SEGA News

Jet Set Radio’s Gum joins the roster of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

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Via Nintendo Power scans comes confirmation of another SEGA character joining the racer roster in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed: Gum of Jet Set Radio. This latest reveal isn’t as exciting as, say, Vyse or Ryo in the first game. Gum has appeared in a past title in the series, SEGA Superstars Tennis, and her game already has representation by way of Beat. Having said all that, I am personally overjoyed to see Gum added to the game. “What!?” you may say, “Blasphemy! She’s taking a slot from an obscure 16-bit game or some Japanese title that nobody really knows about!”. But hear me out. For starters, the game is severely lacking in female characters, and Gum perfectly fills that role of cool gals from SEGA’s past. Secondly, if Sonic gets seven characters, and NiGHTS gets two, why can’t Jet Set Radio have a second racer? Gum herself is a very unique design, which is something you can’t say about Reala or Shadow when comparing them to other characters represented in their respective IPs. Now, I understand if this riles people up because they will now fear MeeMee of Super Monkey Ball joining the roster. But I say wait it out, we still have more than eleven reveals left. Also, Gum is awesome. Disagree? Sound off in the comments below!

Check out the Nintendo power scans here and here.

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San-ei reveals new Sonic the Hedgehog plushes

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Japanese company San-ei has revealed a new line of Sonic the Hedgehog plush dolls. They showed off 5 characters scaling from the blue blur himself to Knuckles, Amy, Tails, and SEGAbits favorite Shadow the Hedgehog.

A few years back the company put out similar plush dolls, but they say these will have improved patterns. According to the source San-ei is high quality when it comes to plush dolls. I wouldn’t know, I personally don’t own plush toys. Check out the product page here.

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New Phantasy Star Online 2 trailer shows off new content and quests

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Phantasy Star Online 2 is still getting summer updates that adds more story quests and much more items to try to collect. This will take you to the planet Lillipa which is known as the Land of the Dragons. Not only that, new outfits and a White Rappy are part of the update too.

This is in Japanese since the game won’t be coming to Europe and United States till 2013. It has been confirmed that the European and US servers will be the same, while Japan will be isolated (unlike the original Phantasy Star Online).

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Review: Jack Lumber (iOS)

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Announced and released on the same day, Jack Lumber, was both a surprise and a curiosity. As the first SEGA Alliance title, Jack Lumber was developed by an external independent developer by the name of Owlchemy Labs and published by SEGA. Per the SEGA Alliance description, SEGA also provided marketing and production support as well as creative consultation. The end result is a fun and unique game that definitely has that SEGA spirit, despite being developed by an external developer.

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Assassin’s Creed III director blasts Japanese storytelling, calls out Bayonetta

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Well, this quote can be put on the short list of industry opinions that have had my jaw drop.

In an interview with CvG, Assassin’s Creed III creative director Alex Hutchinson goes on what I can only describe as a rant against Japanese storytelling and journalists’ response to it: or, as he calls it, “subtle racism.”

“I think there’s a subtle racism in the business,” Hutchinson said when asked about Nintendo and their yearly franchise installments, “especially on the journalists’ side, where Japanese developers are forgiven for doing what they do. I think it’s condescending to do this.”

When prompted further, the creative director brought up Bayonetta:

“Just think about how many Japanese games are released where their stories are literally gibberish. There’s no way you could write it with a straight face, and the journalists say, ‘Oh it is brilliant.’ Then Gears of War comes out and apparently it’s the worst written narrative in a game ever. I’ll take Gears of War over Bayonetta any time.”

Do you think there’s an inherent bias in the industry press towards Japanese games? Sound off in the comments below.

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Twelve minutes of NiGHTS into Dreams… HD!

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Jeff Beckham, Digital Brand Manager at Sega of America, stopped by Gamespot’s live show to present 12 minutes of NiGHTS into Dreams… HD gameplay. Ignore the dumb host, who seems to know next to nothing about SEGA’s Saturn classic, and soak up the lovely HD visuals. Take note that the menu screen mentions “Presents” and has a few blanked out menu options. Looks like we’ll be getting Christmas NiGHTS integrated into the rerelease. Hooray! No price is set yet, but Mr. Beckham makes it sound like fans will be pleased with the price point. If it’s anything like other SEGA Heritage releases, it’ll be $10. Thanks to reader celsowm for the heads up!

