Nintendo of America have tweeted that Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is set to release on March 18th for the Nintendo 3DS.
As for the Wii U version, Nintendo posted on their Facebook post that it will be coming ‘later this year’. Why the lack of release date for the Wii U version? No idea.
Anyone looking forward to this game?
Before the year closed SEGA teamed up with Arc System Works and Koei Tecmo to host APM D-1 FIGHTING FESTIVAL over in Japan. It was a massive tournament mean’t to highlight their various properties and support the community of players.
You can see the full ten hour tournament video or you can see time stamps below:
SEGA’s Japanese tournament was rather more intense than traditional tournaments. Once you lost, you were eliminated, there was no loser brackets here. SEGA posted a results page for the tournament here. Jawa Curry Akira (who obviously played Akira) won the Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate can be seen crying after his victory here. Chin up man, we too are hoping for a Virtua Fighter 6!
[Via Shoryuken]
Do you have a Playstation 4, Playstation 3 and/or Playstation Vita? Guess what? You can now download the demo for Atlus and Vinalliaware’s remake of Odin Sphere (if you live in Japan or have a Japanese account)! Yeah, that great Playstation 2 game is now coming to all your current Sony consoles.
Seems that each version of the demo has a different file size, for example the PS4 demo weighs in at 442 MB, PS3 at 423 MB, and the PS Vita one at 250 MB.
The demo will allow you to play as all five characters though an action stage that has been configured for the demo and even have a boss battle with “Belial“. Sadly there won’t be any story parts and you won’t be able to use the demo data in the full release.
Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir comes out in Japan on January 14th and later this Spring in North America.
[Via: Gematsu]
Valkyria Chronicles Remaster is close to release over in Japan that it has now launched its Japanese Playstation webpage that provides a ton of new screenshots for the remastered Playstation 4 game.
If you didn’t already know this version will run at a full 1080p, feature Playstation Network Trophies (the Playstation 3 version didn’t have any) and will included all the downloadable content released for the original.
This game is set to launch on February 10th over in Japan and first print copies come with a battle demo for Valkyria: Azure Revolution. No western release dates have been announced for the remaster or Azure Revolution.
Metacritic have released their list of the 25 best reviewed 3DS titles of 2015 where SEGA and Atlus have swept the floor with the competition. Metacritic– for those who don’t know– compiles review scores from major video game critics to find the average score.
SEGA and Atlus boast almost half of the list with 12 of the 25 spots, including two of the highest rated games; 3D Streets of Rage II and 3D Gunstar Heroes both scoring a well deserved 89/100. (Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask 3D also scored 89.)
Also worth mentioning is SEGA and Atlus’ success on the PS Vita in 2015, where they claimed 5 of the top 25 best scoring games.
Unsurprisingly the duo didn’t fair so well on home console, having barely released anything for those systems 2015. Choosing to bump many of their games in 2016 for longer development cycles.
Hit the jump for the full list of 3DS titles in Metacritics 2015 highest scoring list..
The indie publisher Super Fighter Team isn’t new to the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive scene, they are known as the people that brought over Beggar Prince and Legend of Wukong to SEGA’s 16-bit machine. Now they release not one, but two new SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive games on cartridge.
The first game is Magic Girl, a Taiwanese scrolling shooter that was released back in 1993. The game stayed in Taiwan and became a obscure relic of the 90s. But now Super Street Fighter Team have picked it up and given it a proper translation!
Cascade is a intergalactic dice puzzler with its own unique style. This game was developed by Epyx and was set to hit the land of the rising sun back in the 90s. Now that Super Street Fighter team picked up the rights, everyone gets to enjoy it the way it was mean’t to be played.
The games come complete with manual, box and the game on cartridge. Each game costs $58 dollars including shipping if you live in America, $65 including shipping worldwide.
[Via: RetroCollect]
We’re always ones for a good SEGA-inspired Kickstarter here at Bits, and it’s that time again; with Noctet Studio’s Slipstream being the latest object of our affections.
We’ve covered a few SEGA-themed racers such as Drift Stage and The 90’s Arcade Racer in the past, but rest assured; Slipstream is aiming for something very different to those games. It’s more focused on being a pure driving game than just a racing game, a la OutRun. And it’s not just in gameplay either; Slipstream makes clever use of sprite-scaling to deliver an authentic look that’ll be plenty familiar to fans of the 80’s and 90’s heydays for SEGA driving titles such as Rad Mobile, and the aforementioned OutRun, all on a custom engine at a smooth 60fps. The influences even stretch beyond the racing classics of SEGA’s past; because we can’t not look at that Casino district and see Casino Night from Sonic the Hedgehog 2!
Happy 2016! With the new year comes an update on Shenmue 3! While the latest Kickstarter project update doesn’t get into any of the development, the results are in for the survey asking whether or not rewards exclusive to Kickstarter backers should be made available to PayPal backers. Initially, this survey was held on Twitter, which many cited as being unfair since it was open to anybody and not just Kickstarter backers. Thankfully, Ys Net listened and held a new survey exclusive to Kickstarter backers. The survey shows that while the “Yes’s” outweighed the “No’s”, the “No’s” and “Either’s” were to great to be ignored and it has been decided that Kickstarter exclusives will not be made available to PayPal backers.
