Another game, another launch edition from SEGA of America. On this SEGA News Bits, George and Barry get down to business to discuss Yakuza 0 “The Business Edition” for the Playstation 4, including what it contains, how it compares to other SEGA launch editions, and how far SEGA and the Yakuza series has come since last year’s Yakuza 5.
In the comments below, let us know if “The Business Edition” makes you want to pre-order the game.
Back in mid May of this year it was announced that SEGA would be publishing Playsport Games’ Motorsport Manager to PC, Mac and Linux internationally in late 2016. Initially, a September timeframe was given, but now the official date has been announced to be November 10th, based on a Tweet from the developer. Motorsport Manager joins SEGA’s family of management games, complete with a faceless male mascot. The game features a racing management simulation in which players hire drivers, build cars and view the resulting races.
It’s here, the brand new side-scrolling Sonic game! No, not Sonic Mania. It’s Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice for the Nintendo 3DS! In this SEGA News Bits, Barry shares with George, and our viewing audience, his thoughts on the game. Did SEGA and Sanzaru Games learn their lesson from Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal?
In the comments below, let us know what you think of Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice! Also, don’t hate Barry.
SEGAbits attended Tokyo Game Show 2016! At the event we saw several upcoming SEGA games, presented through stage events and, in some cases, hands-on demos. One of many games we had to opportunity to play a demo of was Valkyria: Azure Revolution. Let’s get this out of the way first; this game plays nothing like Valkyria Chronicles. At all. Don’t entertain the idea that it might be a semi-sequel. Rather, this game plays like an odd mix of action RPG and squad based tactics.
With that out of the way, the demo at Tokyo Game Show consisted of attacking several enemy camps and a final boss fight with a mechanical spider. You controlled a squad of four characters with varying strengths and abilities, after being given a brief tutorial on when and how to use the various tools at your disposal.
The book will focus on the actual games Sega of America produced from 1986 to 2001, along with a behind the scenes look at the development process. Horowitz sources the many interviews he’s done over the years along with numerous new ones. Playing at the Next Level will cover roughly 40 games with up to half a dozen developers being sourced for information on the creation of each game in question. Unlike Blake J. Harris‘ Console Wars, the book features developers much more so than executives and marketing personnel.
Ken Horowitz founded the popular fan site Sega-16 in 2004, where he has interviewed, researched and written about Sega’s history ever since.
Idea Factory has released the Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls opening cinematic on their YouTube channel. If you are enough of a Sega fanatic as any of us here at SEGAbits, you might happen to watch the separate European video. In doing so, you might notice a surprising level of care taken to give Dreamcast an augmented blue outfit to emulate the European Dreamcast’s blue swirl.
SEGA’s Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice releases today for the Nintendo 3DS in North America, and will release a few days from now on September 30th in Europe. The game is available both digitally on the Nintendo eShop and physically with a special Launch Edition for the Americas which includes a collector’s box and a DVD of select Sonic Boom TV show episodes featuring Metal Sonic and Shadow. While reviews have started to trickle in, expect a SEGAbits review early next week and possibly a SEGA News Bits episode between then and now. I can say that after playing the game for an hour, Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice is an improvement on Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal. Many issues I had with the original game have been addressed, and aspects that I enjoyed have been given more focus. Even as I write this, I’m itching to go back and play some more, which is a good sign.
After the break, check out the full press release from SEGA!
SEGA has just announced yet another cool launch edition that will be releasing soon! Due out Jaunary 24th, 2017, Yakuza 0 “The Business Edition” will contain a physical copy of the game, a stainless steel business card holder, double-sided bilingual business cards for Kiryu and Majima and a hostess card. Yakuza 0 will be releasing both digitally and physically in the Americas and Europe. As of this posting, we are unsure if “The Business Edition” will be exclusive to the Americas, or if Europe will be receiving it as well. As soon as we have an answer we will update this story accordingly.
UPDATE: SEGA Europe has since uploaded the same trailer to their YouTube channel, and the trailer lacks any mention of a special edition release. Meanwhile, the SEGA of America trailer, embedded after the break, mentions “The Business Edition” after the trailer. This leads us to believe that “The Business Edition” is Americas only.
You can pre-order Yakuza 0 today on Amazon, saving 20% if you are a Prime member. The listing has yet to update to “The Business Edition”, but SEGA promises that all pre-orders secures fans a copy of the special edition.
After the break, check out the new trailer and additional press release details on “The Business Edition”!
Puyo Puyo Chronicles aspreviously reported will have a special Anniversary Box that contains several bonuses on top of the base game. This special Anniversay Box as the name implies is part of celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the franchise, including varies CDs that contain songs and drama stories, and a special Puyo Puyo 25th Anniversary 3DS theme.
