As we have been covering on the blog, Shenmue I & II are getting a HD enhanced port to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC worldwide this year. Lots of fans are excited and recently SEGA has uploaded a ton of new screenshots based on this latest re-release on their official site.
We separated the screenshots between Shenmue 1 and Shenmue II screens:
It was the former chairman of Nintendo of America Howard Lincoln that famously said, during a 1993 hearing in front of Congress, that Night Trap “will never appear on a Nintendo console.” Hey Howard: Developer Screaming Villains has announced that Night Trap is coming soon to Nintendo Switch! We’ll have more information as we hear it.
If you haven’t listened to our interview with Screaming Villains, check it out! Tyler provides great insight into the process of remastering the original game.
To our great delight, just last week Shenmue I & II were announced to be releasing to PS4, Xbox One and PC later this year.
Unlike most rereleases in the past few years, Shenmue I & II are not being remade from the ground up (as seen with Crash, Spyro and the PS2 Yakuza games). Instead, the games will be releasing as enhanced ports, thus retaining the graphical style of the Dreamcast originals. What more, the games will seemingly not be altered to cater to modern gaming sensibilities. Most notably, the ability to time skip (fast forward the clock to when a business opens) will not be implemented in Shenmue I while it will still be present in Shenmue II.
We wanted to ask you, the reader, this: How do you think the modern gaming audience will react to Shenmue I & II?
While IDW Sonic the Hedgehog #3 hits shops today, the preview for IDW Sonic the Hedgehog #7 has just landed! While IDW does a decent job avoiding any spoilers in the description, if you’ve been reading the series you might want to avoid the latest preview. Having said that, we can tell you that the issue will have a special foil cover to celebrate half a year of IDW Sonic comics. Wow, issue #7 and we’re already celebrating milestones! I remember in the Archie days it wasn’t until issue 25 that we got a silver border and a Sonic CD adaptation.
After the break, check out the full preview!
The Xbox One is in an interesting place in the current games generation. Lacking the exceptional first party support and third party exclusives of the PlayStation 4, the Nintendo Switch, or even the long-passed Wii U, the Xbox One carves its niche out as a competent home media center and place to play your workhorse multi-platform games. Many players have noted however, that this is not a niche that needs filling. The PlayStation 4 provides your home media wants as strongly as the One, with attractive exclusive features and games besides, as well as a generous “get free games when you subscribe to our online multiplayer” scheme, something the One mirrors with its Games with Gold feature. But there is a niche the One fills that its contemporaries skip out entirely on: backwards compatibility. Today we talk about that, an amazing hidden gem from the original Xbox, and how awesome that game is.
In case you forgot, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life released yesterday to the west. As is the new norm, SEGA tacked on a survey for those who purchased the game (accessible from the console’s home screen). The eleven page long survey asks the standard questions one might expect, however it also asks the following: “While no localization has been announced at this time, how interested are you in the Fist of the North Star game created by the developers of Yakuza?” with the possible replies being: “would not buy it,” “I probably wouldn’t buy it,” “I’d buy it under the right conditions,” “I’d probably buy it” and “Day One! I would pre-order it!”.
This isn’t the first time SEGA of America has asked fans about the Fist of the North Star game Hokuto ga Gotoku. In August of last year, SEGA asked if fans were interested in the newly announced Yakuza Studio titles including Hokuto ga Gotoku. Also on that list? Yakuza Kiwami 2, which has since been announced to be coming west on August 28, 2018.
So while we are not saying Hokuto ga Gotoku is coming west, all signs sure are pointing to yes. Fire up your PS4 and take the survey today!
The SEGA Forever lineup expanded today, with the release of Treasure’s Mega Drive classic Dynamite Headdy. The game is free to play on iOS and Android now! Released in 1994, Dynamite Headdy is best known for its Mega Drive release (which is what you will find in the SEGA Forever version), however it was also released to the SEGA Game Gear and brought to the Master System in Brazil. A 32X port was planned but cancelled.
In other SEGA Forever news, Golden Axe and Altered Beast will be receiving local multiplayer updates today. This feature works on both free and paid versions.
SEGA of America PR has officially confirmed that SEGA AGES, the recently announced M2 project which will bring Master System, Genesis and SEGA arcade ports to Nintendo Switch, will indeed be releasing to Japan, North America, and Europe. The lineup will begin rolling out this summer with Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star, Thunder Force IV, Gain Ground and Alex Kidd in Miracle World.
