Articles By Buzz Bomber

Sonic Pinball Party is to be released in Europe this Friday, the 31st October. The publisher, THQ, apparently announced the date just yesterday.

Source: THQ UK

SEGA has posted the Japanese box art for Sonic Battle.

Source: SEGA of Japan

SEGA Europe has launched a website promoting Sonic Adventure DX (released 27th of June in Europe), which features screenshots, wallpapers, information on the 12 unlockable Game Gear games etc. The website is here.

Source: SEGA Europe

The last Mega Drive Sonic game has been released on RealOne Arcade. It's on this page. The full version costs $14.99.

Source: Sega.com

Xbox.com has posted an interview from E3 with Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka (the director). They mention some interesting points about how the different teams play and how they each have their own stories.

Source: Xbox.com

Sonic Spinball has been released on RealOne arcade. You can download it for free (for one hour), and the full version costs $14.99. Sonic 3D (most likely the Genesis version) will also be released in May 2003, according to Sega's RealOne page.

It seems that the option to lock onto Sonic 2 and 3 was not present in the RealOne version of Sonic & Knuckles, as this information was just copied off the box sleeve onto the information page, and not actually present in the game.

The palmtop Sega games, including Mean Bean Machine and the 8-bit Sonic the Hedgehog, will now be available for download on Zire 71 and Tungsten C palmtops, in addition to the Tungsten T.

Source: Sega.com

Sega's released Sonic & Knuckles on RealOne arcade. You can download an hour free trial of it via this page, which also shows the system requirements you'll need to run the game. If you don't have RealOne arcade, it gets downloaded onto your hard drive. You can buy the game for $14.99, which gives you unlimited access. According to Sega.com you can get the lock on extras for Sonic 2 and 3, but this may be only by the paid version, or not actually a feature of the RealOne version of the game.

Sonic 1, 2, 3 and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine are already available on RealOne arcade, and Sonic Spinball will apparantly be released later this month.

Sega have also released some Game Gear games for the Tungsten T palmtop, including the 8 bit versions of Sonic 1 and Dr. Robotniks Mean Bean Machine. This page has all the details.

Source: Sega.com

The European release date for Sonic Advance 2 has been put back from today, 21st March, to next Friday, the 28th. This is so the game coincides with the GBA SP's release.

Source: GAME, Amazon

The Japanese Sonic Team website had released some new information and images for Sonic Advance 2. (Note: I used a translator for some of this, so it may not be 100% accurate)

Firstly, the rather surprising return of Zero - it seems that he now resides in the bonus stages, now using an isometric runaround style similar to the Sonic CD bonus stages. It seems you have to defeat Zero to get a Chaos Emerald.

Also, some of Cream's moves are described.

Chao Attack
Apparantly this move is similar to Sonic's homing attack, probably meaning that there is a certain amount of automatic 'lock-on' to the enemy (be honest, you've been wanting to do this for a long time :b).

Fan Flight
This move looks somewhat similar to Tails' propellor flight. It seems enemies are also damaged on your way back down.

Chao Rolling Attack
As far as I can tell, this move is simply a spin attack but with Cheese the Chao doing the same thing, therefore increasing the chance of hitting the enemy.

There also seem to be new moves for all the characters. The first seems to be a 'boost', which as far as I can tell is where your character speeds up greatly after an extended period of running. This may take up rings, and it is possible only Sonic can do this.

Other moves are 'trick actions', which seem to be a kind of vertically downwards attack, including Knuckles' Drill Claw from SA2.

Also included on the new sub-site are some downloads including wallpapers and a movie. Check it out here. If you're having trouble navigating, the first link on the nav bar is home, the second some info on Cream and Cheese, the third info on new character moves, the fourth special stage information, the fifth some as yet undisclosed 'secrets' (Hmm...) and lastly the downloads section.

Source: Sonic Team

Some new Sonic Advance 2 screens were recently released on the Japanses version of the official Sonic Team website.

In these screens, there is a new female rabbit (?) character, which is apparantly followed by a chao, and is seems has the ability to glide or fly with her ears.

Source: Sonic Team