Review: SEGA Master System: A Visual Compendium

In the last few years we have been getting more officially licensed SEGA books than ever before, with each of these books offering readers a unique slice of SEGA history. While most of the books have a unique take or format, it seems that most of these books try to center around SEGA’s most popular console, the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive. It seems a lot of publishers aren’t very interested in covering SEGA before this time period, that is until Bitmap Book’s Master System: A Visual Compendium.

Reminder: Shenmue Postmortem Panel on 3/19 at 2014 GDC

The annual Game Developers Conference will be taking place in California throughout next week. There are various panels available on topics related to the gaming industry to listen in on for attendees. However, of particular note is the Shenmue Postmortem featuring then-series director Yu Suzuki and PS4 architect Mark Cerny as Suzuki’s translator. It will be taking place on March 19, 2014 at 2:00 PM US Pacific Time and will close at 3:00 PM.

Per the GDC website’s description of the panel, Yu Suzuki will be discussing the origins and development history of the first title starting as a Virtua Fighter RPG for the SEGA Saturn and its eventual release as the Dreamcast cult classic.

The GDC panels are not typically streamed or otherwise made available to non-attendees; however, Gamespot plans to stream this particular panel. With the panel fast approaching, you may want to make time to watch it if you will be available!

Round Table: How we feel about Yu Suzuki bringing back Shenmue III

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There are many questions about how Yu Suzuki would bring us Shenmue III. He has stated many times he just wants to end the series and now more than ever has been making headlines. First he suggested he wants to use crowd sourcing like Kickstarter and recently was spotted at GDC in talks with Sony (and former SEGA) employee Mark Cerny. Hit the jump to hear what we think of this whole thing in this week’s round table!

Yu Suzuki and Mark Cerny hang out at GDC, talk Shenmue III

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Hey, if you are two of my favorite game developers of all time, you obviously have to hang out together and talk about my favorite unreleased game. According to Megan Scavio, GM of GDC they are in talks about Shenmue III. You know, that game that everyone wants SEGA to release.

“Mark Cerny & Yu Suzuki talking strategy for Shenmue III. For reals you guys.”Megan Scavio

You had me at Yu Suzuki, you sold me on Mark Cerny and you made me smile at Shenmue III. Let’s make it happen!

SEGA Sequel Saturdays: Comix Zone

This is my first time taking on the ‘SEGA Sequel Saturdays’ feature, I hope I do it justice. My pick is Comix Zone, it might have been a very hard and short game, but it still remains as one of my favorite SEGA Genesis titles of all time.

I think with PSN & XBLA games doing so well, it might be time for SEGA to do a proper sequel for this title. Move over Sonic 4, this is the Genesis game that deserved a sequel!