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April 1 has come and gone once again, and with it a day of light-hearted fun and banter to take all our minds off the grim realities of the outside world. While some may not take to April Fools Day very well, over here at the Sonic Stadium we love the age-old tradition of pranking our friends and fans (but only in a creative, respectful and good-natured manner!). It seems that some of you guys in the community agree (including SEGA), as we've seen some great April Fool material this year. Let's run through the best of the bunch - let us know what you think! A Bigger Twitter Let's get our own April Fools Day gag out of the way first, because it really was a spectacular effort if we do say so ourselves. Visitors of the Sonic Stadium on April 1 were treated to the above; a 'Twitter' style social media platform bought and operated by rich (in fish) media mogul, Big the Cat! Throughout the day, users could log in and post 'Croaks' on the timeline, which helped Big find his pal Froggy. It was more fun, more functional and a lot less toxic than the real Twitter, to boot. Which can only be a good thing! You can revisit the whole project by heading to our archive link here: https://www.sonicstadium.org/special/bigx In Sonic Man We Trust! Over in Japan, Sonic Channel introduced a brand new member of the official marketing team - none other than 'Sonic Man', the intense and "aggressive" athlete from Sonic 2006's Soleanna. He joined SEGA Sammy's Tokyo office as a special "Sonic Ambassador", and it seems like a role suited to him as he carted boxes around and posed with toys of the blue blur. You can read his first day's work diary on Sonic Channel here - we love the replica Sonic Man helmet that was made for this! Cartridge Loadable Content On the other side of the world, SEGA's US social media channels had a lot of fun with this towering announcement of "Cartridge Loadable Content". It's a clever play on today's era of DLC that takes Sonic & Knuckles' lock-on technology concept and goes wild with it. You too could play as Sonic the Hedge, or a Big Headed hedgehog - just find the CLC you want and stack it on top of your game! The above image is an official marketing image developed and posted by official SEGA marketing channels. OK. I just had to write that sentence out specifically so I could read it back again out loud. Sour the Solenodon It wasn't just official sources and the Sonic Stadium having fun this year either. One fan in particular went above and beyond to create a fake Sonic the Hedgehog character, which they then inserted into a bunch of also-fake archive promotional material to show people that they really existed. Sour the Solenodon has (not) appeared in Sonic Drift, Sonic Chaos, Sonic the Fighters, Rivals 2, Pinball Party and more. If you hadn't played any of those games in a while, you may have been forgiven for questioning your memory about this guy's existence! Nice work, 'existing the being' and 'Leaph77'! Another Sonic Murder? An honourable mention goes to 'Galaxy Cowboy' for a simple-yet-effective prank. No, a sequel to the excellent (and official!) April Fools 2023 game, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, does not exist, but this social media post will almost have you thinking it does. Featuring mock-up screenshots of dialogue with Trip the Sungazer Lizard, Big the Cat, Sticks and Cream, the artwork in these images are so on-point that we wish they were real. Great job! --- What did you think of these fun April Fools Day 2024 gags? Did you see any other awesome AFD Sonic jokes we missed, that you want to share? As always, let us know in the comments section below! Original Post Content: View full story

So, that was Sonic Central 2023. This year's annual blue blur showcase certainly would have had some amazing reveals, if much of it was not already announced at Summer Game Fest and the Nintendo Direct earlier this week. But however you felt about the event, there's no denying there was a lot of information shared in such a short space of time. Let's go through it piece by piece and take it all in, shall we? Happy Release Day! If you hadn't noticed, SEGA actually released a game today (well, an expansion to a collection of games). So it made total sense for the company to focus on Sonic Origins Plus at the top of this thing, otherwise their marketing department would be pretty bad at their job. A release day trailer was