Author Archives: Barry

Contest: Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X Giveaway – Demo available today, game releases August 30th!

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SEGA’s Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X, releasing August 30th to Playstation 4 and Playstation Vita, can be sampled today via a demo that just launched. To celebrate the release of the demo, we’re teaming with SEGA to give away a Hatsune Miku wall scroll and art cloth – with the cloth featuring work by Shirow Miwa. The artwork on each piece is awesome, I especially love the pose on the wall scroll featuring a Miku salute. To enter, all you need to do is follow SEGAbits on Twitter and retweet the contest tweet. two winners will be chosen, with the cloth and scroll given to the winners of our choosing, and the contest is open to the Americas and Canada. The contest ends on Tuesday, August 16th at 11:59PM CT and winners will be announced the following day.

Good luck to all who enter, and even if you don’t end up winning remember that we’re all winners since the game releases August 30th and we have a free demo available now!

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Fastest Food Alive: A Look back at 1995 Sonic the Hedgehog Franco-American Pasta

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Fastest Food Alive returns as we look at more food promotional items from Sonic the Hedgehog’s past! On this episode, Franco-American’s Sonic the Hedgehog Pasta with Meatballs in Tomato Sauce is on the menu. SEGA’s partnership with Franco-American, a subsidiary of Campbell’s, kicked off in 1995 and carried through to 2000. Click play on the video above and take a trip down memory lane as we check out this food promotion and give a short history lesson on canned pasta.

If you enjoyed the video make sure to like, share and subscribe to us on YouTube if you haven’t already. Thanks for the support!

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Sonic Mania Easter Eggs and References

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We’ll admit it, we’re having Sonic Mania withdrawal. After playing the game for ourselves at Sonic the Hedgehog’s 25th Anniversary Party, we can’t stop pouring over our footage of the game in action. As a result of this, we caught several cool Easter Eggs and references hidden within the game. Here are all the ones we spotted! Did we miss any? Sound off in the comments below!

If you enjoyed this video, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and never miss a thing!

Music Credit: jaxcheese youtube – Studiopolis Zone (Sonic Mania) – 16-bit Genesis-style cover

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Yakuza 0 set to hit the Americas and Europe on January 24, 2017 – pre-order now!

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A press statement from SEGA has just released, detailing the release information for the upcoming western localization of Yakuza 0. The prequel game to the longtime running franchise is set to hit the Americas and Europe on January 24th, 2017 on the Playstation 4  both physically and digitally, and will be priced at $59.99. Show your support for localized games and physical release by pre-ordering Yakuza 0 today! If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you get 20% off the game, which is a pretty sweet deal.

After the break, check out the full press release as well as some new screens.

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Yakuza 6 to release in Japan on December 8th – Watch the new trailer now!

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Released last night is a brand new trailer for the upcoming Playstation 4 game Yakuza 6! The trailer reveals several things including the release date, December 8th, and the price of 8,190 yen. The game’s full title is Yakuza 6: Inochi no Uta which translates to “Poetry of Life”. For those wondering if this is the end of the road for series star Kazuma, the trailer carries the message “The final chapter of the legend of Kazuma Kiryu.” It is unknown if this means the franchise will debut a new hero in subsequent games, or if SEGA plans to put the franchise to rest after this game. Though given how reliant SEGA of Japan are on the franchise, a new hero or more prequel titles like Yakuza 0 are probably more likely.

Check out a large gallery of screens and renders after the break, and let us know your thoughts on the game in our dedicated forum topic or in the comments below!

[Via: gematsu]

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SEGA News Bits: Sonic Mania Hands On Impressions

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We played Sonic Mania, and now we’re going to tell you what we think! In this SEGA News Bits, George and I (Barry) rest our aching feet just hours after the Sonic the Hedgehog 25th Anniversary Party in San Diego to share our reaction to the Sonic Mania reveal and give our thoughts on how the game plays. Do we have another Sonic 4 on our hands or is Sonic Mania the true successor to Sonic 3 & Knuckles? The answers are obviously “nope!” and “hell yes!” in that order.

