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[robotropoliszone]

Robotropolis Zone News Recap #3: June 20th - 26th, 2016

This week had celebrated the 25th anniversary of the release of the original Sonic The Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis. (Or Sega Mega Drive for those outside of the US.) Although the day of the anniversary itself was mildly uneventful, there were still a lot of things happening this week.

Archie Comics September 2016 Solicitations

http://comicsalliance.com/archie-action-september-2016-solicitations/

Archie Comics has released their solicitations for their Sonic titles due for release this September. This month brings us Panic in the Sky Part 4 for Sonic The Hedgehog #287 and Shattered Part 4 for Sonic Universe #90. Full descriptions and cover art for both issues can be found at the above link.

Sonic 25th Anniversary Humble Bundle

https://www.humblebundle.com/sonic-25th-anniversary-bundle

Humble Bundle is a website that provides discounted sets of digital downloads for games and books that are made available every couple of weeks where all sales are made towards a charity. For Sonic's 25th anniversary this week, they are providing a set of digital downloads for various Sonic games that have been available on Steam. If you pay at least $1, you'll get access to Sonic 1, Sonic Adventure DX, Sonic 3D Blast, and Sonic CD. Pay the average price to get Sonic 4: Episode 1, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, Sonic 2, and Sonic Adventure 2. Pay at least $10 to get Sonic Lost World, Sonic Generations and its Casino Night Zone DLC, Sonic 4: Episode 2, and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and its DLC. Pay at least $35 to get a special 25th anniversary t-shirt. Keep in mind that all the games are PC versions compatible with Windows only and that a Steam account is required to access them. There is also an Archie Sonic Humble Bundle that features a selection of digital downloads for Archie Sonic comics.

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuyGlVyeYbw

The Wii U version of the newest Mario & Sonic at the Olympics game has been released this week. The game is now available for purchase in either physical or digital download copies. You can view a trailer for the game at the above link.

Sonic and Eggman Take Over Twitter

https://twitter.com/sonic_hedgehog?lang=en

Friday afternoon saw Sonic and Eggman taking over the official @Sonic_Hedgehog twitter page and posting recorded audio of themselves answering fan questions sent to them. You can check out the shenanigans for yourself by scrolling through the recent posts at the above link.

Sonic 25th Anniversary Event

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_0Smuksrqo

Sega of Japan held a Sonic 25th Anniversary event at Joypolis in Tokyo on Saturday morning. And luckily for those of us elsewhere in the world, the entire event was streamed on Youtube for all to see. The event lasted over two hours and quite a lot had been shown during it including concept art for various characters, a new trailer and gameplay for Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice, gameplay for the just released Wii U version of Mario & Sonic at the Rio Olympics, appearances by Sonic and Mario and CAKE! It's also been confirmed at this event that some sort of new Sonic Project will begin in 2017 but there hasn't been any exact word so far on what that Project is. If you missed the event, the entire stream can be viewed at the above link.

[robotropoliszone]

Robotropolis Zone News Recap #2: June 13th - 19th, 2016

Welcome to the second edition of Robotropolis Zone News Recap. Not much has happened this week compared to last week, even with E3 going on. Even so, there's still a few things worth going over.

Sonic Revolution 2016

A Sonic fan convention was held this past Sunday on June 12th in Los Angeles, CA. Many special guests were in attendance at this convention including voice actors, writers and artists from the Archie Sonic series, and even Takeshi Iizuka. And there was of course a large variety of cosplayers and panels.

Heroes Con 2016

In addition to Sonic Revolution, we also saw Ian Flynn, Aleah Baker, Adam Bryce Thomas, Chad Thomas, Tracy Yardley and Jim Amash at Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC. All of those guests listed had worked on either Archie's Sonic or Mega Man comics in some capacity.

BumbleKast Sonic Special Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv8q38y0doY

Ian Flynn also discusses his thoughts about the Sonic franchise as a whole in the newest episode of his BumbleKast podcast series. You can find that at the above link.

Sonic Universe #86

http://comicvine.gamespot.com/articles/exclusive-preview-sonic-universe-86/1100-155644/

The 86th issue of Sonic Universe was released on Wednesday. This issue marks the fourth and final part of the Eggman's Dozen story arc and features Eggman and his squadron of Egg Bosses taking on Ixis Naugus, his sister Wendy Witchcart alongside her own minions, and a crystalized Metal Sonic. A preview of this issue can be found at the above link.

