The Supreme Topic of 'Other' Knowledge.

So I recently learned that the Akira bike slide is not the only Akira reference in pop culture. But this elevator design from the original Akira manga tends to pop up in video games:

It's most prominent reference was in Half-Life, but has also appeared in Metal Gear Solid, Perfect Dark, Resident Evil 2, Fallout New Vegas, Cyberpunk 2077, the list goes on.
Well Sonic's also had a bit of history with using Akira elevators. The first one that will probably come to mind is in the lifts in Iron Gate, the first stage of the Dark Story in Adventure 2:

But I'm also reminded of the scrapped Genocide City/Metropolis diagonal lift:

Or the lift area in Hidden Palace Zone

Let me know if there's other Akira elevators in Sonic you've spotted.

 

This is interesting, although they're so prominent in video games I wonder if it's just something people gravitated towards naturally. There's one in Streets of Rage 2, and it feels like that's there so you've got a wide-open space, a sense of moving upwards, but not so fast that the building you're climbing is unreasonably high. I'm sure there's plenty of other beat-'em-ups using the same trick.

Though

does Akira happen to have troop transport ships where nobody closes the side doors? I've always been blaming Star Wars Episode II for that one, but if it was in Akira first that might be three for three.

 

A scan of issue #12 of Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming turned up overnight. It has Sonic Spinball coverage from Summer CES 1993.

Bearing in mind that the game wasn't playable, and that only a video was shown:

 

Oh wow, I'm loving that squash and stretch!

Also, is that some kind of venus flytrap in the last screenshot?


Because this part of the Archie tie-in has bothered me ever since I first read it.

 

Gotta love that blast processing, what can't it do

 

Fun fact about that story: Sonic vows to save those trapped animals, but gets thrown off the mountain at the end and never comes back for them.

 

Well this is because it's your turn to power on your SEGA Genesis™ with Sonic Spinball™ (Releasing holiday 1993, the perfect Christmas gift to ask your parents to buy!!!) and take control of Sonic to take down Dr. Robuttnik's no-good diabolical pinball themed lair!

 

It was actually 90's kids' chance to write-in to Sonic grams about how much they loved and wanted more of the Sonic Spinball story, after they famously voted for more things like Horizont-Al and Verti-Cal and the Ancient Walkers, giving us renowned and loved Sonic concepts.

They didn't vote for more spinball, though. So congratulations, kids! Those animals are all fucking dead, and their blood is on your hands! Buy SEGA!

 

I was moreso referencing issue #1 of the Archie comics in which they said something along the lines of what I said as Sonic was entering a version of Casino Night Zone. I had read that Spinball tie in, although I believe in Sonic Super Digest #1, so I think the editor's note was removed which lead me to believing there was a second part not included in the Digest.

 

It was always extremely amusing when they ended a story with "Write to us if you want to see more of This Absolute Fucking Nobody!" and no readers obviously did so said character was never seen again. Pseudo-Sonic is perhaps the most obvious example of this, as by the time his story came out, there were already multiple games with way cooler robotic counterparts to Sonic.

My personal favorite, however, has to be the Substitute Legion of Freedom Fighters. It was a group consisting of Sally's four personality-devoid trainees from her miniseries and two one-off gag characters from issues that were already several years old by the time the group was introduced. And if that wasn't enough to get the readers' attention, their first and only appearance (including the call to action for fanmail about them) was in the fucking Sonic Live! special. So yeah, they were pretty much set up for failure.

And as for a second Spinball story never happening - I don't think that was due to low demand, as I very much remember seeing a bunch of kids asking for more in Sonic-Grams. Based on everything we know about Sega's extremely weird relationship with Archie at the time, the most likely answer is that Sega did not let them make more Spinball stories, as they wanted them to move on to adapting more recent games.

 

It's a platform that moves from side to side - see our older shots in Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball/Development (under Summer CES 1993)

I was going to say it would be nice if we had the actual video but turns out... we kinda do (or at least part of it)



Judging from what's written on the wiki, chances are I saw this x years ago too. Hurray for forgetting things.

 

Say what you want, there's definitely at least one kid from the 90's who was distraught Spinball's story didn't continue. His trauma resonates to this day.

 

The lack of a moving camera of that footage reminds me of the Proof of Concept "Sonic Pinball". Probably, because it's just a video demo and not the game itself. The Lava Powerhouse clip looks like real game footage but the Toxic Caves footage Is a lot closer in style to the Amiga Demo

 

How it started:

I love it.

Edit:

An early version of the European box art for Sonic 3. The uploader over at OVGA shares a bit of a story I haven't heard before:

 

The "Part One" is interesting. Was the original plan to name S&K "Sonic 3 Part Two"? Perhaps that's already known but it's the first I've heard of it.

 

You're right, that is interesting! Maybe Duncan Gutteridge or someone else who worked on the finalized artwork can shed some light on it. Think they're open for questions?

 

This version of the final cover has been known about for quite some time now.

 

Could be that they removed the text because else the image would have been too "information heavy" to be used as a key visual.

Still a bit strange why it was added in the first place then.

 

The obvious take away to me seems that they were originally planning to release the games that we know as Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles as Sonic 3 Part 1 and Sonic 3 Part 2. But in the end, they decided that selling them as two whole games that could be connected instead of as two halves of a single product would be more palatable to the consumer.

And then years later they went and did exactly that for Sonic 4 Episode 1 and Episode 2, even though the only thing those games have in common is that they both suck.

 

Yeah, I remember reviews at the time critizing Sonic 3 for essentially being half a game. Probably Sega wanted to discourage that way of thinking, and releasing a game at full price but naming it "Part One" makes it more obvious.