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Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed now Xbox One backwards compatible

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SEGA and Sumo Digital’s Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed was a huge deal when it released back in 2012. Fans were surprised to see a sequel to the original Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, and were even more surprised to see just how ambitious the game was. Featuring three different vehicle modes that actually played differently (sorry Mario Kart 7), the game touted far more diverse racers and tracks, compared to the original, and appeared on just about every piece of modern hardware.

Today, the game adds a new console to its belt by way of Xbox One backwards compatibility. Via Major Nelson comes news that Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is now playable on Xbox One! If you haven’t picked the game up yet, there is really no excuse not to. Regardless of the SEGA fan service, it is a quality racer on its own. Want our expert opinion on the game? Check out our reviews of the console and handheld versions.

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SEGA News Bits: Tokyo Game Show 2016 Impressions

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Another Tokyo Game Show 2016 has passed, and in this SEGA News Bits your hosts George and Barry are joined by SEGAbits’ Tokyo Game Show 2016 correspondent Steve aka ap0c. Steve shares with us his firsthand impressions of what SEGA had to show at the event. Yakuza 0, Valkyria: Azure Revolution, Puyo Puyo Chronicles and more are covered in this special SEGA News Bits!

In the comments, let us know what SEGA or Atlus titles you are most excited for from the event.

You know the drill. If you like our SEGA News Bits segments, please give us a like and subscribe on our YouTube page. Thanks!

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Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live prices and release dates revealed

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SEGA has announced prices and release dates for the upcoming Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live. That’s right, we’re using plurals, as the game – or should we say, “experience” – is releasing in three stages to both the US and Europe. Timed to coincide with the release of PSVR, Stage 1 will release on October 13th for $14.99 and will include seven tracks. The experience itself is free to download and comes with one free song, but of course if you want more you’ll need to download the Stages of which there are two more after Stage 1 with release dates to be announced. A Season Pass Bundle can be obtained at the discounted price of $39.99.

Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live is best described as a virtual reality concert, allowing players to sit in a stadium filled with Miku fans. Players are given free movement throughout the audience and are even allowed up on stage. Players can use their controllers as glow sticks to unlock easter eggs, and after progressing through three songs players receive a special solo encore performance.

After the break, check out the list of songs included in Stage 1 and in the comments below share your thoughts on Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live.

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Persona 5 ships over 550,000 copies in Japan; new DLC announced

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Persona 5 has been a stunning success for Atlus since it’s launch on September 15th just a couple of weeks ago. The company announced at the end of this week that over 550,000 copies of the game have been shipped between PS3 and PS4 editions in Japan.

Let’s put that in perspective for Atlus. Persona 4: The Golden, the PS Vita re-release of the last mainline Persona game, had reached 350,000 units in Japan only after almost 2 years of being available. Clearly, Persona 5 is going to be a monster hit for the company and seriously fill parent company Sega’s coffers this year.

To celebrate this achievement, Atlus has announced it will be releasing two free sets of DLC costumes for players. Hit the jump to see pictures of the cast in their swimsuits and Morgana dolled up like a ram.

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Blade Arcus from Shining: Battle Arena demo now on Steam

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A Blade Arcus from Shining: Battle Arena demo has been released on Steam, allowing users to sample the game’s online multiplayer mode with 3 of the 16 characters.

Blade Arcus from Shining: Battle Arena was released to Steam on July 28th, 2016 and is based on Blade Arcus from Shining 2.1 EX, the most recent arcade version. It’s a 2D fighting game featuring characters from the Sega-published Shining Blade and Shining Hearts games.

Unfortunately, the game has potentially only sold a little over 2,000 copies if you go by the numbers SteamSpy suggests for it. Hopefully those excited to try it before buying will be able to find some online opponents this week thanks to the demo’s release.

The full game features a Story Mode, Training Mode, and local Versus Mode in addition to the Online Mode the demo restricts you to. If you fall in love with it, thankfully you’ll always have those and the new weekly tournament event to fall back on.

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Tetsuya Mizuguchi talks Rez and Rez: Infinite in new video

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A new video posted to Enhance Games’ YouTube channel features Tetsuya Mizuguchi talking about the creation of the original Rez and Rez Infinite. He discusses how he and his team wanted to make an environment where the player could have the ability to move freely and take advantage of stronger hardware to create a much more vivid experience.

Rez Infinite releases for the PlayStation 4 digitally in just under 2 weeks on October 13th, 2016. Gamers interested in specialty merchandise or a physical copy will have to order those through iam8bit. Be sure to read our recent hands-on preview of the game over here

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Casino Nights DLC now free to all Sonic Generations owners on Steam

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In a surprising announcement at the end of this week, Sega has made the Casino Nights DLC free to anyone who owns Sonic Generations on Steam.

The news was revealed rather quietly a couple of days ago in a post to the Sonic Generations page on the storefront:

We are pleased to announce that from this point onwards, the ‘Casino Night’ DLC will be made available to ALL current and future Sonic Generations customers at no additional cost.

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The Casino Nights DLC allows players to experience a pinball map based upon the beloved stage from the Sega Genesis classic Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

This is definitely a welcome surprise for a game released nearly 5 years ago. Naturally, some Negative Nancies in the comments on the post were immediately asking for a refund if they had purchased the DLC in the past. Even if they did so years ago.

The DLC itself has been met with many negatives reviews on Steam from buyers who did not read the description before purchasing it. Many seemed to blindly buy the package, thinking that they would be playing the classic original stage instead of brand new content inspired by it. We here at SEGAbits understand the issue for these Steam users: a one sentence description is a lot to sit through!