The next Sonic comic to be released is Sonic The Hedgehog #283 on June 29th.

Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice Gameplay Footage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQPvXJyBH2M

While there wasn't any bit of Sonic related news announced during this week's E3 event, we did get some gameplay footage from the demo of Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice that was available on the show floor. Linked above is a video featuring seven minutes of gameplay courtesy of Yoshiller. The game will be released for the 3DS this Fall.

And that's it for this week's News Recap. If you have any fanmade music remixes, animations or fanart you'd like to see showcased here in the future, feel free to submit it to this blog.

[robotropoliszone]

Replying to some random tweet from December. Classy.

this is literally how they announced wave 2 of the SMB amiibo

not on stream, not via a huge tweet but this

i love it oh my god 

[robotropoliszone]

Robotropolis Zone News Recap #1: June 6th - 12th, 2016

Welcome to the first weekly news recap for this blog. (At least for weeks where there's something to talk about.) I used to run Robotropolis Zone as an Archie Sonic blog by posting random images from the comics every day. I may or may not return to doing that in the future but for now I want to try taking this blog in a different direction and the first thing I like to try doing is having a weekly round up of all the Sonic related news that has happened during each week. And this week is a good place to start as a lot has happened this week so let's jump on in!

Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice E3 Trailer

On Wednesday, Sega released their E3 trailer for the upcoming 3DS Sonic Boom game, Fire and Ice. This game was initially scheduled to be released last Fall but had been delayed for unknown reasons. The new trailer confirms a September 2016 release as well as a Launch Edition version that comes with a DVD containing episodes of the tv series including the two episodes that featured Metal Sonic and Shadow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqaClCziuWk

It's hard to tell from this trailer exactly what changes had been made during the game's extra year of development time but the description for Sega's official upload of the trailer claims that there are "enhanced level designs built for speed, better functionality, and all-new Fire & Ice gameplay mechanics."

The game will also be playable at E3 next week so if any more news or gameplay footage turns up online, I will be sure to feature it in a future News Recap.

Sonic in Lego Dimensions

A few weeks ago, rumors had started spreading that Sonic might be included among many other franchises to take part in Lego Dimensions and on Thursday morning, a new trailer for the game was released showing that those rumors were indeed true!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOmIWxV6xl0

If you don't know what Lego Dimensions is, it is a toys to life game similar to Skylanders and Disney Infinity only in this game, all the figurine characters are made from Legos. The game was first released last Fall and featured characters from many iconic franchises including Batman, Scooby-Doo, The Simpsons, Back to the Future and many more. The prospect of seeing Sonic teaming up with so many other big characters from the 80s and 90s is definitely interesting provided you have enough disposable income to afford not only the game but all the different Lego figurines required to play the game as well.

The Sonic figurine playset is currently scheduled to be released sometime this Fall.

Sonic Mega Drive Comic Preview

Also on Thursday, IGN released a few preivew pages for the upcoming special issue of Archie Sonic, Sonic: Mega Drive, which will be released early next month on July 6th.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/06/09/new-sonic-comic-pays-tribute-to-sega-genesis-era

Sonic: Mega Drive is a one shot special issue celebrating the Sonic franchise's 25th anniversary. Taking place after the events of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the comic will be utilizng the classic Sega Genesis artstyle as beautifully rendered by Tyson Hesse. The preview pages are looking great and I am looking forward to seeing the whole comic next month.

Sonic Mega Drive: The Next Level

In addition to those preview pages, we were also given the reveal that Sonic Mega Drive will be getting a sequel due for release later this year. We don't have an exact timeframe on when this will be released yet but we do have the issue's cover art which features Metal Sonic. The story of The Next Level will be a direct continuation from where Mega Drive leads off. More information on this issue will be provided as it gets announced.

Sonic The Hedgehog #282

http://www.comicbookresources.com/comic-previews/sonic-the-hedgehog-282-archie-comics-2016

Issue #282 of the main Sonic The Hedgehog series from Archie Comics was released this week. This issue continues the adaptation of Sonic Unleashed by showcasing the battle between Sonic's Werehog form and the Dark Gaia Phoenix. We also get a side story starring Knuckles, Amy, and Mighty. A five page preview of the comic can be found at the above link.

Sonic Universe #86 will be released next week on June 15th.

