Retro Gaming Australia

During their Sonic Boom event at San Diego Comic-Con, Sega has announced Sonic Adventure 2 for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.

Such a release for Sonic Adventure 2 was rumoured last month when the title briefly appeared on the official Xbox site. The official announcement was sparse in details, but the title appears to be a HD re-release as part of Sega’s renewed focus on digital content.

Footage of the reveal informs us that Sonic Adventure 2 was be “leaking onto consoles this fall”.

Sega appears to have discovered the Saturn’s back catalogue with the announcement that NiGHTS into Dreams HD will be coming to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC later this year.

The HD version of the game will include 16:9 support, trophies/achievements, leaderboards and Saturn Mode, which allows you to play the game in its original glory. One has to wonder if the prettier HD version is based on the PlayStation 2 release that was exclusive to Japan.

Whatever version it is, you’ll get the opportunity to see that NiGHTs is totally overrated later this year.

Ristar is a Sonic Team developed platformer that came along in the twilight years of the Mega Drive. It was positioned to be a successor to Sonic the Hedgehog, but never quite caught on. It’s interesting to note that in the original Japanese release, Ristar had two expressions – a happy one for regular level play, and a serious face for boss encounters. In order to appeal to the North American audience, Sega made the boss fight face the standard one for the Western release.

Can you believe it’s been 21 years since Sonic the Hedgehog came out? It’s a timeless piece of software – just as enjoyable today as it was all of those years ago. It’s one of the finest pieces of software to have come out of Sega – what I wouldn’t give to see the company pull out another industry shaker like this.

Sonic Pocket Adventure channels the spirit of the early Sonic the Hedgehog games on the Mega Drive and uses that for inspiration for one of the best portable Sonic games out there. Although it couldn’t save the fate of the Neo Geo Pocket Color, it did help to make the system worth owning.

Sonic Shuffle is Sega’s attempt to latch onto the Mario Party craze. It an admirable effort – they even brought in Mario Party developer Hudson Soft in to assist with development – but the pace of the game is just far too slow, not to mention the insufferable load times and cheating AI.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 has a lot of detractors whom Sega is hoping to convert to believers with Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 later this year, but this entry looks like it will be Sonic 4‘s final stand, according to producer Takashi Iizuka.

In a recent interview, Iizuka stated “We are looking forward to hearing the feedback from the users for Episode 2, but we are currently not planning to release another episode. We just want to see how the users accept this episode.”

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 will hit Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, iOS devices, Windows Phones and Android devices later this year.

Get your ass to Algol.

Phantasy Star Online is remembered for being one of the best early online RPG experiences on consoles, and was one of the most popular games on the Dreamcast. So popular in fact, that it was ported to three other platforms and has formed the basis for every Phantasy Star release since, much to the chagrin of fans of the six games in the series that predate PSO.

Team Chaotix fo’ life.

Sonic Heroes was the first Sonic the Hedgehog game to be released across multiple platforms on day one. The game is best known for its three character set up, which allows you to switch between characters on the fly, and the return of Team Chaotix, who had not been seen since Knuckles’ Chaotix on the 32X.

Half of Sega’s best 16-bit game.

Originally set for release for Holiday 1993, Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 proved too ambitious for the company – the size of the cartridge was going to make the game’s manufacturing super expensive, and the rapidly expanding size and scope of the game was likely to make it miss its scheduled release. So they split the game in two – Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for early 1994, and Sonic & Knuckles for late 1994.