The GHZ -- Sonic Team in 2000

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-- Sonic Team in 2000 -- Unless you had one too many cups of Drano at the New Year's party or are still hiding in your bomb shelter waiting for the world to fall apart, you are aware that the year 2000 is upon us. Or rather, we are upon the year 2000. I think we all have a pretty good idea of what we'll be doing this year...but we are all useless cogs in the grand scheme of eternity. The real question is what will Sonic Team be doing this year?

Development of Phantasy Star Online, of course, is well underway by this point. A release late this year has been projected for Japan, and a US release has been confirmed shortly after. Such a game would surely present a demanding localization job, but Sega of America has promised to get the online ball rolling this year. Other than Chu-Chu Rocket and Sega Rally 2, they don't have an awful lot to carry those promises on, and PSO is the game that will establish the Dreamcast network community. What this means is that SoA'll be burning rubber and cutting cheese to ensure that PSO gets a prompt translation and domestic release. The real issue is whether or not Sonic Team can truly have the game finished for year's end. RPG development times are much longer than those of the action games the Team is used to handling, and the hurdles in getting a working online RPG world up and running are numerous. Unless the game is much farther along in development than we know, I personally doubt that PSO will make 2000 even in Japan. But whatever the case, we can all rest easy knowing that it is Sonic Team's top priority for this year.

Samba de Amigo, meanwhile, will be shaking its way into Japanese arcades in the next couple of months. Originally intended to be released in late '99, SdA met with an unexpected delay in the form of a massive earthquake in Taiwan, where the special sensors used for the maracas are produced. A domestic release later this year is possible, depending entirely on the game's success over in SushiLand.

Chu-Chu Rocket, meanwhile, should land on US shores sometime in Q1. The game has been confirmed, although a specific release date has yet to be announced. Back over in Japan, the CCR website should be consistently updated with new downloads and other special features.

And what of Sonic? Being that the Team promised regular updates to the Sonic Adventure website for one full year, we can expect new World Rankings and special downloads at least through September. The long-promised Chao Black Market should be up quite soon as well. Everyone's still insisting that a sequel to SA has been confirmed for late this year, and I still say that if a sequel does make it out for year's end, it can't possibly be worthwhile. We'll see.

According to DC.IGN, we can expect another big announcement from the Team at some point in the coming weeks. I'd bet my chips on some additional PSO information, hopefully including some gameplay details and a projected release date.

-- Green Gibbon!

Compiled and arranged by Jared "Green Gibbon!" Matte. Hosting provided by Emulation Zone and Emulation World.