Support SEGA’s Hope For Japan by playing SEGA Play! Baseball

SEGA Of America is pouring their hearts (and a lot of money) to help out Japan after the huge earthquake/tsunami crisis last month. It’s a great thing, and they have sure helped out a lot of people with their huge auctioning off of rare swag, as well as donations from Football Manager, Sonic, and Kingdom Conquest. Now, you can help some more by buying two Japanese items to decorate your stadium or team in SEGA Play! Baseball, available here.

[Source: SEGA]

First piece of Yakuza 4 DLC up for grabs today

Well, this is an improvement over Yakuza 3’s DLC. You get this pack for free. It raises the limits of your character’s strength and stamina, and also picks up your relationship with Haruka to a higher point. Oh, and two new karaoke songs.

There are also four new themes (not so free, except to PS+ users), each highlighting a different character of the game. They include Kazuma, Akiyama, Tanimura and Saejima. For normal PSN members, these will run you $2.99 each (£1.99, €2.49).

Pictured below is Akiyama’s theme. The rest of them are pictured at the SEGA Europe’s Blog, linked below.

[Source: SEGA]

Space Channel 5 Part 2 & Bass Fishing hit XBLA & PSN this summer

When Space Channel 5 part 2 was announced along with SEGA Bass Fishing, they had an early 2011 release date. Now that SEGA has released the titles on PC & 360 as part of the ‘Dreamcast Collection’, they delayed the digital versions.

“Space Channel 5 Part 2 and SEGA Bass Fishing are definitely coming to XBLA and PSN. Look for them sometime in late summer,” SEGA brand manager Ben Harborne

The people that seem to lose in this are the PSN users, who now have to wait till summer to get a taste of the Ulala pie (sexual? Maybe).

[Via: Eurogamer]

Sonic & SEGA All – Stars Racing now on Games On Demand

Ryo ASR

SEGA have just announced today that the all star title from Sumo Digital is now up for download on Xbox Live via Microsoft’s Games on Demand service. ASR joins the ranks with SEGA titles Bayonetta and Aliens Vs. Predator.

Sonic and SEGA All – Stars Racing will set you back $29.99. Well worth it.

Here’s to another way to play as Ryo!

[Source: Gameplay Today]

Bangai-O XBLA port coming world wide on May 4

[This title is being published by D3, not SEGA. It is filed under news and not SEGA News.]

Bangai-O was originally released for the Nintendo 64. The series later got ported over to the Dreamcast, where it was released world wide. In 2008 the series made a comeback on the DS with a sequel titled Bangai -O Spirits.

Now the first game, the one that appeared on the Dreamcast by acclaimed developer Treasure (Gunstar Heroes and Sin & Punishment) is getting a remake on XBLA called Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury. Not only that, it will be out on May 4th. Other Treasure remakes hitting XBLA? Radiant Silvergun , which appeared on the SEGA Saturn (an excellent game!).

Game comes out May 4th world wide, comes with over 100 levels, map editor, ability to share levels online, online leaderboards and a nice price of 800 MS points.

[Source: AndriaSang]

Thor & Captain America games at WonderCon

Behind the scenes with Thor

Thor: God Of Thunder

SEGA appeared at WonderCon in San Francisco last week, and showed off their two remaining Marvel games: Captain America: Super Soldier, and Thor: God Of Thunder. Above is a new behind the scenes look at Thor, and a very bad looking Thor trailer for the Wii. Over at the SEGA Blogs, they also included that awful looking Captain America Wii trailer that I previously reported on.

So, what do the SEGAbits readers think of these two games? I think Captain America is looking a lot better than Thor, and I hope SEGA will strive for this quality anytime they ever think about making another license game.

[Source: SEGA]

Check out Conduit 2 split screen gameplay


Video 2 | Video 3

Something that this generation doesn’t do enough of is split screen gaming. I used to love doing this back ‘in the day.’ I know, we have online now, but there are still those days that you just want to play with someone you actually know in real life.

Thankfully, the guys at High Voltage aren’t scared to add this feature into their upcoming Wii exclusive, Conduit 2.

[via: GoNintendo]

Virtua Tennis 4 – Xbox 360 Trailer

Here’s the Virtua Tennis 4 trailer for the Xbox360 version of the game, the trailer highlights the option of using either the Kenect control scheme or the usual controller based control scheme we all know and love.

I have to say, this looks like a really awesome Virtua Tennis game. Probably the best I’ve seen since Virtua Tennis 2. The World Tour mode looks really well done and I’m always down for some of the great mini games the series includes.

Puyo Puyo online Virtual Console hits Japan on Tuesday


SEGA already announced that they would be releasing the arcade version of Puyo Puyo on Virtual Console. But not only that, it was going to be the first Virtual Console title to have online play. Well, the game finally got its release date. April 12th and will cost you 800 wii points.

Of course the release date we are talking about is only for Japan, since it has not been announced for America just yet. Below is a screen of the wi-fi screen that allows the users to play with strangers, friends or show your firends code. Basic Wii online stuff.

[Source: AndriaSang]

iPad Chu Chu Rocket is FREE today only!

Chu Chu Rocket for the iPad is FREE today courtesy of AppAllStar. AppAllStar offers a free app every day and can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store.  The iPad version of Chu Chu Rocket has an exclusive mode where by everyone plays VS. each other on the same iPad touch screen.

Chu Chu Rocket is one of the best party games ever made and to pass it up for free would be FOOLISH… FOOLISH.

Go download it quick!

Phantasy Star Universe – PSU PC Updated, PSU PS2 closes!


It seems that the era of Phantasy Star Universe is coming to a close. Today Sega have announced that the Japanese Playstation 2 PSU servers will be shut down, leaving only the PC version still up and running.

However it’s not all doom and gloom; with the closing of the PS2 servers, the PC version of PSU is getting a substantial update introducing new areas, photon arts, items, special abilities and more. All are based on Phantasy Star Portable 2 or Phantasy Star Portable 2: Infinity.

With Phantasy Star Portable 2: Infinity doing well in the Japanese charts (well deserved) and the much anticipated Phantasy Star Online 2 on its way the Phantasy Star series looks set to continue for many years to come.

Hit the jump to see an early rundown of the new content coming to PSU-PC soon.

Yakuza of the End gets June 9th release date


Yakuza of the End was supposed to be released in March, but a huge earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan. You probably heard of it. What is SEGA to do? Release a game where zombies attack Japan and leave everything destroyed while actual tragedy has hit Japan?

SEGA did the right thing and delayed the game. Some people thought the game was going to join 2001’s Propeller Arena (a AM2 DC game not released because of 9/11) and never come out. Well it is, June 9th. Few changes, some of the profits from the game will go to help Japan and the first print has a sticker that says “Ryu ga Gotoku Ganbaro, Nippon!”

Ganbaro means to stay strong and Nippon translates to land of the rising sun, a nickname for Japan.

[Source: AndriaSang]

Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity has sold 312k copies so far


The latest Media Create Sales are out for the week, ending on April 3rd. Guess who came in at number 10? Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity and it sold 12,000 units for the week. Not bad.

On the same note, the PSP has outsold the 3DS for the second week in Japan as well. Maybe SEGA focusing on PSP titles in Japan isn’t that big of a mistake after all. If only the NGP would perform better in the west, I guess we will see.

[Source: NeoGAF]