If you have been waiting the Sonic X and SEGA Hard Girls blu-ray and DVD releases, you might not have to wait too long since they are coming by the end of the year. On this episode of the SEGA News Bits we discuss the upcoming Sonic X and SEGA Hard Girls releases, talk about physical media and what you need to know about these newer releases. Is anyone here going to pick up the Sonic X DVDs or the SEGA Hard Girls Blurays?
Sonic Boom Fire & Ice is not exactly a game people are enthusiastic about, essentially being overshadowed by the stigma of the Sonic Boom sub-series starting with the infamous Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric and being ignored in favor of the fan love letter Sonic Mania. However (ironically) SEGA of Japan is still trying to promote Sonic Boon Fire & Ice (There called Sonic Toon Fire & Ice) for it’s October 27th, 2016 release date by releasing trailers that highlights the characters Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks.
Each trailer shows off the capabilities of each character via gameplay, highlighting specific techniques each character utilizes and examples of how they can be used. Said trailers also highlights the Fire and Ice gimmick and how each character utilizes them. Examples including Sonic being able to boost vertically both upwards and downwards, Amy using her hammer to create a shockwave that can lower pillers, Knuckles digging creating explosions if he creates a circle in a similar vein to the Paraloop mechanic in NiGHTS into Dreams, Tails’ ability to shoot enemies with a laser, and Stick’s boomerang.
While the Japanese have to wait for another month for Sonic Boom Fire & Ice, for those that live outside of Japan they have the luxury of playing the game this month, September 27th for the USA and September 30th for Europe.
Click below to see the trailers for Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and Sticks
Valkyria Chronicles got a surprise collaboration with the Wargaming title World of Tanks Blitz, which as the name implies is a mobile version of the MMO World of Tanks involving 20th-century war vehicles like varies types of tanks. The collaboration brings with it two new tanks, the Edelweiss—a fast and maneuverable medium tank with a good gun and stabilization from Valkyria Chronicles,and The Nameless—a heavy tank with excellent front armor and powerful armament based on the Nameless Tank from Valkyria Chronicles 3.
The event for these Valkyria Chronicles inspired tanks originally began on September 15th, 2016 (Thursday) at 18:00 UTC+8 (10:00 UTC) and is slated to end on September 30th, 2016 (Friday) at 17:00 UTC+8 (09:00 UTC). Players can buy both Edelweiss and The Nameless for the price of $44.99, or getting the two tanks separately for $24.99.
The Wonder Boy/Monster World series has been getting an abnormal amount of love recently. On top of the new installment Monster Boy and The Cursed Kingdom and the remake of the SEGA Master System game Wonder Boy III: The Dragons Curse (which we wrote an article about), a new remake of the first Wonder Boy by Cyberfront Korea has been announced and set for a fall release on Steam called Wonder Boy Returns.
Long before the franchise became the copyright hell it’s known as today, the first Wonder Boy was a modest arcade game, with the goal to simply reach the end and chuck axes when necessary while collecting fruit to prevent your stamina from running out, with the simply premise of the titular Wonder Boy saving his girl Tina. Now enjoy the same experiences of the first Wonder Boy title with… erm… “modernized” visuals and music that really stresses the conventions of modern day PC gaming. But the interesting part though is that unlike the other revivals and remakes, this one actually does have a SEGA copyright with the game. Truly associating themselves with the highest quality games possible was their priority with this one.
Discotek Media has given fans of the Sonic X and Sega Hard Girls TV shows an update on their North American DVD releases via a Facebook post detailing all of their upcoming titles. The Sonic X Seasons 1 and 2 Collection, which was originally due out September 27th, has been moved to November 8th of this year. The Sonic X Season 3 DVD collection, which will round out the series, is set to release a month later on December 6th. Both Sonic X sets will only feature the English language version of the series, which is sure to annoy purists and delight Mike Pollock fans.
As for Hi-sCool! Seha Girls (Sega Hard Girls), the company still plans on giving the series a DVD and blu-ray release and they will be picking a date soon.
The Sonic the Hedgehog social media team has just unearthed a long lost infomercial for the upcoming Sonic Mania Collector’s Edition! Created as an homage to the classic Sonic the Hedgehog 2 ad, the Sonic Mania Collector’s Edition ad shows off the bonus items found inside the Spring 2017 release including the statue of Sonic standing on a Genesis/Mega Drive, the metallic game code card and the game cartridge that contains a gold ring. The ad also notes that the box can hold ANY tacklebox. Keep your eyes peeled for cameos from Kazuyuki Hoshino, Takashi Iizuka (in shirt form) and Aaron Webber (congrats!).
Pre-order the Sonic Mania Collector’s Edition today, available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
