‘Sonic’ video games coming to Nintendo

Sonic the Hedgehog is rolling with Nintendo.

Sega says it will exclusively release the next three games starring the popular blue critter on Nintendo platforms. The first title will be called ”Sonic Lost World” and is set for release on the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS later this year.

”With ’Sonic Lost World,’ we’re going to introduce new gameplay and enemies, which is always fun,” said John Cheng, president and chief financial officer of Sega of America Inc. ”In terms of Sonic and his friends, he’ll have his same friends there, and I think there’ll be some new ones as well. It’s not a reiteration. It’s going to be all new.”

The original fast-paced side-scrolling ”Sonic the Hedgehog” debuted in 1991. The twirling, ring-hoarding hedgehog became Sega’s mascot and a video-game icon rivaling the likes of Mario and Pac-Man.

While his recent interactive exploits haven’t achieved the same level of success as previous ”Sonic” outings, the character has remained a presence in pop culture, appearing in cartoons, downloadable games and the Disney film ”Wreck-It Ralph.”

”The onetime rivalry between Mario and Sonic has grown into a friendship that has never been closer,” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime in a statement. ”These announcements in conjunction with Sega demonstrate the commitment we have to bringing great games to the Wii U platform, and set the stage for our upcoming announcements at E3.”

Sonic has competed against Nintendo’s mustachioed spokesman Mario since 2007 in the ”Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games” mini-game series. Cheng said the characters would be back for more match-ups in ”Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.”

Over the past 22 years, Sonic and his friends have starred in dozens of games, including the hallmark 1992 sequel ”Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” 1997 3-D racer ”Sonic R,” 2002 hand-held adventure ”Sonic Advance” and 2011 anniversary mash-up ”Sonic Generations.”

Sega says more than 75 million games and smartphone apps featuring Sonic have been sold worldwide. After the publisher stopped producing its own game consoles in 2001, Sega began releasing ”Sonic” games for other systems, including Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox.

Microsoft is expected to unveil a new Xbox console at an event in Seattle next week, following Sony’s tease of the forthcoming PlayStation 4 earlier this year in New York.

Last fall, Nintendo launched the next generation of gaming consoles with the Wii U, which comes with a tabletlike controller called the GamePad. Nintendo said last March it has sold 3.45 million units worldwide, a disappointing start for the first of a new generation of gaming systems. Sega’s Cheng believes bringing Sonic exclusively to the Wii U will help Nintendo.

”It should be a win-win situation,” said Cheng. ”Don’t count Nintendo out.”

Powerball jackpot grows to a record $600 million

The jackpot for the Powerball lottery has soared to a record $600 million and the top prize may swell to nearly $1 billion if no one draws the winning numbers this weekend, a lottery official said on Friday.

The potential payout of Saturday’s jackpot could mean a one-time lump sum payment of $376.9 million. Officials reported brisk ticket sales across the country.

The top prize grew after no one won a drawing on Wednesday, said Mary Neubauer, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Lottery, where the Powerball is based.

The popular lottery, which is played in 42 states, Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands, has not had a winner in two months.

”If this hasn’t caught your attention, I’m not sure what would,” Neubauer said.

The previous largest Powerball jackpot record was $587.5 million in November 2012. According to Powerball, the odds of winning the big prize on Saturday are one in 175 million.

If no match is made for all winning five numbers and the Powerball, the jackpot could grow to nearly $1 billion, Neubauer said.

She said that size of a pot could pose some challenges for lottery organizers.

”Our billboards aren’t designed to display a billion,” she said. ”We’re not sure how we will display that amount, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Texas tornado leaves Habitat for Humanity neighborhood in ruins

Veronica Orellana, her husband and three sons were used to living in cramped spaces until six years ago, when they moved into their three-bedroom house in Granbury, Texas, built by a nonprofit that constructs homes for low-income families.

But since a deadly tornado ripped through Habitat for Humanity-built homes in the Rancho Brazos neighborhood late on Wednesday, the family has no idea what happened to their house.

”We were so happy,” Orellana said of moving into the house. ”This is the biggest house we’ve ever lived in.”

Granbury, a town of 8,000 people about 35 miles southwest of Dallas-Fort Worth, took the hardest hit.

The tornado, which killed six people, took a tremendous toll on a neighborhood filled with families who, before moving in, performed hundreds of hours of ”sweat equity” by working to construct their own homes and those of others as required by Habitat for Humanity.