As is the norm with M2 projects, there will be a bevy of bonuses to make your purchase worth while.
After the break, check out a few screenshots and an official description of SEGA AGES.
On Friday, (sorry, we were neck deep in SEGA FES) SEGA announced that Football Manager Touch 2018 was available digitally for the Nintendo Switch in the eShop. For those unfamiliar with the franchise, the press release describes it best: “Football Manager is the most realistic, in-depth and immersive football management simulation in the world. Putting you in the hot seat of any club in more than 50 countries across the world, Football Manager allows you to take on the role of a real-life gaffer: you decide who plays and who sits on the bench, and you’re in total control of tactics, team talks, substitutions and pitch-side instructions.”
As the name implies, the game has already been released to smart devices. However, SEGA promises that the game has been fully optimized for the Switch with a customized control system that takes full advantage of the system’s various controller input options, including support for both the touchscreen and Joy-Con controllers. Also, the game offers a full single-player experience including the series’ 3D Match Engine – the first time that the 3D engine has been playable on a home console.
More news has come out of SEGA FES 2018, this time relating to the Valkyria Chronicles franchise. It was announced that the original Valkyria Chronicles, which has already released to the PC and PS4 as a remastered rerelease of the PS3 original, would be releasing to Nintendo Switch for ¥1,990. At the moment, the release is only confirmed for Japan this fall through the eShop. No word on a physical or western release.
SEGA also revealed that Valkyria Chronicles 4 has been delayed in Japan to fall 2018. The game was originally planned for the platform in the summer. As an apology to fans, SEGA is offering coupons to Japanese customers who are buying the fourth game that reduces the price of the remaster of the first game to ¥500. No word on if this will affect the western release, but given the west is getting Valkyria Chronicles 4 in the fall already, it is not likely.
Now how about console ports of the second and third games SEGA? 🙂
[Source: RPG Site]
We learned of SEGA AGES, the new M2 retro SEGA game porting project for Nintendo Switch, on Friday night from the opening presentation at SEGA FES. As the event went on, more details were revealed during the SEGA AGES panel. Twitter user @gosokkyu shared updates from the panel, which revealed new details. Sonic the Hedgehog will include the rare Mega-Play arcade version (an example of how the game differs is that the Mega-Play replaces all the extra life monitors). Thunder Force IV will include Styx Mode (the Thunder Force III ship from the Saturn port) and online leaderboards. Phantasy Star will have all the features from the PS2 SEGA AGES Collection version, including options like walk speed, difficulty settings, FM/PSG toggle and more.
Two more games were revealed: Alex Kidd in Miracle World and Gain Ground! Gain Ground will be the arcade version. You can visit the official SEGA AGES website and the collection will debut this summer for Nintendo Switch.
SEGA Fes 2018 answered the prayers of many SEGA fans by revealing that at long last Shenmue and Shenmue II would be receiving HD ports to PS4, Xbox One and PC. On this SEGA News Bits, we take a look at the road to Shenmue HD, what new features the games will have and more!
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SEGA Fes 2018 had four big reveals, and on this SEGA News Bits we take a look at the first two of them. First up is SEGA AGES, M2’s answer to a 3D Classics lineup for the Nintendo Switch. Next we look at the AtGames Mega Drive Mini, a new plug and play from AtGames which is SEGA’s answer to the SNES Classic.
If you want to support this type of content, you can check out our Patreon!
If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a thumbs up so it shows up on more like-minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that YouTube algorithm is.
Whilst we’re reporting this one last, SEGA started off SEGA FES by announcing SEGA AGES for the Nintendo Switch and to be released this summer in Japan. Details are still being updated as this is a relatively new story but we can see from the image shared that SEGA will be bringing Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star and for the frst time Thunder Force IV back too modern consoles.
Topping off the events announcement, SEGA CEO Haruki Satomi announced that the company has began work on a new Sakura Taisen project, still named Shin Sakura Taisen. I was predicting that the possibility of Sakura Taisen being revived ever since it placed first in the survey that had SEGA ask fans what series they’d like revived. Look at the past list, with Virtual On having a game released recently and Shenmue getting ports announced, perhaps this means a future Jet Set Radio and Virtua Fighter game might be on the cards? As this is a breaking story, please bare with us as we update it with further details.