action against the robots and the one who has taken his job.

Check out the Steam sale page for the game here. Heck, buy copies for your friends and support your community! I’d say Spark deserves as much spotlight as games like Sonic Mania, Freedom Planet and Major Magnet.
 
[Source: Steam]

Fan Works, Hacking

SEGA Channel Retro: Retro Community Day Featuring Sonic Bash!


Retro Community Day is upon us as we play by our own rules. By that I mean Red Hot Sonic’s rules. We’re playing Sonic Bash with the community. Join your ol’ pal Bart, NeoHazard and special guest Red Hot Sonic, Overlord and others as we see who fights Robotnik best.
SEGA Channel Retro is the SEGA themed variety channel covering anything and everything related to Sonic the Hedgehog, SEGA and the community that supports it. We stream SEGA games, games on SEGA consoles, hacks, mods and more!
You can now watch our live streams on YouTube or Twitch! Also please consider donating to SEGA Channel Retro!

Game News

Sonic Runners Adventure Leaked


It’s been a while since we’ve had a honest to goodness leak of a Sonic game. But we have a new one thanks to Gameloft’s customer care site. The site has a support page dedicated to Sonic Runners Adventure, a yet to be announced follow-up to the 2015 game Sonic Runners.
In case you missed out on it: Sonic Runners was a free endless runner for mobile devices developed by Sonic Team that had its servers shut down last year. Like our review of the game describes it, it was a solid game buried under a large amount of technical issues and scummy gambling mechanics. Going by the support page for Adventure though, it may be what the original game should have been. Continue Reading

Community, Fan Works, Hacking, Site News

Retro Community Day: Sonic Bash Edition


This Sunday at 8PM GMT (3PM Central), we’ll be playing games together with house rules. I’m hosting another Retro Community Day on SEGA Channel Retro. The channel reached over 1,000 subscribers on YouTube and over 400 subscribers on Twitch! To celebrate this, we’re going to be showcasing Sonic Bash, a hack where two players compete to defeat bosses by landing the most hits. Joining me (Bartman) on the horn is Neo Hazard as well as Red Hot Sonic the author of the hack.
You will need to download the hack along with Kega Fusion to get yourself ready for Sunday. Luckily you can find this from the hack’s old entry page from the 2016 Sonic Hacking Contest. This also features instructions on how to set up Kega Fusion for netplay which will be useful on Sunday. This is going to work differently since there’s no dedicated online infrastructure or friend list to work with, so we’re going to make use of the Sonic Retro Discord channel to help us out. Fill out this form here with your Discord handle and join the Sonic Retro Discord here so that we can keep track of you. Do this before 7:30 PM GMT Sunday to ensure your chance to play with us. (You can use that time to meet with us!)
We’ll have more information on how you’ll be able to play with us this Sunday at 8PM GMT. (3PM Central) But here’s a checklist to make sure you can join the celebration.

  • Download Kega Fusion and Sonic Bash V2
  • Fill out the entry form with your Discord handle
  • Join the Sonic Retro Discord
  • Join us at Sunday 8PM GMT on SEGA Channel Retro on YouTube and Twitch. Subscribing is encouraged!

Note about the Sonic Retro Discord: A bot is in place that allows us to see who joins in. You will need to wait for approval before you can post messages in the Discord channel. Keep in mind that it’s a matter of when mods are around to approve you. All participants will be approved before the community day starts!