Articles By WB

Sonic The Hedgehog #93
Written by Karl Bollers
Art by James Fry
Inks By Andrew Pepoy.

Sonic returns to Knothole and finds himself in hot water because of the missing Sword of Acorns! Angered by the frosty reception, he hastily leaves with Tails, Rotor and Mina. Sonic blames himself and can't stop thinking about the sword. And Robotnik is also angry over the lost Sword of Acorns, terrified it will get in rebel hands and actually restore free will to those he's imprisoned. The facts don't stop Robotnik, however: he pretends to have the Sword in a nefarious plot to hoodwink the newly arrived Overlanders...

Now keep in mind - Thanks to Sega stepping in at a SERIOUS last minute, previews were changed and it was announced here that Sonic 92 is being forcibly made into the Sonic Shuffle preview. That issue was supposed to have the lead being the "The Wrath Of Khan" and a Knuckles backup. Whether that main story has been pushed out (which tied into this issue) or whether the Knuckles backup has been pushed out (which would make more sense considering the timeframe it was given to Archie by SEGA), we don't know yet. We'll try to let you know if we do. Peace out! :)

Reports out of Japan indicate that Sonic Team is keen on the whole worldwide launch thing. Apparently, Sonic Adventure 2 is now set for a worldwide simultaneous release, meaning gamers in America, Japan and Europe (but probably not Australia - as usual :( ) will take to the speedy blue hedgehog's latest exploits at around the same time.

So no waiting this time for an indefinite period in America - and gamers in Japan won't have to shell out cash at some later date for an improved version of the game. In theory at least - Phantasy Star Online was originally scheduled for simultaneous worldwide release, but the US version is coming out one month later. Hey - one month is close enough! :)

Source: IGN DC

I had been wondering why I couldn't get into Gamefan to find news (let alone even loading it) and now I know why. I can't think of any Sonic websites that are hosted there but if you know any of them it may be wise to tell them to move before tomorrow or find a temporary spot.

Following a turbulent merger with Express.com, GameFan appears to have pulled the plug on all of its hosted websites. The main GameFan website is down (supposedly for an almost permanent period) while popular sites such as VoodooExtreme are unreachable. Apparently Express.com found hosting sites to be "no longer supported under our business model." A full version of the email sent out to hosted sites appears below.

Dear GameFan Network Associate:

We regret to inform you that Express.com will no longer be offering the courtesy of hosting services to its GameFan Network Associates. We have found that this service can no longer be supported under our business model, and we will do whatever we can within reason to facilitate any transitional requirements. The timing for this is as soon as possible, and is to occur no later than Monday, October 2, 2000. To be clear, any GameFan Network Associate site that has not been moved off Genuity s servers by 11:59 PM October 2nd will effectively be shut down, so it is critical that you take independent action to retrieve and independently procure hosting provider for your site(s).

A pretty rotten thing to do on such extremely short notice. :( Good luck to those hosted with them.

An addendum to True Red's post, here is EVERYTHING that I could culminate from the chat. VERY BIG THANKS to Brian Sapinski and True Red for filling in gaps and posting since I could not attend.

Sonic Team has opened the Phantasy Star Online webpage which looks pretty darned sweet! ^__^ Available in English you can find such things as whats new, basic information, character profiles, techniques, and weapons! ^_^

Click the picture to access the English portion of the page.

Source: Sonic Team

Regardless of how SoA's arcade division treats us, there's no questioning the fact that the DC division loves us. Remember how "Livin' La Vida Loca" and "Cup of Life" had to be removed from the DC version of Samba in Japan due to licensing issues? (Sony Music Entertainment ***grrr*** holds the rights to all Ricky Martin songs, in case you're behind the curve.) But we'll put up with no such nonsense on these proud shores, where freedom rings eternal! The US tracklist for Samba de Amigo has been released, and guess which two songs are in it? The bad news is that neither one (or Chumbawumba's Tubthumping, for that matter) are being performed by the original artists. Aw hell, who needs Ricky Martin anyway? Here's the complete tracklist, as well as the list of downloadable songs to be made available through the Samba homepage:

Source: Neo Green Hill Zone

Meet Pinobee.