25th Anniversary Soundtrack CD

http://sonic.sega.jp/SonicChannel/soundcolumn/senoue/20160610_001060/

On Friday morning, Sega of Japan announced a special 25th Anniversary Soundtrack CD featuring a selection of music from the original Sega Genesis Sonic 1 to Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. (Known in Japan as Sonic Toon) There are two seperate CD releases, a blue version and a black version, as well as a collectors edition that comes with both CDs as well as a bonus DVD that features opening animations and trailers from various Sonic games over the years. A full tracklist for both CDs and the contents of the DVD can be found in the above link. So far, these are Japan only releases so fans outside of Japan wanting to purchase any of these collections may want to look into importing them.

And that’s everything for this week. Since this month marks the 25th anniversary of the Sonic franchise, it should be safe to expect more big news in the coming weeks. I’m also thinking into possibly showcasing fanmade material during slower news weeks so if you have a piece of fanart, animation, or music remix you would like to see showcased here, feel free to submit it to this blog. (Note: Please only send material that is appropriate for an all ages audience.)

[robotropoliszone]

Enjoy the special sneak peek at the action packed SONIC: MEGA DRIVE #1 coming in July from Ian Flynn, Tyson Hesse, and Matt Herms! Don’t miss this special Sonic the Hedgehog 25th Anniversary one-shot, pre-order with your comic shop today!

[robotropoliszone]

In addition to today’s solicits, I also want to point out that if you don’t live near a comic store and want to get Sonic Mega Drive, you can preorder it from Archie’s official website.

http://archiecomics.stores.yahoo.net/sonicmegadrive.html

[robotropoliszone]

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #285 Script: Ian Flynn Art: Diana Skelly, Terry Austin, John Workman and Gabriel Cassata Sonic the Hedgehog #285 CVR A Reg: Dan Schoening and Luis Delgado Sonic the Hedgehog #285 CVR B Variant: Evan Stanley The suspense builds for Sonic in “Panic in the Sky” Part Two: Sonic and the Freedom Fighters have faced a crushing defeat at the hands of Dr. Eggman and his entire evil Eggman Empire! Now it becomes a race against time to get back in the fight and save the day! But when Dr. Eggman uses Chip and the power of the Chaos Emeralds, are our heroes already too late? Featuring the second of four connecting covers by comics pro Dan Schoening plus a “Gaia Colossus” variant by the excellent Evan Stanley! On Sale Date: 8/17 32-page, full color comic $3.99 U.S. Read More: Archie Action Releases for August 2016 [Solicitations] | http://comicsalliance.com/archie-action-releases-for-august-2016-solicitations/?trackback=tsmclip

[robotropoliszone]

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #286 Script: Ian Flynn Art: Diana Skelly, Terry Austin, John Workman and Gabriel Cassata Sonic the Hedgehog #286 CVR A Reg: Dan Schoening and Luis Delgado Sonic the Hedgehog #286 CVR B Variant: Tracy Yardley

“Panic in the Sky” Part Three: The finale to the “Shattered World Saga” is reaching a fevered pitch! Sonic battles Dr. Eggman in a desperate bid to rescue Chip! The Freedom Fighters invade Eggman’s refinery against impossible odds! Rotor flies the Sky Patrol into a no-win battle with the Death Egg! And it only gets more nuts from there! Featuring the third of four connecting covers by comics pro Dan Schoening plus an “Egg Dragoon” variant by Mr. Sonic comics, Tracy Yardley! On Sale Date: 9/14 32-page, full color comic $3.99 U.S.

Read More:

Archie Action Releases for August 2016 [Solicitations]

| http://comicsalliance.com/archie-action-releases-for-august-2016-solicitations/?trackback=tsmclip

[robotropoliszone]

SONIC UNIVERSE #89 Script: Ian Flynn Art: Adam Bryce Thomas, Jim Amash, Jack Morelli and Matt Herms Sonic Universe #89 CVR A Reg: Tracy Yardley & Matt Herms Sonic Universe #89 CVR B Variant: Ryan Jampole

Knuckles is about to crack in “Shattered” Part Three: Time is running out for Amy, Knuckles and all of Angel Island! As our heroes fight for their lives, the evil wizard Walter Naugus inches closer to completing the Master Emerald and regaining his full power! Can the gang pull through to stop the wacky warlock? Featuring cover art by Sonic comics veteran, Tracy Yardley and an “& Knuckles” variant by jamming Ryan Jampole! On Sale Date: 8/31 32-page, full color comic $3.99 U.S.

