There is very little today that can beat the sheer fun of taking a 100 ton Battlemech and stomping all over your enemies with every kind of weapon from Gauss Rifles to missiles, machine guns and flamers. So little to match that experience of carefully customizing your Mech load out, of placing your weapons just right to match your style of play, yet finding something new and surprising each time you switched it up.

Sadly, much like the venerable and sublime Calvin and Hobbes (may it rest in peace), the Mechwarrior series is forever lost upon the winds of fate. Its coffin was sealed shut by Microsoft’s cancellation of the fifth installment in 2003. The recent closure of FASA studios only served to give its final rites and bury the game with the series it deserved. Today, it’s watered-down and ‘arcade’ descendant, MechAssault, forever plagues the dreams of many a Mech Pilot desperately seeking respite in something new and hopeful.

Indeed, much like the era of the Space Sims, the end of the Mech Pilot’s age is now almost at hand. Almost. While the glory days of piloting gigantic war machines may be over, the genre still has a fair bit of fight left in it. But the last Bastion of this near-extinct species is what we’re here to talk about. Ladies and Gents, I bring to you: Chromehounds.

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Sonic the Hedgehog! Super Smash Bros. Brawl! Sonic the Hedgehog in Super Smash Bros. Brawl!

Really, that’s all there is to say. Watch the trailer over and over until your eyes want to leave your sockets. Man, if this doesn’t make me want a Wii even more now…

SAGE (Sonic Amateur Gaming Expo) is an online event held every year by the Sonic Fan Gaming community, where talented fans get motivated into showing off their latest creations that pay homage to our forever beloved speed addict. Whereas a lot of the Sonic seen today has veered tremendously away from its 16-bit heritage (for better or worse), SAGE rounds up like-minded nostalgics like moi and I can’t help but get all volatile and stuff! If you ever wondered what would’ve happened if the Sega Genesis continued churning out cartridges, take some of these examples for reference. Minus the cartridge, of course.

Be sure to check out Kain’s SAGE Review for all the info on what’s worth playing (and more importantly, if there’s a download available). My personal favorites? Too many to list! But here are some anyway: Retro Sonic, Sonic Nexus, Sonic XG, Emerald Ties: Crossing Fates, and Sonic 1 Megamix.

Since some of these games were made using ClickTeam tools, you’ll need to download the DDLs here so you won’t run into any problems.

Wow, time flies when you are having fun. And time is money. So money flies when you are having fun. Especially when you spending over and over on games that, according to GamesRadar, haven’t really changed all that much over the last 10 years, even though (they are very quick to add) you may actually find them enjoyable.

Taking a sharp poke at fanboys who are seething with rage and burning up the Intertubes right now with death threats, the article takes a look at how games like Metal Slug, Guilty Gear, Football Manager, Virtua Fighter, Pokemon, Crash Bandicoot, Street Fighter and yes, even the Nintendo fan favorite, The Legend of Zelda, hasn’t evolved as much the other franchises like Super Mario, Prince of Persia or even (oh boy) Sonic! Trying to fix the situation, the GamesRadar article offers tips to developers on how they can reinvent the games, like maybe making the trip to the third dimension or adding more open-ended freedom to a platformer like Crash Bandicoot (this doesn’t sound too bad, Kameo could do it) or do something innovative with the Wii controller instead of ripping off the gameplay from Ocarina of Time all over again.

Yes, changes are required, and a lot of franchises have tried lots of new concepts - some are hugely successful, like Super Mario, Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider, Rainbow Six, etc. whereas others, like Sonic, have blown up in the developers’ faces. While some games lend themselves to a change, it has to be done in such a way that it attract a load of old gamers without leaving true fans high and dry, like Sega seems to have done in the recent years. The best thing to do is to ask the gamers what they want to see change in their favorite games. Chances are that if you sit down and talk to your target audience and long time fans, you will unearth a rare gem among the piles of garbage that will inevitably pour in. Also, game developers have to understand that, sometimes, its best to start a new franchise instead of flogging the dead horse.

Almost as if to counterpoint the whole issue, especially with the Sonic debacle, Sega is now looking to mature games like Condemned 2, Alien and comic book adaptations such as Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Captain America and Thor to help them rise to the top tier of videogame publishers. Let’s hope Sonic can make some dent and rise again in the eyes of his fans with the upcoming Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, and yes, quite possibly, even Super Smash Bros.!

Games that haven’t changed in ten years [Games Radar]
Sega Goes Beyond Sonic [BusinessWeek]

SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON (June 21, 2007)—SEGA© of America, Inc., SEGA® Europe, Ltd., and Canada-based developer studio BioWare® Corp. today announced a partnership to create a new video game based on the classic SEGA flagship icon Sonic The Hedgehog. The exact name of the game is undetermined, and it will ship in 2008.

“BioWare is one of the hottest names in RPG development in the world,” said Simon Jeffery, President and COO, SEGA of America, Inc. “Everyone at SEGA has huge confidence that Sonic is in the safest of hands, and that BioWare can create the ultimate handheld RPG experience for gamers of all ages.”

Somebody pinch me here. And I thought the whole Mario and Sonic At The Olympic Games item was a real funky ordeal, but holy crap does this take the motherfuckin’ chocolate cakes of them all. Sonic the Hedgehog games haven’t been so hot for the past few years, so it’s great to see a well-known developer like Bioware get their hands dirty with one of my all-time favorite franchises. And it’s gonna be a RPG! Bioware congregate role-playing games in their sleep.

God, the Furry Communities must be dancing in the rain right now at the sound of this news.

Source: Press Release from BioWare