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  1. The night is almost upon us, ladies and gentlemen. In one month, SSMB's longest running roleplay returns with Season 4 of Skylanders: Dimensions! And I couldn't be more excited to share the amazing stories me and the entire Roleplay community have been cooking up for what is shaping up to be our most ambitious writing project to date. As such, as the weeks draw nearer, I want to introduce this new blog series: The Road to Season 4, a retrospective in which I ask the writing community on SSMB for their thoughts and memories of working on Skylanders: Dimensions, and its spinoff roleplays in the ever growing Disciples Saga and nailing down just what is it about this roleplay that has kept us going for this long, through all the trials, tribulations and format changes. Starting development in 2018, Season 4 has seen numerous iterations, revisions and developments in its narrative and character arcs. Probably one of the biggest changes is the fact that the scope has gotten a lot bigger. Like, a LOT bigger. As in, as we were developing Season 4, we also oversaw the launch of three Discord roleplays that expanded the multiverse in exciting and unprecedented ways: Pokemon Xicoria, Madoka Revolution, and Dead Zone, all projects that will play some role into Season 4 as forces unite to take on an epic, multiverse spanning war. As such, I'm sure it will be daunting for newcomers, or those coming back after a long hiatus of just what happened in the roleplays thus far to lead us to this point? That's why for this first episode, I will present you with a brief, Saga-spanning recap to help you get up to speed! THE DISCIPLES - After the events of the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica, the recently deceased Sayaka Miki was plucked from her homeworld by mysterious, sentient weapons. Landing smack dab in Station Square, she comes into contact with a strange version of Sonic The Hedgehog, Sentinel Sonic and his vast army of fictional characters: The Disciples, an elite team of Golden Skylanders who operate outside of fiction and reality. - The Disciples are an order meant to protect and preserve the order of the Fictional and Real worlds, and Sayaka was chosen by fate to protect it, and the Golden Weapons which govern the border between realities. Aka: The Fourth Wall. - Pushing through her anxieties and inferiority complex, Sayaka stops Sonic's arch nemesis, Mephiles and his Metarex armada from corrupting a magical volcano called Mount Cloudbreak and using it as his vessel to spread hatred and despair for Writers. All the while saving her fellow Madoka Magica co-stars and recruiting them into the Disciples. Over 7 years of story, let's rock and roll. SSMB CROSSING + SSMB CROSSING 2 - A year into her job, Sayaka confuses a multiverse crossover roleplay (a common occurrence in the Fictional Realm, naturally) for a legitimate anomaly and chooses to investigate, bringing Sonic and some fellow Disciples for the ride. - Through her investigation, she makes a few precious friends, like Jessica, Nightwing, Ragna and more. In addition, the newly minted group of friends begin fending off threats that slowly but surely begin spreading through their cozy home world of the HUB. - Their biggest challenge, however came when Chihiro Fujisaki and Celestia Ludenberg, characters from the Danganronpa series appear... Looking 100% more alive than they should be. The team realizes a good majority of dead Danganronpa characters were resurrected and forced to work under an evil alien army known as the Link Jokers, all lead by Danganronpa antagonist Junko Enoshima. - Junko's body was eventually destroyed by Sonic the Hedgehog, her soul transferring to her robotic bear puppet Monokuma. However, the once peaceful world of Danganronpa was decimated in the crossfire. Sayaka and Sonic realize that this multiverse is now going to be in constant threat, and a more formal effort is going to be needed to keep it safe... - Meanwhile, Monokuma is recruited by a mysterious figure named Lord Vortech and the goddess of death, Izanami, looking to start their own evil organization: LOSE. RISE OF THE SKYLANDERS - In the aftermath of the Link Joker Crisis, The Disciples create an alliance between Danganronpa's Future Foundation, Ninjago's Borg Industry and the heroes of Skylands: The Skylanders to form a new Future Foundation. The Future Foundation will now exist as a joint effort linking multiple peacekeeping organizations from across worlds to become one massive multiversal protection unit. Despite this though, there is no central peacekeeping group to take on the growing threat of LOSE... - Everything came to ahead when Monokuma's children, the Monokubs steal essential data for an digital lifeform called a Liberator and smuggled it into Skylands. This forces Sonic, Sayaka, Makoto Naegi and a few other Foundation members to investigate, at the behest of Future Foundation's strict and morally dubious head, Kyosuke Munakata. - The heroes were eventually led into a trap by LOSE, as they constructed a massive army of elementally charged Liberators through ancient forges. Makoto manages to stop the army's advances but at the cost of infusing himself with pure elemental energy, nearly overloading his body. - After a hasty surgery, Makoto was restored with only a fragment of power left in him, leading to the discovery of a procedure that can grant elemental powers to the powerless. This is the final push for a new organization to be formed to take on the now VERY apparent threat of LOSE: The Multiversal Skylanders. - Appointed leader of this new initiative, Sonic and Sayaka get to work... SKYLANDERS DIMENSIONS: SEASON 1 - The time eventually comes for the opening of the Skylanders Academy in the Hub. Welcoming recruits new and old alike, the Skylanders get to work on their first assignments protecting the multiverse. - As things pile up, the Skylanders realize a commonality in several of them. LOSE is collecting certain core artifacts in multiple worlds: Foundation Elements. - LOSE eventually assembles them all, as the Foundation Elements are needed to assemble a massive hourglass, capable of not only calling the Metarex to this multiverse, but to lead them to the Golden Weapons that can allow the Fourth Wall to be broken. They just needed one last element: Sayaka herself, as the one who kickstarted the multiverse to be in the state it is today. - Realizing the hourglass can only be defeated by instilling belief in their own writers, the combined power of faith in the narrative causes the hourglass to shatter, and the Metarex to be banished from this multiverse. Disgruntled with this failure, Lord Vortech is executed by Monokuma, as he and Izanami take the reigns as LOSE's new heads. - All the while, a girl wakes up with no memories. Her name is Kaede Akamatsu... SKYLANDERS DIMENSIONS: SEASON 2 - It's just another day for the Skylanders, taking on bad guys and saving the day. But one mishap causes the group to cross paths with Kaede, a humble pianist who lives in the hub. However, they realize that Kaede has the elemental power of Light in her veins. And furthermore, she has no memories of who she is, or how she ended up living in the Hub. - Similar people like Kaede begin popping up too, like Ryoko Otonashi, Yusei Muto and Kirumi Tojo. Furthermore, through their continued adventures, Kaede notices she alone is constantly being targeted by an omniscient force that is controlling several villains. Additionally this same force seems to be controlling the narrative of several worlds, refusing to make characters grow and evolve beyond their initial purpose. Heroes should stay heroes, villains should stay villains, the status quo prevails. Someone is trying to keep things exactly the way they "ought" to be... - Kaede, looking up the history of her character learns of her death at the hands of a fiction obsessed mastermind known as Tsumugi Shirogane. For a while, she is convinced she is the original brought back to life, not unlike Sayaka. - However, the truth eventually comes out as Kaede is in fact, a defective Imaginator clone of the original, born in the Golden Skylands but lost her memories during an incident dating back to the Link Joker Crisis. Forced to be a dimensional janitor all her life due to being a defect, her best friend Shuichi chose to leave Kaede in the HUB to pursue a new life for herself upon finding her with her memories gone. - With the truth reveal, Kaede and the Skylanders confront the puppet master behind all this multiversal control, Tsumugi herself, resurrected and given almighty powers by a mysterious godlike being of unknown origin. Determined to tell a story of her own and redeem herself after Danganronpa V3, she sought out to please the Writers by controlling one massive narrative around Ryoko Otonashi, and keeping every character exactly how they are to fulfill her need to play Writer for us. Every character must stick to their role, and never deviate, never grow. What they are conceptualized to be, they must ALWAYS stay. But Kaede's unforeseen existence kept throwing her carefully crafted narrative out of whack, thus the constant attempts to exterminate her. - The Skylanders and LOSE, unite over a mutual need to break free of Tsumugi's bonds fight back. Kaede, emboldened by the truth awakens to her Persona and destroys Tsumugi, instilling the belief that it is not the creator who decides a character's legacy. It's the people the character touches, it is up to us and our love for them to allow characters to grow into something more than they were meant to be. - With that, the multiverse is at