Out of nowhere, another Sonic Boom game is announced. Only this one is a sequel to arguably Sonic’s most popular mobile title. Dropping onto the Google Store late Tuesday night, Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom is getting a soft launch onto Android (no word on iOS yet) in Canada and Ireland. Here is the official details from the Google Play store…
Jet Set Radio has vanished from Apple’s App Store, and is soon to be pulled from Google Play as well. Don’t blame the Golden Rhinos, as SEGA says the game is being pulled for compatibility issues with iOS 8. I noticed the game disappeared from the App Store a few weeks ago when I attempted to launch the game and it crashed, I navigated over to the App Store to read user reviews to see if crashing was a common issue and the game was nowhere to be found. I assumed the game was temporarily pulled due to stability issues, and it looks like my assumptions were correct. As SEGA told Droid Gamers:
Showed some minor compatibility problems [with iOS 8]. Ensuring that all of our fans have a quality game experience is paramount to us, therefore we’ve decided to take the game off the store. We don’t have yet a fixed date to communicate regarding their return to the App Store and Google Play. – SEGA
Of course, Android does not use iOS 8, so pulling the game from both stores is a bit odd. Perhaps SEGA wants to make additional changes to both games to improve stability? In any case, if you want to snag the game before it is pulled, head on over to Google Play and give it a download before it’s gone.
SEGA has just released Super Monkey Ball Bounce to Apple’s App Store and to Google Play, along with the above launch trailer. The game, which was revealed back in May, received the SEGAbits hands-on treatment in June at a special SEGA mobile event outside E3. Described as “Super Monkey Ball meets Peggle”, Super Monkey Ball Bounce is (as described by our own nuckles87 in his preview) a free-to-play game in which you launch a ball into a 2D course, try to bounce it off of various objects in the environment and hit specific targets marked with stars. There are bumpers and curved surfaces to bounce and roll the ball off of, as well as special “power up” blocks. This game is all about using physics and objects in the environment to hit all the targets before you run out of balls. It’s a fairly simple concept, but a fun diversion.
So if you have an iOS or Android device, give Super Monkey Ball Bounce a try and let us know what you think about it in the comments below!
The SEGA Blog has announced that After Burner Climax for iOS and Google Play will be receiving a free update which will add a new playable plane as well as in-game cinematics. The plane, dubbed the X-47B, is desribed as being “the latest in stealth technology from Northrup Grumman”. The in-game cinematics come from the arcade and console versions, which until now were lacking from the mobile versions. All-in-all a great update, which gives app owners a reason to replay the game again. And again.
A patch was released today for Sonic Jump on Android devices. Fixes the text scaling issues that caused microscopic text, among other issues. So if you were having issues with Sonic Jump on your device. Go download the patch from the Play Store and see if it fixes the issues you were having. Let us know in the comments if the patch fixes the issues you were having or not. It fixed the issues I was having with microscopic text.
That was fast! Just this past Tuesday, Zaxxon Escape was announced for smartphone devices, and only two days later the game has released! This has to be a world record in game announcing and releasing. SEGA has put together a launch trailer showing off the gameplay, and released some screens. You can download the game on iPad and iPhone here or download the game for Google Play devices here. I’ve just downloaded it and will share my thoughts on it in an eventual review.
After the break, screens!
Suddenly a new Ecco doesn’t seem so crazy now that SEGA has announced a sequel to an arcade and Master System classic. Zaxxon Escape, coming soon to iPhone, iPad, and Google Play devices, will be the fifth title in SEGA’s shooter series. The first Zaxxon originated in the arcade, but soon was ported to nearly every gaming console and home computer in the early 80’s. Zaxxon was revolutionary for its time, as it was the first game to feature isometric projection (pixel art that gave the illusion of 3D gameplay). Zaxxon was also one of the first games to display shadows, to show the relation of the ship to the surface of the levels, and was the first arcade game to be advertised on television. An arcade sequel, Super Zaxxon, was released as well as a third title aptly named Zaxxon 3-D, which took advantage of the Master System’s 3D glasses. A fourth, and until now, final sequel was released to the 32X by the name of Zaxxon’s Motherbase 2000. If you want to learn more about that game, check out the My Life With SEGA review.
So with all that history in mind, Zaxxon Escape is quite a big deal. So far, SEGA has only announced the game, released the above video, and a few screens which can be seen after the break. So until more information is given, I say celebrate the return of a SEGA classic. Does it hurt that the title is, at the moment, a smartphone game? Hell no! Having played a number of great space shooters on my iPad, including Space Invaders Infinity Gene and Shogun, I feel that with the right developers behind it, this could be a great game.