Quick recap: a few weeks back I paid a visit to SEGA of America’s headquarters. In part 1, we explored the area where the offices are located, entered the office building lobby, got on an elevator, and entered SEGA’s lobby. In part 2, we’re going to explore the SEGA office lobby, taking a look at all the cool bits of SEGA history on display! Join me, as I venture inside SEGA of America.
I’ve always thought of SEGA as the video game company of the summer. Many of their most memorable games start off in bright and sunny tropical paradises with endless blue skies. Stuff like Daytona USA, After Burner, Out Run, NiGHTS into Dreams, Sonic the Hedgehog and Ristar invoke the spirit of summer like few other games do.
I’ll be featuring a few of “songs of the summer” over the next month or so. Hope you enjoy them! Figured I’d start with something I’ve wanted to put up for a little while: Knuckles Chaotix’s “Door into Summer”. It not only has an appropriate name, but also has a nice, memorable tune.
The ESRB has finally posted its rating for Sonic Lost World and it decided that the game is rated E 10+, for ‘aggressive language’. Before you freak out, its not that big of a deal, check out some of the lines they consider ‘aggressive’ below.
Rating Summary: In this action platformer, players control Sonic the Hedgehog as he attempts to stop an evil villain’s plans. As players zoom through fantastical landscapes, they collect items (e.g., gold rings and power-ups), avoid hazards, and use spin attacks to defeat robotic enemies; enemies break apart amid colorful explosions. During gameplay, characters sometimes use aggressive language (e.g., “You’re going home in a box,” ‘I’m going to skin you alive,’ and ‘I long for death’s cold embrace.’). Cutscenes also depict laser fire and explosions, as well as dialogue that references violence (e.g., “I’ll get fat from eating your black hearts,” “One second you’re contemplating genocide,” and “As long as I can still strangle a Zeti, my hands are fine.”).
What are your thoughts?
Game Informer have gotten their hands on a review copy of the upcoming Castle of Illusion remake and were allowed to put up a video of them playing through the first world. Along with the gameplay we also got some new details including that we can expect the game in early September and that the voice of Sully from the Uncharted series, Richard McGonagle is narrating the game. Sadly this video doesn’t feature the redone soundtrack by Grant Kirkhope.
People have been wanting a new Sakura Wars game for awhile, the franchise might not be huge but it has a nice cult following. SEGA and RED (developer) have been teasing that it would be coming back. So we finally get it announced and it turns out to be a Mobage game.
“The yet untold story of the other battle faced by the young maidens!”
Mobage (Mobile Games) is a social portal used for games, focusing on freedium sort of experiences where the user gets the based game for free but pays for ‘extras’. This is very typical in the mobile landscape. Also looks like Kōsuke Fujishima won’t be designing characters for this project, the first ever for a Sakura Wars game. Japanese fans are not happy with the announcement, hit the jump to read some of their angry comments they left on Jin115.
There have been a lot of theories flying around online as to why Sonic Lost World is a Nintendo exclusive. Some say that Nintendo came to SEGA, offered them a pay check for exclusivity, and that before then the game was supposed to come out on all platforms. So what does Takashi Iizuka say when asked the question in the Official Nintendo Magazine?
“The Wii U hadn’t been revealed when development began for Sonic Lost World, so we were working on a PC version in order to see what kind of platformer we could make. Then, when we tried to think about which platform would be best for this game, we chose Nintendo.” – Takashi Iizuka, head of Sonic Team
So there you have it, straight from Takashi himself. Though, I assume people with their own theories will brush this off and say it isn’t true. If it is or isn’t true, who cares, Sonic Lost World is coming exclusively to Wii U (and 3DS) this fall. Though, I would really like a PC version to be released, that would mean it’s still ‘console exclusive’.
Have you been wondering what Yuji Naka has been up to since leaving Sonic Team besides making a bunch of small and kinda neat games? Well, a new action adventure game called Rodea the Sky Soldier was announced for Wii and 3DS, publisher Kadowaka Games released a trailer which can be seen above. So why is it being released for Wii? Well, this trailer was released a little more than two years ago, after which the publisher never spoke of it again. Yuji Naka gave an update a few months later saying that the game was finished, but that they were waiting for Kadowaka Games to publish it. After a while everyone who did know about the game either forgot about it or assumed that it was scrapped.
Now we finally have an update on the title. Yoshimi Yasuda, the president of Kadowaka Games had said that they were having trouble adapting the control scheme to the 3DS version, which is being handled by the publisher. Yasuda said that the version is about 70% finished and that there will be more information in the near future. Maybe it’ll get a re-reveal at TGS 2013? We’ll see.
Prope also released a Digimon RPG called Digimon Adventure for PSP earlier this year in Japan, a western release doesn’t seem likely for this game though.
