Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode 2 is out today

"Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode II", the long-awaited sequel to 2010's Episode I, is out now and can be purchased and downloaded via PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. It should also be available for iOS and Android over the next few weeks.

As with Episode 1, the new game is a 2D platformer inspired by the original 1990s Sonic the Hedgehog games on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis console. An additional episode, "Episode Metal", is available for those who purchase both episodes on the same system. That's very nice of Sega!

You can play some free Flash online versions of the classic 2D Sonic games over at the MarioSonicGames.com website.

The 3DS version of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympics is now out

Further to my post about the release of the Wii version of the game in November last year, the Nintendo 3DS version of "Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games" is now available in North America, Europe and Australasia.

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games is out now

"Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games" is the third title in the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series, and it is released on the Nintendo Wii in North America today. It will be available in Australasia on November 17th and Europe the day after that. It is also going to be released worldwide on the Nintendo 3DS in February next year.

The game continues in the style of the previous two games in the series, this time bringing together the two title characters and eighteen more from both game franchises to participate in environments based on the official venues of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The characters are divided into four performance categories, namely: all-around, speed, power, and skill.

Several new Summer Olympic events, including football/soccer, badminton, and equestrian will debut alongside improved versions of previously existing events such as athletics, aquatics, and table tennis. There are also new "Dream Events", which are alternate versions of Olympic events taking place in locations from older games in the Mario and Sonic series.

Now, why not get in on all the Mario and Sonic fun for free - there are hundreds of fantastic Mario and Sonic online games for you to play in the MarioSonicGames.com website.

Sonic Generations is out on the PS3 and Xbox 360 today

The newest Sonic the Hedgehog platform game, "Sonic Generations", is released today on the Sony Playstation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 in North America. It will be released in Europe and Australasia over the next couple of days. A Microsoft Windows version will be released everywhere during the next three weeks and a Nintendo 3DS version should be available everywhere at the end of this month.

In case you weren't aware of it, this year is Sonic's 20th Anniversary, and this game is a celebration of that important video gaming milestone. It is the first ever Sonic game to support stereoscopic 3D graphics, which is utterly amazing I think!.

The game features levels derived from all 20 years of Sonic the Hedgehog platform gaming history, spread across the three main Sonic eras of Classic, Dreamcast and Modern, and these are played as either Classic Sonic or Modern Sonic. Classic Sonic's levels are two dimensional side scrolling stages (of course), using classic moves like the Spin Attack and Spin Dash, while Modern Sonic's levels follow the 2D/3D style gameplay of Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors.

Since you're currently here online, you might like to know that there are lots of Flash online versions of classic Sonic games which you can play for free at the MarioSonicGames.com website.

Sonic the Hedgehog is 20 years old today!

20 years ago today the first ever Sonic the Hedgehog game was released on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis console. Happy 20th Birthday Sonic!

Since that first famous appearance there have been over 70 more Sonic the Hedgehog games, and they have introduced a host of other famous video game characters along the way such as Tails the Fox, Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose and Shadow the Hedgehog.

To celebrate this milestone in the history of video gaming, why not treat yourself to a session of retro Sonic gaming over at my MarioSonicGames.com site, where there are more than 50 Sonic Flash online games you can play absolutely free!

2011 is a very special year for Mario and Sonic!

This year is the 30th Anniversary of Mario, and the 20th Anniversary of Sonic - how cool is that?!

I think we can expect some very special Mario and Sonic games and events to celebrate these milestones as the year progresses. I will report on what's happening as soon as I know anything worth writing about, rest assured!

Don't forget to check out my MarioSonicGames.com website for loads of free Mario and Sonic games that you can play directly in your web browser.

Sonic Colors is out now on the Nintendo Wii and DS

"Sonic Colors" for the Nintendo Wii and DS is out in North America today. (It was released in Europe on November 12th.)

It is a platform game in the classic Sonic style, with a mix of 2D side-scrolling and 3D third-person action in the Wii version (a little like, although much better than, 2008's "Sonic Unleashed").

Both the Wii and DS versions have received very good reviews, with Metacritic giving around 80% to both, and IGN giving 8.5/10 to both, for example. In particular, IGN gave it an Editor's Choice Award and called it "the best Sonic game in 18 years". High praise indeed!

