SEGA News Bits: Sonic Fan Event 2015 Recap

SEGA has held another Sonic Fan Event this year announcing a few surprises for Sonic fans, especially those that are huge fans of Sonic music. On this episode of the SEGA News Bits we recap the event, give you our thoughts on the announcements.

Like always if you like our recap make sure to like, share and subscribe to us on YouTube if you haven’t already. Thanks for the support!

SEGA News Bits: Our Favorite SEGA Games of 2015

Back for our end of the year discussion on what SEGA game was our favorite this year. Over all, it was a weak year for the diversity of games coming from SEGA, as they are rebuilding, but they did have some gems that we shall be talking about. Let us know what your favorite SEGA (or even Atlus) game of the has been for 2015 in the comments below.

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Contest: Win a Yakuza 5 t-shirt in celebration of the game’s release and the franchise’s 10th anniversary!

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SEGA’s much anticipated Yakuza 5 releases December 8th digitally for the Playstation 3 in the Americas and Europe! To celebrate, we’re teaming with SEGA to give away official Yakuza 5 t-shirts (contest open to the US and Canada). To enter, all you have to do is head on over to Twitter, follow SEGAbits, and retweet our contest tweet to spread the word of the game. Three winners will be randomly selected on Twitter! Not a Twitter user or want to double your chances? Below in the comments section, share your Yakuza franchise memories in celebration of the series 10th anniversary – which happens to December 8th, the same day as Yakuza 5‘s Western release! Two winners will be selected from the comments section based on quality of comment.

The contest ends on Monday, December 14th at 11:59PM CT and winners will be announced the following day. As mentioned, the contest is for the US and Canada only and five winners will be selected. You cannot win twice. Good luck to all who enter and don’t forget to buy Yakuza 5!

SEGA News Bits: New Valkyria Chronicles game trademarked?

Did SEGA just trademark a new Valkyria Chronicles game? If you recall we ran a story on SEGA’s trademark for ‘Valkyria of the Blue Revolution, which many have speculated to be SEGA trying to bring back the franchise. Me and Barry sit down and discuss what we think of the whole situation. Sit back, sit down and join the discussion in the comment section.

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The History of Sega Japan R&D, Part 3: Innovative Heights and the End of an Era

REUNIFICATION AND TWELVE INNOVATIVE R&D STUDIOS

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Playing up an executive managing director and joking about the state of the Dreamcast at the time, says a lot about Sega’s attitude at the time.

In Part 2 we covered Sega’s golden age, but great heights inevitably can bring great lows. Sega had lots of up and downs throughout their history. They also had great games, lots of them! But ultimately Sega did not make that much money from the Saturn. However, in the arcades they did absolute gangbusters. Sega needed to change their approach in regards to development and also their hardware. The solution was to make the Dreamcast and NAOMI arcade hardware the same and have all of the internal studios make games for it,in turn allowing them further grow and prosper. Twelve R&D studios in total were established, and the nine software studios were not split into arcade and console divisions – they made games for everything. Hisashi Suzuki and Yu Suzuki would manage the arcade business, with Hisashi putting in his final stretch at Sega before retirement.

Review: Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX (Nintendo 3DS)

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If you read last week’s preview, you’d know that I was feeling quite positive about what I had experienced in playing SEGA’s latest Nintendo 3DS title Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX. Now that I’ve had an additional week, I’ve experienced a bit more of what the game has to offer. Rhythm modes have ramped up the difficulty factor, I’ve been able to experience the game’s StreetPass/SpotPass functions, and it was even a certain vocaloid’s birthday. SO without further ado, let’s turn on the lights, grab a mic, and hit the stage for our review of Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX!

Hit Reset sharpens his skills in Wild Woody for the SEGA CD

This time on Hit Reset, we take a look at a long forgotten footnote in SEGA’s history, a mascot platformer by the name of Wild Woody. Barely remembered at its release and even less remembered now, Wild Woody is generally considered to be one of the worst platformers ever made during the era.

However, I see things just a little bit differently. Wild Woody has some things no other game ever had, for better or worse. So, if you wanna learn what in the hell this odd platformer is, or watch me defent a notoriously bad game, well, this is your shot, and trust me, i have quite a bit of help to do this…

Thanks to Joesph Kerska (the real, original voice of Woody), Bumblefoot (the game’s composer), and everyone else who helped make this video far better then it had any right to be.

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Swingin’ Report Show #75: Interview with Lisle Wilkerson – Shenmue II, Virtua Fighter and Crazy Taxi voice actress

We celebrate 75 episodes in style on this week’s Swingin’ Report Show podcast! Joining us for an interview is Lisle Wilkerson, best known to SEGA fans for her voice work on Shenmue II, Virtua Fighter and Crazy Taxi. Learn what it’s like growing up in Japan and recording for some of SEGA’s greatest Dreamcast and arcade titles. Lisle also tells us about her correspondence work and her acting work on Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation with Bill Murray.

Then, George and Barry discuss the recent news of SEGA of America’s restructuring, dissecting SEGA Sammy’s official document to figure out what exactly we can expect in the future from SEGA. So what are you doing still reading this? We have a special guest and big SEGA news! Click play and enjoy our 75th show!

Don’t forget to follow Lisle Wilkerson on Twitter and Facebook!

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SEGA Retrospective: Kicking off Virtua Fighter Week

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As SEGA-AM2 Month enters the final week, we thought it would be fitting to shine the spotlight on the developer’s longest running and most influential series – Virtua Fighter. One of SEGA-AM2’s defining traits is their ability to create “pure” gaming experiences. Looking at their catalog, they seem to have a penchant for taking a simple concept – be it fighting, racing, flying, or shooting – and translating it to a near-perfect 3D arcade experience. I hesitate to call SEGA-AM2’s games simulations, as gameplay is simple enough for any player and often AM2 titles have a bit of an elastic reality. Virtua Fighter didn’t have any gimmicks – there were no fatalities, weapons, adjustable bouncing breasts, or cutscenes. Players simply chose their fighter, each with their own defining style and moves, and fought. This why the term “pure” feels like the best way to describe their many games, and why the Virtua Fighter series is the purest fighting game franchise to ever exist.