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Community, Fan Works

London Gaming Con: The Report

There’s something about human contact, isn’t there? I haven’t been seen around here so much lately, but if you mention that there’s a meet-up somewhere close to me, I’ll be there. People, with their strange, squishy bodies and minds. Man, I love ’em. You might not be surprised, then, when I tell you that the idea of covering London Gaming Con for Sonic Retro appealed to me. Put a bunch of gamers in the Rocket Complex, add internet celebrities and sprinkle a bit of technology about the place, then bake for a couple of days. That’s my kind of weekend.

Well actually, it was my kind of Sunday because the Saturday was taken up with a family wedding. As a result, I missed out on Dr. Ashen, CoLD SToRAGE and the busier of the two days. What I didn’t miss was the Super Sonic Sunday programme of events, which sought to celebrate our blue hero as his 20th anniversary year draws to a close. You can see some of these events in the video below:

Of course, that’s only part of the story. Do you want to see pics and things? Of course you do. Click the post break already.

There’s something about human contact, isn’t there? I haven’t been seen around here so much lately, but if you mention that there’s a meet-up somewhere close to me, I’ll be there. People, with their strange, squishy bodies and minds. Man, I love ’em. You might not be surprised, then, when I tell you that the idea of covering London Gaming Con for Sonic Retro appealed to me. Put a bunch of gamers in the Rocket Complex, add internet celebrities and sprinkle a bit of technology about the place, then bake for a couple of days. That’s my kind of weekend.

Well actually, it was my kind of Sunday because the Saturday was taken up with a family wedding. As a result, I missed out on Dr. Ashen, CoLD SToRAGE and the busier of the two days. What I didn’t miss was the Super Sonic Sunday programme of events, which sought to celebrate our blue hero as his 20th anniversary year draws to a close. You can see some of these events in the video below:

Of course, that’s only part of the story. Do you want to see pics and things? Of course you do. Click the post break already. Continue Reading

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Community, Humor, Site News

Tune In To Our Marathon at 1PM Today!

Vast corners of the Internet, are you ready?

Starting in just an hour at 1 PM EDT/5PM GMT, you can tune in to watch 12 hours of every Sonic game imaginable streamed for your pleasure with your donations to help keep us as the biggest hub for all your Sonic needs, second only to Sega, going strong. Not to mention driving the poor sap streamer into insanity with whatever stipulation you can imagine.

We’re starting a little later than previously announced because of Halloween party shenanigans, but you’ll still get half a day of watching someone’s slow and painful descent into the darkest recesses of the Sonic series. Hint hint.

Then… for the tens in attendance. For the hundreds watching at home… leeeeet’s get ready to SPEED BREAK!

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Community, Site News

Join Us For A Sonic Marathon Generations In The Making

[UPDATE: 2006 is purposely missing from here. We have special plans for that one along with other titles… stay tuned!]

We here at Sonic Retro strive to bring you all the best in Sonic series and technical research through our gigantic wiki and humor through some of the strange discussions that go down in the forums (green eyes, physics, etc.) But all of this requires some pretty hefty “spondooli” to keep running.

So, to help along our efforts to have the rocket fuel to keep this big mother hubbard on its way to Mars on a collision course like a satellite out of control, we’re going to be holding a massive 12-hour gaming marathon of all things Sonic we’re lovingly calling “The Sonic Retro Generational Marathon” to ring in the release of Sonic’s big 20th Anniversary game.

Beginning Oct. 30 at 12pm EDT, forum member The Shad will be playing a plethora of Sonic games for your amusement. However, the games he plays are determined based on which “Generation” they’re located in. Here’s a small sample of what I mean:

GENESIS ERA: Sonic 1, Sonic CD, Sonic 2, Sonic 3

“DREAMCAST” ERA: Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Heroes

MODERN ERA: Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors

With plenty more secret eras afterward. The Shad will be advancing through eras as more donations are raised. Along with that, beginning at donations of $5 USD, donators can also include tasks The Shad has to perform on air, such as singing along to certain songs or no use of the spin dash/homing attack, on a dollar-per-minute basis. Higher donations can request more complex things, in the event of needing to set things up. Donators will also be enrolled in our little program that top donors will receive special prizes in the mail, because we really do love you all that much.

Plenty of other Sonic Retro staffers will be on hand as The Shad trudges on through the best–and worst–the Sonic series has to offer. What sort of devious Eras have we concocted for The Shad to endure once the Modern Era passes? Tune in Sunday to find out!

And of course, if you can’t make it to the marathon, you can always drop off a little cash on the side on our donation page. Every little bit helps!

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Community, Game News, Humor

This Adorable Bunny Invites You to Guess the Next Digital Sega Release

With these Sonic the Hedgehog soundtracks coming out, this little critter would like to invite you to guess the next digital release from Sega by listening to a choice song from a soundtrack of another prolific Sega franchise. You’ll get no hints from reading this, but if you watch the video, it will be more than enough for you to wonder/guess/predict/excite/all-of-the-above about Sega’s next release. Even though it’s well past Spring, this contest ends October 10th at 7PM PST, and you can read up on the rules from Sega’s US blog here.

I’nnt he cute?!

