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[SoulUnison]

Because the GUN robots set up a defence there.

I could have sworn there were other scenes showing that Eggman/Shadow/Rouge just teleported in and out of the Pyramid Cave Hidden Base at will on some sort of Star Trek-like Transporter Pad. So maybe he just wanted to to take the scenic route?

I always thought one of the weaknesses of Adventure 2 was that they tried to make sure Tails and Knuckles had as many stages as their counterparts Eggman and Rouge, even when it didn't make a whole ton of sense in the story - and then where it really counted, Shadow has the least stages of any character,despite being basically the advertised reason (besides Sonic, of course) to get the game in the first place.

And even having only, I think, 4 stages, you could tell they were kind of stretching to get even that many into the story.
(What was the point of Sky Rail? Shadows chases Tails and in the end...just sorta turns back.)

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Those came later. We're talking about the second Eggman level, when he realizes that he left his "secret" fort unoccupied for just a bit too long.

IQ of 360 indeed.

 

[Sciz]

I always thought one of the weaknesses of Adventure 2 was that they tried to make sure Tails and Knuckles had as many stages as their counterparts Eggman and Rouge, even when it didn't make a whole ton of sense in the story - and then where it really counted, Shadow has the least stages of any character,despite being basically the advertised reason (besides Sonic, of course) to get the game in the first place.

The odd stage balance can probably be attributed to the character count doubling partway through development.

 

[PhantomOfTheKnight]

Looks like that Pix'n Love History of Sonic book will be around $45, along with other stuff coming soon:

 

[BlackJace]

Looks like that Pix'n Love History of Sonic book will be around $45, along with other stuff coming soon:

Oh Hell yeah.

 

[SpikedGunner]

all I need now is a confirmed release date.

 

[Dark Schala]

Someone needs to tell Senoue and the rest of Crush 40 that this is false advertising.

I thought Rise Against and Sonic Youth were teaming up with Crush 40 for something until I remembered that those were what their songs were called.

 

[Sciz]

In light of Sonic 4 getting a soundtrack release for some unfathomable reason and this being a slow day in the thread, it's time to take a look at a certain series with wonderful music that will tragically never be released in any official capacity ever.

Gonna have to start on a bit of a downer here, but bear with me. Despite the huge amount of attention the first game got for its novelty, the presentation values were fairly low key, music included. Sega's go-to sound man for offbeat Sonic titles and filler tracks, Teruhiko Nakagawa, handled all of the arrangement and composition. For all the good he's done, this isn't really his finest moment. The music is serviceable, but mostly comes off as standard Mario sports fare, and it doesn't help that the sample set in use isn't nearly as nice as what the rest of the sound team works with (orchestrated main theme aside).

There's some decent stuff in there anyway, though.

Intro
Hammer & Javelin Throw
400m Track
Trampoline
Rowing

In what will become a trend, the game also features a handful of unlockable music tracks straight from classic Mario & Sonic games. Curiously, three of the five Sonic tracks are from Sonic 1 and 2. Even more curiously, one of the others is an instrumental version of Secret Ring's Let the Speed Mend It.


Fortunately it's all uphill from here. I'm going to spread the other two out over the course of the rest of the day to try and avoid the usual "listen to a couple tracks and ignore the rest" phenomenon that usually plagues music posts.

 

[Professor Beef]

I really, really hate that there is still no signs of a Mario and Sonic platformer or RPG.

I just want it so badly.

 

[Nert]

I really, really hate that there is still no signs of a Mario and Sonic platformer or RPG.

I just want it so badly.

I would love a crossover platformer, but the ways that Mario and Sonic move (and control) seem like they would be really difficult to reconcile in a single game engine.

 

[Nocturnowl]

One of the reasons I got the Winter Olympics M&S game was for the musical fan service, granted the sound quality isn't that great (it has that sort of lesser sound quality about it that plagues DKCR and NSMBwii as well) some of the remixes were pretty cool, Sonic got shafted though since they just copied a bunch of tracks over for him, Mario got plenty of remixes of varying quality.

 

[OMG Aero]

I would love a crossover platformer, but the ways that Mario and Sonic move (and control) seem like they would be really difficult to reconcile in a single game engine.

Here's an idea. Go back to the Unleashed concept.
Have Sonic speed through these vast great looking levels and then since those levels cost a lot to make compared with how much you see as Sonic, Mario goes through his own slower versions of those levels that plays like Mario 64 or Galaxy.
They can either have completely new levels to get around their weird limitation that they don't want Mario in Sonic's world and vice versa (which they use to justify why Mario and Sonic are only together in the Olympic games and Smash Bros) or they can tweak the story from Generations and have Bowser and Eggman teaming up to bring the worlds together so half the game is Sonic levels that you get to speed through remade versions of as Sonic and explore Mario levels inspired by them and half the game is Mario levels that you get to see Sonic takes of and remakes of them for the way Mario plays now.

