Bayonetta 2’s announcement was a surprise; not just because word on the long-rumored sequel had been scarce for years, but because it was revealed to be a Nintendo-published title exclusive to the Wii U.
Platinum Games discusses the process of getting Bayonetta 2 made, along with porting the original, in this video posted to IGN. Check it out!
Bayonetta 2 releases in North America and Europe on October 24th.
In something almost completely out of the blue, Archie comics has announced the Blue Blur and the Blue Bomber are set to join forces once again in the new crossover event Worlds Unite, starting Spring 2015. Indeed, Sonic and Mega Man are starring in another crossover comic series, set to be “even bigger” than 2013’s previous crossover.
As Polygon reports, the new crossover will be detailed at New York Comic Con later on this week. Paul Kaminski, executive director of editorial at Archie, has said that “You saw what happened when worlds collided, now see what happens when Words Unite! And this time, no universe will be safe…”
Intriguing stuff! Keep an eye on NYCC, where the Archie Action Hour: Sonic the Hedgehog and Megan Man panel is set for Thursday at 1pm, where more details are set to be announced regarding this exciting crossover event.
First 4 Figures is back again with a new classic era Sonic the Hedgehog statue up for pre-order, this time the star is Sonic’s nemesis Dr. Robotnik. Yup, you heard that right, apparently SEGA gave the okay for F4F to use the old name that they’ve pushed aside for the past 13 years. The statue is selling for $399.99 and is expected to release Q2 2015. If the price gave you a small heart attack, F4F has a flexipay option in which fans pay 3 monthly payments – two at $100 and a final payment of $199. The statue is also enormous, measuring 22″ tall, and 19″ wide. F4F also notes “Dr. Robotnik’s package also includes an additional set of hands. As well as the open palms to replicate his signature classic pose, the package includes an additional 2 hands, each holding a Chaos Emerald, in call back to the classic ‘Try Again’ screen at the end of Sonic the Hedgehog 1. These can be swapped out or mixed with the other hands depending on the collector’s preference.” You can pre-order at the official F4f site. Now the question is, what’s next? Classic Amy Rose perhaps?
Regarding the name, while I know many Western Sonic fans grew up with Dr. Robotnik, I do find the decision to be a bit odd. Mainly because I always saw the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Saturday morning cartoon design to be Dr. Robotnik, while the in-game version had a weird disconnect from the Robotnik name. With Sonic Generations poking fun at the old Robotnik name (“Nobody calls me that anymore!”) and the Jazwares action figures labeling the character as Dr. Eggman, it’s inconsistent with the brand to go back to the Dr. Robotnik name. Ah well, it’s a bigass statue and that’s good enough for me!
According to Nintendo World Report, a demo of Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal will be released on the eShop on November 4th. It isn’t known if or when a demo of its Wii U counterpart Rise of Lyric will also be released or if this is the same demo that was playable at events like Sonic Boom or PAX.
The site also recorded a playthrough of the Sonic Boom demo with direct feed audio, so you can also listen to what the game’s music is like. They recorded some gameplay of the Rise of Lyric demo as well, which can be seen after the jump.
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.
SEGA’s new 2D fighter called Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax is coming to Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita in Japan on November 13th and so SEGA has been releasing information on characters that will be available only on the console versions; they previously announced Valkyria Chronicles characters if you missed that.
Japanese website Dengeki Online (which the IPs in this game are based on) has reported the following support characters:
Sadly no western release date has been announced for this game.
As you could expect from the Sonic Boom event, a new trailer for the TV show isn’t the only new Sonic thing that got revealed today. SEGA also showed a new trailer showing gameplay and cutscenes from both upcoming Sonic Boom games: Rise of Lyric for Wii U and Shattered Crystal for 3DS.
The most notable thing this trailer shows is more of Shadow and Metal Sonic, who appear in both games as either bosses or rivals to race against. Also it has overly dramatic music and an ancient evil because why not.
Straight from Sonic Boom (the event, not the TV show), SEGA just announced that Sonic Boom (the TV show, not the event) will premiere in the US on Cartoon Network on Saturday, November 8th. So we’ll be able to see the show before Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric and Shattered Crystal are released. A sneak preview was shown as well, with the reaction to it being very positive.
