Street Writer: The Word Warrior: sega

Do you have a favorite Sonic Team game? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Monday, April 27, 2026

Bookmark This Page; the great fantasy fighting games

I love fighting games of all types, some of the most unique were fantasy inspired. If you want to learn about some of the best then Bookmark This Page.

Golden Axe the Duel, the great fantasy fighting games part 1...

Dragon's Heaven, the great fantasy fighting games part 2...

Warzard, the great fantasy fighting games part 3...

Asura Blade Sword of Dynasty, the great fantasy fighting games part 4...

Asura Buster Eternal Warriors, the great fantasy fighting games part 5...

Chaos Breaker - Dark Awake, the great fantasy fighting games part 6...

Battle Fantasia, the great fantasy fighting games, final part...

Did you get a chance to play any of these fantasy fighters? Let me know about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Friday, March 27, 2026

The story of Our Lady of the Boombox...

As you may know I am a huge fan of fighting games. I rarely talk about Sega fighters, and I might do a deep dive on them someday. For now I wanted to focus on some of my favorite stage art of all time. There were many stage designs in the various fighting games that I loved. Exotic jungles, busy metropolitan intersections, racetracks, heavy metal mosh pits, and other amazing backgrounds sparked my imagination. Of the dozens, and dozens of fighting games that I had played in my life there was a detail that was burned into my brain. It influenced me so much that I had to redraw it, almost from memory some 15 years later.

You might remember that Sega was one of the first studios to go all in on 3D fighting games with Virtua Fighter back in 1993. As their technology improved they tried other ideas with their fighting engine. They released a lesser known title called Fighting Vipers. The title from November 1995 featured young characters in armor, as opposed to traditional martial arts masters. The stages were set mostly in city locations. One of which was in a concrete pit with walls covered in graffiti. One of the pieces on the wall really stood out to me because it made a religious icon instantly accessible to my generation. It was inspired by the Rest In Peace murals featuring the Virgin Mary. In this case it was a tribute to Honey, the character that the Bayside stage belonged to. As a Mexican-American I grew up in the Catholic Church. I was well familiar with the art, and iconography used by the church. Jesus, his apostles, the saints, Pope’s and various figures adorned not only the walls of the churches we visited, but also abuela’s house. The image of the Virgin Mary was one of the most important figures for the Latin community. Specifically it was Our Lady of Guadalupe. The short version of this visual was that it was adopted by the natives of Mexico in the 1500’s. It lead to many of the native Aztecs to convert to Catholicism.

Many years passed, and I got a chance to play hundreds of games in the arcade, and at home. I would reflect on my favorites, and the things that made them unique. I would have long talks about it with my brothers, and friends. This was before I started writing things down on a blog. While talking about favorite stages in fighting games I mentioned the graffiti in Fighting Vipers. I lamented that my favorite piece wasn’t featured in the Sega Saturn version of the game. By that time most of the arcades we used to visit had closed down, and those that were around never had Fighting Vipers. The only proof that the art I loved had ever existed was from a tiny screenshot in one of my Japanese gaming magazines. I sketched it out one day as best as I could remember. Mind you this was almost 15 years after the arcade game had come out. The fact that it was a close approximation of the actual art showed how much I was moved by the graffiti. It really turned the iconic figure into something that 20th century kids could relate to. I’m sure that it stood out to the other Latinos that played the game.

I posted the sketch on 1UP, and talked about how I would like to redo it in color. Sure enough a few months later I had an illustrator version of it. Unfortunately looking back on my hard drive I couldn’t seem to find the original file. Thinking about it 2010-2011 was about the time that my older Mac computer crashed, and I lost a lot of data. If it weren’t for some CD backups that I made I would have lost years of files. It wouldn’t be hard for me to reproduce the piece. Chances are it would look a lot better if I did. I still loved the pose, and look of the original drawing. It wasn’t exactly how the Sega original appeared, but in my memory that was how it always was. To be honest it wasn’t be the first time I recreated the graffiti from a Sega game in Adobe Illustrator.

