The third iteration of Rez is only a few weeks away and Enhance Games took the PlayStation stage at Tokyo Game Show to once again demo the game. Tetsuya Mizuguchi, in his synesthesia suit garments, revisited a demo that has been shown for some time now. In it, the player travels through three out of order sections of Area 1, along with Area 4’s boss. SEGAbits was in attendance at Tokyo Game Show 2016 and had a chance to preview the game. What did we think? Read on!
Welcome to another episode of the SEGA News Bits, this time we will be talking about SEGA buying Technosoft’s IPs. Technosoft is best known for their Thunder Force series but also did titles like Herzog Zwei, Elemental Master and Hyper Duel. We discuss if this is a good buy for SEGA, what we would like to see SEGA do with Technosoft’s IPs and more. Tell us in the comments what your favorite Technosoft game is and what do you think of this whole buyout?
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Puyo Puyo Chronicles aspreviously reported will have a special Anniversary Box that contains several bonuses on top of the base game. This special Anniversay Box as the name implies is part of celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the franchise, including varies CDs that contain songs and drama stories, and a special Puyo Puyo 25th Anniversary 3DS theme.
If you have been waiting the Sonic X and SEGA Hard Girls blu-ray and DVD releases, you might not have to wait too long since they are coming by the end of the year. On this episode of the SEGA News Bits we discuss the upcoming Sonic X and SEGA Hard Girls releases, talk about physical media and what you need to know about these newer releases. Is anyone here going to pick up the Sonic X DVDs or the SEGA Hard Girls Blurays?
Welcome to another SEGA News Bits, this time we will be talking about the newly announced Wonder Boy Returns, which is set to be a remake of the first game. If you guys didn’t catch the news, Wonder Boy Returns was announced with a gameplay trailer and the internet wasn’t too happy with what they saw. On this episode George and Barry react and give their thoughts on what they think of Wonder Boy Returns and the sudden influx of Wonder Boy related games.
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Sonic Boom Fire & Ice is not exactly a game people are enthusiastic about, essentially being overshadowed by the stigma of the Sonic Boom sub-series starting with the infamous Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric and being ignored in favor of the fan love letter Sonic Mania. However (ironically) SEGA of Japan is still trying to promote Sonic Boon Fire & Ice (There called Sonic Toon Fire & Ice) for it’s October 27th, 2016 release date by releasing trailers that highlights the characters Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks.
Each trailer shows off the capabilities of each character via gameplay, highlighting specific techniques each character utilizes and examples of how they can be used. Said trailers also highlights the Fire and Ice gimmick and how each character utilizes them. Examples including Sonic being able to boost vertically both upwards and downwards, Amy using her hammer to create a shockwave that can lower pillers, Knuckles digging creating explosions if he creates a circle in a similar vein to the Paraloop mechanic in NiGHTS into Dreams, Tails’ ability to shoot enemies with a laser, and Stick’s boomerang.
While the Japanese have to wait for another month for Sonic Boom Fire & Ice, for those that live outside of Japan they have the luxury of playing the game this month, September 27th for the USA and September 30th for Europe.
Click below to see the trailers for Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and Sticks
Valkyria Chronicles got a surprise collaboration with the Wargaming title World of Tanks Blitz, which as the name implies is a mobile version of the MMO World of Tanks involving 20th-century war vehicles like varies types of tanks. The collaboration brings with it two new tanks, the Edelweiss—a fast and maneuverable medium tank with a good gun and stabilization from Valkyria Chronicles,and The Nameless—a heavy tank with excellent front armor and powerful armament based on the Nameless Tank from Valkyria Chronicles 3.
The event for these Valkyria Chronicles inspired tanks originally began on September 15th, 2016 (Thursday) at 18:00 UTC+8 (10:00 UTC) and is slated to end on September 30th, 2016 (Friday) at 17:00 UTC+8 (09:00 UTC). Players can buy both Edelweiss and The Nameless for the price of $44.99, or getting the two tanks separately for $24.99.
HitSparks Games, the team behind Strike Harbinger, a Space Harrier and Phantasy Star inspired game heading to PC, consoles and arcades in 2017, have just announced a character collaboration with the Henshin Engine team. Henshin Engine is a new 2D action platformer developed for PC Engine/TG-16 and PC/Steam which is nearing its Kickstarter goal. Of note to SEGA fans, Henshin Engine has a Dreamcast stretch goal as well as the possibility of appearing on SEGA CD and/or SEGA Genesis.
The collaboration promises to make Strike Harbinger‘s Valiya Iriss playable in Henshin Engine via a cute pixelated version of the character, and the star of Henshin Engine Yuki Shirokawa will appear in the Strike Harbinger universe. It’s always cool to see teams collaborating and crossing over their characters, so it will be really exciting to see the result of this.
The Wonder Boy/Monster World series has been getting an abnormal amount of love recently. On top of the new installment Monster Boy and The Cursed Kingdom and the remake of the SEGA Master System game Wonder Boy III: The Dragons Curse (which we wrote an article about), a new remake of the first Wonder Boy by Cyberfront Korea has been announced and set for a fall release on Steam called Wonder Boy Returns.
