https://deadline.com/2024/10/shinobi-universal-sam-hargrave-1236110732/ Yep, this is happening! A Shinobi movie is in the works by Universal Studios, and it appears that Sam Hargrave will be at the helm of this movie. We get to see Joe Musashi on the big screen here, and it may be glorious! I did think it would have been something like Paramount Pictures or someone else who would have made the movie, but whatever. I might give this movie a watch when it comes out, even though I was not really into Shinobi, myself. So, any thoughts on this?

Ready for another round of squishable, huggable pals? You've come to the right place as Wave 3 of Sonic Squishmallows are starting to hit stores! Spotted by the ever vigilant Sonic Merch News, several shiny and seasonal plushies were found in listings and Gamestops around North America. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Shadow from Wave 1 are being rereleased as new shiny vinyl variants, as well as a new Santa version of Sonic all decked out for the Christmas spirit! In terms of wholly unique characters, that is where Dark Chao steps in. Unlike the previous Squishmallows, this will be the first in the Sonic line to be exclusive to a singular retailer: Gamestop. So if you need a bit more darkness in your plush garden, you know where to go! For a while, this were the only Squishmallows we were aware of that were coming out. That is, until a follow-up finding by the Sonic Merch News team. Found at a local Gamestop by Twitter user SonicRelated, a Silver the Hedgehog Squishmallow was found out of complete nowhere! No words on if this is an exclusive like the Dark Chao, but it proves that there is more to this wave than just reissues and festive retools. What do you think about this wave? Are you gunning for the exclusive Dark Chao and the potentially(?) exclusive Silver? Let us know!

Two freaking volumes in one year, eh? Yes, it will be happening! The next Sonic Shorts, by the one and only Sonic Paradox, will come out this December in 2024. As confirmed by Sonic Paradox in this tweet, this will happen. I wonder what wacky shorts we may see in this next installment of the series? The previous installment, Sonic Shorts Volume 9, was released a long time after the previous one, so it is good to see that this will continue and be released soon after Volume 9 was released. I am personally excited for this! I love the Sonic Shorts series as a whole, and I will love to see what may happen and be included with this next installment of the series! So, any thoughts?

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/sarah-paulson-sonic-the-hedgehog-3-rouge-the-bat-rumor/ Yep, it is true. She won’t be playing the bat in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (the movie). I am not even sure if Rouge will be in the movie at all now. Despite her being enthusiastic about the possibility and being “down” for it, and that her name was on the Sonic 3 casting page, she eventually denied that her playing Rouge was ultimately the case. There is no official confirmation that Rouge is going to be in the third Sonic movie as of now. This was all said during an interview with ComicBook, which was in promotion of her upcoming movie on Hulu called Hold Your Breath. So, any thoughts?

Among the many, many, many versions of Sonic X Shadow Generations available for purchase is the Digital Deluxe Edition, which includes a new skin for Shadow based on an early incarnation of him: Terios. Just like the other cool retro skins up for grabs, the official Sonic Twitter/X account has posted a brief clip of Terios in action for those who have been curious. Take a look for yourself: Here he is in all his glory! Strutting what's more than likely one of his/Shadow's victory poses at the end of Kingdom Valley, he sports his black and grey color scheme, scar over his eye, and some slightly shorter quills than what most of his concept art entailed. Either way, it's still a welcomed addition nonetheless, following up on Sonic Superstars' Rabbit skin. As reiterated by the Sonic Twitter/X account, pre-ordering the Digital Deluxe Edition is the only way to ensure you get this piece of history as of now! So what are you waiting for? Does this video have you sold if you haven't bought the game yet? Or does it further justify your purchase? How do you think Terios looks in game? Leave your thoughts down below!

