Shenmue 2

Yu Suzuki interview at Gamelab 2014

by

Yu Suzuki attended the recently concluded Gamelab 2014, a gaming conference in Spain. He gave a presentation (partially notable for one of his slides featuring a Roman numeral “3” stylized in Shenmue font, which attracted the usual modest amount of attention) and was the recipient of the fourth Legend Award, a distinction meant for honoring “key figures in the history of video games”, as written at the Gamelab website.

After Gamelab concluded, Yu Suzuki conducted a short interview, available above. The interview asks a variety of direct questions, on topics including his favorite arcade project that he worked on (interestingly, the interviewer also asks Yu Suzuki if he feels nostalgiac for any aspects of Sega’s more arcade-focused past,) opportunities for modern technology in a hypothetical next Shenmue game, and whether or not Kickstarter is being actively considered to fund the next Shenmue game should development be more seriously pursued. Check it out!

1 Comment

Weekly Five: Five After Burner Cameos

by

weeklyfiveafterburner

Like any beloved SEGA franchise, After Burner has had its share of cameos. Unfortunately, unlike Fantasy Zone and Sonic the Hedgehog, these cameos have been few, so we did have to stretch things just a little bit to fill out this weekly five. As they say though, quality matters over quantity, so even though After Burner’s cameos have been few, they’ve often been quite great. So grab a snack, sit down and enjoy as we look through After Burner’s five best only cameos.

Continue Reading ➜

2 Comments

Kowloon Walled City, as seen in Shenmue II, is recreated as an arcade in Japan

by

ka18
 
What if you could walk around Kowloon, just as Ryo did in Shenmue II, playing SEGA arcade games and collecting capsule toys? SEGA fans will remember Kowloon best as the location of Shenmue II’s second act. Seeing the city in video game form is no match to seeing it in person, but unfortunately the city no longer exists. What is a Shenmue fan to do? Is it still possible to recreate Ryo’s Kowloon adventures? Thanks to Kawasaki, you can! Located in Kawasaki City, an amusement center south of Tokyo, is “Digital Kowloon City”.

“Digital Kowloon City” is an indoor recreation of the Kowloon Walled City, a city which in the late 1980’s was home to 33,000 people in a 6.5 acre space. Quirky Japanese blog RocketNews24 paid a visit to “Digital Kowloon City”, and the photos they took are incredibly cool. The place really does look like Kowloon at night, and there are arcade games, capsule machines, and UFO Catchers all over the place. Head on over to their blog for a virtual walkthrough of the virtual city. By the end of their article, you’ll want to visit the place yourself and will probably boot up Shenmue II instead, since you can’t afford a trip to Japan.

4 Comments

The Weekly Five: The Shenmue HD Wish List

by

To wash the yucky taste of today’s big news story out of our mouths, let’s focus on something positive. Recently, SEGA has been hinting at an HD Shenmue 1 and 2 rerelease. Given the latest announcement of putting more focus on digital releases, Shenmue HD could become even more of a reality. As SEGA has yet to release an official announcement, we can do what Shenmue fans do best and speculate! This week’s Weekly Five will take a look at what we want to see in a Shenmue rerelease. Let’s begin, shall we? [insert sailor joke here]

Continue Reading ➜

11 Comments

Swingin’ Report Show #30: SEGA – Ten Years of First-Rate Third-Party Games

by

This week on the Swingin’ Report Show we celebrate SEGA’s 10 year anniversary as a third-party publisher. George, Barry the Nomad, Nuckles87, and Shigs discuss great third-party SEGA titles like Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon Orta and even Outrun 2. But don’t worry we also discuss stinkers like Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 06 and Virtua Quest. Sit back and get a large drink, this is going to be a long one.

[Download] [Archive] [RSS] [iTunes]

 

Continue Reading ➜

2 Comments

Man lip syncs to Shenmue and other bad voice overs

by


What is this? SEGA games having cheesy voice overs? Not on my watch. Shenmue you say?

List of SEGA Games on here:

  • The House of the Dead 2
  • Shenmue 2
  • Shining Force Neo
  • Shining Force III
  • The House of the Dead 2 (again)
  • Zombie Revenge

Seriously, who doesn’t do this when replaying classic games? I do. Should have used some Virtua Fighter, king of cheese.

2 Comments

SEGA Sequels: My top 5 SEGA Sequels

by

Maybe it’s because I view video games each as “experiences” as opposed to just looking at them as “games,” but I’m definitely judgemental of sequels when they’re announced.

Let me try to put this into perspective. If I’m enjoying a game, I dig everything about journeying from its intro all the way to the final save screen after the end credits. Gameplay is definitely an important aspect of what makes me consider a great game *great* but it’s not the only aspect. For me the sense of discovery that a new experience brings is another major reason I love playing video games, and it’s the reason I often don’t care about sequels. I just find it a rarity that a sequel that’s not at least five years away from the original (or on new hardware) has the capability to replicate that same sense of discovery for me.

Then there are times when I’m surprised.

There have been many SEGA sequels over the years that have been able to break through the barriers that usually prevent me from enjoying sequels as much as the originals. I’m looking at my top 5 in this week’s SEGA Sequel Saturdays, Episode 7.

Continue Reading ➜

24 Comments

Round Table: Our favorite SEGA Soundtracks

by


After you spend hours in your favorite SEGA game, you always get those damn catchy tunes stuck in your head. They won’t go away, now we will share our favorite SEGA soundtracks, hopefully they stay stuck in your brain like they have ours.

If your favorite soundtrack wasn’t featured, make sure you head down to the comment section and share.

Continue Reading ➜

16 Comments

Round Table: Our favorite SEGA sequels

by


There are always big new IPs that are amazing, but then comes the sequel and improves that game to legendary status. We here at the staff have decided to list our favorite SEGA sequels of all time.

If you have a favorite sequel not posted by us, share it in the comments section.

Continue Reading ➜

13 Comments

Shenmue 3: Choices in conversations change outcome in game

by


1up has published the second part of the Yu Suzuki interview, in this second part Yu Suzuki talks more about what Shenmue 3 would have been like and where he has been these past few years.

As for Shenmue 3:

“This is not actually in the game, but as an example to give you an idea of what I mean by deeper dialogue, when Shenhua and Ryo are at home, Shenhua will ask Ryo if he would like to drink tea or coffee and the player will select one or the other. Or, Shenhua will ask Ryo a hypothetical question like: “There are four animals; a monkey, cat, dog and bird. You are crossing the river but you need to leave one behind. Which one will you leave behind?” And the player has to choose one. Shenhua will ask lots and lots of questions like these and the answers will get stored in the game and affect the outcome of the player’s relationship with other characters. It’s like a personality test. For example, the person who leaves behind the monkey is the type of person who leaves their wife.” –Yu Suzuki

Damn, the man is brilliant. Makes me want to play it now. Other stuff in the interview are comments like 360 being the Dreamcast 2 and Yu Suzuki talking about Nagoshi. Some good stuff, read it here.

6 Comments

Shenmue 10th Anniversary!

by

Yes! It is 10 whole years to the day… Erm, yesterday. But close enough right?

Shenmue was one of the most ambitious games ever made, it cost a whopping 70 million dollars in total, is the best series I’ve ever played and… Still isn’t bloody finished.

If you have yet to play Shenmue, well you may be a ‘gamer’ but you’ve still got your training wheels on, that’s for sure. Get your act together, go buy a cheap Dreamcast and enjoy a true classic.

If you have, fantastic you are a real man. Here’s to more Shenmue, sometime in the next 10 years! Come on Sega…

Until then, Shenmue City anyone?

4 Comments