Read More:

Archie Action Releases for August 2016 [Solicitations]

| http://comicsalliance.com/archie-action-releases-for-august-2016-solicitations/?trackback=tsmclip

[robotropoliszone]

SONIC BOOM VOL. 1: THE BIG BOOM (TR) Script: Ian Flynn Art: Evan Stanley, Ryan Jampole, Jennifer Hernandez, Rick Bryant, Jack Morelli and Matt Herms Cover: Patrick “SPAZ” Spaziante

Here comes the BOOM! Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends are back and ready to do battle with the evil DR. EGGMAN! This ground-breaking new branch of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise puts a different “spin” on all your favorite heroes and villains—plus brand new faces and hilarious stories chock-full of action. Written by bestselling Sonic comic scribe Ian Flynn, and based on the hit TV series! Sonic and his friends Tails, Amy, Knuckles and new member Sticks, must come together as a team to explore a new world full of comedy and adventure. SONIC BOOM Vol. 1 collects Sonic Boom #1-4. 978-1-62738-983-9 $12.99/$14.99CAN 6 5/8 x 10 3/16” TR 104 pp, Full Color Direct Market On-Sale Date: 9/7

Read More:

Archie Action Releases for August 2016 [Solicitations]

| http://comicsalliance.com/archie-action-releases-for-august-2016-solicitations/?trackback=tsmclip

[robotropoliszone]

SONIC SUPER DIGEST #17 Script: Various Art: Various Cover: SEGA

Get ready for supersonic action & adventure—it’s Sonic Super Digest! Don’t miss all the fun and excitement you love in stories from the Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Universe and Sonic Boom™ comic series! Sonic and his friends embark on daring quests, face epic challenges and run rings around the evil Dr. Eggman! Dash into adventures that only Archie Comics and Sonic Super Digest can bring! Featuring awesome cover art by SEGA and story & art from the biggest names in Sonic comics history! On Sale Date: 9/7 128-page, full color comic $4.99 U.S.

Read More:

Archie Action Releases for August 2016 [Solicitations]

| http://comicsalliance.com/archie-action-releases-for-august-2016-solicitations/?trackback=tsmclip

[robotropoliszone]

In my opinion, the comic has been spiraling downhill since Worlds Unite ended. Although what’s weird is that this is only with the main comic while Universe has remained consistently good.

Part of the problem is that they had decided to split the main and secondary stories into ten pages each when it used to be fifteen and five pages. I think it’s a big problem because the main Sonic stories aren’t long enough to be as fleshed out as they should be. It doesn’t allow them to add enough development to the stories or when they do, it’s something like this issue where the majority of the page count is spent on the characters just sitting around a table talking with some random new characters.

And that’s the other problem I have. I agree that comic is starting to go into Penders territory but for a different reason. There are WAY TOO MANY new characters being added every other issue and all of them have been getting more focus than Sonic or the main Freedom Fighters. I don’t care about these Chinese Freedom Fighters or this old man and his house that we’ll never see again. The reason people buy a comic called “Sonic The Hedgehog” is because they want to read about Sonic, who does absolutely nothing of importance in this issue. He’s just there to fight Silver Sonic for the first two pages only for it to be defeated by Dulcy anyway.

Ian and the rest of the Archie team seriously need to dial back on the number of characters they keep introducing because they take too much away from the main cast. At this point, there’s so many that it’s impossible to give a reasonable amount of development to all of them anyway. (Remember those Acorn Guards that showed up for one page at the end of Countdown to Chaos only to immediately have their butts whooped by Metal Sonic and have never been heard from again since? What the heck was the point of that?)

The comic does have other problems besides this and when the Shattered World Crisis ends, I want to write a big review of it that goes over all the good and bad things the comic is doing right now but those are definitely the two biggest problems.

Sonic Thoughts (Spoilers for #281)

I don’t talk too much about the sonic comic any more because I really don’t have anything nice to say about it anymore but man, the newest issue feels worth talking about. Each new issue feels like we’re aiming for some amazing mixture of peak genericness and boredom. I’m serious, what’s happened here?

