Sonic Universe #11
Written by Ian Flynn. Drawn by Tracy Yardley.

Summary Via Publisher Archie Comics:
Echoes of the Past Part 3
New mysteries arise, along with new faces - both good and evil! But is everyone really who they say they are? It's up to Knuckles to figure it all out and rescue Angel Island before it's too late! This issue also features the long-awaited return of the Downunda Freedom Fighters and Knuckles' most unlikely ally - Dr. Finitevus?!

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #48
Written by John Jackson Miller. Drawn by Brian Ching.

Summary Via Dark Horse Comics:
Demon Part 2 of 4.
Once again a fugitive from justice, former Jedi student Zayne Carrick and his partner Gryph finally find out the truth behind their enemy, the macabre Mandalorian scientist Demagol. Yet they've learned it too late to save a friend from deadly peril!

According to an interview in the French magazine Black & White—the "official magazine of Michael Jackson"—Jackson's composer and musical director Brad Buxer says Michael was responsible for some of Sonic 3's compositions. The themes that appear in Sonic 3 and some of Jackson's own songs are not a coincidence.

As for Sega and Sonic the Hedgehog lead Yuji Naka's caginess about confirming Jackson's involvement? This may be your answer.

"And if he is not credited for composing the music, it's because he was not happy with the result sound coming out of the console," Buxer said. "At the time, game consoles did not allow an optimal sound reproduction, and Michael found it frustrating. He did not want to be associated with a product that devalued his music..."

That translation of the interview comes from a poster on the VGMdb forums, who we'll credit for helping to finally(?) put an end to this mystery.

Update: Ken Horowitz from Sega-16.com—whose exhaustive research on claims that Jackson contributed to Sonic 3 can be (and should be) read here—disputes that Buxer's statements about Michael Jackson's musical efforts in the Genesis game do not yet constitute proof of anything. Horowitz also contends that Buxer's claim contradicts statements of some Sega employees.

In other words, our long national nightmare of not knowing whether or not Michael Jackson worked on Sonic 3 without a shadow of a doubt is not yet behind us.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Michael Jackson: So it was true. [VGMdb via Original Sound Version]

Sega will squeeze 16-bit platforming adventure classics Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Sonic The Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles onto a DS card and ship it to retail March 2010. The Nintendo DS collection will also feature a handy save anywhere feature, the kind of save state options that emulators have offered for years. Or so I've heard from friends.

Also included will be "a wealth of extras including video and collectable pictures," according to the official Sega Europe blog.

According to PlayStation.com's Hong Kong presence, as spotted by Siliconera, LittleBigPlanet costumes that ape Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Werehog, Tails, Dr. Robotnik (aka Eggman) and Knuckles will be available later this year. December 17, at least in Hong Kong, to be exact.

While we'd PlayStation.com to be right about the particulars, we're checking in with Sony and Media Molecule to see when we can enjoy dressing our Sackboys up as Sonic and his friends on our PS3s.

LittleBigPlanet Sonic the Hedgehog Costumes (English/Chinese Ver.) [PlayStation Hong Kong via Siliconera]

Dane, creator of these two mash ups, we humbly request that you keep 'em coming. There's something satisfying about watching these types of crushing defeats.

The Sonic the Hedgehog level editor, a creation of Mediatonic, lets VIP members of PlaySega create Sonic levels relatively easily. Using a simple interface creators lay down scenery tiles, place obstacles and enemies, and set starting and ending points, resulting in a somewhat primitive but definitely playable Sonic the Hedgehog level.

The bad news? You can only create your own levels if you sign up for a VIP subscription to PlaySega, which starts at $5.95 a month. The good news is that even free members can play the levels, and should you choose to upgrade, a three-month subscription for $14.95 nets you the free Sega Saturn-styled PC controller, seen below.

Worth it?

Sonic the Hedgehog Level Player [PlaySega via GameSetWatch - Thanks Carolina!]

Click the thumbnails for more details.

Sonic Universe #7 ... Written by Ian Flynn. Drawn by Tracy Yardley.