 

[Kokonoe]

Sonic and Mario Adventure

 

[ShadiWulf]

http://www.summerofsonic.com/news/search-for-a-singer-your-chance-to-shine-at-sos

SEGA seems like they want to make sure no one forgets about Sonic Adventure 2. Such a heavy emphasis on it at Summer of Sonic, probably will be at Sonic Boom, too =P

 

[Emitan]

Sonic 2006 is an unforgettable experience

 

[Kokonoe]

http://www.summerofsonic.com/news/search-for-a-singer-your-chance-to-shine-at-sos

SEGA seems like they want to make sure no one forgets about Sonic Adventure 2. Such a heavy emphasis on it at Summer of Sonic, probably will be at Sonic Boom, too =P

Hmm...interesting.

 

[ShadiWulf]

I really, really hate that there is still no signs of a Mario and Sonic platformer or RPG.

I just want it so badly.

(laughter) No

http://www.vg247.com/2011/05/26/sega-dont-expect-a-mario-sonic-crossover-outside-olympics/

“It took a huge event like the Olympics to make it possible to bring Mario and Sonic together,” Iizuka told Nintendo Power (via ********** ). “While I’m personally interested in bringing various characters together for a crossover game outside of the framework of a sporting event, I don’t think we’ll be seeing Mario and Sonic costarring in a game outside of the Olympics.”

 

[iavi]

http://www.summerofsonic.com/news/search-for-a-singer-your-chance-to-shine-at-sos

SEGA seems like they want to make sure no one forgets about Sonic Adventure 2. Such a heavy emphasis on it at Summer of Sonic, probably will be at Sonic Boom, too =P

Just give me the press release already, Sega! The secret's out.

 

[Sciz]

Sega headquarters, 2008:

Executive: "Secretary-san, why is all this money on my desk?"
Secretary: "Mario & Sonic won't stop selling, sir. We ran out of places to put it all."
Executive: "But we half-assed it as much as we could!"
Secretary: "I know, sir."
Executive: "Iwata's never going to let me hear the end of this."
Secretary: "He called earlier, actually. They want a sequel."
Executive: "Son of a bitch. Tell the sound and CG guys to come up here and take what they want before Suzuki starts whining about Shenmue again."
Suzuki: "Er, about that..."
Executive: "Oh, all right, you can have one wad for a mobile title. Now get back to your closet."


Sound team of the first game: Teruhiko Nakagawa
Sound team of the second game, after the first one sold a zajillion copies: Kenichi Tokoi, Fumie Kumatani, Jun Senoue, Naofumi Hataya, Hideaki Kobayashi, Tadashi Kinukawa, Tomonori Sawada, and Teruhiko Nakagawa

Sega's priorities may have shifted somewhat between the two games. Where M&S 2008 had in the range of 20 tracks, M&S 2010 has north of 100, and musical variety is similarly way up. Sound quality is much better than the first time around (if still a bit MIDI-ish), and there's not one but two orchestras involved as well.

Original Music:

Main Theme
Shop (featuring spillover from SatBK's celtic flavor)
Shop - Town (see above)
Alpine Downhill
Half Pipe
Mogul
Snowboard Cross
Boss - Bullet Bill (Senoue fans inquire within)
Boss - Team Dry Bones


An entire other side to this game yet to come, and the best of the series after that.

 

[Seven Force]

Executive: "Oh, all right, you can have one wad for a mobile title. Now get back to your closet."

Heh.

Boss - Bullet Bill

I think this actually sounds pretty good.

 

[ShadiWulf]

I look forward to seeing this cutscene in HD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59GDcMlJbmY&feature=player_detailpage#t=348s

 

[Professor Beef]

I look forward to seeing this cutscene in HD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59GDcMlJbmY&feature=player_detailpage#t=348s

"The Chaos Emeralds are like magnets; they have the power to attract each other!"

I thought magnets repelled each other?

 

[Kokonoe]

"The Chaos Emeralds are like magnets; they have the power to attract each other!"

I thought magnets repelled each other?

Magnets, how do they work?

 

[Sciz]

I think this actually sounds pretty good.

Well, that's the point, even coming from Senoue.



Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games continued:

Remixed Music:

One particularly nice change of pace from the first game was the significant expansion of dream events, which resulted in what we're interested in here, a wide array of new arrangements instead of the straight rips they used before.

This largely translates into them showing the Nintendo sound team how it's done.


Public Domain:

But first! Stand aside, Earthworm Jim 2, because there's a new name in town when it comes to pulling out some of classical music's best. These are all used for the figure skating event, and going by the quality were performed by one of the orchestras. They're lovely.

