— Roger Craig Smith (@RogerCraigSmith) May 26, 2021
In a bizarre sequence of events, Roger Craig Smith is returning to voice Sonic the Hedgehog after only 4 months away from the role.
Smith originally announced that he was leaving the role on January 28th 2021 after 10 years of being the voice of Sonic. We can only speculate why Smith stepped down from the role in January and why he has now returned to it, but it could well be a simple case of his contract expiring and SEGA not initially renewing it until now.
Sonic fans will have recognised Smith’s narration in yesterday’s ‘Unstoppable’ video, made to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. A Sonic Central event will take place tomorrow May 27th 2021 at 5pm UK time to reveal “upcoming projects, partnerships, and events to celebrate Sonic’s 30th anniversary”.
SEGA will hold a special Sonic Central 30th anniversary event on Thursday 27th of May 2021 at 5pm UK time. The event promises, “a first look at some of our upcoming projects, partnerships, and events to celebrate Sonic’s 30th anniversary”. The show will stream live on youtube.com/sonic and twitch.tv/sonic.
SEGA have also released a celebratory 30th anniversary video called ‘Unstoppable’ which takes a brief look back at the entire Sonic franchise in a similar style to the Pokemon Sun & Moon adverts that ran a few years back. Check it out below:
The ‘Unstoppable’ video also features narration by Roger Craig Smith who had previously revealed he was stepping down as the voice of Sonic. If this is true then this video might be the last time Smith is involved with the Sonic franchise.
The Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-Speed-Ia written by Ian Flynn and published by IDW is now confirmed for a UK release on the 16th of September 2021 and the 23rd of November 2021 for the deluxe edition.
Previously only announced for North America, the Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-Speed-Ia is an in depth Sonic the Hedgehog history book. The book will total 256 pages and is authored by Ian Flynn who has been writing Sonic the Hedgehog comics since issue 160 of Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog.
While the standard edition releases a little earlier on the 16th of September 2021, the deluxe edition will feature the following extras:
– An exclusive mosaic cover.
– A slipcase featuring gold foil “Ring” treatment.
– A folio housing two archival gallery prints of Sonic and Dr. Eggman.
Click the links below to access the listings for both editions of the Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-Speed-Ia:
File this one under ‘strange crossovers’ with the talking bunny that sings NiGHTS music; Green Tea specialists ITO EN have unveiled their new advertising campaign in co-operation with Japan pop music legends Dreams Come True. The main advert for the cross-promotion can be seen above, and the music should sound more than a little familiar to anyone reading a SEGA website.
As detailed in a blog post about the advert – yes, it’s just straight-up Green Hill Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog, now with fresh new vocals to go with it! For those unaware, Masato Nakamura of Dreams Come True produced the soundtrack for Sonic 1 & 2, and still owns the rights to the music. So this doesn’t really have anything to do with SEGA in terms of them actually being involved, but it’s very nicely timed for Sonic’s 30th Anniversary nonetheless!
The blog post also says a full version of the arrangement is being made, with vocal recording in progress currently. We’ll keep an eye out for a full version down the line!
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
Our good friends The British Andy and Titanscreed are bringing back the Race for Good charity livestream event on June 21st for another round of Sonic the Hedgehog racing fun and this time around the event will run for a full week and include a whole team of different streamers taking part, including us!
All money raised during the Race for Good livestream event will go straight to Special Effect, a charity looking to help gamers with disabilities to play games with more accessibility for their specific needs. The Race for Good team are looking to raise £5000 for the charity this year and this year there’s a fantastic t-shirt and pin badge available to purchase from the ProjectPhoenixProductions Online Store. All proceeds from the sales of these items also goes to Special Effect so if you’re interested head over to the store now.
In addition to the various Sonic streams taking place during the week, the voice of Dr. Eggman, Mike Pollock will be joining the event for a Q&A session alongside Johnny Gioeli – one half of Crush 40, who are famous for their various Sonic the Hedgehog theme songs.
