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PAX Prime 2014: Amy Gets Kidnapped In This New Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal Trailer


While we got a new trailer for Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric during Gamescom, we’ve gotten one for series’ handheld entry Shattered Crystal from PAX Prime. This trailer primarily shows off the game’s CG cutscenes, which shows Amy being kidnapped by Lyric, along with small snippets of gameplay showcasing a variety of levels.
And like how Metal Sonic popped up at the end of the Rise of Lyric trailer, Shadow makes an appearance in this one. Unlike Metal Sonic, his design has been affected somewhat by Sonic Boom’s style. It also seems like he has a new voice, because who cares about consistency anyway?

Game News

Gamescom 2014: Sonic Dies in This New Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric Trailer, Also Metal Sonic and Shadow Return

This new trailer for Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric skips right to the point: Sonic dies. So there we go, franchise finished, I’d say it had a good run but every series has to stop sometime I guess. I mean, when was the last time Sonic got revived after dying? Probably in some game that never existed.
Also there are some new screenshots for this and Shattered Crystal and some concept art that reveals that Metal Sonic and Shadow are in this game with their designs unchanged. So there’s your fanservice. SEGA also confirmed that both games will come out in Europe on November 21st.

Game News

SEGA is Finally Improving Sonic Adventure DX on Steam

SADXSteam

While it’s been possible for a while to get Sonic Adventure DX on Steam, it’s not necessarily the best versions of the game to get. To be more specific, it has problems like there being borders around the game and it having a low screen resolution. Which might have something to do with it being a port of the XBLA version, which was a port of the previous PC version, which was a port of the Gamecube version, which was a port of the Dreamcast version. So yeah, it could do with some improvements.
And it might finally get them, as SEGA announced today in a Steam forum post that they’re working on improving these Dreamcast Collection games over the next few months three years after they’ve been released. Among these improvements are added achievements, which can already be seen on the store pages of the games. Hopes up that this also means that they’ll finally add the Bad Religion back into Crazy Taxi.

Game News, Interviews, Sega Retro

Watch the full ‘Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation’ San Diego Comic Con panel


This past weekend, SEGAbits writers Ben, Shigs, and Nuckles hit San Diego Comic Con and SEGA’s game preview event located at the nearby Nerd HQ. While Comic Con isn’t as game centric as E3, there was quite a bit of SEGA goodness to be found. We were able to check out the latest preview builds of Alien: Isolation and Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, as well as interview Archie Comics on the upcoming Sonic Boom comic book series. But the main event had to have been Sunday’s Console Wars panel. The panel, which centered around the SEGA and Nintendo rivalry of the 90′s, featured special guests Tom Kalinske (Sega of America), Al Nilsen (Sega of America), Bill White (Nintendo of America), and Perrin Kaplan (Nintendo of America), as well as Console Wars author Blake J. Harris and Julian Rosenberg, producer of the upcoming Console Wars documentary.
Thanks to Blake, our guys were given the VIP treatment and secured some awesome seats – allowing us to film the panel and Q&A session and meet the SEGA and Nintendo legends! Check out the full panel above, and make sure to pick up your copy of Console Wars if you haven’t already!
Want more Console Wars discussion? Check out our three part interview series with Tom Kalinske, Al Nilsen, and Blake J. Harris.

Game News

SDCC 2014: Box-art and Release Dates for Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric and Shattered Crystal Revealed

Rise of Lyric Wii U box  Shattered Crystal 3DS box
We already knew that both Sonic Boom games will be coming out in this November, but now we know when exactly we can expect them to be in stores. In the US Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric will be released on November 18th, while Shattered Crystal will be out a week earlier on November 11th. We don’t know yet when the games will be released in Europe, but this post will be updated when we do.
Along with these dates SEGA released the box covers as well, both of which feature Sonic looking at the customer and doing something potentially threatening. The Wii U box has a Nintendo Network logo on it, meaning the game does have some sort of online functionality.
[Source: SEGA Blog]

Game News

SDCC 2014: We See How the Sonic Boom TV Series is Made Along With a Bunch of New Characters


With the San Diego Comic Con coming up, SEGA is already showcasing some new Sonic Boom stuff. First up is this behind the scenes video about how the animated series is made. It shows various people who work on the series saying some stuff and we see some work in progress stuff. But more importantly, at one point in the video you can see concept art of Eggman playing volleyball with Orbot and Cubot in the background. We at Sonic Retro hope that there will be an entire episode dedicated to this piece of concept art, because there really needs to be one.
And now for something all Sonic fans like for sure: new characters! All of whom will appear in Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, with some also popping up in the animated series. Sadly only a couple of them are recolors of Sonic, but I’m sure that there will be a lot of fan-art of at least one of them. All of them can be seen in the gallery below, you can read SEGA’s blogpost about them if you want to know more about them.

