Confirming rumors that have been circulating for some time now, Sega today announced the Model2 Collection, a digital collection of five classic Sega titles originally developed for their Model2 arcade hardware. Among those titles is Sonic the Fighters, a somewhat obscure Sonic-themed fighting game built on the Fighting Vipers engine and previously rereleased as part of Sonic Gems Collection. Most interesting to note is that this new release appears to include several characters not previously playable in the game, such as Metal Sonic and Eggman (who were previously bosses), as well as Honey the Cat – a character based on Candy (known as Honey in Japan) from Fighting Vipers. Retro aficionados will know that Honey was actually buried in the data for the original arcade release but not playable without hacking the game, so to see Sega put in the effort to make her (and the boss characters) playable is truly refreshing after some of their more lackluster porting efforts in the past. The Japanese site for the Model2 Collection also makes mention of online play, which could be a big selling point for this rerelease as well. Currently there’s been no information about an overseas release, but Sonic the Fighters is due to hit Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network this fall in Japan. See the trailer after the break.
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(SPOILER WARNING: This review contains unmarked spoilers. The game is over a decade old and well-known amongst our readers, so we deemed it unnecessary to refrain from spoilers. If you’ve never played the game before, you’ve been warned.)
In a franchise like Sonic that has been on such a rollercoaster of quality for the past twenty years, Sonic Adventure 2 somehow sticks out in the franchise as possibly the most polarizing game in the series. To one part of the fanbase, it’s the pinnacle of Sonic. Because it was the first major Sonic title on a Nintendo platform, many people cite SA2 as their introduction to the franchise. And yet to others, the game symbolizes the start of everything that nearly killed the franchise forever. So as I review Sega’s recent digital rerelease of Sonic Adventure 2 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, I feel it’s necessary to frame the game in context.
Outside of the broader fanbase context, I – like many others – have my own personal relationship with SA2. I was but a wee child when it first came out for the Dreamcast in 2001, and I spent a frightening number of hours engrossed in the game. It wasn’t my first exposure to the series; that title goes to Sonic 2 on the Genesis, whose predecessor and sequels received a similarly obsessive amount of my attention. In fact, the sole reason I asked for a Dreamcast for Christmas in 2000 was so that I could play the original Adventure. So, being the fanatic little child I was, Sonic Adventure 2 earned a special, fuzzy, nostalgiatastic place in my heart. The question, then, is: eleven years later, can it keep it?
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Later today the Retro crew are going to be hosting a Sega Heritage Collection showcase. We’ve been in contact with Ben K. as to when we can show the games off, and he was kind to let us know that we can go ahead and show off all three games as of this week.
We’ll be taking a look at Nights into Dreams, Jet Set Radio and Sonic Adventure 2. You can expect our fond recollections of all three games and an exploration of each game’s features before their release date. Well, except for Jet Set Radio, you can get that now on Playstation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and Steam. But if you’re still on the fence about any of these titles, be sure to check out our livestream later today at 4PM. You can also check back here for a direct link to the feed as well.
The fact Jet Set Radio is being re-released in the first place is pretty awesome. One of the classics for the Dreamcast, it just didn’t receive the love from the mainstream that it should have, though maybe you can even say it’s part of the charm. There’s no way Beat or Gum would ever conform to society! Either way, one of the high points to the game and its sequel has been the soundtrack, a mixture of in-house Sega tracks and outside material that shaped the world of Tokyo-To. But because of these silly little things called “licensing deals,” just how much of the original soundtrack would make it over to the HD port has been up in the air, with initial reports saying that only about half of the music would make it through. Well, the official Sega Blog just posted the full track listing for the game, and if you’re a fan of Jet Set Radio, more than likely you’re going to be jammin’.
If the cover on your iDevice is just looking a bit too blasé for you, consider checking out a new line of Sonic the Hedgehog and classic Sega game console iPhone covers by Japanese manufacturer CaféReo. These polycarbonate cases, which fit iPhone 4 16 and 32GB models, are part of the Sotogawa line of licensed iPhone covers. These covers are part of a larger Sega offering, including cases from Shining Wind, Valkyria Chronicles 3, Phantasy Star Portable 2, Border Break and Puyo Puyo. CafeReo plans to release these covers sometime in June, but various import shops around the Internet are already taking pre-orders; Google is your friend if you want to snag one of these for your phone.
So I was checking out the Sonic Channel RSS feed this morning and up pops this little game which appears to be a belated birthday present for Sonic, for the month of July 2010 only:
It’s called Sonic Freehand according to the actual blog post (though it just says Sonic the Hedgehog on the title screen) – it’s a 2D platform game entirely in doodle graphics, check out this little animation:
Japan really does get all the cool stuff. I want this 🙁
Tonight at 4 p.m. Pacific time, we should be hearing from Sega concerning the Sonic 4 announcement we alluded to earlier in the week. From there, tune in to GameSpot’s On the Spot show at 5 p.m. Pacific for an interview with Sega representative and Retro poster RubyEclipse; there will be “something else” exclusively announced on the show.
Stay tuned to Sonic Retro for more news as it develops (and to our forums where a 40-page argument will inevitably break out. 😉 )
I completely, honestly, unironically love Mercado Livre so much. The site, which is Latin and South America’s answer to eBay, is available in several countries, but let’s be honest: when it comes to awesome merchandise, no one can top Brazil, the home of pão de queijo, Tec Toy and wonderful pirated things. This isn’t to say that we condone piracy, but really:
Who wouldn’t want to buy “Super 12 in 1”? I mean, c’mon! There’s Battletoads, Duck Tales, Pikachu and Sonic all on one Game Boy (surprisingly not “Game”) cart! In fact, most of the golden pirated Sonic games from Brazil aren’t from modern games (where the pirated material look s mostly identical to the real games) but from the Mega Drive era, where things just get downright silly.
Alright so it’s offical. SEGA is totally screwing with us as Compsense has pointed out on the forums. Take a look here:
As you can see here, SEGA’s website has offered an additional hidden graphic which names the N2 platform as the fourth release platform for Sonic 4. This is strange considering SEGA already slipped a graphic that the iPhone was the last platform.
For those who don’t know, the N2 is an arcade game platform built on Nvidia graphics technology and very easy to port to PC. So this begs the question: Did SEGA anticipate our snooping after all? Or are they adjusting their marketing to suit it? Whatever the case SEGA, keep doing it. It’s far more entertaining then the past few Sonic games. But hopefully not as fun as Sonic 4 should be.
Sonic 4 Jingle (Mega CD Version)
Credit goes to multiple members of the boards for the picture and Tweaker for the music.
Sega, please, please reconsider the direction you are going in. Pay attention to the things your fans are making in response.