Tag: sonic

Aquella vez que un juego de Sonic tuvo un cameo de Malcolm X

Fue así como nació ‘Sonic Rush’, una muy notable intentona repleta de temazos y secretos… y en el que, en la lucha final contra el Doctor Robotnik, escuchamos un discurso de Malcolm X.

En sus más de 30 años de vida a Sonic le ha dado tiempo a hacer crossovers con todo el mundo, desde Mario hasta las Tortugas Ninja. Y con el personaje más de actualidad que nunca gracias a las películas, es el momento de recordar aquella vez en la que sus pasos se cruzaron ni más ni menos que con El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, más conocido como… Malcolm X.

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Tengo un sueño. Y un juego de Sonic.

Volvemos hasta el convulso 2005, en un momento en el que Nintendo lo estaba petando con su DS y SEGA vio una oportunidad para resucitar sus juegos del puercoespín en dos dimensiones. Fue así como nació ‘Sonic Rush’, una muy notable intentona repleta de temazos y secretos… y en el que, en la lucha final contra el Doctor Robotnik, escuchamos un discurso de Malcolm X.

Concretamente, una parte en la que repite una y otra vez “Too black, too strong”, un discurso que dio en 1963 y que, para sorpresa de nadie, no trataba de Sonic. Ojalá. De hecho, criticaba el movimiento de los derechos civiles y subrayaba su idea de la revolución negra. De hecho, en el momento sampleado en ‘Sonic Rush’ está hablando de… café: “Es como cuando tienes un café que es demasiado negro, lo que significa que es demasiado fuerte. ¿Qué haces? Lo juntas con leche; lo haces débil”.

Entonces, ¿cómo acabó en un juego para niños de Nintendo DS? Pues es cosa de su compositor, Hideki Naganuma, al que conoceréis más por hacer la increíble banda sonora de ‘Jet Set Radio’ y que afirmó que el corte tiene sentido porque este tema en cuestión trata… pues efectivamente, sobre el café. Mentir, no miente. Y, francamente, no deberíamos dejar pasar el hecho de que en un juego de Sonic tenga cabida un revolucionario de mediados del siglo pasado. Increíble.

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Aquella vez que un juego de Sonic tuvo un cameo de Malcolm X

Fue así como nació ‘Sonic Rush’, una muy notable intentona repleta de temazos y secretos… y en el que, en la lucha final contra el Doctor Robotnik, escuchamos un discurso de Malcolm X.

En sus más de 30 años de vida a Sonic le ha dado tiempo a hacer crossovers con todo el mundo, desde Mario hasta las Tortugas Ninja. Y con el personaje más de actualidad que nunca gracias a las películas, es el momento de recordar aquella vez en la que sus pasos se cruzaron ni más ni menos que con El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, más conocido como… Malcolm X.

Steam DESCARGAR

Tengo un sueño. Y un juego de Sonic.

Volvemos hasta el convulso 2005, en un momento en el que Nintendo lo estaba petando con su DS y SEGA vio una oportunidad para resucitar sus juegos del puercoespín en dos dimensiones. Fue así como nació ‘Sonic Rush’, una muy notable intentona repleta de temazos y secretos… y en el que, en la lucha final contra el Doctor Robotnik, escuchamos un discurso de Malcolm X.

Concretamente, una parte en la que repite una y otra vez “Too black, too strong”, un discurso que dio en 1963 y que, para sorpresa de nadie, no trataba de Sonic. Ojalá. De hecho, criticaba el movimiento de los derechos civiles y subrayaba su idea de la revolución negra. De hecho, en el momento sampleado en ‘Sonic Rush’ está hablando de… café: “Es como cuando tienes un café que es demasiado negro, lo que significa que es demasiado fuerte. ¿Qué haces? Lo juntas con leche; lo haces débil”.

Entonces, ¿cómo acabó en un juego para niños de Nintendo DS? Pues es cosa de su compositor, Hideki Naganuma, al que conoceréis más por hacer la increíble banda sonora de ‘Jet Set Radio’ y que afirmó que el corte tiene sentido porque este tema en cuestión trata… pues efectivamente, sobre el café. Mentir, no miente. Y, francamente, no deberíamos dejar pasar el hecho de que en un juego de Sonic tenga cabida un revolucionario de mediados del siglo pasado. Increíble.

