Author Archives: Nuckles87

Art of SEGA: Panzer Dragoon Zwei

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The Panzer Dragoon games have some of the best art SEGA has ever produced. With input from renowned artist Moebius, the world of Panzer Dragoon is one both alien and familiar. The world is epic in its scope and the unique creature designs manage to be horrific and beautiful at the same time. This art was found on the Panzer Dragoon website Will of the Ancients. You can find their art section here.

Hopefully, the art from this game will inspire anyone interested in participating in our art contest!

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Art of SEGA: House of the Dead III

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House of the Dead isn’t exactly the most beautiful game series, but it still required a substantial amount of concept art in order to determine the design of the protagonists, enemies, and game play scenarios. Below is a load of concept art, provided by our sister site Website of the Dead. As usual, we won’t be posting everything they have, so be sure to check out their database here!
Also, remember to submit something to our art contest!

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Art of SEGA: NiGHTS into Dreams

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In order to inspire prospective participants in our re-launched art contest, we’ll be running a featured centered around SEGA art throughout the contest! We’ll be starting off with one of SEGA’s most artistically amazing games of all time, NiGHTS into Dreams. We’ll be featuring a sampling of the concept art you can currently find on NiGHTS into Dreams.com. If the art below interests you, I recommend checking them out, as they are a great repository of all things NiGHTS!

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Announcing the SEGAbits Season of Colors art contest!

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How would you like to win some fabulous SEGA merchandise, much of which will never be released to the public? I am happy to announce that now you can, and all you have to do is participate in a little art contest to express your SEGA love. If you think you can draw, shoot a good video, or even if you just fancy yourself a good writer, all you have to do is create a piece of SEGA art and send it into segabitscontest at gmail dot com. From there we will pick our favorite piece of art! Of course, since art is subjective, we will also have five runner up prizes.

The grand prize will consist of:

A set of Valkyria Chronicles 2 pins, a set of Jet Set Radio pins, 2 different Castle of Illusion pins, the original Valkyria Chronicles art book, the Eyes of Bayonetta art book and DVD, the original Jet Set Radio Future soundtrack, the Jet Set Radio soundtrack, a commission from Sonic comic artist Tracy Yardley.

We will also be offering five runner up prizes consisting of all the pins listed above. The contest will be ending November 26th. Unlike Summer of Art, don’t count on any extensions.

You can find some more information about this contest (as well as what happened to the Summer of Art contest) below.

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Nintendo Direct: Mario & Sonic getting an online mode, Sonic to be in Smash Bros

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Some Sonic news came out of today’s Nintendo Direct! First, and to the surprise of no one, Sonic will be in the new Smash Bros! Finally, I will be able to re-enact the awesome Sonic and Mega Man battle from the Archie crossover!

To somewhat greater surprise, Mario & Sonic at the Sochi Winter Olympics will have an online mode! The online mode will encompass four events, including a dream event that combines snowboarding, bobsledding and skiing. Players will be able to win “points” for their home country, which will be showcased in a worldwide leaderboard. Nintendo will also be offering a special version of the game bundled with a light blue Wii remote. Mario & Sonic also just launched its website, which you can find here.

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Yakuza creator talks Ishin, Vita cross-play, smart phone development, testing the waters on Wii U, & localization

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At the Tokyo Game Show, Edge had a chance to interview Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi. They talked about everything from the upcoming Yakuza Ishin’s size to smart phone development! Please go over to Edge to check out the full interview, though we’ll be telling you about the more news worthy quotes here.

When asked about the size of Ishin, Nagoshi compared it favorably to Kenzan, saying:

“It will be a bit smaller than our recent games, but a lot bigger than the Kyoto in Kenzan. Also, the map itself might not seem large but there will be a lot of rooms inside the buildings that you can enter, so the total will still be many times bigger.”

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SEGA reveals new 2D Fighter: Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax

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Earlier this year, we reported that SEGA would be teaming up with Japanese light novel publisher Dengeki Bunko on several projects in celebration of the novel publisher’s 20th anniversary. This celebration was kicked off with the announcement of the “SEGA Hard Girls” novel series earlier this year. Today, the next collaboration between the two companies has been announced: Dengeki Bunko Fight Climax.

DBFC will be a 2D fighting game that crosses over DB’s most popular characters, along with some of SEGA’s cast. At the moment, the only characters confirmed for the game are Asuna and Leafa from “Sword Art Online and Shana and Wilhelmina from “Shakugan no Shana”. No SEGA characters have been confirmed, though Valkyria Chronicles has been mentioned.

At the moment, a platform and release date for the game hasn’t been confirmed, but more details should be revealed when the game is shown again at the Dengeki Bunko Autumn Festival on October 6th.

We’ll be reaching out to SEGA regarding chances of localization, so stay tuned for that. Given the relative obscurity of many of Dengeki Bunko’s franchises, combined with the fact that these licenses are spread across several different licensors in America, it is unlikely this game will be heading west. It was this same issue that kept the Jump Superstars crossover series from heading west, despite it containing a variety of popular characters including Naruto and DBZ’s Goku. On the other hand, some of Dengeki Bunko’s franchises have found some popularity among America’s anime fans. The most popular among them, Sword Art Online, currently airs on Adult Swim’s Toonami block. So, if the rights can be sorted out, localization may not be completely out of the question. Just don’t hold your breath.