StH #281 has just gone above and beyond in terms of awfulness. I’d argue we’re reaching Penders levels of awfulness. Look at this art. What’s going on guys? Why the hastily slapped on photo of clouds as a background instead of a proper background? Why the miscolored water/rocks back there that’s covered in bizarre square shadows? Why the strangely muted colors (a personal nitpick admittedly)? The lack of proper background continues through the entire main story as most panels are just painted over with gradients. Yawn. Boring. Amateur hour.

And then there’s Dulcy.

There’s that photo of clouds instead of an actual background again. But Dulcy, whew. I’m going to admit my first thought here was, “Wow, nice. She’s not a fat and ugly cartoon dragon any more.” My second thought was, “Wow, she’s really generic and uninspired now.” It’s like they took Vector, slimmed him down and stretched him out, then slapped some Spyro features onto the head and called it a day. But okay I guess, she looks like a dragon and does fit into the world a bit better now. Her scale’s nice, she’s a little over twice as tall as Sonic. She’s no longer awkward in that regard. What bothers me is that now, she’s no longer a European or Asian dragon. She’s here in Chun-nan, and as we’ll find out later, she’s from Chun-nan, so you’d expect some Asian inspiration in her design, right? Yet there’s none to be found.

And no, her clothes aren’t Asian inspired. Not in the least from what I’ve found. While her overall body/face design doesn’t really offend me due to it being so bland and boring, her clothing is absolutely terrible. SHOULDER PADS MAN. No Asian armor that I’ve ever seen has had shoulder pads like some American high school footballer. The most simple google search reveals that if shoulder pads were used in China, they were looser and draped down over the shoulder.

But hey, okay, the world of Sonic isn’t exactly based in real life and takes far more fantasy elements than real world elements. Even if you work from that angle, the outfit still isn’t based in Chinese fantasy! Go watch any Shaw Bros martial arts flick or recent Chinese fantasy film. It’s like, come on guys. You couldn’t even bother to give Dulcy a generic Asian female fighter outfit. It’s peak genericness – there’s almost no visible inspiration behind the clothing other than the idea of clothing itself. It’s the same with her body design. She’s just ‘dragon’.

What bothers me the most about this is that we get to see Dulcy’s FF team later and they’re all inspired by generic Asian designs. Aside from the fact that everyone wears sneakers, they probably wouldn’t look too out of place in a Hollywood movie set in China. The characters themselves may not have the slightest hint of personality but at least they look interesting enough to engage the readers’ eyes. The designs may not even be that good (I personally think they look more like mid-2000s dA fancharacters than anything you would see in a Sonic game) but hey, they’re visually distinct and that does raise them up slightly beyond being visually bland. So why isn’t Dulcy the same? Why is she so bizarrely generic?

The story itself follows suit, it’s just the same old thing that’s been happening for the past I can’t even remember how many issues. Sonic meets cut-and-paste freedom fighters from that region, they need to go get the gaia keys/temple/person blah blah blah. This story’s made mildly more interesting by having some backstory when Dulcy met Sonic and Sally, which provides the only nugget of an interesting idea here. I like Sonic and Tails in this short backstory. “Oh yeah no I just saved this kingdom and stuff, hanging around a bit now.” That’s cool. That’s what Sonic’s attitude should be like even now. I don’t know why they’re not writing him like that. 

As usual the backup story is much more interesting than the main story, if only because of the better art. It’s far more emotive and less stiff than the main story’s art. Oh and look, actual backgrounds. That sure is neat. The story itself is a bit eh, I feel like #280 did it better but it’s passable. Really my gripe with the story here is that Bunnie’s backstory makes no sense, if she was found as a baby she shouldn’t have a different accent unless Rosie or someone is also ‘southern’. And why is she moping about like she has no friends and everyone hates her when Sonic and co. have been around for awhile? Or am I getting her backstory timeline confused here? 

Perhaps I’m overly critical of all this but really, I feel the comic overall has been feeling really awful lately. And yes, I stand by the statement that we’re starting to reach Penders level of awfulness here, at least in terms of sheer blandness. We’re not quite fully in Penders territory yet – there’s still moments of joy in these books and the art has it’s moments where it shines, but boy we’re getting close.

[robotropoliszone]

From Sonic Universe #70

[robotropoliszone]

Cover art to Sonic The Hedgehog #243

[robotropoliszone]

From Sonic Super Special #9

[robotropoliszone]

From Sonic Universe #79

[robotropoliszone]

From Sonic The Hedgehog #163