Sonic HQ

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.

Source

Director Jeff Fowler just announced the news on Twitter. Fowler says the team is taking time “to make Sonic just right.” The new release date is February 14, 2020. That’s a little more than three months after the original release date. It also means that Sonic will no longer hit theaters during the lucrative holiday season. However, it will probably have less competition in its new February slot.

Many fans had wondered if they could fix the CGI that quickly and the answer was no. Reception was mostly negative when the original trailer was released. Even the creators of Sonic, Yuji Naka and Naoto Oshima weren't happy with the designs. Now we can have assurance that they are really going to take the time necessary to fix the design of Sonic. It won't get that sweet holiday slot anymore, however it's likely to do better in February with less competition for cinema dollars.

And as always, stay tuned to Sonic HQ for all of the latest Sonic-related news!

The same people behind the Sea3on fan comics(Fans United For SATAM) who answer the question, "what if the story in SatAm didn't stop so abruptly?" are now working their hardest to make an animated version of "Sea3on." Sea3on tells the continuing struggle of the Freedom Fighters, now up against new enemies and on new adventures as if the story never ended! They have recently acquired lots of talent to help with this project. They have found an amazing story board artist for the project, a VA director,  past and current S3 staff, as well as a handful of industry professionals that have also expressed interest in getting an animated episode up and running ranging from background painters to music composers.

They have launched a patreon to help with funding for the animation(as it can be costly) as well as to provide a place where you will be getting updates, story boards, animation bits (Including a promo animation we pushed out) and much more.

Check out the press release on their site. They also have a Twitter account to follow updates. Let us know in the comments and/or forum if you would like to see this become a thing and also let us know if you've followed their fan comics.