If the embed won’t play, Sega’s trailer is also here on YouTube.
Sega is marking Sonic’s 35th birthday the way any sensible pensioner would: with a party, a short film and an old enemy turning up uninvited. Sonic the Hedgehog: Memories and Beyond, a ten-minute animated short, premieres tomorrow, 12 November, on the official Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube channel, with a Japanese dub produced alongside the English version so nobody has to wait.
The plot is reassuringly classic. Dr Eggman plans to upgrade Metal Sonic into the ultimate fighting machine by stealing Sonic’s life-data and harnessing the power of the Chaos Emeralds, and Sonic and his friends realise that beating him will take the friendship they’ve built up over all their adventures. The trailers point to Super Metal Sonic as the main villain, with Amy among the friends lined up against him. The short was announced at Anime Expo in July, at the end of a panel looking back at Sega’s animated shorts, and it plainly comes from the same school as the much-loved Sonic Mania Adventures: bright, fast and frantically drawn.
It’s a busy anniversary year. The short lands the same day as Sonic Pico Park, and the live-action Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is due in cinemas on 19 March 2027. Here at SFcrowsnest, though, our sympathy goes to Metal Sonic. He made his debut in Sonic CD back in 1993, and has spent the 33 years since being rebuilt, upgraded and souped up, only to lose the same race to the same hedgehog. A Dalek would at least have been given a new paint job and a spin-off.
Join the conversation (0)