“Character X needs more focus.” people keep saying, especially when it comes to IDW. So I thought it would be fun to count those appearances and see who Daddy Sega loves most. The characters I’ll be checking are: Tails Knuckles Amy Shadow Rouge Silver Blaze Cream Chaotix Metal No point checking Sonic or Eggman, while IDW OCs work on different rules (10 is plenty anyway). Scoring System 3 points for being the main hero of the story or in a team-up with Sonic (like most of Year One) 2 points if the character plays a significant role, does something bigger-ish 1 points for general extra credit, very large cameos, or doing something worth noting Multi-parters will be counted equally to single-issue stories, they usually have many characters anyway. Is it a perfect system? Probably not. Does it consider the quality of appearance? Kinda, but mostly no. Is juggling characters more important than a good story? Heck no. It’s all for fun and curiosity. So let’s go Neo Saga(Issues 1-12, Annual 2019) Tails 9 Knuckles 6 Amy 5 Shadow 5 Rouge 6 Silver 8 Blaze 9 Cream 0 Chaotix 5 Metal 7 Reveal hidden contents Tails obviously leads. He gets 3 points for debut, 2 for climax where gets to slam ship into a metal dragon and 1 for issue #7 where he saves Sonic by the end (which is more than Amy and Knuckles, so they will get 0 here). Plus the annual story with Sonic gets him a total of 9. Knuckles gets 3 twice, for debut and for being the major player in taking Neo Metal. Amy same, but her role in finale is significantly smaller, so only 3+2=5 Shadow is in the same boat as Amy (I don’t give points for cliffhanger in #5). You could argue he does more in fighting Neo Metal, but he doesn’t stay for after party, 2 is more than enough. Rouge is a side character in her debut (2 points) and even less important in a final fight (1), but she had an annual story, surprisingly getting ahead of two hedgehogs. Silver gets 2x3 points for debut and annual, plus 2 for saving everyone in issue #11. Blaze (co-)wins this round with a whopping 9 points, 3x3 for debut, annual, and being first to go super. Enjoy, it won’t last. Cream hasn't debuted yet, so 0 for now. Chaotix had 2 issues debut, with semi-important roles, so I give them 2x2 for it, plus 1 point for being present on Angel Island. Metal Sonic, last but not least, was the Big Bad of this arc, so he gets 2x3 for debut and finale, plus 1 more for all those other issues, where he sits in his big chair. So far little surprises, this was a very simple and short introductory arc. Metal Virus(Issue 13-32, Tangle & Whisper, Annual 2020) Tails 14 Knuckles 04 Amy 12 Shadow 08 Rouge 05 Silver 12 Blaze 03 Cream 11 Chaotix 13 Metal 09 Reveal hidden contents Tails leads again. He gets 3x3 points for Skunks in #13, going I Am Legend in #21, and fighting Zomom. Then 5x1 points for appearances in #16, #20, Tangle & Whisper, #24-25 and #30-32. Knuckles on the other hand is at his lowest. I very generously give him 3 points for the entire finale, because punching Shadow Zombot was awesome, and 1 point for the epilogue. Amy’s doing fine though. 3x3 for #15, Fall of Restoration and Fight with Zomom. Last 3 points are for minor roles in #20, #24-25 and #30-32. Shadow? Mixed. 3 for infamous #19, 2x2 for #20 and fight with Metal in #30, last point for being punched by Knuckles on Angel Island. Rouge is even worse shape, her roles in #19-20 and epilogue are just big enough I can give 2x2, but spying on Zavok was so minor I can only muster 1 more point. Silver keeps a very strong streak, 3x3 for #14, fighting Zor and going Super, with 3 cameos in #20, #24-25, and the epilogue. Blaze is only in the end, but it’s kinda big, so she gets 3. Winning was nice while it lasted. Cream is finally here with a very strong introduction, 2x3 for debut and fighting Zeena, 2 more losing her mom in #22, and 3x1 minor roles in #20, #24-25, and #30-32. Chaotix are surprising winners of this round, right after Tails. 