Sonic the Hedgehog

First look at the official ‘Sonic The Hedgehog 25th Anniversary’ art book from Cook & Becker – available for pre-order

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Thanks to the next-gen art dealers at Cook & Becker, we have a first look at the upcoming Sonic The Hedgehog 25th Anniversary art book via an in-depth gallery of images as well as a full press release. So let’s get down to it! The art book, the first ever official art book and design history for the long running series, encapsulates 25 years of history. The book will be made available in a limited Special Collector’s Edition as well as a Standard Hardcover Edition. The Special Collector’s Edition features an outer box, a special inner sleeve that folds into a display stand for the book and an exclusive newly drawn matted art giclee print by Sonic Team’s Yuji Uekawa. The Collector’s Edition is limited to 2,500 copies and sells for $120/€120 respectively. As a pre-order bonus, Cook & Becker offers a 10% discount on the Collector’s Edition if it is ordered before February 2017. The Standard Edition, meanwhile, retails for $45/€45 and consists of the book itself.

Let’s talk about the book! Officially licensed, the book (310mm H x 275mm W) will feature 200+ pages of images and text, including interviews with key Sonic designers including Yuji Naka, Takashi Iizuka and Yuji Uekawa. As seen in the image gallery below, you can expect to find concept art, promotional art, 3D renders, box art and – as revealed in our recent article – original official art and rare collectibles submitted by fans (pending approval from Cook & Becker and SEGA, of course).

After the break, check out a full press release detailing the book as well as a gallery of several images showing off the ins and outs of the book as well as the Special Collector’s Edition. Don’t forget to pre-order the book today at the official Cook & Becker site!

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Attention Sonic the Hedgehog collectors: Cook & Becker are looking for rare original official art and collectibles

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c&bartbook

If you haven’t already heard, next-gen art dealers Cook & Becker plan to release a “Sonic the Hedgehog 25th Anniversary Art Book”. The book will cover the history of Sonic and will include design sketches, official character illustrations, in-game art, pixel art, rare promotional art and game box art. While SEGA has provided Cook & Becker with many great art assets from the company archives, as is the case with original art spanning 25 years there is always more out there in private collections.

Cook & Becker reached out to us asking if we would ask you, the fans, to lend a hand if you can. As the book enters the final stages of design, there is little under a month left before the window closes on what can appear in the book and we are asking any fans with cool rare retro merchandise, rare original promotional art and rare manual scans to reach out to Cook & Becker via their contact page or email maarten [at] candb.com. Cook & Becker is looking for high res photos and scans of what they may not already have. They will credit anyone in the book that sends in material that gets included. I know, for example, that there is some really great original art from the late SEGA Genesis-era artist Greg Martin in several collections.

It should be noted that Cook & Becker are NOT looking for fan art, only rare and original official pieces of artwork and collectibles. More news on Cook & Becker’s book to come, so stay tuned!

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SEGA Talk Podcast #04: Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

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The infamous Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) celebrated its 10th year anniversary earlier this week so George and Barry decided to sit down with Sonic Retro‘s Bartman3010 and David (dtlurker) to recount our thoughts on the title. On this episode we go through the concept of Sonic the Hedgehog, talk about various game play elements, glitches, music, and some of us even have nice things to say (maybe). If you wanna go back a whole decade and relive the grand adventure that is Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 just hit play below or subscribe to us via your favorite podcast network.

[iTunes – Stitcher – Play Music – RSS – Download]

If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

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Lego Dimensions: Sonic the Hedgehog level pack gameplay footage hits the web

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Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment producer Doug Heder was on the YouTube Gaming show to reveal some gameplay of the upcoming Lego Dimensions: Sonic the Hedgehog level pack. The show is hosted by Geoff Keighley, who seemed to launch a bunch of questions, most of which we already knew the answers to. We know this show is mean’t to be aimed at more ‘mainstream’ audience,so its nice to see what the level pack has to offer and it having a large exposure. When pressed about more character figures, Doug Heder said there are ‘a lot of unlockable characters’ in the game. Those named here include Knuckles, Tails, Shadow, and Big the Cat. Obviously this isn’t as great as having their own stand alone figure and stories, but who knows about the future.

The producer Doug Heder does say that they put a lot of love and effort into recreating the feel of the game,that Sonic the Hedgehog fans would appreciate it. I have to say they did a great job from what I’m seeing. The Lego Dimensions: Sonic the Hedgehog level pack releases on Novemeber 18th, 2016 and will retail for $29.99 USD. So let us know in the comments, are you excited to play the Lego Dimensions: Sonic the Hedgehog level pack?

