Indie studio Team Reptile, the creators of Lethal League, have announced their newest project: Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. One look at the game and you can guess what SEGA game the team not only was heavily inspired by, but almost straight up lifted from with surprising 1:1 accuracy. Snail Maze!
Just kidding, I’m talking about Jet Set Radio.
A new English translation has been produced by TheMajinZenki, Supper, and cccmar, for the Game Gear title Eternal Legend. Eternal Legend, originally developed by Japan Art Media (aka “JAM”) and published by SEGA, was one of the earliest JRPGs released for the SEGA Game Gear, even predating Phantasy Star Gaiden. It was originally released back in August 9th, 1991 for Japanese markets only.
In Eternal Legend, you take on the role of Arwyn, a young treasure hunter who accidentally got himself roped up in searching for a long lost city called Millennium. Together with Ryall and Blue Moon, you will go on an adventure across the world fighting monsters and finding secrets, all to solve the mysteries of Millennium and it’s rumored lost treasure and technology. This patch translates the game entirely in English, along with other minor changes such as different fonts.
[Source: ROMhacking.net page]
Announced in the last few months, Yuzumo Design, a fan publisher in Japan, will be releasing a doujin magazine celebrating SEGA’s 60th Anniversary called “SEGA 60: Creation is Life” this year featuring fan content from 61 Sega fans (including myself) from 8 countries and celebrating 6 decades of Sega! The magazine will include SEGA stories from fans all over the world, comic artwork, cosplays and many more!
The book will be available in Japanese and to the Kindle store in English this April in Full Color with 60 pages for only $6. Here are some sample pages to view in Japanese and English versions of the magazine after the break.
A new English translation for the Madou Monogatari series has been released, this time for the Mega Drive version of Madou Monogatari I. Like the other versions of Madou Monogatari I, you play as 6 year old Arle Nadja, who was chosen to climb up a monster infested tower to pass her exam at Magic Kindergarten. This version also adds extra plot elements, such as the inclusion of the two characters Camus and Lulu who occasionally appear throughout the tower, along with a secret boss fight against a mysterious foe implied to be Satan, who can only be fought once certain criteria is met. Another major change is the battle system, which has been overhauled to now play in real-time, using button combinations in order to execute spells or to dodge attacks.
This fan translation as expected translates the entire game into English, complete with a title renaming to “Sorcery Saga I”. For extra authenticity, you can mod your SEGA Genesis Mini to play this game, doubly so if you have a Japanese Mega Drive Mini on hand and want to properly play Madou Monogatari I in English.
[Source: ROMhacking.net]
Another Madou Monogatari game has received a fan translation, this time being the game Madou Monogatari A: Doki Doki Vacation. In a slight departure from the previous Madou Monogatari titles on Game Gear, this game is based on Madou Monogatari ARS originally released on the PC-98, specifically the “A” scenario. In Madou Monogatari A, you take on the role of 4 year old Arle Nadja from Magic Kindergarten who wants to visit her grandmother on the other side of a forest. While the original PC-98 version involves Arle getting lost in the forest and get harassed by an angry Owlbear, the Game Gear version instead has a story involving Satan cutting down the Fairy Forest to build an amusement park, with Arle going into the forest to find the fairies and stop Satan’s plans. Aside from the story changes, Madou Monogatari A: Doki Doki Vacation also changes a lot of the level design, overall making the game barely like its original incarnation on the PC-98.
This patch translates the whole game into English, including the title being renamed to Sorcery Saga A: Vivacious Vacation. This means that all Madou Monogatari games on the Game Gear can now be played in English, along with Madou Monogatari I, Madou Monogatari II, and Madou Monogatari III.
[Source: ROM Hacking.net]
For those that want to dig into the past for the Puyo Puyo series, a new English translation patch has been released for the Game Gear version of Madou Monogatari III. This English patch, renamed Sorcery Saga III: The Ultimate Queen, is a complete translation that has everything in English, and is compatible with both revisions of the game.
Like it’s predecessors Madou Monogatari I and Madou Monogatari II, you take on the role of Arle Nadja and her companion Carbuncle in an old school dungeon crawling RPG. In this game, Arle encounters the self-proclaimed Fighting Queen Rulue and her bodyguard Minotauros, but this encounter is short lived, as Rulue commands Minotauros to drive Arle and Carbuncle deep into a forest in order to win over Satan’s love. Now lost in a strange labyrinth, Arle must find her way out and get revenge on Rulue. The Game Gear version specifically makes changes to the story and game design compared to the previously released MSX2 and PC-98 versions, like the inclusion of the Frog Empire that assists Arle during her quest.
[Source: Romhacking.net]
Game review blog “Get Ready! Annex” administrator, Pin, is producing a fan doujinshi book for SEGA fans focused on celebrating the 60th anniversary of SEGA and is looking to gather at least 60 participates worldwide with content that they could tell about their love for Sega on one page per person.
The fan doujinshi will be a thin book of A5 size with dozens of pages and full color and set to be released for April 2020. Anyone in the SEGA community can participate in the book with illustrations of their favorite SEGA character, cosplay, comics, collections and messages. For more details on entry types, you can check it out on their site here. The deadline for entries are due before the end of Feburary.
To participate, all you have to do is contact Pin via on Twitter through DM or email with your entry. Celebrate SEGA’s anniversary together and share your thoughts on SEGA!
Programmer and YouTube user, MoonGlint, has recreated and re-imagined the arcade classic light gun shooter, The House of the Dead 2, powered by the Unreal Engine 4 with short demonstration game play videos of the first level. It amazes me how fans can recreate classic video games with modern technology. Even the new installment, House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn, uses the Unreal Engine.
