You never cease to surprise me Blue Hedg….. Summer of Sonic. Just as I’m about to dismiss you for having a poor line up you surprise me yet again and place yourself as one of this years greatest highlights.
Yes I found time to write another blog post, been a while hasn’t it. I won’t waste time focusing on that.
You’d be forgiven for thinking Summer of Sonic 2011 was going to be a bit shit. It all seemed to fall apart right at the end.
- Mario and Sonic at the London Olympics wasn’t going to be there (despite being announced earlier)
- SEGA released a demo for Sonic Generations two days before we were all due to play it for the first time at SOS.
- Only Julien-K agreed to perform and they only had the two Sonic tracks to their name
- Jun Senoue was going to be there, without Johnny so no Crush 40 and Jun wasn’t even going to perform (you lying bastards!)
- And SEGA seemed to be abandoning the idea altogether by having their own event at the same time in an entirely different place in London.
This year seemed to be going a lot like 2009, which great as it was didn’t hold up to 2008 and was smashed to pieces by 2010.
In 2009 we only had Bentley Jones, when in 2008 we had him AND Richard Jacques and TJ Davis, so that felt like a step back. The highlight in 2009 was community stuff like the Sonic Shorts from Sonic Paradox.
I kept expecting something really special to be announced in the last few days, something that would at least Rival Sonic Boom, the American convention held a few weeks earlier in Los Angeles. That looked to be something special and what you’d expect Summer of Sonic to be.
This is the 20th year. The date was specifically held back so it would be right next to Sonic’s Birthday (23rd June). Summer of Sonic 2011 needed to be something good, great, awesome, outstanding, AMAZING!
It was.
Yes it was largely community based, and yes the highlight probably was the Sonic Shorts again. But the pain in the back of legs and the hardened soles of my feet tell me I was willing to stand around there for the best part of 11 hours (and that doesn’t include the after party), you don’t do that for nothing.
I got through the doors at 10am, just in time for it to start after being in the queue since 08:30. First impressions were not good. It seemed smaller than the Pavillion (last years venue), and within the minutes the all too familiar heat that plagued last years SOS was back with a vengeance. By the end I was sweating in places that don’t even sweat.
But all that didn’t matter as soon as Dread’s entrance video appeared on the screen to a roar of laughter from the ever growing crowd. It had started and there was only one thing on my mind, Generations.
Like most gamers I played the shit out of the demo released on Xbox Live two days previously. It is impressive, a little difficult to get to grips with at first but when you do it is a pure slice of Sonic heaven.
For Sonic’s 20th I have been playing a random Sonic game for every day in June. I had left the original Sonic the Hedgehog for the 23rd. While in the back of my mind I was thinking, “If I don’t start Sonic 1 now I’m going to run out of time” I just could not stop playing the Generations demo. Perfectly built for speed running I thought my time of 1:03 was impressive (it isn’t, some have done it in less than 50 seconds).
That was Classic Sonic; it was time to try Modern. It seems odd to me that this is the feature people are most concerned about. Going back to 2008 and unleashed people were raving about the daytime stages and cursing the night-time ones. It seemed odd that people were now concerned about that style of play. Personally I think it’s the way forward for the franchise.
The queues were surprisingly short, splitting it over 4 pods worked really well. I got to play the Modern style twice (and it could’ve easily have been more). It did not disappoint. Everything good about Unleashed Daytime was there and it even managed to fix some stuff.
For example the Boost does not feel overpowered at all. I ran out of it frequently so any fears of this being “Press X to Win” were eliminated very quickly. Unless you get to enhance the boost skill you will need to find the best times to use it to maximise effectiveness.
Having homing attack back on double A and quickstepping on the shoulder buttons (as apposed to the stick flick way you did it in colours) were welcome tweaks to the engine. I just felt right.
My only criticism is that it was a little too easy to get an S rank. Basically if you did it fairly quickly without dying that was enough for an S. Score and Rings didn’t seem to be factors, just time.
Moving on the first part Sonic team Q&A was next. It had taken 4 conventions but the Legendary Yuji Naka was finally at Summer of Sonic and with him the current head of Sonic Team Takashi Iizuka. Highlights of that included Naka hearing about the Fleetway back story for the first time and apologising for the dreaded Carnival Night barrel. 20 years and he had no idea that America and Europe had their own back story for Sonic.
