Author Archives: George

Ecco the Dolphin creator wants to make new Ecco, Mr. Bones and Three Dirty Dwarves entries on Nintendo Switch

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Ecco the Dolphin creator Ed Annuziata has a new game coming out called Space War Arena for the Nintendo Switch. If you kept up on Ed’s social media, he has had meetings at Nintendo these last few years and this has lead to people assuming (more like hoping) was working on a new Ecco related dolphin game for the Nintendo Switch, but its actually a new IP! In a interview with Nintendo Life, Ed Annuziata talks about returning to work on some of his past titles including Ecco the Dolphin, Mr. Bones and Tiny Tank:

“One of the OCD characteristics of my personality is I never give up! When I was trying to convince Sega about Ecco the Dolphin it took me years to get them to bite. There are some challenges I need to overcome but eventually, there will be a new Ecco!

Also, I am trying to find a way to port our Saturn game, Three Dirty Dwarves, to the Switch. I think that’s an excellent game for the platform. Also, if I have it my way, modern versions of Mr. Bones (Saturn) and Tiny Tank (PS1) are heading over to the Switch someday!”

Its a pretty interesting interview and its awesome to see a creator of some of my favorite video games still doing new work. I’d be totally excited to play a brand new entry into the Mr. Bones and Three Dirty Dwarves franchises. Who’d of thought that we would be saying that in 2019?

 

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Shenmue III officially reveals English voice cast

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The Shenmue III Kickstarter has sent out its 96th update, this time discussing the English voice overs that the game will receive. As we already know, Corey Marshall is reprising his role as Ryo Hazuki while Ling Shenhua will be played by new comer Brianna Knickerbocker who is said to have stunned people with her great performance.

We also got a behind the scenes video with the voice actors, Yu Suzuki and sound director Takayuki Nakamura in the LA studio. My main issue is how odd the audio is synced and how there is little to no information in this video. Which has been a common theme with these updates.Also seems like so few people to voice a game like Shenmue III, we even have Katana, Corey Marshall’s daughter making her voice performance debut. Should be a interesting product when Shenmue III releases later this year.

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Street Fighter II: Bloody Edition SEGA Genesis rom hack released

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Remember back in the day when the whole Mortal Kombat vs Street Fighter II school yard arguments? One big knock kids had against Street Fighter II back in the day was its lack of “extreme violence”.  Well, now you can get Street Fighter II: Bloody Edition modded rom created by NinjAkira based on Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition on SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive.

Street Fighter II: Bloody Edition just doesn’t add blood, it also changes the way the game plays:

Impact animations were replaced with blood sneezing and other improvements:

  • weak attacks have a very slow speed, normal attacks have not been altered and strong attacks have a very fast speed
  • Impact with strong attacks has been increased to give more brutality
  • Special attacks that need reload no longer need
  • The power bar is the same as Super Street Fighter to stay aesthetically better, but now with blood!

You can download it right here.

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SEGA’s Rieko Kodama being honored with GDCA Pioneer Award

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One of our favorite SEGA developers here at SEGAbits, Rieko Kodama, who has worked on SEGA classics like Alex Kidd, Phantasy Star and even the Dreamcast cult classic Skies of Arcadia. She is set to recieve this year’s pioneer award at this year’s Game Developer Awards.

“The Game Developers Choice Awards were conceived as a way to recognize the all-too-often unsung genius and dedication of game developers throughout history, and this year’s award honors a figure who helped pave the way for countless game creators to follow, after decades spent developing some of SEGA’s most indelible classics, Kodama-san could easily rest on her laurels, but instead has dedicated herself to creating games that transcend gender and generations to give us countless hours of joy. This award is a ‘thank you’ to Kodama-san and all creators who work so hard to achieve greatness.” – Katie Stern, general manager of the Game Developers Conference

THe Game Developer Awards ceremony will take place in San Francisco Moscone Center on March 20, 2019 at 6:30 pm.

