No doubt, June 11th, 1991 became a date they would not soon forget. Rushing to their computer, firing up that blistering 14.4 kbps modem, sharing with the world what they had experienced. Did they know they were buying a piece of history as the clerk rung them up? Or was it not until they went home, sliding that cart into their Genesis, flipping the switch, and running through that first checkered loop? So filled with excitement, they just needed to tell someone about how great this new game was. Finger pointed, a rendition of the Green Hill Zone teasing the obstacles that would block their way to saving South Island. Walking into an Electronics Boutique, and seeing Sonic’s self-assured smirk on the shelves. Imagine being one of the first to experience Sonic the Hedgehog. Waiting impatiently for that one game that would prove without a doubt the system was here to stay. It’s easy to look back and go “of course Sonic would succeed.” But what was it like to have lived in that moment? Not even as a kid who got a Genesis for Christmas, but as someone who picked up Sonic the moment it came out? Imagine being one of the SEGA faithful, having already bought a Sega Genesis, playing Thunder Force II and Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker late into the night. There was no doubt “Sonic Mania” was just beginning. for the home console market was split down the middle, with SEGA just ever so slightly having the edge.Īggressive marketing, mall tours, a character design that instantly encapsulated everything that was hip and cool in the new decade. Come January ‘92, SEGA had done the impossible – market share in the U.S. Here we are in 2021, about to turn the final corner into 2022, and Sega just announced a new Sonic game, called Frontiers, set in the Starfall Islands. Suddenly, that safe bet was called into question. Thats why when someone said Sega was working on a new Sonic game called Frontiers set in Starfall Islands on 4chan back in 2019, no one took it very seriously. But SEGA had an ace up their sleeve, something that could directly compete with Super Mario World – Sonic the Hedgehog. Jumpstarting the 16-bit era, its sales still paled in comparison to the Nintendo Entertainment System, and with the Super Nintendo finally coming out in the United States, it might have been a safe bet to think Nintendo would continue its dominance in the market. In the meantime, you can catch Sonic in action via the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie, which premieres April 1 in the UK and April 8 worldwide.During the holiday season of 1991, the Sega Genesis was already two years old. Sonic Frontiers will launch in 2022 on PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and Nintendo Switch platforms. This latter point might raise eyebrows, given Sega’s recent comments about dabbling in the maligned NFT market. The publisher did, however, take a walk down a very long path to reveal that Sonic Frontiers will likely retail at a premium price point, due to its extended production cost and Sega’s keenness to cement the perceived prestige of the Sonic the Hedgehog property. Sega remained quite tight-lipped on the nature of Sonic Frontiers itself, refusing to confirm nor deny features of the exciting new adventure. “During the development phase, we have been steadily conducting analysis to improve the quality of the title before release, such as introducing game testing based on external evaluations, and have a feeling that it will become a good game and have high expectations for it.” “Originally it was planned to be released on this year, the 30th anniversary of Sonic, but we have postponed the release for a year in order to further brush up the quality” noted Sega officials during the Q&A session. Sonic Frontiers hopes to turn this stigma around. Well, according to information released during a Sega Sammy investor Q&A, it seems that Sonic Frontiers was originally designed and put into production with hopes for a 2021 launch, but it was decided to take the foot off the gas in order to ensure that Sonic’s return hits a high mark of quality - something that, frankly, the Sonic the Hedgehog community has had to do without for many, many releases. However, when publisher Sega announced that the new release would be debuting in 2022, some in the community were left wondering why Sega hadn’t seen fit to release the title in 2021, to coincide with The Blue Blur’s 30th-anniversary celebrations. Sonic the Hedgehog fans were understandably stoked when December’s Game Awards presentation featured the reveal of brand new adventure Sonic Frontiers. Gotta Take As Much Time As is Appropriately Necessary