It’s been three years since the last Summer of Sonic, but this year the UK-based Sonic the Hedgehog convention was brought back for “One More Run” thanks to a Kickstarter campaign that reached half the requested amount inside 5 hours, and smashed the intended target by over another 50% on top. Clearly the fan demand was still there 3 years on, and excitement about the show reached fever pitch when it was confirmed shortly after the 25th anniversary party in San Diego that our friends at Sega America had generously supplied some demo pods for Summer of Sonic – attendees would be the first in Europe to play the hotly anticipated Sonic Mania. So, how’d the event go? Let’s find out, shall we?
Heading to San Diego tomorrow for the Sonic 25th Anniversary Event (or are just in town for Comic-Con?) Meet up with your favorite Sonic Retro and SEGAbits folks at The Local Eatery and Drinking Hole at 3 p.m. Friday to hang out, chat about nerdy Internet things in the real world, share rampant speculation and pre-game for having to deal with a bunch of Sonic fans for a few hours. From there, we’ll head over together to the House of Blues, which is just two blocks away.
Not joining us in San Diego? Tune in to the official livestream at 6 PM PT/9 PM ET/1AM Saturday GMT! In addition to all the antics, who knows—you may even see a familiar face or two.
https://twitter.com/SEGA_Europe
This is Sega Europe. They do things like localise games from Japanese and release them in the UK, Germany, France, Australia, etc.
Oh, did I say localise games? Old hat. Their current job is to say “no information at this time” to any questions on Twitter. Over and over and over again. This is a shame, because SoE used to be the best Sega division, and SoA has rather cheekily stolen this title in the last couple of years.
The only reason I can think of for them doing this (other than just tormenting the audience, and I can’t see this as a logical business decision), is that they don’t think they’ll make any money on a release. That the translation won’t get them sales, and that they need some incentive or something.
Right. They want some incentive? Let’s bloody GIVE them an incentive! If the only thing they’re going to listen to is cold hard cash, I think we can do that.
Sonic Retro sister site SEGAbits (say that ten times fast) is collaborating with Galloping Ghost Arcade, America’s largest arcade, for SEGA Week from Monday, April 25th to Saturday, April 30th at midnight. Galloping Ghost Arcade is located just outside Chicago in Brookfield, IL, and features over 500 classic and modern arcade machines, and several of them are made by SEGA. SEGA Week’s main focus will be tournaments covering 10 SEGA arcade titles, of which will remain a mystery until the day of the tournament. Still, if you want an idea of what to expect, the arcade has SEGA titles which include OutRun, Space Harrier, Thunder Blade, Monkey Ball, Crazy Taxi, Zaxxon, Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, Golden Axe, Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder and several more. It is also the only arcade in America to have both SegaSonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Championship.
Sonic fan games typically set the bar pretty high for themselves. Before Sonic 4 was the Sonic 4 we all know and acknowledge as existing today, plenty of fans tried to fill the gap, touting their game as the next title in the original trilogy. It wasn’t until more recent years that we’ve seen fan games reach completion with more frequency. Titles like Sonic Classic, Sonic Before (And After) the Sequel, and Sonic Axiom are just a few of the games that did the impossible and actually gave us complete games.
Just like the daylight gets shorter and trees wither in the on-coming cold spell (in the northern hemisphere), a new winter brings a new Christmas with Sonic by Balena Productions.
Christmas with Sonic, a series of animations with Sonic and friends celebrating a festive time with some fun storylines, brings a new installment by Steven Page. You may or may not know his other works such as “Sonic in Jaws” and “Sonic is Scared Stupid” from your “Recommended for You” list on YouTube. This time, the intrepid Blue Blur celebrates Christmas like a proper snowbird: in the tropics visiting the Prower family. The short is illustrated by Riana.
It’s been a largely slow year for a series about a hedgehog that goes fast, but it’s a quiet before the storm as Sonic enters his 25th anniversary (and the ability to legally rent a car!) in 2016. But from us at Sonic Retro, we wish you all a Happy Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus/Popsicle/Etc. and look forward to rocking 2016 strong with all of you!
Right, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but here goes.
You might have noticed that the forum thread of the Sonic Amateur Games Expo (SAGE) on our forums was suddenly locked a few days ago. Well, that’s because the event, which was originally going to be held from December 18th through December 24th, has had to be delayed until Spring of next year.
This is because the SAGE staff decided that, instead of putting on a mediocre show with key members of the team missing, the best choice was to postpone the event until Spring, to give the community the best SAGE has to offer.
If you’ve been working your ass off to get your game entry ready before the original deadline (which was tomorrow), we get it if you’re angry about this announcement being so late. This really should have been announced sooner.
The Really Amateur Games Expo (RAGE) has also been delayed, but only until early January. While we don’t know the exact dates for either of the events yet, you can still read the guidelines for them in the thread on our forums.
![uCy4RHs[2]](https://www.sonicretro.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/uCy4RHs2.gif)