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!

Having trouble beating Sonic and the Secret Rings? SONICTEAM to the rescue!

The very guys behind the development of the game have launched an English-language strategy guide.

Even if you’re not having any difficulty getting the most out of the game, there’s probably still something of interest here.

With detailed instructions on everything from grinding and tricks to the exact meaning of the results screens, we suggest you check it out now to significantly deepen your knowledge of Sonic’s expeditious Wii adventure.

CLICK HERE

We’ve just launched a Sonic and the Secret Rings mini-game!

It’s hard, really hard. Well, we think it is - at least in order to top the high-score table. Can you do it?

Give it a go here.

The numbers are in and we can proudly announce that Sonic and the Secret Rings is going great guns across Europe. At least 80 percent of this success is undoubtedly due to this website, which we made.

Well, that’s what we’re putting in the web team report this month anyway.

Here’s how Sonic’s doing in the biggest Euro-zone Wii charts.

UK - No. 1
France - No.1
Spain - No. 2
Germany - No.1
Benelux - No. 2

We knew he could do it.

Last Friday marked the launch of Sonic and the Secret Rings across Europe. But then you know that, because we’ve been banging on about it for weeks.

It all went very well. We got our free copies (did we mention that we got free copies already?) and it would seem more than a few Wii owners have picked it up. Paid for it, and everything.

After its first weekend on sale, Secret Rings is No. 1 in the Wii chart, and No. 5 in the All Formats (All Prices) chart. Which is totally brilliant. Big thanks to everyone who’s helped the spiked one top the charts for us.

Sonic himself spent the weekend thanking people personally down at London’s famous toy store, Hamleys, where he was thanked in turn by SEGA’s new Sales Director, John Clark. Look, there he is, saying hello. Say hello everybody.

The event featured Sonic and his constant companion AiAi, of Super Monkey Ball fame. Punters at the store’s GAME outlet were offered a special deal if they bought Secret Rings together with Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz. As well as that, we had a team on hand handing out spot prizes of Secret Rings hoodies and key rings, all while giving people the chance to get their hands on the game for a try-out.

Fun times all round then. Check out the pictures.

Sonic and the Secret Rings hit European stores today, and everyone here is pretty excited about it.

There’s a genuinely expectant mood about the place. Not just because it’s Friday and we’re expecting the weekend, and not just because we reckon we’ve launched one of the best Sonic games in recent memory (with a website to match). There’s more to it than that. Today we’re happy because Friday is launch day is Free Game Day!

Everyone gets a copy, see. It’s a perk. And, just to embarrass him, here’s a picture of Chris - our Systems Engineer - picking up his copy from Charlotte. Charlotte works in Operations, which is a detailed and difficult job involving distribution. We don’t know what a Systems Engineer is, but it’s technical and clever and Chris is a kung-fu black belt or something, so we tend not to get close enough to ask.

And, just because we’re in the mood for embarrassing people, check out this little video clip. Here we have a secret camera-phone recording of Mike, who makes games for us to put on the Web. Mike revealed to us all in this meeting that not only is he truly rubbish at his own games, he’s also good at discovering new bugs during presentations.

The game, for your info, will be appearing very soon on the Secret Rings website… just as soon as Mike fixes it.

Have a nice weekend.

You, the Blognik faithful. You fine few, you. Yes, you. You get to see this first. It’s a new TV ad for Sonic and the Secret Rings!

Here’s when you can watch it over the weekend.

02MAR07   FRI   12:45   Coronation Street   ITV2
02MAR07   FRI   13:39   Angel   Sky 1
02MAR07   FRI   13:45   Jeremy Kyle   ITV2
02MAR07   FRI   17:29   Stargate   Sky 1
02MAR07   FRI   23:25   Cold Case   Sky 1

03MAR07   SAT   09:55   T4 At The Shockwaves   C4
03MAR07   SAT   10:16   Soccer AM   SkySports 1
03MAR07   SAT   11:05   Popworld   C4
03MAR07   SAT   11:50   Emmerdale   ITV2
03MAR07   SAT   11:55   High School Dance   C4
03MAR07   SAT   16:25   Futurama   Sky 1
03MAR07   SAT   16:40   Gillette Soccer Saturday   SkySports 1
03MAR07   SAT   16:57   Futurama   Sky 1
03MAR07   SAT   18:20   Smallville   ITV2
03MAR07   SAT   18:50   Smallville   ITV2
03MAR07   SAT   19:20   Smallville   ITV2
03MAR07   SAT   22:25   Dancing On Ice   ITV2

04MAR07   SUN   12:10   Robot Wars   Sky 1
04MAR07   SUN   12:30   Shipwrecked   C4
04MAR07   SUN   13:10   Stargate   Sky 1
04MAR07   SUN   13:39   Stargate   Sky 1
04MAR07   SUN   16:05   Ugly Betty   C4

We’ll probably catch it at 10:16 on Saturday morning, or failing that maybe 16:25 the same day.

Another new trailer everybody, this time featuring real-life people! Although, to be open and honest, it’s a bit hard from watching them to believe they’re playing a real-life Wii. We don’t look like that when we’re playing the Wii. But hey, they look like nice people, and if it featured people who look like us when they’re playing the Wii, it’d be a bit of an ugly trailer.

Check it out, and watch out for another post very soon with details of the Secret Rings TV ad - as well as a chance to watch it before anyone else.

We’ve just launched a new website for Sonic and the Secret Rings.

Have a look and tell us what you think: www.sega-europe.com/secretrings

Insider Info
You may have already seen a website for Secret Rings, but this one’s a bit different. The one you may have seen was created in the States a while back - we’ve built this one for a European audience. For starters, it exists in five different languages (English, French, German, Spanish and Italian - or ‘eefigs’ as we call it). We use a device to sniff out the language settings of the browser you’re using and the site automatically loads the appropriate version of the site. You can probably figure out how to switch between the different sites if you’re clever…

Over in Tokyo, the producers of Secret Rings gave us loads of help with the site. Almost all of the textures and little designs you can see on the site come straight from the game, as does the character artwork you’ll see. SONICTEAM provided help and feedback throughout, and then sent us a frankly beautiful chrome-finish external hard drive containing all the gameplay videos you can see on the site. We had to send the hard drive back. It still hurts.

Credit where it’s due then: Sandy Simon, the designer; Chief Bennie Booysen, the design boss and workhorse; Me, the words; Elaine Carty, the project management; Mark Hinch, techie stuff no-one else really understands.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments bit.

We released some new gameplay footage of Sonic and the Secret Rings last week. And here, for your viewing pleasure, it is. The quality’s not great I’m afraid - apparently Quicktime files don’t get along that well with YouTube, or something. I’ll do better next time.

Let us know what you think…

Official Trailer

Gameplay #1

Gameplay #2

Gameplay #3

Gameplay #4

Gameplay - Party Games