peace... if it weren't for the fact that someone is watching, believing with Tsumugi gone, now he can finally set the stage... SKYLANDERS DIMENSIONS: SEASON 3 - Some time after Season 2, the Skylanders, now making the island of Club Penguin their new HQ after Tsumugi destroyed the HUB become entrapped by a mysterious and off-kilter mastermind: LOG, the Lord of Games. Since the events of Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, LOG has been desperate to make a hit... anything. Hit game, hit movie, hit show, whatever. He just wanted to make Writers happy. Attempt after attempt, from sitcoms to a Bubsy cinematic universe wound up being absolute failures. That is, until the Skylanders hit the scene. - Why, it was LOG who resurrected Tsumugi long ago, looking to make her a co-producer on his Skylanders project. But creative differences caused the two to part ways and for Tsumugi to spread her chaos, halting his plans to create: The LOG Challenge! A reality show broadcasting the Skylanders, 24/7, 365! When not on adventures, LOG forces the Skylanders through sadistic challenges and games to satisfy their audience. The Skylanders are now unwilling celebrities, under the thumb of an eccentric god. Even LOSE is under LOG's mercy, cause without Skylanders, there would be no show. - To govern his new stars, LOG creates a digital program capable of uncontrollably moderating the Skylanders: A manifestation of a lively and heroic Kyubey, a friend Sonic lost long ago during his early Disciples days. Despite his function however, Kyubey despises what LOG wants to do. And while he cannot do anything about it currently, Kyubey proves himself as a worthy and loyal Skylander. - As the Skylanders trudge through both their day job and LOG's antics, LOSE attempted to strike with their biggest scheme yet, the Unity Engines. Using them to merge the multiverse into one chaotic mass, the Skylanders had to fight the program LOSE created to control the madness: A robot named Trinity. However, instead if merely destroying her, the Skylanders brought her home to Club Penguin. Debating if they should mindwipe and reprogram her, or let Trinity think for herself, the decision was ultimately decided to let Trinity be free to choose her own path. Trinity chose to become a Skylander as a result, and a close friend to Kyubey, as both are unwitting digital souls forced to do bad things, despite trying to do good. - In one mission, Disciple Homura Akemi, after years of struggling with her identity as a hero versus the insistence of her own stubborn trauma that she can't be is manipulated by her future canon self to take over the multiverse so Madoka Kaname, her love will be the only thing that remains. She will be safe, and protected forever. The Skylanders snap Homura out of her manipulation to fight back and fully accept her heroic side, but not without a massive fight. This fight forces Sonic and Tails to call upon a Sentinel they tried to hide from the multiverse: Maria Robotnik. - Maria helped turn the tides of the fight, but reveals a greater secret to the multiverse. Sentinels, Sonic's race of Dark Gaia spawns can be MADE, artificially. This opening of Pandora's Box may not have any visible effect now, with the battle won. But this revelation may result in a future calamity... - But for now, the multiverse is saved, as Disciple The Doctor investigates in his TARDIS the beings that created the Magical Girls and their torment to begin with: The Incubators. Seeing them as the root of the trouble, he suspects things aren't quite finished yet... - Back with LOG, he hosts a massive tournament as his ultimate challenge, pitting Skylanders, LOSE and other third parties against each other for the promise of one granted wish. LOSE however, had different plans. Using this tournament to their advantage to sneak into LOG's base of operations, the Box Dimension, they see just how much LOG's previous attempts to entertain the masses broke him. He desperately, desperately wants to make people happy with his works. And this is his last hail mary effort to fulfill what he believes is his purpose. - Pity wasn't on the agenda however, as LOSE discovers the conduit of LOG's almighty, multiverse bending powers: A contract. The contract governs the entire show and gives LOG full creative freedom to make and manifest anything he wants. Orchestrating a plan to seize the contract for themselves, LOSE conducts their next big plan... - Constructing a Killing Game, numerous Skylanders begin dying on screen to other Skylanders as it is broadcasted to the multiverse. All in the sick desire to twist LOG into relinquishing the contract. The attempt worked, despite the Killing Game in reality being just a simulation, giving LOSE infinite power. - With LOG powerless to stop what is coming, the entire multiverse is under LOSE control as they seek to destroy the Skylanders and control all... That is, until Izanami reveals her true hand under the noses of Monokuma and the others. In a bout of betrayal, Izanami seeks to not control, but DESTROY all. Including her fellow LOSE members as the multiverse slowly starts to undergo a "reboot". - Kyubey realizes the only way to stop Izanami's rise in power is to end the show. To do that, there must be no conduit to broadcast anything. Without a camera, there is no show to film. Kyubey has to sacrifice himself. With Trinity the only one who could accomplish the job, Kyubey manages to tearfully convince her to assimilate not just Kyubey, but LOG. What was one became three, as Holy Trinity became the key to finishing off Izanami and restoring the universe. - With LOG's powers restored, he restored the multiverse in an even better state than it was before, destroyed universes being recreated in a new era of peace. LOSE, feeling betrayed by Izanami chooses to break up, and at last, the Skylanders are free of the show. - Deciding now is the perfect time to part ways, with the multiverse seemingly not needing the Skylanders anymore, they all return to their homes to tend to their worlds. All while Trinity stays behind, holding the lessons learned from this adventure to heart. Failure is not what defines a Writer's work, but our willingness to grow from it. POKEMON XICORIA - In another world, a young boy named Nick Silph, the son of Silph Co's founder, a famous inventor and multiverse-aficinado sets out on his own journey of self discovery with his Pokemon partner, a talking Scorbunny named Sonic. - Nick is one of the few people in his world who knows about the Skylanders, having watched the LOG Challenges on Silph Co's top secret multiversal TV. Nick arrives in Xicoria, a region filled with unique Pokemon fusions. With it, he meets other trainers as they set out on the usual Pokemon adventures, getting badges to face a particularly haughty champion, and a mysterious criminal organization known as Team Enygma. - Things took a drastic turn however when the trainers discover an icy cave, and Nick comes in contact with a mysterious meteor. The lifeform that dwells within the meteor merges with him, causing Nick to have the ability to transform into an orange suited superhuman. - The trainers were then visited by The Doctor, who manages to squeeze answers out of this life form. The alien reveals itself as the last Deoxys, a being looking for justice, particularly for his kind. The Deoxys race were visited by the Incubators, who provide an ultimatum to join their rapidly growing army. For why the Incubators were forming an army was unknown, but the Deoxys species refused to cooperate. For this, the race was instantly wiped out, the planet decimated, and this last Deoxys to scramble to Earth... Looking for an equally righteous host to bond with to spare Earth from a similar fate. - With Nick chosen as the host, the two decide to become the Pokemon world's first superhero. Things eventually came to ahead much later as Nick met his idols, the Skylanders at LOG's tournament... Forming an alliance that may soon require the aid of Nick, and his fellow trainers once again. PUELLA MAGI MADOKA MAGICA REVOLUTION: SEASON 1 - While most Skylanders parted ways to pursue their own goals, some still decide their work preserving the multiverse isn't entirely done yet. Several Skylanders, like Sonic, Sayaka and Homura formed an alliance with the Japanese government of the world Homura threatened to ensure a place for Magical Girls to be safe in, train, and become a new generation of heroes. Thus, the Magical Arrangement of Girls Institution was forged. Aka, MAGI. - Slowly making a name for themselves and taught by the Skylanders, the girls of MAGI discovered a top secret government android being created under the Skylanders' noses called ANNE. ANNE seems to be powered by some kind of mysterious source that has been fueling Mitakihara City for decades, and was properly shown off when Walpurgisnacht, the ultimate Witch emerged. ANNE one-shotted the Witch, earning the favor of the masses. - Eventually though, the truth of ANNE's power was revealed. It is no mere eternal battery, but the Soul Gem of a Magical Girl. The very first Magical Girl, one who was tricked by the Incubators first to make a wish that made her unkillable... But only her soul. Her body decomposed through the eons, having no vessel. But her Soul Gem was discovered and abused, experimented, exploited due to its unprecedented power. And now she seeks revenge on humanity for their cruelty. - Sealing ANNE in a pocket dimension, the Magical Girls manage to wear her out and defeat her android shell, rendering her a mere Soul Gem again. But the Incubators get their hands on it, waiting this entire time to seize this Soul Gem