Hello one and all it is I FastFeet! I come here bringing news of a special one off show (no not Trial) for Sonic the Hedgehog’s 19th Birthday. The show will start at 9PM UK Time (GMT +1) and will feature music from Sonic the Hedgehog games only of course as well as remixes and rare promotional music.

You’ll be able to request music as usual in the chatroom and via @fastfeetmedia on twitter. You’ll also be able to call into the show to say your birthday wishes on air! Just add the user fonemix to your skype account. We’ll have plenty to talk about and we look forward to all of your input too. Listen in here – www.radiosega.net/listen.php

Happy Birthday Sonic and we’ll see all you fans later this evening!

Those of you who know me well will know that I’m a Windows person through and through, however I’m not against Apple in any shape or form in fact I finally took the plunge recently and got an iPhone. However due to one of the most idiotic decisions that I’ve seen in a long time I feel I have to voice my opinion on this matter for the sake of the web if anything. Recently Apple have stated that Adobe’s Flash format is somwhat of a ‘closed format’ and is unsuitable for the web to move forward technically.

So much so that they say that Apples own media formats are better than Adobes Flash format. What do I say to this? – Bollocks… It’s been well established for a long time now that Flash is an immensly powerful tool for animation, video and interactive media as a whole. Without Flash we wouldn’t have those kick ass Newgrounds animations, YouTube wouldn’t be what it is today and the web would be a very different place. And by different I mean boring to the point it makes your eyes BLEED.

My problem and many other web developers is that Apple will not include Flash on iPhone or iPod formats and no doubt other formats in the future because they think they’re better, these mobile formats are the future and they need to be as open as possible. Well they’ve overstepped the mark in this case. Adobes response has been to place lots of advertising in big publications both on and offline saying we (heart) Apple, what they really mean is we hate apple as a tongue in cheek type joke.

If a company goes to the extent to advertise they hate another major company you know someones talking bullshit, and right now it’s firmly coming from Apple. So the next time you open iTunes or use your iPod/iPhone and think twice about the assholes who are trying to make the web a more boring and uncreative place. See what BBC News have to say on  the matter for more info.

Forgive me father, for I have sinned. I am not the good catholic boy you think I am. I have strayed from the flock and enjoyed it spending the last decade consumed in the world of Phantasy Star and partying, pausing only to sleep, learn Japanese and check out some handheld Sonic games; Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush being great but let us sweep Sonic Battle under the carpet or lock it away never to be seen.

Upon my return to Sonic, I discovered Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing and have enjoyed every second of it. I’ve even got the family involved on wireless DS multiplayer, yes, the family. I know it’s like every other party game out there – Sonic has the coolest car I’ve seen for a while. Shadow and his shady past (hur hur) sports a motorcycle that is pretty nifty on the narrower Samba de Amigo based courses. However, my favourite has to be Ulala who doesn’t quite drive but hovers about 2 feet off the ground with hilarious consequences.

If you’re looking for an alternative to actual family feuds, beat the crap out of each other playing Sonic & SEGA All-Star Racing!

A disclaimer before we start: This is in no way, shape or form a confirmation of Mario & Sonic 3. If such a game appears, and uses anything mentioned in this article, that’s just pure coincidence.

OK, with that out of the way, let us begin. We’ve had two games pitting Sonic and Mario against each other in sporting competition. Ironically, they were both Olympics titles. So, if SEGA and Nintendo were to put the two rivals against each other again, what would be the best way to do it?

Last week, SEGA revealed Project Needlemouse as Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, and I’d like to take this opportunity to voice my opinions on the game, based on what we know so far. First of all, I’m impartial to Sonic’s design. I feel I should make that clear right off the bat. As a game in the Classic Sonic storyline, I agree that it should feature Classic Sonic, but it doesn’t, and that doesn’t bother me. So long as the gameplay feels like Classic Sonic, that’s all that matters to me.

