SEGA News

SEGA News Bits LIVE: The Future of Judgment

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Let’s look back on the past few weeks of SEGA news! Does the Judgment franchise have a future? Is GunValkyrie better on the Xbox One/Series consoles? How about that Toe Jam and Earl arcade cabinet? All this and more on this week’s show!

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Toe Jam and Earl – Back in the Groove arcade machine revealed

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Toe Jam and Earl creator Greg Johnson’s HumaNature Studios has teamed with iiRcade to produce a Toe Jam and Earl – Back in the Groove arcade cabinet featuring 128GB of storage and two-player Sanwa controls. The machine runs on an Android based OS, optimized for gaming, so while Toe Jam and Earl – Back in the Groove comes pre-loaded the machine will also play a variety of other games. The machine is up for pre-order now at $599.99, and looks to be the perfect premium holiday gift for the Toe Jam and Earl fan in your life.

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Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio reveals new franchise in the works

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Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio director Masayoshi Yokoyama revealed in a recent Famitsu interview that the studio is planning a new franchise outside of their Yakuza and Judgement series. Little else was revealed, but it appears the future of Judgement was touched upon, because the likeness of the lead character is up in the air thanks to the talent agency managing the actor having strict rules about PC games, which has apparently halted plans for a Steam release. “We will continue to cherish the Judgement series,” Yokoyama said.

What direction would you like to see RGG Studio take a new franchise? Something more outside the box like Binary Domain? A Yakuza/Judgment spin-off?

[Source: Video Games Chronicle]

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Alien: Isolation coming to iOS and Android on December 16th

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2014’s Alien: Isolation was without a doubt the best game from SEGA for that year. Since then, the game won several awards and saw release to many platforms. Now, SEGA is bringing the game to mobile phones “without compromise” (their words), promising the complete experience. The game will support game pads and sport a “bespoke, fully customizable interface”.

It’s pretty amazing that when the App Store launched, we saw a basic Monkey Ball game and now we are seeing what was once an AAA title ported to smartphones. We will share our thoughts on the port when it hits December 16th!

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Xbox accessibility features fixes one of Gunvalkyrie’s biggest issues

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I’ve talked about Smilebit’s Gunvalkyrie a lot on the site, and with the recent addition of this 2002 Xbox hidden gem to Xbox backwards compatibility I feel like I will be talking about it a lot more. One of the game’s biggest hurdles for most players was the controls.

The Burning Rangers-esque jetpack gameplay is cool, but Smilebit made the odd decision of mapping the boost to the left thumbstick click (L3). Suffice to say, it was a real pain for many to play through the game with all the clicking and holding while also moving in various directions. Thankfully, however, with the debut of the game to Xbox One and Series consoles this is no longer an issue!

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SEGA News Bits LIVE: Sonic Frontiers & New Xbox Games

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Let’s look back on the week of SEGA news! On this installment, Barry talks about Sonic Frontiers, new backwards compatible SEGA Xbox games, his thoughts on Sonic Colors Ultimate and more!

If you want to support this type of content, you can check out our Patreon!

If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a thumbs up so it shows up on more like-minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that YouTube algorithm is.

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Xbox backwards compatibility update brings new SEGA games and Sonic FPS boost

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Xbox has made a major update to the long thought to be dead backwards compatibility program, with 76 new games added and FPS boost for new and existing games. Of interest to SEGA fans, titles from the Xbox and Xbox 360 days are making the leap to the Xbox One and Series consoles. These games include: Binary Domain (Xbox 360), Gunvalkyrie (Xbox), Otogi: Myth of Demons (Xbox) and Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors (Xbox).

Several Sonic titles, as well as the aforementioned Binary Domain, will see a framerate boost via the FPS Boost feature. So expect a solid experience when playing Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Generations and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.

[Source: The Verge]

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SEGA in the Media: The Late Show introduces us to Sexy Knuckles the Echidna

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Last night’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert featured a segment on Idris Elba’s upcoming role as Knuckles in the second Sonic movie. Colbert talked about how Elba spoke about how he doesn’t think his take on Knuckles will be sexy, given Elba himself has previously been named “Sexiest Man Alive”, which led to Colbert making his own Sexy Knuckles trailer. The results are… well, watch the above.

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Sakura Wars GB Go Forth, Young Cadet! Gets English + Cut Content Restoration Patch

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Another Sakura Wars game called Sakura Wars GB Go Forth, Young Cadet! has been translated into English by diligent fans. This project was helmed by @burntends2, with the assistance of @matto_bii, dan_jia, Neko, @The_Opponent, and comicmaster, with the goal of not only making Sakura Wars GB accessible to English readers, but to also restore unused content such as being able to view the miscellaneous character portraits, unlockable secret photos, and unused voice clips for the endings.

