Bayonetta 2’s announcement was a surprise; not just because word on the long-rumored sequel had been scarce for years, but because it was revealed to be a Nintendo-published title exclusive to the Wii U.
Platinum Games discusses the process of getting Bayonetta 2 made, along with porting the original, in this video posted to IGN. Check it out!
Bayonetta 2 releases in North America and Europe on October 24th.
In something almost completely out of the blue, Archie comics has announced the Blue Blur and the Blue Bomber are set to join forces once again in the new crossover event Worlds Unite, starting Spring 2015. Indeed, Sonic and Mega Man are starring in another crossover comic series, set to be “even bigger” than 2013’s previous crossover.
As Polygon reports, the new crossover will be detailed at New York Comic Con later on this week. Paul Kaminski, executive director of editorial at Archie, has said that “You saw what happened when worlds collided, now see what happens when Words Unite! And this time, no universe will be safe…”
Intriguing stuff! Keep an eye on NYCC, where the Archie Action Hour: Sonic the Hedgehog and Megan Man panel is set for Thursday at 1pm, where more details are set to be announced regarding this exciting crossover event.
First 4 Figures is back again with a new classic era Sonic the Hedgehog statue up for pre-order, this time the star is Sonic’s nemesis Dr. Robotnik. Yup, you heard that right, apparently SEGA gave the okay for F4F to use the old name that they’ve pushed aside for the past 13 years. The statue is selling for $399.99 and is expected to release Q2 2015. If the price gave you a small heart attack, F4F has a flexipay option in which fans pay 3 monthly payments – two at $100 and a final payment of $199. The statue is also enormous, measuring 22″ tall, and 19″ wide. F4F also notes “Dr. Robotnik’s package also includes an additional set of hands. As well as the open palms to replicate his signature classic pose, the package includes an additional 2 hands, each holding a Chaos Emerald, in call back to the classic ‘Try Again’ screen at the end of Sonic the Hedgehog 1. These can be swapped out or mixed with the other hands depending on the collector’s preference.” You can pre-order at the official F4f site. Now the question is, what’s next? Classic Amy Rose perhaps?
Regarding the name, while I know many Western Sonic fans grew up with Dr. Robotnik, I do find the decision to be a bit odd. Mainly because I always saw the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Saturday morning cartoon design to be Dr. Robotnik, while the in-game version had a weird disconnect from the Robotnik name. With Sonic Generations poking fun at the old Robotnik name (“Nobody calls me that anymore!”) and the Jazwares action figures labeling the character as Dr. Eggman, it’s inconsistent with the brand to go back to the Dr. Robotnik name. Ah well, it’s a bigass statue and that’s good enough for me!
According to Nintendo World Report, a demo of Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal will be released on the eShop on November 4th. It isn’t known if or when a demo of its Wii U counterpart Rise of Lyric will also be released or if this is the same demo that was playable at events like Sonic Boom or PAX.
The site also recorded a playthrough of the Sonic Boom demo with direct feed audio, so you can also listen to what the game’s music is like. They recorded some gameplay of the Rise of Lyric demo as well, which can be seen after the jump.
SEGA’s Sonic Boom event took place this past Saturday in New York, and SEGAbits was there! Before I run through the day’s events, I want to thank SEGA, all the special guests, and the attendees for making the whole event a memorable experience. I know it was a big deal when SEGA chose to host last year’s event in St. Louis, but I can only imagine that planning this year’s event in America’s most populated city from the other side of the country was a lot of hard work on the part of SEGA. Thankfully, the hard work paid off. Within the span of five hours, SEGA treated guests to gift bags, autograph signings, game demos, live music, and both scripted and unscripted entertainment – and despite a large turnout, there was room to walk about and enjoy just about everything the event had to offer.
SEGA’s new 2D fighter called Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax is coming to Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita in Japan on November 13th and so SEGA has been releasing information on characters that will be available only on the console versions; they previously announced Valkyria Chronicles characters if you missed that.
Japanese website Dengeki Online (which the IPs in this game are based on) has reported the following support characters:
Sadly no western release date has been announced for this game.
As you could expect from the Sonic Boom event, a new trailer for the TV show isn’t the only new Sonic thing that got revealed today. SEGA also showed a new trailer showing gameplay and cutscenes from both upcoming Sonic Boom games: Rise of Lyric for Wii U and Shattered Crystal for 3DS.
The most notable thing this trailer shows is more of Shadow and Metal Sonic, who appear in both games as either bosses or rivals to race against. Also it has overly dramatic music and an ancient evil because why not.
Straight from Sonic Boom (the event, not the TV show), SEGA just announced that Sonic Boom (the TV show, not the event) will premiere in the US on Cartoon Network on Saturday, November 8th. So we’ll be able to see the show before Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric and Shattered Crystal are released. A sneak preview was shown as well, with the reaction to it being very positive.
As for Europe, the show won’t be appearing in most of that region until Autumn 2015. Well, unless you’re French, the show will air at an earlier unannounced date there. Apparently being in the country where the show is produced has its benefits. The rest of you Europeans can just sit and reflect on just how many more things called Sonic Boom we’re going to get.
Update: SEGA just released the sneak preview online for all to see, be sure to watch it above!
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Just like how the first Bayonetta featured many SEGA references, its upcoming sequel pays tribute to much beloved Nintendo games like Metroid and Star Fox. With the game even going as far as having alternate costumes with different weapons inspired by Nintendo games.
One segment near the game’s finale in particular features a pretty great Star Fox easter egg. If you don’t mind spoilers, be sure to watch the video above to see what it’s like. It’s not a major spoiler, but I can imagine some people being annoyed by seeing this part of the game before playing it for themselves.