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SEGA streaming Sonic games for Extra Life charity

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Extra Life

SEGA has recently announced in a stream that they will help the Extra Life charity with a 24 hour marathon Sonic games. Starting at 8am PDT November 5th, Aaron and Sergio will be playing through different Sonic games on the official Sonic twitch account, with the ultimate goal to reach $10,000 (originally $5,000) in charity, appropriately calling themselves Team Sonic. They claim the games being streamed will be good Sonic games, “not-as-good” Sonic games, and “everything in between”, though nothing specific has been announced.There may also be some shenanigans to help encourage people to donate.

Extra Life is a charity that has been running since 2008, using 24 hour gaming marathons in order to help the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Since it’s inception, it has managed to collect over 22 million dollars in donations. If you want to donate to the cause, you can do it immediately by joining Team Sonic. Hopefully they reach those goals!

[Source: Sonic Twitch]

 

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Archie Comics announces Sonic Mega Drive – Overdrive, due out March 2017

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Archie’s Sonic Mega Drive one shot series of comics have been a huge success. So much so that the first Sonic Mega Drive comic, written by Ian Flynn, with art by Tyson Hesse, Matt Herms and Jack Morelli, sold out. A first for Archie Sonic comics. The follow-up, Sonic: Mega Drive – The Next Level, is due out November 2nd and continues the story, despite being another issue #1. Now, Archie has unveiled the third Sonic Mega Drive, dubbed Overdrive which is set to release March 2017.

Editor Vincent Lovallo had this to say about the third installment in an exclusive interview with blastr: “Overdrive picks up right where The Next Level left off with Sonic and friends on the hunt for the mystical Chaos Emeralds. Their power is the only hope our heroes have at stopping Dr. Eggman’s destructive Mega Drive weapon. Featuring a whopping 30 pages of story, the final chapter of the Mega Drive series arrives in comic shops March 2017. You won’t wanna miss this epic conclusion celebrating 25 years of Sonic!”

Sonic Mega Drive – Overdrive will also be written by Flynn, with art by Hesse, Herms and Morelli. Flynn has confirmed that the Sonic Mega Drive story takes place in the Archie Sonic canon, and the upcoming main series arc will also take place in the classic era.

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SEGA and Cook & Becker to team up to release the Sonic the Hedgehog 25th Anniversary Art Book

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sonic the hedgehog art book announce

Via the Cook & Becker blog comes the awesome news that SEGA has teamed with the art dealer to release a Sonic the Hedgehog 25th Anniversary Art Book. The book will cover Sonic’s entire history and will include design sketches, official illustrations, in-game and pixel art, promotional art and box art. The book will also contain never-before-seen artwork and will have interviews with designers and artists who worked on the series. Pre-orders have not yet opened, but Cook & Becker expect pre-orders to open wordwide in October or November with the ship date set as early 2017. There will be two versions, a Standard Edition and a Collector’s Edition.

Not to toot our own horn, but back in July of 2015, we interviewed Aaron Webber and when asked what sort of Sonic merchandise we’d like to see, we asked for a Sonic the Hedgehog art book. Aaron sounded genuinely interested in making such a thing happen. So, you’re welcome and Aaron… can we have a free copy of the book?

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SEGA News Bits: Sonic Mania Collector’s Edition Announced – Reaction

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Hot on the heels of the announcement of a Sonic Mania Collector’s Edition for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, Barry and George share their excitement and opinions on the set in a new SEGA News Bits. What’s included? What’s not? Will fans in Europe be seeing it? These questions and more are discussed! The elephant in the room – that being the lack of a physical disc release – is also discussed. What are your thoughts on the  Sonic Mania Collector’s Edition? Which platform are you going for? Sound off in the comments below.

If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to encourage more of them, make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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Cospa’s SEGA merchandise up for pre-order before Tokyo Game Show 2016

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COSPASEGAMerch1Cospa is a Japanese licensed merchandising company, just recently they updated their site with all the merchandise they will be premiering at this year’s Tokyo Game Show 2016. The line-up included other licenses like SNK, IDOLM@STER and of course our true blue SEGA. The company announced that the SEGA Merchandise was focusing on the SEGA Mega Drive (SEGA Genesis in America), Sonic the Hedgehog and oddly enough NiGHTS into Dreams..

So lets break down all the SEGA merchandise from Japan that will be shown off by Cospa at this year’s Tokyo Game Show and that you can pre-order RIGHT NOW (yes, we included import friendly shop links):

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Opening & Eating 15 Year Old Cans of Sonic the Hedgehog Pasta

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Courtesy of Justin Todd – whose Sonic collecting can be followed on instagram under the username @treasurehuntingsonic – we have a video unboxing (uncanning?) of Franco-American Sonic the Hedgehog Pasta with Meatballs in Tomato Sauce! These two cans date from around 2000/2001 and are the second and third, and so far final, iterations of the Franco-American Sonic canned pasta. The first version of the can was featured on the latest episode of our own Fastest Food Alive Sonic the Hedgehog promotional foods video series.

