Dr. Eggman has discovered some ancient technology on the mysterious Starfall Islands. Wanting to use it for his own nefarious purposes, Eggman installs an AI named SAGE to hack into it so that he can use it. However, there's more to this technology than Eggman realizes, and something quickly goes awry. Sonic the Hedgehog soon arrives on the island, and now he has to deal with the unforeseen consequences of Eggman's actions, as well as save his friends who are also on the island.
Sonic Frontiers is also described by SEGA to be an "Open-Zone", which probably translates to "Open-World" akin to the ever-popular comparison, "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild." An open-world Sonic title has never been done before, so this attempt could be interesting. Takashi Iizuka, current head of Sonic Team,has said that he is hoping that this game will be the start of the future for the Sonic series going forward.
Besides Sonic and Eggman, Tails is also set to appear, judging by a tweet from Tail's current voice actor, Colleen O'Shaughnessey.
Additionally, it seems Amy Rose is also in the game. This was
accidentally confirmed in the XBox version of the trailer, where if you
turn the subtitles on, it reveals that the mysterious voice calling out
to Sonic is her.
Also of note, the writer for the game's plot is Ian Flynn. For those who don't know, Ian previously worked on the Archie Sonic comics, as well as the current IDW Sonic comic. Previously, the writer for the Sonic the Hedgehog games was Ken Pontac and Warren Graff, starting with 2010's Sonic Colors. While some fans considered their writing a breath of fresh air following the plots of Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 and 2008's Sonic Unleashed, their writing style began to come under criticism by 2013's Sonic Lost World, coming to a head in 2017's Sonic Forces.
Sonic Frontiers is expected to be released in the holiday season by 2022 for PlayStation 4/5, XBox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC through Steam.
Finally, on December 9th during the Game Awards, Ben Shwartz - the voice actor for Sonic in the movie - and Jim Carrey - who plays Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik - would reveal the trailer.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 takes place one year after the previous film. After his fight with Dr. Robotnik, Sonic has been living with Tom (played by James Marsden) and Maddie Wachowski (played by Tika Sumpter) in Green Hills. Lately, Sonic has been wanting to become a hero, and has been sneaking out to perform heroic deeds. Tom and Maddie decide to go on vacation and leave Sonic in Green Hills so that he can have some time alone.
Just as soon as they leave however, who else should show up but Dr. Robotnik, who has managed to escape his banishment to the Mushroom Planet Sonic sent him to in the last film.
Robotnik has also brought a new ally with him: Knuckles the Echidna (voiced by Idris Elba). Robotnik is searching for the Master Emerald, which has the power to both build and destroy civilizations.
Sonic isn't alone on this new journey, as he soon meets Tails, a young fox who's eager to help Sonic out in this quest Now the two of them have to find the Master Emerald first before Robotnik and Knuckles do!
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is planned to be released on April 8th, 2022.
This wasn't the only Sonic news revealed, as a trailer for Sonic's latest adventure, Sonic Frontiers, would also be revealed. You can read more about it here.
During the Nintendo Direct, Yoshiaki Koizumi revealed that Nintendo Switch Online is getting an Expansion Pack. This Expansion Pack will be coming with games from Nintendo 64 and SEGA Genesis library!
These are the confirmed titles for the Nintendo 64 games.
Super Mario 64
Mario Kart 64
Star Fox 64
Yoshi's Story
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Win Back: Covert Operations
Mario Tennis
Dr. Mario 64
Sin & Punishment
In addition, these games are planned to be coming to Nintendo Switch Online as well at some point.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
F-Zero X
Mario Golf
Pokemon Snap
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Paper Mario
Banjo-Kazooie
And these are the confirmed games coming to the SEGA Genesis one!
Castlevania Bloodlines
Contra Hard Corps
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
Ecco the Dolphin
Golden Axe
Gunstar Heroes
Musha
Phantasy Star IV
Ristar
Shining Force
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Streets of RAGE 2
Strider
The Expansion Pack is planned to be released sometime late October, 2021. The price of this expansion in comparison to the standard one is currently unknown, and will be revealed later. Those who have purchased - or are currently on - the standard edition will have the choice to upgrade to the Expansion Pack if they so desire.
Two days go on Twitter, some new upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog plushies from Great Eastern Entertainment - aka GE Entertainment - were shown off!
The preview has the characters you would expect, like Tails, Dr. Eggman, and a Chao. Even Whisper, a character from the IDW Sonic comics, is getting a plush!
