Let’s Go to the “Sonic Generation” Art Show in Philadelphia!

When Gagaman of SEGA Memories wrote about the “Sonic Generation” fan art show in Philadelphia, PA, I knew I had to make the long trek to check it out. Grabbing my old near-broken digital camera (my new one is being repaired), I headed out into the tepid weather and braved the 9 minute subway ride to the Brave New Worlds comic book shop. The show, which is actually rather small despite the spiffy website, features various renditions of Sonic, Tails and Eggman from a variety of artists. Located in the outer lobby of Brave New Worlds, the gallery takes up what usually would have been a blank wall.

Click here for photos and more!

Review: Sonic Generations (3DS)

I used to be a huge fan of Dimps in the past. Sonic Rush is one of my favorite Sonic games and I loved the Advance series sans number three. However, in recent years, it seems like there’s been a new Sonic Cycle. For every great Sonic console game, there’s a mediocre Dimps adaption on the portable systems. This started with Colors DS which IMO, came up a little short of capturing what made Rush and Rush Adventure fun. Then, we have Sonic 4 which had decent level design, but odd physics which turned some people away. Now, we have Dimps first foray onto the 3DS with Sonic Generations. Does it boost up to the glory days of the Advance and Rush series or does it trip over its own two feet? Grab a chili dog and read on. It’s gonna be a long one.

Swingin’ Report Show #23: Let’s Try This Again

The newest Swingin’ Report Show marks my triumphant return to the podcast, that should be enough for you to download, right? This week we talk about the latest SEGA news and show a special soft spot for Shinobi on the 3DS. This week’s guests include George, Barry the Nomad, Shigs and special guest Asher, illustrator and YouTube animator of Sonic Paradox.


[powerpress url="https://segabits.com/wp-content/uploads/SwininReportShow23.mp3"]

[Download] [Archive] [iTunes]

Yu Suzuki Interview – Toulouse Game Show 2011 (Must Watch!)

Yu Suzuki attended the Toulouse Game Show 2011 and here is an absolutely fantastic interview with Yu Suzuki from the event, possibly the best I’ve ever seen! Yu Suzuki is maybe the most iconic person to have ever worked at Sega, Suzuki is the man behind some of Segas most beloved classics such as OutRun, After Burner, Space Harrier, Hang-On, Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter and of course the ill-fated Shenmue saga.

In this interview by videoxoc.com Yu Suzuki answers some of the most important questions any Sega or Shenmue fan cold pose and they are met with some great replies from Suzuki.

Hit the jump for highlights:

Binary Domain – Japanese Story Trailer 3

Here’s another story trailer for Binary Domain, it’s in Japanese so I can’t say much about it but I’m glad to see it looks as though it’s going to have a pretty deep plot which is what I’ve come to expect from Nagoshi and his new Yakuza Team.

I really hope this game does well for Nagoshi- he really needs to break into the West with both this and Yakuza but to be honest I don’t see a lot of hype around Binary Domain so I’m not convinced. Which is a shame, the guy can’t seem to catch a break.

Binary Domain is a Squad Based shooter Created by the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. (Yakuza)
The game is planned for a world-wide release on February 2012 for PS3 and Xbox360.

[Thanks Suzuki Yu]

Five of the Weirdest and/or Worst SEGA Accessories

SEGA is awesome, there is no doubt about that, but they’re not infallible. Back in the hardware days, SEGA made their fair share of mistakes. I won’t name off the 32X and SEGA CD like a lot of gaming sites do, because to be honest, as an owner of both systems I have to say they have some really great titles. I’ll even defend accessories that only exist for the sake of a few games. Just because the Dreamcast fishing controller is rarely used, due to the limited library of fishing games, does not make it a bad accessory. It’s just highly specialized, and when put to use it is very effective. Same goes for the Samba de Amigo maracas and Virtual-On’s twin sticks. But there are SEGA accessories and add-ons out there that were failures, or were simply too weird to take seriously. This week we’ll take a look at five of these hiccups in SEGA’s history.

