Author Archives: George

SEGA’s Hideki Sato talks about creating the Mega Drive to beat Nintendo

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It seems that SEGA Japan’s former President (2001-2003) and hardware designer Hideki Sato is getting quite a bit of attention from the media lately. A few months ago he discussed what it was like going against Sony and the PlayStation brand, now he is talking about the creation of the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis, which he reveals was created to beat Nintendo (no, duh?). If you didn’t know Hideki Sato was behind the creation of the SEGA SG-1000, SEGA Master System, SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis, SEGA Saturn, and the SEGA Dreamcast.

The Famitsu interview seems to be exclusive to its magazine but Siliconera translated some important bits where he discusses the SEGA SG-1000’s rough launch and how it helped the Mega Drive’s early development.

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SEGA renews Virtua Fighter logo and files new trademark for ‘Battle Genesis’

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SEGA has filed to renew the Virtua Fighter logo trademark and at the same time have filed a trademark for a brand new IP being titled ‘Battle Genesis‘. Both the Virtua Fighter logo and Battle Genesis are being trademark to be used for coin operated machines and arcade game use. For sure, the title ‘Battle Genesis’ sounds like some sort of versus game itself. What do you think it is?

As you have probably guessed, fans online are excited at the idea of a new Virtua Fighter entry, but SEGA Europe has already dashed their hopes with a tweet confirming that SEGA doesn’t have a new entry planned.

[Via: Siliconera]

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Virtua Fighter’s Akira to appear in Smash Bros Ultimate as assist trophy

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It looks like Super Smash Bros Ultimate will continue to pay tribute to the innovative Virtua Fighter franchise. During the release of Smash Bros for Wii U and 3DS, Nintendo announced that Virtua Fighter’s Akira and Jacky outfits would come to the games via DLC. Now Virtua Fighter’s Akria will appear in the game when it launches as a assist trophy. It has also been confirmed that Shadow the Hedgehog would be returning once again as a assist trophy as well, which would mark his 3rd appearance as a assist trophy. Very surprised he didn’t get a echo fighter treatment.

Nintendo also announced a ton of new content for the upcoming Super Smash Bros Ultimate release on Nintendo Switch, so check that out. Sadly not a lot of it is SEGA related, so not posting it here.

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SEGA AGES Nintendo Switch team reveals they are working on NAOMI Arcade emulation, not specifically Dreamcast

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According to a brand new SEGA AGES team interview, they have revealed that they are actually working on SEGA NAOMI emulation, not technically Dreamcast. If you didn’t already know, the SEGA Dreamcast is actually based on the SEGA NAOMI arcade board and was designed for companies to easily port their arcade games over to the SEGA Dreamcast. You can check out the full release of arcade titles to hit the SEGA NAOMI board here, but some highlights include Crazy Taxi, Dead or Alive 2, The House of the Dead 2, Samba De Amigo, Virtua Tennis , Power Stone, Marvel vs Capcom 2, and a lot more.

The team has said that these SEGA NAOMI titles will only happen if the first volume of SEGA AGES vol. 1 sells well on the Nintendo Switch. They have also said that they have a specific SEGA NAOMI arcade title in mind to launch the new series. What SEGA AGES NAOMI title would you want to see hit the Nintendo Switch?

[Source: GSK]

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SEGA Genesis Classics hits Nintendo Switch on December 7

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It looks like the Nintendo Switch version of the SEGA Genesis Classics compilation will hit the console hybrid portable this December 7, 2018. Looks like they really wanted to hit that holiday period. The collection will feature over 50 SEGA Genesis era titles.

Hot on the heels of the Sega Ages titles announced last week and set to launch during the Tokyo Gaming Show, SEGA continues a winter of bringing great classics to the portable Switch. Retro fans can now finally play the Genesis / Mega Drive collection on their way to school or work, in their lunch break or basically anywhere on the go! Sega Genesis Classics / Sega Mega Drive Classics has over 50 retro favorites to experience across every genre: arcade action, shooters, beat’m ups, puzzlers and hidden gems, with a raft of modern features. Exclusively for the Nintendo Switch players can now compete in same-screen local coop mode and use each Joy-Con individually if desired. Familiar features like online multiplayer, achievements, mirror modes, rewind and save states are all part of the collection for everyone to revisit and enjoy.
You can check out the list of games included after the break.

