Sonic HQ

Today marks Sega's 60th anniversary, and to commemorate it, they've announced... the Game Gear Micro...! It comes in 4 different colors, each with (only) 4 different games:

• Black: Sonic the Hedgehog, Puyo Puyo Tsuu, OutRun, Royal Stone
• Blue: Sonic & Tails (aka Sonic Chaos), Gunstar Heroes, Sylvan Tale, Baku Baku Animal
• Yellow: Shining Force Gaiden, Shining Force Gaiden II, Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict, Nazo Puyo Arle no Roux
• Red: Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible, Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible Special, The GG Shinobi, Columns

The screen measures in at a microscopic 1.15 inches. The unit runs on 2 AAA batteries, or can be powered by USB. It has a mono speaker, but includes a headphone jack for stereo sound. It was developed by the Genesis Mini team, including M2.

The Game Gear Micro will launch on October 6 and retails for 4980 yen (roughly $50 USD). There seems to be a couple different collector sets, and preordering all 4 units will net you... the "Big Window Micro"... a miniaturized screen magnifyer that allows you to actually see the screen!

This is totally goofy, and totally gimmicky, but as someone who likes tiny electronics, I still find it pretty charming. I'm doubting it'll see a western release (at least not with these game lineups). If you're thinking of importing one, I'd say the blue one would have the smallest language barrier.

Official Japanese website

According to Variety, we will in fact be getting that Sonic Movie sequel!

Jeff Fowler will once again be directing and Pat Casey and Josh Miller writing. Hajime Satomi, Haruki Satomi and Tim Miller will be executive producing while Neal H. Moritz, Toby Ascher and Toru Nakahara will also be producing.

Little else is known such as the title of the film and its expected release. If we had to guess, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 would fit the bill. And then we just need the 3rd movie, which would introduce Knuckles be titled Sonic The Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles. It just has to be!

Sonic the Hedgehog is a solid, fun, family popcorn flick that did more-or-less what I expected of it.

Sonic's opening earnings are predicted to be between $40-45 million according to the latest tracking. This is looking positive for success. I have a feeling the movie will surprise and surpass expectations. We will see, what are you expectations? Let us know in the comments or in the forum!

According to the latest tracking, Paramount Pictures' Sonic the Hedgehog is expected to hit somewhere between $40 million and $45 million over the course of its opening weekend. Because it's set to release on February 14th, it has the benefit of not only opening on Valentine's Day, but having its opening fall over Presidents' Day weekend. Earlier tracking from Boxoffice Pro had suggested the movie might open somewhere between $20 million to $30 million. (These are all, of course, estimates, and not necessarily representative of the final box office totals.)

Just a few days ago SEGA released a reimagining of the track from Sonic 2 8-bit’s opening zone, Under Ground Zone. This is a Tee Lopes/Jun Senoue collaboration. Go ahead and check it out below!

Sonic Team and SEGA quickly started celebrating the new year(and decade), with a hashtag campaign on Twitter that may be used to promote upcoming Sonic projects! Here's to looking forward to a year of many new Sonic games, movie, merchandise, and possibly TV show!

????????新年あけましておめでとうございます????????
2020年は #SONIC2020 と題して様々なことにチャレンジしていきます！皆さんが今年チャレンジしたいことはなんですか？ #SONIC2020 で教えてくださいね★ 本年もソニックをよろしくお願いします????https://t.co/b2gLp7ZuVa#新年のご挨拶 #2020年 #ねずみ年 pic.twitter.com/EotbYZivTx

— ソニック委員会・ザ・ムービー (@sonic20th) December 31, 2019

FTR, these clues may not have anything to do with rumours suggesting Webber leaving SEGA. This was noted after he tweeted fans not to "worry too much" over the clues. He also appeared in DaveAce's livestream and said (not directly) that these rumours "are a lie" and "not true". https://t.co/ucGUZ8UDsZ

— Tails' Channel · Sonic News & Updates · ???? (@TailsChannel) January 1, 2020

Sonic's back in a new Humble Bundle this year. Now's your chance to grab a load of games for Steam on the cheap, and support charity while you're at it. Available here till December 17th.

$1 tier:

• Sonic Adventure 2 (+ Battle DLC)
• Sonic 3 & Knuckles (for Genesis Classics)
• Sonic CD
• Sonic 4, Episode 1
• Sonic Adventure DX

Beat the average:

• Sonic Generations
• Sonic Lost World
• Sonic 4, Episode 2
• Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing

$10 tier:

• Sonic Mania (+ Encore DLC)
• Sonic Forces

(Hey, if you're gonna play SADX, you gotta check out the BetterSADX mod to customize and improve your experience!)

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.