Treasure says there is ‘good news’ coming regarding Ikaruga

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The SEGA NAOMI cult classic shoot ’em up Ikaruga might have some ‘good’ news incoming, that is according to Treasure’s twitter account.

Of course, fans are raving and hoping that this will mean a sequel to the original (which was a spiritual successor to Radiant Silvergun). I also hope for a sequel, the game has had enough ports already (appearing on Dreamcast, Gamecube, XBLA, and Android mobile devices). So, are you guys ready to return to another bullet hell adventure?

SEGA’s Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax will be shown to the public on Oct 6th

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We already talked about Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax before, SEGA’s new 2D fighting game. But there hasn’t been anything other than screenshots shown (teaser trailer here!). How will it play? Will it even be good? Well, you can expect tons of footage of the game running and hands-on impressions early next month.

The game will be shown at the Dengeki Bunko 2013 Autumn Festival, sadly this is a Japanese event. If you live in Japan, check out the game’s site for more information. The event will be free! It is confirmed that the public build will only have two playable characters, Shana (Shakugan no Shana) and Asuna (Sword Art Online).

Check out the Sonic Lost World opening cutscene


Seems that Gametrailers got access to a direct feed gameplay session with your boys over at SEGA and in the start of the footage they included the opening cutscene from the game.

So what stage are they demoing? Windy Hill Zone 3, in case you wanted to see the whole video.

Puyo Puyo Tetris trailer solves the ‘how it plays’ puzzle


We announced that SEGA was planning the ultimate puzzle crossover earlier this week and now we have a trailer (above) of the game in action. Knowing that both Puyo Puyo and Tetris have their own rules, how would SEGA combined them? It seems that one player will be able to play either Puyo Puyo rules or Tetris rules or vice versa.

As far as the trailer go, it is really in the vein of ‘Puyo Puyo’ with bright cheerful tone that reminds us of Puyo Puyo Fever. At TGS SEGA showed off ‘swap mode’ that will have players switching between Tetris and Puyo Puyo games or the option to play Tetris vs Tetris/Puyo vs Puyo. The game is set to release in Japan on the Playstation 3, Playstation Vita, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U sometime next year.

Could we see more Virtual On in 2015?

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Virtual On recently had a ‘memorial talk show’ live on Nico Nico where SEGA designer Mori Yasuhiro and model makers Volks and Hasegawa talked about the franchise’s history and creation of the model toys for the franchise. They showed off some matches and then Mori made some comments about the future of the franchise.

“Virtual On is still alive! Something might wake up [on Virtual On’s 20th anniversary]” – Mori Yasuhiro

What does this mean? Who knows. I guess we will find out sometime in 2015 when the franchise celebrates its 20th anniversary. Do you guys think there is a market for a brand new, next generation Virtual On?

Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing finally debuts on Android

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Seems like SEGA took their sweet time porting over Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing to Android, especially when you consider the fact that the game came out two years ago. But hey, it’s here now and you can own it for $1.99! This is port of the DS version, cleaned up for higher resolution phones.

The game just came out and reviews aren’t that positive. Out of three reviews, two of them have been one stars and the other was three. Hopefully SEGA addresses issues of lag and other complaints.

Yakuza Ishin’s TGS gameplay trailer has lots of slicing and dicing


SEGA has released two trailers for the upcoming Playstation exclusive, Yakuza Ishin. The first one and the one we embeded above is the gameplay trailer showing off the combat system, forging system and a few other tidbits.

Now the other trailer is the story trailer, this one uses the intro from the cinematic trailer shown off at the Sony conference, which was also awesome.  The game comes out in Japan on both Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 on February 22nd, 2014.

SEGA Sequels: Sonic Shuffle

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Hey, I know you guys are asking why I picked Sonic Shuffle for this week’s Sequel Saturdays.  I mean, the first game wasn’t that good (at least in my opinion) and it wasn’t a ‘Dreamcast classic’ compared to something like Jet Set Radio, Shenmue or Skies of Arcadia. Well, I think there is a huge market for a Sonic the Hedgehog party franchise and Sonic Shuffle had potential to fill it.

