17 years ago saw the launch of the Dreamcast in North America on September 9th 1999. We’ll be taking a look at games that launched day and date with the system and share our memories with SEGA’s last major console.
Sonic Adventure
Sega held a party for Sonic’s 25th anniversary at one of their Joypolis parks in Japan earlier today, which they live streamed online. There they showed new gameplay of Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice and announced that the next main Sonic game will be released in 2017.
But the coolest thing that was shown was the original concept art of various Sonic characters. While a bunch of it has been shown before (and can be found on our wiki), we also get to see never before seen design sketches of characters like Shadow the Hedgehog, E-102 Gamma and Big the Cat for the first time. You can see all of the concept art that was shown above.
[Source: The Video Game Art Archive]
Yup, after half a year it’s been decided to make Monday Links a thing again. Many board meetings at the Sonic Retro HQ were held to discuss the return of this beloved (?) weekly (???) feature, and we finally decided that it’s probably not worth our time. Then we realized that handling a Sonic news fansite in this day and age isn’t really worth our time either, and that there really hasn’t been any point to anything we’ve put up on this front page for years now. So with that taken into consideration, Monday Links has returned after all, cause really it’s not any less pointless than anything else on the front page.
Retro News
- Josh released the first part of his retrospective video series about Sonic spin-offs [Sonic Jam Spinball: Flickies’ Island]
- Matwek is doing the art for this neat looking game called Poncho on Kickstarter [An open-world puzzle platformer]
SEGAbits News
- Barry is doing a 9 hour Dreamcast marathon tomorrow for the 15th anniversary of the Dreamcast [The Dreamroom Dreamcast Marathon returns]
- SEGAbits is holding an event on November 22nd called the Sonic & SEGA Fan Jam [All of the info about it can be found here]
- Nuckles87 shares his impressions of the Japan-exclusive game Cool Cool Toon for Dreamcast [SEGA Import Guide]
- It’s time for another one of these round tables [What Dreamcast game defined the console?]
- My Life with SEGA takes a look at the SEGA CD games made by Digital Pictures [The magic of FMV games]
Sonic/SEGA News
- Sonic XG still exists and looks awesome [Giant Crabmeat!]
- A new album called Passion & Pride with songs from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 is being released, containing instrumental versions and a new remix of It Doesn’t Matter [Coming September 10th]
- This new Persona 5 trailer reveals the game’s protagonist and that the game is coming to the Playstation 4 as well as Playstation 3 [I want it I want it I want it]
- The first trailer of Yakuza Zero, which will be coming to Playstation 3 and Playstation 4, was released [*Put Zero chance of coming out of Japan joke here*]
- The latest Nintendo Direct has half an hour of Bayonetta 2 goodness to make you excited about the game [Controls that meld with your mind]
- It looks like Persona 4 Arena Ultimax will be published by SEGA in Europe [Maybe we won’t have to wait forever for it to be released here]
- SEGA points fingers at Gearbox for the Aliens: Colonial Marines marketing mess [As if Randy Pitchford didn’t look bad enough already]
- Hi Score Girl gets copyright complaints from SEGA [Remember kids: using SEGA properties in commercial stuff will probably get you in legal trouble]
- Dawn of War II now uses dedicated servers instead of Games for Windows Live [Because Games for Windows Live is terrible and also almost dead]
- Super Monkey Ball Bounce is now out on iOS and Google Play [Also known as Not Peggle]
- Sadly there will probably never be a cure for liking Sonic the Hedgehog [Guess we’ll just have to continue living with our condition]
Back in the late 90’s, Dreamcast owners could hop online via their console to surf the web and download various things to their VMU including free DLC. That’s right, not only did SEGA offer DLC in the late 90’s, it was free! Continuing our Sonic 23rd birthday celebrations, Liam aka TrackerTD of the SEGAbits This Is Saturn YouTube series put together this great showcase of most of the DLC offered in Sonic Adventure & Sonic Adventure 2. Celebrate New Years, the Dreamcast launch, Halloween, and more in the many fun additions made to these memorable Sonic titles.
Almost a year ago to the day, Sonic Retro forum member Orengefox shared with the world the discovery of two prototypes for Sonic Adventure and its sequel. While to the untrained eye the Sonic Adventure AutoDemo might not have seemed all that special, we here at Retro know better, our elite crack team of technologically-inclined persons more than excited to tear apart reams of code to find the secret caramel-filled goodness hiding underneath.
Indeed, it wasn’t long before all sorts of secrets were uncovered, including earlier versions of Ice Cap and Speed Highway’s “At Dawn” segment. But the deepest, most enticing artifact uncovered was the level architecture from a far earlier version of Windy Valley. Unlike the previously mentioned levels, the prototype Valley couldn’t easily be turned on, what was there full of pointers directed towards a build much earlier than what the AutoDemo used. While other people would get frustrated and walk away, I already stated above how excitable our crack team can get. It was only a matter of time before someone figured out the next step, with Retro Researcher evilhamwizard putting the pieces together, importing the third segment of Windy Valley into the PC version of Sonic Adventure DX:
More after the jump.
