What happens when you take Sega’s special brand of lunacy, a Western developer, a digital platform, and toss it all in a blender? This game. I didn’t really care for Hell Yeah’s debut trailer or initial screens. Perhaps it had something to do with the opening trailer’s focus on gore, I’m not really sure. All I did know was I was disinterested. Needless to say, after playing the demo, my interest has been caught.
SEGA has revealed the release date for Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2. So when can you pick the game up? If you are on PSN, you will be able to purchase the title on May 15th. Xbox 360 will have to wait until May 16th, the next day.
The iOS and PC version of the title will be coming out in May as well, but there hasn’t been a specific release date announced yet. If you are an Android user, you will be able to pick up the game in June and if you are a Windows Phone 7 user, you will have to wait all the way until July.
What platform are you picking it up on?
SEGA has filed trademarks for Flick of the Dead. What could this possibly be? Well, first of all its going to be a House of the Dead spin-off, that much is for sure. If SEGA’s latest iOS title, Miku Flick, is any indication, its going to be a House of the Dead title on smartphones.
What do I want it to be? I wish it was a full console release game where you play zombie filled stages from various zombie movies from the past three or so decades. Come on, that’s cooler than a mobile game, right?
See Shigs, I can do puns to!
Greetings, SEGAbitters. This Nuckles87, talking to you from PAX EAST. Today, I would like to announce a little contest I’ll be running while I’m at PAX: an easter egg hunt. In this case, the easter egg is me, or more specifically, my 3DS’s Mii. You have to street pass me with your 3DS!
My Mii is a rather portly fellow in a blue shirt wearing a pirate hat, named Alex. He greets you with the SEGAbits web address, so you’ll know it’s me! More details below the fold.
SEGA of Japan’s Sonic the Hedgehog 4 site has updated to reflect yesterday’s news, however there are a few new additions. For one thing, the unnamed desert stage will be known as Oil Desert Zone. Simple, but it fits. The site has also added twelve new screens of the zone, showing off new gimmicks and badniks. The site also has a cleaned up version of yesterday’s trailer, in true HD and without the Gamestop watermark. Other additions to the site include the confirmation of the $15 price tag, unchanged from the first episode. Also, there are badnik profiles and a story tab that shows Little Planet approaching Earth. The story text is in Japanese, so any readers who know the language, if you can translate it that would be “boss” of you.
Update: Added nine more images, courtesy of Andriasang.com, the images include more Oil Desert screens, high res “box art” and screens from Episode Metal.
Gamespot’s On the Spot internet show has just revealed that Metal Sonic will be playable in Sonic 4 Episode 1. Dubbed “Episode Metal”, the new play mode will be unlocked for owners of both episodes. Episode Metal promises: a playable Metal Sonic (duh), four exclusive levels and promises that fans will “discover the rebirth of Metal Sonic”. So a Sonic CD side story, perhaps? Ken Balough likened it to Sonic & Knuckles Lock-On technology. The episode 1 stages are reworked and are promised to bridge the gap between Sonic CD and Sonic 4. The show also revealed a new trailer showing off a sand zone that up until now was only seen in a single screen leaked on XBOX.com. Release dates were also given for the game: May 15th – PS3, May 16th – Xbox 360, May – PC, iOSn Tegra devices, June – Android, July – Windows phone. You can view the full video here, skip to 29:00.
Xplay has today previewed the upcoming (and expensive-looking) Aliens: Colonial Marines, a game that has gotten no shortage of attention, not only for its status as a sequel to the legendary Alien film franchise, but also for its lengthy development time: something quickly becoming a legend all its own.
This preview highlights some of the game’s environments, details the plot, and shows off plenty of gameplay. It’ll be interesting to see whether this becomes the hit that SEGA desperately seems to need.
Aliens: Colonial Marines is set to release (hopefully) later this year.
Last Friday we learned the sad news that SEGA West was restructuring, downsizing and canceling certain games. I think we’ve all discussed the news enough, what I wanted to focus on in this editorial are the gaming sites who did an awful job of reporting the news. For whatever reason, unpaid fans who write for blogs do a better job reading press releases and reporting on them than big name sites like Kotaku. I also wanted to draw attention to a general gaming blog, toplessrobot.com, who did an equally awful job in reporting on the news.
UPDATE: Penny Arcade 3 and Rock Band Blitz have been confirmed giving even more credibility to this list. I believe we can consider SA2 all but confirmed.
A list of upcoming XBLA titles has been leaked onto the web via NEOGAF. Allegedly, the source of this list is Microsoft’s Partnernet service, which has notoriously been the source of numerous leaks in the past, including the infamous Sonic 4 Episode 1 leak back in 2010.
