SEGA has announced that their previously Wii U exclusive Sonic the Hedgehog game Sonic Lost World will be coming to PC. We sit and talk about what we know, if this is something people wanted and what other SEGA console exclusive titles we want to see on PC.
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Despite being delayed to 2016, SEGA had Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice promotions in place for the game’s initial release window of Fall 2015 and it looks like they couldn’t get out of one of these promotions. United States fast food restaurants Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. (the restaurant name depends on your region) just began a Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice kid’s meal promotion featuring four toys. The toys include: Splat Ball, Sonic the Hedgehog Figure, Board Game (possibly the most unexciting name for a board game ever), and Communicator with Secret Compartment (how is the compartment a secret if they advertised it?).
In addition to the toys, the restaurant’s website offers digital wallpapers, coloring pages, a Sonic Boom character poll, and a place to enter a secret code found on the meal bags – meaning there will be branded bags to go along with the promotion. While it sounds like I’m ragging on SEGA for promoting a game that has since been delayed, I’m actually very excited for the promotion. Being a child of the early 90s, I have fond memories of the McDonald’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Happy Meal. I even own a store display and collection of bags! So it is very cool to see Sonic back in the world of fast food toys. I just wish the promotion fell closer to the game’s release.
SEGA has officially announced the SEGA Hardware Nintendo 3DS themes that they’ve been hinting at for the past few weeks. Releasing today to the US will be Sega Genesis and Sega Game Gear themes, featuring imagery and sounds from the respective hardware. In addition to the Genesis and Game Gear, 3DS owners can also expect the Sega Master System, Sega Mark III, Sega Saturn, Hi-Tech Sega (80s style Japanese arcade machine), Sega SG-1000, and the Sega Dreamcast. The themes will be rolled out over the coming months, and are priced at $1.99 each.
It has also been announced that the themes will be hitting Europe, but on a different schedule. No word on if the themes will be altered to suit the EU versions of consoles.
Famitsu has dropped another batch of Project X Zone 2: Brave New World character reveals for the upcoming Bandai Namco Entertainment published SRPG crossover featuring SEGA, Capcom, and Bandai Namco characters. In this latest batch SEGA representation is light, but the inclusion of Shenmue’s Ryo Hazuki is huge. Of course, we knew of Ryo’s inclusion for a few weeks. But in this reveal it is confirmed that Ryo will be a Solo Unit character, meaning he won’t be teamed with another Shenmue character (I was really hoping we’d get Wuying Ren). It has also been confirmed that Ryo’s Japanese voice actor Matsukaze Masaya will be returning to the role. Masaya will also be voicing Ryo in Shenmue 3, which means we’ll get our first listen of Masaya’s return to the role in Project X Zone 2!
Other SEGA characters revealed include two NPCs: The evil rabbit eared Ranmaru from Sakuza Wars: So Long My Love voiced by Asai Kiyomi and Garijanon, voiced by Norio Wakamoto, of Resonance of Fate who will be sharing a cutscene with Segata Sanshiro.
After the break, check out the SEGA character screens and art, and check out all the new images over at Famitsu!
A Nintendo exclusive no more! Via the Steam store comes news that 2013’s Nintendo Wii U game Sonic Lost World will be releasing to PC on November 2nd. The game is available for a $29.99 pre-purchase and as an added incentive SEGA is throwing in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed for free to those who buy before release. It is assumed that the Nintendo add-on levels will not be included. The NiGHTS into Dreams stage will, however, be included as it appears on the stage map in the Steam screenshots.
After the break, check out the system requirements to make sure your PC can run the game!
The 2D fighter Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax, by Ecole Software and French Bread and published by SEGA, is set for release on the Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita on October 6th! To celebrate, we’re teaming with SEGA to give away an official Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax hooded sweatshirt and track jacket. 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.
The contest ends on Thursday, October 8th at 11:59PM CT and winners will be announced the following day. The contest is for the Americas only, and two winners will be selected. Whether you get the hooded sweatshirt or track jacket will be decided with the flip of a SEGA branded coin. Good luck to all who enter and don’t forget to check out the game when it releases October 6th!
During and since the transition to Southern California (to possibly the Atlus USA offices), SEGA of America has played it pretty safe on social media. Typically we’d only see press releases and links to trailers and announcements, but today the SEGA Twitter account shared a 14 second video of the SEGA Genesis “Welcome To The Next Level” logo accompanied by the Dreamcast hardware startup sounds and the Western Saturn startup jingle and the text “Still Thinking”. Would could SEGA be teasing?
While we’re merely speculating, it’s possible that new Nintendo 3DS themes are on the way featuring Western SEGA Dreamcast, Saturn, and Genesis/Mega Drive sounds and images. We know that SEGA of Japan released their own collection of console inspired 3DS themes, and later the US got Fantasy Zone and Space Harrier themes. We also know that SEGA of America staff expressed interest in bringing more themes – like the hardware ones – to the West, but noted that they would have to be localized as they were region specific in design.
