SEGA has had some highly rated games released on the PSP, sadly mostly everyone outside of Japan has decided to ignore the platform. Sony recently announced the ‘PSP Remasters’ series. Games from PSP ported over and enhanced on the Playstation 3.
One of the first games to get this treatment has been Monster Hunter Freedom 3, which looks great. I decided to put together 5 games that deserve the PSP Remasters treatment.
I guess there have been rumors flying that SEGA Amusement USA will be closing down, since their website has been down. The fine folks at Arcade Heroes got down to it and found out what is really going on.
It seems that SEGA Amusement USA will be changing locations from Elk Grove Village, IL to Wood Dale, IL. They have also confirmed that they will be changing their name from SEGA Amusement USA to Play It Amusement Inc. The company is still going to be operated and owned by SEGA.
This new change is aimed to keep the same employees and streamline operating costs by working closer with SEGA Amusement Europe. I don’t know why they changed the name myself, but whatever.
[Source: ArcadeHeroes]
SEGA announced that they would be doing a Sakura Wars tie-in for Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity… they teased it way back in November of last year.
Now we finally get to see how this content will look like in game. Check out the gallery below for more photos of the sexy action. Including pictures of the weapons.
NiGHTSfan tweeted us this image today from a Wal-Mart. It’s good to see that SEGA is getting stuff like this made to promote their upcoming game. I mean, look at the long and varied list of consoles you can buy it on.
Xbox, Wii, NDS, PS3 and Sega? I love my Sega console, I have one of those. I got it back in the 90’s when I upgraded from my Nintendo.
SEGA Japan launched another web app for Sonic’s 20th anniversary. This strange little app is called “Sonic ★ Tweet“.
I guess the way the game works is that you have to use the twitter client to unlock 500 cards that feature characters from Sonic’s history. How do you unlock the cards? Defeat Eggman by using some wit in your tweets.
Basically the game takes your tweet, breaks down the words and each one has assigned points. Depending on what words you use, in one tweet (and what others online are using) you rank in combos, giving Sonic’s attack more damage.
After you take down Eggman’s health to zero, you will get exp and a card. Cards can be used to bypass a cooldown phase (you have a limit to how much you can attack).
Sadly this game is only up for our Japanese readers, the rest of us either have to learn Japanese or pretend we know how.
[Source: Sonic Wrecks]
Bowplex is basically a bowling place in the UK, but also has arcade and other fluff around to make extra cash. The place has inked a exclusive deal to get ‘Sega Active Zone’ machines in their place of establishment.
“We’re really excited about the partnership with SEGA. It’s such a prominent brand within the industry and we’re thrilled to be associated with the company on this level. We work hard to push the boundaries of family entertainment and strive to be the first to introduce new concepts and we believe working with SEGA to introduce SEGA Active Zone is testament to that.” -Tracy Standish, Managing Director of Bowlplex
The project has £2 million in investments for ‘state-of-the-art equipment’. Sega Sports Active will feature sports games with iconic SEGA characters, such as Sonic. No other names where mentioned in the press release.
Hit the jump for that.
Its hard to realize that the NiGHTS franchise turns 15 years old today, you know with all the celebrating that SEGA is doing with Sonic and his 20th anniversary.
Lots of users will complain that NiGHTS has only recieved 2 games in the last 15 years (3 if you count Christmas NiGHTS as a full game), there are way longer running SEGA franchises that have more games. That is true, but I think NiGHTS holds a special place in most people’s hearts, especially SEGA Saturn fans. We didn’t have Sonic like the Genesis kids, this was our Sonic for that generation.
Happy birthday NiGHTS. Lets hope SEGA ports the original game to HD consoles. Please, SEGA?
SEGA and EA have reached an agreement to have SEGA distribute EA titles in Japan. Seems that this deal will take effect this year, with Shadows of the Damned being the first new title on September 22nd.
SEGA also hopes, starting next month, to put a list of EA back-catalog titles for release. Seems this is a great deal for SEGA. Now lets see if they put more promotional effort into selling Shadows of the Damned in Japan than EA put in the USA.
[Source: AndriaSang]
Gamestop has already showed what they are giving users away if they pre-order Sonic Generations from them, what about GAME? UK’s massive game retailer?
Now all users know what they will get if they pre-order the game at either Gamestop or GAME. So what are you waiting for?
[Source: Sonic Stadium]
When we launched SEGAbits last year, one thing I wanted was to link the forums with the front page comments. There was a bit of an issue with this, we needed a plugin to get this work done. There was one out there and it was called WP United. The issue with this plugin was that it was buggy, the guy that created said that he would be fixing it in the near future and release a new version. Last update? 10 months ago.
This plugin stopped us from adding other plugins to wordpress or even updating it to the most secure version. I have been in talks with our site admin, Shadiwulf to get rid of the plugin. One of our writers members accidentally updated wordpress recently and resulted in a broken site. This meant that we had to get rid of the plugin sooner than I wanted.
So what are some changes?
This week we have a special sexy Sonic edition podcast. He is turning 20 and we are celebrating in style. Graham (from SEGA Nerds) and Shigs both join me to discuss Summer of Sonic, VMUs and much more. Listen this week for a chance to win a Sonic Boom shirt! Sadly, the Jewish man known as Nuckles87 who travels all the time couldn’t make it in time for this podcast to talk about his experience at Summer of Sonic.
Eurogamer has an expo for up and coming game developers that want to show off their titles. This year, SEGA is going to help throw the event, which means they will have their name plastered all over the place.
Games like Joe Danger and Hohokum have made their public debuts at past events. Submissions for developers who want to show off their games closes on August 19th. So if you are making a game, get to it. SEGA might pick it up if they like it.
The event will be at London’s Earls Court between 22nd and 25th September. You can nab your tickets here.
[Source: Eurogamer]
When I was a kid and I had a Game Gear, I was super excited. The thing was way better than my Game Boy, but it only had one big issue. The battery life was horrible. Finally, someone made an awesome mod that makes the Game Gear more awesome: Introducing the Handy Gear.
It has a custom-made case, Master System converter and a 5-inch PSone screen. Most importantly, it has rechargeable batteries. The con? It’s big and weighs in at more than 2 pounds. Not so portable.
[Via: Engadget]
[This is what the post would have been like in the early ’90s]
We have now picked three winners for our Sonic Boom shirts and buttons contest, which actually went online the day of Sonic’s 20th birthday. Isn’t that a neat fact. So who won?
If you won, contact us with the subject line “Sonic Boom shirt & buttons winner”. Specify if you want the merchandise signed, the size of shirt desired, and your mailing address. Winners have a week to get their information to us. If not, we will give away the prizes to someone else who entered.
Didn’t win? We have 2 more shirts to giv eaway. How do you get them? WE WILL GIVE YOU DETAILS ON THE SWINGIN’ REPORT SHOW PODCAST THIS FRIDAY!
