Bayonetta released in early April to PC, and on this SEGA News Bits George and Barry take a look at the sales figures. Are Bayonetta‘s numbers Heaven or Hell for SEGA? What games could we see released next? Find out on this witchy News Bits! Want to win a copy of Bayonetta for PC? Enter our contest which runs through May 11th!
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Toshihiro Nagoshi is known for a lot of things. Super Monkey Ball, Daytona USA, Yakuza series, great tans, and now he wants to extend that list with a new franchise. Nagoshi posted on his personal blog about the new Yakuza game and putting his strength into ‘new developments’:
“Yakuza Studio has also reorganized, and from this year to next year we’re considering various developments, during that, I think that there will surely be developments that everyone expects. But personally, while putting my strength into new developments, I’d like to work hard enough so that you expect great things from me.” – Toshihiro Nagoshi
While we already knew that a new Yakuza game was in the works by the Yakuza Studio, it is interesting that Toshihiro Nagoshi is working on a new franchise or at least it seems that way. The last new IP that he and his studio made was 2012’s Binary Domain, which bombed for SEGA. Lately they have been playing it safe and having a new Yakuza game isn’t surprising. It makes guaranteed money, even tho it seems to be at a slight decline compared to past titles. The question is, how will they continue it now that Kazuma Kiryu’s story has ended with Yakuza 6? I guess we will find out soon enough, but I wouldn’t mind a Yakuza Kiwami 2. What are your thoughts on the studio ‘considering various developments’ and would you like to see a new title from Toshihiro Nagoshi? Let us know in the comments below.
The release will contain the original 13 episodes produced by TMS Entertainment using the MikuMikuDance animation software. The series stars three girls who meet for the first time at the start of a new semester in a brand new school. But these aren’t just any girls, and this isn’t just any school! They are personifications of the SEGA Dreamcast, Saturn and Mega Drive consoles. The series features a ton of fan service, including former SEGA mascot Professor Asobin who appeared during the SG-1000 days. Asobin is voiced by none other than former SEGA game designer and programmer Yuji Naka. You’ll also see, as teased on the cover, Virtua Fighters, Opa Opa, Puyo Puyo, Sonic and more!
Night Trap is coming back to the PS4, Xbox One and (possibly) PC thanks to developer Screaming Villains and Limited Run Games. The former attained the license to remaster the game for modern hardware, and the latter is releasing the game physically to PS4 in cool SEGA CD-inspired packaging. On this SEGA News Bits, Barry and George react to the announcement and share their thoughts on rereleasing controversial games.
Note: It cost the original Kickstarter team $250,000 to buy the rights, the Kickstarter needed $330,000 total to cover the rights, rescan of film elements, development and production.
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SEGA has posted a new Initial D Arcade Stage Zero trailer showing off gameplay using the iconic Toyota AE86 car. The cool thing about the Initial D Arcade Stage Zero gameplay trailer is that they also show the player shifting, pumping the gas, slamming the breaks, and turning the steering wheel as you see how it effects the game. The trailer is also pretty long, showing a full race including a in-game track that features some very Japanese ‘Engrish’ vocals. Outside of that, Initial D Arcade Stage Zero is sporting some non-spectacular graphics, but I don’t think that’s the selling point with this game. Did I mention that the drifting looks fun? Because it does.
This isn’t the only trailer Initial D Arcade Stage Zero got, SEGA Japan released two at the same time. The second trailer is rather shorter clocking in at just under a minute and a half. This Initial D Arcade Stage Zero trailer highlights its versus mode, car customization, arcade cabinet, gear shift, and much more. For fans of the series, this game is exclusive to arcades with no plans of it coming to consoles. Yeah, its a bit sad. If you wanna see the second trailer hit the jump.
Well this is a surprise! It has just been announced that Night Trap, the famous (some would argue infamous) FMV game made popular on the SEGA CD and SEGA CD 32X, is returning to the PlayStation 4 just in time for the 25th anniversary. Remastered by Screaming Villains, the game will release digitally and physically thanks to Limited Run Games. What is really cool, and of interest to SEGA fans, is that the Limited Run Games cover art emulates the classic American SEGA CD and SEGA CD 32X box art complete with the blue and yellow candy cane stripes! The physical release should hit the company’s website soon.
Back in 2014 we had the privilege of interviewing Digital Pictures co-founder Tom Zito, the man behind Night Trap. At the time, Tom and a small team were attempting a remaster titled Night Trap ReVamped, though sadly the Kickstarter failed to reach its goal. We don’t know if Tom and his team have any influence in this rerelease, but we’ll reach out and see what’s up.
