I recently took a trip to Canada and was surprised to learn that a key filming location for the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie was just eight minutes off our main route! Located in Fort Langley, British Columbia, Canada, this location was home to much of the Green Hills scenes in the sequel including the town hall, main street and Mean Bean coffee storefront. Enjoy this walk through cinema history!
Sonic Frontiers third content update has been revealed, with the subtitle “The Final Horizon” and a release date of September 28th. The update adds new story content, new challenges and the ability to play as Tails, Amy and Knuckles. The teaser trailer showcases a brand new boss and the return of Sage as she and Eggman appear to be working with Sonic and friends.
Sonic Frontiers is available now across PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, the Nintendo Switch family of systems and Steam.
As gamescom 2023 kicks off, news has dropped on the upcoming Sonic Superstars! 2D classic Sonic is returning to all modern platforms, and he is bringing Tails, Knuckles and Amy Rose with him on a brand new adventure. While the game will have a single player mode, there is also a focus on 2-4 player gameplay and the latest trailer details that element. Local co-op and Battle Mode will allow up to four players to drop in and out of a local game, or battle up to seven other players online or four players locally in a Battle Mode. Most exciting for longtime Sonic fans is the appearance of metal doppelgängers including the long lost Metal Knuckles! These robot duplicates can be build in a new mecha building mode where players can mix and match parts to create new or classic mecha robots.
Also detailed was the Digital Deluxe Edition, which is priced at $69.99 and includes the base game, a Sonic Rabbit Skin (straight from the early Sonic Team concept art), a LEGO fun pack, Mecha Sonic (from Sonic 2) parts, bonus menu wallpapers, a digital artbook and mini-OST and a LEGO Sonic skin.
Sonic Superstars is launching October 17, 2023, and is available for pre-order physically and digitally for PS5 and PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, the Nintendo Switch systems and PC starting at $59.99 USD.
Out of nowhere, SEGA has dropped a demo of Samba de Amigo: Party Central for the Nintendo Switch. Usually these things get press releases or some fanfare from SEGA, but instead it’s just there. So head on over to the Nintendo eShop listing and check out the demo for yourself!
The demo will finally allow players to try the game for themselves to see if SEGA has finally perfected what was the perfect control scheme in the arcade original. The game was ported to the SEGA Dreamcast, with some excellent controls but sadly the dedicated controller cost a lot. The game then released to Wii, and the less said about the controls on that one the better. What are your thoughts on the demo? Sound off below!
Here’s one for fans of mid 90’s PC games. Some of you may remember the publisher Segasoft, the independent publishing arm set up by Sega of America to develop and publish games, not just for Sega Saturn, but also for Windows PCs and for competing consoles. (Though they never got to release anything on other consoles in the end.) Many of their games have been lost to time since Segasoft closed down in 2000, but two of their most beloved PC classics have been saved from the game preservation crisis. Rocket Jockey (1996) and Obsidian (1996) are coming to modern PC game platforms Steam and Zoom on August 28th, 2023, published by Zoom Platform and another company named Call Your Vegetables.
You may have heard of Steam, but what is Zoom Platform, you may ask? The short answer is that they’re another web storefront for PC games, mostly for retro PC games, created by the Jordan Freeman Group. Saturn era Sega of America President/COO Bernie Stolar, who sadly passed away last year, actually served as the original Executive Chairman. You can read more about them from their “About Us” page.
You can see more information on each of these games, along with links to buy them from either Steam or Zoom, past the break.
Today, SEGA has launched the new Fast. Friends. Forever. campaign for Sonic the Hedgehog fans to show the importance of friendship, teamwork, inspiration, and loyalty. The initiative focuses on how Sonic and his friends demonstrate these values both in and out of the games.
The Fast. Friends. Forever. campaign will also continue throughout the year with variety of events and activations including:
A four-panel digital comic series by Sonic’s community of friends featuring talented artists from around the world. The first release drops August 9, followed by 14 more issues in the upcoming months.
The Sonic Symphony World Tour featuring Sonic and friends alongside popular music from the games. Tour stops include Los Angeles, London, Paris, Dusseldorf and more! Details HERE: https://www.sonicsymphonytour.
Season two of TailsTube starring Sonic’s best friend and sidekick, Tails. Get ready for a bunch of new stories that are fun and educational!
A dedicated website showcasing all of Fast. Friends. Forever. activities, as well as character bios, spotlights, digital comics, and more! Details HERE: https://www.sonicthehedgehog.
LEGOLAND is also offering a FREE kid’s ticket, with purchase of an adult ticket, good at any LEGOLAND Theme Park or LEGOLAND Discovery Center in North America through the end of the year. Terms and conditions apply. For more information, go to LEGOLAND.com/SonicSuperstars
A new independently developed spiritual successor to Sega Rally Championship is now available to wishlist on Steam. Don’t get too excited though. I say “Wishlist” because the game is not available to purchase, pre-order, or download right now, at least from Steam anyway. Check in after the break and I will explain this.
