Author Archives: Barry

Rumor: Sonic Anniversary to be Titled “Sonic Generations”

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As with any rumor, take this with a pinch of salt, don’t shoot the messenger, etc.

The Sonic fan community is buzzing with word that the upcoming 2011 Sonic game, usually referred to as Sonic Anniversary, will officially be titled “Sonic Generations”. The rumor started when Spanish Sonic website Sonic Paradise reported that a magazine by the name of Hobby Consolas let slip that the upcoming Sonic game will be titled Sonic Generations and will be headed to the 360 (and though not stated, probably the PS3 as well).

To add to the rumor, Sonic Paradise reports that intermediary company EuroDNS SA., the company that had registered the web domains for Sonic 4 and Anarchy Reigns for SEGA, have registered the domain sonicgenerations.com and sonic-generations.com. Currently the sites link to nothing, but I did check their registrants and it’s true! The Sonic Generations domain is registered to the same folks who registered the Sonic 4 domain.

I’d say it’s an apt title. Video games are always grouped by generation, and in his 20 year history Sonic has been through many generations. With the game being rumored to feature 3D recreations of past classic levels, “Generations” fits.

[Source: Sonic Paradise, image created by Sonic Stadium member Hogfather]

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Metacritic Scores Individual Developers

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How annoying is it to get into an argument about how good a game is, only to have somebody throw a link to Metacritic at you? Well gamers can rejoice, as now that same thing can apply to arguing how good a developer is!

Metacritic has recently added the ability to search for individual developers, with each developer given their own score based on the games they’ve worked on. Of course, this is in no way a proper method of scoring how “good” somebody is, as even an assistant co-co-co-producer credit for an amazing game can bring up the score of an otherwise awful person. Also, some great retro games are not rated or credits are not yet given. For example, Morio Kishimoto is at a 69 but is only rated for his work on Sonic and the Secret Rings. He also directed Sonic Colors but has yet to be credited or scored for that.

After the break, check out the pointless numbers now assigned to our favorite (or least favorite) SEGA devs! It’s like in high school, when you’d rate the boys… or girls. I rated the girls. Yeah…

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5 SEGA Things Found on Etsy

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It’s not surprising that Etsy, the popular online shop devoted to selling handmade and vintage items, has a number of video game related things for sale. I mean, the place is basically a hot spot for those trendy kids who like combining their love for Pac-Man and NES games with their creative talents.

In this week’s weekly five, I thought I’d share five SEGA related products that caught my eye. While I could have highlighted the worst ones, I thought I’d go the positive route and show off some of the best items. You never know, you might like something enough to buy it!

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Sonic Stories: Barry the Nomad

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In celebration of Sonic’s 20th anniversary, SEGAbits proudly presents a limited feature highlighting SEGAbits stories from writers and readers of how they got into the franchise and their history with Sonic. Want to share your Sonic story? Check out the dedicated topic in the SEGAbits forum.

Welcome to the first entry of Sonic Stories! I’m one of those fans who was introduced to SEGA by way of Sonic the Hedgehog. Specifically the 1991 original classic. As such, despite now being a fan of many different SEGA franchises, it always comes back to Sonic the Hedgehog. To kick off this series, I wanted to share how I got into the franchise, my favorite moments as a fan as well as open up the article series to other SEGAbits readers and writers.

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Pier Solar Unboxing and Preview

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The latest indie release for the… SEGA Genesis?! That’s right! We’re not talking indie Dreamcast, we’re going way back to SEGA’s 16-bit wonder! Let’s unbox and boot up the Pier Solar Reprint Edition.

After the video, make sure to check out the developers website and order yourself a copy. How often do you get a new Genesis or Mega Drive game? And it’s only $45. That’s cheaper than a Genesis game bought back in the 1990’s.

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Strumwind Gameplay Footage Appears in Destructoid Live Stream

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A demo of the upcoming indie Dreamcast shmup Strumwind, published by redspotgames, appeared in a live stream held by gaming website Destructoid. The Strumwind footage appears at 1 hour and 44 minutes into the stream. Seems the Destructoid folks were bitten by the Dreamcast bug and decided to play a number of titles, concluding with Strumwind. At the startup screen, it is revealed that the game will support VGA, arcade stick, VMU and the jump pack. Most of those were obvious, but it’s nice to hear it confirmed. Ignore the dumb commentary that follows and enjoy the gameplay, graphics and music.

Personally, I’m loving the use of “GET READY”.

Watch the stream here, click ahead to 1 hour 44 minutes for Strumwind

[Thanks to Gagaman of The Dreamcast Junkyard for the tip]

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5 SEGA Games Only on XBOX

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Before I kick off  “The Weekly Five”, I want to say that my thoughts and support go out to our friends in Japan and other countries who were affected by the recent natural disasters. While they might be half a world away, there are still ways to help. Seek out charities or check out relief organizations like the Red Cross to donate. Every little bit helps.

When it came time for me to transition from the sixth to the seventh and current generation of consoles, I made up a list of pluses and minuses. PS3 offered blu-ray, 360 offered a strong achievement and avatar system. PS3 lacked PS2 backwards compatibility (with one exception), 360 lacked Yakuza. In the end, the 360 won out, mainly due to price but also due to the fact that the console could play a number of original XBOX games. I gained shelf space AND could still play JSRF and Panzer Dragoon Orta. Despite this, some XBOX exclusives were left in the dust when it came to 360 backwards compatibility, either due to technical reasons or lack of interest on Microsoft’s part. Today we’re looking at five of the SEGA games only found and only playable on the original XBOX. These cannot be played on a 360, thus excluding Panzer Dragoon Orta and JSRF. You dig?

