Yearly Archives: 2025

IGN does feature entitled “F-Zero GX: The Speed of Sega”

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IGN’s done a feature today celebrating F-Zero GX, and how the collaboration between Nintendo and SEGA arguably made this game the pinnacle of the F-Zero series.

F-Zero GX was much more than a mere continuation of the series, though. SEGA’s blue sky thinking brought vibrancy to a world that previously treaded murkier waters, and it did so with style. Powered by SEGA’s Triforce arcade hardware – for which Nintendo’s GameCube provided the foundations – F-Zero GX lent Nintendo’s world a robust makeover.

It was also unmistakably a SEGA game. Amusement Vision was the team behind F-Zero GX, headed up by a Toshiro Nagoshi who was fresh off of making Super Monkey Ball, and its outlandish backdrops owe much to that game’s colourful fancy. Neon clowns loom above Casino Palace, a gigantic ROB controller gyrates in the background of Port Town and giant sandworms dance across the skies of Sand Ocean.

The courses also bear that indelible SEGA stamp. They’re extravagant, often torturous and as memorable as a pop classic, a fact that can be accredited to its creator’s methods. During the game’s development Nagoshi likened designing tracks to penning a rock anthem; each should have its own rhythm, complete with chorus, middle eight and a hair-raising solo.

To check out the full article, head on over to IGN.

Nice read and a celebration of one of the best racers I’ve ever played. I’m also proud to say that I did manage beat all 7 challenges in the Story mode…well, on the normal difficulty setting, anyway.

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SEGA using open source 3D for VT4

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Apparently SEGA is using a free to download 3D program to aid in the development of Virtua Tennis 4 in Japan. SEGA Of Japan technical artist Katsuhiko Omori said this in an email to the creators of Blender:

Hello

My name is Katsuhiko Omori and I work as technical artist at SEGA Japan.
One of my main responsibilities is to research new technology and evaluating them for a possible application for SEGA’s game titles.

In 2010, I designed a shader rendering pipeline for Virtua Tennis 4 (SEGA) with the help of Blender 2.4. I utilized the material node-editor to generate and compose different surface materials and fine tune the finale results. In this aspect, the node-system was an extremely helpful tool in exploring the possibilities of this artist oriented experiment.

VT4 adopted the ueber shader and thus was it possible to re-implement my designed materials and user parameters on the game console. The attached image illustrates the face-skin material – the most complicated shader. As you can see it is a rather complex combination.

It’s all Greek to me, but maybe some of our more computer inclined readers can make sense of it.

In other news, the World Tour Virtua Tennis 4 demo is now live on PSN. Go check it out now if you are a PSN+ member. If you aren’t you can check it out this time next week.

[Source: Videogamewriters.com]
[Source: SEGA]

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Streets Of Rage 2 out now on iOS

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From out of seemingly nowhere, Streets Of Rage 2 appears for download on the Apple iPod Touch and iPhone. The game will cost you $2.99/€2.39/£1.79/AU$ 3.99 and includes Bluetooth multiplayer, and the Japanese version, Bare Knuckle 2.

The article also mentions that Golden Axe 2, Golden Axe 3, and Streets Of Rage 3 will be available this spring. Cool beans.

[Source: SEGA]

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Support SEGA’s Hope For Japan by playing SEGA Play! Baseball

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SEGA Of America is pouring their hearts (and a lot of money) to help out Japan after the huge earthquake/tsunami crisis last month. It’s a great thing, and they have sure helped out a lot of people with their huge auctioning off of rare swag, as well as donations from Football Manager, Sonic, and Kingdom Conquest. Now, you can help some more by buying two Japanese items to decorate your stadium or team in SEGA Play! Baseball, available here.

[Source: SEGA]

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First piece of Yakuza 4 DLC up for grabs today

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Well, this is an improvement over Yakuza 3’s DLC. You get this pack for free. It raises the limits of your character’s strength and stamina, and also picks up your relationship with Haruka to a higher point. Oh, and two new karaoke songs.

There are also four new themes (not so free, except to PS+ users), each highlighting a different character of the game. They include Kazuma, Akiyama, Tanimura and Saejima. For normal PSN members, these will run you $2.99 each (£1.99, €2.49).

Pictured below is Akiyama’s theme. The rest of them are pictured at the SEGA Europe’s Blog, linked below.

[Source: SEGA]

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SEGA responds to Streets of Rage Remake pull

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“SEGA is committed to supporting any fans that take an interest in our games, and where possible we do so by involving them in Beta tests and other development, marketing or research opportunities,” explained the publisher. “However we need to protect our intellectual property rights and this may result in us requesting that our fans remove online imagery, videos or games in some instances.”

