Buy any version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed at Gamestop, get a free Hot Wheels Danicar

Update: I visited a local Gamestop to learn more about the offer. Since I had my heart set on the 3DS version, I asked to pre-order the game. I was told the game was set for a February 12th, 2013 release date and that I could put down anywhere from $5 to the total cost of the game to pre-order. I put down $5 and then asked for the Danicar. The cashier was surprised I knew they existed, and asked the manager if I could have one. It was then that I learned stores were told that only those buying the game would get a car, but it wasn’t made clear if pre-ordering also meant the customer gets a car. Since, in the managers words “they had a lot” of the Danicar, I could have one. In short, buying the game now for the 360, PS3 or Wii U will get you a car (if they have them in stock). Pre-ordering for Vita may or may not get you the car, but given the game releases next week, you’ll just have to ask nicely and perhaps putting down the full amount for the pre-order will sweeten the deal. Same goes for the 3DS version. End update.

Back in October, SEGA unveiled Danica Patrick’s in-game model and made the announcement of an exclusive Hot Wheels SEGA-branded Danicar. Where could fans get the toy? Who knew! All we were told was that “the ‘Danicar’ will also be available as an exclusive diecast vehicle available this holiday season with purchase of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed at select retailers.” Awesome! A month passed, the game released and… no Danicar. No sign of it at any store. Some fans, such as myself, waited until release week hoping to learn which “select retailers” would have the freebie before making a firm pre-order. No news turned up, so the Danicar was forgotten, fans bought the game and a month passed. Then, fans over at The Sonic Stadium forums discovered the toy car on ebay, with a “Gamestop Exclusive” label and as such, turned to Gamestop to see what the deal was. Some stores were genuinely confused, directing fans to stores like Toys R Us where they can find Hot Wheels cars. Other stores had the cars, but weren’t quite sure what to do with them. As of Sunday, it seems, stores are now giving the cars away with copies of the game.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed 3DS likely delayed until February

It’s not racing, it’s racing delayed! Via The Sonic Stadium comes news that Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed for the 3DS has most likely been delayed until February 2013. While the game released to 360, PS3 and Wii U in mid November, and the Vita version is due December 18th in the US, the 3DS version has been missing in action. SEGA hasn’t done a very good job in letting fans know when to expect the 3DS version of the game, and as such many have relied on retailers like Amazon and Gamestop. Both sites list a February 2013 release date, and a recent post from Nintendo Europe seems to confirm the delay as the 3DS version is listed with a February 2013 date.

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown wins “Best Fighting Game of 2012” by G4TV’s X-Play

On December 6th, G4TV’s X-Play did their Best of the Year Video Games Awards for 2012. In the fighting game category, the nominees were SoulCalibur 5, Persona 4 Arena, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown and Skullgirls.  The people have voted and the winner of the “Best Fighting Game of 2012” goes to SEGA’s Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown! Glad to see SEGA’s famous fighting franchise taking the spot. It’s one of the greatest arcade ports ever made. Hope to see what AM2 has in store for the series in the future. I look forward to the next bout!

Sonic, Eggman and Neff make the blu-ray cover art for Wreck-It Ralph

Disney has just revealed the cover art for the blu-ray releases of Wreck-It Ralph, and look who made both covers! Sonic stands alongside main characters Ralph and Felix in the gold bordered Ultimate Collector’s Edition release, with SEGA villains Eggman and Neff on either side. Meanwhile, the standard blu-ray release features Sonic, Eggman and Neff amongst other video game icons. Price and release date have yet to be revealed, but expect them to go for above or around $20 on release and to hit in March/April of next year.

SEGA and Creative Assembly partner with Games Workshop to create Warhammer games

SEGA’s Total War series is the king of PC war strategy games. Warhammer is the king of tabletop miniature war strategy games. So could Creative Assembly, the developer of the Total War series, developing Warhammer video games be a match made in heaven? SEGA seems to think so! Today, SEGA has announced a partnership with Games Workshop, the company behind Warhammer. The SEGA blog laid out the deal, stating that a “new high-calibre development team has been set up at Creative Assembly’s UK studio to work alongside the existing Total War, Alien IP and Mobile teams on the first Warhammer title in the deal, scheduled to launch from beyond 2013”. Tim Heaton, Studio Director at Creative Assembly promised “we’ll be doing the Warhammer universe justice in a way that has never been attempted before. We’re bringing those 25 years of experience and expertise in extremely high-scoring games to bear, delivering a Warhammer experience that videogamers will absolutely love”.

Spiral Knights developer releases Spellwood to Android and iOS

From the SEGA Blog comes news that Three Rings, the developer behind the awesome Spiral Knights,  has released Spellwood to Android and iOS devices. Spellwood is a Scrabble-style word puzzle game which offers up single player and two player modes. What makes the game unique, when compared to most other mobile titles in the genre, is that it has characters and a story mode with RPG elements as well as the aforementioned single player mode. In the single player mode, you play a fuzzy little word wizard who takes on over 90 adversaries with different levels and styles of play. Two player mode has you taking on friends as you would in any other mobile puzzle game. The game is priced at $1.99 and is now available on iOS for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch and Google Play for Android smartphones and tablets.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Wii U patch finally arrives

For the past two weeks, gamers and SEGA fans have been plagued with a broken All-Stars Racing game on Wii U thanks to Nintendo’s forced patch to make the game online playable (which every launch game had to have). It broke what was working fine (I played it pre-update) and caused problems with boost challenges, getting the final racer in “World Tour” and heavily affected online arena matches causing them to crash. It even effected my review grade for the WiiU version of the game. Sumo Digital sent out a patch last week and it has finally been approved in the U.S. After playing some online and local, plus checking other forums, I have found out that not only are the boost challenges fixed, but online arenas work fine now and there’s been a bit of a boost in frame rate in some areas, especially local split screen. If there’s still some bugs, I’ll update on it later. Now, time to test this bad boy out and change my grade.