Steam DESCARGAR

Google makes the strangest mistake in Sonic’s history: not even SEGA understands what’s happening

The problem is that already from the first image, where they were supposed to talk about the ‘Sonic’ of 1991, they included Tails, who didn’t appear in the saga until the sequel. But the errors were just going to pile up one after another. One. After. Another.

There are times when the Internet gives us moments of absolute wonderful incomprehension, as if all the errors in the world came together in one gigantic and impossible to avoid. This is the case of what Google Play has given to the world today with its particular tribute to ‘Sonic’, taking advantage of the success of the Knuckles series on HBO Max. And I assure you that you didn’t see this coming.

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Cute Sonic

The idea was that the more you scrolled, the more the character would age over the years, and it was fun. The problem is that from the first image, where they were supposed to talk about Sonic from 1991, they included Tails, who didn’t appear in the saga until the sequel. But the errors were just going to accumulate one after another. One. After. Another.

Just to give a few examples: to illustrate the Sonic Frontiers, they uploaded an image from season 3 of ‘Sonic Prime’, which appeared this year; the illustration of Sonic from 1993 was from ‘Sonic Boom’ (2014); the one from 1996 was from ‘Sonic Dash’, the mobile game from 2013 from which the terrible image from the movie was originally taken (and modified) in 2020; the one from 2003 was a promotional image from ‘Sonic Jump’, from 2005… Well, you get it.

So much so that even the official account of the blue hedgehog replied to them saying “What are you doing”. Some believe it was a thread written by artificial intelligence, and that even ChatGPT provided the links to the images, and some think it was a strategy to anger the fans (for some reason) taking advantage of the character’s popularity.

In any case, Google has not given any explanations or deleted the thread, so we can only assume that someone on their team is really enjoying the chaos. The community manager is a fan of Nintendo. It couldn’t be anyone else.

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The creator of Sonic has returned to accuse a Square Enix producer of lying in court

Yuji Naka, creator of Sonic, has said on his Twitter that an important person within Square Enix would be behind his condemnation in a recent trial.

Trials are always unpleasant. It’s normal. No one goes to trial for fun and ending up in one always ends up being a significant investment of money and energy, both mentally and emotionally. That’s why it shouldn’t surprise us that, around them, peculiar stories always come out. When not terrible. And in some cases, we even reach the point where we wonder if they have a hilarious point.

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Yuji Naka, creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, had not written on his Twitter since November 2022. Surprisingly, on Sunday, April 7, he decided to use his account again. And he did so to launch what can only be described as a clear attack on one of his Square Enix colleagues, Yu Miyake.

Recently, at Square Enix they moved Yu Miyake, producer of Dragon Quest since 1992, to lead the mobile games section within Square Enix. In his tweet, Yuji Naka states that he wishes they had moved Miyake much earlier than they did, because he is the type of person who can lie to a judge. Stating that the new president of Square Enix must be a good person, since he has relegated him from his position.

If this sounds alarming and out of place, it doesn’t get much better when put into context. Yuji Naka was arrested in November 2022, accused of trafficking insider information about the development of a new Dragon Quest mobile game. He was arrested again in December 2022, also accused of information trafficking, this time for the development of Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier. In July 2023, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison, suspended for four years, and ordered to pay two fines totaling 173 million yen, around one million fifty thousand euros, as it was considered that he made money in the stock market thanks to his insider information while working at Square Enix.

As of today, Yuji Naka remains under suspended sentence, with Miyake being one of the people who testified against him in court. Hence the tweet and his comment, which are not only out of place, but can also put him in an even worse situation with the law. That’s why, seeing that the return to the public eye of the father of Sonic has been to accuse others of throwing stones at him, we have no doubt that this story will still have many twists and turns before it is over.

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The gameplay of an unannounced new Sonic game has been leaked and it is… peculiar

Everything points to Sonic about to receive a new game, heavily inspired by Fall Guys, although with its own unique touch.

Sonic is one of the most peculiar video game mascots. As recognizable as Super Mario, no one would be offended if we said that his video games have never had the consistency of the plumber’s. Capable of the best and the worst, always in the middle of the most peculiar experiments possible, it seems that his streak of strangeness continues.

On March 24th, the YouTube channel named The Sonic Show released the trailer for a new supposedly leaked Sonic game called Sonic Toys Party. In the trailer, we could see different characters from the Sonic franchise, controlled by different players, competing in an obstacle race with the classic mechanics and level design of the franchise. Like a kind of Sonic’s Fall Guys.