to complete their ultimate goal... PUELLA MAGI MADOKA MAGICA REVOLUTION: SEASON 2 - Months later, MAGI is the talk of the town as the world's most beloved heroes. But their legacy will be put to the test when the Incubators arrive. Realizing humanity has become too defiant for their own good, they use ANNE's Soul Gem to power their army to enslave the people of Earth and harvest their emotional energies to become even stronger. - MAGI and the Skylanders learn that the Incubators are not a singular race, but a cult spawned from a peaceful wish granting race known as the Corinians. The Incubators' leader, Mr. Mortis sought to use wishes to indebt other races to him and steal their powers upon their demise, and lied to disillusioned Corinians to purge all emotions and free thinking to follow him, under the guise of protecting the universe from entropy. - Freeing humanity from Incubator bunkers, MAGI, the Skylanders, and even Nick Silph decide to finally bring the fight to Mortis' battleship and end the Incubators' grip on the multiverse for good. - With the Incubator armada now powerless, Sonic has Mortis on the ropes. It is where Mortis delivers a harrowing message why they needed to assume more and more power. It's because of SONIC. Because of his hasty decision long ago to reveal the secrets of Sentinel creation via Maria, Incubators were able to foresee a war unlike any other. A war puppeteered by vicious, evil Sentinels the likes of which have never been seen. Someone created new monsters to threaten the multiverse with war, and the Incubators just had enough power to come out on top should the war begin. - But with the Incubators down and out, nothing will stop this war from happening. Mortis threatens that Sonic has damned them all. In a fit of anger, Sonic kills Mortis, and tries to ride the high of victory with all the other MAGI members as the Skylanders return to retirement. - But Sonic can't help but shake the feeling, the guilt... what HAS he brought into this world? ...What he will see, will shake the Skylanders to their core. TO BE CONTINUED, APRIL 28TH... ON THE SKYLANDERS: DIMENSIONS CLUB
  2. They say a lot can happen in the space of a year. And boy, has that never been truer than the events of the last 12 months! In 2023 alone, Sonic the Hedgehog fans have been able to enjoy no less than three major brand new games, four meaty DLC expansion packs for two other games, at least five IDW specials (alongside the monthly comics), a number of animated projects and several hundred thousand* merchandise collaborations (including a significant one with LEGO). And that’s just the stuff SEGA was directly involved in! It truly has been an incredibly busy year for Sonic, with enough new material out there to satisfy almost every kind of blue blur fanatic - Modern, Classic, Shadow, Comic, Cartoon, Art-heads, Merch hunters and even the Sonic Retros. The sheer volume of Sonic content that has flowed in 2023 has been non-stop - almost aggressively relentless, in fact. It’s been tough for the Sonic News team to stay on top of it all, truth be told! But we’re finally here, at the end of this magnificent journey we call ‘2023’, ready to attempt to roundup the biggest stories of the year and contextualise it all for you. We thought 2022 was busy, but boy we were not prepared for just how jam-packed this year has been. This truly has been Sonic the Hedgehog’s busiest year yet. * Might be an exaggeration. The Big Story It’s difficult to condense a year’s worth of news into one contextualised narrative when the news was ‘EVERYTHING HAPPENED’, but if 2022 was all about ‘convergence’ and unification of the Sonic franchise across all mediums, then 2023 clearly illustrated the fruits of those efforts - from both the game development side and the brand marketing side. The sales success of Sonic Frontiers led the way on this, with news about the game’s continuing performance becoming a regular occurrence during SEGA Sammy’s quarterly fiscal briefings. As of November, the open-zone adventure has racked up over 3.2 million copies, making it one of the best-performing Sonic the Hedgehog titles ever. Alongside this, the entire franchise has moved 1.6 billion units as of March 2023. SEGA Sammy believes that these very impressive numbers have been achieved, in part, thanks to its successful partnership with third parties to amplify the Sonic brand in other mediums. Most obviously, the Paramount Sonic movies no doubt helped revitalise the franchise in many people’s minds, but the company also points to its collaborations with Netflix, Minecraft, Capcom and others to push what it called a “successful transmedia strategy” - an effort that began in 2020. Thanks to Sonic’s silver screen stardom - and the resulting successes that followed - SEGA Sammy believes that its flagship IP is now on a high, with its future looking incredibly bright. Sonic brand director and Sonic Team lead Takashi Iizuka was promptly promoted to an executive-level position within the company, and there is an eagerness to replicate the same turnaround performance for SEGA’s other dormant brands. The publisher ended the year by announcing that it would be reviving five more of its classic IPs, including Jet Set Radio, Golden Axe and Crazy Taxi - some of which are rumoured to also get movie adaptations, just like Sonic. SEGA has proudly claimed that Sonic’s renewed fame was the catalyst for many of these retro revivals. Sonic the Hedgehog helped put SEGA on the map in the 1990s, and it’s kind of poetic that he seems to be doing it all over again in the 2020s, some 30 years later. With the ‘New Era’ and the imminent arrival of its ‘Super Game’ in 2025, the next year could see SEGA truly transform its fortunes, if it’s able to fully replicate its success with Sonic. So... Many... Releases! To say that 2023 was a good year for Sonic games would be the understatement of the decade. SEGA and its content partners were firing on all cylinders this year, with an incredibly generous amount of products to play, read and watch. First, the games. Sonic Team made good on its promise to deliver three substantial content updates to 2022’s Sonic Frontiers, starting off with a set of new audio and visual modes, leading into a Birthday Bash package containing new challenges. The final expansion added an entirely brand new alternative story experience for the final Starfall Island, and while it was incredibly hit-and-miss it was nonetheless an impressively involved effort for a free DLC. With Frontiers releasing just last year and Sonic Team’s focus on expansion content in 2023, we would have understood if things ended up being quiet for the rest of the year. Instead, we got several nice surprises. Takashi Iizuka and original Sonic designer Naoto Ohshima teamed up to bring us a new Classic Sonic adventure in Sonic Superstars (see our review here). SEGA HARDlight came out of its mobile gaming shell and launched a 3D platformer on Apple Arcade, Sonic Dream Team (our review on that here). Even the Sonic social team clubbed together and released a free game on April 1, in the form of The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. And to top it all off, 2022’s Sonic Origins compilation also received a substantial upgrade with Sonic Origins Plus, adding new playable characters, challenges and the complete archive of 8-bit Game Gear Sonic the Hedgehog games. It continues to get updates to this day. Even in terms of games alone, 2023 has been an exceptionally packed year - but add in everything else that released and it’s clear that we’ve all been spoiled rotten. Netflix launched Season 2 of Sonic Prime (and millions of hours of the show were watched), IDW continued its run of Sonic comics alongside a number of specials (covering Winter, Summer, Halloween, Amy Rose’s anniversary and Sonic’s 900th adventure to name but a few), LEGO released a series of Sonic-themed toys, and there were many licensing partnerships between SEGA and Igloo, Hypland, Numskull and Crocs among others. The Sonic Community was responsible for a lot of action too - Noah Copeland added extra content to his ambitious Sonic Triple Trouble 16-Bit project, an episode of SatAM was lovingly re-animated, a trailer for a fan film featuring Shadow the Hedgehog was released and a Sonic mod project, Hellfire Saga, was finally completed after five years of development. However you enjoy and celebrate Sonic the Hedgehog, you can’t argue that there hasn’t been something for everyone this year. "It Belongs in a Museum!" The last 12 months haven’t just been good fun for fans excited about the new Sonic stuff, either. No, 2023 has been a tornado of interesting new developments in the retro Sonic scene as well. Archive artwork and assets have consistently dropped over the last year - everything from old Sonic CD storyboards, Sonic Mania concepts and McDonalds toy sketches, to early Tails art and sprites, high quality Sonic X-treme screenshots and packshots of cancelled PC ports. Former Sonic Team designer Satoshi Okano even got involved by sharing some concept artwork of characters and pieces he made for Sonic Jam and Sonic Adventure, with the latter solving an age-old niche mystery surrounding a previously unknown ‘Spider’ character. Speaking of Sonic Adventure, a pre-release version of the game was also uncovered, known as the ‘Tournament Disk’. Perhaps the biggest surprise this year in this area concerns a game that everybody thought was already tapped for prototype material - Sonic the Hedgehog 2. With the help of the Video Game History Foundation, new concept art and documents not only unearthed us more details about the scrapped ‘Cyber City Zone’ stage, but the VGHF was able to recreate (to a best estimate) a portion of the level itself! More contextual information regarding the game’s early ‘time travel’ concept was also revealed, it’s super fascinating and well worth the watch. British Sonic fans who grew up in the 1990s will also feel blessed about the return of another long lost figure in 2023. The original Sonic the Hedgehog statue from London’s old SEGAWorld was discovered and loving restored by none other than… SEGA themselves! The restored statue went on something of a grand tour in the second half of the year, including Gamescom (with spinning globe and everything!). Honestly, all the above doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the archive material that has been discovered this year - stuff like the Rocky arcade game, dumps of SEGASonic Cosmo Fighter, the return of the original 1990s Sonic hot air balloon in the UK and the discovery of Sonic and Tails in the original Fighting Vipers arcade game - but if I wrote about it all we’d be here ALL DAY! Events Madness 2023 was also a big year for Sonic-related events too. Top of the list here was clearly the launch of the highly anticipated World Tour of the much-loved Sonic Symphony, which began in London and Los Angeles to critical acclaim and is now charting a course to spread musical cheer across the globe. The concert’s frontman, Shota Nakama, has an incredible energy and creative talent which can be seen in every stage performance - the event is clearly made with a lot of love for the Sonic series and we highly recommend experiencing it! Beyond Symphony, SEGA also partnered with restauranteur Andy Nguyen and the Secret Sauce Society to launch a series of pop-up themed diners, called the Sonic Speed Cafe. We went to the premiere of the first location when it arrived in San Diego and loved the experience and the creativity of the menu, and there’s currently a second pop-up operating in California until February. In Japan, Sonic took residency at the country’s famous Fuji-Q theme park, with characters from the series taking over the venue’s announcement recordings and a ‘Sonic Square’ set up to promote various games and activities. Sonic also popped up at Tokyo Game Show and the Tokyo Toy Fair (for some reason), and SEGA kicked off a special pan-Asia ‘fan meeting’ tour across multiple countries where fans could get some face time with Jun Senoue and Kazuyuki Hoshino. Sonic fans have always clubbed together to celebrate their favourite franchise in many different ways, and in 2023 this was more apparent than ever. Alongside classic online events such as Sonic Amateur Games Expo and Sonic Hacking Contest, retro community fans were represented as the 2000s webmasters of Sonic Stuff Research Group came together at the Retro World Expo to host a panel about their experience at the start of the modern Sonic web. A range of interesting fan conventions were also held, such as Sonic the Comic Con, Sonic Fan Fest, Sonic Expo and Sonic Revolution. There was absolutely no way anybody could have been bored as a Sonic fan this year! Unionize! We’d like to end this roundup on a hopeful, humanitarian note. We’ve all enjoyed, chatted about and hyped over the huge volume of Sonic the Hedgehog content released in 2023, but it’s important to also recognise the people behind these projects, who work tirelessly to bring us all the games, comics, shows and more that we fans constantly demand, collect and play. If you look at the state of the broader video games industry in general, it is easy to see that 2023 was a sad and uncomfortable tale of two halves. On the one side, it was a very positive year in terms of game releases - but on the other hand, constant reports of mass layoffs and abusive treatment of employees at major publishers brought to the fore a depressing reality behind all the flashy trailers and shiny game boxes. Sonic projects sadly didn’t escape this trend, with Roblox developer Gamefam (best known in our community for its Sonic Speed Simulator project) settling in court with the National Labor Relations Board over complaints concerning pay discussion. The studio has also faced accusations relating to pay, development crunch and communication since late 2022. Luckily, SEGA has so far avoided being included in such depressing headlines, but that day may yet come. In refreshing news, a number of SEGA of America employees voted to have their rights protected by a new union (the “Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA”) partnering with the Communication Workers of America. However, while SEGA’s corporate response was initially positive, there are fears that the American office will still see layoffs in early 2024 - with reports claiming that the company is strong-arming unionised members and side-stepping the AEGIS organisation entirely. It would be a poor start to the new year if any of this comes to pass - much of SEGA’s success in recent years (including with Sonic) can be nailed down to the people working hard on these games, in every department. There’s still time for SEGA to reverse course on this decision and better respect the efforts of all in their company. While we hold out hope on that, we think that SoA’s employees’ movement to unionise is an inspiring message for all game industry employees working in the current landscape, and we hope employees at other publishers follow suit. What Were Your Highlights? So, that was the year that was! So much happened in 2023 that we couldn't possibly cover it all, but hopefully we've done a decent enough job of bring you the abridged version. Let us know in the comments what YOUR highlights of 2023 were! And from all of us at the Sonic Stadium to all of you, we wish you a very Happy New Year and a prosperous 2024! Cheers! View full story
  3. They say a lot can happen in the space of a year. And boy, has that never been truer than the events of the last 12 months! In 2023 alone, Sonic the Hedgehog fans have been able to enjoy no less than three major brand new games, four meaty DLC expansion packs for two other games, at least five IDW specials (alongside the monthly comics), a number of animated projects and several hundred thousand* merchandise collaborations (including a significant one with LEGO). And that’s just the stuff SEGA was directly involved in! It truly has been an incredibly busy year for Sonic, with enough new material out there to satisfy almost every kind of blue blur fanatic - Modern, Classic, Shadow, Comic, Cartoon, Art-heads, Merch hunters and even the Sonic Retros. The sheer volume of Sonic content that has flowed in 2023 has been non-stop - almost aggressively relentless, in fact. It’s been tough for the Sonic News team to stay on top of it all, truth be told! But we’re finally here, at the end of this magnificent journey we call ‘2023’, ready to attempt to roundup the biggest stories of the year and contextualise it all for you. We thought 2022 was busy, but boy we were not prepared for just how jam-packed this year has been. This truly has been Sonic the Hedgehog’s busiest year yet. * Might be an exaggeration. The Big Story It’s difficult to condense a year’s worth of news into one contextualised narrative when the news was ‘EVERYTHING HAPPENED’, but if 2022 was all about ‘convergence’ and unification of the Sonic franchise across all mediums, then 2023 clearly illustrated the fruits of those efforts - from both the game development side and the brand marketing side. The sales success of Sonic Frontiers led the way on this, with news about the game’s continuing performance becoming a regular occurrence during SEGA Sammy’s quarterly fiscal briefings. As of November, the open-zone adventure has racked up over 3.2 million copies, making it one of the best-performing Sonic the Hedgehog titles ever. Alongside this, the entire franchise has moved 1.6 billion units as of March 2023. SEGA Sammy believes that these very impressive numbers have been achieved, in part, thanks to its successful partnership with third parties to amplify the Sonic brand in other mediums. Most obviously, the Paramount Sonic movies no doubt helped revitalise the franchise in many people’s minds, but the company also points to its collaborations with Netflix, Minecraft, Capcom and others to push what it called a “successful transmedia strategy” - an effort that began in 2020. Thanks to Sonic’s silver screen stardom - and the resulting successes that followed - SEGA Sammy believes that its flagship IP is now on a high, with its future looking incredibly bright. Sonic brand director and Sonic Team lead Takashi Iizuka was promptly promoted to an executive-level position within the company, and there is an eagerness to replicate the same turnaround performance for SEGA’s other dormant brands. The publisher ended the year by announcing that it would be reviving five more of its classic IPs, including Jet Set Radio, Golden Axe and Crazy Taxi - some of which are rumoured to also get movie adaptations, just like Sonic. SEGA has proudly claimed that Sonic’s renewed fame was the catalyst for many of these retro revivals. Sonic the Hedgehog helped put SEGA on the map in the 1990s, and it’s kind of poetic that he seems to be doing it all over again in the 2020s, some 30 years later. With the ‘New Era’ and the imminent arrival of its ‘Super Game’ in 2025, the next year could see SEGA truly transform its fortunes, if it’s able to fully replicate its success with Sonic. So... Many... Releases! To say that 2023 was a good year for Sonic games would be the understatement of the decade. SEGA and its content partners were firing on all cylinders this year, with an incredibly