Senile Team interview with Roel Van Mastbergen

Senile Team started off in 2003 with the creation of the freeware game Beats of Rage, a popular tribute to Streets of Rage. In addition to being an excellent game itself, its  game engine has been used to recreate classic arcade games for Dreamcast such as Golden Axe and the Final Fight trilogy.

In 2009, the team made their commercial debut with Rush Rush Rally Racing. Today Roel Van Mastbergen sits down and talks with us about GamesCom and their upcoming game Age of the Beast.

[For the Interview we partnered with DC Emulation and Dreamcast-Scene]

How Dreamcast changed the video game world


On September 9th, 1999 SEGA let loose its white dream machine upon the United States. This new console was called the Dreamcast and was advertised as a highly advance console. It even carried the slogan “It’s thinking”.

It has been 11 years since the day it hit store shelves in North America and we now see how it effected the games industry.

The All Day Dreamcast Party Begins NOW! [party is over]

As this is a day that I’m sure will be filled with articles involving the Dreamcast, I’ll cut right to the chase: In celebration of 9/9, the Dreamcast’s 11th Birthday, both Gagaman of SEGA Memories fame and myself will be hosting back to back streaming Dreamcast parties! His is already in progress and will go right up to when my party begins, so check him out at the link below and then be sure to jump over to mine at 12am-11pm EST (US), 6pm-5am GMT (UK). Make sure to join in on the chat, because what is a party without that?

Dreamroom 2010 UK:

Watch live streaming video from gagaman at livestream.com

Dreamroom 2010 USA:
Watch live video from Dreamroom on Justin.tv

Upcoming Yakuza PS3 game gets a name [update]


SEGA has been teasing the new Yakuza game for awhile, now they have added a subtitle to the name. It is going to be called “Ryu ga Gotoku Of the End” or for us “Yakuza of the End“.

The name was let out of the bag by Famitsu, who had it written in their new Express Section of their magazine. The magazine only had the new logo, looking like a typical Yakuza logo should. Shocking part is that there is no numbers, we here have been saying it would be called Yakuza 5. SEGA should release the final logo today, since their site is set to update. It will be posted here. (UPDATE: Logo below)

[Source: AndriaSang]

LOGO!

Unannounced Phantasy Star Online project in development


Seems that all the puzzle pieces are falling into place. Satoshi Sakai has recently teased that there is more than just Phantasy Star Portable 2: Infinity in development for PSO’s 10th year anniversary. The tease comes from Japanese magazine Dengkei Playstation.

“(Infinity) not the only PSO 10th anniversary project.”

Given that SEGA has renewed PSO2.jp domain, Sakai has teased about a new console online Phantasy Star game before, I’m pretty sure its coming. If it does come, I hope PC, PS3 and 360 gamers can play together. Please?

[Thanks: Shadiwulf]

SEGA teasing Black Rock Shooter RPG?

If you don’t know what Black Rock Shooter is, it sounds like some Western game, but its very Japanese. Black Rock Shooter is a anime OVA, that began life as a fan made Vocaloid song. Above is the teaser from the site. It translates to:

She becomes RPG

2032 A.D.

Mankind was destroyed.

Before she wakes up.

She becomes RPG

Maybe this is SEGA trying their luck with girly character anime games? They did have success with Miku PSP game and have that K-on game coming out. Could this be by Red Entertainment?

[Source: Teaser Site]
[Thanks: Sieghardt]

Sonic Colors – Act 1 Planet Wisp complete playthrough [update]

Kotaku had SEGA America community manager Aaron Webber play through the first act of Planet Wisp for them at PAX. This video is a change of pace from other Sonic Colors gameplay videos as of recently. RubyEclipse is an expert at this game. As you can see from the gameplay footage, Sonic Colors looks a lot like Sonic Unleashed.

[Source: Kotaku AU]

Edit: Here is another video, it is much clearer in quality but the player isn’t as good. Hit the jump to see it.

Sonic Colours Multiplayer hands on

Here is a video showing off the brand new multiplayer game play in Sonic Colours for the Wii. You will unlock multiplayer levels as you collect hidden red rings in the single player zones.

Multiplayer is a Co-op affair with where you use wisp powers to help each other get though the level. There is also a hint of competitiveness to keep things exciting.

I personally hope they also bring back a VS racing mode like in the classics or Sonic Adventure 2:Battle.

Conduit 2 won’t be released this year


Conduit 2 has been delayed to the first quarter of 2011. When the game does come out though, it will support the classic controller and classic controller pro, if you aren’t into the whole motion controller thing.

We already know that High Voltage Studios has fired some of its staff and the remaining people are working on this game, seems that they fired them too soon and could have used those helping hands!

[Source: Nintendojo]

SEGAbits Monthly August 2010 issue

Alright, so I sort of intended to do this monthly but I was on vacation for the July issue. I apologize. So here is August’s round up of stories. Sadly, this month is a bit shallow with orginal content, we are going to deliver tons of original stuff for the September round up.

Yakuza 4 Box Art Revealed!

Pretty damn good right? While Yakuza 1 and 2 had pretty good box art, Sega got a lot of flack for the rather cheap looking Yakuza 3 cover art.

However rejoice, Yakuza 4 has one a very striking and suitable box art, in fact I would go as far as to say it is the best Western cover art for the series so far.

Note the subliminal messages all over the cover promoting ‘sexy girls’ and sex in general, nice!

Yakuza 4 announcement trailer

Here is the Yakuza 4 announcement trailer, a bit late, since it was announced awhile back. Regardless, its coming out Spring 2011, for those of you who want to skip to the end.

I noticed that in the Western trailers, SEGA is afraid to let the characters talk, because they assume all Americans are afraid of Japanese speak. Well, we are, thank you SEGA.