Ave Maria (by Franz Schubert)
Spring (from The Four Seasons, by Antonio Vivaldi)
Waltz of the Flowers (from The Nutcracker, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)
Swan Lake (from the ballet of the same name, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)
Fantasie Impromptu (by Frédéric Chopin)
Skaters' Waltz (by Émile Waldteufel)


Sonic:

In a break with their tradition of using straight audio rips where possible (though there are plenty of those too), some of the Sonic music present is actually rerecorded and slightly rearranged.

Sonic Heroes - Special Stage
Sonic Heroes - Special Stage Part 2
Sonic Adventure - Theme of Dr. Eggman
Sonic Heroes - Sonic Heroes (Instrumental)
Sonic & Knuckles - Sky Sanctuary

The SSBB mix of Angel Island is also hanging around.


Mario:

Mario music in the Sonic thread? Heresy, I know, and yet it probably had more effort put into it than anything else in the game. In some cases, it's certainly more effort than what Nintendo put into them in the first place. Take notes, big N.

Original versions linked in the instances where it's worth comparing. Bolded entries are especially excellent.

Super Mario Bros. - Ground
Super Mario Bros. - Ground (8-bit mix)
Super Mario Bros. - Castle
Super Mario Bros. 3 - Athletic
Super Mario World - Ground
Super Mario World - Ending
Super Mario 64 - Ground (Original)
Super Mario 64 - Snow Mountain (Original)
Super Mario 64 - Koopa's Road (Original)
Super Mario Sunshine - Delfino Plaza (Original)
New Super Mario Bros. - Athletic (Original)
Super Mario Galaxy - Good Egg Galaxy
Super Mario Galaxy - Gusty Garden Galaxy
Super Mario Galaxy - Purple Comet
Mario Kart 64 - Sherbet Land (Original)
Mario Kart Super Circuit - Bowser's Castle (Original/MKWii)
Mario Kart Wii - Mario Circuit (Original)
Mario Kart Wii - Coconut Mall (Original)


London 2012 left to go.

 

[SpikedGunner]

Sega headquarters, 2008:

Executive: "Secretary-san, why is all this money on my desk?"
Secretary: "Mario & Sonic won't stop selling, sir. We ran out of places to put it all."
Executive: "But we half-assed it as much as we could!"
Secretary: "I know, sir."
Executive: "Iwata's never going to let me hear the end of this."
Secretary: "He called earlier, actually. They want a sequel."
Executive: "Son of a bitch. Tell the sound and CG guys to come up here and take what they want before Suzuki starts whining about Shenmue again."
Suzuki: "Er, about that..."
Executive: "Oh, all right, you can have one wad for a mobile title. Now get back to your closet."

don't know why I laughed at this more than I should.

 

[Sciz]

Nintendo, why were you even at E3.


While I sit around not compiling London lists, Crush 40's new Sonic-themed song went up earlier today. Like the rest of their original material, it's, uh, something.

 

[ShadiWulf]

Nintendo, why were you even at E3.


While I sit around not compiling London lists, Crush 40's new Sonic-themed song went up earlier today. Like the rest of their original material, it's, uh, something.

That song is fucking awesome! =D

Must be a preview of what we can expect for whatever game they are doing their next music for. Crush 40 hasn't sounded that good in a long time.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Some say that Crush 40 hasn't sounded good ever. I'm not one of them, though it's hard not to agree with some negative appraisals of their work every now and then.

 

[Shadow Hog]

I dunno why, but all those BrawlBRTSMs links are horribly overdriven. All the clipping, augh.

 

[Sciz]

That song is fucking awesome! =D

Not their worst, not their best. The lyrics are either too self-aware or not self-aware enough, I'm not sure which.

I dunno why, but all those BrawlBRTSMs links are horribly overdriven. All the clipping, augh.

At a guess, it's because the only M&S 2010 rip floating around is fairly quiet, and whoever's putting together the extended versions is really cranking up the volume in editing. Sounds alright to me, but then my audio equipment is one step above bargain bin. Lemme see if I can find substitutes. (edit: cleaned up everything but Eggman's theme, which doesn't seem to have an alternative upload)

 

[Shadow Hog]

Better. Still getting some clipping; not sure if that's the recording or my speakers, though.

 

[ShadiWulf]

Crush 40 wishing Sonic happy birthday!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Molvpb3YuD4

oh and according to TSSZ they are saying that IGN says that Sonic Adventure 2 will be $20, Iizuka and Sonic Team must of poured their souls into this port

http://www.tssznews.com/2012/06/22/20-price-point-listed-for-sa2-re-release/

 

[Emitan]

For $20 I want online and


New and improved Chao Garden

 

[OMG Aero]

Iizuka and Sonic Team must of poured their souls into this port

ahahahahahaha

They are probably charging more because they actually had to do some work on this game instead of having a PC version they can just port.

