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!

Well, we’ve not had any of those “interferences” for a while have we? This is largely due to the fact several clever sticks were able to decode the encrypted messages that were from Metal Sonic so we don’t have to worry about him marching into the office going “DESTROY!” and whirling about the place in his black shield knocking over cups, stacks of paper and destroying our mini-golf course.

If you were interested, the messages read as follows:

Instance 1

SONIC RIVALS 2

CONFIRMED - EXISTANCE OF METAL SONIC THREE POINT ZERO; PRESENTLY TRACKING TARGET ACROSS PENINSULAR HEADING NORTH NORTH-EAST.

OBJECTIVE: CHAO LOCATION.
LOCATION: UNKNOWN.
PASS NUMBER: SIX.

Instance 2

METAL SONIC TO DOCTOR EGGMAN:
AS REQUESTED HAVE LOCATED THE ULTIMATE LIFE FORM, HAVE INFORMED HIM OF THE SITUATION AND WE ARE OF ACCORD WITH YOUR WISHES
UNKNOWN INTERFERENCE ON THIS FREQUENCY; SELF-DIAGNOSTICS ENGAGED.

ADDITIONAL ENCRYPTION NUMERIC FOUR

Instance 3

PROCEEDING TO CO-ORDINATES…

INTERFERENCE STILL OCCURING ADDITIONAL
ENCRYPTION: PLUS TWO
SEEKING OUT SOURCE OF DISRUPTION AND WILL DESTROY.

Yes, well like I said thankfully he didn’t. You’ll take it from that the code was supposed to be 642 and the following people will have a Rivals 2 t-shirt winging its way to them as chosen at random by the office Chao:

P.Sims, Leeds
S.Shirley, Norwich
D.Maybury, Birmingham
P.Elthorpe, Middleton
J.Becker, Oppenheim, Germany
J.Cartlidge, Stafford
D.Rato, London
I.Reichert, London
B.Copeman, Bury St.Edmunds
and Adam “T-Bird” Tuff from PARTS UNKNOWN~!

Congratulations as well to our French fan C.Alberti of St.Sauveur De Monagut - he won the Mario and Sonic goodies bonanza from the opening of Sonic City, second prize winners have been contacted. 

The answers were that the three “royal” characters in the game were the trinity of princesses Blaze, Daisy and Peach - we would not accept Bowser and I’m sorry but Luigi? No, okay, just no.  As for the traditional home of the Olympics, that we either accepted as Athens or Olympia.

Don’t forget there’s still time to enter the Christmas Newsletter competition for the chance to win a bunch of Sonic X goodies as well as a limited edition statuette of our blue friend. We’ll be making the draw for that next Monday, the question was “What is the name of Santa’s reindeer in chief?” send your answer to blogs@sega-europe.com

I’ll be hitting you with a proper “Welcome to 2008″ blog very soon, stay frosty.

AAUK

…and all through the office, not a creature was stirring - except AAUK.

Yes, I’m here in SEGAAUK HQ on my own. *Sniff* Everyone else has gone home for Christmas except me, who is still here because I’ve organised something verrrry nice for you.  If you go to Sonic City (as in now) you will find two Christmas presents from SEGA and myself.

First off, Sonic FM has gained three new tracks, two of which are from Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, including the main theme ”Un-gravitify” by Cashell.

The second surprise is that Richard Jacques himself has written something for you, the first in a series of Composer Blogs for us on his work with SEGA Superstars Tennis - specifically the main theme of said game, and oh btw - WORLD EXCLUSIVE: YOU CAN NOW HEAR IT ON SONIC FM TOO!

Sorry for shouting, but WORLD EXCLUSIVE!  Yes, this doesn’t appear anywhere else on the web to my knowledge, so a proper Sonic City first. I told you to keep an eye on us didn’t I?

Now, this is the last blog of 2007 from me at least, so please put all comments relating to the tracks, Richard Jacques article and anything else you want in here and I’ll approve them when I can.

We’ve also got our new Facebook group you might want to join as well as the SEGA Christmas Newsletter competition you might have noticed if you received it.  If not, for the chance to win a Sonic X goody pack and a limited edition Sonic statuette answer the following question  - “What is the name of Santa’s reindeer in chief?”

Send in your answer to blogs@sega-europe.com (the usual Terms & Conditions apply), and we’ll announce the winner when we get back in the New Year as well as the winners of the Blognik “Interference” code contest for the Sonic Rivals 2 t-shirts.

Well that’s it guys, I’m off - Merry Christmas to you all from all of us here at SEGA, see you in 2008.

ArchangelUK

Okay so Sonic Rivals 2 is out today and is a really nice little title, bringing you back to the high speed, physical racing of it’s 2006 predecessor.  The OTHER good news is thaaaaajjjjjjjjjj3453535$^£5645ryhdfg-

JOUFSGFSFODF TUJMM PDDVSJOHBEEJUJPOBM
FODSZQUJPO: QMVT UXP 

TFFLJOH PVU TPVSDF PG EJTSVQUJPO BOE XJMM EFTUSPZ. 

*$”d32q£^&- Ah. So much for me about to say “we’ve solved the issues” of that interference, it turns out that this new Blognik server operates on a similar bandwidth frequency to Metal Sonic.

Who’d have thought it?

Anyway apparently the way to unlock the code is to change the letter given so that it’s the one previous: so B would mean A and therefore DPEF is CODE for example. Now, the only way to stop this happening is to get the encryption code number Metal Sonic is using and obviously you don’t just walk up to Metal Sonic and ask him things. 