Of course it is also possible it is a tease of something bigger, but let’s keep expectations in check.
Update: The letters in the video light up to spell “THEME”. I think it is safe to say that Dreamcast, Saturn, and Genesis themes are on the way to the Nintendo 3DS!
3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was supposed to release at the end of September for the Nintendo 3DS, but when last week came and went we here at SEGAbits grew curious as to what happened to the game’s expected release date.
An hour after we tweeted the question of when the game will be releasing out to the official Sonic the Hedgehog account, SEGA made a tweet announcing that the game would release on October 8th. Coincidence? Probably, but we’d like to think we lit a fire under SEGA for the answer. So expect the last of SEGA 3D Classics wave 2 to release in just 10 days, and in the meantime why not grab the first Sonic game from wave 1 to brush up on your classic Sonic skills?
Japanese website Games Talk has let slip that Shenmue‘s Ryo Hazuki will be joining the cast in the SEGA/Capcom/Bandai Namco crossover Project X Zone 2: Brave New World! Ryo appeared in a piece of artwork from the game featuring several other new and already revealed characters. The artwork itself was in a series of screenshots from the Korean localization of the game. It is unknown at this time if Ryo is a solo unit or is a part of a team. Fingers crossed it’s a team, as that would mean an additional Shenmue character (Ren? Goro? The kitten!?).
After the break, check out a few more screens from the Korean version which feature Virtua Fighter characters.
During the summer, SEGA of America closed their San Francisco offices and moved to Southern California. Oddly, SEGA had been pretty quiet when it came to revealing the exact location of the office, but after a little digging we may now know where they ended up! Based on various sources, it appears that SEGA has moved in to the existing Atlus USA offices in Irvine, California.
In this SEGA News Bits, Barry and George share how they came to this conclusion and give their thoughts on this development. As a bonus, enjoy a slideshow of pictures taken when Barry visited SEGA’s San Francisco offices in 2013, and check out the original SEGAbits Visits SEGA of America, Inc. articles here: Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3
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Its been a long time coming, but HUCAST Games’ latest release Ghost Blade is now available to purchase and play on your SEGA Dreamcast. Insert the obligatory “a Dreamcast game in 2015!?” here. Described as “an ace shoot ’em up for the Dreamcast with a focus on arcade action and an elaborate scoring system”, Ghost Blade promises three game modes with three player ships too choose from, five stages, a Caravan Mode, and support for the VGA Box, Arcade Stick, VMU and standard Dreamcast controller.
While the sequel to 2012’s SEGA/Capcom/Bandai Namco crossover game Project X Zone hits Japan this year on November 12th, it looks like those hoping for a localized release won’t have to wait long! The game is due out February 16th, 2016 in North America, and February 19th, 2016 in Europe.
While the first game was an enjoyable fan service filled time waster, Project X Zone 2 looks to be taking things to a whole other level with the inclusion of Segata Sanshiro. There are other additions to the game, but Segata eclipses them all. Don’t hold me to this, but rumor is the game’s cover art will simply be Segata’s scowling face. No logos, no rating info. You won’t even have to pick the game off the shelf, it will jump right into your cart and drag you by the collar to the cash register.
For those that missed out on the initial Shenmue 3 Kickstarter campaign, Ys Net has just kicked off a second campaign which is set to run for a little over three months and utilizes PayPal. Dubbed the Slacker Backer Campaign, the campaign is described as follows:
For everyone who could not participate in the Shenmue III Kickstarter, we have heard your voice! Here is one more chance to show your support and make Shenmue III even better. All funding collected here will be added to the Kickstarter total for the game’s development.
The Tokyo Game Show 2015 reveals keep coming as we now have the an official title for the once secret game from Vanillaware and published by Atlus titled Thirteen Mecha Soldier Defense Zone. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, the official title, is an upcoming giant mech game due out for PS4 & Vita. As evidenced by the trailer and screenshots, the game features 3D environments and mechs and 2D hand drawn characters. The result is lovely, as the game looks like a drawing come to life. The game is currently only announced for Japan, but we would not be surprised if it made its way West.
After the break, check out screens from the game and stay tuned to SEGAbits for more information on 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim as we hear it!
Rumors were circulating that SEGA’s upcoming Nintendo 3DS title Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice, the sequel to last year’s Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, was delayed from its original release date of Holiday 2015 to 2016 after video game rental company GameFly revised their release info. Now, SEGA has officially confirmed the delay and surprisingly are being open about why the game has been delayed. Sonic franchise social media and PR superstar Aaron Webber has posted an article on the SEGA Blog explaining that they want to give the game the time and polish needed. No exact window has been given, only that “it’ll be ready when it’s ready!”