I guess it never occured to SEGA to protect their intellectual property when Bomber Games asked for permission to produce the Remake or when they allowed Secret Level to Remake Golden Axe.

After the Jump check out SEGA protecting their IP from a terrible reimaginig by Bottle Rocket.

Continue Reading ➜

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Space Channel 5 Part 2 & Bass Fishing hit XBLA & PSN this summer

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When Space Channel 5 part 2 was announced along with SEGA Bass Fishing, they had an early 2011 release date. Now that SEGA has released the titles on PC & 360 as part of the ‘Dreamcast Collection’, they delayed the digital versions.

“Space Channel 5 Part 2 and SEGA Bass Fishing are definitely coming to XBLA and PSN. Look for them sometime in late summer,” SEGA brand manager Ben Harborne

The people that seem to lose in this are the PSN users, who now have to wait till summer to get a taste of the Ulala pie (sexual? Maybe).

[Via: Eurogamer]

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SEGA Tunes Vol.4 “Making Arcades Friendly”

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Before we start playing the tunes we’ve prepped for you this week, here is a quote from the Suzuki Sama

“The bad kids would be hanging around the game center, playing games.

Video games were a mother’s enemy. That was the image then — “mother’s enemy” — because kids would stop studying.

I wanted to eradicate that.

 I wanted to change the dark, underground image of kids smoking and gathering in dark rooms playing games. I wanted to give it a lively image, bringing gaming to a brighter place — from inside to outside, darker to lighter place. But, you have to change the consumer. The people who play games in dark places will always play games in dark places.

So we had to attract people who would play games in bright places. In other words, I wanted to make games for a new market.

Here I thought Blue Skies in Games Started With Sonic.

Continue Reading ➜

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Sonic & SEGA All – Stars Racing now on Games On Demand

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Ryo ASR

SEGA have just announced today that the all star title from Sumo Digital is now up for download on Xbox Live via Microsoft’s Games on Demand service. ASR joins the ranks with SEGA titles Bayonetta and Aliens Vs. Predator.

Sonic and SEGA All – Stars Racing will set you back $29.99. Well worth it.

Here’s to another way to play as Ryo!

[Source: Gameplay Today]

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Explore the World of Jet Set Radio Future!

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In my regular internet browsing, I came across a blog entitled JSRF Inside. The blog is dedicated to ripping models, textures and environments from the XBOX classic Jet Set Radio Future. What is so insanely cool about the blog is that the owner and model ripper provides a number of amazing images and files detailing every character, NPC, animal and piece of graffiti that litters the world of Tokyo-to.

Check out JSRF Inside and read more here

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Bangai-O XBLA port coming world wide on May 4

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[This title is being published by D3, not SEGA. It is filed under news and not SEGA News.]

Bangai-O was originally released for the Nintendo 64. The series later got ported over to the Dreamcast, where it was released world wide. In 2008 the series made a comeback on the DS with a sequel titled Bangai -O Spirits.

Now the first game, the one that appeared on the Dreamcast by acclaimed developer Treasure (Gunstar Heroes and Sin & Punishment) is getting a remake on XBLA called Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury. Not only that, it will be out on May 4th. Other Treasure remakes hitting XBLA? Radiant Silvergun , which appeared on the SEGA Saturn (an excellent game!).

Game comes out May 4th world wide, comes with over 100 levels, map editor, ability to share levels online, online leaderboards and a nice price of 800 MS points.

[Source: AndriaSang]

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This is Yakuza director Toshihiro Nagoshi’s cat…

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I guess someone emailed Nagoshi to post picture of his cat and guess what? Here he is. He didn’t post the cat’s name sadly, so we will call him Moko. Yes, that sounds like a Nagoshi type name.

Below is a few more pictures, if you are into looking at other people’s cats. Here I thought the cat would have been more brown…

[Source: AndriaSang]

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Thor & Captain America games at WonderCon

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Behind the scenes with Thor

Thor: God Of Thunder

SEGA appeared at WonderCon in San Francisco last week, and showed off their two remaining Marvel games: Captain America: Super Soldier, and Thor: God Of Thunder. Above is a new behind the scenes look at Thor, and a very bad looking Thor trailer for the Wii. Over at the SEGA Blogs, they also included that awful looking Captain America Wii trailer that I previously reported on.

So, what do the SEGAbits readers think of these two games? I think Captain America is looking a lot better than Thor, and I hope SEGA will strive for this quality anytime they ever think about making another license game.

[Source: SEGA]

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