Summary Via Publisher Archie Comics: PART THREE OF THE EPIC "MOBIUS: 30 YEARS LATER" TALE!
"What's Old is New Again": King Sonic has been evicted from his castle with only Lara-Su at his side! What's a deposed king to do? Gather up some Freedom Fighters, that's what! But who? And from where? This pulse-pounding tale allows readers to see some familiar faces as the Future Freedom Fighters assemble for the first time!

World of Warcraft Book 1... Written by Walter Simonson. Drawn by Ludo Lullabi and Sandra Hope.

Summary Via Publisher Wildstorm Entertainment: Collecting WORLD OF WARCRAFT #0-7, based on the world's most popular massively multiplayer video game! In this epic tale, a human is found unconscious, with no memory of who he is. Enslaved by the Orc Shaman Rehgar Earthfury, this man must fight for survival, striking uneasy relationships with other races in his quest to find the secrets of his past!

World of Warcraft Book 2... Written by Walter Simonson. Drawn by Ludo Lullabi and Sandra Hope.

Summary Via Publisher Wildstorm Entertainment: The second WORLD OF WARCRAFT collection, featuring issues #8-14 of the hit series, tells the saga of the Missing King of Stormwind. Upon learning he is in fact the lost ruler of Stormwind, Lo'Gosh returns to reclaim his throne with his comrades-in-arms Valeera and Broll. But all is not as it seems in the Eastern Kingdom, especially if one informed dwarf has anything to say about it.

Street Fighter Legends: Chun-Li #4 (of 4)... Written by Ken Siu-Chong. Drawn by Omar Dogan.

Summary Via Publisher Udon Entertainment: In the conclusion to Chun-li's prequel miniseries, the strongest woman in the world comes face to face with the king of Muay Thai! It's Chun-li VS Sagat, with the souls of eight thousand Chinese warriors on the line!

Warcraft Legends: Volume 5... Written and Drawn by various.

Summary Via Publisher Tokyopop: Some of the world's best talent — including New York Times Bestselling Warcraft author Richard A. Knaak — join together to bring the world of Warcraft to life as never before! Told from both Alliance and Horde points of view, these stories have entertained the likes of travelers, soldiers and thieves in taverns, inns and camps all throughout Azeroth. They have endured the trials of time and have earned the title of legend.

To understand how Sega thinks about its most famous mascot, one must appreciate how differently people responded to 2008's werewolf version of Sonic, the Werehog.

That creature, who was playable in the combat sections of last year's Sonic Unleashed, "came in for so much criticism," Sega of America's vice president of market, Sean Ratcliffe recalled for Kotaku during an interview with Sega execs in New York earlier this week. "If you read all those things, and we do — maybe not quite every single one, but the vast majority of them — and it's amazing the sort of diatribes you get. But if you sit down with a group of 8, 9, 10 year-old boys, completely different story."

You can't please them all, Sega has learned.

"If you read everything, we need to be all things to all gamers with Sonic, and that's a difficult thing to do," said Mike Hayes, the head of Sega Europe and, as of last month, the head of Sega of America as well. "Trying to put everything into one game and making everybody happy is impossible. And I think that's something clear going forward."

So as Sega proceeds to, in Hayes' words, "review our Sonic road map," fans young and old should prepare for an approach that will produce Sonic games that won't satisfy everyone at once.

Sega's core Sonic target, in fact, isn't those who grew up with Sonic. It's those who are growing up now. "It very much is in that under 12 group," Hayes said. "And what we have to do is make a Sonic that is of a quality that delights that audience, first and foremost. I'd argue that we very much achieved that with products like Sonic Heroes on PS2, and I think we did that with Mario and Sonic 1 on Wii and DS. I think we did it some ways with Sonic and the Secret Rings on Wii. I think [the Wii's Sonic and the] Black Knight was a good game."

