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Marathon
Description:
For
Marathon number two,
we're charting the rise and fall of Sonic the Hedgehog. We'll trace the
series' development through the 2D games on the Sega Genesis, to his
first outing in 3D on the Sega Dreamcast, to finally his relatively
lackluster recent outings on the current generation of consoles.
We'll be playing through a total of ten
Sonic
games, including:
- Sonic the
Hedgehog
- Sonic the
Hedgehog 2
- Sonic the
Hedgehog 3
- Sonic and
Knuckles
- Sonic CD
- Sonic
Adventure
- Sonic
Adventure 2
- Sonic '06
- Sonic
Unleashed
...and because
you all asked for
it...
- Sonic 3D
Blast!
All the money raised will go to the World
Food Program,
a charity devoted to fighting world hunger and disease.
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Why
Sonic the
Hedgehog?
Aside from the fact we had all the games readily available, almost
everyone has played at least one Sonic game (or at least know who he
is). It's also a much needed change from the slower gameplay we endured
during the Pokemon
Marathon.
What's
the criteria for completion?
For all the
games on the Sega Genesis (Sonic
1, Sonic 2, Sonic 3 and Knuckles) and Sonic CD, once we beat Dr.
Robotnik on the final stage, we're done.
Sonic Adventure is considered finished when Perfect Chaos is destroyed
at the end, and Sonic Adventure 2 is done when The Finalhazard (it's
really called that?) is taken down.
Sonic
the Hedgehog (Sonic '06)
is completed when each character's storyline is finished and Solaris is
defeated. Sonic Unleashed is finished when Dark Gaia is beaten.
What
system will
you play the games on?
Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, Sonic 3 and Knuckles and Sonic 3D Blast
will be played on
my aging Sega Genesis.
Sonic
CD will be played on a
GameCube using the Sonic Gems Collection game.
Sonic
Adventure and
Sonic Adventure 2 will be played on a Sega Dreamcast.
Sonic
'06 and
Sonic Unleashed will be played on a PlayStation 3.
Will
you (play this other game/get all
the Chaos Emeralds/do something else not initially planned?)
Who knows, I guess you'll have to tune in to find out. If you guys
donate enough, we'll definitely consider
doing something extra!
I
want to watch, but I'll be away. What
do I do?!
This time,
provided there are no unforeseen
technical issues, we'll be recording the entire Marathon
so you can re-watch
it whenever you'd like!
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Banner Contest:
We
held a contest to design a
banner for the Evolution of Sonic the Hedgehog Marathon. The only
requirements were that the Marathon name was included and it showed the
progression of the Sonic series in some way. Once the banners were
recieved, people were allowed to vote for their favorite. Although Hellmonkey500's
banner won, I've included all the entrants, as well as the poll
results. Good job, everyone!
...by Hellmonkey500.
(34%, 78
votes)
...by
dsrules4. (31%, 72
votes)
...by
Smiller. (2%,
5 votes)
...by
Kendo-Magna. (3%, 6 votes)
...by
Shengii (Shengii #1
in the poll). (3%, 8
votes)
...by
Shengii (Shengii #2
in the poll). (16%, 37 votes)
...by
Fernando. (3%, 8
votes)
...by
Rachel. (7%, 16 votes)
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Voice
Endorsements:
During
the Marathon, some people recorded some hilarious voice endorsements.
I've included all of them on the website so you can listen to them at
any time! I tried to credit everybody, but I don't know the authors for
some of them. Email me here
if you can identify the authors (or if I misattributed something).
ExtraLives Promo
by Unknown
Arnold Schwarzenegger for
ExtraLives by ThatPromoGuy
Billy Cosby for
ExtraLives by ThatPromoGuy
Sean Connery for
ExtraLives by ThatPromoGuy
ThatPromoGuy for
ExtraLives by
ThatPromoGuy (who else?)
World Food Program by
ThatPromoGuy
It's over $900! by
Unknown
Dr. Eggman for
ExtraLives by
Unknown
Michael Jackson for
ExtraLives by Unknown
Big the Cat for
ExtraLives by David Collins
In a World... (Don
LaFontaine)
by David
Collins
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Synopsis of the
Marathon:
The team for this
Marathon was a little different than before. It was made up of Tim (the
guy writing all of this), Jason,
Stephen, and a newcomer (to replace Cuban Steve), Peter.
Even though the Marathon
was scheduled to begin 3PM Eastern Time (UTC -4), we started
broadcasting around 1:30PM. It wasn't part of the Marathon-- it was
just a chance to make sure the feed was working. After a few intense
rounds of Sonic
the Fighters (bad fighting game)
and Sonic R
(really bad
racing game), we were ready to start the Marathon... but not before we
paid tribute to Michael Jackson the only way we knew how-- playing
through Michael
Jackson's Moonwalker.
3:00 PM rolled around and after blowing into the
cartridge a few times, we started Sonic
the Hedgehog.
We let Jason
take control at first (a mistake we'd regret many times during the
Marathon). However, once he died on Marble Zone (level 2!), I took
control. And then I died on Act 3 of Labyrinth Zone.... so we did the
level select code (it's not cheating!) to get back our progress.
