HUGE Sega/Sonic sales on LIVE and PSN

Virtua-Fighter-5-02

Time to transfer your titles to digital and save some money while doing it! Both PSN and X-Box LIVE have big savings on some of your favorite Sega titles. On PSN, you get the “Sonic Master Collection”. It’s 7 Sonic titles and their DLC for $29.99. This includes Sonic Adventures 1 & 2, Sonic CD, Sonic 1 & 2 and Sonic 4 Episodes 1 & 2.

But X-Box LIVE has even bigger sales! Get Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Generations, Sega Superstar Tennis or Condemned for only $9.99! Sonic 4 Episodes 1 & 2 are 400 points ($4.99) each while Space Channel 5 Part 2, Sega Bass fishing, Guardian Heroes, Sonic 1, 2, 3 and Knuckles plus Sonic CD are a mere 160 Points ($2) each. Sonic Adventure 1 also comes in at 160 points while Sonic Adventure 2 is 400 points. Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, Crazy Taxi, NiGHTS, Daytona USA HD and Jet Set Radio Come in at 400 points. Also, check out The Cave and Renegade Ops coming in at 600 and 320 points respectively. There’s big savings on the DLC as well, so hurry up and don’t miss out!

Third Sonic game isn’t coming this year

Marioandsonictweet

Despite what Nintendo of Germany’s press release said last week, SEGA has confirmed to IGN’s Richard George that the third Sonic game will not be arriving this year. This means that the third game in Nintendo’s three game deal may be more than a digital title or a spin off. It also means that this exclusive deal won’t be ending for a little while. Will Nintendo fans be getting another main Sonic title next year? Guess we’ll just have to wait and see!

Nintendo Germany says third Sonic title coming this year

Mario-and-Sonic-Final1

According to Sonic Stadium, it was confirmed in a Nintendo Germany press release yesterday that the third Sonic title in the SEGA/Nintendo partnership will be coming this year. According to TSS, the press release said:

Today, they (Sega) revealed further details of the second of three titles, which the two companies will release exclusively on Wii U and 3DS. All three games will be released this year.

Three Sonic titles arriving in a single year? Provided they are all new releases, this could be the largest number of Sonic titles slated for a single year since 2010. What kind of game could this third release be? It is unlikely to be another platforming adventure and a sequel to the All Stars franchise so soon after the last entry seems extremely unlikely. SEGA’s announced SKUs for the Wii U does leave room for one more packaged title provided SEGA is publishing, but it could very well be a digital title. Perhaps Nintendo fans will finally get their taste of Sonic 4 Episode 2, or maybe even an all new digital title.

We will just have to see. Hopefully, more will be revealed as we get closer to E3.

New arcade game Sonic Athletics to release April 25th at Tokyo Joypolis

sonicathletics2
 
Via the Tokyo Joypolis website and The Sonic Stadium comes news of a new Sonic arcade game set to release at the Japanese arcade on April 25th. Dubbed Sonic Athletics, the game features a line of eight treadmills set in front of vertical screens depicting a track stadium. Players choose from Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Amy, Metal Sonic, Silver, and Blaze and begin running. The faster you run, the faster your character runs. First to the finish wins. Pretty simple game, but quite a slick looking setup. I wonder if the arcade staff allows boosting? After the break, check out a few more images of the new game.

New Sonic toys revealed at New York Toy Fair 2013

jazwarestoys2013

The super Sonic fans over at The Sonic Stadium have come across a bevy of photos from the Jazwares booth at the 2013 New York Toy Fair. Jazwares, who has the license for Sonic toys, has a few new items planned for release this year. While nowhere near as big as the 20th anniversary line of toys, some of the new toys are pretty cool. Spotted in the photos are Sonic branded disc shooters, Sonic and Shadow masks, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed figures of Shadow and Sonic with their vehicles in jet form, mini-figures of various All-Stars Racing Transformed vehicles, a life-size ring that lights up when held, and plushes of Metal Sonic, Silver and Super Sonic. To see more images, check out the article over at The Sonic Stadium!

