Finally we can now start making some Summer of Sonic 2010 announcements, we start off with information regarding the music you’ll all be hearing at the convention this year provided by Summer of Sonics own team of DJ’s. Now this year there has been a reshuffle in comparison to the team that has been behind the decks the last 2 years. For starters I can now announce that myself (FastFeet) will be Lead DJ this year.

What that means is that I will be watching over the decks and the team of DJ’s we have this year. Whilst I have been responsible for providing all the music and some of the gear needed to let DJ’s work with the Sonic the Hedgheog music in previous conventions, this year I’ll be keeping a thorough eye on the DJ decks and the DJs themselves.

So who’s part of the DJ team this year I hear you ask? Like I say there has been a change from the previous 2 years. With the success of RadioSEGAs live shows since the start of this year I am now pleased to announce a mix of DJ’s from the Sonic communities 2 major radio stations. DJ line up is as follows.

That’s right folks, for the first time in 3 years FastFeet Media will be going through a massive change and rebranding itself to the new name of SEGA Media. I hear you all cry why? Well as much as the name is very well known in the Sonic community we want everyone else out there to know who we are and get more involved in SEGA and Sonic the Hedgehog music, video and more!

Whilst we are in development stages of the new website you will be able to check it out at the new address of www.segamedia.com. Expect to find out more about the all-new site and more on here and on the teaser page.

Eggman is in town with his brand new amusement park. What’s wrong with that?

It’s difficult when you’re old(er), jaded and a little too cynical to write enthusiastically about what is essentially a kids game, but think back to 1991 when you had just got a Mega Drive/Master System for your birthday or Christmas. You got Sonic the Hedgehog as it was part of the bundle. Do you remember your first impression? Were you hooked from day one? Of course you were and for good reason.

Dazzled by face-paced, colourful game-play, your impression of how the game ’should be’ hasn’t shifted, progressed, moved with the times. However, you’ve been keen to embrace other advances in video gaming, but advances in Sonic games have been over scrutinised. Yes, some control issues and a few plot flaws may have not impressed, but I admire f*cking with the status quo by trying out new ideas. The idea of a blue hedgehog in armor wielding a sword is amusing. A were-hog? Not a bad idea either.

An analogy: Osamu Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy) used his characters as stars, actors, a cast for his stories (Star System). While initially the aim of the game was all about speed (not a bad idea itself), the idea becomes stale over time so it’s only natural to try out different ideas even if it’s only a financially motivated decision.

If you’re an eternal kid, like me, you’ll be looking forward to this latest game. Let’s regurgitate: Sonic finds himself in an amusement park run by our lovable (maybe that’s too strong) yet silly evil overlord, Eggman. What’s this? Eggman has enslaved an alien race, Wisps, and is using their colourful energy for his own malicious dream, a mechanical world?! Cue our good guy, Sonic, he’s come to kick Eggman’s ass and free the aliens. It’s a simple yet worthy story with enough plot for kids to understand and enough colour to keep certain ‘law-abiding’ adults entertained.

Et voilà, this game is for Nintendo Wii and DS and its’ release is slated for Christmas. I must ask you again: at what time of year did you get your first Sonic game?

As announced last night on ResidentSD’s SegaAGES (Which congratulations on having the biggest amount of listeners on RadioSEGA)  there is a 5th show that has been added for this special Bank Holiday Weekend as I am going alone and doing a one off, 3 hour long  request show from 9PM BST.

So…. how can you get involved??  Easy!!! just go here and request any SEGA or Sonic songs via RadioSEGA, alternativly you can request in the comments below.  I’ll stop the requests sometime around 8PM where afterwards you can request via the RadioSEGA IRC here (Need an IRC client) as well as through Twitter ( @SJ1307 ).

So in short. Bank Holiday Live with SJ, 9PM BST, only on RadioSEGA and get requesting now!!!!

Well hello FastFeet Media I’m SJ and I’ve decided its best that i can help the community and to help FastFeet with the site.

I’m going to go on about (Surprise Surprise) Sonic 4 and also something that’s just come up on the radar, Virtual-On 4 Force for the XBLA

Sonic 4: Episode 1 coming out sometime in the Summer with 2 more episodes incoming sometime hopefully within the remainder of the year. It seems to be more in line with the classic 2d platforming with some additions from the Sonic Adventure games like the homing attack which i think adds to the strategy and may help going to an alternative path.  The leaked video (Which by now should be removed) showed that Super Sonic is also available although how to be able to play as him where theres only 4 zones is beyond me!!

Now Virtual-On 4 Force is something that has just came up as rumor according to fellow community site SEGA Bits, now I’m slightly bad at Virtual-On OT on the 360 but I liked the game as it combined the typical Japs favorite Robots and a beat-’em-up and with Virtual-On 4 Force will includes the oppotunity for 2-on-2 fights!! so if and when it’ll come out then that will be fairly hectic!!