shown at the start of Sonic Central 2023. Open (Zone) Your Birthday Presents Happy Birthday Sonic! We were starting to think that SEGA had forgotten all about this, but we actually got a look at Sonic Frontiers' second free DLC pack, titled "Sonic's Birthday Bash". Obviously meant to celebrate the blue blur's 32nd, the expansion contains a number of new open zone challenges, collectible Koco, costumes, moves and a New Game + mode. This was practically the headliner of Sonic Central simply because it contained brand new footage and information. Check out more details in our news story here. Tuxedo Time Sonic Speed Simulator may be a game that has become more well-known for its controversies these days, but the Roblox project's partnership with SEGA continues at pace with today's announcement of a new Classic Sonic skin. And to be fair, he does look exceptionally cute. Look at him in his little birthday tuxedo and top hat. If you're someone who plays Sonic Speed Simulator, you'll be certain to find this celebratory character waiting for you right now. Binge-Watching & Binge-Running Sonic Central was pretty good for some Sonic Prime news, as we were treated to a brand new teaser trailer for the next episode in the Netflix animated series. You can catch up on all of that in our separate news story here. The show picks up again from July 13, and that's the day a special version of Sonic Dash will also be released. If you're curious as to why Sonic Prime characters can't just be released on the already-existing Sonic Dash app as limited edition characters, consider that Netflix has bags of money - that's probably why Sonic Prime Dash exists. Good for them. App-tastic Characters Sonic Prime Dash wasn't the only mobile Sonic news that came from the Sonic Central showcase. If you play Sonic Dash and Sonic Forces Speed Battle religiously enough, you'll get to unlock some crazy cool new characters. From Super Silver to Dragon Hunter Lancelot to Super Classic Sonic. Sounds like a fantastic time. Check out the full story right here. Speedo-de-Janeiro There appeared to be time to talk about a lot of collaborations in this year's Sonic Central, including this admittedly super-cool one involving the return of long-forgotten Dreamcast classic Samba de Amigo*. While the return of Amigo and his rhythmic ways has already got us super excited, the addition of Sonic the Hedgehog as a guest - along with a number of Sonic songs in the tracklist such as 'Fist Bump' - is the icing on the cake. More details here. SAMBA! (*Yes, we know there was that version on the Wii, but... did it... really exist? Do you want to remember it existing? Ask yourself that.) Sonic (Music) World Adventure You can finally call the Sonic Symphony a World Tour now, as SEGA revealed a number of new locations for the upcoming orchestral extravaganza. Paris, Tokyo, Dusseldorf, Montreal, Sao Paulo and more were announced for the rest of 2023 and beyond. Check out the full details right here. And Now For Something Completely Different... SEGA also wanted you all to remember that they put a lot of time and effort into its 'Tails Tube' social video series, which sees Tails become a 'VTuber' (or would that just be Tails being a YouTuber, because if we're pretending he's real he wouldn't be virtual would he? Argh, our brains hurt) and spout some fun stuff to other Sonic characters. It wasn't a terribly interesting segment, but it's always nice to hear Colleen O'Shaughnessey do her thing. What Are Ya Buyin'? As is customary with these Sonic Central showcases, there was an update on the extensive licensing and merchandising that has been planned for the Sonic franchise. And boy, there was so much of it that it took us forever to collate them all in our roundup article here. Much of it we had already known about - a bit like the entire Sonic Central to be honest - but there were some cool reveals, like the ESP Sonic guitars and the Jakks Pacific Death Egg diorama. All we know is, our wallets are going to be very angry at us over the next year. SDCC: Sonic Dog-Chili Concierge We're not sure who really needed to hear this, but there's going to be a Sonic the Hedgehog themed restaurant setting up shop at San Diego Comic Con next month. It was such a throwaway announcement in the Sonic Central that we wondered if it was worth just waiting for the right moment on social media to talk about this instead. Still, we're hoping to be at the show next month so we'll make sure