It also showed two new cute emoji plushies, Knuckles and Silver.
What many fans probably weren't expecting is Emerl, a character who hasn't been seen since.2004's Sonic Advance 3. But even that's nothing compared to Mephiles, a character from the rather infamous 15th Anniversary game, Sonic the Hedgehog 2006!
Emerl is easy to explain. He debuted in Sonic Battle, where he was found by Sonic, who took him in. With some help from Sonic's friends, Emerl would grow into an independent, free-thinking robot. However, when all seven Chaos Emeralds were given to him, his original programming resurfaced, and Emerl grew mad with power. He began to seek to destroy Sonic's World, which forced Sonic to head off and destroy him, much to his own chagrin. Later, Eggman would recover Emerl in Sonic Advance 3, reprogramming him and giving him a new name, G-merl. He would then use the robot to try and help him conquer the world, though the robot would eventually end up going crazy once more. Super Sonic and Eggman put a stop to him, after which Tails would reprogram the robot back to his friendly self.
Mephiles was the Sonic 2006's central antagonist, and was part of the game's confusing time travel plot. To try to make a long story short, Mephiles used to be a being called Solaris, who had power over time. The king of Soleanna wanted to harness that power, but an incident resulted in Solaris splitting into two beings: Iblis, who represented Solaris's raw power; and Mephiles, who represented Solaris's cunning mind. Iblis ends up getting sealed away in the king's only daughter, Elise, while Mephiles gets sealed away in a time scepter. When he manages to break free ten years later, Mephiles hatches an overly complex plan to release Iblis from Elise, fuse with him so that they can become Solaris again, and then destroy the timeline.
Regardless, an official release date for the plush dolls have yet to be confirmed.
Somebody mentioned something about upcoming #SonictheHedgehog plush?
— Great Eastern Entertainment (@geanimation) August 31, 2021
On GE Entertainment's official Twitter, they hint that more Sonic Plushies are on the way!
What do you think? Are you thinking about picking some of them up when they become available? Are you hoping they create plushies of some of the more obscure Sonic characters? Will SEGA up the ante and release a doll of Princess Elise? Tell us your thoughts below!
You can visit the official website for GE Entertainment here! To see the listings for all of their Sonic the Hedgehog plush products, click here!
SEGA held a Sonic Central live stream yesterday to reveal various upcoming events regarding Sonic's 30th Anniversary. The first thing they discussed and showed off were the collaborations with other games.
At Summer Game Fest, Sega is planning on hosting a concert that will play various songs from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Some known members who will be playing are Crush 40 (who wrote theme songs for the series starting in Sonic Adventure) and Tomoya Ohtani (who has written songs for the series starting in Sonic Adventure 2.) The concert will be streamed for free on June 23rd.
Meanwhile, in "Tokyo 2020: The Official Video Game", players can dress their character up in a - somewhat silly-looking - Sonic suit and have them compete in the various Olympic events while wearing it! (Guess Mario wasn't invited to this Olympic event.) This Sonic Outfit is coming July 22nd, but is available for pre-order.
Two Point Hospital is also bring some Sonic outfits to its game. In addition to have your doctors run around dressed as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy, you can also liven up your hospital with some Sonic Decor, such as an arcade machine that's playing Sonic Mania Plus, or a Sonic Statue! The Sonic content is coming July 30th and will be free.
In Lost Judgement - a legal suspense thriller - Sonic the Fighters will be available to play in the game! It will be a faithful recreation of the original arcade game. (Whether or not Honey the Cat will be playable is currently unknown.) This will arrive to the game on September 24th.
After that, they revealed the long-rumored Sonic Colors remaster, "Sonic Colors: Ultimate". In addition to improved graphics, this remaster will also have improved gameplay enhancements and a couple of other new features. One of them is a brand-new Wisp power called Jade Ghost, which allows Sonic to go through certain solid objects and discover new paths. There'a also a new game mode called "Rival Rush", which involves players racing against Dr. Eggman's nefarious creation, Metal Sonic.
Additionally, it appears that Tails may show up as a playable character, as shown in some screenshots from Famitsu. However, one of these screenshots clearly shows Sonic, so it may be that your life icon is customizable instead. Or it could even that the screenshots were taken from an early build before they added Tails. We'll probably know more as the game gets closer to release
Sonic Colors: Ultimate will come out on September 7th. Pre-orders are available. If you pre-order the Standard version, you will get an adorable Baby Sonic Keychain, some unique player icons, and can have Sonic's boost move resemble how it does in the Sonic the Hedgehog Movie. If you pre-order the Deluxe version, you will get everything that was previously mentioned in addition to early access to the game, 3 new remixes based on the game's soundtrack, Gold & Silver gloves and shoes for Sonic to wear, and some unique player icons based on Sonic's look in the Sonic the Hedgehog Movie.
