NegaMetallix

Well, the year is coming to an end, and so I thought of doing a recap on everything involving our favourite blue blur this year. I'll just start right off by saying that, for me 2013 was... kinda disappointing overall. Outside of Sonic-related things, there were a few good movies and games this year, but also a lot of bad ones. But how did Sonic do this year? Well, if you ask me, I think he had a very mixed year. I'll start with the Archie comics first, since that was a major part of 2013. We started off the year by finishing up 'Endangered Species' and Universe's 'Chaotix Quest' story arcs, both of which suffered from the then-ongoing Ken Penders case. As such, both storys (more so on the former) ended up severly altered, with characters like Shard and Bow Sparrow being brought in to fill in the blanks. This was followed by the 50th Universe issue, which featured an awesome battle between Metal Sonics old and new. We then got treated to 'At All Costs: Part 1', which was set to end the Mecha Sally chase. However... This was followed by Eggman discovering where the Blue Chaos Emerald disappeared to after 'Genesis'. It turned out that it landed in another universe entirely... Earth 20XX! What followed was one of the biggest, and longest, video game comic crossovers in history: Sonic & Mega Man - When Worlds Collide! We had Dr. Eggman and Dr. Wily activating another Genesis Wave to take over both dimensions, the Blue Blur and the Blue Bomber battling each other, then teaming up to stop new foes such as the Roboticized Masters and the Chaos Devil, as well as hundreds of Robot Masters from Mega Man's world. But, near the end of the crossover, we started learning more about the Penders case. And unfortunately, it seemed like he had won... After the bittersweet ending to the crossover, with Mega Man's world restored back to normal, Sonic wasn't so lucky. In-universe, Eggman's interference during Super Sonic's Chaos Control caused the world to be drastically altered, resembling a merge between the old universe and the 'Genesis' one. In the real world, however, it was because (as far as I can tell) Penders got all of his characters back, and Archie Comics could no longer use them. Seeing as his roster consisted of a majority of characters, namely one's who were going to be major players in the build-up from issues 250-300, this resulted in Ian Flynn having to completely change the story, settings, names and even removing fan-favourites from the series. Currently, the next issue to be released is the finale to 'Countdown To Chaos', and the arc so far isn't looking too bad. So here's to a new era of Sonic Comics! Meanwhile, in the official games department, SEGA revealed in May that they had entered a three-game partnership with Nintendo. While the third game won't be coming out until next year, we got given two of them this year. The first was the next major Sonic game since 2011's Sonic Generations, titled 'Sonic: Lost World'. Ever since its first reveal trailer, many people had different thoughts. Some thought it looked amazing, others thought the new characters (namely the Deadly Six) looked out-of-place. Soon after, they revealed the next entry in the Mario and Sonic Olympic series, based on the upcoming Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. Naturally, people thought it would just be more of the same. (Spoiler Alert! It pretty much was.) When Lost World was released a few months ago, the reviews were polarizing beyond belief. Some reviewers thought it was one of the best Sonic games to come out in years, but most people said that it was a step down for the franchise, either for the story, characters, way-past-experimental gameplay etc. I've only played the 3DS version, and I've pretty much said all I needed to say over on that game's topic page. So, overall I'd say that Sonic has had a bit of a rough year. But as I've said above, there are some things worth checking out for next year. We have the last game on the Nintendo contract before Sonic can go multi-platform again, and he'll be appearing as a playable character (again) in the upcoming Super Smash Bros. for Wii-U and 3DS! Meanwhile, the guys at Archie Comics are doing their best to keep Sonic fans old and new interested in the comic series. And with that, I'd like to know what you guys thought of this year for Sonic (or even just the year in general). Have a great New Year's Eve, everyone! (...Oh, and there was that... er, 'Sonic Fan-Film' early in the year. I think the video below pretty much explains my thoughts on that... er, film.)

Well, reading through Part 1 of Shadow Fall, here are my thoughts:

I dunno. It wouldn't surprise me if NICOLE does restore Sally's memories, but doesn't have enough energy to fully restore every single moment (most likely leaving out family members like Elias). Then again, it's not long until we find out. As for Sonic, his old memories are beginning to merge with new ones, so it's likely that certain memories (including his parents) may slowly fading away, being replaced with new memories of having... no parents, I guess? (I probably shouldn't look too far into it.)

