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SEGA News Bits: Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice First Impressions


It’s here, the brand new side-scrolling Sonic game! No, not Sonic Mania. It’s Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice for the Nintendo 3DS! In this SEGA News Bits, Barry shares with George, and our viewing audience, his thoughts on the game. Did SEGA and Sanzaru Games learn their lesson from Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal? In the comments below, let us know what you think of Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice! Also, don’t hate Barry.
SEGA News Bits is a production of SEGAbits, covering all things SEGA and Sonic the Hedgehog. When we touch on Sonic stories, you’ll be seeing them here on Sonic Retro as well. If you enjoyed this episode of the SEGA News Bits, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and never miss an episode!

Game News

Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice releases today in North America

fire_6_ice_launch_edition
SEGA’s Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice releases today for the Nintendo 3DS in North America, and will release a few days from now on September 30th in Europe. The game is available both digitally on the Nintendo eShop and physically with a special Launch Edition for the Americas which includes a collector’s box and a DVD of select Sonic Boom TV show episodes featuring Metal Sonic and Shadow. While reviews have started to appear elsewhere on the web, expect a Sonic Retro review soon.
After the break, check out the full press release from SEGA!
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Game News

Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice Gets a New Trailer for E3 2016


It’s been a pretty long time since Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice was last shown to the public. After it was delayed there was a bit of a drought with no new footage or info whatsoever. That’s changed now though as SEGA just released a new trailer for E3 2016 and we can finally confirm that, yup, it still looks like a Sonic Boom game.
It does look like there is some added variety with the new bosses and shoot-em-up sections, but aside from that the game looks like more of Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal. Which probably isn’t a good thing seeing how Shattered Crystal wasn’t that great. Still, the game will be playable at E3 next week so we’ll probably be able to see if Sanzaru has tried to make Fire & Ice much of an improvement over its prequel when new gameplay footage from the event gets put up online.
Fire & Ice will be released on September 27th, 2016 exclusively for Nintendo 3DS and will have a special Launch Edition in the US. The special edition will include a DVD with three episodes from the Sonic Boom TV show, which is surprisingly decent and worth taking a look at if you haven’t yet.
Update: The official Sonic Youtube account has uploaded the trailer to Youtube, and mentions in the description that “[a] number of notable improvements are being made to the game, including enhanced level designs built for speed, better functionality, and all-new Fire & Ice gameplay mechanics.”

Game News

Mario and Sonic at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games Hits the 3DS this Month, Wii U in June


In case you missed it, Nintendo had another Direct today. Among the announcements for a new Kirby and Paper Mario, Mario and Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games was dated for March 18th, 2016 on the Nintendo 3DS, with the Wii U version hitting shelves on June 24th. Alongside the release dates, Nintendo showed off the opening for Mario and Sonic 2016, you can check that out above, as well as the box-art for the Wii U version, along with some new screenshots after the jump.
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Game News

SEGA 3D Classics Collection Coming to North America on April 26th

SEGA 3D Classics Collection US box art cropped
So remember those nice looking 3D Classics collections with cover art by Ken Sugimori SEGA put out in Japan? Well, the second one of those is coming to North America as SEGA 3D Classics Collection, probably cause it’s the one that has Sonic in it. It is the better collection out of the two to release here anyway, cause it’s also the one with some 3D Classics that haven’t been released in the west. These ones to be exact:

The collection also includes these games, which are already available on the 3DS eShop:

The collection will be released in North America on April 26th for $29.99 exclusively on Nintendo 3DS. SEGA hasn’t announced a release for Europe yet.
P.S. Click on the image for the full box-art.

