If you’re like me, you heard about vigiljeff‘s eBay auction for the original painting used for the United States’ and Europe’s cover of Night Trap, which wound up selling for more than $1,500 USD, just a little too late to do any bidding. However, it put the former Sega of America employee, who worked in the facilities department of the company, on the radar as a potential seller of rare goods.
vigiljeff is back on eBay this week with four new auctions: pre-production figures of Akira Yuki and Sarah Bryant, a framed print of the character from Sonic the Hedgehog in an admittedly pretty awesome frame with many characters from various DiC properties carved into it, but perhaps most interesting is the final item, an art scroll drawn by one of four Sonic Team employees who were flown into America to finish NiGHTS into Dreams in his spare time. In the auction description, vigiljeff explains:
Even though they spoke very little English and I spoke no Japanese, whenever they needed something, they would e-mail my department and I would get it up to them, so I got to be pretty good friends with them, especially one guy, and even if I could remember his name I couldn’t pronounce it.
But anyways, at night or when he had time, he would be working on this scroll painting & drawing and writing. I don’t even know what game the characters are from that one. I’m sure one of you gamers out there will know right off, or if someone can read Japanese the writing will tell you.
And the cool thing about all this, when I went to drop them off at SFO for [their] flight back home, I unloaded all [their] stuff onto two airport carts, the guy grabs this scroll out of one of his bags and hands it to me and in his best English says, ‘Thank you for all your help. This [is] for you.’
I didn’t know what to say, so I bowed my head to them and shook [their] hands and said have a safe flight and went back to work.
At any rate, any of these pieces would be great collector items to have, but the scroll in particular seems really interesting: a look into the mind of one Sonic Team employee during one of the most diverse times of creative output by the studio. Pictures of the scroll are below.
[via GameSetWatch]
So, if you were in New York City’s Bryant Park this weekend, you probably enjoyed the festivities of the Sonic Colo(u)rs pre-launch party. Despite the rain, Cash Cash played a set, demo units of Colo(u)rs were available for both the Nintendo DS and Wii, and people wore those goofy pre-order Sonic hats–a swell time overall.
However, clearly the highlight of the action was what seems to have been terribly overlooked: Sonic the Hedgehog riding around on a Zamboni in Bryant Park. This made us realize, in a world of 18-wheeler simulators and theme park management games, among odder genres, there is no Zamboni sim game. Frankly, we need ICE RINK SMOOTHING HIGH SPEED ACTION STAGES, Sega. Where is Sonic Zamboni Riders? Sonic Smoothing Adventure? Tails Rink Patrol?
Or perhaps this is a teaser for a game yet to come.
(Seriously, though, more photos of the event are available at BuzzFocus.)
I’ve told you about the games, I’ve told you about the jams. But tell me, how many people have the sheer talent to play Sonic the Hedgehog on the Game Gear without even having a cartridge inside it?
There is only one man. And that man is named DeStorm.
Using the music to the most well known Sonic level ever (that’s the Green Hill Zone for those keeping score), DeStorm lays down a track to jam while thinking of all those girls you surely couldn’t talk to because you were too busy trying to get all the Chaos Emeralds in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Though I’m not sure what Pac-Man 3 is, you owe it to yourself to listen to his jam. Because, I mean, c’mon. You so fly, girl.
Oh, and don’t feed the trolls.
If you haven’t had a chance to watch the 1996 two-part OVA Sonic the Hedgehog, stop reading this and immediately track down a copy to watch–it’s quite possibly the best Sonic-related animation out there and definitely is a nice contrast to the Western Sonic series from the early 90s.
However, if you happen to live in Japan and haven’t seen it yet (or would just like another shot at seeing it), Bandai Channel is offering the Sonic OVA ahead of its 15-year anniversary this upcoming May both for PC and mobile phones. Each episode is priced at the pretty reasonable cost of ¥210. You can check out a preview or watch on PC at the Bandai Channel website for the OVA (do note that you need to have a Japanese IP in order to access the movie) or you can see the mobile mini-site and download the episodes directly to your phone or mobile device by following this link.
See? Patience is worthwhile as the Sonic Colors DS demo has now hit the American DS Download Service.
Just like our International friends, all you need is a Wii with access to the Nintendo Channel and a DS to get a hold of it. The demo is the same, as expected, focusing on Sonic’s use of the white and red wisps to make his way through Tropical Resort Act 1.
Alternatively, you can also download and slap the demo onto your preferred DS-game playing device and give it a spin that way.
