Author Archives: Barry

Toe Jam and Earl – Back in the Groove arcade machine revealed

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Toe Jam and Earl creator Greg Johnson’s HumaNature Studios has teamed with iiRcade to produce a Toe Jam and Earl – Back in the Groove arcade cabinet featuring 128GB of storage and two-player Sanwa controls. The machine runs on an Android based OS, optimized for gaming, so while Toe Jam and Earl – Back in the Groove comes pre-loaded the machine will also play a variety of other games. The machine is up for pre-order now at $599.99, and looks to be the perfect premium holiday gift for the Toe Jam and Earl fan in your life.

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Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio reveals new franchise in the works

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Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio director Masayoshi Yokoyama revealed in a recent Famitsu interview that the studio is planning a new franchise outside of their Yakuza and Judgement series. Little else was revealed, but it appears the future of Judgement was touched upon, because the likeness of the lead character is up in the air thanks to the talent agency managing the actor having strict rules about PC games, which has apparently halted plans for a Steam release. “We will continue to cherish the Judgement series,” Yokoyama said.

What direction would you like to see RGG Studio take a new franchise? Something more outside the box like Binary Domain? A Yakuza/Judgment spin-off?

[Source: Video Games Chronicle]

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Alien: Isolation coming to iOS and Android on December 16th

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2014’s Alien: Isolation was without a doubt the best game from SEGA for that year. Since then, the game won several awards and saw release to many platforms. Now, SEGA is bringing the game to mobile phones “without compromise” (their words), promising the complete experience. The game will support game pads and sport a “bespoke, fully customizable interface”.

It’s pretty amazing that when the App Store launched, we saw a basic Monkey Ball game and now we are seeing what was once an AAA title ported to smartphones. We will share our thoughts on the port when it hits December 16th!

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Xbox accessibility features fixes one of Gunvalkyrie’s biggest issues

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I’ve talked about Smilebit’s Gunvalkyrie a lot on the site, and with the recent addition of this 2002 Xbox hidden gem to Xbox backwards compatibility I feel like I will be talking about it a lot more. One of the game’s biggest hurdles for most players was the controls.

The Burning Rangers-esque jetpack gameplay is cool, but Smilebit made the odd decision of mapping the boost to the left thumbstick click (L3). Suffice to say, it was a real pain for many to play through the game with all the clicking and holding while also moving in various directions. Thankfully, however, with the debut of the game to Xbox One and Series consoles this is no longer an issue!

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SEGA News Bits LIVE: Sonic Frontiers & New Xbox Games

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Let’s look back on the week of SEGA news! On this installment, Barry talks about Sonic Frontiers, new backwards compatible SEGA Xbox games, his thoughts on Sonic Colors Ultimate and more!

If you want to support this type of content, you can check out our Patreon!

If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a thumbs up so it shows up on more like-minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that YouTube algorithm is.

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Xbox backwards compatibility update brings new SEGA games and Sonic FPS boost

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Xbox has made a major update to the long thought to be dead backwards compatibility program, with 76 new games added and FPS boost for new and existing games. Of interest to SEGA fans, titles from the Xbox and Xbox 360 days are making the leap to the Xbox One and Series consoles. These games include: Binary Domain (Xbox 360), Gunvalkyrie (Xbox), Otogi: Myth of Demons (Xbox) and Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors (Xbox).

Several Sonic titles, as well as the aforementioned Binary Domain, will see a framerate boost via the FPS Boost feature. So expect a solid experience when playing Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Generations and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.

[Source: The Verge]

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SEGA Talk #83: Dreamcast Controllers (1998)

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On this special SEGA Talk Podcast we will be talking all things Dreamcast controller related including prototypes, variant rare controllers, 3rd party controllers, and even look into the future into the “ultimate Dreamcast controller” being developed!

Support us on Patreon! Get early access, tell us what games to cover, and have your SEGA memories read at the end and more!

[iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – RSS – Download]

If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add  them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

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SEGA in the Media: The Late Show introduces us to Sexy Knuckles the Echidna

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Last night’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert featured a segment on Idris Elba’s upcoming role as Knuckles in the second Sonic movie. Colbert talked about how Elba spoke about how he doesn’t think his take on Knuckles will be sexy, given Elba himself has previously been named “Sexiest Man Alive”, which led to Colbert making his own Sexy Knuckles trailer. The results are… well, watch the above.

