Don’t worry, Yu Suzuki has not created Shenmue Diner Dash for cell phones. Instead, Ryo Hazuki’s Japanese voice actor Masaya Matsukaze has opened a cafe in Akihabara with a unique twist (don’t all Japanese cafés have a unique twist?). Matsukaze’s cafe, called “Seiyu Café”, is staffed by voice actors and has a voice acting theme. The interior of the space resembles a recording studio, and throat-friendly drinks are sold alongside alcohol and sweets.
Next to the games, perhaps my most favorite Sonic thing of the 1990’s was the cartoon series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (AoStH). While Saturday morning’s Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic SatAM) had stronger plots and more polished animation, AoStH was just too damn fun to be deemed the lesser cartoon. To me, AoStH was a much better adaptation of the games, and when I say games I mean the only two that were released by that time: Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Every episode featured Sonic and Tails playing cat and mouse with Robotnik and his gang of badniks, just like in the Genesis games. Even better, the show kicked off with an awesome mix of the original Sonic theme song, “Flight of the Bumblebee” and “In the Hall of the Mountain King”.
While I was satisfied with this amount of video game fan service, every so often an episode would air that would give the video game fans a little bonus. Something that would make us sit up and pay a bit more attention. Sonic might traverse through a zone from Sonic 1 (gasp!) or Robotnik might make reference to a Chaos Emerald (Hey, I know those!). In celebration of Sonic’s 20th, and my favorite 90’s cartoon series, I present five game inspired episodes of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog!
From SEGA Memories (and yours truly) comes a preview of the recently released GamesMaster Presents Sonic magazine. Check it out!
[Source: SEGA Memories]
In his 20 years of existence, Sonic has not only appeared in dozens of games, but he has also introduced a ton of irregularities. The irregularities I’m referring to are the things that exist within his video games that support the gameplay and the player playing the game, yet don’t make a whole lot of sense within the context of the world within the game. For example, it’s a ton of fun to run through a twirling highway in Sonic Adventure, but why in the world would such a highway even exist? Or what about all those springs and item boxes? Surely Eggman didn’t put them there, because they assist Sonic. So just how and why do elements like that exist in Sonic’s world? In this week’s weekly five, I’m going to attempt to explain five oddities of Sonic’s world. Most of my explanations will probably be complete bullshit, but that’s the fun of over-thinking!
So, you say you’re pumped for Sonic Generations, but think it’s too far off for any real reason to place a pre-order this instant? Think again! United States gaming store GameStop is offering digital content for those who pre-order Sonic Generations! You can see what they’re offering for yourself right here. XBOX 360 owners who pre-order will receive a DLC mini-game pinball stage based on Sonic 2’s Casino Night Zone. Think of it as being like Sonic Adventure’s pinball stage. Also included is a Super Sonic avatar costume, basically confirming Super Sonic in Generations, and an exclusive theme for your 360’s menu. PlayStation 3 owners also receive the Casino Night Zone pinball stage and a theme for their PS3 menu.
Still no word on a birthday pack or special packaging, but we’ll keep you posted. In other news, the full stage and boss list as well as a load of other info on the game has leaked due to fans digging through the recently released demo assets. I’ll abstain from mentioning any of the leaked content, as SEGA has yet to officially reveal it, but it’s out there on the Internet.
Just a day until Sonic’s 20th, and this arrives in the mail: Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog #226. This issue is better known as being part one of the hotly anticipated Genesis saga, which throws the main cast of the Archie continuity back into the SEGA Genesis days of Sonic. In the previous issue, #225, the Eggman of the Archie continuity (who looks like the modern Eggman of the games but has a back story so complicated I’ve yet to wrap my head around it) unleashed a resurrected Death Egg on the Freedom Fighters. After a bit of fighting, Eggman killed a well known character from the SatAM days and powered up a device that enveloped the universe in white (hmm, sounds like something that is happening in Sonic Generations) and rebooted the entire universe. As such, when issue #226 kicks off, Sonic is acting as though he is from the Genesis era (with a modern design), running through Green Hill and bopping badniks which he seems to be encountering for the first time.
by The GagaMan(n) at SEGA Memories
Well didn’t this pop up out of the blue! To celebrate Sonic’s 20th Anniversary (I suspect you’ll be hearing that a lot in the next few months but especially this month), GamesMaster has just released a special 130 page magazine dedicated to nothing but Sonic! I only heard about it today via twitter and pretty much ran over to WHSmith to see if they had and sure enough they had a whole pile of copies. It’s £8 but trust me it’s worth it.
Before Saturn Month is considered to be completely over, I thought I’d squeeze in one more Saturn related Weekly Five. This week, we combine our regular SEGA in the Media feature with the SEGA Saturn. That’s right, five times the SEGA in the Media in one day! So let’s kick things off with…
Originally written July, 2009 for The Saturn Junkyard
While the Saturn hit the US in 1995, it wasn’t until late 1997 that I bought a system. A large part of why I held out was money, $399 is a fortune to an 11 year old. Also, I was having way too much fun with my Genesis at the time, a testament to the quality of the 16-bit system. The Genesis had everything I wanted: Sonic the Hedgehog and Disney Interactive games. The Saturn had a Sonic compilation of games I already owned and some goofy jester game. At the time I was oblivious to the fact that NiGHTS was a Sonic Team game (no Wikipedias or SEGAbits back in 1995, kids) and so I went on ignoring one of the greatest games and systems of the mid-90’s.
While we had previously reported on the screens found within Nintendo Power’s Shinobi and Sonic Generations 3DS reveal issue, we have yet to share the two versions of the cover. Now hitting newsstands are two way past cool covers featuring Classic and Modern Sonic. I’ve been keeping my eye on my local newsstand, making a sad face every time I saw the old Zelda cover of this past month on the rack. But today the awesome Sonic covers hit and I snatched them right up, thus falling into NP’s trap and giving them double the money. Oh well, it’s worth it for Classic Sonic.
As most of America well be celebrating Memorial day by being stuck in traffic, sweating, drinking and laying on beaches, I thought I’d present five Saturn tunes fitting for the nice warm holiday weather. Can you guess what the first tune will be? Hint: The above photo.
Fresh from SEGA PR, and in all caps, comes the announcement that the Wii hit House of the Dead: Overkill will be rereleased to the PS3 and Move in 3D under the name of “House of the Dead: Overkill – Extended Cut”. Frankly, I thought is was a joke email at first, and after reading it I got a little dizzy. Perhaps because I now wonder how many other Wii titles might hit HD consoles. Check out the press release after the break.
The full teaser has hit for Shinobi on the 3DS. What do you all think? I can’t believe this game hits in September, that’s so damn soon! Four more months.
Wii! (huh-yeah) What is it good Thor?
Welcome back for another review of a Thor game, this time on the Wii. I’ll admit, I have yet to sink my hammer into the Thor craze. I haven’t seen the movie, nor have I tasted the 7-11 Slurpee (though my guess is it tastes like the color blue). However, I can claim to have played the Wii version of the game. How does this version fare compared to the DS and HD console versions? Let’s (insert Thor reference here) and find out!
Usually screens of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games wouldn’t excite me too much. But color me surprised when I caught a glimpse of the first screens to be released and I got… a little excited! That was probably due to spotting one of my favorite 3D Sonic stages, Windy Valley of Sonic Adventure, returning as the location of a Dream Event. On the Mario side of things we have a 2D remake of Yoshi’s Story, which makes me hopeful that we’ll see some 2D Sonic stages return.
After the break, check out more screens and a link to an early preview of the games.