to road test those chili dogs for you and let you know if they taste any good! A LEGO Eggman Takeover Now this was cute. A total time-filler, but we adore Mike Pollock and his sultry Eggman voice, so we'll take any excuse to hear him go at it in a sketch like this. While discussing the new LEGO Sonic sets, the Sonic Central is 'disrupted' by a fantastic rap by Dr. Eggman, who wants to take the time to highlight the fact that the LEGO company actually fixed his presence within the LEGO world and made him into an official Minifig. The tiny brick dictator also suggested a new look for Sonic, as you can see above. #MakeLEGOSonicMoreEggman. A Meeting of Minds With Sonic Superstars heralding the return of the blue blur's prodigal son - original character designer Naoto Ohshima - SEGA took some time in its Sonic Central showcase to interview both him and Takashi Iizuka on developing the upcoming 2D Classic Sonic adventure. Don't expect much in the way of interesting answers - in the short clip that was shown the questions and responses were pretty much fluff, and the extended interview on the Sonic YouTube channel isn't much better. But we love the fact that Iizuka-san and Ohshima-san are sitting in the same room together working on Sonic again, we think that's really nice. Built Like A Brick Speedhouse The most random thing of the show was the surprise reveal that LEGO and SEGA were collaborating on some kind of content for Sonic Superstars. Like... why? But you know what? Maybe that's the wrong question to ask. This Sonic Central was quite heavy on the LEGO love this year, so it makes sense that some of that would seep through to the latest game in the series. We later learned that this is in fact themed DLC for the game, which sees you fight LEGO Dr. Eggman as LEGO Sonic. You can check out more in our story here. And that was that! What a lot of information, hmm? Let us know what you thought of the Sonic Central 2023 in the comments section below! View full story

One of the highlight's of today's Sonic Central was merchandise partnerships currently available and through this fall. Following last year's Eggman Robot set, this year's big Jakks Pacific set is Eggman's hovercraft with accessories to recreate multiple boss fights. Razer will be releasing a Sonic themed Xbox series controller with matching charging stand. EXG Pro, makers of weird statues that hold your phone, will add modern Sonic to their collection. A collection that currently includes Classic Sonic, Classic Tails, Classic Amy Rose, Classic Super Sonic, and two other variants of Classic Sonic. First4Figures will be releasing a duo of character statues, featuring modern Amy and Tails. No details have been stated regarding the scale or price of these statues. On the much, MUCH more affordable side of merch, Pez has already released a trio of classic Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles dispensers. At time of writing, Knuckles is already sold out on their online store. Clothing brand Hype released a line of Sonic clothing that is... basically already sold out. You can look at it if you want but the size scale on this line aims at 16 and younger. Moor Art Gallery will be adding several more poster designs to their... you guessed it, largely sold out collection. They're nice (and pricey) posters, but be prepared to grab them as soon as they're in stock. Neamedia Icons, a resin figure group, currently has available resin 5" classic Sonic figures on their official store, and (checks notes) they are apparently in stock at time of writing! If you want a monochromatic Sonic for some reason, seems like now's your time! Pre-orders for Japanese figure maker Bellfine's 12" soft vinyl Sonic figure are available among many online toy stores. Despite the "Available Now," Bellfine's website lists the release date as November, and international sellers don't expect to get stock until early next year. ...No, not again. I can't handle this again. At any rate, I think we can all agree, that Eggman hovercraft toy looks really cool, and may have been the highlight of the entire Sonic Central. Look forward to it and maybe some of these other licensed Sonic collectables throughout 2022 and beyond. But not too beyond. The patterns here indicate that things seem to be selling out rather quickly. View full story

