Author Archives: FlareHabanero

New Madou Monogatari Game Gear collection announced

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Madou GG

A new collection for the Madou Monogatari by D4 Enterprises and Project EGG has been announced. A follow up from past collections, such as the Mega Drive version of Madou Monogatari I and Madou Monogatari: Hanamaru Dai Youchienji ones previously reported, collection focuses on the Game Gear versions of Madou Monogatari I, II, III, and A. In addition to these game, the collection will also come with reprints of the manuals and a soundtrack, similar to the other Madou Monogatari collections.

Unlike the original Madou Monogatari I-II-III, the Game Gear versions were originally separate releases. These versions of the original trilogy contain elements of both the MSX and PC98 versions, still retaining the first person dungeon exploring and turn based battles. However they also introduce some changed elements, for example the Game Gear version of Madou Monogatari III has Rulue as the final boss instead of Minotaur like the other versions. Meanwhile Madou Monogatari A (technically called Madou Monogatari A: Doki Doki Vacation) is a remake of the “A” scenario from Madou Monogatari A-R-S, focusing on a 4 year old Arle obtaining her powers for the first time. Only the “A” scenario got a Game Gear remake, possibly due to it being a late 1995 Game Gear release.

The collection is slated for a 2018 release for 8,000円 (roughly $72)

[Source: Compile Station]

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Nintendo Switch Shin Megami Tensei game revealed to be Shin Megami Tensei V

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Back in January, we were teased that a new game in the Shin Megami Tensei series for Nintendo’s new system the Nintendo Switch. What it was wasn’t specified at the time, but commonly speculated to be a new “main” title. Now we have official confirmation that indeed it is a new installment in the main series, officially called Shin Megami Tensei V.

No specifications have been dropped, including a release date or gameplay, however similar to past installments it will take place in modern day Tokyo, along with having the franchise’s signature focus on demons and dark themes. The trailer shows two high school students walking in a hallway presumably from an airport, and then transitions into a tunnel with countless dead demons, set in what appears to be an apocalyptic Tokyo ravaged by monstrous winged demons.

While information is scare on Shin Megami Tensei V, more information might be dropped by next year. So stay tuned for more.

 

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New Sonic Xtreme prototype concepts surface

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Sonic 32X

Ah, Sonic Xtreme, arguably one of the most infamous games that never came to be. Despite this, both fans and even the original staff that worked on the game have for years been documenting it’s development history from it’s gameplay concepts to it’s plot, and everything in between.

Today, new Sonic Xtreme concept material has surfaced via a YouTube channel called RDPH Games, with several videos showing never before seen prototype material. Notably this highlights some aspects of Sonic Xtreme before it was a SEGA Saturn title, back when it was still being conceptualized as a game for the failed 32X add-on. These videos include a running animation clip that according to the description was made hours before a meeting with SEGA of Japan, an animation test with a possible title screen for “Sonic 32X”, and a mock up of a hypothetical bonus stage.

While at first glance these clips may not seem significant, every bit of information helps shed some more light of what happened behind the scenes when it came to Sonic Xtreme. In this case, seeing more of Sonic Xtreme before it’s jump on the SEGA Saturn, along with general never-before-seen clips.

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Japan Racing Association x Puyo Puyo collaboration “UmaPuyo” announced

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SEGA and Japan Racing Association have teamed up for a new collaboration called UmaPuyo (literally “Horse Puyo”). The Japan Racing Association being Japan’s horse racing division since 1954, hence the association with horses. While the collaboration may seem random, SEGA has had a history with horse racing games, notably the Starhorse series of arcade game, so there’s some logic to something like UmaPuyo.

There are two minigames for UmaPuyo. First is a racing game called UmaPuyo Race where you can select your character and horse and race off. The objective is to get first place by clearing out Puyo consecutively, the more Puyo cleared the faster your horse will run.  UmaPuyo Jump is a jump platforming game where you guide a Puyo using your mouse cursor and collect horses. There are a total of 20 horses, each one based on a real-world horse that appears in the Japan Racing Association horse races. You can play both on the official Umabi website.

