SEGA has created some highly popular and cult classic series of games that have stuck with people over the years. While most of you guys already know that Sonic the Hedgehog is celebrating his big 25th Anniversary this year, many other games get ignored because they aren’t as relevant as they used to be. Today we will list those mostly ignored video game franchises we all love. Did your favorite game make our list?
The physical releases of localized Japanese SEGA titles keep on coming! In this SEGA News Bits, George and Barry react to the news of Valkyria Chronicles Remastered coming to the Americas and Europe and discuss how this could affect the future of the series. Valkyria Chronicles Remastered is due out Spring 2016, priced at priced at $29.99/CA$44.99 in special launch edition case for the Americas. The game is also releasing to Europe both physically and digitally, with physical release details to come.
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As we near 25 years of Sonic the Hedgehog, I wanted to kick off a video series looking back at an aspect of the franchise that has always been a favorite of mine – food promotions! From McDonald’s to Topps to Carl’s Jr and beyond, SEGA has teamed their flagship franchise with some of the greatest, and at times weirdest, food companies. In this first installment, I take a look back at the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 McDonald’s Happy Meal promotion which ran worldwide in 1994 and 1995. Everything from the commercials to the in-store displays is covered, and I even clear up some misconceptions about that whole Tails recall situation and figure out just what that yellow Tails ball was. Special thanks to The Gagaman for additional information.
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Yesterday, SEGA of America announced a new physical release for the Nintendo 3DS: SEGA 3D Classics Collection. The compilation, due out April 26th for $29.99/CA$44.99, features seven 3D Classics, including two new titles for the West as well as an additional two bonus Master System games. Listen to our reaction to this announcement as we discuss whether this is worth your money as well as our thoughts on the included games.
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Refresh your podcast playlists, because the SEGAbits Swingin’ Report Show podcast is BACK! On this episode George and Barry are joined by Fabien Demeulenaere, Director of Game Atelier, the French game studio working on the upcoming Monster Boy And The Cursed Kingdom. If that title sounds familiar, it is because Monster Boy is both a revival and sequel in the Wonder Boy/Monster World franchise, due out later this year to Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC platforms.
In this exclusive first podcast interview for Fabien, he walks us though how the game transformed from a fan project to an official title in the franchise and talks about how the game both celebrates the franchise’s past and moves it into modern gaming. If you ever played a Wonder Boy or Monster World game on the Master System, Genesis, Mega Drive – or any other platform for that matter – this interview is a must listen.
Follow Monster Boy’s development by checking out their official site.
If you have been on this blog and read my writing over the years you would know that I’m a huge fan of SEGA’s Yakuza franchise and was really pleased to hear that they decided to bring over Yakuza 5 even though it’s been out since 2012 in Japan. After years of contemplating whether or not to just import the game and play with an online guide, I decided it was best to wait. Now that Yakuza 5 has an official English release, was the wait worth it?
SEGA is getting ready for a whole new year, while 2015 saw a limited release of titles and had the company going through ANOTHER restructure; this year we will see some of the bigger budget SEGA games finally hitting the retail market. On this episode of SEGA News Bits, we talk about what YOU can expect from SEGA in 2016!
During the episode I talk about our article we wrote about why SEGA refusing to localize Phantasy Star Online 2 is a bad sign, you can read that here. If you like what you just saw please don’t forget to like, share and like always subscribe. We appreciate your support.
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.
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Update: So after a bit of internet sleuthing and comments from those who have dealt with SEGA home console conspiracy artists in the past, all of this very well may be the work of the infamous Zach Morris. Mr. Morris, or whatever his name is, has been up to this sort of nonsense since 2003.
Because people often just read headlines and run to their local GameStop to have a in-depth chat with the guy at the desk to talk about how SEGA is totally making a new console and it is going to be dubbed the Dreamcast 2, I thought I’d present a short opinion piece on the Project Dream team and their plans to get SEGA to develop a Dreamcast 2. To be quite honest, after having read the Project Dream team’s plans and having heard about the project with one of their members for the past month I was ready to just ignore the whole thing. But given a few news sites are enthusiastically running the story and no doubt more will pick it up and run with it, I thought it best that SEGAbits said something about it. I should make note that this is not a news piece, it is an opinion piece.