Hayes is less satisfied with Sega's execution of those Sonic games that have been on the more powerful Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms. "I think we've had challenges with [the 2006] Sonic the Hedgehog and Unleashed," he said. "[The 2006 game] Sonic the Hedgehog sells extremely well at a budget price. So clearly it's very popular with a young audience. But first and foremost is: We've got to make a quality game for that audience. Does quality mean it's got to be a Metacritic 90 percent? Well not necessarily. It's just got to be quality that's appropriate for them. Then we've got our core fans, and what we need to do is now and then produce a Sonic that will appeal to those fans specifically. "

It's that last group — those core Sonic fans — who seem to be the ones grumbling most on sites like this one about the fate of the franchise. Hayes suggested some ways Sega might produce a Sonic for that community: "Often it can be looking at another take on the nostalgic take on Sonic. Or re-issues. They're very popular. Fans do like that."

One suggestion I'd seen from readers was for Sega to take a page from Nintendo's return-to-the-roots release of New Super Mario Bros. a few years ago and create a new Sonic game that played in a side-scrolling format similar to the original games. While not committing to whether Sega would or already is planning anything like that, Hayes used the question as a way to discuss the differences between continuing the Mario and Sonic lines and to discuss a third brand few gamers have likely ever thought of in the same sentence as Sega's Hedgehog.

"But in its day, Sonic was the Modern Warfare," Hayes said. It was, in other words, the edgier thing, the game series that was cooler, more grown up, than Mario." Hayes admired that, even when he worked for five years at Nintendo. "Mario was very much the toy brand," he recalled. "Although it was hugely successful, sometimes we looked enviously at Sega with this cutting edge. Now the world has moved on since Sonic achieved that. Sonic can't compete with Modern Warfare 2. It can't. Whereas, Mario I don't think has ever been anything other than appealing to that demographic."

The difference, Hayes, explained, is that even as Sonic could no longer be the edgiest thing in console video games, Mario could always target his same cheerful crowd. A New Super Mario Bros. wasn't, in Hayes' mind, as much a return to the series' roots as a continuation of a franchise style that was always relevant to Mario's original kind of audience. "They've had a consistent strategy," he said. "Whereas, with Sonic, I think you have to take it … to a different target audience. Sonic has to go through a metamorphosis as to the type of game you would design."

Hayes and the rest of Sega want to make the old-time Sonic fans happy. They just need those fans to not expect their Sonic in every Sonic game. So… the plan? Most of it is not being revealed, yet, of course, but the general strategy is to make core Sonic games pretty much every other year, "character derivative" games between those and, on occasion, off-shoots that involve Sonic doing new physical activities such as playing tennis, skateboarding (as in Sonic Riders), or racing cars, as in the upcoming Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing.

The Sega brass hopes their plan will generate something Sonic for everyone. "Trying to appease all those audiences is really hard," Ratcliffe said. "But we are flattered, because we've taken nostalgic fans with us on a journey for almost 20 years and they're still passionate about Sonic."

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Street Fighter IV #3 (of 4)... Written by Ken Siu-Chong. Drawn by Joe Ng.

Summary Via Publisher Udon Entertainment: It's bad girl VS school girl as Crimsom Viper makes Sakura her latest target! How does Sakura fit into the S.I.N. organization's plan.. and why would they want Dan Hibiki as well? The answers could be DARKER than anyone suspects!

The Legend of Zelda, Volume 6: Four Swords - Part 1 ... Written and Drawn by the duo known as Akira Himekawa.

Summary via publisher Viz Media: Four Swords, Part 1. Link, now a Hylian Knight, serves Princess Zelda at Hyrule Castle. When Shadow Link kidnaps Princess Zelda, Link once again must prepare himself to defeat the forces of evil. To do so, he needs the legendary Four Sword, but getting it means releasing and then battling the ancient evil power Vaati. The Four Sword also splits Link into four different versions of himself, and these new Links aren't team players! Rescuing Zekda, beating Vaati, and getting his wild alter-egos under control isn't going to be easy!

Sonic The Hedgehog Archives Vol. 11... Written by Ken Penders, Kent Taylor. Drawn by Kyle Hunter, Art Mawhinney, Manny Galan, Patrick Spaziante, Harvey Mercadoocasio, Andrew Pepoy .