3x3 for losing Charmy, finding him in annual, beating Zazz, 2 for Vector sacrifice (arguably should be 3 but it’s a quick scene), 2x1 for #24-25 and epilogue. Metal has been better, been worse. He gets 3x2 for fighting Silver and Sonic in #14, Zeti in #25-29 and Shadow in #30, with an awesome annual story adding the last 3 points, saving him from the lower tier. This time there are a few more surprises, but generally still very balanced, giving time to shine to almost everyone who wasn’t missing for a big chunk of the arc. Starline's RemasterIssues 33-50 + Bad Guys, Sonic 30th, FCBD ‘21, Movie Pre-Quil, Imposters, FCBD ‘22, Annual 2022 Tails 16 Knuckles 10 Amy 10 Shadow 03 Rouge 05 Silver 03 Blaze 03 Cream 06 Chaotix 08 Metal 05 Reveal hidden contents Tails keeps dominating. He gets 3x3 points for Zeti Hunt, Battle for Empire and Pre-Quil story, 3x2 more for Chao Races, Sonic 30th and FCBD ‘21 (Eggman’s Drill), with last point for Test Run where’s he’s present but doesn’t do much. Knuckles is missing from the main book, but gets saved by spin-offs. 2x3 for Annual story and Pre-Quil, plus 2x2 for Sonic 30th and FCBD ‘21 (still Eggman’s Drill). Amy appears often but in minor roles. Her only 3-pointer is FCBD ‘22 (about her drawings), while getting 3x2 for: Chao Races, Trial By Fire, Sonic 30th, and the last 1 point for Test Run. Shadow? HAHAHA. 3 points for Chao Races and I’m still being generous. Rouge gets 2 for the same story, but gets saved with 3 points for the annual. Silver and Blaze also had annual stories, so they can sit next to Shadow on the bottom. Cream had annual AND played a bigger role in Chao Races, so 3+3. Chaotix had their very own issue, plus Espio had an annual with Silver, so that’s 2x3, plus 2 points for saving Belle from Starline. Lastly Metal Sonic gets 2x2 for Sonic 30th, Imposters Syndrome and 1 points for his small role in #50. Whenever it’s a bigger focus on IDW Cast or longer stories, you can tell scores are much lower this time, (unless you're Tails). Without the annual things would look really bleak. Power SurgeIssues 51-75 + Tails 30th, Scrapniks, IDW 5th Ann., Endless Summer, 900th, Amy 30th, Halloween, Winter, Fang, Spring, Annual 2024, Knuckles 30th DISCLAIMERS 1 Technically we should wait for Knuckles' 30th Anniversary and the last 2 issues of Phantom Rider story, but I’m going to make educated guesses. Worst case scenario, add a point or two to Tails, Amy, and maybe Chaotix. 2 Sonic 900 was a hard one to judge. Ultimately I gave everyone 2 points unless they did basically nothing, like Knuckles or Rouge. Tails 23 Knuckles 15 Amy 15 Shadow 04 Rouge 04 Silver 09 Blaze 09 Cream 07 Chaotix 10 Metal 09 Reveal hidden contents Tails has 23… this isn’t funny anymore. He gets 3x3 for Overpowered, #68, and his 30th Anniversary 5x2 for #51-52, Scrapnik Island, 900th, Winter Jam and Phantom Rider arc. 4x1 for Urban Warfare, Halloween, Fang Mini and Spring Broken Knuckles scraped few major appearances 4x3 for getting the relic from Amy, getting the relic back from Jet, Annual, and his 30th Ann. Add 2 points for Fang Mini, 1 for 900 and you’re getting really good score. Amy can’t complain either 2x3 for giving relic to Knuckles, her 30th Ann. 4x2 for Urban Warafe (big hammer!), Phantom Rider, 900th and Winter Jam 2x1 for welcoming Surge in #67 and Spring Broken Shadow meanwhile… very generous 3 points for Urban Warfare and 1 for 900th. Damn. Rouge gets 2 points for Winter Jam, 1 for 900th, and 1 for Urban Warfare. Double Damn. Silver is back in shape, 2x3 for whole Mimic thing and his not-date with Blaze, 2 for Urban Warfare and 1 for Spring Broken. Blaze similarly gets 2x3 for each ‘’date’’(???) in #63-64, 2 for 900th, 1 for Urban Warfare. Cream sadly has only 3 points for that dinner fiasco, 2x2 for 900th and Winter Jam. Not great, still better than some. Chaotix got so much special treatment recently. 3x3 for Stolen Relic, Halloween and Spring Broken (each Chaotix played role in it) and 1 for Phantom Rider. Metal ends this game with several medium-sized roles 4x2 for Escape from Empire #51-52, Overpowered #53-56, Amy 30th, 900th and 1 point for Urban Warfare. Okay, some of those numbers are just sad. But you know, seasons aren’t everything. Recently Jet had more screen time than most, but that’s temporary. Let’s just do the final tally. TotalTails 62 Amy 42 Chaotix 36 Knuckles 35 Silver 32 Metal 30 Blaze 24 Cream 24 Rouge 20 Shadow 20 Well, happy Year of Shadow. Was this any interesting? Should I do same thing for Archie or Fleetway? Maybe for other characters? Or it this stupid. Please let me know.