It's been a very good time for new high quality Sonic games just recently, what with the release of "Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode 1" last month and "Sonic Free Riders" two weeks ago. Happy days! :-)

Sonic Free Riders is released in North America today

"Sonic Free Riders" for the Xbox 360 is out in the USA and Canada today. (It will be released in Europe on November 10th and Japan on November 20th.)

It is the third installment in the Sonic Riders series, following Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (which is a favourite game of mine), and it makes use of Microsoft's new "Kinect" Xbox 360 motion-sensor control peripheral. Sounds like it could be good fun to me!

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode 1 is out today

It's finally here - Episode I of the eagerly anticipated "Sonic the Hedgehog 4" game from Sega is now available for purchase and download via PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare and iPhone OS (iOS).

It has received some very good reviews, scoring 9/10 from GamesRadar and 8/10 from IGN for example. Hooray! All true Sonic fans have waited years for a decent new traditional-style Sonic game to be released, and it looks like one has finally been produced!

(This is a follow-on post to my previous post about Sonic the Hedgehog 4.)

The top 5 best Mario and Sonic online games ever!

There are a great many Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog Flash online games on the web, most of which are pretty good fun to play, and a few of which are so good they actually rival the real console games that they are inspired by.

You can play over 150 of the best ones at my MarioSonicGames.com website for free.

Here are what are universally considered to be the "All-time Top 5" Mario and Sonic online games:

  New Super Mario Flash

  Super Mario Sunshine 64 Flash

  Ultimate Flash Sonic

  Shadow the Hedgehog Flash

  Super Smash Bros. Brawl Flash

Enjoy!

Mario and Sonic Scene Creator and Character Designer online art games

These brilliant Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog Flash online art and design games (from MarioSonicGames.com) are amongst my favourite free web games, so I thought I'd put them all together in one place here to see if you like them too:

  Super Mario Brothers: Scene Creator

  Super Mario Brothers: Scene Creator 2

  Super Mario Brothers: Mario Dress Up

  Sonic the Hedgehog: Scene Creator

  Sonic the Hedgehog: Scene Creator 2

  Sonic the Hedgehog: Scene Creator 3

  Sonic the Hedgehog: Character Designer

  Sonic: Chao Character Designer

If you like the above games, then you'll hopefully also enjoy these other art and design games (from Dan-Dare.org):

  Transformers: Character Creator

  Cars: Ramone's Coloring Book

  Cars: Ramone's Painting

  Finding Nemo: Paper Toys

  Finding Nemo: Create-A-Scene

  Toy Story: Etch-A-Sketch

  Meet the Robinsons: Mural Mania

(See also here)

Project Needlemouse is Sonic the Hedgehog 4!

Sega yesterday announced that the forthcoming Sonic game previously given the codename Project Needlemouse (see my previous post about new game releases for this year) is in fact going to be Sonic the Hedgehog 4:

(Quote from an article in Yahoo! yeaterday)

Sega has announced that the game formerly known by the codename ‘Project Needlemouse’ is actually Sonic the Hedgehog 4.

Sonic 4, we’re pleased to report, heralds a return to his two-dimensional roots. In other words it’s a side-scrolling, high-speed, gold ring-collecting action/platform game, just like the good days of the Genesis/Mega Drive. That’s certainly no bad thing in our book – especially given the travesties of recent outings. Furthermore, being a bit, y’know, old school the new game doesn’t require the large storage capacities offered by DVDs or Blu-Ray discs. Instead it’s bound for download via Xbox LIVE Arcade, WiiWare and the PlayStation Network this summer.

The other significant component of Sega’s announcement is the new name – ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1’. Sega doesn’t illuminate on the implications of this, but it certainly looks like there will be other episodes in the pipeline. Let’s just hope that this is more than a means to pick our pockets several times over.

And that’s pretty much all there is to know at the moment, save to inform you that Sega has just launched an Official Sonic 4 website that boasts a number of countdown clocks, each ticking away towards the unveiling of new gameplay information, concept art and so on. In short there are plenty of reasons to be checking the site over the next few days and weeks.

