The Hill Is Always Greener

Featuring: Jabbajacks as Sally AE Double as Grounder Xthedarkone as Knuckles Faulerro as everyone else

For many years, humanity has wondered, "What would a stage musical based on Sonic the Hedgehog look like?" This...is so much weirder an answer than anyone could have come up with. Today, we travel back in time 30 years to the land down under, back when the Sega World amusement park was a thing that existed, to check out Sonic in Sydney the live musical. It's a strange tale of Sonic, Tails, and Sal...

We're getting multicultural on this episode as we do a deep dive on the different ways Sonic has been portrayed between Japan and the West. We all know how Sega of America started making changes right from the jump, with their Robotniks and their Mobiuses and their Hardly, Nebraskas...OK, maybe not so much that last one. But the 30+ years that followed have seen a strange back-and-forth of each si...

We're off the starting line at high speed as we prepare for the release of Sonic's newest racer by taking a look back at some of his earliest! First up, we pop some fresh batteries in our Game Gears to check out the Sonic Drift duology, a flawed but unique attempt to bring the fun of kart racing on the go. Then we stay on track and don’t look back as we continue on to Sonic R, the equally beloved...

It takes two to tango, but it takes 12 for an all out brawl! The gang looks back at Treasure Team Tango, the Sonic Universe arc that gave Blaze and Cream their first real spotlights in the original Archie continuity! When the princess of the Sol Dimension comes looking for a missing emerald, she's going to have to team up with a couple of female freedom fighters to find it, especially when three o...

Hey, boomers! It's time to take a look back at the Sega-sational world of the UK in the 1990s! Special guest Chris McFeely of Sonic the Comic the Podcast joins us for a recap of Sonic the Hedgehog Beats the Badniks, a compilation of STC's first four Sonic strips. From the spikeball's speedy start to a clash with a cyborg chum, and from saving Sally's sibling to an encounter with an inorganic impos...

Grab your sports tape and pump up those muscles, because it's time for our first real deep dive on the Sonic Boom cartoon! This episode, we're looking back at "Robots from the Sky", the four part epic from the show's second season. Sonic and crew get an unexpected visit from some mechanical heroes, starting a chain of events that will take them all the way to a floating utopia under siege! It's a...

Welcome to the next level in 32X World! The gang is taking a little detour to Sega's ill-fated add-on and reaching into the Combi-Catcher to pull out the bizarre little side story that is Knuckles' Chaotix. With its unique ring band gameplay system, it is genuinely unlike any other Sonic game...but is that necessarily a good thing? Join us in the Newtrogic High Zone to find out! Don't worry, the b...

It's our third birthday! So to celebrate it, we're going to be facilitating a different sort of birthday. That's right, for the first time ever, the gang is going to create their own fan character! What kind of animal are they? What's their personality like? Do they have any special powers? Are they a snappy dresser? If they see a guy getting beaten up by an Egg Pawn in a bodega, will they actuall...

We need your help, listener! Andross has declared...that it's time for The Toad Is Always Slippier, our long running Star Fox podcast that we've totally been doing this whole time is ready to cover the granddaddy of them all, Star Fox 64! This seminal space shooter remains a favorite of N64 players everywhere, and it's time we gave it its due with an extensive deep dive on everything that makes th...

It's Shadow the Hedgehog, baby! Special guest Abby Denton joins us as we go on another character deep dive, this time on everyone's favorite ultimate life form. In his almost 25 years, Shadow's easily become one of the series' biggest faces, but what exactly makes him who he am? Join us as we explore his past, ponder his future, and...spend a really long time talking about Gogurt for some reason....

Remember that sense of delight and wonder you'd get when you'd force your parents to stop off at a fast food restaurant, reach into a bag containing foods that would slowly come to destroy your body over the intervening decades, and pull out a tiny plastic symbol of the power mass consumerism held over the youth of a generation? Well we do, and we're excited to talk about it! That's right, The Hil...

We're gonna be blunt: it is amazing we're here right now. If you had said this was even a possibility six years ago, we would have laughed in your face. But it's true: we now have a big-budget live action cinematic adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2, and it's GREAT. Join us as we do a deep dive on the third Sonic movie, which takes one of the series' most beloved stories and "Carreys" it in a bit of...

