Author Archives: Nuckles87

SEGAbits Summer of Art/Season of Colors Contest: the Silver and Bronze winners

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Oboro in snow

There can only be one winner, but that doesn’t mean we can’t also have stuff for the people who got second and third place. Above is one of the many entries sent into us by SEGA Nerd’s Kopke, aka Manuel Garcia Melgar. This awesome depiction of Hotsuma from SEGA’s criminally underappreciated Shinobi PS2 was one of several entries that nearly won him the grand prize. Here’s the one that came the closest. Please click it to see it in its full resolution glory!

Check below the fold for Manuel Garcia’s silver winning entry, as well as our bronze winner, Chase Svent!

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The SEGAbits Summer of Art/Season of Colors Contest winner is….

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Sean Tagg’s Lego Outrun cabinet!

We received some awesome entries over the course of this contest, but this one was not only among the first we received, by the entry that consistently remained in the top three even as other entries slowly began to trickle in. In the end, this piece gets the gold medal because it hits all of the right notes: it is not just passionate, but also creative. When I think of art, I don’t typically think of LEGO, but it’s impossible to deny that this is not only something that is most definitely art. This took a lot of time and patience to put together. Sean had to find all of the right pieces and place them in all of the right places, and that takes some dedication.

Congratulations, Sean! We did get some other excellent entries, including one that very nearly took the Grand Prize. We’ll be making announcements regarding second and third place winners, as well as the two additional runner ups, within the next few days.

Check out this contest announcement if you want to find out what he won!

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SEGA Tunes: Fear (Rez Edit)

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The onset of a new year  will inevitably brings new experiences. Though a healthy amount of fear for new experiences never hurts, do not let it control you. Embrace the experiences of the coming year and embrace the challenges that you will face. Do not fear failure, because nothing is worse then simply refusing to try.

And if you are having an especially bad day, play a Dreamcast!

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Art contest winners announcement coming soon

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I hate making an announcement of an announcement, but we’ve been getting some questions regarding this so I wanted to make a front page announcement.

This was originally supposed to happen last weekend, but I got caught up in other things and didn’t have time to choose a winner. We got some great entries after I last checked the submissions so I had to give some additional thought to who the winner will be. I will be going over all of the submissions and I will hopefully be able to announce a winner very soon. Though to answer some questions:

Any entries we got before today are valid for the contest and submissions meant for other things are also valid. See you soon with an announcement!

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Arcade Review: After Burner Climax

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After Burner Climax Header

As a SEGA fan, my loyalty has been tested to the breaking point at times. Let’s face it, SEGA has had to make some tough decisions and has made some terrible games over the years, especially over the last fifteen. In 2007 SEGA had lost much of my loyalty after turning out a rash of bad games including the infamously awful Sonic the Hedgehog. Then one day, I walked into a local arcade, played After Burner Climax for the first time and all was well.

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3D Streets of Rage and 3D Shinobi III now available on the eShop

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Today, the last of M2’s 3D SEGA ports are now available on the 3DS eShop. Both Shinobi 3: Return of the Ninja Master and Streets of Rage can now be had for $5.99 each, completed with new 3D visuals, a classic “SD TV” viewing mode and a level select. If you’re interested in playing some of SEGA’s best games from the 16-bit era, check them out!

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SEGA Tunes: Panzer Dragoon Orta’s Eternal Glacies

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The goal of any good video game soundtrack is to compliment the atmosphere and improve the immersion. As far as I’m concerned, few soundtracks accomplish this better then Panzer Dragoon Orta’s. Given that it’s Christmas time, it seems only fitting that we feature a track from a snow level, Orta’s lonely, beautiful Eternal Glacies. Much like the level itself, the track is beautiful, subdued and majestic.

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SEGA in the Media: Opa-Opa & Zillion

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Before Sonic, before ToeJam & Earl , before Joe Musashi and even a few months before Alex Kidd, SEGA’s mascot was a sentient little spaceship called Opa-Opa, hero of the Fantasy Zone. Though there’s some debate regarding who was the “true” mascot before Sonic came around, I personally put myself in Opa-Opa’s camp. Why? Well, aside from cameoing in a bunch of SEGA games from the ‘80s, a few of which you can read about here, Opa-Opa was also a supporting character in an anime SEGA partially funded, Zillion.

