It’s time to end our week-long Sonic the Hedgehog 23rd anniversary celebration with 23 Sonic facts. Since Sonic the Hedgehog is quite a popular character you might or might not have read some of these. Let’s get started!
The following is a guest article from Sonic Stadium writer Brad, written as part of our intersite #Sonic23on23 celebration. Enjoy it, and maybe check out our guest article over at Sonic Stadium written by our own Ben Burnham.
Ah, birthdays. The perfect times for parents to get out those old, embarrassing pictures of you when you were a baby. Our spikey blue hero is no exception to this, however his own classic outgoings were never something to be embarrassed about. In fact, many fans still refer to the original trilogy of games as some of the best games the series has made. I’m not far removed from this ideal, and as such I wanted to look back at these old gems of classic gaming, chronologically.
This week on The SEGA Five we will be looking at our most nostalgic Sonic the Hedgehog video game moments as part of our Sonic the Hedgehog 23rd Birthday coverage. Like always, if you guys want to share your nostalgic moments do so in the comments! Now on to the list!
SEGAbits Plays is back with another live stream of SEGA Pico games! While episode #0 played several licensed games, this time we’re focusing on Tails and the Music Maker, Sonic the Hedgehog’s Gameworld (the Japanese import and the American version) as well as a very special playthrough of Fishing Pico – Donald no Adventure. Yes, the SEGA Pico had a fishing controller. Joining Barry in this two hour Pico party is Sonic Retro’s Bartman. Keep your eyes peeled for Sonic recolors and an excessively gory drawing of Plucky Duck.
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E3 is a great event filled to the brim with great games, but there can only be one game of the show. For me, that game is Bayonetta 2. I have been excited for Bayonetta 2 since that wonderful day in September when Nintendo had announced they had saved the game from its long-rumored cancellation. I’m happy to say that if the E3 demo is anything to go by, Bayonetta 2 is not only set to live up to the legacy of the original, it’s set to surpass it.
We’ve said it time and time again here at SEGAbits: the Dreamcast was an incredibly innovative console! Back in the late 90’s, Dreamcast owners could hop online via their console to surf the web and download various things to their VMU including free DLC. That’s right, not only did SEGA offer DLC in the late 90’s, it was free! Continuing our Sonic 23rd birthday celebrations, Liam aka TrackerTD of our This Is Saturn YouTube series put together this great showcase of most of the DLC offered in Sonic Adventure & Sonic Adventure 2. Celebrate New Years, the Dreamcast launch, Halloween, and more in the many fun additions made to these memorable Sonic titles.
On January 4th 2006, I submitted to Gamefaqs a review for Shadow the Hedgehog , a game which at the time I boldly declared “the worst SEGA game I’ve ever played.” To date, the 2/10 score I gave it is the lowest I’ve scored a game in any context, on any site I’ve reviewed for, and nothing I’ve played either before or since has inspired a similar score. My outlook on SEGA at the time was incredibly bleak; it was a game that really tore down my confidence in the company and where it was headed, and for those reasons I’ve left this review, for the most part, as is, as a piece of history for how I viewed SEGA at the time, and where I feared the company was headed. Though I’ve edited it a little for form and trimmed it down, the message remains intact. Read on for my thoughts on Shadow the Hedgehog, directly from 2006, as I sat down to review what was (and still is) the worst game I had ever played.
Come join our live SEGA Channel Retro stream as we celebrate Sonic’s birthday the only way we know how! Come check out Sonic games and more on stream.
Now that the stream has concluded, jump to any point you’d like from our initial stream, and be sure to stay tuned this week for more Sonic games streamed live on SEGA Channel Retro. Videos are up on YouTube and on Twitch.
