Rumor: The upcoming Sonic movie by Sony Pictures is going to be “dark”

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According to Hollywood insider site The Tracking Board, the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie that is rumored to be coming by Sony Pictures is going to be dark.

It’s recently been confirmed that a movie adaptation of SONIC THE HEDGEHOG is in development at Columbia Pictures, with the studio going for a dark, edgy version skewed towards older audiences! NOT ONLY this, but the studio plans to make it a mix of live-action and animation, allowing the much loved character to really meld with reality.

From the way The Tracking Board is talking about this movie, it sounds like it is a ways away from release. Also, it’s just a rumor at the moment, so it’s also possible the info they have could be completely false, but it’s always fun to speculate.

Yu Suzuki working on an unannounced project, thinking about crowd funding Shenmue III

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Yu Suzuki has teased that he is ‘working on something’. What is this mysterious project? Is it SEGA publishing related? Who knows, he isn’t speaking about the project right now.

“Just now, I don’t have anything I can say yet,” he smiled. “I can’t announce right now – but I’m making something.”

This isn’t the first time that the idea of crowd funding Shenmue III has come up, we reported a similar story last year. This time? He says he is looking into it. So what genre do you want the upcoming, unannounce Yu Suzuki project to be? A racer? Fighting? His catalog of classic games is spread too wide between genres to please everyone.

Insider reports that Tetsuya Mizuguchi has walked out on Q Entertainment

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CVG reports that an insider has let leak that Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Sega Rally Championship, Rez, Child of Eden, Lumines, Every Extend Extra) has left Q Entertainment, a studio Mizuguchi co-founded in 2003. Mizuguchi’s departure actually took place in 2013, however this was kept quiet from the public until last week when an employee at the company notified CVG that chief executive Shuji Utsumi had also left the company. It is believed that Utsumi’s departure is due to Q Entertainment’s stock being acquired by Sanyo Chemical Industries. CVG reports that these claims are not verified, due to Q Entertianment lacking an English-speaking spokesperson, however CVG was able to confirm via another source that Mizuguchi has left the group.

We wish Mizuguchi, and Utsumi, the best of luck in their future endeavors. Who knows, maybe Mizuguchi could return to SEGA?

Transformers: Human Alliance arcade cabinet unboxing

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SEGA’s next big arcade game in the West is ‘Transformers: Human Alliance’ which the guys over at Arcade Heroes got an unboxing of! Seems that SEGA is throwing in quite a nice promotional packages for stores that purchase the latest cabinet.

” I have to say that this is the first time I have been impressed with marketing materials to be provided with a brand new arcade game. Usually you get…nothing. On rare occasion you might get something like a poster but nothing like what comes with every single Transformers arcade machine. Kudos to Sega for giving arcade ops something more akin to what movie theaters get to promote new releases.”

Check out the gallery of assembly photos over at Arcade Heroes’ blog!

Cracked: 4 Social Criticisms Hidden in ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ Games


Imagine if this whole time you played Sonic the Hedgehog, you weren’t winning, you where falling for Eggman’s plans the whole time? Well, the grown ass men over at Cracked.com have posted a new video detailing four social criticisms that are present in Sonic the Hedgehog.

Now if you’d excuse me, my mind has been blown. Just leave me in this Hedgehog wonderland created by Robotnik.

Hardlight Studio developing Crazy Taxi: City Rush for iOS and Android devices

Update: We’ve added footage of the game in action above, check it out!

SEGA’s Hardlight Studio in cooperation with Kenji Kanno, the man behind the original Crazy Taxi, are back to make more crazy money in Crazy Taxi: City Rush – coming later this year to iOS and Android devices. In an interview with Polygon, producer Stephen Ye described the upcoming free-to-play game as something for “casual players and die-hard Crazy Taxi fans in the mobile space”. A teaser trailer, found after the break, reveals that B.D. Joe has set up shop and is employing players to drive customizable cabs. The game will feature music from some licensed music from indie bands as well as offering players the ability to create their own playlists from their device’s music library.

During their hands on with the game, Polygon noted that the gas pedal is permanently floored and breaking for passengers is done via tapping the screen. Turning requires swiping or moving your finger in a specific direction. Despite the simplified controls, the game was described as being “as frantic as console versions, thanks to the need to dodge cars or quickly switch lanes”. Being a mobile title, daily challenges will be available, and if players connect to Facebook they will be able to pick up their friends as customers within the game. And, as Ye told Polygon, “the more Facebook friends you have, the more social missions you have in the game”. Players can even visit their friends garages to view their cars, and clean them to earn in-game currency.

