Watch the Valkyria Chronicles anime now on Crackle in North America

You read that right. Crackle, Sony’s free streaming video service which is available on PS3, XBOX 360 and online, includes many anime programs which they own the rights to. Turns out, one of them is Valkyria Chronicles. It includes all 26 episodes subtitled. This is a great opportunity for fans to see this rare anime which hasn’t been released on DVD yet. Watch the full series at Crackle’s site now! Or watch it on your PS3 or XBOX 360 via the Crackle app.

SEGA announces release dates for Jet Set Radio Vita and Mobile

While the HD version of Jet Set Radio has been out since September, fans were left wondering when the Vita and mobile versions would be announced. SEGA’s blog has the answers! Jet Set Radio is heading to iOS, Android Devices and Playstation Vita. Vita players get the game on the 20th of November, and iOS and Android fans can buy the game on the 29th of November. In North America, the game will be a PlayStation Plus Vita Instant Game Collection launch title. PS Plus members can enjoy Jet Set Radio for free from November 20th through December 31st. After the break, screens of the Vita and mobile versions!

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed hits shelves early, and new details emerge…

… but we aren’t going to write what they are! Why spoil the surprise? Instead, we’ll leave it up to readers if they want to head on over to the original Gamefaqs post where the spoilers began, or check out our forums where we’re discussing the new bits of information in spoiler tags. Until SEGA or Sumo Digital share things officially, we won’t be posting blurry photos of television screens or descriptions of the new tracks in news posts. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed releases officially later this week!

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First 4 Figures teases Shadow the Hedgehog statue

First 4 Figures are at it again, teasing another of their Sonic the Hedgehog statues. This time, the company are adding Shadow to their line of modern era statues, which began with Sonic the Hedgehog. The Sonic statue as well as the Shadow statue have yet to release. Both are available for pre-order, with Sonic slated for a Q1 2013 release, and Shadow slated for an unspecified date. First 4 Figures, however, has revealed the pre-order date, which begins November 11th. Personally, I find these statues to be incredibly cool but far outside my price range. It’s a shame First 4 Figures never expanded their awesome, and affordable, classic Sonic vinyl figures. Still, those who have been collecting all of these statues as well as the Shadow fans out there should be very happy to hear the news.

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Sonic the Fighters Achievements Revealed

The achievements for the HD rerelease of Sonic the Fighters have been revealed, and they seem rather easy to attain. I’m sure plenty of folks would get all the achievements within minutes. There are a total of 12 achievements to earn, and all together are worth 400 gamerscore points. I wish there was a Super Sonic achievement to make it a bit more challenging. Hit the jump to see the achievements.

SEGA Five: A Salute to the SEGA All-Stars Part 4

I can’t believe that four weeks have passed since we began this salute to the SEGA All-Stars appearing in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed! Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 can be viewed at those handy links. If you’re all caught up with us, let me introduce you to our five All-Stars for this week: Ulala of Space Channel 5, Shadow of Shadow the Hedgehog (oh, and some franchise called Sonic the Hedgehog), Sonic’s not-quite girlfriend Amy Rose, Aiai’s wife MeeMee and our flagman of the game Ristar.

New Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed trailer shows off the Wii U’s features

This morning, Sega put up another trailer for Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed. This time, the focus is on all the features of the Wii U version. Features shown include 5 player split-screen, 10 player online, rear view and weapon view cameras, optional tilt control and more. If the video is indicative of the Wii U version, it’s looking pretty smooth. Now you know why this is the version I’m picking up with my launch Wii U.

And you too can pick Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed on Wii U, 360 or PS3 when it races into stores November 18th.

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Pier Solar HD project hits Kickstarter, Dreamcast named as one of the platforms

We’ve written about the indie SEGA Genesis game Pier Solar a number of times, and here we are writing about it again. WaterMelon Co., the team behind the original game, are taking to Kickstarter in hopes of funding an HD version of the game for a number of platforms including the SEGA Dreamcast. Other platforms include Xbox 360, PC, Mac and Linux. As you can see above, and at their Kickstarter page, the game is making a big graphical leap! If fully funded, the project appears to have an estimated completion date of December 2013. All the details concerning the project can be found over at their Kickstarter page, but after the break check out the SEGA related bits.

