The joyous sights and sounds of San Diego Comic-Con are still in the air, so now’s a great time to reminisce about another round of the secret origins behind some of your favorite games.
In this edition of Bite-Sized Game History, we’ll explore the team-up you always suspected from Sonic the Hedgehog 3, as well as a few early sketches from Maximo: Ghosts To Glory, and the animated antics of the very first Naughty Dog.
There’s a lot that can link two video games together. Sometimes it can be as simple as a few developers in common, but other times it can be an influential game mechanic or even a subtle in-game reference that hints at a connection between two universes.
What do Blizzard’s StarCraft, BioWare’s Mass Effect, and Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog have in common? Not much actually, but all three are featured in this edition of Bite-Sized Game History.
Sonic the Hedgehog spin dashed his way into our hearts nearly 30 years ago, and Sega is celebrating in style with a hefty range of new projects featuring their “Blue Blur,” all of which will launch throughout the year and into 2022.
One of those new projects, which is being produced in conjunction with Dark Horse, is a history book punningly titled Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-Speed-ia:
Dive deep into the extensive lore and exhaustive detail of each game in Sonic’s ever-expanding universe–from the beloved Sega Genesis to the most bleeding-edge video game consoles. This tome leaves no stone unturned, showcasing in-depth looks at the characters, settings, and stories from each exciting installment!
This encyclopedic retelling of Sonic’s adventures will be written by Ian Flynn, who has plenty of previous experience with the character. His career began at Archie Comics, where he penned more than 130 issues of their Sonic the Hedgehog series from 2006 until 2016. Flynn is currently the Head Writer for IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog comic series, a job he’s held since they picked up the license in 2017.
Dark Horse will publish the Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-Speed-ia in hardcover and as an ebook on November 24.
The staff at Mashable will be exploring some of the greatest games of all time in a brand new podcast known as “Games To Play Before You Die.“
The staff at Mashable will be exploring some of the greatest games of all time in a brand new podcast known as “Games To Play Before You Die“:
Which video games were so far ahead of their time, so much pure fun, that they stand apart? Since we love games we decided to answer this question once and for all in a new podcast series simply named “Games to Play Before You Die.”
Our host Jordan Minor, Senior Editor at Geek.com, breaks down the video games you MUST play before you kick the bucket (or get carpal tunnel). With the help of rotating experts and Mashable Editors, each episode dives into the development and launch of a video game that has impacted our host and guests personally as well as the industry.
Hosted by Geek.com’s Jordan Minor, the first episode of “Games To Play Before You Die” is all about Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2. More specifically, the panel discusses, “How is Sonic 2 the only good Sonic game?”
Future episodes of “Games To Play Before You Die” should appear every week (or so), and I’m very interested to see where the series goes from here.
UPDATE (10/29/22): “Games To Play Before You Die” appears to be no more, but you can still watch the video versions of each episode on Mashable’s YouTube channel.
In the end, nine titles were part of the final tally of games featured on the podcast. Here they are for posterity…
