Summer Games Done Quick is back again this year, and Wednesday is their Sonic block. You’ll get to see runs of Sonic Colors on Nintendo DS, Sonic Riders, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and the fan favorite Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
Summer Games Done Quick is the annual event, like its alternate event Awesome Games Done Quick, is a week-long charity marathon that helps raise money for the Doctors Without Borders. Donating during each run also puts you n for raffles to win prizes. Be sure to tune in, check the schedule and watch how Sonic has gotta go fast.
Sonic Colors
Speed Demos Archive Hosts Charity Event Featuring Colors, 06, Shadow and More
While this is a week-long event, the folks behind the Speed Demos Archive are hosting a charity event and hours of video games “Done-quick” live….right now! Even if you’re waiting for Lebron’s film, you’ll recognize some participants such as Da1andonlysonic.
Also if you donate, not only will you be eligible for prizes, you’ll also be able to sway certain campaigns, such as which character you’d like to see played in Sonic 2006. Check out the prizes and schedule here.
They’re currently going through Sonic Colors and can watch the stream on their website or through their Twitch page.
Also, hey! It’s for charity! Show some love and fight for a cure for cancer.
After much fan demand, Sega has begun releasing several of their Sonic series soundtracks on to Apple’s iTunes service. Most of these albums, though recently released, aren’t too easy to track down and import for those looking to legally own the music, never mind worrying about bootlegs.
The albums now available are the 20th Anniversary editions of Sonic CD, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes, as well as “The Best of Crush 40: Super Sonic Songs”, “The Works” (Jun Senoue‘s standalone album featuring several original songs and some Sonic music), and Sonic Colors ViViD SOUND × HYBRiD COLORS, the last one lovingly divided into three volumes for all three discs (Disc 2 and Disc 3 can be found at those links.) Sega further states that the soundtrack to Sonic The Hedgehog 4‘s episodes will also be touching down on iTunes in the future.
It should be noted that the 20th Anniversary album for the two Adventure titles aren’t as all encompassing as their original releases, which may turn some fans off. However, this is the best chance short of importing to show support for the musicians that worked hard to keep series’ reputation for good music alive and well.
It’s been slow, so why not.
Takashi Iizuka, the long time target for everything older fans perceive wrong with the series, sat down for an interview with Official Nintendo Magazine to talk up the 3DS version of Sonic Generations. He dropped that the fans of the old Mega Drive games are very much hard to please. He hopes that Sonic Generations will fix that.
“Our team are always trying to present new gameplay innovations so it’s hard to please fans who like the gameplay from the older games,” said Iizuka.
“However, we have included the older gameplay as part of Sonic’s 20th Anniversary, so we think the fans of the older games will enjoy it [Generations] as well. We are also looking into continuing the Sonic 4 series which was released on WiiWare, and we’ll keep developing titles so more fans will enjoy the games.”
Easy on the Sonic 4: Episode 2 comments. Lord knows the fire wave it will bring with it will be enough further down the road.
It may not be necessary to keep trying to please the older fan base by trying to recreate a 1:1 variant of the Mega Drive games in a 2.5D environment, as some of the demands (and believe us when we say we are certainly no strangers to seeing some of these on this very site) border the point of just rom-hacking Sonic 1 or 2 and releasing games in that manner.
At the same time, trying to shoe horn in mechanics such as the Werehog, swords, angsty characters with guns, or even shoddily implemented team-based game play isn’t necessarily the way to go. When thinking of “gameplay innovations”, as they call it, the best strategy is to see what can work with the base gameplay instead of throwing darts at post-it notes on the wall and going with it. Knuckles taking the Werehog’s place while keeping similar play style and calling it Sonic and Knuckles 2? Bank.
If Sonic Colors was anything to go by, just release a game that’s charming and genuinely fun to play and everyone will be happy. You could even argue that the formula was within reach as early as 2002.
