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Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X officially announced for PSVita and PS4 for 2016

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Here it is folks! SEGA has officially announced Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X for Playstation Vita and Playstation 4! The teaser site for the game still appears to be counting down, but regardless we now know Miku will be back on Sony hardware in 2016.

The trailer takes a look back on the last nine Hatsune Miku Project Diva games, and confirms various musicians involved with the project; as well as our first glimpse at the Playstation Vita version of the game! It’s unknown if there’s a PS4 trailer inbound but we’ll keep our eyes peeled. As for release dates, the Playstation Vita version is planned for March 2016, whilst the Playstation 4 edition is targeting Fall 2016.

It’s certainly a very exciting time to be a Miku fan though, what with Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX also being released on 3DS in a couple of weeks! It’s been stated SEGA will be bringing along a demo of the the game to the Miku Magical Mirai 2015 event, so we may get more information.

Stay tuned for this one folks!

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SEGA Tunes: Jamming out to the Gunstar Heroes OST

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SEGATUNESGunstarHeroes
So as most of you guys know we are celebrating ‘The Year of Developers‘, one of the focused developers this month is Treasure and since their cult classic ‘Gunstar Heroes‘ just got a re-release on the Nintendo 3DS we decided to have a look at the games soundtrack. Honestly, most people will be quick to give you hundreds of reasons why you should play the game, but almost none of them will mention the fantastic soundtrack.

Let’s look at some of my favorite tracks and then you can tell me some of your favorite tracks (or tracks you hated) in the comment section.

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

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Hatsune Miku Project Mirai DX

Thanks to an advance review copy, I’ve been having fun with Miku for close to two weeks now. While this is merely a preview and not a full-on review of the game (which will post on September 4th before the game releases), I did want to give some early impressions from the point of view of a Hatsune Miku newbie.

That’s right, despite contributing to SEGA fan sites since Miku made her SEGA debut in 2009, I have not laid hands on a Miku game until I received my download code for Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX. Prior to this, I reported the occasional press release, posted trailers when they hit, and sat on the sidelines while fellow fans either bemoaned the franchise or celebrated it. Up until now, I knew about the vocaloid craze, I knew that that the SEGA developed games were rhythm based, and I loved the Domino’s Japan campaign as evidenced by my earlier reference to it. But outside of that? Miku was a mystery. But not anymore. So now that I’ve finally had a chance to play a Hatsune Miku game, what do I think of it so far and what do I think the average SEGA fan will enjoy? Let’s find out!

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Review: 3D Gunstar Heroes (Nintendo 3DS)

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Gunstar Heroes is another SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive classic that found massive success and introduced most SEGA fans to Treasure games. The studio was made up of ex-Konami employees and this anime style run and gun shooter really shows that you can make a Japanese looking game work for a Western audience . While the game is fine and dandy on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, how is the Nintendo 3DS version? Well, let’s find out.

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Round Table: Can Shenmue 3 live up to the hype?

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Shenmue3Hype
Its literally been 14 years since Shenmue 2 made its debut and left many unanswered questions. Over the years the Shenmue fanbase has grown since more and more people have gotten a chance to try the franchise, it has reached some level of mysticism. Having this rabid fanbase, all with individual reasons as to why they like the Shenmue franchise waiting for the next evolutionary step can be daunting to a development team.

Can Ys NET and Yu Suzuki make a game that will live up to the hype? That’s this topic on this week’s Round Table.

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Developer Retrospective: The winning combination of SEGA and Compile

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As summer winds down, we thought it would be the ideal time to shift the focus of our Year of the Developers feature to third party Japanese developers who have worked with SEGA in the past to bring us countless classics. We are, of course, referring to the legendary developers Compile, Treasure and Westone. While these three developers existed on their own outside of SEGA, their collaborations with our favorite company utilizing beloved SEGA home console and arcade hardware went a long way in cementing their statuses as some of the best third party developers of the 80s and 90s.

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Round Table: Our thoughts on SEGA Games’ new CEO Haruki Satomi

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SatomiLove

It has been a rough path being a SEGA fan, while I do feel like they have made some great games in the past decade, its easy to see that they have also made their fair share of mistakes. A few weeks ago the newly elected Sega Games Co. CEO and Vice President, Haruki Satomi had a interview with Famitsu where he discussed how he felt some games SEGA released in the last decade abused fan’s trust towards the brand and how they are learning from Atlus in the West.