None of the people who died lived in Habitat homes, but all but two of the 61 Habitat homes in Rancho Brazos were damaged and 15 were destroyed, according to Mario Flores, director of disaster response for Habitat for Humanity International.

”It’s incredible what Mother Nature can do,” Flores said. ”There are entire houses that are nowhere to be found. If it weren’t for the concrete foundation, you wouldn’t know a house was there.”

On Friday, the streets in Rancho Brazos had been cleared of debris, and where homes once stood there was nothing but tree limbs, doors, broken windows and bricks. The twisted metal frames of mobile homes were strewn about and trash blew across the empty lots.

The tornado, which brought winds of between 166 to 200 miles per hour, was rated an EF4 by the National Weather Service, the second-most powerful level for such a storm.

Orellana, 38, who owns a small retail shop in Granbury, was home with her 13-year-old son when she heard the warning siren, looked out the window and saw that the twister had already arrived.

Her car blocked by a fallen tree, Orellana clutched her son’s hand and ran, dodging scattered furniture and trash cans until she saw her nephew’s truck coming down the street.

”We jumped in and didn’t look back,” she said.

Orellana’s husband, Jose, a construction worker, had worked to build their home with other Habitat volunteers while Orellana and the boys planted flowers and grass, she said.

Now they are staying with a nearby relative in a tiny house.

”We have no money right because I was too scared to grab anything from the house,” Orellana said. ”My husband’s tools and truck are still there and we can’t get in. He can’t work without them.”

Displaced residents in the blocked-off Rancho Brazos neighborhood may be able to retrieve their belongings on Saturday, officials said.

Tiffany Mayes, 33, a single mother of 18-year-old twins about to graduate from high school, has been staying with her mother since she learned that she could not return to her Habitat home. She has also seen photos of her house on the news.

”It’s unbelievable,” she said. ”No windows. No doors.”

Flores said none of the Habitat homes were built with safe rooms, or special reinforced areas that can shield people from tornadoes.

”The local affiliate is already talking about how they can include that in the rebuilding process,” Flores said. ”This is a tornado-prone area, so it only makes sense.”

Habitat for Humanity has helped build or refurbish more than 600,000 homes for families worldwide since it began in 1976, according to its website. Houses are built using volunteer labor – from the future homeowners and others – as well as donated funds and materials.

To qualify, families must be lower-income and living in substandard or overcrowded housing. The homeowners selected are financed by Habitat with a 20-year, no-interest mortgage. Each family must also invest at least 300 hours of sweat equity in the building of their houses and the houses of others.

A family of four was scheduled to move into a Habitat home in the Rancho Brazos neighborhood this weekend, Flores said, but now that home’s foundation is all that remains.

”For this family, the dream has been delayed, but not interrupted,” he said. ”We have been here in this community for a long time. We are not going anywhere.”

By Lisa Maria Garza

having to ask people to do shit,they suppose to do, erks the shit outta me

IM SO ADDICTED TO THIS FUCKING GAME,WHO ELSE IS ON IT ?

Oscar Winner Christoph Waltz Rushed Offstage Amid Gunfire at Cannes

Two-time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz got the shock of his life Friday evening on the Croisette — the main boulevard in Cannes.

The ”Django Unchained” star was being interviewed on the live TV talk show ”Le Grand Journal,” an entertainment program that broadcasts from Martinez Beach every day during the Cannes Film Festival, when a man in the audience took out a gun and fired two shots.

”Luckily they [were] blanks,” Waltz told Showbiz411.com exclusively. ”We thought maybe it was a joke or something to do with Occupy Cannes. I think he was just crazy. They wrestled him to the ground but then he yelled, ’I have a grenade!’ That did it.”

Waltz — who was ushered offstage — said the man seemed to be shooting in the direction of actor Daniel Auteil, but it was random.

”I had a very good bodyguard who moved fast and got me out of there,” said Waltz.

Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident, according to The Hollywood Reporter, and police took one individual into custody.

Canal Plus, which broadcasts the show, tweeted in French: ”incident near @GrdJournal is over, everyone is OK, #LGJ will be back on in just a few moments.”

Waltz was apparently not too shaken as he was still able to attend an all-star dinner later at the Hotel du Cap hosted by publisher and filmmaker Charles Finch.

By Roger Friedman