I was a huge fan of the Jet Set Radio games, and little by little managed to recreate all of the game icons, in Japanese, and English! As well as the small, medium, and large graffiti pieces. I was hopeful that someday I might be able to use them in some sort of modded game about graffiti. But for now that was my story on Our Lady of the Boombox. I hope you enjoyed the art. Did you ever recreate any of your favorite stage art, graffiti, or logos? Let me know about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Wednesday, March 25, 2026

Bookmark This Page; The Ridge Racer Legacy

The Ridge Racer series was a result of an intense rivalry with Sega. If you want to find out all about Namco’s flagship racing series then Bookmark This Page.

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 1...

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 2…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 3…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 4…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 5…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 6…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 7…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 8…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 9…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 10…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 11...

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 12…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 13…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 14…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 15…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 16…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 17…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 18…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 19…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 20…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 21...

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 22…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 23…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 24…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 25…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 26…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 27…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 28…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 29…

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 30…

Have you played Ridge Racer in the arcade or the consoles? Let me know about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Monday, March 23, 2026

Bookmark This Page; the Sega / Namco Arcade Rivalry

One of the greatest rivalries in the arcade was between Sega, and Namco. If you want to see some of the best work from both companies then Bookmark This Page.

The Sega / Namco Rivalry, part 1...

The Sega / Namco Rivalry, part 2…

The Sega / Namco Rivalry, part 3…

The Sega / Namco Rivalry, part 4…

The Sega / Namco Rivalry, part 5…

The Sega / Namco Rivalry, part 6…

The Sega / Namco Rivalry, part 7…

The Sega / Namco Rivalry, part 8…

The Sega / Namco Rivalry, part 9…

The Sega / Namco Rivalry, part 10…

The Sega / Namco Rivalry, part 11…

The Sega / Namco Rivalry, part 12…

The Sega / Namco Rivalry, final part…

Did you take sides in the rivalry between Sega, and Namco? Let me know about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Bookmark This Page; Car culture, racing video games, and more!

Hello friends! I’m a big fan of car culture in all forms. If you want to read about real cars, and some great racing video games then Bookmark This Page.

The Car Tangent, part 1...

The Car Tangent, part 2…

The Car Tangent, part 3…

The Car Tangent, part 4…

The Car Tangent, part 5…

The Car Tangent, part 6…

The Car Tangent, part 7…

The Car Tangent, part 8…

The Car Tangent, part 9…

The Car Tangent, part 10…

The Car Tangent, part 11…

The Car Tangent, part 12…

The Car Tangent, part 13…

The Car Tangent, part 14…

The (Videogame) Car Tangent, part 1...

The (Videogame) Car Tangent, part 2…

The Racing Tangent, part 1...

The Racing Tangent, part 2…

The Racing Tangent, part 3…

Almost SEGA Good! A 1UP Classic...

Hot Rod, my favorite driving game of all-time! A 1UP Classic...

NASCAR memories part 1…

NASCAR memories part 2…

The secrets of Hog Hollow

Are you a fan of racing games, or real cars? Let me know about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Standees, skeletons, and skateboards...

In the previous blog I shared the acrylic standees that I made over the spring of 2025. I had fun turning game characters into something tangible in the same scale as my Sonic video game toys. I started thinking about what other characters I would like working with. There were hundreds of games that I wished I had action figures of, but I wanted to start with something super rare. Nothing could have been rarer than one of my favorite games, The Ocean Hunter. The Sega gem was never ported to the home consoles. After almost three decades since its debut I thought it had become forgotten media. Then suddenly Sega announced that a complete version of the game would be included on the recent release of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza.

The Ocean Hunter was set in a different world, not quite steampunk but still filled with very fantastic creatures, and technology. It had two main characters Chris and Torel. The tricky thing for me to figure out was which version I would make a standee of. The ones without a helmet would be seen in the cut scenes. The helmeted versions appeared during the actual stages. There was a version with a larger illuminated helmet in a single stage when they did a deep dive. Just to be safe I drew all three, and I asked my friends which one I should make. They were all split on the designs. So I put them on the back burner.

As long as I was coming up with ideas for standee figures I thought about making one out of an original character instead. The one that I immediately thought of was my skeletal OC for a fictional sequel to the Atari game 720. Of the three designs I did I think I was happiest with the Vert version of my character. I haven’t given him a name yet. To be honest I was surprised with how well the Downhill version turned out. I might end up making standees of all three, each with their own custom base as well. Which of the three figures do you think works best? I probably wouldn’t order any new standees for a while as the current administration is putting tariffs on everything, and causing international shipping to go through the roof. So figures that might have cost me a few dollars might end up costing me hundreds. I would rather spend that kind of money on something else.

