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SEGA releases the first Sonic Runners teaser trailer, gameplay details and more

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Sonic Runners is going to be Sonic Team’s big Sonic the Hedgehog mobile developed game and SEGA has finally released the first teaser trailer. You can watch it above. The trailer basically goes through the history of Sonic Team developed Sonic games and starts off with a counter, counting down the years to 2015…

Something to note: The trailer only shows off the retro series and Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (if you count that as part of the retro series). Could this game be more influenced by older retro style Sonic games instead of the recent games?

SEGA also launched a site for the game which revealed that the game will be released in 2015 in Japan for free with premium items available. The game will be available for iPhone 4S and above, iPad 2 or later running iOS 7.0 or above. If you are on Android, you will have to be running OS 2.3 or later (Which means almost any Android phone released can play it.)

The site features an image of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles running through Sonic Lost World‘s Windy Hill with Chao and the Mother Wisp from Sonic Colors DS floating above. Could the classic clips and Sonic 4 indicate that Sonic Team sees Sonic Runners as a successor to the originals, or hint toward a gameplay style? What’s with the Chao and Wisps?

UPDATE: An interview between Iizuka and Famitsu lists a end of February release for the game in Japan. From what we can understand from the interview, characters will run forward on their own and Eggman will make appearances during stages which there appears to be 50 of at first (if we are reading the translation correctly). Tails and Knuckles are also playable, but Sonic is the only character initially available. Famitsu also went hands-on with the game, mentioning a cutscene featuring Sonic, Tails, and Eggman. Jumping appears to vary based on where you tap on the screen, possibly indicating that you tap on enemies to homing attack. The Eggman boss battle appears to have Sonic throwing or knocking back Eggman’s projectiles to defeat him.

What are your thoughts?

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Condemned creator wants to bring the series back

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Jace Hall who is a co-founder and former CEO of Monolith Productions, the developer behind the first two Condemned games has revealed on Facebook that he wants to bring the franchise back. Jace Hall says that he owns the IP and is looking for a proven indie developer that wants to bring the series back.

I am contemplating finding an interested and proven Indie development team AND PROVIDING IT TO THEM, so that they can take over the franchise and move it forward.

As an indie, it can be very hard to get marketing/media attention for a title that you work on. This franchise is already quite known, has market demand, and is in an innovative genre/category. – Jace Hall via Facebook

Condemned: Criminal Origins (Condemned: Psycho Crime in Japan) came out in 2005 as a Xbox 360 launch title worldwide for the console, with a PC port the following year. Shortly after the release of the game, Warner Brothers Studios announced it would make a film adaption called ‘Unforgettable‘. The film had a projected 2008 theatrical release date, but was canceled way before that.

While we didn’t see a Condemned film in 2008, we did see a sequel titled Condemned 2: Bloodshot. This game would not only be released on the Xbox 360, but also on Sony’s Playstation 3. Sadly there wasn’t a PC release of the sequel. Since the sequel didn’t sell as well as the first game, the franchise was put on hold. But maybe it will come back without co-publisher SEGA? What do you guys think about this?

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SEGA Retrospective: Virtua Fighter’s Spin-Offs and Crossovers

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When we kicked off Virtua Fighter week, we took a look back at the main titles from the series. Despite being only five games long, thanks to the many revisions, updates, and upgrades as well as arcade to home console ports, what was five games felt more like ten. While Virtua Fighter didn’t dip into bloody fatalities or energy blasts, there did exist the metallic cyborg final boss Dural. Despite this, Virtua Fighter could be described as a fighter that tends to keep things in the realm of the real world. So where did SEGA-AM2 unleash their pent-up wackiness? In the spin-offs of course!

From 1996 through to today, Virtua Fighter has done everything from turning their adult roster into children, to crossing over with other SEGA fighters and even sharing the ring with a rival franchise! Join us as we look back on the many spin-offs, cameos, and crossovers that the franchise has produced over the years.

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Classic SEGA Ads: Tiger Electronics puts the “L” in Virtua Fighter

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If you thought Virtua Fighter in arcades and on the SEGA Saturn was as real as it could get, Tiger Electronics asks you to think again! Released in 1995, Tiger’s R-Zone (not to be confused with Pizza Hut’s P’Zone) was a portable headset and attached controller that promised a virtual reality experience, but ended up just delivering a headache. Unlike other Tiger Electronic LCD games, R-Zone took cartridges.

