This week we have a inimate podcast with just George and Barry. That’s right, we are going to get you all settled in by talking about SEGA restructuring, Anarchy Reigns and much more. Give the podcast a listen and tell us what you think of the new shorter format. Too short? Just right? Leave a comment.
Note: The YouTube version will be going up early tomorrow. I wanted to get it ready in time, but didn’t have enough time. Sorry!
SEGA’s license pact with Marvel was a prime example of how the game industry tends to treat movie licensed properties these days. They sell the license to a game company to promote the movie. Game company turns around and uses their B and C (and sometimes D) teams to work on said games and hope they can come up with at least a half decent effort. Then the game is released just before the movie hits theaters whether it’s ready to go or not. Many times, they fail even to get to that half-decent point.
But this doesn’t mean that all movie licensed games have to stink. Sometimes, you get the right development team with the right goal in mind and you get something of quality. Sometimes, a game is almost crap, but you can see a little bit of gold in that turd. But sometimes, crap is just crap no matter what angle you look at it. What better example of this is there than with these five Marvel Studios movie licensed games released by SEGA. And what better time to “reminisce” over these games than with today’s movie release of The Avengers in American theaters. Read on to see which one I find is the best quality to which one I think is total, unredeemable crap.
Well, the hedgehog is out of the bag. Yes, there will be a Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing 2, dubbed “Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed”. Back in January 2011, following the release of the first game, I ran through five things an All-Stars Racing sequel must have. Now that the sequel has been announced, let’s take a look back at what we wished for, and what SEGA and Sumo Digital now promises to deliver. You’d be surprised by how well SEGA listened to fans on this one.
I’ve been struggling to figure out just what tune to feature this week. Panzer Dragoon’s Flight seemed so fitting! After all, it was used in the All Stars Racing demo Jason and I got to try out. Unfortunately, Flight had already been featured during Panzer Dragoon month. In the end there could only be one choice, another classic SEGA song from Saturn era.
Ladies and gentleman, Richard Jacques’ Super Sonic Racing! Sonic R is known for its cheesy lyrics and energetic singer, so much so that the PC version actually had an option that allowed players to turn them off. Frankly, I can’t imagine playing Sonic R without this music. It turned what was otherwise a mediocre racer with poor controls into one of the most memorable spin-offs in the mascot’s history. Fans don’t remember this game for the tracks or the characters, they remember it for its over the top soundtrack!
I sit down with Joe Neate, Producer for Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed, to have a talk with him about the game. Will All Stars be usable online? Will there be more online modes? Will there be a larger number of franchises represented? Find that out and more in the video interview above.
This isn’t the entire story, though. For a more Sonic centric interview, check out Nuckles87’s interview over at Sonic Stadium!
In this special episode of Sonic Talk, Shigs and Nuckles87 are joined by Sven Joscylene AKA Dreadnux (Sonic Stadium, Spong) to talk all things All-Star. All three of us have gotten our hands on the game and will be discussing it at length along with what our choices would be for racers and courses. Tell us your favorite Sega franchise you would like to see in the game by hitting the comment section.
Sega has become synonymous with San Francisco. Station Square and the City Escape level from Sonic Adventure are loosely based on it as well as the first Crazy Taxi game. Even Sega of America itself has its offices based in the city by the bay. So it’s only natural that here is where they show off their latest game in the All-Star/Superstar series that includes both the blue-blur and B.D. Joe.
Just off the 101 freeway in good ‘ol San Fran is a Go-Kart tracing track which for one Tuesday afternoon, was taken over by Sega. In a meeting lounge, me and Nux (check out his preview at TSS) and other press were presented with the first preview of two tracks from Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed. (Sega, if you’re going to shorten the title, wouldn’t “Sonic and Sega Racing Transformed” have been better? You’re cutting out your own name!) Anyway, onto the preview!
Today, Sega has officially announced that Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed is coming to PS3, 360, Vita, 3DS and other consoles this fall. The “Transformed” subtitle refers to the fact that your vehicle transforms into other modes depending on what kind of track you’re racing onto. This includes the traditional road track, a water/river track that changes your vehicles into a watercraft, or the not-so friendly skies where your vehicle turns into a plane for some air combat racing. There are 16 brand new and unique courses to race on and several classic Sega IP’s will make their first appearance in this game. This goes from a glorious Panzer Dragoon track to Vyse from Skies of Arcadia as a new racer.
Both me and Nuckles87 got to check out the game last week in San Fransisco. You can check his hands-on over at Sonic Stadium or just stay here and check out my own preview. On top of that, we got me, Nuckles87 and Sven Joscylene from Sonic Stadium and Spong on a brand-new Sonic Talk later today for a one-hour special all about the game AND a video interview with Sumo Digital’s own Joe Neat tomorrow. Do we love you guys or what?! Not enough? Click the link to check out screenshots of the game! Our coverage is gonna set your heart racing!
