Sonic HQ25 Years & Counting!

Howdy folks! Dub here - it's been a LONG TIME coming, a LONG TIME waiting, and a LONG TIME in getting it here - but I can assure you the waits are more than worth it! Today - for the month of December we present what I've promised you since the anniversary: The SHQ Interview with Daniel J. Drazen! And if thats not enough to appease you, we even got an interview with Alison "Sonique" Scharlemann - THE Sonique credited with Sonic Pandemonium, Perfect Chaos, the late Shadow Of Light, and now FUS: the online fight to get one of the fandom's cartoons back on the air!

I can guarantee that these are two of the biggest and neatest fan interviews we've ever done, so get to reading!

Daniel J. Drazen - Would you believe he's one of the oldest and most well respected Sonic The Hedgehog fans online? Have you ever wondered who that well spoken dude on the mailing lists is who consistently churns out reviews of the Archie Sonic Comics every month since..oh, Sonic #18? :) Or have you heard of the infamous fanfic called Mobius Apocalypse? From Archie, to its writers, to Sega, to writing fanfiction, to practically everything else as well as tips for the young aspiring writer and whats new, take a peek and get to know Daniel J. Drazen - one of the cream of the crop among Sonic fans.

Sonique - She can be one of the nicest people you meet if you talk to her, but cross her the wrong way and she wont hesitate to tell you what she thinks. ^__^ She's vocal, she's outspoken and she's one of the most well known long-time webmasters in the Sonic fandom! Her name is Alison Scharlemann, but you all know her as the unique "Sonique"! From Sonic Pandemonium, to Shadow Of Light, to currently FUS, join us as we have a sit with tonights lady of the evening and discuss whats new since we last saw her! And Sonic Underground fans, bring your flame retardant sheets ready...Prepare for a liitle Pandemonium - Sonique Style! :O) (Note: ***There is some mild language left in to keep the interview in tact)

Thats it for today! Read those and then check out our Poll Position below! And feel free to discuss anything you read there on the Station Square MB!

Howdy folks! And welcome to our brand spanking new "End Of The Year" Poll Position! This month, the Sonic The Hedgehog #100 Speculation Poll as well as Sonic #88 and Sonic Super Special #14 Reader Reviews! Also 2 new polls and 4 new reader reviews of Archie Sonic 89-91 and a special review for reader input concerning Sega's new videogame release of the party game Sonic Shuffle! Considering we've got a lot of ground to cover, lets get right to the point:

There was only one question on this months Poll Position and that was - What event would you like to see happen sometime within the timespan of Sonic 100? (Choose 5 Answers)

Here are the final results.....

**twitches violently**

I'm not sure if this has been posted already - but who cares!!!! TRUST ME: It's worth being posted a second time. ^__^

How would you like a Sonic Greatest Hits compliation on Dreamcast? And no - we're not talking about stuff like the Sonic & Knuckles Collection or Sonic CD on PC. We're talking EVERYTHING from the Genesis Sonics, to the Saturn Sonics, to _MAYBE_ a rerelease of Knuckles Chaotix. Yes: You read that right. O__O All of this _AND_ Sonic Adventure 2!

Grab your analog stick for this one: rumors have floated over from Japan about a Sonic Compilation for early next year in celebration of the blue hedgehog's 10th anniversary. This will not be a meager helping of hits... you'll be graced with ALL the Sonic games from the Genesis to the Saturn baby, including Sonic 1, 2, and 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic R, Sonic Spinball, and other rumors are saying Knuckles Chaotix too. No word on anything anywhere of the 8 bit Game Gear's like Triple Trouble, Sonic 1 and 2, Sonic Chaos, and Sonic Blast. But I thik the above is more than enough ^^

If youre a Sonic and/or Knuckles fan, you should be pretty much drooling and quivering like mad now! ^__^

Granted this may be just a rumor after all, and Sega of America has heard nothing of such a compilation coming form the land of the rising sun. Then again, they may either be keeping this two GD-ROM compilation under heavy secrecy, or perhaps this compilation may not come to the States after all.

We'll keep you informed as more information rises. And we hope (and pray) that this rumor is true and that such a compilation will be released next year. A rumor always has its roots, and perhaps they're buried somewhere deep in Sega Japan...I cannot WAIT until February. :D

Source: Sega X

It's TWO - TWO - TWO TIMES THE FUN! But where on earth is our little 2-tailed kitsune Tails?