This is the ultimate! ...and the end of another arc. Here are the covers and synopsis for the upcoming Universe Issue #62, the finale to 'Shadow Fall':

I could see Lucario returning, perhaps with a different Final Smash. (Mega-Evo maybe?) Mewtwo is also a possibility, but since he has two Mega-Evos it would be hard.

Hmm. you know, looking at this, I start to wonder if Masahiro Sakurai may have known about a certain comic crossover that happened earlier this year... I'm most definitely excited for this game, especially since I might actually have a Wii-U by the time its released! (If not, then I'll at least be getting the 3DS version.)

Reading the last part of what you said, Simon... now I don't think Amy will be getting her old memories back. Ah well, that's fine by me!

Well guys, it's that time of year again! (No, Christmas is later.) Anyway, here are the covers and solicitation for Sonic Issue #259 (The Chase Part 2): I'll be honest. Both the story and main cover seem to be a bit too... basic. At least, that's what I think. What are your thoughts, guys?

I believe Yacker has a cameo-of-sorts on the World Map in the Wii-U version, though I could be wrong. And yeah, none of the Wisps are story-related. EDIT: For those of you with the Wii-U version of Sonic Lost World, SEGA have just recently released a patch, which adds some 'new' features: Collecting 100 rings will now grant the player an extra life. In the event of a Game Over, we have doubled the amount of lives the player will begin with when continuing. (From 5 to 10) The Indigo Asteroid, Crimson Eagle, Orange Rocket, and Black Bomb Color Powers can now be controlled using the analog stick and buttons. Fixed a rare graphical issue that would sometimes appear during the pinball section of the Frozen Factory casino area. When completing the NiGHTMARE DLC, users will be notified that they can re-play it after scoring 100,000 points. Items will now appear on the world map. So now, those of you who were disappointed with the game should find this helpful... or not. (I can't judge the game myself since I don't have a Wii-U.)

Welp... here I was, about to do a (very late) review of Lost World 3DS, but Shadow here has pretty much summed up everything I would've said in it. Ah well... But yeah, I wouldn't recommend it at full price either. However, if you've got the skills to get past terrible level designs, then I guess you won't find it too bad.

I'm in the majority on this one, this issue was quite disappointing. Not to say it was terrible, but none of the events really caught my interest, even the Metropolis Zone part. Would've been cool to see some Slicers in there, but I digress. And the artwork didn't help, either. Sometimes it was okay, but other times... not so much. (Then again, I pity the guy's surname more than his artwork.) Also, am I the only one who'd like to have seen Eggman drinking something, then spit it out when he saw Sally?

True, there wouldn't be much of a point in it (since all it would do is effectively 'clear' the 'fogginess' from her memories), but I can't imagine Sally coping well with memories of being roboticized... twice. Especially with the synopsis of Issue 257 not mentioning any worries in the team. But who knows, maybe Sonic will try to restore someone else's memory? (...Actually, that likely won't happen if Tails' theory from the last issue is anything to go by, but still.)

A possible 'Unleashed 2'? I could get down with that, so long as they tone down (or better yet, remove) the medal collecting. The only major thing I'd see changing is the controls. Whether we like it or not, I doubt that Sonic Team will return to the boost gameplay so soon, and instead they'll probably try to improve upon the 'Lost World' playstyle. But hey, it's all just speculation at this point. (Seeing the Freedom Fighters in an actual main series game would be kinda cool, though...) One thing to note though, is that there hasn't been an official 'sequel game' since Rivals 2 in 2008 (or Generations to an extent, but that was most likely just a one-off with the Colours ending due to it being an anniversary game). All we know about next year's game is that it'll be Nintendo-exclusive (and possibly the last for a while).

So, Eclipse is basically going to be an 'Anti-Shadow'? (Well, ok, he's not the Anti-Shadow, assuming there even is one on Moebius...)