UPDATE: This is a quick fix for now, forcing the design to Narrow Hedgehog with a shoehorned design. I’ll fix it properly a bit later. Sorry guys! Least you can read stuff now

UPDATE 2: Everything’s working peachy now, so enjoy widescreen Sonic reading in Internet Explorer. Even if it does suck is the most popular browser.

With Sonic Unleashed just round the corner, it’s more than enough time to start promoting the blue blur with just about anything and everything you can create, right? Well, McDonald restaurants in Australia are being a bit more… economical with their promotion of Sonic the Hedgehog, by offering Sonic X Happy Meal toys. The same ones we saw in Britain about a year or so ago. Still, a collectible is a collectible, and according to our Antipodean tipster this is the first time the Launcher toy series has been seen in the land of Oz.

So if you’re Australian and want to get fat, roll yourselves down to your nearest Maccy’s and catch ‘em all! Or, if you’d rather not indulge in their food, see if you can buy the toys separately. I know some places will let you have the toys for a dollar or something.

Thanks for the tip, BlitzChris!

UPDATE: We’re being told by Aussie members of the SSMB that these toys have been around before, something like six months ago. So maybe McDonald’s aren’t as slow as we thought, but it was strange to hear that they had brought them back again in that case. As of today (18th November) it doesn’t look like Sonic is part of the Happy Meal parade anymore, according to our Australian fast-food goers. Still, there’s always eBay or something.

The recent video leak from Taiwanese gaming website Ruliweb has caused big action from Sega Europe, with original Youtube videos being deleted and member accounts being suspended. The news came shortly after we revealed the Opening Cutscene and Apotos videos that were posted, where we had to resort to offering download links from the original source.

Now Youtube members are responding in force, reposting the trailers many times over with various conspicuous titles. One video is named “The Epic opening in the series that is not so falling” and “pessimists beware ice cream will own you” – which is more than sign enough to see that people are very excited about the way Sonic Unleashed is looking at the moment.

It’s not surprising to see Sega curl up into a ball and go out on the Copyright Infringement Attack Force. It’s happened before many times, and it’s only natural to see a publisher defend information that it doesn’t want made public. It will be more interesting to see how Sega continues to respond, particularly given the positive reception the leaked videos have created.

In fact, these two movies have largely been decision-changers in most people, between a pass to a day-one purchase. The question is, will Sega now react positively to the reactions from fans and gamers alike, or will they pursue the retraction of material to the end, causing no end of headaches for them in an open space like the Internet and simultaneously endangering the new consumers the videos appear to have generated? Watch this space, kids.

As you may be aware, I’ve been chronicling the years of TSS, from beginning to end (we’re at 2001 at this moment in time, but over the course of the next week you’ll learn more about the last few years too) in celebration of what this website has achieved in its lifetime. Needless to say that (trumpet blowing time) the impact The Sonic Stadium has made on the Sonic the Hedgehog community is nothing to be scoffed at.

The Sonic Site Awards gave smaller Sonic sites (including TSS at the time) a chance to be seen amongst the big boys. The approach I made to Sega Europe in 2005 has led to the publisher gaining an interest in their target audience, which led to the creation of their Community department, the Sonic City website and the arrival of everyone’s favourite neighbourhood Sega-man, AAUK, to take pole position of what’s going on worldwide. The TSS Network helped raise the profiles of numerous fellow sites, including FastFeet Media and Sonic Cage Dome.

And then of course, you have my latest creation. Something that I am probably the most proud of besides TSS itself. The Summer of Sonic, which can essentially be called two creations under one name. Originally a website, it was born out of a concept I had waaaay back in 2001; that there should be a Sonic fansite where every single prominent webmaster should contribute to. At the time, the idea was to have a Community website that involved myself, Tristan from TSSZ (who was a lot less controversial than he is now arguably), Sonic HQ, The Sonic Foundation, Shadow of a Hedgehog… it would be a site where the whole community got involved and contributed to.
Of course, back in 2001 such an idea was never going to fly. Mainly because webmasters have their own website duties to attend to without focusing on a collaborative project, but also because it seemed absurd at the time that everyone would even bother to get together. At the time, there were plenty of large Sonic fansites and a lot of rivalry to go with it. It was also quite naive of me to propose that webmaster just apparently give up their projects/information for the sake of a brand new website.