Sonic’s 20th anniversary nendoroid figure gets priced

We brought you the news that Good Smile Company would be making a nendoroid figure for Sonic’s 20th anniversary in Japan.

Now for what you all want to know. How much will this beautiful figure cost me? If you live in Japan it will cost you ¥3,500 (about $45 USD). If you live outside of Japan, you will be paying more for importing it. The figure comes with Sonic (you can pose him standing or running), item box, chaos emerald and point marker. When is it out? April 2012 is what Good Smile Company is aiming for. Check out the product page here.

VirtuaTennis – 10 Years Gone


It’s a decade since Vitua Tennis first graced the Dreamcast, it seems to me like it was only yesterday I was around my best friends house sitting in their mothers living room playing doubles on Virtua Tennis with his brother. Ah- those were the days!

A decade on and now we’re sitting in our living rooms still playing VT when the mood takes us! I think it says a lot when a person like me, who despises sport of all kind, can still get hours of fun out of a sports game and I’ve wasted many, many hours.

I’m pretty impressed that Sega put together a 40 minute documentary on the history of Virtua Tennis. This is how you celebrate one of your classic series, take note Nintendo!

Buy Crush 40’s “Song of Hope” on iTunes and help support Japan’s relief efforts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPF124mm-VA

Like what you heard? Then go buy it on iTunes. You should go buy it anyways, since it’s only 99 cents, and your purchase goes to help Japan’s relief efforts from the Earthquake / Hurricane. Hell, if I can afford it, so can you! Song of Hope is available in both Europe and the US on iTunes.

This isn’t your typical Crush 40 cheesy buttrock song, it actually sounds more like traditional rock, so I think more people will like it =)

Well, I was told that the money made off this song goes to Japan charities by someone, but now I’m not sure, I can’t find solid info anywhere about it. I don’t want to give you guys false info. If anyone could let us know in the comments section that would be great!

Sonic 20th Anniversary Soundtracks Now Available on iTunes

Today, Sega of Japan announced that the Sonic 20th Anniversary Soundtrack would be available on iTunes in Japan, Europe and The United States. The soundtracks include Sonic CD, Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 and Sonic Heroes. Also available are two Crush 40 albums including a “Best of” and Jun Senoue’s “The Works”. The albums are only $9.99 American so download now!

 

Yakuza: Dead Souls trailer introduces you to the guys

SEGA has released a new trailer for the upcoming port of Yakuza: Dead Souls. This new trailer shows the players the playable characters and what they like. No voicing, just background music. I don’t know what kinds of budgets are used for trailers, but I can tell you this one is very low budget.

We already know most of the Yakuza: Dead Souls information, so I’m not really caring about the trailers. What I am looking forward to know is the western changes that were talked about.

Sonic 20th Anniversary Action Figure Roundup

2011 has been a huge year for Sonic in a number of areas: we’ve seen the return of the Genesis-style gameplay, Archie’s Sonic series gave us a great adaptation of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 and the toy company Jazwares has released a number of action figures celebrating Sonic’s 20th anniversary. While I haven’t been posting about the many figures here at SEGAbits, over at SEGA Network affiliate SEGA Memories I’ve been regularly sharing the Jazwares toys. As of this week I’ve collected the full line of 20th anniversary figures, at least until Jazwares releases more which they have hinted at doing. What follows is a handy roundup of all my Jazwares figure posts from the past year, where I review each figure and share photos. Enjoy!

Sonic’s Road to Redemption: Part 2, Picking Up the Pieces

In February 2007, Sonic the Hedgehog was still fresh in the memories of Sonic fans. Yet they already had a new game to play in the form of the Wii exclusive Sonic and the Secret Rings. Secret Rings was a radically different kind of Sonic game, featuring on-rails play and a heavy emphasis on motion controls.  Secret Rings had been championed the previous year by journalists as a Sonic game that was actually good, that took a radically different approach to the formula to solve the franchise’s problems. What gamers actually got was a mixed bag of great and poor design decisions that was still a huge step up from Sonic 06, and would start Sonic on his slow, winding road to recovery.