Catch you all on Sundays for the Fonemix!!

Yep, finally we are going to return with an all-new show, format and location for FastFeet Media’s next series both as a radio show and a podcast! Some of you may be familiar with series 1 of the FastFeet Media Podcast and may have also noticed the extra shout outs we’ve been giving to RadioSEGA and its new live shows.  Well it’s all because it’s the start of something, with FastFeet Media and RadioSEGA working together so you can listen to the live shows and music of RadioSEGA 24/7; then download the podcasts and mp3’s from FastFeet Media!

FastFeet’s FoneMix is the name of this new and show and it will start airing on Sunday the 18th of April at 8PM UK Time on RadioSEGA and every Sunday at 8PM UK Time. FastFeet’s FoneMix will also follow onwards from Radio Redux (presented by ArchAngelUK of Sonic Wrecks & SEGA) which starts airing on Sunday the 11th of April.

The name gives it away but the new show will revolve around call-ins from you – the listener! The show will also be hosted by myself; FastFeet and I will be joined by a variety of guests & themes in the community during each episode. If you want to call into the show, provided you have Skype installled onto your computer and a reasonable microphone you shouldn’t have any problems connecting and joining us in the show.

Right now we’re going to leave you with the teaser of the show appearing in 3 weeks time, if you haven’t checked out series 1 of the Podcast check it out here and you can also subscribe to the FastFeet Media Podcast RSS Feed.

Whoa, hold yer horses! All this talk of Project Needlemouse aka Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is making me dizzy. I feel the need to sit down and divert my attention for a while. Oh, what’s this? Gavvie of Living Sedative (and FastfeetMedia, I should add) presents his fourth album, a collection of reworked Sonic tunes for Sonic Relief. Well, I might just give that a listen and donate. I urge you all to do so because 1) it’s a worthy cause, 2) you’ll score some reworked tunes, and 3) paypal is easy peasy. Well, you can donate two ways (I’ll explain further down)…

Now, a few sites, forums, etc. have given this album a bit of bad press – I suggest you do something for Sonic Relief instead of complaining! Hey, even I might do something… stay tuned, folks! While there are a few issues with the overall sound quality, the arrangements are interesting and the odd surprise is hidden in there. The opener, Green Hill Sonata, is my personal favourite out of plenty here to choose from:

Dreadknux, over at The Sonic Stadium, today announced the date for this year’s Summer of Sonic convention. SoS ‘10, the third such community meetup, will be held on Saturday 7th August, and whilst a venue is yet to be announced, it will once again be in London. Further details will be announced in the runup to event, including whether or not an admission fee will be required for entry, which would be a first for the convention.

Personally, I’m looking forward to SoS ‘10. Last year’s convention was my first, and through it I met some very good friends. Whether this year is bigger and better than last year or not, it’s still a date that should be written in the diary of any Sonic fan. It will also be interesting to see which Sonic game is unveiled this year, if any. 2008 saw the first UK display of the Nintendo DS RPG, Sonic Chronicles, whilst 2009 saw the first public display of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. Could 2010 be Sonic 4 Episode 1’s year? We’ll have to wait and see.

We’ll be covering the latest Summer of Sonic news and reveals as and when they happen, so be sure to keep checking back with us for all the latest information, as well as expert opinions from our writers.

I know we’re a bit behind on some of our coverage so we’re going to make more of an effort to keep up to date with some of the newer developments that are going on at the moment. As of today Sega have released the Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing demo on the Xbox 360 marketplace and is currently only available to gold members, whilst it is a bit of a whopper to download at over 1Gb in size it is truly worth the wait to have a play. The game was available to play at Summer of Sonic 2009, however I was a little busy to say the least on that day so I didn’t get a chance to play it.

You can expect to hear more of my opinion very soon as I will be getting this game rest assured, as it seems to be the nearest thing that Sega have made (or Sumo Digital depending on how you look at it) that can compete with Mario Kart. I wouldn’t compare the two games directly as Mario Kart has had several incarnations under the same name which has been around since the SNES days and this is an entirely fresh game by comparison. But the demo isn’t the only thing Sega released today…

This is quite an interesting turn in Project Needlemouse developments, the game referred to by the same name was yesterday confirmed by Sega Europe to officially be Sonic the Hedgehog 4. So there is a lot of happy faces because of this but also raises more questions; to name a few it seems as though the game will carry on from Sonic & Knuckles. Many fans favourite Sonic game was Sonic 3 and Knuckles including the storyline, bearing in mind this new venture is in 2D of course it will be interesting to see where things go… Voice your thoughts over in the forums.