As you know I already gave myself an early birthday present. Six months ahead of time I pulled the trigger on a 1/6 scale basketball hoop for my collector figures. Since I was on a skateboard kick I decided to give myself an early Christmas present this year as well. It had been almost 20 years since my previous complete. A 38” Sector 9 skateboard with Rogue downhill trucks, and 65mm Lumithane wheels. I am a big guy, and that skateboard is a longboard to most people, but it feels like a regular skateboard to me. I still wished that I had a wider board. That’s when I found out about ">the Big Boards offered by Everybodyskates. These skateboards are proportionally the same shape of classic ‘80s style skateboards, but about 1/3 bigger. Now I have a 40” skateboard with 215 Indy trucks, and 60mm wheels. To me they feel perfect. I actually traded trucks, and wheels once I got it because I think green glow-in-the-dark wheels go better with a Godzilla-inspired deck. What do you think?

Have you been creating art, or spoiling yourself with unnecessary purchases? Are there any video games, or comic book characters that you would like to see a standee or toy of? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Friday, April 18, 2025

Sonic Superstars and beyond. Sega makes up for lost time, part 1...

Hello friends. I hope that you are doing well. I wanted to do a follow up on my love of Sonic Team. Writing about the developers made me realize that I hadn’t played any new Sonic titles in a few years. Part of the reason why was because a lot of the people that made up the core of the original Sonic Team had retired or moved on to different companies. Plus many of the latter 3D Sonic games seemed to be lacking the soul of the titles that I really vibed with. So I stayed clear of them for a long time. Sonic Mania Plus was the title that reignited my passion for the franchise. The original Sonic Mania came out in 2017. It featured a literal who’s-who of the most passionate members of the fan community. Instead of Sonic Team it was developed by Christian Whitehead, Headcannon, Hyperkinetic Studios, PagodaWest Games, Tantalus Media, and published by Sega. It seemed that it took that many people to rekindle the magic from the early ‘90s.

Sonic Mania played like a highlight reel of the greatest moments from the first few Genesis / Mega Drive titles, including Sonic CD. It wasn’t a collection of levels that could be found in an anthology like Sonic Origins (highly recommend!). Instead Sonic Mania had tons of new elements poured in. It was a way for new players to discover exactly why the series was so beloved, and inspire them to check out all the other games in the series. Playing it did more than send me back in time, it updated the experience and pulled it into the modern era. It was instantly embraced by gamers, and critics alike. To remind you about how much I loved the originals I said Sonic the Hedgehog 2 as my #3 favorite game of all-time. An improved Sonic Mania Plus was released in 2018. In it the developers added even more elements, and most important brought Ray the Flying Squirrel, and Mighty the Armadillo back into the spotlight. These rare characters were easily my favorite duo from the franchise. By extension I said Sonic Mania Plus had now replaced Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the list. It turned out that wouldn’t be the only game in recent memory to give Sonic 2 a run for the money.

Sonic Superstars was developed by Arzest, and Sonic Team. It was published by Sega on October 17, 2023. It was reported that the game was a way for Sega to return back to the familiar 2D gameplay while committing the Sonic engine to 3D graphics. That kind of game was more commonly known as a 2.5D title. Several classic titles had sequels in that format for some time. The ones from Capcom including Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Mega Man 11, and DuckTales: Remastered were examples of this. Several of the previous Sonic titles were strictly in 3D, and had mixed reactions from players. The company wanted to move away from sprites in order to make their game appeal to a broader audience. Unfortunately they stopped the plans for a Sonic Mania 2, and instead created Sonic Superstars. It was a shame really. I don’t blame the studio for their decision. Developing on 3D was more cost effective for the publisher. It was just good business, although many of us long-time fans did prefer sprite art in certain genres. With that said the game itself very much looked like, and felt like a classic title.

Sonic Superstars preserved the aesthetic of the early titles in a way that was hard to describe. The environments, architecture, landscape, and level layouts in the early Sonic games weren’t quite comic book, anime, or cartoon, but something in between all three. It’s hard to understand exactly what I’m referring to unless you played through them. The construction of the stages, or zones in Sonic Superstars honored the original Sonic Team art. The 3D environments were not a recreation of classic zones but instead they were new places that complimented everything that came before. I’m talking about islands, deserts, snowy mountains, and hidden temples. I instantly felt at ease running through the environments because they were so well done. There were branching paths, long coaster-like sections, narrow platforms, and tight jumps to navigate. They mirrored the best elements in any of the classic 2D Sonic titles.

