Until today, we’ve only been given vague hints of how long Sonic Colors will be. The good folks over at WiiNintendo have finally gotten us an answer! According to their exclusive interview with Takashi Iizuka, the game is going to be 20+ hours long! Sounds like a sizable chunk of platforming action, no?  In addition to this news, Sonic Team has revealed their reasoning behind Colors’ exclusivity to the Nintendo Wii:

“Sonic is most successful on Nintendo platforms, and it is better for the developers to focus on one console. That makes for a better game.”

The interview has some other additional details, but given that this is their interview, I’d like to encourage you all to visit their site and see for yourself!

Those of you fortunate enough to be attending the Summer of Sonic this year will be the first to be able to get their hands on some Official Crush 40 merchandise! As well as a selection of  T-Shirts, there will also be badges and guitar picks available for purchase!

Not only that, there will be a whole host of other Sonic the hedgehog related merchandise including plush toys and comics up for grabs – stocks will be strictly limited though, so if you want to snag yourself some bits and pieces, better do it early on the day!

You’d better bring your pennies with you!

EDIT: All C40 merchandise prices TBC

EDIT 2: I’ve also just been informed by Jun there will also be a selection of CDs available for purchase as well!

SEGA Digital (formerly SEGA of America) and GameSpot should really get a room.  Or something.  I digress.

SEGA announced that it wasn’t going to be at Comic Con 2010 this year, but Ken Balough was there to give a surprise, sensual massage to GameSpot by giving them another exclusive demonstration of the upcoming retro-reboot, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1.  Sneaky Ken appeared in the GameSpot love shack yesterday to talk about Sonic 4 and play through Splash Hill Zone once again.  Apparently, there have been subtle improvements made to the game.  Can you spot them?  Also, do you think that there are enough springs?

The 9-minute Q&A session and demo takes us through Splash Hill in its entirety and can be viewed at the video below or at GameSpot’s website.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Since landing his new role as Sonic the Hedgehog’s voice actor, there has been a lot of speculation about how Roger Craig Smith will portray the character.  Some people have been wondering if the unknown Sonic voice actor at Alton Towers Resort in the UK is Roger and today he has confirmed that it is indeed his voice.

SSMB member XD375 (who you may remember tipped us off about Jason Griffith not playing Sonic in Sonic Colours before a change in voice actors was officially announced) sent the below message to Roger via Facebook together with an Alton Towers Sonic voice clip -

I sent you a message before but I didn’t include the actual clip:

Is this your voice?

Thank you,
Shane

Yes!

So, there you have it folks.  Roger Craig Smith is Sonic’s Alton Towers voice actor. Some fans have felt the voice acting for Alton Towers is a bit over the top to fit the happy and excitable theme park setting.  If that’s the case, we have to wonder if Roger will portray Sonic differently in the games.

Those who haven’t heard the Sonic voice clips at Alton Towers can check them out in the below YouTube video (at 01:33) from SSMB member Gnasher -

Click here to view the embedded video.

Another voice clip can be heard in a Sonic Spinball ride promotion at the end of this Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing TV ad.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Do you think Roger’s Alton Towers Sonic voice should be in the games or would you like him to change the voice for them? Let us know in the comments!

Thanks to XD375 at the SSMB for the heads up!

Because AAUK won’t have already stuffed enough goodies into your free bag of goodnesss upon entry, and because you’ll not know whether you want to play Sonic 4 or Sonic Colours first, we know Summer of Sonic is going to be exhausting, what with all this excitement.

So, if you’re already nackered by the afternoon then don’t worry – you’ll be able to sit down, relax, and not miss out on any of the action, as there is a treat in store for you Summer of Sonic attendees! If you’re around the stage in the afternoon, you’ll have an opportunity to mellow out in the presence of Jun Senoue, who will be playing a selection of acoustic tracks from the Sonic the Hedgehog universe.

What will Jun play? I’m not going to tell you…it’s a surprise!

If you haven’t already registered for a ticket, I suggest you do so today - with over 700 guests already attending, you’ll want to get your skates on to avoid missing out!

Here’s some news straight from Comic-Con: Archie Comics’ Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Universe series have a new editor and a new producer! Paul Kaminski, formerly the assistant editor of the Sonic books at Archie Comics, is the new Editor and Chief of both Sonic books.

In addition to him, fan favorite artist Jonathan Gray has been brought onto Archie’s in-house art production staff, we’re he’ll be making corrections on the in-book art and helping with Sonic related art production.

What does this mean for Sonic comic fans? We’re not sure at the moment. This change is all the news we currently know, but we will be conducting an interview with Kaminski tomorrow.  It will be going up on Sunday.

Also, stay tuned for our Ken Penders video interview (which should be going up tomorrow), as well as some giveaways of books signed by Penders himself.  Perhaps even some Spaz prints, if you guys are interested.

