All owners of Sonic plushies should be on the look out as a notorious thief of Rouge proportions (no, not those proportions) has been sneaking around our offices trying his best to steal my Shadow plushie.

This individual has been heard as saying that he does not possess such a styled plush in his collection and has on several occasions tried to sneak it back to his hideous lair. We assume his lair is indeed hideous, however photographic evidence cannot be provided at this time.

There he is….

He goes by the name of “Miles Jacobson”, apparently getting him to say his name backwards banishes him to another dimension but we haven’t tried this yet.

You may know him as the Managing Director of Sports Interactive - which surely you’d've thought means he can afford a plushie of his own.

All Sonic fans should beware this man - look at him, he’s obviously eyeing up your collection right now!

 Lock up your merchandise - he walks amongst you….

The full listing of new Sonic CD “True Blue” has been announced, the title is at this moment scheduled for release on January 29th in Japan only but I know a minor issue like that won’t stop a lot of you so here is the track listing:

01. LIVE & LEARN (From Sonic Adventure 2)
02. IT DOESN’T MATTER (Sonic Adventure 2 Version)
03. ESCAPE FROM THE CITY (From Sonic Adventure 2)
04. HIS WORLD (From Sonic The Hedgehog)
05. SUPER SONIC RACING (From Sonic R)
06. SONIC - YOU CAN DO ANYTHING (From Sonic CD)
07. SONIC BOOM (From Sonic CD)
08. SONIC SPEED RIDERS (From Sonic Riders)
09. RACE TO WIN (From Sonic Rivals 2)
10 SONIC X THEME
11. RIGHT THERE and RIDE ON (From Sonic Rush)
12. SONIC HEROES (From… er, yes…)
13 WHAT I’M MADE OF… (From Sonic Heroes)
14. SEVEN RINGS IN HAND (From Sonic & The Secret Rings)
15. HIS WORLD (Zebrahead Version)
16 IT DOESN’T MATTER (Sonic Adventure Version)
17. OPEN YOUR HEART (From Sonic Adventure)

It also features four bonus tracks in the form of -

18 A NEW VENTURE (Surfin’ S.R.A. Remix)
19. ANGEL ISLAND ZONE (SSBB Remix)
20. SEVEN RINGS IN HAND (Crush 40 Version)
21 OPEN YOUR HEART (Crush 40 vs. Bentley Jones Remix)

Personally, those last four tracks are a pretty exciting prospect - to those of you wondering who in the blue blur Bentley Jones is, he is of course the artist formally known as Lee Brotherton.  Well, I’ve had a word and he’ll hopefully be popping up in a couple of weeks (if not sooner) on Sonic City to talk about what he’s currently up to, the new remix and other things. Stay tuned.

The only thing I’m disappointed by is the lack of the Gunnar Nelson and the Team Chaotix theme from Sonic Heroes. It’s a disgrace! Sing along now: “TEAM CHA-O-TIX they’re detectives, you want on your siiiide…”

Yeah.

Now it’s not everyday Jetix emails you, alas there are no plans at this moment for a series of AAUK based toys - though I’m sure Angelus would look very fetching in chrome space armour…

Apparently there is a new Sonic X store you can go to for all your Sonic X merchandise needs; be they plushies, action figures or even umbrellas.

You can check it out at: http://www.sonicxstore.com

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Blognik here in 2008, but what an end to 2007 we had: Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games destroyed all comers in the All Format chart and rode high at number one for a fortnight – amazing when you consider it was only available on the Wii. It sold more in a week than any other Wii game and would have captured the Christmas No.1 too but we simply ran out of copies!

I’ll be bringing you details soon of a little M&S internal competition we’re going to be having at SEGAAUK HQ in the near future, as well as something you can get involved in. More on this soon.

Sonic & The Secret Rings also dominated the Wii charts back in March snagging number one spot, whilst Sonic Rush Adventure got a whopping 92% from Official Nintendo Magazine and even snared a rare 10/10 from top fansite Sonic Stadium. PSP owners weren’t out of Sonic action either with Sonic Rivals 2 which is steadfastly refusing to budge despite massive pressure from the PSP Top 5.