At least thats what the major videogame sites are saying concerning the latest Sonic Adventure 2 demo (which is RUMORED to be in one of the next ODCM's). From these off the wall "Nails The Bat" new character rumors, to the Dark Sonic, to the missing Tails, to the now playable Eggman its obvious that we're in for a 1oth Anniversary treat either way!

You've seen the IGN article below. Here's the Daily Radar scoop:

The wily Sega had many surprises in store for the assembled throng of videogame journalists at the company's Executive Games Summit, which was held last month in San Francisco. At the two-day event, Sega showed off approximately 30 titles, all of them scheduled to come to Dreamcast in the year 2001. It was a glorious overdose of all things Sega and, for reasons unknown to all but the people who put the event together, certain materials were made off limits for coverage; a nondisclosure agreement provided Sega the legal right to assault those who discussed certain games before a certain date with flesh-eating beavers. With the passing of December 7 (the infamous day when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, forcing the United States into the global conflict known as World War II), the nondisclosure has lapsed on Sega's Sonic Adventure 2. Now it is safe to say that Sega showed the game's first level at the Executive Games Summit, and it was spectacular.

The game will celebrate Sonic's 10th anniversary, and centers around the creation of a new and sinister ultimate weapon, which happens to look a lot like a black hedgehog. The game will look similar to the original Dreamcast launch title Sonic Adventure, and will feature Sonic, his echidna pal Knuckles, the vile Dr. Robotnik and those beloved virtual pets, Chaos.

Sonic Team's Takashi Izuka, the man who created NiGHTS for the Sega Saturn (and who refused to comment about the game being made for the Dreamcast), was on hand to show off Adventure 2. He brought both a brief preview movie of the game, as well as a working demo of its first level. The movie showed brief flashes of gameplay, all fueled by pounding guitar sermons that seem to be the hallmark of such promotional material. Sonic himself was shown skyboarding, sliding down an anonymous hilly town with cable cars (San Francisco), using his board to grind along rails, swinging on vines, interacting with chaos and being an all-around bad-ass.

The demo for the first level proved revelatory. The first series of levels is titled "The Trial" and begins with Sonic riding in an attack helicopter. At this stage, Sonic is a prisoner, but his captives, as well as their motives for capturing the beloved mascot, were not revealed. Nonetheless, the plucky hero escapes his bonds, and hurls himself out of the chopper. Gameplay begins when he lands on terra firma and starts sliding down the streets on a board. Here, Sonic was shown sliding at great speed and with great fluidity. (Izuka promised Adventure 2 would have a frame rate that improved on the original 30-fps Adventure.) During jumping tricks, he would rocket into the air and begin spinning wildly, Tony Hawk-style. In a fit of videogame goofiness, Sonic was also shown knocking cars aside on the way down. The demo concluded with a visually stunning scene of Sonic racing toward the front of the screen while being chased by a rampaging truck. It was clearly a tip of the hat to the mad killer whale scene in Adventure, but was nonetheless remarkable.

Izuka then answered a series of questions about the game -- that is, he answered by saying he was unable to answer. He passed on the question of online support for the game, although he did acknowledge there would be some. He did not comment on the possibility of NiGHTS for the Dreamcast, but was able to say that it would be possible to shift Sonic's movement while he's grinding down rails in Adventure 2.

All in attendance were allowed to play the game later that day. The demo sampled is the same one that will be packaged with the Japanese version of the online Dreamcast game Phantasy Star Online, although Sega showed it to American game fans first. A brief playtest revealed that the game did, in fact, run at about 60 or so fps, and had graphics that were both sharper and cleaner than those of the original Adventure. It was simply fun to play as well.

As an added bonus, Sega sent all in attendance a copy of the demo on the date that its nondisclosure agreement lapsed -- along with a nice note saying, inexplicably, that the playable copy of Sonic Adventure 2's first level was not to be written about until December 21. Expect a full preview, as well as many screens and movies, on that date.

Sounds cool, huh? Couple that with the news above and it looks like were gonna be in for some GOOD GAMING come the 10th Anniversary! Now all we need is to find out the full truth behind Tails and these unconfirmed Nails rumors and see what happens. ^__^ Does anyone else wonder if this "Nails" may be the Dark Sonic in question? For that we'll just have to see. For now though, you can also check out Videogames.com's review of the demo, as well as thier new screenshots shown here linked below.