Correction: For all of you wondering why Gray would be on board as a producer, he’s not. Apparently, he is actually on Archie’s in-house production team. The article has been corrected accordingly.

Announced earlier this evening at the Summer of Sonic website is news that advanced registration tickets for the event are running out fast, Urtheart has the full details below

“To the shock and horror of many we regret to announce that we may soon have to close registration.

In previous years, registration has usually got to a point where we have had to stop it in case we go over the legal limit of how many people we are allowed in the place we hold our events (health and safety and all that, any comments about us being PC will be met with a shotgun).

Despite us being able to hold double the amount of people in this venue, we are sadly reaching that limit again of how many people we can hold. If you are still on the fence about coming to Summer of Sonic, register anyway.  This way, you get a ticket in case you do want to come. We will still try to get in all those who want to come and have not registered, but please be aware that ticket holders will get priority.

We are sorry that we have had to warn you of this before a week of registration has come, but demand for Summer of Sonic has once again been far greater than we anticipated with people all over the world trying to get to the event.

We will inform you if anything on this changes.
Joshua Urtheart Cartlidge

Source: Summer of Sonic website

Another big announcement has been made at the Summer of Sonic 2010 website that will get all of you merchandise collector types pretty darn excited. I’ll let ArchangelUK explain below:

“Before you even ask me, I don’t even know how I managed this one but Summer of Sonic and First 4 Figures are happy to announce a partnership that will see F4F as a sponsor of this year’s Summer of Sonic and will allow SOS attendees to gain possession of a special free gift from the specialist figure manufacturers.

All attendees will, whilst stocks last, receive free of charge one of First 4 Figures brand new Series 2 of their 2 inch Sonic figures line, which we are also exclusively revealing today. Series 2 will contain Super Sonic and Classic Amy Rose; these will be in shops soon where you can purchase them individually. Also at some select shops, F4F will be releasing a collectors 6 pack which includes both Series 1 and Series 2 together!

A 6-pack AAUK? Wait surely there must be another character then! Well you’d be right. The figure you will be getting is not Amy nor is it Super Sonic, attendees will be getting – before its even out on sale anywhere in the world – METAL FREAKIN’ SONIC!

That ladies and gentlemen is the look of a robot that is going to rip your face off the first chance it gets. GLORIOUS.

And there’s more – somehow…wonderfully… there is more!

First 4 Figures have been even more generous and they will also be entering all attendee’s names into a raffle draw where you can win one of the Super Sonic Exclusive statues – yes the ones that light up! We’re hoping to have the prototype of this figurine on display in our merchandise case this year as well.

Details of this prize draw will be made nearer the time, for now SOS attendees content yourself with the knowledge that a pocket-sized Metal Sonic is coming your way. Everyone else can check out these images of the new Series 2 figures and the limited six pack below.

My thanks to the incredibly generous First 4 Figures.  For more details about First 4 Figures products, including the Super Sonic Statue and other video game figurines visit: https://www.first4figures.com/ ”

Source: Summer of Sonic website

After suspicions were raised around the Sonic community regarding abnormalities in the voting patterns in SEGA’s Sonic 4 Birthday Contest, the company has suspended voting on the contest’s poll page. A statement says that SEGA has looked into the situation and confirmed the alleged abnormalities. More details are expected in a future update. SEGA’s statement from the contest’s website reads:

SEGA has been monitoring the voting patterns and discovered irregularities on July 16th. On review, we have confirmed the irregularities and have therefore suspended all voting. Please stay tuned for a more detailed update.

We’ll keep an eye out for that update and inform you of SEGA’s plans for the contest’s future. Voting for the contest was originally scheduled to end July 27th and the winners declared soon after. Where do you think SEGA should go from here? Let us know in the comments.

Thanks to ENVY16 at the SSMB for the heads up!

Another announcement has just been made at the Summer of Sonic website, I’ll let the awesome vger fill you in below.

“Okay so the Summer of Sonic 2010 has playable builds of Sonic 4, Sonic Colours (Wii) and a Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing tournament, what more could you want in a Sonic convention?

Well how’s about some love for those of us who like to play their Sonic games on the go? Thanks to SEGA we will have a copy of Sonic Colours DS (E3 build) for you to play-test on the day.

For those of you who liked previous Sonic DS titles then this will be the game you want to try out first coming from the team that brought you the fast paced Sonic Rush series, under the supervision of Sonic Team, DIMPS. The game is similar to its bigger brother on the Wii, where you use Wisps as power ups to get to the goal in the quickest possible time, except instead of being distracted by those big expansive 3D environments you can play as Sonic in glorious 2D.

Don’t forget to register your tickets for Summer of Sonic here.”

Source: Summer of Sonic website