But what of the graphical design? I like it. In a strange way, it seems to blend the classical with the modern rather well. As with every other site, I’m basing this off of three seconds of footage featured in the reveal trailer. Rather than me try and describe it, let’s take a look at a screenshot, shall we?

Anyways to carry on our Summer of Sonic coverage I’m adding last years photos which aren’t on the site for some reason. Some fantastic shots in there and a good reminder of why the 2008 convention was great in it’s own right, credit goes to C.S.Baker for the photographs, cheers Baker!

More Summer of Sonic stuff to come…

Note: If you wish to browse the photos in gallery mode wait for all thumbnails to load, then click on one.

Well it’s been exactly a week since the Summer of Sonic 2009 International Sonic the Hedgehog convention so I thought I’d sit down a write up a tasty little blog entry based on what happened at, during and after the event itself. After all we have placed the photos online but me telling you about everything that happened is another thing, although you’ll be able to catch more of this on the FFM Podcast (Sunday nights @8PM GMT).

Friday

After once again staying up most of the night before to burn off CDs (137 to be precise) to be used at another gaming convention, I was up and ready to make my way on another nice long journey. I mean by comparison I spent 7 odd hours getting to Northampton for Insert Coin, whereas I only had a 4 hour coach trip this time so it wasn’t quite as bad. What was bad was getting to the hotel from London Victoria fortunately I had a partner with me who was quite well vexed in the ways of Sonic. Maria Robotnik of Black Hero joined me for the event as I decided to help her get to England and the convention of course.

So it’s been a couple of days since the one and only Summer of Sonic International Sonic the Hedgehog Convention, to give it it’s full title. What can I say? It was an incredible event and it’s hard to know which was better the 2008 or 2009 convention as they both had their charms.

Anyway, for the moment FastFeet Media will be kicking off it’s Summer of Sonic 2009 coverage with a nice and sizable gallery of iamges from the day, most of which are actually stills from the upcoming series 2 of SEGASonic:TV. So have a good browse as there will be plenty more entries and things to check out right here at FFM.

Note: If you wish to browse the photos in gallery mode wait for all thumbnails to load, then click on one.

It’s not often that we are invited to see the folks from Sega and this event was certainly no exception. FastFeet Media, along with a whole host of other websites that are dedicated to the community such as Sonic Wrecks, the Sonic Stadium, Sonic Yoda, Radio Sega, Sonic Cage Dome and various others all attended this event held at the Wii Flat in central London. All of us were there for one reason and one reason only; to have an exclusive look at Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood.

After arriving at Tottenham Court Road tube station I met up with Dan Dyer from our neighbouring network site DoubleDMix. To avoid being late we set off for the Wii Flat which was a short walk away, fortunately though we ended up at the flat before anyone else with the rest of the Sonic crew gathering soon after.We were then welcomed into the Wii Flat, which is like a normal flat with the exception that it looks like Mario had switched from being a plumber to an interior decorator.

Think back to the days of the Dreamcast, feels like quite a while ago now doesn’t it? It’s been even longer since we’ve seen some of the finest games Sega has ever released. One game Sonic fans would immediately agree with is the Dreamcast’s incarnation of Sonic Adventure, so thinking along those lines a fantastic idea for a new Sega game is what I’d like to call ‘Jet Set Radio Past’.

Jet Set Radio (Known as Jet Grind Radio in the USA)

For those of you unfamiliar with the Jet Set Radio (JSR) games the idea is simple. You’re a skater (not the Tony Hawks kind, think 4 wheels on each foot) and your objective is to spray paint your ‘artwork’, marking your turf across the city of Tokyo-to whilst battling the government and fellow rival gangs. Sounds like an average videogame upon first glance, but there are several things that make JSR really stand out from the crowd. JSR was the first videogame to use a technique known as cel shading, essentially making objects appear cartoon-like and look 2D even though you’re actually in a 3D environment. This looked outstanding back in 2000 and still does today, since then cel shading has been used in a variety of games with some techniques even implemented into blockbuster films.