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The Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Island Finally Has A Name

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Sonic the Hedgehog 4 has been previewed, played, reviewed, picked apart, dissected and a whole host of other actions. We’re not here today to do any of those things. This article isn’t about how Sonic 4 Episodes I & II played or the behind-the-scenes politics of how the game came about. This article is about how a few fans with too much time on their hands bothered SEGA enough about silly little details.

Way back in 2010, SEGA revealed Sonic the Hedgehog 4, and speculation ran rampant. How would it play? How would it tie to Sonic 3 & Knuckles? Could we expect a Sonic 4 Happy Meal? These and many more questions were asked. Now, six years later, many of those questions have been answered and with the upcoming Sonic Mania, fans are looking towards the future while Sonic 4 Episodes I & II remain in the past. But one little question has always gone unanswered, and that question is “What is the name of the island in Sonic 4?”. Following the game’s release, I reached out to SEGA for an answer, but I came back with just a few names of the bosses from Episode II. We tried again last year in an interview with Aaron Webber, but aside from his own head canon answer there was no apparent official name.

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Persona 5 Online Features Revealed

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The latest issue of Weekly Famitsu has information on some of Persona 5‘s online features.

If you opt into the Phantom Thieves Alliance, multiplayer elements will be available during the main game. You’ll be able to cooperate with other players as you battles foes, explore dungeons, or just do normal teenager things around school.

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Latest Shenmue III Update is a Developer Room Video

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The latest Shenmue III update that dropped this morning gave us a quick video of inside Ys Net’s Dev Room for the game.

In the video, we first see a developer animating a rather familiar QTE scene. The event in question, which features Ryu Hazuki hopping on stones to cross a stream, occurred in the epilogue of Shenmue II. It’s revealed that the team wanted to create the event for the third game, which brings us to a possibility of the entire last act of Shenmue II being playable again in the new engine.

The team member moves the scene’s camera around and discusses a future meeting with Yu Suzuki about cooler angles to use for the event.

The second part of the video takes us to another developer working on a scene situated on a mountain. An avalanche occurs and Ryu must run for his life as boulders of all sizes fly down towards him.

As the documentary ends, we see a few shots of devs at work and, finally, a quick glimpse of Yu Suzuki smiling.

The short film is titled Development Report Vol. 1, so hopefully this is the start of a new series of videos that Ys Net releases with some of the monthly Shenmue III updates moving forward.

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Peter Moore talks SEGA Dreamcast days in recent IGN Unfiltered Interview

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Peter Moore talked about the SEGA Dreamcast days in a Unfiltered interview posted up by IGN. The video is an hour and a half talk about the man’s career and what led him to be EA’s Chief Competition Officer. Some of the games that he said made him smile from the Dreamcast era included Seaman, Samba De Amigo and he even mentions Yu Suzuki’s SEGA-AM2 studio with Shenmue.

Peter Moore worked for the underdog brands which included Reebok, SEGA and later the Xbox division. Peter Moore is a interesting guy and this interview shows it with a few more bits like his son being a SEGA Saturn owner before he worked at SEGA, pitching his ideas to SEGA Japan and the mysteries behind his marketing TV spots. Really makes you miss the days of SEGA hardware, huh?

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Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse is now backwards compatible on Xbox One

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It seems like everyone is paying attention to Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse since it was announced that the game is to be delisted on digital marketplaces on September 2nd. Despite the fact that the game will soon be leaving online stores, it is now available on another major platform! Via Major Nelson comes the news that the Xbox 360 version of Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse is now backwards compatible on the Xbox One.

The game is currently $14.99 on the Xbox Marketplace. If Xbox isn’t your thing, or you want the game for less on another platform the Humble Bundle PC version is only $2.24, discounted from $14.99, and the PS3 version is only $3.74. It you want to learn more about the game to help in your decision on whether to purchase the game or not, check out our review in which we awarded Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse an A- and called it “A fantastic platformer!”.

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SEGA 3D Archives 3 FINAL STAGE compilation announced for Nintendo 3DS

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It has just been announced that SEGA 3D Archives 3 FINAL STAGE, a physical collection of SEGA 3D Classics will be coming to Japan. In the West, we only got SEGA 3D Archives 2 as SEGA 3D Classics Collection earlier this year.

