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Merchandise

History of Sonic the Hedgehog Delayed for Quality, On Track for Holiday Release

Not long ago, a French-language book chronicling the Sonic series’ lifespan was confirmed to have been adopted by publishing group Udon Entertainment for release in English. Some have noted that the original release date of Oct. 15 on Amazon was changed to early Jan. 2013. Udon has since posted a clarification for the delay on their blog, with an additional ray of hope for fans.

Unhappy with the quality of the translation the company gave the book, Udon has decided to retranslate the whole publication to offer an easier to read translation. “The reason for the delay from the original shipping date comes entirely down to quality: we wanted to make this book the very best it could be,” a representative of the Udon team said. “When we put up our initial preview pages along with the book’s announcement this summer, some fans noticed that the writing was a little bit stiff.”

The company assures fans to look forward to seeing the books ship out sometime in early to mid December, just in time for the Holidays. Those in the U.K. will also be able to grab copies of the English translation as well as Udon will be the only International vendor (which should quell concerns of the book originally being canceled over there.)

Ash Paulsen, an associate editor at Udon, is the gentleman behind the translation project, and from my own experience with the Mega Man artbooks Udon has put out, the quality is top notch, taking great care in details and the cleanliness of the product. Just take a look at the 12-page preview on their page. If you consider yourself a Sonic buff or know one and are looking for a good present, this is definitely worth taking a look.

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Game News, Game Secrets, Merchandise, Sega Retro

[Updated] Pre-Order for Valkyria Chronicles 3 Artbook Available on Amazon.com

Good on Udon. Outside of the select music  tracks featured in the Humble Music Bundle a couple of months back, they’re set on releasing the corresponding artbook for Valkyria Chronicles 3 in the US and is now taking pre-orders on Amazon.com. Despite the fact that, well, we never got the game it represents. While it may seem rather ridiculous to see this artbook for sale, it is a possibility for Sega to try and test the waters for a US release of the game. Furthermore, it may see a new light yet through digital distribution on the Playstation Network for Playstation Portable or Playstation Vita owners due to Sega’s revised business strategy.

Or we could just be getting the artbook and piracy is still rampant on Sony devices. Such a harsh reality. On the plus side, there’ll be plenty of character biographies and story summaries to avoid all that pesky gameplay. The book’s release is set for December 2012.

[Source: Amazon.com, Cheap Ass Gamer, Udon Entertainment]

UPDATE! Udon Entertainment’s front page has nine images to showcase the English version of the artbook.You can also see them in the gallery below.

 

 

 

 

 

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Merchandise

Sonic and Hello Kitty Collab is Adorably Scary

SEGA collaborating with toy figure brands isn’t a totally new thing. Last year they had a collaboration with Good Smile Company, which resulted in a Sonic Nendoroid figure. Now SEGA has teamed up with Sanrio to make a Sonic Hello Kitty plushie. The full name of it being the “Sonic x Hello Kitty Super Jumbo Plushy”. It will be available at SEGA’s various amusement facilities throughout Japan in late July.

Do you want this thing that’s either cute or scary depending on your tastes but don’t live in Japan? Don’t worry, SEGA has said that this plushie will be available worldwide by Summer 2013. Though if you really want it you could also try getting it from eBay. Click on the image on the right for a bigger version.

[Source: Andriasang]

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Game News, Merchandise

Sonic Adventure 2 Avatar Items Coming to Xbox Live

Microsoft’s community manager Larry Hyb (aka Major Nelson) has posted a schedule showing what to expect on Xbox Live this and next week. One listing that may be of interest to Sonic fans is the addition of Sonic Adventure 2 Avatar items coming to the Xbox Live Marketplace on June 5th. At the moment there are no details on what the Avatar items are, so we’ll have to wait to see if a Shadow costume will be added to the creepy Sonic costumes available on Xbox Live.

With this, last month’s leaked list of upcoming XBLA games and E3 being next week it looks like SEGA could very well be announcing a re-release of the Dreamcast game very soon. Other SEGA-related things on the schedule are more SEGA Vintage Collections of Golden Axe and Streets of Rage releasing tomorrow for 800 MS points each and Virtua Figher 5: Final Showdown releasing next week on June 6th for 1200 MS points along with Avatar items of the same game.

[Via Major Nelson]

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Merchandise

Sonic Merchandise Coming Soon to U.S., Canada

Although our classy friends over in Europe have been able to enjoy having a one-stop online shop to buy all sorts of goods with Sonic’s face plastered all over for some time now, those of us in the United States and Canada will soon have the same convenience.

Quietly buried in a tweet on the site’s official Twitter account, the site is now accepting those interested in the impending North American launch of the site to register for updates and exclusive benefits for when the site goes live. One such benefit includes a Reward Point system where every 100 points earned allows registered customers to save money on future purchases, a benefit enjoyed by European members currently.

To give a good idea of what you can expect the store to carry, the Great Britain counterpart allows fans to purchase Sonic-themed clothes, school supplies, iPhone cases, DVDs, and toys.

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Merchandise, Music

Several Sonic Soundtracks Settle onto iTunes

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.

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Merchandise, Music

[UPDATE: Gone!] Get Autographed Sonic Generations Albums And More From Jun Senoue

[EDIT: And as quick as it came, the offer is already gone. Impressive!]

Looking to grab Sonic Generations’ True Blue album in a more tangible way than slapping a random download onto your media player? Lead Sonic music honcho and Crush 40 guitarist Jun Senoue is selling copies of the album at his official website for $55 with the added incentive that he’ll autograph the case for you.

On top of that, the first few orders also get a Sonic themed black guitar pick, something that might go well for those very few of you that dropped some serious ring for a replica of Senoue’s Sonic-themed ESP guitar.

Supplies may be limited, so for those wanting to get their hands on the CD, head on over to JunSenoue.com’s store and get it before it’s gone.

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Merchandise

12 Days of Sonic Retro Christmas 2011: Day 9

On the ninth day of Christmas, Retro gave to me…

…a look at Christmas swag you can’t buy anymore.

We’re hitting the home stretch here. Christmas is only in a few short days, so its quite possible that you’re reading this article on the go, looking for a gift for that special someone. Each store you enter is covered in Christmas, shelves strewn about with an ever-shrinking stock.

One thing that always confused me even as a child, however, was the amount of Christmas-themed gifts. If you’re a kid on Christmas day opening up presents, the last thing I’d think you’d want is something that has Santa Claus on it. Sure, you can use it the day you get it, but what are you going to do afterwards? Are you going to wear a Christmas sweater come July? I don’t think so.

But I guess it’d be forgivable if Sonic was involved.

Continue Reading

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