If you never heard of Kantai Collection (or KanColle as the fans say), its a free-to-play browser game created by Kadokawa Games and is actually a card collecting game. The browser game has over 2.5 million regisitered users and the franchise has been spreading to other media like manga (more than one series), anime series and even a licensed tabletop role-playing game.
The franchise is rising to popularity fast, with the browser game only launching in 2013. SEGA of course wants in on the action, seeing how highly successful other ventures like Hatsune Miku (Which AM2 developed the arcade version of this game) have been for the company.
Personally would rather have SEGA-AM2 announce a new internal IP, instead of doing a license game (especially a card game). But you never know what the future has in store…
Resident Evil Code: Veronica was my favorite entries into Capcom’s long running survival horror franchise. Maybe its because I’m biased due to it being originally a Dreamcast exclusive title (which later got a Playstation 2 port). I’m also the type of person that likes to see unreleased artwork for games, especially concept art. It seems the guys over at Project Umbrella (a Resident Evil fansite) have been sitting on hundreds of pieces of unreleased concept artwork for Resident Evil Code: Veronica and Resident Evil Zero.
We came into contact with freelance concept artist Satoshi Nakai, who was hired by CAPCOM in 1997 at the recommendation of Nextech Co., Ltd to provide concept art for the games under the directions of scenario company FLAGSHIP’s lead writers Noboru Sugimura and Hiroshi Soda.
Only a very small fraction of this artwork has been released by CAPCOM over the years. They are direct scans of the original pages. Also included is a single artwork for a scrapped game originally directed by Masaaki Yamada, featuring HUNK on a cruise ship facing against new plant/human Zombie enemies.
Hit the jump to see over 100 pieces of never before released concept art.
SEGA’s 3D Classics on the 3DS eShop seem to be a hit, at least enough so for the company to bring more obscure titles to the platform (like 3D Thunder Blade). Recently ‘3D Streets of Rage 2‘ was submitted in Australia for rating, a game that hasn’t been announced yet. As you can see, the developer is being listed as M2, the same developer that has done the past 3D Classics and the game was submitted by SEGA Europe.
Don’t be surprised if SEGA announces the game soon, along with some really nice extra features to add to the overall experience. Online co-op, please!
Now that the first Persona 5 trailer finally came out, everyone is left wondering when the first batch of new information will be out. Today’s your lucky day, since Famitsu has released some of the first details regarding the new Persona game.
The main protagonist in this game is a second year high-school student who recently moved to Tokyo in the spring. He doesn’t live with his parents, but friends of his parents, who just happen to live in a coffee shop. The protagonist is bonds with people who have recently lost their homes. The main character’s persona is called Arsène (most likely named after Arsène Lupin).
In the Famitsu issue they interviewed both Katsura Hashino (Producer and Director) and Shigenori Soejima (Character Designer) where they gave more info on the game.
Ask us if we like Fantasy Zone. Now look at our logo, stop asking questions, you dingus. Luckily for us and even luckier for you, SEGA has announced that their next SEGA 3D Classic port that’s coming west is Fantasy Zone.
The game isn’t just a regular port as it will add new 3D visuals, adjustable difficultly settings, the ability to save your game, let you play the Japanese or English version, a stage select, and if that wasn’t enough they will have a brand new mode that allows you to play as Upa-Upa (Opa-Opa’s brother).
The official SEGA blog has a great interview with Yosuke Okunari and Naoki Horii talking all about bringing the game to the 3DS.
This week on The Weekly Five we will be talking about our favorite moments here at SEGAbits. If you missed my last post, today is the fifth anniversary of SEGAbits so it’s fitting that we give ourselves a whole episode to discuss some of our favorite things we have done in the last half decade.
It really is hard to believe that this site has been around for half a decade and it really passed by quickly. In that time the site has grown and changed so much, hopefully most of it for the positive. I don’t usually go too far into depth when it comes to my anniversary posts, but this time I decided to give you guys some background on how SEGAbits came to be. I hope you guys enjoy.
So your asking yourself when SEGA announced a new Toejam and Earl, considering they published all three previous titles. The answer, they aren’t. SEGA actually doesn’t own the IP to Toejam and Earl. While we know very little on the new title, including who is publishing it, we do know its happening. Posted a few days ago on the official Toejam & Earl Facebook page:
Greetings from Funkotron! We haven’t been posting as often lately because we’ve gotten really busy with the new TJ&E game. We will be making some announcements in a probably 3 or 4 weeks, when we have something we can show, and will be able to share lots of information with you.
Personally I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some sort of crowd funding happening. Greg Johnson (designer and IP holder for the series) also posted the following concept art sketches. When the game is announced, the developer will most likely be HumaNature Studios (HNS), a indie studio being headed by Greg Johnson himself.
Hi-sCool! Seha Girls (or Sega Hard Girls) has been released digitally over in the West thanks to CrunchyRoll, but now that the show is over fans can expect a physical release. No information on if the series will be released on both DVD and Bluray or what.
Skies of Arcadia is a special game that had just the right amount of charm to win me over. Skies of Arcadia is just one of those games where you really like the bright colorful world and cheery character personalities, despite its random battle encounters and parts in the game that lead to frustration. Not only that, the game had an epic soundtrack that gives you a sense of adventure. Listen to the main theme above and tell me this doesn’t make you want to go exploring some caverns or travel in exotic locations?
