The Quill Mini-News Update 7/11/10

Welcome to The Quill, a named excuse for me to put the major Sonic news of the week in one easy digest.  Anyway, enough with the formalities, here’s the news:

Merch Alert: Spike Your Hair with a Sonic Colors Pre-Order.

Have you ever found yourself admiring Kirby’s Brawl fashion sense?  Now you too can don Sonic’s trademark quills with a free cosplay hat from GameStop with a Sonic Colors pre-order for either the Wii or DS version.  Unlike the previous fleece cosplay hat, this one is a bit more stuffed and sans eyes.

However, the impatient, or the Sonic Colors uninterested, can purchase the hat now, along with a few new additions to the cosplay line, including Amy, Tails, Knuckles, and a slightly updated Shadow.

Media News: Penders Calls Copyright on His Archie Creations, Flynn Calls Shenanigans.

Recently, Ken Penders, former writer/artist for Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog comic series, has claimed personal ownership of the characters and story arcs he created during his time working on the comic.  Early and recent Archie Sonic comic fans should be quite familiar with the work of Penders, who brought us Geoffry St. John, Lara-Su, and the Dark Legion, among many other characters and storylines through issue #160.  Though Penders doesn’t wish to prevent future use and reprinting of his work, he may pursue legal action to be compensated for what he argues is his copyrighted material.  Ian Flynn, current chief writer for the series, has responded with fair confidence that all elements of the comic fall under the contractual ownership of Sega.  More on this story as it develops.  Read the original stories here and here on the Sonic Stadium.

Game News: Saturn May Share Dreamcast’s Retro Revival.

Last month, XBLA and PSN ports of Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi were announced as part of Sega’s 11th Anniversary of the Dreamcast, with promises of other titles arriving soon after.  Now, Sega is considering bringing current consoles its other under-represented system, the Sega Saturn.  A small handful of the Saturns gems have been previously ported or remade for other systems, but because of the Saturn’s unusual hardware specifications, it’s generally considered one of the more difficult consoles to emulate.  This is no confirmation of release, simply a possibility Sega is considering.  Read the original story here from Kotaku.

Fan Community News: Celebrate NiGHTS’ 15th Anniversary by Burning Him (to CD).

Speaking of the Saturn, one of the system’s best games is getting the OverClocked Remix treatment 15 years after its release.  The new album, titled NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming, is set to be completed by December this year for downloadable release on July 5th of 2011.  Read the original story and grab a newly released sample track here via TSSZ.

Teaser: Triple Sonic Announcements Scheduled for This Week.

For those in the London area, Summer of Sonic is quickly approaching, but a few big announcements seem to be trickling out beforehand; one for the convention, one for Sonic Colors, and one that may very well change the future of Sonic as a franchise.  For the first, SoS attendees can expect to hear Crush 40 perform live at the con with opportunities for Q & A and autographs.  For the latter two, a Sonic Colors announcement will be made tomorrow (July 12), and the “franchise changing news” will be announced Thursday (July 15).  Read the full stories here and here at Sonic Stadium, and stay tuned for further news as it is announced.

UPDATE: The Sonic City Blognik has announced a new wisp for Sonic Colors.  Diligent viewers of the initial trailer may have noticed the orange, rocket shaped wisp flying alongside Sonic.  This orange, rocket shaped wisp is the orange rocket wisp, which allows Sonic to rocket upwards to staggering heights for the sake of finding secrets or alternate paths.  Perhaps orange secrets related to rockets of some sort.