Author Archives: Barry

New Shenmue 3 screens unveiled at Magic Monaco 2016 press conference

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The Monaco Anime Game International Conference kicks off February 27th, and of interest to Shenmue fans is a much anticipated Shenmue 3 presence. As a preview of the event, a press conference was held today which featured new screens and details on the upcoming game. While the details side of things is scant right now, images from the event have hit social media. Twitter user Shenmue Forever posted some cool photos of the panel which features some new screens of the game. The images are kind of hard to see, but thankfully the Magic Monaco Twitter account shared one of the screens (seen above), and another has also found its way online (seen after the break). While the game is still very much in an early state, it’s great to see what feels like what one would see while playing the game. Let’s be honest, nothing is more iconic than the back of Ryo’s head – it is what players see for a majority of the game.

More details from the panel will be shared as we hear them!

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Indie Dreamcast game Leona’s Tricky Adventures now available to purchase

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The indie Dreamcast game Leona’s Tricky Adventures, a combination RPG/puzzle game that we wrote about back in 2014 on the Dreamcast’s 15th anniversary, has finally been made available to purchase. Initially a Kickstarter project for the Dreamcast and Amiga in 2013, the game’s creator cancelled the campaign. Now, the game is finally available for the Dreamcast. It has been pointed out to us by SEGA Driven’s Sonic Yoda that the PC version has been out for a little over a year and the developer KTX Software accepted PayPal donations, rewarding those who helped with the planned Kickstarter exclusives. The developer had this to say regarding the game:

Leona’s Tricky Adventures is a clever puzzle adventure in a charming retro look. Explore a world of mystery and cutesy residents and recover a lost paradise by solving logic puzzles. With a storyline created by the comic authors Musal M. & B. Samuel and the music of the brilliant
composer Chris Huelsbeck, Tricky Adventures is a perfect treat for connoisseurs.

The release features a manual, jewel case, and printed CD and can be purchased at the KTX Software shop which utilizes PayPal. I should note that if you live outside the EU, shipping is pretty expensive, costing half the price of the game itself. Within the EU the game will cost 35.8 Euros total, outside the EU it will cost around $49 total. If you want a look at the packaging, check out the KTX Software Facebook page.

[Source: The Dreamcast Junkyard]

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Swingin’ Report Show #83: Monster Boy And The Cursed Kingdom Developer Interview

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Refresh your podcast playlists, because the SEGAbits Swingin’ Report Show podcast is BACK! On this episode George and Barry are joined by Fabien Demeulenaere, Director of Game Atelier, the French game studio working on the upcoming Monster Boy And The Cursed Kingdom. If that title sounds familiar, it is because Monster Boy is both a revival and sequel in the Wonder Boy/Monster World franchise, due out later this year to Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC platforms.

In this exclusive first podcast interview for Fabien, he walks us though how the game transformed from a fan project to an official title in the franchise and talks about how the game both celebrates the franchise’s past and moves it into modern gaming. If you ever played a Wonder Boy or Monster World game on the Master System, Genesis, Mega Drive – or any other platform for that matter – this interview is a must listen.

Follow Monster Boy’s development by checking out their official site.

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

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Sonic Retro webmaster celebrates Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in the latest issue of Retro Gamer

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The latest issue of the UK classic gaming magazine Retro Gamer is celebrating its 150th issue in a big way by counting down the 150 Greatest Games Ever as selected by readers. What’s so cool about the issue is that for many of the entries, they turned to those in the fan community to wax nostalgic on the greatest games. Seeing as Retro Gamer‘s readers have taste and didn’t completely avoid SEGA like another publication out there, several classics from the developer have made the cut. Just some include 1986’s OutRun with a piece written by Sumo Digital’s Steve Lycett, Shenmue with thoughts from the Shenmue Dojo webmaster, and (as stated in our headline) a write-up on Sonic the Hedgehog 2 by Sonic Retro’s very own webmaster Scarred Sun.

Seeing as the magazine is out there for sale right now both physically and digitally, I’m not going to spoil the surprise of the game’s placement or what was said, so you’ll just have to find out for yourself.

