Author Archives: Barry

Sonic 4 Episode 2 Logo Revealed

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When the Nvidia CES press conference was nearing, SEGA of America’s community team was pointing Sonic fans towards the live stream, hinting that something would be shown. After watching an hour of the show, there was absolutely nothing Sonic related to be found. Fans, myself included, felt like they just wasted an hour. Thankfully, the SEGA community team was quick to apologize for the time spent, stating that “there was a last minute switch up during the press conference”, and uploaded the official Sonic 4 Episode 2 logo to the SEGA Blog! I gotta say, it looks exactly like what I expected! Even some fan creations came pretty close. Good on SoA for remedying the situation!

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Sonic Appears in a New Progressive Commercial

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Typically when a Progressive insurance commercial comes on the air, I mute the television. But this brand new one requires SEGA fans to crank the volume! For whatever reason, Sonic is now in a Progressive ad. Sonic is shown running about to the Sonic 3 invincible theme looking for savings on insurance, which is smart considering he always has a violent evil doctor out to get him. Flo, Progressive spokeswoman, stops him and yammers on about savings and insurance. The ad ends with Sonic celebrating to the Sonic 3 extra life jingle.

Overall, a very unexpected but awesome ad. The animation is well done, and everybody loves some classic Genesis tunes pumping through their speakers. One note: when the humans get toonified, they look very much like Sonic Unleashed-style humans. Cool to see that SEGA hasn’t dropped this style, despite humans being MIA since 2008 (Eggman aside).

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The Weekly Five: The Games of 2012

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Last week we shared our favorite games of 2011, and while we didn’t officially announce winners or give out some award for SEGA to stick on their box art (I’d imagine we’d award a gold Opa Opa statue nicknamed “the bitty”), the “winners” deserve another mention. Sonic Generations and Yakuza 4 were the top picks, while Guardian Heroes was picked as an excellent download release. Shinobi for the 3DS also earned a spot on the list. Other notable games included Shogun 2, Sonic CD, Daytona USA, Virtua Tennis 4 and Football Manager 2012. Overall, 2011 was a great year! Being only a week into it, 2012 is still young. However, SEGA has a number of great looking releases on the horizon. In this week’s Weekly Five we’ll look at five of those hotly anticipated titles. Could any of these become our favorites of 2012? Probably.

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SEGA in the Media: Space Ghost Emerald Coast to Coast

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My favorite tv show of the 90’s featuring my favorite game of the 90’s, it’s a match made… in space! On the November 11th, 1994 episode of Cartoon Network’s Space Ghost Coast to Coast, upon returning from commercials Space Ghost is caught up in a game of Sonic and Knuckles. It must have been a long commercial break, as Space Ghost has reached Hidden Palace Zone. Before cutting to Space Ghost, Zorak dances to the Sonic and Knuckles title screen theme. Just as Space Ghost is about to defeat Knuckles, he is interrupted by the guest and continues with the show.

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Round Table: Our Favorite SEGA Games of 2011

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2011 is just about over, and looking back, it has been a great year for SEGA games. Back in 2010, it was hard to imagine what could top titles like Bayonetta, Sonic Colors, Vanquish and the English version of Yakuza 3. Then came 2011 and a slew of awesome titles arrived. SEGA upped their game in digital distribution, popular franchises saw excellent sequels and spin-offs and SEGA’s mascot truly shined. In this extra special round table, SEGAbits writers will share their favorite SEGA games of the year. What did we like? Read on!

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Sonic 4 Episode 1 on the iPad, As You Truly Imagined It

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SEGA has released an iPad version of Sonic 4 Episode 1 just in time for the holidays! No longer will players have to upscale the original iOS version of the game. Now, the game appears in HD! What more, word has it that the level select now matches the one found on the console versions, the original iOS version only had the simple menu listing. Also, Sonic sports a new model (perhaps what we’ll see in Episode 2?). The revamped Lost Labyrinth and Casino Street act 2’s are not present, however. Instead, the game features the original pinball mini-game and the strange mine cart. I noted in my original iOS review of the game that the strange mine cart, while a boring level in itself, does sport fun tilt controls. You can buy the iPad version now for only $1.99!

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DLC of Christmas Past: A Tree in Station Square

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If you caught our latest podcast, you may have heard the moment when AAUK said that he begged for the special Christmas DLC to be included in the XBLA/PSN rerelease of Sonic Adventure. Sadly, it was not, so the only way to experience an early example of DLC is to boot up your Dreamcast with a copy of Sonic Adventure and the Christmas data on your VMU.

The file was originally available for download from December 17th to the 28th in 1999, and when players entered Station Square they were greeted by two Christmas trees complete with Sonic and Chao decorations. If you touched the tree, the music would change to the acapella version of “Dreams Dreams” from Christmas NiGHTS. The best place to get the VMU file and more is at Blue Swirl, where you can burn an application allowing you to use hundreds of VMU files. Enjoy!

