Author Archives: Kori-Maru

SEGA Retrospective: Sakura Taisen Week – Imperial Assault Force, Move Out!

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Konnichiwa! Kori-Maru here to welcome our readers to Sakura Taisen week.

In commemoration of Valentine’s Day we’ll be providing you with a full week of coverage for SEGA’s popular dating/strategy game. Since its release in Japan on the SEGA Saturn back in 1996, the franchise expanded with sequels, spinoffs, stage shows, animation, and even a motion picture. While Sakura Taisen was a smash hit in Japan, the franchise was never given much exposure in the west due to SEGA’s western branches not believing the series would find an audience.

Luckily, other companies disagreed, and Sakura Taisen’s anime and manga would reach western shores in the early 2000s thanks to companies like ADV films and Tokyopop. Thanks to NIS America, even Sakura Taisen’s latest game, Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love, was able to make reach western markets. Most recently, last year’s Project X Zone for the Nintendo 3DS saw a Western release and featured Sakura Taisen characters and locations.

To get you guys prepped for a week of Sakura Taisen, check below for an overview of the series!

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SEGAbits Gaming Community NiGHTS featuring Streets of Rage Collection

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Join us in our next gaming community night with SEGA’s beat’em-up classic, SEGA Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage, this Wednesday night on Xbox Live Arcade. We will be playing through all three games from 7:00pm EST to 11:00pm EST on January 22nd.  Just add “KoriSX15” to your friends list and we’ll be sure to add everyone to the Xbox Live Party to begin the session. Hit the jump for the game schedules.

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Tons of Virtua Fighter News from VF20th NicoNico Live Stream

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From last night’s stream, NicoNico Live featured the celebration of Virtua Fighter’s 20th Anniversary. The event was held in Tokyo Joypolis Park hosted by Sexy Saitou and Asapon. AM2’s Daichi Katagiri, VF’s game coordinater, made an appearance as well as other special guests such as Tekken series producer, Harada and former AM2 head, Yu Suzuki on pre-recorded video to share their thoughts and experience with the series. During the stream, SEGA announced a ton of awesome Virtua Fighter news to celebrate the series anniversary. What to know what they are, hit the jump young grass hoppers.

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Virtua Fighter 20th Anniversary Website Launches

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With this year marks the 20th Anniversary of the Virtua Fighter series, SEGA launches a new website with the first blog which roughly translates “20 years have passed since the release of Virtua Fighter. Thank you very much to our fans.” “This special site will be sequentially updated to celebrate this milestone, looking back at every step of the path to present day.”

In Famitsu’s article on the 20th Anniversary of Virtua Fighter, the site will update with the development of the games and tournament history.

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SEGA Talks Atlus acquisition, Free to use Dormant SEGA IPs

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In a recent Famitsu interview, SEGA Sammy’s Chief Operating Officer, Naoya Tsurumi, talks a little bit more about the future of Atlus brands and its relationship with SEGA Corporation.

There are some interesting tidbits in the Famitsu interview as Tsurumi-san explains that Atlus will continue developing their brands, making them bigger and for SEGA to sell them. The interview also mentions a line of SEGA IPs such Sakura Wars, Jet Set Radio, and Space Channel 5 as Tsurumi explains that the company has just started but definitely will give it more thought.

You can read the entire interview here. What are your thoughts about Atlus using dormant SEGA franchises?

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SEGABits Gaming Community NiGHTS featuring MODEL 2 Collection

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Featured in our next gaming community night on SEGABits is AM2’s finest arcade fighters supported by the SEGA MODEL 2 hardware. We will hosting each game on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on XBLA this week after Thanksgiving. During the event, we will be posting references of each game including Fighters Megamix on Twitter. Just add “KoriSX15” on Xbox Live and I will be sure to add you. Want to suggest some more SEGA titles to play in our next Gaming Community NiGHTS? Be sure to comment below or visit our forums. Hit the jump for the schedule.