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Shenmue 3 Update: Kickstarter Rewards to remain exclusive and official site gets a refresh

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Happy 2016! With the new year comes an update on Shenmue 3! While the latest Kickstarter project update doesn’t get into any of the development, the results are in for the survey asking whether or not rewards exclusive to Kickstarter backers should be made available to PayPal backers. Initially, this survey was held on Twitter, which many cited as being unfair since it was open to anybody and not just Kickstarter backers. Thankfully, Ys Net listened and held a new survey exclusive to Kickstarter backers. The survey shows that while the “Yes’s” outweighed the “No’s”, the “No’s” and “Either’s” were to great to be ignored and it has been decided that Kickstarter exclusives will not be made available to PayPal backers.

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Sentai Filmworks bringing Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation to North America

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While it’s not the video game, some form of Phantasy Star Online 2 will be making its way to North America thanks to anime licensing company Sentai Filmworks which has picked up the distribution rights for “Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation” in North America. In a press release dated today, Sentai Filmworks revealed that the anime series will be a part of their winter 2016 anime season lineup. Sentai Filmworks releases anime on both traditional and digital media platforms, so expect “Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation” to be released on one of or both of those formats, and based on Sentai Filmworks’ past releases a home video release is possible.

After the break, read the full press release.

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Opinion: So about Project Dream and their Dreamcast 2 plans – calm down, it’s not official or sane

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Update: So after a bit of internet sleuthing and comments from those who have dealt with SEGA home console conspiracy artists in the past, all of this very well may be the work of the infamous Zach Morris. Mr. Morris, or whatever his name is, has been up to this sort of nonsense since 2003.

Because people often just read headlines and run to their local GameStop to have a in-depth chat with the guy at the desk to talk about how SEGA is totally making a new console and it is going to be dubbed the Dreamcast 2, I thought I’d present a short opinion piece on the Project Dream team and their plans to get SEGA to develop a Dreamcast 2. To be quite honest, after having read the Project Dream team’s plans and having heard about the project with one of their members for the past month I was ready to just ignore the whole thing. But given a few news sites are enthusiastically running the story and no doubt more will pick it up and run with it, I thought it best that SEGAbits said something about it. I should make note that this is not a news piece, it is an opinion piece.

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SEGA Tunes: Star Wars Arcade 32X feels like it could take on the whole Empire

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While the heyday of the original Star Wars trilogy video games in the 70s and 80s belonged to Atari, during the 90s and early 2000s our favorite arcade game maker (that’s SEGA, if you’re wondering) internally developed a three games that blew the Atari arcade experiences out of the water. The arcade games I am referring to are Star Wars Arcade (by SEGA AM3 and LucasArts), Star Wars Trilogy Arcade (by SEGA AM8 and LucasArts), and Star Wars Racer Arcade (by Sega Rosso). These games were exciting for a number of reasons. For starters, you had some of the best SEGA arcade talent behind the titles working with some of the best arcade technology of the time. [Learn more about SEGA’s arcade development in the 90s]

I know old Atari arcade games have their charm, but when you’re dealing with a franchise like Star Wars that leans so much on visuals, sound and music I’d much prefer to know what I’m looking at rather than trying to figure out what tiny wireframes are trying to convey. Personally I found Star Wars Racer Arcade to be the pinnacle of Star Wars arcade experiences, as it felt 1:1 to the film in every aspect. But today, for the latest entry in our SEGA Tunes series, I wanted to look back at the Star Wars arcade experience that kicked off the SEGA trilogy of arcade games, the aptly named Star Wars Arcade.

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Sonic Boom TV show heading to UK DVD with Volume 1: The Sidekick

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A listing has appeared on Amazon.uk for a DVD release of the Sonic Boom TV show. The DVD, due out February 15th, is being released through Universal Pictures UK and has the subtitle “Volume 1: The Sidekick”. With a runtime of 143 minutes, that translates to 13 eleven-minute episodes of the series. Meaning that the complete 52 episode season one would be completed in four volumes. No word yet on an American release or the possibility of special features yet.

It is possible, given that these are the first thirteen episodes in order, that the volume will include: “The Sidekick”, “Can an Evil Genius Crash on Your Couch for a Few Days?”, “Translate This”, “Buster”, “My Fair Sticksy”, “Fortress of Squalitude”, “Double Doomsday”, “Eggheads”, “Guilt Tripping”, “Dude, Where’s My Eggman?”, “Cowbot”, “Circus of Plunders”, “Unlucky Knuckles”. And if future volumes are being titled based on the first episode of the next thirteen then volumes 2-4 would be titled: “The Meteor”, “Chez Amy” and “Tails’ Crush”. It is more likely, however, that they will select an episode that has the best title for a DVD cover and not simply the first episode on the disc. Fingers crossed for a DVD titled “It Wasn’t Me, It Was the One-Armed Hedgehog”.