Upcoming Sonic merch – History of Sonic Collector’s Edition and SEGA teams with Sambro to create board games and puzzles

SEGA’s longtime mascot has some cool new pieces of merchandise for 2013. First up is a Collector’s Edition of Pix’n Love’s The History of Sonic book. The History of Sonic has had a long and interesting history (well, interesting to Sonic nerds). The book began as a Collector’s Edition exclusive to France and in the French language. Soon, fans found that even if they didn’t speak a lick of French they could still order the book. Then, Pix’n Love announced an English version was to be made for the UK with international shipping available. Fans cancelled their French orders, awaited an English release and… nothing happened. That is, until Canadian publisher Udon picked up the book, refined the English translation and released it just this past December.

Just a month after the book’s release in North America, Pix’n Love’s English site has announced a Collector’s Edition of the book, which features an alternate cover, and each is individually numbered out of a total of 1,000. Aside from that, it looks to be the same book as the standard Udon edition. The price is £29.99 plus shipping, and the book is available to order now. Keep in mind, however, that the Amazon price is only $31 and the Collector’s Edition is over $47 plus tax. After the break, a bit of board game news.

Sonic, Eggman and Neff make the blu-ray cover art for Wreck-It Ralph

Disney has just revealed the cover art for the blu-ray releases of Wreck-It Ralph, and look who made both covers! Sonic stands alongside main characters Ralph and Felix in the gold bordered Ultimate Collector’s Edition release, with SEGA villains Eggman and Neff on either side. Meanwhile, the standard blu-ray release features Sonic, Eggman and Neff amongst other video game icons. Price and release date have yet to be revealed, but expect them to go for above or around $20 on release and to hit in March/April of next year.

SEGA teases new mobile game Sonic Jump, coming soon

The image and the headline are all we know for now, but based on the name and platform it looks like Sonic will soon be entering the run and jump genre. To be honest, I don’t know why SEGA hasn’t done this sooner. Sonic the Sketchhog and Nike had run and jump Sonic games, but both were free promos available to play for only a limited time. This time out, they might make some money on it. Either as a free game that relies on in-app purchases or an inexpensive one time purchase.

Edit: I just realized that Sonic Jump was in fact a mobile phone game released back in 2005, which played a bit like Doodle Jump (released in 2009). So this could either be a port or an updated version of the game. After the break, check out some original Sonic Jump gameplay.

Sonic to appear in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for at least two more years

According to the LinkedIn account of a former SEGA employee, a giant Sonic can be expected to float through New York for another two years in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. As a part of his accomplishments at SEGA, former Senior Director Of Marketing Darren Williams writes:

Since 2009 my team delivered 5 new company benchmarks for product reservations and retail sell in as well as eye catching mass market promotions such as securing three year videogame category exclusive rights at the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Given that Sonic debuted in the parade last year, this means we’ll be seeing him for at least another two years. Perhaps even more if SEGA manages to renew or extend the contract. Another possibility is that SEGA could debut a different balloon, given that Darren didn’t specifically state “Sonic”, but rather exclusive rights in the videogame category. However, given Sonic’s popularity, I can’t see them replacing him with another character. In any case, kudos to Darren for securing that three year deal!

Thanks to Shadzter of SSMB for sharing the news.

Sonic to have more appearances in Wreck-It Ralph

Yes, that is Sonic the Hedgehog on a movie poster. We’ve known for some time that Sonic was getting a cameo in Disney’s upcoming film Wreck-It Ralph, and at Sonic Boom we thought we may have seen that cameo. As it turns out, probably not! In a recent interview with TOTAL FILM, Wreck-It Ralph producer Clark Spencer discussed and another scene featuring Sonic, while discussing the input video game companies had over the course of the movie’s production.