So if there was to be a sequel, what should the sequel improve upon? Well, that is this week’s Sequel Saturday article!

Yakuza: Ishin to be a Playstation 4 launch title, also coming to Playstation 3


Above is the first trailer for Yakuza: Ishin, shown off at SCEJA Press Conference 2013! If you want to see the trailer without the English voice over, click here.

The game was announced as a Playstation 4 launch title, but will also be coming out on the Playstation 3 for those not picking up a Playstation 4 at launch. The game will also feature crossplay with the Vita!

Yakuza Ishin will be out in Japan on February 22nd, 2014. As for a western release? According to NeoGAF user Verendus, who is known as a legit insider in the strict community, this one is definitely coming West. What do you guys think?

The SEGA Dreamcast turns 14 today, how are we going to celebrate?

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Hey there, space cats! The SEGA Dreamcast turns 14 today in the USA, how are we celebrating? Well, we will be delivering a bunch of Dreamcast related content all month long. We will have all our weekly features focus on Dreamcast music, games and nostalgic moments. Expect to see Dreamcast related articles on Monday Memories, Tuesday Tunes, Saturday Sequels, and Sunday Round Table. There will also be the return of the ‘SEGA in the Media‘, where we spot SEGA references in current TV shows and movies (sometimes even the past).  We already started celebrating by giving you guys a really awesome episode of the Swingin’ Report Show featuring the editor-in-chief and writer for Official Dreamcast magazine.

One of our former writers and current editor-in-chief over at Dreamcast Scene is also teaming up with us, DC Emu and Age-Media to bring some interviews with current SEGA published authors and Dreamcast indie developers. Actually he already published one of his interviews with David Munoz, author of ” “Service Games: Rise and Fall of Sega ”. Some of the other interviews you can expect includes author of “Zoya Street’s Dreamcast World” author, who got crowd sourced by Indiegogo. There will also be interviews with indie Dreamcast developers like Senile Team, Duranik and Water Melon.

Stay tuned later today for “Monday Memories: Remembering the Dreamcast’s launch“.

SEGA announces Phantasy Star Nova for the Playstation Vita

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Sony is having a Japanese conference today where they show what Japanese audiences can expect from Sony at this year’s TGS. During the event Sony announced a new slim Playstation Vita and a few games, one of those being Phantasy Star Nova! The game will be developed by tri-Ace (Resonance of Fate), and will feature a single-player story mode along with an online co-op mode that allows you to team up with 3 other players online or in lan. The game game is set to released in Japan this upcoming March.

Some facts were given about Phantasy Star Online 2‘s performance on the Vita. It has been confirmed that SEGA has sold over 150,000 boxed versions of Phantasy Star Online 2 and has over 650,000 people playing the game on Sony’s handheld. This is probably the first time someone has handled a new Phantasy Star game that hasn’t been Sonic Team.

Hit the jump to see the announcement trailer.

Swingin’ Report Show #50: Dreamcast Birthday Bash with Francesca Reyes, Simon Cox, & Ricardo Torres


If you didn’t know, we here at SEGAbits are huge fans of the Official Dreamcast Magazine, so you know we totally geeked out knowing that Francesca Reyes (ODCM writer and OXM editor-in-chief) and Simon Cox (Editor-in-chief OCDM) were coming on the podcast. But that isn’t all, we also have a unique perspective coming from Ricardo Torres (working at CNET Gamecenter, coming from early online media compared to print at the time) who gets massive SEGA props for having more Samba de Amigo maraca sets than all the staff combined. I’m really happy with the way the podcast turned out this week, full of nostalgia and the perfect way to kick off the 14th anniversary of the Dreamcast.