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My Life with SEGA celebrates Halloween with Zombie Revenge for the Dreamcast

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‘Tis the season to be scary, SEGA fans! That’s why A.J. Rosa of My Life with SEGA is reviewing Zombie Revenge for the SEGA Dreamcast.

Zombie Revenge is a side story of the SEGA arcade smash, The House of the Dead. Point of fact, according to our wiki (SEGA Retro), the working title for Zombie Revenge was Blood Bullet: The House of the Dead Side Story…. Yeeeaaah, no.

Anyway, Zombie Revenge is a beat-’em-up/shooter, similar to Die Hard Arcade (Dynamite Deka). Gamers must punch, kick, shoot, slice and dice their way through the walking dead in order to stop a demented madman from wiping all of mankind off the face of the planet. So, how does this mash-and-bash stack up after 15 years? Turn down the lights and crank up the volume. It’s time to kill.

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SEGA Cinema Halloween Special: Sonic the Hedgehog Double Feature

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SEGA Cinema has risen from the dead with a spooktacular boogielicious Halloween Special! Okay, so it’s actually not scary at all. Barry and George are joined by Sonic Retro’s David the Lurker to watch two Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons featuring clowns, ghouls, sea monsters, and a half-man half-sponge who lives in the sea. No, it isn’t Spongebob.

First up is Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog‘s “Boogey-Mania”, which plays out like a cross between NiGHTS into Dreams and A Nightmare on Elm Street. And then, interrupting the Sonic cartoons are a compilation of cutscenes from the SEGA Saturn’s Deep Fear and Mr. Bones. Ending the special is the scariest thing of them all, an episode of Sonic Underground titled “The Deepest Fear” in which Sonic faces his fear of water. Don’t worry, he doesn’t drown and the story ends with an awful song. Enjoy the special, and Happy Halloween!

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SEGAbits at Sonic the Comic-Con 2014: The Write Up

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Today, that being Sunday 26th October 2014 where I am, York here in the UK saw a plethora of Sonic fans descend upon it for an event dedicated to a certain blue hedgehog: or more specifically, his comic book based endeavours.

I’m quite sure a lot of our readers are familiar with the work of Archie Comics, and their long-running series of Sonic comics; in fact, this was the first form of Sonic in print that I discovered, through the Sonic Mega Collection. However, those outside of the UK missed out on another important part of Sonic’s history: Egmont Fleetway’s Sonic the Comic. 

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Bayonetta 2 releases to Nintendo’s Wii U today in the United States, Europe and Australia!

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It’s been a long and rocky road, mainly filled with fans getting over the fact that Bayonetta‘s sequel is a Nintendo exclusive, but the day is finally here. Bayonetta 2 has officially released to the United States, Europe, and Australia! Available to purchase now, Bayonetta 2 has been kicking ass these last few weeks in regards to review scores. As much as I dislike throwing metacritic data around, the game currently has an impressive score of 91.

But you know what? Throw the Nintendo drama, sales, and review scores out the window. Point is, one of the greatest action games of all time just got a sequel and we’re all excited as hell to play it. Join in on the conversation with the SEGAbits community over in our dedicated Bayonetta 2 forum topic which is exclusively for discussing the game. No drama, just good ol’ gameplay talk. Of course, if you feel inclined to talk about drama, review scores, sales, and other topics, there’s a app thread for that.

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Sonic & SEGA Fan Jam 2014 Prices and Event Details are here!

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The wait is now over! Our Sonic & SEGA Fan Jam 2014 event prices and details are finally here! The prices for the event for non members of The Guild Hall will be $25 (recommended for those who live out of town from Savannah), $20 for Guild Hall members, and $5 for children under age 12 to experience the full extent of the Fan Jam event as we will have numerous of Sonic & SEGA titles playable along with special guests of the SEGA Community and SEGA fan films made by talented filmmakers.

We will also have tournaments based on the 3 featured games and cosplay contest for everyone to get a chance to win some awesome prizes such as signed copies of Sonic Boom by the producers at SEGA, Hatsune Miku Manga, and more! Sonic & SEGA Fan Jam 2014 will take place at The Guild Hall in Savannah, Ga on Saturday on November 22nd at 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. For more info on Fan Jam 2014, be sure to follow our event page here and The Guild Hall on Facebook. Hit the jump to see the cool stuff to be featured in Fan Jam 2014!

