Sonic HQ

Hold onto your pants, this is pretty HUGE.

Over the past weeks, Hidden Palace (along with The Cutting Room Floor) have been celebrating "Sonic Month" by releasing a number of brand new (well, "new") Sonic prototypes. Some super early Sonic CDs, a couple more Sonic 2s (out of like a dozen now!), a bit of Sonic Chaos, even a long lost Sega CD tech demo disc. But they saved the biggest and best for last.

This is the earliest known prototype for Sonic the Hedgehog 3. It has unfinished levels. It has Sonic 2 sprites. It has scrapped animations. It has special stages that are basically just tech demos.

But get this... it also has MUSIC FROM THE PC VERSION. Sonic & Knuckles Collection included a number of different songs from the original Genesis release. It was thought that these songs were replacements for the Michael Jackson (and friends) tracks... but it turns out the MJ tracks were actually replacements for what ended up in the PC release!!

• Here's a Youtube playlist of the full soundtrack
• Here's the news post from Hidden Palace, which goes in-depth about the history of this proto and the game's development
• And here's the HP page for the proto itself (including a certain kinda link)

Give thanks to drx & co. for this monumental release! \o/

A couple years ago, Jon Burton, founder of Traveller's Tales, shared pictures of a cassette tape made during the development of Sonic 3D Blast. This tape contained demos of the game's soundtrack, composed by Jun Senoue. These demos were created with keyboards and submitted for approval before being programmed into the game using the Genesis' sound chips.

Today, those tracks were finally released! ...Partially. The video above plays the first three songs on the tape: two variations of the opening and the "Powerup" theme. Presumably, more will be uploaded in the following days. Keep an eye on the GameHut YouTube channel for further uploads, and check out tons of behind-the-scenes content regarding classic Traveller's Tales games, including Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic R!

Well it's been 20 years since the Dreamcast was released in America on the fabled 9-9-99. Though its life was short, its impact was large. The Dreamcast brought a number of innovations to the table, most notably bringing online gaming to the forefront of the console space, even including a humble 56k modem built into the device.

Sega was at their absolute creative peak during this era, releasing fresh, original experiences one after another. Games like ChuChu Rocket, Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, REZ, Samba de Amigo, Seaman, Shenmue, Space Channel 5, and more, all had their own unique identities and were unlike anything else on the market -- even to this day in many cases.

Let's not forget the third parties, either. Capcom went absolutely ham on that thing, bringing over a huge number of their arcade hits, including some home favorites like Resident Evil and Dino Crisis. The Dreamcast also tended to house the best versions of multiplat titles released during the PSX/N64 generation with stuff like Tony Hawk, Soul Reaver, Rayman 2, et cetera. On top of that, it's still receiving physical homebrew releases to this day. That's some hardcore dedication.

Though it's been said millions of times, the Dreamcast truly does have an incredible library, especially considering it only had a shelf life of around two years. Though its life was unfortuately cut short, as the old quote goes... "it's better to burn out than to fade away."

Happy 20th, Dreamcast.

Cartoon Network has announced that SEGA’s Sonic the Hedgehog will guest star in a special upcoming episode of the animated series, OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes. In the episode titled, “Let’s Meet Sonic,” the iconic hedgehog visits the plaza, teaming up with KO to save the day!

“Let’s Meet Sonic” will premiere on Sunday, August 4 at 4:45 pm (ET/PT) on Cartoon Network. The episode will also be available on the Cartoon Network app.

OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes follows K.O., an endlessly optimistic kid attempting to be the greatest hero he can be in a video game inspired world set in Lakewood Plaza Turbo. Created by Ian Jones-Quartey and produced by Cartoon Network Studios, OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes delivers a powerful punch of humor and action filled with touching moments and heartwarming characters working together to build a strong community. Every person is a hero to look up to, every challenge is a chance to grow stronger and every success or failure is just another stepping stone to becoming the ultimate hero.

Ian JQ used to be member here at SHQ at the older forums. Now we have Sonic and Tails guest starring in his cartoon. How wild is that?

Sonic the Hedgehog movie producer Tim Miller has spoken out about his experience regarding the backlash of Sonic’s intial movie design, and hints at his opinion of the redesign via Variety.

