If you’re interested in SEGA’s upcoming Aliens title then you’ll enjoy Gamespot’s lengthy new preview.
Randy Pitchford of Gearbox discusses what separates Colonial Marines from other AAA shooters and licensed games, the studio’s love for the Aliens world, Left 4 Dead’s influences, the character growth you can expect, and what it will be like playing it on the Wii U (which he affirms will be the best-looking console version).
Looks like big things are a-comin’ for Yakuza fans. First noticed by Andriasang, the official Ryu Ga Gotoku website has been updated with a simple little animation, one which recalls past Yakuza installments while, at the end, teasing something new for May 24th.
With the Tokyo Game Show not being held until late September, it will be interesting to see whether this is going to be a major reveal or just a tease, or, come to think of it, whether this will indeed be Yakuza 5 or the announcement of another spinoff.
Earlier this month we reported on one of the more…interesting features that SEGA has planned for their upcoming Vita Monkey Ball game: the ability to roll your balls down the body of a Japanese supermodel.
As you can see, SEGA of Japan’s promoting the hell out of tits…erm, this, with model Yukie Kawamura starring in their commercials. Oh, and they show a little bit of the game too.
Whether this will sell copies of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz in Japan remains to be seen, but as far as the likelihood of Kawamura’s level and this type of promotion making its way to the West….probably not a snowball’s chance in hell.
That’s Fei Rin, one of three new characters revealed this past week for PlatinumGames’ upcoming brawler, Anarchy Reigns. As reported by Andriasang with info from Famitsu, Fei Rin’s set to star alongside her similarly deadly sisters, Rin Rin and Ai Rin, videos and pics of whom can be seen after the jump. Though Sega West sure isn’t acting like it, Anarchy Reigns is, as far as I know, still scheduled for a Western release this July.
Let me just start by saying that this has to be one of the coolest fucking songs on the planet. Relax, savor the smooth bass and let the glorious techno overwhelm all that you know.
Jet Set Radio Future’s free spirit and somewhat darker energy is captured perfectly in Hideki Naganuma’s ode to chaos and all that is groovy. The track kicks off with a bang and never looks back, the simplistic but sensible vocals (“I felt like a bulldozer…trying to catch a butterfly”) telling us all that we need to know as the music forcefully grabs hold and drags us along with it at about 90 miles per hour.
To be sure, the original Jet Set Radio had its share of fast and exciting songs, but little compares to the sheer energy that the fastest songs in its sequel conjured up, this one among them. The funny thing is that, for me anyway, Jet Set Radio Future was by far the slower of the two games as far as its pacing was concerned, probably its biggest flaw, but the music was more than willing to pick up the slack.
To this day I go back and forth about which game had the better soundtrack. Though oftentimes I lean in favor of the original’s, it’s tracks like this one that cause my resolve to waver, just a little.
For another epic track from Jet Set Radio Future, Continue Reading to understand the Concept of Love.
The good news? Rhythm Thief was not one of the cancellations reportedly occuring in the wake of SEGA’s recent financial woes; the game saw release in Europe earlier this month. The bad news? Nobody bought it. Though exact numbers are not currently known, SEGA’s forray back into Samba De Amigo-styled rhythm games failed to make the UK top 40 in its debut week, and its chart position remained missing in action in week 2.
I apologise in advance if this comes off as a rant; my intention is certainly not to upset anybody, but it’s hard for me to respond in any other way to what I find to be such an incredibly shocking turn of events. How is it that even with the fan outcry for more quirky, Japanese-style fare from SEGA, that with the good reviews and the lack of competition on the system, that with an ad campaign and Nintendo as a distributor…how is it that this didn’t sell? If niche Japanese beat-em-up Pandora’s Tower (on the Wii of all systems) can make this same chart (debuted last week at 38) then is it a stretch to expect a game being billed as one of the best rhythm games in years to find at least similar success?
