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2007 has been an odd year for Sonic fans. We haven’t had a main series Sonic game but we have had some surprisingly good spin-off titles. Sonic Rivals 2 was my personal favourite and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games showed that SEGA still have a multi-million selling classic in their back-pocket. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games almost became Christmas No. 1 As a Sonic fan from the UK it’s nice to see a bit of SEGA love finally head our way with new merchandise hitting the shelves, such as plush toys and official T-shirts. SEGA haven’t held back this year. Original games like Crush have shown SEGA still have a fantastic, mind-bending experience hidden in their depths. The release of a new SEGA Rally game also took us by surprise and ended up as one of my favourite games of the year. Crush is one of the few reasons to own a PSP But where the Sonic love has really been spreading is in the actual community itself. My involvement with the Sonic community outside our respective site started in 2007 and it started rather strangely. Back in the summer when Sonic Rush Adventure was announced I stumbled across a banner at the SEGA Europe site which featured art of a new character that turned out to be Marine. This caused a bit of an uproar at SEGA HQ when they realised the new character had been leaked ahead of her official announcement. This resulted in a message from Kevin Eva (founder of Sonic Wrecks and employee of SEGA) who asked me to remove the image from my site and gave me a rather splendid T-shirt for helping him in his crisis. This started my first experience with SEGA. Later on Svend Joscelyne (AKA Dreadknux of The Sonic Stadium) announced a gathering of UK Sonic fans in London to welcome Elson Wong (AKA Darkspeeds) to the UK. Elson was visiting after he embarked on a round-the-world trip after completing his course at University. What with the event being an open invitation I cheekily invited myself along. Armed with a video camera I embarked on my journey up to Kings Cross station. I turned up a little early so I popped into WHSmith to get a drink. When I returned Svend, Rory (AKA Roareye Raccoon of SSN) and Elson were all waiting there and our day ensued. Once Jess (AKA Violet), Shadowprime, Jonic, Mike Taylor (of Sonic Café Dome) and Adam (AKA T-Bird) had joined us we all headed off to the nearest public house where 7 hours of alcohol fuelled Sonic fanboy-ism began. It was a fantastic day and Elson left a lasting impression on me as a man who just oozed enthusiasm. He shared his stories and artwork with us as well as giving Svend and Adam a little gift from a previous leg of his tour. A great day was had by all. There's me in the yellow! But that was only the beginning as what happened next was another community day to mark Adam’s leave from the UK to start a job in Japan (which sadly, never happened). What did happen was a similar event to the previous one but on a much larger scale. Newcomers included Urtheart, Vger, Diogo, Roarey Raccoon, Kablooie!, B’man and Siriku. In a similar vain to the previous event we all set off for the nearest pub and thus began a tale of alcohol, podcasts and fan-art contests. Kablooie! left a large impression on me as we had been chatting away with our GBAs for quite some time without realising it. It’s been a shame that we haven’t shared words since that day because it almost felt as if I’ve known Kablooie! my whole life. Roarey was a very interesting character to say the least. He was a cynical man, full of knowledge but was amazingly easy to converse with. I sat with him, Rory and Adam outside the pub and we shared thoughts on the state of the Sonic community at that time. There's me with the red backpack! The day ended with a little trek up to Hyde Park where we sat on a hill and Diogo shared his drink and biscuits with us (always a prepared man that Diogo). What happened next was a very special day. I’ve always dreamt about going inside SEGA HQ ever since I received my Mega Drive in the Christmas of 1991. It was a complete surprise then to find an email from a certain Kevin, inviting me to SEGA’s HQ in Brentford to playtest Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games a week ahead of its’ release. I met up with Jess once I’d stumbled into Kew Bridge and then met up with one of the days organisers; Martin. We then trekked down to SEGA HQ and met Adam, Rory and Svend at the door where we received our visitor’s passes. Then off we went into the depths of SEGA to find Diogo already playing the game aswell as Kevin coaching him. The atmosphere was incredibly friendly and Jess’s laughing kept moods high as we competed in various events in the game. We even received a visit from Mario and Sonic which made me feel 4 years old all over again as I got my picture taken with Sonic and got a hug. Me, Jess and Adam get stuck in Then in true community fashion, we went a found a pub. Much drinking began and my friendship with Svend, Rory and Adam began to thrive. Later on, Mike, Kevin and Urtheart showed up from their session with the game and another fantastic Sonic community day came to an end. So that ends our story. 2007 has given me; a webmaster of a small Sonic fan-site a heap load of new friends, some amazing days out, some brilliant pictures, a trip to SEGA HQ and some excellent memories. All that’s left to say now is ‘roll on 2008!’ Cheers! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! |