Zillion is a 1987 sci-fi anime from Tatsunoku Productions. It centers around White Knight J.J. and his fellow White Knights Apple and Champ as they defend the earth colony Maris from the evil Nozas, an alien race intent on wiping humans off the face of the planet. The White Knights battle the forces of evil with their signature weapon, the Zillion Weapon System, a Master System light gun (literally, complete with the cord) capable of destroying the Nozas, who are otherwise invulnerable to human weaponry.

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SEGA Tunes: Super Fantasy Zone’s Water Melody

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Praising SEGA arcade games for their spectacular music is kind of like applauding a cat for being furry: it’s just something you come to expect. So really, the superb quality of Fantasy Zone’s soundtrack should not shock anybody. It’s happy, laid back and a joy to listen to.

The definitive Fantasy Zone soundtrack is probably the music from Super Fantasy Zone, the obscure Genesis-only sequel to the series. A lot of people tend to insult the Mega Drive’s sound capabilities, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the machine was capable of some sick tunes, SFZ being a prime example. Though not technically an arcade game, SFZ’s soundtrack has all the trappings of a classic SEGA arcade OST, making it worth a listen to any SEGA music connoisseur.

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More 3D SEGA classics in production for 3DS

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Video game developer M2 has just confirmed via Twitter that they are working on a second series of 3D SEGA classics for the 3DS. M2 went on to confirm that there is a good chance these games will head west if they sell well enough in Japan. M2’s first series of 3D titles is currently being released weekly on Nintendo’s US and European eShops, with 3D Space Harrier and Super Hang-On already available on the service for $6 each.

What kind of games would you like to see?

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SEGA trademarks Shenmue III UPDATE: HOAX

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segabits shenmue

UPDATE: It has been brought to our attention that this copyright is almost certainly fake. Apparently, the dead giveaway is the lack of an application reference number. We’ve contacted the company listed on the trademark to confirm this, but in the mean time we’d advice you now take this news with a moon sized grain of salt. It should be noted that a fake copyright for Fallout 4 was registered with this same organization on November 14th. The registration has since been removed. We’ll be keeping an eye on this registration and we’ll bring you updates when we can, but now this trademark should be considered a hoax. To check out the original story, go below the fold. To get an overview of the rash of trademark hoaxes and how they’ve been happening, check out this CVG article.

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SEGA Tunes: Mario & Sonic remixes Super Mario Land World 1-1

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It’s not every day we get to feature a Mario track on Tuesday Tunes. But given the love affair between Sonic and the Big N lately, it seems only fitting to celebrate the recent release of multiple Sonic and Mario titles with a soundtrack that combines the musical stylings of both.

Though this is a remix of a Mario song, it currently feels like something SEGA would produce. The structure of the song is more complicated then what you would typically find in a Mario track, which tend to be more simplistic, though no less fine to the ear, as the Mario Galaxy OST can surely attest to. This is an excellent remix of a track I could barely remember before hand. If this is indicative of Mario & Sonic 2014’s overall soundtrack, I will certainly be seeking out the rest of the OST in the future.

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Art of SEGA: Valkyria Chronicles

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The end of our art contest is fast approaching, so it’s time we inspired you with some of SEGA’s more recent work!

In a generation dominated by brown grim-dark games, Valkyria Chronicles was a game that dared to look drastically different. When other games were focusing on trying to look realistic, Valkyria Chronicles was utilizing visuals inspired by canvas paintings, comics and storybook, to produce a beautifully fantastical world.

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Sony’s Third Production Team receiving many requests for Yakuza, Shenmue

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A few months ago, Sony announced the formation of the Third Party Productions team, a new group within Sony’s third party relations meant to facilitate the localization or porting of content between regions or consoles. The first project announced by this team was the Vita port of Borderlands 2, which is a pretty major feat to accomplish in and of itself.

The team has since asked fans to send in requests for the kinds of games they’d like to see on their Playstation console of choice, and according to Sony’s Adam Boyes their top two choices were none other then SEGA’s Yakuza and Shenmue franchises. For what this means, please check out the full quote below the fold. For the full interview, please visit Kotaku.

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