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My Life with SEGA both loves and fears Alien: Isolation for Playstation 3

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On the latest episode of My Life with SEGA, rather than stepping back in time, we’re going to check out the newest title from SEGA and The Creative Assembly – Alien: Isolation. Developed in-house and released last week to PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC, Alien: Isolation takes a different approach when it comes to what players have come to expect from Alien franchise video games. For starters, it’s not a first person shooter! Instead, The Creative Assembly have cooked up a first person survival horror game that is very much in line with the tone of the original Alien film directed by Ridley Scott. How does SEGA’s latest Alien outing fare? Check out the video to find out!

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SEGA Tunes: Wacky Races’ “Scarecrow Creek” and “Tombstone Pass” (SEGA Dreamcast)

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Today marks the 15th anniversary of SEGA’s Dreamcast console in Europe, and seeing as we’re in the midst of Halloween season, what better way to celebrate both than with some creepy music from a UK developed Dreamcast classic! Wacky Races is a kart racer based on the late 60s Hanna-Barbera cartoon of the same name. Developed by Infogrames Sheffield House, formerly known as Gremlin Interactive, Wacky Races could be seen as a precursor to Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. Sumo Digital, developer of the All-Stars Racing titles, was formed in 2003 by the former management of Infogrames Sheffield following its closure. Sumo Digital even used lessons learned in Wacky Races when developing their SEGA racing titles as revealed in a 2012 interview held by Sonic Retro with Executive Producer at Sumo Digital Steve Lycett:

Sonic Retro: The announcer is an element that people really loved or hated. I personally felt it was a welcome element to give the game some personality. What was the decision to include the announcer?

Steve Lycett: Wacky Races also featured an announcer type system that would call out for each specific character. The announcer came about for two reasons. Trav had seen SEGA Race TV and loved the concept of an announcer who commented the race, plus we wanted to make the player feel like there was more going off than they could see.

So you get this chatter that someone at the back is making a move up the field, or someone just had a really bad crash, and although it was happening and you couldn’t see it, it made it feel like it mattered. Plus… we’d done a similar thing a long time before making Wacky Races on the Dreamcast and PS2 in our previous guise as Gremlin/Infogrames Sheffield House. So we knew it could be made to work…!

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SEGAbits Plays Episode #4: Alien: Isolation

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SEGAbits Plays returns with a brand new game from SEGA and The Creative Assembly, Alien: Isolation! In this episode, George takes Barry into outer space where Amanda Ripley uses whatever she has at her disposal to duck, dodge, and fight a lone xenomorph. A killer alien isn’t the only enemy out there, as George and Barry encounter dangling electrical wires, annoying old bald men, and trigger happy humans.

Alien: Isolation is out now on PC, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel.

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SEGA in the Media: The Price is Right for a Sega-Vision in 1977!

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Way back in 2011, we featured an article on the Sega-Vision, a big screen projection TV sold to consumers in 1977. While a post I made at SEGA Memories detailed patent drawings from 1976, and our post in 2011 featured the commercial, today we have another bit from the Sega-Vision’s past! Courtesy of a reader named Matthew, I was linked to a YouTube upload of a full episode of The Price is Right taped on June 29, 1977, and guess what item appears? If you guessed the Sega-Vision, you’d be right – or is that the “Seega-Vision”? Unfortunately for our lucky contestant, she wasn’t so right. In fact, she was wrong and lost the item when it came to guessing the retail price. Thankfully, as SEGA fans we finally get to know the retail price of a Sega-Vision in 1977: $1,895.

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SEGAbits boosts to New York City for Sonic Boom 2014 – videos, photos, & impressions

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SEGA’s Sonic Boom event took place this past Saturday in New York, and SEGAbits was there! Before I run through the day’s events, I want to thank SEGA, all the special guests, and the attendees for making the whole event a memorable experience. I know it was a big deal when SEGA chose to host last year’s event in St. Louis, but I can only imagine that planning this year’s event in America’s most populated city from the other side of the country was a lot of hard work on the part of SEGA. Thankfully, the hard work paid off. Within the span of five hours, SEGA treated guests to gift bags, autograph signings, game demos, live music, and both scripted and unscripted entertainment – and despite a large turnout, there was room to walk about and enjoy just about everything the event had to offer.