Each cartridge contained a transparent LCD display, projecting the game onto a mirrored surface placed just inches from the players eye. As was the norm for VR at the time, red was the color of choice. Leeching off of popular franchises to survive, the R-Zone featured Men in Black, Jurassic Park, Batman, Star Wars, and SEGA’s own Virtua Fighter. Don’t let the ad above deceive you, despite being right in your face, R-Zone’s Virtua Fighter was as far from virtual Virtua Fighter as one could get. Wait… did that kid say “brain chop”?!?

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New Wonder Boy/Monster World game: Monster Boy and the Wizard of Booze announced

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The original creator of the Wonder Boy/Monster World series, Ryuichi Nishizawa, is working together with Game Atelier and FDG Entertainment to make a new game in the series called Monster Boy and the Wizard of Booze. Series composer Shinichi Sakamoto also returns for this new game. It doesn’t look like SEGA is involved, but it’s still very exciting news nonetheless.

This new sequel seems to have a lot in common with Game Atelier’s cancelled Kickstarter game Flying Hamster II, which was going to be a tribute to the Monster World series. It’s especially easy to compare the UI in the two games, and the silhouettes on the Monster Boy teaser site also look a lot like the transformations seen in Flying Hamster II. So it looks like that stuff from that game will be re-purposed for Monster Boy. You can expect the game later this year for PC, Playstation 4, and other unannounced platforms.

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SEGA of America going through another huge restructure, main office is relocating

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Here we go again.

First it was Europe, now SEGA of America is getting hit with some major restructuring. In a statement released earlier today, SegaSammy Holdings announced an “Implementation of structure reform” for SEGA of America. Included in this are some potential layoffs in the forms of “voluntary Retirement” and the San Francisco office moving to a new location in Southern California. Also, there will be a more narrow focus on the “amusement business” division.

However, it’s not all bad news. There will be a reinforcement in the “Sonic and merchandising businesses” and the PC and Mobile divisions will be getting a stronger push possibly due to strong current sales in those markets. The full statement can be found here.

I hope that not too many people are affected by the downsizing and those that do find themselves out of a job, that they find a new one quickly. I guess we shall see how this goes for SEGA.

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SEGABits At Magfest 13: The Write Up

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So, for my first article proper on the site, I figured why not talk about my favorite gaming event of the year, MAGFest, which just wrapped this past weekend at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. In its thirteenth year, this gaming festival was primarily started as a celebration of music in gaming and all the video-game inspired bands that have risen up in the past decade or so, but has grown to become an all-encompassing celebration of gaming culture at large. From gaming developers, artists, journalists, personalities, and even other aspects of geek culture, it truly has something for everyone.

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Attention Westerners: Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax is coming to PS3 & Vita Summer 2015

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Another localization from SEGA is hitting Western consoles this year! Announced on the official Playstation blog, the light novel 2D fighter Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax is set for a Western release exclusively to PS3 and PS Vita in Summer 2015, both digitally and at retail for the US and digital only for Europe. If you want to know what the game is all about, we’d advise you check out Kori-Maru’s 2014 SEGA Game of the Year pick and read SEGA’s announcement at the Playstation blog.

Between this, the SEGA 3D Classics, and Yakuza 5 – it’s a great time for localizations from SEGA West!

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Dj CUTMAN’s “Spindash” – a Sonic the Hedgehog fan-made remix album available now!

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The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise is not new to fan-made remix albums, and given the quality of Sonic music, I can’t blame the many artists out there for being inspired to put their spin on classic tracks. But every once in a while a really special remix album hits, and Dj CUTMAN’s “Spindash” is one of those. The album, licensed by SEGA, is a fitting tribute to SEGA’s blue mascot featuring diverse styles of music and even ventures outside of the 16-bit era to remix tunes from Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Colors.

“Spindash” is available now on Loudr, iTunes, Amazon and Google Play. Dj CUTMAN performed at this past weekend’s MAGFest, and SEGAbits was there! We’ll have coverage from the event up on the site soon, in the meantime check out the album and after the break, read the press release.

