Author Archives: Barry

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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5 Things SEGA Fans Need to Stop Doing

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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.

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SEGA in the Media: Game Gear in the Bronx

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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.

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Custom Ulala Vinyl Toy is Out of This World!

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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.”

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Yu Suzuki Honored with 2011 Game Developers Choice Pioneer Award!

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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.

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SEGA Press Event Happening in a Few Weeks

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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]

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Wavemaster releasing a Sonic 20th Anniversary album?

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Sonic’s 20th is gaining momentum! First SEGA teasing about the anniversary game, then prototype photos of Jazwares action figures and now a placeholder site for a music album! Looks like SEGA’s Wavemaster has a Sonic 20th Anniversary album planned as evidenced by this recently revealed teaser page www.wave-master.com/sonic20th. Nothing there just yet, except for the above image. A variety of Sonic soundtracks have released under the Wavemaster label, but this is the first time they have created a franchise spanning album. As Wavemaster albums are often two disc affairs, I have no doubt a 20th Anniversary album will be two discs as well.

I’m hoping the potential album gives equal representation of all the years and covers a variety of games. It would be awesome to hear some rarities, such as demo tracks and unreleased tunes. Remixes of old classics would also be pretty sweet. What would you like to hear in a Sonic 20th soundtrack? Sound off below! Any mention of Bentley Jones will result in severe punishment.

[Source: The Sonic Stadium]

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5 Annoyingly Catchy SEGA Genesis Tunes

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… or Mega Drive tunes, if you’re of that persuasion. Every blue blooded SEGA fan knows the distinct sound of Genesis/Mega Drive music. Having played dozens of Genesis games throughout the 90’s, a number of game tunes stuck with me. Many great, due to the sheer genius of their composition (Sonic 2’s Chemical Plant Zone and Streets of Rage 2 Stage 1-1 come to mind). But what of those game tunes that stick with you due to them just being plain old annoyingly catchy? Today I’m going to share 5 of those tunes. I actually find myself unknowingly whistling these on a daily basis. Proof of their annoying “catchocity” (a scientific measurement of catchiness).

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Sonic 20th Anniversary Action Figure Collection Revealed! (drools)

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Just when I thought Jazwares has taken all the money they could take from me, they reveal this epic collection! Jazwares is celebrating Sonic’s 20th in style by producing figures that span his 20 year career. These photos found online were snapped at JazWares’ booth at the 2011 UK Toy Fair. One collection revealed is “Sonic Through Time”, which will depict the various designs of Sonic over the years. Photos reveal a 1991 Sonic and a 2008 Sonic, but I’m sure we’ll also see a 1999 and perhaps 2011 model as well. Very cool. After the jump, Eggman takes center stage.

click here to read more!

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Rumor: Classic SEGA Games Releasing Under XBLA “Classics Live” Banner This Summer?

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File this one under rumor: The rumor began when fans of XBLA’s Game Room were speculating the future of the service. For those who don’t know what Game Room is, Game Room is a free application on XBLA that allows retro video game fans to buy 70’s and 80’s Atari, Konami, Activision and Intellivion games and set up the games in their own virtual arcade. I found the service to be a lot of fun, and full of promise, however SEGA had yet to get on board (despite a Genesis controller appearing in a menu icon) and Microsoft has yet to release new games since the last update in December. Game Room fans speculated that the service was dead, however recent discussion at the official XBOX 360 Game Room forums says otherwise. So where does SEGA come into this? What is the rumor? Get to the point, Barry!

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