Sonic the Hedgehog fan game Sonic: After the Sequel is today’s featured article on Wikipedia

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Every day, Wikipedia posts a featured article on their main page. This article could be just about anything, given the size of Wikipedia, so for the day’s featured article to be a SEGA related thing is pretty rare. Rarer still, when that featured article is a SEGA fan work. Today, Sonic the Hedgehog fan game Sonic: After the Sequel made Wikipedia’s main page! Developed in 2013 by Felipe Daneluz (LakeFeperd), the game is based on the series official canon, taking place between the official games Sonic 2 and Sonic 3. You can learn more about the game at Sonic Retro and download it yourself at the official site. A big congrats to LakeFeperd!

SEGA Cinema Halloween Special: Sonic the Hedgehog Double Feature

SEGA Cinema has risen from the dead with a spooktacular boogielicious Halloween Special! Okay, so it’s actually not scary at all. Barry and George are joined by Sonic Retro’s David the Lurker to watch two Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons featuring clowns, ghouls, sea monsters, and a half-man half-sponge who lives in the sea. No, it isn’t Spongebob.

First up is Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog‘s “Boogey-Mania”, which plays out like a cross between NiGHTS into Dreams and A Nightmare on Elm Street. And then, interrupting the Sonic cartoons are a compilation of cutscenes from the SEGA Saturn’s Deep Fear and Mr. Bones. Ending the special is the scariest thing of them all, an episode of Sonic Underground titled “The Deepest Fear” in which Sonic faces his fear of water. Don’t worry, he doesn’t drown and the story ends with an awful song. Enjoy the special, and Happy Halloween!

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Archie Comics announce “Worlds Unite” – The Sequel to the “Worlds Collide” Sonic VS Mega Man Crossover

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In something almost completely out of the blue, Archie comics has announced the Blue Blur and the Blue Bomber are set to join forces once again in the new crossover event Worlds Unite, starting Spring 2015. Indeed, Sonic and Mega Man are starring in another crossover comic series, set to be “even bigger” than 2013’s previous crossover.

As Polygon reports, the new crossover will be detailed at New York Comic Con later on this week. Paul Kaminski, executive director of editorial at Archie, has said that “You saw what happened when worlds collided, now see what happens when Words Unite! And this time, no universe will be safe…”

Intriguing stuff! Keep an eye on NYCC, where the Archie Action Hour: Sonic the Hedgehog and Megan Man panel is set for Thursday at 1pm, where more details are set to be announced regarding this exciting crossover event.

Free tickets go live for the UK’s Weston Super Sonic 2015 Event

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Tickets for the upcoming Weston Super Sonic 2015 event based in Weston-Super-Mare, England, have officially gone live; and they’re going pretty fast!

Since ticket registrations opened yesterday, already over a quarter of the tickets have been sold, which is no easy feat for a fan convention to accomplish! The tickets are provided free of charge, and guarantee you access to the event – an event that sounds rather awesome, sporting guests such as Sonic the Comic artist Ferran Rodriguez, as well as other StC heavyweights Richard Elson and Nigel Kitching. If that wasn’t enough, Mike Pollock will also be providing a Skype Q&A at the event – and this isn’t even everything, with more events and guests planned than those listed here, such as tournaments and art contests with prizes available!

You can get tickets for the event by clicking here!

If that wasn’t enough, as we previously stated SEGABits will be there on the day, providing coverage to the great standards we strive for!

It’s certainly looking to be a incredibly promising and exciting event, and for those of you in the UK, we hope to see you there!

For those in the US, don’t forget about the upcoming Sonic & SEGA Fan Jam based in Savannah, Georgia coming later this year, hosted by us at SEGAbits!

“Diggin’ in the Carts” interviews Hiroshi Kawaguchi and Yuzo Koshiro

The new series from Red Bull Music Academy, Diggin’ in the Carts, that we previously reported on, has uploaded it’s fourth episode, in which we get brand new interviews with SEGA music legends Hiroshi Kawaguchi and Yuzo Koshiro.

For those unaware, Kawaguchi was behind the soundtracks to several of SEGA’s finest soundtrack work, such as OutRun, Space Harrier, After Burner, Power Drift… we could go on. To this day, he still works at SEGA, and still his output never falters. Suffice to say, he’s probably one of the most talented video game composers of all time, and his list of works is nothing to scoff at.

The same can be said for Yuzo Koshiro, whose works include the soundtracks to the Streets of Rage games, as well as The Revenge of Shinobi. In addition, he’s even worked on the new Super Smash Brothers for Wii U/3DS, and if that wasn’t enough, he too has generally kept a consistent quality throughout all of his work.

He also worked on Shenmue, which is of course no small feat, with the game boasting a breathtaking score.

The episode also mentions Masato Nakamura’s work on Sonic the Hedgehog; somewhat unsurprisingly, he was unavailable for comment. It is quite entertaining to see Flying Lotus and Thundercat’s rendition of Green Hill Zone. There’s also a bit of pretty rare SEGA merch in there, as the vinyl record “SEGA Music” with various arcade SEGA tunes turns up in the possession of J. Rocc!

Overall, it’s a fantastic episode, and one I personally recommend SEGA fans check out. And if that’s not enough, an upcoming episode also features Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, so stay tuned!

You can catch the episode by clicking here!