About a year ago at this time, there were a million wicked rumors circulating about Sonic Team, ranging from the unlikely (Sonic Team splits into three divisions: the Naka division, the Ohshima division, and the Iizuka division) to the unearthly (Sonic Team breaks up). But as with any rumor, it all stems from a (usually) harmless truth, and the truth in this scenario is that a number of key Sonic Team players left Sega to form their own development house: Artoon.

Green Gibbon (who originally revealed this) isn't sure at this point exactly which members of the Team defected during the upheaval, but the big word going around is that Naoto Ohshima is among the list of traitors. Actually, it kind of makes sense. Ohshima's style of direction is very mellow and fantasy-based, but the recent Team trend is towards off-the-wall, "wacky-cool" styles ala Samba De Amigo. It's not hard to predict just what we can expect from Artoon...think along the lines of Sonic CD and Ristar, both of which were made by certain members of Sonic Team.

Artoon's first independent project, Pinobee: Quest of Heart for the Game Boy Advance, ideally reflects the sense of fantasy direction found in the aforementioned titles (as well as NiGHTS). Players control Pinobee, a robotic bee who dreams of becoming real. (The name is actually a play on "Pinocchio.") Apparently, it's an action platformer with luscious hand-painted backgrounds and rendered characters. Pinobee: Quest of Heart is being published in Japan by Hudson. Other titles from Artoon include a couple of cell phone games not really worth mentioning, but if you absolutely must know about them, you can read all the gunky details here (in Japanese, of course).

Source: Neo Green Hill Zone

Microsoft has started the hype machine yet again to plug their upcoming videogame console, the X-box, with a press conference showing off 3rd-Party support for the console in a conference in San Francisco, London and Tokyo. To help kick the announcement off, Microsoft also showed off a demo reel of numerous titles headed towards the console, including a curious platformer that looks an awful lot like a hedgehog we know and love. After seeing the footage, it became obvious that the spikey lookalike was not Sonic, but just to help cut off the rumor mill on UseNet before it even gets started, IGN DC contacted Sega for the official word on the identity of this masked hop-aholic. Heather Hawkins, Manager of Gaming Press Relations for Sega of America stated, "That is not Sonic. Sure looks like him, though. There are no plans whatsoever to release a Sonic title on X-box."

So sorry, kids. Much like the rumor of Nintendo and Sega co-developing an RPG, this one is obviously a heap of bunk. As for the true identity of the title, no one knows who this Sonic wanna-be is, but rest assured that we'll keep an eye out for the guilty party should he pop up again.

As far as that Sonic/Mario RPG. Its been conflicting as to whether its valid or not everywhere, which it probably isnt (Ages and Odnetnin? Really now. ^___^) So no one knows for sure even though its one of the biggest whoppers I've seen. ^_^ But it certainly is fun to imagine what it WOULD be if it is. Hehehe

Source: IGN DC

I would KILL for that Sonic T-Shirt...

In fact - I would kill for over half the items I'm about to show you guys from something I found called "The Sonic Fashion Project". While searching through my translator some more, I've found some pretty awesome pictures of various items and merchandise within the Sonic store in Nagoya Japan. Clothing, plushies, jackets, giftboxes. The AMOUNT of stuff on the page is AMAZING. I never knew Sonic Teams page went into all this stuff. And I know I'd go practically BROKE in this store in Nagoya. See for yourself - :)

Believe it or not - Gamecube was the name that was supposed to have been Dreamcast! ;)

Yuji Naka posts a column to Sonic Team's web page every now and then (see previous and below articles), and the latest entry contains an interesting revelation. Apparently, when Sega was deciding upon the name for its new 128-bit console, Sonic Team looked at the shape of the system and suggested "G-Cube." If Sega had taken Sonic Team's advice, we may just have ended up with the Sega G-Cube instead of the Sega Dreamcast. Hmm… perhaps Nintendo would have then opted to release the Nintendo Dreamcast?

Source: IGN DC