Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board: GoGoThursday - Viewing Profile - Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board

I would like to apologise for this - I posted an 8-bit mock-up of the sign (which was in a fan game I was making a few years ago) and jokingly said it was "found in the Sonic SMS rom", with spoiler tags saying I made it. I know a few people were fooled by it and were annoyed, so I'm very sorry!

It was in a thread about Cooljerk's theory that Sonic SMS is based on an early version of Sonic MD, which I think is very plausible. It seemed as though Green Hill Zone SMS was changed later to resemble its MD counterpart more closely, with some assets of the alpha-style level being re-used in Bridge Zone. There were many other similarities as well.

Anyway, I do think it is possible that there is some unseen information about Sonic prototypes on Japanese websites. GeoCities is still up in Japan, and there's bound to be something on someone's personal page. Unfortunately finding such things can be difficult due to the language barrier, the bias towards "bigger" websites in search results and the fact that large photographs and scans are not as common on Japanese websites (which seem to still be in the "Web 1.0" era).

I would definitely buy another Sonic racing game, though I think it should remain part of the more expansive "Sega All-Stars Racing" banner, rather than being Sonic-exclusive. Though the Sonic universe certainly is deep enough to have its own specific racing games, it has more potential to become uninspired quickly (as with the Mario Kart series, which would greatly benefit from becoming "Nintendo Kart").

I was disappointed with some of the design choices in All-Stars Racing, for example the generic weapons, repetition of environments (the reasoning behind this was a bit "HD towns"), and the inclusion of very obscure (and not even fan-pleasing) characters when Sega has one of the richest back-catalogues of any company.

One of the franchises I felt was missing from the game was Streets of Rage. Axel, Blaze and Adam could have driven the E-Swat police car, their All-Star Move being the famous rocket launcher. Perhaps a sequel could employ a "rivals" concept, allowing similar characters to compete with each other, such as the Sonic Hero and Dark teams, Out Run's "goodie" Ferrari and "baddie" Porsche or even Streets of Rage and Virtua Cop.

There is such scope for a sequel, and I really hope that if there is one it meets its true potential. Oh, and 60 FPS across the board next time - it is a Sega racing game, after all.

I agree that it is unlikely, but after all anything can be "inspiration" for something - the Moogle only has a bobble and wings in common with the Chaos, but could have served a vague basis.

I do still think that Sanchan at least resembles a chibi version of the monster, which is a popular kaiju character in Japan.

Sanchan in turn seems to have been inspired by the Flatwoods Monster, which has been referenced many times in video games.



The story (and image) of this absolutely terrified me when I was younger!

From what's been posted, I would definitely agree that Paul Hardcastle's music, in particular the basslines, have an essence of Sonic in them. A lot of music produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman in the 1980s share this style of bassline, mainly those programmed by Phil Harding.

As for my contribution, I find the music of Howard Jones has a classic Sonic feel in not just the basslines, but the main synths and compositions too:
-New Song (1983)
-What Is Love? (1983)
-Pearl in the Shell (1984)