SEGAbits Presents: Sonic & SEGA Fan Jam 2014 in Savannah, Georgia

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Calling all Sonic & SEGA fans in the Georgia area, we are happy to announce our big event in association with Savannah, Georgia’s very own The Guild Hall on November 22nd titled “Sonic & SEGA Fan Jam“. We will be hosting a fan event to not only celebrate the launch of Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric/Shattered Crystal but other SEGA games including: Hatsune Miku Project Diva F 2nd, Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax and more! Another surprise that we have for the event is that we will have Tracy Yardley, penciler/writer for Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog series, and Tails’ Channel owner Matt as our special guests. We’ll also be featuring some more surprise guests who will drop in and say hi via video. Want in on more details, such as events and location? Be sure to hit the jump!

Upcoming Sonic soundtrack album “Passion & Pride: Anthems with Attitude from the Sonic Adventure Era” tracklist and cover art revealed

As we previously reported, a new Sonic soundtrack album, “Passion & Pride: Anthems with Attitude from the Sonic Adventure Era” is on the way, due for September. Today we’ve gotten a plethora of new information on the release, including the rather awesome cover art, seen above, and a full tracklist.

The new information comes from the album’s official listing on the Japanese Sonic the Hedgehog website, Sonic Channel, and the tracklist, containing songs from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, is as follows:

Sonic the Comic Artist Ferran Rodriguez is attending Weston Super Sonic 2015

Upcoming UK Sonic convention Weston Super Sonic has announced that Spanish artist Ferran Rodriguez will be in attendance at the event.

Ferran’s art style was recurring throughout the UK Sonic the Comic’s run, and covered a wide variety of material throughout the series, such as covers, comic strips, and pin-ups. Ferran is flying in from his home in Barcelona just to be at the convention – now that’s dedication!

In addition to Sonic, Ferran has also done work for Disney, Nickelodeon the Angry Birds license, and other properties and brands – quite the resume.

This guest announcement is just one of quite a few that Weston Super Sonic has made; they previously announced that fellow Sonic the Comic legends Richard Elson and Nigel Kitching will also be in attendance, and that Mike Pollock, voice of the nefarious Doctor Eggman will be conducting a live Skype Q&A at the event. Exciting stuff for UK Sonic fans!

Also planned are speedrun tournaments for SA2, art contests, cosplay contests, and other events to keep fans entertained throughout the day. The convention takes place Saturday 17th January 2015 at The Grand Pier in Weston-Super-Mare, England, and SEGABits will be there to provide coverage! 

The official site for the convention can be found here. Currently donations are being accepted until September, and a mere £5 is all it takes to guarantee entry.

Will you be attending? Let us know in the comments!

Watch the full ‘Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation’ San Diego Comic Con panel


 
This past weekend, SEGAbits writers Ben, Shigs, and Nuckles hit San Diego Comic Con and SEGA’s game preview event located at the nearby Nerd HQ. While Comic Con isn’t as game centric as E3, there was quite a bit of SEGA goodness to be found. We were able to check out the latest preview builds of Alien: Isolation and Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, as well as interview Archie Comics on the upcoming Sonic Boom comic book series. But the main event had to have been Sunday’s Console Wars panel. The panel, which centered around the SEGA and Nintendo rivalry of the 90’s, featured special guests Tom Kalinske (Sega of America), Al Nilsen (Sega of America), Bill White (Nintendo of America), and Perrin Kaplan (Nintendo of America), as well as Console Wars author Blake J. Harris and Julian Rosenberg, producer of the upcoming Console Wars documentary.

Thanks to Blake, Nuckles and Shigs were given the VIP treatment and secured some awesome seats – allowing us to film the panel and Q&A session and meet the SEGA and Nintendo legends! Check out the full panel above, and make sure to pick up your copy of Console Wars if you haven’t already!

Want more Console Wars discussion? Check out our three part interview series with Tom Kalinske, Al Nilsen, and Blake J. Harris.

Swingin’ Report Show #66: Interview with Roger Craig Smith, voice of Batman, Sonic the Hedgehog, and many more!


 
This week on the Swingin’ Report Show, hosts Barry and George welcome a guest who has helped shape the sound of SEGA’s speedy mascot – Roger Craig Smith, voice actor of Sonic the Hedgehog! Roger is also well known for voicing Batman, Captain America, Chris Redfield, Ezio Auditore, and more. Recent projects include Batman: Arkham Origins which features the recently released “Cold, Cold Heart” DLC pack and SEGA’s Sonic Boom which spans video games and a television show which release later this year.

Join us as we talk with Roger about voicing Gotham’s Dark Knight and Green Hill’s Blue Blur. Roger also provides details on how he got into the business, and has some great advice for aspiring voice actors. Yes, we even asked him about his work on Valkyria Chronicles and his earliest work as Sonic at Alton Towers.

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Editorial: False Positive: Sonic, the Media, and Wrongly Diagnosing the Problem

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The Sonic franchise has an image problem. It remains disrespected, discredited, and broadly misunderstood for years, not because his titles are consistently good, but rather because the good titles are often swept away and ignored in favor of snark towards past failures.  In this sense, games writers might as well joke about airline food or women drivers.  I’m not a marketing wizard, nor do I claim to have all the answers, but I do think it is important to highlight what the problems are and are not.  At the very least, the culture could stand to be snarky and dismissive about something that happened six months ago instead of six years.

SEGA Retrospective: Sonic the Hedgehog’s Classic Trilogy

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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.