SONIC’S 23rd ON THE 23rd OF JUNE!!!!

Wow, so it’s Sonic’s 23^rd on the 23^rd of June!  How does that happen?!  It’s happening.  As I’m writing this I am listening to Sonic Radio on iTunes.  As long as I am home on the 23^rd of June, each time I will celebrate part of the day by listening to Sonic Radio on iTunes to some favorite remixes, favorite OST tracks, and new ones I’ve never heard before that make the experience such a treat.  I get so many smiles from this pastime.

I did this last year too.  Last year it was an event called Project 24, where several SEGA online radio stations were scheduled to host a radio show each hour playing specifically remixes of music from Sonic video games.  I was able to listen to a lot of Sonic music remixes that I’ve never heard before.  It was an amazing experience, so amazing that I tried to find some Sonic-related podcasts that contained a lot of those remixes.  I was on a crazy search for really cool Sonic remixes.

I am still collecting remixes. Mostly from iTunes podcasts, OC Remix and the Sonic Stadium Music Depository of remix albums.

Lately I’ve been distracted with another fandom: Transformers.  I have been neglecting my Sonic games for the last few months.  But seeing as it is Sonic’s 23^rd, I am brought back to appreciating my favorite childhood video game character again.  Sonic the Hedgehog has been a big part of my childhood and I don’t want him to stop being a part of my life.

Last year I was playing Sonic Rivals 2 at least two times a week.  I always played as either the three hedgehogs Sonic, Shadow and Silver, or Espio the Chameleon.  It is a nice escape.  But I haven’t touched my PSP for quite a few months now.

Ah…!   Gamma E102's theme song is playing now!!! Yay!!!

Sorry, I had to say that.  I love that robot.

I’ve tried to get back to Sonic Unleashed.  I didn’t earn any new medals for daytime or nighttime.  I played “Dragon Road—Day” a few times and had fun, but didn’t improve score by too much.  The music track for this Day Stage always makes me smile through my fails.  Hah hah. 

I’m listening to Sonic Radio now, and then I’ve got other things to do, then later in the day I’ll log in and listen to it again.  And I may visit some of the Sonic websites to see what other people say about Sonic’s 23^rd.

Oh, "Symphonic Ruin" is playing now!!  This is the remix that made me want to collect more Sonic remixes!! (see post here to read more...)

Well Sonic, it’s your 23^rd birthday/anniversary today, so Happy Birthday, I love you, and keep on runnin’!

After thought: a link to the post about my first true encounter with the Sonic the Hedgehog video game.

1991—Sonic the Hedgehog
http://cyborghaven.blogspot.com/2013/09/my-sonic-fan-girl-chronicles-chapter-1.html

My Sonic Fangirl Chronicles, Bonus Chapter: My Least Favorite Stages of Sonic Games

Ah, sorry guys.  The next main chapter of my Sonic Fan-girl Chronicles will have to wait a little longer.  For now, I’ll share the stages that I liked the least in the games I’ve played.   

• Sonic the Hedgehog (1991): Marble Zone
• Sonic 2: Aquatic Ruin, Wing Fortress
• Sonic 3: Carnival Night Zone (least favorite, not most hated—also, love the catchy carnival music, though!)
• Sonic & Knuckles: Sandopolis Zone
• Sonic 3D Blast: Spring Stadium Zone
• Sonic Adventure: Um…The Skydeck stage in Sonic’s story
• Sonic Adventure 2: Knuckles, Meteor Herd (love the music; hate the frustrating search for Master Emerald shards)
• Sonic Unleashed:  At the moment it might be Arid Sands (I love the music but I want to get an A or S rank in this stage so bad!!)
• Sonic Generations:  Crisis City Act 1 and Planet Wisp Act 1

My Sonic Fan-Girl Chronicles, Bonus Chapter: Favorite Stages of Sonic the Hedgehog Games I’ve Played

 
• Sonic the Hedgehog (1991): Green Hill Zone
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2: TIE: Oil Ocean Zone and Metropolis Zone
• Sonic  the Hedgehog 3: TIE: Hydrocity and Ice Cap Zone
• Sonic & Knuckles: Lava Reef Zone for both Knuckles and Sonic
• Sonic 3D Blast: Diamond Dust Zone (the music makes me smile)
• Sonic Adventure: NiGHTS Pinball Game!!! (I know, it’s not a stage, but…it’s NiGHTS!)
• Sonic Adventure 2: TIE: Green Forest for Sonic; White Jungle for Shadow
• Sonic Unleashed: Dragon Road-Day (sometimes frustrating but the song makes me happy J)
• Sonic Rivals 2: TIE: Mystic Haunt Zone Acts 1 and 3 (and Act 2 is my favorite Battle stage in this game because I like the music; I often have Sonic, Shadow and Silver fight there.) And the Chaotic Inferno Zone because I like the level design and music there too.
• Sonic Generations:  Green Hill Zone Act 2 (gotta go fass!)