Finally, to celebrate the release of Sonic Colors: Ultimate, a two-part animation will be released called "Sonic Colors: Rise of the Wisps." The short will involve Sonic and Tails heading to Sweet Mountain to help Jade the Wisp rescue its friends from Dr. Eggman and Metal Sonic. The first part of the cartoon will be released sometime this summer.
A new collection of Sonic games was then announced. Called "Sonic Origins", this collection features ports of Sonic the Hedgehogs 1, 2, 3, & Knuckles, and CD. Both games can be played in the original and the new widescreen format. Whether or not 1, 2, and CD are be based on the Mobile Port remakes or not is currently unconfirmed.
SEGA then announced that Team Sonic Racing and Sonic Mania are heading to Amazon Luna. On PlayStation Now, in addition to those two games, Sonic Forces will also be heading there.
For players of the Sonic Mobile games, Sonic Dash will be running an event where you can unlock Pirate Sonic and Captain Shadow. On Sonic Forces Mobile, players will be able to play as Super Sonic. Super Sonic is invincible and can tear through your opponents attacks, but using him quickly drains your rings. It was then revealed that Sonic the Werehog will be arriving for Sonic Dash and Sonic Forces Mobile as a playable character in October. Finally, the segment ended by revealing that in the Apple Arcade version of Team Sonic Racing, you can play as Classic Sonic! (Looks like Classic Tails and Classic Knuckles decided to stay behind.) Classic Sonic rides in his car, the Cyclone, from the Game Gear game Sonic Drift, and comes with a 3 new tracks stage with some brand new music.
Joe Kelly then talked about the new upcoming Sonic show called Sonic Prime. While not much new info was said, he did reveal that the show takes place in the "Shatterverse", as well as showing off what appears to be a new logo that Eggman will use in the show.
They then revealed some upcoming merchandise. The first one was a toy based on the final boss from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the Death Egg Robot from Jakk's Pacific. For people into the Hip-hop culture, new jewelry based on Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow from King Ice were shown off. Additionally, a Sonic Encyclo-speed-ia from Dark Horse was shown, which will feature various details about the franchise. For some memorabilia, some silver and gold Sonic coins from Apmex were also shown. Finally, they ended the show with a clip for an upcoming Sonic game. Not much is known, as it only consists of Sonic running through a forest, looping around a tree, and then a weird symbol showing up. More info will be revealed later, though.
What was your favorite part of the live stream? Planning on getting Sonic Colors Ultimate? Wish that they remade a different Sonic game instead? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!
Roger Craig Smith to return to voice Sonic the Hedgehog
As reported four months ago, Roger Craig Smith tweeted out that he was stepping down as the voice of Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog. However, just yesterday on the 26th, Roger posted a tweet that reveals he is returning to voice the blue blur.
I can't fully express my gratitude for the @sonic_hedgehog crew and community.🙏
I hope to honor your support and passion as I'm officially back voicing #SonicTheHedgehog in games.
— Roger Craig Smith (@RogerCraigSmith) May 26, 2021
While the exact details of why Roger initially left is unknown, fans who've come to know him as the voice of Sonic are no doubt happy.
For those not in the know, Roger Craig Smith is Sonic's third American
voice actor for the games, following Jason Griffith and Ryan Drummond
respectively. Roger first took on voicing Sonic in the poorly received
"Sonic Free Riders," which was released for the XBox 360 back on
November 4th, 2010.
Whether or not Colleen O'Shaughnessey and Cindy Robinson, who voiced Tails and Amy Rose respectively, are set to return to voice their respective characters is currently unknown. At the very least, Sonic's archnemesis Dr. Eggman will still be voice by Mike Pollock, who first voiced the bad doctor in the 2003 animated anime "Sonic X" before taking over as the voice for the games as well, starting in 2005's "Shadow the Hedgehog".
UPDATE: It appears that Colleen has returned to voice Tails, judging by the Sonic Colors: Rise of the Wisps short revealed in today's Sonic Central Live Stream.
Notably, this announcement comes right off the heels of SEGA announcing that they are going to hold a special livestream on the 27th of this month at 9 a.m. PT to celebrate Sonic's 30th Anniversary, where they plan to unveil various things.