Update: We just learned that the owners of the Night Trap license – presumably Tom Zito and Night Trap, LLC since they had already bought and paid for the rights prior to the ReVamped project – granted developer Screaming Villains the license after they posted to YouTube a video of the game running on a mobile phone. You can watch what we believe to be the video after the break.
Update 2: Tom Zito plays no part in this rerelease, so it is unknown at this time who the license holder is.
Update 3: The game will also release to Xbox One, though no sign of those SEGA styled boxes from Limited Run Games.
Covering SEGA news for coming up on 9 years now, I have to say that after some really dark times when the notion of no physical releases from SEGA was a possibility, it feels really good to post up simple articles like this one. Puyo Puyo Tetris is now available on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in the Americas, and is set to release on April 28th in Europe. Featuring gameplay from two iconic puzzle games, Puyo Puyo Tetris offers up several single and multi-player as well as online play. Those who buy the Nintendo Switch version at and around launch will receive a special Launch Edition featuring Puyo Puyo and Tetris themed keychains, while the PS4 version comes in a Standard Edition.
SEGA has just released over a minute of gameplay showcasing Classic Sonic’s Green Hill Zone stage in Sonic Forces and… tell me again why this was said to not be Sonic Generations 2? The clip should feel very familiar to those who played the 20th anniversary game back in 2011, right down to the models and assets, though there are a few alterations. The background features a sandy area and enemies are new. Also, the music is new to my ears, though I swear I caught a whiff of Sonic 4‘s Splash Hill Zone.
Eagle eyed fans may catch a glimpse of a bubble shield and it appears Sonic performs a Drop Dash, Sonic Mania‘s signature move, at 1:25.
Check it out for yourself and share your thoughts in the comments below. Also, after the break check out some newly released screens!
SEGA and Arc System Works are teaming up for a limited time Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 and Border Break X Zero (which is still being updated since its debut in 2009) crossover event in Japanese arcades. The event will start on April 24, 2017 and end on May 24, 2017.
The Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 promotion will have the players log in using their SEGA ID, which will unlock the following Border Break X Zero goodies in Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2: A set of four in-game titles, collaboration icon set (see gallery for photo), Collaboration plate (gallery for sample), and weapons like the M90 machine gun and ‘ACHAT missile’. Check out more on that via Arc System Works’ Japanese blog post.
As for the Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 items available in Border Break X Zero, that is a bit harder to decipher considering SEGA only posted the image below in the gallery. It does look like you will get custom titles, icons and even Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 themed custom character portraits. Check out more info on the crossover via SEGA’s blog post. While SEGA-AM2’s Border Break arcade game never made a splash outside of Japan, it has been highly successful for SEGA as it launched a ton of updates (Border Break X Zero being about the 15th update), but also has gotten a huge art book (which was brought over to America via Udon Entertainment), two full novels novels, and even a manga. What are your thoughts on this crossover? Do you think SEGA should consider bringing Border Break X Zero to the west?
Was there any doubt that Yakuza was ending? Well, Yakuza 6 has long been labeled as “the final chapter of Kazuma Kiryu”, so some have speculated that the series would take a break and the team would work on something else. During the Famitsu Awards, however, series general director Toshihiro Nagoshi confirmed that another Yakuza title is happening.
While not many specifics were given, it was said that he will not be walking back on the promise of the latest game being Kazuma Kiryu’s final chapter. Nagoshi made it clear that he wants to make a new Yakuza and that he did not want to narrow it to a single title, we could be seeing multiple games. The Yakuza 6 engine, dubbed the Dragon Engine, was said to be completed with the development of a second or third title. The timeframe for the reveal of the next game was given as “the not too distant future” and that there will be an opportunity to talk about the game early in its development.
What do you think about more Yakuza games? Would you want another prequel title, a true Yakuza 7 with a new main character, or perhaps a reboot focusing on a totally different cast?
According to Steam Spy, the PC version of Bayonetta has moved 114,007 units (as of writing this post) on its first week on sale. Bayonetta debuted on PC last week for the asking price of $19.99, which is quite the bargain. You also have to note, that Steam Spy gets its sell figures by counting owners of the game on public profiles and only on the Steam platform. If the game sold anywhere not using Steam or users have their profiles set to private, they won’t get counted. I would say this is a conservative estimate. The game is also been trending on Steam at #3, even a week after its release. Not bad for an eight year old port of a game. For example Yooka-Laylee, a game created as a Banjo-Kazooie spiritual successor has 63,870 units sold on its first week and Gearbox’s re-release of Bulletstorm Full Clip Edition has only moved 11,335 units.
