By Gareth Spriggs

After almost 23 years, SEGA have decided to give its blue mascot a western retool. On February 6th, SEGA officially announced its new spin-off in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, Sonic Boom. The reboot, which consists of a brand new cartoon show, video game tie-in and merchandise campaign, will kick off later in the year.

The biggest change fans will notice right off the bat, is the core casts redesign. It seems SEGA went a little over board with the sports tape, and Knuckles has clearly been hitting the gym more so than his classic counterpart. The designs were made by Big Red Button Entertainment, the studio who is making the game version of Sonic Boom, and if Sonic's new scarf looks familiar, well, it's because Big Red Button is made up of a lot of ex-Naughty Dog employees. Yes, this Sonic the Hedgehog stole his fashion sense from Nathan Drake.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0a7-1wdDuw[/youtube]

The game (the third and final game of SEGA's 3 game exclusive game deal with Nintendo) will be released later this year, with Big Red Button handling the Nintendo Wii U version, and Sanzaru Games taking care of the Nintendo 3DS port. The game will serve as a prequel to the animated series and tells a tale of Sonic and friends discovering an ancient land. The game posts 4 playable characters, each with their own unique skills and abilities: Sonic's speed, Tails' flight, Knuckles' strength etc; SEGA also states the game will feature new abilities and features for a Sonic game, such as exploration, combat and "a new Enerbeam tether mechanic" that sounds an awful lot like the 'Chaos Ring' gimmick from Knuckles Chaotix. For a first time in a Sonic game, the game will feature semi open-ended sandbox level design, similar to that of Naughty Dog's Jak and Daxter.

It also marks the first time a Western developer will be making a console Sonic platformer, outside of some racing and RPG spin-off games. Japanese developer Sonic Team always make and produced the Blue Blur's adventures. Speaking of Sonic Team, Sonic series producer Takashi Iizuka has stated that Sonic Boom will not be replacing the main series at all; in fact Iizuka also said that neither the video game nor cartoon version of Sonic Boom will be released in Japan.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dm-AFKUmFw [/youtube]

Marking Sonic's fifth animated series, Cartoon Network will be premiering Sonic Boom this autumn. Featuring 52 11 minute episodes, this comedic take on the adventures of Sonic and his friends is a joint production between SEGA of America, Inc. and the French animation company OuiDO! Productions. The game's current voice cast is returning for both cartoon and game, so fans can rest easy knowing they'll still hear Roger Craig Smith and Mike Pollock as Sonic and Dr. Eggman.

2014 looks to be a big year for SEGA's mascot, taking a leaf from Nintendo's book, they have dubbed this year "The Year of Sonic", and with a new high profile cartoon and video game that looks set to infuse the Sonic brand with a big, pardon the pun, boom, who are we to argue?

Gareth Spriggs is a life-long Sonic fan/geek, who spends his time making films and enjoying pop culture.