While on the surface there’s nothing special about this collaboration, the former game UmaPuyo Race has a contest associated with it. Every time the player wins a race, the player will get a raffle. To enter, the player needs to follow @Umabi_Official and share their victory on Twitter. Once entered, they will have an opportunity to win a cash prize of  ¥50,000 ($455.00). 5 winners will be chosen at an unspecified later date.

Special thanks for @AFKei with help translating this information.

[Source: 4gamer and Umabi.jp]

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Factor 5 almost ported/created three games for the SEGA Genesis

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factor5

Factor 5 is a rather interesting company. With the many project that came and went, notably the Turrican and Star Wars Rogue Squadron series, along with a rollercoaster of failed projects and bad business mistakes that eventually shut down the studio, until a recent surprise revival in 2015. But regardless, it was an ambitious studio, to the point that staff would even create their own devkits to gain an edge over the competition.

Recently, Nintendo Life has interviewed Factor 5 co-founder Julian Eggebrecht, dropping information about two ports and an original game that were intended for the SEGA Genesis.

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SEGA World Drivers Championship playtest announced in Japan

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A new SEGA racing game in Japan is currently being playtested in Japan. Based on the Super GT sports racing series, SEGA World Drivers Championship continues SEGA’s track record of producing sports racing games. Notably this is the first time SEGA of Japan has made a racing game for arcades since 2008/2009 (Not counting Initial D.), such as SEGA Race TV. Similar to past SEGA arcade racers of the past, most notably Daytona USA, players can race through three different courses and multiple players can play using separate cabinets. A notable difference however is the usage of cards with different cars, which can be used in the arcade game to use different cars sponsored by companies like Toyota, Nissan, and Honda.

However, a really notable technical aspect about this game is the engine. It is the first title by SEGA that utilizes the Unreal 4 engine used in recent console, arcade, and PC games to provide both great effects and ease of development for working with multiple pieces of hardware. With SEGA being on board with working on a well respected engine, it’s possible more games using the engine will follow.

The playtest is scheduled in SEGA’s entertainment buildings in Akihabara and Ikebukuro in Tokyo and Toshima respectively, on July 28th, 29th, and 30th.

[Source: SEGA of Japan and 4gamer]

 

 

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Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap gets unofficial Turma da Monica mod

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For those that have lived in Brazil or are familiar with the infamous Wonder Boy reskin woes, Wonder Boy III: The Dragons Trap was changed in Brazil to reference the cartoon/comic franchise Turma da Mônica, replacing all of the different animal forms with different characters from the series. This conversion was called Turma da Mônica em o Resgate, exclusive for Brazil, and an example of a Master System game being changed for the market.

With the recent remake of Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap on modern systems, dedicate fans decided to change the game to again reference Turma da Mônica. This includes replacing the artwork with new high quality artwork, and faithfully recreating the animations from scratch. Together, this creates a surprisingly high quality mod that is readily available for the PC version for you to play. The video description not only containing the mod, but also a presskit that contains screenshots and artwork for the mod.

In fact this mod is so good, even the official Lizardcube Twitter account threw their praise at the mod, describing it as incredible. So if you have the PC version available, maybe try it out for yourselves.

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Valkyria Revolution Review – A Losing Battle (PS4)

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ValkyriaRevolutionReview
The Valkyria series has had a rather shaky history. The original game in the series, Valkyria Chronicles, was released in 2008 on the PS3. The initial release on the PS3 was met with generally positive reviews, but it was lacking in terms of sales. The game was notably praised for it’s more free movement via the BLiTZ (Battle of Live Tactical Zones) system, being somewhat of a successor to the battle system in Sakura Taisen 3 and future titles. Later Valkyria Chronicles would receive better success with the later PC port in 2014, along with being successful enough to spawn two sequels on the PSP simply called Valkyria Chronicles II and Valkyria Chronicles III respectively.