Special thanks to Neo Hazard for letting us use his footage, you can check out his channel here! Also, thanks to Bartman for being the one to play the game in our footage. You can find Bartman’s YouTube channel here!

If you enjoyed this episode of the SEGA News Bits, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and never miss an episode!

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Take a look at SEGA’s Sonic Mania press materials

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Friday night in San Diego at Sonic the Hedgehog’s 25th Anniversary Party saw several reveals, most notably being a brand new 2D Sonic game titled Sonic Mania. George and I were there, and we shared our thoughts on the event itself in a recent SEGA News Bits, with more videos from the event to come. Unfortunately, as is the case with being on location, it’s tricky to news things immediately. Thankfully, we had our website designer Will on writing duty posting up stories as soon as they hit.

Now that the dust has settled, I managed to obtain SEGA’s press materials for Sonic Mania to offer our readers some more details on the game. Per the press release, seen in full after the break, the game is confirmed to have select returning zones from Sonic, Sonic 2, Sonic CD, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. This is excellent news, as fans of Taxman and Stealth know full well that Sonic 3 & Knuckles has been a tricky title, likely due in large part to rights disputes over the game’s music. But given that these reimagined stages will have newly composed music by Tee Lopes, new music means no issues.

While we knew who was developing the game, the press release also lays things out in a more official capacity stating that SEGA of America is developing the game in collaboration with PagodaWest Games, Christian “Taxman” Whitehead and Simon “Stealth” Thomley (of Headcannon). Also confirmed is that this will only be a digital release, and will hit PS4, Xbox One and PC. While at the event, we did ask if a physical release was in the cards but SEGA representatives sounded very iffy. Perhaps if fans make some noise we might see one? Also, additional platforms are also possible, but none are being talked about at this time.

Check out the press release and screens after the break!

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SEGA News Bits: Sonic the Hedgehog 25th Anniversary Party Impressions

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Pre-recorded just hours after Sonic the Hedgehog’s 25th Anniversary Party wrapped at the San Diego House of Blues, it’s Barry and George’s first impressions of the night! Hear how the event went down, from the literal all the way around the block line to the game announcements to the final curtain call. How did the audience react to the return of Taxman and Stealth? Why do people faint when they hear the opening guitar licks to Crush 40’s “What I’m Made Of”? Where was the computer room? These questions and more are answered in this very special episode of SEGA News Bits!

If you enjoyed this episode of the SEGA News Bits, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and never miss an episode!

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Roll in tomorrow before Sonic the Hedgehog’s 25th Anniversary Party for the Sonic Retro and SEGAbits Meetup!

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Heading to San Diego tomorrow for the Sonic 25th Anniversary Event or are just in town for Comic-Con? Meet up with your favorite SEGAbits and Sonic Retro folks at The Local Eatery and Drinking Hole at 3 p.m. Friday to hang out, chat about nerdy Internet things in the real world, share rampant speculation and pre-game for having to deal with a bunch of Sonic fans for a few hours. From there, we’ll head over together to the House of Blues, which is just two blocks away.

Not joining us in San Diego? Tune in to the official livestream at 6 PM PT/9 PM ET/1AM Saturday GMT! In addition to all the antics, who knows—you may even see a familiar face or two.

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Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episodes I & II hitting Xbox One backwards compatibility today

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Larry Hryb aka Major Nelson of Microsoft announced via Twitter that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode I & Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II would be hitting Xbox One Backward Compatibility today, meaning you can play the Xbox 360 games on your Xbox One. The recent additions means that Xbox One owners can now play the original Sonic SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive games as well as Sonic CD and the Sonic 4 duology on their Xbox One… as they truly imagined it! For as much flack as the Sonic 4 games get, they’re worth checking out – especially Episode II and Episode Metal.

Then again, with Sonic’s anniversary party tomorrow, we just may see a game announcement that is so amazing it wipes Sonic 4 from our memories (let’s hope!).