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My Life with SEGA cranks up the Aerosmith and plays SEGA Saturn’s Revolution X

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Time to get back in the saddle, rockers, because the New Order Nation has declared war on everything we hold dear: rock music, movies, video games, sex and red meat….

Good lord, it sounds the “Moral America” in Escape from L.A.

Anyway, the oppressive New Order Nation, led by Head Mistress Helga, has abducted Aerosmith (no shit, folks). Now it is up to A.J. Rosa and Erica Winter to save 90’s pop culture. 1996 is gonna’ EXPLODE!

All kidding aside, this gimmicky arcade rail shooter was first released in 1994 and ported to several gaming consoles of the day, including the SEGA Genesis, SNES and PlayStation. While it claims it was a “#1 arcade smash hit”, Revolution X received a lukewarm to negative reception upon its release.

But how can this be?! It has AEROSMITH! There’s guns! There’s hot chicks in bikinis! There’s blood! How can this game suck?!

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SEGA Tunes: Space Channel 5’s Spaceport: Introducing Ulala and Mexican Flyer

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It’s only fitting that the final Tuesday Tunes for Dreamcast month be about one of the Dreamcast’s legendary rhythm titles. Tonight’s track? A bombastic, jazzy little tune from Space Channel 5,You got to love when that awesome saxophone solo at the 2:55 mark, too. This is a real swinging, sexy piece of jazz that’d be absolutely great to dance to even outside of the game. Spaceport: Introducing Ulala. You got to love when that saxophone solo starts playing at the minute mark, too. This is a real swinging, sexy piece of jazz that’d be absolutely great to dance to even outside of the game. Definitely a great song to introduce one of the coolest rhythm game characters out there.

What many of you might not know is that one of Space Channel 5’s most iconic tunes wasn’t even made for the game! It’s actually a remix of an awesome song from the 1966 spy thriller movie “The Thriller Memorandum” called Mexican Flyer. The song itself is performed by Ken Woodman & His Piccadilly Brass, and the version Space Channel 5 uses seem to be ripped straight from the movie.

I don’t know what possessed Tetsuya Mizuguchi and the good people from United Game Artists to go with this as one of their game’s headline songs, but I’m glad they did. We can always use more jazz in gaming soundtracks, especially these days! Check out the original Mexican Flyer, which was also in Space Channel 5, below the fold.

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Swingin’ Report Show #71: Phantasy Star Online with Susan Arendt & James Mielke

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Dreamcast Month comes to an end at SEGAbits with a special episode of the Swingin’ Report Show podcast in which we celebrate one of the most memorable Dreamcast games – Phantasy Star Online.

Joining Barry and George on this episode are two gaming industry greats! Taking a telepipe to the Pioneer 2 is Susan Arendt – Managing Editor of Joystiq.com, former Editor-In-Chief at The Escapist, and former contributor to GameShark, Shojo Beat Magazine, and Wired. And back from busting a blue rappy it’s James Mielke – Founder of BitSummit, former Editor-In-Chief of Electronic Gaming Monthly and 1UP.com, and former producer at Q Entertainment and Q-Games.

Join us for a special round table looking back on PSO, from pre-release hype, to launch, and memories of the many versions and episodic sequels. As a bonus, James reveals that he has an army of super soldiers and he shares some inside info on where Phantasy Star Online 2 is at in English translation and what may be holding up a Western release.

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Classic SEGA Ads: Shenmue! It’s so good, you’ll dream about it during sex!

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As the Dreamcast entered its second (and final) year on the US market, SEGA moved away from their awesome “inside the Dreamcast” ads and went back to a style somewhat more conventional. These later Dreamcast ads are reminiscent of some of the better Genesis era stuff, albeit they are typically cleverer and better written.

Here, we’ve got a man who’s clearly been playing too much Shenmue. I’ll admit this is a funny ad that conveys the immersion factor of the game pretty effectively, but at the same time I can’t help but think that this would have been a game better advertised as a dramatic, epic masterpiece than as a game you’ll be thinking about in bed.

There was an ad made in this vein…though I’m unsure if it ever aired on television. It’s a direct translation of the Japanese ad and a pretty epic piece of advertisement. It features a great vocal track called “Song of the Bay”, which was only ever featured on the Shenmue orchestral soundtrack. Check out this ad below the fold!

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