I’m not entirely done with Hideki Naganuma yet, (as you’ll see, I have another one of his songs after the break) but thought I’d give Richard Jacques a little attention this week, as well as shift the focus towards the future….Jet Set Radio Future, that is. One of the lucky IP created during the Dreamcast era to receive not a port, but a sequel, on next gen hardware, the evolution of the Jet Set Radio series was shocking in just how much was changed from one game to the other. Taking more of the form of a reboot than a sequel, Jet Set Radio Future introduced not only a staggaring number of gameplay changes, but its soundtrack too took on a very different form.
I can’t help but grin when I hear tracks like this one nowadays, with electrohouse and dubstep taking a firm hold on mainstream culture; I feel like playing JSRF back in the day exposed me to dubstep before dubstep was dubstep. (Wikipedia states that dubstep as we currently know it first came to be in 1998, with the genre coming into its own in around 2001-2002, so, if that’s true, such an assertion is actually not too far off.)
Either way, regardless of where you fall on the whole electrohouse thing, this is a pretty cool track. I’ve always associated it with SEGA’s bold dive into 3rd party publishing, and the adventure and high hopes that went along with it. Richard Jacques’ track is exciting, it carries with it a cool futuristic vibe, and it sounds different from everything that existed in the original Jet Set Radio; an underrated gem. But speaking of futuristic tracks, here’s one from Hideki Naganuma, also fitting in with JSRF’s futuristic motif. Hit the good ol’ “Continue Reading” button to check that one out.
The NPD has just released their sales data for the month of March, and though it’ll hardly come as a surprise to most, the results aren’t looking good for SEGA’s robot-themed third person shooter. Binary Domain has reportedly sold just 20,000 copies in its first full month on North American shelves, while Mass Effect 3, despite a significant amount of fan backlash, managed 65 times that, selling 1.3 million for the month, not including its digital sales.
This week’s Tuesday Tunes will showcase the music of Hideki Naganuma, one of the funkiest composers working in video games today. The song above is from Ollie King, and as you can see, it’s as out there as anything else he’s done. If you really allow yourself to zone into it and appreciate all the craziness that goes on in a typical Naganuma track, you’ll see that there’s very little else like it. His work for the Jet Set Radio series remains some of the industry’s most iconic; his funky, up-beat, and totally unpredictable tracks really set the scene for these games and, arguably, played a major role in making them as great as they were.
Many people remember the song entitled “That’s Enough” (which you can hear after the break) in particular, mostly, I think, for its use of the rather memorable line, “the music just turns me on,” a sentiment that fits the Jet Set Radio games like a glove. Since then Naganuma’s created music for other SEGA games, including the first Sonic Rush game, a track or two from Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, and much of the music for the cel shaded arcade skateboarding title Ollie King. In my opinion though Jet Set Radio and its sequel remain his crowning achievements, games that made brilliant use of a sound he pretty much defined.
And though his other work may not be quite as well known, his sense of style, his ability to surprise, and, of course, the breakneck speed at which his songs propel themselves forward, all are aspects that carry across his entire body of work, unquestionably demonstrating his style, talent, and invention. Keep reading to hear a very familiar track from, of course, Jet Set Radio.
Xplay has today previewed the upcoming (and expensive-looking) Aliens: Colonial Marines, a game that has gotten no shortage of attention, not only for its status as a sequel to the legendary Alien film franchise, but also for its lengthy development time: something quickly becoming a legend all its own.
This preview highlights some of the game’s environments, details the plot, and shows off plenty of gameplay. It’ll be interesting to see whether this becomes the hit that SEGA desperately seems to need.
Aliens: Colonial Marines is set to release (hopefully) later this year.
Over the ‘hood, through the streets, and right into your braaaaain!!!!!
Savor the sweet sounds of Reps, because it’s Jet Set Radio month on Tuesday Tunes! Over the course of the next few weeks you’ll be powering through the wave of nostalgia, energy, and the sheer, absolute, unmistakable musical sexiness that we know of as the soundtrack to Jet Set Radio and its sequel, with a little branching out for good measure.
