Yay for not only Black Friday sales on physical media, but on digital downloads as well! Sega is the latest company to say it wants to encourage iTunes shopping with an app sale. This one has been dubbed the Early Bird Sale, what with Thanksgiving happening November 24, 2011 and the sale starting today, November 22, 2011.

This is a pretty standard sale. Until November 28, 2011, 12 well-known Sega iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch games will be reduced…

Sonic CD‘s digital release has really been hyped up by Sega. I mean, it’s going to be on practically every platform possible. On top of that, it even comes preloaded on all Android tablets sold at GameStop, starting immediately even though the official release isn’t until December 2011. I suppose it’s all about appealing to people’s sense of nostalgia. However, there’s something else that makes Sonic CD even better this time around.

Originally, the only playable character in Sonic CD was Sonic the Hedgehog….

Sonic the Hedgehog is 20 years old now. For exactly two decades, gamers have been able to enjoy the adventures of this high speed hedgehog, and Sega wants them to keep it up. To make it easier to do that and celebrate this momentous anniversary, Sega has decided to discount a bunch of downloadable Sonic games. If you own a PS3 or Xbox 360, you could pick up a great deal…

It’s your friendly annual reminder to go out and visit your friendly neighborhood comic shop and pick up some free comics.

Free Comic Book Day is an annual event that takes place the first Saturday in May (May 7, 2011) to help generate – or regenerate – interest in comic books.

A lot of the big comic companies release titles for the day and, depending on your shop, you can often find a few decent indies as well. Some even dump out those quarter boxes simply to get them out of the store. (But please, please, please do not think that every comic in the store is free).

Sonic is undergoing a rebirth at the moment. Way back in October, Sega de-listed every Sonic game that didn’t have a certain Metacritic average. That means Sega removed the games from store shelves. Sega wanted to keep things simple with Sonic going forward. Sonic Colors was well received, new episodes for Sonic 4 are still being released, and Sega has a new Sonic game in the works for PS3 and Xbox 360. It will be released this year.

Many game companies are feeling charitable in the way of the 2011 Sendai earthquake in Japan, with iOS games being an easy way to encourage people to donate. They can discount the game and give the money made directly to charity, so people help out and get something as a reward. Capcom did it with Street Fighter IV, 5pb did it with Memories Off 6 and now Sega’s at it as well.

Sega’s actually one-upping the other companies…

Time to grab some cheap gifts for people who you like and want to make smile on Valentine’s Day, but don’t like like. Some 99¢ iOS games ought to do the trick. Oh look, and here’s Sega’s 99¢ Loves Me sale coming in to save the day. Wow. That is an incredibly awkward and weird name for a promotion. But it’s not like we can really complain when games are drastically discounted….

As far as video game mascots go, Sonic is at the very bottom of my list. I absolutely can’t stand this thing. He’s a pair of sunglasses and a backwards ballcap away from being a member of Chuck E. Cheese’s band or a PSA character trying to convince kids that wearing mouth guards on the playground is “kewl.” Unfortunately, I happen to like good video games. I must therefore suffer Sonic…

This next bit of news is really going to hurt iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch owners who like to buy apps immediately after they debut on iTunes. Sega’s announced permanent price drops on almost every every single iOS game the company has released. Now, if you happened to be smart enough to get the Sega iOS games when they were on sale, it isn’t so bad since what used to be sale prices are pretty much standard prices now. But if you paid full price, well, you may want to just stop reading here…

Gamers new to Sonic may try this out and wonder what all the fuss is about. I’m not sure this is for them, even though it’s more enjoyable than the other recent Sonic incarnations we’ve seen. I can’t tell younger gamers whether they should start here or just go with the original Sonic games on the Virtual Console. But fans of the series won’t want to miss this. By going back to the basics, Sega has delivered the best Sonic game of this generation of consoles.