Uncut Stream [Twitch]
Sonic Jam (With Sonic 3 Easy Mode) [YouTube] [Twitch]
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Retro Engine [YouTube] [Twitch]
Twenty-three years ago today, SEGA changed the future of video games with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog, and to celebrate Sonic’s golden birthday (that’s when your age matches your birthdate) we’re teaming up with The Sonic Stadium and Sonic Retro. All week long, all three sites will form Team SegaSonic, bringing you Sonic the Hedgehog articles, original content, videos, streams, and more from today through to the 29th! Also, as part of the celebrations, we’ll be hosting a panel with Sonic Retro at Too Many Games in Oaks, PA on Saturday the 28th at noon – featuring a Dreamcast round table, a My Life with SEGA episode premiere, the history of Sonic the Hedgehog 2‘s Hidden Palace Zone, and a trivia contest with rare SEGA prizes including The House of the Dead 3 & 4 posters signed by series director Takashi Oda. There will also be several Sonic prizes on hand.
Readers can join in on the celebrations as well! All you have to do is follow SEGAbits, The Sonic Stadium, and Sonic Retro on Twitter and share your Sonic the Hedgehog photos and memories with the hashtag #Sonic23on23. The best tweets will be retweeted and shared to over 11,000 SEGA and Sonic fans, and we all know that in today’s world nothing is more rewarding than a retweet.
Happy Birthday, Sonic! The party has just begun!
Before Batman: Arkham City, before The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Spider-Man was surrounded by his most threatening villains in New York that is set to explode in 24 hours in The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin for SEGA CD. I decided to play through the game live on SEGA Channel Retro on an unannounced stream and completed it and showed off two of the three endings. See Spider-Man fight foes such as crooks, rats and uh…bats for some reason while he hunts down the nuke that will wipe the Big Apple off the planet while he prove his innocence.
As usual you can check out the video on YouTube and Twitch, with the Twitch feed running at 60 frames per second. You can also check out the uncut livestream with some fumbled extra bits such as me briefly showing off The Adventures of Willy Beamish and the SEGA CD/32X version of the cult classic Night Trap. But I suck at the game and don’t get very far.
Also something about hedgehogs, dashing and androids.
The Amazing Spider-Man vs. Kingpin [YouTube] [Twitch]
Uncut Archived Stream [Twitch]
Read more on this game on Sega Retro!
Sam Mullen, Localization Producer for SEGA, joined us for an interview at E3 2014 to discuss Hatsune Miku Project Diva F 2nd and our hopes for future Western releases of SEGA’s Japanese titles. Hatsune Miku Project Diva f 2nd is due out Fall 2014 for the Playstation 3 and Vita. We’re especially looking forward to the title, as we gave the original game for the Vita a well deserved “A” grade.
Our E3 coverage continues with an interview with Sonic Boom Producer Stephen Frost! Stephen was nice enough to sit down on the final day of the expo to answer our questions about the upcoming Wii U and 3DS games Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric and Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal. Developed by Big Red Button Entertainment (Wii U) and Sanzaru Games (3DS), both titles are due out November 2014.
I’m not really all that experienced with the world of mobile gaming. Though I’ve played my share of Angry Birds and a handful of SEGA games, most of my portable gaming is done on proper handheld systems with buttons and analog sticks. Needless to say, I was a little out of my depth at the SEGA Network party, which was showcasing several upcoming mobile SEGA games to the press, including Super Monkey Ball Bounce.
Our work at E3 this year would have been cut short if it had not been for Sega’s acquisition of Atlus Games. (It also would have given us more time to have some fun. Kidding, kidding.) Still, this allowed us to check out some quality titles we might have passed up otherwise. Games like Citzens of Earth (which Nuckles87 recently did an extensive view of). I took up the quest to try Rollers of the Realm. A very different take on your average pinball game.
Some games just have this irresistible charm about them. The moment you see it, you just know you want to play it and see if it lives up to just how awesome it looks. At E3, Atlus’s Citizens of Earth was one of those games. As a man who is interested in politics and is always open to some political satire, and the concept on display here is way too hilarious to ignore.