This week’s chosen song is none other than ‘Bout the City, an infectiously catchy track coming from British artist Reps. Though Kogane-Cho is undoubtedly my least favoite of Jet Set Radio’s three main districts, I can’t help but crack a smile when I drop into the level and this is the first track that plays. To me it embodies everything that makes Jet Set Radio what it is; it was a free spirit in an industry that was growing more gritty and “mainstream” by the year. The punk-flavored ‘Bout the City seems to want nothing more than for the listener to have a total blast, and that to me is everything that Jet Set Radio stood for; Poison Jam may have kidnapped the dog, the Noise Tanks may have flooded the Garage with frogs, and they were constantly pursued by a batshit crazy police captain…yet, you never got the feeling that the GGs weren’t enjoying just about every minute of it all.
Their world was always colorful, the funky melodies were beamed directly into their heads, and the streets of Tokyo-to sure looked beautiful when blasted through on rocket-powered skates. For another upbeat but very different tune, hit the jump for Toronto’s Electric Toothbrush, which pretty much sums up everything awesome about not just SEGA, but hell, the year 2000 as well.
Looks like we may have more games in the Valkyria universe coming, if a recent trademark filing by Sega of Japan is any indication. Though the series of strategic RPGs has gained a fairly strong following in Japan, it never managed to attain more than cult status in the West, in part due to its move to the PSP after the first (incredibly well-received) installment on the PS3.
We’ll of course keep you posted on any updates should this trademark actually become a game, though whether it would come to the West, especially given SEGA West’s current financial hardships, would be another matter entirely.
Rumors continue to heat up after a not-so-cryptic hint from SEGA’s Ben Harbone earlier this week regarding current-gen digital ports of Shenmue and Skies of Arcadia. Now a site called Gamerzines is reporting with a strong degree of certainty that not only are Shenmue and Shenmue II on the way, but they’re completed and have been for over a year.
Citing an industry source with close ties to SEGA, the rumor goes on to say that SEGA chose to wait on the release of these two digital titles “until it had a clearer picture of the future for the Shenmue franchise, namely, whether or not Shenmue III would ever see the light of day.”
That little tidbit adds a whole other level of intrigue to all of this, but of course it’s important to keep in mind that this is very much a rumor and we’ve had rumors like this before regarding the continuation of the Shenmue saga. Gamerzines does look like a legit website, however, and apparently IGN thought so too, since they’ve also reported this rumor. Thought I’d share it with all of you.
This according to Game Informer Magazine, who recently got some hands-on time with the upcoming digital re-release. They report that SEGA has retained 80% of the original’s soundtrack, and that this HD update will also feature camera controls mapped to the 2nd analog stick, something which, as Dreamcast fans will remember, wasn’t possible with that console’s controller. Region specific added levels will also make it to the digital version, all running at 60 fps.
My thoughts? 80% is unquestionably a majority of the soundtrack, though I’m personally awaiting a list of exactly what was included before getting too excited. I’ll go out on a limb here and assume that the tracks licensed for the North American and European releases aren’t going to make it this time around, but whether or not that’s the extent of the cuts remains to be seen.
Jet Set Radio will be releasing on XBLA, PSN, and PC sometime this year.
[Update] Joystiq confirms that Hideki Naganuma’s music will stay intact. Licensed music that has been confirmed to stay in the soundtrack include “Magical Girl” by Guitar Vadar and “Funky Radio” by B.B. Rights. [/Update]
Well, little else needs to be said. My only hope, and I know it might be a long shot, is that we get the whole soundtrack intact. The music, each and every song, is crucial to Jet Grind Radio, so hopefully SEGA won’t be pulling a Crazy Taxi on us.
No release date has yet been given for what will hopefully be a truly epic blast from the past. The teaser also does not indicate whether any new features or graphical improvements will be added.