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The SEGAbits Swingin’ Report Show LIVE: SEGA-16.com founder Ken Horowitz

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On this, our 100th Swingin’ Report Show, we talk to SEGA-16.com founder Ken Horowitz to talk all things SEGA, as well as his current and future book projects. Support Ken’s amazing work by picking up some of his books on Amazon and leave a review!

Support us on Patreon! Get early access, join in the conversation, get Q&A priority, become a guest on the show and more!

[Download] [RSS] [iTunes] [Archive]

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SEGA trademarks “Sonic Frontiers”, possible name for 2022 game

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Via Renka_schedule on Twitter comes news that SEGA has trademarked “SONIC FRONTIERS” as well as the Japanese name “ソニック フロンティア” (translated to “SONIC FRONTIER”). It is likely that this will be the name of the upcoming 3D Sonic game set for a 2022 release date. SEGA games being revealed through trademark filings is not new, as we first learned of games in the past through such filings.

While the upcoming game has been referred to as “Sonic Rangers” thanks to some early leaks, it appears SEGA has decided on a final name. So far, fan reaction has been positive, and we will just have to wait for SEGA’s official announcement.

What do you think of the name Sonic Frontiers?

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Mario, found hiding inside SEGA Saturn game, is detained without fight

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The console wars have ended. After years of searching, Mario has been found and detained.

Via Twitter user Yoshino comes the bizarre discovery of an image of Mario hidden within the files of the SEGA Saturn game Astal. Yoshino writes: “It is discovered that an image that seems to be Mario was hidden in 0xFE90 of APT.BIN on the disk.” This isn’t the first time weird images have been hidden within old SEGA games, in fact the Sonic Twitter account recently referenced a hidden image from Sonic CD, referred to as “Spooky Sonic”, in a piece of Halloween art.

Check out the full image after the break!

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SEGA Talk #82: The House of the Dead III (2002)

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On this SPOOKTACULAR SEGA Talk episode we return to The House of the Dead for a third time to talk about this post-apocalyptic undead horror light gun shooter!

Support us on Patreon! Get early access, tell us what games to cover, and have your SEGA memories read at the end and more!

[iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – RSS – Download]

If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add  them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

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SEGA News Bits LIVE: Classic Sonic EXPOSED

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This week, we talk about revelations of Classic Sonic revealed in the recent content added to Apple Arcade’s Sonic Racing, SEGA’s arcade plans in Japan and unbox the new Mega Drive Tower Mini Zero!

If you want to support this type of content, you can check out our Patreon!

If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a thumbs up so it shows up on more like-minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that YouTube algorithm is.

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New SEGA arcade center opens in Ikebukuro, replacing closed GiGO arcade

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Back on September 20th, the SEGA Ikebukuro GiGO arcade closed after 28 years of operations. Fans were emotional, and rightly so, and many pointed to this as a sign of SEGA’s arcade footprint diminishing. However, on October 22nd a new arcade center opened in Ikebukuro which was noted as being “Volume 1” of a larger project by Genda Sega Entertainment president Nao Kataoka. Volumes 2 and 3 would soon follow.

The new center has five floors and features a variety of SEGA arcade machines. Where is it located? Right across the street from the old location! The reason the original location sold was not because SEGA was leaving the arcade business in the area, but because of an expiring lease and a need for remodeling to the old building. Maybe SEGAbits will visit the arcade in 2022? 👀

[Photo Credit: @TicTaek, Source: Anime News Network]

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Classic Sonic content added to Sonic Racing for Apple Arcade

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Just a few days ago, we mused on Twitter about how the promised Classic Sonic content announced back in June for Sonic Racing, the Apple Arcade version of Team Sonic Racing, was nowhere to be seen. Either a SEGA HARDlight staffer saw our tweet and realized they needed to get to work OR (more likely) it just so happened to be that today was the day they planned to debut the new content. Included in the new content is Sonic in his Sonic Drift car, the Cyclone, as well as new Green Hill tracks and new music!

You can check out the content now on Apple Arcade, but no word on any new content for Team Sonic Racing for consoles.

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