THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD: OVERKILL – EXTENDED CUT ANNOUNCED!

Fresh from SEGA PR, and in all caps, comes the announcement that the Wii hit House of the Dead: Overkill will be rereleased to the PS3 and Move in 3D under the name of “House of the Dead: Overkill – Extended Cut”. Frankly, I thought is was a joke email at first, and after reading it I got a little dizzy. Perhaps because I now wonder how many other Wii titles might hit HD consoles. Check out the press release after the break.

Sega Teases Aliens Colonial Marines – With Burnt Doll Head!


Sega’s no stranger to funky marketing, be it severed limbs turning up all over London for the promotion of MadWorld or Condemned 2’s ‘Pony Heart Quest’. Now they are sending doll heads in the mail to unsuspecting videogame journalists.

Any avid Aliens fan will know who Newt is, but for those of you who are lesser beings I shall explain. Newt, aka Rebecca Jorden, is the only survivor of the LV-426 Alien outbreak (Aliens). She was only a little girl and she survived by living deep in the vents of the colony. She also carried a doll’s head known as ‘Casey’.

When Newt is taken by the Aliens, Casey is lost but it turns out Joystiq have recently found her again, in the mail!

Japanese Sonic 20th Anniversary swag is awesome

Here are some of the plushies, chocolates and other items Japanese consumers will be able to grab up this year to celebrate Sonic’s 20th birthday.

If you hit the source there are other food-related items and a shirt. Everyone likes shirts, right?

[Source: Famitsu]

Total War: Shogun 2 Buddhist rebel DLC out today

SEGA has announced the first DLC for Total War: Shogun 2. The first piece is called the “The Ikko Ikki Clan pack” and it unlocks a Buddhist rebel faction called Ikko Ikki clan for single and multiplayer.

This will add a new agent type and eight unit variants. That is not all there are also ten new retainers, new steam achievements, original skill-tree for Ikko Ikki General, new historical battle, new avatar armor sets, more to unlock.

The DLC hit Steam today for the low price of $4.99. Hit the jump to see more screens and a press release.

Shinobi 3DS scans from latest Nintendo Power

The other game revealed in the latest issue of Nintendo Power, SEGA’s Shinobi, seems to be a 2.5D adventure with what seems to be a completely redesigned Joe Musashi, although mentioned in the article itself is that SEGA refused to give him a name so it still could be a new character. Either way, it’s obvious that the design is very much inspired from Joe’s Shinobi 3: Return of the Ninja Master outfit. One final thing mentioned is that the game seems set for a September release date according to the article. Read on to see the full scan.

SEGA publishing Aliens Infestation according to trademark

The Australian classification website has posted that SEGA filed for Aliens Infestation. Says it will be a ‘computer game(s)’ and being done by Wayforward Technologies.

Wayforward was doing the DS version of Aliens: Colonial Marines when it was put on hold. Their DS game was going to be a 2D shooter, much like Contra. Maybe SEGA decided to release the game with its own title?

[Source: Classification]

Yu Suzuki talks Shenmue and open-world games

Yu Suzuki was interviewed in the latest Famitsu issue, isn’t it great having more and more Yu Suzuki content? This time around he talks about why Shenmue cost so much. Basically his team was an arcade team and they tried to do a game that wasn’t thought about before, on a console that they haven’t really worked on much.

“The main difference between open-world games and other types of games is the overwhelming size of them. Making all the endless objects that build up the world one by one, and portraying how the weather and time of day affects it all, requires massive amounts of time and manpower. “For example, if you enter a building, the room on the other side of the door doesn’t exist until the game generates it in the sliver of time when the player pulls the knob. We didn’t make every tree in town individually, either. There are a bunch of graphic resources for tree branches and leaves, and trees are generated mathematically based off of them. The NPCs in town are also independent — instead of giving unique motions to every single one, they all function independently based on road data and behavior pattern programming.” – Yu Suzuki, producer and director for Shenmue

Not to mention all the details that Shenmue had, which most had to be done by hand!

