Kenji Eno, a composer who created soundtracks for a few SEGA published games, as well as his own original albums, passed away last month. I confess that I’ve never played any of the games he was involved in, so I’m afraid I am rather unfamiliar with his work. If it is anything like the above, then it seems like I’ve been missing out on some of the most beautiful and atmospheric soundtracks in SEGA’s library.
Expect to see more Kenji Eno tracks featured here as I continue to peruse his work. Until then, here’s another song from D2, “Morning Theme”. Be back next week when we finish off the SEGAbits staff spotlight with an entry from Kori Maru!
If you’re a fan of Arkedo’s and SEGA’s recently released Hell Yeah!, I’ve got a surprise for you! A new Hell Yeah! game, called Pocket Inferno, will be debuting on the iOS store today. The game is a simple, fifty-level long, two button autorunner starring the Prince of Hell we all know and love from the previous game.
As usual with iOS announcements, I’m afraid that’s all the news we have for you right now. If you’re interested in a new Hell Yeah! game or a new autorunner in the vein of Rayman Jungle Run, be sure to check it out when it debuts on the app store later today!
Destructoid has done a pretty awesome job covering the clusterfuck that is Aliens: Colonial Marines. Now they have learned, courtesy of a former Gearbox developer that spoke to them only under the condition of anonymity, that Gearbox not only lied to SEGA but that this lie lead to the project temporarily being canceled.
“Gearbox was taking people off the project to put them on Borderlands 1. This was before the big art style change happened on Borderlands. Our team was getting smaller by the month, making it very difficult to get the game made. Ironically several of the team members were ex-3D Realms people who were saying [paraphrasing] ‘Finally, we’re going to Gearbox to make Aliens, and we’re going to ship a fucking game!’ Hah.
At some point in 2008, SEGA temporarily pulled the plug on the game. They caught wind of Gearbox shifting resources (despite still collecting milestone checks as if the team were full size) and lying to SEGA AND 2K about the number of people working on each project. This led to the round of layoffs at Gearbox in late 2008.” -Anonymous former Gearbox developer
It should be noted that due to the developer’s anonymity, this should be regarded as a rumor. Though if this is to be believed, the next question one has to ask is…why did SEGA pick the project back up? While this is pure conjecture on my part, I would surmise that the resurrection of this project had everything to do with the financial success SEGA saw with Aliens vs. Predator, released in 2010. The following year, Aliens: Colonial Marines made its debut at E3 and…well, we know the rest, don’t we?
I would suggest reading the entire article over at Destructoid.
This weeks, SEGAbits’ own master class web designer (my opinion, not his) ShadiWulf will be taking center stage on Tuesday Tunes. He’s got some choice tracks for you all to listen to. Now just sit back, read, and treat your ears to some SEGA awesomeness!
Writing isn’t my expertise, so forgive me if this seems short or half-assed! I did my best with what little time I got at the moment to write this. Nux was holding up a gun to my head and told me I had to do a Tuesday tunes for February. So I decided I would write about how Valkyria Chornicles and Sonic Unleashed night music affects me.
So, I remember when Valkyria Chronicles was announced. I remember it looking interesting, and I remember reading a lot about CANVAS engine. The art style was really intriguing to me; I liked the style a lot. I bought the game near launch even though I didn’t own a PS3. I don’t regret that decision at all, because eventually I got a PS3 and this was the first game I played on it.
I remember starting up the game and seeing the intro with this music, I was really blown away by it. It’s still one of the most epic intros music ever. It’s also the main theme of the game.
Valkyria Chronicles also has some of the most relaxing and calm music I’ve ever heard. Here is an example of one of my favorites. It just makes me think relaxing things, and reminds me of great moments in the game that weren’t fighting, just the characters talking and stuff. Also makes me think of the beautiful land known as Gallia.
For SEGAbits’ 3rd anniversary I thought I’d devote this month’s Tuesday Tunes to choices from other staff members! This week we’ll be highlighting the host for the SEGAbits video series “My Life With SEGA” A.J. Rosa. His selection? Two songs from The Terminator for the SEGA CD, a game that he covered in My Life With SEGA as part of his Schwarzenegger double feature. Enjoy!