(End quote)

Personally, I think it's fantastic that at long, long, long, long, long, long last (it's been 16 years in fact since Sonic 3!) Sega are producing a brand new proper style Sonic the Hedgehog game. It's about time! Hoorah!!

You can watch two trailer videos for the new game in my main YouTube channel here:

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - First Teaser Trailer

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Second Teaser Trailer

While we're all eagerly wating for this milestone game to be released, here are five great proper style Sonic the Hedgehog online games to play for free:

  Ultimate Flash Sonic the Hedgehog

  Sonic on Angel Island

  Sonic Mega Collection Mini

  Sonic Xtreme 2

  Sonic Sky Chase Zone

And if Mario is also "your thing", here are two proper style Super Mario online games too:

  New Super Mario Bros. Flash

  Ultimate Super Mario World

You can find all the above games, plus 150 more great free Sonic and Mario games, in the Dan-Dare.info and MarioSonicGames.com sites.

Mario and Sonic game releases due in 2010

Looking through the official Mario and Sonic video game release schedules for this coming year, the first thing that stands out is that there aren't very many releases scheduled! However, the second thing that stands out is that these few releases do look to be of the very highest quality indeed! This is a really good thing, trust me - quality is way better than quantity, every time!

There is only one new Mario game currently scheduled for a 2010 release, but given that it is Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii, I think we can all forgive Nintendo for that, lol!

Nintendo promise that it will be an even better Mario experience than the first game, which will take some doing in my opinion - it's not easy to improve on virtual perfection! Nintendo also promise that this game will be a lot more challenging than the previous one. Not so sure that's such a good thing myself, but whatever - the "Big N" know what they're doing. The release date is still to be confirmed.

Update 24/02/10: Nintendo announced today that Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be released on May 23rd.

There are three new Sonic games currently scheduled for release in 2010, and they are:

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing - A Kart racing game featuring Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Amy Rose, Big the Cat and Dr. Eggman plus Alex Kidd, Billy Hatcher, Ai Ai from Super Monkey Ball, Amigo from Samba de Amigo, Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue, Beat from Jet Set Radio and Zobio and Zobiko, the zombie couple from The House of the Dead EX plus Banjo and Kazooie from Banjo-Kazooie! Due for release on the Xbox and PS3 on February 10th, and on the Wii and DS in early March;

Sonic Classic Collection - For the DS only, this promises to be a little gem, containing the first four ever Sega Genesis / Mega Drive "Sonic the Hedgehog" games, namely: Sonic the Hedgehog from 1991, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 from 1992, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 from 1994 and Sonic & Knuckles from 1994, complete with reportedly enhanced Sonic & Knuckles "lock-on" features for the earlier games. Due for release on March 10th;

And finally, an as-yet unnamed Sonic main-series game currently referred to as Project Needlemouse - All that is currently known is that this will be a 2D side-scrolling platformer very much in the style of the classic original Sonic games, with an emphasis on speed! Yes, Yes, YES!! It's been far too long since Sega made a "proper" Sonic game! I want it NOW!!

Anyway, here are some totally awesome free Mario and Sonic online games for you to play while you're waiting for the above games to come out, all courtesy of the famous MarioSonicGames.com site:

  New Super Mario Bros. Flash

  Super Mario Sunshine 64

  Ultimate Flash Sonic the Hedgehog

  Sonic the Hedgehog Rivals Dash

  Super Mario Kart Racing

  Super Mario Kart Xtreme

(See also here)

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games 2010 is out now

The second title in the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series - this one designed to tie-in with the Winter Olympics being held in Vancouver, Canada early next year - is released on the Nintendo Wii and DS in Europe today, following on from its recent releases in North America and Australasia. (It is due for release in Japan early next month.)

So far "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games 2010" has received excellent reviews, based on the fact that it features 21 playable characters (10 each from the Mario and Sonic franchises plus a Mii) and 27 winter sports events to compete in. Some events in the Wii version can be played with the Wii Balance Board, and the snowboarding events have been highlighted as being especially good fun when played that way.

You can watch an official trailer for the game, showing a short clip of the snowboarding, here.

