Review: Thor: God of Thunder (Wii)

Wii! (huh-yeah) What is it good Thor?

Welcome back for another review of a Thor game, this time on the Wii. I’ll admit, I have yet to sink my hammer into the Thor craze. I haven’t seen the movie, nor have I tasted the 7-11 Slurpee (though my guess is it tastes like the color blue). However, I can claim to have played the Wii version of the game. How does this version fare compared to the DS and HD console versions? Let’s (insert Thor reference here) and find out!

First Wii/3DS Screens of Mario & Sonic London Olympics!

Usually screens of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games wouldn’t excite me too much. But color me surprised when I caught a glimpse of the first screens to be released and I got… a little excited! That was probably due to spotting one of my favorite 3D Sonic stages, Windy Valley of Sonic Adventure, returning as the location of a Dream Event. On the Mario side of things we have a 2D remake of Yoshi’s Story, which makes me hopeful that we’ll see some 2D Sonic stages return.

After the break, check out more screens and a link to an early preview of the games.

SEGA Retrospective: The Commercials of Segata Sanshiro

In celebration of Saturn month, I knew we had to feature the excellent Segata Sanshiro ad campaign from Japan. Initially I thought I’d share a few of the best commercials, but then I came across this video gem. From bestdamnpodcastever.com comes this cool mini-documentary on Segata Sanshiro. The video gives a few fun facts about the campaign, a little history, highlights some of the best commercials and ends with an awesome music video. Check it out… unless you want to be placed in a headlock.

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SEGA Reigns Supreme at Smithsonian’s The Art of Video Games

Remember a long while back when we were asked, as video game fans, to vote on the most influential games to be featured in the Smithsonian American Art Museum The Art of Video Games exhibit? Well at long last that list has been revealed and SEGA fans will have plenty to be happy about. Check out the full list here, in PDF format, and after the jump check out the SEGA games featured in the exhibit.

Renegade Ops Teaser Trailer Incoming!

The first video of SEGA and Avalanche’s Renegade Ops arrives by way of a short, but f***ing sweet teaser trailer! What more, IGN answered a few questions about the game:

  • Top down perspective
  • Minimal storyline shown through comic book-esque panels
  • Game is described as a mix between A-Team, GI Joe and Micro Machines
  • It has multiplayer
  • It has a summer release for Xbox Live Arcade, PSN and PC Download

I think it looks awesome. What do you think?

[Source: IGN]

The Weekly Five: Why We’re Partying Like It’s 2001!

2001 was a great year for SEGA games, but a bad year for SEGA. While a number of amazing titles released, we played them with the knowledge that the Dreamcast was to be discontinued by March. To create a sad analogy, it was like going to Disneyland knowing you had three months left to live. Jump ahead ten years to 2011. All signs point to a great year for SEGA games AND a great year for SEGA. The comparison between 2001 and 2011 doesn’t end there, as you’ll soon learn in this week’s “Weekly Five”. Just why are we partying like it’s 2001? Read on to find out!

More Sonic Generations Details Revealed

As more interviews and previews for Sonic Generations are released, more details have been revealed (so that’s how it works!). Swedish gaming magazine LEVEL has a preview and interview with Iizuka, and G4TV has an interview with Patrick Riley, SEGA’s director of international productions. Check out the G4TV interview video above and head over to the Sonic Stadium boards for the full translated LEVEL article (four posts down). Thanks to TSS forum user Carbo for translating.

After the break, a handy bulleted list of the new details revealed!

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See Modern Sonic’s Green Hill Zone in FULL!

Thanks to a new Takashi Iizuka interview with French gaming website Gameblog.fr, additional gameplay footage of both Modern Sonic and Classic Sonic has been released, playing during and after the interview. While I’ve yet to figure out what Iizuka is saying, it doesn’t sound as though there are any bombs dropped. What is way cool about the video, however, is that we get to see the final portion of Modern Sonic running though Green Hill Zone. I speedily stitched together the available footage to create a full run of the stage. Enjoy!

Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary Game Announced for Japan

From French gaming sites Gamekult and jeuxvideo24 comes information on Puyo Puyo’s 20th anniversary game. That’s right, Sonic isn’t the only one having a birthday in 2011. A translation of one of the articles reveals quite a bit of information. First off, the game will be for the Nintendo DS. There will be 15 variations on the rules, such as rules from Sun (the third game) and Fever (the fifth game). Also, the game will include a tag team mode, featuring two on two play. It also sounds like you will be able to purchase items in a shop mode. Very cool!

Sonic Generations official logo and details REVEALED! UPDATE: Screenshots added

From the SEGA USA blogs comes information regarding that trailer for that untitled Sonic game. Check it out!

SEGA America, Inc. and SEGA Europe Ltd., today announced details of Sonic Generations, the highly anticipated video game title in development to celebrate Sonic the Hedgehog’s 20th Anniversary. Delivering the definitive gaming experience for Sonic fans old and new, Sonic Generations sees Sonic the Hedgehog playable as both the much loved classic 1991 character, and the modern day video game hero he has become in this exciting new fast paced adventure. Sonic Generations will speed into stores for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation3 computer entertainment system for Holiday 2011.

Set across three defining eras from 20 years of Sonic the Hedgehog video game history, the instantly recognizable environments of Sonic Generations have been re-built in stunning HD and are now playable in both classic side scrolling 2D from 1991, as well as modern 3D style found in Sonic’s most recent adventures. Each incarnation of Sonic in Sonic Generations comes complete with his trademark special move, Spin Dash and Spin Attack for Classic Sonic, and the Homing Attack and Sonic Boost for Modern Sonic. An innovative new interactive menu system allows for complete immersion in Sonic’s universe with favorite characters and hidden treasures gradually being revealed throughout the game.

“Sonic Generations will certainly be a fitting celebration for Sonic’s 20th Anniversary,” commented David Corless, Global Brand Director for Sonic. “By having the classic 1991 Sonic that many fans know and love team up with his modern day incarnation, we are bringing back the nostalgia of the early days of Sonic and combining it with the innovation and stunning HD technology of the modern gaming era. Sonic Generations will bring to life the last twenty years of Sonic’s universe in a truly unique and imaginative way.”

Sonic’s universe is thrown into chaos when a mysterious new power creates ‘time holes’ which pull him and his friends back through time. As a result, he encounters some surprises from his past history including Classic Sonic, Sonic as he was in 1991.

Modern Sonic and Classic Sonic must defeat this strange new enemy, save their friends, and find out who really is behind this diabolical deed…

Check out the official SEGA Blog post here. After the break, screenshots!

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If the blue blur’s next game wasn’t already confirmed to be titled “Sonic Generations”…

If the leaked placeholder box art wasn’t enough for doubters, the websites sonicgenerations.com and sonic-generations.com now take users directly to SEGA’s website, giving the page the address of sega.com/games/sonic-generations. This pretty much confirms the title of the game, and hopefully means that SEGA is getting ready to release a formal press release, title reveal and (here’s hoping) screens and gameplay information.

Sorry to dissapoint those hoping it was going to be “Sonic Adventure 3”, lolz.

5 SEGA Games Perfect for Kinect

The Weekly Five is back! And this time it’s personal. Okay, it’s not personal, but it may just be a tad controversial. KINECT! Did reading that make your blood boil? Did it make you think of things like “laggy”, “casual” and “the death of video games”? Well if it did, you need to wise up. The Kinect has been around for almost 6 months now, it sold more than 10 million sensors and the video game industry is far from dead. Kinect may not have reinvented the industry, but it hasn’t hurt it in the slightest.

What more, having owned a Kinect since launch and having played ten titles so far (four of them were demos) I can honestly say that things like “lag” and “recognition problems” are not due to hardware problems, but rather fall on the early software. I’ve found that lag has been nearly wiped out in the main Kinect Hub, and is not a problem in first party titles and second gen releases. As software updates occur, the problems that were hardly problems to begin with have become greatly diminished. Anyway, this sort of discussion can continue in our wonderful forums. My point was that the Kinect is now at a great place, both hardware and software-wise, to support some of SEGA’s great franchises. What sort of SEGA games would be perfect for Kinect?