Summary via publisher Archie Comics Media: The Sonic Archives series has emerged as one of Archie's best-selling trade paperbacks, as fans both new and old can relive the glory days of Sonic the Hedgehog in these high-quality, digitally-restored graphic novels, complete with all the classic Sonic stories from the 1990's! Now with Sonic Archives Volume 11, Sonic lovers can add to their collections issues 41-44, stories which are almost impossible to come across now. And best of all, the colors are completely re-mastered to give the issues a brand-new look!

Stories include: "... And One Shall Save Him" - Sally, Sonic and Geoffrey attempt to save King Acorn, but will they survive the Zone of Silence as past and future collide? "In Every Kingdom There Must Exist a Little Chaos" - the epic "Sword of Acorns" storyline begins here, as Knuckles searches for the fabled sword against staggering odds! "The Dream Zone" - the story that introduces the "Dream Watcher" device that will play a major role in the "Endgame" saga! "Black & Blue & Red All Over" - Evil Sonic is back... and it looks like Knuckles is helping him!

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>Sonic Universe #6... Written by Ian Flynn; Art by Tracy Yardley

Summary via publisher Archie Comics: "Reaping": An unprecedented new adventure begins — leaving former Padawan Zayne Carrick clinging to the side of a comet! When Zayne and crew infiltrate a comet mine, his partner Gryph believes it's another clever con to capture some quick cash. Little does Gryph know, Zayne and Jarael have other intentions — like rescuing the miners enslaved by this ruthless mining operation. Of course, the noble intentions of the team will all be for naught if their plot is discovered. Swimming through stardust is no place to be when enemy ships open fire! (More info.)

1989 Press release announcing executive hiring at Sega of America...

Based in South San Francisco, Sega of America Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sega Enterprises Ltd./Japan, recognized as a global leader in the high-technology entertainment game industry.

Sega's worldwide activities involve the conception, creation and sale of consumer electronics and entertainment products, including coin-operated arcade games and home video hardware, software and electronic toys, and the operation of arcade centers.

1990 Press release announcing Thomas Kalinski becoming president of Sega of America
(Note: Some of these descriptions are for the Japanese home company; others for the American subsidiary)...

Sega Enterprises Ltd./Japan is a 39-year-old worldwide leader in high-tech electronic entertainment systems and toys. Sega, a public company listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is one of the fastest-growing companies in Japan.

1995 Press release announcing Sega's intent to not just support the Genesis and the Saturn, but to start a company called Sega Soft that would "focus on developing content for multimedia PCs and the Internet"...

Sega Enterprises Ltd., is a nearly $ 4 billion company recognized as the industry leader in interactive digital entertainment media and is the only company that offers interactive entertainment experiences both inside and outside the home. Sega of America's World Wide Web site is located at http://www.segaoa.com.

2000 Press release announcing the debut of the Dreamcast game Sonic Shuffle
(Note: Sega's getting more verbose, but it's awkward to see that that company dollar value they cited five years prior has shrunk so much. But check out their better URL. The company would be a third-party developer within a year.)...

Sega of America is the American arm of Tokyo, Japan-based Sega Corporation responsible for the development, marketing and distribution of Sega videogame systems and videogames in the Americas. Sega Corporation is a nearly $2.5 billion company recognized as the industry leader in interactive digital entertainment media, offering interactive entertainment experiences both inside and outside the home. Sega of America's World Wide Web site is located at www.sega.com.

2005 Press release announcing the development of Full Auto and Condemned: Criminal Origins for the Xbox 360...

SEGA of America, Inc. is the American arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA Corporation, a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. SEGA of America's Web site is located at www.sega.com/usa.

2009 Press release announcing the release of Let's Tap
(Note: I'm sure people are busy at Sega, but did nothing change in four years? There's nothing new to say about the company?)...

SEGA of America, Inc. is the American arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA Corporation, a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. SEGA of America's Web site is located at www.sega.com/us.

