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SEGA Tunes Holiday Special: Featuring Sakura Wars and Shenmue!

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How do you know something is big in Japan? When the above exists. I’m sure many of you have heard of Sakura Wars, SEGA’s series of strategy/dating simulator games that until recently never made it outside of Japan, but did you know that the franchise has also been used as the source material for a variety of stage shows dating all the way back to 1997?

The above video is from a Christmas stage show that the cast of the games performed back in 1998. In it, you can see many of the core cast members of the original Sakura Wars being portrayed by their voice actors as they sing a variety of Christmas tunes. Its hard to believe that there was once a SEGA franchise big enough to warrant this amount of production.

So pour yourself some eggnog, sit back and enjoy some pleasant Christmas-y SEGA tunes. Given that this is Christmas, we can’t exactly just give you one song now can we? Check below the fold for more Christmas music from both Sakura Taisen and Shenmue.

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SEGA CD Month – My Life With SEGA goes to FMV Hell in Wirehead

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SEGA CD month continues, and misery loves company in the latest episode of My Life With SEGA.

If you love FMV games, as well as watching Mickey Mac suffer, this one’s for you. This is the full-motion shit-fest only Tom Zito of Digital Pictures could produce. That’s right, I’m talkin’ about Wirehead. Written and directed by James Riley (Night Trap), this game takes FMV gaming to a whole new plateau. This is the 2-Man Scramble that nobody wanted to experience. Especially Mickey Mac, because he’s yet to speak to me since.

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Indie Dreamcast games roundup – Sturmwind, Redux, NEO XYX & Pier Solar

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As the year draws to a close, as a Dreamcast fan I always like to look back on the indie Dreamcast titles that were released and announced in 2012. While the start of the 2012 looked great for indie Dreamcast fans, it ended up being a less than stellar year. Sturmwind, published by redspotgames and developed by Duranik, was meant to have a release in the second quarter of 2011. But manufacturing delays lead to a November 11th, 2011 release date. However, according to redspotgames ,the release date had been postposed yet again “due to difficulties with the CD factory”. As such, the release date changed to some time in 2012. Now, just a few weeks before 2013, the game has yet to be released and the latest update from redspotgames is that they “decided to work on the game even more. So the weapon system and the HUD has been improved.” A better game is always great, but in my opinion a year and a half delay is uncalled for. Those who put money down for a pre-order are sure to be angry at redspotgames by this point. Which is a shame, given their past high quality efforts including the awesome Wind & Water Puzzle Battles and Rush Rush Rally Racing.

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Happy Holidays from SEGAbits – deck the halls with SEGA ornaments!

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Happy holidays from all of us at SEGAbits! We’re truly thankful the have such an awesome community, and look forward to what 2013 will bring. As a special holiday treat, we’ve made some SEGA themed ornaments for fans to print, cut out, and hang on their Christmas tree, or whatever plants they may have sitting about their house. Directions: Below are the two pages in thumbnail form. Open both in new tabs, hit print, glue them back to back and cut out the four ornaments. Using a hole puncher, or the pointy end of an ornament hook, make a hole in the top of the ornament. Then, if you did it correctly, you’ll have four cool SEGA themed ornaments. It’s that easy!

Again, a very happy holidays and all the best in 2013 and beyond.

– The SEGAbits Team

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SEGA CD Month – My Life With SEGA ventures into Soul Star

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SEGA CD month heats up with Soul Star; the pseudo 3D space shooter set thousands of light-years away….

“Across a yawning gulf of space and time, the six planets of the Soul Star system perform a peaceful celestial dance around their youthful suns, unaware of the horror soon to come. A horror in the dreaded shape of the Myrkoids, an alien species older than the stars themselves, with a unified mind far colder than the space between those stars. The Myrkoids – killers of worlds – descend upon unsuspecting star systems, sucking them dry and draining every planet of its internal energies. They leave nothing in their savage wake but empty husks drifting lifelessly in space.”