Of course the internet was an uproar, some even stating that SEGA hasn’t released a good game in a decade. Regardless of how you feel about SEGA, its always good for a company to take feedback and be straight when talking about the company. So this week’s round table we discuss what we thought of Mr. Satomi’s interview.

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Review: 3D Streets of Rage 2 (Nintendo 3DS)

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3DStreetsOfRageReview
If you owned a SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive in the early 90’s, you are well aware of what Streets of Rage series was all about, its SEGA’s answer to (the then) Nintendo console exclusive franchise Final Fight (though it did get a SEGA CD entry). Its been well over a decade since the franchise debuted on SEGA’s 16-bit hardware, which is quite a long time.

Now as an adult can the game bring back those nostalgic memories that shaped my gaming habits or is Streets of Rage 2 just one of those games that I liked as a kid but aged badly? Or even worse, a bad port? Let’s find out

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This is Saturn burns rubber with VATLVA

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This is Saturn comes back, engines blazing and rubber freshly burnt.

This time, we’re looking at a relatively obscure title in the Saturn’s back catalogue, Ancient’s VATLVA. This game boasts artwork by Hitoshi Ariga (responsible for various manga, particularly of the Mega Man variety), and a soundtrack by none other than Yuzo Koshiro! But is the game actually any good? Watch and find out on this episode of This is Saturn!

As mentioned in the video, you can grab a shirt to support the show by clicking here!

This is Saturn is a video series created by British teenager Liam ‘TrackerTD’ Ashcroft, aiming to give an alternative and in-depth look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of SEGA Saturn gaming, all whilst maintaining a somewhat strong accent.

Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel.

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Round Table: How much did you pledge to Shenmue 3?

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It is hard to grasp that it has been over 14 years since Shenmue 2 came out and left us all with that cliffhanger in the end of the game. There has been a strong fan reaction for a third installment and Yu Suzuki stood at Playstation’s E3 stage to finally give fans what they have been asking for. Ys NET launched their Kickstarter campaign which broke funding records, cementing that fans are willing to give their hard earn cash in order to see a third installment of their favorite franchise. In this week’s Round Table we talk about how much we funded and why. You can let us know how much you funded in the comments below.

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Swingin’ Report Show #82: Interview with Brian Silva of Visual Concepts, Midway, Accolade and more!

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Video game designer and voice actor Brain Silva joins us on our latest episode to discuss his work on Bubsy and Bubsy II, Floigan Bros., Hydro Thunder, and H2Overdrive as well as many other games created during his time at Accolade, Visual Concepts, Midway, Blizzard Entertainment and Specular Interactive. Brian also discusses several unreleased games including Hydro Thunder 2 for arcades, Congo: The Secret of Zinj for Genesis and SNES, and Floigan Bros. for the original Playstation!

Brian currently works at Specular Interactive, having helped create the arcade titles H2Overdrive (Hydro Thunder‘s spiritual successor), Project HADES, Dirty Drivin’, and Batman. Learn more about Specular Interactive by checking out their website.

Also, make sure to check out Brian’s website where you’ll find some excellent design docs for Floigan Bros. and Crank the Weasel.

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Review: Tembo the Badass Elephant (PC)

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SEGA and Game Freak Inc (Pokemon series, Pulseman) partner up once more to bring us a brand new platformer starring Tembo the Badass Elephant. I have been itching to get my hands on this game since SEGA first showed it earlier this year and now that I have beaten it was all my excitement worth it? Is Tembo the Badass Elephant a good enough game to earn the honor of having ‘badass’ in its title?

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Swingin’ Report Show #81: Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Countdown

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Join George and Barry as they count down the final hour of the record breaking Shenmue 3 Kickstarter campaign! It has been as wild month, from the game’s E3 Sony stage announcement, to the ups and downs of Awesome Japan’s handling of the campaign. Hear our thoughts on how the Kickstarter was managed, the new tiers, and the recently revealed details of what we can expect in the finished game. Also in this episode, the recent comments from SEGA Games president on the company regaining the trust of gamers.

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