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The voice behind City Escape!

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Ain’t it awesome? =3 Ted Poley has released a behind the scenes video of him recording his beautiful voice for City Escape.

This is my holiday gift to the gamers out there, this is from my own private collection. this is a full take all the way through of a recent session to re-do the song ESCAPE FROM THE CITY as a tribute to the 20th anniversary of Sonic. Some,or most of this “take” made the final cut. Its not as easy as it looks, it took many hours to prep and rehearse so that i could nail it in the studio while the clock was ticking,plus, i wrote the lyrics so i was very familiar with the song….this gives a rare behind the scenes look at what it takes to get it right,this was the final take so there are some other vocals already on the track that you will hear leaking out from my headphones. I wrote the lyrics and a brand new bridge section for this new version, and Tony Harnell came in later and sang also. please visit www.tedpoley.com and buy my greatest hits cd and also check out my new video BREATHE right here on youtube.you can buy the BREATHE single on itunes. someday i hope to play in japan with Jun Senoue who produced this song and we will play the many songs we have done for SEGA together live.

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Famitsu Reveals – Samurai and Dragons for Vita

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Today Famitsu revealed news about a new Sega game for the PlayStation Vita, the game titled Samurai and Dragons. The games chief producer is Masayoshi Kikuchi, a man of high pedigree. Kikuchi was the producer of Yakuza, director of Jet Set Radio and planner of the Panzer Dragoon series which should garner any Sega fans interest.

The game will have two types of game play, the first is a multiplayer dungeon crawler where you team up with three other friends and explore/fight in dungeons (think Phantasy Star Online or Monster Hunter.)

The second half of the game involves city building and resource management similar a strategy game.

Having seen some rather blurry scans, it’s hard to say much about the game. But it seems to be very similar to Sega’s iPad game Kingdoms Conquest, an MMO type game where you join a faction vying for world domination and must battle other factions for control of the land. While I see no indiation that it’ll have that MMO feature from the little info we have I suspect that will be the case.

Hit the jump for scans:

Continue Reading ➜

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Let’s Go to the “Sonic Generation” Art Show in Philadelphia!

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When Gagaman of SEGA Memories wrote about the “Sonic Generation” fan art show in Philadelphia, PA, I knew I had to make the long trek to check it out. Grabbing my old near-broken digital camera (my new one is being repaired), I headed out into the tepid weather and braved the 9 minute subway ride to the Brave New Worlds comic book shop. The show, which is actually rather small despite the spiffy website, features various renditions of Sonic, Tails and Eggman from a variety of artists. Located in the outer lobby of Brave New Worlds, the gallery takes up what usually would have been a blank wall.

Click here for photos and more!

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Binary Domain – Japanese Story Trailer 3

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Here’s another story trailer for Binary Domain, it’s in Japanese so I can’t say much about it but I’m glad to see it looks as though it’s going to have a pretty deep plot which is what I’ve come to expect from Nagoshi and his new Yakuza Team.

I really hope this game does well for Nagoshi- he really needs to break into the West with both this and Yakuza but to be honest I don’t see a lot of hype around Binary Domain so I’m not convinced. Which is a shame, the guy can’t seem to catch a break.

Binary Domain is a Squad Based shooter Created by the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. (Yakuza)
The game is planned for a world-wide release on February 2012 for PS3 and Xbox360.

[Thanks Suzuki Yu]

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Sonic’s 20th anniversary nendoroid figure gets priced

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We brought you the news that Good Smile Company would be making a nendoroid figure for Sonic’s 20th anniversary in Japan.

Now for what you all want to know. How much will this beautiful figure cost me? If you live in Japan it will cost you ¥3,500 (about $45 USD). If you live outside of Japan, you will be paying more for importing it. The figure comes with Sonic (you can pose him standing or running), item box, chaos emerald and point marker. When is it out? April 2012 is what Good Smile Company is aiming for. Check out the product page here.

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VirtuaTennis – 10 Years Gone

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It’s a decade since Vitua Tennis first graced the Dreamcast, it seems to me like it was only yesterday I was around my best friends house sitting in their mothers living room playing doubles on Virtua Tennis with his brother. Ah- those were the days!