[Source: Variety]

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Bayonetta crosses over into Shin Megami Tensei: Dx2 Liberation

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Bayonetta coming to Shin Megami Tensei: Dx2 Liberation was first teased at this year’s Tokyo Game Show but it has now been officially shown off on the 1st year anniversary stream.

While I get why some people are a bit put off with anything that has to do with mobile games, since they are so different compared to traditional games, I think this crossover makes sense and I hope we see more SEGA own IPs make cameos in Dx2.

[Via: Persona Central]

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SEGA AGES Puyo Puyo and Gain Ground hit Nintendo Switch February 2019

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SEGA Ages line of classic re-releases is going to be working overtime in 2019 since they are releasing both SEGA Ages Puyo Puyo and SEGA Ages Gain Ground on Nintendo Switch next month. We even got new information on extra content in these games:

“Gain Ground will see the addition of an All-Member Mode that unlocks all 20 characters, along with an Easy Mode if things are a little too difficult or you simply want to enjoy the game casually.

Meanwhile, the Sega Ages release of Puyo Puyo will allow you to try your hand against other players outside your home with Online Play while testing your skills on the leaderboards with the new Ranking System! Note that Nintendo Switch Online is required for online play.”

If you can’t get enough Puyo Puyo action, there will also be a SEGA Ages version of Puyo Puyo Tsu on Nintendo Switch later this year.

[Via: Siliconera]

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Blade Arcus Rebellion from Shining’s new trailer reveals more Shining Resonance characters joining the battle

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SEGA has released a new trailer showing even more Shining Resonance characters joining the versus fighting game Blade Arcus  from Shining Rebellion. If you didn’t know, a few years ago SEGA published Blade Arcus from Shining: Battle Arena which was a 2D fighting game featuring characters from the new Shining series. Blade Arcus from Shining Rebellion is a new entry that has been announcing fighters from Shining Resonance joining the battle, this trailer specifically shows off Yuma Iburn, Krika Tow Alma, Sonia Blanche, Rinna Mayfield, Zest Graham, and Excela Noa Aura.

While the last entry got a western release on Steam, it wasn’t published by SEGA. Blade Arcus Rebellion from Shining releases in Japan on March 14, 2019 for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. I wouldn’t keep my fingers crossed for a Western release by SEGA.

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SEGA updates Bayonetta’s steam page to tease Catherine PC release

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SEGA has this thing about updating previously released game’s news feeds to tease future PC ports. This time, SEGA updated the Bayonetta steam page with a post containing the above image. A sheep, which is an animal highly featured in Catherine.

The thing is, all we know about the tease is that SEGA posted the above photo. That is all, everyone is saying this could be a tease for Catherine Classic, not the Catherine Full Body re-release that is coming with a ton of new content. Why? Because ‘Catherine Classic‘ got rated for release in Australia. I think if SEGA was smart, they would have been working on a port of the new re-release Full Body and not release an outdated version. I mean, Atlus’ own porting policies basically say that they don’t like to do ports without it having extra content for the consumers. Plus Catherine Classic will be turning 8 years old later this year…

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Japanese only Crayon Shin-Chan SEGA Game Gear game gets English fan translation

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While the Japanese Manga/Anime of Crayon Shin-Chan debuted way back in 1990 over in Japan, it didn’t get popular in the West until around 2006 when Funimation picked up the license. Even though it took us decades in America, the show still became a cult hit and its not surprising seeing previous Japanese only releases like Crayon Shin-Chan Showdown! Quantum Panic!! on the SEGA Game Gear getting fan translations.

According to Psyklax, the translator for this project, every piece of text has been translated outside of a few Japanese signs that don’t matter. Check out the translation over at Romhacking.net. 