I’m pretty sure the success of Bayonetta on Steam will lead to many more SEGA PC ports and we might finally see a glorious PC port of Vanquish. You know, its long over due, right SEGA?
What SEGA PC port do you want to see hit Steam? Let us know in the comments below.
The incredible looking, hand drawn remaster of Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is now out on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Publisher DotEmu has stated that the PC version of the game will be coming out early summer. You can keep up to date on the PC version via the game’s Steam page.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is set to feature the following:
Beautiful, hand-drawn animations.
A re-orchestrated soundtrack.
Explore large, interconnected locations populated with grumpy monsters and exotic dragons!
Several characters with their own abilities: Lizard-Man, Mouse-Man, Piranha-Man, Lion-Man and Hawk-Man.
Play as the game’s classic character, “Wonder Boy”, or as his brand-new, long-awaited co-star “Wonder Girl”.
3 difficulty levels catering to players of all types.
Switch from modern graphics and sound to 8-bit graphics/audio at any time – even during gameplay, thanks to the “Retro Feature”.
So what console are you picking up Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap on? Let us know in the comments below.
We are getting closer to SEGA Amusement’s release of Daytona Championship USA, briefly known as Daytona 3 Championship USA before it was renamed. We even did a video discussing the name change, if you want to hear more about our opinion on it. Most fans have been wondering when they can get their hands on Daytona Championship USA and it seems if you live in Hollywood, Florida, you can play it now at Dave & Busters. They seem to have the ultra awesome 8-player linked deluxe cabinet that makes me truly envious, since I don’t live in Florida.
It also seems that SEGA Amusement already has a product page for Daytona Championship USA, for those businesses or people that want a cabinet of their own. They come in 2-Player, 4-Player and 8-Player variants. As for how much a Daytona Championship USA cabinet will cost you, I couldn’t tell you. The product page just has a contact thing to get a quote. As of today there aren’t any plans on bringing Daytona Championship USA to home consoles, I assume that’s something you would have to bother SEGA about. Now I wait for Daytona Championship USA to be spotted somewhere in California, so I can drive sky high.
If you have been living under a rock, Nintendo has announced two Bayonetta amiibos this past week, setting them to release for July 21st. Each of the Bayonetta amiibos are based on her look from both of her games. It seems that the long haired Bayonetta amiibo design will be exclusive to select retailers. You know, weird Nintendo policies. There seems to already be a product page for the Bayonetta 2 amiibo over at Amazon.
As for what my thoughts are on the look of Bayonetta in amiibo form, it looks pretty good? I feel that amiibos look cleaner with more cartoon looking characters like Mario, Yoshi and even Sonic. I think when Nintendo does more human like amiibos, that the drawbacks of the figures is more glaring. But then again, the Bayonetta amiibos will most likely cost around $12 dollars, which isn’t much. So all things considered, if they look as good as the photographs shared by Nintendo’s twitter page, it should be well worth the cash. Word of warning, according to many comments on various blogs, most amiibos tend to look better in product screenshots. Has that been your experience? Are you going to bet the Bayonetta amiibos?
Remember SEGA’s 1993 fighting game Eternal Champions? The title was highly marketed by SEGA America as an ultra violent fighting game that was highly influenced by Mortal Kombat. It seems that Eternal Champions’ original producer Michael Latham has been working on a new fighting game which is set to be the spiritual successor to Eternal Champions and its being called “Eternal Successors“. Have to say, its a pretty damn good name.
Michael Latham said he was trying to get the official rights from SEGA, which they haven’t done anything with since the 1994 release of Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side on SEGA CD (1996 if you count loose spin-off title X-Perts). Michael also shared some test renders of what the game would look like running on Unreal Engine 4. If you want to give Michael Latham some feedback on Eternal Successors, check out his shoryuken forum thread here. He says that they are trying to do justice to the original SEGA Genesis color pallet with the renders and they have done a good job, I think. Not sold on the paint like filter, but the color scheme is pretty great.
More information for those that never got to play Eternal Champions, the character with the yellow helmet is Trident from the first game, the other character is hard to tell since they have been ‘overtkill’ which is basically a fatality in Eternal Champions. Seeing as it looks like a female wearing high heels, I will have to guess its Shadow Yamoto. The stage that is being rendered is also known as ‘Trident’s Stage’, you can check the original stage here and compare it with the renders.
