Author Archives: Nuckles87

Classic SEGA Ads: Segata Sanshiro is in love

by

The internet has made much ado about Chuck Norris as the manliest man who has ever lived, but that’s only because they are too afraid to admit that Segata Sanshiro will one day beat them all up for not diligently playing their SEGA Saturns.

Segata Sanshiro is the definition of an unstoppable force, the embodiment of an unmovable object, but even he is susceptible to love, as this Sakura Taisen 2 commercial shows. That said, it takes a true to be willing to gleefully play in a pile of Sakura pedals with his beloved. Do not be comforted by this ad though, non-Saturn owners. After Sakura Taisen Week is over, he will come for you all…with a vengeance.

5 Comments

The SEGA Five: Ways to experience Sakura Taisen

by

sakura-wars_1

Sakura Taisen has had an interesting history in the West. Though the first four games that make up the core of the franchise were never localized, the series’ anime and manga adaptions were. As a result, Sakura Taisen was able to establish a cult following in the West, one strong enough to spawn continued interest in the franchise from both fans and corporations years later.

Thanks to the efforts of these companies and fans, there are now several ways for western audiences to get a taste of the franchise. Though they are not all complete and they are not all convenient, these are the five ways you can experience the biggest SEGA franchise to never officially make it West.

This is the Westerner’s guide to Sakura Wars.

(Special Note: the information from this list is derived from Kori Maru’s extensive knowledge of the franchise. He was gracious enough to help us out with the research for this article)

Continue Reading ➜

2 Comments

SEGA Tunes: Sakura Taisen’s “Kimi Yo Hana Yo (Live)”

by

As some of you may remember, we’ve covered Sakura Taisen on Tuesday Tunes before, featuring music from both the game itself and its stage show incarnations. As a musical theatre buff myself, I am extremely jealous of Japanese fans for the dozens of Sakura Taisen related stage shows they’ve had over the years. After all, the closest thing us westerners have gotten to a proper SEGA related stage show is that awful Sonic musical from Australia.

A Sakura Taisen stage show is rather fitting though, given that the game itself stars performers who actively sing and dance on stage. The above video is from the 2003 Shichifukujin show, which features all the voice actors from the Sakura Taisen video games and anime reprising their roles on stage. From what I’ve seen of the show it looks pretty cool, and the performers themselves are definitely talented.

The song “Kimi Yo Hana Yo” was originally composed by Kouhei Tanaka for the end credits of Sakura Wars 4. The stage version features all of the games voice actors reprising their roles as members of Flower Division, including Akio Suyama as Captain Ichirou Oogami and Chisa Yokoyama as titular character Sakura Shinguji.

Check below the fold for the version of the song featured in the game!

Continue Reading ➜

1 Comment

Classic SEGA Ads: Did you know SEGA Master System is the best thing ever?

by

Watching Master System commercials from places like the UK and Australia sometimes feels like watching something from an alternate dimension, one where the NES didn’t obliterate its competition and establish an unbreakable monopoly on the 8-bit gaming market. That’s because despite the NES’s utter dominance of the US and Japanese gaming markets, Nintendo failed to establish much of a foothold in Europe or Brazil, where SEGA dominated. Thus, we have ads like this, that act like the Master System was on top of the world. Mostly because it was…in Australia anyway.

The ad itself is pretty typical for its time, lacking the flare and attitude that would eventually become characteristic of SEGA’s marketing in the nineties. It does give us a nice window into the Australia’s 1980s games market. The After Burner music in the second half is a nice touch, too.

9 Comments

‘Sonic Boom’ TV series character redesigns revealed & teaser trailer released

by

2432474-sb_keyart_01_rgb_a4_300dpi_1391691540
 
Update: After the break, another image of Sonic and the gang as they’ll appear in Sonic Boom the Game, which you can learn more about in this news post.

Update 2: Check out the TV show trailer for Sonic Boom after the break!

It’s been a long time coming, but the new Sonic Boom designs for Sonic and his friends have finally been revealed! At the moment we only have photos of Sonic and Knuckles, but according to Sonic Stadium Tails now has a tool belt.