A raffle will also take place during the week for 2 amazing prizes. There are two Sennheiser GSP305 Gaming Headsets and the Beasts of Balance app-enabled Board Game being raffled off to anyone who donates at least £20 over the week. In addition there is also a Elgato 4K60 Pro Game Capture Card to be won and this will be raffled off to anyone who donates at least £50 over the course of the week. All donations can be made via the Race for Good Tiltify page during event week so bookmark this page if you want to be in with a chance of winning any of these prizes or would just like to support a good cause!
See below for the full list of streamers taking part in this year’s event:
Developed by RichMenace_94 and fivetimesone, Sonic Adventure: Dreams Edition is an incredible Sonic Adventure-themed fan game that is entirely playable within Dreams for the PS4 and PS5. It’s a remarkable development that not only showcases an amazing game made by 2 incredibly talented individuals, but also how powerful Dreams can be for fan game development. Check out some in-game action via the video below:
Our hardware section has been updated with 2 new console features and a stack of high quality photographs. The hardware section now has a new section at the bottom of the page that features Aftermarket/Mini Consoles, and with it comes 2 new console features on the Astro City Mini and the Game Gear Micro respectively. Click the links below to be taken to each console feature as well as the accompanying image galleries:
Roger Craig Smith’s tenure voicing SEGA’s beloved mascot Sonic the Hedgehog has come to a somewhat abrupt end, as he’s announced through Twitter that after 10 years, he’s moving “onward to new zones.”
It’s certainly a surprise; for the past decade, Smith’s voice has become synonymous with the hedgehog for an entire generation of young fans. The older generations couldn’t seem to agree, but for our money he was probably the most consistently solid English voice Sonic’s had to date.
Should this mean we won’t be hearing Smith in the next Sonic game, it’d mean his final role as Sonic wasn’t actually a Sonic game; he recently voiced the blue blur in Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, as part of a recent content update.
It goes without saying, but we wish Smith all the best in whatever’s next for him. For many Sonic fans, now the question is – who’s next? Unsurprisingly, Ben Schwartz is a name popping up quite a lot on Twitter right now, after his stellar perfomance as Sonic’s movie counterpart – but only time will tell.
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Sonic Cafe line of mobile games they were a series of i-Mode titles released exclusively in Japan between 2001 and 2007. The service is due to be discontinued which has sparked Japanese YouTuber Ruwa into action. Ruwa is currently capturing as many i-Mode games as possible and among them are direct feed captures of various Sonic Cafe titles like Sonic Darts, Sonic Golf, Sonic Jump and Sonic Kart 3DX. It makes for some truly fascinating viewing for Western SEGA fans as these games never made their way across the pond.
There’s also a number of SEGA i-Mode games like Out Run, Pengo and Monaco GP in there. Here’s an incomplete list of SEGA i-Mode games captured by Ruwa. I would list them all but there’s honestly just too many for me to list here. Check out the channel to browse more of his i-Mode captures by clicking here:
— みどりぷよ（ぷよぷよシリーズ公式）『ぷよぷよテトリス２』好評発売中！ (@puyopuyo20th) January 14, 2021
Puyo Puyo Tetris 2’s first major update has been released, and it brings along with it 4 new characters. Alongside fan-favourite characters such as Lidelle, Ms Accord and Ocean Prince from the Puyo Puyo Fever titles, Sonic the Hedgehog himself has joined the Puyo Tetris battlefield – and it’s not a mod this time!
Other additions include a raid-style boss battle mode, inspired by a similar feature in Puyo Puyo Chronicle. You can earn Skill Battle cards not available through Adventure Mode by teaming up with other players to take on boss characters. Speaking of Skill Battle, the Sonic-themed cards have now been added into the main game, too.
There’s also four new music tracks, to go along with the new characters; including Tropical Resort, from Sonic Colours.
This… certainly came out of nowhere. We suspect this is what SEGA Europe were teasing for tomorrow’s stream, in which case they weren’t kidding about it being special. Currently only the Japanese announcement is available, but our Playstation 4 downloaded the new update, and Sonic and company are indeed present and accounted for.
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
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