Finally, after about 1 hour and 15
minutes, Sonic the Hedgehog
was completed. We moved on to Sonic
the Hedgehog 2,
which we then completed in about 53
minutes.
Next was Sonic 3 and Knuckles.
Of course, this being a Genesis, we had to spend a good minute and a
half blowing into the cartridge for the game to work. And in about 2 hours and 25 minutes,
we had
completed Sonic 3 and Knuckles (including Doomsday Zone).
I realize Sonic CD
was made before Sonic the Hedgehog 3, but we played it after all the
Genesis games were complete (to keep things simple). I personally hate
Sonic CD, so we made Jason play it (and Tim took over later). In any
event, Sonic CD was completed in a mere 49 minutes.
Sonic Adventure
was up next. We handed the controller to Jason once more (for Tails'
story), and... he seemed to fall off nearly every ledge in the game
(hence why we kept saying "you fell off!" during the Marathon). The E102
Gamma segment
was my personal favorite (BEEP BOOP). The rest Sonic Adventure was
relatively uneventful... but after about 8 hours and 19 minutes,
Sonic
Adventure was over!
Now that Sonic Adventure was over, we moved on to
its
sequel, Sonic Adventure 2.
I was asleep for most of this, so it was mostly Jason, Steve
and Peter
playing. After about 3 hours of sleep, I woke up and played through the
final level and killed off the final boss, the FinalHazard (while
listening to the awesome theme of Live and Learn), completing the game
in about 5
hours and 39 minutes.
We then watched Shadow fall from the Space Colony ARK to
Earth....
but
he's not dead! In fact, he's very much alive and just in time for...
...Sonic '06!
Undeniably, the most broken, frustrating Sonic game to ever be made. I
can't even begin to express how many things are wrong with it. The
repetative gameplay? The miserable voice acting? The pathetic attempt
at a story? The fact the game involves a relationship between Sonic (a hedgehog)
and Princess Elise (a human girl)?
We started playing through Sonic '06 (or, at least as much as one can
"play" that so-called "game"), but our "fun" was interrupted by the
game's constant
loading. We
suffered through Sonic's story first, then went on to play about half
of Silver's story. It was around here (6 hours and 16 minutes) where we
realized that we had enough (although,
Jason
serenaded us with a singing of Scatman around here as well).
We
switched gears a bit and moved on to Sonic
Unleashed.
After a particularly awesome opening cutscene, we
threw a
controller in Stephen's hands and he played through Sonic Unleashed. We
all had high hopes that this game would be good when it was announced,
but lo and behold, it was just another mediocre Sonic game. The
highlight of this playthrough is the reading of the horrid fanfic, "sonic
vs
goku" (around 1:09:10 in this
video). Stephen
deserves a lot of credit here, as he played through ALL of Sonic
Unleashed by
himself. That's
dedication, especially considering it was a full 11 hours and 57 minutes.
We couldn't let all that time spent playing Sonic
'06 go
to waste
(you can't just let the game win like that), so we went back to finish
the job. Picking
up where we left
off,
we went back to finishing Silver's story. Once Silver was done, nearly
everyone else (Stephen, Peter and Jason) had left. I was left
alone, fighting for my life against Sonic '06. Despite some very
awkward cutscenes were Sonic and Princess Elise (a human female)
kiss (the image of which has been forever burned in my
mind), I finally defeated Iblis (the final boss) and
put an
end to
Sonic '06. And
it only
took 17 hours and 2 minutes!
Whatever you do, DO NOT
buy
Sonic '06. Actually, I take that back. Buy all
the copies of the game you can
find, then DESTROY
them so
they can never harm anyone again.
Although we had completed the original 9 games we
had
planned on
playing, everyone kept asking for a playthrough of Sonic 3D blast. Who
am I to deny that (especially since we had reached our $1,000 goal)? As
a thunderstorm raged outside, I played through Sonic 3D blast hoping
the power wouldn't go out. Luckily, the lights stayed on just long
enough so that we could finish the game.
The entire ordeal took more than 52 hours,
but I think it's safe to
say we'll never play another Sonic game. Ever. |
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Conclusion:
Thanks to everyone who tuned in, we
raised $1,050
for
the World Food Program. That's
equal
to 4,150 meals provided to starving people! 8,646
people (from nearly 70 countries)
tuned in from the start of the
Marathon on July
24th to its end on
July 26th. When put together,
you guys watched us a total of 4,475
hours and 53 minutes!
It was
the viewers that kept us going when the Sega Genesis cartridges refused
to play or we died yet again in Sonic '06.
A special thanks goes out
to the websites that helped advertise us, such as SonicRetro,
Ninfest,
and GameMarathons.com,
as
well as
anyone else who helped out by spreading the word on Digg, Reddit,
Stumbleupon, or on various forums. We could not have been nearly as
successful as we were without your help!
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Site by Tim
Troppoli, artwork by Chris
Bo. Everything else is
© their
respective owners.
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