C’mon, tell me you’re not curious?

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SEGA Tunes: Sonic Generations’ Casino Night Modern Remix

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The Sonic series has played host to a wide variety of musical styles over the years, ranging from the old school chiptunes of the Genesis era to today’s modern cheese rock from bands like Crush 40. Never, however, have I ever thought to associate Sonic the Hedgehog with swing music. That is, until Sonic Generations was released.

Anyone who’s been paying close attention to Tuesday Tunes may know I have an affection for old school American genres like jazz and swing. So, when I first heard this track play in Sonic Generations 3DS, I was blown away. This is a really great piece of swing, serving as the perfect backdrop for the remake of Sonic’s first casino stage. Easily my favorite remix to come out of the Sonic Generations games.

Of course, it helps that the original track from Sonic 2 was also pretty kick ass. Nice example of what the Genesis could do musically in the right hands. Go ahead and see for yourself below the fold!

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SEGA CD Month – My Life With SEGA investigates Rise of the Dragon

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32X month is behind us, and SEGA CD month has begun! A.J. kicks things off with a fun, and affordable, SEGA CD classic!

It’s Sega CD month, gang! First up, we’re playing Rise of the Dragon. This is the graphic adventure game that is often compared to another Sega CD classic, Snatcher. While it does bare resemblance, thanks in large part to the cyberpunk influences, this isn’t some knock-off; Rise of the Dragon has it’s own identity. So strap in, ladies and germs….

The dragon is rising.

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SEGA Tunes All-Stars: Burning Rangers’ Angels With Burning Hearts

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The inclusion of a Burning Rangers course is easily one of the biggest surprises in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. In addition to a surprisingly dynamic stage that has you racing through an underwater water park that is slowly falling apart and filling with water over the course of the race, you are also treated to an excellent remix of the game’s main theme; Angels with Burning Hearts, courtesy of Richard Jacques.

This week I’ve decided to go with the Japanese version of the track, given that I’m sure you’ve all heard the English lyrics ad nauseam while racing through the course. Keep an ear out for the awesome saxophone solo at the three minute mark! Check out Richard Jacques’ remix of this track after the break.

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SEGA Five: Why you should own a 32X

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As November comes to a close, so does our 32X month. Our My Life With SEGA video series has featured the ill-fated add-on in weekly video reviews, and I thought it would be fitting to end 32X month with an extra special SEGA Five. I’ll admit it, I was a 32X hater until not too long ago. When the add-on released in 1994 I didn’t quite understand what it was. The Genesis already took cartridges, and CD’s thanks to an add-on, so why was yet another add-on being introduced? To be fair to myself, I was only 10 years old at the time, and before I completely understood what SEGA was trying to do with the 32X, the add-on was dead. A few years later I began to understand what the 32X was, and thought it was a complete joke.

A giant plastic mushroom that only offered up an additional 36 titles to Americans, and even then a bulk of the games were not worth owning? HA! Much later, the Angry Video Game Nerd tore the 32X to shreds and finished it off with an arrow. Again, I laughed. But soon, I became acquainted with sites like the SEGA Junkyard blogs (see our SEGA Network links in the right column to check those out) and in turn began to appreciate aspects of SEGA that I originally only thought negatively of or outright ignored. In October 2009, I finally gave in and bought a 32X used (with all cords, amazingly) off ebay for $30. It was one of the best SEGA purchases I ever made, and I’ll tell you why.

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32X Month – My Life With SEGA scrapes his knuckles in Chaotix

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32X month is coming to a close, so what better way to finish things than with the 32X’s most popular exclusive: Knuckles’ Chaotix!

Yes, it’s the 32X exclusive that left many gamers confused and somewhat disappointed. How could this be? After the the one-two punch of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, both of which were a tremendous success for Sega’s 16-bit juggernaut, I find it hard to believe this game met with such a lukewarm response….

