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Sonic Lost World and Mario & Sonic 2014 announced – Wii U and 3DS exclusives

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During today’s Nintendo Direct, the latest Sonic title was announced: Sonic Lost World. Iwata stated that Nintendo and SEGA have entered into a “worldwide partnership in the Sonic franchise”, and as such, Sonic Lost World will be exclusive to Wii U and 3DS owners. No date was revealed, but November is a safe bet.

Update: It was also announced that another title in the Mario & Sonic Olympic Games series is in the works. Check out a video after the break.

Update 2: The Japanese SEGA site is up, and while it doesn’t offer much, it does confirm a Fall 2013 release date as well as the title being styled as Sonic Lost World.

Update 3: According to The Wall Street Journal SEGA and Nintendo have entered an exclusivity agreement, stating that the next three Sonic titles will be Nintendo exclusives:

SEGA(R) of America Inc. and SEGA(R) Europe Ltd. today announced details of an exclusive partnership with Nintendo of America Inc. and Nintendo of Europe GmbH for the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. The new agreement will make Nintendo consoles the number one destination for Sonic gaming over the next three titles with more details of the individual games being revealed in the coming weeks.

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My Life with SEGA boldly plays Star Trek: TNG and Starfleet Academy

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With Star Trek Into Darkness hitting theatres May 17, I felt like taking a walk down memory lane with Star Trek: The Next Generation – Echoes from the Past for SEGA Genesis, and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – Starship Bridge Simulator for 32X….

Good God, why must these titles be so damn long?!

Anyway, these weren’t just games I picked up later as I started collecting hard-core. I grew up with ’em. Echoes from the Past was the first Star Trek game I ever played, while Starfleet Academy was one of many reasons I wanted the notorious mushroom of failure. It’s been almost 20 years since the docked on SEGA. Are these echoes from my past worth hearing, or has my enjoyment faded into a dim memory?

Let’s see what’s out there. Engage, fucker! Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel!

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SEGA Tunes: TrickStyle

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Back before Criterion was developing the critically-acclaimed Burnout series along with, more recently, their successful Need for Speed reboots, they released a little-known Dreamcast launch title called TrickStyle. It was a racer featuring hoveboards in futuristic versions of New York, London, and Tokyo, and though the racing physics engine and trick systems felt rough, what was unquestionable was Criterion’s artistry. The game’s art still sticks out as vibrant and incredibly detailed even to this day, and its soundtrack set the scene and gave the game a very cool feel.

This tune played on a racetrack inspired by New York City’s Central Park. It’s both ambient and also fairly melodic. Other music in the game is a bit more intense, but this one fit perfectly for a quieter race as you hovered through Central Park under the moon’s glow.

For another (very different) tune from TrickStyle, hit the jump.

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SEGA in the Media: Parks and Rec peeks inside Andy and April’s toolbox

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SEGA in the Media is back! Did you know that a certain SEGA Genesis classic made an appearance in the 2011 Halloween episode of NBC’s Parks and Recreation? You probably did, given this clip is almost two years old. In the episode, characters Andy and April throw a Halloween party, and Ron Swanson occupies himself by fixing up their house. Upon requesting their toolbox, Ron is handed a plastic bag filled with various items including… well, why don’t you watch it?

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Zombie MAYhem – My Life with SEGA enters The House of the Dead

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Zombie MAYhem comes to a close with my review of The House of the Dead for SEGA Saturn.

The original was a smash in arcades way back in ’97. It spawned four sequels and two atrocious cinematic adaptations. While the arcade game was met with praise, the Saturn port was slammed pretty hard upon release. Game Revolution gave it ‘C’ and called it a “sloppy port” and warned “don’t go in this house”.

But how can this be? The Saturn gave us some stellar ports, like Virtua Fighter 2 and the Virtua Cop. Why is this? Watch and learn. Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel!

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Sonic Talk #19: Ask Ian Part Duex

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It’s been 13 episodes, but Sonic and Mega Man comic scribe Ian Flynn is back for another interview! We’ve got over two hours of questions from you, the fans! We’ll be taking about World’s Collide, the future of the books, his team up with Dawn Best on Sylvanna and his work on the superhero comic, The New Crusaders.Also, check out my written interview with Ian over at the Sonic Stadium.

For those waiting for the MP3/iTunes version, that will be up later this week.

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SEGA Tunes: Sonic Adventure’s Run Through the Speed Highway

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You know what had an awesome soundtrack? Sonic Adventure. Even if you hate the cheesy rock tunes of Crush40, it is hard to deny that Adventure’s soundtrack was by and large pretty awesome. Some of the game’s best tracks were those that went well with the blistering pace of Sonic’s levels. Case in point, “Run Through the Speed Highway”, the first theme of Speed Highway. Enjoy!

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SEGA Memories: Wacky Worlds

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These days, gamers can be quite adamant about the legitimacy of video games as an art form. I certainly wouldn’t disagree: a case can be made that making great video games requires just as much creativity as any book or movie. But I think what often gets lost in this pursuit to prove that the video game is a form of artistic expression is the fact that video games are also, essentially, toys. Especially games from the 80s and 90s, and Wacky Worlds was one of my favorite toys from the 90s.

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Round Table: Which ex-SEGA developers do you miss the most?

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Most people follow around sport teams and their players, here at SEGAbits we follow SEGA studios and developers. There have been tons of employees and developers that SEGA have fired or left throughout its long history, as is expected with every big publisher. But sometimes there is that developer that was behind one of your favorite games, when he leaves the company it really tugs at the heart strings. So in this week’s round table we will be discussing which ex-SEGA developers we miss the most!

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Zombie MAYhem – My Life with SEGA’s postmortem on Corpse Killer

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It’s time for some zombie MAYhem! In this first installment, I’m reviewing one of the first zombie games I ever played, as well as the first SEGA CD 32X title I purchased. This foul beast could only be unleashed by Digital Pictures, the same bastards that brought us a game like no other: Night Trap.

Yes, I’m talking about Corpse Killer. This monstrosity was released in 1994 for SEGA CD, though I missed it completely. Once I saw the 32X version, I couldn’t resist. I wanted to see a game that used both the power of SEGA CD and 32X.

Anyway, click ‘PLAY’, brah! We need to get our zombie poison down up in ‘dis bitch! Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel!

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SEGA Memories: Evolution 2 – A larger and better adventure

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‘Sup y’all? Welcome to another episode of Monday Memories! Last week I discussed Evolution: The World of Sacred Device, Sting’s RPG for the Dreamcast launch. As a kid who was new to Japanese RPGs, I found it to be a fun and memorable adventure; though to Japanese RPG fans at the time, it was probably more along the lines of, “that lame dungeon crawler those Dreamcast owners are stuck with while we play Final Fantasy VIII.”

The Dreamcast would of course go on to see many far more developed Japanese RPGs by the end of its lifespan, but Evolution 2: Far Off Promise is one that I’d say deserves the “you tried your best” award by stepping up to the plate and offering some big improvements over its predecessor. As a little kid, my mind was blown.

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Round Table: Who would you want to see reboot Shining Force franchise?

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 Shining Force franchise was one of my favorites back in the day when Camelot Software was in charge of it in the 90’s, now-a-days SEGA has given other developers chances to reboot the franchise and the games have been received poorly by critics (and fans). Regardless of this, I still think that Shining Force franchise has the chance to comeback and do pretty well. This week on the round table we will discuss which developers should reboot Shining Force and release a classic game that this franchise deserves!

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