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SEGA Tunes: Get moving with Virtua Fighter’s pumping soundtrack

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Virtua Fighter was a ground breaking game for its time and was going up against some of the biggest fighting games made in that era. SEGA needed the whole game to be excellent and in my opinion they got a great complementary soundtrack to go with the revolutionary gameplay.

The first theme we are looking at is Akira’s Theme, this one is more up beat than they would later use. This one doesn’t seem like a theme for a character usually shown meditating and honing his martial arts skills. This is just a good action track, that gets the blood flowing. Its what I would love to hear when I’m in a middle of a fight and any move I make can win or lose the match. Great track, but as Akira’s theme, probably not. Seems the developers agreed as they would give him a more epic tune in Virtua Fighter 2.

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First chapter of the Persona Q manga up on Crunchyroll

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So for those who don’t want to play an 80-hour RPG to see the story of Persona Q, or if you just like manga based on video games, there’s a pretty decent way to get through the story now. If you happen to have a Crunchyroll premium subscription, you can now read the first chapter of the official manga on there.

This manga follows the story from the perspective of the Persona 4 characters. There’s not much different from the game aside from the conversations obviously being a lot shorter and cut down. Following chapters will be released whenever they come out in Japan. Also, I wouldn’t recommend reading it if you haven’t played Persona 4 yet, as it takes place midway through that game’s events.

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Etrian Mystery Dungeon first print editions to come with soundtrack and visual book

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Atlus really knows how to sell games to its fanbase. Not that much into Mystery Dungeon or Etrian Odyssey games? But wait, it comes with a badass visual book, soundtrack and exclusive slip cover. Not only that, they aren’t charging you a penny more than you would spend regularly due to this bundle being exclusive to first print copies.

Etrian Mystery Dungeon hits North American shores on April 7th exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS. No release dates for Europe have been announced yet. Giving this game a chance? Check out the new ‘Protector Class’ trailer after the break.

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This is Saturn celebrates AM2 Month with Fighting Vipers for SEGA Saturn

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Kicking off 2015 in style, This is Saturn celebrates SEGA AM2 month on SEGABits with a look at Fighting Vipers!

One of the very first episodes of This is Saturn covered Fighters Megamix, a crossover between Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers; however, the original release of Fighting Vipers actually has some considerable differences to its representation in Fighters Megamix, and so it’s time for Liam to head back to Armstone City to punch some more people in the face, all whilst discovering the true significance of… Pepsi?

And what’s this about a sequel?

So, an overlooked classic, or a poor attempt to recreate the success of Virtua Fighter? Find out, in this episode of This is Saturn!

This is Saturn is a video series created by British teenager Liam ‘TrackerTD’ Ashcroft, aiming to give an alternative and in-depth look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of SEGA Saturn gaming, all whilst maintaining a somewhat strong accent.

Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel

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Atlus to hold a live stream on which they’ll show new Persona stuff on February 4th

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Yes Yu you are indeed perfect

Atlus has announced that one day before the Persona Super Live 2015 concert starts, that they’ll do a live stream where they’ll announce new Persona stuff and presumably do other Persona things on the Persona Channel website and Nico Nico. This live stream, which will be more than 30 hours long, will start at 1 PM JST on February 4th. So if you’re in Europe it’ll start at 5 AM CET/4 AM GMT, or if you’re in the US it’ll start at 11 PM EST/8 PM PST on February 3rd.

At the very least, we can probably expect news on Persona 5, Persona 4: Dancing All Night and/or Persona 3 The Movie: #3 Falling Down. And who knows, maybe they’ll announce other new Persona stuff while they’re at it. And if it’s going to be anything like the last time they did a live stream where they announced new Persona stuff, most of it’s probably gonna be a countdown and a bunch of crazy stuff we won’t be able to understand even if we knew Japanese.

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Dreamcast controller mod takes the Wii U pad to the next level

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Imagine if SEGA released a color screen on the Dreamcast controller, but not only that it would act like the Wii U and allow you to play games in your controller. Crazy right? I guess if you want it badly enough everything is possible as this hack shows. The modified controller features a 3.5 inch color screen that will display on both a connected TV and on the controller. So what if you wanted to just play on the controller? What about sound? Yes, it has built in speakers. But where does the VMU go? It actually has a VMU built in as well!

If you want to see it in action, hit the jump. If you want to read a more detailed article, click here.

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