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SEGA developers talk about their favorite 2018 games and new year messages to fans

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It’s the new years, so that means that everyone is looking back at their favorite things to come out in 2018 and talk about what they want to accomplish for the future. The Japanese site 4Gamer has decided to interview over 195 Japanese developers and ask them what they liked in 2018 and their message to fans in 2019

I’m posting the SEGA and developers responses below:

Continue Reading ➜

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Sonic Team’s Takashi Iizuka wants to do a Sonic Adventure Remake

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In a new article in Retro Gamer looks back at Sonic Adventure, goes into details about how Sonic the Hedgehog transition from 2D to 3D and the making of Sonic Adventure. After this whole reminisce and looking back at the work Sonic Team did with the first Sonic Adventure, Takashi Iizuka says:

“It was the first high-speed 3D action game that also featured scenario highlighted with six different stories, the A-life Chao, six unique styles of gameplay – it is a unique offering even 20 years after its release… However, it was the very first 3D game that we worked on and looking at it now I can see the rough edges it has, which really makes me want to remake it again.”

While on the other hand Kazuyuki Hoshino said he would like to continue the series with a new game. But what would you rather have? A new Sonic Adventure 3 or a remake of Sonic Adventure? I wouldn’t be shocked if Sonic Team tries going back to the Sonic Adventure brand considering fan demand is high and that Sonic Mania was a highly successful experiment that was pushed to its success by its enthusiastic fans, its not hard to see SEGA wanting to try capturing that lighting in a bottle another time with Sonic Adventure-type remake.

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Streets of Rage 4 gets new screenshots and gameplay gif

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DotEmu has released some new Streets of Rage 4 screenshots, one including a gameplay gif showing off the game’s new juggling mechanic. You can view that up on top in video format.

Below we have a few new screenshots showing off more of Streets of Rage 4’s art style. So far the screenshots don’t show anything brand new, still only includes Axel and Blaze. I guess we will see more announcements come 2019.

Continue Reading ➜

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Sonic Team / SEGA CS2 developing upcoming Sakura Wars game

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In the latest Famitsu magazine, they covered a SEGA Games’ recruitment talk where they recruited for new planners, producers, programmers and designers. One of the guest speaking at this event was Shun Nakamura, Producer of Sonic Forces and director of Sonic Team/SEGA CS2 where he revealed that Sonic Team/SEGA CS2 are the ones making the upcoming Shin Sakura Wars game announced last year.

During the speech Nakamura did mention that SEGA has finally re-organized the teams behind the new Sakura Wars and Valkyria Chronicles game, which where folded into Sonic Team/SEGA CS2 years ago. It really did seem for awhile that SEGA was killing off smaller teams to fold into Sonic Team, since Sonic the Hedgehog was so massive. But now it seems SEGA is happier to reorganize these teams and allow them to work on older IPs? Is this good?

So far the only people we have really heard talk about the upcoming Sakura Wars game has only been Toshihiro Nagoshi and now Shun Nakamura, really want to see the people actually working on the game talk about it. But I guess we shall see next year what the new Sakura Wars will be like.

[Via: Siliconera]

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SEGA’s Judgment debuts third on the Japanese sale charts

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SEGA’s Judge Eyes (Judgment in America) came out in Japan this month and now we have the games first weeks sales. The game came in third place on the chart behind Super Smash Bros Ultimate (still on top) and the newly released God Eater 3. While both these established franchise got the two top spots, Judgment did pretty well for a new IP selling 148,773 units in just three days. For example God Eater 3 sold 150,523, so SEGA was just 2,000 sales away from topping a well established Japanese brand. Judgment will hit English speaking countries, with a English dub, this summer.

Hit the jump to see the full media create sales charts starting on 12/10/18 through 12/16/18:

Continue Reading ➜

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Project Judge being called “Judgment” in the West, coming Summer 2019 and will include an English dub!

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Judge Eyes (in Japan) got its official name revealed in the West, the game will be called “Judgment” in America and Europe. We also found out that the game will release in English speaking countries this upcoming summer. Huge news if you are a Yakuza fanatic, like yours truly.

One of the bigger surprises? The new trailer features a English dub. Yup! Check it out. I kinda joked about this game getting a English dub after Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise got one. Nice to have options.

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