generous amount of products to play, read and watch. First, the games. Sonic Team made good on its promise to deliver three substantial content updates to 2022’s Sonic Frontiers, starting off with a set of new audio and visual modes, leading into a Birthday Bash package containing new challenges. The final expansion added an entirely brand new alternative story experience for the final Starfall Island, and while it was incredibly hit-and-miss it was nonetheless an impressively involved effort for a free DLC. With Frontiers releasing just last year and Sonic Team’s focus on expansion content in 2023, we would have understood if things ended up being quiet for the rest of the year. Instead, we got several nice surprises. Takashi Iizuka and original Sonic designer Naoto Ohshima teamed up to bring us a new Classic Sonic adventure in Sonic Superstars (see our review here). SEGA HARDlight came out of its mobile gaming shell and launched a 3D platformer on Apple Arcade, Sonic Dream Team (our review on that here). Even the Sonic social team clubbed together and released a free game on April 1, in the form of The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. And to top it all off, 2022’s Sonic Origins compilation also received a substantial upgrade with Sonic Origins Plus, adding new playable characters, challenges and the complete archive of 8-bit Game Gear Sonic the Hedgehog games. It continues to get updates to this day. Even in terms of games alone, 2023 has been an exceptionally packed year - but add in everything else that released and it’s clear that we’ve all been spoiled rotten. Netflix launched Season 2 of Sonic Prime (and millions of hours of the show were watched), IDW continued its run of Sonic comics alongside a number of specials (covering Winter, Summer, Halloween, Amy Rose’s anniversary and Sonic’s 900th adventure to name but a few), LEGO released a series of Sonic-themed toys, and there were many licensing partnerships between SEGA and Igloo, Hypland, Numskull and Crocs among others. The Sonic Community was responsible for a lot of action too - Noah Copeland added extra content to his ambitious Sonic Triple Trouble 16-Bit project, an episode of SatAM was lovingly re-animated, a trailer for a fan film featuring Shadow the Hedgehog was released and a Sonic mod project, Hellfire Saga, was finally completed after five years of development. However you enjoy and celebrate Sonic the Hedgehog, you can’t argue that there hasn’t been something for everyone this year. "It Belongs in a Museum!" The last 12 months haven’t just been good fun for fans excited about the new Sonic stuff, either. No, 2023 has been a tornado of interesting new developments in the retro Sonic scene as well. Archive artwork and assets have consistently dropped over the last year - everything from old Sonic CD storyboards, Sonic Mania concepts and McDonalds toy sketches, to early Tails art and sprites, high quality Sonic X-treme screenshots and packshots of cancelled PC ports. Former Sonic Team designer Satoshi Okano even got involved by sharing some concept artwork of characters and pieces he made for Sonic Jam and Sonic Adventure, with the latter solving an age-old niche mystery surrounding a previously unknown ‘Spider’ character. Speaking of Sonic Adventure, a pre-release version of the game was also uncovered, known as the ‘Tournament Disk’. Perhaps the biggest surprise this year in this area concerns a game that everybody thought was already tapped for prototype material - Sonic the Hedgehog 2. With the help of the Video Game History Foundation, new concept art and documents not only unearthed us more details about the scrapped ‘Cyber City Zone’ stage, but the VGHF was able to recreate (to a best estimate) a portion of the level itself! More contextual information regarding the game’s early ‘time travel’ concept was also revealed, it’s super fascinating and well worth the watch. British Sonic fans who grew up in the 1990s will also feel blessed about the return of another long lost figure in 2023. The original Sonic the Hedgehog statue from London’s old SEGAWorld was discovered and loving restored by none other than… SEGA themselves! The restored statue went on something of a grand tour in the second half of the year, including Gamescom (with spinning globe and everything!). Honestly, all the above doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the archive material that has been discovered this year - stuff like the Rocky arcade game, dumps of SEGASonic Cosmo Fighter, the return of the original 1990s Sonic hot air balloon in the UK and the discovery of Sonic and Tails in the original Fighting Vipers arcade game - but if I wrote about it all we’d be here ALL DAY! Events Madness 2023 was also a big year for Sonic-related events too. Top of the list here was clearly the launch of the highly anticipated World Tour of the much-loved Sonic Symphony, which began in London and Los Angeles to critical acclaim and is now charting a course to spread musical cheer across the globe. The concert’s frontman, Shota Nakama, has an incredible energy and creative talent which can be seen in every stage performance - the event is clearly made with a lot of love for the Sonic series and we highly recommend experiencing it! Beyond Symphony, SEGA also partnered with restauranteur Andy Nguyen and the Secret Sauce Society to launch a series of pop-up themed diners, called the Sonic Speed Cafe. We went to the premiere of the first location when it arrived in San Diego and loved the experience and the creativity of the menu, and there’s currently a second pop-up operating in California until February. In Japan, Sonic took residency at the country’s famous Fuji-Q theme park, with characters from the series taking over the venue’s announcement recordings and a ‘Sonic Square’ set up to promote various games and activities. Sonic also popped up at Tokyo Game Show and the Tokyo Toy Fair (for some reason), and SEGA kicked off a special pan-Asia ‘fan meeting’ tour across multiple countries where fans could get some face time with Jun Senoue and Kazuyuki Hoshino. Sonic fans have always clubbed together to celebrate their favourite franchise in many different ways, and in 2023 this was more apparent than ever. Alongside classic online events such as Sonic Amateur Games Expo and Sonic Hacking Contest, retro community fans were represented as the 2000s webmasters of Sonic Stuff Research Group came together at the Retro World Expo to host a panel about their experience at the start of the modern Sonic web. A range of interesting fan conventions were also held, such as Sonic the Comic Con, Sonic Fan Fest, Sonic Expo and Sonic Revolution. There was absolutely no way anybody could have been bored as a Sonic fan this year! Unionize! We’d like to end this roundup on a hopeful, humanitarian note. We’ve all enjoyed, chatted about and hyped over the huge volume of Sonic the Hedgehog content released in 2023, but it’s important to also recognise the people behind these projects, who work tirelessly to bring us all the games, comics, shows and more that we fans constantly demand, collect and play. If you look at the state of the broader video games industry in general, it is easy to see that 2023 was a sad and uncomfortable tale of two halves. On the one side, it was a very positive year in terms of game releases - but on the other hand, constant reports of mass layoffs and abusive treatment of employees at major publishers brought to the fore a depressing reality behind all the flashy trailers and shiny game boxes. Sonic projects sadly didn’t escape this trend, with Roblox developer Gamefam (best known in our community for its Sonic Speed Simulator project) settling in court with the National Labor Relations Board over complaints concerning pay discussion. The studio has also faced accusations relating to pay, development crunch and communication since late 2022. Luckily, SEGA has so far avoided being included in such depressing headlines, but that day may yet come. In refreshing news, a number of SEGA of America employees voted to have their rights protected by a new union (the “Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA”) partnering with the Communication Workers of America. However, while SEGA’s corporate response was initially positive, there are fears that the American office will still see layoffs in early 2024 - with reports claiming that the company is strong-arming unionised members and side-stepping the AEGIS organisation entirely. It would be a poor start to the new year if any of this comes to pass - much of SEGA’s success in recent years (including with Sonic) can be nailed down to the people working hard on these games, in every department. There’s still time for SEGA to reverse course on this decision and better respect the efforts of all in their company. While we hold out hope on that, we think that SoA’s employees’ movement to unionise is an inspiring message for all game industry employees working in the current landscape, and we hope employees at other publishers follow suit. What Were Your Highlights? So, that was the year that was! So much happened in 2023 that we couldn't possibly cover it all, but hopefully we've done a decent enough job of bring you the abridged version. Let us know in the comments what YOUR highlights of 2023 were! And from all of us at the Sonic Stadium to all of you, we wish you a very Happy New Year and a prosperous 2024! Cheers!