So the concept lay dormant until 2006, Sonic’s 15th Anniversary. I wanted to do something to celebrate that was a bit out of the ordinary, and I had remembered the idea I had five years ago. Because TSS had a bit more clout in the community then, it was easier to try and pitch the idea to fellow fansites. Of course, the idea would need some tweaks; it would be a website that was open for a limited time, with original pieces written by community leaders and an emphasis on contribution from as many people as possible. With the concept refined down quite perfectly, it became an exciting project that everyone wanted to be a part of.

Fast forward to 2008. I’m sure everyone in this forum and beyond has had daydreams about a ‘Sonic the Hedgehog Convention’ and to wonder what it would be like, to meet online friends face to face and to see the latest Sonic games. I certainly have, and year on year I felt more confident I could stage such an event, with the help of some of my closest online friends. TSS and Sonic Wrecks had staged the first ever London gathering of Sonic fans in May 2007, and subsequent meetups were getting bigger and bigger.

I felt that it was all leading up to this – a huge gathering of fans in one place casually chatting about Sonic and getting to know each other. AAUK suggested reviving the Summer of Sonic name for the event, and between the two of us we arranged a miniature convention that was not only an awesome experience for everyone involved, but was so popular that the demand grossly exceeded the humble hall we had hired out. A wonderful day as it was, I was never really ready to commit to another convention.

Until today.

I’d like to announce that The Summer of Sonic will definitely return for another convention in the London area. Better yet, I can tell you that it will happen next year, instead of a few years time. “Even better than that”, SoS 2008 is said to have really impressed Sega Europe, even going so far that Sega Japan luminaries are aware of it. Even Jun Senoue knows about it. Because of its impact this year, Sega are very much on board to be more involved with the organisation of next year’s event than before (this year they ‘Supported’ it but took a step back to see whether we could make it as good as we said we could).

This doesn’t mean that a once-community event is lost to the wiles of the ‘money-grubbing’ Corporations though. It’s still very much my show. AAUK is still the Sega waypoint man, and together we’ll still be focusing on getting everyone involved in the proceedings. All it means is that this time, AAUK and I will have some proper help. This will make Summer of Sonic 2009 some very, very cool shit. If I ever said that you needed to be a part of SoS 08, I’ll just say that you need to be a part of SoS 09.

I can’t tell you any more details I’m afraid, as proper planning is not due to begin until January. But you know me, I’m already drafting everything that is going into next year’s event, so I’m not sitting on my thumbs over here. Regardless, all I’m able to say is that you should prepare yourselves for a return of the world’s first Sonic the Hedgehog Convention. 2008 started something very special, my friends. It now begins.

Discuss this on the SSMB

Apparently Brazil are STILL crazy for old tech. Sega’s distributor and licensee for games in the South America region, Tectoy, are back with a vengeance and have announced a brand new Master System model. Imaginitively titled the ‘Master System 3′, the console will resemble something of a cross between a Mega Drive and a 3DO, with two six-button pads, 131 built-in MS games and a picture of Sonic the Hedgehog painted on the top.

There’s no cartridge slot for inserting old games, so you’ll have to make do with the ones already pre-loaded – all said to be G-rated games. Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Drift 2 (a Game Gear-only release outside of Brazil – Tectoy were famous for porting GG games over to the Master System) are among the Sonic games you can access on the console, with other titles including the Alex Kidd series, Enduro Racer, New Zealand Story and Cyber Shinobi. Cyber Shinobi!!!

It actually looks quite funky. Collector’s item for the Sonic fan? You (or T-Bird) decide. Probably not worth it’s asking price though – equivalent of £72.

Oddities: Brazil Keeping Mega Drive Dream Alive! – Kotaku

There were massive rumours that the game had suffered a name change – heavily debunked by SEGA Europe, with the explanation that World Adventure was merely a work-in-progress title. Turns out nobody keeps each other informed in the land of SEGA, and now we have semi-confirmation (semi because it is Japan only after all) in the form of a new official website.

There’s really not a lot else going on with the website, so don’t expect waves of information. But if you’d like an updated Sonic Un… World Adventure experience check it out. The website does look very nice though.

