Browsing Tag

Holy shit

Game News

Sonic Dash, Sonic Jump Are Mobile Blockbusters

DashiOS2

For those that doubted the power mobile platforms can have, Hardlight Studios has a bone to pick with you. Speaking with Joystiq, Chief Technical Officer Chris Southall is proud at the pace both Sonic Jump and Sonic Dash are downloaded and played daily.

According to Southall, Jump, which is a paid download, is currently at 8 million downloads while the speedy Dash, a free-to-play title, is currently zooming at 20 million downloads, with 1 million “Dash-ers” actively playing the game daily and an additional average of over 100,000 users adding the game to their devices for the first time.

“You can just see that Sonic is such a big IP; we haven’t actually done any advertising or user acquisition yet on Sonic Dash,” Southall said. “We’re doing updates through the year, we’re going to to keep doing that, and using the learning we’ve gained as a studio. And [we’re going to] start to actually advertise the game and push it more. So hopefully where we are now with Sonic Dash is kind of the beginning rather than the end.”

He finally teases that Hardlight Studios has already signed off on its next game, which will be using “a big SEGA IP” that isn’t Sonic. An open beta for the game is currently slated for early 2014.

Now more than ever will I repeat this: “Chao Game, F2P, mobile platforms. You’re welcome, Sega.”

Community, Fan Works

Sonic Unleashed Blasts PCs to Pieces in Sonic Generations Mod

Two months ago, we posted some very promising videos from a triad of gifted Retroites working to import Sonic Unleashed‘s stages into the PC version of Sonic Generations, because despite Sega’s apparent new-found love for all things computer, Unleashed never got the chance to pop up. And those videos? They were nothing short of impressive work.

The trio–Dario FF, Twilightzoney, and Chimera–are happy to show you the fruits of their labor since then as Sonic zips around locales like Mazuri, Empire City, Shamar, and the original Spagonia to name a few. The team not only managed to get collisions working on the stages, they’ve been able to successfully import breakable objects and even the Global Illumination Ambiance lighting effects of the original stages so that they look like their original selves.

Oh, and a much-requested golden streak of light makes his in-stage presence felt as well.

Check out the gallery for more photos and the trailer below to watch their efforts in motion. Of course, from the looks of things, the team is only getting warmed up with Unleashed levels and have set their sights to other areas…

Continue Reading

Fan Works

New Sonic Fan Project Shows Promise

Forum member pelikan13 surprised the Retro forums earlier today with his as-of-yet unnamed Sonic fan project. Sporting wonderful 3D graphics and running on the Unity3D engine, the project shows immense amounts of promise, even being instantly praised as how the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 4 “should have been done.”

Here’s a screenshot:

More screenshots and even a video are available in the relevant forum topic.