The team at Arzest understood the nuances in the graphics, and design of the classic (pre Sonic Adventure) games. Superstars was layered with obvious, but also subtle nods to more than 30 years of Sonic history. There were no throw away details to be found. As a lifelong fan I was able to appreciate the big, and the little things. For example the the look of the menus, and loading screens had familiar geometric shapes, dashes, and jagged angles. The original title, and its sequels would use the bright colors, and shapes in every loading screen. We had seen variations of these elements in other games. These were sometimes synonymous with late ’80s / early ‘90s graphic design. If you knew your history however they were a direct nod to the original series Japanese box art. This was far from the only thing the developers used to make the game look, and feel like a Sonic game.

There were different bonus stages in Superstars that took equal turns in 2D, and 3D mechanics. As with all of the bonus stages throughout the franchise they required patience, and timing to become proficient at. One of which that I never thought would return were the spinning mazes from the original title. Way back in 1991 the idea of a rotating level was thought impossible on the Sega hardware. The Sega Genesis did not have a mode that allowed the hardware to scale or rotate sprites, unlike the Super Nintendo’s fabled Mode 7. The rotating mazes in the first Sonic were a programming masterpiece from Yuji Naka. It wouldn’t be the only time he showed his peers how much performance he could get out of the hardware. The bonus stages in the original Sonic were difficult, but not impossible to navigate. The updated version from Superstars actually featured layers of the spinning maze to navigate through. Plus they added new game play features with branching maze paths, and switchable paths to make them fresh. Revisiting the bonus stages could reward players with gold Sonic tokens which could be used to buy elements for the multiplayer games. More on that in a moment.

Capturing the aesthetic of those early games was only a small part of what Sonic Team, and Arzest were able to achieve. Moving the visuals to 3D allowed the developers add effects that were impossible on older technology. For example they could light the zones in a warm morning glow, or a bright midday sun. They even had some stages set at dusk, lit by moonlight, or with weather elements including clouds, dust, and fog. These details added tons of atmosphere without breaking the classic feel. Moreover the game gave audiences the ability to play through the adventure with different characters. Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles were all playable from the get-go. A new character Trip the Sungazer could be unlocked as well.

The attention to detail that went into the menu design, bonus stages, and world building was doubled on the heroes. The artists at the studio managed to create some of the best 3D models I had ever seen in the classic style. They also layered them with personality through their various animation cycles. Little things like the way the characters looked up, and down, when they balanced on the edge of a platform, and even how they changed their stance during an idle were are pulled from their earliest appearances. Moreover they added new details, for example when pushing a heavy object we could see the mascots struggling. They made facial expressions, and their legs trembled as they pushed a heavy weight. These were negligible to casual audiences, but instantly noticed by the veteran players. What I greatly appreciated in the animation was how the entire story was told through pantomime. There was no dialogue, no exposition, not explaining what was happening. The characters traveled through an adventure without any recorded audio. Dr. Eggman was especially memorable as he mocked the heroes. He would open his mouth wide as he laughed at them from the comfort of his Egg Mobile, then quickly panic with flop sweat as his plans fell apart.

A great portion of the design work, and animation stylings featured in Superstars were coming from the talented hands of Tyson Hesse. The creator was a master cartoonist, and storyteller. As a fan he had the insight as to what made Sonic a beloved character to the community. He helped Sega make the Sonic universe relevant to a new generation through his art, and direction. When the “Ugly Sonic” movie trailer was released the fan backlash was immediate. Thankfully Sega and Paramount realized their mistake and consulted with Tyson to help redesign the characters for the movie, and it’s sequels. In addition to that he directed several animated shorts, including Sonic Mania Adventures. The series of cartoons told an entire story featuring the cast of Sonic Mania Plus, but did so without any dialogue. It demonstrated that storytelling through pantomime could be universally understood. It was expanded upon in the Sonic Superstars follow up. The animated short Trio of Trouble explained what Dr. Eggman was up to, and how he had recruited the services of Fang the Hunter, and Trip the Sungazer. Directors Evan Stanley and Tyson Hesse again manage to do all this without any dialogue.