Sonic Boom is also going to be much larger in scope then initially thought, as it will be more than just a television show. It will also be a toy line from Tomy and a new video game, which will be released on both console and mobile platforms.

Whether or not this is a permanent and franchise wide redesign of the character or something restricted to everything Sonic Boom related is currently unknown, but this is easily the most drastic official redesign of any sort that the franchise has seen to date.

We’ll keep you updated with more news as it happens.

Continue Reading ➜

10 Comments

Classic SEGA Ads: Yes, every SEGA CD can change into a woman

by

I’d like to introduce all of you SEGAbits’ latest feature: SEGA Saturday Morning Ads. This feature will take a look back at SEGA’s advertisements, their admen and their context in SEGA’s history. Today, we take a look at one of the most intense infomercials I’ve ever seen: SEGA Europe’s Mega Drive/Mega CD infomercial from 1993, released via VHS in the UK just as the MEGA CD was finally making its way across the Atlantic.

I first saw this infomercial back in 2002 when I was researching the SEGA CD and considering a purchase. The moment I downloaded and watched this commercial…I knew I had to have a SEGA CD. It just looked so awesome! I had no idea what the hell Make My Video was or how the hell it was a game, but I just wanted to play it immediately!

Of course, most of the SEGA CD games in this commercial ranged from barely mediocre to utter trash, but the fact that it got this reaction from me in 2002 should speak volumes of this infomercial’s sheer quality, from its sound, to its script, to its cinematography. Making someone lust for ten year old hardware and terrible FMV games? That is a quality piece of advertisement my friend. Unfortunately good ads aren’t always enough, and in the case of the SEGA CD, they weren’t enough to get more then 60,000 UK consumers to buy the peripheral at its £269.99 price tag.

Sit back, turn up your speakers and play this ad on full screen. Just be forewarned: you will want a SEGA CD after this.

3 Comments

Yakuza Ishin Japanese tv spots released

by

SEGA has released two 16 second ad spots for their upcoming PS3/PS4 game, Yakuza Ishin. These J-pop infused spots showcase Ishin’s slick PS4 graphics, game play and storyline, pumping Japanese gamers up for its impending release on  February 22nd. There is currently no word on whether or not Ishin will be localized for the West.

Continue Reading ➜

1 Comment

The SEGA Five: Ristar’s Coolest Bosses

by

w5ristar
 
Ristar has some of the most spectacular and varied bosses I’ve ever experienced in a sidescrolling platformer. Though they aren’t all hits (such as Scorch’s somewhat irritating Simon Say’s sub boss) the five bosses below will remain some of the most memorable experiences I’ve had on the Genesis (and Game Gear), Ristar’s rogues gallery has some star players that are worth highlighting. I’d like to note that I purposefully left out the final bosses of the games, partially to avoid spoiling people who haven’t beaten these cult classics, and to highlight some more varied experiences from the games.

Some of these bosses never received official names. This article will be referencing the names used in Ristar Star Cluster for this article.

Continue Reading ➜

1 Comment

Retro Review: Ristar the Shooting Star

by

 Ristar title copy

SEGA’s catalog is quite literally littered with spectacular characters and franchises that either never took off or never made it to the west. We each have our favorites and one of mine is a little game for the Genesis called Ristar, a glowing example of SEGA’s mascot aspirations that was unfortunately unable to find an audience.

Back in the early Genesis days, SEGA was looking for their Mario killer. After Alex Kidd failed to save the Master System from being anything more than a speed bump to the NES’s growing monopoly, SEGA knew it needed a mascot that could capture the imagination (and money) of gamers. As we all know, they would eventually come up with Sonic the Hedgehog. Along the way, however, they created some other concepts, including a bunny that could throw things at enemies. This concept would percolate within SEGA for years, until it was finally released in 1995 as Ristar.

Continue Reading ➜

1 Comment

Art of SEGA: Ristar the Shooting Star

by

artofsegaristar
 
All Sonic fans are familiar with the work of Yuji Uekawa. He has been the franchise’s primary character designer for nearly two decades now, taking the reigns in 1996 with Sonic 3D Blast. He’s most notable for completely redesigning Sonic and his friends for the new millennium in Sonic Adventure, and has played a pivotal role in the character design of most Sonic and Sonic Team titles since then.