Way back in January 2007, Richard Kuta had pitched his fan film project to studios such as Universal in order to produce a brand new Sonic the Hedgehog film. The Sonic Stadium originally reported it here while progress was still young – Richard had then boasted that SEGA had actually “green-lighted” such a project – claims that ended up being false.

While SEGA had not in fact given the go ahead, Richard’s intentions and ambitions were quite real, and were evidenced as such with discussions involving PR spokespeople from various studios. Quexinos made claims that Kuta was not in fact a filmmaker and called into question the validity of the project to The Sonic Stadium some days after the original news story, which you can read here.

Since that time, Kuta and Quexinos have been at loggerheads as the former insisted his project was real and the latter constantly debunked the claims. Quexinos wrote a post in the FUS forums today, reneging on the claims she made in 2007:

Rich did a lot of stupid and dumb things okay? But one thing he did right, was he somehow got Universal and DiC to back him up. Now I know what you’re thinking, “But he’s bullshitting…” well I found out he wasn’t. I talked to someone at Universal who at least remembered who he was (yeah I went there >.>) It was like I was talking to Rich and he said “Go ahead and call them” and so I did. So there I said it.

Richard’s movie pitch eventually fell flat in Decembet 2006, before all this mess began, when SEGA told him they were making a Sonic film internally. Since that time, Richard has been constantly contacting websites in an attempt to convince people such a project is still in production.

Unfortunately, we can say with certainty that, although The Sonic Stadium supported Richard in his original pitch, he is incorrect in believing a communication from early 2007 is proof SEGA is making a Sonic film. Had this been the case, we would have all heard about it by now. You can chalk up the ‘internal movie’ response as a polite form of rejecting Richard’s original pitch and nothing more.

Still, at least a year-long drama between a website and a budding film maker has come to an end at last, hasn’t it? Now, let’s never hear of any of this again. Ever ever ever ever again.

SatAM’s best chance for a comeback is now – FUS

Posting the image above in the Fans United for SatAM forums, Matt is preparing a pitch that he hopes will kickstart a new series of the classic Saturday morning show, with the hopeful inclusion of writer Ben Hurst. He makes no guarantee that this pitch will work, but as a fan himself states that he will try his damndest.

We wish you all the best Matt – if you have any questions he’s opened the floor on the FUS forums so give him our regards there.

Day ZERO! Animator X has a present for you! – FUS (via Saturday Morning Sonic – thanks Joanne!)

Someone’s been dreaming on the Internets again. According to an apparent lineup at PlayStation Beyond, SEGA America are set to show a game called ‘Sonic Attitude’ at E3 2008 in a few weeks time. Set as a “Rumour” (probably to save their skin when people realise it’s likely just a wishlist for said website – we’d all like an F-Zero for Wii and a NSMB2 for DS), this Sonic game we’ve never heard of will apparently be on the Nintendo DS and is 100% more important than Sonic Chronicles, which isn’t set to make an appearance at all.

No sources are given, and E3 doesn’t seem to have an official list of attendees, at least right now. And unless Dimps really enjoy overworking, pain and suffering (the team is currently responsible for the PS2 and Wii versions of Sonic Unleashed) they won’t be undertaking a new Sonic project either. This is either Sonic Chronicles in sheep’s clothing or I’m eating someone’s clean, plush hat.

PlayStation Beyond (Via GoNintendo) – Cheers SSMB

Roareye from the Sonic Showcase Network was sent this video by Sasso Studios – it’s an attempt at turning a real life movie out of Sonic the Hedgehog. Le sigh. To be fair to the chap, this is a pretty well produced effort for an amateur endeavour, and his heart’s in the right place. And at least they were bold in making Knuckles a gurning white guy.

I guess it just shows that no matter how hard you try, you can never ever create a project like this without it looking completely and totally cheesy. And we’re not even talking Keith Chegwin cheesy, we’re talking Dale Winton’s Special Brand. “SON OF A GUNS!” Classic.

There are several parts to this production already on youtube, and it’s a valiant effort so worth the watch. Beats all those Shadow music videos anyway. Some of the acting is legend (I want to buy the bald guy a pint) and you could cut the sexual tension in the last 30 seconds with a chainsaw (the music when getting into the car is the icing on the cake). Oscar winning material.