 

The next bonus chapter may be about my least favorite stages from Sonic games I've played.

Does anyone have a favorite Sonic stage they want to share and why?

My Sonic Fan-Girl Chronicles, Bonus Chapter: Espio the Chameleon—The reason I like chameleons

So….purple is my favorite color.  Yep.  And I guess in 1995 it helped me notice this chameleon character from Knuckles Chaotix, a purple chameleon named Espio.  Eventually I learned that his name is part of the word “espionage”, spying.  Makes sense; chameleons blend in with their immediate surroundings, so that name totally goes with him, and nowadays, he’s been portrayed as a ninja character, sporting ninja stars and ninja leave-blades and others of the sort.  But I think it makes him cooler than before.

See…way back in 1995 I thought he was a girl.  I was reading a video game magazine and found a description for the Knuckles Chaotix video game for the SEGA 32X system.  When it mentioned controlling the characters, it used the pronouns “ him/her.”  It must have confused me, because if all the other characters were male then it must mean that the purple character is a female.  (Really it doesn’t matter, there’s nothing wrong with males wearing purple at all).  The peach-colored area of this chameleon’s chest was heart-shaped like a female character in the Sonic universe might have (think Sally Acorn of Sonic SAT AM fame).  So for a while, yeah, I thought Espio was a girl.  A very kinda naked, very cranky-looking girl.

I used to give him a nickname, because I’d get nervous (shy, blush) whenever I said his name, so for a while I called him “Metrio.”  It rhymed with “Espio” didn’t it? Around then I’ve heard of the word “metro” before but I didn’t understand what it meant.  I was…lessee, 1996…I was around 10 or 11 years old.

I made up a song about the Chaotix Team too, or was it just Espio?  (Actually a lot of Sonic-related characters or stuff had inspired original music from Sis and me…all of which we now both agree is stupid, but hey, we were kids and had fun with it.)

Years later when he makes an appearance in Sonic Heroes, his voice sounds pretty masculine.  Maybe it helps.   What is his actual age, anyways?   I was sort of disappointed that his voice sounded as deep as it did, but over time I got used to it.  Even now I like his voice in Sonic Rivals 2 and then Sonic Generations when Sonic has to shine searchlights on him and do a homing attack to progress through the challenge. 

It’s funny…ever since I was fascinated with Espio, it became apparent over time that the chameleon turned out to be my favorite lizard, really my favorite reptile.  In fact, if someone asked me if I had a favorite dinosaur, I’d say mine is a triceratops—because it reminds me of the chameleon.  Hey…maybe the chameleon might be a distant descendant of the triceratops, but I dunno.  That is a job for research at a later time, I suppose.  They certainly didn’t have skin that blended with their surroundings.  I thought it was  so interesting that chameleons can do that.  Heh.   Sort of makes me want to read up on chameleons now.  How they do dat?  How do they change the color of their skin to match the color on the thing they stand on?  Didn’t a couple of TV ads this year feature chameleons?  (A paint commercial and one other company.)

So…that’s my history on how I became a fan of Espio the Chameleon.  Pretty cool, huh? …  Or weird.  Whichever is closer.

Cyborg Haven Update 10-20-2013

     Hi.  Another Cyborg Haven Update.  Remember those?  Well, this update is going to be more of a teaser than an update.  Here is a list of topics for Bonus Chapters that I am planning to post in between the main chapters of my Sonic fan-girl chronicles:

 

-Galaxy Force II

 

-Favorite Stages of Sonic the Hedgehog games

 

-The Music of Sonic 3

 

-Shadow the Hedgehog, from Sonic Adventure 2 and beyond

 

-Espio the Chameleon

 

-NiGHTS craziness begins

 

These have special places in my memory’s heart where SEGA Genesis and SEGA Dreamcast memories are kept.  They are things that are pleasant and hard to forget.  They make me happy when I think back about the early days of owning a Genesis and a Dreamcast.