SEGA News

The SEGA Dreamcast turns 14 today, how are we going to celebrate?

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Hey there, space cats! The SEGA Dreamcast turns 14 today in the USA, how are we celebrating? Well, we will be delivering a bunch of Dreamcast related content all month long. We will have all our weekly features focus on Dreamcast music, games and nostalgic moments. Expect to see Dreamcast related articles on Monday Memories, Tuesday Tunes, Saturday Sequels, and Sunday Round Table. There will also be the return of the ‘SEGA in the Media‘, where we spot SEGA references in current TV shows and movies (sometimes even the past).  We already started celebrating by giving you guys a really awesome episode of the Swingin’ Report Show featuring the editor-in-chief and writer for Official Dreamcast magazine.

One of our former writers and current editor-in-chief over at Dreamcast Scene is also teaming up with us, DC Emu and Age-Media to bring some interviews with current SEGA published authors and Dreamcast indie developers. Actually he already published one of his interviews with David Munoz, author of ” “Service Games: Rise and Fall of Sega ”. Some of the other interviews you can expect includes author of “Zoya Street’s Dreamcast World” author, who got crowd sourced by Indiegogo. There will also be interviews with indie Dreamcast developers like Senile Team, Duranik and Water Melon.

Stay tuned later today for “Monday Memories: Remembering the Dreamcast’s launch“.

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SEGA announces Phantasy Star Nova for the Playstation Vita

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Sony is having a Japanese conference today where they show what Japanese audiences can expect from Sony at this year’s TGS. During the event Sony announced a new slim Playstation Vita and a few games, one of those being Phantasy Star Nova! The game will be developed by tri-Ace (Resonance of Fate), and will feature a single-player story mode along with an online co-op mode that allows you to team up with 3 other players online or in lan. The game game is set to released in Japan this upcoming March.

Some facts were given about Phantasy Star Online 2‘s performance on the Vita. It has been confirmed that SEGA has sold over 150,000 boxed versions of Phantasy Star Online 2 and has over 650,000 people playing the game on Sony’s handheld. This is probably the first time someone has handled a new Phantasy Star game that hasn’t been Sonic Team.

Hit the jump to see the announcement trailer.

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Creative Assembly and Extra Credits Want to Teach You About Roman History

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When I was at this year’s PAX Prime, I tried to see if I could play Total War: Rome II to write up a preview for a genre I’m not terribly great at. After a few seconds it quickly dawned on me that the time I was going to invest wasn’t going to do this game any justice. I’m not a guy who does great at Real Time Strategy, nor did I come from an education system that would span further from Texas history. However, through some of their marketing money, Creative Assembly has teamed up with the folks behind Extra Credits to give you an overview of Roman history through a series of videos starting today on the Punic Wars. If you’re playing the game and don’t understand everything the story of Rome II is telling, this ought to help provide a better understanding, or for people like me, its great to see developers doing some good to go to new efforts just to teach people about history. That and, well, probably to make sure this doesn’t happen again…

Still its great to see efforts like this happen between the two, and its great for SEGA to even allow their marketing money to be used in this form. Be sure to watch the video and stay tuned to the Extra Credits Youtube channel for more on Roman history.

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New Hero Bank trailer shows off both combat and exploration elements

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SEGA of Japan has released a new action-packed trailer for Toshihiro Nagoshi’s upcoming 3DS RPG, Hero Bank. The footage provides us with a good look at the cinematic battles, which appear to feature a mix of menu-driven and action-driven gameplay: though the trailer’s editing makes it tough to tell exactly what the balance will be. While the battle scenes are voice acted, it looks like much of the rest of the game’s dialogue will be handled through text boxes.

The trailer also shows that Hero Bank will include some exploration elements, with the main character shown wandering through locations including a city street and classroom. The anime-driven visual style reminds me (during the non-combat sections) somewhat of the look of Shun Nakamura’s Ryhthm Thief and the Emperor’s Treasure from last year, though thankfully Hero Bank will have explorable environments instead of a point and click system. The look and feel of the battles is reminiscent of Saturday Morning anime cartoons.

Specifics, especially with regard to Hero Bank’s combat system, are tough for me to judge at this point, as battles look to be text-heavy and as of now no Western release has been announced. The game is said to be targeting a younger audience, comes from Yakuza and Super Monkey Ball mastermind Toshihiro Nagoshi, and will be releasing on December 19th in Japan for the 3DS.

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Sonic Generations 3DS to hit e-shop in two days, be priced at $29.99?

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According to Vernon Schieck on twitter, famous for being a ‘not-so-secret behind-the-scenes gaming tipper’, SEGA is going to release a digital version of Sonic Generations on Nintendo’s e-shop. Problem? They want to charge users the premium price of $29.99 for a old game.


Honestly, I know SEGA is capitalizing on new Nintendo 3DS owners that want to play a Sonic game before Sonic Lost World comes out later in the fall, but charging them a premium price isn’t how you do it.

How much do you think SEGA should charge for a digital version of Sonic Generations on the 3DS?