YouTube video documentarian kayisthey has released a nearly hour long look back at the many failed attempts at a third Jet Set Radio game. “Jet Set Radio 3: The Lost Sequel” runs through all the concept art, footage and leaked information to give a rather concise history of the games we never got to see, and maybe one we just might see in the near future. Special thanks to kayisthey for reaching out to me, as I am featured throughout the documentary.
SEGA is opening up the Sonic Speed Cafe starting tomorrow and closing down on August 12th! The Sonic Speed Cafe will feature a big schdule including time slots to take photos with Sonic, product giveaways and even getting to meet Sonic Creative Officer Takashi Iizuka!
You can check out the schedule below and follow the restaurant on Twitter.
SEGA has released the animated opening for Sonic Superstars and its beautiful. The art style is very reminiscent of the old school Classic Sonic from the 90s, its nice to see a new take on the classic formula. Hopefully the rest of Sonic Superstars matches up with the quality of this opening animation.
Sonic Superstars is coming out this fall for Playstation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
In a recent interview with SEGA Japan President and COO Yukio Sugino via Famitsu, the boss man had expressed interest in ‘reboots and remakes’ of Sonic the Hedgehog games. The interview talks mostly about the success that the Sonic the Hedgehog brand has been having lately with a strong fiscal year and great reception of Sonic Frontiers. Not only that, the success of the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie.
When talking about Samba de Amigo: Party Central, a new revival of a previously dead Sonic Team franchise, Sugino confirmed that the game isn’t a reboot but a new title in the series but was interested in exploring reboots and reboot-like features within new games. He refrenced Sonic Superstars as an example
“a return to 2D action, and although it is a new game, I would like to implement reboot-like measures as well. Of course, we have to do new things, but as with all IPs, we don’t have new works or reboots,. We will develop while selecting which is appropriate at this timing for each IP, such as ‘This is the best way to do this IP’. ‘Sonic’ is also SEGA’s signature IP, and in parallel with the new game, we are considering reboots and remakes.”
This isn’t surprising since Sonic Colors Ultimate was a thing. Considering that a lot of Sonic fans have grown up with older 3D titles that they have been asking remakes for a decade plus, I’d say that I’m all for a Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 and even Sonic Unleashed reboots or remakes. What older modern Sonic games do you think deserve a full on remake?
[Via Sonic Stadium, Dualshockers]
With Persona 3 getting a remake soon, the question in a lot of fans minds is when Atlus will reach back and remake older titles that deserve a brand new coat of paint. During a recent interview, Atlus was asked if there where other remakes in development which they said:
“Atlus and Sega are experimenting with many remake ideas for different franchises. But there is nothing in end production like P3RE right now. Atlus really wants to make a P1/P2 remake.”
While the original Persona (2009) game and the sequel Persona 2 (2011) had remakes on the PlayStation Portable, as all Sony PSP games, these these titles are rare and hard to buy. I think giving the original titles a fresh coat of paint could be interesting. But should modernize the gameplay to match the newer Persona games or keep it original? I guess we shall see.
Nintendo has posted the most downloaded games on the Nintendo Switch so far for 2023. The list was really surprising, since it seems people are really buying re-releases of older games with Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol. 1 and 2 made the rankings in the top ten. But on the SEGA side, the most interesting part is that the top 30 downloaded Nintendo Switch games, no Sonic the Hedgehog game made the list.
Though Atlus made the list twice with both Persona 4 Golden (13) and Persona 3 Portable (19) which I consider a big success for these re-releases. Why didn’t Sonic make the list? Good question, SEGA did release Sonic Origins Plus, it came out at the end of June which could mean that the game hasn’t had enough time to sell enough to make the top 30. I guess we will see in the end of the year when the list is re-released to see how that game performed. The surprising part is that Sonic Frontiers hasn’t continued to have the legs on Switch, what with all the free updates happening. I guess most Sonic gamers opted out to play it on beefier hardware?
Check out the top 30 downloaded Nintendo Switch Games for 2023 after the break:
Another Dreamcast game has had it’s online multiplayer mode reinstated thanks to Dreamcast Live. Daytona USA 2001 (Known in North America as simply Daytona USA) is now back online through the Dreamcast Live service, thanks to the efforts of a new member of their team called Ioncannon. This makes Daytona USA the 25th Dreamcast game supported on Dreamcast Live. (26th if you count the all new game Driving Strikers, from my last article.) This is fantastic news for fans of the game, especially considering the game had a few unlockable cars only attainable by playing online.
Take a rolling start past the break for more info.
From Retro Game Books comes a new book focusing on video game maps from the SEGA Genesis and Mega Drive era, appropriately titled Video Game Maps: Genesis & Mega Drive. The book is the second video game maps book from Brian Riggsbee, the first focused on NES and Famicom games. This book features maps from over 100 Genesis and Mega Drive games, includes memories from thirty gamers and, oh yeah, features a foreword written by yours truly!
You can snag the physical version for $40, and it features 226 full color pages in a paperback format and includes a sticker of the cover art. The digital version, meanwhile, can be had for $4.95. Having paged through it myself, it’s a really great selection of printed and pixel art maps from the past and is a great overview of that era of SEGA.