Although it has not been confirmed to be official, as it has not yet been announced, Sonic Stadium, a site specialized in Sega and Sonic games, has confirmed that Sonic Toys Party is a game developed by Sega’s Division 4. They also added that it will include collaborations with other franchises, such as Persona or Knights of the Zodiac, in addition to having a monetization system based on cosmetics and skins.

Although SEGA has yet to officially confirm the existence of the game, it seems that Sonic Toys Party is a reality. And while we wait for confirmation, Sonic Toys Party would be released this coming summer for mobile platforms for free.

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Dragon Quest Tact, the game that almost landed Yuji Naka in jail, is closing its doors

Dragon Quest Tact, the game that almost landed Yuji Naka in jail, is closing its doors, at least in regards to the West, as it continues in Japan

Everyone wants to join the games as a service because they provide lucrative benefits. What few want to accept is that they are also a risky market. The audience is volatile, they always navigate legal limits, and government changes can end plans that have been in the works for years in just a few months. That’s why it shouldn’t surprise us that so many games of this kind fail. Even when some big creators almost end up in jail because of them.

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The latest game that has announced its closure is Dragon Quest Tact. An RPG by Square Enix, a spinoff of the Dragon Quest franchise, that allows us to create a team of monsters to battle. All of this with gacha mechanics.

The game will close on February 29, 2024, just over three years after its global launch on January 27, 2021. The reasons given by its developers for this decision have been a radical change in consumer trends, which makes it difficult to continue maintaining the game. However, this only applies to the international version. The Japanese version of the game will continue to operate as usual, receiving support from the studio.

While it is true that Dragon Quest Tact has not made much noise in the West, it has been in the news for an incident related to the game itself: it was part of an insider trading offense. Yuji Naka, co-creator of Sonic, used his knowledge about the game to, along with two other former Square Enix employees, buy 162,000 shares of Square Enix before the game’s announcement. All of this with the expectation that their price would increase and they could be sold at a much higher price.

The move didn’t go very well. Yuji Naka had to go to trial, where he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and fined 1.2 million dollars. And while the prison sentence was suspended, the fine was not. Something that seems to foreshadow the future of Dragon Quest Tact.

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You have Sonic inside you, and it’s not a metaphor: it’s science

Many doctors have complained that they can’t tell families that their loved ones have “a mutation in a sonic hedgehog gene.”

You and I may talk about Sonic always referring to the blue hedgehog that runs very fast, curls up into a ball, and gave us two amazing movies, but in the world of science it’s something completely different: it’s the protein that, among other things, makes our teeth grow, develops our lungs, and regenerates hair. So, literally, we couldn’t live without Sonic. And I mean it: it’s not a metaphor.

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The need for speed

Interestingly, this gene is linked to a disease that causes defects in the brain and face known as holoprosencephaly. And, for whatever reason, many doctors have complained that they cannot tell families that their loved ones have “a mutation in a sonic hedgehog gene”. The solution for a while was to try to change its name, but they finally decided to call it by its initials: the SH gene.

The name, by the way, has nothing to do with the game itself nor is the scientist who discovered it a big fan of Knuckles and company: Robert Riddle was at home after work when his wife, Betsy Wilder, came home with a magazine that had an ad for ‘Sonic’. The light bulb went off: he already had a name, although he didn’t know that it would still be standing in 2023.

And what do we call the inhibitor of this protein? Well, it’s clear, isn’t it? Robotnikinin, in honor of Robotnik. It’s not the only case of a protein with a geeky name: there’s also Pikachurin, whose name was based on the fast and electric movements of Pikachu, or the protein product Zb7b7, which might not sound like anything to you at first, but maybe it will when you know that it was originally called simply “Pokémon”. When The Pokémon Company threatened legal action for associating cancer with their game, they backed down. Science, once again defeated by Nintendo.

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This movie destined to fail has ended up being a box office success

This film destined to fail ended up being a success at the box office, proving that video games work very well in the cinema.

It’s always said that film adaptations of video games aren’t successful. Not only are they considered cinematic disasters with low quality, but they also fail to draw audiences to theaters. However, this year both Mario and Sonic have proven this notion wrong. Yet, many might argue that they still need to show they can sell outside the family market. For those individuals, there’s news that will disappoint them greatly. Because the surprise hit of the year is a horror movie adapting a video game.