More news on the DVD as we hear it!

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Contest: Win a Yakuza 5 t-shirt in celebration of the game’s release and the franchise’s 10th anniversary!

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SEGA’s much anticipated Yakuza 5 releases December 8th digitally for the Playstation 3 in the Americas and Europe! To celebrate, we’re teaming with SEGA to give away official Yakuza 5 t-shirts (contest open to the US and Canada). To enter, all you have to do is head on over to Twitter, follow SEGAbits, and retweet our contest tweet to spread the word of the game. Three winners will be randomly selected on Twitter! Not a Twitter user or want to double your chances? Below in the comments section, share your Yakuza franchise memories in celebration of the series 10th anniversary – which happens to December 8th, the same day as Yakuza 5‘s Western release! Two winners will be selected from the comments section based on quality of comment.

The contest ends on Monday, December 14th at 11:59PM CT and winners will be announced the following day. As mentioned, the contest is for the US and Canada only and five winners will be selected. You cannot win twice. Good luck to all who enter and don’t forget to buy Yakuza 5!

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SEGA announces Yakuza 5 release date for Americas and Europe: Tuesday, December 8th

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Might as well call us YAKUZAbits given the news day we’ve been having. In addition to the announcement of Yakuza 0 for Playstation 4 in the Americas, SEGA has officially announced the release date for the long awaited localization of Yakuza 5, and it is not too far off. In fact, the game is set to release digitally on Playstation 3 this coming Tuesday, December 8th in the Americas and Europe. The 15% pre-order deal in the Americas will only last through Monday, December 7th! So best get on it before the game releases if you want to save some money.

Fittingly, December 8th is ten years to the day that the original Yakuza released in Japan in 2005. So SEGA seems to really want to please fans on the franchise’s 10th anniversary.

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SEGA reveals Yakuza 0 American release details and screenshots

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More good news regarding the recently revealed American release of Yakuza 0 direct from SEGA. First off, despite being released to both the PS3 and PS4 in Japan, Yakuza 0 will only be seeing a PS4 release in America. Secondly, the game will receive both physical and digital copies. So those bemoaning SEGA’s decision to release Yakuza 5 digital only should be happy to hear the next title will receive a disc release.

It also is worth mentioning that I have read comments online suggesting that the game’s American release is connected to Atlus in some way, but SEGA has stressed that this is 100% a SEGA release and any mentions of Atlus (for example, the screens were hosted by Atlus) were only a subterfuge to hide the surprise of the release. Sneaky.

After the break, check out newly released screenshots from the upcoming game.

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Yakuza 0 will release to the PlayStation 4 in America!

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It has just been announced at the PlayStation Experience event that Yakuza 0 will be releasing to America! Unfortunately nothing has been announced for Europe as of yet, with the official SEGA Twitter account even notifying EU fans that nothing has been confirmed for the region yet. The game has an official English language site as well as a trailer which can be seen above. With Yakuza 5 set for a December 8th release and the prequel incoming, Yakuza is truly back in the West!

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Rez Infinite announced for PlayStation VR

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Playstation experience is happening now, and a special announcement was made by former SEGA developer Tetsuya Mizuguchi that Rez will be releasing to the PlayStation 4 as Rez Infinite and better yet will utilize PlayStation VR! You can see gameplay footage in the link above, and more details as we hear them.

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Liberation of the Blue Sky revealed to be a Japanese smartphone RPG from SEGA

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Back in November we revealed two new trademarks from SEGA, one of which was “Soukuu no Liberation” (Liberation of the Blue Sky). While it was most likely a new game, some fans were hoping it was another Skies of Arcadia (though as I pointed out, the series is Eternal Arcadia in Japan and “sky”/”skies” aren’t unique enough to make such a connection). In any case, the cat is out of the bag and Liberation of the Blue Sky has been revealed to be a mobile RPG from SEGA heading to iOS and Android in Japan.

Based on the official game site, the game is a 2D free to play RPG and tasks the players with recapturing an Imperial City that has been invaded by an Empire. The protagonist is a guy named Roland who leads a Revolutionary Army. Gameplay features the usual RPG elements such as forming parties and a variety of character types. The game will feature both single player and four player modes and is due out this winter. After the break, check out some art from the game as well as a screenshot.

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