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Humor, Miscellaneous

12 Days of Sonic Retro Christmas 2011: Day 11

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

…a bunch of videos of kids on Christmas.

So it’s Christmas Eve. Things are winding down, with last minute shopping and Christmas dinner being concocted. If you’re a kid, you won’t sleep tonight, wondering just what Santa got you for Christmas this year. I try to keep myself hip with the kids, with all their electronic gadgets and whatnot, but I don’t know what the hottest toy of the season is. But as a kid of the 90’s, there was only one item you wanted under the tree. That one box, covered in a Sega logo, that would send you into a crazed frenzy. While it may have been a very long time since anyone has gotten this excited over anything Sega related, let us take a look back to Christmases long, long ago, when the Sega Seal of Quality was still around…

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Miscellaneous

12 Days of Sonic Retro Christmas 2011: Day 8

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

…Sega’s Christmas push of 1990.

I know that I’m a bit late with this, but hey. It’s Christmastime give me some slack. It’s not like I’m charge of Sega of America or anything.

It’s easy to forget, but there was an era of Sega before Sonic the Hedgehog. They were still in the business of making video games, they just didn’t have that killer app yet that would put them over the top. That didn’t mean they weren’t trying, though. As the Good Morning America clip above shows, they were giving it their all. Sure, it wasn’t enough that year, but the next? Oh ma’am.

Either way, it is a nice look into the very early days of the 16-bit console wars. I wonder how merry Tom Kalinske‘s Christmas was that year. After all, he was the president of the Sega Genesis…

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Miscellaneous

12 Days of Sonic Retro Christmas 2011: Day 7

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

Sonic the Sketchhog: The Retro Review

Now, we’ve seen a number of big releases this year. Sonic Generations. The Sonic the Hedgehog CD remake. But there is one release that has been pretty much ignored here on the front page of Retro, aside from a small blurb about when it was announced. Before the two big releases, iPhone/iTouch/iPad users got an entirely different game to waste the time away. It might not have been the biggest, most in-depth game, and it’s true that it doesn’t have a whole lot to do with Christmas. But you know what? I’m not going to let that stop me. I’m already running late on this, so we here at Retro are going to give you another review for your money’s worth.

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Humor, Miscellaneous

12 Days of Sonic Retro Christmas 2011: Day 6

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

…some videos that make me want to go the store.

Let’s be perfectly honest here: while we may love Sonic the Hedgehog and Sega as a whole, at the end of the day they are a business, which means they want to sell the public something. It certainly helps when it’s something we really, really, want, of course. And what better time is more appropriate to dwell on consumerism than Christmas? We all know that people buy the most around the holiday season, so why wouldn’t you want to try and advertise the world of Sega while visions of sugarplums dance in your head?

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Miscellaneous

12 Days of Sonic Retro Christmas 2011: Day 5

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

…the Korean opening to Sonic Christmas Blast.

Now, I’m sure everyone here has seen the animated special Sonic Christmas Blast at least once in their life. Produced after Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and the Saturday morning series ended, it is most definitely a continuation of the first, although the pink version of Princess Sally shows up. Sure, she doesn’t talk, but she shows up!

Originally named An X-Tremely Sonic Christmas, it was retitled to match the Sonic game that was actually coming out in 1996. And to be honest, it’s worth watching just because of how insane it is. How often do you get to see Robotnik dressed up as Santa, anyway? The video above is the intro to the special, but as you’ve probably come to notice, it’s in Korean. And while we don’t have a translation just yet, the lyrics definitely are about Sonic the Hedgehog. And Christmas.

[Source: slimer via #retro via naver.com]

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Game News, Miscellaneous

Fresh from EU: Sonic CD PS3 Theme, Wallpaper

The re-release of Sonic CD is just around the corner, and as if you didn’t need any more notification, EU PS3 users can now download a free Sonic CD theme to their system featuring Stardust Speedway’s Good and Bad Futures.

Please note that if you have an EU account and live in the US, you are also able to get the theme at this time. No word on when they’ll hit other regions.

Until then, we’ve ripped the backgrounds for your enjoyment and wallpaper pleasure. Remember to buy Sonic CD when it comes out for Android, iOS, XBLA, PSN and Steam, or we’ll come to your house and…highly encourage you to buy it.

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Humor, Miscellaneous

Watch Sonic’s Splashing Return to New York Skies

For those of you that slept in or really had no desire to put up with show tunes, marching bands and pop stars, you too can check out the small bit of time in which Sonic streaked by briskly through the crisp New York skies over 34th Street.

Nothing much to note other than the usual plug for Sonic Generations and some ham-fisted anchorman dialog. The music Sonic floated in with is the Splash Hill Zone remix featured in Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games. And no, the balloon did not come crashing down onto innocent bystanders again.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you Americans out there and a hello, we love you all to the rest of the world. Save us some stuffing!

UPDATE: For those who want Sonic for all time on your hard drive, Retro member Spazz, who put the clear version of the footage you see above on YouTube, has also encoded the Sonic moment for convenient download. Sure, the links are already in the comments, but hey. Why not?

1080: http://goo.gl/6bQFU
720: http://goo.gl/SUzmM

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Hacking, Miscellaneous

Appealing to the Most Players in a Post-Generations World

So, Takashi Iizuka recently gave an interview to GamesReactor concerning the future of Sonic the Hedgehog, and I was personally fascinated by the following response:

 But we want to reach the widest possible audience. So, you know, we will probably see Sonic going into other genres of games and also seeing Sonic in different media. So we will hopefully be able to have as many people as possible enjoy Sonic.

I am totally down for appealing to as wide an audience as possible, despite the mocking comments I read on that article. Wide appeal is good appeal. My question is this, though: can you appeal to both the three-year-old and six-year-old in all of us?

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Miscellaneous

Sonic Makes a Test Run Before Appearing at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

In 1993, Sonic appeared at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. This was considered a special occasion because of two reasons: it was the first time a video game character appeared at the parade and it was the first time Sonic miserably failed to get past a lamppost.

Now, it’s been 18 years since then and the blue blur will finally appear again at the event later this month. This info has been known since last June, but yesterday we got our first glimpse of what he looks like (see the photo above) along with the other new balloons this year when they appeared at Macy’s Balloonfest. You can see the giant inflatable bags in action in this video.

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Game Secrets, Interviews, Miscellaneous

SAGE Interviews Naoto Ohshima Later Tonight

Heads up for all you guys: SAGE–the amateur fangame expo that takes place in the Sonic community once a year–is going to have a live interview with Naoto Ohshima, the original creator of the Sonic the Hedgehog character, at 8:45PM EST over the SAGECast radio station! If you’re interested in asking him a question, feel free to join their IRC channel at irc.rizon.net in channel #sagexpo.

If you don’t have an IRC client, simply go the SAGExpo website and click the Chat tab to enter the channel. Alternatively, you can use Mibbit and enter the IRC details to get in. Remember that there will be a translator present on the radio station, so unlike in instances where Ohshima is speaking English himself, responses will be far more clear, concise and in-depth. Think carefully before you ask; not everybody will get a chance to have their questions answered, so time is of the essence.

For more information and discussion, check out the forum thread.

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