As for Europe, the show won’t be appearing in most of that region until Autumn 2015. Well, unless you’re French, the show will air at an earlier unannounced date there. Apparently being in the country where the show is produced has its benefits. The rest of you Europeans can just sit and reflect on just how many more things called Sonic Boom we’re going to get.
Update: SEGA just released the sneak preview online for all to see, be sure to watch it above!
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Just like how the first Bayonetta featured many SEGA references, its upcoming sequel pays tribute to much beloved Nintendo games like Metroid and Star Fox. With the game even going as far as having alternate costumes with different weapons inspired by Nintendo games.
One segment near the game’s finale in particular features a pretty great Star Fox easter egg. If you don’t mind spoilers, be sure to watch the video above to see what it’s like. It’s not a major spoiler, but I can imagine some people being annoyed by seeing this part of the game before playing it for themselves.
The SEGA Pico legacy lives on with Telebeena, a streaming educational entertainment platform from SEGA of Japan relasing to Sharp LCD TVs this Fall. The name “Telebeena” may hold some significance to SEGA hardware fans, as Beena was the name of the followup console to SEGA’s Pico. The Telebeena is an evolution of the Pico/Beena brand, which will act as a streaming service to select Sharp TVs, specifically “AQUOS Quattron pro” and the XL20 line, and smartphones. Similar to the Wii U and Pico/Beena, kids will be able to play Telebeena software on their TV by using a supported smartphone or tablet as a second screen. The official Telebeena site has revealed Sonic & The Jewel of Mystery will be the service’s first title, featuring simple matching and puzzle games.
The Telebeena is set for an early November release, and as soon as we learn more we’ll be sure to post it here at SEGAbits!
SEGA Network a mobile gaming offshoot of SEGA and Japanese Television network Fuji TV have invested in Tokyo-based start up Goopa with an undisclosed amount of money. Goopa is known for crowdfunding independent anime and independent musical acts. This new investment will launch later this month and focus on crowd sourcing indie games, this new service will be called ‘Crowdrive‘.
According to the CEO of the company, Hiroaki Taira, crowdfunding is usually used to hire additional talent on projects. He also talked about how small the company really is, saying he started off with himself in Japan and two people in Thailand, now they have six people working on the project.
Even though Crowdrive will start off by funding mobile games, they say they want to extend the service to both console and PC games in the near future. Anipipo (their anime crowdfunding site) took 15% commission from projects and have stated that Crowdrive (their gaming crowdfunding site) will take less. They state that having a relationship with SEGA Networks opens the doors for projects that could feature SEGA IPs.
If SEGA Networks does try to revive a old SEGA IP through Crowdrive, what franchise do you want it to be?
Well ya know somethin’ Segabits?!
I was driving down Venice beach on my way to Gold’s Gym. Sayin’ my prayers and eatin’ my vitamins, when a pregnant Hulkamaniac dove into the back seat of my convertible! She screamed “Shigster! I’m about to have a little Hulkamaniac and I need to get to the hospital as fast as possible!” I knew what needed to be done. I grabbed the wheel with my 24 inch pythons and drove like a mad man! I drifted up steep inclines and weaved in and out of traffic. Oh sure, I hit a few pedestrians but they were probably Piper fans anyway!
I think they went for a more subtle approach in this ad than I thought they where going to go with. No pop up scare tactics and sets up the mood for the game rather well. It is also nice to see that SEGA is going to actually advertise this game (not that they didn’t with the last Alien game).
So what do you guys think of the advert?
SEGA has published their extended trailer for Yakuza Zero (or Yakuza 0), the extended look was featured on their Nico Nico broadcast and is now up on Youtube for all of us to enjoy.
No western release date for Yakuza Zero has been announced, but the game is heading to Japan this upcoming Spring 2015 on both Playstation 3 and Playstation 4.
Dengeki Online sat down with French-Bread battle planner Kamone and game director Takaharu Terada from Sega showcasing Akira Yuki (Virtua Fighter) and Selvaria Bles (Valkyria Chronicles) movesets for the upcoming console version of Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax at Tokyo Game Show 2014.
As you can see from the video, you can see how the two characters moves transition from their own respective franchise including a few interesting combos. Not only normals and specials, they’ve also demonstrated the support character system for each character. Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax is schedule for release on November 13, 2014 for PlayStation 3 and PS Vita.