So, I was walking around Target the other night, and I couldn’t help but notice one of Atgames‘ many officially-licensed Genesis plug-and-play systems, the Arcade Blast Sonic, was on the shelf. Since I was pretty bored, I picked it up to take a look at it.
That’s when I saw something a little…weird.
Why, I’ve never seen a Sonic the Hedgehog 2 title screen drawn that way on a Sega product–even that shirt which was licensed a few years back didn’t quite have the artwork like that. Wait, could it…? No, of course not.
Then I flipped the box over.
Huh. It’s there again, too! Every other game on the box uses the standard title screen, but this is using that art instead. You know, if I didn’t know any better, I would say that wasn’t official artwork.
Of course, gentle readers, we know better. It’s not.
It’s actually a very old Sonic 2 HD title screen that was replaced, but its legacy lives on in Atgames packaging. Certainly, this isn’t the first time fan works have appeared in official products (the Sonia fanart in All-Stars Racing comes to mind), but it doesn’t make me smile any less each time it happens.
17 Comments
In itself you guys are getting mixed up because that’s not Sonic 2 HD artwork at all. That’s artwork I did back when Cinossu and I (mostly Cinossu) remastered Sonic 2’s OST. That was the art I used on the page I hosted the files on, on Sepwich.
Oh wow, I remember all that.. I should try redoing all that, as they sound bloody awful now.
So how’s that coming along, btw
It’s coming, all right…
it’s in the top row when you google image for “Sonic 2 title screen”, so they’ll have just gotten it from there (which happens to be here, retro)
Sounds about right. Unless you list it under a specific article of Creative Commons that isn’t All Rights Reserved, it’ll be all ripe for the taking without any attribution. Of course, even then that doesn’t stop people–or companies, in this case–from using images. Just like how copyright laws don’t stop people from pirating. It’s all literally just words on paper or a digital document.
You realize that the image you’re referring to on Google Image Search is actually from THIS article, right?
I saw this a few days ago and noted how strange it was… Didn’t realize it was something from the HD project. That makes it a lot less strange and a lot more cool 🙂
EDIT: Just read Blaze’s comment – still cool.
this doesn’t surprise me, most of Sally’s arts used nowadays in official work are the ones drawn by none other than a guy named “ChadTheCartoonNut” from Deviantart, I don’t find it as offinsive as some people do, I take it as a complement that some fan art can be as good as the official!
…What?
I think i’ve mentioned this in the past after I got the motion plug n play system, but never posted a pic. :V It was the first thing I noticed.
Sonic is awesome again lol.
I have a plug & play Sonic Blast. I hate that game, gives me weird dreams. Anytime my siblings played it I had to put whatever sound to high or go outside. Now I hide that horrible game, never to be touched for 4 years.
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen fan-art used in a Sonic 2 port.Just look at the Microsoft Arcade Port of it. The two Super Sonic related achievements have their icons based on a horrid Sonic-Battle Fan Sprite I made about half-a-year before the port came out.For proof, compare the icons at http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_2_(XBLA)_achievements to http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad230/JoeTEStrikesBack/ssexample.png , and http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad230/JoeTEStrikesBack/SuperSonicV3truefinalWBG4.gif for the sprite sheet of mine they ripped it from.I just laugh about it nowadays.
Oh well, at least Sega recognizes greatness, if not the law of third-party copyright.
It also appears that a mobile version, “Sonic 2 Dash!” uses similar artwork, and has slightly more detail. (Notice Tails’ how glove has visible fingers.)
http://www.spriters-resource.com/mobile_phone/sonic2dash/sonic2dash.png
The Sonic Satam region 1 compleat boxset also used ppl’s fan art on the cover, the inside of the boxset and the dises all have fan art on them.