The SEGAbits SEGA & Sonic Holiday Gift Guide for Fans and your Fan Friends!

The holiday season is fast approaching, and like SEGA’s speedy blue mascot it’ll be here before you know it! In fact, it’s already here! Don’t fret, as we’re here to help you out with some gift giving ideas for the SEGA and Sonic fans in your life, or if you have some gift cards burning a hole in your pocket you might like some of our suggestions for yourself.

So read on as we take a look at the best SEGA and Sonic gifts on offer this holiday season!

Yu Suzuki’s Space Harrier-inspired “Air Twister” heading to consoles and PC on November 10th

Released June 24, 2022 to Apple Arcade, Yu Suzuki’s Air Twister was a Space Harrier inspired behind the back 3D shooter from the man who created the original SEGA franchise. In what was perhaps our biggest “get”, we managed to interview Yu Suzuki himself to talk about the game! And yes, I will try to link to that interview whenever given a chance.

Yu Suzuki’s Air Twister is now available on Apple Arcade

Yu Suzuki’s return to arcade gaming arrives today in the form of Air Twister, an Apple Arcade exclusive. Now before you moan and groan about it being on Apple products only, as revealed in our exclusive interview with Yu Suzuki it was Apple who asked him and his team for an arcade-style game. Apple is also listed in the game’s credits as a producer. So without Apple, this game would not have happened.

If you have an Apple Arcade subscription, the game is available to play now! I’ve tried it myself on an iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and iMac and all platforms play the game very well. My preferred method is a gamepad on the TV. I’ve tried the old iCade arcade stick and sadly it does not work due to how the iCade maps its buttons. Still, I am certain a bluetooth flight stick or arcade stick would work.

Stay tuned to SEGAbits for more Air Twister news!

Interview with Yu Suzuki: Air Twister and His Return to Arcade Rail Shooters

It goes without saying that Yu Suzuki is one of the most influential figures in video gaming. Yu Suzuki was instrumental in the development of full body motion controls, 3D racing, 3D fighting, open-world gameplay and QTE. Even if you have never played one of his titles, which you really need to rectify right now, you have played a game that includes one of his contributions to the gaming industry.

Space Harrier, one of Mr. Suzuki’s early arcade titles, was a third-person rail shooter set in a fantasy environment. The player controlled a jet propelled cool blonde dude, shooting down everything from geometric shapes to robots to one-eyed woolly mammoths. The game was such a success that it was one of Japan’s top two highest-grossing upright arcade games in 1986. The other title was Mr. Suzuki’s Hang-On, released a year prior. Now, in 2022, Yu Suzuki is returning to the world of third-person rail shooters with the Apple Arcade exclusive game Air Twister which is set to release on June 24, 2022.

Mr. Suzuki was kind enough to grant us an interview to talk about the upcoming title, and as luck would have it we are releasing this on his birthday! So before we kick things off, we would like to wish Mr. Suzuki a happy birthday and thank him again for taking the time to answer our questions.

SEGA News Bits Live: Sonic Frontiers GAMEPLAY!

Join us live as we (well, me) talk about the recently revealed Sonic Frontiers gameplay from IGN! Plus, take a look at a new magazine featuring a killer Dreamcast retrospective and Yu Suzuki returns to the Fantasy Zone.

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Air Twister is a new Space Harrier inspired game from Yu Suzuki!

All this time we were asking “Where is Shenmue 4?” when we should have been asking “Where is a new Space Harrier game?”

In a surprise reveal from Yu Suzuki’s YS NET studio is a spiritual successor to Space Harrier titled Air Twister. Presented in full 3D, the game takes many cues from the SEGA arcade classic, and also appears to be much more in-line with the original game than SEGA’s own Planet Harriers was (which was also a 3D take on Space Harrier). The game is an Apple Arcade exclusive, which will elicit groans from some. As for me? I have about half a dozen Apple devices and cannot wait to try the game out with a bluetooth controller on my TV. Learn more about the game after the break, and make sure to mark June 24, 2022 on your calendar!