Of course in 2008 we’ve so much to look forward to as well from Sonic: Mario & Sonic return this time to the DS on February 8th with new DS exclusive events such as Boxing and Dream Shoot (Coconuts makes a cameo ^_^) I’ll be telling you all about that soon enough no doubt.

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity is coming your way and is currently slated for release on February 22nd for both PS2 and Nintendo Wii. I for one am really looking forward to this particular title – again expect information on this SRZG to come thick and fast in the run up to launch.

SEGA Superstars Tennis of course is another game featuring Sonic – expect blogs on the subject to move over to the main SEGA blog in the future incidentally. That’s currently down for March 28th and features Sonic, Amy and Dr.Eggman as well as other SEGA favourites such as Samba, Ulala and NiGHTS.

Speaking of our favourite androgynous jester his first game in 11 years finally hits European shores on January 18th in the UK and 25th everywhere else – conquer your nightmares once again, this time on Nintendo Wii.

Then of course there’s Sonic RPG – Bioware’s offering for the DS which we’ll find out more in time no doubt, including its confirmed title. I’m sure we’ll be hearing lots about that title in the near future.

And that’s all to come, of course there’s one more appearance Sonic is making this year: the Smash Bros. Brawl Dojo decided it was about time they gave us some more Sonic details but waited until Christmas Day to do it; firstly they confirmed a Jun Senoue remixed version of Angel Island from (like you need telling) Sonic 3, will feature as one of the tracks on the music player.

We also got more details about Sonic’s Super Smash move where our spiky mascot goes Super in order to dish out some S-Ranked punishment. The screenshots show a much clearer Sonic than the clip seen previously in the Brawl introductory video and from a personal, if somewhat nerdy point of view they have thankfully gotten rid of the “8 zillion emeralds” transformation and now just the seven emeralds in their recognised colours appear.

Here’s to accuracy!

That remixed track of Angel Island from Brawl by the way is apparently going to appear on new Sonic music collection CD “True Blue” which covers 15 years worth of Sonic music. It’s also rumoured to possibly contain the Remix Factory/Lee Brotherton remix of Open Your Heart which has been conspicuously absent since its announcement in 2006.

Now it being the season of giving, I was of course delighted to find that SEGAAUK HQ was bombarded with a series of gifts for me from terrifyingly obsessed community members and friends of the Blognik.

T-Bird was very generous in his presentation of not only the QI annual - presumably he’s hoping the next series (F) will feature Fang (Nack). I received a package from Australia from Sonic well known Sonic fan artist Elson “Darkspeeds” Wong who sent me a copy of his comic.

Yes, you read that right, he’s gotten a comic published - “The Grand ASHWORTH Fortune” which even managed to impress my mum, which is rather like Superman praising the healing powers of Kryptonite. So, if anthropomorphic animals are your thing feel free to check out http://ashworth.darkspeeds.com/ as I’ll certainly be investing in the further ASHWORTH adventures. Lastly in a true example of shameless plugging Discoponies sent me a t-shirt emblazoned with the new Sonic Show logo plus TWO BAGS badges that presumably he wants me to distribute to high-ups in a sneaky way.

Sneak. Sneak. Sneak.
He also sent me a card with a very rude message in it. So nuts to that.

Thank you to all of you who sent in goodwill messages and such during the holidays as well as those of you who sent in cards and other items. We were pleased you enjoyed our little exclusive for Christmas, I’d best get on with trying to get you more stuff!

I thought you might be interested in a few tidbits of info that have flown past we weren’t able to report on in full…

Bioware have confirmed once and for all (”But…” “ONCE AND FOR ALL!”) that Sonic RPG is still in development, the title was under a cloud of confusion following parent company Pandemic’s acquisition by Electronic Arts. However, on a recent podcast they answered a fan question by saying that yes, the title is still under development. You can find it listed under the games section of their navigation system under “Sonic DS” confusingly.

Major Sonic fan awards the SSA (Sonic Site Awards) have been and gone, leaving behind a host of excitement and shattered dreams. Awards were voted on by Sonic fans and awarded by The Sonic Stadium on a variety of subjects, winners included Sonic Style who won best site whilst there was a tie between two of the major sites for the Elite award Sonic Cage Dome and Sonic Wrecks *cough*. The main winners however were forum NoMoreBlue who strolled off with a hat-trick of awards.