A decade on and now we’re sitting in our living rooms still playing VT when the mood takes us! I think it says a lot when a person like me, who despises sport of all kind, can still get hours of fun out of a sports game and I’ve wasted many, many hours.

I’m pretty impressed that Sega put together a 40 minute documentary on the history of Virtua Tennis. This is how you celebrate one of your classic series, take note Nintendo!

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Buy Crush 40’s “Song of Hope” on iTunes and help support Japan’s relief efforts

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPF124mm-VA

Like what you heard? Then go buy it on iTunes. You should go buy it anyways, since it’s only 99 cents, and your purchase goes to help Japan’s relief efforts from the Earthquake / Hurricane. Hell, if I can afford it, so can you! Song of Hope is available in both Europe and the US on iTunes.

This isn’t your typical Crush 40 cheesy buttrock song, it actually sounds more like traditional rock, so I think more people will like it =)

Well, I was told that the money made off this song goes to Japan charities by someone, but now I’m not sure, I can’t find solid info anywhere about it. I don’t want to give you guys false info. If anyone could let us know in the comments section that would be great!

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Sonic 20th Anniversary Soundtracks Now Available on iTunes

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Today, Sega of Japan announced that the Sonic 20th Anniversary Soundtrack would be available on iTunes in Japan, Europe and The United States. The soundtracks include Sonic CD, Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 and Sonic Heroes. Also available are two Crush 40 albums including a “Best of” and Jun Senoue’s “The Works”. The albums are only $9.99 American so download now!

 

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Yakuza: Dead Souls trailer introduces you to the guys

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SEGA has released a new trailer for the upcoming port of Yakuza: Dead Souls. This new trailer shows the players the playable characters and what they like. No voicing, just background music. I don’t know what kinds of budgets are used for trailers, but I can tell you this one is very low budget.

We already know most of the Yakuza: Dead Souls information, so I’m not really caring about the trailers. What I am looking forward to know is the western changes that were talked about.

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Sonic 20th Anniversary Action Figure Roundup

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2011 has been a huge year for Sonic in a number of areas: we’ve seen the return of the Genesis-style gameplay, Archie’s Sonic series gave us a great adaptation of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 and the toy company Jazwares has released a number of action figures celebrating Sonic’s 20th anniversary. While I haven’t been posting about the many figures here at SEGAbits, over at SEGA Network affiliate SEGA Memories I’ve been regularly sharing the Jazwares toys. As of this week I’ve collected the full line of 20th anniversary figures, at least until Jazwares releases more which they have hinted at doing. What follows is a handy roundup of all my Jazwares figure posts from the past year, where I review each figure and share photos. Enjoy!

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SEGA teams up with Hollywood for ‘Singles’ project

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SEGA has teamed up with Hakuhodo DY Holdings to launch a new project named ‘Stories’. The point of the project is to take Japanese content and team up with Hollywood writers, producers and directors to make TV or film programming.

The Japanese intellectual properties being looked at include games, books, anime, manga comics, toys, films and TV. The Stories producers will have access to the parent companies’ intellectual properties. So that means we might be able to see a Shinobi movie that is more brutal than Ninja Assassin. I wish .

They are already hard at work, trying to get rights to a title from Japanese Sci-fi author Yasutaka Tsutsui, who is known for  Paprika and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. They are also looking into getting the rights for an (as of right now) unknown Japanese show.

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Sonic Advance now on Android in Japan

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For those of you that want to relive the memories of the Game Boy Advance Sonic game, properly titled Sonic Advance, now you can. SEGA Japan have brought the game to the Japanese Android Market.

The game will cost you 415 yen (about $5). No idea if the game will be brought over West or other platforms. Here is hoping.

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Total War: Shogun 2 gets new standalone expansion

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Above is the new trailer for the expansion pack for Total War: Shogun 2. This expansion is called “Fall of the Samurai”. The new expansion is a standalone, meaning you don’t need the original game to play it. The game shows the conflict between the Imperial throne and the last Shogunate, taking place 400 years after the events of the original title. The game will also feature railway networks, ironclad warships and improved siege battle mechanics.

The expansion also has a major overhaul in the multiplayer component of the game, now being called multiplayer 2.0. Included is over 40 new retainers, over 30 new armor pieces and a brand new skill tree for 19th century avatar. Should be a solid release for Total War addicts out there.

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