The SEGA europe blog has just (as in a few minutes ago) announced that European magazine GamesTM is celebrating their 100th issue by releasing 100 alternate covers to represent their list of the top 100 video games. Of course, SEGA is on the list, so we can expect 12 covers to represent our favorite company. See the other six covers after the jump.
One month ago SEGA brought iPhone and iPod Touch owners Shining Force. This Thursday the SEGA RPG love continues with the release of Phantasy Star II! For just $2.99 the classic game will be fully playable, running on the same emulator as previous games. However, unlike games that require precise controls and fail on SEGA’s Genesis emulator (I’m looking at you, Sonic 2), Phantasy Star II is promised to be a smooth experience as the game itself does not require fast timing or a fast frame rate.
Here’s hoping that we get more SEGA RPGs in the coming months!
[Source: TouchArcade and The Nomad Junkyard]
Another negative of Sonic 4 has been nixed with a recent update to the official Sonic 4 sites (US, EU and JP). The update details the second zone, Lost Labyrinth, including previously heard music, new badniks and eight screens from the zone’s three acts. The screens show acts seen in the leaked footage, such as the rolling balls and an underwater segment, but what hasn’t been seen before is the supposed revamped act 2!
Back in 1999, when you thought “SEGA” you inevitably thought “Dreamcast”. With the impending September launch, Dream-hype was seen anywhere and everywhere… except at the Califronia based fast-food chain Jack in the Box. Jack in the Box, oddly enough, had featured a SEGA Kid’s Meal in 1999 that focused on SEGA’s PC games. Guess they didn’t get the memo.
from Gagaman of SEGA Memories
Just like last year there was a ‘No Merch Zone’ present, which consists of a large glass cabinet of Sonic related treasures. There was some of the same stuff from last year but mostly completely new stuff, so here’s a bunch of photos. Apologies the photos are not quite so good this time but you’ll get the idea. Read more
And click here to see the best and bizarrest Summer of Sonic cosplayers
from Gagaman of SEGA Memories
Instead of making a couple huge articles like last year, I’m going to be posting a bunch of shorter articles about last Saturday’s brilliant Summer of Sonic convention. Safe to say they really outdid themselves this year. To kick off, here’s what I brought back from there. A bit silly that I’m starting my coverage with the last photo I took but never mind!
So a bulk of it is from the goodie bag that was given away to the first few hundred entrants with tickets (people without tickets couldn’t even get in until an hour or two after it opened! Sucks to be them I guess :E). My girlfriend also got a ticket just before the registration ended because she wanted to tag along even though she’s not that big into Sonic (she enjoyed it though, so that’s a relief lol) and when we entered from the HUGE queue we got the last bag! However they did have hundreds more of the highlight of the bag; the Metal Sonic figure, to give away to people that entered (tickets or not I believe) right through till about 4pm. More after the jump..
A little over a month ago I went to my family cabin in northern Minnesota. It had been nearly seven years since I had last been there, and yet when I went back to the same bargain warehouse that I had been to back in 2003 I found the exact same SEGA Tiger LCD handhelds that I had seen hanging on the pegs all those years ago. Guess nobody wanted them.
The Tiger SEGA Pocket Arcade line hit stores during the Saturn years at a time when the clunky old Tiger handhelds were on their way out. Tiger, it seemed, was struggling in a world of Game Boy Colors and was attempting to use the names of big name SEGA Saturn console titles to sell cheap little flip open handhelds. I’m going to assume Tiger failed as a good number of these were found at an overstock warehouse, marked down from $15 to $8 to a final $4.79.
Wow! SEGA sure is dropping a load of info on us! The SEGA Blog unleashed tons of information pertaining to our hero’s next adventure: Sonic Colors! You like how I tied in all the 3D Sonic game titles into that last sentence? After the jump: a press release, DS box art and a new trailer!
Thanks to VideoGamer.com, we have Iizuka’s thoughts on the Sonic Cycle (aka that thing made by Sonic fanboys in Photoshop that has led to many lols, derps and omfgwtfs). Check out Iizuka’s comments at VideoGamer.
Also in Sonic Colors news, we have some new screens from a yet-to-be-demo’d stage! The stage looks as though Eggman has established some sort of logging empire on an alien planet. Great to see massive buzz saws return, and gotta love those Egg Pawns wearing hard hats.
I considered making the headline different from the one on the SEGA Blog, but hey, it says what it is! The Conduit 2 boxart has been revealed! Big dude in a suit with a gun, I swear I’ve seen this somewhere before…
Well, the flames coming out of the floor is rather cool. Also, the subhead says the game’s best features right there. Works for me! What do you all think?
[source: our gaming overlords at the SEGA Blog]
Didn’t SEGA say they were reassessing their iPod presence? Because it seems to me that they’re doing the same thing they were doing before: the occasional great 3D title and a number of emulated Genesis budget titles. Despite that, I’m glad SEGA has finally released a Genesis game worth buying an iPhone version of: Shining Force!
Offered up on the same emulation software as past Genny titles, Shining Force actually plays very well. As the game doesn’t require precise controls for split-second jumps (a la Sonic), players will barely notice the hiccups that may occur on older i devices. I might even buy the thing for my first generation iPod Touch.
The game is now available in the App store for $2.99
[source: TouchArcade and The Nomad Junkyard]
Remember ages ago when that Genesis emulator was announced for the iPhone and then SEGA canceled it? SEGA seems to have salvaged what they could from the canned project and have released Ecco the Dolphin ($2.99) and Space Harrier II (99¢) as single releases for the iPhone. The games are reported to run much more smoothly on the latest iPhone 4 than past Genesis releases, but any users on earlier platforms may encounter slowdown and crashes.
SEGA has released an official press release for the long expected Thor video game, aptly titled “Thor: The Video Game”. The game will release on all five gaming platforms and is touted as being Thor’s “first solo video game adventure”. Check out the press release after the break!
I love me a good ol’ fashioned gaming marathon, and I was excited to learn that an extremely long one involving the Sonic the Hedgehog series has been underway for 12 hours already! Held by the folks over at the Bonus Stage Marathons blog, their goal is to play all sorts of Sonic games for 72 hours in an effort to earn $1000 for the Baltimore Humane Society. As of writing this, they’re already 34% to their goal. The marathon continues through the 11th, so I’m sure they’ll make their money. Good luck to them!
Check them out on USTREAM, and save some kitties and puppies while you’re at it.
[click above image to visit the Gamespot video page]
SEGA’s Associate Digital Brand Manager Ken Balough sat down with Gamespot to tell us what to expect from Sonic 4 at E3. As an added bonus, we get a good amount of footage featuring the still in progress tweaked physics. Now supernerds can spend the whole weekend doing a frame by frame analysis of the altered physics!
Here are a few highlights from the video:
I think I actually DO see a difference in the physics, way to go SEGA!