Monday, October 31, 2016

Halloween Update- More Stuff & More News

This week's update falls on a holiday: Halloween.
And, because there was no Halloween-specific stuff sent in this year, the update is just bigger than usual/more stuff than normal instead of the usual celebration. Generally at least 1 fan will carve a Sonic themed pumpkin, or some company will let out a new costume accessory or something...but, it just didn't happen this year. Although, some of last year's costume stuff should still be available for ordering online. So, the update's still got treats this year with loads more things than normal so nobody feels left out on Halloween.

But first...Game News!

Sega has published that it has secured the rights for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics so that means we're guaranteed to get a Sonic Mario Olympic Games Tokyo for whatever systems are out at that time. (Ex. Nintendo is making 'the Switch' or some new handheld or something could come because that year is still far away--especially in 'console time')

Project Sonic 2017
This is what 'that new game' is being called. So now, it has a release time zone which looks like holiday season 2017 so that means around nov/dec of next year. About 1 year away is a sort of typical time to find out vague news like this.

What's the vague news?
A new character will appear
It will act somewhat like Sonic Generations with 2D & 3D levels available
Some new play-style will be available

Speculation Zone:
It's really too early to speculate much, but of course this is a Sonic blog so it will do so anyway.
1. New character may have something to do with the new play style.
That's usually how these things go like Knuckles introduced wall climbing, Tails introduced flying and all that type of thing Silver/psychic throwing. As long as they make it FITTING (I'm looking at you BIG and your fishing no one wanted) it should work.
2. Will Involve Time Shenanigans - As has already been shown it's got Classic/Modern Sonics in it again & an apocalyptic theme. No doubt Eggman has messed with time such that there's an era created where he "won" so now Sonics have gone through time to stop him.
3. New character likely has to do with the apocalyptic nature / will come from that "Eggman created era" (PURE speculation there, but that's likely the most interesting point to draw a new character from)
4. Concerns: Will REGULAR characters also appear? Throwing out every other character in favor of shoe-horning in yet another...hopefully it won't go there & fan favorites can make an appearance.

*Very Unlikely Yet Good Idea*
The TIME STONES from the Little Planet on Sonic CD. Bring these things back! They're already in the continuity, Sonic CD did really well with the whole time = good future / bad future thing & everybody seemed to like it real well. (Ex. CD is on a lot of people's favorites list)
Do something with that--keep the shape, maybe throw in Little Planet too because it was vaguely mystical enough (Appears over remote lake once in every whatever time of years blah) that it could be thrown in without messing up anything and erases the need to just make up the equivalent 'new gimmick' item.

Now back to the regularly scheduled update comments:
The site has undergone an improvement the past 2 weeks. Last week, the new category "Japan Toys" was added, and it pulled many items away from Japan Misc. Goods thanks to organization. (Too many items built up in the 'misc.' section)
Portugal!
Portugal got over 3 items, so it got its own page this week. It needs 1 more known item.
Greece:
Greece got its first item (went on International Sonic) a nice Eggman keychain.

Anti-Item of the Week: More annoying non-existent prototypes:
This time it's that 'mens gifts' cluster of items none of which are specifically for men. What is up with Sega (it's their doing) releasing all these fake photos of stuff that's just photoshop magic? These batches of items keep turning up as proto-images, and then nobody ever finds the actual things for sale anywhere.

Next Week:
Expect it to be mostly about Japan again, and also another larger than normal update because for some reason photos are plentiful again.