Twelve minutes of NiGHTS into Dreams… HD!

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!

Official Sonic Monopoly board revealed

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.

Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed Wii U features revealed

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.

Just what is SEGA Alliance?

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.

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

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.

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

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!

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


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.

SEGA confirmed to be at LAUNCH event this year

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.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed gameplay trailer reveals After Burner track and more!

Today SEGA has released a brand new trailer for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and it’s a must watch for any SEGA fan. Not only does the game looks pretty darn sweet, but it also confirms a few more tracks including an After Burner track named “Carrier Zone” where you race around air craft carriers, a track based on Starlight Carnival of Sonic Colours fame named “Galactic Parade” and a Samba de Amigo stage based on a movie studio named “Samba Studios”. But most exciting of all, for me, is that there is a track based on Skies of Arcadia, entitled “Rogues Landing”. Consider my timbers well and truly shivered! Names for previously revealed tracks have also been named: NiGHTS will race through “Dream Valley” and the special/bonus edition of the game will feature OutRun’s “OutRun Bay”.

See if you can spot anything I’ve missed, and after the break check out the first screen of the Seaside Hill track named “Ocean View.

Aliens: Colonial Marines “Get your name in the game” contest

“Free hugs!”

Gearbox is continuing the contest they started at PAX East earlier this year with “Aliens Colonial Marines – Name in the Game Contest”. It’s pretty simple actually. Just E-Mail the community team, mention the contest in the subject header and tell them what name you’d like to have in the game. The contest ends on august 24, so there’s still some time. Full details from the Sega blog in the comment section.

Eat at McDonalds, get a chance to win Sega E-Store money, games or Sonic comic

Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce and stop the presses!

In “late because I didn’t hear about it until now” news, McDonalds has been having a “Win USA wins, you win!” contest going on. It appears one of the many prizes you could win is $10 in Sega E-Store money. After checking the official contest site, it looks like you also have a chance at the two Sega London 2012 games (including Mario and Sonic) along with a Sonic comic about the Olympics. Appearently with an exclusive cover. Better get a move on, as the final events are this Sunday! Man, I wished I’d have known sooner.

So the good news is, you may win some Sega money! The bad news is, you have to eat at McDonalds. XP

Jet Set Radio HD gets a price “tag” and release dates!

YES!! @#$*ing finally!

Today, the Sega blogs have finally given us both the long-awaited release dates and price for Jet Set Radio HD. This digitally distributed darling will arrive on September 18th for PSN and the 19th for LIVE and Steam. Better news for those with Playstation Plus, you’ll be getting it a week early on September 11th. As promised, all 3 dates are technically still “summer” (although, I don’t know a single kid who won’t be in school by then). Those waiting for the Vita version will have to wait just a little bit longer as it arrives on October 16th. All versions will arrive at a super-cheap price of $9.99 (I’d have totally paid double that, but don’t tell Sega). No word yet on the iOS and mobile versions. Press release details at the comment link.

Hell Yeah! – Pimp It Up Trailer

In other Hell Yeah related news here is a brand new trailer. As the title suggests this trailer focuses on the customization featured in Hell Yeah which includes pimping your drill and wearing masks. We’re not yet sure if those customizations effect the gameplay or if they are just aesthetic changes. We’ll get back to you on that.

Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit gets priced and dated

The SEGA Blog has revealed the price and release date of Arkedo Studio’s digital title Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit, published by SEGA. The game will be available to download in North America on September 25 for PlayStation Network, September 26 on Xbox LIVE Arcade, and October 3 for PC digital download for $14.99/1200MSP/$14.99 respectively. In Europe, the game will be available for all three platforms on October 3 for 1200MSP/£9.99/€12.99/AUD$19.95.

After the break, check out the new trailer and “box art”.

Sumo Digital: We’ve revealed all the Sonic characters we’re going to reveal

Sumo Digital’s Steve Lycett shared a bit of good news (or bad news, depending on who you are) at the official SEGA forums regarding additional Sonic characters as playable racers in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Steve aka S0L said:

*Dons flameproof suit*

I don’t consider this a deconfirm, but we’ve revealed all the Sonic characters we’re going to reveal that are considered playable.

*Waits for fire to start*

This means that the playable racing roster will be containing no more than seven Sonic characters: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Eggman, Metal Sonic and Shadow. Interestingly, none of the characters are from post-2001. Also, the roster contains the complete Sonic Drift roster, a near complete Sonic Drift 2 roster (replacing Fang for Shadow) and a near complete Sonic R roster (Tails Doll, Metal Knuckles and Egg Robo are absent and Super Sonic appears as Sonic’s All-Star Move). Steve’s mention of “all the Sonic characters we’re going to reveal that are considered playable” seems to imply we might see other characters by way of NPCs, stickers and vehicle upgrades. Fingers crossed for an Omochao paint scheme. Fans of Big the Cat will notice his absence, but think of it this way: the loss of Big makes the first All-Stars Racing game all the more special.