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Sonic Battle Racers Board Game Guest Review

Kickstarter has a rich history of popular board games. Titles such as Exploding Kittens, Rising Sun or Zombicide: Black Plague (all funded on KS) are often known even by persons who are not passionate about board games. At the beginning of March 2018 another project gathered enough supporters (and their $$$) to become real – Sonic the Hedgehog Battle Racers, by team S7 Games (formerly known as Shinobi 7). And from the very beginning, it had some promising looking features – aesthetically presentable figures of playable characters, the theme of “racing game” quite fitting to the main hero of the series, the random construction of the board – enough to make the project interesting for fans of board games and Sonic the Hedgehog universe. Now the time has come to verify promises and check the game in practice – let’s get busy!

Disclaimer – this review is written based on Kickstarter “Hyper Pledge” variant of the game, with all possible add-ons.

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Movies, Reviews

Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie: The Retro Roundtable

February 14th, 2020. Love was in the air. Flowers exchanged, candy eaten, movies watched. And what movie could one possibly go see? Why, Sonic the Hedgehog, of course! Starring Ben Schwartz, Jim Carrey, James Marsden, and directed by Jeff Fowler. Even if you were flying solo that day, how could one resist getting a ticket, sitting back, and seeing the blue blur on the big screen? We here at Sonic Retro couldn’t. Which is why we’ve all come together to share our thoughts on the latest offering from Paramount Studios. Were we amazed? Did we feel like Sonic was actually sitting next to us in the theater? Well, you’ll have to read on to find out.

Be mindful, there are some minor spoilers ahead. So if you’re still waiting to see the movie and don’t want to know anything…well, I’m not sure how you’ve avoided Twitter so far. And if you don’t intend on seeing the movie anytime soon? You can still read this, we don’t mind.

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Community, Miscellaneous, Reviews

Sonic Adventure Music Experience UK – The Retro Review

From the moment the Kickstarter was announced, my UK-based Retro compatriates and I knew this was going to be a special occasion. The Sonic Adventure Music Experience was headed to our shores courtesy of Sonic Stadium patriarchs and event organizing extraordinaires, Adam “T-Bird” Tuff and Svend “Dreadknux” Joscelyne. Excitement was instantly at fever-pitch. To top it all off, it was in December, which lined up perfectly with the latest Sonic Retro UK Winter Barcade – the timing was impeccable. So, how was the show and the events surrounding it I hear you eagerly ask? Hit the jump to find out!

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Reviews

Team Sonic Racing – The Retro Review


In November of 2012, Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed dropped to a positive critical and fan reception. Some considered it a contender with Mario Kart, while others would argue that, at the time, it may even have surpassed it. Transformed, unfortunately, had its fair share of bugs, some of which were sorted but many that, to this day, haven’t been. Fast forward to today, and after a healthy delay, we now have Team Sonic Racing. Gone are the transforming vehicles and colorful SEGA cast, instead replaced with Sonic mainstays and a focus on cooperative gameplay. And while in a few areas, Team Sonic Racing feels like a step or two towards improvement, it takes several flights worth of stairs tumbling backwards. Continue Reading

Reviews

Sonic Forces – The Retro Review


So, Sonic Forces. It’s tough to know what to say about it. The game has been out for a while now and admittedly this review is coming a little late, but if Forces shows us anything it’s that the franchise itself needs to slow down and take time for a bit of reflection. Having had longer to digest the game, perhaps we can have a better idea of what went wrong, what went right and just how we got here.
The first trailer for the game in 2016 could be described as confusing. Announced as Project Sonic 2017, many fans (myself included) really didn’t know how to parse what they had just seen. After what had then been years of light, fluffy, Saturday morning cartoon-esque stories, we had a trailer showcasing a seemingly ruined world, overrun by Eggman’s giant Death Egg Robots destroying everything – and wait, Classic Sonic’s here too? Just what is happening? That question, along with the fact that this was being developed by the team behind Colors and Generations, was enough to raise eyebrows and generate significant interest in the title, even alongside the also-announced Sonic Mania. It’s fair to say that expectations were tempered (especially after Lost World) but many fans were expecting a return to the ‘boost gameplay’ that, love it or hate it, has probably been one of Sega’s more successful attempts at doing Sonic gameplay in 3D yet.
So is that what we got? Well, kind of.
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Reviews

Sonic Mania Plus – The Retro Review


SEGA seems quite happy with the success of last year’s release of Sonic Mania. Sonic Team took a risk with passionate independent developers has paid off. After it became quite possibly the best commercial iteration of 2D Sonic, SEGA thought it would be best to entice players with not just added content but also a reason for players to put it on their shelf. SEGA is giving you several ways to experience Sonic Mania Plus, the expansion for the original Sonic Mania coming out for all digital releases of the game including Steam as well as disc and cart based versions for all consoles containing the full game and the Plus content. SEGA was kind enough to give us a Nintendo Switch copy for review a week before launch.

Much of what you come to expect from Mania echoes from Neo Hazard’s review when the game originally released. A lot of it’s key points remain the same here, such as sharing significant connections with the development team that could show bias in this review. If you want to know more about the main game, you can read about those thoughts in Neo’s original review. Surprisingly the development team also saw fit to make changes to the main game to tighten up the experience in some areas which does not need the Plus expansion. This includes revised boss patterns, updated level layouts to accommodate for the new characters and making certain challenges easier to handle. Whether you’re buying into Mania for the first time or looking to check out Encore Mode with Ray and Mighty, this review will cover what’s changed and what’s new. The Plus in Sonic Mania refers to the fact that it really is just more of Sonic Mania. While there is one new level the Plus content is more of a remix of what all is available. This is ideal for those who have mastered Sonic Mania along with more features that are enticing to newcomers and the small price is like leaving a generous tip at your favorite walk-in restaurant.
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Reviews

Sonic Mania – The Retro Review


By the fans, for the fans. Truer words have never been spoken when it comes to Sonic Mania, a game does the unthinkable in 2017: get everyone excited for Sonic the Hedgehog again. And by everyone, we’re not talking about just fans of series, but folks who have been withdrawn since the days of the Genesis, people who haven’t considered playing a Sonic game since 1995. And there’s good reason for that too, after a year of development, Christian Whitehead, Headcannon, PagodaWest, and a whole gaggle of friends, members, and family from Retro and beyond have created one of the series best entries ever.
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Podcasts, Reviews

Multiplayer Showcase Faces Sudden Death in Saturn Bomberman


Its the final minutes until the big 25h anniversary party for our good buddy, Sonic, but wait! Those aren’t rings falling from the sky, its a bunch of weights and a myriad of bombs which means its the last few rounds of Saturn Bomberman before we share our verdict on the game. In the last part of the episode, the group talks about the sudden death mode, discovers a connection with Bomberman and wrestling and share our strategies of playing the game. Also how did people play the game in the mid to late nineties? The round table discussion features my friends Chance, Krys, Randy and Chelsea.
Did you play Saturn Bomberman back in the day? How did you set up the game to play with friends? Do you think other Bomberman games do the job better? Be sure to sound off in the comments!
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