Welcome back to the Retro Spotlight, with the second part of our three part interview with the Kart Krew for Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart! If you missed part one, we recommend giving it a read before starting here. Otherwise, hit the jump and let’s continue!
If there’s one universal aspect people can agree upon when it comes to the Sonic the Hedgehog series, it’s that the music has always been pretty darn good. This is true even for Sonic 2006, a game which has become the punching bag for the series since…well, 2006. For many, one of the highlights to that soundtrack is Silver’s theme, “Dreams of an Absolution.” The man who sung his heart out on that track all those years ago, Bentley Jones, revisited the track just in time for Sonic’s 28th anniversary. And he made a music video to go with it!
That’s one tall building.
Sonic Robo Blast 2 has been around for twenty long, eventful years and despite this long development, the community has thrived throughout it all. Mods of all sizes have been the backbone of the project and one of the biggest, most recent mods is none other than SRB2 Kart, which changes the game from a platformer to a kart racer, similar to the Team Sonic Racing game released last month. We had a lengthy correspondence with the team behind the mod, Kart Krew, and like their project, their answers were massive! After working for ages to compile their answers, we’ve decided to split this particular Spotlight into three separate articles, which will be released in the following weeks. So enjoy part one of this three part series from the Kart Krew and the development of SRB2Kart!
On this Swingin’ Report Show, Barry talks with Kiel Phegley. Kiel is the author of “Sonic and the Tales of Terror” and the Sonic The Hedgehog “Race Against Chaos Sticker Activity Book”, and is a freelance author who has worked with Penguin Random House and Marvel. Kiel is currently is a professor teaching writing and literature and was the news editor for Comic Book Resources.
We discuss how Kiel landed the Sonic writing job, his approach to books for younger readers, Sonic’s personality, his Sonic The Hedgehog fandom and his future projects!
Check out Kiel’s Penguin Random House books!
If you want to support this type of content, you can check out the SEGAbits Patreon!
It’s the nineties. While it is time for Klax, it is also time for movie adaptations of popular video game franchises. At least that would also be the case for the blue blur should the deal between SEGA, MGM Studios and Trilogy Entertainment had gone through. Luke Owen recently wrote a book called Lights, Camera, Game Over! How Video Game Movies Get Made that details the process of how video game movie deals get made, the process of their development and why they usually become far removed from what their core audience comes to expect. The details of the never-before revealed cancelled Sonic movie were put into an article on Kotaku UK which details the painfully 90’s plot of the movie as it loosely tied itself with the upcoming release of Sonic X-Treme, only for a CG animated Sonic to break into the real world teaming up with a young boy named Josh. The article goes into detail on screen writer Richard Jeffries’ plot for the movie, how SEGA of America’s and SEGA of Japan’s played a role on the movie’s development leading up to it’s ultimate demise. Adapting to new mediums was still a concept that was not usually met with critical success and translating Sonic to the big screen was not going to be easy.
This is a very crude paraphrase on the actual article itself which is definitely worth a read. Read more on the Sonic movie that was not meant to be on Kotaku UK’s website or you can check out other video game movie projects in Luke’s book.
[Source: Kotaku UK]
Level creators are nothing new to video games at large, but throughout the long history of the series, Sonic the Hedgehog has only had one level editor officially released. While long since gone, as PlaySEGA itself has been shut down for several years now, those who played it will likely recall a less than stellar recreation of the original Sonic the Hedgehog with some new sprites thrown in for a fairly limited experience. Enter Lapper, a Sonic Retro user who has been working diligently since 2010 to create a more thorough and consistent level creator based on previous Sonic titles on the Genesis dubbed Sonic Studio (formerly known as Sonic Maker.) We took some time to grill Lapper about his project and what we can expect in the future.
If you’re like me who wasn’t able to visit GDC this year and are hoping to find a way to watch the GDC talk on Sonic the Hedgehog. You’re in luck as GDC has begun uploading this year’s panels, along with the Sonic GDC panel, onto their website the GDC Vault. The video has been made available for free viewing on their website and may even appear on their YouTube channel. Currently the GDC Vault does not allow video embed, so you’ll have to go over to their site by clicking on the image above or one of the many convenient links like this one here.
In case you missed it, Naoto Oshima and Hirokazu Yasuhara hosted a panel talking about their perspective on the creation of the character, what made him stand out as well as the game design and art direction that brought us the Mega Drive/Genesis title. Previously we were only given a glimpse thanks to the efforts of Frank Cifaldi on Twitter. Now we are able to witness more with an edited video that presents the two speakers along with their slides for easy viewing. The Q&A session follows after the panel, plus a bonus speed drawing from both Oshima and Yasuhara.
The GDC Vault is home to plenty of talks that range from game development tactics, to important topics and postmortems of other games. Some panels will require a paid subscription for viewing. You can watch the Sonic panel or other panels from this year’s conference here.
[Source: GDC Vault]
Going on three years now, Freedom Planet launched on Steam after a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2012. For the uninitiated, Freedom Planet drew heavy inspiration from Sonic the Hedgehog, while also adding a huge emphasis on combat and exploration. Fast forward to now, and we’re highly anticipating the release of the sequel, Freedom Planet 2. Sporting a fresh look, new engine, and so much more, GalaxyTrail is looking to up their game significantly. We sat down with Strife, a very active member of the Retro forums, to discuss the sequel, transitioning tools, and much more.