Game News

Freedom Planet Dashes Onto Steam


Mostly made by forum member Stephen “Strife” DiDuro, the 16-bit-ish platformer Freedom Planet has finally been released on Steam after a few delays. This game is inspired by Mega Drive games with lovable protagonists like Rocket Knight Adventures, Ristar, and, of course, Sonic the Hedgehog. You can play as three different characters, of which two are playable in the story more. The third character will also get a story mode later on as free DLC. One of those characters is a cat who drives up walls with a motorcycle, bet you can’t find a Youtube video of real-life cat doing that! (But if you can, please link it in the comments below)
Freedom Planet can be bought on Steam for 15 bucks right now. If you don’t like this Steam thing, a DRM-free version will also be released soon. Also, Gene did an an interview with Strife at Florida Supercon, so read that if you want to know more about the game.

Community, Fan Works, Game News, Interviews

Retro Interviews: The Freedom Planet Invades Florida Supercon Edition


Miami is known for quite a lot of things, but a burgeoning event for comic and game aficionados of South Florida, the Florida Supercon, bubbled to one of its biggest shows yet. Invading the Miami Beach Convention Center located a stones throw from South Beach during the Fourth of July weekend, the event featured several game development studios showing their works. Joining the likes of Yacht Club Games’ Shovel Knight and Dennaton Games’ Hotline Miami 2 was a small group under the banner of Galaxy Trail, makers of Freedom Planet.
For those unfamiliar with Freedom Planet, take a moment to consider the halcyon era of the MegaDrive. Taking cues from Sonic The Hedgehog, Sparkster (or Rocket Knight, if you prefer), Ristar, and Pulseman among others, Freedom Planet stars speedster Sash Lilac, the brawler and biker Carol Tea, and the timid but imaginative Milla Basset, on a journey to save the land of Avalice from certain peril. You know, the typical thing that will send heroes out to smack a few baddies in the face.
Given its origins as a Sonic fangame that grew to its own style and found great success not only on Kickstarter but on Steam’s Greenlight service, Galaxy Trail’s presence at Supercon definitely warranted checking in on the game, now that its Steam release of July 19 is just around the corner. There, I met with the lead programmer and creator of the game Stephen “Strife” DiDuro.
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Community, Fan Works, Game News, Game Secrets, Hacking, Site News

Windy Valley Beta Restoration Released for Sonic Adventure DX PC (2004)


Back in 1998, our first glimpse of Sonic Adventure showed what would be the first true 3D experience with Sonic and friends. After the game’s release, the level we were told was Windy Valley was nowhere to be found in the final game, instead having been completely reworked before hitting store shelves. Even though shots of the original design were used to advertise the GameCube rerelease Sonic Adventure DX, the original look and feel of Windy Valley became one of the holy grails for Sonic enthusiasts interested in the development process.
After the retrieval of the AutoDemo, work has been performed by several people including many dedicated members of the Retro community, who have pooled their efforts to get these stages back up and running. Finally, after fifteen years we can witness this one of a kind experience with a mod for the 2004 PC edition of Sonic Adventure DX, with a fully playable beta version of Windy Valley. With recreated graphics and fully functioning camera angles, CorvidDude wants you to jump over to his YouTube video for more information as well as instructions on how to download and install the mod. Special thanks go to CorvidDude, MainMemory, ItsEasyActually, Catley, Melpontro, and many more who were involved with this project.
[Source: YouTube]

Game News

Sonic Jump Fever Released Today

sjf_icon
 
Sonic Jump Fever has released today for both iOS and Android platforms today. Unlike the previous Sonic Jump game, its a free-to-play endless jumper that also lets you boost stats of your characters and use items and uncover Chao to increase your score by either playing the game or paying for micro transactions.
There has been no word if the original Sonic Jump will see any future updates, however the game largely plays similarly to the previous Jump game with the introduction to Fever mode where your character shoots up for a brief period of time, collecting rings. Level themes rotate daily and has the usual trappings of a freemium title, including playtime that is limited until your energy “recharges” over time, watching free ads or spending red rings.
I’m a little disappointed that the level progression from the last game is absent, and the new features don’t add that much, though the original game is still not free on Android. For those who haven’t played a Sonic Jump game before, its a decent place to start. Albeit you don’t even start as Sonic until you collect character tokens to unlock him along with the others, probably because each character has different attributes. (You start off with Tails, if you were wondering.) Also for people hoping to see a triumphant return to the Chao Garden, the Chao are additional helper items that will disappear if you don’t use them often enough until you earn their loyalty by using them in the main game. This isn’t quite the Chao Garden app we’ve been waiting for.
Its still largely an arcade game, which is ideal for quick play. Why not give it a try and tell us what you think in the comments? You can also check out E3 impressions by Shigs from SEGAbits here.
Download Sonic Jump Fever [iOS] [Android]