This week on Tuesday Tunes we will be listening to some of my personal favorite tracks in Skies of Arcadia. Hit the jump and set your volume to an appropriate volume.
Sonic Runners is going to be Sonic Team’s big Sonic the Hedgehog mobile developed game and SEGA has finally released the first teaser trailer. You can watch it above. The trailer basically goes through the history of Sonic Team developed Sonic games and starts off with a counter, counting down the years to 2015…
Something to note: The trailer only shows off the retro series and Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (if you count that as part of the retro series). Could this game be more influenced by older retro style Sonic games instead of the recent games?
SEGA also launched a site for the game which revealed that the game will be released in 2015 in Japan for free with premium items available. The game will be available for iPhone 4S and above, iPad 2 or later running iOS 7.0 or above. If you are on Android, you will have to be running OS 2.3 or later (Which means almost any Android phone released can play it.)
The site features an image of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles running through Sonic Lost World‘s Windy Hill with Chao and the Mother Wisp from Sonic Colors DS floating above. Could the classic clips and Sonic 4 indicate that Sonic Team sees Sonic Runners as a successor to the originals, or hint toward a gameplay style? What’s with the Chao and Wisps?
UPDATE: An interview between Iizuka and Famitsu lists a end of February release for the game in Japan. From what we can understand from the interview, characters will run forward on their own and Eggman will make appearances during stages which there appears to be 50 of at first (if we are reading the translation correctly). Tails and Knuckles are also playable, but Sonic is the only character initially available. Famitsu also went hands-on with the game, mentioning a cutscene featuring Sonic, Tails, and Eggman. Jumping appears to vary based on where you tap on the screen, possibly indicating that you tap on enemies to homing attack. The Eggman boss battle appears to have Sonic throwing or knocking back Eggman’s projectiles to defeat him.
Jace Hall who is a co-founder and former CEO of Monolith Productions, the developer behind the first two Condemned games has revealed on Facebook that he wants to bring the franchise back. Jace Hall says that he owns the IP and is looking for a proven indie developer that wants to bring the series back.
I am contemplating finding an interested and proven Indie development team AND PROVIDING IT TO THEM, so that they can take over the franchise and move it forward.
As an indie, it can be very hard to get marketing/media attention for a title that you work on. This franchise is already quite known, has market demand, and is in an innovative genre/category. – Jace Hall via Facebook
Condemned: Criminal Origins (Condemned: Psycho Crime in Japan) came out in 2005 as a Xbox 360 launch title worldwide for the console, with a PC port the following year. Shortly after the release of the game, Warner Brothers Studios announced it would make a film adaption called ‘Unforgettable‘. The film had a projected 2008 theatrical release date, but was canceled way before that.
While we didn’t see a Condemned film in 2008, we did see a sequel titled Condemned 2: Bloodshot. This game would not only be released on the Xbox 360, but also on Sony’s Playstation 3. Sadly there wasn’t a PC release of the sequel. Since the sequel didn’t sell as well as the first game, the franchise was put on hold. But maybe it will come back without co-publisher SEGA? What do you guys think about this?
Welcome to another unexciting episode of The Weekly Five where we create top five list on all things SEGA. I’m your host George and this week we will be talking about Virtua Fighter facts. This is a weird thing to do considering anything can be a fact, so I’ll try to keep it interesting. Who knows, maybe you’ll learn something new.
This will also be my last AM2 related Weekly Five for the rest of the year, so I hope you guys enjoy it! Let’s dive right in.
The arcades were a big part of Japan’s youth group up in the 80’s and 90’s, so its no surprise that a Japanese drama show based around these time periods would be created. No Continue Kid: Our Game History (ノーコン・キッド ～ぼくらのゲーム史～) is a TV show revolving around Reiji Watanabe, who in 1983 isn’t very interested in arcade games. The only reason he has to put up with them is because his father owns a game center. Reiji sees a girl he likes come in daily named Fumiyoshi Takano, she usually plays Xevious and leaves. Reiji decides to give this Xevious game a try to impress her and gets the best local player, Akinobu Kido (who goes by ‘Kid’, his high score handle) to teach him.
The show focuses on the friendships of these characters along with a new ‘Game Center’ trends throughout the decades (this show spans from 1983 to 2013 in 12 episodes) and even some console gaming love. Today we will be looking at some of the SEGA centric episodes including one for Columns, Fantasy Zone and two whole episodes based around the Virtua Fighter 2 fighting phenomenon. Let’s take a dramatized trip to the arcade scene in Japan from the 80’s through the 90’s, SEGA style!
Virtua Fighter was a ground breaking game for its time and was going up against some of the biggest fighting games made in that era. SEGA needed the whole game to be excellent and in my opinion they got a great complementary soundtrack to go with the revolutionary gameplay.
The first theme we are looking at is Akira’s Theme, this one is more up beat than they would later use. This one doesn’t seem like a theme for a character usually shown meditating and honing his martial arts skills. This is just a good action track, that gets the blood flowing. Its what I would love to hear when I’m in a middle of a fight and any move I make can win or lose the match. Great track, but as Akira’s theme, probably not. Seems the developers agreed as they would give him a more epic tune in Virtua Fighter 2.