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Discotek Media announces Sonic X seasons 1 and 2 English dub release date

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Earlier today, American based anime and asian films DVD and blu-ray company Discotek Media announced on Facebook details on their upcoming “Sonic X” DVD. First revealed back in April of 2015, Discotek Media plans to release the first two seasons of the “Sonic X” English dub to DVD in a 52 episode collection with a release date of September 27th, 2016. Season 3, containing the remaining 26 episodes, will be released in another collection at a later date. I really love the SEGA Mega Drive inspired cover art, which has been confirmed to carry over to the menus.

It should be noted that there are no plans at this time for the original Japanese version of the show. Discotek Media also has plans to release the complete English subbed “Sega Hard Girls” to DVD, and once we learn more about that release we will be sure to news it.

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Blade Arcus from Shining EX releasing to PC on July 28th in the west

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Blade Arcus from Shining EX, a fighting game featuring characters from SEGA’s Shining series, has been announced to be coming west to the PC through Steam thanks to the developer Studio Saisenzen, who is also acting as publisher. The game originally released in Japan in late November of 2015 for the PS3 and PS4 and was published by SEGA. Fans of the original Genesis/Mega Drive era games should put a damper on their excitement as the Shining characters appearing in this game are from the recent titles in the series. Still, it is very cool to see titles that typically would never release west receiving localizations. The game will be re-titled Blade Arcus from Shining: Battle Arena and is set to release on July 28th.

You can learn all about the game on the Steam page, and stay tuned to SEGAbits for a potential review once the game releases.

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SEGA News Bits: Crossover SRPG “SEGA Blast Heroes” Leaked

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Earlier in July, a mobile game called SEGA Blast Heroes was seemingly leaked via Facebook ads. In this SEGA News Bits, George and Barry discuss this rumored new game that sets out to assemble an all-star cast of SEGA characters in a SRPG setting. Could SEGA Blast Heroes be the real deal, or is SEGA simply testing the waters and the game is nothing more than some mocked up screenshots?

If you enjoyed this episode of the SEGA News Bits, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and never miss an episode!

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SEGA News Bits: Deep Silver to bring SEGA and Atlus titles to Europe

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In this SEGA News Bits, George and Barry discuss the recent announcement that publisher Deep Silver has teamed with SEGA of America and Atlus USA to release Atlus and select SEGA titles to Europe. That’s right! While SEGA Europe lets great games slip through the cracks, these two American companies are picking up the slack (“Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers” anyone?) .

Europeans can expect Atlus’ Persona 5 and Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse as well as SEGA’s 7th Dragon III Code: VFD in both physical and packaged releases thanks to a deal made with Deep Silver, and that is just the beginning. More games are to come! Listen to our thoughts on what this means for SEGA Europe and why SEGA of America and Atlus USA had to do what they did in our latest News Bits.

If you enjoyed this episode of the SEGA News Bits, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and never miss an episode!

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SEGA Saturn copy protection cracked after 22 years

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The SEGA Saturn has long been that one SEGA console that was near impossible to crack, and console owners could forget trying to easily play copied games (which currently relies on a mod chip and burning CDs). But now, thanks to electronics fellow and coder James Laird-Wah aka “Dr Abrasive”, the Saturn’s copy protection has finally been cracked.

Detailed in the extended video above is the process which Dr Abrasive took to achieve this. Essentially, games are loaded from USB via the expansion card port. The Saturn was so difficult to crack due to DRM requiring discs to have a physical mark on them (called a wobble) which was etched into the CD. Dr Abrasive got past this by figuring out how the disc drive worked and emulating it via USB. The project is still in the testing phase, but there are plans to make boards available for sale. The work will eventually open up doors to homebrew communities and preserve the console’s functionality years beyond the eventual death of the CD drive.

You can follow the project at Dr Abrasive’s Twitter account and at the official Assembler Games topic, and you can join the discussion at the SEGAbits forums.

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