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Cool art print: The Genesis and SNES as giant fighting robots

The internet is never short of crazy fan made SEGA goodies. From Daniel Dussault comes an awesome piece of fan art which depicts the 90’s console war as two console-inspired robots in battle. The piece originated at the Fangamer VERSUS Attract Mode Art Show during PAX Prime 2012. Now, SEGA (or Nintendo) fans fans can own their very own print of the piece by hitting up the Fangamer site. The print is $20 and measures 24″ x 16″. Hit up the link for more images of the print and make sure to share it with your friends!

Thanks to SEGAbits reader and forum member Randroid for the heads up!

Sega posts Employment Ad related to the Virtua Fighter series. Is something special coming up?

Just two days late posting this great news but other than that, Sega of Japan posted a Job Ad for 3 part time positions to work with AM2 and on the Virtua Fighter series. The job description includes assisting with production, organizing/creating events, and working on the VF.net mobile website. They are also looking for fans of the VF series. The deadline for the ad ends on December 7th and the job begins on Febuary 1, 2013. Could AM2 be working on a new Virtua Fighter anniversary title, Fighting Vipers, or VF6? Either way, I’m excited about it. Our forum members are even talking about it right now.

Yakuza 1 & 2 HD places 3rd in Japanese debut

It appears that the PS3 debut of Yakuzas 1 and 2 didn’t fare too badly. Not the first time that either game has been given the re-release treatment, this latest edition bundles them together and sports a resolution update along with new difficulty options; it was evidently enough to achieve third place and sales of 58,138. It goes without saying that no Western release is currently planned.

First place belonged to Namco Bandai’s latest Tales game, Tales of Xillia 2, with 364,439 sold. Second place meanwhile was occupied by another HD-enhanced port; this one none other than Clover Studios’ incredible action/adventure game, Okami, which sold 68,644 copies.

Hit the jump for the full Japanese weekly charts courtesy of CvG, even if just to see the 3DS’ continuing domination of all other hardware in its homeland.

The Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed achievement icons are full of SEGA fan service!

While we’ve known of the Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed achievement names and conditions for quite some time, we haven’t really seen all the icons for the achievements until today. From the looks of it, the icons double as license stickers. So complete an achievement, and you unlock a circular sticker to slap on your in-game license. While some achievement icons feature non-SEGA images like a photo camera and a gold star, other are incredibly cool! Like, for example, the star of the Dreamcast cult classic Segagaga and even the logo of a popular Dreamcast racing game. After the break, check out all the icons!

Fan translation for Valkyria Chronicles III underway

Right now a few hardcore Valkyria Chronicles fans are translating the 3rd entry of the franchise, Valkyria Chronicles III. The game was released last year in Japan on PSP and since the PSP is basically dead outside of Japan, we can stop hoping for SEGA to bring it over. But don’t fear, seems that the translation is going good.The team is working on a patch for the regular edition and also the Extra Edition.

Apparently lots of the main text has already been translated and the placing of the text on screen has been tested. The main issue right now is the character limits on the main menus. So how will it work? How can you patch the game? Sadly you will need to have custom firmware installed on your PSP. If you want to keep your PSP legit, you might want to hold off on hacking it since the team is working on a softmod that will only require a special firmware installed on your memory card.

If you want to check out updates on the project, head over to their official blog.

 

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Danica Patrick finishes 14th in O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge

What the hell is this? SEGAbits reporting on sporting events? Well, those who are following Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed should remember that Danica Patrick and Hot Wheels teamed up with SEGA to feature Danica Patrick in the upcoming video game, in turn SEGA sponsored Danica in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge, which took place on November 3rd At Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. Per the race results, Danica Patrick finished 14th out of 43 racers. Check out a gallery of images from the race here, and read a more detailed telling of Danica’s race here.

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f has sold over 230,000 units


Back when the game was released in September, it reported it sold 186,000 copies. Now a few months after its release, SEGA reports that the title has reached 230,000 copies sold. Sadly SEGA didn’t specify if they included Playstation Store digital units in the sales figure or not.

The developers have stated that the game might have had too big of a budget and that they were aiming on this title being the best selling Vita game for 2012. So was it? Well, its competition is actually Persona 4: Golden, a Vita port of the PS2 Atlus RPG Persona 4, which has sold 260,000 copies in Japan. The year isn’t over, Hatsune Miku can still take the crown for the best selling Vita game of 2012. The only issue is, Persona 4: Golden is coming out in the west and Project Diva f isn’t.