Before Sonic though, Uekawa had Ristar. He was Ristar’s lead character designer, designing all of the characters in the game including Ristar himself. Unfortunately, there is no art book for Ristar, so we had to rip the designs straight from the Japanese version of the manual, which is filled with beautiful illustrations of Ristar and other characters, as well as a few nice instructional comics and backgrounds. We’ll also be including the sprite artwork from the credits.

The character artwork was taken from SEGA Retro’s Ristar manual scans. The sprite artwork was ripped by Dr. Schnaps. The various bits of trivia and character information can be sourced to Ristar Cluster. Enjoy!

Continue Reading ➜

2 Comments

SEGA Tunes: Ristar’s Du-Di-Da!!

by


 
Planet Sonata is probably my favorite stage in Ristar. The first stage has you carrying metronomes to song birds and gradually activating the instruments for the stage’s background music. It all culminates in the stage’s boss fight, which attacks you to the rhythm of this theme! Planet Sonata is a perfect example of what makes Ristar special: it’s creative, unique, and introduces gimmicks and elements that are then discarded for the rest of the game in favor of other gimmicks.

If the early stages of Ristar don’t grab you, I would encourage you to at least try to stick around until Planet Sonata

No Comments

SEGA Retrospective: It’s Ristar Week, c’mon!

by

RistarWeek

I’d like to welcome you to Ristar Week! This week we’ll be focusing on Ristar’s depressingly short run as a video game star, looking back on the character’s two games. Sonic Team’s star-faced hero never got his due back when he first came around. Debuting just a few months after the release of the 32X and just a few months before the US debut of the Saturn, Ristar came out at a time when the Genesis was no longer a console SEGA was interested in selling. As a result, Ristar was ignored and became a cult classic. This week, SEGAbits will be giving Ristar his long overdue respect.

  First, though, a little history lesson.

Continue Reading ➜

1 Comment

The SEGA Five: Five Game Gear games that need to come to eShop

by

3DSGG copy

This may not surprise you, but I was a Game Gear kid. While everyone else was bringing their Game Boys to school, I happily chugged away on my full color backlit power house, playing Sonic Triple Trouble, Lion King and Lucky Dime Caper. So when I heard the 3DS was going to have its own handheld centric Virtual Console, I was stoked. Finally, some of my favorite games from childhood would be available to play on a modern screen!
 
So far, SEGA’s selection of Game Gear titles have been pretty solid, with only a handful of mediocre Sonic games ruining what is an otherwise fine selection. Yet, there are still some spectacular titles missing from the line-up, titles which should be given their due before SEGA calls it quits on the Virtual Console.

Continue Reading ➜

4 Comments

Rumor: Project Y screenshots leaked?

by

py1

2014 truly is the year of the SEGA console, as both the Dreamcast and the Genesis will be receiving new games from several talented indie developers. Indie developer WaterMelon Games, the creator of Pier Solar for SEGA Genesis and soon to be released on the Dreamcast, is currently at work on a new RPB (Beat ’em all, with elements of an RPG) entitled Project Y. Apparently, screens from the game have been leaked on Twitter. WaterMelon Games has yet to confirm whether or not these screens are real, but if they are, this game is looking to be a real beaut!

Continue Reading ➜

3 Comments

SEGA Tunes: Ecco The Tides of Time CD’s Motion E

by


I really wanted to feature a track from an Ecco game this week. I thought about featuring tracks from the Genesis or Dreamcast games, but I’d really like to save those for something else later in the year. So I’ve decided to go with something from the SEGA CD!

The Ecco series is renowned for its amazing, atmospheric soundtracks and the SEGA CD tracks from Spencer Nilsen are no exception. These tracks are absolutely beautiful and go so far as to sample sounds from actual aquatic animals to compliment the game’s atmosphere. The quality of this music should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Nilsen’s work on SEGA CD. He was the same man who produced Sonic CD’s spectacular soundtrack.

To make up for a few weeks of inactivity, I’ve decided to feature another track from the game below. It’s too short to warrant its own Tuesday Tune, but serves as a nice compliment to Motion E. It’s called “The Machine”. Check it out below the fold.

Continue Reading ➜

2 Comments