The boys from WiiDS.co.uk asked me for an interview the other day to discuss Mario & Sonic, the plans for the Blognik, future community days, etc. You can check it out (should you wish) right here.

Finally the Smash Bros. Dojo revealed one of Sonic’s taunt moves for the Nintendo game - in it Sonic revs up in a similar style to his Dash move from Sonic CD before yelling at his opponent “Too slow!” ah, that Sonic and his crazy antics…

Friend of the Blognik, Lee “Dreams of an Absolution” Brotherton has left Remix Factory to concentrate on life as a solo performer, speaking to me he confirmed: “I’m still working with the Remix Factory on a couple of projects, but yeah I’ve pretty much handed the reigns over now.”

Lee is currently in LA on a whistle-stop tour of promotion for his new solo venture before he jets off to do more promotional work in Japan and Europe; though he mentioned that he’d manged to catch up with Sonic music head honcho Jun Senoue.

Lee, with new haircut, now performs under his alter-ego “Bentley Jones” and you can check out his mySpace page for a preview of the new album, which sounds brilliant (blast, more money I need to shell out) and includes some fancy Japanese singing.  You can also hear a version of Cameo’s “Word Up” which rivals the original for greatness (all talk of the Mel B version will at this point be removed.)

Speaking of “rivaling” Lee also confirmed that contrary to rumor, Remix Factory are not involved in the music of Sonic Rivals 2 in any way, and when I asked about the long talked of ”Live & Learn” remix finally seeing the light of day he merely responded with a winky smiley.

Hmmmmmmmmmm….

We’ll be sending out the office Chao with a bottle of chloroform to get Mr.Broth-errrr, Jones for more Blognik stuff in the future.

Check out Bentley Jones - www.bentleyjones.com - www.myspace.com/bentleyjonesmusic - for brand new tracks.

Greetings from SEGAAUK HQ, which is sort of like SEGA HQ but SEGA HQ with me in it - sorry for the delay to the exclusive new Rivals 2 track; (yes its Rivals 2 and yes its out in America already but us Europeans haven’t heard it yet :p) unfortunately I got hauled off yesterday to an induction day at the main HQ which meant it didn’t happen and now I’m here today lots are off sick - including everyone who does the uploads and approval processes for the Blognik posts.

Which is handy.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get things uploaded soon and then be able to show you this exclusive by the end of the day if not tomorrow; several Sonic City teething issues are due to be corrected with this forthcoming upload.  Don’t forget to enter the competition! See previous post for details…

It’s back! After almost 2 years of development, which included major redesigns, changes in personnel, budgets, opinions, details (thanks to the games released during the development time), general delays, attacks by squadrons of flying monkeys and being hit by icebergs SONIC CITY 2.0 IS ONLINE!

What is Sonic City? What do you MEAN “what is Sonic City”? Sonic City is your European equivalent of Sonic Channel in the Japan or Sonic Central for the US, but we’re the best good golly because we’re a lot more entertaining. Honest.  Essentially what I want to do with the Sonic City (because, didn’t I mention I’m in charge of it entirely now?) is make it your definitive official portal for all things Sonic related.  That’ll include news - including I might add community news, competitions for merchandise, reviews, interviews including fan inclusive Q&A’s with famous Sonic fans and people involved in the games and Sonic EXCLUSIVES.

Now the best way for you mob to help with the latter is to visit the Blognik and Sonic City whenever you fancy and EXPLORE, the more people we get coming here on a regular basis the more likely it is I’ll be able to get such exclusives.  An example of which is actually coming up on Monday for you, I won’t give away too much but it’s an exclusive reveal of a music track.

The best way of getting you here is, as far as I am concerned, making it more fun - we’ve got a whole load of character profiles that I have waded through putting up details on and giving (I hope) a good overview of the past and present of Sonic and co in an informative but fun way.  There’s also a definitive list of games up with screenshots, wallpapers, videos, icons and all sorts of other media - I’m sure you’re gonna say “You forgot X obscure game” but trust me that list is as definitive as it’s going to get in terms of past titles.