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SEGA News Bits: Team Sonic Racing Delayed Until May 2019 Reaction

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It has finally been confirmed that Team Sonic Racing won’t be hitting this holiday season, instead we will have to wait until May 2019 to get our hands on the upcoming Sumo Digital Sonic the Hedgehog themed racing game. On this episode of the SEGA News Bits we discuss why it might have been delayed, what they can do with the extra time to get Sonic fans more excited and more!

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Sonic the Hedgehog designer Naoto Oshima working on CGI film under working title ‘The Monkey Prince’

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It looks like Japanese film company Toei Animation and Chinese giant Bona Film Group are partnering up for CGI flick under the working title ‘The Monkey Prince‘.

This film was just shown off the other day as part of the Tokyo Film Festival and will have quite a bit of big names including Sonic the Hedgehog character designer Naoto Ohshima, who is obviously going to design the film’s characters along side Takao Noguchi (Dreamworks/Sony Pictures veteran). The film will be directed by John A. Davis (Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Ant Bully) and written by J. David and David N. Weiss (Shrek 2, The Smurfs)

Chuck Williams is being brought into production of the film, Chuck has a long history with Pixar and Disney Animation working on projects such as Brother Bear and Beauty and the Beast. He had this to say:

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Team Sonic Racing Delayed To May 21, 2019, Surprises No One

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Have you noticed something about Team Sonic Racing? There has been very little hype and update for the game and it seems the reason for that is that the game is being delayed. There have been rumors about this delay in the past but it has officially been confirmed by the Sonic the  Hedgehog twitter account this morning:


It feels to me that this could be a good idea if this actually means we are getting a better game for it. Quite frankly, I’m pretty sure that Team Sonic Racing might have not have done too hot this holiday season with big titles like Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Fallout 76 coming soon. What are your thoughts on the delay?

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7th Dragon 2020-II For Sony PSP Gets English Fan Translation

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As you already know that SEGA has only localized one of the four released 7th Dragon games from Japan. That one was the last one 7th Dragon III Code: VFD on the Nintendo 3DS. But if you didn’t already know the game debuted back in 2009 on the Nintendo DS with 7th Dragon (translated here), then 7th Dragon 2020 (translated here) on PSP and then comes this newly translated title 7th Dragon 2020-II. Obviously 7th Dragon 2020-II is a direct sequel the previous PSP game and its recommended you play that first.

If you guys didn’t know 7th Dragon was requested by most hardcore SEGA fans due to the involvement of big named SEGA creators including producer Rieko Kodama (Phantasy Star, Skies of Arcadia) and composer Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage, Etrian Odyssey). I love these sort of fan translation projects because lets be honest, there is no way that these past three 7th Dragon games will get localization in the west especially considering that the Nintendo DS and PSP are both obsolete.

[Source: Romhacking]

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Yakuza 4 trailer for PS4 releases showing off Masayoshi Tanimura’s changed model in action

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We posted the other day that Yakuza 4 would release January 17, 2019 in Japan and that the character Masayoshi Tanimura, one of the four playable characters in Yakuza 4 would have a model and voice changed due to the original actor Hiroki Narimiya retiring from acting (which not might all be his choice). This new trailer shows the new voice and model in action, now being played by Toshiki Masuda.

Not only that, SEGA has also released a ton of screenshots including the box art for the game.