For the fans that wanted to dive even deeper into this world IDW Publishing released the Fang the Hunter series. It was the precursor to the Trio of Trouble, and everything that happened in Superstars. The animation, comic, and game were beautifully made. There was much more that I wanted to highlight in Superstars. I'll dig deeper in the next entry to this series. Did you get a chance to play this game? If so what were your thoughts. I’d like to hear about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Making a Sonic Team fan, final part...

In the previous blog I featured fan art of a Sonic Team character that never was. Selph was a cancelled boss character for the original NiGHTS into dreams… I speculated what the character looked like, and even that the studio turned the character into Chaos for the Sonic Adventure series. It wasn’t the only time I speculated on their characters. Not long ago my kid asked if I had seen Metal NiGHTS. I had never heard of this iteration of my favorite mascot. It turned out that Metal NiGHTS was hidden in Sonic Superstars, along with Metal Tails, Metal Amy, and more. This inspired me to create fan art on what a meeting of the characters would look like.

That illustration launched a creative rush, and I had to capitalize on it. It had been a long time since I've drawn back-to-back pieces in illustrator. I remembered that there was a smaller Mecha NiGHTS that was a hidden asset in the original game. So I absolutely had to put together a family portrait.

Then as long as I was drawing metal versions I figured there should be a Metal Reala as well. There was not a version in Sonic Superstars, but that didn't stop me from drawing it up. Some people call these little guys chibi-versions but technically they are classic Sonic proportions, rather than modern Sonic. Reala was just a hair bigger than NiGHTS in the original game, so even his metal version was a little bigger as well.

As long as I was creating versions of the robots that never existed I thought about the third “brother” from the series. I absolutely had to create an illustration for Metal Jackle. This character was much bigger than NiGHTS in the original game. He was actually about four times the size of the other hooded nightmarens.

I didn’t want to break the scale of the robots I had already drawn, so I simply made Jackle just a hair larger than Reala. I had so much fun creating these illustrations it made me wish that I knew how to create 3D models. I would love to get a 3D printed version of my little robots made. Don’t you think they look cute?

The only other sort of humanoid figure in NiGHTS into dreams... was the final boss named Wizeman. Yet this character didn't really have a body or head. He was more like a floating cloak on a platform. I didn't think it would be possible to make a Metal version of him, until one day I decided to give it a go. I won't be making Metal versions of the other characters because their proportions are already very much in line with the format. The more I look at these illustrations the more I wonder if it would be possible to remake NiGHTS into a game featuring robots that dream of breaking away from the control of Dr. Eggman. What do you think?

I was on an absolute drawing tear so I thought about what other Sonic Team character I would like to bring back. I remembered that Mecha Sonic from Sonic 2 had some great concept art. I thought it would look even better in color. I think this illustration came out great.

I figured as long as I made an illustration of the Mecha Sonic concept art I might as well render the other metal variations. Did you have a favorite metal doppelganger? I really need to get a copy of Sonic Superstars so I can see the various builds.

There was an illustration that I had been dreading for a long time. It was not the Super Pian aka the King of the Nightopians. I absolutely loved that little guy! I had mentioned him previously on the blog. He was a rare character that you could unlock in the original NiGHTS into dreams… The king would fly around the level and choose a spot to built a floating castle. It would be added to the game, and saved via the internal memory. The castle was randomly placed on the level, and would never appear in the same place twice, no matter how many times you erased, and resrtated your data! He was an incredibly cute character that I finally got around to drawing.

Rendering the king didn’t make me nervous but the castle he created did. It was all but impossible to get a clean picture of the castle from the game for my own personal notes. The original Nightopian Castle was rarely captured on screen because it was not guaranteed to ever show up in the game. Normally it wouldn’t be hard to find a YouTube clip to work from however the Sega Saturn was a 32-bit system from 30 years ago. Any existing video was low resolution. If you didn’t have a video capture card, or an emulator, and knew how to earn the Super Pian then even today it would be hard screenshot to get. The closest thing I could find was a fuzzy shot from the NiGHTS Wiki page but this model was pulled from the PS2 remake, which was not 100% console accurate. The Chinese developers did a really great job recreating the game engine, but not all the assets were accurate to their sprite counterparts.