Games confirmed in SEGA 3D Archives 3 FINAL STAGE:

  • After Burner II
  • Super Hang-On
  • Streets of Rage 2
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 2
  • Gunstar Heroes 
  • More to come

According to SEGA’s questionnaire that Japanese fans filled out lots of people want to see titles like Wing War, Gain Ground, Outrunners, and Virtua Racing to join the SEGA 3D Classics line-up. Famitsu didn’t reveal which was the number one requested game, you will have to wait for September 15 to find out since that’s when their magazine comes out. But let me spoil it for you, I bet you it was Virtua Fighter. SEGA 3D Archives 3 FINAL STAGE could get new timed exclusive titles, just like the last volume had Puyo Puyo 2 and Drift Stage as timed exclusives. SEGA 3D Archives 3 FINAL STAGE is set to hit Japan on December 22, 2016. No idea if SEGA West will plan on bringing it over.

[Source: Famitsu]

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Mobile strategy game War Pirates is now available in select countries

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Last week we reported that SEGA’s free-to-play mobile game War Pirates had opened pre-registration, and now the game is releasing in select countries. If you live in Australia, Canada, the U.K., the Philippines or Singapore you can hop on the App Store right now to download the game! There is also mention of an Android marketplace having the game available, but the link provided lead to a 404.

Created by Jet Set Radio director Masayoshi Kikuchi, War Pirates is a turn based naval combat game mixed with city building and stars, get this, pirates. The game has had positive early impressions, and we look forward to the eventual U.S. release. Live in any of the above countries and playing the game? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, or on our forums!

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Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse likely to be delisted on September 2nd

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If you ever wondered why people get so grumpy over digital-only releases, here’s one big reason: we’ve heard that the 2013 remake of Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse will be delisted from XBLA, PSN, Steam and mobile platforms on September 2nd. The news arrived via an email from an email sent out by indiegala, which claimed the game would be “retired” on that date. The reason for the delisting is likely because SEGA is not renewing the license with Disney, which has been a sad ongoing trend with the company that has also contributed to the delisting of OutRun Online Arcade and After Burner Climax. So if you have yet to pick the game up, and really want to own it and play it, now is the time!

Thankfully, some great sales are going on right now. The Humble Bundle PC version is only $2.24, discounted from $14.99, and the PS3 version is only $3.74. If you are still on the fence, check out our review of the game in which we awarded it an A- and called it “A fantastic platformer!”.

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CEDEC 2016 highlights the technology behind Yakuza 6’s special effects

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Yakuza 6 is the latest installment in the Yakuza franchise for the PS4, set for a December 8th, 2016 release in Japan. However while you’re waiting for another trip into the brutal life of a yakuza member, we’re given a behind the scenes look as to how several special effects are handled courtesy of the CEDEC (Computer Entertainment Developers Conference) 2016 stream on NicoNico. These videos highlight specific effects throughout Yakuza 6, including how water is rendered and handles floating objects, how the game renders clouds, and the “dust particle” effects during combat.

The emphasis on water in particular makes sense, since one of the major locations in the game takes place in a real-world town called Onomichi in Hiroshima, which is a fishing town, and it does look impressive all things considered.

[Source: NicoNico / Dual Shockers]

To see these tech demos in action, click below. Be warned however, as they were hastily recorded from a NicoNico stream so have noticeably low quality.

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Pokémon GO releasing to the Dreamcast VMU in 2017

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The creator of Flappy Bird for the Dreamcast VMU, known as guacasaurus_mex on Instagram, has been hard at work on cool fan made VMU games since we last featured him. His Flappy Bird follow-up, Street Race, featured six OutRun-style tracks and a unique grayscale graphics trick which has to be seen to be believed. His latest project dives back into the smartphone remake world with a Dreamcast VMU version of Pokémon GO. Due to the time it takes to draw all the Pokémon, and laziness, the game won’t be ready until 2017. However guacasaurus_mex does promise a randomly generated map grid, in place of a GPS map, and a timing-based mini game to throw Pokéballs. More info on the game, including the release, as we hear it.