Retro user Orengefox posted on the forums his discovery of two Japanese prototypes of Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 on Sega Dreamcast. Both of which have a potential source of content that are missing from the final builds with the Sonic Adventure Auto Demo showing some good promise.
Retro Livestream Today — Help Us Look for Sailors at 10PM GMT (6PM EST)
Watch live video from vidyaretro on TwitchTV
It’s been awhile since we last did a live stream. Watch us play through a random assortment of Sega Dreamcast games and maybe we’ll go hunt for some sailors while we’re at it. We’ll be starting the show later today at 10PM GMT. (Or 6PM EST if you prefer.) The stream is over, however you should be able to watch the archived version right here. Or click play on the video above.
After much fan demand, Sega has begun releasing several of their Sonic series soundtracks on to Apple’s iTunes service. Most of these albums, though recently released, aren’t too easy to track down and import for those looking to legally own the music, never mind worrying about bootlegs.
The albums now available are the 20th Anniversary editions of Sonic CD, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes, as well as “The Best of Crush 40: Super Sonic Songs”, “The Works” (Jun Senoue‘s standalone album featuring several original songs and some Sonic music), and Sonic Colors ViViD SOUND × HYBRiD COLORS, the last one lovingly divided into three volumes for all three discs (Disc 2 and Disc 3 can be found at those links.) Sega further states that the soundtrack to Sonic The Hedgehog 4‘s episodes will also be touching down on iTunes in the future.
It should be noted that the 20th Anniversary album for the two Adventure titles aren’t as all encompassing as their original releases, which may turn some fans off. However, this is the best chance short of importing to show support for the musicians that worked hard to keep series’ reputation for good music alive and well.
Much has been said about Sonic Adventure, Sonic’s first true foray into 3D gaming. The sprawling levels, the blistering speed, the last moments of precision platforming, and the entire redesign of Sonic the Hedgehog and his world. Even if later rereleases haven’t received the kindest reviews, when it came out it was an amazing game. Even Famitsu, that near-Bible of Japanese news and reviews, gave it one of their highest scores possible, with one reviewer citing that if Ocarina of Time had come out after Sonic Adventure, there’s no way the Zelda title would have received its perfect score.
But no matter who is talking about it, when the low points come about, everyone will assuredly talk about one of the shorter portions of the game, and the one character associated with it. The part that many people point to as the worst part of the game. A section that people now feel vindicated with their hatred because of the events of Summer of Sonic where Iizuka apologized for it. Yes, I am talking about the fishing stylings of Big the Cat.
Saturday, June 25th. A thousand-strong horde of Sonic fans descends upon the Camden Centre in London, to celebrate a video gaming icon with music, games, laughs and chilli dogs. So far, so Summer of Sonic, but this was the 20th anniversary show so there had to be something just a bit special going on, and blimey did they ever deliver on that. How? By getting Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka to drop by London to enjoy the festivities, do some signings and some Q&A sessions. That is pretty hard to top, ladies and gents, especially when fans were able to quiz the pair on Madonna, the joint American/Japanese development of Sonic 2, and dat barrel. However, Sonic Retro was also able to get a little more into the bargain and snag an interview slot with Naka and Iizuka. Exciting? I thought so.
Now if you will, allow me to set the scene. Things are behind schedule and everyone is hot and totally knackered, a fact that fellow attendees will attest to. We’re now down to the last interview slot of the day, and another site needs to cram into the session too. We finally get to head in as Jun Senoue takes to the stage to wow everyone downstairs. Still, I know things are going to be at least a little bit good when we’re asked what sites we came from – the mention of our site causes an “Ah, Sonic Retro!” from Iizuka, as he tilts his head back and smiles with a mixture of recognition and amusement. If you were ever in doubt of Retro’s reach, dear reader, that should give you a rough idea of our place in the grand scheme of things.
Then, with little time to spare and more questions than I can possibly ask, we get down to business.
Retro: Naka-san, you joined Sega around the time of its first real console releases, having worked on the SG-1000 and Sega My Card series back in the mid-80s. What was it like to see Sega become a video game publisher that was known all over the world?
Naka: At the beginning, Sega’s real catalyst for success was the arcade, and Sonic pulled it along and really built upon that. Also, the fact that we had hardware and were a first party helped to give us that status in the market, as a global name. So, I feel really happy to be able to be involved, really lucky. It’s really amazing that something created in Haneda, which is not at the centre of Tokyo, sold worldwide.
Hit the post break for the rest of the interview!