There have been a lot of talks since SEGA announced that Sonic 4: Episode 2 wouldn’t be headed for the Nintendo Wii. Many long time Sonic fans got angry, mostly because they only own Wiis. I know some of you might grunt at the thought of only owning a Nintendo Wii, but that’s their choice.
Not to mention that the first title appeared on the Wiiware service, got pretty good scores on the service. So why do you think SEGA pulled it and why do I think they should reconsider putting it back on the Wii?
Let me just start by saying that this has to be one of the coolest fucking songs on the planet. Relax, savor the smooth bass and let the glorious techno overwhelm all that you know.
Jet Set Radio Future’s free spirit and somewhat darker energy is captured perfectly in Hideki Naganuma’s ode to chaos and all that is groovy. The track kicks off with a bang and never looks back, the simplistic but sensible vocals (“I felt like a bulldozer…trying to catch a butterfly”) telling us all that we need to know as the music forcefully grabs hold and drags us along with it at about 90 miles per hour.
To be sure, the original Jet Set Radio had its share of fast and exciting songs, but little compares to the sheer energy that the fastest songs in its sequel conjured up, this one among them. The funny thing is that, for me anyway, Jet Set Radio Future was by far the slower of the two games as far as its pacing was concerned, probably its biggest flaw, but the music was more than willing to pick up the slack.
To this day I go back and forth about which game had the better soundtrack. Though oftentimes I lean in favor of the original’s, it’s tracks like this one that cause my resolve to waver, just a little.
For another epic track from Jet Set Radio Future, Continue Reading to understand the Concept of Love.
This week on Sonic Talk we got a very special guest as Archie Comic writer Ian Flynn is in the house. In case you don’t know, Ian Flynn is the writer on Several Archie books including The New Crusaders, Mega-Man, Sonic Universe and of course, Sonic the Hedgehog!
We’ve got almost 3 hours with main man behind the Sonic comics. Mainly, we’re talking all things ArchieSonic and other books, but we also talk about the latest Sonic Scuttlebutt, Sonic Universe #39 and give Sonic ’06 a thrashing with some interesting info provided by Ian. Go get some coffee cuz it’s gonna be a long one!
The world of independent Dreamcast games has been quiet since the release of NG:DEV.TEAM’s Fast Striker. Established indie Dreamcast games publisher RedSpotGames is looking to break that silence with the upcoming shoot ’em up Sturmwind. While Sturmwind IS another shoot ’em up aka shmup, a popular genre in the Dreamcast indie scene, don’t let that fact dissuade you from checking out the title when it releases this year. In this week’s Weekly Five we’ll run through the reasons why Sturmwind may be worth your time (and money).
Most of you are probably seeing this and talking about how we sold out to the social media trends. But lets be honest, wouldn’t you want to have random SEGA nostalgia pictures daily on your phone? I know most people use Instagram to show off what they are eating or what they are wearing, not us. We are sharing some interesting SEGA pictures. You love interesting SEGA pictures, don’t you?
Instagram is only an app right now, that means no web interface. So how do you add us? Easy, hit the search button and type in SEGAbits. Easy! Instagram is available on both Android and iOS devices.
[Got some pretty interesting SEGA pictures? Send them our way!]
I realize it’s not wise to tell our readers such a thing, but I thought I’d just get that out of the way now. I don’t care if SEGA’s not on the box, nor that it wasn’t at their booth. This is a SEGA game, if not in reality then in spirit, and I’m writing about it. Ladies and gentleman, Crimson Dragon is Panzer Dragoon 5.
I confess, I haven’t been following this game too closely. I’ve seen far too many Kinect titles I’ve thought had potential crash and burn and I wasn’t about to let myself get my hopes up for a new “Panzer Dragoon”. Upon playing it though, I have to say…Crimson Dragon is the best Kinect game I’ve experienced.
Sorry for how late this episode is and we have no extra guest this week. But we’ll make up for that next week with IAN FLYNN!! For now, it’s just me and Nux talkin’ all things Sonic.
This week, we talk about the Sonic 2 HD fiasco, the reboot rumor, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic 4-2 Avatar items and of course, Sonic 4 Episode Metal. In comic talk we’ll discuss Sonic Universe #38 along with a little of #39, the weepfest that is Sonic #235 and I’ll tell you EXACTLY who the supposed “traitor” is! (I’m using quotation marks cuz technically, there is no traitor.) If I’m wrong, Ian Flynn can shave my head at the San Diego Comic-Con! All this and our game topic of the week is the awesome Sonic Triple Trouble!
If you have a question for Ian Flynn leave it in our comment section by Thursday morning and it may make it on the air.