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Bayonetta, Rodin, and Jeanne to cameo in The Wonderful 101

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For the first time, to my knowledge, we’re covering The Wonderful 101 news by way of the reveal that Bayonetta characters Bayonetta, Rodin, and Jeanne have been announced to cameo in the Platinum Games developed and Nintendo published game. Hideki Kamiya, director of Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101, made the announcement at PAX today. What is interesting about this announcement is that this is the first time fully owned SEGA characters from Platinum Games have appeared in a game fully owned by Nintendo. So it’s sort of a SEGA, Nintendo, Platinum Games crossover. No further details have been revealed, thus explaining why I’ve been stretching this little bit of news out to a paragraph length.

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New returning characters announced for Yakuza Ishin, including the return of Nishiki

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Nine returning characters have been announced for the upcoming Yakuza Ishin. The list so far includes popular characters like Ryuji Goda, Akira Nishiki and Date. But who are they playing in this game? If you haven’t read, the game will take old characters from the Yakuza universe and plant them as characters during the bakumatsu period in Japan.

To see all twelve returning characters and their roles in the new game, hit the jump.

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Bayonetta director interested in spin-off for 3DS starring Jeanne

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Jeanne Bayonetta Spinoff
Platinum Games has just released The Wonderful 101 on the Nintendo Wii U, their first game with Nintendo and another game by Bayonetta director Hideki Kamiya. At PAX, Siliconera asked Kamiya if he would want to make a game on the Nintendo 3DS and Kamiya said he had two ideas for the handheld.

“Given the chance, I’d like to make a game based on Jeanne from Bayonetta. Something that’s not as big in scale. Something that’s portable, that you could play in quick sessions, where she’s a history teacher and the kind of fun things that could come out of a scenario like that.” –  Hideki Kamiya (Director of Bayonetta, The Wonderful 101)

So what was the second idea? Well, if you are an Okami fan, time to hit that jump button.

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Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F launch trailer

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Hatsune Miku Project Diva F is out now in North America both in retail and on PSN. In Europe the game has been delayed to next week and is only available digitally. I’ve started playing the game today and it is a lot of fun. I plan to have a review up by next week, maybe this weekend if I get through the game faster than I think I will. So, stay tuned!

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SEGA Australia’s crazy pitch for remaking SEGA classics

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[Above is SEGA Australia’s pre-alpha prototype pitch for Golden Axe remake under their label ‘SEGA Reborn’]

SEGA Australia isn’t known as the type of studio that had too many hits, but it seemed that the team was finally hitting their stride with the Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse remake that is coming out in early September. Sadly that will be the studio’s last game, since it was announced that they will be closing by the end of the year.

Seems that the studio pitched for a series of remakes, most notably ‘Golden Axe’ and all to be in a new label called ‘SEGA Reborn’. That’s not all though, the company thought that all these classics should take place in the same universe. Yes, we are talking about Marvel movie treatment with retro games. That would mean that a game like Out Run takes place hundreds of years after Golden Axe.

Much like its remake of Castle of Illusion, they where open to going in and adding new content and fixing issues the originals had. Some of the other games they talked about remaking included Streets of Rage and Shinobi. Hit the jump to see video of the ‘Golden Axe’ remake that the studio pitched to SEGA. 

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SEGA’s PAX lineup reveals Heroki for iOS

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Could the SEGA Alliance program be continuing? SEGA Blog’s latest post has revealed their PAX Prime 2013 demo lineup, which includes a game that has not been mentioned by SEGA until now. The Seattle event will feature Sonic Lost World, Total War: ROME II, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F, and Heroki at booth #142/242. Heroki, by iOS developer Picomy Games, is described as a “platformer that is a story based action/adventure game but different from regular run and jump type of platformers, many people are already familiar with. The core of the game lies on the flying aspect, giving the player much more freedom then regular platformers. Sure, Heroki can also walk/run but he’s at his finest in the air where he can perform lots of different abilities providing a unique experience that is ideal for a touchscreen.”

The Picomy Games blog features screens, art, and gameplay footage of Heroki, however the blog itself hasn’t been updated since October 2012. Perhaps SEGA and Picomy have been working on the game together since the indie’s blog went silent? Check out some gameplay footage after the break!

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UPDATE: Sonic Lost World Deadly Six Bonus Edition officially revealed for Wii U

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Thanks to the SEGA Blog, we now have more details on the previously revealed NiGHTS into Dreams inspired Wii U Sonic Lost World DLC. As described by SEGA, “Sonic has been sucked into a world of nightmares created by Wizeman, and must defeat the Deadly Six, who are riding on gigantic Nightmaren monsters inspired from the game NiGHTS into Dreams….” The content includes an exclusive level that is accessed via a download code which is obtained when pre-ordering the game (or while supplies last). SEGA says the DLC will be instantly playable, and that upon completing the level a special Color Power (usually only obtainable from Miiverse) is rewarded. SEGA also notes that the Deadly Six Bonus Edition will be called the Deadly Six Edition in Europe. Given that SEGA did not link to any specific retailer, it is being assumed that like Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, this bonus edition will be available to all who pre-order and purchase within the release window. Later pressings of the game will likely drop the content.

After the break, check out the special cover art as well as a few new screens.
UPDATE: We’ve added more images to the gallery!

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