https://twitter.com/toumartcom/status/1314424463019057152 https://twitter.com/500zoo/status/1314123689806368768 Apparently there's some development tidbits on both Fang and Sonic Triple Trouble, including an explanation on why Fang was thought to be half-wolf and half-weasel. This stuff should be translated.
Crash 4 has a cute Sonic reference. In the last flashback tape level, Cortex says maybe next time he'll try a hedgehog, a bobcat, or a gecko, basically the 90s animal mascots, Sonic, Bubsy, and Gex.
Question. Do we know where this pixel art shown in the Japanese Sonic 2 manual is from? From Sonic's fur color and the shape of his quills, it looks like it would be from when Sonic 1 was in development. Some animation showcase demo perhaps, like the one this Madonna art came from?
https://twitter.com/YmPXden33UUYCF3/status/1315985933880025093 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EkNSNtEUYAAOG1j?format=jpg&name=orig Does this say that Sonic Drift 2 has 8 characters? The actual game only has 7, which always seemed like a strange number for a racing game.
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-10-13-little-chunky-sonic-is-in-fall-guys Fall Guys is a thing. Now it has Sonic in it.
I had a request in my Tumblr ask inbox to translate a section of an interview concerning Sonic the Fighters in a JP Saturn magazine. Specifically the section wherein Bark is mentioned. Interestingly... ...Kataoka here states that AM2's original idea for a power-type was an Orangutan but they changed it to a Polar Bear who lives in Russia. Would've been interesting to see what this Orangutan character might've looked like if it made it beyond an idea.
Bark does have long arms a bit of an ape-like posture in Sonic the Fighters and Fighters Megamix. Fighters Megamix Official Guide says that Bark is North Island's No. 1 snowboarder. In Sonic the Fighters, Aurora Icefield is arctic themed. So it doesn't look like the Russian aspect of the character made it beyond this interview. It's all very interesting though. If he's ever given a speaking role, maybe he could have a Russian accent. There are a few different Sonic the Fighters articles (including a couple of mini interviews) from various magazines here: https://twitter.com/raging_storm121/status/1245914648752185346 Spoiler
OH MY GOD. Sonic came out June 23, 1991. By the end of that year, the Soviet Union was no more. SONIC ENDED THE COLD WAR CONFIRMED!!!
https://twitter.com/knnosr/status/1316402447472967681 Mighty and Ray have similar proportions to the concept art Naoto Ohshima shared on his Twitter account a while ago!
Ohshima said that the "Sonic's Friends" concept art was from around 1991/1992. The April 1992 issue of Shogaku Gonensei would have been published around the first week of March 1992. So the concept art was almost certainly drawn in 1991. Which makes sense, considering that "SegaSonic the Hedgehog" was originally just going to be called "Sonic the Hedgehog" until the "SegaSonic" branding came into play in December 1991, due to trademark concerns. I wonder who the two characters on the right are? The gorilla (?) makes a cameo in the March 1993 edition of Shogaku Yonensei (unmentioned in the story text, as far as I can tell) but I don't believe the dog (?) has appeared anywhere else before.
Ryan Drummond voiced a few of Shadow's lines in Sonic Adventure 2: https://twitter.com/Munson_Burner/status/1316578230422380551 https://twitter.com/RYANtheDRUMMOND/status/1316642485855117312
There's a Sonic Adventure easter egg in MacBat 64 on the Switch and Steam. Beat the game, get the infinite flight ability to find literal easter eggs out of bounds in levels. One of them is a small place with three characters, one of them being a Dreamcast-like model of a Sonic-ish character.
Ya iirc Shadow's voice actor got sick so Ryan voiced Shadow's lines. He also voiced Knuckles in Shuffle.