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‘SEGA PLAY! Baseball’ Officially Launches on Facebook

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The SEGA Facebook game ‘SEGA PLAY! Baseball’ has officially launched for English speaking users! Announced back in February, SEGA PLAY! Baseball allows Facebook users to create and maintain their own baseball team, training them to become major league champions. The game features a large amount of customizable content, from team name and colors to designing your own personal avatar and decorating your stadium. I currently am shooting for a dinosaur and sunflower theme.

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5 Ingredients for a Great Crazy Taxi Movie

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Believe it or not, a Crazy Taxi movie had been in the works as early as 2001! Initially, director Richard Donner (of the first Superman film) had been attached to direct an adaptation of the hit SEGA video game. Said Donner in an interview with About.com, “Everybody in my company loves it. Everybody loved Crazy Taxi from the beginning. I used to love to play it and the opportunity of turning it into a film came up so now we’ve got to [adapt] a game that has no characters that come to life. So, now we’ve got to create the characters so that you care about it and you care about them, you get emotionally charged by them and committed”. Donner further stated that he wasn’t certain that the game characters would be in the film, unless they work and can be embellished upon. As for location, Donner had decided on New York City.

Of course, these plans never came to fruition and due to difficulties in finding a plot for the film, Donner dropped the project and the rights were picked up by Mindfire Entertainment, the idiots behind those awful House of the Dead movies. Thankfully, Mindfire has yet to bring the proposed Crazy Taxi film to screens (or direct to DVD) and perhaps they have since lost the rights. Despite any hopes for a Crazy Taxi movie being dead in the water, as fans we can still dream. So join me as I reveal the five ingredients for a grrrrrreat Crazy Taxi movie!

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Review: The Dreamcast Collection

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Back in November 2010, online retailer GameStop let slip that a title called “The Dreamcast Collection” was to be released. In January 2011, SEGA officially announced The Dreamcast Collection for the XBOX 360 and PC. Between that time, speculation and hype ran rampant. Was the collection to be as massive as the previously released Genesis collection? Were we to receive Power Stone,  Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and many more non-SEGA games on a release published by SEGA? Would the disc contain both Shenmue titles? Once officially announced, many of the expectations were not met. It wasn’t to be an all-out tribute to the console, nor a mega collection of a dozen games. Rather, the Dreamcast Collection turned out to be a disc release of four previously released and soon to be released XBLA titles at a budget price.

Despite not being what many were hoping for, how does the release fair as an XBLA compilation?

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All-Star Racing iOS Hands-On Videos

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Courtesy of TouchArcade, The Appera and IntoMobile come a collection of hands-on Sonic & SEGA All-Star Racing gameplay videos. The game looks quite impressive for an iOS title, especially one that seems to be for all platforms and not just the beefed up iPhone 4 and iPad. Despite being only a pre-alpha build, impressions have been positive!

After the break, check out two more videos featuring B.D. Joe in Tokyo-to, a look at Blizzard Castle and a tour of the menus.

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Sonic 4 Episode 2 Development Details Revealed

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Thanks to Shadzter of The Sonic Stadium for sifting through SEGA’s forums and finding these nuggets of information, direct from Brand Manager Ken Balough. Ken held an impromptu Q&A and revealed the following:

• Episode 2 is in the early development stages
• SOA and SOE are both giving feedback and input on Episode 2
• Episode 1 sold well for SEGA commercially, meaning a bigger budget is likely for Episode 2
• Balough knows how many Episodes Sonic 4 will have, but can’t comment right now. Amount was decided during Episode 1′s development.
• Balough admits that some elements of Episode 1 could have been better and says Episode 2 gives the opportunity to address them.
• Episode 2 is not a Sonic CD remake. Idea is to bring new zones with things you haven’t seen before.

Great news in my opinion. I enjoyed Sonic 4 Episode 1 (rating it a B), but hoped that SEGA would hear criticism before diving into Episode 2. From the sound of things, they are doing just that. Perhaps the best bits of news are a larger budget and NEW ZONES! What haven’t we had yet? Spaghetti Mine Zone? Lava Ice Zone? Empty Nothingness Zone? I’m certain there’s some sort of environment we haven’t seen yet. Check out direct quotes in Shadzter’s original article.

[Source: The Sonic Stadium]

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The 5 Best SEGA Network Scrap Heap Photos

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Late last year I created a Flickr group entitled The SEGA Network Scrap Heap. The purpose of the Scrap Heap is to collect photos of SEGA collections and SEGA things. Since its creation, the group has grown to 17 active members and over one hundred and sixty photos. Not too shabby!

As the group has so many photos to sift through, I thought I’d share five of my favorites. After the break, check out my five favorites and don’t forget to check out the SGNW Scrap Heap yourself and please add to it. The more photos the better!

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Virtua Tennis 4 release date announced for North America! Also, cover art.

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UPDATE: Europe can expect the game a week early, with the European release date announced as being April 29th, 2011.

Restring your racquets, Virtua Tennis 4 has a release date! SEGA has announced that Virtua Tennis 4 will be hitting the Wii, PS3 and 360 on May 10, 2011 in North America! Also, SEGA has released the cover art. Want to see the PS3 and Wii cover, as well as a press release?

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