SA2 Demo Review #2: Videogames.com

Source: Daily Radar

James Fry recently brought up some things concerning Mina The Mongoose's development on the Archie Mailing list in reference to a letter in response to Dan Drazen. An excerpt from the responsive letter is below:

Mina was always intended to be a mongoose, hence my remark wondering whether or not we made her species clear from the beginning. In point of fact, she was a mongoose before she was named Mina. The character was originally named Chloe, and changed to Mina at the 11th hour because so many of this book's female characters' names end in that "long-e" sound: Sally, Bunnie, Rosie, Amy... you get the idea. But the mongoose thing (clearly labeled on the character-design sheet Spaz sent me), the super-speed and the maybe = girlfriend thing have all been part of the plan for ages. I'm not saying stuff never gets made up on the fly, just that this certainly isn't one of them.

I wont reprint the full one. But check out the mailing list for more of the discussion. :)

Source: Archie Sonic Mailing List

Well - some are saying Sonic Shuffle is pretty good - some however are damning it to the lowest bowels of Sonicdom. Gamefan is one of the latter following echos of reviews from fans and VG pages alike as they've graced it with a whopping 42. :P Here's an excerpt from thier review:

One of the things that made Mario Party such a success were its fantastic mini-games, they were quick and easy to understand, and you were involved in one at least every turn. Sonic Shuffle’s mini-games really aren’t that swell--while a few are mindless and fun (like the wooden labyrinth game), most are either unnecessarily complex, banal, or just plain stupid. For example, in Sonicooking, one player flips a giant frying pan while the others try to stay inside and collect rings. There’s zero challenge to stay in the pan because the flipper cannot move it fast enough to knock you out. A safe cracking mini-game has you turning a knob ad as soon as the other player sees a “!”, they open the door. Whichever team can do this faster wins. Lame. And here’s the real kicker. You really don’t play that many mini-games during the course of play because you have to land on specific spaces to activate them, and there are really very few of them on the board. You don’t even get to complete in a free-for-all mini-game at the end of everybody’s turn like in Mario Party.

'Taint funny Sega! If you wish to read the entire review check out the Source Link below. Its not pretty....

Source: Gamefan's Shuffle Review

Ron cleaned out his mailbox yesterday and graced us with Sonic Mailing List potpourri from Ken Penders (in red and the actual letters in cyan)! I wont reproduce everything here (Go to Kens board or subscribe to the list ya lazy twit!) But I thought the Robo-Robotnik news was interesting enough to post here. ^__^

What I'm wondering is, if you wrote all of #51-present (with Mike Gallagher possibly doing the issue #3 reference story with Al and Cal like he did with "Opposites DETRACT") Would we be seeing Robo-Robotnik right now?

Yes, but as for how different than Karl has done, it's hard to say. Initially, when we killed off Robotnik in #50, Sega allowed us to do so with the provision he be brought back six to eight months later. We just kept pushing it off for as long as possible for a variety of reasons -- storyline, marketing and even production considerations. The only major difference is that I wouldn't have used the name Robo-Robotnik after explaining where he initially came from. I had planned to use Robotnik Mark 2 and avoid any confusion over the mattter.

Subscribe: Archie Sonic Mailing List

Here's something interesting...In recent days, it has been no secret that Dreamcast has been enormously benefiting from Sony's blunders in launching the PlayStation 2, with even Sega of America's President speaking on the matter.

Recently however, Sega X says that theyve been receiving word that something is not right in the World of Gaming... at least in America, anyway.

Barnes & Noble, owners of Babbage's Etc., Software Etc., Funcoland, Gamestop, and more, appear to be involved in what could be seen as blackmail. So what do they have to back this? Well, according to them theyve had numerous employees from stores owned by Barnes & Noble, reporting the news that the stores have been told to remove all X-Box advertising, and stop pushing Dreamcast as much. The rest from Sega X's article:

Sound rather unlikely? Well, we've went as far as to quote an employee of Software Etc. on the situation:

When I asked my district manager (about the situation), she said: "It is a company-wide mandate that we are to take down X-Box promotion materials." When I asked her why, she said that "we have obligations to other companies right now and we don't need to be pushing the X-Box." When I asked her if it was because of Sony, she said "That's possible but I'm not totally sure."

We've been hearing from other sources that Sony have indeed contacted Barnes & Noble regarding the situation.

So, is this Sony showing Microsoft-like bully boy tactics? We'd be surprised if this wasn't true, after hearing it from so many sources, there has to be one common link. It would be interesting to see if the law comes into play, but until then, we can't say any of this is concrete.

A good way to find out is to call your local store, or if you go in and see that most X-Box materials have been removed, then it is more than likely the case of Sony. As of this moment, Gamestop.com is still advertising X-box -KP

Source: Sega X