You can check out some footage for the game here. You can check out more screenshots below.

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Phantasy Star Online 2 still coming West

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Some of you guys may have caught the rumor from TSSZ News that Phantasy Star Online 2 was unlikely to come west, citing an unnamed source. Curious, we at SEGAbits decided to try and get an answer straight from the source, so we e-mailed Kellie Parker over at SEGA and this was what she had to say:

Originally slated for an early 2013 launch, SEGA can officially confirm that PS02 has been delayed. We don’t have any specifics but will update everyone as soon as there are more details to share.

There’s nothing vague about this statement: PSO2 is still coming, but a date has not been decided. This is more or less just reiterating what SEGA already said months ago. For those who’ve been worried by reports from SEGA-Addicts and TSSZ indicating otherwise, this should put their minds at ease.

This wouldn’t be the first time SEGA went hush-hush on a delayed project. Both Rhythm Thief and Anarchy Reigns received the silent treatment in 2012 shortly after SEGA’s restructuring, leading many to believe the localization of both projects had been canceled, despite confirmation from employees within SEGA that both games were still coming. SEGA has also demonstrated that they have no issue simply telling fans a game isn’t coming, as they demonstrated earlier today when they confirmed NOVA wasn’t coming west.

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Currently no plans for Phantasy Star Nova in the West

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If you were looking forward to playing Phantasy Star NOVA in English, you may be out of luck. The website SEGA-Addicts just reached out to Kellie Parker for a statement regarding PSN’s status in the West and this is what she had to say:

There are currently no plans to release Phantasy Star Nova in the Western market. Should this change, we will ensure the information is shared as soon as possible.

It’s disappointing to hear that SEGA currently has “no plans” to bring Nova west. The game will be the first Phantasy Star game since the Genesis titles to primarily focus on single player. Provided the game is as fun as it looks, it’s a real shame it might not be coming our way.

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SEGA Tunes: Soul Calibur’s Light and Darkness (Soul Mix)

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It’s impossible to talk about the Dreamcast without eventually talking about Soul Calibur. Still arguably one of the best 3D fighting games ever made, the original Soul Calibur was absolutely groundbreaking in its day both in its spectacular next generation visuals and its supremely fluid and accessible game play. On top of all of this, the game had a presentation that was surprisingly grandiose for its time. While many of its contemporaries either tried to play themselves off as silly, over-the-top, or ridiculous, Soul Calibur presented itself with dignity. It was not just a fighter, it was “the stage of history!” You will not find a kick boxing kangaroos, bouncy boob physics, or gory fatalities here: only fighters battling their way toward their ultimate destiny.

This attitude is reflected in the game’s spectacular soundtrack. The game is filled to the brim with beautiful orchestrated themes meant to compliment the diverse characters and locations in the game. Back in its day, this soundtrack helped give the game a special epic quality that other fighters lacked. I confess, I do find the soundtrack to be a little dated by modern standards: these tracks were clearly produced on a budget with a limited orchestra, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still sound damn good. For your benefit, I’ve decided to feature the far superior “Soul Mix” version of the game’s epic theme song. You can check out the original track below.

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SEGA Tunes: Samba de Amigo’s Samba de Janeiro

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In Samba de Amigo, every day is a dance party, with and endless parade of singing, shaking and Latin music. Few songs in the game embody the spirit of Samba’s visuals as well as Samba de Janeiro does. This is what a wild party sounds like and it’s always a joy to shake maracas to. This carefree party atmosphere also makes Samba de Amigo one of SEGA’s quintessential summer games.

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SEGA Tunes: OutRun 2’s Splash Wave

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Nothing screams summer fun like driving a Ferrari along the coast of some random tropical paradise, with a pretty girl at your side and rocking guitar music filling the air. Outrun 2, having all of these things, is pretty much SEGA’s definitive summer game. Splash Wave is one of my favorite tunes in the game because it perfectly matches the atmosphere Outrun 2. It starts out fast and frantic but quickly slows down with a lazier, more relaxing beat. As fast and frantic as Outrun 2’s game play can be, you are still a dude driving a Ferrari through some of the most picturesque scenery in gaming and Splash Wave aides that feeling beautifully by alternating between the exciting synth and the slower, lazier guitar.

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SEGA Tunes: “Door into Summer” from Knuckles Chaotix

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I’ve always thought of SEGA as the video game company of the summer. Many of their most memorable games start off in bright and sunny tropical paradises with endless blue skies. Stuff like Daytona USA, After Burner, Out Run, NiGHTS into Dreams, Sonic the Hedgehog and Ristar invoke the spirit of summer like few other games do.

I’ll be featuring a few of “songs of the summer” over the next month or so. Hope you enjoy them! Figured I’d start with something I’ve wanted to put up for a little while: Knuckles Chaotix’s “Door into Summer”. It not only has an appropriate name, but also has a nice, memorable tune.

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