How does a group called The Speed Gamers take almost seven years before making a Sonic marathon? This may be one of the greatest mysteries of all time, but now one of the most requested marathons EVER (not even kidding when I say that) is almost here! They've had some more minor events over the course of the last six months (can't believe it's already been that long since the only time people have ever cared about Whiscash), and raised a few thousand dollars for ACT Today, but this weekend, starting Friday at 7 PM EST, we're shifting into fifteenth gear for the big one! Money will be raised for Rockin' H Ranch, which they've done many other marathons for in the past, and may well be an instrumental reason why TSG (click the image above to reach their site) is still kicking.
As I've mentioned before, Sonic has been the odd one out for quite a while when it comes to TSG marathons. We've had Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, Final Fantasy, Metroid, Mother, and a lot of others, but never Sonic. The assumed excuse was the low quality of most recent Sonic games starting with Shadow the Hedgehog, since many of those games take quite a while to finish compared to the older titles, and who wants a stream where most of the time is spent playing garbage like 2006, Chronicles or the Storybook Not!Trilogy? Even so, people have been clamoring for a Sonic marathon in spite of that, and... well, the time has come. Even so, we had to jump through hoops to get it, since this is the end result of a Mario vs. Sonic minithon from way back in January (and even despite losing, Mario had the last laugh anyway because he gets a whole WEEK next year). And back when THAT happened, the momentum the franchise gained from Colors and Generations hadn't totally vanished yet - in fact, Sonic Boom wasn't even announced, and we were still blissfully oblivious to Knuckles' horrendous redesign.
Anyway, as for the games that are going to be played, there are a few surprises in the mix, provided the schedule doesn't change before the marathon starts. This includes notable snubs such as 3D Blast, Heroes, Shadow and Unleashed, and the presence of lesser titles like Shuffle, Spinball and the Black Knight. Chao Garden antics from the old days are also set to make a return!
All in all, I know what I'll be doing this weekend. I've been waiting for this long enough, no way am I going to miss out on this.
Well, you did say once that TSG can even make Pong interesting, back in your LP days. I'm sure that they will keep it entertaining.
ReplyDeleteSeems like they tried to avoid some the worst of the worst games in the franchise. 2006 has to be there for comedy value, but I would probably add Heroes and 3D Blast and bump two of the lesser titles you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteThey did say they wanted the whole thing to be done in-house, so maybe those games got the axe because no one who'd actually be there wanted/was able to play them.
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