Sega has a new Halloween treat for us in store. They’re putting out a movie based on Sonic Unleashed! Who knows how long it will be or what it will be about (Other than Sonic and Chip in a haunted house), but it looks like it will be fun to watch. I’ve always loved the CG movies that Sonic Team has put in their games, and this looks like it will be a good watch. A 1 minute 22 second trailer went up today and you can view it if you head on over to IGN. A release date of November 2008 was given. Keep looking here for more news.
Sega’s FTP site put up the NA box art for the four systems that the game is going to come out on. It’s unchanged from what Europe is getting, aside from the ESRB logo now. No big change was expected, though. I do find the different color shades a bit interesting. Look for this game to come out on November 18th in the states.
The Archie Sonic Blog has put up the cover and description for Sonic #196. Look at that! It’s Super Scourge. The purple fits him, considering Sonic and Shadow both go the opposite colors of what they are when they go super. You’ll have to wait a couple of months to get this issue, though.
“Hedgehog Havoc, Part Two”: The “New Moebius” saga comes to an explosive end as hero and villain alike tremble at the power of Super Scourge! The fate of two worlds hangs by a thread, but what can Sonic do against his invincible evil twin? You can’t miss this epic climax to the biggest Sonic story of the year!
SCRIPT: Ian Flynn
ART: Tracy Yardley!
Earth-shattering cover by Tracy Yardley!
Shipping Date: January 7th, 2009
On Sale at Comic Specialty Shops: January 14th, 2009
On Sale on Newsstands: January 27th, 2009
32-page, full color comic
$2.25 US.
October 10th, 2007. You open www.smashbros.com and what do you see? Sonic is in Brawl! It’s been one year since then and the game has been out for seven months. What has changed since then? It’s pretty cool how the excitement happened only a year ago, but now it seems common.
The official Japanese site for Sonic and the Black Knight has updated with a trailer from the Tokyo Game Show 2008 showing some actual movement from the game. You remember the screenshots from Nintendo Power? They’re back, in video form! The official site also has the main theme playing over the video, so you should go take a listen and watch it.
Here’s the video from YouTube, but it doesn’t have the lyrics of the main theme. Just an instrumental version. Hit up the main link for a higher quality, lyrical version of the movie.
The Sonic Channel blog posted the link to the preview page of Sonic and the Black Knight. It doesn’t really give anything but the logo, the release date, the platform, and a couple other facts. The page is in Japanese, so I can’t read anything but the numbers. Check it out!
MegaDriver, the covering-Sega-game-music-into-metal-music band has released MetalHog, a CD that covers songs from various Sonic games. It’s pretty cool if you’re into this kind of thing. Head over here to download the album.
The Archie blog has updated again and you can view the first 6 pages of issue number #193. The cover has also been updated, showing we’ll have a Sonic Unleashed story in the back. Pick it up when it comes out!
“Otherside Part One”: Good comes face-to-face with evil… and it’s just like looking in a mirror as Sonic and the Freedom Fighters square off against their evil doppelgangers from another world! With King Scourge (the evil anti-Sonic from another dimension) and the Suppression Squad controlling Freedom HQ, Sonic and Amy are sent across time and space to Moebius… the Anti-Mobius, that is! They run into some familiar faces in this topsy-turvy world, but who is friend and who is foe? And back home, what sinister scheme is Miles hatching?
SCRIPT: Ian Flynn.
ART: Tracy Yardley! (pencils) and Jim Amash (inks).
Double-trouble cover by Tracy Yardley! & Jason Jensen.
Shipping Date: October 1st, 2008
On Sale at Comic Specialty Shops: October 8th, 2008
On Sale on Newsstands: October 21st, 2008
32-page, full color comic
$2.25 US.
Nothing spectacular that we didn’t already know was revealed in the article for Sonic Unleashed except various controls for the Wii version.
You move Sonic with the Nunchuk’s Control Stick and Jump with A.
You do a quick side-step by holding B and moving the Control Stick in the desired direction (left or right).
The new drift mechanism let’s you earn bonuses by holding B or Z to whip around tight turns.
You use Sonic’s Homing Attack by shaking the Wii Remote
Shaking the Wii Remote also lets you use a speed boost that’s filled from a guage at the bottom of the screen.
While being the Werehog where you have a damage guage, you swing the Wii Remote for Sonic’s right hand and the Nunchuk for Sonic’s left hand.
Pressing Z lets you block and by chaining together combos and mixing in advanced moves by swinging the remote and nunchuk up, down, or toward each other you can really dish out the pain on enemies.
You can also use B to grab and toss the enemies.
Pressing C let’s you activate Unleashed Mode; a powered-up state during which you gain new attacks and take less damage from your enemies.
If you’re danging off an enemy, you can wave the Wii Remote to swing back and forth.
You can climb poles by lifting the remote and nunchuk alternately, or raise a heavy gate by yanking up with both controllers.
Look for this game to arrive on November 18th in the US for the Wii, PS3, PS2, and 360.
As for the Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood review, it received an 8.0. The game was praised for the Elite Beat Agents style of attacks, the whitty dialogue, the great cast of characters each with an important role, how benched characters also level-up, equiping Chao to characters to boost their abilities, a series of Chrono Trigger inspired Team POW movies makes every new combination of fighters interesting, and the option to choose between lengthy chats or straight-to-business conversations. Some of the downsides being that the EBA sytles of attacks starts to get annoying after a while and some enemies being strong enough that you need to use POW attacks. Normal attacks do no damage to them. The game will take you about 15-20 hour to beat, but it will be well worth it. Look for it next week on the 30th for the US, or the 28th if you happen to be near the Nintendo World Store in New York City and wish to get the game a couple days early and an exclusive Chao.
Go out to a newsstand somewhere and buy issue 234 of Nintendo Power, which is November 2008. One other thing that I noticed about these two items is that the Unleashed articles was done by Chris Hoffman and the Chronicles review was by Casey L. Why didn’t Steve Thomason do them? He had always been the one writing anything related to Sonic in Nintendo Power. I would always check for his name, knowing he was a Sonic fan like us.