Note: Yeah yeah, I know. Any Pokémon GO article in gonna get us clicks, but to be fair we don’t make any money off of site traffic nor do we have ads. At least we didn’t try and tie No Man’s Sky into SEGA… yet.

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Valkyria: Azure Revolution gets Japanese release date and prequel story DLC announcement

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SEGA has now updated their official Valkyria: Azure Revolution webpage with a new release date and bonus details on what comes extra with first-print copies.

All first-print copies of Valkyria: Azure Revolution will come with a fully-voiced additional chapter called “Judgement Chapter: Vanargand Organization,” and it will be the prequel story for the game. Honestly don’t know how to feel about this whole thing, considering I’m not a big supporter of day one DLC but you can see a special video released by SEGA promoting the new announcements.

SEGA of Japan announced that Valkyria: Azure Revolution will hit Japanese store shelves on January 19, 2017 exclusively for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. Valkyria: Azure Revolution‘s Battle Demo Ver. 2.0 will be playable at this year’s Tokyo Game Show which will start in mid-September. As for a Western release date, I suggest bothering SEGA about that on their social media accounts.

[Source: Siliconera]

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Data Discs announces seventh SEGA vinyl release: Golden Axe I & II

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Data Discs has announced the seventh in their line of SEGA vinyls, the soundtrack to the iconic arcade games Golden Axe and Golden Axe II. Featuring awesome artwork on the sleeve as well as two lithographic prints, the records themselves will be pressed in a translucent gold or classic black vinyl. A third limited edition will feature a purple swatch effect, seen in the photo above. Fans of SEGA art should enjoy the albums cover, which is said to be rare artwork from the Japanese release of the game sourced from SEGA’s archives.

The records are completed and ready to ship, priced at £19.99, however Data Discs requires two weeks to fulfill all orders. Sales begin on Saturday, August 27th at the Data Discs website.

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Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove gets new trailer, publisher, and screenshots.

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It’s been pretty smooth sailing for classic pseudo-SEGA game revival Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove, since its Kickstarter announcement all the way up to its “soon” release. And for those excited for the game, the good news keeps piling up! Just today, a new trailer was revealed by Adult Swim, announcing the game’s release window and its publisher, Adult Swim Games, known for quirky titles like Jazzpunk and Robot Unicorn Attack. While Adult Swim doesn’t exactly come to mind when I think of TJ and E, the match-up does at least make some sense if you think about it.

In addition, the crew have released several batches of screenshots on their Facebook, and a Steam page has gone up with even more shots. Unfortunately, those looking to get in on the funky rogue-like action will have to wait until 2017 to get their hands on the game for both PC and consoles. Hopefully the wait won’t be too long, and you can at least keep yourself busy with the screenshots below the jump.

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Watch Puyo Puyo Chronicle’s First Gameplay Footage

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SEGA has streamed about 7 minutes of Puyo Puyo Chronicle gameplay showing off its action puzzle RPG elements that has gotten me so excited to play it. The stream was part of their ‘Sega-Nama’ live streaming show hosted by Toshihiro Nagoshi. If you missed it we posted about Puyo Puyo Chronicle‘s the announcement, first trailer and even had a whole SEGA News Bits episode talking about the game.

Puyo Puyo Chronicle will be heading exclusively to the Nintendo 3DS and will release in Japan on December 8, 2016 for 5,490 yen ($54.77 USD) which is actually a bit less than a full price Nintendo 3DS game in Japan. No Western release has been announced thus far, but you never know. We did get 7th Dragon III Code VFD. 

[Source: Gematsu]

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Superdimension Neptunia VS Sega Hard Girls gets western release dates

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Before we have written that Superdimension Neptunia VS Sega Hard Girls was going to get a fall 2016 release date for the PSVita. However, the people at Idea Factory International, the company publishing the game, have announced a release date for the game, along with a overview and English screenshots. Superdimension Neptunia VS Sega Hard Girls is set for a North America release on October 18th, and a Europe release on October 21st. The game will be distributed both physically and digitally, and it will have PlayStation TV compatibility.

[Source: Idea Factory Website]

For the overview and screenshots of the game from Idea Factory, click the Read More tag.

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