Was it deserving? Let us a break out that ‘shroom one more time before we put 32X month to bed.

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SEGA Tunes All Stars: Space Harrier Main Theme

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http://youtu.be/TuU_6NpHPkY

This track acts as the perfect book end for a near perfect SEGA tribute. Much like After Burner, Space Harrier is an arcade classic with an awesome soundtrack. Are you feeling down today? Do you need a little pick me up? No worries, because I’ve brought an extended version of this song today. If you’re feeling blue, just sit back for 15 minutes and let this little tune wisk you away to a far off place with dragons and giant floating heads and some blonde dude inexplicably floating in mid-air with a giant laser gun.

So as to not get the hopes of anyone who hasn’t beaten the game yet up, Space Harrier is not in this game. Just the soundtrack, which plays on a track I don’t intend to spoil.

Speaking of spoilers, though, you’d best have beaten the game by next Tuesday. For the last three weeks I’ve been sitting on music for a course that Sumo kept under wraps so as to not spoil the surprise. Next week I’m spilling the beans. So you’d best have beaten Career Mode by then!

Still want more music from the fantasy zone? Check below the fold for a remixed vocal version of the Fantasy Zone theme from the 1996 SEGA AGES release! Its pretty sick.

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Happy 14th Birthday, SEGA Dreamcast!

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Fourteen years ago today, in Japan, the final SEGA console released: the Dreamcast. Of course, being an English speaking blog, we tend to put more emphasis on 9-9-99. Still, 11-27-98 is just as, if not more, important than any other Dreamcast launch date simply because it was the first. Also, it is the day before my birthday. A-hem! Anyway, Japanese launch titles included: Sonic Adventure, Pen Pen TriIcelon, Godzilla Generations, July, and Virtua Fighter 3tb. July and Godzilla Generations never made it outside Japan. Considering Famitsu gave Godzilla Generations a 20 out of 40, and Western import reviews were even worse, it seems those outside Japan weren’t missing out on Godzilla.

To celebrate, enjoy the hilarious Japanese Dreamcast commercials starring Senior Managing Director of SEGA Hidekazu Yukawa. The man truly was the Segata Sanshiro of the Dreamcast era, though he acted the complete opposite. Yukawa appeared on the Japanese Dreamcast box, he had his own game, his own merchandise including a cell phone charm, and even appeared in a cameo in the Shenmue demo “What’s Shenmue?”. You can see a complete playthrough of that after the break. Happy 14th Birthday, SEGA Dreamcast!

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Review: Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (PS3 & Wii U)

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UPDATE: Patch is in, so the WiiU score will be changed.

Last year, SEGA released Sonic Generations. A celebration of Sonic’s history showcasing some of the greatest parts of Sonic’s past and being a celebration of all things Sonic in general. It gave you a strong feeling of nostalgia while offering new kinds of gameplay and a great, remixed soundtrack.

This year, SEGA releases Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. A game showcasing and glorifying the greatest parts of SEGA past and being a celebration of all things SEGA in general. It gives you a strong feeling of Nostalgia while offering new kinds of gameplay and a great, remixed soundtrack. Deja-Vu!

But does this game hold up to 2010’s offering? And how does the Wii U version compare to the others? I’ll be going  in depth about the game and discussing its greatest strengths and weaknesses. Is it a champion or does it stall out the gate? Get Ready. 3…..2…..1…..GO!

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32X Month – My Life With SEGA celebrates with Metal Head

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Happy Thanksgiving and a happy belated birthday to SEGA’s 32X, which turned 18 yesterday. To celebrate, My Life With SEGA takes a look at Metal Head.

The ‘shroom is now a man. What say we celebrate by taking a long, hard look at Metal Head; the first-person mech shooter developed and published by Sega. Sure, it may not be anything Earth-shattering now, but – back in 1994 – it was a bit of a showpiece for this fresh-faced add-on….

18 years later, is it worthy of our cheers, or 18 great big slaps to the face? Let’s find out.

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