The SEGA Pico legacy lives on with Telebeena, a streaming educational entertainment platform from SEGA of Japan relasing to Sharp LCD TVs this Fall. The name “Telebeena” may hold some significance to SEGA hardware fans, as Beena was the name of the followup console to SEGA’s Pico. The Telebeena is an evolution of the Pico/Beena brand, which will act as a streaming service to select Sharp TVs, specifically “AQUOS Quattron pro” and the XL20 line, and smartphones. Similar to the Wii U and Pico/Beena, kids will be able to play Telebeena software on their TV by using a supported smartphone or tablet as a second screen. The official Telebeena site has revealed Sonic & The Jewel of Mystery will be the service’s first title, featuring simple matching and puzzle games.
The Telebeena is set for an early November release, and as soon as we learn more we’ll be sure to post it here at SEGAbits!
Time to get back in the saddle, rockers, because the New Order Nation has declared war on everything we hold dear: rock music, movies, video games, sex and red meat….
Good lord, it sounds the “Moral America” in Escape from L.A.
Anyway, the oppressive New Order Nation, led by Head Mistress Helga, has abducted Aerosmith (no shit, folks). Now it is up to A.J. Rosa and Erica Winter to save 90’s pop culture. 1996 is gonna’ EXPLODE!
All kidding aside, this gimmicky arcade rail shooter was first released in 1994 and ported to several gaming consoles of the day, including the SEGA Genesis, SNES and PlayStation. While it claims it was a “#1 arcade smash hit”, Revolution X received a lukewarm to negative reception upon its release.
But how can this be?! It has AEROSMITH! There’s guns! There’s hot chicks in bikinis! There’s blood! How can this game suck?!
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Tickets for the upcoming Weston Super Sonic 2015 event based in Weston-Super-Mare, England, have officially gone live; and they’re going pretty fast!
Since ticket registrations opened yesterday, already over a quarter of the tickets have been sold, which is no easy feat for a fan convention to accomplish! The tickets are provided free of charge, and guarantee you access to the event – an event that sounds rather awesome, sporting guests such as Sonic the Comic artist Ferran Rodriguez, as well as other StC heavyweights Richard Elson and Nigel Kitching. If that wasn’t enough, Mike Pollock will also be providing a Skype Q&A at the event – and this isn’t even everything, with more events and guests planned than those listed here, such as tournaments and art contests with prizes available!
You can get tickets for the event by clicking here!
If that wasn’t enough, as we previously stated SEGABits will be there on the day, providing coverage to the great standards we strive for!
It’s certainly looking to be a incredibly promising and exciting event, and for those of you in the UK, we hope to see you there!
For those in the US, don’t forget about the upcoming Sonic & SEGA Fan Jam based in Savannah, Georgia coming later this year, hosted by us at SEGAbits!
SEGA Network a mobile gaming offshoot of SEGA and Japanese Television network Fuji TV have invested in Tokyo-based start up Goopa with an undisclosed amount of money. Goopa is known for crowdfunding independent anime and independent musical acts. This new investment will launch later this month and focus on crowd sourcing indie games, this new service will be called ‘Crowdrive‘.
According to the CEO of the company, Hiroaki Taira, crowdfunding is usually used to hire additional talent on projects. He also talked about how small the company really is, saying he started off with himself in Japan and two people in Thailand, now they have six people working on the project.
Even though Crowdrive will start off by funding mobile games, they say they want to extend the service to both console and PC games in the near future. Anipipo (their anime crowdfunding site) took 15% commission from projects and have stated that Crowdrive (their gaming crowdfunding site) will take less. They state that having a relationship with SEGA Networks opens the doors for projects that could feature SEGA IPs.
If SEGA Networks does try to revive a old SEGA IP through Crowdrive, what franchise do you want it to be?
Well ya know somethin’ Segabits?!
I was driving down Venice beach on my way to Gold’s Gym. Sayin’ my prayers and eatin’ my vitamins, when a pregnant Hulkamaniac dove into the back seat of my convertible! She screamed “Shigster! I’m about to have a little Hulkamaniac and I need to get to the hospital as fast as possible!” I knew what needed to be done. I grabbed the wheel with my 24 inch pythons and drove like a mad man! I drifted up steep inclines and weaved in and out of traffic. Oh sure, I hit a few pedestrians but they were probably Piper fans anyway!
It’s only fitting that the final Tuesday Tunes for Dreamcast month be about one of the Dreamcast’s legendary rhythm titles. Tonight’s track? A bombastic, jazzy little tune from Space Channel 5,You got to love when that awesome saxophone solo at the 2:55 mark, too. This is a real swinging, sexy piece of jazz that’d be absolutely great to dance to even outside of the game. Spaceport: Introducing Ulala. You got to love when that saxophone solo starts playing at the minute mark, too. This is a real swinging, sexy piece of jazz that’d be absolutely great to dance to even outside of the game. Definitely a great song to introduce one of the coolest rhythm game characters out there.
What many of you might not know is that one of Space Channel 5’s most iconic tunes wasn’t even made for the game! It’s actually a remix of an awesome song from the 1966 spy thriller movie “The Thriller Memorandum” called Mexican Flyer. The song itself is performed by Ken Woodman & His Piccadilly Brass, and the version Space Channel 5 uses seem to be ripped straight from the movie.
I don’t know what possessed Tetsuya Mizuguchi and the good people from United Game Artists to go with this as one of their game’s headline songs, but I’m glad they did. We can always use more jazz in gaming soundtracks, especially these days! Check out the original Mexican Flyer, which was also in Space Channel 5, below the fold.