
Sonic Team have added eight new pictures to the official Sonic the Hedgehog website. Each of the pictures are in a high resolution format and depict scenes from the previously released trailer movies.
New Café racing game

Those disappointed by the realistic art direction of Sonic the Hedgehog may be vaguely interested in this month’s Sonic Café release. Titled Sonic Kart 3DX, the game is a ‘3D’ update of previous café game Sonic Kart. Despite its extra dimension, the race tracks are based on the zones of the early Sonic games and are rendered with a Mega Drive/Game Gear style appearance.



More information can be found at the Sonic Café home page.
Sonic Rush Director Column

Akinori Nishiyama, director of Sonic Rush, has started writing a regular column for Sega Direct. Similar to Yojiro Ogawa’s former Sonic Gems column, Nishiyama discusses both the game and the exclusive merchandise that Sega Direct has produced to commemorate its release.
The first two columns have already been published and feature added commentary from Yuji Uekawa. Very little of the text translates clearly, although it mostly discusses the design of the Sonic Rush wrist strap. Retailing for 2000 yen, the slightly over-priced item will only be available from Sega Direct.

^ The design is based on the colour schemes of Sonic and Blaze.
Sega Direct will also be supplying a Shadow sticker with all pre-orders of Shadow the Hedgehog. The order page, which can found here, explains the meaning behind the mysterious icon in the game’s logo.

^ Apparently the spiky symbol is inspired by tattoos that are popular among the people of Borneo, an island in South Asia.
Japanese GBA combo packs

As reported previously on the GHZ Newsboard, Sega will be releasing a number of Sonic Advance combo packs for the GBA. The packs are also headed to Japan, albeit with slightly different contents. Japanese gamers will have a choice of Sonic Advance & Chu Chu Rocket, Sonic Advance & Sonic Battle and Sonic Battle & Sonic Pinball Party. Logos and box art can be found by clicking on the provided links.

^ This unused scene appears on the Sonic Advance & Sonic Battle page.