Not all games can be winners, we know that. But even though this year was light on SEGA releases, none of the games released were terrible. Now the SEGAbits staff sits and nitpicks what title was the most disappointing for them this year. Trust us, it was harder to pick a disappointing game then it was to pick a favorite!
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While the heyday of the original Star Wars trilogy video games in the 70s and 80s belonged to Atari, during the 90s and early 2000s our favorite arcade game maker (that’s SEGA, if you’re wondering) internally developed a three games that blew the Atari arcade experiences out of the water. The arcade games I am referring to are Star Wars Arcade (by SEGA AM3 and LucasArts), Star Wars Trilogy Arcade (by SEGA AM8 and LucasArts), and Star Wars Racer Arcade (by Sega Rosso). These games were exciting for a number of reasons. For starters, you had some of the best SEGA arcade talent behind the titles working with some of the best arcade technology of the time. [Learn more about SEGA’s arcade development in the 90s]
I know old Atari arcade games have their charm, but when you’re dealing with a franchise like Star Wars that leans so much on visuals, sound and music I’d much prefer to know what I’m looking at rather than trying to figure out what tiny wireframes are trying to convey. Personally I found Star Wars Racer Arcade to be the pinnacle of Star Wars arcade experiences, as it felt 1:1 to the film in every aspect. But today, for the latest entry in our SEGA Tunes series, I wanted to look back at the Star Wars arcade experience that kicked off the SEGA trilogy of arcade games, the aptly named Star Wars Arcade.
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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2015 sure has been a great year for indie SEGA Dreamcast games! We’ve seen shmups, odd puzzlers, vikings, and now we’re seeing an RPG by the name of Pier Solar and the Great Architects. While Pier Solar released way back in 2010 to the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, the recent Dreamcast port features improved graphics, new scenarios, and special extras that take advantage of the Dreamcast’s unique capabilities (VMU mini-games!). As seen in my recent unboxing, the game’s packaging is beautiful. Now, in this latest episode of SEGA News Bits, I talk with George about my first impressions of the game.
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The long awaited Dreamcast release of Pier Solar has started to arrive in mailboxes, and I was so impressed with the packaging that I knew it had to get the unboxing video treatment. This isn’t the first SEGA console the game has released to, back in 2010 the game hit the Mega Drive/Genesis and I shared an unboxing of the reprint edition. The Dreamcast version I present to you today is a first edition in the Japanese style packaging, other versions include US and PAL, but seeing as how most indie Dreamcast releases emulate the Japanese packaging, I went with this style and don’t regret it in the slightest. A lot of effort went into this release, and it really makes modern game unboxings look like crap by comparison. Seriously, who wants to see somebody opening a Wii U game where all you get is a disc and a slip of paper telling you to read the digital manual.
You can buy Pier Solar on several platforms. The Dreamcast and Mega Drive/Genesis versions are sold out at the moment, but more may be available in the future. Check out the official site for more details. Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel.
The executive team, Hideki Okamura (Left), Hisao Oguchi (Middle) and Takayuki Kawagoe (Right).
In 2005, Sega was back in the black in all areas for the first time in a long time. The Sega Sammy structure was completed, and the next generation home consoles were ahead. Like in the formation of twelve new R&D studios in 1998, executive management had a reset. Long time executives Hideki Sato and Hisashi Suzuki retired from Sega, after their thirty – or even in Suzuki’s case – forty years of service.
As mentioned in Part 3, Hisao Oguchi would atain the highest executive position which he held until 2008 where he received even wider responsibilities as Chief Creative Officer of Sega Sammy.
Then there is Masano Maeda, who joined in 1991. Madea was responsible for building a new Western management team that made crucial partnerships and buyouts of Western companies, like Creative Assembly, Sports Interactive and Secret Level On a side note: the amount of games developed for Xbox 360 amount to roughly forty games, and on PC to about sixty games. On the Dreamcast, the amount comes to fourteen, and old PC releases amount to sixteen.