Have you played the Casino Nights DLC? Will you be downloading it this weekend to check it out? Let us know in the comments!

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SEGA News Bits: Yakuza 0 Business Edition Announced Reaction

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Another game, another launch edition from SEGA of America. On this SEGA News Bits, George and Barry get down to business to discuss Yakuza 0 “The Business Edition” for the Playstation 4, including what it contains, how it compares to other SEGA launch editions, and how far SEGA and the Yakuza series has come since last year’s Yakuza 5.

In the comments below, let us know if “The Business Edition” makes you want to pre-order the game.

You know the drill. If you like our SEGA News Bits segments, please give us a like and subscribe on our YouTube page. Thanks!

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Henshin Engine passes Dreamcast release stretch goal on Kickstarter

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Henshin Engine is a game based on a web comic that is set to release in early 2017 to PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16 and PC CD-Rom/Steam. The game features 2D action platforming and was programmed from the ground up for classic systems. With 6 days remaining in their Kickstarter campaign, Henshin Engine is $8,000 past their $16,400 goal, meaning they’ve started to chip away at their stretch goals. Of interest to SEGA fans is the promise of a Dreamcast post, set to release in late 2017, should the campaign pass $22,400. Given they are $2,000 past this goal, a Dreamcast version seems assured, though the developer has yet to release an update sharing this news.

When we have more details, we’ll be sure to share it! In the meantime, if you missed the news, last week the Henshin Engine team announced a character crossover collaboration with the Strike Harbinger team. Meaning Strike Harbinger, a game inspired by classic SEGA franchises, will see an appearance on the SEGA Dreamcast by way of this crossover collaboration.

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Motorsport Manager releasing to PC on November 10th

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Back in mid May of this year it was announced that SEGA would be publishing Playsport Games’ Motorsport Manager to PC, Mac and Linux internationally in late 2016. Initially, a September timeframe was given, but now the official date has been announced to be November 10th, based on a Tweet from the developer. Motorsport Manager joins SEGA’s family of management games, complete with a faceless male mascot. The game features a racing management simulation in which players hire drivers, build cars and view the resulting races.

 

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SEGA News Bits: Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice First Impressions

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It’s here, the brand new side-scrolling Sonic game! No, not Sonic Mania. It’s Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice for the Nintendo 3DS! In this SEGA News Bits, Barry shares with George, and our viewing audience, his thoughts on the game. Did SEGA and Sanzaru Games learn their lesson from Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal?

In the comments below, let us know what you think of Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice! Also, don’t hate Barry.

You know the drill. If you like our SEGA News Bits segments, please give us a like and subscribe on our YouTube page. Thanks!

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SEGAbits at Tokyo Game Show 2016 Preview: Valkyria: Azure Revolution (PS4/PS Vita)

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SEGAbits attended Tokyo Game Show 2016! At the event we saw several upcoming SEGA games, presented through stage events and, in some cases, hands-on demos. One of many games we had to opportunity to play a demo of was Valkyria: Azure Revolution. Let’s get this out of the way first; this game plays nothing like Valkyria Chronicles. At all. Don’t entertain the idea that it might be a semi-sequel. Rather, this game plays like an odd mix of action RPG and squad based tactics.

With that out of the way, the demo at Tokyo Game Show consisted of attacking several enemy camps and a final boss fight with a mechanical spider. You controlled a squad of four characters with varying strengths and abilities, after being given a brief tutorial on when and how to use the various tools at your disposal.

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Ken Horowitz’s SoA history book Playing at the Next Level ships October 30th

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Playing at the Next Level ships October 30th

Those who remember our interview with Ken Horowitz from back in February 2016 might recall he has an upcoming book called Playing at the Next Level: A History of American Sega Games. We now know the book covering the development of numerous Sega of America games will be shipping on October 30th and you can pre-order a physical edition at Amazon.

The book will focus on the actual games Sega of America produced from 1986 to 2001, along with a behind the scenes look at the development process. Horowitz sources the many interviews he’s done over the years along with numerous new ones. Playing at the Next Level will cover roughly 40 games with up to half a dozen developers being sourced for information on the creation of each game in question. Unlike Blake J. Harris‘ Console Wars, the book features developers much more so than executives and marketing personnel.

Ken Horowitz founded the popular fan site Sega-16 in 2004, where he has interviewed, researched and written about Sega’s history ever since.

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First Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap developer diary released

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DotEmu has released the Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap developer diary video. This one features Development Lead Omar Cornut and Art Director Ben Fiquet meeting with Ryuichi Nishizawa, creator of the Wonder Boy series. This video was shot around the BitSummit 4th convention in Kyoto, Japan in early July 2016.

Inside the video, we see the developers from Lizardcube showing Nishizawa the then-current build of the remake of his game for the first time. The trio discuss how the project began, the allure of secret doors, the appeal of the smoking pig, and more. Nishizawa does touch on some history from designing the original game as well.

Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is a remake of the Sega Master System classic Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap, my favorite game on the platform. It is in development for consoles and PC with no specific target release date announced yet.

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Idea Factory releases Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls opening movie

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Idea Factory has released the Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls opening cinematic on their YouTube channel. If you are enough of a Sega fanatic as any of us here at SEGAbits, you might happen to watch the separate European video. In doing so, you might notice a surprising level of care taken to give Dreamcast an augmented blue outfit to emulate the European Dreamcast’s blue swirl.

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