Sakura Wars GB Go Forth, Young Cadet! was originally released for the Game Boy Color, developed by Jupiter and Published by Media Factory under the license of SEGA and Red Entertainment. Taking place between the events of Sakura Wars and Sakura Wars 2, you take on the role of an unnamed temporary recruit who was recently enrolled in the Flower Division. You’re task is to train with six members of the Imperial Flower Division, both to gain a stronger bond with each member and to also get stronger, with the ultimate goal to complete an exam by the end of the month. Unlike other titles in the series, Sakura Wars GB is a mixture of a raising simulator and a minigame collection, where you must participate in different training sessions that tackle different subjects like accuracy and intelligence, play different mini-games, and have turn based battles to test your wits.

The patch is readily available here. For official PR post and trailer, click here.

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SEGA trademarks “Sonic Frontiers”, possible name for 2022 game

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Via Renka_schedule on Twitter comes news that SEGA has trademarked “SONIC FRONTIERS” as well as the Japanese name “ソニック フロンティア” (translated to “SONIC FRONTIER”). It is likely that this will be the name of the upcoming 3D Sonic game set for a 2022 release date. SEGA games being revealed through trademark filings is not new, as we first learned of games in the past through such filings.

While the upcoming game has been referred to as “Sonic Rangers” thanks to some early leaks, it appears SEGA has decided on a final name. So far, fan reaction has been positive, and we will just have to wait for SEGA’s official announcement.

What do you think of the name Sonic Frontiers?

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Mario, found hiding inside SEGA Saturn game, is detained without fight

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The console wars have ended. After years of searching, Mario has been found and detained.

Via Twitter user Yoshino comes the bizarre discovery of an image of Mario hidden within the files of the SEGA Saturn game Astal. Yoshino writes: “It is discovered that an image that seems to be Mario was hidden in 0xFE90 of APT.BIN on the disk.” This isn’t the first time weird images have been hidden within old SEGA games, in fact the Sonic Twitter account recently referenced a hidden image from Sonic CD, referred to as “Spooky Sonic”, in a piece of Halloween art.

Check out the full image after the break!

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SEGA and Microsoft Announces Collaboration for New Strategic Titles, “Azure” Cloud Development, and Next-Generation Development Environment

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SEGA of Japan has officially announced that there are currently plans to work with company giant Microsoft. While specifics have not been disclosed, the official PR blog post goes into details on what to expect out of this collaboration. The most notable thing discussed is using Microsoft’s “Azure” cloud technology, as part of a mid-to-long term plan for SEGA to release games on a global scale. For context, Azure is a cloud service produced by Microsoft designed with storing data, machine learning with artificial intelligence, and virtual machines in mind. Other details noted in the post include treating network infrastructure and communication cools for online services being a top priority, along with the “Super Game” incentive that focuses on producing new and innovative titles, with key words such as “Global” and IP Utilization” cited.

Remember, this isn’t an acquisition of SEGA from Microsoft, this is simply a collaboration to push SEGA’s long term strategy of trying to tackle a global market. What are your thoughts about this announcement about SEGA and Microsoft working together for cloud gaming?

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SEGA News Bits LIVE: Classic Sonic EXPOSED

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This week, we talk about revelations of Classic Sonic revealed in the recent content added to Apple Arcade’s Sonic Racing, SEGA’s arcade plans in Japan and unbox the new Mega Drive Tower Mini Zero!

If you want to support this type of content, you can check out our Patreon!

If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a thumbs up so it shows up on more like-minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that YouTube algorithm is.

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New SEGA arcade center opens in Ikebukuro, replacing closed GiGO arcade

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Back on September 20th, the SEGA Ikebukuro GiGO arcade closed after 28 years of operations. Fans were emotional, and rightly so, and many pointed to this as a sign of SEGA’s arcade footprint diminishing. However, on October 22nd a new arcade center opened in Ikebukuro which was noted as being “Volume 1” of a larger project by Genda Sega Entertainment president Nao Kataoka. Volumes 2 and 3 would soon follow.

The new center has five floors and features a variety of SEGA arcade machines. Where is it located? Right across the street from the old location! The reason the original location sold was not because SEGA was leaving the arcade business in the area, but because of an expiring lease and a need for remodeling to the old building. Maybe SEGAbits will visit the arcade in 2022? 👀

[Photo Credit: @TicTaek, Source: Anime News Network]

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Classic Sonic content added to Sonic Racing for Apple Arcade

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Just a few days ago, we mused on Twitter about how the promised Classic Sonic content announced back in June for Sonic Racing, the Apple Arcade version of Team Sonic Racing, was nowhere to be seen. Either a SEGA HARDlight staffer saw our tweet and realized they needed to get to work OR (more likely) it just so happened to be that today was the day they planned to debut the new content. Included in the new content is Sonic in his Sonic Drift car, the Cyclone, as well as new Green Hill tracks and new music!

You can check out the content now on Apple Arcade, but no word on any new content for Team Sonic Racing for consoles.

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