[Image Credit: Cyrus Parker]
Players agree: the colors felt so right.
Despite some rather mixed reviews across the Internet, that was not enough to deter sales of Sonic Colors. The title took off and never looked back, selling 1.87 million titles combined for the Wii and the Nintendo DS.
On the financial side, Sega Sammy posted sales of ¥310.1 billion ($3.77 billion), up nearly nine percent year-over-year, for its first three quarters. The company’s profits, however, were through the roof, as net income more than doubled to ¥36.82 billion ($448 million) thanks in part to strong sales of pachinko machines.
However, results were mixed in the consumer business division, which includes the home console video game division, as sales were down more than 19 percent to ¥66.9 billion ($814 million). Operating profits for the division still ignored the slip, doubling to reach ¥2.8 billion ($34 million)
Other top sellers for the company included Platinum Games’ shooter Vanquish, selling 820,000 copies between both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and Football Manager 2011, at 690,000 copies sold on the PC and PSP in Europe and the U.S. alone.
If you haven’t picked up Sonic Colo(u)rs yet, you honestly should: it’s a pretty boss game and you should encourage Sega to make games that aren’t, oh, Sonic Free Riders. While there are some people who have criticized the tone of Colo(u)rs’ storyline, it’s pretty hard to argue against the fact that it’s really well-written. Therefore, it only makes sense that Archie would adapt the story for the comic series. “It’s true to the source,” says writer Ian Flynn of the comic book adaptation, who worked with artist Tracy Yardley. “We worked out a five page story that introduces our audience to the world of the game and tease a few of the crucial story elements…fans can then play the adventure for themselves by picking up the game.”
“We were provided with some awesome early concept art and rough cuts of some of the gameplay,” continues Flynn, “which offered us the ability to make the transition between comic book and video game much smoother – I think the fans are really gonna dig this one!” Flynn additionally expands a bit more on the adaptation at First Comics News.
Sonic the Hedgehog #219 also features the first installment of “In Service to the King,” which begins the build-up to next year’s 20th anniversary celebration of Sonic the Hedgehog, for those who follow the comic series on a regular basis–and for those of you who do, we can always use your help in our Archie comics articles.
You may (or may not) remember our joint exclusive sneak preview with Sonic Stadium and Sonic Wrecks of Sonic Colors’ new voice actors a while back. In that clip, Tails mentioned only he can read what his translator says because it’s in Binary.
Those sneaky writers took advantage of that and snuck in a nice little message to those intrepid enough to catch a glimpse of Tails’ PDA.
Slight and minor ending scene spoiler, so view at your own discretion.
So, if you were in New York City’s Bryant Park this weekend, you probably enjoyed the festivities of the Sonic Colo(u)rs pre-launch party. Despite the rain, Cash Cash played a set, demo units of Colo(u)rs were available for both the Nintendo DS and Wii, and people wore those goofy pre-order Sonic hats–a swell time overall.
However, clearly the highlight of the action was what seems to have been terribly overlooked: Sonic the Hedgehog riding around on a Zamboni in Bryant Park. This made us realize, in a world of 18-wheeler simulators and theme park management games, among odder genres, there is no Zamboni sim game. Frankly, we need ICE RINK SMOOTHING HIGH SPEED ACTION STAGES, Sega. Where is Sonic Zamboni Riders? Sonic Smoothing Adventure? Tails Rink Patrol?
Or perhaps this is a teaser for a game yet to come.
(Seriously, though, more photos of the event are available at BuzzFocus.)
See? Patience is worthwhile as the Sonic Colors DS demo has now hit the American DS Download Service.
Just like our International friends, all you need is a Wii with access to the Nintendo Channel and a DS to get a hold of it. The demo is the same, as expected, focusing on Sonic’s use of the white and red wisps to make his way through Tropical Resort Act 1.
Alternatively, you can also download and slap the demo onto your preferred DS-game playing device and give it a spin that way.