This is Invision Community V5 - and with it comes this new look site! We’re quite a ways off from deploying this publicly (I need to figure out things like extension applications, like the Member Rewards / Profile Gifts stuff, which has been discontinued by the current app developer because they couldn’t be bothered to re-work it for V5), but my goal is to get this ready for 2025, which is the site’s 25th Anniversary. Hopefully I can cross all the ‘t’s and dot all the ‘i’s by then. Part of this deployment will be a sea change in how we write/manage/develop news and other content across the site. This is still being drawn up properly, but the general momentum is heading towards this: http://test.sonicstadium.org/index.php?/tags/news/ The ‘tag’ system. In V4 (the currently public version of the Sonic Stadium), the tag system is an ‘open’ one. Meaning that any user - staff or no - can create brand new tags on the fly and tag their content. So if a user made a topic about Bees they could, as they’re writing the post, add a ‘Bees’ tag right there and then. In V5, that’s changed. Now, tags are on a ‘closed’ system - meaning staff (i.e. me) will need to create these tags on the backend before they can be used. This might feel limiting, but the flipside is that it allows for more direct discovery of content through tag searching. The tag system has been redeveloped for this version of the suite, and now you can simply type [site]/tags/this-is-a-tag in the URL and it will produce a landing page of ALL content across the entire site that has been labelled with that tag. Here’s another example: http://test.sonicstadium.org/index.php?/tags/sonic-x-shadow-generations/ ^ That link dynamically pulls any and every content item that has been tagged ‘Sonic X Shadow Generations’ and lumps it in one searchable page. We can add unique header banners for each tag page, and can even ‘feature’ certain content items if we want them to float to the top of said page. It’s this philosophy that will broadly drive our news efforts. As we’ve all discovered, SEGA and the Sonic Brand team have NOT been giving us a break this year with new shit happening each and every day (sometimes even on the weekends!!!)! We have long since passed the point of being able to cover it all from an official ‘news’ perspective, and desperately need the community to help us source news as it happens. We have started this with the current “Copy to Database” system that we deployed a year or so ago, and it has offered some level of decent results. With this new version, I want to evolve that and let forum topics be as big a part of the News listing/discovery as our own articles. Hence, the ‘News’ tag page. What we need to start doing is labelling content as we see it in the appropriate fashion (we will allow regular users to tag their topics too, but we can’t expect them to tag correctly all the time so we need to offer oversight). If Shiny Gems posts a topic and he hasn’t added the ‘news’ tag, let’s do it (even if we’re going to Copy to Database at a later date). It gets the content up on the News tag landing page, and we can use that link to share on social media while we decide whether to spend resources on writing over it with a formal Sonic News article. This new process will also help with users who make pretty good news topics already that we don’t really need to edit. We could continue to just ‘import’ their topic over to the Articles side, but we could also just tag the topic ‘news’, feature it where appropriate, and call it a day, sharing that link on social media the same way we would for a regular Sonic News story. We’re also going to be treating the Promote/Feature function differently going forward as well. http://test.sonicstadium.org/index.php?/featured/ In V4 there used to be three promotion methods for different nodes; Pin, Feature and Promote. Pinning topics/articles/clubs etc remain, but Feature and Promote have been unified into one simplified system now. What this means is that, whereas before we could use Feature and Pin for keeping news articles on the top of the front page and use Promote for community-based highlights, now we will use the new Feature function for both purposes. Simply put, the new Feature function in V5 will solely be used to pin content (posted anywhere across the site - forums, articles, clubs, gallery, blog, etc) to the top of the homepage. It means I want to have a closer oversight as to what is promoted specifically; I don’t want to see every community Blog post Featured anymore (and we won’t be simply Featuring ‘news’ related content either). Tags will be used more consistently to better ‘promote’ and highlight community-specific content (although I would want to Feature some community content on slow days, like a “Blog of the Week” or something). The good thing about V5 is, we can now deploy Tag-specific widgets across the site, meaning that we can make a Tag called ‘Fandom’ or ‘Community Content’, label any cool Blogs that we want to feature (but not on the top of the homepage) with those tags, and then place a widget displaying content associated with that tag on the homepage somewhere. Additionally, content that is Featured only on the Tag pages do not reflect on the main Feature system, meaning you can freely Feature content on the Sonic X Shadow Generations tag page without it interfering with homepage promotion. I’ll have more thoughts on how we can be more efficient and interact better with the community with V5 as we develop this, but in the meantime let me know your thoughts on the above and what you think of this test site in general. :)