The new Sonic City also has a whole bunch of flash games for you to play on (official ones :p) and details of how you can play Sonic on your mobile phone - oh and you can listen to some music as well thanks to our music player! As you can see SC is only in English at the moment but hopefully that will change in time… heck, it was a big enough struggle getting it out in that! We’ve suffered more than you know in getting it to you and we hope you enjoy it.

In order to usher in this shining new era I’ve got a stonkingly nice competition, tying in with Mario & Sonic - which is of course out today! It’s the Sonic City 4×4, four answers relating to the Olympics, Nintendo and SEGA.  Get them all right and you could be in line for one of five pairs of highly desirable Sonic Rush-branded Converse sneakers, with the first out the hat also receiving a Mario & Sonic t-shirt, tracksuit top, pin badge and key-ring!

So the questions are:

1) Where is the traditional home of the Olympics?

2) What are the names of the three royal characters who feature in the game?Send your four answers to: blogs@sega-europe.com

By entering this competition you automatically agree to our Terms & Conditions. Closing date for entries is 12th December. Winners will be announced by 15th December.

So what are you waiting for? Go explore Sonic City!

ArcahangelUK

(NB: Characters flash issue should now be fixed, other teething issues such as the non-www. address problem we’ll sort out Monday.)

This is my first official blog post as a member of the SEGA Community
team, so hello all! I’m really excited to be working for one of the
best gaming companies on the planet. As I’ve been playing their games
for over 20 years, I thought it only right that they should give me a
job. We’ve got some great titles coming out in the next few months, and
I will be giving you the inside info on some of these and much
more.

Anyway, on with the
news.

Not sure if you saw the news
story, but Sumo Digital are currently hard at work on a new
game for us; SEGA Superstars
Tennis. Due for release in early 2008, SEGA Superstars Tennis is
one of those fun, pick-up-and play games where traditional tennis rules
are thrown out in favour of all-out fun and frolics on the
court.

Currently,
info is a little thin on the ground (a bit like my hair), but what we
do know is:

• More than 15 playable
  characters from SEGA’s army of gaming idols including Sonic, AiAi,
  Ulala, and Amigo.
• Each character will have a unique
  ability.
• Exhibition and Tournament
  modes.
• Different courts in some very familiar
  locations such as Green Hill Zone and Carnival
  Park.
• It’s coming out on loads of formats: PS3,
  Xbox 360, PS2, Wii and DS.
• You can play your online
  buddies with the PS3 and Xbox 360
  versions.
• There’ll be loads of unlockable
  extras.

We’ll bring you more info on
how the game is coming along soon. I’ll see if I can sneak into
Fortress SEGA and nab some exclusive pics and videos for the
blog.

In the
meantime, what SEGA character would you like to see make an appearance?

It finally happened.

Sonic, SEGA’s legendary blue hedgehog, will be making his debut in the eagerly anticipated beat ‘em up, Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii. This brawling, battling, action packed video game features a varied roster of characters, from Mario and Link to Samus and Pikachu - and now players can choose the iconic hedgehog to go into battle with.    

Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. series has been a firm favourite since the first title launched in 1999 on the Nintendo 64, and since the launch of Super Smash Bros. Melee for Nintendo GameCube, it has since gone on to have millions of fans worldwide.

And it was the clamouring of those fans, YOU, who helped what was thought of only a few years ago as a nigh on impossibility to occur.

Mike Hayes, President and COO of SEGA Europe commented:
“Its amazing that after all these years we get to see these two much loved characters compete against each other in another fantastic title. Bringing Mario and Sonic together again underlines the continuing partnerships between Nintendo and SEGA, and produces another industry first for our two companies.”

A lot of Sonic’s move set has already been confirmed, with Sonic’s super speed being augmented by his spin dash ability. Should Sonic get his white-gloved mitt on a Smash ball he’ll turn into Super Sonic for his Super Smash move!

All of this means of course we get to talk to you about Smash Bros. Brawl on the blog as well, which is rather handy!  We’ll be keeping you up to date on all developments relating to Sonic in SSBB as and when they happen.