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Community, Game Secrets, Interviews

Interview: Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka at Summer of Sonic

Saturday, June 25th. A thousand-strong horde of Sonic fans descends upon the Camden Centre in London, to celebrate a video gaming icon with music, games, laughs and chilli dogs. So far, so Summer of Sonic, but this was the 20th anniversary show so there had to be something just a bit special going on, and blimey did they ever deliver on that. How? By getting Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka to drop by London to enjoy the festivities, do some signings and some Q&A sessions. That is pretty hard to top, ladies and gents, especially when fans were able to quiz the pair on Madonna, the joint American/Japanese development of Sonic 2, and dat barrel. However, Sonic Retro was also able to get a little more into the bargain and snag an interview slot with Naka and Iizuka. Exciting? I thought so.

Now if you will, allow me to set the scene. Things are behind schedule and everyone is hot and totally knackered, a fact that fellow attendees will attest to. We’re now down to the last interview slot of the day, and another site needs to cram into the session too. We finally get to head in as Jun Senoue takes to the stage to wow everyone downstairs. Still, I know things are going to be at least a little bit good when we’re asked what sites we came from – the mention of our site causes an “Ah, Sonic Retro!” from Iizuka, as he tilts his head back and smiles with a mixture of recognition and amusement. If you were ever in doubt of Retro’s reach, dear reader, that should give you a rough idea of our place in the grand scheme of things.

Then, with little time to spare and more questions than I can possibly ask, we get down to business.

Retro: Naka-san, you joined Sega around the time of its first real console releases, having worked on the SG-1000 and Sega My Card series back in the mid-80s. What was it like to see Sega become a video game publisher that was known all over the world?

Naka: At the beginning, Sega’s real catalyst for success was the arcade, and Sonic pulled it along and really built upon that. Also, the fact that we had hardware and were a first party helped to give us that status in the market, as a global name. So, I feel really happy to be able to be involved, really lucky. It’s really amazing that something created in Haneda, which is not at the centre of Tokyo, sold worldwide.

Hit the post break for the rest of the interview!

Continue Reading

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Community, Humor

Setting Fire to Generations’ Green Hill Zone: Post Your Best Times

With Sonic Generations’ demo now out for the massive scrutiny and pleasure of Sonic fans on most of the globe (sorry, Japanese PSN users), we thought we’d steal a page from Sonic Boom and start our own Time Attack challenge for the demo stage.

Now, at Sonic Boom, the best time on record was about 54 seconds. Scorching! However, site moderator Chimpo just could not let that stand and, after many attempts and botched maneuvers, scored the commendable time above of 0:51.86.

Now it’s time for you to smoke through Green Hill Zone in the demo. Can you beat Chimpo’s time? If you do, please post a photo and, please, no hack-assisted times. Let’s try and keep this fun for everyone. Don’t think we’ve not seen those Sonic 4 leaderboards!

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Community, Music

Listen to Crush 40 and Alex Maklouhf’s Covers of Super Sonic Racing, Sonic Boom

Over at Sonic Boom, a small concert was thrown for the club’s goers by none other than Crush 40’s Jun Senoue and Johnny Gioeli, singing songs like Open Your Heart, His World, In The Wind, and Live and Learn to name a few. However, Alex Maklouhf from Cash Cash joined them on stage to also perform Sonic Colors’ Credits Theme, Speak With Your Heart.

So imagine some people’s reactions when they all got together and did new versions of Sonic R’s Super Sonic Racing and Sonic CD’s Sonic Boom, which were apparently one time performances for Sonic Boom attendees. Well, we got you covered.

Continue Reading

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Community, Site News

Post-Sonic Boom Update: Media Soon!

You may have noticed your Sonic Retro Boom Crew has been a bit quiet with poor David stepping up and keeping this place from being a waste. We love you and you’re awesome.

Well, we weren’t strangers at Sonic Boom. To those who went, you may have seen us. We were that small group near the cupcakes and the 3D Generations station not wearing those Sonic hats. Some of you stopped by to say hi because you somehow know how Scarred Sun looks like or you wanted to chew out Slingerland before realizing he’s a behemoth of a man, and we thank you for all the kind words and support!

You’ll recognize me as that one dork in the brown overshirt with a blue shirt, a DSLR and the huge red backpack stuffed with eight Sonic hats flitting around the floor taking photos and talking to whatever Sega people showed up.

Now, most of of us are heading home today, so things are going to be a teeny bit slow on Boom content, but rest assured, we got tons of photos, video, and maybe some more goodies lined up for you as the weekend rolls on by.

Again, thanks to everyone who stopped on by us!

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Community, Site News

Follow Sonic Boom Shenanigans with Retro!

So, while here at Sonic Retro World Headquarters™ we’re prepping to head out to Los Angeles for the next few days, the fact is, dear Internet, that not everyone is going to be able to make the trip to be with the coolest folks in the community. Some of you will be off to Summer of Sonic in London in a couple of weeks–as someone with a peek behind the curtain, let’s just say if you’re going that you will be far from disappointed. Unfortunately, though, there will be a good number of people unable to attend either event.

Good thing Retro has your backs.

The Retro crew will be doing live Tweeting and picture shots throughout the day and evening to keep the rest of the Internet in the loop on all the action. Fellow staffers Gene, Slingerland and I plan to feed back as much information as we get it to you all, but we’ll probably rope in a few more people before it’s all said and done. We may try a few more…ambitious things as well, but we’ll see how those pan out. 😉 If you don’t already follow us on Twitter, we have the oh-so-creative handle of @sonicretro; likewise, you can like us on Facebook and keep up on everything there. Also keep in mind that if you’re in the area and are over 21, we’re hosting a pre-Boom party at Blipsy Barcade. You can also come up and say hi to us at Boom; I’ll be the lady wearing the Retro donor pins–if you’ve got ’em, flaunt ’em.

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