SEGA has released a press release detailing everything we wanted to know about Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown’s… erm, release. The game will launch on June 5th, for PSN and June 6th for XBLA. Prices will be $14.99/ £9.99/ AUD$18.25/ €12.99 on PSN and 1,200 Microsoft Points on XBLA. As for DLC, check the deatils for that and more in the full press release after the break!
Via their Facebook page, First4Figures have revealed the first in their modern line of Sonic statues: Sonic the Hedgehog. Like the photo says, pre-orders start May 15th, 2012 and there will be a very limited number of statues available. I have to say, when I heard of a modern line I was iffy, but this statue looks great! While I won’t be getting it, the F4F statues are too rich for my blood, I do love looking at photos of them. What do you think, dear readers? Would you let this hedgehog into your home?
In January we reported on a new SEGA studio called Hardlight, whose goal was to develop “high quality and innovative experiences for both current and future platforms”. Hardlight’s first game was, and may still be, a “unique action adventure” for the Playstation Vita. However, since SEGA’s recent changes, some SEGA fans questioned what was to become of Hardlight’s project. After the break, speculation as to what the status of the game is and why it might be heading to iOS.
This exclusive, never before seen, concept sketch comes courtesy of a GameWorks social media employee who recently joined up with the Sonic Stadium forums. Seems a GameWorks topic brought the forum to his attention. As a special treat, the “GameWorks Social Media guy” shared a very special bit of concept art that he describes as “mock-up art of a Virtua Cop statue from way back when GameWorks was only a glimmer in SEGA & DreamWorks’ eye”. This statue never made it to the construction stage, but it is a very cool piece of SEGA, and Virtua Cop, history. You can check out the full sized image here. After the break, his thoughts on SEGA’s split with GameWorks.
Edit: Updated headline, joke still works.
The long awaited Monster World IV, as well as Super Hang-On and Wonder Boy in Monster Land, are now available to download on the American WiiWare Virtual Console. Each game is 900 Wii Store points, or around $9. If you have a PS3 or XBOX 360, it might be best to wait for the upcoming compilations which will feature sharper visuals, a slicker interface and more games for your buck. Still, great to see Monster World IV finally getting a release. We were talking about it as far back as this time last year.
Flick of the Dead, which was trademarked in early April, has released today in Japan to their iOS store. The game is, as many guessed, a Typing of the Dead for iOS devices. This iteration is said to have added over 25,000 words, a boss rush and a drill mode. Unfortunately, the game is exclusive to Japan at the moment, however given that Miku Flick released to English app stores, it is possible we’ll see this getting a wider release at some point. The game is currently free to download, so if you can download it, do so. After the break, screens! “I don’t want to tap!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGURDOlBcQ8
Pix’n Love Publishing’s The History of Sonic book has finally released… in French! So while English readers await the release of the English version, which is coming, enjoy this spoileriffic page by page video of the book. The book looks to be very impressive, with a lot of artwork and screens as well as a good amount of text, a nice balance of pictures and words in my opinion. The most awesome aspect of the book is that it has never before seen artwork! After the break, part two of the book.
I’m starting to think comedian Daniel Tosh is a Sonic fan. Back in 2010 his Comedy Central show Tosh.0 did a segment on real life speed runs, based off of a Sonic 2 speed run video. On the March 13th episode of this year, Sonic got another mention in a segment on a failed parkour video. After showing a woman smashing her face into a concrete wall, Tosh quipped “of course the greatest parkourer of all time was Sonic the Hedgehog – who died turboing through a triple corkscrew. He got greedy.” You can see the full segment at the Tosh.0 show page, tell them SEGAbits sent you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uP6QpUWs_I
A new gameplay trailer has arrived for SEGA and Arkedo Studio’s Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit. The trailer reveals a bit of the game’s plot, which I won’t spoil. You’ll have to see it in the trailer. It is – ahem – quite odd. The art style is definitely influenced by Rayman Origins and Splosion Man, complete with wacky over the top environments and lots of meat flying about. Gameplay looks very fun, it’s like if General Grievous of Star Wars went on a rampage on his wheel bike. The game is set for a summer release to XBLA, PSN and Steam.
Thanks to SEGAbits forum member max_cady for the heads up!
The UK PSN exclusive show Playstation Access showcased snippets of new footage from Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. The footage is exclusive to UK PSN users on their consoles. But hey, at least if you don’t have a PS3 and don’t live in the UK, you can now see the footage! If you do live in the UK and have access to PSN, make sure to turn on your PS3 and check the footage out. You can definitely see the influence Bizarre Creations racing game Blur had on All-Stars Racing Transformed in the neon boosters and weapons. Transformations appear seamless and the final shot of the dragons is awesome.
Thanks to The Sonic Stadium’s Ashthedragon and Rawrdom for uploading the footage.
Perfectly timed to coincide with All-Stars Racing Transformed debut comes a massive update to SEGA’s Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing for the iOS. The game has often been cited as being a big success, making a number of critics’ best games lists and it even made it into a iPod Touch commercial. So it only makes sense that SEGA and Sumo Digital would continue to update it. The update adds: Knuckles and Shadow as playable racers, a new track – Samba de Amigo’s mountainside Sun Fair track, a new home screen icon, Airplay-out mode, HDMI-out mode, iCloud saving, character faces on the minimap (originally racers were shown as anonymous red dots, now you’ll see that Beat is trailing you), Game Center profile pics on the minimap in multiplayer and many other improvements and bug fixes. I’ve explored the game some and found another unmentioned update, the ability to buy SEGA miles via in-app purchases. Very clever way to get a bit of money out of customers, SEGA. It should be noted that Knuckles, Shadow and the new track need to be purchased with SEGA miles. They are not unlocked once you update the app.
Well, the hedgehog is out of the bag. Yes, there will be a Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing 2, dubbed “Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed”. Back in January 2011, following the release of the first game, I ran through five things an All-Stars Racing sequel must have. Now that the sequel has been announced, let’s take a look back at what we wished for, and what SEGA and Sumo Digital now promises to deliver. You’d be surprised by how well SEGA listened to fans on this one.
Yesterday it was the announcement, preview and podcast. Today: concept art! Thanks to French gaming site console-toi.fr comes a collection of artworks from the Panzer Dragoon and Monkey Ball tracks. They also released a few new screens including a look at the back of B.D. Joe’s vehicle in flight. Fun fact: some screens have a “ASN” label. This refers to the game’s internal name “All-Stars Next”. Check out the concept art, and new screens, after the break!
I’ve really enjoyed Archie’s video game adaptations as of recent, if only because they don’t try to adapt the Archieverse into the story. Sure they’re short and are mainly meant to be ads for the games, but they’re the closest to what I consider to be the ideal Sonic comic book series (this comment is that of Barry the Nomad and not the opinion of SEGAbits). The upcoming Sonic Super Special Magazine #3 will include a special tie-in comic that will take place between Sonic 4 Episode 1 and Episode 2. Courtesy of IGN comes the first two pages of the Sonic 4 Episode 2 story, which kicks off at the end of Episode 1. After the break, check out the pages!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=a3-rAeBL-io
While SEGA West remains silent on Anarchy Reigns, the game continues to get recognition in Japan. Ripped from the latest episode of Platinum Games TV and released to YouTube, the tune is reportedly the theme song for the character Blacker Baron. The tune is titled “Days of Old” by VStylez and is hopefully the first of many awesome tunes. For more information on Anarchy Reigns, hit up Platinum Games official site.