VirtuaTennis – 10 Years Gone


It’s a decade since Vitua Tennis first graced the Dreamcast, it seems to me like it was only yesterday I was around my best friends house sitting in their mothers living room playing doubles on Virtua Tennis with his brother. Ah- those were the days!

A decade on and now we’re sitting in our living rooms still playing VT when the mood takes us! I think it says a lot when a person like me, who despises sport of all kind, can still get hours of fun out of a sports game and I’ve wasted many, many hours.

I’m pretty impressed that Sega put together a 40 minute documentary on the history of Virtua Tennis. This is how you celebrate one of your classic series, take note Nintendo!

Buy Crush 40’s “Song of Hope” on iTunes and help support Japan’s relief efforts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPF124mm-VA

Like what you heard? Then go buy it on iTunes. You should go buy it anyways, since it’s only 99 cents, and your purchase goes to help Japan’s relief efforts from the Earthquake / Hurricane. Hell, if I can afford it, so can you! Song of Hope is available in both Europe and the US on iTunes.

This isn’t your typical Crush 40 cheesy buttrock song, it actually sounds more like traditional rock, so I think more people will like it =)

Well, I was told that the money made off this song goes to Japan charities by someone, but now I’m not sure, I can’t find solid info anywhere about it. I don’t want to give you guys false info. If anyone could let us know in the comments section that would be great!

Sonic 20th Anniversary Soundtracks Now Available on iTunes

Today, Sega of Japan announced that the Sonic 20th Anniversary Soundtrack would be available on iTunes in Japan, Europe and The United States. The soundtracks include Sonic CD, Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 and Sonic Heroes. Also available are two Crush 40 albums including a “Best of” and Jun Senoue’s “The Works”. The albums are only $9.99 American so download now!

 

Yakuza: Dead Souls trailer introduces you to the guys

SEGA has released a new trailer for the upcoming port of Yakuza: Dead Souls. This new trailer shows the players the playable characters and what they like. No voicing, just background music. I don’t know what kinds of budgets are used for trailers, but I can tell you this one is very low budget.

We already know most of the Yakuza: Dead Souls information, so I’m not really caring about the trailers. What I am looking forward to know is the western changes that were talked about.

Sonic 20th Anniversary Action Figure Roundup

2011 has been a huge year for Sonic in a number of areas: we’ve seen the return of the Genesis-style gameplay, Archie’s Sonic series gave us a great adaptation of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 and the toy company Jazwares has released a number of action figures celebrating Sonic’s 20th anniversary. While I haven’t been posting about the many figures here at SEGAbits, over at SEGA Network affiliate SEGA Memories I’ve been regularly sharing the Jazwares toys. As of this week I’ve collected the full line of 20th anniversary figures, at least until Jazwares releases more which they have hinted at doing. What follows is a handy roundup of all my Jazwares figure posts from the past year, where I review each figure and share photos. Enjoy!

SEGA teams up with Hollywood for ‘Singles’ project


SEGA has teamed up with Hakuhodo DY Holdings to launch a new project named ‘Stories’. The point of the project is to take Japanese content and team up with Hollywood writers, producers and directors to make TV or film programming.

The Japanese intellectual properties being looked at include games, books, anime, manga comics, toys, films and TV. The Stories producers will have access to the parent companies’ intellectual properties. So that means we might be able to see a Shinobi movie that is more brutal than Ninja Assassin. I wish .

They are already hard at work, trying to get rights to a title from Japanese Sci-fi author Yasutaka Tsutsui, who is known for  Paprika and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. They are also looking into getting the rights for an (as of right now) unknown Japanese show.

Sonic Advance now on Android in Japan

For those of you that want to relive the memories of the Game Boy Advance Sonic game, properly titled Sonic Advance, now you can. SEGA Japan have brought the game to the Japanese Android Market.

The game will cost you 415 yen (about $5). No idea if the game will be brought over West or other platforms. Here is hoping.

Total War: Shogun 2 gets new standalone expansion

Above is the new trailer for the expansion pack for Total War: Shogun 2. This expansion is called “Fall of the Samurai”. The new expansion is a standalone, meaning you don’t need the original game to play it. The game shows the conflict between the Imperial throne and the last Shogunate, taking place 400 years after the events of the original title. The game will also feature railway networks, ironclad warships and improved siege battle mechanics.