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SEGA AGES team not ruling out Saturn & Dreamcast games in the future

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The people over in Famitsu had a great little interview with the people behind SEGA Ages which t his time included Rieko Kodama (Skies of Arcadia, Phantasy Star, Deep Fear) where she talked about what it meant for her titles to make the list of most requested SEGA Ages titles. There was also a lot of discussion regarding Jet Set Radio getting the number one spot, with the team saying that composer Hideki Naganuma himself asking fans to vote for the series. They also said that some issues regarding the poll happen because this time voting was open to everyone, while the last poll they had (after SEGA 3D Classics wave 2 in Japan, polling for what games will be in Wave 3) they only let people that bought SEGA 3D Archives Vol. 2 to vote, saying that this time a lot more younger fans that might not have grown up with the type of games they are reprinting will get to vote. They showed Mushi King ranking highly as an example.

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Yakuza 4 launches on PS4 January 17, 2019 in Japan, Masayoshi Tanimura being recast

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Famitsu has confirmed that the PlayStation 4 port of Yakuza 4 will be launching in Japan on January 17, 2019. Yakuza 5 is set to come out during 2019 as well.

The magazine also ran a story talking about how Masyoshi Tanimura, a main character in the game, will be recast. According to the magazine, SEGA needed to revise and re-record some lines for the character and since the orginal voice actor Hiroki Narimiya has retired from voice acting SEGA decided to recast the role as Toshiki Masuda. This means that SEGA will be changing the model and voice. Quite a bit of work, I guess Japanese men take their retirements very seriously.

[Via: Siliconera]

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Yakuza 6 sold the same in the West as it did in Japan, a first for the franchise

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If you have been a massive Yakuza fan for awhile, you might have noticed that the franchise has been gaining steam since the release of Yakuza 0. My worse fear was that after Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami, that those new audiences would either set Yakuza 6 aside for later (after Kiwami 2 and the Yakuza 3-5 ports) or just stop buying the franchise altogether. I can safely say that isn’t the case, thankfully Yakuza 6 seems to have performed well enough that the game sold the same in West as it did in Japan. This is a first for the franchise, not bad for a title that was closing off a long running story.

“In the past, the Japanese market has generated the bulk of sales for these series, and although it has elements that are appealing to overseas. However, the game was not developed with European and U.S. markets in mind. Thanks to painstaking efforts to create a game that Japanese fans will appreciate, the title has become popular not only in Japan but also won over fans overseas who praise the refined game sense of the title. I believe this is why Yakuza 6: The Song of Life has become such a popular hit around the world.” – SEGA’s Kenji Matsubara

This also means that Yakuza 6 Western sales basically includes UK and US against Japan, I hope that in the near future Western audiences outnumber Japanese audiences for Yakuza sales. I mean, we are getting closer. But we might get that considering that a Yakuza 6 PC port is most likely around the corner. We also have learned that Yakuza franchise has sold over 11 million copies world wide.

[Source: SEGA Report]

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SEGA teases new real-time strategy game Revolve8 with all-star development team including Castlevania’s Koji Igarashi

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SEGA announced today that they are working on a real-time strategy game for mobile devices called Revolve8: Episodic Dueling which will have an all-star Japanese staff behind the title. The staff includes Koji Igarashi (Castlevania series producer, Bloodstained) working on character designs, Masayoshi Kikuchi (Yakuza series, Dx2 Shin Megami Tensei Liberation) as senior producer,  and Ryota-H (Fate/Grand Order and Lord of Vermilion) as character artist.

On the other side the game’s sound team will include Shunsuke Tsuchiya (Another Eden and Stella Glow) along with Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono series, Xeno series). The games teaser page is already up in both English and Japanese. So, yeah this game is going to be SEGA’s next big release considering the staff has some pretty big names. I first reported this game as a mobile game but made a mistake since there isn’t platforms announced. We will find out more information on October 10th!

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Dreamcast Emulator Reicast now supports zero configuration online play

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Reicast Libretro has now gained modem and PPP support, which uses dreamcastlive.net to make online play possible. This new update should work flawlessly on Windows, Linux, Android and even macOS without inputting gibberish like IP address. What is that anyway?(I’m being sarcastic)

According to Libretro, this is the first time a emulator has supported a zero-configuration online gaming for Dreamcast and since it uses dreamcastlive.net, it seems you will be able to play with actual Dreamcast servers. What a good timeline. More information here.

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