Author Archives: Barry

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SEGA News Bits: Sonic Mania Hands On Impressions

July 26, 2016 by Barry

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!

Take a look at SEGA’s Sonic Mania press materials

July 25, 2016 by Barry

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!

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

July 25, 2016 by Barry

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!

July 21, 2016 by Barry

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.

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

July 21, 2016 by Barry

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!).

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

July 18, 2016 by Barry

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.

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

July 16, 2016 by Barry

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.

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

July 14, 2016 by Barry

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!

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

July 13, 2016 by Barry

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

July 12, 2016 by Barry

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.

Stories International to adapt SEGA’s Rent A Hero into a movie

July 11, 2016 by Barry

Via Deadline comes news that Stories International, a joint media venture between SEGA and Hakuhodo DY Group launched in 2011, plans to release a movie based on the 1991 Mega Drive game Rent A Hero. The movie will be spearheaded by filmmakers Steve Pink and Jeff Morris, with Pink’s credits including Hot Tub Time Machine, High Fidelity and Grosse Pointe Blank and Morris’ most recent credit being the upcoming Netflix project The True Memoirs of an International Assassin starring Kevin James. The original Rent A Hero starred the character Taro Yamada as the “Rent A Hero”, a hero for hire that needs to complete various tasks to save the day and pay for his suit. The game never saw release in the West, though a fan made english hack exists and an Xbox remake almost released to the West but was cancelled – though the finished translated version exists and is playable.

Stories International’s president and CEO Tomoya Suzuki and Hakuhodo DY Group are slated to produce. Meanwhile, Evan J. Cholfin of Stories International will oversee the film as executive producer.

So… first Shinobi and now Rent A Hero! What do you think of SEGA’s upcoming films? Sound off in the comments below!

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Publisher Deep Silver to bring Atlus and select SEGA games to Europe [Updated with press release]

July 6, 2016 by Barry

Moments ago it was tweeted out by Deep Silver, the video game publishing division of German multinational corporation Koch Media, that they will be bringing Atlus USA and select SEGA titles to Europe. This will include Atlus titles Persona 5 and Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse. No further details are known as of now, but we are hoping a press release hits soon. This is both great news and bad news for European SEGA fans. It’s great that more games from SEGA and Atlus will be releasing to Europe, but it is bad news as it is a major sign that SEGA Europe – a publisher in their own right – are so disinterested in their own titles that they must rely on an external publisher to bring them over.

No word on what these select SEGA titles would include, but I would wager they’d be the more niche and/or Japanese titles like Hatsune Miku and 7th Dragon III: Code VFD. This is just my guess however, as we do not an any confirmation of what SEGA titles to expect as of yet.

Updates as the story unfolds after the break.

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SEGA News Bits: Sonic the Hedgehog turns 25 years old

July 5, 2016 by Barry

Sonic the Hedgehog’s 25th anniversary officially kicked off on June 23rd, which was of course the release date of the eponymous game that started it all. In this SEGA News Bits, George and Barry look back on 25 years of Sonic by spin dashing through all the main series Sonic Team developed console games. There are quite a few to get through, so consider this more of a SEGA News Smörgåsbord. Why are you still reading this? Click play and enjoy!

What are your favorite Sonic games? Let us know the comments below and like always thanks for watching! If you like our SEGA News Bits videos, make sure to subscribe to us on our YouTube channel.

Yu Suzuki reflects on one year since the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter was funded

June 30, 2016 by Barry

In the latest Shenmue 3 Kickstarter update, Yu Suzuki shared a special backer exclusive video in which he looked back on one year since the campaign was successfully funded. Those expecting major revelations or exciting new information will be disappointed, but it is nice to see shots of Suzuki and his team discussing the game’s development. A few notable moments in the video include Suzuki stating “Your cheers at the Sony announcement still ring in my ears” and the mention that late last year the team began using Shenmue 2 characters for battle and conversation tests in Unreal Engine 4 – I would personally love to see these development videos someday. Suzuki also stated that the prototype build began development in January and that is has been six months since the project has really taken off. Elements that are beginning to come together include battles and facial expressions and the crew are said to be happy with development thus far. Suzuki ended the video saying he believes it will end up to be a good game, and he once again thanked backers for their support. No date has been decided yet for surveys, which would decide stuff like shipping addresses and shirt sizes and information needed for in-game appearances.

Overall, Shenmue 3 looks to be progressing well. The environments, while not jaw dropping as they were with the Dreamcast originals, look good and it is always nice to see Suzuki smiling and talking about the game’s development. Here’s hoping as time goes on we see more of the game in progress and get a peek at some cutscenes and battles.