The expansion also has a major overhaul in the multiplayer component of the game, now being called multiplayer 2.0. Included is over 40 new retainers, over 30 new armor pieces and a brand new skill tree for 19th century avatar. Should be a solid release for Total War addicts out there.

Hatsune Miku 3DS has changing vocals depending on selected vocaloid

SEGA has decided to show some new things you will be able to do in Hatsune Miku and Future Friends: Project Mirai. In the old Project Diva titles, you could select a different vocaloid outside of Miku that would have them dancing while you played. In Project Mirai, if you select a new vocaloid the vocals in the songs change as well.

What sucks? Its not all the songs that have this feature, its selected tracks. Which makes sense. Also outfits are now called costumes and not modules like the older games. Also six songs have been confirmed:

  • Piano Girl (artist: OSTER project)
  • Watashi no Jikan (artist: Kuchibashi)
  • Sing & Smile (artist: Re:nG)
  • Trilcolor Airline (artist: Atsuzou-kun)
  • Daughter of Evil (artist: Mothy)
  • LOL -Lots of Laugh- (artist: Ken and Endcape).
To see screenshots of how the songs look like while played, hit the source.

Shining Blade – Animated Opening

It’s a sorry state of affairs when a new Shining title is announced and I’m not excited in the slightest, but that has been the case for almost every announcement since the series was rebooted back in the early 00’s.

Shining Blade may not be the Shining Force 4 I’ve been waiting for but it has certainly gained my interest. It has been said that Shining Blade will take many cues from Sega’s other big SRPG series Valkyria Chronicles. It’ll use the same canvas style graphics engine and similar game play mechanics. This is already a huge step up from the horrible D-list Action-RPGs from a few years back.

This animated intro is quite nice too but I’m still having one big problem and that is the sheer number of half dressed woman clogging up the roster. Where are the quirky dwarves, centaurs, birdmen and the rest made the series stand out in the first place? Personally I don’t care if they add a bunch of skanky girls but don’t get rid of the characters I like to do it…

Oh well, I’m cautiously optimistic this could be the game changer in terms of game play, it’s coming to the PSP and probably wont leave Japan. Stay tuned kids!

Happy Thanksgiving from SEGAbits

To all the readers of SEGAbits, a very happy Thanksgiving! Even if you aren’t in America, eat some turkey. I’m sure a lot of you are tuned to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, in which Sonic is the main attraction! From what I’ve heard, Sonic was the first float featured, and just moments ago he was featured again floating through New York City accompanied by the Splash Hill music. After the break, check out Sonic’s appearance!

ChuChu Rocket! hits Android devices, buy it now for 99 cents


I love my phone, but lately have been sad that I can’t get those cool SEGA games that they release on iPhones. Well, seems that SEGA is finally sharing the love and at a killer price too. If you have an Android device, you can now own ChuChu Rocket! for 99cents.

The game looks beautiful and runs buttery smooth (at least on my device). It comes with over 500 puzzles to go through and its under a buck. Apparently there is a time out bug on some devices and no multiplayer at the moment. You can grab it here.

Oddly enough SEGA of America only has this and a game I never heard of called ‘Fallen Realms’ on the US Android Market. The game Fallen Realms actually looks quite good and is free. Get that here.

SEGA Europe opens a Sonic Merchandise online store

SEGA Europe have opened up an online shop so you can get your Sonic merchandise directly from SEGA themselves. The store has posters, collectibles and much more. If you aren’t from Europe, you can always go on the site and window shop. Check out the store here.

[Thanks: ミクのディルド]

Hatsune Miku’s 3DS game officially named Hatsune Miku and Future Stars Project Mirai

This week Famitsu released the date and name of the new 3DS Hatsune Miku game. The game is being titled Hatsune Miku and Future Stars Project Mirai.

The game is going to be released in Japan on March 8th 2012. This also happens to be the release date for Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D, meaning that SEGA really isn’t good at picking release date for their games.  SEGA also has two versions of the game planned, the regular version (¥6,090) and the limited edition version (¥7,140).

Above is the debut trailer that SEGA showed back in September. Not much new is known outside the above info.

[Thanks: ミクのディルド]
[Source: AndriaSang]