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.
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]
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?
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.
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!
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?
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.
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]
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!
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?
I love SEGA fans, they’re my favorite type of video game fan. However there are things that some of them do that make me want to smack my skull against a wall. Consider these to be the five things that grind my gears, five things that SEGA fans could easily stop doing and should stop doing. Just what are those five things? Read on.
Welcome to another edition of SEGA in the Media, now a weekly feature here at SEGAbits! While most SEGA fans don’t have to go far for a glimpse of something SEGA (just look over at your game shelf or under your tv), spotting something SEGA on television or in a movie is far more difficult. In the past we’ve spotted Virtua Tennis 2009 on the Inbetweeners and a MadWorld poster on Weeds. Today we’re heading to the Bronx, where a certain Jackie Chan had quite the rumble. I think the movie was called The Spy Next Door. No wait, it was Rumble in the Bronx.
SEGAbits forum member Ulala5 created this awesome custom vinyl figure of Space Channel 5’s Ulala! To create it she used a kidrobot Do-It-Yourself Mini Munny vinyl figure, acrylic colors, a pen and of course her imagination. Very awesome! I could easily see a number of Jet Set Radio characters being possible with this shape. Check out Ulala5’s blog for more photos of the figure!
To quote Space Michael: “Thank you, Ulala.”
Straight from SEGA comes word that the legend Yu Suzuki has been awarded the 2011 Game Developers Choice Pioneer Award. I, and I’m certain every other SEGAbits writer and reader, congratulate Yu Suzuki for this achievement. He truly is a gaming pioneer! Insert “Shenmue III please” comment here.
After the break, check out the press release and make note of his official title at SEGA.
From GoNintendo comes a bit of news regarding an upcoming SEGA press event. Little is said of the event, except that it will happen in a few weeks time and that reps from High Voltage and Creative Assembly will be in attendance. I assume it’ll be at SEGA’s offices in California, though I never should assume as it makes an “ass” out of “u” and “me” (joke).
Should be exciting to hear more of Virtua Tennis 4, as well as the others, however what I’m really hoping for are some reveals. Sonic Anniversary, Sonic 4 Episode 2 or Phaantasy Star Online 2 would all be great. Alan Pritchard did say to expect two Sonic game announcements in the early part of this year. More details to come, obviously.
[Source: GoNintendo and The Sonic Stadium]