Over at TSSZ News, site owner Tristan Oliver got himself cozy with a SEGA inside source who tells him that SEGA will continue to port to PC. Not that its a secret, considering that SEGA Europe openly tweeted as such but the interesting bit was what SEGA PC Ports they are considering.
According to TSSZ’s source, the lineup of upcoming SEGA PC ports will be extensive. One of the bigger titles that surprised me was the mention of Yakuza 0, but according to the source its just a idea the team has shot around and isn’t finalized.
According to TSSZ the following titles are ‘high priority’ SEGA PC ports:
Seems that SEGA won’t stop there as their source also talked about them wanting to port several Atlus games. So far SEGA has put out at least one PC port a year, so it might be quite awhile before we see all these titles.
So what do you guys think about this rumor? True or false? Any games not mentioned that deserve a PC port?
[Source: TSSZ]
While it’s not the video game, some form of Phantasy Star Online 2 will be making its way to North America thanks to anime licensing company Sentai Filmworks which has picked up the distribution rights for “Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation” in North America. In a press release dated today, Sentai Filmworks revealed that the anime series will be a part of their winter 2016 anime season lineup. Sentai Filmworks releases anime on both traditional and digital media platforms, so expect “Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation” to be released on one of or both of those formats, and based on Sentai Filmworks’ past releases a home video release is possible.
After the break, read the full press release.
Seems that SEGA likes to be really abstract on these Yakuza localization release dates. Not only was Yakuza 5 suppose to release in November, then barely made it in late December but Yakuza 0 seems that it is being aimed for 2017. That would mean by the time it gets here the game would be 2 years old, Yakuza 1 remaster and Yakuza 6 would already be out in Japan. What a vicious cycle of playing catch up for American fans.
Awhile back SEGA released a trailer stating that the game was coming out for both Americans and Europeans, but now SEGA has stated that they have no plans yet for a European release.
What do you guys think? Is waiting till 2017 for a localization of Yakuza 0 too long? Could it be that Sony is using 2017 as a place holder instead of ‘TBA’?
[Via: Playstation LifeStyle]
Nintendo has opened the official Japanese website for Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, this was for the 3DS version of the game. The page detailed various things including the sporting events, character roster, amiibo support, and various modes.
There are a total of 14 Olympic sports included in this handheld title. This includes soccer, golf, 100m dash, 110m hurdle, long jump, javelin throw, 100m freestyle swim, archery, boxing, table tennis, beach volley, equestrian, BMX, and rhythmic gymnastic hoop. This will also include 14 extra competition events which are basically one of these with gimmicks added from the Mario & Sonic series.
Local play is only possible if each person has a copy of the game, but the game will feature ‘Download Play’ mode which will let you play with people that don’t have the game but these users will have a limited selection of characters to play as.
Talking about characters, hit the jump to see the 40 characters (not including Miis) that will be in the game.
[Via Nintendo Everything]
Take a gander at Valkyria Chronicles Remastered in this beautiful new trailer that’ll reminding you just how charming the first entry in this acclaimed series was.
Valkyria Chronicles Remastered was announced for the PS4 along side the newest edition to the Valkyria franchise, Valkyria: Azures Revolution, (PS4). Azure Revolution which takes the series in a new medieval meets steam-punk direction will exist parallel to the Chronicles series meaning Valkyria fans may have a lot to look forward too in 2016 and the years to come.
Personally I can’t wait to triple dip on Valkyria Chronicles or find out more about Valkyria: Azures Revolution. If you didn’t already know, all first print copies of Valkyria Chronicles Remaster will come with a demo of Valkyria: Azures Revolution! Squad 7 Move Out!
Another new unit for the highly anticipated Warhammer Total War. Dressed in nothing but a rancid loincloth and tribal blue warpaint, the Savage Orcs are an intimidating force, even amongst other Orcs.
In Greenskin society, might makes right and bigger is always better. The very biggest Orcs earn the honoured title of ‘Big ‘Uns’ and Savage Orc Big ‘Uns are among the meanest and fightiest of the lot. Mounted on boar-back, they are almost unstoppable. These heavy hitters represent the most elite cavalry the Greenskins have to offer, and are some of the most formidable in the Old World.
Warhammer: Total War is set to released April 28th, 2016!
Update: So after a bit of internet sleuthing and comments from those who have dealt with SEGA home console conspiracy artists in the past, all of this very well may be the work of the infamous Zach Morris. Mr. Morris, or whatever his name is, has been up to this sort of nonsense since 2003.
Because people often just read headlines and run to their local GameStop to have a in-depth chat with the guy at the desk to talk about how SEGA is totally making a new console and it is going to be dubbed the Dreamcast 2, I thought I’d present a short opinion piece on the Project Dream team and their plans to get SEGA to develop a Dreamcast 2. To be quite honest, after having read the Project Dream team’s plans and having heard about the project with one of their members for the past month I was ready to just ignore the whole thing. But given a few news sites are enthusiastically running the story and no doubt more will pick it up and run with it, I thought it best that SEGAbits said something about it. I should make note that this is not a news piece, it is an opinion piece.