I could now ask you readers how you would describe Sega, but that might be asking for trouble.

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Sonic The Hedgehog #202... Written by Ian Flynn; Art by Steven Butler Via publisher Archie Comics: "Dangerous Territory": Sonic and Monkey Khan storm the city of New Megaopolis to nip an evil invasion in the bud... but have our heroes bitten off more than they can chew? And will a shocking betrayal save them - or doom them?
"A Lonely Girl's Story": Learn the guarded secrets of the Eggman Empire's new empress in this intriguing tale!

Super Street Fighter II Turbo #7 (Cover A)... Written by Ken Siu-Chong; Art by Jeffrey "Chamba" Cruz, Eric VedderVia publisher Udon Entertainment: The casts of Street Fighter and Final Fight collide in the conclusion of the U.S.A. qualifier! Ryu, Rolento, Ken, Cody, Guile, Poison, T.Hawk, Hugo, and more of America's best fighters scrap it out in the most explosive tournament round yet! Plus, a bonus backup story featuring Guy & Maki, the Bushin-style warriors of Final Fight!

Super Street Fighter II Turbo #7 (Cover B)

(The following stats are pulled from the usage data shared by more than two million Wii users through the system's Nintendo Channel. For more information about how we calculate these total playtimes, check out yesterday's Wii stats post)

Average Per-Gamer Playing Time For Wii Sonic Games (as of July 1)
(Release Dates in Parentheses)
Sonic Unleashed (November 2008) – 14 hours, 16 minutes
Sonic and the Black Knight (March 2009) – 12 hours, 3 minutes
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (November 2007): 11 hours, 25 minutes
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (January 2008) – 11 hours, 1 minute
Sonic and the Secret Rings (February 2007) – 10 hours, 24 minutes

Average Per-Gamer Playing Time For Wii Music Games (as of July 1)
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (October 2007) — 57 hours, 42 minutes
Rock Band 2 (December 2008) — 39 hours, 6 minutes
Guitar Hero: World Tour (October 2008) — 31 hours, 41 minutes
Rock Band (June 2008) — 30 hours, 23 minutes
Guitar Hero Metallica (March 2009) — 14 hours, 38 minutes
Guitar Hero Aersomith (June 2008) — 12 hours, 50 minutes
Wii Music (October 2008) — 9 hours, 17 minutes
Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore 2 (November 2008) — 8 hours, 54 minutes
High School Musical 3 Senior Year: Sing It! (February 2009) — 7 hours, 28 minutes
Disney: Sing It (October 2008) — 5 hours, 54 minutes
Samba De Amigo (September 2008) – 4 hours, 2 minutes

Our favorite blue hedgehog is already 18-years-old? It seems like only yesterday he was being placed in mediocre game after mediocre game, making millions of dollars per title on name recognition alone. Ah, how far we've come since that fateful day back in June of 1991, when something fresh and new stormed the video game store shelves, promising innovative game play for decades to come. I'm almost getting misty here.

While I dry my eyes, Sega Europe has been busy handing out Sonic-themed swag all morning via both Facebook and Twitter. They've got soundtrack samplers, stationary packs, and all kinds of Sonic junk, or at least they did when they started. Pickings are probably a bit thin now, considering they've been doing this since 11am UK time, but there is always hope.

Hit up the link below to find out what you need to do to possibly get your hands on celebratory goodness. Happy birthday, Sonic the Hedgehog!

Sonic City's Sonic Birthday Giveaway! Tuesday June 23rd 2009 [Sonic City Blognik]

As always, we'll be hitting up the San Diego Convention Center for this year's Comic-Con, snapping up video game and toy exclusives, then funding our various criminal enterprises with the profits reaped from scalping these trinkets on eBay. Unfortunately, it looks like this will be available for the masses on toysrus.com on July 23rd, so our hording and profiting plan may not work.

The Jazwares urban vinyl (that's the JUVI part) Metal Sonic will set serious Sonic fans back $17.