We've learned what Shadow was doing just before the events of Sonic Generations, thanks to the new Dark Beginnings animated prologue. Meanwhile, Sonic X Shadow Generations will have a story for Shadow that will explain what he was doing as the two Sonics were dealing with the Time Eater. Now, SEGA's announced a new manga that will explain what the Chao were doing during the events of the game. Now, keep in mind that there isn't a whole lot of information about the manga that was revealed. It is going to star a Sonic Chao and a Shadow Chao. As previously stated, it is going to explain what the Chao were doing during the events of Sonic X Shadow Generations. And we also know that Ian Flynn will be the writer for it, with lines by Misa Shion and colors by Min Ho Kim. But that is all that we really know. The manga itself is called "Sonic X Shadow Generations X Chao". Fortunately, you won't have to wait long to get to see the Sonic Chao and Shadow Chao's journey! It was confirmed that the manga will be releasing a week from now, on October 18th. This is just a few days before fans that pre-ordered the Digital Deluxe edition of Sonic X Shadow Generations can play the game early, and a week before the game releases for everyone else. That all said, check out the announcement tweet from the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account:

Gosh, that’s awesome!

We're all here for the same reason (Probably). We enjoy consuming media about a blue rodent who runs fast. But what was your first interaction with Sonic?

Hi everyone! Hope your summer is going exceptionally well, and that you're looking forward to the upcoming double-threat of Sonic X Shadow Generations and Sonic 3 Movie later this year! I know I am! It's been a while since I checked in properly with you guys, so I wanted to offer a little spot-check to let you know how things are going with the site. Sonic Stadium: The Next GenerationFirst of all, sorry for the quiet comms on things regarding site updates - real-life stuff has got in the way a fair bit (including my birthday on June 30 - thank you to all of you who sent me well-wishes, it was very nice to see), but things in general have been a little slow thanks to the development of a big incoming update to the Sonic Stadium community platform. At present, testing of the next version of the Sonic Stadium is in the Alpha phases, so I don't want to say too much about where we're at right now as things are still in a state of flux. But I've been spending these last few weeks plotting out a trajectory in terms of how soon we upgrade the platform, what new features can be added and how existing ones may have to change. There will also be some incoming organisational changes too (for the better!), both on the content and forums side, as well as in terms of how each section of the site connects to one another... I have seen a bunch of feedback regarding the forums and site navigation in general, and I want you to know I am taking it all on board! But I'm at the mercy of the platform's development cycle on all of this, so I'll share specifics on what will change when I'm more confident in how things are progressing. All of this is to say, that the 'next evolution' of the Sonic Stadium that I've been banging on about for around a year now is slowly coming to fruition, but things are just taking a little more time to cook than I expected. So that's why I've been a little quiet - rest assured that there are plans in motion! Saved by the SSMB: The New ClassI have noticed a HUGE influx of new members to our community over the last few months, ever since the implosion of the social media space (and the seeming desperation of people still on those platforms to stay somewhat relevant... another debate for another time!), and I want to also take the time to officially WELCOME you all to the Sonic Stadium. Social media has become (or maybe, always has been) a rather toxic space full of redundant discourse, and I hope you'll find yourself a very positive and welcoming home here with a community of like-minded Sonic fans. We might not always agree on which Sonic game or character is the best, but the SSMB Mod Team and I always try to enforce a culture of respect for all fans who stay here. I've worked hard with the Mod team these past few years to help make those efforts shine through, so I hope you feel right at home here! Get yourself set up, complete your profile, reply to a few forum topics, maybe share some fan art in the Gallery or write a Blog or two. We aim to be a space where you can be creative and openly positive as a Sonic the Hedgehog fan. Watch Dreadknux Get Interviewed!Because of all the work I've been doing behind the scenes on the site (including the ongoing archive restoration project), real-life work commitments and my family (I have a kid now!), it's been hard for me to find time to really get myself out there the way I used to be able to. Trust me, I do miss getting on the mic for The Sonic Hour every week and giving you all the lowdown on the latest in Sonic too, and I'm looking for an opening where I can make regular commitments to video/podcasts where it makes sense. Maybe next year will be the year... In the meantime, you can catch me on an upcoming stream this Sunday! I was approached some time ago by a Sonic/SEGA streamer called Glitch Kitten - they asked me if I could help them brand up a special season of content they're planning and kindly invited me to join one of the streams and talk about the Sonic Stadium and Sonic in general! Seems really nice, so I found some time and agreed! You can catch the 'Festival of AGES' event on Glitch Kitten's Twitch channel and YouTube channel, here. And there's an event blog here if you want to find out more about what Glitch has planned for the rest of the season. I'm going to be a guest on the stream Sunday July 14 from 10:00pm UK / 5:00pm Eastern / 2:00pm Pacific. If you want to see a really old British guy talk nonsense about Sonic and this site (and its history), then why don't you join us using the links above? That's everything I have for you all this time around. Thanks for your patience, hopefully see you on Sunday, and have a great rest of the week!