Among the games listed are Sonic Adventure 2 and Vintage titles Streets of Rage and Golden Axe. Another leaked title, Rock Band Blitz, could be the title to make or break the validity of this list, as that game’s developer, Harmonix, is expected to debut their next title this weekend at PAX East. If anything becomes of these rumors, we’ll be sure to report it.
Until then, you can find the complete list of leaked titles at the source below.
Update: Rock Band Blitz has been revealed on G4.
Hajya pal! Once again, the Australian ratings board is leaking out more Game Gear info. Two more Game Gear games have been leaked by being rated for the 3DS Virtual Console and this time it’s some serious RPG fanservice! Defenders of Oasis, an old-school traditional 8-Bit RPG done in the One Thousand and One Nights style and Shining Force: Sword of Hajya, another in the line of fan-favorite tactical RPG’s. Both should hopefully be out later this year.
Face it, your avatar looks like crap. It needs something, like a Tails hoodie or a miniature Snowy the Polar Bear. Well SEGA and Microsoft want you to look your best for when Sonic 4 Episode 2 releases, so they’ve released a ton of new avatar items for you to play with! The new items include: An item monitor hooked up to a SEGA Genesis, complete with a Sonic 4 Episode 2 game case and cartridge for you to play, male and female logo shirts, male and female Sonic and Tails branded hoodies complete with ears and spikes on the hood, a half-pipe special stage for your avatar to run in, Tails and Metal Sonic plush dolls, a badnik buddy two pack, a Metal Sonic mask, a Flicky capsule toy and a full body Tails suit. If you have an XBOX account, you can head on over to the online store now to see samples of these items in action. The item monitor and Genesis console item has an especially funny animation. After the break, a gallery of all the goodies!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2dFzO_LEAFE#!
Ever wonder how Eggman captures all those little animals and stuffs them into a capsule? A recently released hack of Sonic the Hedgehog answers this question with “Dr.Robotnik’s Creature Capture”! The game has you, as Robotnik aka Eggman, running about the first Sonic the Hedgehog’s stages catching animals with a net and placing them in a capsule. Once the capsule is full, you must find the sign post and turn it from Sonic to Robotnik, thus setting the stage for Sonic the Hedgehog. Hurry and fill that capsule before Sonic begins his own game! So in essence, it’s a prequel.
You can find the game at sonicresearch.org, so give it a play and if you’re inclined to leave them a comment, let them know SEGAbits sent you.
Even though we recently have been hit by the recent layoff news, SEGA is set to release Rhythm Thief & The Emperor’s Treasure on April 5th in Europe. Here is the game’s launch trailer above. If you want to see the euro website, click here. Has samples of some of the awesome music you will find in the full game.
Sadly if you live in America, like me, you will have to wait all the way till July 10th to get your hands on this game. That isn’t very fair, now is it?
A little over a week back, we featured screens of two new SEGA Vintage Collection releases. One bundles together three Monster World games, including the newly translated Monster World IV. The second collection brings together three SEGA classics: Alex Kidd in Miracle World, The Revenge of Shinobi and Super Hang On. Thanks to Siliconera, we have even more screens to show of the collections. The coolest of these screens shows off the Alex Kidd menu, which confirms that Hang On will be the arcade version, thus making the collection a sampler of Master System, Genesis and arcade SEGA classics. After the break, take a look at even more screens including more menu shots!
Following SEGA West’s announcements, many SEGA fans were immediately left wondering what the new direction means for lesser known and new IPs like Rhythm Thief and Anarchy Reigns. While we don’t know the status of the former, we can comment on the latter. Gaming news site GamingBiz.com reached out to SEGA over the weekend asking what the status is of Anarchy Reigns and SEGA responded:
Anarchy Reigns may appear to be a new IP, but it is actually building on the characters featured in 2009’s MadWorld. In anticipation of the July release, which is still scheduled, expect a series of trailers reminding fans of the MadWorld connection. Also, we know it’s no secret that Bayonetta has been revealed as a bonus character. Given Bayonetta’s popularity, we believe that giving her representation in marketing and on the revised boxart will increase awareness of Anarchy Reigns.
A new title and revised boxart? That’s quite a big change for the game, but it makes sense. SEGA wants to focus on popular established IPs, so putting more emphasis on the game’s MadWorld and Bayonetta connections is a very smart move. This also appears to mean that Bayonetta will not be a DLC character, but rather a guest character much like how Banjo-Kazooie were called out on All-Stars Racing box art. Read the full article at GamingBiz.com and don’t trust everything you read on a day like today, even if it doesn’t sound so crazy.