Yakuza 4 gets hostess trailer & demo date


Those people that missed chatting up the hostess girls in Yakuza 3 will be glad to know that they are back for the fourth installment. Don’t believe us? Check out the trailer!

As for the demo, it will hit PSN on February 15th… if you are a Playstation Plus subscriber. For some reason, they thought it was a good thing to make this demo timed exclusive. Rest of us have to wait till February 22nd, a week later.

[Source: SEGA]

Make-A-Wish grants J-Jay’s Sonic the Hedgehog wish

The Make-A-Wish Foundation started with the goal of fulfilling wishes of kids that are in life threatening medical conditions. Here we have J-Jay, a kid from the Netherlands who’s a huge Sonic fan. What did he want? Eat a slice of birthday cake with the blue blur himself.

So the foundation contacted SEGA Benelux office, and got someone from SEGA Europe over to Holland to start planning a boy’s dream party. To read the rest of J-Jays story and view more photographs from the event, click here.

Glad that everything worked out for J-Jay and his family. Looked like an awesome party.

Valkyria Chronicles 3 debuts at #2 in Japan

The latest weekly sales charts (January 24th-January 30th) out of Japan paint a nice picture for Valkyria Chronicles 3, which managed a series-best debut of 102,779 copies sold, good for second place behind Nintendo’s The Last Story. This was a little better than the first week sales of Valkyria Chronicles 2, which managed around 94,000 last year.

It’ll be interesting to see what SEGA’s future plans are for the franchise, with Sony’s new PSP system lingering on the horizon.

[Source: IGN]

Anarchy Reigns: Sasha & Zero character trailers


First we have the Ice Queen, Sasha. She will use ice based attacks like Snowy Spikes to take out enemies. Insert joke on how she is a cold bitch here. She seems like a fast, over the top character like Bayonetta, could have just made her a cameo, to be honest.

We also have the newly introduced ninja character known as Zero. The man wields two swords known as Onimaru and Juzumaru, rumored to be pieces of the “Tenka Goken” blades of myth. Hit the jump for the Zero gameplay trailer.

Now you have more information to answer the question of the poll on the side, if you haven’t already.

SNES vs. Genesis: Which had tougher cartridges?


If you were a kid like me, your parents would have probably needed information like this. Trust me, I was a destructible child. Thank God for my parents that ‘CD based games’ really didn’t take off when I was so young or i’d go through games faster than I went through diapers (So what? I liked to poop).

Here is an informative video on cartridges, both for Genesis/Mega Drive and Super Nintendo. If you are a SEGA fan (if you are on this site you should, unless you googled Nintendo amazing Zelda rom and ended up here) you probably guessed the winner.

[Source: BlisteredThumbs]

Sonic 20th Anniversary Action Figure Collection Revealed! (drools)

Just when I thought Jazwares has taken all the money they could take from me, they reveal this epic collection! Jazwares is celebrating Sonic’s 20th in style by producing figures that span his 20 year career. These photos found online were snapped at JazWares’ booth at the 2011 UK Toy Fair. One collection revealed is “Sonic Through Time”, which will depict the various designs of Sonic over the years. Photos reveal a 1991 Sonic and a 2008 Sonic, but I’m sure we’ll also see a 1999 and perhaps 2011 model as well. Very cool. After the jump, Eggman takes center stage.

click here to read more!

SEGA Rally Online Arcade gets officially announced


We posted about it before, but now it’s official. The game will be hitting PSN and XBLA. It will obviously feature single player challenges like ‘Time Attack’ and ‘Championship Battle Mode’. New achievement system will be used for unlocking content, the game will have 13 cars to pick from.

Multiplayer will support 2 player offline and 2-6 players online. You will be able to purchase it this Spring. More information as it is released.

Rumor: Classic SEGA Games Releasing Under XBLA “Classics Live” Banner This Summer?

File this one under rumor: The rumor began when fans of XBLA’s Game Room were speculating the future of the service. For those who don’t know what Game Room is, Game Room is a free application on XBLA that allows retro video game fans to buy 70’s and 80’s Atari, Konami, Activision and Intellivion games and set up the games in their own virtual arcade. I found the service to be a lot of fun, and full of promise, however SEGA had yet to get on board (despite a Genesis controller appearing in a menu icon) and Microsoft has yet to release new games since the last update in December. Game Room fans speculated that the service was dead, however recent discussion at the official XBOX 360 Game Room forums says otherwise. So where does SEGA come into this? What is the rumor? Get to the point, Barry!

SEGA hires Sissel Henno to head licensing department

SEGA Europe is going to step up their licensing game, meaning you should expect more merchandise related to popular SEGA franchises like Sonic the Hedgehog in the near future. SEGA has hired Sissel Henno to head the licensing team.

