The Weekly Five: Best to worst “Avengers” SEGA games

SEGA’s license pact with Marvel was a prime example of how the game industry tends to treat movie licensed properties these days. They sell the license to a game company to promote the movie. Game company turns around and uses their B and C (and sometimes D) teams to work on said games and hope they can come up with at least a half decent effort. Then the game is released just before the movie hits theaters whether it’s ready to go or not. Many times, they fail even to get to that half-decent point.

But this doesn’t mean that all movie licensed games have to stink. Sometimes, you get the right development team with the right goal in mind and you get something of quality. Sometimes, a game is almost crap, but you can see a little bit of gold in that turd. But sometimes, crap is just crap no matter what angle you look at it. What better example of this is there than with these five Marvel Studios movie licensed games released by SEGA. And what better time to “reminisce” over these games than with today’s movie release of The Avengers in American theaters. Read on to see which one I find is the best quality to which one I think is total, unredeemable crap.

SEGA comes 9th in Metacritic 2010 Game Publisher Rankings


SEGA came in 9th place for the 2010 publisher rankings over at Metacritic. They take the publishers’ MetaScore for their 2011 line up and place them in order. SEGA averaged 67.4%, with their best rated title being Bayonetta (90%) and their worst being Iron Man 2 (41%).

SEGA delivered some really great software. Some of our favorite titles included After Burner Climax, Phantasy Star Portable 2, Valkyria Chronicles 2, Sonic Colors and Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. So for SEGA fans, it was a pretty good year. Next time SEGA should trim the crap, leave the good stuff.

Check out the full list here.

Gamefly’s year-end sale has super cheap SEGA games


Seriously, bust out those wallets. Each game is used but comes with a never used case and manual. Best of all? They have free shipping. I hate paying for shipping! Check out the list of SEGA games you will be able to have…

PlayStation 3:

  • Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing -$12.99 [Review]
  • Yakuza 3 – $14.99 [Review]
  • Bayonetta – $9.99 [Review]

Xbox 360:

  • Iron Man 2 – $6.99 [Review]
  • Aliens vs. Predator – $9.99 [Review]
  • Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing – $12.99 [Review]

The Wii didn’t have any SEGA published game on sale, but there was a few games that SEGA fans might want like Sin & Punishment: Star Successor ($12.99) and Ivy the Kiwi? ($9.99). Check the full list here.

The sale ends on January 3rd, so you can still return all the cloths your parents sent you for the Holidays.

HVS Interview Up On Conduit Portal, SEGA Evaluating Grinder Builds

It’s been a long time in coming, but my interview with High Voltage Software from PAX is finally up. We obviously talk about Conduit 2, but we also talk about High Voltage’s history with licensed software, their opinion on the 3DS, and their time with SEGA.

We also get a minor update on what’s going on with Grinder. Seems they’ve sent builds off to several publishers, including SEGA, for evaluation. You can read the interview and get all the details here.

GameStop: $20 off select SEGA titles

GameStop is having a special on select SEGA titles. Not the best SEGA titles, like Bayonetta or SEGA & Sonic All-Stars Racing. But hey, still a deal I guess.

The sale ends on June 10th, so if you want them, make sure you get your ass in there before the 10th.

[Source: Gamestop]

Iron Man 2 demo out on Xbox Live


Want to test the game out for yourself? You can go ahead and download the demo on Xbox Live. You can read my review here, if you  haven’t already.

The demo will let you choose from either Iron Man or War Machine. According to the Xbox Live website, the demo weighs in at 1gb. Make sure you have the space.

[Source: MajorNelson]

Lamb of God behind the scenes on Iron Man 2 song


Lamb of God, the American Metal band, are going to release an exclusive song for the Iron Man 2 game called “Hit the Wall”. In the video above, SEGA’s producers for the game and band members talk about how the deal came to be.

Looking at the gameplay for Iron Man 2 in the video, I have to say the animation is pretty stiff and that is now worrying me.

[Source: SEGA-Europe Blog]

Lamb of God writing a song for Iron Man 2

SEGA has signed up two time Grammy-Nominated heavy metal band Lamb of God to write a song for their upcoming Iron Man 2 video game. The song being used in the game is going be completely new and written exclusively for the game.

“The music of Lamb of God definitely evokes the intensity of Iron Man action and we are very excited to have them working with us for the game, This new track will add even more atmosphere to the cinematic gaming experience that Iron Man 2 brings to the table.” – Sean Ratcliffe, Vice President of Marketing, SEGA of America.

I wouldn’t consider myself the biggest Lamb of God fan, but I have seen them live a few times and they do put up a great show. Hit the jump to read the full press release.

[Source: SEGA Blog]