It’s always nice when you get a surprise isn’t it? Well with SEGA Superstars Tennis I got just that, because we don’t just write blogs you know (no, really) we actually do a lot of promotional work and lots of other things that naturally enough go from the intensely frustrating to the most incredibly rewarding.

The surprise in question was that I at last appeared in the credits of a game!  Yup, I’m listed down as “Community Manager” in the SEGA Europe section of the credits.

Anyway, as you can only see the credits if you complete a tournament and they disappear quickish I’d quite like some proof I’m there for bragging rights.  So the first person to send - to blogs@sega-europe.com - me a really good quality screengrab of the credits showing my name clearly (I’m not down as ArchangelUK, obviously) will receive a nice little SEGA goodybag from me.

Deal?

Are you signed up to SEGA Pass and the SEGA Newsletter? No?

Why not!? You get the chance to enter groovy competitions that more often than not give you the chance to win cool Sonic based prizes!

An example for this was the February newsletter which had a Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity contest; well the office Chao has again made the random draw once more- after complaining a lot and constantly bothering Martin The Fat Ninja and The Big Cheese with demands to play with its jack-in-the-box…. AGAIN.

 The winners are:

Helen Greenwood, Blackpool
Mary Volkering, Essex
Edward Plager, Seaford
Neil Kelly, Ellesmere Port
and Ninja_x from Parts Unknown (atm!)

They’ll be receiving a SRZG t-shirt as well as a very snazzy black SRZG beanie.

A quick little heads-up to you guys, the Mario & Sonic sprint contest will be ending on April 1st.  Unfortunately due to the demands of my many SEGA masters I’ve not been able to update the tables but I’m going to do so tomorrow if I possibly can.  Keep those coming in - the draw for the Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity SEGA Pass newsletter contest will also be made then.

I would like to say a big thank you to everyone that participated in the Sonic Chronicles: A Race To Name competition and to all those who voted for their favourite name.

We received thousands of votes for this unique competition and there was some fantastic support taking place across many sites throughout Europe.  We look forward to implementing ‘The Zoah’ into the game and congratulations to the winners, SEGA Nerds, especially since they beat an entry from Bioware! 

We will continue to keep you updated with the latest news on Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood.  Look out very soon for developments to the game’s product site as we reveal more features and screenshots. 
Thank you again!

Michele – Sonic Chronicles SOE Brand Manager  

IT’S THE ZOAH
Sonic Chronicles Competition Winner Announced

LONDON (18th March, 2008) – SEGA Europe Ltd. today confirmed that the recent competition, A Race To Name, where Sonic The Hedgehog fans could vote upon names for a new race selected by key Sonic fansites, and European gaming websites, finally has a winner. After thousands of votes were cast, it became clear that it was going to be a closely fought race between The Zoah, The Gravitus and The Dusk.  Fans were hastily casting votes right up until the last minute but in the end only a handful of votes separated the contenders, and like all competitions it could only have one winner with The Zoah prevailing as the fan-favourite. 

Congratulations to www.seganerds.com who originally suggested The Zoah which will now be included in the forthcoming, hotly tipped, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhoodâ„¢ for the Nintendo DSâ„¢ system. The Zoah will be featured as a new enemy race for Sonic The Hedgehog to pit his wits against in 2008.

Developed by industry admired story-telling specialists, BioWare, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is an RPG adventure set to take the DS by storm this Autumn. 

For more information about BioWare please visit www.bioware.com

That’s it its all over! The poll on Sonic City is now CLOSED.  We’ll be announcing the winning name soon.  We’re also working on Sonic City, would like to apologise for any inconvenience and are working to resolve the current issues with the site.

As a result of this… I’ve not been able to put up on there my next SST article from his royal SEGA-ness Mr. Richard Jacques.  So if you go to the main SEGA blog (http://blogs.sega.com/europe) you’ll be able to find it there.

Have a good weekend!
AAUK

Hi guys, a friendly reminder that the Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood™ Race To Name poll will end at 5pm UK time this Friday.  The contest has been fierce and even now at this stage there is no clear winner, in fact as of late yesterday it’s a three-way tussle for victory with only a handful of votes separating the top names.

So if you haven’t voted yet, you still have time - check out Sonic City (http://www.sonic-city.com) for a static link to the poll.

Every vote counts - make sure yours does!

Mr. Jones rang me up the other day about the Play.Com LIVE event at Wembley Stadium which is happening this weekend.  Apparently if you are going to the event Bentley will be wandering around, most likely at the SEGA section as I told him there would be rather lovely looking ladies around the Football Manager LIVE area.  He’ll be easy to spot as he’s got that very vibrant red hair and he’ll be holding up a sign saying “I’m Bentley Jones!”

Not really, but it sounds good.

Sonic Wrecks/Radio Redux fans of mine are free to quiz him over his thoughts on the Wrecks Factor results. Poor Dreadknux… *snigger*

Alas atm I won’t be going in either a SEGA or fan capacity but if I do get there and you see me feel free to say hello.

Does anyone remember SEGA Splash! Golf?

No?

Well you might at any rate, a trailer came out for it some time ago.  The premise is that you have a variety of humans playing golf and you live out their lives in a cel-shaded environment with Sonic, Tails and even NiGHTS available to be your caddies - the caddies having the ability to give you special shots.  It looked really nice.

Well I’ve been asking questions as I wondered where the heck it went, apparently the game is out now in the East on PC, however it is only for the “Asian Markets” and will not be appearing over in the West.

Boo hiss.

So if you want this game to come out over here, all I can say is start making noise.

I was rather surprised then to find in my inbox this morning we have a new Sonic mobile game coming out! Dubbed Sonic The Hedgehog 2: Dash! or simply Sonic Dash I’ve been able to procure some screenshots for you to look at.

Looks like Emerald Hill to me…

Casino Night… dream delight.

Chemical Plant Zone: Moving blocks a specialty.

Aquatic Ruin: Drill-based noses HURT

I’ve had a word with some people and glu who are distributing the game just like Sonic Jump and Sonic The Hedgehog Pt 1 and 2 and hopefully we might see a Sonic City addition at some point in the future. I’ll bring you more details when I can.

While we deal with these really annoying server issues we’ve been able to put up a sort of “dummy” Sonic City.  When you go to sonic-city.com click on the link thats in what should be the articles section and you can still vote.

More updates when we have them.