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Five Great Santas in SEGA History

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Consider this a SEGAbits exclusive: Santa is real! Yes, as it turns out the annual gift giver is the real deal. All those Santas we see at malls? They’re just the middle men. They’re the guys that report to the real Santa. How about all those variations we see of Santa in the media? This is a marketing effort on the real Santa’s part to keep his image alive. Proof of this exists everywhere, but today I thought I’d highlight five notable Santas in SEGA history. After the break, we reveal our Claus.

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Retro Review: Christmas NiGHTS

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Anybody who recognizes the Christmas season has their traditions. Some go to church, some pig out on honey-glazed ham and others have their list of “must watch” tv shows and movies. But very few have a “must play” Christmas video game. Christmas themed games are out there, but most are so horrible that they would only hurt one’s holiday mood (never ever play Elf Bowling or Dreamcast’s The Grinch). Leave it to SEGA to fill that empty void of quality Christmas games with the NiGHTS into Dreams demo Christmas NiGHTS. But is this much talked about Saturn release a holiday classic? Or is it simply an overly glorified demo disc?

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The Weekly Five: SEGAbits Holiday Gift Guide

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‘Twas two weeks before Christmas and all through the site, SEGA fans deserved presents, whether naughty or nice.

Okay, “site” and “nice” don’t rhyme. But you get where I’m going with this. The holidays (Christmas specifically, let’s not beat around the bush) are approaching, and you need ideas for what to give the SEGA fan in your life. If you don’t have a SEGA fan in your life, chances are YOU’RE the SEGA fan in your life. So what follows are five unique gift ideas for the holiday Christmas season.

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Let’s Go to the “Sonic Generation” Art Show in Philadelphia!

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When Gagaman of SEGA Memories wrote about the “Sonic Generation” fan art show in Philadelphia, PA, I knew I had to make the long trek to check it out. Grabbing my old near-broken digital camera (my new one is being repaired), I headed out into the tepid weather and braved the 9 minute subway ride to the Brave New Worlds comic book shop. The show, which is actually rather small despite the spiffy website, features various renditions of Sonic, Tails and Eggman from a variety of artists. Located in the outer lobby of Brave New Worlds, the gallery takes up what usually would have been a blank wall.

Click here for photos and more!

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Five of the Weirdest and/or Worst SEGA Accessories

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SEGA is awesome, there is no doubt about that, but they’re not infallible. Back in the hardware days, SEGA made their fair share of mistakes. I won’t name off the 32X and SEGA CD like a lot of gaming sites do, because to be honest, as an owner of both systems I have to say they have some really great titles. I’ll even defend accessories that only exist for the sake of a few games. Just because the Dreamcast fishing controller is rarely used, due to the limited library of fishing games, does not make it a bad accessory. It’s just highly specialized, and when put to use it is very effective. Same goes for the Samba de Amigo maracas and Virtual-On’s twin sticks. But there are SEGA accessories and add-ons out there that were failures, or were simply too weird to take seriously. This week we’ll take a look at five of these hiccups in SEGA’s history.

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Sonic 20th Anniversary Action Figure Roundup

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2011 has been a huge year for Sonic in a number of areas: we’ve seen the return of the Genesis-style gameplay, Archie’s Sonic series gave us a great adaptation of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 and the toy company Jazwares has released a number of action figures celebrating Sonic’s 20th anniversary. While I haven’t been posting about the many figures here at SEGAbits, over at SEGA Network affiliate SEGA Memories I’ve been regularly sharing the Jazwares toys. As of this week I’ve collected the full line of 20th anniversary figures, at least until Jazwares releases more which they have hinted at doing. What follows is a handy roundup of all my Jazwares figure posts from the past year, where I review each figure and share photos. Enjoy!

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Review: Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games

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When the first Mario and Sonic title hit in 2007, it was a major deal. Two video game rivals competing in a shared title! Unfortunately, once the novelty of seeing Nintendo and SEGA’s mascots together wore off, what players were left with was a so-so mini-game compilation with the best moments being the Dream Events and remixed music tracks from both series. In 2009 the series returned with Mario and Sonic competing in the Winter Olympics, and while it wasn’t a huge improvement over the first game, it was a better title thanks to improved controls, more characters and more events. Now the Mario and Sonic universes go head to head in a third Olympics, is this time just more of the same or is the third try a charm? Read on to find out!

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SEGAbits Forum Member ribbitking17 Trolls Black Friday, SEGA Style

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While waiting in line outside a Best Buy for Black Friday, SEGAbits forum member ribbitking17 was interviewed by the local news. Was he getting the latest in gaming consoles? Hell no! He wanted something much better:

“This year I’m getting it all. I’ve been saving up, I’m getting it all. I’m getting a TV for my moms, I’m getting all three gaming systems. I’m getting a PlayStation, Nintendo Gamecube, SEGA Dreamcast. I’m getting an LG washer and dryer for my grandma and grandpa. I’m getting it all this year.”

Check out the video to hear which consoles ribbitking17 surely now has in his hands, at doorbuster prices no less.

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