  4. The end of 2022 is now upon us. And boy, what a year it has been! After spending Sonic's 30th Anniversary mostly waiting for trailers, watching online events and experiencing strange mobile crossovers, it finally feels like this year has been the big global celebration of the blue blur that the decades-long franchise fully deserved. Usually, this is around this time of year where the Sonic Stadium does its annual tradition of summing up the past 12 months and succinctly contextualises the overall landscape of the Sonic franchise and fanbase. And while the last five years have largely been a snoozefest (Sonic Movie aside), this year our job has suddenly been made incredibly difficult! It really feels like we've had five years' worth of action happen on our doorstep in 2022 alone! The Big Story We're going to run through some key stories that ran throughout the year later in this feature - but, as always, there is a broader story behind everything that has happened in 2022. The key story here for SEGA, Sonic Team and the Sonic franchise in 2022 is one of 'convergence' and 'restructure'. If you were the ever-passionate Sonic Frontiers director, Morio Kishimoto, you might even use the word 'resurrection' or something. For this has been a year where the culmination of Sonic Team's five-year crunch on the latest mainline Sonic the Hedgehog game marks not only a new path forward for the game series, but a renewed effort (through Takashi Iizuka and the Sonic Brand team, based in the US) on creating synergy between the games and the other media pillars of SEGA's mascot franchise. With the onboarding of IDW Sonic comic writer Ian Flynn to help shape Sonic Frontiers' story, a slight re-telling of the plotlines that run through the classic 1990s Sonic games (which are then emphasised in cross-media projects such as Sonic Prime) and recent moves to establish and maintain a consistent "lore" to the Sonic franchise, it's clear that 2022 saw the fruits of SEGA's labour in performing some years-long canonical housekeeping. Our exclusive interview with Sonic franchise creative head Takashi Iizuka this year confirmed the intention to keep the different threads of Sonic media 'connected' as much as possible. It's likely that the most exciting results of this work will not be seen for another year or so yet, as new movies, TV shows, comics and games emerge and take advantage of this connected series of universes. But for now, fans have been blessed with an avalanche of media to consume - starting with Paramount's barnstorming sequel to the Sonic movie, and ending with Sonic Team's inspiring return to form and an engaging animation series on Netflix. The Sonic movies may well be considered part of their own canonical bubble. But when you take into account the rest of it - the timing of Sonic Origins' re-introduction of classic games; the gameplay and design approach in Sonic Frontiers; the consistent and authentic interpretation of Sonic's world and adventures in the IDW comics; the fresh multi-verse narrative that Sonic Prime offers; and the canonical backbone that has been established to connect them all - it really does feel like the start of a brand new generation of Sonic the Hedgehog, in its entirety. And that's an incredibly exciting thought, going into 2023. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Movie Right at the start of the year, fans were clamouring for the imminent release of one of the most highly-anticipated Sonic media in years. And surprisingly, it wasn't a video game! Paramount Pictures' successful handling of the original Sonic the Hedgehog movie in 2020 got families and fans excited for more, and with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 arriving in theatres in late March/early April, there was a lot of opportunity to generate even more hype than before. Especially thanks to the formal arrival of Tails and Knuckles into the movie-verse. Not that it needed much else to push hype levels up. But in case any more convincing was needed, a whole bunch of merchandise and tie-ins were announced alongside consistent releases of new renders and trailers. There were McDonalds toys, Build-A-Bear collaborations, a prequel (sorry, "pre-quill") comic that had input from Jim Carrey... there was even a promotion with Xbox where you could win a ghastly 'furry' pair of Sonic controllers. The extra effort paid off. The movie was released (except in Russia) to mostly positive reviews from critics (including Sonic Stadium itself) and, as one of the first movies to open to a world of theaters finally escaping the lockdown grip of COVID-19, absolutely smashed the box office with over $25.5 million raked in from worldwide markets in its opening few days before it even premiered in the US! We made a pretty good name for ourselves this year by shoehorning Sonic game titles into the headlines of every Sonic 2 movie box office earnings story we could manage (seriously, we did this a lot of times). Be proud of us. It's hard work. But, it was worth keeping up with the movie's every milestone, as it beat every cinematic rival it faced down, from Fantastic Beasts to Uncharted. By August, the movie had pulled a global gross of nearly $401 million, making it the fourth-highest grossing video game movie of all time. The sheer colossal scale of Sonic 2's success encouraged Paramount to double down on its cinematic partnership with SEGA, quickly announcing the existence of a third Sonic movie (later revealed to release on December 20, 2024) as well as a spinoff TV series focusing on Knuckles the Echidna, portrayed on the big screen by Idris Elba. It's all part of what was announced to be a planned 'cinematic universe' for the Paramount Sonic series. But with the success came a little bit of sad news - that of Jim Carrey's supposed intended retirement from acting. It appears that Robotnik will be one of the last characters in which the comedy legend will perform. Carrey did just blurt out the intention to retire randomly during the press junket for Sonic 2, so it could be something he's casually thinking about. But questions remain as to whether he will retire from performing as Robotnik at all for the third movie and beyond. Bonus: The original, horrifying, Sonic movie design also saw a return this year - featuring as a cameo in the latest Chip 'n Dale live action movie on Disney+. We thought we would never have to deal with this monster ever again, but at least we can live soundly in the knowledge that someone found beauty in his ghastly visage. In another insane twist, hilarious comedy icon Tim Robinson (of "I Think You Should Leave" fame) voices the 'Ugly Sonic' character in the movie. Sonic Origins Sonic's classic 1990s adventures were re-introduced to a whole new generation of gamers this year, with the release of Sonic Origins in June. After originally being announced during SEGA's official Sonic Central livestream in 2021, details had been extremely thin on the ground since then. Finally, the silence was broken in April, with a South Korean ratings board filing revealing the compilation's imminent release. Marketed as a collection of the popular Sonic the Hedgehog 16-Bit remasters that had previously released exclusively on mobile devices, Origins marked the first time these Taxman-developed games were playable on home consoles. But there was also the added bonus of special modes for each game, new areas and newly-developed missions to complete. The compilation would also include some new animated sequences to bookend the events of each game, penned by Ian Flynn (who would eventually become a kind of connecting thread canonically across all of the mainline Sonic media projects). Most significantly, Origins was the first time SEGA had re-released the fan-favourite Mega Drive masterpiece, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, in at least a decade. This new version of the 16-bit adventure was being handled exclusively by Sonic Mania co-developer Headcannon, while the rest of the Origins package was being produced by in-house SEGA teams. Unfortunately, because of the music rights issues surrounding Sonic 3 (which is suspected to involve contributing composer and longtime Michael Jackson collaborator Brad Buxer, who coincidentally started talking about his work on Sonic 3 weeks before Sonic Origins' release), something had to give in the Headcannon remaster found in Origins. The BGM for the game's latter stages were replaced with newly mastered renditions from series sound director Jun Senoue. Anyone looking to find another version of the classic games to play were soon to be out of luck as SEGA delisted past releases of the 16-Bit Sonic titles (including Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles' Xbox Live Arcade releases on Xbox 360, which still had the original music intact). Luckily, while the change in S3K's soundtrack was a little jarring at first, it didn't dampen our feelings for the overall package, and we reviewed Sonic Origins positively (as did other gaming critics across the globe). The release wasn't without its hiccups - although a bugfix patch was released, some fans couldn't get over some of the production niggles, leading Headcannon to speak out against SEGA and accuse the company of making unsolicited modifications of its work on Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Bit of a strange and sour end to a really decent product, to be honest. Bonus: Sonic Origins (and Sonic Colours Ultimate before it) may not be the last time SEGA explores the Sonic back catalogue - in May 2022, the company told investors that it would focus on "multiple remasters and remakes for the year ahead", amidst strong Sonic series game sales. Sonic Frontiers While the Sonic franchise definitely benefited from a successful run of movies, comics, Netflix shows and other media, for SEGA and Sonic Team the priority was