Hoy all, it's been a VERY busy week for video content on Sonic Stadium, and while we used to simply round up everything we've been doing on Twitch, we've been pushing forward on getting more YouTube content together, and we'd like to highlight that too! Here's our inaugural This Week in Video! On Twitch These and all our Twitch streams can be found over on the Sonic Stadium Twitch Channel! Sonic Talk Podcast Sunday, Apr. 24 4PM PST / 7 PM EST / 12 AM GMT It's nearing the end of the month, and thus it's time for Nuckles87, Shigs, and GX to round up everything in Sonic news this month in a brand new Sonic Talk podcast! Expect plenty of Sonic Origins discussion this week. Almost Every Sonic Tuesday, Apr. 26 4 PM PST / 7 PM EST / 12 AM GMT On Tuesday, Almost Every Sonic returns, and will be checking out the Sonic events in KartRider Rush+ on mobile. We may also return to Sonic Speed Simulator to check in on its latest updates, time permitting. SEGASonic Radio Friday, Apr. 29 4 PM PST / 7 PM EST / 12 AM GMT As always, GX is digging deep to find plenty of great SEGA and Sonic music for SegaSonic Radio. It's the weekend, so chill and enjoy some Sonic hits! On YouTube Our biggest project is that we've finally uploaded our ENTIRE 30 episode backlog of SegaSonic Radio!! You can check out the entire 2021/2022 series thus far via this playlist, or just start from our latest episode here: We've got plenty of gameplay uploads this week! To start, Nuckles87 played Sonic Venture, a very impressive fan game demo made entirely in the PS4/PS5 game creator Dreams! In Roblox, GX took a look at both the Nickverse Sonic 2 event and plenty of Sonic Speed Simulator. Nuckles87 also spent some time in Sonic Dash and Sonic Forces: Speed Battle for the Sonic 2 movie events, and brought us gameplay footage of Movie Tails and Movie Knuckles: If you're yearning for more, Nuckles posted video of the lead-up, collecting Knuckles emblems in Sonic Dash, and completing Tails missions / Knuckles Challenges in Sonic Forces. Go check 'em out! One More Thing... Starting next week, we'll be uploading the archive of another of our streaming series, Winter Wonderworld, where GX begrudgingly plods his way through the entirety of Balan Wonderworld. Each in the nine-episode series will go live Thursdays at 12:00 PM EST. We're also preparing to upload our entire backlog of Almost Every Sonic. If you like Sonic longplays, obscure games, and weird mobile crossovers, stay tuned over the coming weeks! View full story

Well, we have finally entered that period of time between a movie’s early red carpet debut, and when the rest of us get to see it! We are still a few days away from actual reviews being written, but people in the media who’ve seen the movie have started sharing their thoughts…and they are pretty positive so far! A few of these impressions also confirm at least one after credits scene, though others seem to indicate more than one. This means you should definitely stick around once the credits role. Before going into the impressions, a caveat: these are not written reviews. They do not reflect what may be the larger consensus at places like Rotten Tomatoes or within the Sonic fandom. The people posting these tweets may not even be the ones writing the reviews for their outlets! So keep all of that in mind. First off, impressions from a guy who writes for IGN. Next, more in depth impressions from Cinema Blend’s Mike Reyes. Next up is Nikki Novak, a Fandango correspondent and member of the Critics Choice Awards. Dorian Park, owner of Geeks of Color, had a lot to say about the movie’s characters and cinematography. Erik Davis, the “Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango guy,” said Sonic and Tails’ relationship is the best part of the movie. Ash Crosson, lead content producer and host of Screen Rant, called it a “worthy successor.” Kevin Polowy, a Yahoo Entertainment correspondent calls it…the Godfather II of Sonic movies? Which I supposes indicates its better than the first. Chris Killian, who works for Comicbook.co Finally, Dana who works for, among other organizations, the African American Film Critics Association, posted both a tweet AND a video, which we’ve posted below: This is the part where I figured I’d post some less publicized negative impressions I was expecting to dig up. No luck yet. So instead, here is the one impression I found from someone who doesn’t work for a media organization: Sonic 2 will hit the UK April 1, while it’ll be arriving in the US a week later on April 8. Select US theaters will have the movie as early as April 6. View full story