But after a bit of a hiatus, the Valkyria series is back with a new installment on the Playstation 4, Playstation Vita, and Xbox One (Western exclusive), more specifically a spin-off game that shifts genres from a strategy RPG to a more traditional action RPG, while retaining some familiar Valkyria elements. Is this game a revolution like implied, or should it stay oppressed?

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New Sonic Runners Adventure footage and screenshots leaks

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Sonic Runners Adventure

As previously reported, a new Sonic mobile game called Sonic Runners Adventure was accidentally leaked on Gameloft’s Customer Support page, revealing a lot of information about how the game played including the different styles to play the game and how characters worked. Though with only descriptions to go by, we haven’t seen what the game looks or plays like.

But now thanks to more leaks, we finally know what Sonic Runners Adventure looks like in action. This includes a video showcasing the story mode of the game, showing off the first few stages reminiscent of Green Hill Zone including both the Finite and new Looped styles, along with glimpses of the menus where you can customize yourself with items, buddies, and playable characters. There is also a small selection of screenshots that originally came from a Russian website, based on the below video. But more strangely, there appears to be a Java version of Sonic Runners Adventure that was also leaked. Weird to see a Java game in this day and age, but it might benefit someone out there.

To see Sonic Runners Adventure gameplay in action, click the link below.

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Contest: Puyo Puyo Tetris Physical Copy Giveaway – Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4

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puyotetris contest

Surprise, we’ve got another contest going on! This time it’s for the puzzle crossover game, Puyo Puyo Tetris. A game by SEGA that combines the long running Puyo Puyo series with the world famous Tetris, in a fun fast mixture where you can play either Puyo Puyo or Tetris, or maybe even both! Puyo Puyo Tetris was originally a title released back in 2014, but recently got a release outside of Japan for western fans to try out for themselves for the Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4.

With this contest, we’re going to do things slightly differently. Unlike our past contests, the copies we’re distributing are physical copies, and we’re distributing both the Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch versions. There are exactly 5 copies of each version, and a lucky 10 winners can potentially get their hands on a Puyo Puyo Tetris copy for free.

The contest is running on both SEGAbits.com and Twitter.com/SEGAbits, meaning that you can enter in both to double your chances of winning. Should a winner be selected more than once, we will select another winner in one of the contests so that nobody gets more than one copy of the game.

Here’s how to enter:

SEGAbits.com: In the comments section of this post, tell us your favorite Puyo Puyo or Tetris moments. The games, the characters, your experiences, anything is fair game. When leaving your comment, please use a valid email address in the email field so we can contact you. Email addresses are not public. Also it’s recommend to specify which version you want to prevent potential confusion.

Twitter.com/SEGAbits: Retweet the contest tweet and follow SEGAbits on Twitter, and tell us your favorite Puyo Puyo or Tetris moments and mention “Switch” or “PS4” so we know which version you want to win.

The contest will last until May 15 next week at 5PM EST, and this applies to American regions only. Best luck to everyone who’s involved!

Also don’t forget that the Bayonetta PC code giveaway contest is still running until May 11th, so contribute to that too if you have not yet.

 

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Unseen64 looks into the cancelled Sonic Extreme

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No this isn’t the infamous Sonic Xtreme originally developed for the SEGA Saturn but cancelled due to development hell. Sonic Extreme was a cancelled skateboarding game originally pitched by a development studio called Vision Scope Interactive, which as the name suggested involved Sonic characters preforming skateboarding tricks and races similar to the famous Tony Hawk Pro Skater series involving hover boards. A prototype of the game was originally found in a Xbox devkit and leaked on the internet in 2011.

Liam Robertson, a known contributor to the website Unseen64 that specializes in beta and cancelled video games, decided to investigate further into how the game was originally pitched by contacting Vision Scope Interactive employees. The results includes how the opportunity came to be due to helping with developing the CG cutscenes in Sonic Heroes, how the prototype was quickly assembled and pitched, and it’s connection to the similar Sonic Riders released years later.