Order up! It's lunchtime, and we're looking to state our appetites with a discussion about all sorts of Sonic related foods! But we're not just stopping at chili dogs, oh no. We've prepared a full course meal, complete with a smorgasbord of savory dishes from both sides of the screen! From oversized sandwiches, scrumptious sundaes, and burgers of questionable quality in Sonic's world, to jammin' j...

Things have taken a dark turn for the second half of our “Genuary” discussion, as our favorite antihero emerges from the shadows once more. Shadow Generations put the dark hedgehog face-to-face with his past yet again, with levels and foes alike coming out of the woodwork to take another shot at him. Could this truly be the new defining take Shadow has been waiting for? Does it offer any new roads...

Let's do the time warp again! It's the first half of our unofficial "Genuary" celebration, as we take a look back at Sonic Generations, one of the blue blur's most beloved adventures. A celebration of Sonic's first two decades, now back on store shelves with a shiny new remaster, is this trip down memory lane as good as we remember, or has time not been so kind? Plus, we'll be taking a look at its...

The promised time is upon us... That's right, we are FINALLY talking about the Sonic X anime! Friend of the show JezMM returns as we revisit the show's take on the events of Sonic Adventure 2. Does this version of the story live up to the original? Do its additions and changes actually improve the narrative? And could replacing characters from the original story with Chris Thorndyke...actually be...

It's that time of year again, and the gang is getting into the spirit of the season with a new creative exercise: coming up with their very own Sonic holiday specials! From a tale of Tangle trying to find the perfect present for her BFF, to the Freedom Fighters looking to bring some festive flair to their little hole in the ground, plus Tails getting some gift-giving tips from old Saint Nick, and...

It's a dark and stormy night...the perfect time to revisit an all-time classic Sonic comic, IDW's Scrapnik Island! Sonic and Tails have crash landed on the island of misfit tech! Will old foes become old friends, or are some grudges just programmed in too deep? It's time for the gang to take a look back and find out! (0:00:00) Intro/main topic: Scrapnik Island (0:17:22) Issue 1 (0:43:42) Issue 2 (...

It's an adventure in time and space as The Hill Is Always Greener finally gets a chance to read the seminal classic novel, Sonic the Hedgehog in the Fourth Dimension. The second of the Martin Adams books, it sees Sonic and Tails sent back and forth through time on a quest to save planet Mobius, and perhaps the universe itself, from not only the machinations of Dr. Robotnik, but from forces outside...

Spooky times are here again, and we're celebrating by taking a look at issues 13 and 14 of Archie's Sonic X comic, a terrifying two-parter that features the return of King Boom Boo following his appearance in the show. But the only thing more terrifying than being trapped on an island with a host of possessed people out for your head...is the quality of these issues! OoOoOoOOH! ...Is that too mean...

Oh man, these Sonic games sure are great! But what if you could get a little something extra to give you a reason to go back after you finished it? That's exactly what we're going to answer in this episode, as we take a look back at the history of downloadable content in the Sonic series! From free little bonuses and contests in the Dreamcast era to the elaborate expansions and deluxe versions of...

It's time for another listing party, as we tackle perhaps the most controversial Sonic soundtrack(s) ever composed. Special guest RecD chimes in as we look back at Sonic 3 & Knuckles, a soundtrack that is perhaps known less for the music it features and more for the many mysteries behind its creation. Which are better, the original tracks, or the "original" tracks? Whether you're a dedicated f...

We're back, and we're ready to teach! Special guest Sreddous joins us for another newbie education episode, as we answer her questions about crossovers, pushing boundaries, and which part of the world Crash Bandicoot ACTUALLY hails from. (0:00:00) Intro (0:03:37) Main topic: Sonic Newbie Education 101 (0:05:16) Which games are the closest to the lore you guys accept? (0:23:01) What game do you wis...

We're locked and loaded, and ready for action. It's time for a look back at Shadow's self-titled spin-off, so the gang is joined by Midnight_Ky, who has played this game more than anyone probably should! Is Shadow a force for good? Evil? Somewhere in between? It's time for us to pick our route and show everyone that this is who we are! (0:00:00) Preamble (0:01:05) Intro (0:04:37) Midnight's Sonic...