It’s that time of year – Geoff Keighley is back on stage, looking business casual as he hosts the Summer Game Fest. Being a Sonic fan, you never really know if you’ll get anything at these events, yet you can’t resist tuning in anyway. Today, sandwiched between news about Remnant II and Honkai: Star Rail, a certain blue hedgehog suddenly ran onto the screen, with a certain weasel watching from the shadows.
Sonic Superstars is coming this fall. It’s a new Sonic game! That’s what we like, right?
This has certainly been a bit of a Sonic week. Yesterday, Sega gave everyone a reason to revisit Sonic Frontiers by releasing the first of three free content updates. Today? The existence of Sonic Origins Plus has been officially confirmed, with a trailer featuring what they’ve added to last year’s celebration of Sonic the Hedgehog.
Last year, the folks over at Sonic’s social media team rolled out the first Sonic Central, a short digital presentation talking about upcoming projects featuring the blue blur. Giving the impression it would become a somewhat regular feature, the second installment has finally happened. Has this concentrated burst of news been worth the year long wait?
Well, it’s not like there hasn’t been anything said about Sonic since May of 2021…
What’s that? There’s more Sonic news? Seems like yesterday there was absolutely nothing to talk about. Yet here we are, with more Frontiers footage, a closer look at Sonic Origins, and even the reappearance of the original Sonic CD in an unexpected place. So without further ado, let’s jump in.
In May of 2021, we were teased with the existence of the next 3D Sonic the Hedgehog title. Seven months later, we were teased with the existence of the next 3D Sonic the Hedgehog title, now with a title – Sonic Frontiers. Yesterday, we were teased with the existence of Sonic Frontiers by seeing thirty seconds of gameplay footage where Sonic ran, jumped, and spun in the air around enemies.
Today, we were teased with the first seven minutes of proper gameplay footage.
In the wee hours of the morning, the official Sonic the Hedgehog social media account woke up and went “hey, let’s talk about Sonic Origins.” After eleven months of near radio silence, they posted a trailer complete with Hyper Potions music, the English and Japanese websites went live, and everyone suddenly woke up to talk about it.
So, what do we now know about Sonic Origins? Let’s go through it after the jump.
Original April 18th: It’s been just short of 11 months since we first learned of Sonic Origins in 2021’s Sonic Central broadcast, and since then news has been incredibly sparse. While there’s been no official announcement of further details just yet, there have been a couple of quick developments to kick this week off. Last night it was discovered that the game had been given a ratings classification in South Korea. While there isn’t much to gleam from the rating itself, generally such classifications in the past have surfaced online not long before a game’s planned release.
Less than a month before Knuckles’ theatrical debut comes an early document from SEGA Technical Institute dated April 12, 1993. The document, which was shared on a private Sonic the Hedgehog collectors group, was meant to introduce the new antagonist to staffers of SEGA’s American development team. Given Sonic the Hedgehog 3 released on February 2, 1994, this document was seen nearly a full year before making it one of the earliest glimpses of the character.
The document is chock full of interesting tidbits, including a humorous placeholder for his name which is literally “(Name)”. Also, it is stated that Knuckles crates a whirlwind to knock down walls. Of course, in the final game he just sort of walks into walls and “punches” them. But this ability DOES appear in the Sonic 3 Happy Meal which has the Knuckles toy spinning in a dust cloud. Also, Espio does eventually have such abilities.
After the break, read the document for yourself!
Back in May, Sega and the Sonic Team gave the world its first look at the next major installment in the Sonic the Hedgehog video game franchise. A quick CG trailer, we didn’t even get a name for what was to come next. Speculation ran rampant, especially for those who were paying attention to every whisper of a supposed leak. When it comes to Sonic, after all, you can’t help but wonder what form a game will take, especially one made in the third dimension.
In a Sonic “double-header,” the Game Awards not only showed off the first trailer to the theatrical Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but also gave us the first in-game glimpse of Sonic Frontiers. Take a look at the trailer below:
Sure, we all know it’s Sonic the Hedgehog’s 30th anniversary. But did you know that Super Monkey Ball turns 20 this year? That’s right, those rolling simian’s are celebrating their own milestone, and in a moment of corporate synergy, the two franchises are colliding.
That’s right, both Classic Sonic and Tails will be guests in the upcoming Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania. Look at them go! They’re rolling. They’re collecting rings instead of bananas. For those keeping score, this is the second time Sonic has popped up in the Super Monkey Ball franchise, the first being 2019’s Banana Blitz HD.
Sonic and Tails aren’t the only ones joining in. Beat from Jet Set Radio was announced earlier this month, but he’s not collecting rings or bananas! He’s collecting spray paint cans. Because. Well. That’s what you collect in Jet Set Radio. Will any other SEGA characters pop in on this Monkstravaganza? Who knows. But you can pick the game up on October 5th, 2021 in all the usual places.
[Source: Super Monkey Ball Official Twitter]