The Terminator for SEGA CD didn’t have any fancy scaling and rotation effects; it’s true. However, it did have a kickass soundtrack! That’s saying a lot, because I generally criticize movie-licensed games when they fail to include score from the actual film. While it does feature Brad Fiedel’s iconic theme, the score was written and performed by Tommy Tallarico. The man is a legend in his field, having scored hundreds of games, such as Earthworm Jim, Unreal, Robocop vs. The Terminator and Cool Spot. Rather than aping Fiedel’s destinctive style, Tallarico went his own way and wrote something more akin to rock opera. It’s bursting with wicked electronic guitars that kick-start your adrenaline, melodies that inspire feelings of foreboding and desperation….
That’s certainly appropriate.
This score is so fucking awesome that I made a copy for the car. I’ll listen to “Future Shock” on my way to work, “Destinations Unknown” on my way home. That CD didn’t leave my player for a month. So what you’re about to listen to is – essentially – my Going to work/Going home ritual. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Even when I first played it on Shenmue in 2001, Space Harrier was an incredibly unique game. Trippy, animated and hard as fuck, Space Harrier was one of my favorite past times in Shenmue…aside from forklift racing, of course. What really made the game experience, and what helped keep me coming back to spend my hard earned money that I should really have been saving up for Hong Kong, was the kick ass sound track.
The Space Harrier theme remains an all-time classic in SEGA’s library, and one that I hope continues to be revisited in future SEGA games. You can expect us to revisit the track plenty of times via official and fan remixes!
You may have read yesterday’s rumor that SEGA will be purchasing Relic from THQ. Well, that purchase has just been confirmed. At the moment these are the only details available, but we will be sure to update you with all the latest as it’s revealed!
UPDATE: Thanks to Kotaku, we can now confirm that SEGA spent $26.6 million to buy Relic, outbidding Zenimax’s final bid of $26.3 million.
Relic is a developer known for their games in the Warhammer 40,000 franchise, as well as the Company of Heroes series. It seems likely that SEGA now owns the right to Company of Heroes 2 which will be released on PC later this year, though at the moment that cannot be confirmed. According to THQ’s letter:
Some assets, including our publishing businesses and Vigil, along with some other
intellectual properties are not included in the sale agreements. They will remain part of
the Chapter 11 case. We will make every effort to find appropriate buyers, if possible.
Hopefully we will find out soon exactly what, if any, THQ IPs SEGA got in the deal, though it’s worth noting that Warhammer 40,000 is not a THQ IP, but a license owned by tabletop game company Games Workshop.
Now I don’t know about you, but I definitely didn’t see Project X Zone’s western release coming, especially given the fact that the last several crossover strategy games from Monolith and Banpresto never even made it out of Japan. So what better way to celebrate this crossover’s surprise localization then to post some tunes from the game?
Today, we’ll be featuring the epic main theme as well as the music from the trailer, “Brave New World”. In the future, you can also expect us to feature tracks from the variety of SEGA franchises represented in the game, including Sakura Taisen, Virtua Fighter, Resonance of Fate and Shining Force EXA.
The latest digital offering from Double Fine and SEGA is now available on the Wii U’s eShop, and will be available on the Playstation Store later today! The Cave is the latest adventure game from Ron Gilbert, a man best known for his work the LucasArts adventure games Escape from Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion. While SEGAbits was never given a chance to play the game, we were given an eyes on preview which we wrote about here.
The Cave is going for $15, and will be available on Xbox Live and Steam tomorrow. At the moment, Wii U owners wishing to purchase the game will need to search for it on the eShop since it is not currently available on the shop’s front page.
Compared to some of the other big SEGA racing franchises like Outrun and Daytona USA, Hang-On hasn’t really gotten all that much love in recent years. I’ve personally only played the game through Shenmue, having never even seen the arcade cabinet in real life. While I haven’t had much experience with the Hang-On franchise, that hasn’t stopped me from enjoying its soundtrack! When I was looking for new SEGA soundtracks, Hang-On was one of the first places I looked. SEGA’s arcade games always seem to have the most enjoyable and catchy tracks in SEGA library and this one did not disappoint!
Enjoy and please share your own memories of this track and the game itself below.
Hello and welcome to SEGAbits! Founded in February 2010. We are one of the fastest growing SEGA sites on the internet and the #1 blog for everything SEGA.
My Life with SEGA boots up and reviews the Genesis CDX
Tuesday Tunes: Outrun 2019′s Victorious and Feel the Beat
Monday Memories: EA not supporting the Dreamcast
The Weekly Five: Reasons Why Sonic Being Nintendo Exclusive is a Good Thing
Sonic Lost World and Mario & Sonic 2014 announced – Wii U and 3DS exclusives
My Life with SEGA boldly plays Star Trek: TNG and Starfleet Academy