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Five Nights at Freddy’s, the incredibly popular horror video game franchise by Scott Cawthon, has not only been a tremendous box office success but has also become the biggest hit in the history of its production company, Blumhouse.

While its debut set a record in its opening weekend, it’s now solidified its position as Blumhouse’s most successful film. Specifically, Five Nights at Freddy’s has grossed around $136 million in the USA and nearly $147 million elsewhere globally, reaching a staggering total box office figure of approximately $283 million. This sum is astounding for a mid-budget production, surpassing the previous record of the studio held by M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, which grossed $278.4 million during its theatrical run.

These figures might seem relatively modest to those accustomed only to Disney and Warner’s numbers. However, they are anything but modest for an independent horror film production company like Blumhouse. Especially considering that Five Nights at Freddy’s cost just around twenty million dollars to make, turning out to be an absolutely lucrative venture.

Considering it’s still in theaters and has only just started selling in home formats in some markets, it’s expected that this figure will continue to grow over time. But what’s evident is that the era when video game movies didn’t sell is no longer ours.

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Sonic has just announced its new game, although it won’t be a video game

Sonic has just announced his new game, although it will not be a video game, but a board game where we will have to fight against Robotnik

Sonic has experienced a revival in recent years. After decades where it seemed essentially dormant, the success of its movies and several games ranging from decent to outstanding has made the world’s most famous hedgehog more alive than ever. This has given wings to Sega, but also to the character itself, who wasn’t at its best. That’s why it shouldn’t surprise us that they have already announced another new game featuring the hedgehog. Even if it’s not a video game.

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Sonic is getting a board game developed by Kess Entertainment called Sonic Roll. Designed for 1 to 4 players, it’s a semi-cooperative board game where we take on the roles of Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles, working together to surpass Badniks, overcome levels, and defeat Eggman. That’s all the information we have for now about the game itself.

What’s most intriguing is that, despite the success of the Sonic movie, the animated series, and its recent video games, this board game isn’t inspired by any modern version of the character. Instead, it dives into the retro aesthetic of Sonic.

The character designs are directly inherited from the aesthetics of the Mega Drive games, while the packaging is designed as a tribute to the art style of the American Sonic the Hedgehog 3 box. Adding to that, everything we’ve seen inside the game are classic references to the most iconic phase of the character, the Green Hill Zone. There’s an undeniable nostalgia factor they’re playing with in this new release.

Sonic Roll is set to be released in January 2024. If you want to stay updated about the game, Kess Entertainment has a mailing list where they’ll send information about the game’s development as it happens.

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Doctor Robotnik shaves his mustache for a good cause, and the result is… creepy

“Doctor Robotnik is… shaving?! What a look! Robotnik joins the Movember movement in support of men’s health”

November has arrived, and with it, Movember, the movement where men don’t shave their mustaches to raise awareness about men’s health issues. The first news about Movember dates back to 1999 in Australia, but over the years, it has formed its own foundation, specific rules, fundraising events, and even awards for the most original Movembers. This year, an unexpected participant has entered the fray: Doctor Robotnik.

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A mustache for a villain

Robotnik was born in 1991, in the first ‘Sonic‘ game, and since then, he has never stopped trying to trip up the blue hedgehog in every way possible, even becoming a playable character in the franchise’s sports and kart games. But he had never, ever done what he has done now: officially shaved off his thick mustache.

It’s SEGA itself who announced it on Twitter, saying, “Doctor Robotnik is… shaving?! What a look! Robotnik is joining the Movember movement in support of men’s health, saying goodbye to his iconic mustache for the first time in over 30 years.” Perhaps only Mario and Luigi surpass him in mustache iconicity, and the result… Well, frankly, we would have preferred not to see it.

Well, the attempt is appreciated, but, as they say in the famous meme, “Thanks, I hate it.” It’s worth noting that Robotnik (known as “Eggman” in the United States) is incredibly popular within the franchise right now, especially after Jim Carrey took on the role in a truly wonderful performance in ‘Sonic’ and its sequel. The shooting for the third installment was supposed to begin in September, but the strike has made us wait much longer to see the classic mustached character back on the big screen. Hopefully, they won’t shave it off too. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

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