I suspect the code will be found across the three “interference” posts.  So look out in those three for some kind of indication of a pass or encryption value… put those three numbers together in sequence (123, 456, etc) and send them to us at blogs@sega-europe.com.

We’ll then choose ten people who got it right out of a fluffy woollen hat and they’ll get a snazzy Rivals 2 t-shirt - get decoding and find those numbers!

So, Christmas is rapidly approaching… right I’m officially bulging from a slap up Christmas meal at a Japanese run Chinese restaurant in London’s East End  annnnnnnDDDddd$W”"$£RWREEWR

NFUBM TPOJD UP EPDUPS FHHNBO:

BT SFRVFTUFE IBWF MPDBUFE UIF VMUJNBUF MJGF GPSN, IBWF JOGPSNFE IJN PG UIF TJUVBUJPO BOE XF BSF PG BDDPSE XJUI ZPVS XJTIFT

VOLOPXO JOUFSGFSFODF PO UIJT GSFRVFODZ; TFMG-EJBHOPTUJDT FOHBHFE.

BEEJUJPOBM FODSZQUJPO OVNFSJD GPVS

QSPDFFEJOH UP DP-PSEJOBUFT…

G$ET£”TGVDSSSSSSSSSSS”£not again! What’s causing this - any of you guys figure it out?

As promised here is the next Rivals 2 track added to Sonic FM on Sonic City - it’s the music from the first area of the fifth zone: Mystic Haunt Zone (Act 1).

Its all haunted and spooky - SONIC LEVEL STANDARD SET~!

*Cough* Sorry about that, well at least we’ve not had any of that mysterious interference this time around… must be a one off glitch, touch wood.

More Rivals 2 news, apparently the previous post held some kind of clues as to finding Rivals 2 goodies on the web, i.e wallpapers and things. Also, I have completed moving in my Sonic-City-O-Matic into SEGAAUK HQ, meaning I now have the powers of upload directly at my disposal and have a chance to be a bit more “hands on” with the site. Lol.

So, expect the next Rivals 2 track to go up on Sonic FM tomorrow or Thursday at the latest and t-{{{{FdfgdFgd,g………

TPOJD SJWBMT 2

DPOGJSNFE - FYJTUBODF PG NFUBM TPOJD UISFF QPJOU AFSP; QSFTFOUMZ USBDLJOH UBSHFU BDSPTT QFOJOTVMBS IFBEJOH OPSUI OPSUI-FBTU.

PCKFDUJWF: DIBP MPDBUJPO.
MPDBUJPO: VOLOPXO.
QBTT OVNCFS: TJY.

DFe_{ee}er352_DSF43…”3333-WwvvwwWhat the heck??? *Whacks the side of the Blognik a few times* You guys see that as well?

BTW: Don’t forget the competition we’ve got going at the moment- Mario & Sonic goodies and Sonic Rush Converse trainers available to the winners! See post “Living In The City” (23/11) for more details if you’ve missed it so far.

Ahhhh.

The smell of tension in the air, the taste of grudges on the breeze - it can only be the creeping of Sonic Rivals 2 your way on the PSP.  Who will you side with?  How will you go about showing your support, make up your face with blue to make it look Sonic-like? Pfff. Perhaps you’ll want to bling out your Desktop with some graphical loveliness? Now THAT sounds like a good idea to me.

So, on the 20th of November we’ve arranged for some Rivals 2 media to be placed around the web on four different sites/services, media such as wallpapers, icons packs, etc.  Those sorts of thigns for you to find - ignenious eh?  Now I’m assumign you’re expectign me to give you some sort of clue where these are?  Well, for all you Euro gamers out there as a suggestion I’d check out PSP relevant places for a start… you know, keep an eye out for banner adverts, etc as they are tied in with those. 

We at SOE think you Euro gamers are the best - time to get hunting and prove us right! Keep a look out for the Pic zof Rivals 2 on those pages and if you see them, you could always send us a hot e-mail or snail mail, or butterfly mail or… maybe something more ‘instant’ to let us know.

Mmmmsnmmmm… Instant.

I know we’ve been very much focused on Mario & Sonic here at the Blognik but let us not forget that there is another Sonic game released coming up to Christmas: Sonic Rivals 2 on the PSP comes out on December 7th.  In order to help celebrate the grand re-opening of Sonic City I thought it’d be good to give you an example of the way the Blognik will be going in the future.

As a result I’d like to present our very first Blognik exclusive - at least in terms of European exclusive - the title theme to Sonic Rivals 2!  I know this was promised the other day but alas I was called away on other SEGA business, that and I’m sick. *Cough* See? You can find it on Sonic FM as #26.

Oddly catchy isn’t it? I think it’s fair to say the title is probably “Race To Win” and is a collaboration between the SEGA Sound Dep. and Backbone so big thanks to them and Sega Studio USA for allowing us to give you a preview.

So there we go, an example of how the Blognik will be hopefully working from now on - and guess what? We’ve got another track coming up in a couple of days, I know its only a “European” exclusive but I hope you understand us getting such an asset for Sonic City before the release of the game in EU is a bit of a landmark for us.

I’m already eyeing up proper WORLD exclusives for us all and have set out my stall for such, you never know - they might be appearing a lot sooner than you might think (if all goes well)…

B.M.B kids - the Blognik Means Business.

Afternoon Sonic fans,
As you are no doubt aware, Sonic Rivals 2 is currently in
development and is due for release before the end of the year. One of the new
features is the brand new Battle
mode that allows two players to jump into six different multiplayer challenges.
And what is really super is that you can enjoy this multiplayer mayhem by
sharing one disc.

We have uploaded a couple of new videos to YouTube that show
off the frantic battle action in greater detail.  Hope you like them.