SEGA Tunes Kenji Eno Tribute: Snow

Kenji Eno, a composer who created soundtracks for a few SEGA published games, as well as his own original albums, passed away last month. I confess that I’ve never played any of the games he was involved in, so I’m afraid I am rather unfamiliar with his work. If it is anything like the above, then it seems like I’ve been missing out on some of the most beautiful and atmospheric soundtracks in SEGA’s library.

Expect to see more Kenji Eno tracks featured here as I continue to peruse his work. Until then, here’s another song from D2, “Morning Theme”. Be back next week when we finish off the SEGAbits staff spotlight with an entry from Kori Maru!

Video Review: Aliens: Colonial Marines


Welcome to our review of Aliens: Colonial Marines. See that YouTube video embedded above? It is our very first SEGAbits Video Review! We’re trying to sort out a way to get these video reviews put up for all upcoming games. Seeing as how this is our first one, there is always room to improve. So positive criticism is definitely welcomed. Let us know what you think in the comments section. After the break, an old school written review.

My Life with SEGA visits Funny World and deflates Balloon Boy

In this “classic” episode of My Life with SEGA, I experience my first ever unlicensed video game for the SEGA Genesis.

No, it’s not a Bible game. Instead, it’s a two-for-one deal aimed at preschoolers, called Funny World & Balloon Boy. Yeah, this is obviously a quality title that can rival Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Phantasy Star IV in sheer brilliance…. right?

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My Life with SEGA suffers head Troma while playing Toxic Crusaders

In this “classic” episode of My Life with SEGA, I revisit the Toxic Crusaders for the SEGA Genesis. Hey, the Toxic Crusaders? Yeah, I’m talking about the video game based on the animated series, which was adapted from Troma’s hyper-violent action/horror film franchise featuring everyone’s favorite environmentally-conscious super hero; the Toxic Avenger!

A video game based on a failed cartoon based on an hyper-violent movie series…. yeah, this has to be awesome!

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My Life with SEGA returns from Yokosuka with a very special Shenmue review

Shenmue. Yu Suzuki’s masterpiece has become something of legend. It completely redifined a genre and showed gamers around the world that Dreamcast was more than just a pretty face….

More than a decade later, the game retains a rabid cult following and fans cry out for a continuation to this incredible series. But is Shenmue truly worthy of all this praise? Should this title be revered? Watch and learn, my dear viewers.

The SEGAbits 3rd anniversary contest ENDS TODAY – win prizes like a SEGA Genesis, Genesis games and brand new My Life With SEGA DVD’s! All the details can be found here.

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SEGA Tunes SEGAbits Staff Spotlight: Ben, aka “nSega54”

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And so, on a quiet night, the streetlamps frosty amidst the falling snow, the locals warm and cozy inside their apartments up above the city streets, the town of Dobuita continues to sleep….

Shenmue has been lying dormant for an unspeakably long time, with not even a hint of a resolution in sight. Money, enough to have gone a long way towards funding a 3rd installment, was instead carelessly tossed off to to a Texas-based developer named Gearbox Software rather than into the hands of Yu Suzuki. After all these years, is it finally time to accept that SEGA will never allow their fanbase to continue the series that holds so much of their nostalgic gaming memories?

I’d given up hope long ago that Shenmue III would be released. But that doesn’t mean I can’t still appreciate all the great memories it offered, memories which, even over a decade later, still linger. This week’s Tuesday Tunes will highlight a couple of my favorite songs from the Shenmue games’ legendary soundtracks, so sit back and take a listen.

Review: Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (3DS)

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Released to home consoles in November of last year, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed ended up being one of the best games SEGA released in 2012. Marketing for the game was dead-on in proclaiming “It’s Not Just Racing. It’s Racing Transformed!”, as the game was both a huge step up from the previous game and a contender for the best character kart racer around. As the months went on, other versions of the game released with a Vita version in December and a PC version released just last month. The latest, and possibly final version of the game to be released, is for the 3DS. Despite being the most underpowered of the platforms, I was anxious to see how SEGA and Sumo were able to translate the console title to Nintendo’s handheld.

Swingin’ Report Show #40: Aliens Gone Wild

This week on the show George and Barry the Nomad sit down with the Sonic Talk duo Nuckles87 and Shigs. Listen to us talk about the new SEGA laptops, whine about Aliens: Colonial Marines and criticize the Playstation 4 announcement. Like every podcast, you can’t get us to shut up about Shenmue.

[MP3 Download] [Archive]

SEGA Saturn game designer Kenji Eno died yesterday

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Kenji Eno was always very anti-Sony and pro-SEGA back in the day. So much so that his franchises turned out to be exclusive and the man would go on a media rampage to put down Sony when he could. He is known for his horror SEGA Saturn titles like Enemy Zero and D (which later got a sequel on Dreamcast).

“I felt betrayed when Sony was treating me like that, so when I heard that the Sega vice president was a very interesting guy, he and I met and created this whole plot. My original conditions to make the game exclusive for Saturn involved my earlier story about supplying 1,000 Saturns for the blind people, and also to have Sega’s president appear onstage, personally, for the event. That was the original plot, and that was what was going to happen until the last minute, but he had a board meeting at Sega, and they were like, “OK, you’re actually appearing?” Like, Sega is a big, successful company, and a high-up management-level guy in that kind of company appearing in a situation like that isn’t good, so everybody stopped him. So he appeared in a video rather than in person.” – Kenji Eno tells 1up in a exclusive interview back in 2008.

Cause of death is said to be heart failure brought on by hypertension. Its funny how ahead of his time he was, one of his conditions to make his games exclusive to Saturn was for SEGA to give a 1,000 Saturn’s to blind people. He even created a game for them called ‘Real Sounds: Kaze No Regret‘ for the Saturn that was later re-released on Dreamcast.