 

[Kokonoe]

20$? There better be online.

 

[Sciz]

MorningsAfternoons are like evenings, right?

I don't actually know for sure who did the music this time around because I can't find the credits online anywhere, in any form. It's positively fantastic though, so the staff are likely much the same as before. Overall production quality is up yet again in what I can only assume is the sound team's attempt to prove that even when they're doing party games, they're better than the rest of the industry.

Where the first game was mostly generic Mario sports fare and Winter Games tended towards a NiGHTS-ish snowy theme, London 2012 took advantage of its setting as a good excuse to infuse the music with the sounds and stylings of classic Brit rock.

Main Theme
Badminton
Beach Volleyball
CANOEING
Soccer
100m Swim
Uneven Bars
Boss - Birdo
Boss - Rouge
London Party - Coin Collecting
London Party - Good Luck
London Party - Map at Night
London Party - Comeback Chance
London Party - Tag

 

[Nocturnowl]

Holy balls at the Canoe music, it starts off okay and then sets sail to the land of greatness, so that's why there was a red underline right?
The music in M&S Limey edition seems to be of a much higher quality than the previous games, the main theme was pretty good.

And now i'm on the badminton music, it almost makes me want to pick up the game itself but that's probably not a good idea

 

[Sciz]

Holy balls at the Canoe music, it starts off okay and then sets sail to the land of greatness, so that's why there was a red underline right?

Hell yes that is why.

And now i'm on the badminton music, it almost makes me want to pick up the game itself but that's probably not a good idea

You wouldn't be the first casualty I've caused.

In this thread.

With this game.

 

[Nocturnowl]

I just got to the remixes, hot damn there's Yoshi's Story Rail Lift! I've listened to a few of these before but I forgot this one was there, the nostalgia is strong, it needs to be in the listing for the next music post.
But I must avoid the allure of music, I don't need to be the next person to join the Sciz induced casualty pile.

And the Beach volleyball music was also worth its underlining, now if only those minigames played as great as the music sounds, after playing the previous two games i'm guessing they don't.

 

[Professor Beef]

For $20 I want online and


New and improved Chao Garden

There won't be. I can take the sting of no online if it means nobody gets new Chao Gardens.

 

[Nocturnowl]

I bet Beef is the kind of guy who ran around the garden as Eggman punting chao, handed them food and then cuffed them across the garden as they ate YOU MONSTER!

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

E-102 Gamma was the real Chao child-killa. Seriously: poor thing couldn't pick up Chao for shit, instead shooting them to cocoon death!

 

[Professor Beef]

I bet Beef is the kind of guy who ran around the garden as Eggman punting chao, handed them food and then cuffed them across the garden as they ate YOU MONSTER!

I had a lot more fun chucking them around and generally abusing them than I did racing them or whatever, I will freely admit that.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

I'll admit, too, that doing that was fun for a while. Got boring real quick, and then I realized how terrible a parent I am!

 

[Seven Force]

Goddammit Sciz I'm literally a click away from ordering Winter Olympics

http://www.tssznews.com/2012/06/22/20-price-point-listed-for-sa2-re-release/

$20? No way I'm getting this unless there's online now.

 

[TheOGB]

And now i'm on the badminton music, it almost makes me want to pick up the game itself but that's probably not a good idea

Previous victim of Sciz here

it's not bad

 

[Diggeh]

Hey guys, look what highly anticipated book is coming stateside.

The History of Sonic the Hedgehog - $32.14 (Amazon)

Authors: Marc Petronille, William Audureau (Pix'n Love)
Hardcover: 300 pages
Publisher: Udon Entertainment (~October 9, 2012)

Celebrating over 20 years as SEGA's official mascot, The History of Sonic the Hedgehog is the ultimate guide to SEGA's spiky blue speedster! This hefty 300-page hardcover volume covers in detail every 2D and 3D Sonic game, plus spinoffs and crossovers. You'll also find character profiles, promotional artwork, rare concept art, and a detailed look at the origins of the "Blue Blur".

Interesting how UDON is publishing it. Perhaps there will be an official announcement at Comic-Con this year? (I'll keep an eye out.)

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

UDON publishing? Done deal. They're the perfect publisher for this kind of book.

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

I'll admit, too, that doing that was fun for a while. Got boring real quick, and then I realized how terrible a parent I am!

I remember in SA1 trying to honestly raise the chao with kindness and care, but thanks to the fucking petting button being mapped to the same button as the spindash (seriously, what the hell) I had hurt them one too many times. Watching them "die" in that cocoon was devastating, I was a murderer ;_;

 

[SpikedGunner]

pre-ordered it as soon as I saw the news, thank you again UDON.