What Sonic Extreme might have been if it became a full title is unknown, but it’s nice to know more information about another curious case in Sonic’s history.

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Puyo Puyo Tetris Review – A Fun Combination (Nintendo Switch/Playstation 4)

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SEGAbitsReview_PuyoPuyoTetris

A Puyo Puyo game, released in the west. Such a strange sentence to type out in the context, due to the Puyo Puyo franchise being one of those notorious cases of a series being stuck in Asian shores with maybe the rare localized title or import title that quickly comes and goes. The last time a major Puyo Puyo game was in American and European territories was the 2004 title Puyo Pop Fever, and since then the series has been quiet. Aside from the occasional table scraps like the port of Puyo Puyo Tsu on the Wii Virtual Console, the version of Puyo Puyo Tsu in SEGA 3D Classics Collection, and the Puyo Puyo 39 minigame in Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX, the series has otherwise been absent.

But that all changed with Puyo Puyo Tetris, a game that has existed since 2014 on multiple systems. Unlike other Puyo Puyo games prior, Puyo Puyo Tetris gained notable attention in western territories for years. It might be a case of a silver lining in an otherwise rough year for SEGA or the controversial practices the Tetris brand has been associated with, or just it being a very fun game, but regardless Puyo Puyo Tetris was requested for localization for quite a while. But now it is 2017 and we finally have the game in western shores, more specifically for the popular Playstation 4 and Nintendo’s recently released Nintendo Switch.

After such a gap between the game’s original launch in 2014 and the 13 years since the last time a major Puyo Puyo title was released in the west, is Puyo Puyo Tetris the comeback that has been long overdue, or was there a reason why western fans were were denied Puyo Puyo for so long?

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Rumor: Vanquish PC port hinted in latest Bayonetta PC update

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vanquish_stuff

The PC port of Bayonetta has been released recently and quickly sold over 100k in it’s first week. Naturally with the success of the Bayonetta PC port, a question that comes up is what will the future hold for potential SEGA and PlatinumGames PC ports. Well we may or may not have an answer, and surprisingly it’s from a strange update.

Bayonetta on PC has been recently updated, with a mysteriously small update at only 22KB. Out of curiosity, some people have dug into the EXTRAS folder and found a new image. A lone picture of the character Sam Gideon from Vanquish, a third person shooter by Platinum Games and SEGA originally released in 2010 on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Why the image was quietly put into the Bayonetta folders is unknown, but it is possible that Vanquish will receive a port on PC in the future, with the image being a small teaser/easter egg. However it may also simply be a homage to another Platinum Games title published by SEGA.

Either way, the update does raise questions of a potential PC port of Vanquish, or at least something related to Vanquish. Stay tune for possible news of a PC port in the future until then.

[Source: NeoGAF]

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Puyo Puyo Tetris demo live today

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Tetris-vs-Puyo-Puyo

As previously reported, the PAL eShop accidentally dropped information about a free demo for Puyo Puyo Tetris. But now with the Nintendo Direct today it is officially confirmed that the demo will be live, and will be available for play today on the Nintendo Switch. This demo will provide players a sample of how Puyo Puyo Tetris plays, providing a limited selection of options for both solo and multiplayer. All you need to do is go on the Nintendo Switch eShop and download it, free to play and as much as you want.

Please try out the game for yourself to see if Puyo Puyo Tetris will be up your alley when it drops April 25th (North America) or April 28th (Europe).

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Bayonetta, Corrin, and Cloud amiibo available July 21st

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amiibocorrincloudbayonetta

After a year of it being announced with silence since, and a tease from PlatinumGames, we finally know about the fate of the Cloud, Corrin, and Bayonetta amiibo. All three amiibo will be available on July 21, meaning every character for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS will finally have a corresponding amiibo. Not only that, but all three amiibo will have a 2nd version available in select retailers, Cloud from Final Fantasy: Advent Children, female Corrin, and Bayonetta’s design from the first Bayonetta.

No announcements have been made when all three amiibo be available for pre-order.

[Source: Nintendo]

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