Via an interview for Terminator: Dark Fate, Miller was asked about the negative response to the first Sonic movie trailer. To his credit, Miller agreed that Jeff Fowler, the movie’s Director, had made all of the right moves in regards to his response, as seen in this excerpt:

You’re an executive producer on “Sonic the Hedgehog,” which was also due out in November but pushed to redesign the main character after fans protested. How was that experience?

When “Sonic” arrived, the director, Jeff Fowler, was the best guy to do it. The redesign? Look, I was with fans and so was Jeff. This is a franchise, and it has to be great. When the s–t hit the fan, I went over there and said, “The most important thing to do, man, is say, ‘I f–ked up.’” He’d already sent a tweet out an hour before I got there. He’s a good man. It was exactly the right way to handle that. The fans have a voice in this too. There’s a right way to listen.

Have you seen any of the character redesign?

In fact I have. And I think the fans will be pleased.

Stay tuned for more Sonic the Hedgehog news as it comes.

2021 will be a big year for Sonic, as the character and the franchise as a whole will be turning 30 years old. According to Sonic Team boss Takashi Iizuka, the team wants to take on a new kind of challenge for the the series’ big milestone.

Iizuka shared that news in a recent interview with 4Gamer. During the same discussion, he was also asked about the possibility of Sonic crossing over into eSports territory. Given the nature of the main games, Iizuka believes it’s unlikely. Other genres may be a better fit for the idea, however.

Here’s the full exchange between 4Gamer and Iizuka:

Well, after 7 years, we finally got a new Sonic kart racer. But how's it stack up to the previous game? Find out in the review~

PS4 owners who subscribe to PlayStation Plus now are able to download Sonic Mania at no additional cost. 

The likelyhood of anyone who visits this site and hasn’t already played this game is probably close to zero but if you have friends who may not have been convinced to buy it and have PS+, now’s the time to tell them to download it. 

And if you haven’t tried it and are reading this and subscribe, what are you waiting for?

Sega tweeted out the last 12(!) games for the Genesis Mini. No Sonic games this time around. That means no S3&K, which I sort of predicted. But it also means no 3D Blast... take that as you will.

Third party highlights on the western side include Strider, Road Rash II, and the particularly rare hidden gem Alisia Dragoon. One odd choice is often-overlooked Light Crusader, the black sheep of Treasure's Genesis output. Another nice surprise is the excellent Monster World IV, which got its first English release (worked on by M2) on the Wii Virtual Console in 2012.

But the big left-field surprises come from two additional games. One is a port of the classic Taito shmup Darius. The sequel got a release back in the day, but this port of the first game is... brand new?! The second game is... Tetris! This port of Sega's arcade version was slated to be released for the Genesis/Mega Drive, but a whole mess of rights issues held it back. It's rumored that only around 10 copies of the game made it out the door, making this probably the rarest game on the console.

Japan had another livestream with the team behind the project. As usual, their lineup differs quite a bit from the western one. They got a few RPGs and shooters, many of which never got an western release to begin with. They also showed off the menu with all 42 games. It looks pretty clean, though I'm sure that tiny Fanatsy Zone box will annoy some (lol).

The stream also revealed the bizarre and hilarious "Mega Drive Tower Mini" accessory set, including a miniature Mega CD, 32X, Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic 1 cartridges. Build the tower of your dreams.

With all 42 games revealed, I'm sure everyone will have a few games they're disappointed to see omitted. I thought for sure Rocket Knight Adventures and Ristar would be shoe-ins. But the lineups are pretty solid all around (though personally I find the western selection a little underwhelming in comparison to the Japanese). It's certainly an eclectic selection of games, and Sega really went above and beyond what anybody expected with this thing.

Official websites: US | JP

The results are in for Team Sonic Racing in the UK and it has surpassed Sonic and Sega All Stars Transformed by more than double after seven years in the garage! According to the UK Boxed Charts report for the week ending May 25th, Team Sonic Racing toped the All Formats Chart, more than doubling the launch week sales of its predecessor, 2012's Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. In fact, this is the first time a Sonic the Hedgehog game has topped the charts since Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games managed that feat in 2008.

Remember, as of now we only have physical data in the UK so with digital there's no doubt it's way higher as digital has significantly risen since 2012.

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