“I’m very excited to become a part of the SEGA team and to grow the licensing activities around these fantastic brands. The celebration of Sonic’s 20th Anniversary this year is a great way to kick start my new assignment and I’m looking forward to working with the existing licensees as well as any new partners that we can welcome to the licensing program.” – Sissel Henno.

Sounds like we will be having a lot of junk to buy that is Sonic related for 2011. Feels good man.

[Source: MCV]

Yakzua of the End features monsters

We already know that Yakuza of the End will feature zombies, we covered this for many posts. This time we will start off this posts with the monsters in the game. The one above is called “Tsuchigumo”, which is actually based on legend. Then there is the Basan, which has dragon wings and can fly (pictured below).

Some of the other zombies already confirmed are tribal, which are the street fighters and the bloated ones that look disgusting. They will leak acid while you shoot them.

Monsters of Yakuza of the End

[Source: Siliconera]

Sega Rally Online Arcade Anyone?

‘Sega Rally Online Arcade’ has turned up on the Korean Game Rating Board. It was filed by Sony Computer Entertainment Korea. The date of classification was January 26th, and the game is rated appropriate for all ages.

The name seems to suggest that it might follow in the footsteps of ‘OutRun Online Arcade’ which was a port of AM2’s ‘OutRun 2’ to XBLA and PSN by British developer Sumo Digital. OutRun Online Arcade featured single player modes but the main focus was the addition of 8 player online vs. mode.

If I was to hazard a guess I would say that Sega Rally Online Arcade may be a port of the 2008 game Sega Rally 3 which was built on the Sega Rally ‘Revo’ engine. Sega Rally 3 has only been released in Arcades so far but featured many of the same tracks as Sega Rally for Xbox360 and PS3. I wouldn’t say no to this as I really enjoyed Sega Rally on Xbox360 (when playing with bumper cam.)

If this all pans out how, I seriously hope Daytona USA or should I say Sega Racing Classic Online Arcade is to follow!

Conduit 2 gets delayed again


Conduit 2 was suppose to be a 2010 title, was pushed to February 2011, then to March, and now there has been another delay! SEGA has posted the release date for April 19th.

Will it come out in April? Who knows now,  fans have been waiting for a long time and I hope it’s worth all the delays, unlike Alpha Protocol who shipped out buggy.

[Source: OnPause]

Anarchy Reigns Japanese teaser shows off Jack


Above is the latest teaser trailer for Anarchy Reigns (Max Anarchy in Japan). The teaser shows off a familiar face, Jack from MadWorld, Platinum Games’ ultra violent Wii game.

Nothing about the game is really shown, outside the character models. It is a shame, I’m dying for game footage!

[Via: The Forums]

Inaba: Platinum Games would like the “challenge” of making a sequel

As a developer, Platinum Games has, from the start, focused on creating new IP. That’s not to say that doing a sequel down the road isn’t ever going to happen, Platinum Games founder Atsushi Inaba told Famitsu this week.

” It’s not that we don’t want to make sequels. We’re strongly attached to the things that we created ourselves, after all,” Inaba explained.  “If asked ‘which,’ we tend to take up original productions, but we’d also like to challenge making the kind of sequel that expands the worlds.”

Though some may have been disappointed that Anarchy Reigns wasn’t actually Bayonetta 2, (not me, though,) it seems that people looking forward to a sequel to one of their favorite Platinum Games titles shouldn’t give up hope entirely.

[Source: Andriasang]

SEGA announces Anarchy Reigns

 

As expected, SEGA has announced Platinum Games new title for Europe and America and given it a new title, Anarchy Reigns. Check below for the full press release and screenshots;

LONDON AND SAN FRANCISCO – (January 27th, 2011) – SEGA® Europe Ltd. and SEGA® of America, Inc. today reveal details on upcoming third-person multiplayer brawler, ANARCHY REIGNS™, the much anticipated next title from critically acclaimed developer PlatinumGames. ANARCHY REIGNS will be available in Autumn 2011 on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system.

With ANARCHY REIGNS, PlatinumGames will be using their hallmark creativity and technical excellence to challenge the boundaries of the conventional brawler genre by allowing multiple players to get involved in heavy-hitting action simultaneously. ANARCHY REIGNS incorporates a diverse range of multiplayer modes to provide players with different challenges, including Tag Team battles and Battle Royal, where players can challenge others in a full-on fight for victory.

“SEGA are delighted to continue our collaboration with PlatinumGames, one of the most creative and critically acclaimed developers in the world,” said Gary Knight, Senior Vice President of Marketing of SEGA West. “ANARCHY REIGNS is set to offer gamers a fresh multiplayer experience with the quality and innovation PlatinumGames are renowned for.”

 ANARCHY REIGNS will be available in Autumn 2011 for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system.

For more information please visit www.anarchyreignsgame.com.