on the next mainline Sonic game that had been in development for five years solid. Sonic Frontiers marked a true departure from the 'Boost style' mechanics of the last 15 years of games, with an emphasis on exploration, parkour and close-quarters combat - signalling a "new generation" of Sonic gameplay. So distinctive was this revised direction for the Sonic games, that Takashi Iizuka went on record several times to comment on how Frontiers represented a bold new era for the Japanese studio (to the point where he even suggested he'd take learnings from Frontiers towards a Sonic Adventure sequel - but then Iizuka-san has talked about a Sonic Adventure sequel for about ten years now). Frontiers saw a change in guard at Sonic Team as well - with the new 'face' of the developer taking centre stage throughout 2022. Morio Kishimoto has been an unsung hero of the year for Sonic fans, showing his clear dedication to the franchise in every media interview. Even post-release, his open discussions with fans on Twitter and earnest desires to improve and take on feedback is winning hearts, and we can really see him becoming a great spokesperson for the Sonic game series going forward. His dream is to restore the fans' faith in Sonic Team once again. And, well, we really have to admire him for that. Ultimately, we were impressed with our play time with Sonic Frontiers at Gamescom, and our review concluded that the game shows a lot of promise for what future mainline Sonic games lie ahead. But the game really struck a chord with the Sonic fanbase. Which is easy to see, when you have a main theme by J-Rock band One Ok Rock, a tie-in prologue comic and animation, a vinyl release of Tomoya Ohtani's incredible soundtrack, Sonic Adventure 2 throwbacks and Monster Hunter collaborations. SEGA went hard on promoting Sonic Frontiers indeed - beyond the obligatory impressive Japanese special edition, the company gave the game a huge presence at Japan's high profile Tokyo Game Show this year (which is unprecedented, given Sonic's relatively low popularity in the country) and even sold a one-off branded car, reminiscent of marketing stunts for the blue blur's Dreamcast adventures. After years of being in the doldrums with rather pitiful game sales, Sonic Frontiers' release smashed all expectations, with the game selling over 2.5 million units by December, making it one of the fastest-selling Sonic games of all time. In Japan, its week-one sales quickly made it the fastest-selling mainline Sonic title in twenty years. It's no surprise that SEGA and Sonic Team are supporting the game up with a full slate of post-release content throughout 2023, including a whole new story chapter. A real success story for SEGA and Sonic Team, and a great template for the next generation of Sonic games! Sonic Prime The final big pillar in Sonic's amazing 2022 came along right at the end of the year, courtesy of Netflix. Much like all the other projects we've discussed here, Sonic Prime was announced early 2021 and spent the entire rest of last year going dark on us. It wasn't until mid-2022 where we'd finally get some footage of the show thanks to a sizzle reel. Even after that, details were revealed to us in a drip-fed fashion. Shadow was confirmed to be in the show a month after the initial sizzle, as was Big the Cat. But besides a snapshot of their presence in Green Hill Zone, we got absolutely no further details on what roles they would have. We finally got some idea of when Netflix would release the show to subscribers thanks to a Japanese interview with a SEGA producer that let slip the TV series would air in December. From there, it was a quick trip to trailer town and a confirmed release date, and the series did indeed air its first eight episodes in early December 2022. But not before airing the first episode on Roblox, because why not? Sonic Prime opened its run and we found it to be a fun cartoon romp that offers some interesting twists on a number of Sonic characters that we grew up to know and love. We reviewed the first episode here, but it's clear that many millions of people binged all eight episodes right away, as the show quickly reached the Top 5 in Netflix's Most Watched within the opening week. What Were Your Favourite Moments of 2022? There have been so many notable moments in 2022 beyond the four main pillars above. From IDW's 50th Sonic Issue, to Minecraft, Fall Guys, Candy Crush and Kart Rider collaboration content, a surprise Sonic 2006 release on Xbox 360, Yuji Naka's arrest for insider trading, a second Mega Drive Mini console to awesome First4Figures statue announcements. Let us know your favourite moment/s from the last year in the comments below!
  5. The end of 2022 is now upon us. And boy, what a year it has been! After spending Sonic's 30th Anniversary mostly waiting for trailers, watching online events and experiencing strange mobile crossovers, it finally feels like this year has been the big global celebration of the blue blur that the decades-long franchise fully deserved. Usually, this is around this time of year where the Sonic Stadium does its annual tradition of summing up the past 12 months and succinctly contextualises the overall landscape of the Sonic franchise and fanbase. And while the last five years have largely been a snoozefest (Sonic Movie aside), this year our job has suddenly been made incredibly difficult! It really feels like we've had five years' worth of action happen on our doorstep in 2022 alone! The Big Story We're going to run through some key stories that ran throughout the year later in this feature - but, as always, there is a broader story behind everything that has happened in 2022. The key story here for SEGA, Sonic Team and the Sonic franchise in 2022 is one of 'convergence' and 'restructure'. If you were the ever-passionate Sonic Frontiers director, Morio Kishimoto, you might even use the word 'resurrection' or something. For this has been a year where the culmination of Sonic Team's five-year crunch on the latest mainline Sonic the Hedgehog game marks not only a new path forward for the game series, but a renewed effort (through Takashi Iizuka and the Sonic Brand team, based in the US) on creating synergy between the games and the other media pillars of SEGA's mascot franchise. With the onboarding of IDW Sonic comic writer Ian Flynn to help shape Sonic Frontiers' story, a slight re-telling of the plotlines that run through the classic 1990s Sonic games (which are then emphasised in cross-media projects such as Sonic Prime) and recent moves to establish and maintain a consistent "lore" to the Sonic franchise, it's clear that 2022 saw the fruits of SEGA's labour in performing some years-long canonical housekeeping. Our exclusive interview with Sonic franchise creative head Takashi Iizuka this year confirmed the intention to keep the different threads of Sonic media 'connected' as much as possible. It's likely that the most exciting results of this work will not be seen for another year or so yet, as new movies, TV shows, comics and games emerge and take advantage of this connected series of universes. But for now, fans have been blessed with an avalanche of media to consume - starting with Paramount's barnstorming sequel to the Sonic movie, and ending with Sonic Team's inspiring return to form and an engaging animation series on Netflix. The Sonic movies may well be considered part of their own canonical bubble. But when you take into account the rest of it - the timing of Sonic Origins' re-introduction of classic games; the gameplay and design approach in Sonic Frontiers; the consistent and authentic interpretation of Sonic's world and adventures in the IDW comics; the fresh multi-verse narrative that Sonic Prime offers; and the canonical backbone that has been established to connect them all - it really does feel like the start of a brand new generation of Sonic the Hedgehog, in its entirety. And that's an incredibly exciting thought, going into 2023. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Movie Right at the start of the year, fans were clamouring for the imminent release of one of the most highly-anticipated Sonic media in years. And surprisingly, it wasn't a video game! Paramount Pictures' successful handling of the original Sonic the Hedgehog movie in 2020 got families and fans excited for more, and with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 arriving in theatres in late March/early April, there was a lot of opportunity to generate even more hype than before. Especially thanks to the formal arrival of Tails and Knuckles into the movie-verse. Not that it needed much else to push hype levels up. But in case any more convincing was needed, a whole bunch of merchandise and tie-ins were announced alongside consistent releases of new renders and trailers. There were McDonalds toys, Build-A-Bear collaborations, a prequel (sorry, "pre-quill") comic that had input from Jim Carrey... there was even a promotion with Xbox where you could win a ghastly 'furry' pair of Sonic controllers. The extra effort paid off. The movie was released (except in Russia) to mostly positive reviews from critics (including Sonic Stadium itself) and, as one of the first movies to open to a world of theaters finally escaping the lockdown grip of COVID-19, absolutely smashed the box office with over $25.5 million raked in from worldwide markets in its opening few days before it even premiered in the US! We made a pretty good name for ourselves this year by shoehorning Sonic game titles into the headlines of every Sonic 2 movie box office earnings story we could manage (seriously, we did this a lot of times). Be proud