Game News

A Look at the 3DS Version of Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games


The Japanese Nintendo Youtube account recently uploaded this new overview trailer for the 3DS version of Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, showing plenty of gameplay of the new modes. There are also new characters Sega managed to scrape off the bottom of the barrel like Eggman Nega and Shitty BowserZavok from the Deadly Six.
One of the more noteworthy new modes is Champions Road, which seems to be the game’s main story mode. In this mode you play as your Mii, which you can dress up with various costumes. Some of which can be unlocked through amiibo. There also seems to be a decent amount of new Dream Events, which are basically the normal olympic events mixed up with elements from both the Mario and Sonic series. Those have always been the best thing about these games outside of the music, so this entry in the series having more of those definitely isn’t a bad thing.
But at the very least, we can probably expect the game to have a great soundtrack. Sega’s Sound Team has always done a fantastic job remixing Mario and Sonic music for these games, and we look forward to what they’ll be doing this time. The 3DS version will be released on February 18th, 2016 in Japan. It isn’t known yet when the game will be released elsewhere, or when the Wii U version will come out.

Game News

SEGA Delays a Sonic Game Without There Being a Public Outcry for the First Time Ever


Update: Of course right after I put up this article I realize that Sonic 4: Episode 1 was delayed by a few months. Welp. Still, at least this time it wasn’t because there was a public outcry.
What do you get when you mix fire and ice? Apparently SEGA realizing that releasing yet another unfinished Sonic game is a bad idea. For the first time ever (seriously, correct me if I’m wrong on this cause I can’t think of any other time when SEGA’s done this) the company has delayed a Sonic game in order to make sure that it’s polished enough for release, with Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice now releasing in 2016 “when it’s ready”. You know, as opposed to previously released Sonic games that clearly weren’t ready for release.
It’s always been pretty clear that Sonic games are often rushed to make the deadline, even back with Sonic 3 & Knuckles when they split the game into two releases due to time constraints. So SEGA actually letting the developers take their time to finish the game is hopefully not just a one time thing. So it is a little reassuring that SEGA’s blog post mentions that they think that making sure a game is ready for release isn’t just important for Fire & Ice, but also all future Sonic games. We hope that that’s true, cause we really, really don’t want another Sonic 2006 or Rise of Lyric.

Game News

3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Coming to Nintendo 3DS Among Other Mega Drive Classics (Including Gunstar Heroes!)

3D Sonic 2 logo

SEGA just announced that three more 3D Classics games will be released on Nintendo 3DS later this year. These include: 3D Streets of Rage 2 coming this July, 3D Gunstar Heroes coming this August, and 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 coming this September. Aside from the addition of 3D effects, these new versions will likely have plenty of extra features. Each of them will cost $5.99/€4.99/£4.49 and will be released on the eShop.
Also, real talk, Gunstar Heroes is pretty darn good and you all should get that instead of yet another Sonic 2 re-release if you’d have to choose between the two. Just saying, you’ve probably played Sonic 2 enough times already.

Podcasts

SEGAbits interviews Mat Kraemer of Sanzaru Games, developer of Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal


This week on the Swingin’ Report Show podcast Barry and George are joined by Mat Kraemer, Lead Designer at Sanzaru Games, developer of Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal for the Nintendo 3DS. Topics covered include the development process of the handheld title, how Sanzaru interacted with various teams including the TV show crew and the team at Big Red Button, what Sonic games Sanzaru looked to for inspiration, and Mat’s favorite classic SEGA games and consoles.
There has been a lot of talk about the Sonic Boom franchise this past week, so it was great to sit down with Mat to learn more about how the 3DS game came to be. Hey! Why are you still reading this when you should be listening?
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Game News, Previews

E3 2014 Hands-On Preview: Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal (3DS)


(Thanks to Shigs from our sister-site SEGAbits for providing the write up! Go check them out, they’re classy people.)
Nuckles87 and I have been at odds with the Sonic Boom games at E3. While he was more forgiving of Rise of Lyric on Wii U, I found it a dull and mediocre experience overall. However, for Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal on 3DS, I really enjoyed this platformer while Nux was not as pleased. Surprisingly, I agreed with most of his complaints, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the game. So what’s in this game that makes me not only enjoy it much more than Sonic Boom on Wii U, but might be my favorite Sonic game on 3DS? Read on.
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