Long before the franchise became the copyright hell it’s known as today, the first Wonder Boy was a modest arcade game, with the goal to simply reach the end and chuck axes when necessary while collecting fruit to prevent your stamina from running out, with the simply premise of the titular Wonder Boy saving his girl Tina. Now enjoy the same experiences of the first Wonder Boy title with… erm… “modernized” visuals and music that really stresses the conventions of modern day PC gaming. But the interesting part though is that unlike the other revivals and remakes, this one actually does have a SEGA copyright with the game. Truly associating themselves with the highest quality games possible was their priority with this one.
Imagine growing up with a family who got you your first video game system, even though they have little to no knowledge of what video games are. That may sound like most of you, but for those that didn’t have that lovely experience, nine times out of ten you hoped that you got the one game system you wanted to get or you relied on friends to have the ones you didn’t have. And somehow, unfortunately, my neighborhood was all Nintendo territory.
Let’s fast forward to early 2012; I started to branch out in my gaming endeavors. I got an Xbox 360 a year before and third-party titles started to become my new favorite (I went crazy over all of the Suda51 games). Then one fateful spring morning, it was announced that three classic Sega titles were coming to the 360 and PS3 later on in the year. And while I already spoiled myself silly over the Gamecube port of Sonic Adventure 2, the other two games were ones that I was most excited about than any other game of that year: NiGHTS into Dreams and Jet Set Radio. Since there were no Sonic games coming out that year, SEGA gave us three remastered HD titles to melt over. And while some have already played these gems, this was an exciting and memorable moment for me in a time when people thought the world was going to end.
Discotek Media has given fans of the Sonic X and Sega Hard Girls TV shows an update on their North American DVD releases via a Facebook post detailing all of their upcoming titles. The Sonic X Seasons 1 and 2 Collection, which was originally due out September 27th, has been moved to November 8th of this year. The Sonic X Season 3 DVD collection, which will round out the series, is set to release a month later on December 6th. Both Sonic X sets will only feature the English language version of the series, which is sure to annoy purists and delight Mike Pollock fans.
As for Hi-sCool! Seha Girls (Sega Hard Girls), the company still plans on giving the series a DVD and blu-ray release and they will be picking a date soon.
While we have to wait until February of next year to play Persona 5, the title has already launched in Japan on September 15 and we already have the first week sales. According to media create, Persona 5 sold a total of 337,767 units on the games first week of release. Breaking it down by consoles it was released on, that means it did 264, 793 units on PlayStation 4 and only 72,974 units on PlayStation 3. Which is funny, considering that Atlus said the only reason Persona 5 appeared on PlayStation 4 was because of the SEGA buyout. Very good decision.
Here are the first week sales of all the other past Persona titles:
You can see how it stacks with the lifetime sales of the franchise over at Persona Central’s post. It will be interesting to see if Persona 5 outsells Yakuza 6, anything can happen. For example Yakuza 0 did 236,329 units the first week, while the main entry Yakuza 5 did 356,757 copies its first week (only on PlayStation 3). Do you think Yakuza 6 will do more than 337,767 units in Japan the first week? What do you think about the growing popularity of Persona series? Let us know in the comments below.
The indie Dreamcast game Xenocider opened pre-orders awhile back but now, like most indie Dreamcast games, it will allow you to pre-order various versions including:
According to the developers blog, the limited edition of these games, the two big ones being the PAL edition and the Steelbook edition will be limited print run to only 50 copies. Only 100 copies if you combined them. That is almost nothing. So if you are interested in the indie Dreamcast game Xenocider and want a ultra rare limited edition, you might want to go for the PAL or Steelbook editions.
The indie Dreamcast game Xenocider is set to release during June 2017, no exact date has been given and considering how indie development scene goes, don’t be surprised if the game is delayed. This is notable for being one of the first indie Dreamcast games to use full 3D graphics and is heavily inspired by rail shooters such as Space Harrier. You can check out their new demo for the game, for free, right here. The team has also been rather open on receiving feedback during development, that is always a positive move.
If you’ve got a few dollars burning a hole in your bank account, then maybe this large 75% off Sega sale at the Humble store might be your ticket today. For a little over the next 24 hours, a huge amount of Sega’s digital PC catalog is on sale there.
Everything from Alpha Protocol to Valkyria Chronicles is present, as are the SEGA Mega Drive & Genesis Classics Packs. If you haven’t tried it out yet, last year’s platformer Tembo the Badass Elephant is definitely worth $3.74. George reviewed it back then in the dark ages and I think his assessment still stands up today.
Have you ever had enough? Ever get that urge to jump in your car and drive far, far away?
Then you’re in luck, because back in 1986 (through to 2006) SEGA had your back. For the series’ 30th anniversary, I’ll be looking back on the franchise and seeing what made it so memorable.
