Gamesugar

May 22, 2012

Review – Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Jason Westhaver @ 9:04 am

Review Sonic 4 Episode 2
Let’s not beat around the bush; Sonic 4: Episode I was a major disappointment. Despite its build up as Sonic’s triumphant return to form, the game lacked just about everything that made the original Genesis titles fun. The art style was uninspired and had a glossy sheen, the levels and bosses were rehashes of earlier works, and the physics system made the speedy hedgehog handle like a drunk duck.

Fortunately Sega has FINALLY listened to the complaints, and for the first time in more than a decade delivered a Sonic game that fans of all ages should actually enjoy.

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July 13, 2011

Refresh Rate – Sonic the Hedgehog

Filed under: Archives — Tags: , , , — Nathan White @ 4:37 pm

Sonic the Hedgehog Refresh Rate Sega Master System
Nostalgia is a funny thing. I got into collecting old videogames around eight years ago, in part to re-establish a connection with my inner child; to transport myself back to a simpler period in my life. At the time I started snatching up the initial bricks and mortar of my current collection, I was in a strange place in my life. I had just completed my (somewhat delayed) post-secondary education, but couldn’t find a job in my field and was therefore employed as a “sandwich artist”. My girlfriend (now wife) and I were living in an cramped apartment in a not-so-great area near downtown (complete with corner dwelling hookers, an adjacent coffee shop populated by recently released psych-ward patients and a psychotic drug dealing downstairs neighbor).

I had never gotten rid of any of my old videogames from when I was a kid, and I even made enough use of them to justify taking them with me when I left the comfort of my parent’s basement.

I don’t remember the exact moment I started “collecting” videogames, I just started buying the old games that I remembered liking but never owned as a kid – some I’d rented, others that I’d played at friend’s houses. From there I got into games and systems that I never had access to, such as the Turbo Grafx-16 and Sega Master System. It was during my introduction to the Master System that I heard about the numerous ports of popular Genesis games that had graced the console. Titles such as Altered Beast, Streets of Rage 2 and even Mortal Kombat all saw 8-bit Master System releases. Intrigued, I started collecting and discovering them for myself, and the game that intrigued me most was the Master System version of Sonic the Hedgehog.

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January 3, 2011

Review – Sonic Colors DS

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Mister Raroo @ 2:37 pm

Sonic Colors DS Review
Just how does Dr. Robotnik Eggman have so much money at his disposal? You’d think that the repair bills resulting from his many battles with Sonic the Hedgehog over the years would have put him into bankruptcy by now. Yet time and time again the diabolical Eggman somehow comes up with enough revenue to construct armies of robots, elaborate airship fortresses, and, in the case of Sonic Colors, an interplanetary amusement park.

Did Eggman have a lucrative career thanks to his status as a doctor? Is he independently wealthy? Is he shoulder-deep in credit card debt?

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December 13, 2010

Your Sonic Colors Coloring Contest Winners!

Filed under: News Feed — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 5:28 pm

Sonic Colors Coloring Contest Winners
I want to thank everyone that took up our artistic challenge and sent in an impressive amount of spins on Sonic.

Bitey the Contest Hedgehog dropped in to give us a hand judging entries, and after many long hours it has been decided that Maria P is the winner of Sonic Colors for the Wii, and Peter Kimball is the winner of Sonic Colors for the DS. Maria’s attention to detail really seemed to win the judges over, while Peter’s complete subversion of the original image was hard to ignore, and a little frightening.

You can catch both winning submissions after the break, as well as all the entries on our Facebook page.

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December 12, 2010

Review – Sonic Colors

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 2:06 pm

Sonic Colors Wii
Rose tinted retina make the Sega of my youth an experimental laboratory, a torrid love affair of success and failure, never short on wonder by the means in which releases explored the boundaries of evolving genre templates. I’m entirely uncertain whether such pretty words apply here, whether Sonic Team’s latest attempt to put the hedgehog on track has tapped the original spirit of the endeavor, or if the law of averages has inevitably produced a title better than those released since the demise of the Dreamcast.

It’s ever tempting to suggest that the demise of the hardware was responsible for the continual release of the Sonic missteps we’ve suffered with, but that would be the real red nostalgia talking. From the beginning, Sonic has struggled to run outside the lines that structure the platformer, while awkwardly seeking to incorporate elements of that genre even while fighting to escape it – the shift into three dimensions simply made the conflict more visible, and often frustrating.

During a year when Sega seeks to appease fans with a classic revisit of the series’ roots via Sonic The Hedgehog Episode 4, Sonic Colors continues the quest for a solution to that long running problem. It’s as polarizing as ever, but Sonic Colors hits upon the reason we continue playing through a conflicted franchise, reminding us that when Sonic finds his groove, the experience can reach heights worth all the heartache.

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December 6, 2010

Gamesugar’s Sonic Colors Coloring Contest!

Filed under: News Feed — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 3:40 pm

Sonic Colors Coloring Contest
One of my most pleasant surprises in the last week has been the discovery that overall, I enjoy playing Sonic’s latest outing on the Wii, which I’ll likely give more words to shortly.

In the meantime however, we seem to be in possession of an extra copy of Sonic Colors for both the Wii and the DS courtesy of Sega, and the Holiday spirit compels us to offer them to you, assuming you’re up for an artistic challenge that is. Our favorite guest artist, Kyatt, has created a hedgehog masterpiece very much in need of a splash of color, so we need you to color Sonic in, the full image can be gotten right here.

We’ll leave it to you to decide whether you want to use computer paint, or color Sonic the old fashioned way if you have a scanner at your disposal.

The important part is that you write either Wii or DS on your entry to let us know which copy you’re after, and that you email your entry to sonic@gamesugar.net by 11:59 pm est on Sunday December 12, 2010.

Well draw and announce two winners the following week.

Good luck!

June 23, 2010

Sonic’s 19th Anniversary

Filed under: News Feed — Tags: , , , , — Jamie Love @ 12:54 pm

Sonic the Hedgehog
In the pursuit of finding more reasons to eat cake around here, it seems worth mentioning that Sonic the Hedgehog’s birthday is here, the original game releasing June 23, 1991. Incidentally I believe the Japanese release was June 26, which is worth mentioning even more because it means overseas Sonic has the same birthday as yours truly.

In honor of the occasion, and probably because there’s plenty of Sonic coming our way this year, Sega has a contest on the go for fans, which gives two very lucky winners a chance to head to Tokyo to visit Sega Japan and the Sonic development team.

For the next two weeks Sega is putting the call out for fan videos filled with Sonic love – though you should probably pay the official site a visit so you don’t misinterpret how I phrased that and film something regrettable.

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