Edit: 3/23/2016 You can now watch the full panel courtesy of the SEGAbits channel.
The Sonic 25th Anniversary panel at SXSW will begin just a few hours from when this post is published. And thankfully SXSW will be hosting a live stream of the panel, which you can see above. The Sonic section of the stream will start at at 1:30pm PDT / 3:30pm CDT / 4:30pm EDT / 8:30pm GMT / 9:30pm CET.
The panel will feature Aaron Webber, Austin Keys, Mike Pollock, Roger Craig Smith, Takashi Iizuka and Yuji Naka, and will focus on the history of the franchise. The panel’s description also teases that they’ll “look to the future”, though Sega has already clarified that they don’t plan to announce any new games at the panel. Aside from that, Aaron Webber has teased that the meaning of the numbers on the Game Grumps photo from a couple of months ago will be revealed.
Whatever the panel is going to be about, with that selection of guests it’s sure to at least be something worth watching.
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Roger Craig Smith
This week on the SEGAbits Swingin’ Report Show, hosts Barry and George welcome a guest who has helped shape the sound of SEGA’s speedy mascot – Roger Craig Smith, voice actor of Sonic the Hedgehog! Roger is also well known for voicing Batman, Captain America, Chris Redfield, Ezio Auditore, and more. Recent projects include Batman: Arkham Origins which features the recently released “Cold, Cold Heart” DLC pack and SEGA’s Sonic Boom which spans video games and a television show which release later this year.
Join us as we talk with Roger about voicing Gotham’s Dark Knight and Green Hill’s Blue Blur. Roger also provides details on how he got into the business, and has some great advice for aspiring voice actors. Yes, we even asked him about his work on Valkyria Chronicles and his earliest work as Sonic at Alton Towers.
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You waited patiently enough and, as is the nature of online games reporting, it’s just not good enough to wait until the game is out to absorb every detail of it. So, to feed your insatiable hunger for all things Sonic Generations, we bring you this video courtesy of German website Gameswelt.
Thanks to a tip from forum member TimmiT, we get our first look (and listen!) to both the classic and modern version of Chemical Plant and City Escape. Let me tell you, Chemical Plant has never looked better–or worse, if you approach it from a pollution-generating plant. The modern version, which looks to be Chemical Plant in the middle of a critical meltdown, has quite a few references to Sonic Unleashed‘s Eggmanland in look.
When the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog speaks, millions listen. Except those who are waiting for Martin Burke to make his triumphant return.
This amazing footage was taken by Retro’s own Skyler “Moonshadow Ben Kalough Catz” King, on assignment at SacAnime, in beautiful Sacramento, California! Among the many guest who showed up was Sega’s own Roger Craig Smith, the current voice of the blue blur. Apparently nice enough to deal with Sonic the Hedgehog fans (or at least hasn’t fully come to terms with what he’s gotten into) he offered his well wishes to not only Moonshadow, but the only Sonic site second to Sega. What site could that be? Protip: It starts with the letter “S.” Playing favorites? I certainly hope so.
I really need to get around to checking out those consoles.
Ever since the announcement of the Sonic series’ new voice actors for Sonic Colo(u)rs, people have been speculating on the performance of the new voice actors–specifically, Roger Craig Smith and Kate Higgins, the voice of Sonic and Tails, respectively. Though we’ve heard a bit of Smith via his work with the Alton Towers Sonic Spinball ride and Sonic Room, there hasn’t been a lot to indicate where either actor was going with their interpretations of Sega’s famous characters.
So, it only seems right that we give you a taste.
This video shows off the new performances but gives you a look at the story of Sonic Colo(u)rs (as a joint community exclusive for the “Big Three”: Sonic Wrecks, Sonic Stadium and ourselves) and was specially approved by SOJ and Sonic Team for us to reveal, so our thanks to them for helping to support us. This particular clip is the fourth cutscene from the game, so it’s pretty much a given that this may be a spoiler.
So the Internet’s worst kept secret is finally out – the Sonic the Hedgehog game series has gone through yet another voice recasting. Gone are the docile tones of Jason Griffith and Amy Palant as Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles “Tails” Prower. So just who is going to voice the most famous hedgehog in the world?
Meet Roger Craig Smith. His previous voice work includes Chris Redfield in Resident Evil 5 and Ezio Auditore da Firenze in Assassin’s Creed 2. He has also done work for SEGA in the past, including a variety of voice in Valkyria Chronicles.
Additionally, everyone’s favorite two-tailed fox will now be voiced by Kate Higgins, whose most prolific role to date has been Naruto’s Sakura Haruno. Hopefully her work on that show has prepared her for rabid fanbases.
Oh, and Dr. Eggman? He’s still being voiced by Mike Pollock.
Is this franchise-changing news? Maybe not. Is it bound to cause thousands of posts comparing Ryan, Jason, and Roger? Most definitely. While SEGA has confirmed that the rest of the cast has gone through a similar voice-lift, they’re keeping quiet over the identities of these new actors. All we here at Sonic Retro can do is wish them luck, and hope they realize just what they’ve gotten themselves into.
You can read more about this shake-up here.