SDCC Exclusive Metal Sonic JUVI [Plastic & Plush via Destructoid]

As with most iPhone ports these days, the game just kind of...turned up, and as with most iPhone ports these days, control is handled by a touch-sensitive replica of an old controller, stuffed into the corner of a screen (as you can see above).

I'd report on how it controls, but without a demo version available - and with my fingers burned by one too many shitty iPhone ports - I'm going to leave that job to some other poor sod.

[via Pocket Gamer]

Based on nothing from SEGA Japan, the end result of this entirely localized and invented character origins is fascinatingly awesome (think corporate fan fiction). One draft is like Charles Dickens-meets-I-don't-know-what-the-fuck:

Sony Hedgehog was born on Earth in the early 21st century, in the town of Hardly, Nebraska, population 1,226. He and his mother and five sisters live underneath a scraggly hedge beside the local burger joint, and subsist on burger scraps, milkshakes, and the occasional slug or bug that crawls their way. They are a poor but happy family. Unfortunately, Sonny's dad died when Sonny was just a few days old, after falling into a gurgling, festering vat of toxic waste dumped in a nearby pond.

Bwah?! Other drafts have Sonic learning his abilities from his friends in the forrest — like learning his Super Sonic Spin with Chirps the chicken — and use the "Advanced Non-Concussive Cobalt Effect" to explain things like Sonic's blue quills. Did you know that when Sonic slows down, he's into cruising the beach looking for "shapely hedgehogettes", bodysurfing and windsurfing, and "competing in contests to see who can build the most awesome castle in the shortest amount of time"?

The document with all its various drafts were auctioned off and has been scanned for your reading pleasure.

Sonic The Hedgehog Bible, And other cool never before seen documents from SOA [Sonic Retro via GameSetWatch]

Sonic and the Black Knight director Tetsu Katano tells Videogamer "You will see the Werehog again." That's despite the general shunning of the Werehog version of Sonic by many longtime Sonic the Hedgehog fans and mixed reviews from critics.

"In principle, I think that the users are always right. They're the ones paying the money and playing the games. If they don't enjoy it, they're not going to buy it," Katano tells Videogamer. "I don't think that producing the Werehog was a mistake per se, but there were a lot of things we could have done better if we had more time and resources."

Katano kind of backs away from confirming a Sonic Unleashed sequel later in the interview, but we have a good feeling Sega sees a winning combination in expanding the Sonic the Hedgehog market to furry enthusiasts. That's something that can only be done with either more Werehog or some disturbing Miles "Tails" Prower spin-offs.

Sonic and the Black Knight Interview [Videogamer via NeoGAF]

From his birth as a desperate attempt to steal some of Nintendo's thunder by artist Naoto Ōshima and programmer Yuji Naka, to his latest rash of sub-par console titles, GameTap's Sonic the Hedgehog Retrospective covers it all. Thankfully, however, the first three episodes of the 24-minute special are dedicated to the 2D Sonic classics, only delving into the 3D games during the last segment. This basically means you get a lovely chunk of Sonic at his best, with only a brief mention of the dark days that were to come. Someone give GameTap's editor a cookie!

Naka, now at Sega funded start up Prope, tells Kikizo "until the very final moments, I was really against Sega leaving the hardware business." Partially because Sonic Team was on the cusp of releasing the original Phantasy Star Online, but also because he felt the Dreamcast's networking capabilities was something Sega should further exploit.

"In a way I feel that, had that decision not been made, Sega would have gone bankrupt - so maybe it was a good business decision," Naka explains "But at the same time, I also feel like, what the hell - we should have given it a go, and we should have taken that risk."

Sadly, many of recall what went down. Sega dumped the Dreamcast. Yuji Naka dumped Sega to form Prope and develop titles like Let's Tap. And we get a little teary every time we turn on the best console Sega ever produced.

Naka also tells Kikizo that Prope's corporate color scheme — as well as the founder's tie and socks — was directly lifted from the Dreamcast's palette. Fanboy!

He's Back: Yuji Naka Prope Interview [Kikizo]