Crazy Taxi: City Rush will release later this year worldwide, and will be released in Canada and Australia this month as part of a soft launch to prepare the game for a worldwide audience. After the break, more screens and a teaser trailer!

Retro Review: Hard Drivin’

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People don’t often think of the Genesis as a polygon pusher…mostly because it wasn’t. That didn’t stop some developers from trying to turn it into one though! Enter Hard Drivin’, a port of Atari’s 1988 3D polygon racing game. Ported to the Genesis in 1991, this game was one of the earliest examples of 3D graphics on a home console and given the limitations of the hardware, is surprisingly not a complete and utter disaster. That is not to say the game is good, though. Far from it in fact.

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Cancelled Dreamcast era Sonic Adventure Burger King Kid’s Club concept art appears on ebay

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An incredibly cool collection of Sonic art appeared on ebay in the form of concept art for a cancelled Burger King Kid’s Club line of Sonic Adventure toys. The listings feature ten toys, with six pieces of artwork each: a clean inked drawing, two marked up versions with notes from SEGA on color and callouts, a final inked piece, and then mock-ups of the final slip of paper you’d find packaged with the toy. The seller claims they came across the concept art in a warehouse find of several pieces of concept art for various products. This claim is backed up by several other pieces of art for various products in his ebay store. These are the only SEGA related ones, however.

As ebay listings don’t last forever, and because we can’t afford to buy all ten for $150 each ($1,500 total for 60 pieces of art), we’ve saved all the images from the listing in a gallery after the break. Had the set gone through to production, we would have seen ten toys: Rip Roaring Robotnik (spelled “Robotnic” on the art and corrected in the final version), Somersaultin’ Snowboardin’ Sonic, “Go Gamma Go!”, Knuckles Goes for a Spin, Twistin’ Twirlin’ Tails, Frog-Catchin’ Cat (oddly, Big’s name isn’t mentioned on the final version), Noisy Amy, Super Sonic Sled, Turbo-Prop Tails, and Walk ‘Em Sock ‘Em Knuckles.

After the break, a full gallery of the images from these auctions.

Reminder: Shenmue Postmortem Panel on 3/19 at 2014 GDC

The annual Game Developers Conference will be taking place in California throughout next week. There are various panels available on topics related to the gaming industry to listen in on for attendees. However, of particular note is the Shenmue Postmortem featuring then-series director Yu Suzuki and PS4 architect Mark Cerny as Suzuki’s translator. It will be taking place on March 19, 2014 at 2:00 PM US Pacific Time and will close at 3:00 PM.

Per the GDC website’s description of the panel, Yu Suzuki will be discussing the origins and development history of the first title starting as a Virtua Fighter RPG for the SEGA Saturn and its eventual release as the Dreamcast cult classic.

The GDC panels are not typically streamed or otherwise made available to non-attendees; however, Gamespot plans to stream this particular panel. With the panel fast approaching, you may want to make time to watch it if you will be available!

Alien Isolation developer diary looks at the creation of the game’s alien

SEGA has just released a developer diary for their upcoming game Alien Isolation, developed in-house by The Creative Assembly. As mentioned in countless interviews, the team’s goal is to make the alien scary again. This is a sentiment shared by many fans who have played recent Aliens titles, in which the AI was disappointing and the aliens themselves are plentiful. In Alien Isolation, players can expect a larger, less predictable, “life like” alien that is “intelligent, unpredictable, and extremely dangerous”. The aim is to make sure the player never feels safe, and every action the player makes just may influence the lone alien.

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New Japanese Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed footage surfaces ft Takenobu Mitsuyoshi


SEGA of Japan has recently uploaded a new game play footage of the Japanese edition of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. This time showing off more changes such as Takenobu Mitsuyoshi as the announcer as announced before, game play modes and several characters voiced by their Japanese seiyuu . Many SEGA racing fans would be pleased to hear Mitsuyoshi-san exciting voice as they cross the finish line. At the end of the video, the SEGA All-Stars Premium Sound Collection will be available upon release. The Japanese edition of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed will cross the finish line in Japan on May 15th on PS3 and WiiU.

SEGA in the Charts: MediaCreate charts for March 3 – 9 March 2014

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Entering its third week in the charts, Ryu Ga Gotoku: Ishin was on the verge of breaking the 300,000 barrier and already overtaken Kenzan! As the second most successful spinoff in the series, the latest title set its sights on overcoming Yakuza: Of the End’s total sales. Hit the break to find out how the title performed this week and historical sales of the previous titles in the series.