Sega have released the Sonic the Hedgehog 30th Anniversary Symphony; celebrating the series’ milestone and music.
The over hour and 45 minute performance opens with a full orchestra playing music from Sonic the Hedgehog all the way to the upcoming Sonic Colors: Ultimate. During the intermission, Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 composer Masato Nakamura made a special announcement.
His J-pop band, Dreams Come True, will release a single version of Green Hill Zone with lyrics. The lyrics will be written by lead singer Miwa Yoshida
The second half of the show was focused on the games’ vocal tracks, primarily seen with 3D games such as Sonic Adventure and onwards. They were performed by their original bands, or by those who had done popular fan covers.
These include Crush 40, Nathan Sharp (also known as NateWantsToBattle), and DJ Tomoya Ohtani. The night closed out with everyone working together to produce symphonic rock versions of Escape from the City, and Live and Learn from Sonic Adventure 2.
You can find the full performance below.
Music has always played an important part in the Sonic the Hedgehog games; often being praised even when the rest of a game was bad. During the initial coronavirus lockdown, Sega launched a 24-hour live stream of music and remixes from the Sonic the Hedgehog games, to encourage fans to stay at home.
Sega had also begun promoting the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog games by sharing samples of their soundtracks on the US YouTube account (such as Sonic Forces, Sonic Mania, Team Sonic Racing [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]) along with tracks and demo versions of songs from older games. After a vote with fans, they also released a 10-hour loop of Pumpkin Hill in time for Halloween 2018, complete with hidden messages from developers.
Will the high-bar for music continue with the next game in 2022? Does Nathan Sharp’s inclusion mean he will sing the vocals for that game’s major track?
Leaks confirmed the title will be Sonic Rangers. Those leaks gave new context to earlier claims by supposed testers, stating the game is an open world The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild style game.
Those leaks also claimed the game’s levels featured “Generations-style and the music goes HARD.” Another leaker stated the game had cyberspace levels and compared them to Sonic Unleashed, and the music in those levels also “slapped.”
What have been your favorite Sonic the Hedgehog tracks? Who do you think should do them in the future? Sound off in the comments below!
In other recent Sonic news, Sonic the Hedgehog producer Takashi Iizuka and art director Kazuyuki Hoshino have revealed they want to make Sonic a VTuber; along with opening a theme park.
The officially untitled next Sonic the Hedgehog title launches 2022 for Windows PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
Sonic Colors: Ultimate launches September 7th on Windows PC (via the Epic Games Store), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