You can check out more game play clips after the break. Would you like to see The House of the Dead 1 & 2 reimaigned in Unreal Engine 4 for arcade and consoles? Let us know in the comments below.
Steve Page, creator of Balena Productions and various SFM videos such as Christmas with Sonic and Sonic Zombies, has released a statement about his current situation with Youtube. According to the Balena Productions Discord chat, Page said that half of his ads with disabled on his videos and has tried to work it out with his channel manager, only to have Youtube say that his videos are “working as intended”.
Steve is one of the very first Youtubers that I’ve watched, even back to the SonicDood3 days. It breaks my heart to see someone who wanted to follow his passion and get so far, only for the Youtube guidelines and algorithms to take hold of his channel unfairly. Source Film isn’t an easy thing to do and takes a lot of time, but the quality that holds up is why I keep coming back. All we ask here at SEGABits is to at least show some support. I know that the community is strong and can hopefully get Steve, his girlfriend Riana, right-hand man Apoc Hedgie, and others back up to where they need. Click the link to find out more about the situation and how you can help in any way you can.
2015 was an interesting year for Sonic. Before the ignition that started with the 25th anniversary party, the Sonic Mania hype, and SEGA Forever, we were gifted as with a few lovely mobile apps for SEGA to dip their toes into the market. With Sonic Jump and Sonic Dash being both moderate and raving successes respectfully, it was time that Sonic Team took a slightly different approach to the next mobile game, leading to Sonic Runners. However, within over a year of its launch, the game was shut down. Now fans have worked their magic again to revive the long-forgotten game app, which was a favorite among the community. Click the jump to find out more.
Fans of Sonic the Hedgehog comics went through a series of ups and downs during the final years of the Archie Comics run of the series. From reboots to cancellations to an outright end to the series, the long running series deserved a better finale. The spin-off from the main series of comics, Sonic Universe, came to an end with issue #94 wrapping up a Chaotix story arc. However, fans were promised a new arc with issue #95 focusing on the members of the Freedom Fighters. Of course, issue #95 never came to be however the penciled and partially inked issue was made public. Using these elements, a group of fans took the incomplete work of Adam Bryce Thomas, Jim Amash and Ian Flynn and inked, colored, wrote and lettered the full issue. The issue is available to read now, and can be found here!
Most exciting, to me at least, is that the end of the restored comic teases that Sonic the Hedgehog #291 – the conclusion to Genesis of a Hero – will be the next Archie Sonic comic to be restored. This will complete the four issue flashback arc that would have acted as a fitting end to the series.
Oh, and my fingers are crossed for Mega Drive: Overdrive to be restored next.
For those who don’t know, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog character designer Milton Knight – who is famously known for creating the design of Robotnik for the series – had fallen on hard times in 2018 with an eviction from his longtime home, which itself was riddled with substandard living conditions. In 2019, things got worse as Milton was a victim of a hate crime and was assaulted. I personally have had a long history with Milton, purchasing some art from him ten years ago which led to a correspondence where we discussed his work on Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, my personal favorite Sonic cartoon, and his art.
In an attempt to raise funds for Milton in his time of need, a fan named Harper plans to release a charity fanzine (fan made magazine) of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog inspired art. Harper tells me that he is “attempting to unite the talented artists as a force of good to create an AOSTH-themed Zine” and that “proceeds from this zine will be donated to Milton Knight’s gofund me”. The submission details, also found after the break, can be seen here: https://aosthzine.tumblr.com
As a fan of Milton and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, I urge other fans to spread the word of the fanzine. Best of luck to Harper and his efforts!
While the Japanese Manga/Anime of Crayon Shin-Chan debuted way back in 1990 over in Japan, it didn’t get popular in the West until around 2006 when Funimation picked up the license. Even though it took us decades in America, the show still became a cult hit and its not surprising seeing previous Japanese only releases like Crayon Shin-Chan Showdown! Quantum Panic!! on the SEGA Game Gear getting fan translations.
According to Psyklax, the translator for this project, every piece of text has been translated outside of a few Japanese signs that don’t matter. Check out the translation over at Romhacking.net.
As you already know that SEGA has only localized one of the four released 7th Dragon games from Japan. That one was the last one 7th Dragon III Code: VFD on the Nintendo 3DS. But if you didn’t already know the game debuted back in 2009 on the Nintendo DS with 7th Dragon (translated here), then 7th Dragon 2020 (translated here) on PSP and then comes this newly translated title 7th Dragon 2020-II. Obviously 7th Dragon 2020-II is a direct sequel the previous PSP game and its recommended you play that first.
If you guys didn’t know 7th Dragon was requested by most hardcore SEGA fans due to the involvement of big named SEGA creators including producer Rieko Kodama (Phantasy Star, Skies of Arcadia) and composer Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage, Etrian Odyssey). I love these sort of fan translation projects because lets be honest, there is no way that these past three 7th Dragon games will get localization in the west especially considering that the Nintendo DS and PSP are both obsolete.
[Source: Romhacking]
Just the other day we talked about Shenmue I & II getting HD texture packs by modder Dragean, the first released only supported the first Shenmue game. Now they have updated the texture mod to work in Shenmue II. Like last time, this is an ongoing project so there will be updates as time goes on.
Just like the first texture pack we outlined, Shenmue II‘s texture pack is focused more on the environments by remaking the textures from scratch. As of right now the Shenmue II texture pack has new textures for South Carmain Qt, 1 street in Green Market Qt, room textures in the Come Over Guest House and Aberdeen Pier.
As always you can download the mods here.
[Via: DSOGaming]