Issue 20

Issue 20 is the twentieth edition of Sonic the Comic, the UK's official SEGA comic. Released on the 19th of February 1994, at the price of £1.10, the issue contained four original stories (one of them new), as well as several features and a competition to win Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog videos.

Contents[]

Control Zone
Sonic the Hedgehog - Hill Top Terror
Review Zone
Eternal Champions - The Eternal Champions: Part 2
News Zone
Shinobi - The Art of War: Part 2
Q Zone
Tails - The Land Beyond: Part 3
Speedlines
Next Issue

Strips[]

Sonic the Hedgehog[]

Hill Top Terror is a complete story by Nigel Kitching, Ferran Rodriguez and Ellie de Ville. Sonic and Tails have come to the Hill Top Zone to deal with an imminent volcano eruption but are forced to deal with attacking Turtloid Badniks first. Upon landing, the heroes learn about the situation from Chief Kordon before venturing into the Mountain of Destiny. An attack from a Rexon turns Sonic into Super Sonic and the pair soon encounter the Seismatron, the machine about to blow up the volcano. Super and Tails escape as the mountain erupts, where Tails convinces an arrogant Super to cool the magma into a statue of Sonic - a permanent monument to the hero!

Eternal Champions[]

Eternal Champions is a 6-part story by Michael Cook, Brian Williamson, Steve White and Tom Frame. The nine heroes have teleported themselves to Nakano Industries in order to stop the production of Bio-Key but are first forced to fight more guards. The first wave proves easy enough, but Shadow Yamoto, Jonathan Blade and Slash are soon captured. Before anybody else can deviate from the plan and get themselves incapacitated, Larcen Tyler attempts to regroup back at Fortress Eternity. Instead, RAX Coswell steals the teleporter and takes them to The Cyberdome to get some guns.

Shinobi[]

The Art of War is a 6-part story written by Alan McKenzie, with art by Jon Haward and lettering from de Ville. Joe Musashi abseils down the Tokyo headquarters of the Neo Zeed, hoping to find Naoko in the massive skyscraper. Inside, Musashi heeds Sun Tzu's words and hacks into their database, but accidentally alerts the security staff to his presence. A flashback to Musashi's sensei shows the young ninja learning about haragei and how easy it can be misdirected. Indeed, in the present, Musashi has been fooled and runs out of the room - straight into an armed guard.

Tails[]

The Land Beyond is a 4-part story by Kitching, art coming from Dave Windett with Steve Potter lettering. Tails and Errol Blackthorn have found Shirob but also the Pit Beast guarding him. Breaking him out of his chains, the heroes refuse to leave the third of the Enchanter Kings and the trio run from an angry (and hungry) monster. Tails realises that they won't get away and volunteers to fight the beast, but is saved when the stupid attacker jumps into the rocky ceiling. Shirob leads them further into the dungeons, Errol wondering if this is really the way out. Before long, they find themselves ambushed by goblin warriors and Shirob reveals himself to be the evil Trogg!

Features[]

This issue's Control Zone, hosted by Megadroid, is a busy one, having no time to talk about this issue's strips. Instead, the focus is on free gifts arriving in the next two issues, the AoSTH competition and next week's release of Sonic the Poster Mag 3. A Hume Error is given as explanation for Issue 17's late arrival and Megadroid details how you can get your letters and drawings into Speedlines. The Sega Charts see Sonic Chaos remain top of the 8-bit charts, but Aladdin moves up to top the Mega Drive chart and Thunderhawk is the new Mega-CD champion.

The Review Zone this week is split into two: the regular edition and a "Soccer Mania!" Review Zone EXTRA. Vincent Low begins by awarding Prizefighter (MCD) 75% and Steve May returns to knock down Wiz 'N' Liz (MD) with 61%. Christopher Jones starts the latter section by talking about the sensation of real-life football, before reviewing FIFA International Soccer (95%) and Sensible Soccer (80%, both MD). He also went down to a Sunday League match to ask two children about the two games.

A whole page is dedicated to the 1994 Winter Consumer Electronics Show (as detailed by Vincent Low). A host of games were featured there, with a stall dedicated to Sonic the Hedgehog 3 being the most popular. Elsewhere is news of the portable Sega Multi-Mega and movie adaptations like Cliffhanger and Ground Zero, Texas. This issue's Q Zone is an Aladdin special, with David Gibbon providing a tips for every level and the guardian bosses. Finally, Speedlines publishes letters about Sonic the Hedgehog 2, a complaint against Sonic, a complaint about not getting letters published and a complaint that the Tails strip doesn't have enough pages. All entries won a Tomy Sonic the Hedgehog Water Fun Game.