NiGHTS into Dreams on PSN and XBLA Patch – Available Now

Somewhat out of the blue Sega has today announced that they’ve released a patch for NiGHTS into Dreams for PSN and XBLA. The patch includes adjusted controls to allow analog input in 24 directions, which will allow for greater control of our favourite purple jester. Not only that but the speed of the drill-dash move has been aligned with the speed of the Saturn original version.

Best of all the patch is available right now, go and download it Nightopians!

Jet Set Radio tags iOS and Android today!

Via the SEGA Blog comes news that Jet Set Radio has officially released to iOS and Android devices. Priced at a competitive $4.99 (4,49€/£2.99/AU $5.49), and weighing in at 523 MB on iOS, the game is essentially 1:1 with the XBLA, PSN and Vita versions. Mobile exclusive extras include touchscreen gestures when tagging and the ability to snap photos with your device and tag within the game. After the break, check out a gameplay video of the game in action on an iPad!

MODEL 2 COLLECTION: AM2 Fighters now available on PSN & XBLA

Today is a great day to be a SEGA arcade lover of the 90’s. The three legendary AM2 fighters that ran on the MODEL 2 hardware is now available on Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade for only $4.99 (400 MSP) each. Also, for those who are wondering about an option to change the screen size, there is an option to do that under “Settings” from 4:3 to full. I’ve just played it this morning and they are all way better than the original ports from the Sega Ages 2500 line and Gems Collection. Hope they sell well because I want some of that The House of the Dead and Dynamite Cop on my home console. Anyone up for some matches this weekend?

Happy 14th Birthday, SEGA Dreamcast!

Fourteen years ago today, in Japan, the final SEGA console released: the Dreamcast. Of course, being an English speaking blog, we tend to put more emphasis on 9-9-99. Still, 11-27-98 is just as, if not more, important than any other Dreamcast launch date simply because it was the first. Also, it is the day before my birthday. A-hem! Anyway, Japanese launch titles included: Sonic Adventure, Pen Pen TriIcelon, Godzilla Generations, July, and Virtua Fighter 3tb. July and Godzilla Generations never made it outside Japan. Considering Famitsu gave Godzilla Generations a 20 out of 40, and Western import reviews were even worse, it seems those outside Japan weren’t missing out on Godzilla.

To celebrate, enjoy the hilarious Japanese Dreamcast commercials starring Senior Managing Director of SEGA Hidekazu Yukawa. The man truly was the Segata Sanshiro of the Dreamcast era, though he acted the complete opposite. Yukawa appeared on the Japanese Dreamcast box, he had his own game, his own merchandise including a cell phone charm, and even appeared in a cameo in the Shenmue demo “What’s Shenmue?”. You can see a complete playthrough of that after the break. Happy 14th Birthday, SEGA Dreamcast!

SEGA’s releasing 3 fighting game ports: Virtua Fighter 2, Fighting Vipers and Sonic the Fighters this week

SEGA will be releasing three Model 2 fighting games this week: Virtua Fighter 2Fighting Vipers and Sonic the Fighters. All three are ports are of retro titles, a couple of them can be considered ‘classics’. Sonic the Fighters is probably not known well enough to be a classic, but that doesn’t make it a bad game. In the United States the titles drop tomorrow on PSN and Wednesday on XBLA. Which games will you be getting?

Sonic Jump for iOS gets update – new stage, Amy Rose, global challenge & more!

The iOS jumper game Sonic Jump, a remake of a 2005 mobile title of the same name, has received a rather big update today. The update, entitled the “High Flier Update”, adds Blue Sky Zone, Amy Rose as a playable character, a Global Challenge, new music, unlockable wallpapers and more. Blue Sky Zone features 12 acts, as well as an Arcade mode, new achievements, hazards and enemies. Amy Rose is initially locked, but can be bought with rings which are earned within the game’s acts. As for the Global Challenge, Sonic Jump players from around the world are tasked with working together to reach the moon which in turn will unlock a new character.

If you own the game, the update is free. If you don’t own the game, head on over to the iOS store and pick it up for $1.99!

Samurai and Dragons Sega All-Stars Pack Revealed!


I see stars, so many stars this week with the release of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. However this isn’t the last of the All-Stars this year. Samurai and Dragons official website updated with the information on the “Sega All-Stars Pack” The card pack features a full cast of characters from various Sega franchises from over the years such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Virtua Fighter, Jet Set Radio, Sakura Wars, Shenmue and many more. You can use these set of cards in battle against your enemies. The Sega All-Stars Pack will be released next week in Japan on November 28, 2012. Sega West, can we get this game too? Read more to see the awesome card gallery