of us. It's hard work. But, it was worth keeping up with the movie's every milestone, as it beat every cinematic rival it faced down, from Fantastic Beasts to Uncharted. By August, the movie had pulled a global gross of nearly $401 million, making it the fourth-highest grossing video game movie of all time. The sheer colossal scale of Sonic 2's success encouraged Paramount to double down on its cinematic partnership with SEGA, quickly announcing the existence of a third Sonic movie (later revealed to release on December 20, 2024) as well as a spinoff TV series focusing on Knuckles the Echidna, portrayed on the big screen by Idris Elba. It's all part of what was announced to be a planned 'cinematic universe' for the Paramount Sonic series. But with the success came a little bit of sad news - that of Jim Carrey's supposed intended retirement from acting. It appears that Robotnik will be one of the last characters in which the comedy legend will perform. Carrey did just blurt out the intention to retire randomly during the press junket for Sonic 2, so it could be something he's casually thinking about. But questions remain as to whether he will retire from performing as Robotnik at all for the third movie and beyond. Bonus: The original, horrifying, Sonic movie design also saw a return this year - featuring as a cameo in the latest Chip 'n Dale live action movie on Disney+. We thought we would never have to deal with this monster ever again, but at least we can live soundly in the knowledge that someone found beauty in his ghastly visage. In another insane twist, hilarious comedy icon Tim Robinson (of "I Think You Should Leave" fame) voices the 'Ugly Sonic' character in the movie. Sonic Origins Sonic's classic 1990s adventures were re-introduced to a whole new generation of gamers this year, with the release of Sonic Origins in June. After originally being announced during SEGA's official Sonic Central livestream in 2021, details had been extremely thin on the ground since then. Finally, the silence was broken in April, with a South Korean ratings board filing revealing the compilation's imminent release. Marketed as a collection of the popular Sonic the Hedgehog 16-Bit remasters that had previously released exclusively on mobile devices, Origins marked the first time these Taxman-developed games were playable on home consoles. But there was also the added bonus of special modes for each game, new areas and newly-developed missions to complete. The compilation would also include some new animated sequences to bookend the events of each game, penned by Ian Flynn (who would eventually become a kind of connecting thread canonically across all of the mainline Sonic media projects). Most significantly, Origins was the first time SEGA had re-released the fan-favourite Mega Drive masterpiece, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, in at least a decade. This new version of the 16-bit adventure was being handled exclusively by Sonic Mania co-developer Headcannon, while the rest of the Origins package was being produced by in-house SEGA teams. Unfortunately, because of the music rights issues surrounding Sonic 3 (which is suspected to involve contributing composer and longtime Michael Jackson collaborator Brad Buxer, who coincidentally started talking about his work on Sonic 3 weeks before Sonic Origins' release), something had to give in the Headcannon remaster found in Origins. The BGM for the game's latter stages were replaced with newly mastered renditions from series sound director Jun Senoue. Anyone looking to find another version of the classic games to play were soon to be out of luck as SEGA delisted past releases of the 16-Bit Sonic titles (including Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles' Xbox Live Arcade releases on Xbox 360, which still had the original music intact). Luckily, while the change in S3K's soundtrack was a little jarring at first, it didn't dampen our feelings for the overall package, and we reviewed Sonic Origins positively (as did other gaming critics across the globe). The release wasn't without its hiccups - although a bugfix patch was released, some fans couldn't get over some of the production niggles, leading Headcannon to speak out against SEGA and accuse the company of making unsolicited modifications of its work on Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Bit of a strange and sour end to a really decent product, to be honest. Bonus: Sonic Origins (and Sonic Colours Ultimate before it) may not be the last time SEGA explores the Sonic back catalogue - in May 2022, the company told investors that it would focus on "multiple remasters and remakes for the year ahead", amidst strong Sonic series game sales. Sonic Frontiers While the Sonic franchise definitely benefited from a successful run of movies, comics, Netflix shows and other media, for SEGA and Sonic Team the priority was on the next mainline Sonic game that had been in development for five years solid. Sonic Frontiers marked a true departure from the 'Boost style' mechanics of the last 15 years of games, with an emphasis on exploration, parkour and close-quarters combat - signalling a "new generation" of Sonic gameplay. So distinctive was this revised direction for the Sonic games, that Takashi Iizuka went on record several times to comment on how Frontiers represented a bold new era for the Japanese studio (to the point where he even suggested he'd take learnings from Frontiers towards a Sonic Adventure sequel - but then Iizuka-san has talked about a Sonic Adventure sequel for about ten years now). Frontiers saw a change in guard at Sonic Team as well - with the new 'face' of the developer taking centre stage throughout 2022. Morio Kishimoto has been an unsung hero of the year for Sonic fans, showing his clear dedication to the franchise in every media interview. Even post-release, his open discussions with fans on Twitter and earnest desires to improve and take on feedback is winning hearts, and we can really see him becoming a great spokesperson for the Sonic game series going forward. His dream is to restore the fans' faith in Sonic Team once again. And, well, we really have to admire him for that. Ultimately, we were impressed with our play time with Sonic Frontiers at Gamescom, and our review concluded that the game shows a lot of promise for what future mainline Sonic games lie ahead. But the game really struck a chord with the Sonic fanbase. Which is easy to see, when you have a main theme by J-Rock band One Ok Rock, a tie-in prologue comic and animation, a vinyl release of Tomoya Ohtani's incredible soundtrack, Sonic Adventure 2 throwbacks and Monster Hunter collaborations. SEGA went hard on promoting Sonic Frontiers indeed - beyond the obligatory impressive Japanese special edition, the company gave the game a huge presence at Japan's high profile Tokyo Game Show this year (which is unprecedented, given Sonic's relatively low popularity in the country) and even sold a one-off branded car, reminiscent of marketing stunts for the blue blur's Dreamcast adventures. After years of being in the doldrums with rather pitiful game sales, Sonic Frontiers' release smashed all expectations, with the game selling over 2.5 million units by December, making it one of the fastest-selling Sonic games of all time. In Japan, its week-one sales quickly made it the fastest-selling mainline Sonic title in twenty years. It's no surprise that SEGA and Sonic Team are supporting the game up with a full slate of post-release content throughout 2023, including a whole new story chapter. A real success story for SEGA and Sonic Team, and a great template for the next generation of Sonic games! Sonic Prime The final big pillar in Sonic's amazing 2022 came along right at the end of the year, courtesy of Netflix. Much like all the other projects we've discussed here, Sonic Prime was announced early 2021 and spent the entire rest of last year going dark on us. It wasn't until mid-2022 where we'd finally get some footage of the show thanks to a sizzle reel. Even after that, details were revealed to us in a drip-fed fashion. Shadow was confirmed to be in the show a month after the initial sizzle, as was Big the Cat. But besides a snapshot of their presence in Green Hill Zone, we got absolutely no further details on what roles they would have. We finally got some idea of when Netflix would release the show to subscribers thanks to a Japanese interview with a SEGA producer that let slip the TV series would air in December. From there, it was a quick trip to trailer town and a confirmed release date, and the series did indeed air its first eight episodes in early December 2022. But not before airing the first episode on Roblox, because why not? Sonic Prime opened its run and we found it to be a fun cartoon romp that offers some interesting twists on a number of Sonic characters that we grew up to know and love. We reviewed the first episode here, but it's clear that many millions of people binged all eight episodes right away, as the show quickly reached the Top 5 in Netflix's Most Watched within the opening week. What Were Your Favourite Moments of 2022? There have been so many notable moments in 2022 beyond the four main pillars above. From IDW's 50th Sonic Issue, to Minecraft, Fall Guys, Candy Crush and Kart Rider collaboration content, a surprise Sonic 2006 release on Xbox 360, Yuji Naka's arrest for insider trading, a second Mega Drive Mini console to awesome First4Figures statue announcements. Let us know your favourite moment/s from the last year in the comments below! View full story
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