Here I am (tall, fat and handsome) with Sam Mullen, localization producer on Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F. The surprise hit at the Sega Arcade during San Diego Comic con last week. Despite a demo being readily available on PS3, there always was a big crowd for this game. Sometimes as big as Sonic Lost World (or more)! I ask some of the questions fans have been wanting to know. Will all the songs be included? What about DLC? Watch and find out.
Speed Demos Archive and Speed Runs Live team up once again to bring you another charity marathon with Summer Games Done Quick, featuring several games that will be finished in the shortest time possible, live and in front of thousands of viewers over the internet in order to raise money for Doctors Without Borders. The event lasts for five days, until the 30th, which includes games like Sonic the Hedgehog on Mega Drive and Master System, Ecco: The Tides of Time and more during the period. Earlier this year they also held Awesome Games Done Quick 2013 which has helped to raise over $448,000 for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, and they’re looking to repeat that success again with an initial goal of $50,000. The event also gives donors several benefits as well, donations affect bidding decisions on games and provides chances to win several prizes.
The event is currently underway! You can check out the stream on the Speed Demos Archive page or through the Twitch channel.
Panzer Dragoon Saga. So much has already been said in regards to Yukio Futatsugi’s swan song for Sega’s then underrated Saturn console. It’s received unanimous praise from gamers and critics alike, and has become a highly sought after collector’s item since its release….
Expectations were exceedingly high throughout the course of Panzer Dragoon Saga’s 2 year development. Not only would it expand on the franchises mythology, but it would be the first – and, as of this writing, last – role-playing game in the series. Players would be free to explore this incredible universe by air and on foot. This series, much like the dragon itself, evolved.
Sadly, it fell on some dark days. Saturn was on its way out in North America, which resulted in Saga receiving a limited run of only 30,000 copies. Considering there were over 2 million units sold in the United States, Saga was spread pretty thin. Used copies have been known to fetch well over $500 dollars on Amazon and eBay. Just think, that’s the suggested retail price of an Xbox One.
Now, 15 years later, I’m finally going to review it. Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel!
This weekend at the PAX Australia event, fans of the game ‘Plants vs. Zombies‘ got to see a weird version of their favorite PopCap tower defense game. The game running on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive.
Penny Arcade got a chance to play the game and posted the above video of it in action. Dave Cudrev from Retrospekt said he bought the game from the creator, who is a Russian coder. His hobby was rebuilding games and selling them on Ebay.
He purchased the game for $30 dollars, with no box or manual. Other games the coder has re-worked include Darkwing Duck and Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers for the Genesis/Mega Drive. I have to be honest, this would be a cool conversational piece of software to have.
Sooo. No one wanted to comment on my preview I wrote days ago when Alex and I were one of the first to see Frozen Factory behind closed doors eh? HMMMPH! Fine! “Grumble, grumble”. Gamespot has footage of most of the level now for everyone to see. Now you can all see the new level I was talking about that no one wanted to comment on. Yay. Comment or don’t. “SNIFF!” See if I care! “Goes crying in the corner.”
Sonic “Sniff!” Lost “Sniff!” World “Sniff!” Will be out October 22nd in the U.S. “BAAAAWWW!
SEGA has released the second behind the scenes trailer for their upcoming HD remake of the Genesis/Mega Drive classic Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse. The first behind the scenes video discussed the classic title, while the second video mainly covers the remake, going into character, stage and sound design. The game is looking great, with a lot of fun little graphical and gameplay details. I especially liked the bit where the lamp switch doubles as a rope, and using it causes the light to turn on and off. After the break, check out a piece of promo art for the game.
SEGA has been teasing Project 575 for a month and now they finally tell us what the whole fuzz is about. SEGA said Project 575 will be two things, one a app for iOS called Song Composer 575. Like the name suggest the app will allow you to synthesize your voice to sound very Vocaloid-ish. When it launches, you will be able to convert your voice to sound like either of the two main characters, Azuki Masoka or Matcha Kobayashi. The point? Create vocaloid inspired music.
SEGA will promote the app by giving it to already to popular Vocaloid composers. The app also lets you watch both of the girls dance, allowing you to dress them up and take creepy augmented reality photos of them. The app is set to release on July 26th on iOS in Japan. If you pre-register for the game, they will give users a free waitress costume (oh boy!).
As for the Playstation Vita game…
Ever heard of Border Break? If you’ve kept up with SEGA’s arcade games, you’ll know its a multiplayer class based shooter centered around mechas and online play. We may not be seeing a release of the game outside of Japan anytime soon, but thats not stopping UDON Entertainment which has announced during San Diego Comic Con on Friday that they’re releasing an artbook stateside based on the entire series as part of their recently acquired licenses including Ys, Devil May Cry, and more. The last time UDON brought over an artbook for a Japan-only SEGA title was for Valkyria Chronicles 3, which had already been established outside of Japan.