Whenever there was a game asset that I couldn’t track down then I would challenge myself to draw a reproduction as accurately as I could. So I used every screenshot, and grainy video clip that I could find of the castle to work from. It took me a few days to finalize the design, and it’s essentially a high resolution, vector version of the sprites. There was no doubt that the Nightopian Castle was one of my most challenging drawings of the past decade. Maybe I should put it on a poster or tee shirt for the die-hard fans.

There was another game asset in NiGHTS that I always wanted to recreate. The villain Reala had a stylish logo on the ceiling of his boss battle stage. About 30 years ago my little brother said it would make a great design for a tattoo. I agreed, and finally decided it was time for me to recreate it. It was hard to find a clean screenshot, or the asset uploaded. So again I went by any scans that I could find. Making out the pattern at the bottom of the logo was the hardest part, so I mocked up a couple of different designs. I even changed the hands above the moon a little. Now I’m not saying that I am getting a tattoo with it, but I am certainly thinking about it.

When Valentine’s Day was approaching I decided to see what a pink version of NiGHTS would look like. I even added some Nightopians to round out the pic. I might do other holiday versions in the future. We already have a Christmas version, but I wonder how an autumnal NiGHTS would look like. Orange like the leaves in fall, or black like a Halloween monster? That's food for thought...

After a few weeks of drawing I decided to get out of my comfort zone, and do an illustration of NiGHTS, and Reala as cartoonish, and dynamic as I possibly could. I think the end result really showed how far I had come in the past few years.

The best part about working mainly in Adobe Illustrator is that I can always circle back to a piece and make changes to it. I think the second go round between NiGHTS and Reala works much better. What do you think? All in all it was fun creating new illustrations these past few weeks. I had Sonic Team to thank for that. They kept me motivated when work, and politics had been weighing on my mind. The library of Sega games had inspired me most of my life. It was time to express that love in art form.

To round out my Sonic Team fan art I combined the classic Sonic pose from the cover of Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast but replaced our hero. It was one of the more popular illustrations I ever uploaded to social media.

I know Jet Set Radio is not a Sonic Team game, but it is a Sega title, and one of my favorites of all-time. This will probably be the last time I draw the Sonic Adventure pose, but don't hold me to it.

I hope you enjoyed this look back at how the studio built a fan. I’d like to know if you were a fan of Sonic Team, and if you had a favorite game, or character as well. Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Friday, April 11, 2025

Making a Sonic Team fan, part 3...

In the previous blogs I talked about how much I loved the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and in particular the games made by Sonic Team, rather than the other developers. I also talked about the rare characters that I adored like Ray the Flying Squirrel, and Mighty the Armadillo. As much as I loved those characters I didn’t do too much art featuring them over the past few decades. Cartoon characters had always been difficult for me to draw. I try make realistic illustrations, to draw people, and vehicles in correct scale, and proportion. So going in an a loose animated style was very much out of my comfort zone. That’s not to say it’s impossible for me to do, I’m just not happy with the results when I try to draw the classic Sonic characters. I will on occasion challenge myself, and draw my absolute favorite game character instead NiGHTS from the game NiGHTS into dreams…

The problem with drawing NiGHTS was that I held the character in such high regards that I didn’t want to make a bad illustration. I worked very hard to make sure that they remained proportional to the game model. Even though this was a shape-shifting dream character without actual bones, and organs. I still wanted to make sure that my 2D illustrations gave viewers a sense of a 3D figure. Over the past few years I’ve drawn a few pieces featuring the character, and even the arch-rival named Reala.

NiGHTS and Reala were fun designs literally cut from the same cloth. You could tell that based on their early, and final designs that they were similar in form, and function. Realia had the same moves as the star of the game, and made for a difficult battle if you didn’t know how to approach the “Nightmaren.” The heroes, villains, and minor characters in the game were created by Naoto Ohshima. He of course created most of the original Sonic game cast. The designs in NiGHTS were much more humanoid, and surreal than the cartoon mascots he created for the Sonic franchise. The Nightmaren minions, which looked like dream versions of Pokemon characters were also unlike the robotic monsters that Sonic faced.