By this point I had caught up with Siriku, who seemed to be filming stuff for Rory (see the Sonic Show). Standing around next to him was Jun Senoue, just standing casually in the crowd watching the Q&A. You know before hundreds gather to get him to sign stuff and pose for photos.
Speaking of which I finally got my copy of Super Sonic Songs and Several Wills signed. I missed out of in last year as he and Johnny Gioeli came out for signing while I was in the queue for Sonic 4. I was determined to get them signed this year. I now have a lovely Jun signature to go next my Bentley Jones one on Several Wills. I wish I had taken a decent camera to get a photo, well maybe next year.
After a quick look around the merchandise tables and eating my first chilli dog (very nice by the way) it was time for the Comic Q&A. Like the previous three years our comic, Nigel Dobbyn and Nigel Kitching from Sonic the Comic (or Fleetway if your prefer) were in attendance but this time they were joined by Ian Flynn and Tracy Yardley! From Archie (yes the Exclamation mark is intentional).
Highlights from that included the little digs the two had at each other and Nigel Kitching saying the Daleks were the inspiration for the Brotherhood of Metallix.
Then came Wrecks Factor (Karaoke Contest – Pretty Lame this year I thought, forfeit was good), Never mind the Buzzbombers (Quiz show – Pretty good. Felt a little short this year though) and the Cosplay contest (Some brilliant entries this year including Wes Wesley from AoSTH, Black Doom, GUN soldier, Spy (From Team Fortress), Professor Pickle and some excellent Tails’).
During this Naka and Iizuka started there signing session. Typically I was at the other side of the room when they announced it and the queue filled up very quickly. Everyone had something to sign. It was all worth it when I got my copies of Sonic 1 and Sonic Colours signed by Naka and Iizuka respectively.
There were also the Sonic shorts (which I missed the start of. I’m sure I’ll get to see them when they’re uploaded onto Newgrounds in about a year or so), Frobman’s excellent Sonic Heroes in brief parodying Wizard of Oz, and previews of a Sonic the Comic animation and Lucid Dreaming (the Nights into Dreams remix album from Overclocked remix). Some of the community stuff was performed then as well but I missed most of that.
After all that was the Julien-K performance, who I don’t really follow but were very good. Shame they didn’t play Waking up or This Machine, despite the crowd chanting for it (I later found there was a good reason for why they didn’t play those songs).
Jun joined Naka and Iizuka for the second part of the Q&A. Highlights from that included Iizuka wishing he had changed Big the Cat’s fishing stuff from Sonic Adventure, finding out the reason for Sonic’s redesign is because classic sonic would not look right in 3D and Jun confirming he included some of the Sonic 3D tracks in Sonic Adventure because the Japanese market had not heard them (they only got the Richard Jacques version)
To conclude the Q&A they brought out the specially made cake (I have no idea what happened to that) and we all wished Sonic and happy birthday (which by the way is going to appear in Sonic Generations)
The last hour centred on music split into two sections. The first was Club Sonic where the crowd were encouraged to go nuts to a selection of Sonic music. Turned out better than what I expected. Then to finish the night Jun came out to perform a similar set to the one at Sonic Boom (see, lying bastards, I knew Jun was going to perform eventually), starting with a Sonic 4 Medley, then onto Green hill and the Classic version of City Escape from Sonic Generations, and Typically finishing with Live and Learn with the crowd filling in from the absent Johnny Gioeli.
The event may have been over but the night wasn’t. It was time to get drunk at the After Party and spend the night raving to Sonic music and general geekiness. I left the Kingpin suite at 3am drunk, tired, sore and wondering just how bad travelling home will be the next day.
It wasn’t perfect, it was fairly cramped and way too hot (you still owe us Air conditioning Johnny!) and the free comic book we got was the same as last years. The food was also very overpriced (but then so is London in general).
Still I should realise by now that I shouldn’t ever doubt Dreadknux and ArchangelUK. They always put on one hell of a show, for free, and I’m already counting the days to the next one.
Bring on Summer of Sonic 2012.