And you can play a free Sonic Snowboarding online game here.

There are hundreds of fantastic free Mario and Sonic online games for you to enjoy in the MarioSonicGames.com website.

Classic Sonic games - Sonic Heroes

I bought some secondhand games for my Sony PS2 a few weeks back, including a number of Sonic the Hedgehog discs, and I haven't been able to stop playing the classic Sonic Heroes game from 2004 since - it's still utterly brilliant!!

If you haven't got it even after all this time, you must go and get yourself a copy. It's the way a Sonic game should be - fast and furious fun. Why oh why can't Sega go back to that classic style instead of all these sad "pseudo" Sonic games they've been churning out over the past few years? Oh dear!

You can play a proper classic Sonic the Hedgehog game online for free here: Ultimate Flash Sonic Online Game

Flash online games that run directly within this blog

Don't know if you've ever seen them, but there are three Mario and Sonic online games that actually run directly within this blog, so you can enjoy them here without having to go to another site and mess about with clicking through loads of links, trying to avoid pop-ups, and so on.

You can either go to the home page of this blog, if you aren't already there, and jump to the bottom of the page (hint: press the "End" key to do that in one quick and easy step) - you'll find the three games in posts from January and February 2008.

Or you can go directly to the relevant blog posts here:

A nice little Mario "time-waster" game

Mario & Sonic Online Game Recommendations - Part 6
(This post is about the classic 1980's Nintendo "Game & Watch" LCD handheld games, and includes links to a number of Flash recreations of those lovely little games, as well as the "in-blog" one)

A Flash online Super Sonic jigsaw puzzle...

You can find these games plus 150 more free Mario and Sonic online games in MarioSonicGames.com, a site with no annoying pop-ups, no click-thru links, no tricks, no gimmicks - just loads of lovely free online games for you to enjoy!

PS. There's also an "in-blog" game over in the England, Thailand and Other Things blog if you're interested in that too..... A great little Scooby-Doo web-browser game

Master password cheat for the Ultimate Flash Sonic online game

The best Sonic the Hedgehog online game ever - Ulitmate Flash Sonic - is very much like the classic original 16-bit Sonic games from the 1990's in terms of graphics, sound and most importantly gameplay. It is utterly brilliant, and includes multiple levels, multiple playable characters, a password save system and unlockable bonuses and cheats. If you haven't ever played it, try it out for free now at any of these locations:

Sonic the Hedgehog: Ultimate Flash Sonic (US Chicago server)

Sonic the Hedgehog: Ultimate Flash Sonic (US Houston server)

Sonic the Hedgehog: Ultimate Flash Sonic (UK server)


There is an elusive master password for the game that unlocks all levels, all characters and all cheats, and I am pleased to be able to give it to you here:

595313131313131

Try it out for yourself using the links above, you'll be ever so glad you did! :-)

Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic reaches 200 issues

This month sees the publication of the 200th issue of Archie's excellent "Sonic the Hedgehog" comic. To put that into a more meaningful perspective, that means it's been running continuously now for 16 years and 3 months, which is a very long time indeed for a single character-derived comic. Well done to everyone at Archie Comics!

Here is a wonderfully detailed article all about this happy milestone which I thoroughly recommend you to read: Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog Celebrates 200 Issues

Mario and Sonic animated GIFs / sprites

I love animated GIFs, they're great fun to watch if they're properly made. Here are some of my favourite Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog game sprites and other images made into animated GIFs:















You are welcome to use any or all of these Mario and Sonic animated GIFs in your own website if you wish, but please copy them and upload them to your personal webspace - don't "hotlink" to the ones here. And please also include a link back to this blog by way of a credit to me. Thanks. :-)

You can find them all, plus loads more, on the following pages in my group of Mario, Sonic and general fun and games sites:

Super Mario Bros. Images, Music and Games

Sonic the Hedgehog Images, Music and Games

More Mario and Sonic Images and Games

And just in case you're interested, here are a few pages containing animated GIFs of some other famous fun characters:

Megaman Images, Music and Games

The Simpsons Images, Music and Games

Complete List of Wacky Races Cars and Drivers

More Games-Related Images and Music