When Sonic Team shared some concept art we could see that NiGHTS, and Reala were based on a similar template. The jester-like character had very animated expressions, and a lot of these things were indeed captured in the 3D models created for the game. There was a third, larger Nightmaren boss that also took his cues from the older art. Jackle was more than twice the size of either NiGHTS or Reala. What made him eerie, aside from his laugh was the fact that he had no body. He was a floating head with hands, and feet. He could also fly, and hid his attacks behind a cape. This character was my little brother’s favorite from the game so I had to draw him as well.

The great thing about NiGHTS was how the characters changed shape as they flew around the screens. They were some of the most dynamic early 3D models in console gaming history. For example NiGHTS could dash through the skies with a burst of speed. While doing so their twin-tailed hat would get swept back, and their legs would twist to a point.

This wasn’t the only instant change that the character model had. The character could also turn into a bouncing ball, a bobsled, or even mermaid depending on where they were flying, or swimming through. Illustrating these different versions of the character were certainly an artistic challenge. It was already hard enough drawing the characters standing still, imagine trying to do an illustration of the figure that only appeared for a few moments in a perpetually shifting scene. These were the sorts of details that you could expect in a cartoon, but seeing three-dimensional models do this was truly cutting edge game animation. One of these days I’d like to get around to drawing the other shapes that NiGHTS could turn into during the adventure.

The game also featured tiny cherub-like characters called Nightopians. These were A-Life characters in the game, think of them as the predecessors to the Chao in Sonic Adventure. They had dozens of different animations, and performed many different activities. Things like fishing, building snowmen, sledding, directing traffic, jackhammering the dream world and much more. You could actually help hatch their eggs in game with the main characters. I had always wished that you could pick them up, and play with them in the original NiGHTS into dreams… This was something that you could actually do in the sequel NiGHTS Journey of Dreams. I could imagine how much fun the little guys would have if NiGHTS could zip with them through the air.

The A-life system in the game was actually very deep. You could combine the friendly Nightopians, with the evil Nightmaren and create all sorts of unique combinations. They would each hatch from their own multicolored eggs. Like I said, this predated the similar mechanics feature with the Chao in Sonic Adventure. The absolute rarest Nightopian you could unlock was called the Super Pian aka the King of the Nightopians. 17 years ago I created a video on how to unlock him. While recording my video I managed to do something that I had never been able to repeat. Not only that but I had yet to find another NiGHTS player that managed to get two Super Pains show up in one stage at the same time. Thankfully I had video to prove it, but I digress.

There was a bonus sampler disk of NiGHTS into dreams… released shortly after the title was published. I mentioned it when I did my deep dive on the blog. This sampler contained all sorts of goodies that were meant to be on the original release, if only Sonic Team were given more development time. On that disk several “presents” were available to be unlocked, including the ability to play the demo using Reala instead of NiGHTS. You could only unlock this character if you played the game on April 1, aka April fools day. The studio didn’t get a chance to finish programming Reala’s spin dash animation in the game, however the model files were located in the game files. In fact all sorts of gems were discovered when NiGHTS was datamined.

The original Sega Saturn version was notoriously difficult to crack for people looking to mine assets off of the disks. The same went for a lot of Sega’s hardware. For years, or rather decades people had been trying to find out what secrets Sonic Team had left on the game files. I too felt that the game was very densely packed, although it was a brief game I could tell that the studio put everything they had into it. The first chance to look into the code came when the game was redone, and ported to the PS2. This was easier for the modding community to get into the files, and bring them over to emulators. A number of unused models, and assets were made available to the fan community including unused animations left in the game.

One of the things that blew up in the fan community was the discovery of something fans dubbed Mecha NiGHTS. One of the unused animations featured a Nightopian playing with a remote control NiGHTS toy. Sonic Team made both a sprite model for this figure, and a 3D model as well. They were able to be reassembled, and put into the game by modders. When I found out about this unused asset I had to celebrate the discovery in art form. It was easily one of the coolest looking flying models I’d ever seen. If there was a reason for me to buy a 3D printer, and make an actual physical copy for myself then this was it. There were a few other assets left in the game files. Some of which were minor things, however there was a huge discovery that rocked the fan community to its core. I’ll talk more about this on the next blog, and share the art that came out of this discovery. Did you ever play NiGHTS into dreams… or other rare Sonic Team games like Billy Hatcher, and Burning Rangers? Tell me in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Wednesday, June 3, 2026