Hm, from what I can muster from google translate, it mentions something about Sonic not being a corporate character...Something about that is resonating to me and i don't know why.
I don't know whether to post this in the Sonic Mania thread or whatever, but in the game's Sprites/Global/Animals.bin file, it names the currently unnamed rat animal friend (this guy), "Micky".
Micky has long been the (entirely plausible) joke name for the mouse amongst the fan base. Still, the team supposedly saw design material for the classic games, so there's a chance it could be the real name. I'm confident that artwork and a name does exist for the mouse, we just haven't seen it. The Sega art book only featured a few of the animal friends' Sonic 2 art. The Sonic Jam Character House featured some of the missing Sonic 2 animal art, but for some reason only showed the original 7 animals.
Not sure where to post this image but do we have a clearer picture of this? Just found it among some really old files. I remember this was an ebay auction image as well: EDIT: Also found this too:
I have actually seen that fruit machine in person, albeit in a state of disrepair. There is a video of the machine in action on YouTube. In a slightly relevant post about fruit machines. Up until recently, I was unaware that there was official Nintendo licensed fruit machines commissioned in Europe a few years back. The only two I know of was an old Donkey Long machine possibly in the late 80's/early 90's and a Mario Kart 64 machine which uses sound bytes from the game including character lines.
http://youtu.be/zJm0AKZzlQY Oh look, another game theory sonic video. It is entertaining until he uses both the British and Archie Comic universes as 100% official game universe fact. Or that he implies the 7 dragonballs cause Goku to go Super Saiyan.
Even taken as a joke Game Theory fails pretty hard because of its persistent failure to adequate research. Ridiculous fan theories are one thing, but ridiculous fan theories that rely on wrong facts and probably misunderstood data are another. Game Theory is consistently the latter.
That fruit machine was everywhere in the late 90s. Still come across it now and again at travelling funfairs. Pretty standard JPM machine really. IIRC Sega owned the company at one point.
"Corporate character" as in mascot. They talk about how Sonic was not originally conceived to be Sega's mascot but was basically in the right place at the right time, since Sega was trying to find a new mascot and all. It's the usual story. Anyway my Japanese isn't quite good enough to read it all (though if I sit down with a dictionary I can probably crank out a translation... if I have time I might do it) but there were some sections I could make out. Here's a few tidbits: Oshima wanted to go to the US with Naka and Yasuhara for Sonic 2 but Sega told him to stay. He also didn't get to travel with the others on the Sonic Adventure South America trip since it was mostly for the texture artists to take photos and he was a designer. It seems he's always the one to get left behind. Back when Sonic 2 was new (or maybe in development?) Famitsu reported in their magazine that Tails was like Sonic's little sister, so many fans thought he was a girl. Even Iizuka admitted he wasn't sure at first when he was playtesting the game and Oshima apparently called Yamaguchi himself to ask him once. They think it was probably the eyelashes that made Tails seem feminine. When Naka played the iOS version of CD he was frustrated at the time warp screens still being there. "You don't need these anymore!!" Oshima said he'd be really happy if they made a Sonic CD: Director's Cut where they removed them. He wants to play the game like that. Because of the whole Miles Prower/Tails thing, when they decided to make Knuckles they created the name early on. Since he was a character who broke things with his fists they chose that name. The developers sat down with Tom Kalinsky and Pamela Kelly and looked through a bunch of animals in an encyclopedia until they eventually decided on an echidna. Naka dreamed of having a Sonic theme park like Disneyland. Since DIC was bought by Disney he hoped for some Sonic representation there, but needless to say it never happened. Iizuka talks about why he recently moved to America. He said when Sonic games are developed without him or Naka having any involvement they tend to have parts that are "off." (Not an exact translation, that's just my take) He namedrops Sonic and the Black Knight interestingly enough. He goes on to talk about Boom and said that honestly it was not received well by fans. He wants to be able to tell developers "this is how Sonic should be" Iizuka seems like he wants to make another NiGHTS game. He said he wants Sonic Team to not have "old IPs," but "IPs." he also says that in 20 years, NiGHTS has only had 2 games, and jokes with Naka about helping him out. Oshima doesn't play every new game in the series but tries to keep up with Sonic. Not entirely clear on Naka but it seems like he doesn't play the games. He does sometimes think "wait, THATS what they're doing with Sonic now?!" apparently though, or something like that. I think.
Thank you. Funny that the "Is Tails a boy or a girl?" thing dates back to when Sonic 2 was in development, with even some of the devs asking the question. I can see why Ohshima would be annoyed that they kept the loading screen animation when time traveling, given that he has stated in prior interviews that he regretted having to use it in the original Sega CD version. Anyone willing to make a mod for the Sonic CD remaster that skips the sequence? :v: It would even make a nice hack to add to a mod loader. A Sonic theme park? I like the sound of that. The Sonic franchise feels like it was made to be adapted into theme parks, given that the gameplay of Sonic games tends to be highly reminiscent of amusement park rides. It's not extremely surprising that devs have difficulty getting Sonic right when given free rein, seeing how adaptations and a large portion of the fanbase have trouble with it as well :v:
Well, they don't really have Sonic rides or anything. I've only been to Joypolis and the SegaWorld that used to be in London (It was 20 years ago though so I might be forgetting) but outside of some Sonic games at both, Night of the Werehog and a Sonic themed carnival game area at Joypolis there isn't much in the way of Sonic stuff. Edit: forgot there was a small "Sonic Ghost Shooting" ride where you rode around on a track and shot at ghost targets. I was actually gonna visit Joypolis with some friends last night but we missed the last entry... From the looks of things though it looks like they no longer have Night of the Werehog or the shooting one but added a Sonic quiz game.
The issue with Disney is pretty much why Harry Potter and Nintendo are at Universal; Universal lets the respective companies do what they want in the park, while Disney demands companies to do things the "Disney" way with their IPs. Rowling and Nintendo are fairly protective of their IPs, so it's no surprise that Universal would be the better deal. Universal is willing to give everything, while Disney demands everything.
Kind of a weird question: Years and years ago during either a Sonic '06 discussion or a discussion of a particularly polarizing hypothetical Sonic game that is followed by the number 3, I recall Polygon Jim screenshotting some of Sonic 06's code in which the game internally refers itself to 'Sonic Adventure 3.' Does anyone recall where on earth he stated/posted that? I've attempted to search it, but to no avail.
If that indeed happened, you might have to scour the Sonic CulT archives. I'm not sure when Jim (RIP) made the transition to Retro. I also have a random question: Was Nazo's purpose or intended use ever found?
I was pretty active on the Cult and I don't remember that, but I'd definitely be interested to know if it's true or not. As for "Nazo" (I hate that name) some dude pestered Iizuka enough about it on Facebook and he said it was supposed to be Super Sonic. I saw a screenshot of the chat which was pretty cringeworthy.