What does Justin find when he opens these 15 year old expired cans of pasta? Learn for yourself by watching the video! Follow Justin on Instagram for more Sonic goodness and join the Sonic the Hedgehog Collections group on Facebook, where this video debuted.

If you enjoy our videos, make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube where we post a grab bag of SEGA and Sonic content. Thanks for watching.

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Sonic LEGO Dimensions Pack to feature Tails, Knuckles, Amy, & Dr. Eggman NPCs

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CqNg3SvVMAA_oDjAccording to @BlueParax on twitter Sonic LEGO Dimensions Pack will not only feature everyone’s favorite blue blur but also have NPCs for Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Dr. Eggman. The news came straight from Gamescom where they are showing off the Sonic LEGO Dimensions pack, as well as other crossover packs LEGO Dimensions has coming.

If it sounds too good to be true, this is what @BlueParax said he was told by WB Games’ people:

“more Classic characters like Tails Amy Knuckles and Eggman will appear ingame. BUT NOT PLAYABLE.”

When the LEGO Dimensions twitter account was recently asked about seeing or playing other Sonic characters they replied with: “Our lips are sealed…for now ;)”  This makes me believe that this is true, which isn’t surprising considering how lame a Sonic LEGO Dimensions Pack would be without some of Sonic the Hedgehog‘s friends. Sonic LEGO Dimension Pack is set for release on November 18, 2016 according to Amazon.

[Via: TSSZNews]

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SEGA News Bits: Sonic the Hedgehog Creator Wants A True Mario Crossover

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Welcome to a new crossover special episode of the SEGA News Bits, today George and Barry talk about Sonic the Hedgehog Creator Yuji Naka’s recent interview where he said he wanted a Mario & Sonic crossover action game. I know what you are thinking, that there are already Mario & Sonic the Hedgehog crossover games in the form of Olympic titles, but that isn’t really what fans and Yuji Naka envisioned for a Mario & Sonic the Hedgehog crossover game. Tune in and let us know what your ideal Mario & Sonic crossover game would be.

If you like our SEGA News Bits video content, make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube so you never miss an episode.

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Fastest Food Alive: A Look back at 1995 Sonic the Hedgehog Franco-American Pasta

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Fastest Food Alive returns as we look at more food promotional items from Sonic the Hedgehog’s past! On this episode, Franco-American’s Sonic the Hedgehog Pasta with Meatballs in Tomato Sauce is on the menu. SEGA’s partnership with Franco-American, a subsidiary of Campbell’s, kicked off in 1995 and carried through to 2000. Click play on the video above and take a trip down memory lane as we check out this food promotion and give a short history lesson on canned pasta.

If you enjoyed the video make sure to like, share and subscribe to us on YouTube if you haven’t already. Thanks for the support!

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Yuji Naka wants to see a Mario and Sonic crossover action game

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We know that Mario and Sonic have had a long line of crossover Olympic titles throughout recent years, but that isn’t what Yuji Naka, one of Sonic’s creators envisioned for the duo’s cross over.

Recently Yuji Naka spoke with the Japanese website Famitsu about the origins of Mario and Sonic game, which started talks as an action game during the GameCube era when SEGA first went 3rd party. As we know today, this lead nowhere and Mario and Sonic didn’t happen until SEGA acquired the license to make Olympic video games.

Here is Yuji Naka talking about Mario and Sonic co-starring on titles based around the Olympics and the origins of the project:

“Actually, I wanted Mario [and Sonic] to appear together, so one time I went to give Miyamoto-san a presentation on how I want to create an action game which is co-starred by Mario and Sonic. It was in the GameCube days, and I took around four planners with me. It is a pity that the discussion was ‘clearly it isn’t necessary for Mario and Sonic to co-star in an action [game]’ and it didn’t become a reality, but SEGA was able to get the license for the Olympics just at that time, so in order to make the best use of the license, companion characters appeared together. A little later Sonic appeared in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. However, this too came into reality because I requested from Sakurai-san, ‘I want Sonic to appear [in Smash Bros.]’. The Olympics is a bit different from my wish, but I think it’s a good thing that children around the world are happy about them co-starring. But someday I want to realize an action [game] together with Mario. I think I’m going to give another presentation so that Takashi [Iizuka] finds the necessity [of a Mario & Sonic action game] (laughs).” – Yuji Naka

Yuji Naka wasn’t the only original Sonic the Hedgehog creator to chime in on the interview, original Sonic designer Naoto Ohshima said the following:

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