“We had a scene where we wanted the rings to come out of Sonic, and SEGA said the only way that happens is if he falls over, and we didn’t have him fall over in the scene, so we actually went back and re-animated it.”

If you want to read the interview in full, check out the source below. A poster featuring Eggman standing alongside Q*Bert, M. Bison and an original Wreck-It Ralph character is posted below the break.

Wreck-It Ralph poster features Sonic, Eggman and Demon God Neff

Well this is a surprise! Sonic, Eggman and Demon God Neff of Altered Beast ended up on the final poster for Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph. I was looking forward to the movie, but now I’m looking forward to picking up the poster for my game room. Also on the poster are characters from Q*Bert, Street Fighter, and Clyde of Pac-Man fame. As the poster states, Wreck-It Ralph releases November 2nd in the United States. No word on where you can buy the poster yet, but it should appear on movie poster sites soon. In the meantime, you can see a larger version here.

Update: Two new trailers has released for the movie, and fans have spotted Sonic in another scene. Check them out after the break and thanks to CosmicCastaway for the tip!

Upcoming book answers the age-old question of “Where’s Sonic?”

While we can’t report on EVERY piece of Sonic merchandise (if we did that, we’d be up to our necks in pencil cases, DVDs, statues, figures and the occasional toothbrush), we do like to share the unique and awesome items emblazoned with Sonic’s mug. “Where’s Sonic?: A Search-And-Find Adventure” is definitely of the unique category. It’s a Where’s Waldo/Wally style book in which fans try and find Sonic as well as other items as they litter recognizable zones and stages from the franchise. Currently the book is only listed in the UK and Australia. Amazon UK is taking pre-orders for £2.99 with free shipping within the UK. The release date is October 11th, so until then try to find Shadow creeping in the shadows in the image above.

Official Sonic Monopoly board revealed

Via the USAopoly Facebook page comes the finished board for the upcoming Sonic Monopoly game. Just standing back and looking at it, it’s a really great looking board! Graphics look nice, a ton of zones and stages are represented. And unlike the Nintendo Monopoly game, thought has been put into the properties. Seriously, the Nintendo Monopoly was garbage compared to this beauty. Players bought characters like property and built houses on them. How does that work? Gives a whole new meaning to Hotel Mario. After the break, a full listing of the properties.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed gameplay trailer reveals After Burner track and more!

Today SEGA has released a brand new trailer for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and it’s a must watch for any SEGA fan. Not only does the game looks pretty darn sweet, but it also confirms a few more tracks including an After Burner track named “Carrier Zone” where you race around air craft carriers, a track based on Starlight Carnival of Sonic Colours fame named “Galactic Parade” and a Samba de Amigo stage based on a movie studio named “Samba Studios”. But most exciting of all, for me, is that there is a track based on Skies of Arcadia, entitled “Rogues Landing”. Consider my timbers well and truly shivered! Names for previously revealed tracks have also been named: NiGHTS will race through “Dream Valley” and the special/bonus edition of the game will feature OutRun’s “OutRun Bay”.

See if you can spot anything I’ve missed, and after the break check out the first screen of the Seaside Hill track named “Ocean View.

Sonic the Hedgehog to cameo in Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph

We’ve known of Eggman’s cameo in the upcoming Disney movie Wreck-It Ralph, as well as a few other SEGA cameos, but what about SEGA’s mascot Sonic the Hedgehog? At the Comic Con Wreck-It Ralph panel it was revealed that Sonic will in fact appear in the movie by way of a PSA warning video game characters that if they die in a game that is not their own, they will not regenerate and will cease to exist permanently. No word on who will be voicing Sonic, or if he will be speaking at all, but fingers crossed for Roger Craig Smith. It would just be odd to hear yet another voice coming from Sonic. I’d assume that the proper voice would be something SEGA would require when using the character, given it’s their brand and not Disney’s. Wreck-It Ralph, along with a slew of retro and modern video game characters, hits theaters this November in the US.