Arc System Works now owns the Guilty Gear franchise

Back before the SEGA and Sammy merger, Sammy published a pretty good fighting game known as Guilty Gear. The games where developed by Arc System Works. When the merger happened, the rights to the series were owned by SEGA Sammy. Sadly SEGA Sammy had no plans to continue the franchise.

Arc System Works started a new 2D fighter for this generation called Blazblue. Hardcore fighting fans never forgot their original franchise and asked if it would ever come back. Daisuke Ishiwatari, creator of Guilty Gear, said there would be a new game eventually.

Now Arc System Works filed a trademark for “Guilty Gear”, which was published in the Japanese database today. This either means that the developer bought the rights to the franchise from SEGA-Sammy or SEGA-Sammy gave them the franchise. Most likely bought.

Arc System Works has confirmed that they do own the Guilty Gear franchise now, so this isn’t some sly deal.

[Source: Siliconera]

Leaked Shinobi Teaser – Sort Of

A teaser trailer for the new 3DS Shinobi game has been leaked, sort of…
At least half of it has leaked and unfortunately for us it doesn’t give much away. The trailer suspiciously cuts off abruptly just before the good stuff, almost making me believe that the ‘leak’ could be just another marketing ploy.

The only thing we can take from this short trailer is that they know their Shinobi history! Well, that’s a good start I suppose.

Sega, who usually refuse to comment on leaks, said that they ‘had no comment’… but added: “Keep your eyes open for something official coming your way later this week.”

Heh.

Sonic Free Riders joins Games on Demand

So let’s say you just got a Kinect unit and you really want to play Sonic Free Riders… Like now. You don’t want to drive to Wal-Mart or some other lame store full of lame people to stand in a lame line to purchase your lame game (oh snap).

Don’t worry, Microsoft and SEGA got you covered. Introducing Games on Demand. Basically you can purchase the game on the Xbox Live Marketplace and download it through the internet. This is the future my friends.

Game is being priced at $49.99. Yeah, pretty much full retail. Rethinking about visiting that lame store?

[Source: SEGAblog]

Shinobi & Sonic Generations confirmed for Nintendo 3DS

Following our article earlier in the day, the newest cover of Nintendo Power not only shows Sonic Generations for the Nintendo 3DS (This despite SEGA’s attempt at hiding such information in their recent report) but indeed confirms the revival of the classic SEGA series Shinobi. Nothing else has been released just yet, but in the coming hours or days we are sure to get some scans of both particular games and confirmation if the original protagnist Joe Musashi returns or a new character once against takes on the title of the ninja master.

[Source: NeoGAF]

Anarchy Reigns gets its latest character: Leo

Leo’s reveal for Anarchy Reigns adds him to the growing roster of MadWorld characters who will be playing a role in PlatinumGames’ upcoming brawler. Leo, who played a small (but key) part in PlatinumGames’ first effort, MadWorld, will be joining the fray and he looks to be yet another totally badass character. His bio describes him as a “cyborg.” His appearance in Anarchy Reigns adds to the feeling that this is indeed taking the form of a sequel, in some capacity, to MadWorld.

Screens and concept art after the break.

[Source: Sega of America]

Kamiya talks Bayonetta spin-off starring Jeanne


Platinum Games has released their 8th director commentary video. Basically Kamiya plays through the game, while he talks about various things. In this video he mentions wanting to make a Bayonetta spin-off starring Jeanne.

“I’m sure those of you who’ve unlocked the special features know about Cutie J. She’s Jeanne as a heroine, who would star in a spin-off game I like to fantasize about.” – Hideki Kamiya, Bayonetta Director

Another idea he spits out in the videos is a prequel to the game, one that would take place before the war between the witches and the sages with a younger Balder. Its too bad that none of these ideas are actually games in development. Shame.

[Source: Siliconera]