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Official Sonic Monopoly board revealed

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Via the USAopoly Facebook page comes the finished board for the upcoming Sonic Monopoly game. Just standing back and looking at it, it’s a really great looking board! Graphics look nice, a ton of zones and stages are represented. And unlike the Nintendo Monopoly game, thought has been put into the properties. Seriously, the Nintendo Monopoly was garbage compared to this beauty. Players bought characters like property and built houses on them. How does that work? Gives a whole new meaning to Hotel Mario. After the break, a full listing of the properties.

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Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed Wii U features revealed

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Eurogamer has shared some details straight from developer Sumo Digital on the Wii U version of Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed.

The Wii U GamePad screen will double as a rear-view mirror as well as a weapon’s eye view; once fired, you’ll be able to use the screen to guide homing rockets to their targets. This comes with a risk, of course, as racers doing this will be taking their eyes off the main screen. In addition, the game will also support Remote Play.

The Wii U, which Sumo Digital claimes is at least on par graphically with the PS3, will launch later this year, probably at around the same time as Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed, which releases in November.

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Just what is SEGA Alliance?

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SEGA Vintage Collection, SEGA Heritage and now SEGA Alliance. Seems SEGA is on a roll with these new defining terms for titles, and frankly I love it. Maybe we no longer have the many development teams as we did in the Dreamcast days, but it’s refreshing to have a bit more order in the titles being released. What is Alex Kidd & Co.? Why it’s a Vintage Collection release. What is NiGHTS HD rerelease? A SEGA Heritage release. And so, when we get to the recently released Jack Lumber, what is it? A SEGA Alliance release. Straight from SEGA’s mouth (also known as a press release):

SEGA® of America, Inc. and SEGA® Europe, Ltd. today announced the formation of a new publishing initiative, SEGA Alliance. The SEGA Alliance will focus on publishing mobile games made by independent developers. The SEGA Alliance will provide participating developers with comprehensive marketing and production support as well as creative consultation.

It’s an intriguing initiative to be sure, and perhaps it will satisfy SEGA fans who get up in arms about distinctions. I won’t even get into the many “Bayonetta is/isn’t a SEGA character” fights I’ve been in. Now if somebody says “Is Jack Lumber a SEGA character?” you can reply “He’s a character from Owlchemy Labs whose game was published by SEGA. He’s a SEGA Alliance character.”

SEGA did clarify for us, via twitter, that Hell Yeah! is NOT a SEGA Alliance title. So keep up the “Is Ash a SEGA character” arguments.

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Sega’s Newest IP, Jack Lumber chops it’s way onto iOS

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Many folks around Gamescom were lumbering around Sega’s booth and finally axed them. “What’s this new IP you’ve been barking about”? Well, they finally couldn’t leaf it be any longer. Sega has branched out again to smaller developers. This time, to publish “Jack Lumber”. OWLchemy Lab’s latest hoot of a game. The game itself seems to be a mix of Fruit Ninja and Flight Control. You may have logged some time into this title earlier this year at PAX East. The game is available now on iTunes at 99 cents for a limited time. That’s a small amount of green! I’m so excited, I’m sporting wood! Read on for 12 minutes of gameplay video and official description.

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U wanna see Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Wii U screens?

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SEGA has released a number of new screens for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, but this time they’re giving us some Wii U screens along with the usual 360/PS3 screens. To be honest, I see little difference between the Wii U screens and the 360 and PS3, but then again Wii U isn’t that big an upgrade so it makes sense. Anyway, enough hating on Nintendo. After the break, check out our gallery of Wii U and 360/PS3 screens!

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High Voltage: “We harbor no ill will towards Sega”

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There have been lots of rumors hitting the internet about High Voltage, one of those rumors was that High Voltage was mad at SEGA for not shipping more copies of the game to retailers. High Voltage’s  Eric Nofsinger decided to tackle the rumors and give the fans answers to misinformation.

“We do wish that Conduit 2 had been carried by more retail outlets but we harbor no ill will towards Sega.”

In the end of the day, I completely forgot this studio existed. Don’t get me wrong, I hope the best to them and their employees, but they have yet to make a game that is spectacular.

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SEGA confirmed to be at LAUNCH event this year

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The full title of the event is “LAUNCH: Future Gaming & Digital Conference 2012”. Basically the two day event will get industry people to talk about launching a project in the gaming industry. So if you are intrested in breaking into the gaming industry, check it out. Others at the event include Microsoft, Codemasters and Activision. Hit the jump for the full press release.

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