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The Making of 3D Space Harrier and New 3D SEGA Classic Series Interview With M2 and SEGA Developers

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Naoki Horii, President, M2 (left), Yosuke Okunari, Producer, SEGA CS3 (right)

Impress Watch sat down with Naoki Horii, President of M2, and Yosuke Okunari, producer at SEGA CS3, for an interview on how the 3D Space Harrier was developed in the making and games they’ve ported in the past years. M2 is very well known for porting numerous SEGA titles to consoles like Sakura Wars 1 & 2 for Dreamcast, the SEGA Vintage Collection, and many more. The interview is quite interesting and I recommend our to read this awesome interview here.

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To Type or Not to Type: The Typing of the Dead OVERKILL Shakespeare DLC with Multiplayer Update now available for $2.99

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SEGA has just recently released the promised DLC for The Typing of the Dead: OVERKILL on STEAM for only $2.99 which players can download here. The DLC features a new experience by killing mutants with the words of Shakespeare. Also included within the DLC update is the multiplayer feature with online co-op for Typing and Overkill mode. For more info and images, hit the jump.

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Sakura Wars Mobage will feature a costume changing system and sign ups

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A few months ago, SEGA and Red Entertainment made a partnership with Mobage to develop a new Sakura Wars game which displeased many fans in Japan.  However, Sakura Wars for Mobage  will feature a original story featuring several characters from the franchise a new gameplay system that involves changing costumes.

Details about how this  will change gameplay have not been announced as of yet. Signups for Sakura Wars for  Mobage start today and if you register early you’ll get an ultra rare  Sakura Shinguji card. Service for the game is scheduled to begin sometime this winter.

Special Thanks to SEGAFAN for the tip!

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SEGABits @ New York Comic Con 2013 Panel Video: SEGA Through The Years

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Hello SEGABits readers, Kori-Maru here back from my trip from New York Comic Con with coverage of SEGA and Hardlight Studios panel titled “SEGA Through Out The Years” with special guests from SEGA attending the panel such as Ethan Einhorn, Chris Olsen, and Masayoshi Kikuchi-san as they explain SEGA’s history, focus on mobile, a few announcements, and the company’s future followed by Q/A and trivia contest. During the Q/A session, there were a lot of interesting questions from the audiences that may interest a lot of SEGA fans, so stay tuned for that. I also have tons of pictures of a few SEGA cosplayers and employees for our readers to look at. To view the video of the panel and pictures from the convention, hit the jump!

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Sakura Wars the Movie now avalible on Blu-Ray/DVD Combo Pack

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Western Sakura Wars, anime, and hardcore SEGA fans alike can now rejoice as Sakura Wars the Movie makes it’s grand return today on Blu-Ray disc for $34.98 in retail stores and $17.49 with 50% savings on Funimation’s store page. The Blu-Ray version contains tons of special features such as interviews with the creators, promotional videos, Japanese commercials and more. Hit the jump for the summary of the movie.

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SEGABits Gaming Community Night featuring Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown on XBLA

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Want to play SEGA games online with the staff and writers of SEGABits on PSN and XBLA? Look no further, we at SEGABits are willing to play SEGA’s library of titles along with our readers and forum members twice every month on the weekends.

Our first game featured on our gaming community night is Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown on Xbox Live Arcade on Sept 7th at 6pm Eastern Time. If your interested, add me “KoriSX15” by 5pm EST time and I surely will add you on the list.

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Sakura Wars CG Motion Manga heading to Japan by TOMOTOON!

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SEGA and Red has collabrated with japanese animation studio TOMOTOON! to bring the manga adaptation of Sakura Wars by series creator, Ouji Hiroi, to life with CG motion, which was also translated into english towards the Western manga readers by the manga publishing company, TokyoPop.

The trailer features a few first panels of the manga in full motion CG, almost compared to the Valkyria Chronicles cutscenes. I happen to like motion comics by comic publishers like Marvel and DC Comics for example and pretty stoke to see how this turns out as a fan of the series. What are your thoughts?

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